Ohkubo Atsushi clearly has an Excalibur fetish.

I place Enen no Shouboutai on a similar tier to Dr. Stone – a popular though not massive shounen manga with an adaptation that’s getting a fair amount of hype.  And both start out kind of in the “high bubble” zone for me – somewhere in the upper half of the rest of the pack.  That’s not to say there’s much else in either that reminds me of the other, though – if anything I think they’re polar opposites in some respects.  Fire Force is a much less ambitious premise, but thrives in the execution – which so far has been pretty solid.  I think Dr. Stone has the higher ceiling, but Fire Force has a better of chance of reaching it.

That stated, I enjoyed the second episode of Enen no Shouboutai considerably more than the first – which I thought was perfectly fine.  This episode reminded me very much of Kekkai Sensen (the Takayanagi Shigehito season more than the Matsumoto Rie one) stylistically, and for me that’s definitely a compliment.  The dynamic in Squad #8 put me in mind of that in Libra, and the staccato dialogue rhythm and relatively understated soundtrack also called BBB to mind.  And this episode managed to give a fair bit of emotional traction to the core premise, hinting there’s a lot more exploration to be done.

There’s another rookie in the squad – Arthur Boyle (Kobayashi Yuusuke).  He and Shinra know each other from their academy days, and Arthur calls himself “Knight” (actually Knight King after Shinra shamed him about “Knight” being lame).  He obviously represents the natural foil for Shinra – blond, with a smile that’s natural and not a rictus, and a plasma sword he calls Excalibur (no word on whether it’s going to California).  Arthur is meant to be both charming and annoying so in that sense, it’s fine that he is – whether the character is going to work in the long run is another matter.

I do enjoy the way the rest of the squad is being fleshed out.  Despite her cutesy exterior Maki is flat-out ripped, and a serious badass to boot – as she proves in whipping both Shinra and Arthur’s asses despite only being a second generation pyrokinetic (Arthur, like Shinra, is a third).  Lt. Hinawa is a no-nonsense hardass whose foul demeanor is clearly masking some kind of internal trauma.  And Captain Oubi is the heart and soul of the unit, a dedicated warrior who makes up for his limited pyrokinetic ability with strength and determination.  As for Sister Iris she’s still a caricature at this point, but presumably she’ll get a backstory sooner or later.

The B-part is where this episode really shines, as the squad is called out to deal with an infernal at a house in Iriya.  This one is the father of a girl whose mother has already gone up in flames, and Oubi is especially sensitive to the tragic nature of her situation.  Earlier Shinra had wondered if there was anything that could make Oubi angry (Arthur’s lack of respect didn’t make the cut) and he finds out that there is – when he and Arthur disregard the captain’s order not to display their weapons in public.  Shinra of all people should be sensitive to the reason why, and once he’s scolded he seems to realize the error of his ways quickly enough.  Even Arthur has the sense to be contrite.

We’ve gotten plenty of hints that there’s something dark and sinister behind this Spinal Tap drummer phenomenon, and the way this incident plays out does nothing to dispel that.  The infernal clearly retains a sense of who he was – he sits quietly at the table and makes no attempt to do any damage, and is clearly aware of the squad’s presence.  Whether the mysterious figure (Tsuda Kenjirou really does seem to be in everything) who seems to have laid a trap for the squad has a role in the phenomenon itself or not isn’t clear, but none of this is random or an accident, that much is obvious.  The way this sequence is brought off with genuine poignancy gives me hope that Enen no Shouboutai  can deliver something more than a boilerplate shounen experience.