On the President’s jet things aren’t any better as those protecting him desperately try to hold back the dead on board, the Chairman tries to get him to sign the order that suppress any countries pointing ICBMs in their direction, knowing that neither of them have much time left. They shoot him once he begins to change and on the ground below Washington burns.
Kouta and Alice sing as they cross the river with each taking turns to sing versions of the song in English and Saya yelling at him for teaching her a version of it about shooting guns. In the Humvee Rei wakes up to see Saeko sleeping with her head resting on his lap, she wakes them both up and Saeko embarrassingly pulls away.
Now on the other side of the river the girls decide to change their clothes as Kouta tells Takashi about Alice and her father, Shizuka managed to bring some clothes along and Kouta has decided to call the dog Zeke after the Reisen, he then explains to Takashi how to use the shotgun. After Rei adds a bayonet to her rifle Takashi and Kouta run up and check that the road is safe, so that Shizuka can drive up.
They’ve decided to check Saya’s house first and even though the streets are covered in signs that they were there, none of the dead can be seen which Rei points out as they drive along.
Their peace is suddenly disrupted as they spot a group of the dead right ahead and around every corner, they decide just to charge through them but they spot a wire fence just ahead and can’t get the Humvee to stop. Shizuka slams the breaks sending Rei off the road and onto the curb below.
As the dead move in Takashi jumps down with the shotgun to save her and only starts hitting them when Kouta tells him to adjust for the recoil, the shells fall out of his pocket as he tries to reload with Saeko jumping out to help them. With the shells just out of his reach he at first accepts death alongside Rei, however he takes the gun she had and shoots over her breasts.
None of Takashi’s shots hit while Alice helps Kouta reload, with the odds against them Saya decides to get out and use the shotgun, telling them to call her by her first name.
They keep fighting until they start to run low on ammunition and things are now at their most desperate as Zeke runs forward to protect them, Takashi stops Saya from running in and charges forth with Saeko trying to make as much noise as they can. Kouta tries to get Alice to go over the fence with Zeke telling her that they’ll catch up with her later, but she can tell what he really means from his expression matching the one her father had before he died.
Just as he’s about to put her over the fence help comes as some people in the gear that the fire brigade use push the dead back, their leader reveals that she’s Saya’s mother as she takes off her helmet and tells them it’s only natural for her to help her daughter and her friends. Up above Takashi and Saeko separated and run off to meet up with the others at Saya’s house.
Ending, “The place of hope” by Maon Kurosaki.
Next Episode:
Thoughts:
Aside from breaking the one chapter per episode ratio that the last episodes have had I think that this episode did a good job at portraying how hopeless their situation was. By dragging out the battle to the point where they were running low on ammunition and were almost at the point where they were all about to make a last stand of sorts, with Takashi and Saeko trying to move the dead away so that the others could get away. However at other times it was pretty ridiculous with how they added to the scene where Takashi takes the rifle that Rei had and shoots it over her, where we saw the bullets shift past Saeko.
Also unlike some of the last episodes this episode lacked a subplot, where the only thing that could be considered that was the Chairman trying to get the President to sign an order but it was a bit too brief to be considered one. Which meant that more time was spent on the main characters themselves with Saya’s character receiving a bit of development.
With Takashi and Saeko separated the ending of this episode also marked where Madhouse could be taking a looser approach to the story in order to space things out so it ends with the stuff at Saya’s mansion, leading to an eventual second season when there’s enough material for it or an original ending.
Gin_no_Dangan 