Escaping with Chikai // Sarazanmai Episode 8 Review

I Want to Connect, but We’ll Never Meet Again: Sarazanmai Episode 8

Otaku Voice Staff

Toi makes a good point at the beginning of Sarazanmai episode 8. We don’t always know we have a connection to others until it is gone. Its been a theme all along, but it really comes to the forefront with this episode.

Between this episode and the last a lot of relationships are falling apart. Enta and Kazuki and arguably the most broken. Reo and Mabu appear on the brink of splitting. Toi is gearing up to leave everyone all together, something he feels he has a lot of experience with. Its a breaking up period for the gang, and everyone is realizing the connections they once had will be missed.

Kuji Chikai

A lot of episode 8 is between the two current outcasts of the story, Enta and Kuji Chikai, Toi’s brother. They happen to meet at a pachinko parlor where Enta is expressing his own anger at his friends for not understanding his betrayal. At no point in this episode does Enta actually try to justify himself or his actions in the previous episode. He is still mad at Kazuki for being mad at him. Kazuki is still mad because he feels betrayed. Toi is indifferent because he feels like there must be a reason.

I really like the Chikai character. We have seen him a few times before, but here in Sarazanmai episode 8 we actually start to see him fleshed out, and not just in the eyes of his younger brother. He is a cool cat, but at the same time pretty cutthroat depending on the situation. Chikai is more than happy to spend time with Enta after they escape the pachinko parlor. He is also more than happy to throw Enta right into the blade of a would-be assassin. The character is out only to serve himself and no one but his own brother. I am not sure that is even true, but nothing has emerged yet to make that idea concrete.

During their walkabout of the city, Enta finds out some interesting things about Toi. The miçanga that Enta shares with Kazuki originated with Toi. While dumping he gun, Toi gave up his life of soccer and with it the miçanga that Kazuki and Enta now wear as a symbol of their friendship. This is one of the connections that Toi is talking about. A connection he has to Kazuki in the past. One that Kazuki doesn’t realize.

Mabu and Reo

Our two otter loving cops are up to something this episode. So far in the series they have very much been in the background. They don’t take much direct action against the protagonists. They only just happen to stumble upon Haruka in a previous episode. This episode they are a force to be reckoned with.

The first time they almost capture Chikai, they do end up wasting his would be assassin. While watching I thought the revenge filled swordsman was going to fill a larger role, but I was wrong. In the middle of the street and in broad daylight the two cops are in for it, or so it would seem. I didn’t catch the moment when Mabu sticks one of the other inquisitive cops with his otter pin, but when he nails the other it is clear that they are no longer playing by the rules it seems. That is all the more prevalent later.

After seeing someone gunned down in a back alley, Enta runs back to the kappa shrine to find an angry Kazuki. This would have been the perfect moment to explain Enta’s turncoat actions, but it is better punctuated by the arrival of Mabu and Reo. Up until this moment all parties have been acting mostly independent of each other in a cold war. This is the first time they are really butting heads this series and it doesn’t disappoint. The otter imperial army cops are out for blood and they get it.

Enta’s Death

Its quite the cliffhanger the show is leaving us on with Sarazanmai episode 8. We are left with Enta bleeding out in the arms of someone who just minutes ago was furious at him. The surefire way of saving him is stolen as the cops have taken the discs of hope. At the end of this episode it feels as though all hope is lost. It definitely feels like Kazuki finally understands what it means to know what connection he had to Enta now that he is on his deathbed.

The final scene leaves me with a lot of questions. Why would Kazuki being calling Toi at a time like this? He should be getting Enta to the hospital. This is a great episode as we enter into the second half of the cour.

[Source and Further Reading]
[Episode 7 Review]
[Image via Crunchyroll]