00:00Taujin Anki, Episode 22 Review
00:02The Prodigy vs. The Underdog begins with only two episodes left. Taujin Anki finally drops the big
00:10fight they've been teasing for the past few episodes, but did it turn out one-sided? After
00:15countless teases and episodes of anticipation, Taujin Anki, Episode 22 finally kicks off the
00:22Shiki vs. Mikado fight. The episode opens with them standing atop a multi-storied building,
00:28facing each other menacingly as Mikado gets ready to hunt Shiki down. And not gonna lie,
00:34the location alone made the scene quite badass. But yeah, the moment they start talking,
00:40it turns into another snooze-fest for a bit. Shiki's attempt to convince Mikado that everything was a
00:46setup always feels weak. He could mention Shinya or explain how they uncovered the truth, but instead,
00:53he just keeps repeating, believe me, and that's it. Honestly, Mikado isn't blameless either. For
00:59someone who spent so much time with Shiki, from when they first met to all the moments they enjoyed
01:05together, he's completely turning a blind eye to everything. That's not exactly a good sign of
01:11friendship. Anyway, while the episode begins by building up the fight, it quickly shifts over to
01:17Shinya and Kugasaki's POV, which, honestly, was just as interesting as where the previous episode
01:23left off. Taujin Anki can't expect one backstory to redeem Shinya's sins. Episode 21 almost tried to
01:31pull off a crazy cliffhanger, making it look like Shinya killed Kugasaki and even blew himself up in the
01:38process. But the first thing we see here is, nope. Once again, he set up the trap precisely so that
01:44only whoever stepped on it would get their leg blown off, while he'd remain completely unharmed.
01:50And he did. But seriously, how naive can he be to think that tiny explosion would be enough to take
01:56down a monster like Kugasaki? Especially now, when he's absolutely bloodlustful and ready to kill
02:03Shinya for all the sins he's committed. However, the peculiar aspect of this episode is that, for some
02:10reason, it attempted to elicit sympathy for Shinya by providing him with an additional backstory.
02:16This is such an annoying shounen trope, giving villains a tragic backstory to make fans go,
02:22yeah, he's bad, but his past made him like that. Hell no, that doesn't fly. You can't excuse your sad
02:28past to justify doing atrocious things now. If you're evil, that's a choice you made. So this backstory
02:35honestly pissed me off so much in this episode. Mikado isn't holding back. Shiki has no choice but
02:41to power up. Now, looking past all that depressing stuff, we finally get back to the main fight,
02:47and it's actually pretty hype. The way the two clash is just fun to watch. Mikado, being the
02:53prodigy he is, clearly knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to controlling his powers.
02:59There's literally no gap in his technique. Meanwhile, Shiki is struggling just to hold his ground.
03:04The guy fires his bazooka once or maybe twice, while Mikado is out here bombarding him with four
03:11different types of rifles. It's wild how skillfully Mikado controls all four at once, and to make it
03:17even crazier, he switches into six-gun mode near the end of the episode, gearing up for a final,
03:23decisive attack. So really, what choice does Shiki have other than pulling out a crazy power-up?
03:29In the very first episode, we saw how berserk he went after his dad was killed. He was wielding
03:35four guns at once and went full oni mode. Honestly, that mode might still be better now than just
03:41letting Mikado kill him. Don't you think so, too? Tao Jin Anki is currently available to watch on Netflix.
