No Guns Life Episode 8: Release full power

Click here to check this post out on my personal website.

This week’s episode was a strange mix of high intensity from Juuzou’s transformation and a meandering monologue from Armed. I don’t know if it’s supposed to feel more realistic, but I get the sense that Armed is often dancing around the subject when he’s providing background that I want to hear. I might just be tired of him ranting about the greater good or whatever. There also seems to be some kind of growth for Olivier in this episode as well, but it might have needed some more setup.

The episode tells us a decent amount about Juuzou’s past as a Gun Slave unit. It’s not directly stated as far as I could tell, but it seems like his body was turned into a literal weapon during the war. It makes me wonder what happened to the rest, though. We’ve seen that Seven is a similar unit, but how rare are these survivors?

I suppose a reasonable explanation is that the rest of the units went mad, and only a few were able to retain their humanity. Seeing Juuzou go nuts in this episode was pretty cool. Since he’s a later unit, it makes sense that he would be able to overpower Armed. I suppose it’s meant to counter the earlier statement about Juuzou’s lack of strategy. When he goes completely automatic, the strategy aspect doesn’t seem to matter at all.

It was a nice moment having Juuzou regain consciousness when Olivier asks him to kill Armed. I do think it’s awkward that she finds out the truth only because Armed continuously narrates everything out loud. I understand that he’s a hero in the public eye, but he seriously needs to learn to shut up.

I guess I’m not sold on Olivier’s change of heart. I think it makes sense for Juuzou to push her to do the right thing, but I think it would have been more effective if she had linked it to her memory of her father. Nothing from the conversation at the beginning of the episode seems relevant to her choice. At best, I think you could argue that she chooses to go back to the plan she told her father, reaching a position of power and dealing with Armed through the proper government channels.

I think Armed was a decent antagonist, but I don’t have a problem with him being a puppet all along. I would have liked to have seen him reporting to government officials, but I guess it’s simpler if he’s a puppet for Beruehren. At the end of the day, the company controls everything, huh?