The Show:
The sixth, and second to last, volume of Peacemaker takes
on a darker and sadder tone as things start to come to a head. The
three episodes in this volume contain a lot of death and torture, something
that has been absent in the previous volumes. This program has really
been having problems finding its voice and this volume changes the direction
of the show once again. I wouldn't mind so much if this was an improvement,
but it certainly isn't.
In nineteenth century Japan, young Tetsunosuke joins a fighting band,
the Shinsengumi. (They were the antagonists in Ruroni Kenshin, and
this series is one of the few that show them in a positive light.)
He does this in order to learn to fight and become stronger, so that he
can avenge his parents death. He's still not sure if he wants to
become a killer though, and for the time he's a page one of the leaders
of the group.
The Shinsengumi are not without troubles though. There are several
groups in Japan that would like to see the members of this group killed.
There are several factions warring, and the Shinsengumi are holding on
to power, but just barely.
As the last volume ended the Shinsengumi's main spy and cook (?!), Ayumu,
was captured by the enemy as she was trying to get some information.
Word reached the camp that Ayumu was being tortured, and the available
member of the Shinsengumi take off to rescue her. Tetsunosuke runs
to tell Ayumu's brother, Susumu, that she's been nabbed. He's had
to live in her shadow his whole life, and doesn't seem to care that she
may be killed. Until he finds her mutilated body that is, then he
gets mad.
With one of their own dead, the Shinsengumi take to the streets looking
for revenge. Any Loyalist ronin they find are either killed or tortured
for information. This makes them little better than the forces they
are fighting.
While this is going on, Tetsunosuke meets a friend, Suzu, on the street.
Tetsunosuke suspects that Suzu works for the opposition, but doesn't see
any problem with going to an abandoned building with the enemy. This
was a trap though, and when Suzu doesn't have the heart to kill the young
page, his master steps in to finish the job.
I was really disappointed in this volume. The show suddenly takes
a much more adult and darker turn, with torture and killing filling these
shows. They have totally eliminated the humor in the show.
I don't like the fact that the tone changed so quickly and without warning.
In these episodes fingers are lopped off and eyes gouged out as the Shinsengumi
go looking for revenge. I had trouble sympathizing with their methods.
I know this period of time in Japanese history was very violent, but I
can't root for people who are so quick to overreact.
This series started out with a lot of promise, but it really went down
hill as the series went on. The characters who seemed interesting
in the first shows never were fully developed. I don't really care
about any of the main people in the show, and can't sympathize with any
of them. Tetsunosuke's quest to avenge his parent's death has been
forgotten, and many of the interesting sub-plots have also been forgotten.
Overall this series has been having trouble deciding what it wants to be
and where it is going and has ended up being rather uninteresting.
As with the other volumes, make sure you sit through the FBI warning
for an amusing voice over.
The DVD:
This volume contains another scant three episodes in a white keepcase
with an insert. Even with the credits, that runs to a bit over 70
minutes, which isn't a lot of content. I really wish they would put
at least four episodes on each volume.
Audio:
This DVD offers the viewer the choice of an English 5.1 dub or the original
Japanese language stereo track. I listened to both tracks, and I
enjoyed the original language a little bit more than the dub track.
The dub track had some strange sounding accents that didn't really blend
well with the show, though there were all minor characters. Most
of the Geishas had pretty awful accents. The English track did make
good use of the soundstage, with sound effects and some dialog coming from
the rear. The Japanese track made use of the front soundstage and
was just as full.
Video:
The full frame image looked pretty good. The picture was just
a tad soft, with the lines not being as tight as they could be, but this
was very minor. The colors had a nice tone to them, and the contrast
was good. Digital defects were just about nonexistent. A very
nice looking DVD.
Extras:
This disc also includes clean opening and closing animations and a series
of production sketches. There are also a pair of two-minute long
video "Character Collections" that give the background information on Tatsunosuke
Ichimura and Suzu Kitamura.
Final Thoughts:
This penultimate volume of Peacemaker has really started accelerating
the downhill slide the series has been on. Not only am I frustrated
with the lack of focus this series has, but this series of episodes throws
in a lot of torture and murder, something that hasn't shown up until this
point. Why they have changed this series so radically this late in
the game is anyone's guess, but the changes didn't improve the show.
Best to give up on the series at this point. Skip it.
Buy: