Plunderer

Episode 14

In which our hero comes full circle.

Plunderer episode 14 is the best episode of the series so far. It expands the lore, develops our heroes, and ends with a scene so good that it elevates the entire series.

The first part of the episode is fanservice comedy as young Licht continues his attempts to see the girls naked as they bathe. Yet, unlike before, this fanservice has a point beyond titillation. After the whole class is thrown into the wilderness for survival training due to Licht's antics, Licht trips three of the girls headlong into a stream, soaking them.

He does this to get a peek at their underwear but the girls finally have enough of it. Basically, they strip and tell him to get his fill. They are training to become soldiers. They're going to be out there fighting and killing--and they don't have the luxury to be embarrassed by some perverted little kid. They're going to be facing so much worse.

This hits Licht especially hard--and not only because it takes the “fun” out of his perverted adolescent games. On a fundamental level, he doesn't like the idea of any of them killing. He hoped that due to his idea from last episode, that they'd be spared that fate. But as one of them states, she has four brothers. She might be fine now but they need food--and the only way they get that food is by her becoming a soldier. Of course, she doesn't want to go out there and kill people but she'll do it if it's what it takes to keep her family alive. Licht has no answer to this problem, but Schmerman does.

Like a cunning serpent with an all-too-sincere voice, Schmerman says all they have to do is become a no-killing army--an army that outclasses their opponent to such a degree that they don't need to kill their enemies in order to win. And with that single idea, the seed has been planted and the class motivated: they must get stronger to protect their innocence.

It will make things all-the-more tragic when their newfound dream crashes against the hard reality they face.

The second part of the episode follows Jail as he breaks into Schmerman's secret lab. There he learns about the development of ballots (as they are in his time) and learns that, unlike normal people, Schmerman has superpowers without using one. It's a terrifying realization that shakes Jail to his very core.

And that leads us to the best scene in the entire show so far. The “first” meeting between Jail and Nana. After being saved from discovery by the younger version of Nana--somewhat clued in thanks to a note sent by her future self--Jail learns that not only is Nana a Legendary Ace, she is the original one. She was given some of Schmerman's DNA and gained the power to time travel. Unfortunately, all the other street kids that were experimented on alongside her died due to the procedure, leaving her alone.

Noting that he has a window to safely escape in seven minutes, she explains to him about the nature of time travel and the curse that comes from knowing the future--the uncertainty that comes from changing it. There's a security to knowing what will happen, even if what will happen is bad.

But even as she gives him all the info he needs, it is clear that what she really wants is to play like a normal little girl. Jail is the first visitor, the first potential friend, she's had in a long while. Her friends from the experiment are all dead and Schmerman and the other officers are her jailers, keeping her isolated in an underground bunker. It's crushing to see her face when she realizes that she and Jail's time together is already at a close--that even a minute of true playing is something beyond her grasp.

Yet, Jail has come to the point that, as a hero, he can't turn a blind eye to the evil in front of him--even if that evil is simply a lonely girl, locked away from the world. Thus he offers her a way out--the option to come with him. He knows that will radically change the future but he doesn't hesitate. Nor does he rush her choice. Even when the clock hits zero, guaranteeing his own death, he doesn't flinch. And this means everything to Nana.

Nana is able to see in Jail what her future self did--that Jail is a man who looks certain death in the face and doesn't back down because he knows what is right and what is wrong. He's a hero in a world devoid of them. Even as a young girl, she knows their world needs him and so she ushers him along, deciding to keep the timeline intact--content with her future self's choice.

And here's where Jail goes one step beyond. He can't save her--she won't allow herself to be saved--so he does the next best thing. He promises her that she is not alone; that she will never be alone. At the end of her long road, 300 years in the future, he will be there waiting. And that he will stay with her as long as she will have him.

He gives hope to the hopeless. And this one tiny change will no doubt have implications he can't possibly dream of.

Our new future version of Nana will have chosen Jail not because she saw in him the heroic nature she saw in Licht but because she knows he can become a man capable of saving not only an entire world but the soul of one lonely little girl as well. It brings new context to all her actions--her obvious frustration with Jail at the start and her no-nonsense approach to molding him into a hero. She knows all he needs is a guide for the first few steps of his journey; so she will inspire him as he once inspired her.

It's exciting to think about how their relationship will change upon their reunion in the future--you know, assuming Jail isn't shot in the back of the head by Alan in the next few seconds.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Best joke in Plunderer so far: Jail walking into the “men's” bathroom, so engrossed in his book that he doesn't notice the dozens of naked women around him until he is already in the bath with them--then upon realizing the fact, calmly getting out and getting dressed before passing out from an epic nosebleed at the exit. Nice to see he's not quite as unflappable as everyone expects.

• I know I said I'd be content if the fanservice was limited to the bath scenes… but I could really do without Licht's horny grunting.

• Schmerman is an enigma of contradictions. While he did do human experimentation on children at some point, he stopped when it proved lethal--despite the objections of those around him. At the same time, he's a man who trains child soldiers--all but grooming them to become test subjects of their own volition.

• At some point during the no-killing army conversation, Hina fights and kills a snake--and you can see her happily holding its corpse, impaled on a stick and ready to cook, at the end of the scene.

Plunderer is currently streaming on FUNimation.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.