Rooster Fighter

Episode 4

Episode four is claws down the best episode of Rooster Fighter we've gotten to date. There's just so much going on, and it's a good balance of everything—a sprinkling of the serious, a little dash of the wholesome, but also a whole lot of stupid. Half of the episode is about how Keiji is unbearably horny and can barely function.

The last time we saw our feathered friends, Piyoko was being carried away by a cat. When our heroes finally catch up, everyone is braced for a confrontation, but that's quickly derailed when we meet her litter of hungry and adorable kittens. Fortunately, Elizabeth brought food. In a scene that's more uncomfortable than it needs to be, she squats down and lays a nutritious egg. Just be glad they chose not to show the actual cloaca situation because no one really needs to see it. As it is, it's just weird enough to be funny, and that's even before we get to Keiji's blue balls.

Last year at Anime NYC, I attended a panel that included both manga creator Shu Sakuratani and series script writer Hiroshi Seko. I've been a little excited for this episode ever since then, because when Seko was asked what his favorite scene was to write, he immediately answered, “No spoilers, but Lord of the Rut.” And finally, we meet him. The glorious Lord of the Rut—Keiji's spirit animal that's basically an embodiment of the so-called animal instinct that possesses Keiji once or twice a year and fills him with an insatiable need to breed. In case you were intensely curious, chickens don't actually rut, unlike deer or elk (and unfortunately, Google now knows that I have googled “does rutting make deer horny.” The answer is yes, because of hormonal changes; you're welcome). But Keiji does, because that's just the kind of man he is. Call it his alter-ego, if you will, which is even metaphorically paraded in on a palanquin.

Unfortunately for him, the closest female is Elizabeth, and she is absolutely not putting up with any of that savagery. She does, however, need his help defeating a nearby Demon, so she convinces him to help in exchange for whatever he desires the next day. Until then, he's banished to another room where he spends all night quivering and twitching in an emotional maelstrom of unfulfilled needs. It's next to impossible to convince someone that the funniest gag you watched on TV all week was a rooster needing to nut.

His possession by the Lord of the Rut is somewhat fitting, because this episode's Demon of the Week also happens to center around possession. Our heroes learn from their new cat friend that everyone in her village has been possessed by a Demon and made to dig endless holes. The monster has also managed to imprison the town's children in a shed, the eldest of whom reveals that the monster is his father. We get a little backstory on how this particular monster came to be, along with what initially entranced him into uncontrollable fervor—greed is not so different from rutting, perhaps. I'm not sure what parallels we're meant to draw here, other than the surface-level possession by a personal obsession.

Still, this is the first time we've actually seen the chickens really work together to fight, and it's a welcome addition, as Elizabeth's smarts really add flavor to Keiji's otherwise monotonous abilities. One more aside—I really love how all the human characters always express surprise and confusion at chickens who can fight giant titans and use smartphones, but it washes away in seconds. Meanwhile, I'm four episodes deep into an anime, and I still can't get over its very existence. I assume that once everyone in your life is a potential victim of either becoming or being destroyed by a giant, nothing can shock you anymore.

While I do appreciate that each Demon gets some time to explore the individual circumstances that led to their transformation, Rooster Fighter still lacks a bit in the emotion department. It should be sad to see a son lose his father to the madness of greed, and it should be a heartrending moment to see that cathartic moment of realignment (aided by a chicken's posturing), but it never fully lands. I don't know if it's because the overall absurdity bleeds into the story, or if the Demons' stories just feel too disjointed from the main narrative. It doesn't help that we don't really get a chance to know any of the weekly characters—even when we met Piyoko's “father,” we were only allotted a few minutes to get acquainted, which simply isn't enough. As a result, each time the weekly monster is introduced, it feels a little choppy and functions more to satisfy our curiosity about Demon lore than anything else. I know this is how the manga is written, at least for the phase that we're currently in, but it does prevent the series from truly flowing and sinking its talons deeper. At least we got to see a horny, distressed rooster?

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Rooster Fighter is currently airing on Toonami and streaming on Disney+/Hulu.