Rooster Fighter

Episode 6

With the way that episode five's cliffhanger was set up, it was inevitable that we'd end up with a more uplifting conclusion, something in which Morio, our friendly Demon, could shine and fulfill his “life's purpose.” What I wasn't quite expecting was just how shlocky the entire episode would end up being. This isn't a compliment. It wasn't bad. It was just all a little too convenient that it was an endless onslaught of heroic deeds and life-changing revelations.

The last time we saw everyone, Elizabeth, Piyoko, and their new human friends were in an emergency evacuation shelter waiting for a freak rainstorm to pass. Unfortunately, they receive alarming news—the storm waters have weakened the dam that sits above the city, threatening to flood the entire town. Upon hearing the news, Elizabeth and Piyoko bolt out of the shelter, determined to find a way to stop the dam from breaking.

While out, they run into a character we were introduced to last episode—an angry nerd whose new goal in life is to become a famous Viewtuber. In addition to wanting to track down the chickens for more content, we also learn that he has a personal vendetta against them, too. He spots Elizabeth and rushes after them, only to end up at the crumbling dam. To everyone's surprise, Morio is already there and already re-transformed into his former gargantuan self.

Naturally, Morio's deeds at the dam are immediately broadcast to everyone, including those at the evacuation site. Fortunately, the “is he destroying the dam?” confusion is settled in a matter of seconds. It personally drives me crazy when confusion or misunderstanding is belabored too long for narrative purposes, so I'm glad that this was settled relatively quickly. That being said, what happens in the next 15 or so minutes feels a little too close to an afterschool special with how conveniently everything unwraps. Especially at no point does even a single human say, “We should try and help!” Really, you're going to rely on a demon and a couple of chickens? A chicken???

The dam finally yields, but not before Morio has had a chance to reiterate how useful he finally feels. It's a sweet little moment, though dulled a little from last week's more heartfelt and contextual outpouring. I also tend to have a little personal cynicism around conversations about human usefulness, as I don't think anyone owes society a greater life's purpose than simply contributing. Especially not throwing life and limb to try and fix someone else's bad hydroelectric engineering.

As the dam crumbles, our Viewtuber is taken along with the rubble, but not before Keiji swoops in to save his life. That simple act of selfless bravery causes him to rethink his life too—he realizes he's spent a lifetime blaming others for his problems, but now vows to do better. As I said, everything is a little too convenient. I know Rooster Fighter is a simple story about literal chickens doing superhuman(?) heroics, but zipping things up into tidy packages so quickly feels unearned.

It's the same as what happens next. Keiji is determined to save the townsfolk from the impending flood, so he uses his supersonic KOKEKO to blast rocks and literally terraform the river's path. This is honestly kind of bananas. Somehow, I've just accepted that he has a special crow that can vibrate the inside of a demon's brain, but terraforming rocks is too much. Not only is he able to blast a bunch of rocks onto the river's path, but he's able to blast an entire house-sized boulder off its base.

I feel a little ridiculous criticizing the logistics of a show with talking chickens, chickens who use smartphones, and chickens who wield electric batons, but I feel like we need to draw the line somewhere when it comes to absurdity. That little bird is going to smash through 100 feet of granite with a single scream? (This is where I draw the line!) But again, I think it's less about the absurdity (we are watching Rooster Fighter, after all), as it is another moment in this episode that feels unearned. We are just watching a parade of cheap heroics, applauding self-sacrifice in the name of faceless chumps, and for what? Even in the classic hero stories that this show skewers, it usually has a purpose and a clearer outcome, whether it's personal discovery or inspiration. This episode buttons everything up too tidily, though, and with the primary in-show audience of the evacuation site humans just gawking on the sidelines, the life lessons don't really materialize either.

Overall, episode six is a bit of a letdown after the previous half, which set up so much more promise in the way it portrayed Morio and even the girl and her grandfather. All of the emotional hits were packed into that episode, leaving this conclusion to be a forced smile of relentless cheese.

But wait—what's that at the end? A new villain? A tragic end, to be sure, but that's something to look forward to.

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