Turkey!-Time to Strike-

Episode 9

Content Warning: Suicide.

An excellent episode, from its literal start to finish. More specifically: the episode kicks off with a different version of the intro, this time sung by (and featuring visuals mostly of) our Sengoku squad—who we soon see going to town on some instruments. Alternate versions of opening themes are always fun to see, and while I understand why they're not, I so wish they were more common.

Last week we left off at a pretty sharp cliffhanger, so this episode was set up to either sink or swim. And I'm glad to report that while it undoubtedly won't be to everyone's taste, I think this one swam laps. It was also, of course, easily one of (arguably the) darkest episodes we've had yet. And while the Akebi flashback is a big part of that, I'd say the bigger one is how we had multiple instances of characters on the verge of committing suicide. Which, of course, resulted in a game of bowling that was ostensibly to determine who gets to die, but was actually to teach everyone about how great life is.

Were it not punctuated by the girls saying things along the lines of, “You shouldn't kill yourself because then you couldn't go bowling!” the second half of this episode would feel like it could've come from a version of this anime where they never got thrown back in time, and we instead got a more straightforward anime about bowling, friendship, and teamwork the likes of which we were sold in the first episode up until that literal last minute. There's definitely been a lot of tonal whiplash in this anime, but this is definitely the episode where it's been at its most stark and apparent. But like the other times, Turkey! feels like it's leaning into that contrast, and basking in it rather than shying away from it. And I think this—in addition to the absurdism of it all—might be a big part of why tonal whiplash weirdly works in Turkey!.

Speaking of, this episode highlighted another one of my favorite aspects of this show. So much has happened to the modern girls since they were Inu Yasha'd back to the Sengoku era. And it'd be so easy for Turkey! to abandon being a bowling show once it revealed its hand in sending the girls back in time. And yet, not once—not for a singular episode—has this show ever let its audience forget that it's still a bowling anime. We had an episode where one of the characters had to come face to blood-soaked face with mortality, and still this was a bowling anime. Even if you're not so much a fan of Turkey! being a surprise time travel anime, it's never abandoned the idea of being a bowling anime. Bowling has played a pivotal role in every episode—this one especially—even though it'd be really easy to completely toss that part of itself into the gutter. And I just think it's neat that not only has it stuck with it, but that it's also continued to keep bowling central to the story.

This episode felt like a culmination of everything I love about this anime: an excellent cast, a strong sense of identity, a dark edge that underpins everything, and of course, bowling in the face of any manner of hardship. As always, I'm equal parts disappointed that this show will be ending soon, but also curious how they're going to tie everything up within just a few more episodes. Theory alert: if Akebi, Sumomo, or any of the other members of the Sengoku squad are somehow able to follow our main girls back to the modern day, they're functionally dying as far as everyone in their life is concerned. The opening got me realizing that there's a non-zero chance that any one of them—perhaps even all of them—might somehow find a way to follow our main cast back to modern Japan. And I could see that working very well with the story.

Rating:

Turkey!-Time to Strike- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.