©権平ひつじ／集英社・夜桜さんちの大作戦製作委員会
As it stands, I don't care much for Kuroyumi/Kurogao, no matter how you slice him. While taking Kuroyumi at face value only makes him seem foolish and without substance, revealing Kurogao's true nature only makes him a muddled character. The “tragic” story of his daughter being killed in a bombing would probably have been more effective if Kurogao hadn't dressed like a damn lunatic while holding his daughter's body, and had a “murderous” personality. His “cold-blooded defense” will certainly be many. More menacing if his alternate appearance isn't just that of some random middle-aged accountant wearing obnoxious colored contacts.
It doesn't help that this is an episode where M:YF's limited production values really start to hold it back. When the show isn't trying to be a silly action romantic comedy, it's often easy for me to overlook how flat and inconsistent the visuals look in most cases. However, most of this episode is played with deadly seriousness. I'm not sure if that's the tone best suited to M:YF on a really good day, and it certainly doesn't make the lengthy action and interrogation scenes any more fun or interesting. when everything looks as trivial as this.
The best thing I can say about this Kurogao Incident is that I appreciate how it concludes the first step in Taiyo's journey, at least on paper. Never mind the teasing about his family's supposed murder; that still feels like as big a change as it was at the end of the last episode. Rather, I appreciated that Taiyo's final confrontation with Kurogao led Taiyo to take advantage of all the gadgets and training of his new sibling. Combined with a touching moment where Taiyo reflects on how Mutsumi helped him overcome the loss of his family, it's a sweet punctuation in this chapter of the story so far. I just wish that Mission: Yozakura Family could have made better use of this show with a worthwhile villain and a little more visual interest.
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Mission: The Yozakura Family is now streaming on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ in other regions.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other popular cultures, which you can also find on Twitterhis blog and podcast.
