Platinum End is a dark fantasy shonen anime produced by Signal.MD. With several God Candidates already dead at the hands of Metropoliman, he now threatens to murder the final known candidate if no one stops him. As the child’s cries for help fill the stadium Mirai and Saki struggle with whether or not they should act in Platinum End Episode 5.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
From the very beginning, Platinum End has set a tone of bleak, harsh storytelling. With this week’s opening sequence wrapping up the disturbing events at the stadium, Platinum End Episode 5 reinforces the fact that happy endings are not something anyone should be expecting from this program. Mirai and Saki’s ultimate decision concerning how they handle their final moments in the stadium will probably disappoint some, but they make sense given everything that they have observed.
Once the opening sequence is wrapped up, the episode splits in two as it follows both our protagonists and Metropoliman, with the episode first following our protagonists.
Once back at Saki’s, the group considers what their next course of action should be. While it is universally agreed upon that they cannot allow the situation to continue as is, what can and should be done about it is unclear. The actions considered seem to weigh especially heavily on Mirai. In a flashback to his childhood, we get another glimpse of one of the informative moments that helped shape the young man into feeling the way he does when it comes to life and people.
I appreciated the authenticity of how Platinum End Episode 5 approaches this flashback sequence. The conversation Mirai has with his father is crafted in a way that delivers a believable moment. What Mirai’s dad says to him has a lasting impact, despite the lack of eloquence in its delivery. This helps the moment feel truly off-the-cuff. There is no sense of the character reading off a script here. Rather, it gives the viewer exactly what it strives to be: a father responding to an unexpected, yet complicated question from his child that may not have a truly correct
When the episode leaves our protagonists, we find ourselves catching our first real glimpse of the teenager who calls himself Metropliman. While hanging out with one of his friends, we find these young men discussing what sort of things they would wish for while perving on significantly younger girls practicing archery. This sequence goes a long way to further explaining Metroploiman’s motivations and personality. While it’s not surprising that a young man willing to commit cold-blooded murder for his self-gain would see nothing wrong with talking about how he’d like to date a student three years his junior(most likely 14), it is nonetheless an uncomfortable moment to watch.
The visual design of Platinum End Episode 5 continues to deliver the narrative’s weight and dark tones admirably. I also have to give the show credit for the unique designs of the angels. Angels in classic texts are often truly bizarre and this series manages to hit an interesting middle ground between what classic descriptions of angels often were and the modern concepts of them.
When all is said and done, Platinum End Episode 5 brings lots of revelations and discoveries for the viewer to consider. By the end of the episode, new paths are open to our protagonists and we come to understand our villain a little bit better.
Platinum End Episode 5 is streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.
