REVIEW: ‘Tougen Anki’ Episode 11 — “Thank You!”

Tougen Anki Episode 11, “Thank You!,” sees the final moments of the Momotaro attack play out as Tsubakiri (Daisuke Kishio, Tower of God) draws his last breaths and looks back at the man who helped shape who he became. It also re-establishes the class as it returns to ordinary life. However, ordinary life at their new school is still coming into focus. 

The opening portion of Tougen Anki Episode 11 is dedicated to exploring Tsubakiri’s connection to his late mentor, Manaka (Masaaki Mizunaka, Rise of the Ronin), who is the Momotaro he was controlling during his battle with Shiki (Kazuki Ura, Zenshu). The sequence thoroughly lays out much of Tsubakiri’s motivations and his goals.

From a functional standpoint, this opening is successful. It lays out how Tsubakiri went from being a scientist who exploited the butchery of others to being a butcher himself. Where it fails is in justifying why the audience should care. The events that unfold are sufficient for providing motivation, but the conclusions drawn from key moments leave little sense of the characters involved. It does nothing to push the needle for the villain in any given direction, leaving it adrift without a certain point or purpose from a character perspective. 

Tougen Anki Episode 11 highlights the series’s continued lack of balance in tone and quality.

The one redeeming quality of Tougen Anki Episode 11‘s opening is how it looks at how close-minded bigotry can make those who revel in it. The key event that leads Tsubakiri to his current situation with Manaka is clearly a result of their own cruelty towards the Oni, but he never sees it. Rather, he takes the moment as a reinforcement of how brutal the Oni are, and why they must be eradicated, down to the last child. 

While this is never a bad observation to make, especially given the current political climate many find themselves in, it is a concept that is driven home constantly by the series. Practically every time a Momotaro opens their mouth, we are reminded of the ignorance and cruelty of prejudice. This opening is just one of the more thought-out explorations of the concept. This leaves one to wonder if the payoff is worth the time used to reinforce the principal.

Once the narrative moves past Tsubakiri’s death, we see Shiki and the rest of the Oni get on with their lives. After a brief farewell with Kyoya and Mei, the class and their teacher return to school to resume their studies. As their homeroom draws to a close, they learn that they will be sharing dorm rooms, two students to a room, with the odd man out staying with Mudano.

The opening presents familiar thematic material more deeply.

This final stretch of Tougen Anki Episode 11 is an unbearably long attempt at comedy. Every obnoxious personality trait and annoying interaction is paraded through the scenes, incapable of eliciting the laughter it desperately attempts to create. From Byoubugaura’s self-hating offering to fix the count by sleeping outside in a cardboard box, to Yusurube’s over-the-top jealousy of Kiriyama’s unwanted “relationship” with Sazanami, none of it is funny, and it all just hurts. 

These jokes don’t fail due to a lack of trying on the part of the animation, however. Tougen Anki Episode 11 tries to drive home the lame jokes with as much visual oomph as it can, vainly attempting to salvage the conceptually poor humor. No matter how goofy you make these characters look, though, it can’t save the unfunny, and already overused, jokes they sling out. 

Tougen Anki Episode 11 continues to suffer from all the problems the series has had in the past. While there are at least some core elements of the front half of its narrative that bear some quality, the back half is an obnoxious failure that leaves the viewer feeling less like an enjoyer of the episode and more like a survivor of it, of the dwindling quality of the entry as it progresses. 

Tougen Anki Episode 11 is streaming now on Netflix.

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