REVIEW: ‘Tank Chair’ Episode 3

Tank Chair Episode 3 finally reveals more of the siblings’ mysterious origins, including details about Nagi’s nature. It introduces two new interesting characters to the cast, while showcasing the inner workings of Guicheng City in an incredibly engaging way.

The episode begins with a gang leader inviting two high school assassins rumored to be from a mysterious off-island elite assassination Academy. The assassins introduce themselves as the siblings Naozumi and Touko Kurosaka. The gang leader reveals that he planned to hire them to take out a leader of a rival gang but recently discovered that he was already assassinated by someone else.

He also adds that there has been a string of assassinations targeting particularly dangerous criminals on the island, which is no doubt the handiwork of Nagi (Koki Uchiyama) and his sister. This information intrigues Naozumi, who decides to inquire further.

The next scene shifts to a “Death School” filled with several low-level goons, criminals, and crooks. The scene opens with a big, strange looking yellow teacher who doesn’t look human informing his classroom about complaints the school has received about robberies, extortion, fraud, and more, and asking the students to go home before committing those crimes. It is then revealed this is Shizuka’s (Minori Fujidera) classroom after he yells at her for eating in class.

This scene is funny both due to how absurd the idea of a school teaching students how to be petty criminals with subjects like ‘English Words For Provoking People 2,’ and because somehow a young girl can be in a class filled with degenerate adolescent men. It also reveals that the talking gorilla from a previous episode is apparently normal, as strange creatures and people exist in this world.

After class, Shizuka is seen walking from school but is then confronted by Naozumi and his sister. They quickly threaten Shizuka and reveal they found her after investigating the string of assassinations that are similar to Nagi’s style of killing and that they are after him.

Tank Chair Episode 3 sports great character design.

They also reveal that Nagi and his sisters’ real surname is Tahira and that they changed it to Taira to lay low after betraying the Academy. Touko gets angry mid-conversation and almost fatally wounds Shizuka because she’s jealous that Shizuka is small and cute, and she isn’t. Naozumi stops her but threatens Shizuka to show them where Nagi is.

This scene, along with the one before it, showcases Polygon Pictures’ best art direction and visual quality. The interior art design and backgrounds for the Death School and the dingy, dilapidated streets, walls, and objects Shizuka passes on her way from school, riddled with graffiti, grime, and the decay of time, look amazingly detailed and intricate, with excellent shading. It also nails the imagery of an obviously seedy town or area, taking it to the next level with a rotted corpse on a telephone pole surrounded by crows.

Additionally, Touko has great character design. The incredibly tall high school girl is basically a well-built giant with a metal mask covering her mouth, giant intricately designed metal gloves, several gas tanks on her hip, and giant metal shoes. Her size, the metallic objects on her body, and her long blonde hair and high school outfit make her one of the most interestingly designed characters in the series.

Nagi and his sister abandoned the Academy.

Shizuka takes the siblings to Nagi, where they learn about his catatonic state. This leads Naozumi to reveal their history as classmates at the Academy and that a mysterious organization runs it, taking kids from around the world and molding them into elite assassins through brutal training. There, the two met, and Nazoumi quickly grew to resent Nagi and became jealous of his strength.

However, it’s also revealed that Nagi and his sister abandoned the Academy and, as a result, were tagged as traitors and fugitives. The siblings planned to punish Nagi, but Shizuka wakes him up by provoking Touko, whose killing intent reaches Nagi.

A chase between the two pairs of siblings begins and ends with Nagi evading them long enough to suit up and unveil the Tank Chair Mark III. Tank Chair Episode 3 ends as Touko demands to take on Nagi, and they both prepare to fight.

Tank Chair Episode 3 does a great job of revealing the protagonist’s origins while expanding the narrative.

The chase sequence is perhaps the best visual and most engaging scene in the anime thus far. It showcases the city’s inner workings from many angles and highlights amazing architectural designs, including its seediest and most urban areas, through a high-octane, engaging chase scene.

It also shows off how big and strong Touko is as she jumps large gaps, bursts through walls and ceilings, and crashes through objects. Additionally, the background music during the chase scene is refreshingly melodic, though not entirely fitting for the chaotic scene.

Tank Chair Episode 3 does a great job of revealing the protagonist’s origins while expanding the narrative through many interesting revelations such as the mysterious Academy, how the classes are hierarchical, and that Nagi has always been enhanced by killing intent even before his injury. The episode is engaging in many ways, and hopefully, subsequent episodes will maintain its momentum.

 Tank Chair Episode 3 is streaming now on Prime Video.

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