Xebek\’s Blog

Tawaraya returns in his new character Touta and sees the state that the shops and prices are in the world, so he takes it upon himself to do something about it as he used to have a big hand in the market.

Summary:

We start off seeing a new character standing around town. He looks around saying how he didn’t think he would return. He goes to look at some of the shops around town that are selling items and looks at all the prices. He seems horrified saying how much of a rip off everything here is. The shop owner comes by saying he shouldn’t say rude things. He looks at his character saying how he is just new and shouldn’t say thing about stuff he doesn’t understand. He says all the prices are like this. He then sees some bracer thing that this charter we find out is named Touta. The shopkeeper, named Piro seems shocked and looks at him and asks, Tawaraya. Touta just says he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Piro explains how there is an inflation ever since Tan was disbanded and all the prices are inflated like this. Touta goes up to Phyllo and asks if he has a minute. Phyllo just looks at him weird and at his character, seeing his name. Touta of Tawara. Phyllo asks if he is Tawaraya and Touta just smiles. Touta tells Phyllo that he wants to meet Naobi. Phyllo says he has disappeared, but says that he wasn’t banned and neither was Ender, he was the only one. Meanwhile, we see the two newbie brothers who were helped by Tabby fighting in a dungeon. They defeat a monster and get to the treasure chest to find some weapons they can’t use. They say how they should sell tem to a player run shop, as they can get more for them. We see at the shop run by Piro that he has cut all the prices despite the inflation. He says that’s the method that Tawaraya would use sand he wants Touta to recognize him for this. The two newbies bring the weapons they got to the shop run by Piro and he says he will buy from them. Touta appears just as Piro is telling the two newbies what TaN was. Touta tells them it was a guild that used to buy or sell anything, form information to items. Piro starts to say this man was TaN’s…but stops. One of the brothers asks Touta if they know what happened to Tabby, as sine they were helped by her they want to meet up with her. Touta says he knows her, but isn’t sure if she knows him.

We see a gathering of some people in a field with several treasure chests around them. They are talking about Real Money Trade, where they use real life money to buy or sell items in game, which apparently is illegal. Apparently however they are able to get less and less from their business because some of the prices in the shops are dropping due to a guy named Touta, who seems to be some remnant from TaN. We then see Pai and Yata. Pai tells Yata how there are rumors of Tawaraya returning. Yata just says to Pai to let him be, they have more important things to deal with, as Yata is staring at a screen of Haseo in his new form. We see Piro’s shop and the newbies are again selling some stuff to them. We see some people nearby looking at the shop saying how it’s rumored those people used to be in TaN, and they heard rumors of how they can sell their items for so cheap because they were hacked items by TaN. Later, Touta comes by the shop to see that it’s not doing good business at all. All around are other shops that people are going to but no one is going to theirs because there are rumors that they are remnants from TaN. The guy from the RMT comes by looking at the prices and says some stuff about how he doesn’t think the items are safe, how they could be hacked or so forth. Touta kind of thinks he is a bit suspicious but he heads off. We then see Touta on the bridge where Phyllo always is by himself. Pai is looking at him from one end of the bridge and Touta notices this and approaches her, asking why she was staring at him. Pai pretends not to know what he is talking about and Touta kind of stares at her and asks, Ender? Pai reacts but tries to play dumb but Touta gets it that she is Ender. He just tells Pai to tell Naobi that he is going to try and lure over a group that participates in RMT and kind of trap them. Still Pai acts dumb and just heads off. We see the RMTers in their spot saying how some want to back out, that some people say they have proof of what they are doing. The leader guy says not to worry, that there is no proof and what they are doing is safe. Pai is with Yata and tells him what Touta says. He asks if that is all and when she says yes he kind of just thinks to himself and smiles.

We see the two shopkeepers from Piro’s shop standing before the RMTers who have their weapons drawn. The leader says if they have proof of their actions they should show them. We then see the two newbies making their way through the dungeon they are in, trying to find their way to them. Yata sees the confrontation and does something and tells someone to contact him with the ones in charge. The shopkeepers say how they know they are all participating in RMT. When they fail to give proof the thugs raise their weapons but the two newbie brothers arrive to back them up. They are knocked to the ground though and Touta shows up, lecturing the guys on how if they break the rules their accounts will get banned or deleted. Touta stand before the leader guy and basically just lectures him on what he is doing is wrong and doesn’t help people, because those who buy the equipment with real money don’t have the skill needed to go along and so forth. Since Touta is anew character however he is defeated. Just as the rest of the guys are about to get beaten, everyone disappears except for the leader and some floating monitor robot thing appears saying how the system administrators have recorded their conversation and wish to speak with him about a violation. He then disappears and someone revives Touta. Later Touta is talking with Phyllo about how he thinks he will stay around for a bit more. He leaves and walks past Yata who is walking towards him. Yata tells him how he returned the favor. Yata keeps walking but Touta stops, surprised. He continues saying since he came back to the world, he will welcome him from his heart. Touta just smiles and walks on.

Impressions:

Well, mostly this episode was again kind of off track from the normal flow of things. This time it was even worse then the whole newbie episode with Tabby and Kuhn helping the newbies that again appeared in this episode, because last time an episode with no Haseo appeared we got the introduction of Kuhn who is an epitaph user and therefore important in the games so it was good to get him introduced. Here we just get the reappearance of Tawaraya and even if he is in GU, well Touta that is, he isn’t nearly as important as Kuhn.

Ok, so I guess Saburou isn’t Tawaraya, which is really confusing because there was a lot, I mean, A LOT of clues leading to her being him and there are very few other people she could be for how important she is. She seems to be someone who used to be someone else so it can’t be just a new person I don’t think. Anyways, I also don’t’ really thing that Touta will have that much more to do with the story, as I don’t’ see how he is going to fit in really. They seemingly just had him come back to tie up loose ends, either that or I really can’t see his important part in the story.

Ok, a quick note about Haseo. Not mentioning his odd stasis during this whole episode, in the preview for next episode it showed him with his scythe. This shows those people who were being idiots saying he is only at his second form that they are wrong. Haseo got to his final third form during that transformation because the scythe is his third, second being the brandish big sword. So yeah, although that doesn’t REALLY matter just thought I’d toss that out there.

Ok, another kind of side note here. I’ve read places how people think this show is going in the wrong direction or they are saying crap about how this doesn’t have the same focus as it did anymore, its no longer about the game and people in the game. No f’ing shit its not. This isn’t’ supposed to be some incredible stand alone anime. This is a prequel to GU. Even if it came slightly before release wise the game, it’s still a prequel. It says it in its freaking name for god’s sakes. This shows the Roots of GU and where it is coming from, it shows the main characters Haseo’s transformation into what he ahs become in GU and sets up how it happened and what exactly the world is like and what shape its in. Anyone who is watching this and not planning on playing GU or at least read a detailed description of what happens in it is an idiot in my opinion. This is not going to end all closed or anything like that. Back to the whole this show isn’t focused on what it was before hand, of course its not, that’s the whole point. The point is to show how that has changed and what it has done to the character that we will see in GU…Ok, rant off.