BTOOOM! – 05
Do I dare trespass into this high-level dungeon?
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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! This will be my last episodic post until the finale. I will do a series summary once Btooom! is done airing that will cover episode 6-12 as well as my thoughts on the series as a whole. It’s not because I don’t have time, but because I don’t have a lot of things to say about Btooom! that are nice. The length and content of this post should be highly indicative of that =A=. This show just doesn’t make for posts that are particularly fun to write (or read, I would imagine), so I’m hoping that 7 episodes worth of material will provide me with something of substance to report. It’s better than just dropping it, and should turn out better for everyone this way. |
In a nutshell, my response to this episode would be “are you fucking serious?” with an emphasis on fucking serious. We’re supposed to believe Ryouta is a good guy who doesn’t want to fight in this cut-throat game. We see him feel incredibly touched by Taira bawling his eyes out in gratitude, and even sticking his neck out afterwards to find the killer over the waterfall. He’s supposed to be the glorious protagonist we relate to and follow on his survival struggles. However, this “nice” view of Ryouta is constantly pitted against a more “cruel” view that paints him as a disgustingly wretched manchild who can only think of his own interests. Not only is he a beast to his family for no reason other than having the mental maturity of a 5 year old, but he maintains shreds of that scummy mindset on the island. Perhaps being shipped on the island is supposed to be a new start for Ryouta. I almost believed that until he nearly raped Himiko in the most infuriating scene of the entire series to date.
What makes it so bad for Ryouta to do it is that he’s still shown as a nice guy. We’re supposed to believe he’s a hero despite the fact he almost gets his rocks off to an unconscious girl who was clearly abused very recently. His thought process is “Poor thing, she was almost raped!…Well, I guess that guy can’t have all the fun, so it’s my turn!”. If you really try to defend him, you could say people do crazy things on an island when their life is at stake, but Ryouta has since become rather level-headed in the face of danger. He should know better than to even think about it. The fact that Himiko is consistently portrayed as nothing but a ragdoll to be put in compromising situations makes the show hideously sexist. A threshold has been crossed at this point, and Btooom! has lost all of my respect now. I bet you anything the other girl we see in the OP isn’t much better than Himiko. Come on, they tried to pull the rape card again with the MAIN CHARACTER instigating it. Not cool.
I can barely even focus on the other stuff that happened, but I suppose there is one other scene of importance aside from the issue of Himiko’s androphobia. While her fear of men made sense, it was a very simplistic depiction of it that felt like a copy and paste of her feelings in the original rape episode. It just made her look weak.
After Ryouta manages to overcome her barriers (albeit forcefully) and the three of them huddle together for warmth, Himiko starts to explain how they chose people for the island. Himiko was chosen by her own best friends for a grave misunderstanding, Ryouta was chosen by his mom and Taira was chosen by his clients. Even if they return home, it will be impossible to face those who wanted them dead. Either they will still hate you, or feel so much guilt that all further interactions will be horribly awkward. This isn’t quite a dead end since you can still live relatively normal life afterwards and make new friends, but it is very discouraging to know that you were specifically chosen for this game. It’s depressing. Coming to terms with why they may have been sent here should lead them to become better people, but we’ll see how that holds up.
Bonus Cup Noodles: Show ▼
I dared Btooom! to try and turn me off with the double-rape episode featuring Himiko, and I made it out with some complaints. Overall, I still had hope. Unfortunately, I’ve been bending more and more each week until I just broke into a thousand pieces for episode 5. I’ve been pretty nice so far but…this episode just made me mad. Everything else is just a blur because that scene with Himiko exposing her pink panties and driving Ryouta wild was so salient to me. It’s all I remember! And that’s not good! It’s a shame that Btooom! remains a lacklustre show with no subtly, little to no strategy in fights, and rampant sexism. The sad part is that it relies on the shock-factor to keep people interested, and that is the only thing it’s got going for itself. A cheap trick. *sigh* I’ll try to finish this and blog the ending, but I don’t imagine things will get much better. If they get worse, I’m going to cry…
Preview: Hours of watching the Discovery Channel as a kid lead me to suspect that those giant lizards are komodo dragons, which are NOT the kind of thing you wanna mess with. This may be the final episode for the old man as he sacrifices himself to save Himiko and Ryouta. Or maybe he just runs off with the chips and the preview voiceover was just a ruse. Who knows! I’ll see you guys in 7 weeks or so~
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
If Skyfall is any indication….don’t mess with the Komodo Dragons…
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Spammy ate my comment ==;
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Mine too. Sorry that my crummy comment luck is affecting you too, D-LaN.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Same scenario for me. I’m surprised Spammy hasn’t exploded yet from being so gluttonous. It just doesn’t know when to quit.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
…I wish there was a way to make our spambot just STOP eating the comments of certain users, which would make life easier for everyone. It even eats mine sometimes on my own posts, and that’s a bit ridiculous. =A= Sorry guys, thanks for putting up with Spammy.
POWUH: 600-699 and Wingman with 655 comments
how the hell are there Komodo Dragons? HOW?
my god this show is irritating me to the max!
i agree with you that the main character is shown as a good guy, but all he does is behave like a 5 year old! GOD!
might as well drop it, coz im still watching 10+ animes or so already 😛
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Credits to KoroshiyaKi.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Another fun fact, their saliva is poisonous!
I’m watching around 15 and it’s really hard to stay up to date with everything. If you’re still curious, I’d suggest just saving it for a quieter season and catching up then.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Looks like the show hasn’t changed at all since I dropped it. Still vile people doing vile things because whoever’s making the show thinks they’re making some grand commentary about how base and worthless humanity is. I absolutely hate shows that think they’re showing the ‘true nature’ of humanity as brutal, stupidly selfish, and barbaric. Are humans all sweetness and light? No. But if they were actually like people on this island are (or the people who stuck them there), humanity would have expired eons ago.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It actually got worse. They’re not making a statement at all either. There is no message at the end of the day, which is why it’s so irritating :/
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hmm.. They’re really trying to show that nihilism and cruelty is the dominant part of humanity. It’s more a psychological fight for survival than physical and if any get off the island alive, there’s barely any guarantee they’ll be the same person they were once before. Especially knowing that someone close to them who’s supposed to be a good friend and/or loved one sent them off to that hellhole.
If anything, Ryouta is being used as a test subject to determine if humans are really capable is doing right and fighting off their own selfish impulses. You can see it between the guardian-like persona he has towards Taira and the temptation of falling into his darker self when he approached Himiko while she was unconscious until he came back to his senses. It’s a 50/50 bet. From what I understand, the story is saying it’s easier to be bad than good. That being good means constant effort of upholding certain rules and morals while being bad means you’re free to do whatever you want whenever you want without fear of consequences. An example of that concept could seen in how ancient Rome was. The place was a breeding ground for suffering and immorality.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I think I’d believe the transition more from Ryouta being bad to good if he wasn’t so wildly inconsistent in completely unpredictable ways. The times he chooses to be kind versus mean just don’t make sense. I’d be interested if they actually portrayed the changes of the characters well, but it’s just not happening.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
the show is kinda showing the vile part of well…the vile part of the humanity(yep the vile part of THE VILE part)
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
That’s…pretty vile. D:
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
yeah… i didin’t have creativity to say something better XXD
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 60 comments
I think it’s showing it’s vile lack of plot and vile lack of character development.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It has character development…it’s developing them all as assholes.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 47 comments
Oi, oi~ Could this Spambot thing started to eat my posts too? Bummer -______-
Anyway, what I said last time….Ah, yes!
Ryouta reminds me of Yagami Light for some reason and I can’t figure out why…
And this personality shift, from being total douchebag to innocent like a kitten, I’m not feeling well about it too >__> Especially since it’s been only two days (?) since they got on that island. It just doesn’t feel right.
And I don’t like how Himiko is treated at the moment either.
Only reason I’m continuing to watch this is for explosions xD (I started craving this kind of action anime I guess ) and out of curiosity if characters will stay “WTF” until the end or there will be some changes… :3
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
it’s the personality…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Gahh, sorry that you’re a victim too…Head’s up to everyone, make sure you save your comments just in case something horrible happens. It even eats mine sometimes so there is no comment-deletion discrimination =A=
I think it’s the outfit, his hair and the fact Madhouse is also animating this. I totally see the resemblance too.
The only thing good are some of the bomb fights. I forgot to mention amongst all my raging that the taser-fight against Himiko was actually pretty cool until Ryouta proceeded to peek at her panties…
I wonder how this show will end too. A trainwreck? Ryouta as a total nice guy? Himiko as his bride? Only time will tell. I’ll probably summarize things in my final post so people who are morbidly curious but don’t want to sit through the rest of the series will know XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Given the way the show’s been going, I’ll bet it has a Running Man-esque ending: You ‘get off the island’ by being dead, and eventually the guys running the show get bored and quit sending more supplies, just leaving everyone there to starve and die.