With Tanigaki’s group catching up with Sugimoto’s group, we get a collective breather. As he tells Asirpa everything that has happened to Huci. Though, as expected, Asirpa presses on to get more answers regarding her father, and Tanigaki understands. Although it is interesting that Asirpa is still cautious of Inkarmat. Also, Sugimoto finally clears up the misunderstandings of the men from the 7th Division who traveled with Tanigaki.
Additionally, the focus on Ainu culture is very interesting, and it is a part of the anime that makes it stand out. The conversation between Tanigaki & Kirawus regarding Niehi is good because it gives him some interesting characterization. He was an asshole, but he did have a family back home, and the rifle belonged to his son, who hated fighting. Of course he served in the war, and that rifle now is carried by Tanigaki.
It’s interesting to get Ogata’s backstory, as he is the son of the former Lieutenant General Koujirou Hanazawa. We learn that Ogata’s mother was one of Lieutenant Hanazawa’s mistresses, and he never loved her. Watching his mother being a slave for his father to come back, she killed her. Ogata also met his older half-brother. Unlike the case of Tanigaki who wanted revenge, we have Ogata, who killed his half-brother because he sought the love of his father. Now we see that Lieutenant Hanazawa didn’t commit suicide. But rather was killed by Ogata.
Most curious is that Tsurumi was involved. In his conversation with Koito in this episode, we learn that his father was a good friend of Lieutenant Hanazawa. Clearly Tsurumi wanted to usurp him and used Ogata. We can clearly tell that Tsurumi is manipulative as he tries to play both sides. Ogata doesn’t care that he is being taken advantage of, which is interesting.
This episode adapted the latter part of chapters 101 and 103, the parts of 113 that weren’t covered in the 4th OVA episode, and the pages in chapter 114 that covered the conversation between Kirawus & Tanigaki regarding Nihei. Overall, S2 continues to be an improvement compared to S1 in terms of art direction and how they are skimming the manga’s content. Of course the Ainu culture world-building is cut, which is a lot of the heart of the manga. Even knowing this season is an improvement over the first.