Peacemaker

Publisher
ADV
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
24 episodes/ 25 minutes
Year
2003

Peacemaker Volume 5: The Spider's Web

By noghri
14th Jun 06

What ADV say:

Woven amidst the ruins of an old legacy, a web of treachery awaits the men of the Shinsengumi. Spun by an Onmyou mystic in the charge of a fallen and unbalanced lord, it threatens to destroy the Shinsengumi altogether. At the same time, a man posing as Okita has begun cutting down Shogunate patrols, while a band of Choshu ronin make a brazen assault in broad daylight! But the Shinsengumi have their own web-weavers, and they send a spy straight into the heart of the Choshu clan. As the trap closes its jaws, who is hunter and who is prey? Find out in the fifth spine-tingling, heart-stopping volume of Peacemaker

Review

The constantly improving trend to these volumes appeared to have waned a little in the last volume, but certainly not by much. This 5th volume is again a 3 episode disk, and again Peacemaker actually makes out fairly decently with the content included here since it does a good job of following up on the general structure and dynamic of previous volumes, it handles the plot line well, advancing things nicely and leaving you on the edge of your seat right before ending.
Bearing this in mind will this 5th instalment of the series be affected in a similar way to the last volume with the reduction of episodes, will the series improve or flounder? Lets find out.

DVD content (may contain spoilers)

There's a couple of paths that this volume follows, it has the usual in depth examination of the characters, but it also has a fair amount of development in the overall plot, it's certainly good to finally see things start coming together for the latter. In terms of characters, the real focus is away from Tetsu, but he gets some really good attention across these episodes and it's time without him acting like a hot headed moron, and we see a more serious grown up Tetsu show himself more. We see from the start that the time he does spend outside of his chores is being focused on learning with the sword and he's starting to not only be able to hold his own against some of his sparring partners but able to surprise them on occasion as well. His talent is finally starting to show through. But at the same time, some of his inner demons are showing through as well and we see this via his dreams where the ghastly images torment him. Tetsu takes a back seat for most of this volume but when we do see him, he has seemingly visibly matured.

The other path that's followed is that the attacks on the Shinsengumi in general are finally heightened, and as Hijikata comments at one point after an attack, they aren't being threatened by the country bumpkin samurai that used to hit them but rather some very well trained people that give some challenge to the group. Two different sides continue to push against the Shinsengumi in the form of Yoshida with what he's working on with Suzu as well as the (unnamed?) gentleman that employs an Onmyou. The latter is where things get interesting but also just annoying with this volume in that they bring in a strong assassin type to cause trouble for the Shinsengumi.

The new player is a young man named Kichisaburo who for all intents and purposes is an clone of Okita. In almost as aspects the two appear to be evenly matched, except for the thirst for blood that Kichisaburo appears to wear on his sleeve. Kichisaburo is even able to dupe Hotaru, who has a crush on Okita into believing that he's really him if it was not for some of the things he goes on about, such as his love of killing and bloodshed. Using Kichisaburo, the Choshu able to spread dissent as he starts killing the Kyoto Mimawarigumi (local police) and others in the area and he's able to cast suspicion and distrust on the Shinsengumi over it. But he does take it too far at times and even invades their compound where Hijikata is able to fight him and realize just how powerful he is.

The increase in the action is truly welcome in these three volumes, especially since it shifts the focus onto the older characters of the show. The episodes make a few interesting situations such as Sakamoto being brought in to talk with Yoshida about the Choshu uprising, and during a daring escape from a fire in a bath house. He drops straight into Tastu’s lap and the scene ends in a fantastic chase scene. In this section Sakamoto manages to provide some good words of advice to Tatsu since the two always seem to end up together, which is awkward considering all that's gone on with them in the past but it certainly does make things interesting, this is actually my favourite part of this volume, it is hilarious.

The closing episode, is especially exciting, we see a very touching scene between Saya and Tetsu. There are interesting scenes with the female ninjas we met in the earlier episodes also and it appears that they have lost faith in their cause. We finally find out where Miss Yamazaki has been for the entirety of this volume, we find that she has been posing undercover as Miss Yumi the hairdresser to gain information. We are left at the closing of the episode with Tetsu receiving news that a gang of men are picking on a hairdresser, how will he react, will she be ok, her last words are for Susumu, her brother the stealthy assassin.

Thoughts

Peacemaker appears to be fast approaching a close keeping its hand close to its chest. I still cant decide whether this will pay off or whether the ending will be anticlimactic, it does bring most things to a resolution that matter while the overall storyline still continues on. The show has some fun and plenty of action to entertain most people here as well as expanding the swordplay to outside of the training halls. This has been a long time coming, but if you started the series like that in volume 1 the attention would have been taken from the characters and I feel the series would have suffered greatly, unlike the story in Samurai X, the Shinsengumi are not portrayed as murderous thugs, but as the saviours of a way of life, they desperate wish to uphold.

Overall

This volume proved to be much more enjoyable than its predecessors for a number of different reasons and I cannot wait for the final two volumes to see how the story comes to a close.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: Reversible Cover, Production fold out insert, Clean opening and closing animation, Production sketches, Voice actors commentry, Character collection 5: Shinpachi, Sanosuke & heisuke, Character Collection 6: Keisuke Yamanami

Release information: ADV Available now

Notes: A DVD-only release, including four episodes in English 5.1- and Japanese 2.0-language, with English subtitles. Extras include: clean open and close animation; production sketches; Character Collections 5 and 6; original Japanese DVD spots; Commentary; reversible cover; production foldout insert; and ADV Previews. RUNNING TIME: 100 RATING: 12 VIDEO FORMAT: DVD Region 2 AUDIO FORMAT: English 5.1, Japanese 2.0 SUBTITLES: English

-- noghri 14th Jun 06

Peacemaker Images