Overview (Spoilers Below): Jelki the Swift Ink grants Gilnes a chance to fight for justice in a duel.
Our Take: With the particle storm out of the picture, the season returns to its regularly scheduled lineup of who will participate in the Royal Games. Before you ask, there’s still no trace of Soujiro anywhere since making a brief appearance in the season’s first episode. At this point, there’s no use in holding on to hope that he’ll be appearing again anytime soon. Instead, this week’s episode turns our attention to another Shura, a warrior champion known as Rosclay the Absolute, who’s seemingly undefeatable due to his secretive schemes. At first, the episode seemed to have Gilnes the Battering Ram as its primary focus, offering a Gladiator-type storyline involving him fighting for injustice. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, as betrayal and death interfered with Gilnes’ plan to cause a riot. As a result, the first half of the episode was placed solely on Rosclay and his brief guilt over having to fight in an unfair duel, showcasing his desire to battle a formidable foe. Of course, the plot of “Rosclay the Absolute” doesn’t focus entirely on this new Shura, as it continues the show’s formula of shifting focus between different characters. The remaining episode served as a continuation of the season’s two-parter, with Toroa the Awful parting ways with Kurro, who continues to feel conflicted about his feelings toward Cuneigh. This moment showcased that Toroa may be a violent brute on the outside, but he also has a surprisingly soft spot on the inside. So, it’s likely that we’ll be seeing more of him in later episodes, especially since he may end up competing in the Royal Games. While this episode may have shown signs of narrative focus fatigue and slightly slow pacing, “Rosclay the Absolute” offered enough absolution to showcase its diverting character moments, especially during the second half.