Overview (Spoilers Below): Ren Kaji and the second-year senpai rush in to save Sakura and the others when a fierce attack presses upon them. Bofurin is able to rebuild its formation with the arrival of reinforcements. Seeing one after another of his allies go down, Sakura struggles with the enemies in front of him, but with Kaji’s reminder to “do what you’re supposed to do,” Sakura realizes his duty as a grade captain. Sakura entrusts Kaji to a battle against KEEL’s top man, Natori. Meanwhile, Suo, Sugishita, Kiryu, and Tsugeura’s battles reach a climax…
Our Take: The fight between Furin and KEEL got off to a thrilling yet challenging start, as the top Furin fighters are distracted by Shingo’s own top fighters. Luckily, Ren Kaji stepped out of the sidelines just in time to save the day. After getting Sakura to realize what he’s fighting for, Ren steps up to battle Shingo Natori, which will determine the battle’s outcome. With the first episode starting the war in high swing, “Conclusion” was tasked to inject similar energy into the battle’s conclusion. Unsurprisingly, it managed to accomplish this task easily, further continuing the early success of the show’s second season. Part of this is due to the confrontation between Kaji and Natori in the episode’s second half. This enticing moment continues the show’s ability to emphasize its fights as more than just a pure white-knuckle spectacle. The characters not only fight in a physical manner, but they’re also in a battle of the minds. This showcases both Kaji and Natori through their violent methods. Though Kaji and Natori have common ground in using violence to get people to fall in line, their purposes are obviously different. Despite his short temper, Kaji only uses his fists to help people and support his teammates. At the same time, Natori prefers violence to invoke fear in people’s hearts, which he uses to convince Kaji of their commonality. Unfortunately for the KEEL leader, it only pissed Kaji off even more, resulting in his swift defeat, with Kaji managing to keep his cool while in beast mode. With the animation accompanying the choreography and camera movements, the battle between Kaji and Natori helped “Conclusion” bring Furin’s rescue mission to a satisfying and energetic close. Not only that, but we also start to see more signs of growth in Sakura, who begins to act like a true captain by supporting his teammates and getting Nagato to express his guilt for shutting Anzai out. But, of course, Furin’s war with KEEL was just the beginning of what lies ahead in the show’s second season. Whether the later episodes would match what we experienced in the first two episodes is everyone’s guess. Until we know for sure, I can at least say that this was one hell of a way to welcome Furin back.