Review: Nomad of Nowhere “Bliss Hill”

Ignorance Hill is Bliss Hill. But never King of the Hill.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Toth, Skout, and the Dandy Lions pass through a pile of wreckage and ruin on their way back to the Oasis, a resort/market in the middle of the desert, where villagers from all over line up for miles and give up all their valuables for a chance to enter. But the payments don’t stop there, as demonstrated by one beggar trying to capture leaking water into a bucket and being tackled to the ground for not paying. The Lions enter the chamber of Don Paragon (Max Dennison) to report their latest progress. They failed again, naturally, but now they actually have proof the Nomad is out there. Ever the eager suck-up, Red Manuel suggests sending bounty hunters to pick up the slack that Toth’s group left. The Don is pleased with this idea and puts her on a mission in the outskirts to finish before she even thinks of looking for the resident cute mute again. Skout also brings up that the Nomad saved them from the fire, which the Don sees as a weakness for the hunters to exploit.

Later, the Nomad strolls along the desert sands and passes many several unique skeletal structures before arriving at Bliss Hill (which is neither blissful nor a hill, so they should really fire their tourism board). The townsfolk and their unstably built homes don’t take kindly to the Nomad’s lack of verbal skills, but he does come across a rambunctious rascal named Barty (Brooke Olson), who is eager to help out his community. The Nomad silently agrees to assist, and when Barty asks if he has any special skills, he demonstrates his Frankenstein-y powers on some trash. Elated, Barty introduces him to Eugene (Funimation veteran Caitlin Glass), an intellectual with a pension for protocols, and (Barbara Dunkleman), who is basically Nikki from Camp Camp but orange. Together, they are the Mill Preservation Society and plan to revitalize the town no matter what the grown-ups say. This manifesto is interrupted by the Sheriff (Adam Ellis), brought in by a townsperson who saw the Nomad do his trick for Barty. He tells him to leave, but Barty won’t stand for that until he uses his power on the mill. The Nomad initially refuses, suggesting that bigger objects require more power, but a little more pushing gets him to relent. The water wheel comes to life, breaks free from its holding, and proceeds to demolish a large portion of the town before rolling away into the wastelands. Everyone’s pissed at the Nomad, who promptly takes his leave.

The new living water wheel rolls by one cloaked gentleman clutching one of the newest Nomad wanted posters.

OUR TAKE

I suppose I should be thankful that some of my issues are already being addressed, one being some elaborating on the chain of command Skout and Toth are under. Not only are they underlings of Don Paragon, they also follow the orders of a mysterious unseen character El Rey (“the king” in Spanish), who is apparently more acquainted with the concept of magic than most and wants the Nomad for something related to that. We also get a slightly better look at the world and what will likely become prominent issues in the story going forward, such as an apparent class struggle for resources and destitution amongst the people while the wealthier horde the essentials.

Unfortunately, the introduction of places like the Oasis, Bliss Hill, and even the divided plots in this episode are starting to display a potentially troubling aspect to this show: It seems to be torn. It wants to be a Weird West mystery adventure with topical themes, but it’s also kinda stuck in the same wacky tone as RT’s other 2D work. It’s a little difficult to feel very mortified by a weak old man being beaten for taking a drop of water or a town on the edge of extinction with how limited and stagnant the direction and movement is. “X-Ray and Vav” and “Camp Camp” were and are very dumb shows, but they embrace that wholeheartedly. I get the sense that Nomad is trying hint at greater things under a traditionally cartoon-y aesthetic, but it doesn’t know how much that style undercuts whatever points it’s trying to make.

Not to mention that neither of these two stories this episode really serve each other in any way. I know Toth and Skout are meant to be main characters as well, but their half is pretty much just for furthering plot points and sloppy worldbuilding, while the Nomad segment tries and fails to be a character piece, both of which skirt past the potential themes they put forth showing how poor everyone around them is. Toth doesn’t care about the class stuff, Skout has a couple telling reactions but that’s it, and the Nomad basically stumbles into a situation that COULD shed some light on his views on this but he really only ends up making things worse because of plot induced stupidity. How in the hell is bringing a water wheel to life going to bring in more water? And I really hope we won’t be seeing much more of Team Konohamaru by way of Westworld, no matter how many great voice talents they put next to them.

I know the nature of a nomad is to wander around, but this show needs some structure pronto. Only two episodes in and we’ve had a status quo shake-up from what was established, a title character with indecipherable motives who is less mysterious than he is confusing and contradictory, and a world ripe for exploration of themes and development that its central characters want nothing to do with.This story needs to get on the right foot and fast.