“THE GETAWAY -Part Two-“

Headkeeper manages to escape to another town with Innumael in tow, but an Imperial blockade cuts off their options.

Iro’s Thoughts

Magatsu Wahrheit might not be the funnest or most entertaining show I’m watching this season, but it is the one I find the most intriguing. I didn’t mention it during the First Look post, but it’s hard for me to think about it without also thinking about Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, a personal favorite. The two are opposed in tone and content, but they share the distinction of being mobile game adaptations that have seemingly nothing to do with their source material, using the game’s backdrop as an excuse to tell an original story about original characters. Bahamut‘s swashbuckling, D&D-styled shenanigans are hard to top, but Magatsu’s insistence on an unexpectedly grounded plot-line keeps me interested nonetheless.

I can’t say for sure who is meant to be The Main Character yet, and at present the show is heading in a sort of “dueling protagonists” direction. Innumael is fully an accomplice now: he stabbed that guy last week and actively helps Headkeeper to escape, even sneaking into the soldier base to free their sympathizer. Meanwhile, Leocadio is detaining said sympathizer and abetting torture, and he’s got a clear revenge motivation now.

If I had to choose one, I’d pick Innumael. It seems like Leocadio is grappling at least a little with the idea that the Imperials are anything less than shining bastions of justice, but I also find the cops inherently distrustful. Even though Innumael has literally killed a man, he comes off as more sympathetic because he is clearly caught in way over his head. Plus, he’s in the eyecatch! Schaake and the rest of Headkeeper are a little less credible – I find it ridiculous that a criminal organization would go to such lengths to protect an unwitting patsy.

The show drops a bit more worldbuilding on us this week with the well-worn fantasy anime chestnuts of “Coldfire” (read: weird glowy planet juice) and “Luminosis” (read: illness caused by exposure to weird glowy planet juice). It lends more credence to Innumael and the Headkeepers being the protagonists, as the person afflicted with luminosis is one of their sympathizers. They’re clearly committed to the cause, too: a random local woman is one thing, but the implication of her own terminally-ill daughter also knowing all of the sewer routes is surprisingly grim.

The start and end of the episode introduce a new plot thread in the form of an enigmatic woman sneaking into the Capital’s Imperial fort to find… something! I’m curious to see if we’re given yet more reasons to root for the underdog smugglers, or if Episode 3 will somehow tip the scales back in Leocadio’s direction.

Other Things:

• I have been informed the title of the show translates to “Evil Truth -First-“, leading me to believe this is some kind of prequel to the mobile game. Not that it matters, since I haven’t played it.
• I didn’t notice it last week, but in addition to the normal guns, the smuggled package also had some sort of magical Grape Kool-Aid. It looks like a canister of this triggered the cataclysm at the start of Episode 1, so Headkeeper is probably a little sketchier than I’ve made them out to be in this post. Schaake seemed unaware of what exactly it was though, so you can sit pretty knowing your anime waifu is morally pure.
  • Speaking of the cataclysm, it has a shot of Leocadio in uniform, so it might be a flash-forward!