Inuyashiki Last Hero Episode 9 Review: Shinjuku People

In last week’s episode of Inuyashiki, Hiro decided to kill an entire police station. He now goes back to doing simpler things such as killing innocent civilians because he hates Japan.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 新宿の人たち

Plot

Hiro’s police incident is all over the news, as the nation watches. Not surprisingly, Hiro fan clubs are spreading all over and idiots who think cleansing is cool, along with some girls who just enjoy seeing a pretty face, are worshiping him. But this is not the end of it. Hiro, lying on a rooftop, calculates his next move, and appears on screens all over Japan, informing that he is planning to eradicate every single living person in this country, that is now his enemy. And so it begins. Sneaking into various screens, he takes a hundred people down by shooting them in the head, including a TV reporter that is killed on air. Ando, trying to help Ichiro locate Hiro, realizes that Hiro is using smartphone screens to get to his victims, and with Ichiro’s help sends out a message to Japanese citizens, pleading them to throw away their smartphones.

The nation is in panic, but teenagers keep using their phones, as they ‘cannot live without them’, despite the fact that Hiro has threatened to kill a thousand people the following day. Meanwhile, Hiro is attempting to contact Shion and tells her that his plan is to destroy Japan because they will never leave him be after what he’s done. He says that is the only way for him, Shion and her grandmother, to live happily together, somewhere else, like Hawaii or France. Shion is not impressed. Hiro, having to deal with his future wife’s disapproval, releases some stress by landing a plane on some buildings. There was even a baby on the plane. How cruel.

Episode Highlights

Cold blooded coolness: Even though that poor kid has some serious problems to deal with, it is easy to see how important it is to the show’s storyline that Shishigami is a cool, effortlessly admirable character. Not only has he mastered all these alien skills in no time while Ichiro is struggling to live with them, but he is also given a pretty face, which inevitably enhances his ability to be liked by the audience. I believe this is all due to the author’s desire to portray Hiro as problematic, rather than evil. Chaotic evil characters are boring and predictable anyway.

Reconsider your choices: Instead of cleansing the nation, I wonder if Shishigami could just try to get away with… you know… blackmail? I mean, he is practically invincible and had he just told the police to leave him and his new family alone, I don’t believe they would have much ground to argue on.

Constant tension: I am pretty sure I was not the only one watching this episode constantly stressed on who would be getting shot. I was expecting more TV producers to die.

If I don’t have my phone, I might as well be dead: I got very mixed feelings hearing Ichiro’s kids uttering that sentence. I am so not gonna go down the ‘millenials and their phones’ road, but on the other hand, if your phone is your life, you don’t really have much to live for, do you?

Themes & Trivia

Shishigami fan club: I was once more going to compare the fact that online fans of homicidal maniacs are something we have all witnessed on Death Note, and discuss how much Yagami and Shishigami have in common, but let’s not do that today. Instead, let’s discuss the fact that people’s fetishism over everyone who can kill and not get caught. Oh, the human condition.

Shion, please

Okay, let’s assume Shishigami is enough of a psychopath to not be able to think that he could blackmail his way out of this situation, but what about Shion? I somehow hope she is going to get involved with Ichiro and manage to talk some sense into Hiro. And then they can all live happily together in Hawaii. Lol.

How did you find this week’s Inuyashiki episode? Let us know in the comment section below! See you next week with another Inuyashiki episode review on MANGA.TOKYO!