After countless teases and episodes of anticipation, Tougen Anki Episode 22 finally kicks off the Shiki vs. Mikado fight. The episode opens with them standing atop a multistoried building, facing each other menacingly as Mikado gets ready to hunt Shiki down. And not gonna lie, the location alone made the scene quite badass.
But yeah, the moment they start talking, it turns into another snooze fest for a bit. Shiki’s attempt to convince Mikado that everything was a setup always feels weak. He could mention Shinya or explain how they uncovered the truth, but instead, he just keeps repeating “believe me,” and that’s it. Honestly, Mikado isn’t blameless either.
For someone who spent so much time with Shiki, from when they first met to all the moments they enjoyed together, he’s completely turning a blind eye to everything. That’s not exactly a good sign of friendship. Anyway, while the episode begins by building up the fight, it quickly shifts over to Shinya and Kougasaki’s POV, which, honestly, was just as interesting as where the previous episode left off.
Tougen Anki Can’t Expect 1 Backstory to Redeem Shinya’s Sins
Shinya in a still from Tougen Anki Episode 22 | Credits: Studio Hibari
Episode 21 almost tried to pull off a crazy cliffhanger, making it look like Shinya killed Kougasaki and even blew himself up in the process. But the first thing we see here is: nope. Once again, he set up the trap precisely so that only whoever stepped on it would get their leg blown off, while he’d remain completely unharmed.
And he did. But seriously, how naive can he be to think that tiny explosion would be enough to take down a monster like Kougasaki? Especially now, when he’s absolutely bloodlustful and ready to kill Shinya for all the sins he’s committed. However, the peculiar aspect of this episode is that, for some reason, it attempted to elicit sympathy for Shinya by providing him with an additional backstory.
This is such an annoying shonen trope: giving villains a tragic backstory to make fans go, “Yeah, he’s bad, but his past made him like that.” Hell no. That doesn’t fly. You can’t excuse your sad past to justify doing atrocious things now. If you’re evil, that’s a choice you made. So this backstory honestly pissed me off so much in this episode.
Mikado Isn’t Holding Back – Shiki Has No Choice but to Power Up
Now, looking past all that depressing stuff, we finally get back to the main fight, and it’s actually pretty hype. The way the two clash is just fun to watch. Mikado, being the prodigy he is, clearly knows exactly what he’s doing when it comes to controlling his powers. There’s literally no gap in his technique.
Meanwhile, Shiki is struggling just to hold his ground. The guy fires his bazooka once or maybe twice, while Mikado is out here bombarding him with four different types of rifles. It’s wild how skilfully Mikado controls all four at once, and to make it even crazier, he switches into six-gun mode near the end of the episode, gearing up for a final, decisive attack.
So really, what choice does Shiki have other than pulling out a crazy power-up? In the very first episode, we saw how berserk he went after his dad was killed. He was wielding four guns at once and went full Oni mode. Honestly, that mode might still be better now than just letting Mikado kill him. Don’t you think so too?
Tougen Anki is currently available to watch on Netflix.
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