Tomb Raider King

Episode 6

Episode 6 of Tomb Raider King pushes the action further than anything we've seen thus far.

The mythical conceits were really at the forefront this week. The introduction of Anubis and Osiris is interesting, and while it's not exactly a master's thesis on mythology, it is a good showing for how to incorporate an existing mythos into the world of Tomb Raider King. The pair are powerful foes who challenge Jooheon in ways he hasn't yet encountered. That alone makes them worth mentioning, but it goes even further. The real joy is that, even though what they do is rather expected (by Jooheon and by the audience, I would imagine), there are enough twists to keep everyone second-guessing. The conceit of Anubis asking the questions that Jooheon thinks he knows the answers to, yet they're slightly different, is good. In fact, this was one of the ideas I expected/hoped the series would play with back in the very first episode. Knowing just enough about the future to be confident while never being totally certain there haven't been changes in this new timeline is, well, that's precognitive superpowers 101. It's not a huge barrier, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Inevitably though, we do get some monster-bonking action, and it's pretty darn good. Jooheon does a bit of trap-card-activation-negation with the Code of Hammurabi, then gets right into the backflips and sword swipes. There's a great sense of motion, the undead and mummies have a solid assortment of gruesome dusty deaths, and Jooheon generally looks cool jumping around with various magical blades. The visual fidelity and creative choreography kept me entertained the entire time. I do wish there was a bit more variety in the monster designs (even if the mummies all looking identical is a plot point), and I wish they had… something else to do? Maybe different weapons or something to give them a chance to do more than just swing their fists in response to Jooheon's attacks would be nice. Still, the fights were quite good.

The capstone throat-cutting was pretty well-handled too. The shot of Jooheon in the foreground holding his blade out to one side while it blocked the view of the CEO's recently severed head was a creative bit of framing. This is a big wish fulfillment moment for Jooheon, of course - being able to come back in time and kill a former boss who used him for his own gain. It's easy to see the appeal of a scene like this. But I also like that it introduces new challenges by definition. This world simply cannot turn into the prior, as he has irrevocably shifted events. That will create new complications and unknowns that (I hope) lead to interesting challenges.

Rating:

Tomb Raider King is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.