Given that Bam decidedly ended the Crown Game with an overwhelming and explosive wave of Shinsu, its no surprise that this week begins at the recovering Bam’s bedside.
Revealing herself to Khun, the mysterious woman who sought to protect Bam during the Crown Game confirms her identity as Rachel, the very girl Bam entered the Tower to find.
She asks Khun to refrain from revealing her identity to Bam, as she worries that if the two were to climb the Tower together, they would only serve as a liability to each other. Khun agrees, not out respect for Rachel, but out of concern for Bam, hoping to spare him the heartbreak and confusion of being told to stay away.
Awaking to the faces of his worried teammates and a brand-new outfit courtesy of Khun, Bam learns that the next test has already begun, and that Bam’s training will begin in two days.
At this point, viewers are introduced to another important concept within the Tower: positions.
As Lero explains to the Regulars, each member of a team is assigned one of five positions, with each assignment accentuating a given Regular’s skill set. These include the close-combat Fishermen, long-range Spear Bearers, tactical-minded strategists known as Lightbearers, information gathering Scouts, and Wave Controllers, powerful Shinsu users who control the tides of battle.
The rest of the episode focuses primarily on the training the ‘main’ cast of characters must endure to learn their position and advance to the next round, such as Rak, unsurprisingly chosen as a Spear Bearer, returning to the wild to hone his skills, the newly christened Wave Controller Bam making a mysterious pact with the Guardian of the Floor in order to manipulate Shinsu, and Scout duo Hatsu and Shibisu being tasked with making nine friends in one week.
These rigorous exercises forge a sense of unity among the Regulars, culminating in a group lunch shared between the main group of characters, even being joined by Androssi despite her having posed a severe threat to Bam and the rest in the Crown Game.
Tensions flare, however, after the agile and fleet footed Androssi encounters Anak during a platform-combat challenge, a part of the Fisherman position training. Androssi, herself a Princess of Zahard, announces that she has discovered that Anak is not a true Princess of Zahard. Rather, Anak is the daughter of the actual Princess, having entered the tower in order to enact revenge on the Princess who took her mother’s life.
Enraged at Androssi’s deduction and her constant taunting, the episode ends with Anak flying in an angry rage towards the true Princess of Zahard standing before her.
A bit of an exposition heavy episode, the introduction of the five positions adds a sense of strategy and mystery to the composition of each team, with each member being granted a position unknown to them prior to assignment.
The various training regiments, while not focused on heavily, provide a sense of vocation to each character and their abilities.
However, while the episode is heavy on the exposition, it is front-loaded in the episode, with the opening moves of the battle between Anak and Androssi providing a nice change of pace near the conclusion of the episode.
As always, the art continues to be impressive, at least personally. The various settings, from the almost other-dimensional control room where Khun trains to be a Lightbearer to the ‘floating’ arenas that set the stage for the Fishermen’s training, continue to be visually distinct and contribute to an overall sense of expansiveness within the Tower.
One particular highlight is the monstrous appearance of the Second Floor Guardian, with whom Bam makes a contract with.
Our protagonists are beginning to fully acclimate to the challenges in the Tower, while it seems that viewers are only just beginning to just barely understand the inner machinations of the massive structure.
The Verdict
With the characters becoming more proficient in their combat skills, the incoming conflict that is sure to result as manufactured identities begin to unravel is sure to be explosive and exciting. In particular, the mystery of Anak’s mother’s murderer should prove to be a constant source of anger and motivation for the young warrior.