Not only is Kagetane’s back, he also saves Rentaro’s life. If you want to know how it has come to this, read on. It won’t be pretty, though.

— With the Monolith coming down, explosions rock the landscape. A tank goes careening through the air, then finally, a bunch of ugly bugs emerge from the smoke. When it comes down to it, they’re just fighting bugs. Kinda hard to get too pumped up about it.

— Rentaro is forced to disobey orders that the commander had given everyone. I can only imagine him butting heads with the commander later in the episode and getting punished for his actions here unfairly. After all, had he not disobeyed orders, the Gastreas would’ve flanked them and everyone would’ve died! So why is he even getting punished? Well, that’s just how the show is. It likes to stack the odds against the protagonists as much as possible even when it’s ridiculous. Like, y’know, how the people in his universe have poorly developed reasons for hating the Cursed Children. Nevertheless, Black Bullet fans defend their favorite show anyway because they have only ever seen discrimination in their history books. So anyway, Rentaro will make the decision to save everyone’s lives, and he’ll get heat for it just so that we can sit here and say, “How unfair!”

— We get one of those lame-o action scenes in which each member of Rentaro’s adjuvant contributes something meaningful to the fight. Why lame-o? It looks ridiculously choreographed.

— Nevertheless, there are so many more bugs to contend. So, so many more! The copypasting is strong with this one:

— The commander’s own son goes nuts, rambling on and on about how the Gastreas has something known as the Spear of Light. As a result, humanity’s screwed, yadda yadda yadda. Still, I wouldn’t want you to go away from this scene empty-handed, so here’s a Cursed Child’s severed arm for good measure. That’s what the girls are here for, anyway. Looking cute and and getting stuffed into fridges. Oh, I’m not saying that other characters don’t die. As you can see, the commander’s son falls into a Gastrea’s gaping maw. This doesn’t change the fact, however, that the show seems to take a special delight in murdering the Cursed Children in the most gruesome way possible.

— Oh, so this is the Spear of Light. Nice laser show.

— Not only are the good guys dying, they’re being turned into Gastreas themselves in order to join the enemy side! Cool! Despite outnumbering humanity four to one, however, the evil bugs from hell have backed off for some reason. Hey, how else are we going to have some downtime necessary for delicious character “development.”

— Like Enju looking cute despite all the horrific things that have happened to her life lately!

I never would’ve guessed that 99% of her classmates have been blown to smithereens. I also never would’ve guessed that she has seen firsthand the casualties of war. As a result, I can only come to the conclusion that although these events may seem absolutely fucking horrific to us, they are, well, not that important. I mean, just look at the girl! She seems perfectly okay! I-It’s almost like killing Enju’s classmates was just a cheap, manipulative trick to create a false sense of tragedy.

— So Sumire shows up to the battlefield, having given up her spot in one of Tokyo’s special shelters. The powers-that-be had wanted to protect Japan’s greatest mind (snicker), but she decided against protecting herself in order to help the civil officers and their lolis on the front lines. Still, Rentaro rightfully says that she should’ve given her spot to someone else if she wasn’t going to use it. In response, Sumire goes on and on about how one cup of water wouldn’t “quench everyone’s thirst.” I’m sure that sounds fucking profound in her head, but it doesn’t change the fact that she still could’ve saved someone’s life. Our oh-so-brilliant scientist argues, “If there were only a cup in the desert, they’d just kill each other to get it.” So then don’t let them kill each other to get it. Just give your spot to someone else quietly. Christ…

— Sumire: “Enju-chan’s mental stability is far stronger than we imagine.” Oh, I guess that particular subject has been properly addressed! Move along, folks. You can’t question the anime about Enju’s unrealistically cheerful disposition anymore. You wouldn’t want to be “a very skeptical man,” would you?

— Afterwards, Rentaro and his girls go to retire in some abandoned-looking hotel. Yeah, these girls can face murderous Gastreas head on and see countless allies fall around them, but they’re so deathly scared of a dark, scarry interior of a building that you can see them clinging tightly to Rentaro in the screenshot above. What of it? Well, there’s no consistent characterization for the girls whatsoever. Are they brave or are they moe fodder? In anime world, why not both!

— Food has been prepared. Somehow, they’ve managed to put together a relative feast. There’s are even baked dinner rolls somehow. Everyone seems to be in high spirits as they sit there and enjoy a nice cup of hot tea. Maybe it’s coffee. It doesn’t really matter which. You’d never know that half of their allies had just been wiped out.

— Rentaro’s advjuvant discusses the possibility of there being another Stage Four Gastrea out there. Not only that, it is shooting mercury into the air? They sound like they have rudimentary battle strategies somehow. Are we sure the Gastreas are not intelligent themselves? But nevermind that for now, ‘Cause Commander Gado has summoned Rentaro. Uh oh!

— Gado apparently lost his leg to Aldebaran in a fight, I guess.

Oops, I mean, he didn’t want his stinkin’ leg anyway. Uh-huh.

— Regarding his son’s death, Gado says, “If I had known this was going to happen, I’d have let him do what he wanted.” Really? If you had only known that becoming a civil officer when humanity is constantly facing the threat of extinction from the Gastreas would have endangered his life? You’re not too bright, are you?

— There’s some back and forth about what they should do. Rentaro thinks they should focus everything on Aldebaran, and in doing so, you’d cut off the enemy’s head. Gado insists, however, that Aldebaran is immortal. So instead, they should contend with Pleiades, the Gastrea with the Spear of Light, instead.

— But let’s put all of that aside for now, because we all know why we’re really here. Let’s not beat around the bush any longer; it’s time to punish Rentaro for his insubordination! “Your actions were equal to fleeing in the presence of the enemy,” Gado accuses, “causing a potentially lethal disturbance in the civil officer ranks. You must pay for that.” As a result, Rentaro’s adjuvant is disbanded. Not only that, he has to go and fight Pleiades himself. If he refuses, the rest of his friends will be punished as well. Boy, isn’t that vindictive! No consideration whatsoever for Rentaro even preventing the Gastreas from flanking their division? Of course not!

Gado’s going to be absolutely unreasonable so you can get mad. Feel the anger flow through you, guys. Feel the hate for this power-tripping commander. And no, this isn’t the show being ridiculously manipulative with your emotions! This is just a tried-and-tested storytelling technique! After all, according to a commenter, I’ve learned that Black Bullet is just like Breaking Bad!

— Of course, Rentaro refuses to tell any of his friends what had transpired between him and Gado. Kisara suggests that they run away, but our morally-upstanding protagonist would never allow that! If he doesn’t save Tokyo here, how is he going to convene another class full of lolis? That’s the dream, uguu…

— It doesn’t take very long before Rentaro is beset by a bunch of shiny Gastrea wolves. The biggest, baddest one shows up, and it looks like our hero is done for…

— But fret not, ’cause an old friend is still alive!

Fucking anime, man. Unless you see an autopsy report, no one is ever dead.

— Fine, Kagetane is still alive. Why is he even helping Rentaro anyway? The masked man reveals that he had been watching yesterday’s battle from afar. For some reason, Rentaro gets really mad upon learning this: “Why didn’t you participate?” C’mon, dude, do you really expect Kagetane to fight alongside you guys? Really?

— You wouldn’t want to see Kagetane’s face, guys. According to the villain, “[y]ou would assuredly regret seeing it!”

— In any case, Kagetane’s philosophy hasn’t changed. He still thinks people like him and Rentaro are hot shit. Still, none of this explains why Black Bullet has decided to drag this retread out of the closet.

— Uh…

…yeah…

— In any case, Kagetane is like some kind of shitty anime Darth Vader nowadays: he intends to turn Rentaro to the dark side. Oh boy, I can’t wait to see how love-hate relationship will develop!