Peach Boy Riverside (Episode 7) - Species and Belonging

Having witnessed the destruction of the entire city, Sally and Frau soon find themselves face to face with the ogre responsible. He’s about to attack, but then a voice orders him to stop and retreat. Curious!

Peach Boy Riverside (Episode 7) – Species and Belonging

What happened?

There was nothing left but for a smouldering pile of rubble. Hawthorn dropped to his knees unable to truly grasp what he had seen. Another Ogre appeared, strolling towards them. It commented on the ogre they had just rescued and how she was human now. She should have let herself die. It would have been the correct thing to do. She agreed and waited for Somenki to kill her.

Sally ran in and stopped it, asking why she couldn’t just stay with them. Somenki didn’t seem to appreciate her candour and was about to kill Sally and Frau when a voice in its head told it to stop. It was then ordered to return, which it did, leaving a terrified looking Sally and Frau counting their blessings.

They made their way to the nearest town, however, everything they had was destroyed in the city. Money, weapons, food. All they had was the spare change that Hawthorn had in his pocket. He managed to find an inn for them to stay at although he had to personally vouch for Frau and the ogre before they were allowed to stay.

Hawthorn gave Sally the money and asked her to get the food. He was putting on a brave face, but it was exhausting. Frau asked the ogre what to call her and since she didn’t have a name, Frau decided to call her Carrot. Sally found herself contemplating why everyone hated one another based purely on how they looked, which was when she ran into Mikoto once more. He tried to offer her some insight. She asked him to join her, but he preferred to work alone.

When Sally returned to their room, Hawthorn had brought back one of his guards who had survived thanks to a witch teleporting them out of the city before it was destroyed. Sally wanted to meet this witch although Hawthorn thought it was a bad idea. Sally won.

Peach Boy Riverside Episode 7 Frau and Sally

What did you think?

This episode continued immediately after what happened in episode 2. So, in the original airing schedule, there would have been four episodes between these two. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Episode 4, which was the first episode didn’t have anything that would indicate it was a flashback, which makes me think the experience would have been incredibly jarring, especially as episode 3 is the eighth in this order.

Anyhow, this was a slow episode that gave Sally the time really work out what it is she’s trying to achieve. She could have gone home and taken them with her. They wouldn’t have had to struggle, but that seemed like quitting. Mikoto was surprised that she didn’t ask to come with him. I’m glad that Sally continues to surprise him. We also got to see a glimpse of the ogres and how they work which was nice.

What have you learnt?

I can’t believe the way that this series was cut up and randomly released. The thing that bugs me the most is that it seems to have been done without any attempt to make it cohesive. One of my favourite books – The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski has a number of smaller stories woven together and told out of order. However, there is a thread that ties them together and makes it work. You could absolutely read the parts independently and it would work. It’s the narration that pulls them together and makes it work.

I’ve not seen any evidence of that so far and I cannot get my head around how they thought that putting four episodes between episodes 2 and 7 was a good idea. The opening image of episode 7 is literally the closing image of episode 2. I can’t wait to see episode 3 to see how that would have felt. I’m betting it was pretty confusing and anytime you confuse the audience there’s a chance you’ll lose them for good.

Chronological viewing order – 4, 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 5, 6, 3, 8, 10, 9