Easy Albatross is the 7th episode of the BNA: Brand New Animal series.
Overview
Michiru meets Pinga, a wandering albatross beastman.
Summary
Pinga, a wandering albatross beastman, crashes into Michiru's room after a long flight. While at the same time, there's a notice that a bird-beastman terrorist will attempt to enter the city. It turns out Pinga is indeed the terrorist, but the bombs are only a bluff. Meanwhile, the Silver Wolf Order makes its move to secure its position in Anima City.
Plot
Above the sky, Pinga is traveling and while doing so, he notices there's another Beastman who also flies past him but with greater speed. As he enters the Japanese airspace, two airplanes patrol warns him to land and fill the required entry paperwork. Pinga replies that he's a wandering albatross and the requirement should have been covered by International Migratory Bird Convention, which the patrols dismiss by saying that beastmen don't fall under the Migratory Convention and states that if he doesn't stop, they'll consider it as a violation and attack him. Avoiding such thing, Pinga then dives down to dark clouds so that the patrols won't follow him.
Meanwhile, back on the ground, Michiru still feels miffed after she meets with Nazuna. Rain suddenly begins to fall and she goes back to her room, and suddenly something crashes on her roof and directly lands on her bed. It happens to be an exhausted Pinga who transforms back to his human form and immediately falls asleep. Hours later when the rain is finally over, Pinga wakes up and realizes he screwed up. Michiru, Gem, and Melissa are dealing with the hole and they greet him when they notice he has awakened. Pinga then notices the shift of wind and warns Michiru that a gust of wind is coming, which blows through immediately after. Unprepared, Michiru tries to hold on to the tarpaulin but loses her grip. Pinga quickly transforms into his beast form and saves her before she falls from the roof.
Finishing the repair, they proceed to have some food afterward. Pinga appreciates the warm food, saying that he spends most of his time on air. Gem and Melissa ask if he came to Anima City as a refugee so that they can help him with registration, but Pinga replies that he doesn't plan to stay long. Michiru then says she's jealous that Pinga is so free, able to fly and can go anywhere. Noticing her fondness of flying, he asks if she wants to fly, to which she nods to the idea. They fly together for a while and talk about how Pinga can detect a shift in the wind, to which the bird-beastman replies that it's bound to their body to remember. He also explains before Michiru's statement about the freedom that it used to be like that. With the development of human and beastman rights, it grows more complicated to travel on the route he and his ancestors had to fly through. Pinga even says that he has comrades who are shot down because they "trespass".
At the same time, at the City Council, Mayor Rose and Shirou are investigating the Silver Wolf Order, which happens to grow exponentially about half a year ago after Boris Cliff joins in along with Nazuna, who shares the same "beastman disease" as Michiru. Shirou presumes that they infected each other, but Mayor Rose dismisses the idea, saying that in that case, they should've infected more. She decides to let the cult stays but keeping them under observation. It is then she is notified that she has a visitor, even though she didn't have any plans for one that day.
Alan Sylvasta enters the room and greets both of them, offering a handshake to Shirou. The latter, however, refuses flatly, saying that he doesn't want the human smell on him. Alan then proceeds to talk about the cult's presence and is against the idea of them staying. Mayor Rose replies that if they reject them, then Anima City's purpose, which is open for every beastman, will just collapse, to which Alan counters with his reason that it will give an adverse effect against beastman's modernization if the cult is to stay and only encourages anti-beastman action. He then informs them about anti-beastman movement lately, and also the fact that an unidentified flying beastman has trespassed Japan. In the end, Alan lets the Mayor make the decision but he'll have to change his opinion depending on the decision.
After Alan leaves, Shirou and Mayor Rose discuss the previous topic, where Shirou calls Alan as "kid" and Mayor Rose tells him not to underestimate Alan just because he's young. With another fact that Anima City's funds directly come from Sylvasta Pharmaceuticals' financial aid, they can't simply ignore Alan's input but they also have to make the decision either way. A moment later Mayor Rose receives information from Ichizaki that the trespassing bird-beastman is likely a terrorist, as Alan said. It's then when Shirou spots the bird-beastmen, Pinga and Michiru flying together. Unknown to Michiru, Pinga purposely flies past the town hall to confirm his target and after he's done, he announces that the flight is over.
As they land, Pinga hands over a wad of United States dollar bills for the roof damage and says he'll leave. Michiru asks for his name and Pinga tells her and leaves right after. In the following evening, Shirou asks her the whereabouts of the bird-beastman and Michiru's answer that he has left, much to Shirou's distaste. He then explains that Pinga may be a terrorist. Michiru disagrees by saying that he'll leave tomorrow, whereas Shirou emphasizes that he may do something that night. The information he receives and the fact that there's Pinga in the city can't be a coincidence, so they'll have to find him. They can't also rely on Shirou's keen sense of smell because, in the sky, the smell must have been dissipated faster hence it becomes his weak point.
Later that night, Silver Wolf Organization makes their move to Medical Center as the result of Mayor Rose refuses to let them stay by saying Anima City doesn't have the required infrastructure for them, knowing that Alan Sylvasta has something to do with it. Nazuna, along with Boris, makes a speech in front of their followers saying that they only wish for beastmen's paradise and Nazuna transforms into her Ginrou form as she asks them to pray.
Back at the town hall, Mayor Rose receives the information and orders Koichi to contact the police to stand by on Medical Center. They seem to be unaware of Pinga dive-bombing towards them, but Shirou is already on watch and notices him far up on the sky. As Pinga charges toward the town hall, Shirou jumps from the building and intercepts him, grappling on his talons as he flies. Pinga tries to shake off the wolf by purposely drags him to collide with buildings, and ultimately manages to kick him away. Michiru, who has been observing them for a while, tries to save Shirou by extending her arm to catch him but she fails to do so. Moreover, the pole she grips for bracing her also snaps and breaks, sending her falling along with him. As both of them descends further, Michiru keeps trying to do whatever she can and wishes to only fly, to which her body corresponds by shapeshifting her arms into a pair of wings just in time for her to grab Shirou and flies up.
Both of them are initially surprised but decides to focus on Pinga first. They follow the bird-beastman, who is also surprised with Michiru's ability, and make a pursuit for quite some time until they are close enough for Michiru to swing Shirou toward Pinga. The impact connects and results for both of them fall to the ground. Shirou quickly disarms Pinga by snatching his bag away. Pinga then tells them that he was indeed an ex-military - which Shirou asks him - and he fought for beastmen's rights, not knowing that after beastmen and humans' rights are equal will result in him being unable to fly freely. As Michiru confronts him for being a terrorist, Pinga only replies that the bomb was only a bluff so that the mayor will listen to him. Shirou then lets him go because for him, he hasn't done anything yet and Shirou only wishes to protect the city and beastmen, Pinga also being one of them. It's then when Pinga reveals his purpose, which is to make tombs for his fallen comrades during the conflict for beastmen rights, as he fishes several dog-tags. He entrusts Michiru to deliver the message to Mayor Rose, to which she promises him she'll do it and receives the tags.
Afterward, Pinga tells them that he's not the only one who is trespassing in Anima City; there's another bird-beastman, which on their "dark side" they call him Meteor, who's a hitman that will do anything for money. Shirou inquiries if Meteor's target is also the mayor, but Pinga answers that if that's the case, he should've known. The remaining option of the possible target includes Alan Sylvasta, who is indeed Meteor's target.
At the Medical Center, Alan decides to meet the beastmen crowds, to which his advisor tells him it's dangerous to go outside. It's proven right because right after that, Meteor charges toward Alan and snatches him away up to the sky. Shirou and Michiru arrive a bit too late and witness the scene, only to find Nazuna as in her Ginrou form grows wings. Meteor drops Alan from the height but Nazuna quickly saves him. The flashy scene, with Boris' speech, further encourage the Silver Wolf Organization about their well-being that Ginrou's grace doesn't only befall to beastmen, but humans as well. As Meteor realizes his failure, he attempts to charge again only to be intercepted by Pinga and knocked back to the ground.
Nazuna lands with Alan in the middle of the Silver Wolf members gracefully and greets him with a friendly smile, inducing the crowd's cheers. Boris then asks Alan Sylvasta to recognize the cheers as a representation of citizen's voices, and with the turn of the events, Alan can't help but understand the crowd's appeal.
Characters
- Michiru Kagemori
- Shirou Ogami
- Pinga (debut)
- Melissa Horner
- Gem Horner
- Barbara Rose
- Alan Sylvasta
- Boris Cliff
- Nazuna Hiwatashi
Gallery
Key animation
Trivia
- Meteor is seen disguising as a Fire Bull storekeeper, to keep track of his target. In the same scene, Alan drinks the Fire Bull even though it's meant for beastmen and not for human, although he doesn't drink them all. This of course, foreshadowed his nature as a purebred beastman.
- Michiru grows wings for the first time as foreshadowed in the ED.
- An art from this episode was posted on Twitter by username @Oyk1996, who worked on the development of episodes 2, 7 and 11. This was a mistake, so the tweet was deleted shortly after it was published. Two more early screenshots of the episode were published by @shonenzup_us, on April 23, 2020.
- The ending song video shows Nazuna in wolf (fox) form instead of human like before.
- Though not subtle, the episode indirectly gives an insight of the worst scenario that occurred should the prejudice between humanity and beastmen not quelled in time; an all-out war between both races across the planet.