Record of Ragnarok Season 1 Episode 10 Recap – Greatest Loser

Loser

Not once in his life did Kojiro Sasaki win a fight. He was considered nothing but dead weight in his dojo as a young boy. He would arrive late and sleepy. The instructor would always punish him. He could hold his own during practice but would soon surrender if caught.

They regarded Kojiro as a failure who gave up too quickly. The teachers wondered if he lacked talent in sword fighting.

But that isn’t entirely true. Kojiro didn’t gain much instruction from the dojo. Instead, he learned from nature. Kojiro mimicked the movement of animals and hunted in the wilds as training. His understanding of victory increased with every loss.

He returned to the dojo completely different after six months of absence. When challenged by an instructor, he applied his prediction power to fight them. He even challenged the grandmaster of his dojo before leaving.

Practice

Years later, he lives in the countryside. One day, his grandmaster visited him, blind due to old age. But inside his home, he could see Kojiro’s intense training through all the years, seen through the many slashes on the walls and the posts. Kojiro wasn’t competing with everyone else; he merely sought to improve himself. By that time, he had surpassed his master.

The master recommended him to the Asakura clan to advance, but he refused. He’s decided to leave to collect more losses. There are no reliable records of his journey, but one thing’s for sure: he continued to lose match after match to the best swordsmen.

In the process, he learned to be a better fencer. Kojiro sought out foes he was no match for and continued to lose. That is the main reason why he isn’t always written in history.

Honor

Back in the battle, Kojiro ponders his fate. He can’t surrender this time, and he doesn’t want to die either. It’s time for him to fight. He can’t dishonor those who came before him.

For his first strike, he swings his nearly meter-long blade downward with all his force. Poseidon steps aside, but Kojiro’s blade is already on the upswing. All these he learned from his losses and his training in nature.

That is the first time Poseidon looks Kojiro in the eye or any other human for that matter.

Musashi remembers the move Sasaki used, for it was the one that wounded him before—Tsubame Gaeshi. They all spite Poseidon for daring not to defend the attack. Hrist is revealed to be inside Kojiro’s blade. 

A Match

This time, Poseidon opts to walk forward. The gods can’t believe it. The god winds up and thrusts with an assault of strikes. Kojiro weaves in and dodges but is hit a few times. The samurai is dodging through experience alone. He has faced numerous foes before and has encountered every scenario in battle.

Kojiro had already read Poseidon’s possible attack patterns and outcomes from the battle, from how the god walked, blinked, and moved. While Adam is the best counter attacker, Kojiro is the best scanner. It’s as if a simulator is in his mind, predicting every move of the enemy—The Senjou Musou.

The exchange finishes with none of Poseidon’s hits landing at Kojiro. Even the gods can’t believe it. How can humans achieve such a level?

Poseidon whistles a tune: the same one when he killed Adamas. He reaches in faster than Kojiro expects, wounding him on the side. Poseidon taunts him.

Our Thoughts

It’s nice to have very non-stereotypical fighters in this anime. This time we have a loser who learned from countless mistakes. I don’t think that concept has ever been done before, and it’s quite different from the talentless hard-worker trope. As for the animation, this time, I have no complaints. It’s a solid episode, 3.5/5.