Mekakucity Actors – 08

While this episode didn’t quite make all the connections we thought it would (between Takane, Haruka, and Shintaro, for instance), it still confirmed and shed light on a great many things. Granted, it did a lot of this while people were statically lounging around in a room, but that room had a striking design with mod furnishings we see from multiple, schematic-like angles, all Shaft mainstays.

Prior to discussing with Shintaro what the Mekakushi-dan he’s now a member of know about their “situation” Tsubomi and the others visit the hospital, but don’t see Haruka. They do meet Hibiya, and when his eyes turn red they promptly take him with them to HQ, realizing he’s one of them, in a earlier state of development they all went through in one form or another.

Also, the giant snake void portal thing we’ve witnessed is something they all have in common: they all experienced life-threatening events with loved ones; both were sucked in, but only one came out, and with superpowers. We catch a glimpse Tsubomi’s pivotal event in the cold open. Striking stained glass windows also depict it, as well as those of Kano, Seto, and Momo.

These windows had us equating the past, present, and future Mekakushi-dan members as something very similar to “saints”, once-ordinary people who were touched by something very similar to a “god”, and can now perform something very similar to “miracles.” But they—and those lost in the “void”—could also be described as martyrs; their past wishes having ended their lives as normal humans.

One more connection made this week, and quite by accident: while checking in on Marry (who was supposed to be watching Hibiya but dozed off), he spots a photo of Kido, Kano, and Seto with none other than Ayano. As of yet, Shintaro hasn’t displayed a power, nor do we know of a time when his life was in danger that would cause them one to be bestowed upon him.

But in the non-standard ED (with more anecdotal lyrics), we see what seems to be his last encounter with Ayano, who loved him, and he definitely seems to make a wish: for her not to die. Is she, and the others’ loved ones in the void, really dead, or can they be retrieved, perhaps in exchange for returning their powers? We’ll see…at least I hope we will.

 

Akuma no Riddle – 09

Isuke may have played Tokaku for the sweetfish last week, but unlike that relative of the smelts, Tokaku probably won’t be fooled like that again. But the fact remains, Isuke is pressing her attack, and Tokaku is not only wounded and separated from Haru, but a hazy memory of another storm continues to keep her from plunging her knife into Isuke during this current one.

In order to finally rid herself of that “curse”, she has to arrive right at death’s door, where Isuke deposits her by tossing her out a glass skyway. The hazy memory finally comes into focus. Her inability to kill wasn’t a curse; it was a wish, both from her mother and her mother’s twin sister, Mako, meant to protect her.

The sisters, you see, didn’t want Tokaku to have anything to do with the Azuma family business, which is, you might have guessed, assassination of the finest quality. None of this would be an issue if they were famous bakers. Actually, I might watch a show about a class of people trying to out-bake each other. As long as they know what they’re doing.

But I digress: Tokaku’s grandmother had big plans for her, and they involved systematically molding her into a soulless killing machine whose name would make the entire world cower in fear. Granny was a monster, and she wanted to make Tokaku a monster too. As Tokaku’s decision to protect Haru proves, she failed. You lose, evil granny!

Akuma’s murder-blocking memory is of Mako bringing her to a shrine, where she tells her to always remember if she should want to kill something; to remember that her mom will always be watching her, protecting her from squandering her soul on murder. But now Tokaku has found someone to protect. And sometimes protecting means being prepared to kill.

Meanwhile, many a door was bashed to bits this episode, not from the typhoon, but from Shinya, who single-handedly decimates the school’s door budget for many years to come. But Haru refuses to be taken out so easily. Her scars are proof she’s a survivor, and that’s what she does, even when she’s afraid Tokaku is dead.

It’s also pretty clever how Isuke uses Shinya’s deep-rooted trauma of bright lights (having been locked in a cellar as a child and photographed by evil men) to shut her down when she no longer needs her. Now even Isuke is out, leaving only the prim Sumireko and Nio, whose body is covered in terrifyingly awesome tattoos. We’ve seen some bad-ass assassins, but Akuma may have saved the best for last.

Sidonia no Kishi – 08

The Gauna may be frightening and powerful and immensely creepy, but they’re still life forms, which has us wondering what their beef with humanity is. Do they act out of pure instinct, or reason? When they make a placenta clone of Shizuka who giggles and reports each time she takes out a Gardes frame, are they fucking with them, or is the perceived sadism mere coincidence?

I could fill a review with what I don’t know about the Gauna, and another with questions, but you know what? I kinda like not knowing. The Cylons in the re-booted Battlestar Galactica were a classic example of the age-old problem with learning way too much about the “Bad Guys”: they get less scary. Right now, the Gauna still frighten me, and that’s the way it should be in a show where two of them are enough to cripple Sidonia if they find their way inside.

On the other hand, the more I learn about the “Good Guys”, the more I can connect and care about them surviving. We learn a great deal more about Sidonia’s history through flashbacks. The first half of the episode reinforces why we should fear the Gauna; the second half shows us the people who shaped the present Nagate and Izana inhabit.

Some of those shapers are still around, like Kobayashi, Lala, and Izana’s “grandmother” Yure; others, like Nagate’s “grandfather”, Saitou Hiroki, aren’t. The four were among less than 450 colonists to survive the Gauna slaughter a century ago. They all danced on the razor’s edge of oblivion that day; to avoid falling off, they had to turn to creative genetics.

Immortals were forbidden from procreating, but when an aged Hiroki, who had been Sidonia’s ace, returned after being lost for eighty years, Kobayashi broke the rules, collaborating with Yure to clone him. After a kick-ass sword fight with bows and arrows (!), Saitou fled to the bowels of Sidonia, where he raised and trained Nagate—immortal from birth—all by himself.

And that’s pretty much where we stand today: Nagate is a threat to the old guard, tolerated only because of Kobayashi’s influence and because she repeatedly sends him out on ridiculously dangerous sorties. But he’s also the hope of humanity, someone you imagine will blow by Kunato (who didn’t look so good this week) to become Sidonia’s new ace.

He didn’t get to face off against “Hawk Moth” (what they’re calling the Gauna-Shizuka), this week, and he doesn’t seem quite ready to do so, but I feel like that battle is coming sooner or later. In the meantime, Sidonia’s eggheads have a creepy placenta clone of his would-be girlfriend. Is she a Gauna instrument of communication? An insidious weapon? A biological by-product? As I said: I hope we don’t learn too much.

Weekly ED: No Game No Life (No Sora)

I always thought NGNL’s ending to be pleasantly catchy and uplifting, but a bit syrupy sweet. To suddenly yank Sora out of it, leaving Shiro alone, futz with the audio, and dull the colors…that was an awesome subversion of expectations. This clip I just found nicely compares the two versions.

I’m most reminded of two other excellent “remixes” of OPs: Umi Monogatari’s “Dark OP”, one of the saddest and most beautiful OPs ever, IMO (especially in context with the normal one), and Angel Beats! “Rock” OP sung by Yui (LiSA).

Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin – 08

Last week was all about Juugo making amends, but this week is all about expanding and elaborating upon his present milieu, and articulating the fact that many conflicts old and new stand between him and his personal mission to save Nanana-chan, including uncertainty over what saving her even entails. We also get more pieces of the histories of both the club and Room 202.

There’s sundry doin’s a-transpirin’: Tensai receives ¥3000 from a freshman and storms right out of the damn episode in an uncharacteristic snit. Tetsu and the pint-sized Yoshino-Saki, AKA Yun-chan, AKA Kate Hoshimiya’s cousin, enroll at Juugo’s school. Isshin admits to Yuu and Kagetora that he’s threatened by the brilliance of the new members, which he feels far outstrips his own.

Most importantly, there’s a stern new face in town to look down on him: Ikusaba Hiiyo, who looks to figure prominently in the three episodes to come (or more if this goes another cour, which I wouldn’t necessarily mind). He’s a tough-looking sonofabitch who professes to be allergic to compromise, an allergy he believes gives him the ultimate edge in getting what he wants in life, including Nanana’s collection.

Hiiyo also happened to be the former tenant of Room 202 prior to Juugo, and I kinda doubt he ever bought her pudding or played video games with her. Their relationship is summed up pretty succinctly when he pops by to have her appraise one of her treasures he found, then cuts her off and calls it worthless. One kindly ghost’s treasure is a cold-hearted bastard’s trash.

Shiki chases him off with her boss beer muscles, but I doubt he’s going away any time soon. He wears a big black duster and boots, talks with a gruff aloofness, has unkempt hair, and enjoys watching CGI horsie races. He’s got Archvillain written all over him, and I don’t think he’s interested in making Juugo’s—or anyone’s—job any easier.

Hitsugi no Chaika – 08

Everyone wants to have a goal, or at least have a goal dropped into their laps, but the conditions encountered while attempting to achieve it can often serve to muddle or change that goal. Take the “New Gaz Empire”, a ragtag band the likes of which Chaika and the Acuras have not yet encountered on their travels. They want to restore the empire they were once a part of, but in the meantime they’re living as thieves and con artists to get by.

As soon as their way is barred, Tooru saw that they were trouble, as did we, but they turned out to be far less trouble than we thought, as their attempts to double-cross the Acura siblings fails spectacularly. Still, had naive Ol’ Chaika been alone she would have been robbed blind and possibly worse, demonstrating yet again that she’s lucky to have the others backing her up, not to mention leaving us curious how she managed to survive up to the point she met the Acuras.

For what it’s worth, I like the idea of the New Gaz Empire, and not just because they have an awesome name, but because they’re such a realistic example of how the best laid plans go awry, that noble intentions can be corrupted by the realization that ‘Hey, we’ve got numbers and weapons and mobility; let’s go to town!’ Through their complex encounter, Chaika & Co. show them that it’s not a path they can continue on forever; they need to get back on the high road.

For one thing, the thieves are easily defeated when they threaten Tooru and Akari, and they’re lucky the siblings are the forgiving type who stay their blades. Their own “Princess Chaika”, AKA Julia (with Horie Yui Sadohara Kaori at the mic), also jumps right into a trap and incarcerated after tricking Chaika into staying the night so they can rob her. Despite being wronged, Chaika doesn’t hesitate in the least in ordering the Acuras to rescue her, even contributing a crucial assist with her silencing magic.

In this, Chaika’s behavior seems less like naivete and more like kindness, decency, and forgiveness, all qualities that can be as powerful as hammers and swords in the right situation. Those qualities may have convinced the New Gaz Empire to realign their goals. As such, Chaika isn’t just an inert variable passing through the countryside in blind pursuit of her own goal; she’s enacting tangible change, one ragtag band at a time. Note that this is supposedly the mission of Alberic’s squad, though all they’ve done is chase Chaika around.

Stray Observations:

• The scenes with Gillette & Co. seemed even more pointless than usual. All they established was that Alberic isn’t going to give up on pursuing Chaika (I already knew that), and that Vivi likes him (I really don’t care).
• Akari’s super-happy, friendly act in the back of the wagon had me wondering if it was Frederica in disguise again.
• Tooru, Akari, Chaika and Frederica show that they could made a legitimately good travelling performance troupe. Now they just need to do a J-pop video, Kyoukai-style. Yes, I would watch that.
• I understand the practical (and comedic) reasons for having the siblings quickly beat up all the thieves off-camera, but I still felt a bit cheated by the lack of on-screen action.

No Game No Life – 08

Last week revealed the means by which Sora and Shiro could study the Warbeasts in preparation for their challenge, and this week shows their strategy in motion, but there’s no in between. I think that was a very gutsy but shrewed decision. It’s been clear for some time now that this is a show that’s not so concerned with whether Blank will prevail, but how.

That the show can belt out an episode that remains entertaining throughout while withholding even that “how” is an accomplishment in and of itself. Because the fact of the matter is, we’re as stumped as the Warbeasts about what exactly Sora has planned. All we know is that he enters their embassy and entreats with the adorable Hatsuse Izuna (Sawashiro Miyuki in Full Chibi Mode) as a mere formality.

By forgoing the precise manner in which Sora aims to defeat the Warbeasts, the show is asking us to have faith and trust it will show us, and it’s earned that trust these last seven weeks. That doesn’t mean this episode is bereft of juicy logical deconstruction. Clearly, Sora has carefully studied the old king’s notes and devised an intricate plan. We only see the opening moves of that plan, but as I said, that’s sufficient to build up enticement.

Even in the way he informally invites himself to the embassy—using his smartphone’s camera zoom to locate Hatsuse’s gramps and gesture his intention to visit—provides Sora with ammunition to fuel his case that the Warbeasts aren’t as implacable as Imanity believes. He even proves that they can’t read minds, by acting in ways they’d surely have responded to if they truly could.

He also deduces that the Warbeasts have been defeating their adversaries with video games, a medium at which Blank excels. When he stakes the Imanity Race Piece against all of the Warbeasts’ territory, Dora thinks him mad, and many of his people protest. But neither he nor Shiro care what they think: they’re not going to lose at video games.

But even Shiro doesn’t see all of what Sora has planned when the episode’s transitions grow more distorted and Sora vanishes from her sight. Do you usually skip the ending sequence? If so, you missed the fact that Sora was totally erased from it; a very nice touch that raps against the fourth wall. In the cold close, Shiro is curled up in a fretful ball, and Dora has no idea who Sora is. I thought I knew, but he keeps surprising me.

Summer 2014 Season Preview

While we’ll be sampling the usual host of brand-new series, Summer 20134 will be a season of returns. Mahouka will return immediately for its second cour (Chaika is taking the Summer off). After a Spring hiatus, Space Dandy will return for a second season.

A season after perhaps their most sweeping, moving series to date, P.A. Works is returning with their tenth series, Glasslip. After two years off, Sword Art Online returns. And most notably, for the first time in seventeen years, a new Sailor Moon series will be airing on TV.

Needless to say, we’re quite excited about the promise of all these returns. Many of these shows have big shoes to fill, and while we can’t predict they’ll all succeed, we can at least hope for a better Summer season than 2013, which was, barring a few exceptions, pretty meh.

Oh, one more thing: We’re aiming to bring back Car Cameos, so all authors have been instructed to keep their eyes peeled for real-world vehicles that appear in this Summer’s shows.

Note: All picks are subject to change before, during, and after the Season starts.

Braverade’s Picks

1. DRAMAtical Murder (DMMd) – Nitroplus/NAZ (Action, Sci-Fi, Psychological) – Jul – Yeah, that’s kind of a silly (if memorable) title, but with its futuristic setting featuring AI and VR gaming, this looks like a grittier rival to SAO II.

2. Rail Wars! – Passione (Action) – Jul – I don’t know a lot about it or who will be doing the voices, but the idea of “an alternate world where Japan didn’t privatize its railways” sounds like it could be a lark. Also, I love trains, so hopefully they’ll be well-animated.

3. Space Dandy 2nd Season – Bones/Bandai/FUN (Comedy, Sci-Fi, Space) – Jul – Not sure exactly what’s in store for season two, but if it’s anything like the first, there will be flashes of inspired brilliance mixed with more pedestrian efforts.

4. Zankyou no Terror – Aniplex/FUN/MAPPA (Psychological, Thriller) – The promo art kinda reminds me of Tokyo Mag 8.0 and Coppelion, but this latest effort to blow up Tokyo looks like it will focus on those doing the blowing up.

sesameacylic’s Picks

5. Ao Haru Ride (Blue Spring Ride) – Prod. I.G./TOHO (Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Shoujo, Slice of Life) – Well, I certainly can’t fault this show for knowing what it is. The two leads will be Kaji Yuki and Uchida Maaya, two solid choices. If it can approach Sukitte Ii na yo levels of quality, I’ll be happy.

6. Glasslip – P.A. Works/Lantis (Slice of Life) – From a threatened world split between land and sea, P.A. Works shifts to…glass-blowing class? But while Nagi was overflowing with drama, this looks to tell a smaller, story focusing on the very specific dream of a certain girl (with a rookie seiyu).

7. Hanayamata – Madhouse/DIVE II (Slice of Life, Seinen) – The House of Mad counters P.A. Works’ extracurricular Slice of Life with one of its own. Instead of the girl pursuing her dream, she has the dream thrust upon her by a “foreign girl”, and instead of glass, it’s yosakoi dance.

8. Jinsei (Life)– Feel. (Slice of Life) – I don’t know who’s voicing anyone, but I do know this is being helmed by the director of SKET Dance, which is enough for me to give it a look. Like SKET, it will follow a club dedicated to “life consultation”, in the fields of science, literature, and sports.

MagicalChurlSukui’s Picks

9. Majimoji Rurumo – J.C. Staff (Comedy, Fantasy, Shounen) – Consider, if you will, a scenario somewhat similar to TWGOK, only the guy is into real girls, not just dating sims, and the demon he’s contracted with is a witch, or rather a fallen witch trying ot get back in the game. We’ll see if it’s smart or just irritating.

10. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei – Madhouse/Aniplex (Magic, Romance, School, Sci-Fi, Shounen, Supernatural) With a huge cast expanding ever outward and a relatively leisurely pace, Mahouka needed a second season to say what it wants to say. I’ve seen enough good things so far to afford it that chance.

11. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Crystal) – Toei/Starchild/Viz (Demons, Magic, Romance, Shoujo) – I have to confess: I’ve never read a single page nor watched a single episode of the Sailor Moon of yore, nor do I plan to. Crystal’s bi-weekly offerings will be my introduction into this iconic mahou shoujo universe, much as it will be for many younger anime fans. I don’t know the director (who helming his first full series), but I do know the all-star quartet of voice talent that will be backing up Sailor Moon (Mitsuishi Kotoro): Kanemoto Hisako (Mercury), Koshimizu Ami (Jupiter), Satou Rina (Mars), and Itou Shizuka (Venus).

12. Sword Art Online II – A-1/Aniplex (Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Romance, Shounen) – SAO had marvellous world and system-building, exciting battles, a decent, if simple, core romance, and strong female characters. It also had a very dull, overly-evil villain at the end and totally sidelined its female lead and focused too much on unrequited brother-love. But with a new online game to explore and the excellent Sawashiro Miyuki voicing the all-new female lead, I’m still looking forward to the sequel.

Black Bullet – 08

What with the intensity of last week’s battle between Rintaro and Tina, I had a pretty good feeling we were in store for a cooldown episode, and so it came to pass. But Bullet made the most of it, allowing two former enemies to do some bonding, but never letting us forget that the peace won’t last long.

Dual threats appear this week: not only have the Gastrea returned to the picture, but they’re up to some unprecedented shit, attacking one of the monoliths that protect Tokyo. The government will have a new one built in nine days (how, I have no idea…those things are HUGE), but the old one will only last six. The three day gap is all the Gastrea need to convert or kill Tokyo’s entire population, if they aren’t opposed.

That means it’s time for an Entmoot Adjuvant, where Civil officers join forces with the military to fight the bugs off, thereby saving the city. But the other threat appears from within, and again brings up the question of whether the city even deserves to be saved. When a leader of the movement to expel the cursed children is murdered and a cursed child named as a possible suspect, anti-cursed sentiment balloons.

Frankly, it would make more sense to me to expel the anti-cursed mob: if they don’t want to afford gratitude, rights, or even the slightest decency to girls who save their skins day in day out, they can piss off out of Tokyo and fend for themselves. Fortunately for them, cooler heads like Rentaro seem committed to saving the city despite all the ingratitude. When some punks toss a soda tab at a blind cursed-child beggar who mistakes it as a coin, we mused about how good they’d look in the bottom of a Gastrea’s stomach.

The girls Rentaro and Kisara teach in the beginning don’t even get a classroom with a roof. And the Katagiri siblings are proof that not all civil agencies are as prosperous as Tendo. Still, nice to see how well Tina is taking to normal life as a regular girl, even with war on the horizon that could cut it short. There’s a kind of gloom in the fact that even if she and many other girls fight and give their lives for the city in the coming days, they’d still be hated and ostracized.

One Week Friends – 08

This week the still newly-forged quartet of friends go on their first summer trip to the beach together. Kaori first suggests it, but things don’t bode well for Yuuki when she indicates it would be “too embarrassing” just to go with him, necessitating the invitation of Shogo and Saki.

Throughout the trip, everyone has a certain degree of fun, but it’s also tinged with the feeling Shogo and Saki are in the way. When a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors backfires on Yuuki, Saki is with him while Kaori goes with Shogo, but neither Saki nor Shogo can get much out of them, but they’re pretty sure they like each other as more than just friends, but just can’t articulate it; least of all to one another.

Even when Shogo asks Yuuki flat out if he should “push a bit harder” towards trying to articulate it—someone has to make the first move—but even when Yuuki and Kaori are left alone on a truly gorgeous sunset on the beach, sudden incidental contact spooks him, and while Kaori goes on about all the things she likes and loves, she keeps things general.

The things holding them back from saying what they need to say to each other, even in the most appropriate times and places to do so, are fairly clear: sheer romantic inexperience, combined with the fear of damaging their present relationship. But one gets the feeling this status quo won’t be enough for them forever. At some point they’ll have to take greater risks.

Gokukoku no Brynhildr – 08

After returning from Akiba, Ryouta drops Kazumi off and tells the other girls he’ll take care of the rest on his own. But in the wake of their “first date”, Kazumi isn’t satisfied. Under the pretense of helping him pinpoint the location on the device, she ends up at his house, ready to take the next step with him.

While she rightfully tells him she doesn’t need a logical reason to want to sleep with him, the truth is she has one, and it’s the same reason she enjoyed their Akiba date so much: Her time on this world is cruelly short, and his could be too when he goes on the next wild goose chase. Going forward, her first time for many things could well also be her last, so she’s in a hurry to have them.

Kazumi continues to cement her role as the most compelling and endearing of the girls, the one who embraces her mixed-up adolescent tendencies and raw humanity with abandon. She knows she may never reach later stages of life, and she’s clearly terrified. But she’s also scared of actually doing it, so when Ryouta accidentally causes her to make a strange, “freaky” sound, she halts the proceedings, admitting it’s all probably too much for him (and her too, if she’s honest).

After a night of innocent spooning, Ryouta heads off on his own, and quickly finds he’s in over his head. Fortunately for him, the girls didn’t heed his call to hang back. For all his good intentions (and photographic memory) he’s still too weak to protect them on his own. So Kana gets a death vision, Neko storms in with her destructo-powers, Kazumi jams the radio, and when the chief has Ryouta pinned, Kotori teleports him away.

It’s a good full team effort, but they were never going to struggle that mightily against normal humans. Nanami, the next girl sent after them (Neko, specifically), will be far tougher. Kazumi revels in her humanity and femininity by shedding clothes all the time, but Nanami’s status as a captive tool is accentuated by the belts and a hood she’s wrapped up in when not in use. Still, like the others, she wants to live, so she’ll obey her bosses. And because we know full well her bosses won’t let her live, you can’t help but empathize with her too.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei – 08

*Note: I realize the couple on the left is Gilgamesh and Saber from Fate, but if you squint, they kinda look like anime Jaime (Janime?) and Cersei…no? Well, Google Image Search seemed to think so…

“There are no men like me. Only me.” Sorry to open with a Jaime Lannister quote of all things, but there are often times when the very close Shiba siblings remind me of Jaime and Cersei in better times, only without the overt incest. Not only that, Jaime’s quote could also be used to describe Tatsuya: in his present world, there are no men like him…only him.

First he became the first Weed in the disciplinary committee, and made an instant and substantial impact, foiling a terrorist plot. In this heavily process-oriented episode, the Magic High equivalent of an interscholastic sports festival approaches, and he becomes the first weed and first first year voted onto First High’s technical staff. His process in coding Kirihara’s CAD irks his skeptics, but they can’t deny he did some extremely advanced work.

Tatsuya’s unique indispensability extends beyond school, to his duties as a “special officer” in some secret military unit in which he operates, as well as a contributor to the family business (FLT). In short, there may be no men like him, but he himself is many men to many people, and very few others aside from his sister, know about these other Tatsuyas.

So badass is Tatsuya, he spends the waning hours of the night not watching anime (or HBO), but working in the clinical basement of the mansion he and Miyuki share on a flying magic problem that stumped teams of scientists elsewhere in the world. When Miyuki pops in to show off an adorable outfit she’ll be wearing for the games, the show casually reveals he’s floating, having made a breakthrough. Even his leisure is work.

The Nine Schools Competition will expand the world we know about further, threatening his sui generis nature. One thing about Jaime’s “no men like me” quote is the fact it’s not quite correct: plenty of other men have risen fast, fight well, slain their kings and loved their sisters a bit too much. And as the end of last week’s episode gave us a glimpse of the lad who appears as Tatsuya’s mirror image in the OP (above), it would appear there are men like Tatsuya too!

P.S.: I fully support Erika’s staunch decision to wear bloomers for athletics.

 

Mekakucity Actors – 07

Last week’s episode started with Takane running as fast as she could (though not swinging her arms the way you’re supposed to), apparently worried for Haruka. To illustrate her state of mind, the entire town around her was blowing up and crumbling to dust. It was as if her world could not exist without him. Ultimately, it wasn’t a case of the world that disappeared around her that day, but of her disappearing from the world, at least in her corporeal state.

After a meaningful discussion with the extremely perceptive Ayano in the hallway, Takane realizes she loves Haruka. I was fully prepared for Haruka to end up dead when she returned to the hospital. But before she can even leave the school, she collapses, and that’s the end of Takane That Was. It’s a horrifying and profoundly sad moment in an episode full of bad things happening to good people, possibly due to hasty decisions they make.

During her transformation to the avatar we were first introduced to, we catch a glimpse of a small girl in black, who is most likely responsible. She also seemed to speak with Haruka in the hospital and hastily struck a deal that put him in a new body as well. Did Ene transform as a result of her wish to be with Haruka, who had just lost his body too? That small girl in black also resembles the “monster” in the post-credit “fairy-tales” (this week’s almost moved us to tears). She kinda reminds me of Shinobu so far.

Obviously, this monster girl is up to something, messing with the lives of people who used to be normal. But more and more connections are being made between those people, suggesting they may be able to figure a way to respond to what’s been done to them. These “small world” connections needn’t necessarily be over shared supernatural powers.

A primary purpose of friendship in general is to enrich one’s life, as well as affirm it through continued contact and familiarity with others. Takane, Haruka, Ayano and Shintaro were once ordinary friends. Takane is now in Shintaro’s phone and computer, trying to be the girl “he needs” Ayano couldn’t, but now she’s on the cusp of reuniting with Haruka. On the one hand, she’s been cursed. On the other, she has a second chance.