Heavenly Delusion – 04 – Touching Me, Touching You

The fish monster that attacks the boat Kiruko and Maru are on proves to be a slippery customer. When Kiruko fires the Kiru-Beam, it either misses or fails to fire, causing a large cloud of smoke and nothing else. But Kiruko notes the aqueous membrane around the Hiruko, and determines that the best place to fight it is not outside where it has access to all the water in the world, but in the maze-like, dry interior of the boat.

Meanwhile, in “Heaven”, Kuku leads Tokio to a ventilation hatch that leads to the “babies” Kuku says she saw. Tokio doesn’t have Kuku’s astonishing physical gifts, so she uses one of the cleaner robots to give her a boost up to the hatch, which is located some twenty feet up the wall. Curiously, despite there being surveillance cameras pointed everywhere, including at this very hatch, neither Tokio nor Kuku appear on the screen.

After briefly arguing with the crew of the boat, Kiruko executes their plan, which relies on the fish following them and Maru using his “Maru-Touch” to kill it when he’s able to touch it. That time comes when the fish is lured into a cargo bay full of boxes and dried marijuana, which sucks all the water away from the fish and dries it out. Maru is then able to finish the monster off just by touching its skin with his hand.

Kuku takes Tokio to a kind of weird laboratory nursery where even weirder “babies” are being raised with targets for faces, vaguely resembling infant versions of the Angels from Evangelion. Tokio puts her hand on the glass and one of the babes takes notice and even reaches out to her. An intruder alarm sounds and Kuku and Tokio book it out of there, after which the baby says “To-ki-o”.

What’s odd is that the intruder alarm doesn’t take the adults to the nursery where Tokio and Kuku were—once again, they don’t appear on the surveillance monitors—but instead to another part of the facility entirely. This place also has some serious Evangelion vibes, but in place of Ikari Gendou, there’s an elderly woman in a wheelchair conversing with a robot. As Alice once said: Curiouser and curiouser…

Once they reach land, the gangster boat crew offers Kiruko and Maru cash for taking care of their Hiruko problem. Kiruko refuses payment, since they and Haru had to either act or be killed, but does ask if the crew recognizes the bird logo on the Kiru-Beam. They say it’s the logo of a home goods store in the ruined town, but that turns out to be a completely different logo. Kiruko and Maru laugh about it while tucking into soup made from youkan.

Back in heaven, Tokio watches Shiro take Mimihime by the hand and run off; she follows them and overhears Shiro asking about the nude photo Mimihime sent him, which she knows nothing about and has disappeared from his phone. He then tries to explain the “urges” he feels when he sees her, but comes of to her sounding like he want to eat her.

When Tokio visits the critically ill Tarao, he tries to kiss her, but she recoils and runs off in a tizzy. Kona sees her running, follows her, and stays with her until she calms down. When she tells him how she’s scared how everyone is acting so weird, he tells her there’s no reason to be confused about people falling in love with one another.

Tokio then says if there’s someone among them she wants to touch and be touched by, it would be Kona. Kona, in turn, says he’d like it to be her. This absolutely makes her day, and she goes to bed positively giddy, only to be interrupted by a summons to Tarao’s hospital room, where he’s asking for her.

Once she arrives, he asks the adults to leave, apologizes for having tried to kiss her, and then tells her he’s not going to get better, and she needs to run away, because this place is “dangerous”. Is it Tokio’s special ability to manipulate surveillance footage, or is that the old woman’s robot’s doing? And even if she wanted to leave her life behind and run away, how would Tokio go about doing that? I guess we’re going to find out.

TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – S2 03 – Yanagi Brilliant Park

Ginga gave Nasa and Tsukasa day passes for the Muffy Land theme park, and Tsukasa is serious about having the best time possible. Tsukasa has been there before in his youth, so he’s hoping the park won’t disappoint. Things look grim when it’s raining the day of their trip, but Tsukasa finds a silver lining: adorable raincoats!

Nasa didn’t have to worry about the park coming up short, as Tsukasa is having a blast, from the haunted house to the Star Wars-esque rides (naturally she’s watched all the episodes). But the biggest attraction of all turns out to be Yanagi-sensei and her co-worker Taniguchi-sensei. It quickly becomes apparent Taniguchi didn’t “win” tickets, but just used that as an excuse to take Yanagi somewhere because he likes her.

That said, Yanagi is oblivious, thinking Taniguchi is just being nice because she doesn’t get out much. Tsukasa and Nasa make for a great soccer commentary pair in this little rom-com within the episode. Yanagi ends up scoring the first big “goal” by taking Taniguchi’s hand when they go on the scary ride. Nasa also learns a lot from Tsukasa’s perceptiveness that he’s possibly not as perceptive as he thought!

When an opportunity comes for Taniguchi to reveal his intentions (Yanagi comes right out and asks why he brought her to a place where people go on dates and even get married), he is actually about to tell her, but a high schooler in the exact situation beats him to it with his date. He says he likes her, she suggests they go out, he agrees, and Bob’s your uncle! Taniguchi is mortified, but notes that Yanagi found the exchange compelling.

Taniguchi may have hit the post on this try, but the beauty of a theme park is the opportunities keep coming, so he suggests they go get some lunch. Tsukasa and Nasa do the same, and Tsukasa decides to make a romantic game of it: who can make the better plate of the other’s favorite foods from the buffet? Tsukasa naturally nails it, and is almost telepathic in knowing Nasa probably put the curry next to the cakes, but it doesn’t matter. They’re both winners of this adorable game!

Throughout all of this, Chitose is shadowing Tsukasa and Nasa with Charlotte and Aurora in tow. However, at this point Chitose is resigned to the fact Tsukasa is in a committed marriage and isn’t interested in meddling, only observing. Along the way she and the maids have a lovely time at the park together, with large swaths of completely losing track of their targets. Call it Chitose’s deredere side simply wanting to bask a little in the marital bliss…and sink into the park mascot Muffy’s fluffy fluffy white fur.

When the nightly parade and fireworks take place, it’s Yanagi who ends up making the first move, telling Taniguchi what a fun time she had. When Taniguchi says he feels the same, Yanagi absent-mindedly asks if they should then get married, taking a page from her former student’s own remarkably efficient romance. She shakes it off, and explains that things just felt really comfortable and right today. They just make sense.

To that, Yanagi finally grows a pair, tenderly takes her hands in his, and just as a firework explodes above them, tells her he likes her. It’s just a sweet-as-hell moment. I was prepared for so many more episodes of will-they-won’t-they, but Tsukasa and Nasa helped paved the way for Yanagi to get out there, mix it up, and find a special someone. In this she was successful almost beyond belief … and almost as if Tsukasa and Nasa have a kind of cupid-like power to bring others together.

Three episodes in and we’re no closer to learning anything more about Tsukasa’s past teased in the OP, but just like last season, the need to learn more takes a back seat to enjoying her and Nasa, Yanagi and Taniguchi, and Chitose and the maids interact. Put simply, Tsukasa’s past is a bullet Tonikawa may never need to fire, should it choose not to. I’m almost leaning towards hoping the mystery remains just that!

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story – 16 – The Next Generation

Eve’s Rainbow Shot not only beat Mizuho and Kaede and gained her and Aoi the All-Japan Girls’ Tournament trophy. It also cut through a memory block she’d had since she was eight years old. She remembers who she is and who her parents were. This causes Aoi’s mom Amawashi Seira to go down memory lane to when she, Amuro Reiya and Hodaka Kazuhiko were brought on as ambassadors for her father’s new golf company Athens.

The three were rivals in golf but friends in life—and in Seira and Reiya’s case, lovers. We learn that Amawashi intended for the leadership and legacy of Athens to carry on when he passed, so he decreeds that Seira would marry whichever man won a new Athens-sponsored Japanese leg of the pro tour. Reiya was was ahead of Kazuhiko until he suddenly collapsed and had to forfeit. Kazuhiko went on to the pro tour.

Seira is informing her father that she’s pregnant with Reiya’s child when a disheveled Kazuhiko returns. Her father wants her to get rid of the child, but Kazuhiko vows to marry Seira and raise Reiya’s child as if it were his own, including teaching it how to play golf. It’s an arrangement Seira’s father accepts. The child born is Aoi, and Kazuhiko is true to his word: both he and Reiya teach her their golf.

But the truth is, Aoi was led to believe that the wrong man was her father. Kazuhiko returns to Nafrece whenever he can to see his true love, Eleanor, and his daughter, Evangeline. Eve and her mother live a simple, quiet life. Kazuhiko teaches Eve golf, and comes to believe she’s even more talented than he is.

But while on a family luxury cruise, this family is shattered in a shipwreck. Kazuhiko and Eleanor perish at sea, but Eve washes ashore with a head injury and with amnesia. The rest we know: Eve ends up in a new family with Klein and Lily, works on-again, off-again as an underground golfer for Rose, and was finally able to rise out of that whole mafia mess and escape to Japan with her sweetheart and top rival, Aoi.

Hearing Eve say her father’s name is Hodaka Kazuhiko weighs on Aoi, until she finds Eve on a rooftop just as it starts to rain, and tells her that her father once went by Hodaka until he married into the Amawashi clan. If Kazuhiko was both their father, that makes them sisters. But Eve doesn’t believe it, and Aoi insists it’s true. Eve concludes if neither of them are lying, someone else is…and the only one of their of their parents still alive for sure is Aoi’s mom.

A rain-soaked Aoi confronts her mom that night, but Seira has lived this lie for nearly a decade, and isn’t about to own up to it now. She assures Aoi that Kazuhiko is her one and only father, and that her mother wouldn’t lie to her (even though she has been). In any case, Aoi needs to rest up; Seira has big plans for her to become the youngest tour pro.

Aoi begs her mother to let Eve play in that tournament too, unaware that many years before, the two most important ment in Seira’s life were pit against each other in a similar manner. But Seira forbids it; she now knows about Eve’s mafia entanglements, and wants neither Aoi, Athens, or the Awawashi brand anywhere near it.

Just when it looked like our golf girl sweeties were about to take the next step, everything seems to have blown up in their faces thanks to this new question of paternity. But one thing is certain: Aoi and Eve are but pieces in a game of chess their elders have been playing for too long. To flip the board over and start anew, they’ll need to cease being pieces.