Loving Yamada at Lv999 – 05 – Let Me In

Sasaki Runa starts out this episode as pure scum, standing up Akane so she can have her tutor Yamada all to herself. Yamada is aware of the scheduling conflict, and even gives the little brat a chance to redeem herself, but she insists she’s not standing Akane up; she merely had someone go in her place.

That “someone” happens to be one of Rurihime (i.e. Eita’s) online superfans, who is obsessed with Rurihime and assumes Akane is Rurihime. At no point whatsoever does this creep bother to listen to what Akane is saying to him. When she flees to the ladies’ room, he follows her in and tries to open the door to her stall. Like what the actual fuck?!

When Yamada tells Eita that Runa used his Rurihime account to prank Akane—and put her in potentially legitimate danger—Eita is not happy with his little sister. Eita texts Kamota saying Akane has been kidnapped—maybe a bit too far—so he can give him, Yamada, and Runa a ride to the meeting spot, where Akane is just barely tolerating the creep’s continued presence.

Akane is wearing a bandage on her shin from knocking against the toilet when the creep barged in on her.  When she spots Runa, Runa runs away, and when Akane gets up to chase her she hurts her leg again. But instead of continuing to run, to her credit, Runa turns back and runs towards Akane, getting down on her knees to ensure she’s okay.

Akane has all the guys fuck off so the two of them can have some space and time. And Runa does admit to ditching her and apologizes for being so shitty. Akane can tell she’s super protective of her friends, but makes clear she isn’t trying to take them away. She simply wants to become part of their circle, if Runa will have her.

Later, when having coffee with Yamada, Akane tells him she may stink at romance, but she’s pretty good at making friends with other girls, even tough nuts like Runa. Akane’s capacity for patience, empathy and forgiveness was on full display this week, thus endearing her to me further. If Yamada were to eventually get a damn clue, he’d be lucky to have someone as caring as her as a girlfriend.

Heavenly Delusion – 05 – Pride (In the Name of Love)

Back in the remnants of Tokyo, Maru plays old 8-bit arcade games while he and Kiruko ponder their next move. Maru is interrupted by some thugs who judge a book by it’s cover and try to bully him, but he fights back and kicks all eight of their asses, suffering only a chipped front tooth and a bruise on the cheek. Kiruko arrives to mop up, assuming the thugs started the fight—and they mostly did by picking on him—but there’s no doubt he escalated.

We learn that before Mikura took him in and taught him how to kill Hiruko, he lived in a home with a bunch of other kids, but that place was eventually shut down and the kids were split up among other places. Maru ended up in a roving gang—which explains why he can handle himself in a fight—until Mikura entered his life. Unlike Kiruko, he didn’t see Mikura as a woman so much as another person he had to listen to and obey. It’s in these scenes of his youth that his resemblance to Tokio is really made clear.

Deciding to keep Maru hidden while they goes on a shopping / gun-charging run downtown, Kiruko overhears the thugs still searching for Maru, and also mentioning a “Ministry of Reconstruction”, which they believe may just be an urban legend. They’re glad and even proud to hear “their Maru” is tough, but then wonders why—after all, when their mission is complete, they’ll be all alone again.

Kiruko is in that state of mind when they return to the room to find Maru missing, and immediately panics. Turns out he was next door jerking off to a porno mag, but he can tell how shook Kiruko is, and gives them a supportive hug. He also apologizes for being so dramatic about his past without considering that Kiruko’s was worse…at least in terms of what they lost.

Back in “Heaven”, despite the efforts of the children to keep Tarao in good spirits with a music and dance performance, the next morning the AI cheerfully reports that he has passed away. The children are allowed to participate in the memorial service.

Tokio is particularly wracked by the loss, and brings up the only other kid to die, Asura, with whom Kona was friends. Asura died of suicide, but the director blames their own research for causing her death. When we see Tokio vomiting into a toilet, it’s a bad sign. Is she now ill like Tarao, either just because, or somehow from her adventure with Kuku?

The paths of Kiruko/Maru and Tokio edge ever-so-slightly closer together when a man who was on the boat comes to Kiruko and Maru asks if he can hire them as bodyguards. He’s headed for a place called “Immortal Order” with a priceless sample of the Hiruko. But when he shows them the jar containing the sample, it has already rotted away to nothing.

Nevertheless, Kiruko and Maru are keen on going to this “Immortal Order”, which is in the same area on a map Kiruko purchased where there’s 100% clean water, suggesting it might be the “Heaven” Maru is seeking. Of course, it’s long since been established there’s nothing heavenly about “Heaven”, and the additional label “strange people” is also foreboding.

The researchers at “Heaven” don’t know what killed Tarao (who was immune to everything prior to taking ill), or whether it will happen to the other kids. And when they cremate Tarao’s body, a bizarre, creepy growth remains, untouched by the flames. The man from the boat mentioned transplanting parts of monsters into humans to give them powers and make them immortal.

Hell’s Paradise – 05 – Choosing to Live, and How

Hell’s Paradise is not a show I thought would remind me of Laid-Back Camp, but when Sagiri wakes up in a cavern recovered from the butterfly poison, she finds a campsite where Gabimaru is making dinner, Senta is mending clothes, and Yuzuriha is “supervising”, AKA relaxing in a hammock. Needless to say the group dynamic has changed appreciably since she was last conscious!

While foraging for ingredients for kikatsugan (“starve pill”, a ninja ration), Gabimaru scouted the area with Senta, but found no sign of the Elixir of Life as illustrated in the shogunate flyer. Senta adds that this place doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, either ecologically or spiritually, but is like a “sick mandala” of malformed deities and creatures.

Still, Gabimaru posits that if such strange creatures thrive here, it’s not any more unrealistic for the Elixir to be here too. I also like how Gabimaru tells Yuzuriha he’s never heard of the Elixir before now…that’s a need-to-know basis and let’s face it, while she’s a cutie, Yuzuriha can’t be trusted!

As the sun sets on their first day on the island, Sagiri’s senpai Genji tells her he’ll take over the guarding of Gabimaru, and she should return to the mainland. After all, she’s a “daughter of the Yamada clan first, and a samurai second.” Genji deems her insufficiently strong enough for this island and for guarding Gabimaru. She’s better off going home and tending to her “womanly responsibilities.”

Genji may be an unrepentant misogynist (and his beliefs ignore how strong Yuzuriha is), but he’s a product of his time and upbringing. Another Asaemon guard, Tenza, has a similar relationship to his prisoner Nurugai as Sagiri and Gabimaru. Only in Nurugai is actually only guilty of being the sole survivor of a remote village that defied the Shogunate … simply by existing.

Tenza is done with the island, and is rowing Nurugai through the fog and back to the mainland where he’ll plead his case, but he’s also a samurai of limited knowledge of sea currents, and they end up in a shipwreck graveyard that is home to a colossal kraken-like, many-tentacled monster. As the sole survivor of a village of people who lived for the mountain and the village, Nurugai no longer sees a reason to remain alive.

But Tenza does, and even though Nurugai doesn’t dodge the tentacles, Tenza protects him by cutting through them. Tenza may be a bit of a simpleton, but in this situation, Nurugai need only answer one question: Does he want to live? He thinks of his life at his village and with his gramps, and realizes he does, and fights alongside Tenza to get back to the island.

Once there, the two are bloody messes, and when they disrobe to wash themselves on the beach, Tenza learns that Nurugai is a girl. I love the Dororo-like twist that I should have seen coming, but I love the chemistry of these two characters even more. They truly complement each other, and it will be hard not to root for them even if supposedly only one prisoner will be spared beheading.

Back at Sagiri’s camp, nothing she says gets through to Genji, probably because he only sees her as a walking womb playing at being a samurai. Senta’s position is more nuanced; he’d prefer if she returned purely for her safety, but also believes there’s something about her and Gabimaru that makes her the best, and possibly only, Asaemon who can keep him in line.

That night when she has the wach, Sagiri knows why that must be: the little cathartic moment the two shared that got them both to calm down and agree to cooperate. She and Gabimaru, who is also awake, have a neat little moment where they speak at the same time after a pause. She lets him speak, and he thanks her for calming him down so he can plan for the Iwagakure and work to get back to his wife.

When Sagiri calls him strong, he shocks her by saying so is she; stronger than him, and with a very practical strength. His village taught him you don’t know how strong you are until you’ve been through some shit, and Sagiri certainly has so far. I’m really enjoying the growing bond between these two.

Gabimaru’s words help galvanize Sagiri to refuse to leave the island the next morning when Genji urges her to do so. She prostrates herself in deference to her senpai, but also insists that after a life of being caught between the Yamada clan and his Asaemon father and the ridicule she got for being a woman samurai, she believes it’s her right to choose how she wants to life … and she wants to live as a samurai. Like Gabimaru, she’s done running from those who get in her way.

Genji still isn’t moved, and in fact flashes a cruel grin before drawing his sword. If she won’t listen to “reason”, he’ll demonstrate how ill-equipped she is to be on this island with his sword. Only before he can complete a slash, the sword disappears from his hands and ends up in Sagiri’s.

When he protests for having his “samurai’s heart” stolen, she reminds him he just said this was a battlefield, and tells him procuring weapons on the battlefield is fair game. Then the giant who killed his Asaemon guard suddenly appears behind them, and Genji gets cut nearly in half by his massive bare hand.

I’m confident in predicting Sagiri will be fine, as the others in their camp aren’t far away and would have a decent chance of slowing this guy down with teamwork. Also, Gabimaru has shown he’s willing to protect Sagiri when needed, just as she’s willing to let him get back to his wife. He’s also, ya know, immortal, so even if the giant lops off a chunk of him, he’ll be fine. But it’s still a tense situation to end the episode.

P.S. The OP is probably the best banger of the season.