Heavenly Delusion – 11 – Two by Two, Eyes of Blue

The new Fifth-Years are doing a number on Mimihime—whom I only just realized has animal ears in addition to ESP—but her pains are nothing compared to Tokio’s labor, an unprecedented event at the academy. Not only that, it seems Kona can sense some of that pain.

This episode is “Heaven”-heavy, so by nature it had to be “Hell”-light. The first of Kiruko and Maru’s two scenes keeps it light, naming the totally bitchin’ Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon they inherited from Juuichi by merging all of their names: Kirukomaru II. The “II” representing Juuichi, which means 11 but should be read as Roman numerals.

Tokio successfully gives birth to what looks to be a healthy boy, but the Director confides in Sawatari that she is planning to transplant her brain into the child when he’s old enough. To get over the fact she’s 80 and may not make it, she’ll transplant her brain into Assistant Director Aoshima’s first.

First of all, her casually saying “the assistant director knows they’ll eventually become the director” sent a chill down my spine. That’s not how promotion works, lady! But yeah, what might’ve been good intentions to rebuild civilization has clearly gotten to the Director’s head. She has delusions of grandeur (and immortality) and there’s no law or god to stop her.

The twist of the knife is that Sawatari is recalling this chilling meeting with the Director while watching Tokio’s newborn in the nursery, and who should pop her head in to call the baby cute but the Director’s next vessel, poor Aoshima. This is some demented Being John Malkovich shit.

In Kiruko and Maru’s only other scene, they stop at an abandoned and completely gutted house to sleep for a bit, but because Maru slept off his carsickness he’s wide awake, and spots a plume of illuminated smoke on the night horizon. He wakes Kiruko, who gets out their map and compass and determines that the smoke is coming from the Takahara facility.

We then zoom in on that smoking, churning, foreboding complex, which resembles neither “Heaven” nor the facility where Sawatari and Aoshima are (or were). Stalking its halls is Robin—or possibly whomever had their brain transplanted into Robin? Who knows with this show!

Mimihime, bless her heart, reaches out to Ohma, one of the Fifth Year kids who is off on her own, saying she’d just annoy the other kids and crying big sopping tears. Mimihime gets out her handkerchief to dry Ohma’s eyes.

When Ohma opens them, they glow blue, and Mimihime experiences her worst fear: the wall opens up and she’s restrained, poked, prodded, and stabbed by implacable machines. It’s literally a heavenly delusion.

Mimihime went through the same hallucinatory nightmarish experience as Kiruko, which all but confirms Ohma is, or will be, the Hiruko at the Immortal Order parking garage. Mimihime wakes up in the infirmary where she encounters Kona, who explains that he and Tokio are now “synchronized.” While Tokio is fine, he’s stuck in bed.

As he talks, Kona transforms into a hideous, very Hiruko-like monster. It may just be another hallucination, but it’s still creepy as fuck. But it’s also productive, as Mimihime is able to will away the illusion and restore reality Kona and the room.

Having stumbled upon a defense for the hallucinations, the next time she sees Ohma (who was waiting for her to return her handkerchief), she again removes her dark glasses, and is again restrained by machines. Only this time, Mimihime is able to will those away, telling Ohma she’s okay; she doesn’t have to cry or apologize.

The Adults at Takahara are the blind being led by the artificial: following directions for building something they know not what. We then see Sawatari and Aoshima speaking in the Director’s office, but the Director isn’t there; just her wheelchair. Are they following her orders, are they planning a revolt against her? Also, Tokio gave birth to twins.

The next morning all the children are summoned to the pool, but not to swim. They’re reunited with Tokio, who tells them she’ll be returning to them soon. Then the robot announces that there is to be a test. It will be a long test, but they’ll have plenty of time.

It also explicitly calls them all “Hiruko” for the first time, and a couple of the children comment that hearing that words sounded like they were hearing their real name for the first time. The test, no doubt, involves most if not all of them transforming into horrible monsters, doesn’t it? I hate this!

Mind you, this isn’t bad. It’s just upsetting, even if it had become all but inevitable that these kids would end up being the Hiruko that Kiruko and Maru hunt in the near future. It sucks because I’ve come to care about Tokio, Kona, Mimihime, and the other kids, and don’t want them to suffer.

But they surely will, and all to satisfy the whims of one megalomaniacal old woman, out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct.

Hell’s Paradise – 10 – Wave Theory

When Gabimaru ends up face-to-face with Tamiya Gantetsusai and his Asaemon minder Fuchi, he and Gantetsusai have a number of battles just in their heads, in which they’re fairly evenly matched. But while Gabimaru has drunk the Elixir of life and is for all intents and purposes immortal, Gantetsusai is simply immensely strong, which is arguably more impressive.

The “immortality” he seeks isn’t living forever; that would be boring. Rather, he wants the immortality that comes from having your name be known far and wide long after he dies. If no human has defeated a Tensen yet, he’ll be the first. Rather than fight, Gabimaru convinces the three of them to work together. He then turns around to find Mei has suddenly grown into a young woman.

Sagiri and Yuzuriha sadly don’t have much to do besides listen to Senta geek out about this place, and determining through his extensive knowledge of religions and cultures that this place must have been man-made. He even suggest a man names Moro Makiya, who once tried to overthrow the shogunate, may have been responsible.

Elsewhere on the island, Nurugai continues to follow Shion, and even tries to launch a sneak attack, trying to convince him to train her in the Asaemon ways. He defeats her by knocking her sword away in such a way that it lands right back in its scabbard on her back, which he nudges her just a little to the left so it doesn’t kill her.

It’s not just that Shion doesn’t want to train another young person who will just get themselves killed—he learns Nurugai doesn’t simply want revenge, but to prevent others from dying, which is noble. It’s that sensing the “waves” that everything has isn’t something that can be quickly or easily taught. He’s a busy man, so if she wants to learn it will have to be self-study.

The older Mei is able to speak, but she speaks in riddles. The waves Shion speaks of? Another term for them is “Tao”, another loan word from a distinct religion. Whoever can master Tao has a good chance of holding their own against the Tensen, so Gantetsusai scoops of Mei and asks her to teach him more.

As for the Tensen, Tao Fa and Mu Dan are gettin’ it on (because how else should virtual gods spend their ample free time). Mu Dan explains why no human can escape from the flower pit because anyone who falls in is too weak to climb its sheer walls, form which the limbs of others grab hold to keep them down there.

This explanation is followed by an almost comedic cut to Choubei climbing out of the pit with Touma on his back. And Choubei is pissed. Whatever Touma says to him, he responds with “We’re killing those shitheads, Touma.”

While urging Touma to eat the flesh of the flower people to keep his strength up, they are suddenly confronted by a new, third class of being on the island, a Doshi. The serve as the right hand of the Tensen, acting as servants, fixers, and go-betweens. The Doshi can speak and reason, unlike the “defective” Soshin.

This Doshi has one reason for approaching the brothers: to insist that they return to the pit so his master can harvest their tan (I assume life energy). Choubei responds with violence, but the Doshi responds in kind, and proves an extremely powerful opponent.

Unlike the hordes of Soshin Touma easily slashes down, the Doshi carefully assesses Choubei’s tao and determines that not only has he not achieved full awareness of his own tao (and thus can only harness it imperfectly), but he’s also too injured and exhausted to pose a threat.

To drive these points home, the Doshi strikes Choubei down, relieving him of much of his blood. Will Touma fight, or try to solve things with talk, as the Doshi initially tried before Choubei attacked him?

TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – S2 10 – A Matter of Trust

While napping on the tatami, Nasa remembers the night he met Tsukasa. He remains glad he was able to so quickly agree to her offer to go out with him if they got married. If Tsukasa is some kind of immortal goddess, you could say he formed a contract with her that night, though as far as he knows she’s just a normal human girl.

Despite her insistence that they can gaze at the stars from atop a skyscraper in the city, Nasa accepts Tokiko’s offer of a camping trip, and the whole gang decides to join them. Nasa remarks that it’s almost like the wedding reception they never had. Also, Tsukasa may be a ninja.

The calming, intimate environment puts Nasa in the mood, but Tsukasa is worried about being seen—justifiably so, as Tokiko suddenly appears in their apparently secluded spot. She encourages the couple to do what married couples do when their alone, and is reproached by Tsukasa in an aggressive manner that again suggests talking to someone younger than her.

When lil’ Kyuuma gets lost (though it’s later revealed she actually just went to the bathroom), everyone fans out to look for her, and Nasa ends up lost himself. When falls asleep on a comfy flat rock, and again remembers the first night he met Tsukasa.

When she wakes him up and he brings up that night, she comments him for having answered her unusual request so quickly and decisively. It meant he truly trusted her, and enabled her to trust him. He explains that he was able to answer so quickly because he was overjoyed that she turned his way. That’s all it took.

These last two episodes have been slowly peeling back the layers of the onion that is Yuzaki Tsukasa. We’ll see if the show delves all the way down to the core of who and what she is, or hold fast with the partial answers we have and trust us to accept that some mysteries are best left preserved.