Mushoku Tensei II – 16 – A New Battle

It’s been three years since Rudy has seen Ruijerd, the Superd is naturally taciturn, and his mere presence reminds him of Eris, so their reunion is a bit awkward at first. Still, Rudy is glad to see his old friend, who he trusts more than anyone. I especially appreciate how Rudy takes’ Ruijerd’s advice vis-a-vis Eris to heart. Ruijerd doesn’t want to intrude, and seems to have some bad blood with Badigadi, but Rudy at least has him eat breakfast with them before departing.

Once Ruijerd is gone, Aisha and Norn are now officially under Rudy and Sylphy’s care. Norn expressed interest in going with Ruijerd since one of her strongest memories of Rudy is hitting their dad, and the fact he’s with “a different woman” now. But while Norn is aloof and distrustful, Aisha couldn’t be happier to be reunited, and is eager to work as Rudy and Aisha’s maid. Rudy asks them both to at least take the academy entrance exam.

The tension below the surface of Aisha and Norn’s sisterhood is exposed like a raw wound when Aisha aces her exam and is thus allowed to skip school and serve as Rudy and Sylphy’s maid. Norn scores slightly below average for her age, but when she asks if she can live in the on-campus dorms and Rudy agrees, Aisha is outraged. She wonders if Rudy is letting Norn have her way because Aisha’s mom is a “concubine”, something Rudy never thought about Lidia.

Balancing his duty to protect his sisters in Paul’s stead while ensuring they’re as happy as they can be is no small task, and represents a new and unexplored challenge to Rudy. But he’s not alone; he has his wife Sylphy by his side to provide a girl’s perspective and as a sounding board for strategy and tactics. As I suspected, they have become his sisters’ adoptive parents.

A month passes, and every time Rudy sees Norn in the halls, she’s alone. He fears she’s made no friends despite living in the dorms, and that’s precisely the case. Rinia and Pursena don’t make things any easier by “gifting” him a bag of underwear from first years with certain figure. Rudy ends up in how water with Ariel, but he is forthright and honest and manages to get out of it unscathed.

The beastgirls’ prank seems a little out of place here, meant strictly to provide some comic relief in an otherwise bittersweet reunion of Rudy with his sisters. Aisha is happy as a clam and the house has never been cleaner, but Norn is clearly having a hard time, hiding under her sheets in her dorm rather than socializing.

Norn is clearly less extroverted and than Aisha, and if she’s just as talented, she struggles to apply herself, perhaps due to the pressures of her more overachieving siblings. Hopefully Rudy, no stranger to antisocial tendencies, can help lift her out of her funk, teach her ways to make friends, and help her find a place she feels she belongs. It may be his toughest battle yet, and his staff and eye can’t help him.

Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 04 – The Band She’d Imagined

The first years are humming along nicely now and the skies are clear for the imminent Sunrise Festival, but for one dark cloud hanging over Tsukinaga Motomu. Even Midori, just about the only classmate he’ll talk to, isn’t sure what it’s about (and doesn’t want to pry), but as he snaps at an underclassman for saying “Tsukinaga” out loud, it’s safe to imagine it’s something family-related.

Just before Kitauji is about to march in the festival, Motomu is approached by his relative, who asks why he hasn’t spoken to his grandfather, the director of the Ryusei Boy’s High concert band. But Motomu won’t be pressured into unwanted contact, and storms away.

The SunFes goes by without a hitch, and Reina shows she can be a good cop too by praising a first-year who improved. But Motomu’s state of mind could affect future performances, so it’s President Kumiko’s job to investigate.

She and Midori end up speaking to Motomu’s relative, who isn’t sure exactly what Motomu’s deal is, but does provide them with two crucial bits of information: Ryusei’s band director, who led them to National Gold last year, is his gramps, and his big sister died three years ago.

Taki-sensei tells Kumiko (and only Kumiko) that Motomu’s gramps reached out to Kitauji about transferring him to Ryusei. Midori also reports to her that she tried to get Motomu to open up about what’s bothering him, but he told her he didn’t want to trouble her any further.

They didn’t have to go to the trouble of animating the complex light of a turning car reflecting off Motomu and Kimiko, but they did, and I love that

It’s Motomu himself who approaches Kumiko at the train station that evening (and gives her her second jump scare in as many minutes). Just as she did with Sally, Kumiko is there to hear him out. He tells her the story of how his sister, who was his musical inspiration, suffered at Ryusei due to the fact she was the director’s granddaughter.

He never goes so far as to blame his gramps for putting his sister in a situation where she eventually became ill and passed away, but suffice it to say he couldn’t see the concert band she imagined at Ryusei, so he went to Kitauji to try to find it for himself. In Midori, he found someone who reminded him of his sister and provided fresh optimism and inspiration.

After Kumiko and Motomu part ways for the night, Kumiko shoots her own big sister Mamiko a couple of texts just to make sure she’s okay. It’s a sign she acknowledges how lucky she is her big sister is still alive, and how the fact Motomu’s isn’t left such a big hole in his life.

Kumiko tells Motomu she wants to make sure everyone is playing at their best so that they’ll give their greatest performance of their three years there. Also, one’s state of mind determines how their performance will sound, so it’s important to trust one’s bandmates, or president, and not carry too much emotional burden on their own.

In a fitting ending, Motomu seems ready to tell Midori everything he told Kumiko, but Midori simply asks if he wants to play something together. So they play an etude for two contrabasses as the credits roll. Instead of talking, there’s an earnest dialogue between their basses, swaying between dissonance and harmony, leading and following. Listening to the two basses from the roof, Kumiko can probably hear that Motomu will be all right.