Adachi & Shimamura – 10 – Finally Adachi

The opening scene is filled with drama and suspense as Adachi prays to be in the same class as Shimamura. Her prayers are answered, and she’s not shy about celebrating it, much to the amusement of Shima, who is sporting a new look with her natural darker hair color. Obviously, the change hasn’t lessoned Adachi’s adoration of her in the slightest.

Shimamura even tests out calling Adachi “Sakura-chan”, predictably turning Adachi into one happy puppy. These two seem locked in, until three new “artificial friends” are drawn into Shima’s orbit, replacing Hino and Nagafuji. They eat lunch and chat together, and even though Shima doesn’t particularly enjoy it, she lets it happen, while Adachi…just kinda runs off.

There’s a lot to read into Shimamura and Adachi’s passivity this week, which starts with Adachi’s hope they’d remain in the same class. She’s not sure Shima would actively seek her out if they were in different classes, and sure enough, Shima admits she wasn’t close enough to Hino or Nagafuji to do that for them.

It’s not abundantly clear what’s up with Adachi, since after that first scene when she learns they’ll be together, we don’t get any more time inside her head. I for one buy that she’s just giving Shima some space, worried about being too possessive or clingy could make things awkward. Of course, her absence from class and from most of the remainder of the episode is its own awkwardness.

While Shimamura doesn’t check to see if Adachi retreated to the second floor of the gym, she also feels her absence when Tarumi calls her, requesting another hang-out. After their last “date” tanked, Tarumi has gone to lengths to rehabilitate her attitude to something more brash, bubbly, and fun. Not only does it come off as extremely forced, but Shima can’t help but not really pick up anything Tarumi puts down. She nods, smiles, and thinks about Adachi instead.

By the end of their second “date”, Tarumi expresses her desire to be full-fledged friends with Shimamura again, like they were as tykes. As with all of her requests to that point, Shima assents, but Tarumi finds it hard to read her vague expressions. They part when Yashiro appears, and when Shima asks herself “Who even am I?” Yashiro replies “You’re just you.”

Nice words, but frankly I still fail to grasp the reason for Yashiro popping in and out of this show at all, just as I continue to wonder why we peek in on Hino and Nagafuji’s long friendship seemingly growing more and more amorous, but only to the point of plausible deniability. If Shimamura ditched these two, why does the show keep checking in on them?

Is it to compare them with the much newer and very different pairing of our two leads? Our two leads were mostly apart this week, while Hino and Nagafuji continue to be stuck like glue. But absence clearly makes the heart grow fonder, as when it comes to Shima having her name called in class, only Adachi will do.

She seems relieved that Adachi finally approached her after she’d descended into a monotonous second-year existence of having lunch with her fake friends and not listening to them prattle on. Adachi worries Shima “doesn’t need her that badly”. But watching Shima’s potential new friends swing and miss, it’s clear at the very least that she prefers Adachi over others. By Shima’s standards, that’s a big deal.

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun – 11 – Artificial Ghost

After fruitlessly prostrating themselves before the bathroom mirrors, Hanako and Kou seek help from Spider-sensei, who directs them to the boundary of the former Second Wonder, Yako, which still exists but is simply no longer under her authority. She leads them to a mirror within her realm (which looks a lot nicer), which leads to the boundary of the Third Wonder.

By the time they arrive, a lot has happened in the Hall of Mirrors. Nene has been put to sleep after trying to stop Tsukasa from forcing Mitsuba to eat the remains of the Third Wonder, which he claims is the only way to keep him from disappearing altogether. Hanako is surprised to see his brother in the boundary, but not as surprised as Kou is to see the friend he thought was gone.

As it turns out, Mitsuba may look, talk, and act very much like the “old” Mitsuba ghost, they’re not the same entity. New Mitsuba is the result of Tsukasa taking the soul, or “reason” he stole from old Mitsuba and placing it in an artificial spirit body constructed from myriad lesser spirits. This new version of Mitsuba becomes the new Third Wonder after eating his predecessor. He also doesn’t seem to remember Kou at all, which is disappointing.

Interestingly, a big battle doesn’t ensue, which surely subverted my expectations. Instead, Mitsuba uses his newfound authority to send Hanako, Nene and Kou back to the living world via mirrors. He may not know Kou, but he knows Nene well enough now to not want harm to befall her, while Tsukasa made a point to be gentle with her earlier. I doubt Hanako can let Mitsuba the Third Wonder stand, but can Kou still find the Mitsuba he knew, or is he truly gone forever?

Tokyo Ghoul:re – 01 (First Impressions) – New Faces, New Ballgame

Tokyo Ghoul is back! Umm…yay? I for one wasn’t chomping at the bit for a sequel, to be honest. That’s not a mark against the previous season’s quality, nor my investment in it at the time.

I’ve just watched a lot of anime since Root A, and I guess I’d moved on, while the fact this season does not focus on the main characters from the previous ones further dulled enthusiasm.

Thankfully, the learning curve for getting back into the swing of things—Doves, Ghouls, Orochi, Kagune, got it—wasn’t too bad, and the new characters were introduced along with a comfortably familiar few cameos and name drops, which made the medicine go down easier.

Long story short, a couple of years have passed since Root A, and the CCG are now deploying Quinx Squad, which is not a combination of Quincy and Twix…but it could’ve been. Rather, they’re humans who are able to use the typical Ghoul tricks of the trade thanks to artificial means.

They use those tricks against full-fledged Ghouls that are working against the betterment of society, like the taxi driver “Torso”, so named because that’s the only part of the women he takes.

The Quinx squad is led by Sasaki Haise, whose hair reminds you instantly of Kanzaki Kei, and following that bridge to the past, we later learn Kei is in Sasaki’s head, just as Rize was in his.

Within the various Quinx teams there’s a bit of a turf scuffle over who gets to bring in Torso, but it’s really more of a race between the teams (Sasaki’s superior is Mado Akira, whom we know) and even a competition within Team Mado itself, with Sasaki’s subordinate Urui trying to claim all the glory by himself, manipulating their colleague Shirazu to do so.

I felt immediately putting the team at odds with each other was a nice way to give an edge to the proceedings right off the bat—this is a cutthroat business, and even if everyone’s pretty much on the same side, a lot of other interests are in play.

Rounding out the five-person crew are the timid Mutsuki and Saiko-chan, the only female member who we never see until the end credits.

Urui’s desire to “take initiative” fails in the beginning of the episode, when he and Shirazu have to be bailed out by Sasaki, and it fails at the end, when thanks to Mutsuki and a bit of luck, they suddenly find and engage Torso, but he’s too much for them, especially when a fellow ghoul shows up who’s much tougher.

As such, by all going their separate ways, Quinx Squad Team Mado still manages to end up in the same place, on the cusp of closing a case that will distinguish them among their peers, but which will require the defeat of a rather tough boss. Makes me wonder if the team’s X Factor is the so far off-camera Saiko-chan…or if Sasaki has to draw more from his Inner Kaneki Ken

I wouldn’t recommend anyone unfamiliar with Tokyo Ghoul get into this, due to the fact it doesn’t spend a lot of time holding newbies’ hands, but if you’ve been a fan of the adaptation thus far, I’d say this is at worst worth a look, and at best a must-see.