Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage – 13 (Fin) – Stage Clear

Most of this finale is given over to Fuuka’s play, which serves as a proxy for how Fuuka has wrestled with who she is, who she wants or thinks she should be, and what she wants. Tama plays the isolated, pure Kris; Misuzawa plays the awkward yet curious Libra, and Aoi plays the clever but empty Alucia.

The play is a big hit with the audience, but Tomozaki himself is thrown for a loop when the ending on the stage turns out to be different than the one Fuuka showed him. In this ending, Kris doesn’t return to the garden to hang out with Libra and Alucia. Instead, she writes to them reporting that she’s well on her own, and congratulating them on their impending nuptials.

When the play ends, Tomozaki doesn’t go to Fuuka. He simply leaves the school, feeling that he gave things his best shot but lost, while convinced once and for all that life, while cruel, is no “garbage game.” He’s convinced Fuuka’s new ending was a rejection of him, and he’s not alone. Mimimi chases after him and tells him it’s not right how things ended, and that he shouldn’t merely take the play as the last word.

She could have just as easily said “then pick me”, but that’s not who Mimimi is. Instead, she gives him the push he needs to return to the library to ask Fuuka why she made the choice she did. And it all comes down to her not feeling right about letting her emotions overwhelm her ideals. She believes Libra could only be with Alucia, and only her selfishness would artificially keep them apart.

Tomozaki digs deep in his defense of him and Fuuka, telling her that while she came from a place of ideals and discovered emotions, he went in the opposite direction, starting without any ideals and only emotion and thanks to Aoi, finding a balance between the two.

And even when Fuuka the Writer still isn’t able to twist the ending of the play, Tomozaki presents her with the reality: he likes her, and wants them to be a couple. Libra was a locksmith in the play, and Tomozaki is able to unlock the solution for Fuuka.

And there you have it! I’ve gone on record being okay with Tomozaki ending up with Mimimi or Fuuka, but if I’m honest, he and Fuuka have already been an item for some time now. They just work, and that comfort and coziness continues even after they start dating, with Fuuka becoming just a little more demanding of him, which he doesn’t mind one bit.

Aoi couldn’t be happier with Tomozaki’s progress, because it proves that she was right to push him to change, and right about the offline game of life being worth playing. She still has a lot to teach him, and Tomozaki is looking forward to the challenges. But for now, he accepts her congratulations and reads Fuuka’s new ending to her novel that she wrote just for her.

It’s an ending in which Libra and Kris live happily ever after, having found their sky together. The only way I’d have been pissed is if Tomozaki chose no one, so I’m perfectly fine with this ending! It also featured some top-notch acting from both Kayano Ai (Fuuka) and Hasegawa Ikumi (Mimimi).

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage – 12 – Playing with Firelings

Helping Fuuka break out of her cage she’s built for herself isn’t something Tomozaki thinks he should do, but it is something he wants to do, because he, like me, likes Fuuka just fine the way she is, and she shouldn’t think she has to change just so she can follow in his or Hinami’s footsteps.

He utilizes the misfit Firelings from the Andi story—the only ones who didn’t befriend the Popple—to give Fuuka space to rethink her goals, which she admits she’s not entirely certain about. He also shows her an online forum of Andi fans—a whole mess of “Firelings”, to show her that she doesn’t have to choose between becoming someone else or being lonely.

Fuuka is almost relieved Tomozaki is able to verbalize what he believes to be her quandary, and really comes off as someone who simply needed someone to tell her straight-up that she really is best off being herself and not overthinking things. She even rewrites the ending of the play so Kris pursues a passion rather than fitting herself into a square hole.

Every time Mimimi sees Tomozaki interacting with Fuuka, engaged in easy yet spirited discussion, she looks forlorn and lonely. Tomozaki informs Hinami at their next meeting that he’s made his decision of who he’s going to choose. And Tomozaki tells Fuuka—not Mimimi—that there’s something he needs to talk with her about after the festival.

Mimimi likes Tomozaki enough that even on the day of the festival, when Gumi and her two friends from their festival show up to return the favor for Tomozaki and Mizusawa, she’s performatively scandalized by his flirtatious exploits, but beneath the over-acting she’s likely hiding real resentment and pain.

After all, Mimimi has pretty much come out and told Tomozaki how she feels. Her cards are on the table, and yet he’s refused to respond to her, keeping her in his friendzone. She wants to spend more time with him, but here he is, spending time with the adorable Fuuka and these cuties from another school.

One thing I was certain of was that considering their chemistry and bonhomie, Tomozaki and Mimimi were going to do a decent job with their comedy routine. They start strong, but Tomozaki suddenly freezes, wracked by the pressure of the silence filling the room around him.

Mimimi bails him out by telling a joke explaining their name that gets no laughs, and he’s able to snap out of it and get back on track. I just wish we’d have been able to see more of the routine with the crowd response … I felt shortchanged, much like Mimimi!

After the routine, the two head up to the roof to cool down after those hot lights, and both agree that they were certainly, definitely, probably pretty good up there, for amateurs! If that sounds like a lot of qualifiers, well, we are dealing with two people with inferiority issues.

When Tomozaki’s phone goes off announcing the play is about to start—the play with Fuuka—Mimimi’s smile dissipates. And just when Tomozaki is most likely about to tell her there’s something he needs to talk about after the festival (like he did with Fuuka), Mimimi interrupts him, and tells him she had fun with the comedy routine, and sends him on his way.

Once he leaves, she no longer has to act like she’s in a good mood. It’s over”, she says while stretching, talking about the routine, then looks out at the world below, as her long blue hair cascades in the wind, and says “It’s all over,” not talking about the comedy routine.

Everything this week pointed to Tomozaki asking Fuuka out, and I actually agree that Fuuka might be a slightly better match for Tomozaki, both currently and in the long run. But is that really how it’s going to go down? Who’s to say? All I know is, as long as Tomozaki chooses one of them, and not neither, I’ll be satisfied. The latter would be the ultimate cop-out.

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage – 11 – Leaving the Garden

At the first meeting of the cast for Fuuka’s play the mood is a little stiff, but Hinami helps break the ice by acting out a line as Princess Alucia absolutely pitch-perfectly, which gets everyone into it. Dealing with all these people is a big step for Fuuka, but she tells Tomozaki she had fun the first day.

She wants to make sure he makes time for his comedy routine with Mimimi, so she says she’ll handle tomorrow’s rehearsal by herself. It’s also part of her effort to “change” herself, like he and Tama did, by jumping into the deep end.

Mimimi demonstrates how good a comedic duo she and Tomozaki make by simply engaging in their usual repartee, which always has a nice rhythm and structure to it. By comparison, hearing a recording of them following her script doesn’t pop the same way, so she suggest they include more improvisation.

Tomozaki admits in inner monologue that he can see him and Mimimi dating, but isn’t sure how that dynamic would differ from their current status as friends. Instead of talking to her about them more, he brings up Hinami and how he doesn’t get why she tries so hard to be the best at everything. Mimimi just hopes that Hinami isn’t “hollow” like she is after all that work.

When he returns to rehearsal, Tomozaki finds that Fuuka is just barely hanging on, as her effort to speak to everyone directly has led to a general lack of cohesion and inability for everyone to focus. It’s all well and good to try something new, but at the end of the day they do need to put on a show and that requires focus.

When Fuuka presents Tomozaki with the long-awaited ending to her script (and perhaps her novel as well), it’s not what he expects at all. Instead of answering the question of who Libra ends up with, after visiting the town and learning just how little she knows about the outside world, Kris disappears from the garden, gets a job, and starts living alone in the town.

Tomozaki thinks this ending is sad, too sad for the play. It’s the first time he’s seriously pushed back, and it’s when she’s clearly poured her heart into an ending she can accept. It also happens to be a path Fuuka herself wants to follow.

Leaving the “garden” of her isolated life in the library, she seeks to meet the “ideal” represented by people like Tama, Tomozaki, and Hinami. In response to his criticism, Fuuka tells him about one of her favorite Andi books with an outsider protagonist, working hard to change and “fit in” in the world.

At the next rehearsal, Hinami is present (she’d been in and out due to student council business), and Fuuka is very clearly taking cues from her in handling the cast. Mizusawa sidles up to Tomozaki and asks him what’s up with Fuuka.

When he tells him, Mizusawa notes that what Fuuka is doing is actually the opposite of what he and Tama were doing. Tomozaki’s ideal came from within, while Fuuka takes more of a birds-eye-view, wanting to meet the world’s ideals, not her own.

And that right there is why I understand Tomozaki’s concerns with the path Fuuka’s on, and even share some of them. It’s nice to want to change, but they way she’s doing it implies Fuuka believes she is somehow lacking, or deficient.

At what point does her self-improvement kick fundamentally change who Kikuchi Fuuka is? That is, the girl Tomozaki has a lot of affection for as a friend, and never thought of as someone in such dire need of transforming herself.

There’s also the whole matter of Fuuka believing wholeheartedly that Hinami Aoi is “a very ideal person”, when evidence is mounting she may actually a troubled person who either won’t ever reveal her true self to anyone, or doesn’t actually have one. You can’t say that about Fuuka, so if anyone is in need of a change, it’s actually Hinami, not Fuuka!

Tomozaki doesn’t know what exactly is going on in Fuuka’s head, but he wants to try to understand, so he buys the e-book of the Andi story she’s decided to follow stays up all night reading it, and believes he’s found a clue. I’m not saying Fuuka’s in the wrong for wanting to change herself, it’s just a matter of level, and not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Similarly, it’s okay and only natural to code-switch between school life, home life, work life, etc. But Hinami Aoi has taken it to a concerning extreme, and I doubt we’ll be able to scratch the surface of why that is before this season is out.

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 10 – Serious in Spring

It’s been two months since Tsubasa moved to Hokkaido, but he’s feeling a lot less out of place. Even as the sakura are blooming in Tokyo, there’s still snow on the ground in his new home. He also finds Minami waiting for him so they can walk to school together. She’s apprehensive about the possibility they might end up in different classes.

Tsubasa cheers her up by assuring her he’ll visit her even if they do get separated, but it turns out everyone is back together for the new term, including Sayuri and Matsuo. Sayuri is also sporting a shorter haircut for the coming of spring, and can’t help but blush when Tsubasa compliments how great she looks.

When Matsuo nominates Tsubasa as the new class president, and Minami volunteers to be his veep, Sayuri clearly looks left out. But that night she and Tsubasa chat on the phone as they game together and have an absolute blast. Even when Sayuri mentions how she doesn’t think she’s changed at all, Tsubasa quickly points out all the ways that she has. She wants to tell him it’s all thanks to him, but is interrupted by the completion of his in-game house renovations.

The next day after school, Minami mentions how it feels like the two of them are the only ones in the world as they prepare printouts for the class. When he asks why she decided to volunteer to be veep, she doesn’t mince words: it was to spend as much time with him as possible. When he says she’s been teasing him a lot lately, she tells him she’s not; she’s been serious about it all.

Before they part ways on the walk home, Minami tells Tsubasa to keep a day open during Golden Week, because there’s something she has to tell him. She’s never sounded more serious, so hopefully Tsubasa is getting more of a hint about what she intends to do.

If she intends to confess her feelings and declare her desire to go out with him, then what of Sayuri, who quite clearly also has feelings for him? We might be approaching the point at which the three friends can’t just be friends together anymore … but I hope I’m wrong!

Classroom of the Elite – S3 10 – Out of the Darkness

Yukimura wants to try recruiting 1-A’s Katsuragi as an informant, offering him a transfer to their class once they reach Class A. Suzune turns the idea down as unrealistic considering the vast amount of points needed (2o million). Ayanokouji agrees to at least accompany Yukimura. Katsuragi doesn’t agree to their terms, but he still wants Sakayanagi to lose, so he gives them some broad strokes and best guesses as to Class A’s exam subjects.

In the time they’ve known each other, Ayanokouji has gotten much better at avoiding Suzune’s bad side, at least when he’s not trying to access it. His reward this week is getting a classy home-cooked meal from her as she discusses class analytics. He’s content to leave everything in her clearly capable hands, but does request that she participate in the chess competition. He’ll be her coach.

Two days before the exam, Suzune tries to get Yousuke to at least commit to giving the bare minimum effort if group activities when the day arrives, but he ignores her. Mei once again tries to get him to talk to her, but she shoves her down. Kouenji witnesses the violence and swoops in as her shining white knight, his way of rattling Yousuke’s cage and get him to understand how his pathetic uselessness is hurting those around him.

Ayanokouji observes this exchange, and determines the time is right to truly bring the hammer down on this “broken” Yousuke. He approaches him and asks him simply to tell him why he is being the way he is. When Yousuke asks him what purpose that would serve, Ayanokouji says him he’ll have told him, which can be a purpose in and of itself.

Yousuke acquiesces, and we learn how his inaction in a class bullying regime almost led to the suicide of a classmate. He vowed never to let something like that happen again, and decided to rule the class with an iron grip, meting out punishment to anyone who fell out of line. The result was a broken class, in which everyone acted like cowed automatons. He thought he’d learned his lesson, only for this latest situation with Yamauchi to unfold.

Ayanokouji doesn’t mince words with Yousuke: Yamauchi’s expulsion wasn’t Suzune’s fault, nor was it his; it is solely Yousuke. While he wanted to save everyone, he didn’t do everything possible to make it happen, the way Hounami did in Class B. His belief was nothing more than a fantasy.

If he truly did everything he could, and still failed, it’s incumbent upon him to take all of the blame, and keep walking forward. If he’s struggling, he can ask those same classmates for help. He’ll get out what he puts in. By showing he’s doing everything he can for the class, they’ll do everything they can for him. They can walk forward together.

As Ayanokouji calculated, this cage-rattling did the trick, snapping Yousuke out of his personal pity party. The next morning he’s cleaned himself up, apologizes profusely to Mei and the entire class, and promises going forward he’ll help the class succeed in the coming exam. And while he doesn’t regret opposing Suzune’s methods in the previous exam, he acknowledges she wasn’t wrong, and offers a hand of friendship, which Suzune takes with a smile.

With the return of amity and cohesiveness to Class C, they’re in as good a position as any for this final exam. The day before it begins, Suzune plays 54 online games against Ayanokouji losing all but three, but he assures her she’s made extraordinary progress.

The next morning, Class D’s Captain Kaneda doesn’t show, and Ryuuen arrives in his place to take on Honami and Class B. They head one way, while Ayanokouji and Sakayanagi head another, to finally have their big season-ending showdown.

Classroom of the Elite – S3 09 – Triggering a Flag

Sakayanagi informs Ayanokouji what he likely deduced on his own: she had Class A use their positive votes on him to spare him expulsion, all so they could have a proper duel. She also chose Yamauchi to expel because he was a dick to her at the training camp. Their chat is interrupted by their soon-to-be new Chairman, Tsukishiro, who will take over in April.

He skips the foreplay and knocks Sakayanagi’s cane out from under her, then pins Ayanokouji to the wall. Little more than a thug, he relays a message from his father: voluntarily drop out now. By not blinking twice, or even once, Ayanokouji refuses. Once Tsukishiro departs with this answer, Ayanokouji proposes that he and Sakayanagi officially compete in the next special exam.

That exam, which will be the last of the school year, involves two Classes competing against one another. Each class choses ten subjects of competition, be it athletics, academics, or games, to create a pool of twenty. Of those, seven will be chosen at random by the school. Each class also picks a captain who can’t directly participate in any subjects, but can guide everyone else.

Sudou and Ike want to know why Ayanokouji won the most positive votes. Suzune defends him, inferring that Sakayanagi betrayed Yamauchi by sending her votes to Ayanokouji. That said, class trust in him has been shaken by the last exam, so he volunteers to be the captain, understanding that if Class C loses to their opponent, he’ll be expelled.

The class isn’t without its malcontents. Kouenji isn’t quite that, but he’s so damn stubborn and whimsical you never know if he’ll pull through or not. As for Yousuke, the last exam straight up broke the guy. Now he harbors no illusions about being nice to anyone, not even Mei, perhaps the sweetest girl in class who is only worried about him.

When Kei calls him out for being mean to Mei, Yousuke glares at her and tells her to stop calling him by his given name, then warns her to get off his case, lest he go nuclear and tell the class their relationship was a complete fabrication. He storms out, and Mei runs after him.

That night we get out Kei-Being-Cute Scene of the Week, as she arrives at Ayanokouji’s dorm with a “Heyo.” He invited her there to talk about various class dynamics as usual, but also to give her a birthday gift. She’s touched he learned it, and when she finds it to be a golden heart necklace, she’s … confused?

Turns out it was the top gift for a high school girl on a website Ayanokouji purused. While it’s the thought that counts, Kei would have preferred he actually pick something out based on what he knew of her. But while she’s critical, she’s not about to reject a birthday gift from the boy she likes, particularly a heart. The old Karuizawa confidence shines through when she admits that she’s so gorgeous, anything looks good on her, which is the truth.

Ayanokouji happens to encounter Manabe and Akane at a crosswalk, and reports that Suzune is giving the newest exam her all. Ayanokouji asks Manabe why he was so rough with Suzune back when they first met, and Manabe’s answer is enlightening. He didn’t want her to perfectly imitate him, because it meant she was dependent on him, rather than growing into her own.

Manabe freely admits (and betrays his high regard for his sister) that if Suzune were to stop “chasing his phantom” and face herself with “perfect honesty”, she’d surpass him, and become someone even Ayanokouji couldn’t ignore. Ayanokouji not only believes Suzune can change in that way, but wants to be the one to try changing her.

On that note, Ayanokouji asks if Manabe and Akane are dating. Akane’s reaction is priceless, as is Manabe’s immediate reply in the negative. Manabe poses the question to Ayanokouji, who admits he does not have a girlfriend at the moment. Manabe wouldn’t mind giving him and Suzune his blessing, but doesn’t see them as a couple. Akane again interjects, warning him not to “trigger a flag”.

The moments of levity in this episode are welcome after that particularly tough voting exam followed by Tsukishiro’s naked brutality towards both Ayanokouji and Sakayanagi. Honestly, the best partner for Ayanokouji may be and may have always been the Short Queen of Class A.

She clearly considers him someone worthy of her attention and her maximum effort, and with Class C going against Class A and one of A’s subjects being chess, it looks like she’s already determined what form their duel will take.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 06 – Mommie Dearest

In a break from previous episodes, there’s barely any Utena or Kiwi in this one. Instead, Hanabishi Haruka gets to shine as the unofficial “Team Mom” of Tres Magia. When Kaoruko points out how Sayo hasn’t been on her A game lately and Sayo fires back, Haruka breaks up the fight, knowing above all, they must remain positive.

It’s also established that Haruka is an extremely kindhearted girl, if a bit weird in her dietary habits. When she sees Korisu not playing with the other girls in the park, she approaches her and speaks to her through a cute little doll keychain, then spends all afternoon playing with her.

When Haruka has to end their impromptu playdate to go grocery shopping, Korisu isn’t quite ready to stop playing. And while Haruka learned her lesson not to wander into strange places, a giant stuffed animal grabs her and carries her in.

She comes to in a giant crib, not just looking and feeling like a baby, but believing herself to be one, forgetting that she’s a magical girl. She starts to cry because she’s all alone, but Adult Neroalice is there to hold, comfort, feed, and play with her.

When the “spell” on Haruka starts to wear off, she transforms back into her older self, only without pants, and Neroalice in the middle of changing her due to all the milk she’s been drinking. This is when the fantasy of being transformed into a literal infant shifts to full-on paraphilic infantilism.

With Haruka back to her normal size and knowing who she is, the illusion is broken, and Neroalice opens a portal to leave. But sensing how much fun Neroalice was having and not wanting her to be sad, Haruka keeps the baby play going of her own volition.

That’s how kind Haruka is: even if a little girl wants to pretend she’s a big baby, feed her too much milk, make her wet herself, and then change her, Haruka will let her do it, because it’s better than that little girl feeling sad or lonely. And while this marks two straight episodes where Neroalice does some pretty freaky shit to magical girls, there’s an inherent innocence to her that Kiwi and even Utena lack.

While Haruka is being babied, Kaoruko recalls when she was first attacked by a monster and beat the shit out of it, impressing Haruka and Sayo, the only two members of … Dos Magia at the time. Haruka’s “unabashed positivity” eventually gets to Kaoruko, and she agreed to join them and make them Tres.

She may find Haruka to be wierdo, annoying, or too motherly at times, but on the whole Kaoruko is glad to call her a friend and to fight beside her, even if their battles haven’t been going too well of late. When she and Sayo sense trouble and find Haruka in the park Winnie the Poohing it, they ask her what happened to her.

Haruka, not wanting to be mean even to her Enormita foe (and also not wanting to reveal that their team mom was a baby for an afternoon), just tells them whatever it was, she feels good. I love how she puts it, because you could construe it either as her having had fun keeping a lonely little girl entertained, or having oddly enjoyed wetting herself. WhyNotBoth.gif?

Vinland Saga S2 – 22 – The Man With No Enemies

The punches begin, and even after twenty of Drott’s best, Thorfinn is still standing. Among the warriors watching, only Wulf realizes that Thorfinn is subtly positioning himself so that the punches don’t impact his core. Einar believes this to be madness and wants to stop it, but won’t interfere; he owes that to his friend.

When Snake arrives with Olmar, Thorfinn is distracted enough not to make the right move, and the thirty-second punch lands true, sending him flying to the ground. Snake tells Thorfinn there’s no need for this; if talking could have solved this conflict, they would have done so. Thorfinn disagrees: Did they really exhaust all avenues of conversation?

The answer, of course, is no. When Canute’s men raised their swords, Ketil’s men raised them in turn. But what follows is one of Thorfinn’s best and most noble and badass moments to date.

He stands back up, points at Drott, tells him his punches hurt less than bug bites, and tells him to hurry up with the remaining sixty-eight, as he’s a busy man with things to do.

Drott isn’t angry. Instead, he regards his indomitable opponent with the respect he deserves, and gets back to the punching. Snake moves to intervene, but Einar grabs his arm and tightens his grip. Thorfinn must be allowed to see this through.

The sun is low by the time Drott reaches one hundred punches, and by then, he is so exhausted they have no power at all. The hundredth is merely a gentle tap against the grostesquely swollen but still-standing Thorfinn’s chest. Drott falls to one knee and apologizes to Thorfinn for doubting him. He is a true warrior.

Drott then begs Wulf to let Thorfinn have an audience with the king. Under the cirsumstances, Wulf cannot refuse this request, and has the other solders make way for Thorfinn and Einar. Whatever else happens from here, Thorfinn and his “first method” has prevailed. He has shown everyone present that 100 punches from their strongest man aren’t enough to break his will.

Canute hears Wulf’s plea and grudgingly allows Thorfinn to approach, respecting his men’s feelings. Canute begins their talk by remarking that Thorfinn must hate him for enslaving him. However, Thorfinn offers the king his gratitude for sparing his life after he struck Danish royalty.

He also apologizes for giving Canute the scar on his face, and Wulf puts the remaining pieces together: despite being so young and tiny, this is the Thorfinn who is a match for that man-beast Thorkell himself. Canute acknowledges Thorfinn’s words as commendable, but when asked to leave the farm, he must refuse.

He explains that Ketil began this dispute, while his son killed ten of his men, and then Ketil refused demands to surrender and grossly overestimated his ragtag army’s strength.

All these things are true, but they are also excuses. We know that because we were in Canute’s private chambers when he decided he needed to make an example of the landowners and requisition farmland to feed his armies. Despite not having been privy to that context, Einar still calls Canute out for what he is: nothing but a thief, no better than a Viking chiefs who raized his village and killed his family.

Canute admits that is true; he’s not only a Viking Chief, but Chief of Chiefs. Thorfinn asks him if he still intends to build a paradise for those who suffer. But just as Thorfinn changed in the last four years into someone like his father who rejects war as nothing but a waste, the past four years have hardened Canute into someone who embraces war as a tool.

Like a farmer tills a land with a hoe, he shall till the very world itself with his vast armies of Vikings. Only then, when he has the power to defeat a God who has denied happiness to all who walk the earth, will he truly be able to build the paradise he envisions.

As Canute gestures for his men to menacingly surround Thorfinn and Einar, it is clear these two men, once boys, share the same dream of paradise but hold diametrically opposed philosophies for achieving it.

Having spoken his piece (and letting Einar speak his as well), the only two options remaining for Thorinn are to die right there on that beach, or flee and live until such a time as his arguments are persuasive enough to convince Canute, or some other king, that war solves and achieves nothing.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Vinland Saga S2 – 09 – Climb of Atonement

It was all a dream. So thinks a clean-shaven Thorfinn, lounging in a grassy meadow when a lamb wakes him. Uemura Yuuto voices this carefree version of him in a way we’ve never heard Thorfinn speak, or if we have, it was so long ago he might as well have been a different person. In reality, Einar is just finishing up a fight with the retainers that he wins, because he won’t stop getting back up and his opponents are tired of fighting.

Thorfinn’s dream turns quickly when his father Thors appears and says he smells blood. Thorfinn looks down to find the dagger Thors gave him for protection thrust into the neck of a young Einar, who transforms into the older Einar he knows. As corpses sprout out of the ground to grab the father and son, it is only the son who falls through the resulting fissure. Before he falls, Thors repeats the philosophy he held to until his death: nobody has any enemies, so there is no worth in hurting others.

Thorfinn’s drop is long and painful as he continually smacks against the sharp stone walls. It takes most of his fingernails, but he manages gain a grip just before falling off an edge into what looks like the nether-regions of hell. MAPPA really goes all out with the nightmare fuel here. Askeladd is there, and he’s still himself. This is not Valhalla. Instead, it’s where fallen warriors really go: to fight a pointless, everlasting battle…and laugh.

As Thorfinn’s grip begins to fail, a column of ghouls reach him and start to grab his feet. Askeladd tells him to stop kicking them and listen to their complaints, for they are all the people he has killed. Thorfinn starts to shed tears and apologizes to them. When ghouls down below start firing arrows, Askeladd jumps down and fights them, then tells Thorfinn to start climbing, taking those he killed with him. That is his true battle.

With a gut-wrenching cry of determination, Thorfinn stretches and reaches upward, and suddenly finds himself propelled all the way back to Ketil’s farm, under a cloudy but open sky. He’s awake, and Einar is alive. As he lends a hand taking Einar back to their barn, Thorfinn once again weeps, telling Einar he’s renouncing violence from now on. Even waking up a slave on a ravaged farm with punishment on the way for the brawl is preferable to that nightmare land he experienced.

Only, thanks to Pater, there is no punishment for Thorfinn or Einar. He found a button from one of the retainer’s coats on the ravaged farm, and decides that the face-saving story will be that wild boars ruined it. The retainer submits to his master’s wishes, and Sverkel oversees Thorfinn and Einar re-hoeing the land his son gave them. Like his father, Thorfinn has turned a page in his life. That punch was his last, his warring days done; he is reborn a new, better man. No longer a taker, but a maker.

Vinland Saga S2 – 08 – Way Down In the Hole

Thorfinn awakes screaming from his most frightening dream yet, where he watches a younger version of himself move in on an even younger Einar and his family. When he tries to stop himself, he falls into a deep, dark hole. When he tries to climb out, he is grabbed by the limbs of the dead. He doesn’t remember it all when he wakes, but enough to feel like he’s forgotten something important.

As Einar and Thorfinn’s wheat continues to grow, the retainers resent it. They know Ketil gave orders to let slaves farm, but to the retainers, that’s going too far. After all, they’re farmers; if slaves are allowed to farm, what’s next? No slavery? These are prideful, small-minded men who would rather take out their frustration on those below them than question how they might be leading better lives.

The latest nightmare continues to drive Thorfinn’s feeling that he still isn’t sure how to live life at all. Einar heard Thorfinn say the name Askeladd in his sleep, and Thorfinn tells him it’s the name of the man who killed his father, and whom he joined in battle in hopes of revenge that never came. He admits he no longer hates Askeladd, but in the absence of hate, he feels empty, because hate is all he had and all that drove him.

Sverkel, quickly becoming one of my favorite Vinland characters, overhears some of this discussion, and punctuates it with a hearty “get back to work!” He has another job for them after thatching the roof: net fishing on the beach. His first throw nets a whole bunch of fish, and he proceeds to teach Thorfinn the proper way, telling him if he’s empty, he should fill that emptiness with whatever he can. After all, it’s easier to be reborn when you’re empty.

Thorfinn asks Einar if he believes men can really change—if he, Thorfinn, can close the book on his decade-plus of being a warrior and become someone else’ someone good. Einar tells Thorfinn to simply look at his reflection in the water. He already has changed. Had the two of them met before, Thorfinn might’ve killed him. But no one who sees him now would think he was ever a warrior.

But the window between when Thorfinn is told the words he needs to hear from someone he trusts that it is indeed possible to put the past behind and start anew, and when he is able to actually act upon that, is vanishingly small. For when Einar and Thorfinn return to their crop to find every plant has been uprooted. Einar can tell the wheat was ruined by people who knew what they were doing: the retainers.

Thorfinn talks Einar down from going to kill them, and they go to Pater instead, who promises an investigation. But then they cross paths with those same retainers laughing and joking around. As expected, they play dumb about the ruined crop, instead saying if it were ruined that would be fine, since wheat grown by slaves would be “too putrid” to eat.

That’s the final straw for Einar, who charges one of the retainers with his fist. Thorfinn slips in front of him and throws the first punch instead, perhaps in hope that if he did it and not Einar, Einar might be spared the punishment of certain death. Instead, Einar keeps brawling. Thorfinn is smacked with a shovel, loses focus, and then falls down the crevice from his dream. Maybe Thorfinn can still change…but not today.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – 23 (Part 2 Fin) – Be Strong and Wait

My interpretation of Eris’s reasons for deciding to sleep with Rudy and then run off with Ghislaine is twofold: First, she wanted her first time to be with Rudy, whom she loves more than anyone else. Second, her note about not being “well matched” should be taken literally: she is overmatched by him. Their encounter with Orsted proved it. So off she goes.

She couldn’t have imagined this would cause Rudy to revert to his old self, the one who, once shamed at school in one of the worst ways possible, could no longer leave his room, despite being surrounded by love, understanding, and kindness—first his parents, and later his neighbors. He rejected them out of paranoia they were all laughing at him. So in he stays.

This episode seems to hint that the isekai world is merely in Rudy’s head, and that he wasn’t actually hit by a car as he would have us believe. If that’s the case—I have no idea, and I’m also fine if it’s meant to be ambiguous—the isekai world is no longer an escape. He may have been reincarnated and given a second chance, but he’s the same depressed, paranoid, emotionally stunted man he was in the old world. Eris leaving him and him not being able to understand why was the straw that broke the ground dragon’s back.

He may not be surrounded by the same support system as the old world, but things are definitely looking up in Fittoa. I realize that part of why it looked so wasted and bleak last week was because Rudy and Eris (and we) were comparing it to how it once looked before the disaster. But also the bleak washed-out look reflected Rudy’s post-Eris leaving mood. But color is slowly returning to the land, and there’s hope in the voices of the survivors as they plant new crops.

As they  toil and sweat, the people of Fittoa long for a “return to normal”, but the old normal is gone and never coming back. That’s true for everyone, as Ruijerd confirms that the curse that makes humans afraid of him is gone. I’m so glad we got to see the big guy one more time, and his exchange with the three friendly townsfolk is one of som many scenes this week that moved me to tears.

Another one of those scenes is where Eris confirms my interpretation of why she left Rudy (not that it was very much in doubt), with touching details like observing how the hands of the one she relied on for so long were smaller than his. The wind blows her cat-hood off her freshly short-cropped hair as she climbs atop a rock to shout out her love of Rudy to the mountaintops, and her resolve to become strong enough to protect him when next they meet.

We also get brief check-ins with Tona, Zoruba, Geese, and the young adventurers they met in the Demon Continent. Everyone is moving forward, with their experience with Rudy and Dead End being something they’ll always treasure, even if they never see them again. Roxy, meanwhile, inadvertently becomes Kishirisu Kishirika’s newest savior when she pays the tiny troublemaker’s bar tab from the rowdy night before.

I love how we get the briefest peeks of that party that pack a punch when we see how drunk Roxy got and how bad her hangover must be. But she’s rewarded for her generosity to Kishirika by learning that Paul, Lilia, Norn and Aisha are safe and sound and reunited in Millishion. We get to see—and cry from—this reunion scene. But Norn still wants to know where her mama is, and we learn that Zenith is alive somewhere in the Labyrinth City of Rapan on the Begaritt Continent.

Roxy also learns from Kishirika that Rudy is in emotional turmoil, but rather than go to his student, she trusts that he’ll pick himself off and be able to move forward without her assistance. She and her party are headed to Begaritt. At the same time, it’s a beautiful memory of Rudy, taking over the end-of-the-evening chores for Zenith when he sees she’s tired, that finally gets Rudy to sit up, get out of bed, and step outside his tent with his cloak and spear.

He’s able to push past the fear of everyone laughing and mocking him, because Zenith is family, alone, and in need of help. Unaware that Roxy is also headed there, almost ensuring a reunion, he has to go find her. For that, he has to get up and take one step, and then another, past the pain of being left alone.

In the real world, Rudy does the same thing, and while it’s a mystery whether this is symbolic look back at his past life or his actual life running parallel to his fantasy life, it’s a major breakthrough for our protagonist. Like the people of Fittoa planting new crops, Rudy doesn’t give in, stays strong, and looks toward a future where his family is reunited.

Meanwhile, at Ranoa Magic Academy, Sylphiette, sporting Oakleys and whose hair is now white, makes the case for the academy recruiting Rudy. It’s clear he too will need to be stronger if he’s going to defeat the Dragon God. But with Sylphy here and Eris working to become stronger, he won’t be alone in that effort. He just doesn’t know it yet, but hopefully he can follow the advice of his original parents and continue to be strong and wait, just as we must all be strong and wait for Part 3.

Sonny Boy – 12 (Fin) – Don’t Say Goodbye…

Sonny Boy’s finale begins boldly, with what amounts to a stirring five-minute music video. We follow Nagara, who has slipped right back into his usual existence. Things are so normal, he sometimes wonders if he was ever really adrift in the first place.

Notably absent from Nagara’s high school is Mizuho, whom Nagara looks up and waits outside her school’s gates, only for her to not have any idea who he is. You and I know how much Nagara grew while adrift with Mizuho, Nozomi, and Asakaze, and yet this world seems almost cruelly intent on keeping him isolated and alone.

His present existence back in his original world lies in stark contrast to the surreal, beautiful, and fantastical journey he and Mizuho undertake to get back to a world they’re certain hasn’t changed, even if they have. They tie themselves together, run out of the space elevator, and keep running, even when God tries to stop them. Asakaze bids them farewell, unable to follow even though there’s nothing left for him there.

The flashback to Nagara and Mizuho’s escape serves as a bridge between Nagara’s post-return life and Mizuho’s. Mizuho notes that “everything is gone” from the two-years-plus they were drifting. While Nagara has a part-time job, Mizuho spends her evenings sneaking into their old school and breaking a glass. But a cat doesn’t come delivering a new one; it just stays broken. That’s as it should be…so why is it so sad?

At least we learn that Mizuho was simply messing with Nagara when she pretended not to know him; maybe it was just that seeing him again got her old defenses up. And yet these two people who suddenly find themselves strangers in a simultaneously recognizable and unrecognizable world can’t help but spend time together, basking in both that contradiction and in the knowledge that the two of them are different from everyone else in terms of where they’ve been and what they’ve seen.

There’s a elegiac quality to their interaction, like they were the last surviving members of their unit in some long-finished war. Yet Nagara can’t help but worry that one day he’ll forget what he and Mizuho are feeling right now, and go adrift all over again. Before they part, possibly for good, Mizuho tells him as long as a part of him is still on that island, he’ll be fine. They’ll both be fine.

The episode ends with a third music video, focusing on Nozomi, but wordlessly, until we cut to Nagara preparing to inspect a bird’s nest at the station, only to find Nozomi has already rescued a surviving chick. Nozomi recognizes Nagara from middle school, but unlike him and Mizuho seems to have no other memories of their time in those other dimensions.

Ultimately, Nagara seems fine with that, and fine with the fact Nozomi quickly runs to another guy who I believe is Asakaze. It would seem that by dying in that world, Nozomi’s existence transferred to this one…or something. No matter; I too am glad she’s still alive, bringing light and energy to dark and sullen places.

What I’m not glad about is that this spells the end of Sonny Boy…or at least it should. This just felt like such a wonderfully self-contained and authoritative twelve episodes, my urge for a sequel is tempered. Like Nagara back in his home dimension, everything that should happen will happen.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 20 – Tantamount to Love

This week Fuutarou learns why there’s a Fake Itsuki when he finds four of them in one room. As Yotsuba explains, she was the first of the quints to change her appearance (with her bunny ribbon). At some point they all agreed to look identical whenever they visited their grandpa, so he wouldn’t worry about them drifting apart.

Gramps ends up coming in their room, so Fuu has to hide under the kotatsu, and identifies the real Fake Itsuki who spoke to him in the lobby by the bruise on her leg. However, because all of the quints in the room are disguised as Itsuki, he doesn’t know to which quint that leg belongs!

As Fuu continues his investigation, Nino takes Ichika aside to to bathe together, hoping to pick Ichika’s brain about what next steps to take with the guy she likes, describing with wonderful self-awareness how she came to love her “prince”. Of course, Nino is blissfully unaware that Ichika also likes him, and heard her confession to him.

Even Ichika’s best attempts to slow her down end in failure, as Nino makes it clear she’d step over whoever else liked Fuu to get with him. Would she say that if she knew Ichika (or Miku) were that other person? At present, Nino is committed to doing more to get Fuu’s attention, including meeting with him that night and hugging or even kissing him.

Ichika feels powerless to stop her, and even agrees to run interference for their dad so Nino can slip away! She asserts to herself that because she’s such a “coward”, her love for Fuutarou is no match for Nino’s. It’s basically her lowest point yet, where she’s actively working against her interests in deference to someone who made it clear she wouldn’t do the same. That’s when Yotsuba finds her in the hallway, crying.

The two climb up to the roof—an old hiding spot of theirs from years past—and when Yotsuba sneezes from the cold, Ichika lends her her robe. Yotsuba reminisces how Ichika was once the prank-pulling “mean bully” who’d always takes things from the others with impunity—basically the opposite of what she is now: feeling afraid and unworthy of taking Fuu from Nino.

Then their mom died, Itsuki was hit hardest, and Ichika decided there and then that she had to be The Big Sister. Yotsuba tells Ichika how she’s always saw her as her dear big sister, and how she wants her to do what she wants. For Ichika, right now, that’s for things to remain in the “comfort zone”, where Fuu isn’t “taken” by any of them.

Buoyed by Yotsuba’s words, the last two things Ichika does are in her own interest: taking back the robe she lent Yotsuba, and not distracting their dad so Nino can talk to Fuu. We’ll see if Nino shrugs off Ichika not coming through for her at what for her was a crucial opportunity to impress her feelings upon her Prince.

That brings us back to Fuu himself, who has noticed the quints’ grandfather has no trouble telling them apart. When pressed, Gramps tells him there’s no silver bullet or trick to it, it’s just a matter of learning their mannerisms, voices, and subtle habits, which he says are basically “tantamount to love”. This, of course, leads gramps to ask him why he needs to tell them apart. If he truly can’t, can he honestly say he has the “commitment to face them in good faith?”

Fuu accepts that challenge the next morning, when unbeknownst to him, Miku has already come clean with Itsuki about being the Fake Itsuki. She wanted to end their student-teacher relationship so it could change into something new. Unlike Ichika, she doesn’t want to stay in the comfort zone. So Itsuki tells Miku to meet Fuu one more time as Fake Her.

Fuu uses the process of elimination to narrow it down to Ichika or Miku, and when she gets her to say “Itsuki-chan”, he guesses she’s Ichika, because only she uses “-chan” with Itsuki. Miku pretends he’s right, holding back tears that then start to fall once her back is turned. But then Fuu realizes she is Miku, causing her to run into his arms so fast her Itsuki wig falls off and she tackles him to the ground!

Fuu then goes on to explain his further reasoning for why Miku might be mad—because he never got around to giving her anything in return after Valentines Day. Then he asks why she wanted him to quit, and she tells him to forget it. He’s a teacher, she’s a student, and that doesn’t have to change. She’s just grateful he guessed correctly.

That leads to another strange cliffhanger-like ending, where before Fuutarou and the Nakanos depart from the onsen, someone in white, almost wedding-like shoes runs at him at full speed, causing him to grab the nearby bell for support. This, after gramps confirmed his daughter, the quints’ mother, was named Rena—the same name as the mysterious girl he saw when he fell in the water. To be continued, I guess!

Episode Eight Quintuplet Ranking:

1. Miku: Her bitterness about Fuu not guessing correctly, immediately followed by her pure unbridled joy, was one hell of an emotional roller coaster! She definitely caused Fuutarou to think about the “love” gramps talked about. Total Points: 22 (Tied for 3rd)
   
2. Yotsuba: Who’d have guessed she was the maverick who first changed her appearance? In both explaining the Fake Itsukis and her heart-to-heart with Ichika, Yots seems content to let things with the others play out before making whatever move she has planned…if any. Total Points: 22 (Tied for 3rd)
3. Ichika: I think she’s finally reached the bottom of her well of defeatism and may be starting to claw her way out. It’s still not looking good, but at least she hasn’t given up on what she wants. Total Points: 21 (5th)
4. Itsuki: Was instrumental both in getting Fuu to find out why the others were upset, as well as hearing Miku out and having her try one more time. Just an all-around great sis! Total Points: 26 (2nd)
5. Nino: As she was thwarted from doing anything more with/to Fuu, Nino was relegated to a passive role this week. If Fuu doesn’t make the next move—and he shows no signs of doing so—she may have to try something. Was that her in the white shoes throwing herself at him? Total Points: 29 (1st)