Metallic Rouge – 13 (Fin) – All’s Well that…Ends

I was officially checked out of Metallic Rouge last week, and this finale didn’t offer a whole lot to change that position. Everyone basically stands around in a room for the entire episode while the Puppetmaster, revealed to be a Nean version of Roy Junghardt, explains how he always had a firm grip on the Immortal Nine’s strings.

Silvia tries to go against the “settings” he’d set for her, and pays the price. He inhabits Cyan’s body, but Naomi merges her consciousness within Rouge and fights Roy-in-Cyan’s body. Cyan also fights Roy and rejects him, enabling Rouge/Naomi to defeat him. Rouge then activates Code Eve, which I thought she didn’t want to do, and it triggers a Usurper trap.

A virus is sent to all Neans everywhere, making them pliable soldiers in an imminent Usurper war against humanity. But Gene, who is Noir’s human son somehow, predicted something like that would happen and uploaded an antivirus. Now Neans can push humans who push them, but aren’t automatically killbots, I guess.

The episode and the series end in abrupt and thoroughly unsatisfying fashion, with Rouge (with Naomi inside her) engaging a huge horde of Usurper killbots led by the clown girl Opera, who was never really a character. Naomi says “all’s well that ends well,” but I’m just glad this mess is over. Metallic Rouge started strong and had some fine moments, but it kinda completely fell apart at the end there.

 

Metallic Rouge – 12 – Live for Love

…Could we maybe not?

Here we are, back to having to hear the Puppetmaster drone on in his insufferably avuncular tone about puppets and plays and performances. I’m at the end of my tether with this stuff, frankly, and my worry is that if Code Eve can’t be extracted from Rouge, it will be extracted from the captive Cyan.

Rouge and Naomi run around the maze-like facility some more, encountering a Gene who’s a bit too energetic to be the real one. The two ladies calling Giallon out was one of the more chuckle-worthy moments of the episode, but then he has to start going on about how the proverbial play is boring and he wants the two of them to make things more interesting.

While he says he’ll take them to the real Gene, he instead takes them to Silvia, who offers Rouge one last chance to surrender her id willingly and sacrifice herself for the good of all Neans. Rouge declines the offer and a duel ensues, but Silvia can regenerate her lopped-off limbs, and stabs an open Rouge through the chest, extracting the id she needs to create her world.

At first Naomi leaves the id-less, fading Rouge on the floor and rushes to fulfill her duty as First. If Rouge lost, which she did, she has to initiate the self-destruct of the entire facility to prevent Code Eve from getting out. But as she’s going over the protocols, she has a change of heart, runs back to her friend, and lends her her own id to have another go at Silvia.

~dun dun dunnnnnn~

Meanwhile, Gene and Ash have convinced Aes/Alice to help them, and Eden has killed Grauphon, leaving Silvia with fewer and fewer allies. That said, she’s so certain that her cause is right she doesn’t seem to care. They all meet where the Puppetmaster likely intended them to meet, and he finally removes his mask to reveal that he’s Dr. Roy Junghardt himself.

I hate that it’s come to this, but like a Nean without an id, my energy and enthusiasm for this show has simply cratered. I’ll stick around for the finale to see if Rouge, Naomi, Cyan, and I guess Ash make it out of this, but I honestly don’t give a hoot about anyone else.

Metallic Rouge – 11 – Strings Attached

The Alters are all in attendance for the curtain to go up on the New World Silvia intends to lead. With the help of the Puppetmaster and Opera, the ship carrying Rouge and the others is being made to crash land at the Venus complex, ensuring they have no reliable way back home. But as Noir is also with them, Silvia asks Grauphon to give him back his id, and with it a second chance to join his bretheren.

Opera also sees to it that Rouge and Naomi are separated from Noir, Cyan, and Ash. Naomi knows the way, while Rouge busts up any guardbots that get in their way. But while they do a lot of running and bot-busting, you get the distinct feeling that they’re like rats in maze, their movements being largely controlled by the strings of their hosts.

Cyan is determined to meet back up with her sister, and make her own choice should she hear the voice again, but when the Clair de Lune plays in her head once more, she’s unable to fight it, and falls into a trance. She heads towards the Puppetmaster, her “masked father”, as Ash follows, while Grauphon gives Noir back his id, and prepare to fight.

Once Cyan arrives at the spot where the Puppetmaster summoned her, he knocks her unconscious, removes his mask, and places it on her before snatching her up and heading off we know not where. Ash might have managed to catch a glimpse of the Puppetmaster’s face. Is it Jung, whose death was faked? Or someone else?

While Aes takes Gene to his room where he’ll stay for the time being, Silvia orders Giallon to intercept Rouge and kill Naomi, but doesn’t specify how. He disguises himself as Gene in hopes of lowering Rouge’s guard. It’s a simple trick, but that may be all he needs against someone as pure and simple as Rouge.

I’m not feeling too great about Naomi’s life expectancy, to be honest.Just about everything this week goes Silvia’s and the Puppetmaster’s way. We even see that there’s a factory churning out both new Neans and the Nectar to fuel them, which means Silvia doesn’t have to convince all extant Neans to follow her; she has a pliable army waiting in the wings.

We’ll see if Gene can make any headway with Aes/Alice, or if Naomi can stay alive long enough to keep Rouge and Code Eve out of the Alter’s hands. If she can’t, the Solar System will likely be Usurper territory within a year.

Metallic Rouge – 10 – Rocket to Venus

Rouge has decided that she wants to protect both humans and Neans. On the trip to Venus, Naomi is eager to unveil a secret weapon that will help their cause, but in the crate is a stowaway: Cyan. Unlike the one who was hellbent on killing Rouge, this Cyan is a lot more affable and childlike than when we last saw her, insisting Rouge is her big sister and that she only wants to “play” with her.

Meanwhile, Gene arrives on Venus with Silvia and the other Immortal Nine. They are welcomed by the Puppetmaster, who assures Gene that the Usurpers are merely his “sponsors.” They all sit down for a meal (of chocolate bars, of course) and reminisce on memories Gene doesn’t quite recall of all of them being together as a family.

Despite looking like a young woman, Cyan acts like a little kid, drawing crude pictures of her ideal life with her beloved big sister. That said, she’s perceptive enough to notice that Naomi and Rouge share a bond. When she refuses to bathe, it’s Ash, who is a father, who manages to convince her with the promise of ice cream.

While strategizing for when they arrive at Venus, Cyan takes exception to Naomi, even going so far as to tell her she hate her and starting to transform into her gladiator mode. Rouge stops her and calms her down, saying she can’t just hurt people, and she should also question the voice in her head when it pops in to tell her to kill. She should make her own choices.

Cyan tells Rouge she’s a bit jealous of her and Naomi, and asks what Naomi is to her. As Naomi overhears in the hall, Rouge tells her Naomi is the “best stranger”, someone who is irritating at times, but overall someone she doesn’t mind spending time with. This is heartening for Naomi, who as the First Nean has probably always felt pretty lonely.

I can’t say what awaits them on Venus—likely more robo-fighting—but this was a pleasant enough calm-before-the-storm episode that takes stock of the connections between the characters and the roles they’re to play on the final stage.

Urusei Yatsura – 30 – What Dreams May Come

Ataru and Ten come across a strange vendor selling earmuffs for 150 yen a pop. Ataru plays hardball and manages to snag two sets for 200 yen, of which he expects Ten to pay back half. But when they put the earmuffs on, they swap bodies. Thus, the question is answered, “What would Ataru do if he had Ten’s body?” He seeks out cuties, of course, who are all to willing to give him a squeeze because he’s a cute-ass flying baby!

Ataru-as-Ten also ensures Ten-as-Ataru is kept at bay by Lum, who initially thinks Ataru hit his head so hard he thinks he’s Ten. When Ten encounters Sakura, her sixth sense doesn’t let her down, but her instinct to attack him causes Lum to castigate her for being so harsh to a child. Of course, Sakura’s instincts are accurate, as the Ten who wants to suckle her bosom is actually Ataru.

Cherry also buys a set of earmuffs, causing him and Ten to swap bodies while Ataru returns to his own. It’s a fun body-swap segment, though I wish it had gone farther. As it is, Kamiya Hiroshi and Yuuki Aoi do a great job imitating Ten and Ataru’s voice patterns.

The second half involves Ataru being on a late-for-school streak due to him trying not to rely on Lum to wake him up (often with electricity). She offers a shortcut using her alien technology to create a portal straight to school, which they travel through together. They arrive at school with five minutes to spare, but then we cut to his classroom as the morning bell rings, and neither he nor Lum are there.

That is because the portal didn’t just traverse space, but time as well. When Ataru enters his classroom, it’s on a Sunday afternoon ten years into the future, where his classmates are having a reunion. The future him happens to be out of the classroom when he arrives, but his older friends note that he looks just like Ataru, while his wife is also out looking for their son.

Ataru ends up unknowingly encountering his future son by chance, and he’s a little shit just like his old man. Lum is quick to embrace and comfort the child, but when he sees a very familiar lascivious look, she gets suspicious. When the little scamp finally says his name: Moroboshi Kokeru. Lum feels around on his head, doesn’t find any horns, and is immediately distraught.

And of course she’s distraught: if this was her son, he’d have horns, no matter how small. She concludes that in this future, she and Ataru don’t have a kid together. It begs the question of who exactly Ataru’s wife is in this future, but more than anything, Lum is devastated by the fact that it’s not her.

When Ataru prods Kokeru to go through the school gates, he calls the first woman he sees his mom, and it’s some unattractive old maid. This makes Ataru as depressed as Lum, and when she catches up to him, they both agree that it’s time to return to their time. But both Kokeru and Ataru are mistaken: the older lady isn’t his mother.

His real mother, and Ataru’s wife, is none other than his childhood friend Miyake Shinobu, lovely and resplendent in her striped suit. Ataru returns to his time with Lum not knowing that, while Lum refuses to accept that this future they experienced was the actual future, only a possible one.

Thus we end on an uncharacteristically somber note. I don’t doubt if Ataru stuck around long enough to discover Shinbou was his future wife, he’d be pretty happy. But Lum would probably feel even worse if she knew that. Will the fact they’re equally miserable at the end bring them closer together?

As for the Alice in Wonderland-style White Rabbit (previously teased in the OP) running through a galaxy of time doors … I assume that will be explained at some point, because it’s pretty random! It also hints that Lum is right: they only witnessed one future out of countless possible futures.

The Apothecary Diaries – 04 – Living for Him

Once the Emperor learns of the “famous apothecary”, he asks her to look after Lady Lihua. That is to say, he commands her to cure her of her affliction. If Maomao can’t, it means she’s disobeying the emperor and will surely be beheaded. That said, Maomao approaches this latest mystery—with her usual wit and levelheadedness.

That said, Lihua’s stuck-up ladies-in-waiting don’t make it easy. At first, they make it outright impossible. Maomao knows that in Lihua’s weakened state she needs easy-to-digest food to slowly build up her strength. Instead, they turn Maomao away and insist on serving their lady the richest, most luxurious foods. She’s too weak to eat them, so she wastes away.

Jinshi, who is monitoring Maomao’s progress, she that she’s hit an interpersonal snag and provides an immediate assist, by reminding the smitten ladies-in-waiting that the emperor wishes Maomao access to Lady Lihua. And she gets it not a moment too soon, as she discovers that the ladies-in-waiting have continued to apply the poison makeup to Lihua.

This goes beyond simply having no idea how to treat Lihua in her delicate state; they are actively continuing to killing her for the sake of beauty, and hid the toxic makeup from he eunuchs assigned to confiscate it. Upon learning this, Maomao approaches the lady responsible for Lihua’s make up, delivers a vicious slap to the face, then pours the makeup over her head.

This is about more than Maomao simply demanding respect for having the knowledge and experience to treat Lihua. It’s also about more than saving her own skin by obeying the emperor. Maomao simply cannot abide such wanton ignorance and stupidity in her presence. And when she delivered that slap, she cemented heself as one of my favorite heroines of the year. Yuuki Aoi can really bring it when she needs to, and does so here.

The slap, which occurred in front of Jinshi, who doesn’t interfere and thus tacitly approves, also serves as a message to the other ladies-in-waiting: when it comes to Lihua’s health, Maomao is the new boss of the Crystal Pavilion. She carefully crafts a diet Lihua can handle, and adjusts it as Lihua’s strength ever-so-slowly returns.

No longer being poisoned by the makeup, Lihua graduates from rice water to porridge and tea, to broth and fruits and vegetables. Maomao also ensures her chambers get proper ventilation, and even takes up Jinshi’s offer to help again by asking him to have a steam bath built on the premises so Lihua can keep sweating out the toxins.

As Lihua’s color and vitality improves, there’s a subtle change in Maomao’s appearance; bags form under her eyes, she seems to move more slowly and more deliberately, and perhaps she even gets a bit thinner. Again, it’s subtle, but very apparent. The fatigue that results from her tireless exertion serves as a sign of her dedication to doing the job she’s been given right.

One day, while sitting by Lihua’s bedside trying to stay awake, Lihua gathers the strength to speak. She asks Maomao why she didn’t simply let her die. Maomao replies, quite simply, that Lihua ate food when it was placed in her mouth. Because she ate food, and continues to eat it, means she doesn’t want to die.

Maomao took note of this the first time she fed her. It wasn’t the lack of will to live that kept her from eating, but lack of strength from the neglect of the ladies-in-waiting. We learn the head lady was confined and the eunuch responsible for confiscating the makeup was flagellated—more reminders that this was not a request from the emperor to do her best, but a command to make it happen.

When Lihua recalls when she had her health, and her darling infant son in her arms, and…that’s when I couldn’t help but tear up a bit. Lihua suffered incalculable grief and loss, but also guilt for not heeding the warning about the makeup. But she agrees with Maomao’s assessment that she wants to live. She does want to live, to honor the memory of her lost son.

The recovery regime continues with Maomao in charge and the ladies-in-waiting assiting her with Lihua’s steam baths, wipe-downs, laundry, and everything else. One day, the head lady she slapped returns, now contrite. She vows she’ll never make the same mistakes she made again, and says the clearly exhausted Maomao can go rest; she’ll take it from here.

When she sees that Lihua is strong enough to greet her, her eyes fill with tears of relief. I’d hoped she’d have actually apologized to Maomao for being such an idiot and almost killing Lihua, and thanked her for restoring her health so dramatically, but just because she doesn’t say those things out loud doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel that way.

In all this time with Lihua, Maomao learned more about her, and that she wasn’t the selfish princess she first thought her to be. When Lihua is strong enough to take strolls through the garden on her own, Maomao’s service to her is coming to a close.

When she finds Maomao fast asleep on a hard bench, Lihua offers her thanks by sitting beside her and gently stroking her hair. It’s a scene of regal, dignified, yet tender and heartfelt gratitude exemplified. Maomao did good, and even Jinshi is impressed she was able to fulfill the emperor’s command.

When the time comes for Maomao to return to Lady Gyokuyou’s pavilion, Lihua asks her if she’s still capable of having children. Maomao honestly answers that she doesn’t know, but there’s no harm in trying. When Lihua says the emperor’s love for her has gone, Maomao reveals that she was given express orders from the emperor to care for her, so it’s not like he hates her.

Maomao leaves her with some advice from her big sisters from the red-light district: a tactic they taught her, but which she cannot use due to her lack of endowment. Lihua doesn’t have that problem, and in fact her bust is superior to Gyokuyou’s, so she is able to employ it.

She apparently does, as shortly after Maomao returns (and is embraced like a sister by her fellow ladies-in-waiting), the frequency of the emperor’s visits to the Jade pavilion are diminished, and Gyokuyou is finally able to get some good nights’ sleep. Everybody wins this week, thanks to Maomao, the extraordinary apothecary.

Hell’s Paradise – 07 – The Real Battle

When the two ethereal-looking lovers spot Choubei and Touma, the one with golden hair stands up from their necking session, protests the presence of humans, and transforms into a male form, crushing a fruit in his hand. When Gabimaru spots a little girl with pink hair, he gives chase, leaving Yuzuriha and Senta to deal with the girl’s Groot-like protector.

Yuzuriha swipes Senta’s glasses then drinks some kind of tincture that causes her to secrete a thick viscous liquid from her skin and orifices. Unfortunately, like Senta, we’re not able to see more of her secret ninjutsu, but the next we do see her, the Groot is on the ground.

As for the little girl, she’s extremely quick through the forest, but so is Gabi. When he catches up to her, she Judo-throws him, then later throws a punch that demonstrates strength far beyond the presumed limits of her slender frame.

Gabimaru, desperate to reunite with his wife and thus prepared to do anything, uses his ninjutsu to ensnare the girl in vines. After he monologues about being tired of everything so difficult and warning the girl to tell him about the elixir of life or she’ll “force him to do more,” the girl bursts into blubbering tears. Gabimaru is disarmed, and Sagiri rightfully shoots him a judging look.

Sagiri takes the girl in her arms to comfort her, and they reunite her with the Groot, who tells them he’ll take them to their village for a meal and to discuss the elixir. Yuzuriha agrees with Gabimaru that this could be a trap…until the Groot tells them they have a bath, then she’s on Team Go to the Village.

After Yuzuriha and Sagiri enjoy a nice hot soak (Sagiri insisting she’s not relaxing her responsibilities while making a very pleased sound upon immersing herself made me LOL) Yuzuriha and Senta eat the fruit provided and don’t transform into flower zombies.

The Groot, who is named Houko, explains that there is indeed an Elixir of Life, but it is located at the very center of the island, the map of which is three concentric circles representing the three regions: shore/woods, village, and mists.

Houko is fine sharing this information and showing the humans hospitality, because he’s certain they’re not getting off this island alive. That won’t be because of him—he harbors neither affection nor animosity—but because of the Tensen.

So far, Gabimaru and Sagiri & Co. have only encounter the Soushin—monsters of the forest region. In the central region of Horai dwell the Tensen, who are the gold and pink-haired individuals Choubei and Touma encounter. Described as perfect, eternal beings, no human is any match for the Tensen.

We know Choubei is no slouch, but his giant blade is shattered by Goldie’s bare hand, and both he and Touma are tossed into a pit packed with former human victims, all technically still alive but partially transformed into flowers and in a constant state of bliss.

After Houko’s exposition, Gabimaru heads to the bath with Sagiri tagging along. He chastises her for letting her guard down (we cut to her nodding off after the bath and meal) but she insists she didn’t. When Gabi walks in on the little girl (whose name is Mei), she bursts into tears again.

Mei runs to Sagiri, but Gabi doesn’t understand the fuss; in his village everyone shared the baths except the village chief, who had a private one. As Sagiri pulls up her sleeves and gives the filthy Mei a proper Edo-style bathhouse experience and washes her hair, her remark about Gabi stretching himself too thin takes him back to a memory of Yui saying the same thing.

Gabimaru was initially embarrassed to have his back washed by Yui, but also just dislikes baths. He believes they wash away his “edge”, to which Yui responds by dumping a bucket of water on his head and asking him to clarify if he thinks his wife is wantonly robbing him of his luck in battle.

No, she’s insistent that he’s stretched too thin, and has to take the time to relax and reinvigorate, so he can stay prepared for “the real battle”—her term for life itself. In this battle, he’s the general, she’s the strategist, and victory is living peacefully, honestly, and true to one’s ideals.

Gabi asks if he, as general, can issue a strategic order: for Yui to stop wearing her hair so it hides the scar on her face. He tells her she’s beautiful, making her beam with happiness. We haven’t seen much of Yui, but she makes such an impact in the times we have that I’m confident she’s a worthy rival to Yuzaki Tsukasa for Best Wife of the Season.

Back in the present, Gabimaru tells Mei not to be embarrassed by her scar. When Sagiri says that’s not so easy for a woman, Gabi begs to differ: he knows a woman with a large scar, but no one is more beautiful. Not only is Sagiri “dumbfounded” by this respectable comment, but Mei seems to be won over, as she grabs Gabimaru’s sleeve and looks admiringly upon him.

Outside the bath, as Sagiri smiles over the prospect of Gabimaru being a good person who continues to change little by little, Gabimaru wears a fearful face. Even if his wife told him to relax occasionally, he’ll never see her again unless he maintains his focus.

He knows where the Elixir of Life is, and the kind of beings who may stand in his way. He’ll use the information Houko provided to keep moving forward, knowing he’s sure to collect a few more scars before the mission concludes. If he can look upon Yui’s beautiful face once more, it will have all been worth it.

To Your Eternity – S2 04 – The Prince of Ghosts

The morning after their little talk, Parona!Fushi is still not sure what to do, so she decides to stick around for the time being—but only for a day. She conjures a bed to lie on out in the wastes, but a concerned Prince Bon brings builders to help her build walls around the bed (she conjures the bricks, they provide the grout and grunt work).

While construction proceeds, Prince Bon asks “Mister Black” (i.e. the Beholder) what he’ll do once Fushi accomplishes his mission. The Beholder appears to say he’ll give Fushi his “freedom.” Bon isn’t sure what to make of such a vague promise. “Freedom” could mean anything, after all … and not all of it good!

The next morning, Parona!Fushi wakes up in her makeshift house and Bon’s sister Pocoa accompanies her to the stables to find a horse to ride for their  ensuing travels. They hear screams of anguish from Bon and come running to find that his handkerchief was caught by the wind and came to rest on a pile of shit in the cesspool. One intrepid attendant fishes the hankie out of the shit, and Fushi learns his name is Todo.

Having been told to find friends and a lover by Bon, and seeing something fly out of Todo’s “essence”, she asks if Todo is in love with Bon; him running away and denying it says it all. Fushi then asks Kahaku if a boy can love another boy; Kahaku says whatever needs to be said to stay in the lover running. Though he previously said he wouldn’t try to seduce Fushi, that was before he met Parona!Fushi.

One thing that’s certain about Prince Bon is that he commands the unswerving love and devotion of the vast majority of his father’s subjects. He’s even able to spin the Church’s tack about Fushi being a menace, using the kingdom’s press to build him up as a holy warrior and savior against the Nokkers. As they ride out in a grand parade, Bon reminisces on how he got to this point.

Bon’s ensuing backstory, while somewhat shoehorned into this episode, is nevertheless fascinating—and also quite sad. Bon has always been able to see people no one else could. Whether these people were ghosts, spooks, specters or shadows was immaterial; they taught him a lot and made him who he is.

As for his precious hanky, we learn it was sewn by a girl who doesn’t appear to be one of the ghosts he sees, judging by the fact she doesn’t glow white like them, and the hanky is a physical object others can see (even if she slipped away before anyone else could see her).

Pocoa assumes the girl was just another instance of Bon’s “usual thing”, which is seeing dead people. His mother, who doesn’t like this one bit, hires some kind of “healer” to cure him of the malady through bloodletting. Bon’s usual ghost companions are joined by Tonari, who tells Bon bedside stories about Fushi, the immortal one, and tells him how he’ll find him.

One day Bon finds his father the king’s will stating his little brother will usurp him for the throne. When he demands an explanation, his father’s is relatively reasonable: Bon spends all his allowance on trifling things like clothes and accessories, while Torta selflessly gives to the people.

Not being the kinslayer sort, Prince Bon instead resolves to change his father’s mind and name him the future king. He eventually decides he’ll be able to do that by finding and capturing the wanted Fushi. Tonari told him to look for someone with an “enormous shadow”, and sure enough Bon finds Fushi walking through a city with the ghost of Oniguma-sama lumbering behind him, as well as ghost March, Gugu, Tonari, and others.

Prince Bon’s “affliction” isn’t mere schizophrenia, but something real; the ability to see all of the departed companions Fushi has absorbed into his being. He may be an insufferable fop, but there’s no discounting the fact that this ability is truly wondrous, and the very reason they were drawn together. If anyone is going to help Prince Bon regain his throne, it’s Fushi, and if anyone is going to help Fushi take the next crucial steps towards humanity, it’s Bon.

Summertime Render – 20 – Just a Lone Child

After slicing Shide to bits only for him to reform, Hizuru tries to get Haine to scan her so she can destroy her Shadow Shinpei vessel. Only Haine realizes that Hizuru was granted immunity by Mio. Haine also betrays her inherent inability to understand why Hizuru is doing what she’s doing: trying to save those lives that haven’t been lost after getting her brother killed.

Hizuru switches to Plan B, which is to transfer Ryuunosuke from her body to Shide’s mud armor of “nothing”. It succeeds, Ryuunosuke emerges from the mud, exposing Shide’s vulnerable human body just as Tokiko arrives aboard Ros, ready to pound Shide into the stone age.

By the time Shinpei and Shadow Mio make it to Alan’s garden, Shide’s clone tells them they’re too late; Mio and Sou are probably already being devoured by Shide in her cave. Shadow Mio confirms her original is dead, and she figures it’s time for Shinpei to loop.

A badly wounded Tokiko then arrives, having successfully escaped from Haine and Shide thanks to Nezu and Tetsu. She’s there only to warn Shinpei to go to Torajima Island to help Hizuru. Rather than go there in this loop, Shin assumes that like Mio and Sou, the others are dead, or will be before he and Shadow Mio arrive. So he shoots himself with Dr. Hishigata’s Derringer, and loops back to 10:10 AM.

Thanks to Shadow Mio’s speed, she and Shinpei are able to intercept Mio and Sou before they meet their doom, and redirect them to protect the kids. Mio has a chance to confess to Shinpei, but instead wishes him well before they part. He rides on Shadow Mio’s back as she glides through the forest and then takes to the sky to avoid enemy Shadows.

They arrive in style just as Shide is dispatching Ros, and he and Shadow Mio join Tokiko, Tetsu, Nezu, and Guil. Unfortunately, they’re just a little late to save Hizuru, whom Shide stabs in the heart and looms over menacingly.

Haine!Shinpei senses something…off, a brilliant glowing emanating from Shinpei’s pocket (the shell that is all that’s left of Ushio), and then tells Shide that they’re withdrawing for now. While the immediate threat to everyone has passed, Hizuru is in a bad way.

Shinpei prepares to shoot himself and loop again, but Hizuru doesn’t want him to, and Mio stops him from doing it. He’s no longer in the position to save everyone. For her part, Hizuru doesn’t fear her impending death, and considers she’s getting a better death than most.

Before she dies, she tells Shinpei to remember that at the end of the day, Haine’s base personality is still that of a lonely little girl who loved to be spoiled. She’s also certain that Shide and Haine’s goals are different, and that at this point Shide is likely using Haine. Just before breathing her last breath, she transfers Ryuunosuke to Shinpei.

I doubt she’ll be the last person to die who Shinpei can’t bring back by looping, but Hizuru’s dying words should prove vital in any eventual victory. Her returning to the island is the reason any of the others are still alive with a fighter’s chance of winning.

It’s looking like that chance will rely on creating a rift between Haine and Shide, shattering their bond so they’re isolated and weakened. Considering that bond has lasted centuries, that’ll be no easy task.

Overlord IV – 07 – Why Didn’t They Show Us First?

When the Frost Dragon learns that someone is coming who may be able to cause some trouble, he first holds council with his three wives, and then decides to send his son Hejinmal to face the threat. Hejinmal, who normally wears glasses, is not the fighting type, but is hopeful that his mere presence will be sufficient to intimidate the intruders to flee.

That…doesn’t happen. The arrival of Ainz, Shalltear, and Aura literally makes Hejinmal piss himself. He knows intrinsically that there’s no opposing this Ainz Ooal Gown. When he escorts him to his father, Ainz uses Grasp Heart to immediately neutralize the frost dragon, then uses a special magical key that can only be used seven times to unlock the dragons’ vast treasury.

As he takes care of the dragons, Shalltear and Aura are left to deal with the Quagoa, and as you’d expect, they have absolutely no problem reducing their numbers from more than 60,000 to just 10,000. Shalltear and Aura follow their orders to the letter, and the Quagoa and their lord are never anything but a mild annoyance, wishing they’d known from the start how powerful their adversaries truly were.

One dragon decides to try to oppose Ainz, but like Hejinmal’s dad falls victim to Ainz’s Grasp Heart. The bottom line is that they are now all subordinate to Ainz. He praises Shalltear and Aura for their good works. He then throws a big party for all the Dwarven runesmiths headed for his capital, and then brings Demiurge in.

In the end, rolling up on the old Dwarven capital turns out to be a cakewalk for Ainz and his Floor Guardians, who don’t even break a sweat upheaving the balance of power in the region. Part of the ease of Ainz & Co.’s victory is due to the fact that the threat of a fellow player doesn’t materialize.

Like Aura, we already knew that the Death Knights were simply defeated by the undiscriminating force that is gravity. With the Dwarven capital about to be restored to the Dwarves, it looks like Ainz is poised for another major diplomatic and geopolitical victory.

The aquatope on white sand – 16 – Can’t help but relate

I’ve never disliked Haebaru Chiyu. When she first showed up at Gama Gama, it was clear she was trying her hardest to excel in what was established to be a very exclusive industry. Nor did I ever particularly side with Kukuru in their many spats; Chiyu is absolutely right that Kukuru was, in many ways, spoiled and privileged by being the granddaughter of a aquarium legend.

But this is the episode where my feelings about Haebaru Chiyu shifted from mere understanding to affection. Because, you see, all along, Chiyu has been busting her ass at both Gama Gama and Tingaara…she’s been doing that while being a single goddamn mom. When the attendant team has to take on overnight shifts for a pregnant penguin, she can’t do it, because she’s got a damn son named Shizuku.

They say context is king, and all along Kukuru has had it all wrong. Chiyu isn’t simply some arrogant go-getter looking down on her, she’s a desperate mother trying to balance her lifelong passion of marine life with ensuring her child has sufficient attention. That’s why, when Kukuru takes the shifts Chiyu would have had, Chiyu gets extremely upset with her. When Chiyu yells “I want to work too!”, I teared up, because I knew she was being brutally honest.

Once Kukuru learns Chiyu’s deal, she’s understandably, as she puts it, “torn”. Here she was, hating on Chiyu for being so ambitious and imperious, but all along, Chiyu had this whole other life completely outside the aquarium. It makes Kukuru want to try to experience something like what it means to be responsible for another human life. So she asks the vet Takeshita (who has also joined Tingaara) if she can babysit her son.

Fuuka, ever the peacemaker and moderator, pays Chiyu a visit at her home, and learns from Chiyu the strife she experienced. She was once married, but when she first tried to balance having a kid and working at an aquarium, she was eventually fired and her husband left her. Considering all that happened to her, it’s not surprising she’d want to keep her parenthood a secret at Tingaara. But Fuuka says there’s no need for that, nor is there any need to scorn Kukuru or Gama Gama.

After all, rather than press forward with her shallow hatred of Chiyu, Kukuru committed to learn a little bit more about what it’s like to be mother. Takeshita’s little boy never stops crying for the half-day Kukuru is taking care of him, and nothing she does can calm him until his mama comes home. Even so, Kukuru feels she’s learned something precious about loving all living things—including little humans—as her gramps wanted.

Last week, Kukuru reached  détente with Kaoru, and I said it was fine if she couldn’t do the same with everyone she butted heads with, most of all Chiyu. But leave it to Aquatope to find a way for even Kukuru and Chiyu to drop their antagonist act and admit that they do in fact share common ground, namely a love of aquariums and a desire to protect the life within them.

When the penguin’s egg finally hatches and brings forth a new life, Kukuru, Chiyu, and her son Shizuku are all embracing, rapt by the awe of watching a new life enter the world. Shizuku did her due diligence to understand Chiyu better, and in return, Chiyu opened up to Kukuru and her other Tingaara co-workers about the fact that she’s a kickass single mom. Character growth all around!

NIGHT HEAD 2041 – 05 – Girl Out of Time

The Kirihara brothers escape with the FSA and Masayuki Miki, who wants to go right back to rescue her boy. But Naoya believes it was Miki’s friend Futami Shouko who guided them to meet Miki.

From there we flashback to Miki’s friendship with Shouko back in 2014, when she saw with her own eyes what Miki could do. Shouko compulsively wrote strange symbols in a notebook which literally jump off the page and send Miki into a kind of hallucinatory trance spanning time and space.

But according to Miki of the present, one day she was just…gone. Of course, we know she’s still alive, kinda, in the future, and either the willing or unwilling guinea pig in a lab’s desperate attempt to do…something. Correct the timeline to make 2041 less of an anti-fiction hellscape? Perhaps.

Miki also mentions how when she was 26 she received a package from Shouko, postmarked before she disappeared. In it she found the notebook and some instructions, which Miki followed, spending a single night in a small shrine but emerging the next morning to find three months had passed.

We also flash back to when the Kirihara brothers were first brought to the lab where they’d spend the next few years. While they awaken in what could be described as a gilded cage, Naoto still tries to escape with Naoya, only to be stopped by a barrier that only seems to affect psychics.

Back in the present, one of the FSA members bristles at Kimi’s story about seeing the future and skipping time, continually calling it a bunch of lies. How he can say this after what he’s seen psychics strains credulity a bit; it’s as if he’s only there in the room to complain and dispute Kimi’s testimony.

Meanwhile, while the SWE lost a number of people, HQ is back up and running, and they consider it a net win since it resulted in the awakening of both Reika and Michio and the progression of Yuuya’s powers. Takuya ended up psyching himself into a coma, but he soon recovers.

Kimie gets to work as a guide for Yuuya and his powers, as both she and the SWE boss believe he could be the most powerful of all of them if he’s able to control that power. All we know from the boss is that they’ll “use that  power to achieve their goal”, which I presume means rooting out all psychics who aren’t SWE soldiers. Kimie calls it “protecting the order of the world.”

Back at the old factory, the FSA’s leader Kazama has a proposition for the Kirihara brothers, and Naoto in particular: they’re going to execute an offensive operation on the FSA, and they need Naoto’s power to help. When Naoto refuses, they pull a gun on Naoya and threaten to kill him if Naoto doesn’t obey. Emily, the voice of reason and temperance in the FSA, definitely didn’t want it to come to this, but Kazama and his commandoes are the ones with the guns.

Takuya and Yuuya are chilling in their cold, sterile apartment when visions of the past start flowing through Yuuya, including a scene of their mom and dad being taken by…er…someone.

Between the SWE crew not doing much this week and the FSA immediately and disappointingly showing their true colors, it was overall a pretty listless downer of an episode. My favorite part was the inter-dimensional joyride Shouko sent Miki on with her symbols, but that was all too brief, and that part of the story still carries more questions than answers.

NIGHT HEAD 2041 – 04 – The Kids Are Not All Right

NIGHT HEAD 2041 is all about making connections between people on very different ends of the struggle for freedom of thought and creativity, which is really the struggle for humanity itself. One of those is that the mother of Masayuki—the boy who can take over minds who went full John Wick last week—was high school friends with Futami Shouko, the time traveling girl the Kuroki brothers saw at the Miracle Mick raid. I’m not sure why this connection exists—or why Shouko ties her hair…with her hair—but it’s still intriguing.

 

Meanwhile, the Kirihara brothers were rescued by the Free Speech Alliance, who are pretty much the opposite of the SWE, fighting for the very things the SWE are trying to stamp out on orders of a government that does not care about the hypocrisy of employing psychics. Members of the FSA admit that nobody really has very clear memories of the disasters propaganda touts as the reason for this thought crackdown.

In case you thought the governemnt had some good points, we along with the Kiriharas are shown how those who commit thought crime—including young children—are put on display like zoo animals and re-educated. These are bad, but faceless people. We only know who work for them: SWE and the Kuroki brothers.

When Masayuki goes berserk, escapes from custody and goes on a bloody killing spree through the halls of SWE HQ, all because he fears the cops hurt his mom, I’m kinda on Team Nobody. Both Masayuki’s mom and Naoya are a bit too naïve to think the kid can come back to anything resembling a normal life after all the people he killed.

At the same time, only SWE scrubs get killed, and I can’t feel too much sympathy for them, since we know “I was just following orders” is no defense for committing atrocities. That the SWE officers with names who we do know shoot their mind-controlled colleagues without hesitation shows how much this system has fucked with their humanity.

Hell, that the system pushed a little kid to the brink it did means this simply isn’t a system that can last long before it crumbles. But despite working for what can be charitably described as an Enemy of Humanity in the SWE, Yuuya still leaps out and saves Masayuki from Takuya’s psychokinesis , while Reika’s own power awakens just in time to save Yuuya from a giant deadly falling corporate sculpture.

This is a great symbol for the system: overly burdened with zero tolerance laws and brutal punishment; hanging by a thin, fraying cable. The Free Speech Alliance doesn’t actually do anything yet, and it’s not exactly clear what they will do. But between them and the rampant “law-breaking” going on even in normal high school club rooms, that cable is going to snap someday.