Urusei Yatsura – 21 – Urusei Babies

This week we get a flashback to when Lum, Benten, Oyuki and Ran were being oppressed by their teacher when they were little tykes. Only their school is in space, their teacher is a robot, and they’re doing most of the oppressing with increasingly violent pranks. As a fan of Muppet Babies, it was great to see these characters as rugrats but still fundamentally themselves, and the all-star voice cast nails their younger versions, as you’d expect.

We also get a good idea about the group dynamics at this early stage in the four “friends'” lives: Benten is the aggressive ringleader, Lum enthusiastically goes along with her mischief, Oyuki doesn’t stop them but merely observes and keeps her hands clean, and Ran always tries and fails to stop them, and always faces the same consequences they do. We already see her fury-ridden alter-ego being forged.

In the present, the four girls are concerned when Oyuki reports that Planet Urchin is being redeveloped, because that’s where they left CAO-2-sensei—stuck and trapped alone on one of those spikes for the better part of a decade. Luckily for them, once he’s free all he desires to to clap them with chalk dust one last time before going on his way. That clapping does involve destroying the wall of their café, but this show rarely dwells on property damage.

The second segment is a little less inventive due to the return to earth (I love it when we’re out in space, and the alien and school designs are weirder), involving Ryouko deciding to make a voodoo doll of her brother …because she’s bored? When he realizes what she’s done he pulls his katana on her, which does him no favors.

Ryouko cannot resist the temptation to do horrible things to the Mendou doll (and thus Mendou himself), so she leaves it in the care of someone she believes she can trust to keep it safe: Ataru. Ataru wears it around his neck at all times because Ryouko asked him, but this is not great for Mendou, as Ataru takes a lot of punishment throughout an average day, and he feels everything Ataru feels.

Initially, Mendou acts to everyone like he’s suddenly being a stand-up guy dedicated to keeping his friends Ataru safe. But then he confirms that Ataru has the doll of him, and that makes Ataru aware of what the doll can do to Mendou. Mendou in turn, makes a doll of Ataru, and the two spar in the most pointless battle imaginable, in which they each dole out the exact same amount of harm to one another with every attack.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 10 – Turning Point

It’s the class marathon, and no one is happier or more fired up than Tomo and Jun. Jun in particular loves nothing more than to compete against Tomo, and the two end up far ahead of the pack, and even threaten to overtake their teacher…who is on a moped! When they reach the turning point for the girls, Tomo runs straight through it, because she’s not racing the girls—she’s racing Jun!

Alas, her intensive training the previous day (which left her lying face up naked in the bathroom) gave her a fever, and when she collapses, the race is over. With no phone and no one around, Jun finally gets to put the body he’s spent years building up to good use, carrying Tomo on his back to the finish line. Tomo wakes up with Carol snuggling with her and Misuzu freaked out that she’d actually get sick.

Both girls insist that Tomo make use of her rare “moment of weakness” to let Jun pamper her. She even gets him to carry her on his back again when she’s awake to enjoy it! They both note how they’ve grown in this moment of closeness.

He gets to say the words she once said to him: if you’re in trouble, of course I’ll be there. And, to his shock, she uses this opportunity to give him back his handheld video game. After all, he was the stronger man than she was…if only today!

Getting his video game back is a much bigger deal for Jun than Tomo probably realizes…so much so that the second half of the episode is a flashback to when Jun first learned Tomo was a girl when he saw her in a girl’s uniform when middle school started. The two were so close, rumors immediately spread that they were going out. Jun, who believed those rumors would cause trouble for Tomo, decided to start ignoring her.

A whole damn year passed without Jun having the guts to approach Tomo and apologize, and they devolved into mere acquaintances. Meanwhile, Misuzu was having a friendship crisis, unsure if she’d be able to stay close to Tomo when she was continuing to jock it up like their earlier years.

Misuzu and Jun’s individual crises brought them together into that brief weird fling. It’s nice to see Jun grappling with the sudden reality that Misuzu is his girlfriend (accompanied by shots of her looking cute) and even Misuzu admits it feels good (at least until the grueling exercise started). It was, after all, the first time either of them had dated anyone.

Misuzu’s hope was that Jun could “slow Tomo down”, but after their dates, she determined that he might have the opposite effect. It really brings her down, and when Tomo asks about her in class, Misuzu plainly declares that they may not be able to stay friends.

Tomo takes her aside to get her to clarify, then tells her athletic prowess has nothing to do with their friendship. Tomo tells Misuzu that their time together is far more precious to her than all her guy friends. This immediately brightens Misuzu’s day.

After dumping Misuzu (who is devastated by the fact he beat her to it), Jun finally speaks to Tomo, but as he walks behind her, can’t seem to find the words. Finally, Tomo opens the conversation with her fists, angrily and tearfully demanding to know why he’s been ignoring her for so long and only now deigned to talk to her. When he tells her the reason, he asks her why they should give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks if they want to “be together like they’ve always been”.

Jun admits he wants to be with her like always, so she tells him to be with her already…a-as friends, j-just friends, yeah? Jun wants to be together with Tomo forever. The both of them may have changed, and their relationship has changed with it.  In the present, Jun wants to find a way to still be with her forever. That he was able to make up and get back with her in middle school gives me hope he’ll manage to find a way in the final three episodes.

P.S. I almost forgot to mention that after nine episodes of the girls singing the cute ED, it’s the boys turn to sing this time, and it’s awesome! It’s also good timing, what with Kou x Carol being codified last week and Jun seeing Tomo as a romantic partner more than ever this week. As to whether Misuzu will ever agree to a date with whasisname…I won’t hold my breath but that would be sweet too. BFs for everyone!

Attack on Titan – 88 (The Final Season E29-31) – A World of Sinners

This is it. Well…almost. This hour-long special comprises part one of Part 3 of The Final Season. The final final finale is expected to air this Fall, and then Attack on Titan will end. And would that it would end like this special began: with Eren waking up from a long dream. Mikasa asks why there are tears in his eyes, but he doesn’t know. He can’t remember.

As Eren walked through the city, he watches a poor boy getting beaten in an alley for stealing, but he doesn’t stop to help. How can he pretend to be righteous when he knows, and is resigned to the fact, that he will soon level this entire city and everyone in it with the Rumbling? He later apologizes to the kid with tears in his eyes, for what he believes can’t be stopped.

After that, we return to the present, in the midst of the Rumbling, and it’s a rough, rough watch. Just unblinking carnage among the rich and poor, men, women, and children, one of whom is the boy Eren met earlier and his brother. Like so many millions, they end up crushed under the foot of a Colossal Titan.

The Rumbling has begun, and there’s nothing the Scout Regiment can do about that, but they’re still determined to do what they can. While on Azumabito’s ship, Annie thanks Armin for talking with her while she was frozen, and he all but confesses he did it not for strategic purposes, but because he loved her.

Annie doesn’t believe she deserves such deference after all she’s done, but Armin has long ago stopped pretending he’s any “better” a person than she. The world beyond the walls wasn’t what he or Eren thought it would be (something Annie already knew), and that reality made monsters of all of them.

But as Falco and Gabi are told by Pieck that the Rumbling has begun and all their family must be dead by now, Armin tells Annie he still hopes there’s something out there, far beyond the walls, to give them hope for the future.

But again, for now, Armin and Mikasa and their meager fighting force are simply going to do what they can. That night at the port when the flying boat is being prepared for flight, Mikasa notices Annie and Armin’s thing and gets flustered herself.

She’s also resolute about bringing Eren, who has gone “far away” in more ways than one, “back”, with the unspoken “or die trying”, but is also accepting that Annie has fought enough, so she’ll fight so she can spend the time she has left more peacefully.

That said, Armin is going on this mission from which he may not return, and Annie is deciding to stay on the ship with Azumabito, Gabi, and Falco. Yelena confirms that Eren’s likely next target is Fort Salta, where the Marleyan airship fleet will no doubt be mobilized for a final assault.

Yelena also maintains that Zeke’s Eldian euthanization plan would have been preferable to the global massacre currently taking place…and Hange can’t disagree anymore. After Reiner and Annie share a heartfelt hug of farewell and apology, Armin shoots Annie one last wave look of acknowledgement before the ship steams off. He wants Annie to stay Annie.

Predictably, the launch of the flying boat does not go off without a hitch. Floch, who had stowed away on the ship, appears to shoot holes in the plane’s fuel tank, delaying the launch enough for the Rumbling to arrive. Knowing someone has to try to slow them down to give the welders time to repair the tank, Hange assigns herself what she knows will be a one-way mission.

She’s her typical happy-go-lucky and somewhat unhinged Hange Zoe self right to the last, naming Armin her successor as Scout Regiment Commander, and then flying off on her ODM gear for one last sweeping view of the port city, before blushing at the beauty of the Colossals before her.

Hange puts up a hell of a fight and brings a number of Colossals down (they’re very stupid, so they don’t dodge her attacks or even step over one another), but she is eventually enveloped in flames and falls to her death. But by the time she does, the flying boat is safely in the air, and hope of stopping the Rumbling is still alive. Hange, unfortunately, is not, and joins Erwin and a number of other fallen comrades under the blue skies of the hereafter.

The second half of the special is entitled “Sinners” as everyone from the main players of this story to their parents and parents’ parents, reflect on the lives they’ve led and how they may have contributed to the situation they’re in now, and how to make things better in the future, if they can.

Armin wastes no time asserting authority as commander in laying out their plan of attack once they get to Fort Salta and encounter Eren. Killing him will only be a last resort if dialogue won’t work. But just as they’re discussing such dialogue, Eren brings them all to the Path and declares in no uncertain terms that the Rumbling will not stop under any circumstances.

This begs the question: if he doesn’t want the Rumbling to stop, why are they all still able to use their Titan powers? He tells them he’s given them the freedom to choose. They can either sit back and watch him complete the purge of all non-Eldians from the world, or try to stop him. It’s not exactly an invitation, but Eren is well aware Armin and the others will choose the latter.

Back on the boat, Annie learns that Falco has been dreaming memories of Zeke. He still has a connection to Zeke and the Beast Titan, ergo if Annie so chooses, she can use her Female Titan power to manifest those abilities. Annie had just heard Azumabito saying she may not be able to turn back time or ever forgive herself, but she can still do what she can. Was that talk, and this opportunity, enough to bring Annie back into the fight?

Just as a train from the city being controlled by the Eldians (including Reiner and Annie’s folks) approaches Fort Salta, they see all the airships, their means of escape, have been launched in a last-ditch effort to stop the Rumbling. The fort’s commander vows to break away from the cycle of hate that caused this crisis should they somehow manage to survive.

The airship bombing run does not go well. The airships’ altitude is too high for accurate targeting, and the Beast Titan sprouts from Eren’s spine to lob lighting balls at the ships until they’ve all been blown out of the sky. All hope seems lost for the soldiers and refugees at the fort, united in their desire to survive. But then the flying boat peeks out of the clouds, running on fumes, just in time to drop the Scout Regiment right on top of Eren.

Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Connie, and Levi leap from the plane, joined by Reiner and Pieck, who transform into the Armored and Cart. The people at the fort can see what’s going on, and Reiner’s family revels in the fact he’s still alive. How long, however, remains to be seen.

As Armin prepares to get up close and personal with his former best friend, he has one more question for him: How is this freedom to him? Those colossal ribs look like nothing so much as a cage in which Eren is restrained, pulled and dragged along by what he feels to be his final fate.

But even after all the sins he’s committed and plans to commit, Armin and especially Mikasa are not ready to give up on him. They’ve sinned too, after all, as has every single living soul in the world. The time for judging one another is over. This is a fight for survival and the future, and if they lose, it’s the end of everything. Who will prevail? We’ll find out in the Fall.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 07 – The End of Gamer Boy

This week takes us back ten years to the meeting of Jun and Tomo. Having moved from Tokyo, Jun is content to play his handheld game until Tomo hops over the fence to introduce herself (at this point he thinks she’s a boy). Within seconds, his video game is broken.

He learns what a decent person Tomo is when she and her dad stop by to formally apologize (having told on herself) and she asks to be his friend. From that point on the two are inseparable, with Jun doing his best just to keep up with Tomo as she runs, leaps, and climbs all over the place.

Before long, Tomo introduces her even older friend Misuzu, who is hilariously exactly the same as she is in the present, making her quite the precocious kid and future shit-stirrer. When the three go on a bug-hunting trip atop a 200-step shrine stair, Tomo carries Mizuzu on her back and looks smug.

This propels Jun to run up the steps to beat them, and he later smiles one of his first smiles in front of Tomo when he finds a stag beetle. When Tomo embraces Jun, Misuzu grabs her by the shirt, and we witness the origins of her and Jun’s long-standing mutual antagonism.

Jun notes how just being with Tomo made him feel stronger, until one day he learned that was just an illusion when some bullies beat him up and took his (replaced) video game. Tomo is concerned about the mark on his cheek, and even Misuzu derides no joy in making fun of it when clearly something’s amiss.

Then, totally unbidden, Tomo shows up at Jun’s front gate with his video game in hand and a face full of bruises. Jun is furious that she went and took it back alone, but she says she’ll always help him when he’s in trouble, because they’re friends. But Jun is frustrated to the point of tears, because he knows he can’t do the same for Tomo…not until he gets stronger.

That’s how he ended up joining the Aizawa dojo and becoming the impressive physical specimen on display in the beach trip half of the episode—all to become stronger than Tomo so he could take back the video game with his own hands.

Of course, present-day Tomo still plays the game, wondering when he’ll take it, assuming he’s stronger than her by now. But if there’s anything that makes his strength waste away to nothing and cause him to freeze in his tracks, it’s large breasts. Carol has them, but more importantly, Tomo has them too.

Misuzu and Carol are all too aware of this, and accompany Tomo and Jun to the beach trip specifically to see his face when he sees Tomo in her new itty bitty green-striped bikini top, which leaves Jun absolutely zero room to keep thinking of her as a dude.

He zips her up and hangs out under the umbrella with the modestly-endowed Misuzu, who seriously wants to hit him for what his proximity implies. But Tomo is so jazzed up about the beach that she completely forgets she’s in a revealing bikini top and treats Jun like she usually does, with a lot of physical contact.

In this way, Tomo is simply unconsciously demonstrating to Jun how far he still has to go to be stronger than her. He doesn’t simply want to match her in physical strength or prowess in the dojo; he wants to be strong enough not to freeze up every time Tomo touches him.

These thoughts provide more much-appreciated insight into how Jun actually feels about Tomo. The problem isn’t that he sees her as a guy, it’s that he sees her as a girl, and is still wrestling with that. The one thing he fears more than never getting stronger than her is losing what they have.

On the train home, Tomo is initially leaning on Jun but then leans over to Misuzu, already being glommed on by Carol. Her smug look is fantastic, and she asks Jun “what happened” to make him not enjoy the beach trip. For all their adversarial exchanges and glares, Misuzu and Jun go way back to those carefree days catching bugs with their mutual best friend Tomo.

This trip confirmed for Misuzu that Jun sees Tomo only as a girl, and is struggling with how to act around her. This is progress! Misuzu’s goal is to get Tomo and Jun together, but at the end of the day, Jun will need to do his part. This is considerably tougher than his handheld video games, but the rewards of victory will be just as considerable.

The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie – His and Her and Their Circumstances

In the prologue, Uesugi Fuutarou is in a wedding tux, summoned by the bride, only to find five identical brides: the Nakano quintuplets. Polygamy is as illegal in Japan as it is in the states, so what exactly is up here? Rewind to the eve of Fuu and the Quints’ final school festival. Fuu gathers them in a classroom and tells them he likes…all of them. However, he realizes he owes one of them an answer, and she’ll get that answer, at the end of the festival.

From there the narrative takes a non-linear approach, starting by showing each of the five sisters alone at the end of the third day, followed by an account of the festival from each of their points of view. Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki all get some quality time with Fuu, and all of them (except Itsuki) manage to steal a kiss from him. During the festival, each sister steps forward.

Ichika with her acting career; Nino with her resentment of their distant doctor dad;  Miku learns to be confident and assertive and mend fences between boy and girl classmates, and vows to go to cooking school; Yotsuba learns that sometimes she can be the one being helped rather than always helping; Itsuki rejects their asshole biological father who can’t even tell them apart, and embraces her dream of becoming a teacher like her mother.

Each of these segments represent both a summing-up and resolution to each of the girls’ arcs and points them forward. Indeed, each could have been its own episode in a third season. But when we come to the end of the third day and the movie throws every misdirection it can on who Fuu will go to, he ends up choosing…Yotsuba.

Yotsuba was “Reina”, the first sister Fuu met, and together they shared one of the happiest and most fun days of their young lives. But Yotsuba initially rejects Fuu, and it’s not him, it’s her who feels unworthy. The movie digs deep into Yotsuba’s past as the maverick of the quintet, the first one to differentiate her hairstyle with her green rabbit ribbon.

Yotsuba wanted to stand out from the crowd and be useful; this we know. But in trying to do so by joining (and excelling) at every club at school, she ended up flunking her exams, having to repeat her grade. When her father told her she’d be transferring to another school, the other four sisters said in no uncertain terms where she goes, they go.

Yotsuba runs from Fuu and his confession because she doesn’t feel she deserves to be “the special one” after trying to be just that in the past caused so many problems for her family. And yet, Yotsuba’s independent spirit was bolster by her meeting with Fuu, who like her wanted to work hard to become someone who was needed.

Even after calling herself “the best of the sisters”, the others had her back when she thought she’d cast away to be alone. When Fuu stumbles and falls and grabs Yotsuba’s ankle when he turns around to check on him, he tells her how much that day with her shaped him into the Fuutarou he is today. He chose her, he loves her, because she is special in that way to him. And when he asks directly, she can’t lie, she loves him too. She always has.

But just because Fuutarou loves Yotsuba and Yotsuba loves Fuutarou doesn’t mean they’re on easy street. Each of her four sisters reacts to it in different ways that suit their personalities. Ichika accepts her loss to Yotsuba, and now knows how Nino felt when she said she’d support her sister even if Fuu chose someone else.

Miku sings karaoke with Yotsuba all night, admits it’s hard to let go of Fuu, but ultimately gives her her blessing. Nino is the toughest, as one would expect. Always regarded as the strongest and sternest sister, the one who cared for everyone, even her older sister Ichika. She initially feels betrayed by Yotsuba for hiding how she felt until Fuu made a choice.

As Fuutarou and Itsuki are talking in a dark classroom, they have to hide when Nino and Yotsuba walk in to hash it all out. Ultimately, Yotsuba accepts that Nino can’t accept matters, at least not yet. But Yotsuba also assures Nino she won’t lose. In this context, Nino tells both her and Fuu to be on their guards; she’ll be watching, and if there’s any sign their love is false, she’ll swoop in and steal Fuu away.

A litte bit later, Yotsuba and Fuutarou have their first official date together, and it’s as adorably awkward and sweet as you’d expect. Fuutarou puts a lot of thought into the structure of the date, first taking her to a family restaurant where his family went, then to a library where he always studies, and finally to the playground where the two of them had a happy memory.

After Yotsuba takes a huge leap off the swing, Fuu attempts the same and ends up breaking the chain and falling on his face. But he rises to one knee and pledges to become a man worthy of standing beside her, and proposes marriage without a ring…on their first date.

Yotsuba points out he’s skipped a lot of steps, and warns that just about any other woman would probably hit the road…except her. By proposing to her, Fuu helped her remember another dream of hers: to become a bride. So while they can’t get married right away, she accepts his proposal.

Five years later, Ichika arrives back in Japan from her new home in America, Nino and Miku run their own café, and Itsuki is a schoolteacher. Yotsuba meets her sisters there and is all sweaty from riding the bike, even though the marriage ceremony is later that day. Their bridal gift to her is their mother’s diamond earrings, but they have to pierce Yotsuba’s ears so she can wear them.

The earrings are a sign of their collective love for her and blessing for her marriage. The momentary pain of the piercings are a reminder of the initial collective pain they felt when Fuutarou chose Yotsuba over them. With time, that pain has subsided. In the end, the quintuplets stuck together.

This brings us to the prologue of the film, in which Fuutarou is faced with five identical brides. Only unlike their asshole biological dad, and like their real date (Dr. Nakano), Fuutarou has long since been able to tell the five sisters apart. Fuu correctly identifying the sisters one by one is intercut with Yotsuba’s reception speech, where she thanks the sisters she loves so much for helping her become the woman she is.

Fuutarou then walks down the aisle with Yotsuba and puts a ring on her finger, and hey presto, a question two seasons and a movie in the making is finally answered. It was Yotsuba all along; the one who wrongly felt least deserving or worthy of Fuutarou’s love and favor. I for one couldn’t be happier.

And when it comes time for the honeymoon, naturally Yotsuba’s four sisters decide they’re coming along (though hopefully in separate, non-adjacent rooms). The only question is where they should go. On the count of three, the five girls point to five different spots on the map, just as they did years ago for their graduation trip. For all the ways they’ve changed and grown, they remain quintessentially quintuplets, and I loved each and every one of them.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 13 (Fin) – The True Zangetsu Was the Friends We Made Along the Way

Ichigo is heading off, but Isshin asks a fair question: how will he get back? That’s answered by Mera, who appears and spirits him back to Hououden. There, Nimaiya allows Ichigo to re-take the Asauchi test, which he passes with flying colors now that he knows himself better.

All the Asauchi who aren’t his Zanpakuto bow before him rather than fight, and he identifies and reaches out to the one that is: Zangetsu. But Nimaiya warns Ichigo that forging a new blade will be the end of the Zangetsu he’s known.

As this is the final episode of the cour, there’s an obligatory check-in with the captains who lost their bankai. Each of them are throwing themselves into training and leveling up, casting aside the things that are currently gone and working with what they have.

In Toushirou’s case, that’s going back to sword school. In Sajin’s, it’s meeting with his clan’s Great Elder, who wants nothing to do with outside affairs. Captain Muguruma didn’t lose his bankai, but still insists that Hisagi gain one by fighting Mashiro, who is the Ninth’s “Super” Lieutenant. I like it.

Now that Ichigo has his zanpakuto back, it’s forgin’ time. Nimaiya summons his three comely bodyguards to prepare everything. The five women are colorful characters with very specific roles, from constructing the forge to conveying water, lighting the fire, creating a hammer from a tooth, and catching and restraining the raw zanpakuto blade.

Once everything is ready, Nimaiya removes his goofy shades and gets hammering. As he does so, Nimaiya asks him what the white blade reminds him of; Ichigo says the Hollow within him. That’s when the Blade King drops this on him: the Hollow within him is his Zanpakuto.

This conflicts with Ichigo’s extant understanding of the manifestation of his blade, who he always thought was Old Man Zangetsu. But now it occurs to him that that old man was really a shadow, or echo, of the Quincy King Yhwach from a thousand years ago. That’s why he was drawn to the king in Soul Society; he recognized the guy.

Faced with this revelation, the building on which he and the old man stand crumbles and they fall into a sea, which is a hauntingly gorgeous setting for what becomes their final talk together. Old Man Zangetsu wasn’t the full source of his strength. On the contrary, he suppressed Ichigo’s full potential.

He did this because he wanted to keep Ichigo from becoming a Soul Reaper, with all the pain, suffering, and likely early death that came with such a role. It was only when Ichigo ovecame adversity, perservered, and got stronger (with help from the Hollow within) that Zangetsu decided that maybe Ichigo being a Soul Reaper wasn’t such a bad thing.

When Old Man Zangetsu vanishes in that dark, monochromatic sea, he leaves a blue sword behind, representing the true Zangetsu. Ichigo takes hold of it, comes out of his mind space, and is grabbing the blade from the forge with his bare hands.

Only it’s not just one blade, it’s two. In his mind, his Quincy Zangetsu was as much his Zanpakuto as his Hollow Zangetsu. Together they grant him a unique combined power no one else has. And now that he has his true Zanpakuto and his true power is unlocked, he can fight the Quincy for keeps.

Oh, and Uryuu is apparently joining Yhwach and the Quincy. Wait…what?! I’m not sure he got enough character development in this cour to justify turning his back on his friends, but then again, he is extremely proud of his heritage. At this point, before there’s a rematch between Ichigo and Yhwach, I have to believe Ichigo and Uryuu will be facing off.

Between Uryuu’s cloak-turn, the captains and lieutenants leveling up, Ichigo at full power for the first time in his life, and maybe(?) Rukia, Renji, Orihime and Chad showing up, the Summer 2023 cour of Thousand Year War should be a good one.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 12 – Tears of the Sun

After finishing the first of this week’s two-episode finale, I maintain that an entire arc devoted to how Ichigo’s parents met and fell in love would have been just fine with me. And indeed, the two-part flashback feels a bit rushed at times. But I’m still grateful for what we got, which is nothing less than the most beautiful and heartrending story Bleach has ever told.

Due to the fact no one has harmed and minimal damage done, Isshin is not punished by Old Man Yama for his unsanctioned excursion to the World of the Living. However, Isshin lies when he says there was “nothing else of note” to report … like, say, he discovered that some Quincy were still alive.

Both he and Masaki don’t want to be done with one another, but Masaki is feeling the ill effects of being bitten by that weird hollow, and even bumps into none other than Urahara Kisuke when she momentarily faints.

Masaki comes home and is read the riot act by Ryuuken’s mother, who found out from Katagiri that she got in a hollow battle and was injured, all to save a hated soul reaper. Ryuu first rushes to Katagiri to castigate her for snitching, but Katagiri only did what thought she needed to to prevent the tainting of the Ishida bloodline.

Indeed, if it wasn’t for Katagiri informing Mrs. Ishida, Masaki may have well collapsed somewhere other than the entrance to the house, and it would be too late by the time someone found her. Because as a result of being bitten by the hollow, she’s undergoing the process of hollowification.

Ryuuken carries her out and flies through the sky, unsure where to go or what to do. A giant hollow sneaks up from behind, but is bisected by a returning Isshin. Ryuu exchanges some harsh words, but ultimately, the two men want the same thing: to save Masaki. Unfortunately, neither of them know quite how the hell to do that.

But Urahara does, and he introduces himself to both Isshin and Ryuuken as the only person who can save Masaki. He was banned from Soul Society for the very research he’ll draw upon to do so, warning that while he can save Masaki’s life, she’ll never be the same again. Meanwhile, Masaki is lost deep within her mind, descending into the mouth of a giant hollow.

Urahara describes what must be done to save Masaki—bind her now half Quincy, half Hollow soul with that of a half-Soul Reaper, half- human. Isshin is full Soul Reaper, but if he uses a special gigai developed by Urahara, he can become half-human, but will have to say goodbye to his life in Soul Society forever.

Both Urahara and Ryuu are amazed how quickly Isshin says he’ll do it, but I’m not. This is Ichigo’s dad we’re talking about, and even if Masaki isn’t his family yet, he can’t deny the two of them already shared a sense of justice and altruism that transcends their opposing factions.

He also admits that he’s not sure he really wants to throw his current life away, but he also knows that his future self will laugh at him or worse if he refused to save the person who saved him. The procedure commences, visualized by Isshin saving Masaki and getsuga tenshou-ing the giant mind hollow to hell. Masaki comes to giggling, wanting to know Isshin’s name.

Ryuuken heads home in the rain, knowing that while his potential future bride Masaki did not outright reject him, in a way fate and the universe did. He regrets not stepping in sooner before Masaki was injured, which turned out to be the beginning of the end of her being a suitable wife. Now her soul is literally bound to that of his historical mortal enemy of the Quincy.

Back home, Katagiri is waiting for him in the rain, and he tells her to inform his mother that he is no longer worthy or able to protect the Quincy anymore. But Katagiri, who met Ryuu when she was a small girl and has grown not just to dutifully serve him, but love and care for him, tells him that’s not true. She sheds tears that mingle with the rain; I’m sure she’d long hoped to be his wife one day, but probably not like this.

Isshin starts to wrap up the tale of his wife to Ichigo, their son, by saying she left the Ishida family when she graduated high school and would visit him as a college student when he opened up his medical clinic. He told her he’d been banished, but always assumed she immediately saw through the lie. The two soon fell in love, became inseparable, and she had Ichigo.

Again, I wish we could have watched more episodes of Isshin and Masaki getting to know each other both before the attack that would bind their souls and afterwards when he began his human life. The two are such compelling, rootable characters. Isshin is absolutely right that Masaki radiates light and warmth like the sun.

But there’s also a romantic quality to just how goshdarned fast everything happened to these young people, how they rolled with the punches, and came out of it living different but probably better lives than the ones they would have led had they never met. A life neither in the Quincy or Soul Reaper way, but in the middle way.

But that too had its cost, as Isshin wraps up this epic tale to Ichigo. The day Masaki died protecting a 9-year-old Ichigo, she shouldn’t have died. She was still part Quincy, and her Blut Vene should have been able to not only defend against Grand Fisher, but defeat him easily.

But she didn’t, and died instead, because her powers failed her. Rather, they were taken, by the awakening King of the Quincy, Yhwach. Uryuu’s mother Katagiri met the same fate, becoming frail and dying too soon as, like Masaki’s, she was deemed unworthy of keeping her powers by Yhwach.

That Yhwach is the father of all Quincy, and his blood runs through all their veins, means he was Masaki’s progenitor, and thus Ichigo’s as well. There may be no ecaping that. And like her mother, he inherited the part of her soul that had become Hollowified.

As if Ichigo needed any further motivation to defeat the guy, he can add “ultimately responsible for his mom’s death” to the list. When an uncharacteristically docile Ikumi stops by to give him his Soul Reaper talisman, Ichigo takes it, thanks her, then tells his father he’s headed off.

Now that he knows more about who he is and where he came from, there’s much work to be done … I just wish he’d at least said hi to his sisters!

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 11 – Meet the Parents

I gave up on Bleach twelve or thirteen seasons or so into its run because it kept stalling on anime-only filler arcs, most of which were hot garbage and almost never masked the fact that they were meant to stall for time while the source material developed. Now that Bleach is back, it feels fresh, and something new happens in every episode.

Take this episode, one that finally begins to explore Ichigo’s parents’ past in detail. From the moment Isshin showed up at Ichigo’s boss Ikumi’s place in his shinigami garb and told his son the time has finally come to talk about this stuff, I was riveted. my only beef with Ichigo’s return is that we don’t get to see any Karin or Yuzu.

In the not-too-distant past, Shiba Isshin was the captain of the 10th Squad, with a short-haired Matsumoto as his lieutenant and Hitsugaya as his third seat (and heir apparent to the captaincy). Toshio delivers a report on soul eater deaths during patrols in Naruki City in the human world. Those deaths are part of hollowification experiments being run by Aizen, Ichimaru and Kaname, who are in the early stages of planning their takeover.

Kurosaki Masaki is a kind, capable, and somewhat lonely young woman. She’s lonely because she is the last surviving member of her Quincy clan, and has been taken in by the Ishidas. Uryuu’s father Ryuuken’s mom is not that crazy about this, no doubt being obsessed with maintaining a pure a bloodline as possible, while Ryuuken himself is a lot nicer to Masaki (probably because he sees himself one day marrying her).

Tying in Aizen & Co.’s slow-burn scheme with the origin story of how Masaki and Isshin met is a brilliant bit of retroactive continuity. Isshin comes to Naruki to investigate the source of the deaths, and meets Aizen & Co.’s eldritch abomination: a hollow whose hole has been filled, adn who fights like a soul reaper…a powerful one. Aizen even slashes Isshin in the back to give him a handicap.

As a Quincy, Masaki is extremely attuned to spiritual pressure, and knows something is wrong when she senses Isshin and the Hollow fighting. But she’s also an empathetic and caring person with a strong belief in noblesse oblige. When she starts to run towards the trouble, Ryuuken tries to stop her, saying the lower-level Quincy can put themselves in danger.

But Masaki tells Ryuuken something I could easily hear Ichigo saying: it’s one thing to stay safe so one has a future. But if she stands by while someone dies, she won’t be able to forgive her future self. She runs into town under the pelting rain and finds a soul reaper locked in mortal combat with a strange hollow, Isshin’s fire-based zanpakuto lighting up the night.

To his warm flames, Masaki adds her icy Quincy arrows in order to save Isshin’s life. When the hollow charges her, she disarms and allows it to bit her shoulder, which allows her to kill it from point-blank range. So not only is Masaki a Quincy, but comparable in skill and power to a Gotei 13 Captain, and even possesses a sense of style to her fighting.

When the hollow prepares to self destruct, Isshin sees Masaki is in trouble and uses his body and spiritual pressure to shield her. On the ground, battered and bloody, Isshin thanks Masaki for saving her. She in turn thanks him for saving her, and he laughs, saying that must make them even.

When Isshin asks her who she is, Masaki considers how a soul reaper would react to learning that she’s a Quincy. Perhaps since he just saved her, Masaki isn’t in the mood to lie or deflect, and comes right out and tells him she’s a quincy. Isshin’s reaction of casual amusement is definitely not what she expected, and it puts a big Kurosaki smile on her face.

So there you have it: a shinigami captain and the last surviving member of a Quincy clan have a meet cute, all thanks to the series’ big bad’s machinations. Forget flashbacks; I could honestly watch an entire separate season of Bleach centered on these two (and the ensuing love triangle with Ryuuken). You can plainly see how Ichigo became such an honorable and upstanding young scamp from watching these two.

Akiba Maid War – 10 – Swine and Punishment

“Romance is a no-no”, it’s right there in the opening theme. But while forbidding maids and masters from dating is a matter of professional boundaries, in this mobbed-up Akiba, a maid falling in love can lead to disownment, even death. It’s in this context that we watch Ranko, finally finding someone she likes, and who likes her, in Suehiro.

Sure that man happens to be a maid assassin, and it’s heavily implied from the start that she’s his next target, but we can’t choose who we love, can we? While Nagomi wants to cheer Ranko on, she’s opposed in principle due to the danger involved. But Tenchou is fine with Ranko going on one date—especially if it’s with a banker who might loan her money (fat chance).

The next day all the girls pitch in to help make Ranko look her best, and she wears, and what do you know, it’s the noir-y outfit she dons in her the Enko ED. The one member of Oinky-Doink resolutely opposed to the date is Okachimachi, blocking her way and even going so far as to speak up.

But Ranko wants to go on the date, and she and Suehiro have a great time in and around Ueno. They stroll the market, visit the zoo, and brings omelet rice and a ketchup bottle with which to draw on it.

The date only reinforces that the two would be quite comfortable and happy together, sharing a love of heater fans and dreaming about getting cozy under a kotatsu. He’s as upfront and earnest as she is, and loves the stoic way she talks. He had been worn out emotionally from his job (as an assassin) but at Oinky Doink Ranko gave him a place of peace and solace.

Something to look forward to. He wants to experience that every day, so he proposes that they take tomorrow’s night train and leave Akiba behind together. When the wind catches Ranko’s hat and she reaches out towards him to catch it, he instead takes her hand and shoulder and kisses her, leaving her with the train ticket in her hand.

After he leaves, Okachimachi shows up again, and speaking in Hirano Aya’s voice (such a great casting choice). She’s holding a gun, and has a story to tell about a maid who came to Akiba to be a maid and was disillusioned until she befriended one of her Masters … our trench coat-rockin’ Suehiro.

Eventually Okachimachi was ordered to assassinate a rival maid cafe’s manager—Ranko’s Miss Michiyo. She was nervous and terrified when she killed her, but Okachimachi ran away thinking she finally had it “maid” in this cuthhroat town.

She was wrong. Suehiro had only grown close to her so her guard would be down when the time came to eliminate her after she killed Michiyo. Okachimachi was lucky a cop entered the ally before Suehiro could kill her, but ended up getting hit by a car while on the run. She survived, and from that point on, decided she’d live life as a panda, eventually being brought in by Tenchou.

This is, needless to say, quite a damn twist: for the murderer of Ranko’s beloved matron to have been hiding under her nose all this time as the café mascot. Okachimachi brings Ranko a warning—that Suehiro will kill her too—as well as a pistol, so Ranko can take the revenge she’s owed. Ranko seemingly doesn’t hesitate for a moment in “sending her off.”

But as the kill happened off-camera, I wasn’t confident it was really a kill. Sure enough, we see that she only shot the panda mask in the head, no doubt correctly assessing that Michiyo wouldn’t want her to spill more blood for her sake. Ranko loves Michiyo more than she wanted revenge.

She also loves Suehiro, which is why it gives her no pleasure to wait for him at the train station with a gun in her pocket, ready to take him out before he can take her out, but perhaps also hoping against hope that no one has to be taken out; that there could be a happy ending.

Unfortunately, Ranko’s mercy has an unintended side effect: Okachimachi is still alive to take matters into her own hands and protect Ranko, both physically and emotionally, by killing Suehiro for her.

But here’s the thing: as we learn after we see Okachimachi shoot him, he called Nagi to tell her he wouldn’t be going through with killing Ranko. In fact, when Okachimachi shoots him, he’s not taking a weapon out of his coat, but a case containing a ring—a pearl ring, for his pig bride.

That’s a gut-wrenching end, especially as it unfolds while Ranko is waiting in the rain and growing more and more miserable. When she returns to the cafe drenched, she sees Okachimachi beat her there. Okachimachi tells her that Nagi isn’t just the one who ordered the hit on Ranko, but on Michiyo too.

While Okachimachi was merely a tool in Michiyo’s hit, Ranko likely won’t be so merciful of her former friend and colleague. Aside from the panda costume, this episode played everything straight, and was better for it due to the dissonance of the bizarre costumes and serious themes that make AMW so great.

While Michiyo abhorred violence—and so did Ranko—against a foe as unrelenting as Nagi, is there any choice but blood? Will Ranko have to lose another piece of her humanity to keep Nagomi and the others at Oinky Doink safe?

Chainsaw Man – 08 – Cry For Me

Chainsaw Man seemed to be setting up something quite scandalous last week when a wasted Himeno seemed poised to bed an underage and disoriented Denji. We rewind a bit this week to when she first enters her apartment, and watch it from her POV as she plops Denji on the bed, takes a shower, then grabs a beer.

Denji is conscious and lucid enough to question whether he should lose his virginity to Himeno after she already puked in his first kiss. One look at Himeno’s face after she pulls his shirt off and he decides that yes he should. But when she pulls a Chupa Chuos out his pocket—the one Makima gave him when he was out getting air.

In addition to representing his still-intact virtue, it was also his first indirect kiss, since it had been in Makima’s mouth before his. Thus it reminds him of his vow for Makima to be his first, and passes on Himeno, who promptly passes out.

The next morning, the two have breakfast on her high-rise balcony, another new luxury for Denji. Himeno admits she was so blackout drunk last night she claims not to know if she took advantage of him, and is relieved to learn she didn’t since people can get locked up for that kinda thing.

When Denji insists that he only has eyes for Makima, Himeno proposes that they form an alliance. She’ll help him get with Makima, if he helps her get with Aki. Denji agrees, and just like that, he and Himeno are no longer merely co-workers, but friends.

At this point I’d simply been enjoying the lush camerawork, the gorgeous night and morning lighting, and the overall nice post-drinks vibes. Little did I know this was the final calm before a storm that would turn Chainsaw Man on its head.

From Himeno’s apartment we’re on a train, and the claustrophobic camerawork creates a sense of paranoia. Makima, for her part, isn’t looking forward to meeting with her superiors in Kyoto, but admits she had fun at drinks the previous night.

Then the two passengers in the rows in front of and behind her and her assistant suddenly drop out of view, produce guns, point them at Makima and her assistant, and shoot them both in the head and chest. You can imagine this non-manga reader was quite shocked by this development.

But aside from the near-impossibility a main character like Makima would end up dead in the eighth episode, the fact that her eyes look far from dead when the camera pulled in close on her bloodied face. Rather than fade the way most anime characters’ eyes do upon dying, they seem to smolder. So maybe she’s not really dead?

Arai and Kobeni are also assassinated, seemingly by ordinary people who suddenly have guns and are being controlled by devils—or aren’t, and are simply working together to take out the 4th Division. When the shots that take out the rookies ring out, Denji, Power, Aki, and Himeno are at a ramen joint having lunch, still firmly in calm mode.

Even the vigilant Aki wonders if it was fireworks from a celebration. Then a man starts talking across the restaurant from them, produces a photo of his uncle, the yakuza who Denji worked for, then pulls out a gun and shoots Denji and Himeno. Aki dodges and Power gives the guy an uppercut.

Aki then summons Kon, who sardonically declares that he just made her swallow up something neither human nor devil—in other words, like Denji. But instead of a Chainsaw Man, he’s more like a Katana Man, with wide, razor-sharp blades protruding from the same places as Denji’s.

When Kon is wounded and checks out, Aki turns to Curse, a devil he summons by piercing Katana Man three times. When it comes out, it certainly looks like Game Over for the baddie, as it looks like an instant-kill kinda situation.

And Curse does seem to do the trick, as Katana Man ends up on the ground, motionless and defeated. Then an unassuming young woman with short dirty-blond hair appears, revives him, and asks him why he lost. He says he grossly underestimated Aki. Then the woman tells him to kill him next time.

Katana Man’s next attack is so quick, no one, even Power, sees it. One moment he’s on one side of Aki, the next he’s on the other, and a massive blood flower blooms from Aki’s chest. Himeno, who is gravely injured but still conscious, summons Ghost, who is hesitant to enter the fray as the dirty blond woman is nasty AF.

But Himeno is not about to watch yet another partner (particularly one she loves) die, so she offers everything she’s got so Ghost can give her everything she’s got.

As Himeno’s arms and legs vanish one by one like glitches in a video game, Ghost grows larger, more powerful, and more monstrous. Katana Man seems to be on the back foot once again, but the cost of such a victory was always going to be too high.

In her few episodes, I’d become quite fond of Himeno, and Ise Mariya’s voice work throughout has been outstanding as expected. I’d have never guessed that morning she and Denji had breakfast on her balcony would be her last morning ever, but here we are.

Himeno’s final words are an extension of her previous refrain: “Don’t die on me, Aki”. Among the partners she’d worked with Aki was one who cried for each and every one of the rookies under him who were killed. In her last moments, all she wants is for Aki not to die, so if she dies, he’ll cry for her.

To add insult to grievous injury, Himeno’s sacrifice doesn’t defeat the enemy. Kitana Man may be in trouble, but one word from the blond woman summons a mammoth snake that lops Ghost’s head clean off. When Aki looks over at where Himeno had been, only her suit and trademark eyepatch remain.

I cannot overstate what a gut punch this entire sequence is, or how masterful sunlight, darkness, and silence are employed to create a sense of hopelessness and despair. If it sticks, the butcher bill of this episode, and how it came out of absolutely nowhere, puts it right up there with the Red Wedding for pure horrific shock and distress.

And yet, this didn’t come out of nowhere. Throughout the drinks the previous night there was talk of some hunters who didn’t make it there because they’d been killed. Himeno had already lost numerous partners. We already knew that each day in a hunter’s life could be their last. I knew all that going in. I just didn’t know the end would come for these hunters. All that foreshadowing didn’t lessen the hurt.

Now you’ll excuse me while I go have a cry.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Chainsaw Man – 07 – Loosening the Screws

When Kobeni accidentally stabbed Aki, Himeno started to lose it, because she felt like she was going to lose the latest in a long line of unfortunate partners. But while she despaired, Denji scoffed. He didn’t ask Aki to save him, and is done owing anybody anything, so he happily dives into the fell eldritch mass that is the Eternity Devil and pulls his ripcord.

It doesn’t take long for Denji to start losing some serious blood, but once he starts drinking the devil’s blood, he basically becomes a self-healing “perpetual motion machine”, boasting that he, not Power, will be the one to win that Nobel Prize.

In a flashback, Himeno visits her parents’ graves with her master; like Aki, she lost them to the Gun Devil, which is why she joined the force. But her master warns that a devil hunter cannot be too earnest straight-laced—devils know exactly how to fuck with and kill those kinds of people. All of Himeno’s previous partners died because they were too sane, and feared the devils, and devils love fear.

Her master “loosened the screws” by drinking heavily on occasion. Knowing that Aki is another upstanding lad, she tried to get him to quit the force and follow her into the safer private sector, but he refused. But as she watches Denji, Himeno sees what the ideal devil hunter is like: window-lickingly insane, unpredictable, and immune to the devil’s mind games.

When Denji’s motor cuts out, Himeno uses her ghost arm to pull his cord, and for three days he tears at the Eternity Devil until he finally reaches its core. By then, it is pleading for its life, but Denji slices it in two. Just like that, the hunters are off the eighth floor and out of the hotel.

No sooner do they leave the hotel than Denji passes out, but Himeno is there to carry him on her back to the hospital. Later, during a mission with Aki, Himeno proposes the whole squad go out for drinks to break the ice … to loosen the screws. Also, bury the hatchet vis-a-vis everyone trying to kill Denji.

Leave it to Chainsaw Man to make the izakaya where the 4th division meets up look like just the place I want to be on a Friday night. The beers are tall, cold, and frosty, and the snacks look delectable (so much so that Power systematically hoards them).

We meet a couple other division members, one of whom recently lost his rookie subordinate, just like that. A haunted look washes over Kobeni as she reckons with the fact that people in their line of work live short lives.

Denji brings up the kiss Himeno promised, but she tells him she needs to drink more first. Things get complicated for Denji when Makima arrives fashionably late wondering what all this talk of kissing is about.

When Aki asks Makima straight-up why she’s so interested in Denji, she says she’ll answer, but only if he can outdrink her. As expected, he can’t, as both he and Himeno fall to her indomitable tolerance. At this point, Himeno’s screws have been sufficiently loosened that she decides to bestow her promised kiss upon Denji’s lips.

It’s his first kiss, with tongue … and also with Himeno’s vomit. Turns out she loosened the screws a bit too much. Denji swallows some of it and gets ruinously drunk (it shocks everyone to learn he’s only 16). He and Arai have a bonding moment when he helps Denji boot—Arai having experience helping his alcoholic mom.

With the hour growing late and everyone sufficiently lubricated, the 4th division departs from the izakaya. Himeno manages to sneak of with Denji, and when he comes to, it’s on her bed, underneath her. She gives him another kiss—this time of beer, not barf—and proposes that they bone. Denji is growing up fast in the 4th Division.

The soft bluish-purple light, Himeno’s fluid movements, and her seiyu Ise Mariya’s gently seductive voice lend an almost sacred beauty to an otherwise profane scene. But it’s also a sad one, because Himeno is clearly compensating for her crippling grief and loneliness, not to mention her part-familial, part-romantic feelings for an Aki who only has eyes for Miss Makima.

Then again, maybe Himeno just figures she could die tomorrow—or later that night—such is the fate of all devil hunters. That being the case, one must take their fun when and where they can get it.

P.S. Every episode of Chainsaw Man has a unique ED and theme, and this one might’ve been my favorite, as it’s a 4:3 standard-def retro-gasm. Reminded me of one of the best OPs of all time, the retro Koimonogatari OP “Kogarashi Sentiment”.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 07 – Night of Fallen Souls

The last battle between the Gotei 13 and the Quincy looked a lot like the current one, only in reverse. Yamamoto’s thirteen captains back then were vicious, savage killers who made quick work of the Quincy … yet Yamamoto wasn’t able to take Yhwach’s life.

That day of slaughter is memorialized in a painting in Yamamoto’s dojo, as seen by a young Shunsui. Yamamoto warned Shunsui that if the subject of the painting ever returned to Soul Society it would be a dark day indeed. And so it is, with Yamamoto being sliced in half by the real Yhwach after expending all his energy fighting a fake one.

With the Head Captain defeated, Yhwach orders the Stern Ritter to summon their foot soldiers to complete the slaughter of shinigami. The soldiers meet little resistance, mowing down their opponents with east and leaving Soul Society dark, burning, and drenched in blood.

It would appear Yhwach and the Quincy have had their revenge, but after being unable to simply stand by and watch countless lights of souls in Soul Society wink out, Ichigo manages to power his way out of Quilge’s prison and completes his journey through the Garganta.

The first Quincy to encounter him falls quickly by his sword, but before engaging Yhwach, Ichigo pays a visit to Kuchiki Byakuya. Before the sixth captain dies, he takes solace in knowing Rukia and Renji are still alive, and asks Ichigo for a final favor: protect Soul Society—what’s left of it, that is.

Yhwach is surprised but not totally shocked to see Ichigo before him, having defeated Quilge’s prison. It only reinforces the fact that Kurosaki is one of the five special threats that stand in the way of total victory over Soul Society. Ichigo, meanwhile, is already bloodied and battered and not in the best shape to face off against the Quincy king.

That said, he still puts up a hell of a fight, even if Yhwach is likely holding back from killing him. Their ensuing battle is nothing like the flame-wreathed inferno of Yamamoto vs. Yhwach. Things get downright 2001 trippy with the colors and patterns created by the sheer force of their attacks upon one another. But in the end, Yhwach puts his blade in Ichigo’s throat.

Confident he’s disabled but not killed Ichigo, Yhwach prepares to take him back to their realm so that he can revive him and turn him to his side, But he encounters another surprise: Ichigo is still conscious, Yhwach’s stunning strike blocked by a Quincy technique: Blut Vene.

Yhwach surmises that Ichigo’s persistent contact with Quilge’s prison when he busted himself out caused the Quincy’s spiritual pressure to mix with Ichigo’s, enabling him to unconsciously use the Blut to save himself. Yhwach takes off the kid gloves and surrounds and restrains Ichigo with rocks.

But then, just like that, he gives the order to withdraw. It isn’t a retreat, merely a break in the invasion that will be resumed again soon. The Quincy have only a limited timespan in which they are able to function outside of their realm, and that time comes sooner than Yhwach expected due to a little illusory fuckery from his brief encounter with Aizen.

Speaking of fuckery, Yhwach gives Ichigo something to chew on while heals up and awaits his return: the fact that he’s … a Quincy? Or, at least, possesses Quincy blood. It’s why Yhwach hesitates to refer to himself as Ichigo’s “enemy”—as far as he’s concerned, Ichigo is family: a prodigal son to be brought back into the fold. But something tells me Ichigo won’t be going quietly.

Chainsaw Man – 06 – Endless Eight

After battles that took place in spacious warehouses and the open city streets, Chainsaw Man shifts to an initially innocuous but increasingly menacing and claustrophobic hotel floor. All stairs, windows, and floors lead to the same place: where they are.

Kobeni loses it almost immediately, convinced they’re all going to starve and die in this closed, timeless place. When she falls to pieces saying how the 4th Division wasn’t her choice (apparently it was this or sex work), Power laughs it up, because human fear fuels devils.

Himeno is a lot more calm and collected, as this isn’t her first rodeo. Also, she has cigarettes. But as she lights up her last one, she tells Denji how she “taught Aki the taste” of cigarettes, being intentionally suggestive with the phrasing.

When the family member of one of her past partners took it out on her by slapping her, Aki followed the person and stuck gum to their clothes as payback. From that point on Himeno knew she had someone special. She finally got Aki to smoke a cigarette, which he said would be his first and last, but as we see in the present, that’s far from the case.

Himeno’s point was that no Devil Hunter lives a long life, so you might as well enjoy the little pleasures like cigarettes. But Aki doesn’t intend to die anytime soon, which comforts Himeno. Their host, the “Eternity Devil”, appears in the form of a horrific mass of faces and limbs, and offers the hunters a deal.

If they give it Denji, dead or alive, it will let everyone go. Kobeni, whom Himeno had knocked out when she tried drinking toilet water, comes to just in time to hear this, and rushes Denji with a knife. To his surprise, Aki stands in front of him and kicks the knife out of her hand. As far as he’s concerned, no one’s killing Denji. Himeno has his back.

But time passes, and Power eats all of the food they’d scavenged from the abandoned rooms. When Himeno tries her ghost limbs she’s able to injure the Eternity Devil, but it simply grows larger and then chases them through the halls, making the spaces they occupy even smaller.

Finally, the angles of the hallways (which are really the walls of the devil’s stomach) start to shift, adding to the increasing sense of disorientation and dread. With the devil closing in, it’s time to either give it Denji or die. There is another option: the sword on Aki’s back. But when he goes for it, Himeno paralyzes him with her ghosts.

Her reason is that using the sword shortens Aki’s life, and he has “too much to live for”. Also, Himeno clearly cares for (if not outright loves) Aki and doesn’t want to outlive yet another partner. But her plan backfires, as Aki manages to overpower the ghosts and takes Kobani’s knife to the ribs to protect Denji. His reason is that he can’t kill the Gun Devil without people like Denji.

As he starts bleeding out, Himeno finally loses it, making Aki, Denji, and Power the only ones with their heads on their shoulders. Power uses her blood manipulation power to try to keep Aki alive (even though she’s best at controlling her own), while a panicked Himeno asks Aki what the plan is.

Finally Denji, who never asked Aki to take a knife for him, decides to bite the bullet and jump into the devil’s gullet. Only once he’s in he’ll break out his chainsaws. He figures the one thing the devil is scared of most is him, which is why it wanted the others to kill him first. That ain’t happening; Denji’s going in on his own terms, and I like his odds.

This dark and nervy Chainsaw Man really showed how a hopeless situation can bring out the devil in anyone. Kobeni is probably a nice enough girl, but in a situation like this has no qualms about murdering another to save her own skin. Even Himeno abandons the tenets of her profession due to her personal affection for Aki. Aki keeps his composure, but he’s fueled by vengeance. But as horrible and nightmarish as this place is, it’s not that bad compared to what Denji’s already been through.

The beds in the hotel are so nice he curls up and naps in one like nothing’s the matter. All the talk of starvation must sound extremely quaint to someone who barely ever had enough to eat. Maybe that’s why Kobeni turned on him so fast: despite being a fellow human, his attitude was so different form hers in this situation that she became able to see him as an other, a devil to be sacrificed.