Synduality: Noir – 21 – Chant du Ciel Noir

While Mystere heads off to Carthage with Maria for more Histoire research, Ellie and Ange support Kanata as he works to get DaisyOgre back up and running. Noir, meanwhile, seems aimless, even moreso than usual. She’s having trouble accepting her new Ciel-sourced body. You could call it Magus survivor’s guilt.

When she discovers that she can charge up her camera with electricity just like Ciel did, my thoughts immediately turned to what else she can do that Ciel could? As she passes by holo-signs of Ciel’s canceled show, she encounters a little girl with bouquet of real flowers meant for Ciel. When the girl sings in her idol’s absence, Noir joins in, singing Ciel’s song in her own voice (i.e. Koga Aoi’s voice, which is lovely).

Tokio returns and stops by to say hi to Kanata and explain how he tried infiltrating Ideal to get his friend Macht out of there, only to fail. Kanata throws back Tokio’s own lessons back at him, telling him it’s not about what you can do, but what you want to do. Tokio, who probably feels bad about what he did to Kanata, asks him to punch him. Kanata’s first blow is a love tap, but when egged on, he launches a haymaker that makes Ellie and Ange “yeep.”

Then Noir shows up and tells Kanata, and everyone else there, that she “wants to sing.” Earlier Ellie told Kanata, who was worried about Noir, that all he can do is keep supporting her. Well, everyone ends up supporting Noir by helping to prepare her debut concert. Tokio reprises his White Mask persona as her MC, while Ellie, Ange, and others help spread the word about the show.

When the concert starts there are only a handful of people there, but both before the start time and when she spots her in the crowd, a surprisingly nervous Noir is clamed down by the little girl with the flowers, her first fan who got the ball rolling. Noir sings confidently, and word outside the venue starts to spread until it becomes a packed house.

Noir ends the show with the last song Ciel wrote, “Your Song,” a song she had only performed for Kanata before she passed away. When Noir really starts getting into the song, the spirit of Ciel is projected beside her and they bring the house down with a stirring duet. This is Synduality at it’s sweetest, guileless, and most heartwarming best.

I’ve made clear that Synduality really scratches that nostalgic, early-00’s Eureka seveN-ish itch, and after all that dark, brooding drama in Amasia, it’s just so satisfying to get a more fun cooldown episode that also delivers significant and compelling character development for its titular character.

This concert was a chance to honor Ciel’s memory and sacrifice, lit the way forward for Noir, and demonstrated the tight-knit community that’s so worth fighting for. Synduality knocked it out of the park with this charming-as-hell outing. It also gave Koga Aoi the chance to flex her angelic pipes, something I’m never going to be mad about.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 09 – Staying the Person They Admired

If only she’d stayed a little closer to her team, Rose might have been able to heal some of them. Instead, Nero is able to lure her farther away. And while both Aul and the others are able to fight Nero’s subordinates to a stalemate that earns them Nero’s praise, once he uses his cursed sword to compel his people to fight without regard for their lives, Rose’s people start falling one after the other.

The episode doesn’t spare the brutality of the ensuing bloodbath, as the knights call for Rose to heal them. Alas, when her eye is struck by the cursed sword, her healing magic has no effect, and her mana is drained. She can’t make it in time to save anyone, but Aul makes it in time to save her, at the cost of her own life.

Rose lashes out in rage and beats the hell out of Nero before throwing his own cursed sword into his shoulder. He is not immune to its effects, but he still has one subordinate in reserve: a young, inexperienced, and clearly freaked out Amila. In her face Rose sees Aul’s, and ultimately allows her to escape with her maimed master, though with her wounded foot it’s not like Rose can move much.

With her last strands of life, Aul puts her hand on  Rose’s pained, bloodied face and smiles. She has no regrets, is glad to have been able to fight under Rose, and knows the others felt the same way. She urges Rose to “stay the one they admire,” before breathing her last. Rose, utterly broken, lets out a primal scream.

She does manage to return home with the bodies of all her subordinates, for which the parents of one are grateful. But she asks the king to relieve her of her army command and revoke her knighthood. She refuses to heal her eye, so she never forgets the lives lost under her watch. She spends a month alone in the suddenly empty and silent barracks once so full of life. She even admits to a concerned Siglis that the thought occurred to her that death might not be so bad.

But Rose has no intention of ending the life Aul gave her. It’s only a matter of what to do with it. Visions of her subordinates and Aul appear before her and tell her that if any of them were acting like she did, she’d throttle them and assign them to training from hell. Aul then reminds Rose of what she told her: that everything changes, and you have to accept that and move forward.

Rose allows herself a few more minutes of fragility, and tears, then stands up and walks outside the barracks with renewed purpose and resolve. She’ll honor Aul and the others by creating a new kind of force, one that saves lives and won’t allow anyone on the battlefield to die. She knows she’ll need someone like her who can both heal and fight.

Back in the present, she tells that someone, Usato Ken, how glad she is to have found him, and that he should be mindful of how precious his existence is. As they near his first battlefield, we’ll finally, finally see how her Rescue Team system works, and how the Heroes fare, and whether Ken can save them from a supremely confident Black Knight, not to mention a grown Amila eager to kill Rose.

Synduality: Noir – 20 – A Better Way

Synduality takes a pause in its present-day narrative to tell two separate stories of yore. First up is a recording of Pascale both telling and showing Kanata, Mystere, and Noir the story of how she, a child of Amasia, went up to the surface to explore the real world with her Magus by her side, soaking everything up.

She didn’t believe Magus were merely computational dolls, but had the potential to become just as “real” as humans. She carried a journal containing a list of things she wanted to do, from tasting real grass to smelling the real sea and witnessing a real rainbow, all with her companion, student, and friend Mystere in tow.

When they located a signal up in space, Pascale had Mystere hack into it. On the same carrier wave Mystere used to access Histoire, Histoire send a signal back: Noir. Pascale never told Mystere, but Noir wasn’t just her safe mode alter-ego, but an independent entity, eager to learn and absorb information, albeit with no body of her own.

Pascale was pursued by Ideal, and in one scuffle, she is seriously wounded. Rather than give Mystere or Noir up, she has Mystere return to her unconscious safe mode in the museum where Kanata would find her several years later. The recording of Pascale regrets that she had to lie to Mystere, but urges her to see through the dream they shared of reaching Histoire. Mystere is understandably emotional, wanting so bad for the recording to be interactive.

As for Kanata, Pascale asks him to take care of her “girls,” and he fully intends to. But first, they locate Pascale’s grave under a great tree, and pay their respects. It’s then when Noir runs her hand down her chest and suddenly asks, “Where’s Ciel?”, heartbreakingly unaware that Ciel sacrificed her life so she could live. Like Mystere with Pascale, Noir lost someone precious to her in Ciel, but must keep moving forward.

The second story, is that of Macht, told while he and Schnee are just chilling in the present day. Macht, Licht, and Weisheit were all elite Coffin pilots given equally elite Magus. Weisheit got Ciel, whom he immediately started to treat and use as a mere tool, while Licht and Macht formed more human bonds with Mouton and Schnee, respectively.

Weisheit decided that the only way to reach Paradise, i.e. Histoire, was for all the youths to rise up against the adults who were administering them. That meant dirty work had to be done, and Weisheit had Ciel do a lot of it. Macht fell in line, as he believed in Weisheit’s dream, but Licht didn’t, and was imprisoned and marked for elimination.

There’s a clear parallel between Pascale and Licht/Tokio in that neither got much out of staying below ground in what remained of Amasia. They also felt that Magus were more valuable as friends and companions than as mere tools or weapons.

When Mouton sprung Licht, Macht had one more chance to choose a path: to go with Licht to the surface, or remain with Weisheit. We know which he chose, but judging from Schnee’s consistently forlorn tone both in the past and the present, you get the feeling she wishes he’d chosen differently.

Even so, once her “Lord” made his decision, she dedicated herself to him until the end, and he started donning his black mask. That mask symbolizes both his embracing of Weisheit’s darkness, and averting his eyes from the reality that it’s not too late to change his (and Schnee’s) path. He can still side with the good guys.

Synduality: Noir – 19 – Guiding Light

On their way to Old Amasia, Ellie and Ange detect DaisyOgre and find Kanata sitting in the rain with Ciel’s lifeless body in his arms. It’s understandable that he’s not in the best emotional state, but Ellie tells him that whatever is wrong with Ciel, the lives of Noir and Mystere also hang in the balance.

They track down Alba, who determines that Ciel’s Master tried to format her and wipe her memory, but she was able to refuse the format and reboot thanks to the plugin she had Kanata activate. Refusing a reboot is death for a Magus, and it seems Ciel chose death rather than lose who she was. Alba can’t bring Ciel back, but her Type Zero body could be used as a host for Noir.

I honestly still don’t have a clue what Tokio/Licht is up to, or what he’s trying to gain by continuing to interact with Macht and Schnee. Perhaps he wants them to team up with him and Mouton to bring Mr. Weisheit down? Again, I have no idea. I just know that Weisheit pours out some wine in Ciel’s honor, as she exceeded his expectations to the last.

Alba tells Kanata that Noir and Mystere might not last another day, so he has a choice to make: accept Ciel’s death and allow Alba to transfer Noir to her body (which could very well be Ciel’s wish), or hesitate and lose all three Magus. As he recalls all the sides Ciel showed him, he wonders if they were all lies, until he finds Noir’s camera. The images convince him they weren’t all lies. Ellie said as much to him: Ciel loved him, and couldn’t bear forgetting who he was or becoming his enemy.

Kanata decides to give Alba and Ada the okay to transfer Noir into Ciel’s body. Ellie takes his hand to support him as they stand and watch the technicians work. It doesn’t take long for them to hit a snag: while the connection has been made between the bodies, Noir’s consciousness appears to be “stuck.” Kanata tries talking to the unconscious Mystere, in hopes of getting Noir’s attention.

But it’s not Kanata’s voice, but Ciel’s form who ultimately guides Noir to the beacon of light in her dreamscape that represents the path to her new body. This must be a small remnant of Ciel’s personality that remained just long enough to save Noir and Mystere, for once Noir starts heading to the beacon, this Ciel avatar smiles then vanishes, her work complete.

The transfer is successful, and Ada cuts the connection between the bodies. Mystere is the first to wake up, and seems to be her usual prickly self, with her talk of Hacks and Duds. But Noir wakes up shortly after, not knowing whether to tell Kanata “Thank you,” “Sorry,” or “Good Morning.” Kanata simply says “Welcome back,” and Noir smiles.

We have Noir and Mystere finally facing each other then the flesh, but their separation also triggers a stored message from within Mystere. It’s a projection of her old Master, presuming Kanata to be the new Master of “her two girls.” Ciel died so that they could live. Now comes the living part.

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 36 (S3 Fin) – Close, But No Sparkler

Well…Kazuya doesn’t light Chizuru’s sparkler. In fact, even when he knows she’s crying, she laughs it off as smoke in her eyes, and the fireworks continue with her making innocuous small talk while Kazuya gets lost in his head.

I’ll give him this, though: before she can slip away with a thank you and good night, he does manage to do one thing: Tell her what his ideal girlfriend is. He goes on to perfectly describe Chizuru, including the fact that she can sometimes let her mask slip and cry.

And cry she does. Given everything Kazuya tells her, she recalls another memory with her grandparents, and the waterworks start gushing out all at once. Kazuya isn’t sure what exactly he said or why he said it, but it ended up being a very effective cathartic moment.

At the end of the date Kazuya hoped would cheer her up, instead he made her cry, but it felt like a good cry, a necessary one. And that she feels she’s not only able to cry in front of Kazuya (despite the fact she’s technically still “on the job” at that moment) but cry in his arms, says a lot about how far they’ve come, even if his description of her doesn’t count as a true confession.

That said, their date ends with her shrugging off the tears and returning to her bubbly Rental GF self as they part ways for the night (which in hindsight is odd since…they’re neighbors headed to the same place). Kazuya doesn’t his usual overthinking thing—even wondering if she was acting—when Mini teleports into his place to hear his report. She tells him he definitely made progress, but can’t stay still: the next step is going on a real date, with no money exchanging hands.

Of course, Kazuya puts his hands up and reverts to his whole “I’m just a client” spiel, which has at this point become absurdly tiresome. He and Chizuru also share an awkward moment on the balcony where she settles on what to wear for the screening in a week’s time. When we finally get some time in her head, she’s talking to her grandparents at her shrine to them. She knows they now know the truth, but also that Kazuya’s a good kid, and that she feels better after crying to him.

So yeah, there are clearly still a few more steps that need to happen before these two can consider dating for real, but groundwork that didn’t exist at the start of the season has most definitely been laid. Rent-a-Girlfriend is a marathon, not a sprint, and isn’t for the weak-hearted or impatient….or, I suppose, those intelligent enough to steer clear from this wheel-spinning fiasco!

Because at the end of the day, and the episode, and the season, Kazuya and Chizuru still can’t really imagine each other as boyfriend and girlfriend even if they have developed some feelings for one another. That Kazuya was able to get a movie produced with Chizuru starring in it should not be discounted, but in addition to their own remaining hang-ups, Ruka still exists and thinks she has a chance with Kazuya, and Mami is now hanging out with his granny, which can’t be good.

All this sets up a fourth season of this, presumably with a lot more Mami, and perhaps with Sumi and Mini in diminished roles (though not sure how much more you diminish Sumi!) Mami may be the most loathsome member of the cast (other than Kazuya himself of course), at least she’s voiced by a very game Yuuki Aoi. Right now I’m not that eager to dive into the fresh mess her last-minute appearance portends, but the fact is I won’t have to…not until next summer!

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 35 – Renting Is Insufficient

Kazuya’s mission is to take Chizuru on such an amazing date it totally cheers her up and makes her forget her grief, at least a little bit. Kazuya has it on authority from both Mini and Sumi that this is something he can do and something Chizuru will appreciate.

While we end up in Kazuya’s head as he fawns over how pretty and perfect Chizuru is far more than I’d like, something else also happens. Kazuya has his typically nervous and neurotic moments, but he’s also thoroughly enjoying himself.

I should hope so, considering the cash he’s throwing down. After a shopping trip (he happens to picks out a perfect fall outfit she likes, so she wears it the rest of the date) they hold hands to the next leg of the date: the kind of auteur-y highbrow film he knows she’ll geek out about.

Then it’s off to a fancy Italian trattoria for lunch, and Chizuru, who has been in Rental Girlfriend Mode this whole time, puts her elbows on the table to make sure Kazuya isn’t doing all this for her sake, because honestly, she’s fine. Kazuya insists he’s doing this because he wants to.

After lunch they head to the rock-climbing center, which he knows she enjoyed last time. Not only does he get to see Sporty Chizuru in all her splendor, but she insists that they stretch together, resulting in far closer contact than Kazuya was ready for.

So exhaustive was his research on this date that he’s able to give her advice to reach the top of the intermediate wall, which gives both of them a shot dopamine from the victory. Then he takes her to an even fancier crab restaurant for a crab dinner.

On the way to their table, Chizuru spots a little girl with her grandmother, and for a few moments while Kazuya isn’t looking, her Rental Girlfriend mask drops. That it really didn’t take much for it to happen speaks to how emotionally vulnerable she still is…which is only understandable!

Chizuru never lets Kazuya see the face she made at the entrance, but instead demonstrates how she’d make the perfect traditional Japanese wife, taking command of the dining table, preparing plates, pouring his beer, etc. Despite designing this date to make Chizuru happy, Kazuya finds that it’s making him just as happy.

As a fortune cookie fortune once said: “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.” All the extra shifts Kazuya pulled were more than worth it, because not only did all the cash he made help make Chizuru happy, but seeing Chizuru happy makes him happy. He also has a relatively inexpensive way to close out the date: fireworks!

While he was initially worried they’d be too childish, Chizuru is all up for it, and wants to light a sparkler first, since that’s how her gran used to do it. But as he leaves her side for the second time to fill a bucket with water, the sparks fizzle in Chizuru’s eyes, she recalls a vivid memory of lighting sparklers in the yard with her grandparents, and finally can’t help but break down.

When Kazuya returns, even though Chizuru’s back is to him he can see her trembling, and that’s where the episode wraps: with a vital decision to make. Kazuya can’t worry about his date to make her happy suddenly being ruined or something because of the sparklers. When her sparkler goes out, all he needs to do is what her grandmother did years ago: re-light it with her own sparkler. That’s all he needs to do!

Chizuru is, and has been, able to grieve as she sees fit, of course, but her lapses this week show that perhaps what she needs is space and time to let out the emotions she’s clearly keeping bottled up. Just as he picked the perfect outfit for her seemingly out of instinct, so too has he created that space and time for her. I hope she gets to use it, and that he can simply be there for her, and show her that she isn’t alone.

In / Spectre – 19 – Meteorite Boy

Update: This review was initially labeled episode 18 – it has been corrected to episode 19.

Kotoko meets with Tae about the details of the case, and Tae informs her that Zenta infused a meteorite into the right arm of the wooden doll. The same meteorite that fell right in front of him when he was contemplating suicide, and seemed to improve his health, was included so that the doll would have a weapon with which to exact revenge when Zenta died.

I believe this is the first time outer space or a “cosmic” supernatural  phenomenon has come up on In/Spectre, and it’s a neat and thought-provoking thing to bring up. For all of her amassed knowledge and wisdom of Earth-based youkai, Kotoko’s guesses about their space counterparts are as good as yours or mine. She also works a virginity joke into the discussion, but Tae is not amused!

Considering the wooden doll’s extremely regular timing and route, all they need to do is set a trap. That night, Kotoko organizes the youkai into two groups on the beach and tells them not to move. Kurou is employed as the one that will block the doll’s path and get it to divert to a pre-arranged spot. This requires that Kurou die a couple of times, but he’s eventually able to grasp the future thread needed for them to capture the doll.

Note that I say capture and not kill, because Kotoko believes Zenta made the doll relatively easy to destroy on purpose. She theorizes that the doll is essentially what’s colloquially known as a voodoo doll, and any violence exacted upon it could well befall, say, the four college students in the car that killed Zenta’s grandson.

In this way, Zenta would be able to get revenge on the entire town without dirtying his hands, since the townsfolk would technically be responsible for the college kids’ deaths. So before they can consider harming the doll, they have to capture it. That’s achieved once Kurou diverts the doll to the spot, and it falls into a concealed pit and its right arm immobilized with rope held by the two groups of youkai.

On closer inspection, Kurou finds names of the college students carved onto the doll—along with the names of townsfolk, including Tae’s. Tae posits that they can lift the curse—if there is one against everyone named—by simply scratching the names off the wood. When Kurou does so to her name first, Tae feels nothing. In the end, Kotoko was likely mistaken; the curse was strong enough to move the doll and produce electricity, but there was no “voodoo” effect.

With the matter resolved, Tae explains why she thinks Zenta carved her name on the doll. Zenta long resented her for living what looked like a happy and carefree life with all her money. Turns out she only has that money as reparations…for when her children were killed in a car accident.

Any attempts to rid herself of the excess cash resulted in even more cash coming in, whether it was a return on investment in a friend’s company, or damages paid when her husband died. One could call her both blessed and cursed.

As Kurou and Kotoko depart by car, she says it’s entirely likely Tae also contributed to the power of the wooden doll. If Zenta’s sense of resentment and revenge gave it some power, Tae’s own contemplation of death gave it more power; the power to become a threat to the town that she’d have to sacrifice herself to defeat.

Naturally, Kotoko doesn’t tell Tae the whole story, and it’s arguable if she needed to be told, as she’s probably already aware of that on some level. Kotoko then changes gears and whips out brochures, telling Kurou they should do touristy stuff. Considering the role tourism played in this case, it’s a wonderful, darkly comedic line.

Akiba Maid War – 12 (Fin) – Bacon Bad

Before Ranko went cold, I had a pretty strong inkling which way Nagomi would break in response. She tried to turn the other cheek and live by Nerula’s example, but losing Ranko was a pig too far. As a result, while her fellow Oinky Doink maids don black to grieve the loss of their 36-year-old big sister, Nagomi dons black to announce that she’s gone to the dark side—the way of the gun. She intends to kill Ranko’s killer with Ranko’s revolver.

Nagi didn’t order Ranko’s death—rather, it was someone who, like Nagomi, wanted revenge for the death of her fellow Wuv-Wuv Moonbeam maids, so stylishly slain in the first episode. In that regard, Ranko reaped what she sowed, which is why she died with a smile on her face. She owned what she did, and was happy to have found a home and family at the Oinky Doink.

But with Ranko gone, it’s once again open season for the pigs, as Nagi has ordered their extermination. Nagomi is jumped in the street by the cow maid she shot in the foot and beaten to a pulp, and after the police release her, she goes through Ranko’s bag and finds little mementos that turn her away from the darkness and back to the light.

The head maids under Nagi’s employ don’t want to shed any more blood lest they attract too much police attention, but Nagi wants this done, and she kills the head Bear and Cow maids to impress upon the others the price of questioning her orders. The next morning Nagomi, rejoins her fellow Oinky Doink maids in her normal maid outfit

They’re ready to join her in taking a last stand right there at their home against the other Creatures, and she tells them they’ll give their enemies a real “maid war.” They tuck into what may well be their last supper at the ramen joint below them, buying an extra bowl for Ranko and each of them taking a slurp from her bowl. Meanwhile, Nagi and her army are on the march.

When Nagi enters the ramen joint and the owner gets a little too sentimental, she kills him. He was one of the few people who knew her when she was an orphan taken in by Miss Michiyo, and who ordered a hit on her adoptive mother when she went non-violent … due in no small part to the arrival of young Ranko.

I thought we’d get one more elevator gag, but Nagi is all business as she walks down the hall to the entrance of Oinky Doink, her soldiers standing at attention. But even though she envisions herself being shot in the head before opening the door, she’s met by an entirely non-violent and very moe Oinky Doink welcome.

Following Nagomi’s lead, the Oinky Doink maids treat Nagi and their would-be murderers just like any other masters or mistresses who walk through that door: like they’ve come home to the pigsty. And to most of the maids’ shock (including Ranko’s killer), Nagi actually humors them, ordering everyone to sit down.

The main event of their hospitality is a song-and-dance by Nagomi that embodies the gentle, immortal spirit of moe moe kyun from which she, Ranko, and Michiyo all believed the maids of Akiba had strayed. Watching Nagomi perform…not so greatly reminds Nagi of Ranko when they were still sisters. She shoots Nagomi in the side, but it’s apparently only a grazing shot, because Nagomi keeps on going.

Nagomi’s performance briefly captures the enthusiasm of the crowd, but when it comes to a close it’s met by cold silence and a light smattering of applause. Nagi responds by shooting one of her own Dazzlion maids in the hands. Nagomi tries to get through to Nagi with sentiment and words, even telling Nagi that if she ever feels lonely she’ll always find cozy companionship at the pigsty. But Nagi simply doesn’t want to hear it.

The fact is, she’s seen and heard enough, so she fires the rest of her bullets at an off-camera Nagomi. But then something happens that she never expected in a million years: the former Wuv-Wuv Moonbeam, now Axolotl maid, who killed Ranko, shoots Nagi in the head.

Apparently, Nagomi got through to her. And getting through to one among the dozens was enough. Okachimachi finishes the job by throwing Chekhov’s sharpened bamboo spear through Nagi’s gut. We didn’t get any more Hirano Aya, but the panda had her day.

After a credit sequence altered to include visuals of and vocals by Nagomi, we flash forward to 2018, where we learn that in the end, Michiyo, Ranko, and Nagomi won. As it was when I visited, Akiba is a vibrant but peaceful place, where the maids are no longer packing heat. In a final welcome surprise, a wheelchair-bound but alive Nagomi carries on Ranko’s legacy at the New Oinky Doink Café—as a 36-year-old maid everybody wants to meet.

Akiba Maid War was exactly what was advertised on the tin, and more. At times totally ridiculous and bonkers and at others genuinely moving and compelling, it held true to its weird and novel premise to the end, framing those bloody times we witnessed as a dark chapter in the history of animal-themed café maids. The doves beat the hawks, not with swords or bullets, but with the boundless power of moe moe kyun.

Chainsaw Man – 10 – Toughening Up

In the aftermath of the attack on the 4th Division, Denji and Power are all healed up, and despite insisting otherwise, are by Aki’s side out of solidarity. They are, after all, three of the last surviving members. When the two leave shortly after Aki comes to, he asks the Curse Devil how long he has (two years), prepares to light a cigarette, and then can’t when he remembers Himeno.

Himeno gets her final wish: Aki lives to cry for her. As for Denji, he’s a little weirded out by how calm and cool he’s been about losing Himeno, the first person who wanted to be his friend. He wonders if he’d be just as indifferent if Power or Aki died. He even figures the loss of Miss Makima would only result in about three days of feeling bad, then he’d get back to living his life of meals and baths.

With Makima determined to strengthen what’s left of her now combined division, Denji and Power’s lives are about to get a lot less carefree. Deemed still too weak against the kind of devils they’ll have to hunt, Makima puts Himeno’s old sensei Kishibe (voiced by Tsuda Kenjirou) in charge of training them.

He immediately likes them, as neither are interested in revenge and will side with whoever will feed them (in Denji’s case) or whoever is winning (Power). They’re both the precise breed of fearless crazy needed to be effective devil hunters.

He pulls the two into a hug, and then casually breaks both their necks with his bare hands, leaving no doubt as to his toughness. After healing them with blood, he proceeds to kill or nearly kill the two again and again, deciding the best way to make them tougher is to hunt them until they’re capable of beating him.

While Denji and Power are enduring this, Kyoto’s Tendou and Kurose pay Aki a visit, and tell him it might be best if he quit while he’s still alive, like Madoka did. Unlike Denji and Power, Aki is still very much driven by the need for revenge against the devils that killed his family and Himeno. But to become strong enough to stay in the 4th Division, he’ll need to contract with stronger devils.

After Tendou and Kurose take their leave, a girl whose face we don’t see pays him a visit. While walking home from the graveyard, Denji and Power decide that the best way to defeat their new drunken teacher is to use their brains. Left unacknowledged is the fact that even if they put both their brains together they only end up with two balls of lint.

The next morning, they set up an ambush for Kishibe, all the while displaying a wholly unearned sense of confidence you can’t help but admire—they even wear glasses to look smarter. Kishibe easily defeats their surprise attacks, once again leaving them both on the floor, down for the count.

That said, he admired their attempt, and says he’ll give them the rest of the day off. The moment Denji drops his guard, he gets a thrown dagger to the forehead. Kishibe warns him and Power never to trust the words of someone hunting them. And so, the bloody trials continue.

Aki is escorted to the bowels of Public Safety headquarters by Tendou and Kurose, which serves as a prison for all of the devils captured alive. When Kurose asks if the girl at the hospital was Aki’s girlfriend, he says no; it was Himeno’s little sister, who brought letters Himeno wrote to her for Aki to read. Among them, Himeno discusses her unsuccessful attempt to get out of Public Safety with Aki.

As he contemplates his past, Tendou and Kurose take him to the cell of the Future Devil, one who took the eyes and sense of taste and smell from one human it contracted with and half the lifespan of another. Considering Aki has only two years left anyway (due to the Curse Devil), and his determination to destroy the Gun Devil, I’m certain the Future Devil can ask for whatever it wants, and Aki will sacrifice it.

Summertime Render – 03 – Mesopotamian Culture

Having watched footage of her own shadow on Shin’s phone, Mio believes the next step should be to help Kobayakawa Shiori. But when Shin goes to Shiori’s house, he finds only piles of black powder where Shiori’s parents once were, and deduces that the Shiori he saw at the funeral was actually her shadow, and the real Shiori is really dead.

After unsuccessful attempts to locate the woman in glasses from the ferry, Shin is heartened that at least the island cop Tetsu survived in this loop. He tells Shin and Mio that a detective from the mainland is on his way to investigate, and also gives Shin Ushio’s phone, saying she said he’d know what to do if he got it…but Shin can’t unlock it.

Shin shares everything he knows so far with his old friend Sou, who believes that since the shadows can be photographed, they are real and thus can be killed like normal people (might be a stretch). Mio thinks they should go to Hiruko (like the previous loop) for answers, but knowing what became of Mio there (being killed by her shadow) Shin hesitates at this suggestion.

After getting caught in the rain together, Mio gives Shin Ushio’s shell necklace, just like the previous loop, saying she wishes he’d stay on the island forever. Later, Sou shows up at Shin’s with both Mio and their mutual friend Yukiko in yukata for the annual island festival, which they attend together.

While there, Shin deduces that Sou is harboring a crush on Mio, while Toki asks Shin flat-out about his feelings for Mio. He responds that he of course cares or her…as family. That answer doesn’t seem to make Mio particularly happy, but Shin is distracted by the sudden sight of what looks like Ushio in the festival crowd.

His pursuit leads him to the beach, where he sees an apparent ghost—or possibly the shadow—of Ushio, backlit by the festival fireworks. Shinpei may have survived this loop—so far—but while it has resulted in some answers, a lot more questions have surfaced. At least he’s not alone in being aware of the general situation…but what’s up with this Ushio on the beach, and how can he be certain at this point that his friends Sou and Toki aren’t shadows?

While I’m enjoying the atmosphere and sense of dread lurking just beyond the corner, and the fact Shin and Mio survive to the end of the episode having learned more about the situation, this episode lacked the punch and the drive of the earlier two episodes, and featured some iffy animation to boot. I’m hoping for a rebound next week with the arrival of “Ushio”.

Summertime Render – 02 – Taking a Step Back

At night I’m driving in your car
Pretending that we’ll leave this town
We’re watching all the street lights fade
And now you’re just a stranger’s dream
I took your picture from the frame
And now you’re nothing like you seem
Your shadow fell like last night’s rain…
—”Shadow”, Chromatics

After he is brutally murdered by an evil copy of his adoptive sister Mio, Shin ends up back on the boat to Hitogashima, in the warm embrace of the bespectacled woman’s bosom. Back on July 22nd. The day repeats itself much the way it did before, with Mio ending up in the ocean. This time, Shin notices that her brakes were cut—likely intentionally.

After the funeral and dinner unfold much as they did the first time, Shin switches things up by staking out the front of the Kofune household. He witnesses Mio’s copy killing the cop Totsumura, then getting a glimpse of the shadowy alien/whatever that then assumes Totsumura’s form.

Thus the Totsumura we saw in the diner last week wasn’t Totsumura at all. Unfortunately, Mio spots Shin hiding, then kills him in gruesome fashion. But now we know: Mio’s copy tried to kill her by cutting her brakes, and these evil copies have plans.

…But yet again, Shin doesn’t die, and even observes his dead self before his Return by Death-style resurrection repeats. In the in-between space/time between loops, Shin both hears the voice and feels the embrace of his sister Ushio, urging him to protect Mio.

Back on the dock on July 22nd, Shin follows Ushio’s edict, putting himself between Mio and the sea to prevent her from falling ino the drink. Like Subaru, he is trying to take a long view of the situation and understand as much as he can while also trying to change enough to prevent further tragedy from befalling his family.

Meanwhile, the bespectacled lady is recording a message for someone we know not whom while inverted on a tree branch so she can maximize blood flow to her brain. Both of these odd practices and her dark suit reminded me of Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks, and indeed, the talk of “shadows” led me to go back and watch the closing minutes of the second episode of Twin Peaks’  third season, when Chromatics performs “Shadow.”

It occurs to me there’s a distinct Twin Peaks-y vibe to Summertime Render, in that an isolated, seemingly idyllic community is suddenly beset by an unspeakable, inscrutable evil force that can take the form of its inhabitants, like Ushio and Mio. Perhaps this lady was sent here to investigate.

Unfortunately, in the first loop she is killed by said evil copy of Mio. But with each loop Shin learns more and takes measures to keep both Mio and himself safe. He deletes most of the data on his phone and hooks it up to an external battery in order to record the copy of Mio outside the house without actually being outside the house, then makes sure Mio is safe by barging in on her while she’s bathing.

Smacking him with the shower wand seems to be adequate punishment, since Mio doesn’t hold a grudge against Shin the next morning when he comes in to present her with footage of her own shadow. Knowing that an evil copy of her is roaming around, and that she and Ushio both saw a copy of Ushio, it’s pretty easy to deduce that Ushio’s copy may well have murdered Ushio.

At least for the moment, Ushio seems dead for good, as Shin can only reset back to the day he arrived on the island, which was well after she died. Can he, Mio, and Dahlia Cooper collaborate to neutralize the shadow threat? Perhaps, but I imagine it will take a few more loops—and unfortunate murders—to pull that off.

Summertime Render – 01 (First Impressions) – Beware the Shadows

After a suitably creepy dream that seems to set the tone, Summertime Render then suddenly seems to stumble, with Ajiro Shinpei waking up with his face all up in a woman’s chest. Soon after arriving on his home island for the first time in over two years, his little sister Mio flashes her shimapan as she flips into the water. So what are we doing here?

It was later in the episode that I realized—and even appreciated—the earlier moments of levity. That’s because much of the rest of the episode is simply dripping with grief, regret, sadness, and longing. Shinpei’s other sister Ushio is dead, and he’s here for the funeral. She died successfully saving a little girl from drowning. Her sudden loss casts a heavy pall over the entire island.

One of Shinpei’s friends, whose father is the island’s doctor, assures him that an actual full autopsy wasn’t performed, but that his dad was brought in to examine strangulation marks on Ushio’s neck. While her death was ruled an accident, those marks loom large. But not as large as seeing Mio—seemingly a different Mio—ominously standing outside her own home.

Inside, after a dinner of curry Shinpei made—which he said he’d make for Ushio again before leaving but never got to (he also leaves a serving at her empty place at the table) and the call from his friend, Mio embraces him and starts to bawl her eyes out, though promising they’re the last tears she’ll shed, not wanting to worry Ushio.

The next day, Shinpei, Mio, and their dad Alan start the process of moving forward and getting through their grief by keeping as busy as possible at the family diner. But a drunk customer makes a strange comment about a large-chested lady looking for Shinpei, while the island’s sole cop informally reports that the girl Ushio saved and her entire family have vanished from the island.

Mio is so upset by this she runs out of the diner, and Shinpei follows. When he finds her sitting against a wall covered in shadow, she tells him that she and Ushio saw a double of Ushio, just as the little girl Ushio saved saw a double of herself. A passing old hunter tells the kids the old story about a “shadow sickness” on the island that causes people to see their shadows.

Back in the old days, people with this affliction would be cleansed at the island’s shrine, so Shinpei and Mio head there, and Mio spots someone she thinks is the little girl Ushio saved in the woods. Instead, they find the large-chested woman gravely wounded by a gunshot. Before she can tell Shinpei who did it, she’s shot through the head…by Mio’s shadow, who then headshots Mio and then Shinpei.

Cut to black, then some static, and suddenly Shinpei is back on the boat, with his face in the woman’s chest. So we have Groundhog Day with murderous doppelgangers on a sleepy island cloaked in dark old legends and mysteries. I’m in. From the depths of grief and loss to a violent bloodbath, Rendering escalates quickly and ends with an exclamation point of a reset button. However many times that button gets pressed, I’ll be here to watch what unfolds.

Tokyo 24th Ward – 04 – There is Nobody Else

Last week’s tornado disaster was ambitious, but awkwardly executed and punctuated as it was by the introduction of Carneades, (AKA Goofy Anime Clown Villain #5,000,406), I didn’t feel the weight of those twelve deaths until here, when RGB are attending Kaba-sensei’s memorial service.

Shuuta blames their inability to properly work together to create a future whre no one got hurt, and now doubts his ability to be a hero to anyone, and thinks this is something to be left to someone else. Ran points out that there is no one else receiving calls from “Asumin”. They’re it. They can’t get discouraged—too many more lives are at stake.

Three months pass with neither a call from Asumi nor a message from Carneades, but there is an uptick in the distribution and use of a mysterious Drug rather unimaginatively called “Drug D”. This coincides with an impending deal with a foreign casino magnate (not Trump) to re-develop the 24th Ward’s near-lawless Shantytown.

While Kouki investigates from one side of the law with SARG, Ran, a Shantytown native, and his crew takes action from the other side, locating and neutralizing users and searching for the source of the drugs. It’s likely Ran & Co. suspect the drugs are being brought in specifically to facilitate the redevelopment venture at the cost of Shantytown’s culture and identity.

While Kouki and Ran are busy with the Drug D case, Shuuta stays on the sidelines baking bread, until one day at closing time Mari spots Kozue wandering off on her own and tells Shuuta to go after her. It’s here were we finally see how Kozue is doing, having lost her dad just when she was starting to get over Asumi’s death.

Kozue is standoffish with Shuu even as she calls him Shuu-ni-chan, even threatening to scream or report him as a stalker if he doesn’t buzz off. She also says he shouldn’t have saved her, which is just heartbreaking. But Shuu stays with her, because a big brother from another mother can’t let a young girl walk the mean streets of Shantytown all alone.

There’s every indication that Kozue is up to no good or, dealing with her pain by seeking dangerous situations due to her lack of regard for her safety illustrated by her comment Shuuta. But it turns out she’s on an errand of love, braving Shantytown to locate the latest tag from DoRed depicting a rocket powered “Kaba”, or hippo. Celebrating these tags is helping her work through her grief.

While Kozue and Shuuta are separated, she soon encounters Kunai, nominally part of DoRed, though someone Ran notes hasn’t shown up in a while. Kunai tells Kozue that Red from DoRed painted it, but he can’t divulge Red’s true identity any more than the people of Oz can know the real Wizard. Kunai also beleives there to be only two paths for those born in the Shantytown…a life of criminality, or a life of art like the one Red leads.

After Shuuta encounters Kouki apprehending a Drug D dealer, he bumps into Kouki, who sets his mind at rest by locating Kozue with his friend Kunai, then enlisting him to film him paint his latest Kaba tag. While he works, Ran reinforces Shuuta’s misgivings about turning the Shantytown into another surveillance district.

Kouki is all on board with such a transformation for the greater public good, but I’m glad Shuuta has another friend in Ran who can argue for the other side of the debate, which is that there are some fish who can only live in murky waters. The government and business interests are just looking for another way to tread upon the poor and disadvantaged by taking what little they have. There is certainly ugliness in Shantytown, but also beauty.

After Ran splits, Shuuta lingers by the new tag for a while, and eventually Kozue comes to him by seeking out said new tag. Her attitude towards him has softened now that she’s seen not one but two beautiful artistic tributes to her dad, and shows him the photos she’s taken of all the tags so far, though she wonders why Red is painting these when he knows the government will erase them by painting over them.

Shuuta counters that the art won’t be erased, because he’ll remember it, and the one who made it. Just like a loved one dying, a part of them will always remain in one’s memory and heart. She tells Kozue not to say things like she should have died in her dad’s place, and Kozue smiles and asks Shuuta to keep protecting her. He’s her hero, after all.

That would have been a lovely way to end the episode, but 24-ku demonstrates narrative efficiency by using the final few minutes to set up next week’s Trolly Dilemma. Carneade’s sigil appears in the skies over the ward and he hacks everyone’s TVs and phones, and shortly thereafter, RGB’s phones ring with “Asumi” on the other line. They were expecting her.

This time, it’s the cruise ship owned by the casino magnate that is the setting of the dilemma. A terrorist has rigged it with bombs. She offers two futures: kill the terrorist and save the ship and all the people aboard, or let the terrorist go and let everyone die? Shuuta and Kouki don’t understand…it doesn’t seem like that hard of a choice. But it is for Ran, because the terrorist they see in the vision—the one he’ll have to kill—is his friend and wayward ally: Kunai.

Just as Kunai is wrong about there only being two ways for someone from the Shantytown to live, Asumi is wrong about these being the only two outcomes. With what they see as a 1-and-1 record guiding the future so far, RGB will be extra-determined to manufacture a third outcome. The question is, will Shuuta, and more importantly Kouki, respect Ran’s desire not to kill Kunai?