Made in Abyss – S2 11 – Royal Awakening

Due to Reg’s “foolishness”—i.e. not wanting to kill a dear friend he’s only now coming to remember—Faputa ends up knocking him out, and asks Juroimoh to hold him down while she deals with her next target: Riko, the one who “made Reg this way”.

All White Whistled out, Riko is in no shape to stand, and Faputa could go right through her Hollow defenders. But even her best punch can’t go entirely through Gaburoon, who stops her from killing Riko in order to “protect her future”.

Gabu collapses, and Faputa reaches deeper into the darkness: if she simply destroys everything, then everything will end. Returning her attention to Riko once more, she is once more stopped by an outside force: this time Belaf, accompanied by a Nanachi resplendent in their new Mitty Armor.

Their weapon of choice? A purple goo that resides within Belaf and contains memories of Faputa’s mother. These “smelly” memories represent Belaf’s ultimate treasure, but instead of perishing with him, they seem to unlock something in Faputa.

Overwhelmed by the intense visceral power of the memories of people and things completely unknown to her, Faputa pauses her carnage. Wazukyan takes this opportunity to flee with Vueko, while Nanachi wonders if this was all part of Wazukyan’s plan to use Faputa’s wish-granting power to make a village of out Riko like he did with Irumyuui.

But then the consequences of Faputa’s more recent actions take center stage: with the barrier down, the layer’s beasts waltz right in and help themselves to a Hollow buffet. Left and right, Hollows are stalked, torn apart and gobbled up by the beasts.

Faputa attacks the beasts, justifying her protection of the surviving Hollows as merely not letting anyone else have her prey. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to, I say. But soon it’s clear her fight, while valiant (and bloody as hell), is as hopeless as the Hollows’ fight against her had been.

There are simply too many beasts, and they’re very big and strong. It takes one last blast from Gabu before he dies to deter a Turbinid Dragon from curb-stomping her, but she still gets flung over halfway across the village.

Her scuffles with the beasts have left her all chewed up, missing limbs, coughing up blood, and immobile. She passes out believing she has no value because she failed to do “what she was born to do.” But she wakes up surrounded by Hollows, each of whom chops off a a small piece of themselves for her to eat, until their unlikely savior is not only fully healed, but…I’ll go ahead and use the crude but apt term “souped up.”

Faputa also suddenly finds herself surrounded by things she didn’t know, from her mother to Gabu, to Reg, and this leads her to ponder just what else she might not know. What is beyond her duty, which she believed to be her only value? Well, as Belaf said as she absorbed the memories he willingly offered her as she destroyed him, the time would come when she’d decide her own value.

That time has now come, and it once again unlocks something in her as a weird green glyph glows in her golden eyes. The Scorching Sun, once a volatile may have just evolved into a more mature star, poised to defend her sundry satellites from the incursions from outer space with her golden light.

Re: Zero – 46 – What a Half-Elf Girl Wants, What a Half-Elf Girl Needs

Whereas last week felt at times dilatory and even inessential, it finished the careful cleaning and polishing of the table, allowing this episode to set that table with all the sundry flatware, silverware, and stemware. Subaru and Garfiel (who all along had beast blood thin enough to pass through the barrier) head to the mansion to stop Elsa. Before that, Subaru tosses the jewel containing Puck to Ram, saying she can “do as she likes” from here on.

Upon her emergence from the Graveyard, Ram is at the entrance to greet her and bends the knee and apologizes for not believing she’d get back on her feet. All Ram needs to see is Emilia’s straight posture, forward gaze, and steady hands to see she’s already become so much stronger. Emilia thanks her for supporting Subaru, but Ram sees it as having helped Emilia, since she was the one who convinced her that helping would be worthwhile.

Ram also has a request—the first she’s ever made of Emilia: to save her master, Roswaal-sama, who has been possessed by delusions and strayed from the proper path. To save him, Ram asks Emilia to win and assume the royal throne of Lugunica, thus fulfilling his wish. Emilia, wanting to pay Ram back for her help agrees to her request.

But who should suddenly emerge from the shadows but the very subject of their discussion: Roswaal! He’s arrived to offer his congratulations to Emilia for passing the first trial, but also to express his pity and sympathy for what he deems to be Emilia’s own curse: that of only knowing how to be loved by doing and saying what others expect of her.

When Emilia counters, Roswaal accuses her of using borrowed words and occupying places prepared for her by the will of others, forcing her to fit an ideal by being convinced she could do it. Roswaal says this is what Subaru did to get her to pass the trial, because he and Subaru are “two of a kind”, forcing their ideals on the women they love, and loving an ideal of her that doesn’t exist.

The old Emilia might have withered before such harsh words, but not the present one. Steadying Ram’s quivering hand with her own and taking a deep breath, Emilia responds with an excellent comeback: “Are you done?” She tells Roswaal how Subie said she was a pain in the ass, causing trouble for him when he’s done so much for her, and making it clear she was “weak, all talk, and insufficient in every way”.

But then Subie took her hand and helped her. If Roswaal calls what he said and did to be nothing but lies and deceptions, then she’ll turn them into truths, into wishes. That’s what she needs to do, and that’s what she wants to do.

Roswaal is impressed with Emilia’s growth, but still pities her, because he deems both the Sanctuary and the Royal Selection to be piddling concerns compared to the much larger matter: that the world is proceeding toward the “wrong destination”, and towards its end.

Emilia ignores this threat and proceeds into the Graveyard to face the second trial, but Roswaal maintains his pity and pessimism are justified; after all, he and Echidna “began” this; it stands to reason he’d be able to reckon when its end is near.

Roswaal then speaks to Ram, who be believes to still be fully “on his side”, having only been “putting on an act” with Emilia earlier about her request to her. He doesn’t mind that she assisted Subaru and Otto with Garfiel, as he’s glad she did what she felt was right. For now, he orders her to remain at the entrance for Emilia’s return.

This leads us to the one and only look backwards in time in this episode, when we’re shown the particulars of the bet Ram made with Otto, and why: because it was the best chance of getting her wish. She asks that Garfiel be taken down a peg, for Barusu do something about Emilia, and for Otto not to tell Barusu about their bet.

As a result of winning that bet—which she felt she would win due to Subie’s notoriously excellent timing—she finds herself where she wants to be: not at the Graveyard entrance as her master instructed, but in Ryuzu Meyer’s crystal chamber, confronting Roswaal with her wand in hand while he holds the Tome of Wisdom. She’s come to free him of the witch’s delusions.

Combined with Emilia eventual winning of the Selection, he shouldn’t have any complaints, and indeed he adopts an “I should have known” attitude towards Ram’s actions. After all, he assumes the long years in which she’s had to yield to him must have been “humiliating”, especially when her master was one of the men who destroyed her homeland.

Roswaal is in the chamber to use Meyer’s Crystal to focus and amplify his mana so he can make it snow in the Sanctuary. But because he once taught a younger Ram that “whatever on relies upon should be the thing that brings about their death”, whether it’s the sword, magic, or a demon.

But Roswaal asserts that Ram showed her hand a little too early, as she would have had a much easier time dealing with him once he’d already started setting up his snow day in accordance with his precious tome. But Ram didn’t want to face him as an empty husk, or in any kind of weakened state. That would have interfered with her wish for him to live for the future.

When Roswaal asks if Ram thinks she can win against him, she tells him she know she can’t, as her knowledge of his power is second only to Echidna’s. The thing is…she doesn’t have to face off against him alone, nor did she ever intend to. She produces the blue crystal and out pops Puck, a stray spirit who “happened to be passing by” and is all too willing to help Ram release the man she loves from his delusions.

Having seen what Puck is capable of, I like Ram’s chances, and I salute the expert maneuvering she did in order to end up in this position. But we’ll have to learn the result of their faceoff another time, as the episode’s final act shift’s to Roswaal’s mansion, where Petra is running and afraid. She wants to retrieve Ram and get her to safety, but she is cornered by Elsa.

There’s a heightened sense of danger and finality to this entire last act because if Subie is to believed there will be no more resets until this is all resolved. Whatever happens in these halls is going to stick. So yeah, I was relieved when lil’ Petra is rescued by Frederica, and warns her that she’ll be punished for disobeying her order to run away by herself.

This time, Petra does run away, and we only hear loud bangs from the battle between Petra and Frederica. Then Petra tries to locate Beatrice, hoping she’ll be able to help, but cannot locate her library among all the doors. That’s when Petra tears up and prays for Subaru come save them…and Subaru, who had just arrived, obliges, cheering a flabberghasted Petra up with his bright smile.

Elsa’s charge towards Frederica is suddenly arrested—by Frederica’s little brother Garfiel, parrying Elsa’s blade with the stout arm guards they used to play with. They have a frankly adorable little reunion where they express their wonder that they’re both so big now. Elsa lets them have some time together without attacking, probably because a.) she’s confident in her ability to beat them both, and b.) she’s got an ally in Meili running around somewhere nearby.

I hope Subie doesn’t forget about her, especially as he seems to be focused on the assassin duo’s third target: Beatrice. He’s there to “drag her out into the sunlight”, whether her precious tome told her he would or not. Things on any of the various fronts could go sideways in the blink of an eye, but it’s so far, so good with Subaru (and Ram)’s grand schemes.

Darling in the FranXX – 06

Dawn rises on the day of a battle that will decide whether everyone gets to see another sunrise. A massive horned cubic klaxosaur trundles over the horizon with a retinue of foot soldiers, throwing some serious Ramiel vibes—bizarre, mysterious, merciless. Ichigo tries to wash away her troubles with a refreshing bath; Gorou continues to worry about Hiro.

Gorou tries to get Ichigo to talk to Hiro, and Ichigo uses the opportunity to try to confess her feelings, but Zero Two appears, and says what she isn’t feeling instead—that she thinks of Hiro as a sibling—and is devastated when he says he feels the same. Ichinose Kana is killing it so far, even if it’s extremely hard to forget she’s not Hanazawa Kana.

With things needed to be said left unsaid, Zero Hour approaches, and the two Squads and Strelitzia take their positions. The effects of Ichigo’s unrequited love on her performance and Hiro’s ability to survive his third sortie with Two aren’t the only concerns: Squad 13 wants to prove to 26 they’re not just a bunch of in-the-way misfits.

The sheer scale of the boss before them, and the dramatic staging and lighting really lend this battle a sense of occasion and urgency; it’s all or nothing; either these ten comparatively tiny FranXX stop the enemy, or both Plantations will be destroyed.

The only mark against these stakes (which often applied to the populace in Eva as well) is that we never really see any of the people the parasites are protecting, aside from their two adult handlers and Dr. FranXX himself. That’s a small mark, and it’s easily forgiven in light of the pandemonium that ensues.

The contrast between the coordination and discipline of the five identical gray Squad 26 FranXX (also female in form) and those of Squad 13 (or lack thereof) is more stark than Arya, as Ichigo can barely keep her squad hanging in there when some lesser Klax get get through the front lines.

Zero Two observes this contrast, and the dire state of the 13th, and thinks she and Hiro should join the battle sooner rather than later before there isn’t a 13th left. Hiro asks Two why she fights the Klax; she opines it may be because “she’s a monster.”

Two asks him the same, and he says its because his only purpose in life is to protect Papa and the adults. They sortie, against orders, and mop up the Klax harassing the 13th with ease…but Hiro immediately starts to have trouble staying in sync, and the blue veins on his chest start to spread to his entire body and face.

Ichigo lays down the law, ordering Strelitzia to fall back, as she’ll be providing the coup-de-grace. That’s after the 26th, even with their perfectly coordinated tactics, utterly fail to destroy the giant “Gutenberg-class” Klaxosaur. Instead, it shapeshifts from a cube to a humanoid form.

Their leader 090 is almost crushed, but is saved in the nick of time by Argentea, and Zorome and Miku instantly earn his respect. The 13th gets their shit together and Ichigo orders everyone to create an opening for Strelitzia. Hiro uses everything he has left to help Two deliver the killing blow, and with an Eva-esque cross flare, they cause an explosion within the boss.

…But everything Hiro had wasn’t enough. The Gutenberg shifts again into a massive battering ram, and in another nod to Shinji’s first mission in Eva 01, that ram begins repeatedly smashing into Strelitzia. Hiro loses consciousness and Strelitzia shuts down.

Things look bad from Delphinium’s POV; indeed, when Ichigo fears she’s lost Hiro (without telling him what she actually has to say, to boot), Delph shuts down too, and Gorou can’t console Ichigo.

Hiro enters a dream-state, where he assumes he’s dead. Naomi chastises him for giving up. He says he didn’t give up, he just gave all he had. Unlike with Naomi, he still thinks Zero Two can carry on fighting without him. He’s content to go out being as useful as he could be, without regrets.

But that’s not quite right; and he’s not quite being truthful. Zero Two gave him a place to belong and a purpose again; he can’t simply lie down and die while she’s still in the cockpit suffering, slowly reverting to her baser Klaxosaur side.

Zero Two is on the verge of completely Losing It when Hiro hugs her from behind and tells her she should never have to fight—or be—alone again. The blue growth disappears. What is that stuff? I’d like to think it represents the lingering fear and doubt he carried; the belief that he was expendable to Zero Two when the opposite was the case.

With that gone, he gets his second wind, and he and Zero Two finish off the Gutenberg in grand, madcap fashion, with a nice assist from his fellow parasites in the 13th. His doubts and fears are gone now, because he’s found another reason to pilot a FranXX: to be Two’s wings.

And it’s wings we see spreading over the airborne Gutenberg before crushing it and releasing a titanic cloud of blue blood. Mission Accomplished. Casualties: Surprisingly, Zero.

As we watch him and Zero emerge from the cockpit to come together and celebrate with the other parasites from both squads, Hiro recounts the tale of the “Jian”, a bird with one wing, necessitating a male and female pair to lean on one another to achieve flight. That’s the case with Hiro and Zero Two, so he resolves to keep leaning on her that they might fly as high and far as they want.

Halfway into its first half, FranXX delivers a rousing powerhouse resolution to the “Can Hiro Cut It” arc. Now that we know he can, and that he won’t be dying from creepy blue growths anytime soon, we can move on to other matters, like if or when Ichigo will ever tell Hiro how she feels (if she still feels that way after the battle; I’m guessing yeah) and the identity of those new parasites we got a glimpse of in the ep’s final moments.

Whatever comes next, a solid foundation has been laid.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul – 23

War explodes in, over, and around Anatae, as Lucifer joins the battle in his flagship, and the Onyx Soldiers and Charioce loyalists battle the alliance of demons, gods, and men. While these zoom-outs to the wider fighting certainly make for nice eye candy, what truly interested me was when they zoomed back in on the smaller, more intimate moments between various pairs of characters, be it Jeanne and Azazel, or Dias finding Alessand.

Alessand cries, begs for his life, and then stabs Dias when his guard is down, betraying him again. At that point, Dias is done with Al, except to drive a sword into him, but a little demon boy, who can see through Al’s forced smile, doesn’t fall for it, and kills him with a dagger.

After making the wrong choice to murder El in sight of a grander station, Al ended up slain by a small, frail, hungry child and died bleeding out in a dark alley. No songs will be sung of Alessand. But hey, he did get Nina into the palace, right?

Nina doesn’t understand Charioce one bit…but she sure wants to, and that means going to him once more, even if previous instances of doing so didn’t really turn out so well for her or anyone near her. Charioce waits on the top deck of aboard his flagship, surrounded by the Onyx Soldiers…who aren’t doing too hot.

Their bodies reach their absolute limit at just the wrong time: when their king needs them the most to protect him. But the combined force of Jeanne and Azazel proves too much for them, although not by much…if the Commander had had just a few more moments of life, he might’ve managed to stab Jeanne in the throat with a hidden blade.

Lucifer’s flagship, Bacchus’ wagon, and yes, an elevating bridge made out of zombies amassed by Rita bearing her and Kaisar, all descend on the same spot, where Charioce is about to be charged by Jeanne and Azazel. It’s Kaisar who makes it just in time to protect his king, and gets stabbed and impaled by their snakes and spear. Rita is beside herself, while Jeanne and Azazel are sheepish.

Charioce is shocked, but he shouldn’t be: Kaisar Lidfort is, and always has been, a true knight. If the world survives this latest attack from Bahamut, it will need more Kaisars, not more Charioces. A few Favaros wouldn’t hurt though…