The Fire Hunter – 10 (Fin) – Shining Child of the Stars

Fire Hunter employed a few more Postcard Memories this week, starting with Hinako’s terrible fever that turns out to be some kind of demonic-esque possession or awakening into an acrobatic, feral form. These images represent this show’s great potential and it’s great folly: while beautiful, these images are just that: stills that lack, well, animation.

The technical execution of an occasionally meandering and opaque but nearly always engrossing story was never anything more than adequate at best, and more often than not, disappointingly mediocre. As such, this show has been merely okay, when it could have been good or great.

God bless Hayami Saori’s Kira, who acts as audience surrogate after Hinako is being prepped to be taken somewhere for “observation” by desperately trying to find out just what the hell is going on. Both her mother and her father carry secrets beyond count.

Kira has been dwelling on a not-so-blissful island of ignorance, and she’s rightfully sick of it. But rather than give her any answers, her mother Hibana knocks her out cold with a whiff of the same narcotic Mr. O says his wife uses to treat her nervous breakdowns.

Koushi has a similar “WTF” reaction to all of the craziness suddenly going on at Casa de Okibe. No sooner does Kira pass out than Hinako escapes from her room and starts bouncing off walls like a monkey (or Yoda), while sporting odd yellow eyes with orange irises. She breaks out of the house into the night rain, and Kanata follows her.

Meanwhile, after leaving a goodbye note for Kaho and Kun, Touko heads to the divine palace with Akira to deliver an appeal to the gods on muku paper. The two encounter Hibari, who shows them a glimpse of a council of gods whose only “power” seems to be arguing about whether and how the Lady Goddess will be able to bail them out of the mess they’re in.

There’s also talk among the gods of a “new vessel” for the goddess, and I obviously couldn’t help but think that Touko was primed to serve such a role. Still, Hibari senses ill intent on Akira’s part and conjures many paper ninjas to attack her. She manages to defeat some of them with her blood, but they keep coming and she only has so much blood.

Touko looks ready to help Akira with Haijuu’s sickle, but she’s spared having to draw it when Kun comes to the rescue with his bug familiars, a perk of his Spider upbringing even if the Spiders abandoned him. Furious, Hibari throws Touko and Temari into the canal, where they’re very nearly drowned until they’re fished out. Their savior is Hinako, whose eyes are back to normal, and who thanks Touko for returning Kanata to her. Touko realizes it’s Koushi’s sister.

Touko and Temari then encounter a ferocious baboon fire fiend (or corrupted guardian deity). When Touko sees it’s carrying the limp body of the treefolk boy she met under the tree, something happens to her. Her eyes turn gold, her pupils become slits, and she draws her inherited hunter’s sickle and slashes the fiend in two without hesitation. As its golden blood splatters her face, we see her fiercest, most determined glare yet.

The narrator declares Touko “past the point of no return”, and far above her in the sky is a speck of light: the Millennial Comet / Flickering Flame. As Hinako and Touko have suddenly transformed or awakened and Koushi heads out in serch of his sister and answers, the narrator leaves us with the question of whether that speck of light is a portent of doom, or a sign of hope for a world in dire need of saving.

After the credits roll is when I first learned there would be no eleventh or twelfth episodes. This came as a total surprise since MAL had not indicated the length of the series. That said, this felt like a season finale for sure, where things are about to escalate and get a lot stranger.

I liked how the Comet in the gorgeous ED evolved from a traditional shooting star to the man-made spacecraft, and finally, showed the Child of the Stars herself sitting upon it. In a preview for a second season, we see Touko has joined that ethereal child upon the Comet, looking down on Japan from orbit.

Despite Fire Hunter’s gaping technical shortcomings, this was an arresting and enticing enough teaser image that despite knowing full well the production values won’t be any better (tough at least they can hardly get worse) I will no doubt be picking this back up upon its return.

In / Spectre – 23 – The Merciless Protector of Order

Kotoko’s Columbo-style “One More Thing” involves the remainder of her interrogation of Fubuki, the yoko with whom President Otonashi contracted to murder Sumi. At the end of their chat, Kotoko deduces that Fubuki didn’t actually kill Sumi. He was about to, but someone beat him to it. He kept this secret from Otonashi so that he’d hold up his end of the bargain.

Fubuki also transformed into Sumi to scream out that the killer was a man in black in order to obscure the true killer: Kaoruko. She was able to fake the time she broke her leg after all, and made it look like a burglary. She now points out that Koya knew about Kaoruko’s role in the murder before this meeting, which is why Kaoruko wasn’t present, and yet Koya was willing to let his father-in-law take the fall.

When Koya scoffs and reminds Kotoko that Sumi screamed that a man attacked her. Kotoko can’t mention that a yoko actually screamed that, but it’s just as plausible that Sumi was protecting her daughter and the Otonashi brand. As Koya gets more agitated, Kotoko gets him to slip up and confirm Kaoruko wasn’t able to confirm Sumi’s death—a combination of her inexperience with murder and the gloves she wore that wouldn’t have been able to detect a pulse or faint breath.

As all of this unfolds, Rion realizes Kotoko guided her to the wrong answer in order to corner Koya and Kaoruko. Now that she has achieved this, awakened the truth, and protected the order of things, Kotoko starts to take her leave. But then Koya pulls a gun, and when Kurou approaches him, he shoots him in the head then aims for Kotoko’s. He can believe his family won’t tell a soul, but doesn’t trust her or Kurou.

As you’d expect, Kotoko doesn’t flinch for a moment. The following exchange is a standout of this arc:

Koya: Now there’s no turning back for me. You and that boy were wrong.

Kotoko: I am correct, and you can still turn back.

When the resurrected Kurou comes from behind and disarms him, Koya, like the others, is somewhat shocked. Kurou’s half-assed period drama explanation doesn’t hold water, and Kotoko saying they’re “people who live in a daydream” for which normal laws and reality don’t apply, isn’t any more reassuring.

Some time passes, and Rion narrates the aftermath of Kotoko’s awakening of a long dormant truth. An always guilt-ridden Kaoruko tried to take her own life, but failed, and Koya remains steadfastly by her side. Her father and Susumu have become closer, something she deems to be a saving grace.

Her grandfather the president’s health took a turn for the worse, as he deals with both his cancer and wrestles with his own guilt and doubt over whether it was the right thing to even approach Kotoko. She and Kurou actually visit him at his bedside, where he admits he’s always both believed in and been fascinated by the supernatural. That’s how he came into contact with the person who referred him to Kotoko and Kurou: none other than Sakuragawa Rikka, who told him they’d be able solve his problem.

This new kernel of information irks Kotoko, who wonders if Rikka was merely trying to bully her. Kurou thinks it could be Rikka wanted Kotoko to get all tangled up in this case to distract her from whatever Rikka was planning. He also believes Rikka wanted him to see Kotoko at work, and in particular how jealously and mercilessly she would protect order by revealing a truth, no matter the cost to her audience.

Kurou silently recalls Rikka telling him he still hasn’t realized how “terrifying” Kotoko is, and as he remembers this, Kotoko falls asleep beside him, looking like the very picture of an innocent angel. Whether this case was meant to be a diversion for Kotoko or not, it is true that Kurou learned more about his girlfriend. But I don’t think it hurt his opinion of her like Rikka probably wanted.

Quite the contrary: it’s surely better for one’s partner to be terrifyingly just than boringly corrupt!

In / Spectre – 22 – Squirrel Lion

During a brief recess when Goichi’s heirs get some air, Kurou lies down, but doesn’t get to rest long as a frisky Kotoko pounces on him with the full force of her 90-ish pounds (which is to say, not much). It’s another fun reminder of how close they’ve become, and it’s also a prime opportunity for Kotoko to confer with Kurou on her progress baiting the heirs into admitting their murder plans, which adequately prepares them for the false solution she’s prepared.

Of the three “contestants”, she believes Rion will be the first one to come upon that conclusion, as early as that night, and that proves to be exactly the case. While Susumu and Koya were successfully baited, the genuinely innocent Rion was also given everything she needed to craft a solution. A phone call with her dad is the catalyst that helps Rion organize and connect the clues swimming in her mind.

Missing from the meeting’s revelations is the true nature of Otonashi Sumi’s motivations. She wasn’t simply a tyrant bent on success at any cost, but was herself a puppet of her father Denjiro’s machinations. Denjirou laid out an intricately detailed plan, Sumi carried it out, and it resulted in the company’s success. Under that kind of pressure, it was virtually impossible for Sumi to disobey Denjirou even after he passed, even if she knew his plans were fracturing her family and eventually even the company.

That’s when Rion remembers how Kotoko phrased it—success sometimes harms people and leads them to their own destruction—and eureka, she has the solution: Sumi committed suicide. Trapped between her family’s happiness and the success of her company on one side an Denjiro’s orders on the other, Sumi took herself out of the equation.

Rion even surmises that Sumi made it look like a murder knowing her family had alibis to avoid harming the brand or their reputations. Kotoko looks happy with Rion’s answer—not necessarily because it’s the correct one, but because it’s the one she wanted Rion to come upon. Kotoko even softens the tension between them by saying her name is cute and brave, like a squirrel and a lion.

I like how that led to Susumu saying if Rion were a boy she’d be named Reo, since his big bro loved lions. It’s enough to suggest that amends between the brothers is possible. When the time comes to deliver the group’s answer to Goichi, Rion is the one to present it. Not only does Goichi accept it, and accept the even distribution of the inheritance, but laments that he didn’t do something like this sooner.

To do so would have saved his children undue guilt. While Susumu, Koya, and Kaoruko feel they’ve sinned, Goichi points out that there’s a very wide space between wishing to kill someone—and even holding a knife to someone’s neck—and actually going through with it. In doing his part to manipulate Sumi into commiting suicide, he believes himself the sole culprit in her death, and plans to pay for it by foregoing medication and dying a painful miserable death.

In this way, Goichi hopes to powerfully impress upon his heirs the lesson that one should never expect success as a result of murdering someone. The cost may have came late for him, but it will come all the same. That would wrap things up, except that Kotoko isn’t done. She rejects Rion’s theory of suicide, and provides valid reasons why.

The most important of these reasons is simply that making a suicide look like a murder carried far too much unnecessary risk and complexity. Engineering an accidental death, on the other hand, would have precluded the need for any alibis and prevented any police investigation.

Also, Goichi can claim he’ll pay for his crime, but the fact his family was protected by this solution means he doesn’t regret the choice he made or the success it led to. No, Otonahi Sumi didn’t commit suicide, she was murdered, and next week Kotoko will reveal the identity of the true killer. The question is, will that really be the fox ayakashi, or still someone else?

In / Spectre – 21 – Clearing the Air

Of the three Otonashi family members gathered, Rion (voiced by Iwami Manaka) is the only one whose thoughts we’re privy to. She rightfully wonders just what the hell she’s gotten into, and also realizes she’s underdressed for the occasion. Kotoko breaks the ice with another vulgar remark involving her an Kurou, before leaving the three to decide on an a singular narrative for how the president murdered Sumi, and a mutually agreed-upon order of inheritance.

It takes Susumu, Kouya, and Rion less than three minutes to come to an agreement, which is so fast that Kotoko wonders if it’s an agreement that they came upon in advance. She then reiterates that both the president, his sons, his daughter, and her fiance all had cause to murder her, but since everyone had solid alibis and no further evidence, her death was deemed a random burglary and murder.

Rion picks up on the semi-accusatory tone as Kotoko describes the ways Sumi’s children’s alibis were all too convenient, timely, and fortunate—even her daughter Kaoruko breaking her leg. Kotoko further prods her by calling the theorizing entertaining. Rion speaks up for her older relatives, telling Kotoko she’s completely devoid of taste. In this moment I felt bad for Rion, because I knew Kotoko was so many steps ahead.

Kotoko makes clear that the president was adamant that “the crime get the proper punishment”. This is the opportunity for everyone assembled to come clean, and Susumu is the first to avail himself of that opportunity. To Rion’s shock, both he and her father Ryouma plotted to kill their mother, but someone simply beat them to it, while they were still planning. While Rion points out that her uncle and dad hated each other, they also both standed to gain from Sumi’s death, so they collaborated on a murder plot while remaining at odds about everything else.

Susumu even posits that his brother sent Rion to the meeting in his place so she’d learn of the crime, as a way of atonement. Before Rion can catch her breath, Kotoko gently prods Kouya, who also confesses that he and Kaoruko also plotted to murder Sumi so they could get married. The plan involved Kaoruko pretending to break her leg for the alibi, only to break it for real before she could do the deed.

Now that “the sins of the successors” have come to light, Susumu believes they’re all done there. But Kotoko doesn’t care about their past sins. She’s there to hear them give their explanation for how the president managed to murder Sumi before any of them could. She assumed that all the secrets flying around would disorient Rion, so thought it best to take care of all of those first, and then give everyone a chance to arrive upon a satisfying answer.

In effect, Kotoko proves that she is not someone to be trifled with, as she played everyone in the room like a fiddle. Everyone except Rion, the sole innocent, to whom Kotoko helped reveal her family’s dark secrets. Rion seems like an otherwise easygoing person who didn’t mind being ranked last in the inheritance. Will that change now that she knows the truth?

The Fire Hunter – 04 – The Dark Forest

The white dragon, which is the guardian of Kaho’s home village and has suddenly gone crazy, destroys the collection truck. Touko, Benio, and a still injured Kaho try to flee, but Benio is grabbed by the dragon and killed. Shouzou and Kanata lead Touko and Kaho into the forest before they’re all burned by the sparks of the ruined truck. RIP Benio—I wish we could have gotten more time with her.

Back in the capital, Hinako’s health continues to improve and she, Kira, and Koushi make for an affable trio of siblings. Of course, Koushi is forbidden from telling either of them about the skyfire he’s reading about and researching. He prepares a list of materials he’ll need and Yuoshichi, eager to accelerate Koushi’s progress, promises to fulfill that list.

Touko, Kanata, Kaho and Shouzou quite suddenly encounter the Treefolk, and it’s our first encounter with them as well. They’re definitely something other than human with their strange bark-like skin and glowing eyes. But they’re also kind, and agree to take the survivors to the nearest village. Unfortunately that’s all they can do; once there, they’re on their own again.

Koushi is granted access to the capital’s vast archive, where he runs into his old academy professor (and has to conceal why he’s really there) then finds a tome hidden away that lends him (and us) more information and context about this uncanny world.

That includes Tokohanahime, patron goddess of fire hunters, her sister Tayurahime, the nation’s “immortal guardian”, and a kind of prophesy: when the “Millennial Comet”—a man-made star launched from Earth long ago—returns and its fire harnsessed, mankind need not fear the Dark Forest any longer.

We and Koushi learn a bit more about the lore, while Touko’s journey is interrupted by tragedy, further delaying her arrival at the capital and eventual meeting with Koushi. Kira and Hinako come to the archive to pick him up and they all go to the decorated boat festival. Koushi and his sister look like he’s settling into his new life nicely.

I’ll admit, the show is still very heavy on the exposition, though the music does a lot of heavy lifting giving the onslaught of info gravitas. The animation is also…lacking many times, and herky-jerky at others. The postcard memories are beautifully rendered, but at the end of the day they’re just stills providing emphasis to certain moments.

Some technical shortcomings aside, I continue to be drawn into this offbeat, throwback-looking show with its haunting score and thick atmosphere of impending dread. Watching Hikari no Ou is like walking into a dark, unfamiliar forest—You never know what you might find in there.

The Fire Hunter – 03 – Staying Useful

Koushi meets more members of the Okibi family, including his new lovely sister Kira, who is a year older than him. Up to that point, she’d led a lonely, isolated life in her father’s sprawling mansion, and is clearly excited to have siblings. Voice by Hayami Saori, Kira marks the addition of another kind soul who, unlike her father, doesn’t have ulterior motives.

The Okibi family doctor says Hinako probably will never be cured of her fetal contamination, but with proper nutrition, hygiene, and fresh air of the manor, far from the factories, she should regain her strength. She and Koushi join the Okibis (including Kira’s mother Hibana, who takes to her bed often of late) for a quiet but for them quite luxurious dinner.

In the aftermath of the black beast attack, Kaho is wounded but will recover. Benio rightfully says it’s an injustice for Touko to be kicked off at the next village, and urges one of the crew, Shouzou, to talk sense in to the boss, whose main gripe wasn’t that Touko left, but that she didn’t close the hatch behind her.

When the collection truck arrives at Weaver Village, Hotaru gets to take a hot shower and is dressed and made up to the nines. A female crewmember gives her an elegant hairpin as a parting gift. Hotaru can’t say she ever wanted to be married off to lift the curse of her village, but if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have met Benio and Touko, which she considers a blessing. I can only hope a gentle soul like Hotaru is able to live a good life with her very lucky groom.

Back in the capital, Yuoshichi wastes no time showing his newly adopted son the skyfire his dad had collected, as well as a secret lab where he’ll be expected to develop “bottled lightning.” Yuoshichi reveals his distaste and distrust of the ruling “Divine Clans”. Years before Koushi was born, a huge natural fire burned through the city, and he believes the Gods culled the population on purpose.

With Koushi’s help, and his growing connections to the rebel “Spiders” that lurk in the forests outside the Capital, Yuoshichi intends to be prepared to defend the people when shit hits the fan. Koushi doesn’t hesitate to declare he’ll do his utmost to help make that happen…and to keep all of this a secret. That said, if he lets something slip to Kira, I won’t be surprised.

With Hotaru delivered to her new village and Touko deemed allowed to stay aboard to the Capital, the truck presses on. Shouzou even tells her the boss is impressed by her hard work; she definitely earns her keep. But in the middle of a routine switching of fiendfire vessels, a giant white dragon attacks. The truck is armed to the teeth, but everything seems to bounce off the dragon’s thick scales.

As Touko was warned, the collection truck journey is no Rocky Mountaineer vacation. Between settlements, death can come at any time in any number of forms, and survival is never guaranteed. We’ll see if Enzen and the two dogs are enough to slay the dragon…and who’ll end up surviving its assault.

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 04 – Hayase

Once Nagatoro’s big sister, who Naoto calls “Anetoro”, realizes the famous “Senpai-kun” is here, she sees a perfect opportunity to toy with both him and her sister. It’s abundantly clear to her, an adult, that these two are absolutely a couple already, and are just been silly kids about it. Giving Naoto a glimpse of Nagatoro with bed head asking for pudding is a unique gift.

When Anetoro prods and lures her crankly little sister with a deluxe pudding bowl, it’s instructive to Naoto, because he’s able to witness Nagatoro with her defenses down. She can’t toy with him, because she’s being toyed with. The result is that Naoto gets to see a new side of the girl who, if he’s honest, he likes.

Indeed, once Nagatoro whisks him into her room to eat their pudding bowls without her sister’s interference, it’s clear that Naoto is not only ready and somewhat willing to slip back into his normal dynamic with Nagatoro, but can tell more than ever that her schtick is performative and not malicious. Toying with him has always been Nagatoro’s coping mechanism for showing affection.

She’s mortified when her sister sees her feeding Naoto, because she’d prefer to keep her thing with Naoto all to herself. It’s the same deal whenever her friends interfere or pry too much. She’s even willing to tell Senpai more about herself…if he can beat her at the video game they played before, and at which she’s been practicing.

While her improved play and ability to distract Senpai results in two straight wins, the decisive battle times out, and per their bet, the “secret” Naoto wants to learn is Nagatoro’s real first name. Not anything pervy. Nagatoro is caught off guard by the request, but realizes she’s never told him. But when she’s about to, he tells her he’d rather ask her fair and square than force her to by losing a bet. That ingratiates him with her even more.

And then, Anetoro goes and ruins their shit by bursting in and hollering her name—Hayase—and offering to show Naoto some albums of her when she was younger. She 1000% was eavesdropping, because this is surely the first and only boy Hayase has ever brought home, and she is also a Nagatoro, which means if someone can be messed with, you must mess with them!

Before departing, Hayase shows her genuine side first by thanking Naoto for checking on her and hanging out, then switches gears into Teasing Hayase by warning him that she’ll be back at school tomorrow to toy with him anew. Naoto’s comeback—”Have some mercy”, is delivered confidently, because he’s not loathing tomorrow; he’s looking forward to it. Also, now he knows her first name. If he ever needs to get her to simmer down with the aggressive teasing, he’s got that first-name bullet in the chamber.

We don’t have to wait till next week for Hayase to be back at school messing with Naoto, though when she strikes a Bruce Lee kicking pose and Naoto agrees they should go with that for his drawing, she has to hold that pose far longer than she had bargained for. Her thighs start barking at her, but she’s on pins and needles and can’t move. Then she stumbles and starts to fall.

Rather than hitting the ground, she lands on soft, fluffy Senpai. The two blush and scream and separate immediately, but it’s clear Hayase is impressed that he was able to move fast enough (and was bold enough) to break her fall. Of course, she covers that up with more teasing about whether he was trying to “get lucky”.

Then Naoto sneezes, and even before the preview confirmed it, I knew it would be Hayase’s turn to pay Naoto a house visit. After all, she just got over a cold, they just had a lot of contact with each other. It would be weird if he didn’t catch her cold!

The Eminence in Shadow – 13 – The Beast Girl, the Witch and the Wardrobe

In the white void, Alpha sits back while Delta does her think as the “token musclehead”, rejecting the fact that being closer to the center of the sanctuary makes them weaker and Nelson stronger, donning a skimpy slime bikini, and summoning a gargantuan meat cleaver with which she splats all of Nelson’s clones in one go. It’s good to finally see Delta in extended action.

Meanwhile, Epsilon’s group encounters a memory that she’s able to purify, and they discover a library that holds all the knowledge on the possessed children held in the Sanctuary, as well as the means to open an exit. Epsilon briefly loses her falsies, but her underlings know better than to say they saw it.

Finally, there’s Cid and Aurora, who are like two peas in a pod and gradually build a genuine bond as they continue to explore her dark memories. Cid continues to treat her like no one else, neither as an adversary, underling, or hassle, but as a pal.

The two buds end up dead ended at the door that leads to the magic core. Cid knows his sword can’t break the chains, and also knows it will require a descendant (presumably of Olivier) to pull the key-sword out of the floor, Excalibur-style.

But while they kill time playing tic-tac-toe and pondering their next steps, Delta’s unhinged violence manages to shatter Nelson’s white void, leaving him no choice but to summon Olivier herself. That’s when Epsilon’s group meets up with Alpha’s to report their findings, and Alpha orders a withdrawal.

It speaks to just how damn powerful Alpha is that not only was her slime outfit not visibly effected by the power drain, but one stern look at Delta instantly cows the beast girl into leaving her prey and coming along. Alexia and Rose accompany Alpha, Beta, Epsilon, and the others through the exit.

Nelson receives an alert about Cid and Aurora, and meets them where they are with Olivier by his side. He orders her to kill Cid and while she’s extremely strong and is able to draw blood, she fails to do so. Cid, meanwhile, wears an involuntary smirk on his face. Nothing like a worthy opponent to lift the spirits.

Only Cid doesn’t necessarily consider Olivier that worthy; after all, she lacks a heart, and is simply a tool Nelson is using to try to kill him. Nelson tries to cut a deal with Aurora that will save Cid, but he rejects it, asking them to kindly not decide the outcome of his battle with Olivier before it’s over.

Nelson says fine, and sends Olivier to deliver a killing blow through Cid’s chest. But again, he merely smiles, and finally opens the right eye he’s kept closed this entire time, and not just because that’s what many anime characters do: he was suppressing an even greater power within him, which he will likely use to neutralize Olivier and continue assisting Aurora.

The question is, is Nelson right when he says the witch is just deceiving Cid and she’ll lead him to his doom once her memories are all back? It’s worth thinking about considering the Aurora with whom he’s gotten along with so famously is missing large chunks of her former personality…

The Eminence in Shadow – 12 – Through the Red Door

That big red seal-looking thing? It’s a door; a door that won’t stop following Cid no matter where he flies. Since it won’t go away, he decides to go through it. His Shadow Garden maidens have the same idea, and make their appearance at the arena before Alexia, Rose, and Archbishop Nelson.

Beta does a terrible job pretending to be her comrades’ hostage, while Nelson’s assassin Venom attacks Epsilon but only manages to slice off her fake boobs. She quickly re-forms them with her slime suit, and in any case everything happens too fast for the princesses to notice. Shadow Garden jump through the door, and Alexia and Rose follow, bereft of anything better to do.

They arrive in a strange and oddly futuristic sci-fi place that is the true Sanctuary the church has hidden from the rest of the world. In this inter-dimensional space there’s a statue of the real Great Hero Olivier, who was not only a woman, but looked just like Alpha (since they share blood). Alexia and Rose are rightfully very confused.

Rather than meeting up with Shadow Garden, Cid ends up in a different “section” of the Sanctuary, in which the real legendary witch Aurora has been incarcerated for centuries (she’s also voiced by Eureka herself, Nazuka Kaori, who possesses one of the more ASMR-triggering voices).

After exchanging pleasantries and freeing her from her straitjacket (she’s nude underneath but he doesn’t so much as blush), Cid agrees to help Aurora get out of this place, which is apparently constructed out of stored memories, among them a young Aurora crying, whom the older Aurora slaps.

Meanwhile the ladies find themselves in the main research facility of the Sanctuary, where the Diabolos Cult experimented on children with “Diabolos Cells” in order to create “Diabolos Beads”, a drug that can make members of the cult immortal and invincible.

Olivier was one of the few who survived the experimentation, a brutal affair carried on with the banality of a congenial modern office. One of the lead researchers was the not-so-good Archbishop himself, Jack Nelson. Alexia wrongly but hilariously surmises that hair loss was a side effect of the beads.

Alpha correctly surmises that Jack Nelson is one of Diabolos’ twelve Knights of the Round, which rings a bell for Alexia since her betrothed longed to become one of them. With no further need to hide his identity, Nelson starts to gloat, only to be impaled and cast into a pool by Delta.

Delta is ready to be scolded by Alpha for disobeying orders not to kill him, but turns out Nelson is made from stiffer stuff. He wipes away the reality of the research facility, leaving a white void where he proceeds to create copies of himself. But both Alpha and Delta are more than game for a fight.

This episode was a mind-bending trip and a half, introducing a real sci-fi underbelly to the fantasy surface world where Cid ended up after dying. It’s notable that much of the episode doesn’t involve him at all. It makes one wonder how much longer he’ll insist this is all a game!

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 03 – Special Threat

After crippling the Tres Bestia with ease, Quilge Opie seems happy to see Ichigo, and unlike Ichigo, he knows all about him. His king has designated him a “special threat” that he’s to neutralize with all due haste. When Ichigo demonstrates he can catch and deflect Quilge’s projectiles, he levels up to a stronger form.

Ichigo hangs in there while Inoue shields Chad, Loly, and Menoly, but Quilge blocks his Getsuga Tenshou. In the midst of gloating, he’s suddenly coldcocked by a giant fist: the Tres Bestia have come to, and each sacrificed their left arms to create Ayon, a massive berserking brute of an Arrancar. It pummels Qulge into the sand, arresting the degregation of Inoue’s shield.

In the living world, Ishida pores through the books in his father Ryuuen’s library, and is scolded for doing so. He then rifles through Ryuuen’s desk, and finds an old black Quincy tome with some manner of secrets that aren’t disclosed to us, but give Ishida great pause.

In Soul Society, the Gotei 13 prepare for war, not waiting the five days indicated by the initial Quincy invaders. The Sixth seat of the 13th Squad tells the two scrubs that while Shinigami are all about balancing souls, Quincy utterly destroy them, resulting in an imbalance that will eventually destroy both worlds.

How exactly this benefits the Quincy is unknown, at least to me. Do they dwell in some realm beyond both worlds, or do they have no intention of surviving those worlds’ annihilation as long as Soul Society pays for their genocide? Revenge at any cost?

Whatever the case, Captain Kurotsuchi blames Head Captain Yamamoto-Genryuusai for this whole mess, for failing to kill the Quincy King when he had the chance centuries ago. Kurotsuchi, by the way, is the one responsible for the deaths of 28,000 denizens of Soul Society, all in order to balance the scales of souls

The Tre Bestia stand over the fallen Quilge, but when a gloating Apacci approaches him, he runs her through with a sword of light, then uses his Quincy powers to absorb and merge with Ayon to become what he deems an unattractive but ultimately necessary monster. He’s ready to kill one and all of the assembled Arrancar and humans, but then Ichigo intervenes in his Bankai form, ready to rumble once more.

But ultimately, Ichigo has already fallen right into the Quincy King’s trap. While he’s busy fighting Quilge in Hueco Mundo, the King and the other Stern Ritter (the equivalent of Captains or Espada) arrive at Soul Society and waste no time slaughtering the hapless lower-level Shinigami.

Pillars of blue flame erupt from all over, resulting in looks of concern from all the Gotei 13 captains and lieutenants you’ll already know if you’ve watched a sufficient amount of Bleach like I have throughout the years. I’m overjoyed to report that among them is our girl Kuchiki Rukia, who finally makes an appearance. I just wish it was under happier circumstances.

Engage Kiss – 11 – Last Kiss Goodbye

When Kisara is stabbed with Demon Kanna’s spear and she touches it, she suddenly gets a rush of her memories, which include a young Shuu. Kisara tells Shuu to flee at once, Sharon grabs him and grabs hold of the runner of Ayano’s chopper to take them away.

Kisara charges at Kanna, but at the last minute is stopped dead by another memory of Kanna as an innocent child. In that instant of hesitation, Kanna strikes Kisara down and she falls into the sea. Kanna soon follows her down there when Mikhail fires the satellite beam at her twice.

Kanna is dormant on the sea floor, but could reawaken at any time. Meanwhile Kisara is in hospital and won’t wake up or heal at her usual speed. All Shuu and Ayano can do is sit there, wait, and contemplate what comes next. Sharon makes clear that as far as her bosses are concerned Kanna is an S-Class Demon that must be destroyed.

The problem is, none of the contractors in Bayron City are sure they can deal with an S-Class even with a united front, and instead place their hopes in Kisara, who they don’t know is in a bad way. While alone with Kisara that night, Shuu makes a heartfelt plea to her for what he should do, and she wakes up and kisses him.

Unlke previous kisses, this one seems to transfer Shuu’s memories back to him. Starting with his sudden breakup with Ayano and resignation from AAA, to teaming up with/seducing Sharon, to finding Kisara, whom we learn is a distant blood relative of his, thus making their contract possible.

Forming a more efficient and practical contact with Kisara involves a lot of trial-and-error, along with an actual paper contract that’s several hundred pages long. Before they make things official, Kisara reads the whole thing through and, unbeknownst to Shuu, makes a couple of changes.

For one, she makes a kiss the means by which the limits of her demonic power are unleashed. This wasn’t how the contract was initially written up, but the kissing gesture was inspired by how Shuu “formed contracts” (i.e., bedded) previous humans like Ayano and Sharon. And once she kisses him, there’s no going back.

That brings us to the other thing she changed: if they kiss while their hands are intertwined just so, their contract will be terminated. That’s what she seems to do in their present-day kiss in the hospital, and unless I’m totally misjudging things, this results in all of Shuu’s memories returning to him.

This also means all the memories leave Kisara (they were moved without being copied), so when their lips part and Shuu asks her what the hell she just did, her first words are “Who are you?” Kisara believes Shuu has fought enough and wants him to leave the island and live the rest of his life in peace.

Breaking their contract is how she believes that happens. How she’ll deal with Kanna without a contract remains to be seen. But if Shuu indeed has all his memories back, that means all the drive and motivation to carry out his original mission must have returned as well. In any case, I highly doubt he’s about to abandon Kisara, Ayano, and Bayron City.

Lycoris Recoil – 11 – Dance in the Dark

Kusunoki is barely two minutes into breifing the Lycoris for the Enkuboku operation when Takina interrupts her after spotting Chisato’s name on one of the rosters. She realizes something’s up and leaves the bus to go find her. Chisato and Mika are being led by Robota exactly where Majima wants them to go.

Mizuki and Kurumi are at the airport lounge, and part ways “forever” without much fanfare, only for Kurumi to deplane from her luxurious first-class seat (Mizuki got stuck in economy) when her turbo-hacking reveals there’s a second artificial heart out there.

Takina arrives at LycoReco to find it abandoned and Chisato and Mika’s phones left behind. Then she gets a call from Kurumi about the second heart: it’s an improvement on the one Chisato has, which suggests she could live a full life with it.

The person in possession of this second heart? Yoshimatsu Shinji, naturally, who Kurumi shows Takina has been taken captive by Majima at the old tower where he and Chisato first crossed paths. Takina, who had been in the middle of the operation with Fuki & Co., excuses herself, even if it means she’s done with the DA. Fuki even lets her go, knowing that’s the best move. But before she leaves, Erika gets to have a nice moment, hugging Takina and thanking her for saving her.

Takina’s reason for abandoning her DA duty is simple: she can’t save Chisato from the Enkuboku. She’s in the wrong tower. So she runs with everything she’s got to the other one. Majima, meanwhile, is able to get back on the airwaves thanks to Robota, who uses Radiata’s heavy defenses against itself with thousands of simultaneous hacking attacks.

This enables Majima to officially expose the Lycoris by showing video footage of them walking around the tower with guns near pools of blood. When he tells those who found the guns he left for them to find to watch out for Lycrois, there’s a confrontation that results in both Lycoris and civilian getting shot. Kusunoki’s failure is quickly becoming a bloody fiasco.

Chisato arrives at the old tower, goes inside, rides the elevator up as high as it will go, then heads outside for a bit of acrobatics. She not only has to maintain her own balance to keep from falling to her death, she also has to make sure the thugs she shoots don’t fall to theirs.

Because Chisato doesn’t kill anyone she encounters, it makes sense that she’d act and talk so casually, even playfully while dispatching them non-lethally. She’s not just making her way to Mr. Yoshi, she’s having fun while doing it. Then the fun suddenly stops when Majima drops the shutters and leaves Chisato without her most powerful attribute: her sight.

The two empty multiple clips at each other, but Chisato’s dodging ability isn’t too hampered, while Majima’s supernatural hearing enables him to dodge her wild shots and sneak up on her from behind multiple times. As the two twist and tussle in the dark, it’s clear the fun is back: two realtively evenly-matched opponents are going at it.

Then , just when it looks like Majima is about to get the upper hand, Takina literally smashes through the metal shutters and comes between him and Chisato, packing live ammo. Right now, the DA being exposed and the potential destruction of the new tower doesn’t matter. Takina’s there to save Chisato and Yoshimatsu make it out of there alive, which means Majima is simply in the way.

Engage Kiss – 10 – Sister, Sister

Shuu, Kisara, Ayano, Akino, and a suit whose name escapes me meet with Sharon at the safe house where she’s wining and dining herself to go over the present situation. Essentially, Asmodeus is a demon that has existed in the human world for a good long time in various forms, and Miles’ memories confirm the Hive Three Mine incident was Asmodeus’ doing, not Shuu’s dad.

The various Demon Hazards around the city form the same shaped magical circle that circled Europe, and the location of the final ritual is far offshore to the northwest. Official maps say it’s just open ocean, but it’s likely not.

While Kisara and Sharon go on a boat trip to find the island where they believe Hive Three Mine and Kanna (Asmodeus’ gate to this world) to be located, Ayano takes a ride with Hachisuka Linfa to ask her about the secret location. Mikhail sends another group to stop and arrest both Ayano and Akino, but Shuu ruins his plans by borrowing an attack helicopter.

Linfa, proving she’s still a friend to Ayano, gives her the coordinates to the mine site, now shifted since Bayron City itself was moved away from said site 12 years ago. They arrive just as Kisara and Sharon locate Kanna, whom Kisara has to keep Sharon from killing on the spot.

Mikhail then decides to try out an old “Star Wars”-style satellite weapon to destroy the entire site before Asmodeus can pass through the gate, but he’s a bit too late. The weapon is ineffective, and Asmodeus’ colossal hand emerges from the island, and the wound to its palm quickly closes.

Kisara managed to escape the initial explosion along with Sharon, and while they try to fight the hand of Asmodeus (from which hundreds of other arms and hands branch off) Asmodeus summons of all its previous forms, only in stone, including that of Shuu and Kanna’s mother.

Shuu arrives at the scene and asks Kisara to take all of his remaining memories, if that’s what’s needed to get rid of Asmodeus. Kisara bursts into tears and hesitates, fearing Shuu won’t be Shuu anymore if she obeys him. Then she’s impaled through the chest from behind…by Kanna, or at least the Kanna who is serving as Asmodeus’ gate.

Assuming Shuu remembers his sister’s face (and we’ve seen he’s in such a bad way he barely remembers Ayano’s name), this has to be a major mind trip for Shuu, who will now almost certainly have to give up way more than he should to heal and power up Kisara. If Asmodeus succeeds, Bayron City and perhaps the world may be doomed. But stopping Asmodeus may mean killing Kanna. Not an enviable choice.