Gushing over Magical Girls – 05 – Down the Rabbit Hole

When we meet Korisu Morino, she’s chilling in a dark alley in the middle of the night, which is an immediate red flag. Is she a homeless orphan? Her clothes are too clean! Then she meets Venalita, who asks her if she wants to join Enormita, and when next we see her she’s meeting Utena and Kiwi. Utena is in awe of her cuteness, while also assuring Kiwi she’s extremely cute too.

After she transforms into her evil magical girl form, which is an ornate Alice in Wonderland outfit complete with oversized watch, Vena deploys the trio into the field to demonstrate Korisu’s ability. Tres Magia, or specifically Magenta, is easily led right into a trap by a tattered stuffed animal, much to the bad-tempered Sulphur’s chagrin.

Once they’re shut into a closed room, suddenly Sayo is being attacked by her own comrades. Haruka cross-dresses and plays the role of a suave husband, while Kaoruko dons a bonnet, acts like a baby and starts suckling at Sayo’s breast. The setting changes to a hot spring, their clothes are gone, and they’re locked in a steamy threesome.

This is Korisu’s power: once she’s trapped someone in her magic dollhouse, they become her playthings to do with what she pleases. Judging from what goes down, I agree with Utena that she may just be the most depraved of the three Enormita girls. Her power doesn’t last long, and Tres Magia are soon released from the dollhouse, but they aren’t likely to forget what they just did to each other.

Another day, Kiwi invites her and Utena to Korisu’s house, where they find an ominous note from her mother with money for food. My mind went to a dark place: How long has that note been there? Did her mother leave for work and never return?

The neat and tidy state of the place suggests no, but it’s clear before Utena and Kiwi entered her life, Korisu’s only friends were her dolls and toys, many of which are in pretty bad shape. Utena actually shows there’s still a good girl within her when she stays up all night mending Korisu’s favorite doll.

When she returns the mended doll to Korisu, Utena is suffering from what seems to be a pretty bad cold. Korisu then uses her powers to place Utena in a hospital dollhouse, where an adult Korisu appears as a sexy nurse, has Utena partially undress, then applies some kind of ointment to her.

The camera perhaps wisely cuts away shortly after Korisu produces a plastic syringe filled with the ointment, and seems to be moving it further down Utena’s body. But as strange as this whole incident is, it ends with Utena declaring her cold is gone!

The next day, Kiwi is upset that she didn’t get to nurse an ill Utena back to health, but also considers that she could use Korisu’s powers to turn Utena into a helpless “wittle baby.” It’s at this point that Korisu traps Kiwi in a prison dollhouse (i.e. horny jail), which indicates that Korisu will be the sole person deciding how Korisu uses her powers.

When Korisu’s mom finally shows herself, returning home with some groceries, I breathed a sigh of relief. Her mom can also tell Korisu’s in a good mood, which she correctly chalks up to her finally making some friends. If she only knew what she and her friends got up to…

Jujutsu Kaisen – 34 – The Taste of Regret

A word from Gojou and the remnant of the real Getou’s soul still within his body starts to choke the person currently controlling the rest of his body, Fake Getou is impressed, but is able to regain control. The Prison Domain closes around Gojou and shrinks to slightly larger than a Rubik’s Cube. Unless Gojou kills himself (fat chance) the Domain is unusable as it only holds one.

One of now-dead Muta Koukichi’s “Insurance” devices drops into Yuuji’s ear and reports that the device would only be activated if Gojou is sealed. Mei Mei is initially skeptical, but Koukichi manages to convince her. She sends Yuuji out to warn the other sorcerers, holding off two high-grade cursed spirits closing on their position. Meanwhile, the three standby teams start to head into the first veil.

A pair of special grade cursed spirits roam Shibuya with the goal of killing all the assistant supervisors, i.e. suits. Yuuji emerges from the Veil, sees a horde of transfigured humans, and makes quick work of them, saving a handful of non-sorcerers.

He then climbs to one of the highest points in the district and shouts out a warning to everyone at the top of his lungs: Gojou has been sealed. As soon as Nanami hears this, he switches up the plan: he, Ino and Megumi will rendezvous with Yuuji.

As the Prison Domain processes all of the information that comprises Gojou Satoru, the cube is rendered too heavy to hold or move, making it vulnerable. Thanks to another Mechamaru device in the station, Koukichi is able to tell Yuuji that Gojou is immobile…but that likely won’t remain so for long.

Getou has to stay with the cube, so Mahito, Jougo and Choso all head out with one goal: kill Yuuji. Of the three of them, only Jougo wants to awaken Sukuna; the others just want to kill him. There’s also the matter of Mimiko and Nanako asking the Fake Getou to release his body, something he tells them he’s not going to do; he made a promise to them, not a binding pact.

Team Nanami meets up with Yuuji, and Nanami leaves Yuuji and Magumi in Ino Takuma’s care. Ino lays out the stakes: if Gojou dies, not only will the Gojou clan die with him, creating a massive political free-for-all, but the balance of power between sorcerers and curses will be upset, meaning the age of humans in Japan will be over.

One would hope Japan wouldn’t have to rely on one goddamn person to maintain its existence, but here we are. It’s up to Yuuji, Megumi, Nobara, and all the other sorcerers stationed there to rescue Gojou from the Prison Realm, or die trying.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 33 – Thirteen Orphans

Not gonna lie, while it was fun to watch Gojou have a little squash match—literally squashing Hanami into a thin paste on the wall—it was also a little unnerving.

For much of the battle, Gojou is sporting a giddy smirk usually worn by villains when they’re doing villainous shit. He’s enjoying this a little too much. And he’s also operating under the assumption that his enemies are underestimating him.

But as was mentioned last week, the reason they’re even there fighting him is because Getou is properly estimating Gojou and his power. He discusses the length of time and the amount of space within which Jougo & Co. have to keep him confined. Jougo thinks it’s crazy to think they can do that.

But Getou has this all figured out. While Hanami is lost, Jougo and Choso are able to keep their distance until a train finally arrives, from which Mahito and roughly a thousand transfigured humans alight. The crowds of people are slaughtered wholesale; those who fought to get to the front of the door first are killed first.

Mahito then destroys Hanami’s confining roots to allow another mass of people to fall to the level below, and Mahito and Choso combine abilities to tear them to shreds. There’s a method to this massacre: to further back Gojou into a corner where he can no longer logically calculate “acceptable losses”.

Once Gojou reaches that state, he unleashes his Infinite Void, instinctively only using it for two tenths of a second. For those two tenths, each and every man and woman around him will be in the hospital for two months…but they won’t die. It only takes Gojou 299 seconds to eliminate all of the roughly 1,000 transfigured humans. It’s Gojou going full Neo.

When he’s done, he’s out of breath and looking pretty haggard, and that’s when Getou gets him, revealing the proverbial “Thirteen Orphans” (his hand in the Mahjong game): the Prison Doman. The conditions are met, and Getou is in deep doo-doo. There’s just one problem: while the man before Gojou certainly looks and sounds like Getou Suguru, Gojou can tell it’s not really him.

Sure enough, “Getou” removes the crown of his head to reveal a brain with teeth; Getou’s body is only a host for that brain, and the person it belongs to. So that’s something. Even so, the brain’s owner is able to use all of Getou’s abilities, which is why he was able to checkmate Gojou here.

While still with Mei Mei and Ui Ui, Yuuji hears from a little Mechamaru earpiece that Gojou has been sealed. And since Gojou is the strongest of the sorcerers, it likely falls to Yuuji and his impressive potential to defeat the strongest alliance of enemies he’s ever faced. We’ll see if he and all the others can really make up for the loss of Gojou.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 08 – The Beautiful Nippon

Akira, Shizuka, and Kencho are back on the road to Akira’s folks when they come across a wrecked truck on the road, surounded by zombies. Without hesitation, Akira dons his Akirager costume to rescue the survivors, but they, or rather she doesn’t need help. She’s a one-woman zombie-killing matching, resplendent in full samurai regalia. She is Beatrix Amerhauser, German national and lover of All Things Japan.

Beatrix had the awful luck to work her whole adult life to save up enough to visit Japan and experience all she has to offer just when the pandemic broke out. So while she may not have an official list (at least on paper; it’s probably in her head) she’s determined to experience “the Beautiful Nippon” all the same.

That includes having a fancy sushi dinner, hence the truck: she was transporting fresh fish to a sushi chef in Takasaki City. Akira is the first to agree to help, as he wants sushi too, and Kencho and Shizuka go along. But while they have a nifty little plan in place to herd and burn as many zombies as they can, the matches they have don’t work.

As the zombies swarm and draw closer to their precious RV, Beatrix has a momentary crisis of confidence. But Akira snaps her out of it by leading by example—that is, running headlong into danger as usual. Shizuka and Kencho back up their close-range fighting by preparing Molotov cocktails that mop up the zombies. The sushi chef, still alive, treats the quartet to the best sushi dinner of their lives, and it’s enough to make Beatrix weep.

After the great Japanese tradition of sushi, the four continue their road trip, but when a classic Japanese heat wave makes them hot and sticky, they seek out the invigorating waters of a hot spring town. Beatrix finds the ladies’ kimonos aren’t generously proportioned enough to hold her Teutonic bust, so she wears the same robe as the guys.

Akira, realizing that he and Kencho are with two cute babes, comments that under normal circumstances this would be a great spot for a date. That’s when the Shizuka of old comes out, decrying love and romance as wastes of time and resources. She’s also scandalized at the prospect of sharing the only working hot bath with the guys, but Beatrix casts away her clothes in preparation to join them without fear or shame.

When a horde of amphibious zombies emerge from beneath the water, the four have to make a run for it, seeking refuge atop a nearby bluff. That night, Akira wanders off to find a drink of water and comes upon a picturesque natural mountain hot spring. He disrobes and dives in, only to find a nude Shizuka is already there.

They agree to stay on their respective sides of the rock and Akira promises not to peek, and they’re eventually able to relax. Shizuka even apologizes for snapping at him about love before; she tells him after a lifetime of having her opinions shot down by her awful father, hearing and accepting the opinions of others doesn’t come easy.

She continues to say she’s “bad at romance” and tries to act tough by saying she only needs her job, but in reality she’s afraid of being hurt. When Akira points out she’s being very open, she says if she does ever fall in love with someone, she hopes it’s with someone she can be this open with.

She then realizes how that must sound to Akira, but before she can qualify, the two are interrupted by the arrival of a naked Kencho and Beatrix, ready to join the party. Seeing the quartet promised by the OP and ED finally completed is quite simply fun as hell, Beatrix is a great new addition, and Shizuka x Akura is definitely ship-worthy. It’s a shame we’ll have to wait a bit for the last three episodes to air.

Jujutsu Kaisen – 32 – Between the Veils

Gojou arrives at B5 of Shibuya Station as requested, and sees that there are two distinct veils in operation. Waiting for him on the tracks are Jougo, Hanami, and Choso. We then switch POVs to Yuuji, the only one whose whereabouts weren’t established last week. He’s with Mei Mei and her relative Ui Ui near Meiji-Jingumae Station. Mei Mei gives him a choice: fight scores of humans transfigured by Mahito, or one big Cursed Spirit.

Yuuji picks the latter, and ends up facing off against a giant locust Cursed Spirit. He’s powerful enough to have limited speech, and claims to be “clever”, but while the destructive power of locusts in general is quite colorfully laid out by the narrator, the bottom line is that this guy is no match for Yuuji even before he gets properly warmed up. After a flurry of cursed energy-charged punches, the locust is out for the count, and the outer veil is lifted.

Hanami bars Gojou’s escape with roots, but Gojou has no intention of going anywhere lest they kill the hundreds of hostages in the station. Jougo shows off just how damn joyfully evil he is by killing a few hostages anyway. Jougo has set things up this way after Getou provided advice about how to deal with Gojou: he’s strongest when he’s alone and has space to do his thing. If he’s confined in a small space packed to the gills with non-sorcerers, he can’t go all out without severe collateral carnage.

After Choso distracts him by shooting a blood beam straight at his face, Jougo and Hanami rush in with their fists and domains, but Gojou is able to slip away, lowering his mask and asking if that’s the best they’ve got. He doesn’t seem to know that Jougo & Co. aren’t trying to give their best, nor are they trying to outright defeat him. They’re buying time for the boss, who said he needed twenty minutes before coming in with his Prison Domain. Gojou might just break a sweat at that point.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 07 – No Need to Obey

Akira may as well be back at the office, as he’s completely under the boot-heel of Chief Kosugi—a constantly apologetic, servile cog in the machine. Watching him, and having to pour beer and endure sexual harassment from Kosugi, dredges up a lot of memories for Shizuka. She doesn’t like those memories, and she doesn’t like watching Akira like this.

Shizuka’s father was essentially Chief Kosugi, only richer and more powerful. So obsessed was he with molding Shizuka into his scion that he told her to get rid of a sickly puppy she found on the street, because she needed to cast aside the weak. When she didn’t, he had the dog put down. Throughout her life, his constant mantra was You only need to obey.

Those are the same words used by Kosugi when on the last day of his servitude they agreed upon, the Chief suddenly switches gears from yelling to acting benevolent, telling the thoroughly downtrodden Akira that he can just stay here and work for him indefinitely.

Up until witnessing Akira in this state, Shizuka had more or less obeyed her father, which resulted in her having a prosperous job but very little in the way of joy. It’s only now that she realizes she wasn’t benefitting herself obeying her father and letting him dominate her.

When she finds Akira’s bucket list in the RV, she reads it over and smiles at how weird some of the items are. Then, in a moment of inspiration, adds a new item to the list.

The morning they’re to depart, the brainwashed Akira shocks Shizuka and Kencho by saying he’ll stay, parroting the reasons Kosugi mentioned: freedom is tough, the world outside is dangerous, and he’s not good for much, so he needs to stick with the boss.

Shizuka is fine to leave without him, but when he uses the word “need” over and over again, she can’t help but remember her father constantly drilling that into her head. She never snapped back at her father for fear of being thrown out on the street, but she’s officially had it with that word.

Shizuka’s parting words, about Kosugi being nothing but a sad, pathetic parasite who makes himself bigger by putting others down and wants to steal Akira’s free will, his very soul. She stands in front of the image of her younger self and says she’s getting away from this gross shithead with all due haste, because she’s not giving herself over to anyone ever again.

She then shows Akira his bucket list, tells him he’s not a machine or a zombie, and that he should be allowed to do what he wants, not be browbeaten into doing what others think he needs. When he sees the item she wrote—Tell off my jerk of a boss—and Kosugi snatches the book and prepares to stomp on it, Akira protects it with his own body.

His eyes now returned to normal thanks to Shizuka, he fulfills that bucket list item by telling Kosugi off. Whatever the Chief believes he still “owes” him, Akira tells him straight up he won’t be able to make it up to him. Sorry! As for the threat of being eaten by zombies, it’s better than being worked like one.

As Akira is about to leave with Shizuka and Kencho, a delivery van arrives and a zombie bursts out, causing pure chaos and sending Kosugi, who is not built for running, running for his life.

Because Akira’s a good guy with delusions of superheroism, he rescues his boss by coordinating with the baseball players to pen in all of the zombies, then blow them up by igniting propane tanks.

Shizuka can’t help but smile and laugh at the fact Akira keeps pulling off the craziest shit that ends up working. When he thanks her and she tells him it wasn’t meant to be a compliment, they both laugh.

Shizuka didn’t just wake Akira up, but thanks to her words and his actions, now all of them have had their fill of Kosugi as their leader, and abandon him en masse. He believed he was on the road to running Japan, but it only took two days for the sad little king’s hill to melt down into nothing.

Back on the road (and hopefully watching very carefully for more spike strips!), Akira reveals that he literally blanked out whenever he was around Kosugi, so while he remembered the torturous work, he remembered little of his interactions with him. That’s probably for the best.

Akira does go on to worry if he’s cut out for anything job-wise, but that’s where Shizuka comes in to say something Akira would have said to her a few days ago: So what? The time for needing to obey others who don’t have your best interests at heart is over. It’s time to do what they want. It’s the freakin’ end of the world…if not now, when?

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 06 – Equipment Check

Their rooftop haven is out of water, and Tokyo is out of power, so after visiting the Ginza to try on some watches and suits they’d never get to afford in their past lives, Akira and Kencho pack up and prepare to leave for Gunma, in hopes Akira’s parents are still alive.

Rather than take the motorcycle for the 4-plus-hour ride, Akira decides they need to have a kitted-out RV instead, and head to an RV show at a convention center. They have the same idea as Shizuka, and use her own risk analysis to get her to grudingly join them, since she doesn’t have a driver’s license.

As you’d expect, Akira and Kencho turn into excited little boys at the sight of all the cool RVs on display, one of which costs 23 million yen (or $150K US). But even Shizuka can’t hide how much she loves a sumptuous VW bus conversion, even though a lifted Tacoma conversion meets their needs.

Ultimately the choice of what RV to take is governed by the fact the boys were so loud they attracted a horde of zombies. They pile into a decently-sized Hino Cab-over RV and skedaddle; Kencho retrieves their bike and they head out in a two-vehicle convoy. The highways are mercifully empty.

I was ready to sit back and enjoy a fun road trip, but disaster strikes when both Akira and Kencho hit spike strips that ruin their tires. Kencho is thrown from his bike and injured. Three coach buses quickly arrive and block the way, manned by surly baseball players.

Their leader says “Tendou”, and Akira realizes that it’s his old boss, Chief Kosugi. Kosugi is all smiles in offering medical supplies, fresh tires, and the like. But of course, there’s a catch: Akira has to work for him for two days. And considering how often Kosugi lied to Akira at the office, two days might as well be translated as forever.

Akira, Kencho, and Shizuka have no choice but to accept Kosugi’s “kind” offer, and the latter two notice an instant change in Akira. Even he freezes up and can’t breathe or think when Kosugi is in his face, so traumatized he is by the past abuse.

When Akira tries to pull a fun-loving “new Akira” and chill some beers for everyone, but he’s reamed out for wasting electricity, and placed in the doghouse when the baseball guys think the cold beer is for them. Kosugi also shows Akira his ideal workforce: zombies that are tied up to pull cargo: No will of their own, no need to pay them, and no backtalk. Simply equipment. Chilling.

At no point does absolute contempt and menace drip from Kosugi’s features, nor does he ever miss a single chance to run Akira down, saying he can only hope to be as useful as the zombies. Suffice it to say this is a bad, bad place, and our peeps need to get out of here pronto. With Akira totally under Kosugi’s heel like the bad old days, organizing an escape likely falls to Shizuka, and a Kencho who hopefully heals up fast.

Heavenly Delusion – 12 – Expulsion from Paradise

Trigger Warning: This episode included a depiction of sexual assault. Viewer and reader discretion is advised.

I couldn’t really tell you what Tokio’s weird alternate universe dream was about, only that it was very unsettling and set the mood perfectly for an episode dedicated to taking everyone—both its characters and us—far out of out comfort zone. This episode expertly and utterly destroys what little order and normalcy existed previously.

Immediately after Tokio’s dream. Mimihime & Co.’s normal lunch by what looks like a concerted cyber and physical attack on the facility. The walls of this incubator of gifted children are finally crumbling from an outside they’ve never seen. Heaven has been breached, and will never be the same.

Kiruko and Maru’s side of the story starts out as normally as the Heaven kids’ lunch, until they find themselves in the biggest settlement they’ve ever seen, so big that the word town is the more accurate word to describe it. And at first, our duo is elated. Proper civilization at last!

They don’t even mind the red tape they have to cut through in order to gain official access to the town’s credit chip-based economy, because those baroque bureaucratic systems are itself both a relief and a novelty to two who have had so little. And then Kiruko learns Inazaki Robin is in that town, and schedules a meeting.

From that point onward, Maru notices a change in Kiruko; they’re talking to themself more. Kiruko has to go see Robin, and apparently they have to go alone. Maru doesn’t mind; to him, it seems like a quick errand from which she’ll be back in a jiffy. I’m still sure a part of him is weary of the two of them separating, and not just because Kiruko is technically his bodyguard.

Kiruko does not walk, but run to the filtration plant where Robin apparently works, and upon catching sight of him, they beam as their eyes tear up and their hair sways in the wind. It’s a classic “beautiful reunion” image, juxtaposed with Robin’s reaction to seeing Kiruko: a combination of fear, disgust, and something even worse.

The moment Kiruko and Maru separated, I knew things were going to take a turn. Robin’s face confirmed it.

Speaking of taking a turn, Takahara’s director is apparently crushed in the rubble after hopping out of her wheelchair like Dr. Strangelove and trying to make a run for it. The kids are on their own, and to their credit, Mimihime and her fellow older kids exhibit exemplary calm under such circumstances. But once the little ones are safe, they investigate the hole in the wall.

Kiruko’s reunion with Robin is lit beautifully just as Kiruko was upon laying eyes on Robin. Kiruko is going a mile a minute with things they want to say, but Robin urges them to cool down, they can take their time talking. They do, and they learn what became of Robin and how he came to become a key player in the restoration of civilization.

When Robin offers use of a bath to Kiruko, it seems oddly timed. I was so young and innocent when he first offered it, too. So was Kiruko. They break down with relief in the tub as the shower ticks their back with tiny droplets. They were so scared, for so long, but now everything is going to be okay.

The imagery of this entire episode is stunning in its thematic resonance. Just as Kiruko appears through the crack in the door, creating a slight pillar of light in the darkness, the Heaven kids are emerging from the darkness into the outside of the outside, the ceiling of which is dizzyingly high.

For a moment, Mimihime is afraid of falling up, so unaccustomed is she to being outdoors. Fortunately Shiro is there to cushion her fall backwards, and she is compelled to reach up into the sky at that seeming infiniteness. Contrast this with Kiruko’s rapidly diminishing freedom and welfare in one of the darkest moments I can recall watching in an anime.

Robin took away Kiruko’s clothes on purpose so he could lure them into a room and then handcuff them naked to a bed. Robin, who has either become quite the evil son of a bitch or was always this way, decides to conduct an “experiment” consisting of forcing the Haruki inside Kiruko…to watch his sister’s reflection in a mirror as Robin rapes them. Just…Jesus.

In hindsight, the warning signs and red flags were all there. I was even aware of them as things started to get dark. But nothing could have prepared me for the abject misery of this scene, especially how cruelly it combines a moment of attaining great freedom—as Mimihime does—with the worst moment of Kiruko’s life.

Not only are they being assaulted, but the perpetrator was their greatest hero, the person that inspired propelled them in everything they did. Well, Inazaki Robin is a monster far more terrifying than the deadliest Hiruko. I simply don’t know where anyone goes from here, or what comes next. All the walls have crumbled and fallen.

 

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

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.

To Your Eternity – S2 07 – Prince of Principle

Bon and Todo’s imprisonment continues, and Cylira makes it clear he won’t be released until he confesses to consorting with Fushi, a demon and servant of the devil, and begs for forgiveness and mercy of the church. Bon’s…not in a big hurry to do that.

It isn’t until he’s spent a fair amount of time in the cell that Bon even notices he’s not alone: there’s a little boy named Chabo, who is accompanied by the ghost of his mom (Bon tells him his mom is dead, but he doesn’t believe him). When Bon horks down his bread for the day, Todo gives him half of hers, and keeps doing so, because she loves him.

In between inquisitions from the church, Bon, Todo, and Chabo haven’t a lot to do besides sit or lie around. Todo learns that Bon really can see and hear the dead—it’s how he’s able to perfectly recite scripture, and know that Chabo’s mother was murdered by a member of the church. One evening Bon sees Todo’s shadow on the rocks and sees that she’s lost a lot of weight.

As she and Chabo grow thinner and Bon’s beard grows longer, Fushi is still alive, constantly sleeping and waking up. With only a couple of breaths of consciousness each time, he doesn’t have enough time to remember where he is or what he needs to do.

But as the weeks pass, rather than completely forget himself and waste away into nothingness, Fushi learns how to burn red hot like the metal that encased him. He melts the surrounding iron and begins to ascend from his cell, delighting his devotees but angering the followers of the church.

They douse the molten iron with water, resulting crude statue of Fushi frozen at the top of the metal cell. Cylira laughs and declares a great victory has been achieved by the church that will go down in the annals of the city’s history. He didn’t notice that Fushi actually escaped in the form of Tonari’s owl, Ricard.

Fushi flies to Bon’s cell, where Chabo has already wasted away and Todo is quiet on the other side. Once he burns through the bars and puts the gators to sleep, Bon tells him to take Chabo and Todo but create lifeless copies that will remain with him.

He’s decided to stay put and get released by the Church. He gets Fushi’s leave to confess to him being a demon, since that’s how he’ll stay alive. If Bon goes with him now, he’ll be a fugitive and the church won’t stop chasing them. He tells Fushi to tell Todo when she awakes that he’s sorry he didn’t make the right decision.

Of course, when morning comes and the church asks why a demon visited and killed Todo and the boy but not Bon, he claims that God protected him, proving he has God’s blessing. Cylira doesn’t quite buy it, but he does offer Bon a chance to confess and pledge allegiance to the church. But Fushi can’t do it. He won’t. He loves Fushi too much.

If that means he has to die, so be it. And so Bon is taken back to the capital to be publically executed by guillotine as a heretic. Bon is not alone on the walk to meet his end. The kind, gentle ghosts he’s seen and spoken with for years are right there beside him, assuring him death’s not so bad. Bon also meets his death with gratitude that he got to meet and spend time with Fushi.

No matter what the church says or does, It wasn’t able to destroy his faith or love in Fushi. Maybe his noble death will start a larger anti-Bennett uprising; maybe it won’t. But like Hayase’s will in Kahaku’s Nokker, Parona’s will in Fushi, and his ghostly friends, death most likely won’t be the end of Bon.

To Your Eternity – S2 06 – The Church of Heavy Metal

When Parona!Fushi mentions how they’ve been reading up on the concept of marriage and the “fluffy feeling” she gets from Kahaku and others, he embraces them, and that’s when Fushi becomes nauseous. As it happens, even if Fushi were open to becoming Kahaku’s wife, that’s not something Parona would tolerate. The very touch of Kahaku repels Parona, who was murdered by Hayase. Bon orders Kahaku to stay away from Fushi for the time being.

The campaign to gain Fushi followers continues in the next city, but this time many of the townsfolk have heard rumors that Fushi can now resurrect the dead. While true in the case of Anna, this comes as a surprise to Fushi, since Bon never told them. Fushi is shunted off into an alley, where a Bennett priest warns them that Bon is to be arrested and executed for heresy, but if Fushi surrenders willingly, their friends will be spared.

Fushi agrees, but neither Kahaku nor Todo buy what the Church is selling. Bon, when approached by Bishop Cylira, he grudgingly agrees to give Fushi up in exchange for a recommendation from the Church that Bon ascend to the throne of Uralis. It’s not what he wants, but it’s what’s best for his kingdom, and also what he’s been working for his whole life.

Todo whips up the crowd, and a town guard captain seemingly has Team Fushi’s back when he insists the church prove Fushi is a demon and not a servant of God. Cylira does so by giving Fushi a test: if they can’t revive a recently-deceased bishop, the church will have its proof.

Fushi, who at this point is still convinced they can’t revive anyone, copies the bishop’s corpse but is unable to revive him. They’re seized, and when Bon, Todo, and Kahaku try to intervene, Todo is stabbed by a sword and Bon is knocked out.

Bon comes to in an open-air cell suspended above a canyon, stripped of his gramps’ heirloom armor. Fushi is arguably worse off, as they’ve been sealed in a solid iron box. Fushi transforms into Gugu and breathes fire on the circular hatch, but can’t quite get it hot enough to melt the iron. After several attempts, Fushi starts to feel winded and nauseous.

The Beholder tells him he’s missing something they need (I’m guessing fresh air), and no matter who he transforms into, the bad feeling doesn’t subside. Then the hatch opens and molten metal starts to pour on them. The Beholder starts counting to see how long Fushi can last in a constant state of immolation and regeneration.

Of Team Fushi, only Kahaku and a handful of Guardians remain free. When they try to free Fushi from the cell in the dead of night, Pocoa emerges from her barrel and urges caution, and asks Kahaku to have faith in Bon and Fushi’s luck.

She might not be wrong, either! Todo, at least, survived the sword strike thanks to her embroidery stopping the blade before it could pierce her. Bon and Todo realize they’re in adjacent cells; perhaps they can work together. And even after over 100,000 seconds (over 27 hours), Fushi the immortal’s body still has form. All we can do is wait and see if that’s enough.

Chainsaw Man – 07 – Loosening the Screws

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – 07 – Gundam Startup

Witch from Mercury has it’s duels down—they’re exciting, fun, dynamic, and pack a punch. But after another episode where not a single character sets foot in a cockpit, I’d argue Mercury’s secret sauce is everything other than the mobile suit duels: the inter-family conflicts and political and economic wrangling. This week it goes full Succession, with a hint of Silicon Valley.

Mine was content not going to the 15th Annual Benerit Group Incubation Event Party, either as a representative of the Rembrans nor as an observer of venture capialist strategies (she’s found past events dull and dusty affairs). But Suletta wants to go in case Elan shows up, so they go.

Suletta hasn’t seen nor heard from Elan since their duel and his standing her up (we know why) and as expected, the death of his clone and the existence of a real, jerk-ass Elan is kept a secret from her. With Elan’s new clone “not ready” yet, the Peil CEOs have a task for the real Elan.

This is a formal event, so Miorine and Suletta are dressed to the nines in elegant blue and red gowns. Suletta learns that Mine and Shaddiq have known each other for years, and from his reckoning, Mine has changed into someone who does things for others’ sakes now. Miorine meets her future mom-in-law face-to-er…mask.

It gets a little awkward when Prospera tightens her grip on Mine’s hand and asks her fiancée if she and her father have always been at odds like that. Prospera then lists all the things Miorine has and can and will be able to do because she’s her father’s daughter, and warns Mine that she’ll have to throw away “that adorable pride” if she truly wants to get anywhere.

When Suletta drops some glasses and her broach, Guel’s brother sneers at the fact his brother fell for such an “oafish woman”. But it’s real-deal Elan who helps Suletta out. Elan plays a more cheerful version of his clone as he explains away his extended absence, then asks if he’ll come with her for an impending presentation.

(We also learn that Shaddiq is in discrete contact with Nika of all people … not sure what that’s about, but it suggests Nika is leaking intel to him. To be continued…)

This is when the scheme that had been cooked up by Peil and Jeturk comes to fruition. Suletta ends up in a trap, answering questions from the four Peil CEOs that end up incriminating Aerial as a Gundam, since the Peils freely admit that Pharact is also a Gundam.

Whether Suletta was aware of this doesn’t change the fact that Gundams are forbidden. So Peil agrees they’ll dispose of their Gundam if their upstart rival from Mercury does the same and disposes of Aerial. Literally in the spotlight, Suletta calls out for her mom to clear up this misunderstanding, but Prospera was drawn outside of the presentation area by Guel’s brother.

With Suletta in the hot seat, what composure she has fading fast, and Delling about to render his judgment, Miorine steps up to protect her fiancee. Having hacked the PA, she takes the stage and argues for keeping Aerial around, as it defeated the best both Peil and Jeturk could develop.

Miorine then gets to show off her skills as a businesswoman by coming up with a business plan on the fly with hand-written notes that will salvage both the Peil research and the Aerial. Her intention is to purchase both Peil and Shin Sei’s developments through M&A and create a new company called GUND-ARM, with the protection of life as top priority.

This, she says, will be the spark that reignites Benerit Group’s flagging profitability. It’s a decent plan, especially considering how rapidly it was put together, and it also diverts attention away from Suletta while demonstrating that Miorine can protect her in her own way.

The only problem is, none of the assembled investors dare make a move to fund Miorine’s venture without the okay from her father, who bluntly tells her to get off the stage as he’s through indulging a willful girl’s whims. While Suletta stood up straight unbidden because she remembered Mine’s words, this time it’s Miorine who hears Prospera’s words about ditching her “adorable pride.”

Realizing what she must do to get funding moving, Miorine kicks off her heels and runs barefoot to her father, bows deeply, and asks him for his support. Delling knows it’s a good business plan that solves a lot of problems and could spell bigger profits, and now his daughter is essentially prostrating herself to show him the deference he believes he’s due.

Delling warns Miorine there’s no shaking the “curse” of Gundams once they’re out of the box, but he still contributes a 3% contribution to her plan. Once Rembran is officially in, the floodgates open and within seconds the plan is successfully funded.

Now not only have Peil and Jeturk lost on the battlefield to the power couple of Suletta and Miorine, they’ve also lost in the boardroom, their gambit foiled as Mine outmaneuvered her by using the tools at her disposal, while also preserving Suletta’s dignity by preventing her innocent words from condemning Shin Sei. Jeturk’s brother can only twist his hair in frustration at the loss.

Lady Prospera once again shakes hands with her future daughter-in-law, knowing Suletta is in good hands. Suletta uses this opportunty to ask her mom to confirm that Aerial isn’t a Gundam, to which Prospera says, no, actually, Aerial is a Gundam, teehee! It may only be a matter of semantics, but this casual revelation hits Suletta like a ton of bricks.

Why, for example, has Suletta never felt any physical or mental ill effects from pushing Aerial—a Gundam—to its limits? Is it simply a matter of her and the Aerial having “grown up” together, or her having just the right collection of genes to prevent damage … or is something more sinister at work? If her mother kept this from her, what else is she concealing?

While these are enticing questions going forward, I really enjoyed the show’s break from piloting and duels in favor of the weapons of the upper crust business battlefield: evening gowns, flowcharts, fancy lighting, funding apps, and, of course, words. This was Miorine’s time to shine and she did not disappoint.