From the New World, Episodes 8-10: Bonobos, and Demons, and Cats, Oh My!

Omen, The Rising Wind, & More Than the Darkness

Summary

Two years have passed, and nearly every student at the Unified School is in a same-sex relationship. Although this appears to be common and casual, it doesn’t stop Saki from feeling upset after seeing Shun and Satoru French-kiss. The solution, however, still involves running to Maria for comfort. Mamoru, meanwhile, has no partner and pines over Maria. Saki initially chides him for it but then just feels sorry for him. Then Shun unexpectedly breaks up with Satoru, and doesn’t react at all when the latter walks into class with a new partner.

That same day, the class gets a surprise visit from Kaburagi Shisei, the strongest Power user, whom it is whispered is powerful enough to break the world in two. He spots Shun, whom everyone assumes will be his successor, sitting alone in the corner and approaches him. Suddenly, there’s a shimmer, and Kaburagi storms out of the class. Only Saki sees Shun crack an evil grin. After the teacher dismisses the students, Shun faints, although he insists it’s nothing.

That evening, Saki is sitting alone by the riverbank when Shun approaches her. He says he has to go away but won’t give specifics, just that it’s an illness and he’ll be staying at some sort of cabin. Saki tries to tell him how she feels, but he interrupts to tell her that he thinks they haven’t fooled anyone – the adults have known all along about what happened and just deferred punishment. He tells her to watch out for cats, and after giving her the collar he was wearing – a charm against said cats – he turns and leaves.

Four days later, nobody’s heard from him, and Satoru insists they need to find him. He’s startled when something drops into their midst, but it’s only a bug. That becomes less innocuous when Maria repeats rumors that top Power users like Kaburagi Shisei can create creatures to do their bidding. Since staying together would be too conspicuous, they break up into pairs – Saki and Satoru going to Pinewind Village, Shun’s home, while Maria and Mamoru ask other students if they know anything.

As Saki and Satoru head down the river they spot a large boat blocking the way, with black and yellow rope barriers to either side, and decide to go overland. Not only is there a rope barrier and a Monster Rat sentry, there’s a Sacred Barrier inside the more mundane cordon. After passing through it they see strange things like faces in the trees, a carpet of dead moths, and frost on the ground. Pinewind Village itself is gone, with only a massive crater where it used to be.

At dinner, Saki asks her parents about Shun. They admit there was an accident but beg her not to ask any questions, period, and her mother almost lets the ‘I don’t want to lose another child’ thing slip. Thinking about this in her room, Saki recalls looking up the meaning of her name when she was little. The ‘ki’ part indicates that the child is the youngest, which brings up faded memories of her older sister Yoshimi. The shock at remembering someone who doesn’t, supposedly, exist is broken by Maria appearing at her window.

When Maria and Mamoru asked other students about Shun, they found out everyone from Pinewind was missing. Then they remembered Shun telling them about storage buildings in the courtyard at Harmony Elementary and decide to check Unified’s own sealed courtyard, which contained a number of large cylinders. The door suddenly opened, and Maria and Mamoru hid too fast to see who was there, but one of the new arrivals was a woman, another their teacher. They’d had come to release ‘Impure Cats’ before a “transformation” can finish. After two lion-sized creatures were taken from their cylinders, the teacher remarked “he was so talented. It’s such a waste” and clearly said Shun’s name, to Maria and Mamoru’s horror.

Determined to find out the truth, Saki sneaks back into the quarantine zone. Shun’s charm proves to be effective when one of the cats attacks her. It stops the cat from biting her neck, and she’s able to kill it with her Power. The landscape around her has become even more distorted and strange, and Shun’s voice suddenly tells her to leave. When she refuses he finally materializes, wearing white robes and a plain white mask he refuses to take off. Reluctantly, he agrees to tell her what’s happened.

In school they’re taught that one can’t use Power unless they properly visualize the intended action first, but Shun says that’s not actually true. Things like visualizations and mantras are controls to keep Power in check, but they aren’t foolproof; everyone is constantly leaking Power and affecting the world around them. Any one person only leaks a tiny amount that will have no lasting effects, but when it interacts with the Power of another, the results become unpredictable. That’s the reason behind creatures like the Minoshiro or Thatchnesters – they were created by leaked Power. The whole reason the Sacred Barrier exists is not to keep away the outside world, but to redirect the excess Power of the population outside. In Shun’s case, however, it’s as if the lid has broken and his Power is leaking at an uncontrollable rate, affecting everything around him. They tried to treat him, but there was no stopping it. Shun has Hashimoto Applebaum Syndrome – he’s become a Karmic Demon.

Saki worries that it’s because she restored his Power improperly, but he insists it’s not her fault. The second cat appears, but Shun neither does anything nor allows Saki to. Then his dog Subaru, twisted and deformed by the leaked Power but still loyal to his master, suddenly attacks, but it kills him. Shun kills the cat in return and blames himself for the death and destruction that happened – not just Subaru but his parents and the village as well. Something strange starts to happen and he compares it to the arrival of a Blessing Spirit, though it brings only death, and propels Saki out of the house. She finally decides she needs to live and flees.

Thoughts

It’s not like those who are into that sort of thing needed a reason to create Saki/Maria and/or Shun/Satoru slash pairings, but now that those are canon…

Well, sorta at least. It’s obvious whoever runs this society has managed to make everyone more like bonobos. The Minoshiro said it didn’t prove to be the solution to human-on-human aggression, but hey, if it helps, why not, right? But at the same time, it feels incomplete, or that it must be an ongoing process. Bonobos are entirely non-committal in their sexual relations, have them with both sexes, and do not have specific partners, yet that’s very much the case here. Shun and Satoru are seen wearing identical necklaces, which is clearly motivated by their being together (Saki briefly suggests to Maria that they do the same thing), the former ‘breaks up’ with the latter (who seemingly accepts the other boy’s advances partly to get back at Shun, and the others ask if he wants to ‘get back together with’ Shun when he insists they find out what happened to him), and Saki still has a crush on Shun, which causes her to get upset when she sees him fooling around with Satoru. Yet the solution to the latter is running to Maria and engaging in some les yay. Saki’s lesbian relationship with Maria is apparently not incompatible with her heterosexual crush on Shun, which makes me want to put lesbian in parentheses, because while it’s exclusive, as if they are a couple, it still gives the feel of being a non-committal thing, one that ‘doesn’t count’, so to speak, when it comes to developing relationships with the opposite sex, and since it’s clearly shown that all these ‘casual’ relationships are same-sex, it seems like this was deliberately engineered precisely to avoid complicating the latter. It does feel kind of abrupt, but nevertheless, it’s been hinted at before, as if the process has been a gradual and ongoing one. When the Minoshiro described bonobos’ sexual behaviour, Saki had flashbacks to a few times when members of the group got touchy-feely, albeit in a more minor way than they do here. Not to mention the scene with Saki and Satoru in the cage, where the former overcame the impulse in a way she didn’t this time around. It’s also possible that this sort of thing only emerges as they get older alongside more normal human sexual awareness, but given that even immature bonobos will apparently engage in sexual activity, I have my doubts that that’s the case.

And who says anime isn’t educational (well, I’ve never heard claims that it isn’t, or should be, but whatever)? Did you know there was a relative of the chimpanzee that practiced free love before you started watching this, because I sure didn’t.

On another note, remember that thing I said two series posts back, about there being no evidence of modern technology in their society so far? I was wrong. Not because we see a phonograph, loudspeakers, a modern clock, and watches (which obviously aren’t some kind of restricted tech, because Saki has one) and get mentions of electricity and phosphorescent lights, rather, because there was evidence of it earlier – when the curfew announcement was broadcast in episode 1. Yeah, bit of a ‘d’oh!’ on my part.

Also, yay, the Trickster Cat is back! Well, yay at first, not so much later. After Shun’s warning, I spent most of episode 9 waiting for it to jump out of hiding, and it gave the whole episode a nice, tense atmosphere, especially after we find out that yep, it (or rather, they) are on the prowl. Yeah, surprise, surprise, the adults were controlling it – it’s not like that was hard to figure out, so it’s still cool. Or at least, it was up until Saki ran into one. We knew nothing about the Trickster Cat, except for vague, boogieman-like allusions that it was a threat to naughty children, and not knowing when it might catch the protagonists (and the viewer) unaware made it spooky. That it was a tool of the adults, rather than some monster or spirit beyond human control, didn’t detract from this much because, y’know, it meant the grown-ups were deliberately sending a large predator after friggin’ kids, presumably to take them by surprise, and when they can barely defend themselves as it is. Now, we’ve seen it, and not in a way that suggests there’s more to it we don’t know about yet. It’s a just large cat; dangerous, sure, but it only attacks people who’ve severely broken the law or otherwise been deemed a threat, and even a teenager who’s still only at a fraction of their power can kill it if it doesn’t get the jump on them (or is otherwise thwarted – that collar isn’t really a charm, just practical). Shun compounded this by killing the second one just as off-handedly, but he’s exponentially more powerful than Saki right now, so that at least is to be expected. Of course, if Saki had had more trouble with the one that attacked her it would’ve meant more – ‘wow, Shun’s really powerful now’ rather than, ‘eh, it’s not so dangerous after all.’ Kinda sucks – it was one of the best parts of the early episodes.

So, Shun. It’s not clear what happened to him, but I don’t think he’s dead. Maybe he is, and his death will be what motivates his friends to find out once and for all the dark secrets that underlie their society, but Rule of Drama says having your friend seemingly be dead only to reappear as your enemy is much richer source of conflict. He’s just gone through some traumatic experiences – parents dead, dog dead, village a giant crater, all presumably his doing directly or indirectly. Or not – Subaru’s loyalty is actually really touching, and it feels so much more poignant if taken as a deliberate decision on his part to stay with his best friend, deformities and trippy surroundings be damned, rather than as purely an effect of Shun’s out-of-control Power manipulating him through the latter’s desire not to be alone. It’s probably a bit of both, but we don’t know how the power of suggestion works when using, well, Power – as in, how the target’s own inclinations play a role in whether or how it has an effect, and it’s the sense that genuine love and friendship were in there that make Subaru’s sacrifice a little more than a cheap source of extra angst for Shun. I really hope I’m not just reading this into it, because if it is just Because Angst, that’s kinda lame. Regardless, he’s just been through a lot, has pushed his friends away, hoping it’s for their own safety, and has nowhere to turn with a condition he can’t control. Exactly the kind of person who’d reappear with A God Am I, or at least messianic, delusions about how Power should not be suppressed but embraced in all its trippy weirdness as the next stage of human evolution. We may have found our Big Bad. And even if we haven’t, at least now we know what those masked figures who appear during the credits sequence are.

From the New World, Episodes 5-7: Der Rattenkrieg

Pursuit on a Hot Night, Escape, & Summer Darkness

Summary

The Balloon Dog goes pop! (boom!, really), taking Rijin with it and leaving a crater with its’ bones – which also happen to be three-bladed throwing-stars. That smell like fireworks. Mamoru wonders at the existence of a creature that would evolve just to kill, and Shun says a species will do anything it can to survive. The Rats pursue them, and Saki and Satoru are separated from the others and captured.

Held captive in a cage of branches, Satoru telling Saki there’s a cut on her neck almost leads to hanky-panky, until Saki remembers what the Minoshiro said about bonobos and tells herself they’re not monkeys.* Since these Rats aren’t locals, Satoru tries to give the guard the false Thatchnester egg they picked up in Episode 3, which will explode if not handled gingerly, by pretending it’s food. Saki thinks that’s a dumb plan – nobody’s stupid enough to fall for that. One stupid guard later, they’re free and on the run again. They’re rescued by Squealer, a Rat from the Robber Fly colony. He has a mark on his forehead to prove it and addresses them as gods, so he’s friendly. Or at least he should be.

He takes them to the nest’s queen, who bids them stay the night. Squealer accidentally burns away the canvas concealing her, revealing her massive, six-breasted form. Enraged, she starts to eat him, but Saki orders her to stop.

Squealer explains that the Rats who attacked them are the Earth Spider colony, which is at war with the Robber Flies. He begs them to intervene – please, even a little smiting would be great – but the kids refuse. Their excuse is that they need permission to punish a Monster Rat, not wanting to reveal that they can’t.

That night, the Earth Spiders attack the lair. Saki and Satoru try to escape but become trapped in a cave-in after being forced away from the entrance by poison gas. Saki suddenly hallucinates visions of the Minoshiro, and after she snaps out of it she notices that Satoru doesn’t look well. She remembers the time they showed each other the mantras that were given at the Temple of Purification. It was only for a second – not long enough to be memorized – but Saki got Satoru’s afterwards by using a pencil to darken the paper around the erasings. Then she has an idea and uses Satoru’s mantra to recreate the ritual and give him back his Power. He now feels like a million bucks and is ready to clear a way out of the cave-in and kick some Earth Spider ass. In the process he destroys their poison gas canisters and kills many of them with his Power. Saki worries that he’s enjoying it a little too much.

They run into Squealer and a squad of the queen’s soldiers. She and her guards were the only ones to escape the attack. He tells them his scouts have found an unguarded route to the Earth Spider colony, but when they take the path they are continuously ambushed, the Earth Spiders revealed to be capable of taking on different forms to attack from the trees, the water, and the ground. Satoru is starting to sweat heavily and looks tired, and when Saki insists they should stop she seemingly lets it slip that only he can use Power. Fortunately, Squealer doesn’t seem to have noticed, but he insists the path was clear when the scouts checked it.** He sends some out again and insists it really is clear this time. The group makes its way to a clearing overlooking a valley, where a massive Earth Spider army has assembled, about three thousand by Squealer’s count, and too many to deal with now that Satoru admits he’s starting to feel weak. They have catapults, and Squealer bolts after they start launching boulders, while Satoru redirects one to let him and Saki escape as well.

They stumble upon Squealer, who’s been captured, and he alerts his guards to their presence, but after Satoru stops one he kills the other with a concealed dagger. He says it’s only because he wasn’t sure if they’d help him otherwise, freely admitting to cowardice and generally being a scumbag – but really, it’s not like two Monster Rats should be a problem for gods, right? Since they don’t just kill the pursuers either, he starts to wonder if perhaps they aren’t gods anymore, but a sudden horn blast causes the Earth Spiders to turn back, and Squealer says it’s reinforcements. And not just any reinforcements – it’s the Giant Hornet Colony, the largest in eastern Japan and the one most loyal to humans.

The trio meet up with the Giant Hornets and their leader, General Kiroumaru, at the Earth Spider nest. The Earth Spider queen is to be executed and the survivors taken away as slaves, the Robber Flies getting ten percent to help them rebuild. Saki remembers that Squealer told them the survivors of a losing colony will not only be slaves but treated as less than cattle. Kiroumaru agrees to meet with the Earth Spider general, but the latter turns out to have two Balloon Dogs hidden in his cloak. Satoru saves them by redirecting the blast, and finally collapses. When he wakes up after dark he tells Saki they need to escape, and yes, it’s because the Giant Hornets are so loyal. That means they’ll follow orders from the Ethics Committee, and have probably told them about Saki and Satoru already. And lest Saki forgets, both of them happen to have committed a major crime recently. Remember that stuff they were told, about problematic kids being pre-emptively eliminated?

Squealer follows them and agrees to guide them to the inlet where they left the canoes. They reach the inlet in the morning, where the others have waited for them. They don’t make it far before the Giant Hornets approach in ships, but all they do is tow the kids to the mouth of the Tone River. Kiroumaru asks them not to mention that he helped them, so Saki and Satoru realize he did get orders from the Ethics Committee. Since the others either remember their mantras or have them written down at home, the kids return to the village and regain their Powers, successfully fooling the adults. Or so they think…

Thoughts

And that’s what Monster Rat society is like, and it’s not a pleasant place, full of conflict and slavery and living in the dirt. Sure, real-life rats don’t always live in the most sanitary places either, but these ones are beneficial to humans, yet when they aren’t being used for something the latter seem to just leave them to their own devices. Rijin didn’t even know who the Earth Spiders were, or seemingly that there were any Monster Rats in the area, let alone that they were fighting a war. Squealer’s appeal to Satoru and Saki also comes across as desperate and opportunistic – happened just because they’re there – rather than an appeal to the gods for assistance; if the Robber Flies could do that, why ask it of two kids who just happened to be nearby instead of going to the Ethics Committee? I’m also thinking he may have seen Rijin kill the large group of Earth Spiders – now that was smiting, with a shape like an angel of death appearing in the cyclone and everything – and that’s why he decided to try and appeal for aid. On the other hand, the Temple of Purification is explicitly said to be outside the Sacred Barrier, and one would think those who’re there regularly would need and want to have some idea what the local primitives are up to. Granted, it’s not like the Temple of Purification would be in any danger if there’s multiple people like Rijin there, so maybe they don’t even care what the local Rats get up to as long as it doesn’t threaten the settlement, which doesn’t speak well to how much concern humans have, or rather, don’t have, for the Monster Rats.

And speaking of Squealer, I smell a rat. Calling himself a coward may have been an act, because he was taking a hell of a risk by getting himself captured, knowing what awaited him if his gamble didn’t pay off, but that stuff about being a scumbag certainly isn’t a lie, even if him saying so was only meant as part of his general ‘forgive this lesser life form, oh great gods!’ charade. Either way, he’s not a coward, but he’s definitely shady, and not stupid. Since Saki and Satoru didn’t readily agree to help at first, only to turn around and do so later, and then Saki almost let it slip that only Satoru has his Power, it’s pretty clear that he was already starting to suspect they didn’t both have their Power, or at least that something was up, so he deliberately got himself captured to try and find out. The implications of this, and the war itself, aren’t clear yet, but I seriously doubt we’ve seen the last of him, and so far he’s firmly in the ‘not to be trusted’ category. Kiroumaru, on the other hand, is at least honorable – it’s obvious he helped the kids because Satoru saved his life – but as Satoru pointed out, that’s as much of a curse as a blessing, because it also means he’ll follow orders from his superiors, who as far as we know happen to be (or at least include) the Ethics Committee, who happen to have it in for the kids right now (because Obvious Fact – there’s no way they’ve actually fooled the adults. They obviously decided not to do anything yet. Reasons why are heretofore unclear). He went against the latter because he owed the kids, but now that he doesn’t anymore, he just as likely – or maybe even more likely – to be an enemy next time. I guess we’ll see.

There is one thing I’m wondering about, though. The first Monster Rats we see have markings on their forehead that identify their colony. Squealer has one too the first time we see him, but it looks like it’s been drawn on, and he doesn’t have it later, nor do any other Monster Rats. But at the same time, Rijin could tell the Earth Spiders were hostile precisely because they didn’t have a mark, implying that colonies loyal to humans all do. Yet, Saki and Satoru never questioned the absence of marks for either of the two colonies that supposedly are loyal and theoretically should have one. I suppose it’s not as unusual as the Earth Spiders seemingly having the ability to shapeshift, because that’s definitely weirder, but it still seems like an odd thing to not notice, or not say anything about. Saki and Satoru assume that Kiroumaru doesn’t want them saying anything because he’s going against orders from the Ethics Committee, but given the lack of marks I’m starting to wonder if Squealer has been lying to them. He’s the only one who tells Saki and Satoru anything about the situation, and as I said, there’s reason to doubt his trustworthiness, so it’s possible none of these rats have anything to do with humans, and Kiroumaru asked them not to say anything not because he was defying orders but because it would let the adults know there’s a bunch of non-aligned Monster Rats in the area. That or the marks aren’t meant to be all that large and prominent and not showing them is just an animation shortcut.

And while we’re speculating, I’m no longer so sure of my earlier theory that the Monster Rats might have originally been humans. The kids thought Rijin was experiencing the Death of Shame after he killed a large group, but Satoru tears into them almost as much and he’s fine; the effects of doing so come off as fatigue rather than some genetic reaction to attacking humans. Probably Rijin was just experiencing major fatigue after using his Power in such a destructive fashion, and the kids assumed, wrongly, that it was the Death of Shame. It’d be interesting if it’s true, but it’s stretching things a bit.

*Well, she’s never heard of bonobos, so I suppose it’s an easy mistake to assume they’re monkey when they’re actually apes

**It’s almost like they wanted them to think the path was safe so they’d use it and walk right into the ambush! Nah…

Sword Art Online, Episodes 1-7: Aincrad Arc, Part 1

Remember what I said a couple posts back, about how From the New World was the only show this season I was interested in? Yeah, that was a complete lie. Sure, I didn't realize at the time I'd (potentially) end up watching more things than I thought, and this is technically from last season, but still...

Summary

In 2022, the Nerve Gear, the first virtual reality console, has been developed, and ten thousand lucky gamers have managed to get their hands on the limited first-run copies of its first MMO, Sword Art Online, a.k.a. SAO. But things don’t go as expected when nobody can log out. Everyone is suddenly transported to the starting area, where a hooded figure appears and identifies himself as Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of the Nerve Gear and SAO. He deliberately made it so they can’t log out; the only way to escape is to clear all 100 floors and beat the game. Forget about someone on the outside taking off your Nerve Gear – trying will make it send a microwave signal to fry your brain. Over 200 people have already died this way, and now that news organizations have picked up on it there’s little risk of anyone else trying. And try not to die in the game – if you do, you’ll die for real. He’s also given everyone a mirror that, once used, changes them to their true appearance. He gives no reason for his actions apart for a desire to mess around with a world he created.

A player named Kirito vows to do anything he can to survive and tries his best to go it solo, but never succeeds in keeping to himself. When he joins an expedition to take down the first floor boss he feels guilty about thinking only of himself after another player sacrifices himself during the fight, and teams up with another player named Asuna to defeat the boss. Later, he falls in with a guild called the Black Cats, who are friends in real life. He is reluctant to try and fit in with them, even hiding his real level, but envies them their camaraderie, and in spite of himself he starts to care about Sachi, the only girl and most timid member, after she confides to him her fear of dying. After everyone else dies because of a failed dungeon raid, he blames himself and eventually manages to get an item that can revive a player. So long as it’s used within ten seconds of them dying. Frustrated, he gives it to Klein, a player he met on the first day. Back at the inn, he receives a message Sachi arranged to be sent to him on Christmas Eve in case she died. She admits she saw his real level once and couldn’t figure out why he was hiding it, but still genuinely thanks him for being supportive and encourages him to keep on living.

Even though players will die in real life if they are killed in the game, there are those who are willing to attack others. When Kirito helps a girl named Silica get a crystal to revive her pet dragon, he was ostensibly just using her to lure out a group of player killers she’d been adventuring with, whom he easily defeats and captures, being of a much higher level than them. However, he admits that she reminds him of his sister, who promised their grandfather she’d work twice as hard at kendo after Kirito quit, which he feels guilty about.

When two players are unexpectedly murdered in a town, where attacking another player should be impossible, Kirito and Asuna team up to solve the mystery. It turns out both players actually faked their deaths to try and lure out whoever murdered their guild leader. The culprit turns out to be her second-in-command and in-game husband, who reveals that he was also her husband in real life and resented her change from a passive housewife to a confident, outgoing guild leader. After leaving him to his old guildmates, Kirito and Asuna awkwardly dance around the development of their own relationship.

When Kirito asks a player named Lisbeth, who runs a smithing shop, for a new sword, he breaks her best one when testing it against his current sword. However, there’s another, probably stronger sword she can make for him, but they need to go to another floor to get the necessary crystal, and since he needs a smith with him for that she tags along. While Kirito fights the dragon guarding the crystal, Lisbeth steps out from hiding and gets the dragon’s attention, causing her to fall into a pit. Kirito jumps in to save her, and they end up spending the night there. In the morning they find the crystal in the hole, but then they realize it’s the (nocturnal) dragon’s lair. They manage to get out after it returns, and Lisbeth, who’s developed a crush on Kirito, refuses payment after she’s made the sword, on the condition that she become his exclusive smith. Asuna, also a client, stops in to find out where Lisbeth has been, and the latter gets upset and runs outside after seeing the former two argue and realizing they’re Not-A-Couple. She gets over it.

Thoughts

Sometimes you do commentary on a bunch of episodes at once because you’re trying to catch up on something, other times it’s because you can’t think of much to say about individual episodes or smaller chunks. SAO is the latter (well, it’s actually a bit of both, but I tried doing write-ups about fewer episodes without much luck, so mostly to have enough to say). That’s because there isn’t much story progression after the first two episodes. Episode three definitely has strong thematic resonance, reminding the viewer of the omnipresent threat of death as well as giving some character development for Kirito, but afterwards the story takes a back seat to largely self-contained episodes focused on building up the world and society of SAO.

This is actually fairly interesting and does a good job of showing how the players have adapted to being trapped in the game and formed something of a society, complete with its own social conventions and taboos (it’s considered rude to ask about real life or a player’s level), a rudimentary economy with people using the craft skills to run businesses or becoming information brokers – both particularly important given the need for top-quality gear and reliable information in order to survive and no other way to find out anything – and even a seedy underside of disreputable types, namely player-killers. It’s all brought up, but the thing is none of it is ever explored in any real depth so far. Some of it works just fine as flavor – crafting skills are nothing new in MMOs, so some kind of economy around them would exist anyway, while the taboo on asking about levels or real life isn’t crucial to the story but is a nice touch that shows a collective consciousness that everyone’s trapped in a game. Others, however, seem like they deserve a little more attention. For one thing, until now it’s never really brought up what makes player-killers tick, or why there’s enough of them to form gangs. Sometimes it appears to be traditional reasons like resenting another player and/or wanting some of their shiny equipment, as in episode 4, where Rosalia and her gang were ultimately just bandits. She does bring up an interesting point – nobody actually knows for certain that anyone who is killed really dies. After all, they only have the word of one person, whose reliability (and sanity) is most definitely up for debate. So if you decide that there’s no reason to believe what Kayaba – or whoever it may been, because there’s no proof of that either – said, and choose to believe that those killed are simply logged out, I guess PKing would have some appeal when in this scenario it has the observably true benefit of the target player being unable to respawn pissed-off and seeking bloody revenge. Still though, it’s one thing to PK when you’re ultimately just being an asshole and quite another to do so when, for all you know, you might actually be killing someone. The news reports make things a lot more convincing, though I supposed you could falsify those if you have the technical know-how to be the mastermind behind a virtual world and really wanted to, though it’s probably a lot less work to just make it true in the first place – then you can just pull up actual news reports. Granted, some peoples’ sanity has probably deteriorated from that whole ‘trapped in a game for two years’ thing, as is seemingly the case with the Laughing Coffins, but that doesn’t cover everyone – Rosalia and her cronies seem to be completely sane. It just feels like it would take a certain je ne sais quoi to actually do something like that, especially if you’re otherwise sane, and it’s never really brought up.

Plus, there’s that whole ‘frontliners’ thing that’s never shown up except for that one time at the start of episode 5. Only Kirito got very far as a beta tester, and he only got to level 8, so very quickly everyone is in new territory, risking their lives fighting new monsters with unknown abilities, and it’s barely seen. Is it just me, or does that sound more interesting than Kirito going off getting into random hijinks and building up a pseudo-harem?  It’s not that what we get is bad – showing how everyone adapts to living in a game is done well enough to make it interesting and allows the setting to be more than just a backdrop, and episodes 5 and 6 in particular cover a number of things well (Kirito and Asuna’s developing relationship, the existence of player killers, and the theme of how games, especially those like MMOs that allow high levels of social interaction, can change someone for good or bad). It’s really only episodes 4 and 7 that stand out as lackluster since aside from a few minor things (I’m sure Kirito’s new sword will be important later) they otherwise show us nothing about Kirito’s character we don’t already know (apart from that tidbit about his sister, which would hardly have been difficult to work in somewhere else) and the girls aren’t well-developed or interesting. And fall for him far too easily, but that’s standard harem logic. Thankfully, the girl who’s so far been pretty clearly telegraphed as the eventual ‘winner’ does seem to have more going for her – a good thing since she shows up much more regularly – but I can’t think of anything specific I want to say about Asuna right now. The frontliners sound much more crucial than generic harem ‘introduce the next girl’ episodes and like something that deserves more attention than they’ve gotten. Of course, one of the things about commenting on the first handful of episodes when the show’s nearly finished is that some of this, like the absence of episodes focused on the frontliners, feel like they might turn out to be disingenuous when those things could come up even in the next few episodes, but that just might be the frame of mind I’m approaching this from.

Fortunately, despite some harem trappings, Kirito is hardly the typical bland male protagonist. For one, he clearly comes off as anti-social – not in a bad way, just in the sense that he’s not comfortable dealing with others. He balks at Klein’s invitation to introduce him to some friends, and never really tries to integrate himself into the Black Cats, keeping himself at a distance and envying them their collective friendship rather than trying to become part of it, consistently preferring to remain a solo player even on the front lines. But like a certain other Black Swordsman, he cares about others a lot more than he prefers to let on. Despite his early declaration that he’ll do anything he can to survive he’s consistently more compassionate and helpful than he seems to admit to, helping and caring about those he barely knows, at least those who are cute girls (but he does also ask Klein to come with him after they find out they’re trapped), and willingly gets involved in situations he has no need to. He consistently feels a sense of responsibility for others and his own actions, even blaming himself perhaps too harshly at times if things go wrong (it’s debatable whether the Black Cats is his fault or just an overall bad decision on the part of the group; if nothing else it’s not his fault the guild leader committed suicide after finding out his friends were dead), and goes to some length to try and atone for what happened or ensure it doesn’t happen again, even taking it to the point of objecting to a plan to let a floor boss kill computer-generated NPCs (which, unlike players, can respawn) while the players take it down. There may be elements of harem in the show, but the male lead is hardly generic, which is a good thing because he easily could’ve been. For one thing, as a player he’s basically invincible when he’s away from the front lines – his level is high enough that he can afford to stand there and let Rosalia’s goons hit him because his natural regeneration heals more HP than they can do damage. This is more than likely not the case on the front lines, but since he’s rarely shown there, just in places where he’s stronger than everyone, it’d make him pretty damn boring if he didn’t have a well-developed personality to make up for it.

Overall, not a bad show. It’s at least nice to look at, even though the visuals fall into the typical pseudo-Medieval European look common in fantasy anime. There haven’t been any surprises so far, and the harem side-plot doesn’t add anything to the show, potentially even taking the focus away from some of the more interesting elements, but still quite watchable.

From the New World: Episodes 3-4

The False Minoshiro & Bloody History

Summary

The trip upriver proceeds uneventfully. Around the campfire Satoru tells everyone about how someone – who’s totally real! – saw a Balloon Dog. The others aren’t impressed – wouldn’t a dog-like creature that inflates itself like a balloon when angry pop like a balloon if it inflated too much? It gets better though – apparently this unnamed person also saw a Demon Minoshiro. Also called a False Minoshiro, you supposedly die after seeing one, but this unnamed person hasn’t (but totally will soon – positive!). Shun suggests they make strange creatures like the Balloon Dog and Demon Minoshiro their trip project. Everyone then goes night canoeing, leaving behind a pissed-off Satoru (he drew the short straw) to watch the fire. During the ride, Shun holds Saki’s hand. She doesn’t seem to mind.

The next day, Satoru suggests they go further upriver than planned, and even the rational Shun likes the idea. After reaching their destination and hiking into the forest a ways they discover an old shrine buried in the undergrowth. Suddenly, a strange, translucent creature appears, emitting a bright light that paralyzes everyone except Saki, who put on goggles when the brightness of the water’s surface bothered her. The others snap out of it after it crawls between two rocks, and none of them disagree that it was a Demon Minoshiro. Mamoru suggests that they go back, but Saki insists she can catch it, which they accomplish by using their Power to control two giant crab-creatures.

The Minoshiro paralyzes everyone again, and a goggles-wearing Saki retaliates by pulling off an antenna, causing it to suddenly talk. It demands that she stop damaging “Library” property, under which it is authorized to use its defense mechanism (the paralyzing light), but it stops when Saki threatens to pull off all its’ antenna. When they ask what it is, it identifies itself as the Tsukuba Branch of the National Diet Library. Specifically, it is a remote terminal with a storage device containing a holographic copy of the library collection. This is mostly gibberish to the kids, but Saki seems intrigued when it says they can access its data at any time.

Unfortunately, the kids can’t simply ask questions; they have to register. And that’s not happening since they aren’t 18, nor do any of them have a valid passport, drivers licence, health insurance card, or school ID. Fortunately, there’s a way to bypass that – threaten to rip it in two. Saki asks if Ogres and Karmic Demons exist, and the Minoshiro identifies them as those afflicted with Larman-Krogeus Syndrome and Hashimoto-Applebaum Syndrome, respectively. Both appeared shortly before the collapse of civilization, and the main characteristic of the latter is their ability to use psychokinesis, or PK – in layman’s terms, psychic powers.

 The existence of psychic powers was definitively proved in 2011, and this long-dormant ability began to reappear shortly afterwards, until psychics comprised 0.3% of the population. Even though they could command only a fraction of their potential they were still extremely dangerous, and without a way to curb their abilities there was no real way to stop them if they used their PK for destructive or violent ends. Anti-PK riots started, humanity splintered into factions, war broke out, the threat to PK users caused a drastic evolution of their abilities, and the world population fell to 2% of its peak level. The five hundred year period that followed is known as the Dark Ages.

During this period, four distinct groups emerged in northeast Asia. PK-users formed Slave Dynasties who ruled the non-PK majority, handfuls of non-PKs lived outside the Dynasties as hunter-gatherers, other PK-users became bandits, and a fourth group managed to preserve remnants of the technological past. The Dynasties practiced mutual non-interference and remained in power for about 600 years. The deaths of the last PK users brought about their collapse, and the fourth group stepped in to prevent the ensuing chaos from escalating.

This group recognized the need to prevent Power from being used against others and tried various methods – first education, then using psychological and personality tests to identify and pre-emptively eliminate those deemed dangerous, and third, trying to make society adopt the ways of the bonobo, a relative of the chimpanzee that resolves conflicts by having sex. None were completely effective, so at last genetic engineering was used to modify the human genome. The modifications were an aversion to attacking one’s own species, based on this tendency in wolves, and what’s called the ‘Death of Shame’, which causes a physical reaction when attacking another human and can kill you if you persist.

The kids are shocked and disturbed by all of this, and Satoru insists it could all be lies. Shun notes a discrepancy – everyone they know has Power, but the Minoshiro just said most people didn’t, so what happened to the latter? It says there are few trustworthy sources for the period between the Dark Ages and now, so it can’t answer.

Just as the Minoshiro is about to explain what Ogres are, it bursts into flames. As it burns, the image of a woman and child appears in the flames. The perpetrator is a man named Rijin, a monk from the Temple of Purification. Needless to say, the kids are in serious trouble right now – not only did they not have permission to be there, they’ve listened to a demon and broken the Tenth Platinum Law and must have their powers sealed.

Rijin tells everyone to come to the Temple with him. Saki believes their Power can be unsealed, but Satoru is convinced that won’t happen – they’ll probably just kill them. Rijin looks sick, and Shun concludes it’s because of the woman they saw in the flames – it’s the Minoshiro’s defense mechanism. He won’t die since he didn’t actually kill a human, but he’s still having a reaction.

A Monster Rat suddenly appears, larger than the ones before, and armed. Rijin kills it, but realizes from its lack of a tattoo that it’s from an invasive species. They encounter a whole group of them, and Rijin uses his Power to call down a massive cyclone, uprooting the earth and killing them all. This time Rijin looks even sicker, and Saki figures the Monster Rats were far away enough that they looked human. Then a Balloon Dog emerges from under the corpses…

Thoughts

Remember last year, when it was all over the news that a scientist in Azerbaijan had definitively proved the existence of psychic powers? I knew it wasn’t going to end well…

And really, wouldn’t the world be a much happier place if everyone would just resolve their differences by having sex? So many world conflicts that could be ended so easily...yeah, I’m not gonna take that joke any further.

Anyways, infodump ahoy! No real surprises, though; psychic powers emerged (or rather, re-emerged), some people ended up using them for evil, things got out of control, modern civilization went bye-bye, preindustrial societies rose from the ashes, and as time went on various groups who had an edge (PK, remnants of the old technology) came to power. It also came a bit too soon, at least in my opinion. It dispels a lot of the mystery the show had, which has been part of the appeal for me, and it feels like that’s being swept aside prematurely, and with revelations that aren’t at all novel. Thankfully, while the basics of what happened have been explained rather early on, it hasn’t answered every question.

For one thing, it’s unclear if the technological group that came to power after the Slave Dynasties ended fully remembers its origins or has still preserved any modern technology. It sounds like they originally managed to retain a fairly modern society, as shown by the Minoshiro requesting distinctly modern documents like a drivers’ licence to register, despite the narrator stating in episode 3 that she believes the former didn’t come into existence until after everything went to hell. If there’s any translucent…whatever the Minoshiro looks like that serve as entire libraries wandering around right now, I certainly haven’t heard of them. They even sound like they were a little more advanced in some areas since they were apparently capable of advanced genetic engineering. It could certainly explain the animals the kids saw at Saddharma Farm, and all available evidence seems to point to the Minoshiro being an artificial lifeform, not to mention that they’ve apparently tampered with the human genome itself.

But there’s been little evidence of any advanced capabilities so far. There’s been hints of modernity in their society – the school system, as I commented on before, and in these last two episodes  the kids’ clothes, while probably handmade, have a distinctly modern look to them (well, Shun kinda looks like he belongs in Sherwood Forest, but it’s not too hard to picture Satoru wearing identical-looking clothes and zipping down the sidewalk on a skateboard, and Saki’s tunic looks a lot like a hoodie), but no evidence of technology beyond a preindustrial level, or even an understanding of such. Rijin calls the Minoshiro a demon, and declares that the Monster Rats “have no place in the three worlds but for the grace of Buddha, who allows [them] to live as inhuman beasts.” The mention of Buddha gives his claim a spiritual tint, whereas, if the Minoshiro is telling the truth, the obvious explanation is genetic engineering. It’s unclear if this is Orwellian suppression of information – is he in the know and hiding things from the kids, as members of the general population, or is he also not high up enough to be aware of the truth? – or if even those in power have genuinely forgotten or no longer properly understand where their society came from.

I’ll say one thing, though – I don’t think Rijin is experiencing the Death of Shame because those Monster Rats were far away enough to look human – they are human. Not outwardly obviously, but underneath there’s still fundamentally human DNA. Hey, genetic engineering was supposedly possible in the past, and something had to happen to the mysteriously vanished Powerless majority. OK, that they’re genetically engineered rats is a more obvious and way simpler explanation, even moreso for the ones in the village, which are normal-sized rats, than these ones, which are as tall as the kids, but that’s nowhere near as disturbing as the technology group finding a more novel way to deal with the majority that doesn’t involve killing them off. Hey, if you’re trying to level the playing field, can’t duplicate whatever gives people Power artificially, and just killing of the non-Power users is too impractical, you’ve gotta do something to distance them from those who can. Obviously this is assuming a lot about the nature of Power and what the technology group knew about it; the key thing behind it is that the kids’ think Rijin is genuinely experiencing the Death of Shame after killing the Monster Rats, rather than having what’s basically a mild allergic reaction – if that’s true why would he be unless he actually was attacking humans?

To be fair, the Death of Shame does seem to be affected by perception, since Rijin had a reaction after killing the Minoshiro, supposedly because of the image of the woman that appeared when he burned it. Then again, Saki is clearly experiencing similar symptoms after attacking it earlier, when there’s no way to mistake it for a human – her reactions rather nicely parallel its description of the Death of Shame’s symptoms. It suggests some things about the way Minoshiros are created…

Of course, that’s assuming that everything the Minoshiro said is true, but if there’s one thing that genuinely holds true in fiction, it’s that disturbing truths revealed by a questionable source contain at least a grain of actual truth.