From the New World, Episodes 14-15: A Vindication of the Rights of Monster Rat

Snowflakes & Afterimage

Summary

The next morning, Satoru goes back to town to make excuses for their absence, but Saki is worried about him going alone and decides to go back after him. When she gets into town, she’s immediately sent to a meeting with the Education Committee, where she’s grilled about what happened. She’s ordered to answer truthfully and does so until she tells them Maria is still trying to convince Mamoru to come back – a lie, she decided to stay with him. When they ask her why Mamoru ran away in the first place she tells the truth again, and they freak out when she starts saying “Impure Cat.” Just then, Tomiko enters and asks to take her aside. The Chair objects, but Tomiko argues this is partly her fault, since she told Saki an unprecedented number of things. She also contends that the overall situation is the Committee’s fault, that their decision to eliminate Mamoru was rash and poorly executed; of course, she’s also at fault here too since it was her idea to try “the experiment” on Group 1. She says she’ll use the back room, which the Committee is reluctant to allow, but she says everything will be fine.

She assures Saki that Satoru is fine and offers her tea, but Saki is still uneasy, what with the three Impure Cats curled up beside Tomiko, even if she says they won’t attack unless ordered. Children are constantly receiving hypnotic suggestions, Tomiko explains, but an experiment is being done where almost nothing is done to the minds of Group 1. This is because even in a highly controlled society, leaders need to be able to think freely and have strong convictions. However, it’s led to some unexpected outcomes, such as Maria and Mamoru deciding to run away. Saki doesn’t understand why two renegades are dangerous, but Tomiko says that they’re renegade Power users is precisely what makes them dangerous. There was this ancient technology, she explains, called nuclear weaponry, where one bomb could destroy an entire city. They were tightly controlled, but you can’t control an Ogre, and they’re just as destructive but can do it many times over as long as they have the strength. Power has made humans infinitely more dangerous than any technology, and therefore she can’t allow loose ends like Maria and Mamoru. Saki is given three days to bring them back, with the promise they won’t be killed if she does. If they aren’t found, however, warnings will be sent to the other towns, and the Monster Rat colonies put on alert; they’ll be caught eventually.

Saki asks why Tomiko has so much influence, and she says it’s because she has experience and wisdom. She asks how old she looks, and Saki guesses 67. Tomiko is impressed – she actually got the last two digits right. Tomiko is 267 years old; she has a unique ability that lets her restore her telomeres. These are the tips of the chromosomes, which gradually degrade as the cells divide, and once they’re gone division is no longer possible and the person dies. She promises she’ll have a new task for Saki when she comes back, and it’s implied she will teach her the telomeres trick.

As Saki heads down the river, Satoru catches up with her. They reach the place where the snow hut was, but it’s gone. It was dismantled thoroughly, so Maria and Mamoru must have done it. Naturally, they’ve erased their tracks as well, if there even were any, since Maria is skilled enough to fly even while carrying Mamoru. When they go for help Saki falls through an overhang. She regains consciousness inside a hut, and Satoru says they’re exactly where they wanted to be – the Robbery Fly Colony. Squealer, who now uses the human name Yakomaru, comes in to give a formal welcome. The colony has prospered, he says, merging with several others so that their numbers now exceed 18,000.

Sakis asks him the way to the Goat Moth Colony – Skunk’s, and Squealer asks if there’s a problem, sounding a little too eager to hear an affirmative. He insists on leaving in the morning, because night travel would be too hazardous. Saki and Satoru ask to see the Queen, to say ‘hi’ and apologize for the intrusion. Squealer is reluctant, but finally agrees. On the way they notice many buildings, including the colony’s Diet, where Squealer says 60 elected representatives, including himself, decide its affairs and policy.

The merger with several other colonies has necessitated keeping the various Queens in the same building. Chained in the same building. The Robber Fly Queen is the worst of all – alive, but pinned to the floor and lobotomized. Squealer says she’d become unstable – she’d treated demands for greater rights of the colony’s denizens as a personal threat. Just because she gave birth to them all doesn’t mean the colony is her personal property, Squealer argues; everyone has certain inalienable rights, that’s just the basis of democracy. He read about it in a human book.

Saki and Satoru are disturbed by this. Saki says that the Monster Rats are animals, so they shouldn’t try to project human values onto them, but that’s not what’s bothering Satoru – it’s the fact that they seem too human. It’s like they’re trying to recreate the materialist society humanity has abandoned – the town doesn’t even have any concrete buildings. And it’s highly unlikely that he’d just find a human book – Satoru thinks he captured a False Minoshiro. Most sinister of all, Satoru thinks this means one thing – they’re trying to replace humanity. He’s not sure that’s possible – he and Saki could tear the colony apart if that wanted to; Saki wonders if he’d do to humans what he did to the Queen, but drops the thought.

The next day Squealer, accompanied by an armed force, takes Saki and Satoru to the Goat Moth Colony. When the colony doesn’t respond to their hails he has fire arrows shot at the trees by the entrance. In response the Goat Moths send a volley of their own, which Saki and Satoru deflect. Then, a single arrow is loosed. It’s deflected, and Saki says it may have just been an accident, but Squealer maintains that it’s now obvious Gods are present, so even one arrow is an inexcusable sin and a pretext for armed reprisal, which she and Satoru reluctantly consent to, tearing the entrance to the colony open. In response the Goat Moths send an envoy, whom Squealer berates until reminded that they came to speak to Skunk. He doesn’t know where Maria and Mamoru went, but he has a letter from them.

Thoughts

Well that explains Tomiko’s appearance (and why everyone was wearing a different style of clothing in her flashbacks); presumably she’s figured out how to use that telomeres trick to maintain her appearance at a certain level – no one would believe she has experience and wisdom if she didn’t look elderly. I still think she looked younger than 67, but that’s just me. And since it’s implied that she plans to teach this ability to Saki, it’s now looking like our occasional narrator isn’t just Adult Saki but Bicentennial Saki. That could mean a number of things – is this all actually a story she’s telling someone else, like, say, her own potential successor? Or is it even indicative of something going on in the future at all, and actually just a way to provide foreshadowing?

But if she is telling this to someone else, I’m not sure how to feel about that. Does it mean she’s accepted things as they are like Tomiko said she would? On the one hand, this isn’t the greatest of societies, what with the way it treats kids (and now we can add brainwashing to the list; OK, we kinda knew that already, but this made it clear they aren’t just conditioned to believe certain things, their day-to-day thoughts are regulated as well). But Episode 14 emphasized, perhaps more than anything else, just how dangerous Power is. It may allow people to do things that are convenient, or even kinda neat, like propel a boat without oars or fly, but it also means humans are now born with the potential to be far more destructive than anything we might build. Sure, 99.99% of them won’t become dangerous, but that last .01% can still cause enough damage to pose a serious threat, especially when that same society has rendered people unable to attack each other, and thus defend themselves, and it’s impossible to predict whom that will happen to – they can only narrow down the number who might. It’s impossible to guess how much worse things would be, or even if they would be at all, without the kinds of safeguards that are currently in place.

And the brainwashing stuff actually clears up some of the questions about memory erasing I had last time. Since they’re part of an experiment that allows them greater mental autonomy, it looks like only the bare minimum necessary of their memories were altered, in keeping with the parameters of the experiment. Granted, they were still counting on certain things – like ‘going beyond the Sacred Barrier without permission is bad!’ to hold true, which is proving to be their undoing, but maybe that isn’t as ridiculous an assumption as it sounds, since even Alphas are still conditioned somewhat, and that’s basically what Saki and her friends are. You’d think they’d have done this sort of thing before, though, since the need for free-thinking leaders (albeit ones who come to the conclusion that the current state is good and necessary, just like a World Controller or Inner Party member…) surely isn’t something they just realized, and if it isn’t you’d think they’d have a better idea from past experience just how much control is still necessary to make sure certain things still do or don’t happen. Or maybe they’ve been doing it the same all along and this genuinely is the first time something like this has happened, but that feels like too much of a stretch. But then, Tomiko did call it an experiment, and unless controlling thoughts as much as they do is also recent, that still doesn’t answer why they’ve never done it before.

Anyways, I knew I smelled a rat when we first met Squealer, but damn! That’s some serious shit he’s gotten up to. This is so obviously a power-grab on his part that I suspect the stray arrow may have been sent by an agent of his among the Goat Moths – and that’s why he didn’t want to take Saki and Satoru the night before (well, apart from the reasons he gave, which were valid); he needed time to set something up so he’d have a pretext to march in and occupy the colony. Y’know, because it sure didn’t seem like he was fishing for one when he asked Saki and Satoru if there was a problem or anything…

And I think I’m starting to see the purpose behind the war in Episodes 5-7. We know the Monster Rats can and will fight, and how brutal they are when they do. Add to this the fact that they can attack and kill humans. Tomiko says there’s about 50,000-60,000 people currently living in Japan, and it’s probably no stretch to guess that the Monster Rat population numbers in the millions. That alone doesn’t prove anything – for all we know, Squealer could just be trying to create a better society for his people. But c’mon, this is Squealer we’re talking about; so much about him is just shady that there’s no way he isn’t up to something at least somehow related to gaining more power for himself, even if it’s just to become King of the Monster Rats. I can’t imagine the humans would stand for that, though. Presumably one of the reasons they’re so primitive is because of human attempts to make sure they won’t be powerful enough to be a threat, but thanks to Squealer, and, it’s implied, the Giant Hornet Colony, they’re becoming better organized, better armed, and coming together in larger numbers. Of course, humans still have Power, but the other thing we learned during the Monster Rat war is that using Power offensively has limits; even if Saki and Satoru did tear the colony apart like he says they could, they’d be in no shape for anything afterwards. Any random Monster Rat could probably walk up to them and cut their throats at that point. I’m not sure what Saki means exactly when she says ‘do the same thing they did to the Queens,’ because keeping Power users chained doesn’t seem effective, and if they’re lobotomized they wouldn’t be good for anything anyway, but regardless, Squealer’s nothing if not clever; he has something up his sleeve…

I feel like there’s someone or something to compare Squealer to, that I’m dancing around the edge of something apt but can’t lay my finger on it. But, yeah, nothing’s coming to mind right now. Not that that matters; this show has been pretty good about bringing up new developments to keep you intrigued, but this really takes the cake. Whatever happens, it’s bound to be good.

Maoyu, Episodes 1-2: The Economics of War 101

- You will be mine, Hero! - I refuse! & Please Make Us Human

 

Summary

Fifteen years have passed since the war between demons and humans began. Human armies have secured a foothold in the land of the demons, but in response the demons manage to occupy human territory, launching an offensive against the Southern Nations. In the midst of chaos and suffering a hero arose, his quest to defeat the demons bringing hope to the Central Nations. Then, for reasons unclear, he left his companions and struck out to face the Demon King on his own.

He reaches the castle of the Demon King, but it’s strangely deserted, until he reaches the throne room and sees a figure facing the far wall. Realizing it must be the Demon King, he draws his sword, declares that the end has come, charges, and – OMG boobs! The girl identifies herself as the 43^rd Demon King – what? It’s the traditional title. He tries to repeat his challenge, but she acts like he’s strolled in for a chat. Why? Because the time has come – she’s going to make Hero hers. He says no.

He tries to back up his position with reference to the suffering demons have caused humans, but she’s got a rebuttal for everything. Poor resource management, politicians getting caught and trying to cover their own asses, self-interested ‘charity,’ all the accusations he levels against the demons are shown to be the result of human greed and warmongering. The Central Nations are prosperous because the war, and the relief aid they send to the South Nations, allows them to be, the South bearing the brunt of the fighting while the rich of the Center hold balls every night.

Demons aren’t any different, she explains, but it’s the truth – both sides are fighting because they need to fight. If it stopped, businesses would be ruined, food exports would stop and leave thousands to starve, and there’d be thousands more unemployed who know no trade except fighting. The prosperity of the Central Nations would collapse, while the kingdoms of the resource-poor South would go under entirely. That’s why she wants the Hero – not just because she’s crushing hard for him, but because she wants to join forces with him to find a better way. He’s initially put off by her advances, but he doesn’t like what he’s learned about the war and his own people either, so he agrees.

Oh, and her horns are fake.

They set themselves up at a manor in a small, recently-established village, using the cover story that the Demon Queen is actually a noblewoman educated at the Holy Capital who’s come to teach the villagers new farming techniques. One night, just as Hero shows increased receptivity to Demon Queen’s advances, the moment is ruined when something spooks the horses. They find two dirty, rag-clad girls hiding in the stables, whom their housekeeper, Demon Queen’s long-time companion and governess Head Maid, identifies as serfs. She wants to report them, arguing that it isn’t worth damaging their reputation to start a dispute over escaped serfs, but Hero is against it and Demon Queen ends up taking his side, giving the girls clothes and food. The eldest begs them not to say anything for a few days, but Head Maid reprimands them for trying to take advantage of their hosts’ generosity this way. And even if the latter agreed, what are they going to do, beg in the streets? They’re serfs, unable to decide their own fate and thus insects, unworthy of respect, and therefore have no right to ask anything of their betters – in other words, not even human. Unwilling to give up, the eldest says if that’s the case, then can she please make them human? Impressed by her audacity, Head Maid agrees to hire them as assistants, and Demon Queen also begins educating them alongside her other students. They prove more apt pupils than their more privileged counterparts.

Demon Queen’s plan to introduce four-crop rotation, superior to the current three-crop system the villagers use, is initially met with resistance, but once she starts teaching the sons of some of the local notables her influence increases and she can start to create changes. Hero wonders when results will become apparent, or what good they’ll do, but Demon Queen isn’t worried. After all, she has a secret weapon…

Thoughts

So, is this Spice and Wolf: Agriculture Version? Seriously, it’s got the same set-up: pseudo-medieval setting, normal human man, supernatural woman, they team up. Granted, the plot seems to be ‘save the world through-cooperation and understanding’ whereas Spice and Wolf was more ‘Take Horo home, while Laurence tries (and generally fails) to make money in the meantime,’ so it’s probably not gonna be them trying to reform a village forever, but these two episodes still felt like someone took the latter and replaced the economics with agriculture. Well, maybe ‘everyday life in a medieval village’ would describe it better, but it’s the same basic idea.

And boy is it gonna feel weird calling these characters by names like ‘Hero,’ ‘Demon Queen,’ or ‘Head Maid.’ Seriously, the younger of the two sisters goes around calling him ‘Hero,’ is that actually what others call them; don’t they have, like, real names or aliases or something? They can’t very well go around calling her ‘Demon Queen,’ after all. Eh, every time someone from the village addresses her, it’ll probably just be as ‘milady.’

And speaking of demons, why are there demons at all when they look physically identical to humans. More than likely that’s meant to be a satire of how the other side in a war is often (pun not intentional) demonized when they actually aren’t so different, it’s just that so far there hasn’t been an obvious reason why they needed to be demons instead of just an enemy nation that’s been built up as some kind of Mordor deserving of destruction. Or why spellcheck doesn’t recognize Mordor; seriously, isn’t Lord of the Rings well-known enough? Back on topic…their home does look wasteland-y enough that maybe there is a reason that just hasn’t been brought up yet.

One thing I’m worried about, though, is that the series will fall into the Medieval Morons trap with the humans. The demons are hinted to have greater scientific and socio-economic knowledge than humans (Demon Queen mentions pollution, which just makes Hero go ‘huh?’), and Demon Queen’s modern-sounding understanding of things like agriculture and military campaigns is met with resistance and disbelief. To be fair, this isn’t all outright stupidity – the village elder has the well-being of the entire village to consider, so it’s understandable that he’d be reluctant to risk a harvest to try out a system that’s to him new and unproven, and the boys Demon Queen is teaching are young enough to have never seen a battle, or likely been taught its realities, since they’ve probably been groomed to potentially be future soldiers and thus would be taught that it’s all glory and ‘kick so much demon ass all the girls will swoon before your sheer manly badassness.’ Some of them are just not well-educated in things besides war and fighting – that’s exactly what Hero’s like, by his own admission, and he isn’t completely stupid, being willing to listen to and be convinced by Demon Queen’s arguments and evidence. The real thing that got me wondering about this was Head Maid’s reaction to the serf girls, specifically her reason for feeling contempt towards them. ‘Serfs are people who can’t decide their own fate, and such people are nothing but insects, not deserving of compassion or rights.’ Well no shit they can’t decide their own fate, not when they’re dirt fucking poor. It frames the institution of serfdom in a way that makes it so self-evidently wrong that people would have to be stupid to accept the arguments in favor of it. Sure, some people in the Middle Ages probably did see serfs that way, but that’s nowhere near the entire picture of why it existed. Maybe Head Maid is just supposed to be callous, and it’s not like she holds that view rigidly, given how quickly she changes her mind once the older sister shows some spine, and I’m worrying over nothing. But it skirts too close to depicting a different era with different realities and worldviews through a modern filter that makes it look like people back then only thought that way because they were dumb and didn’t know any better, which is an easy trap to fall into and especially common when portraying the Middle Ages.

So, not amazing so far, but not bad either. I’ll keep on watching for a bit to see where it goes.

From the New World, Episodes 11-13: He is in Group 1; he has always been in Group 1

Distant Thunder in Winter, Weak Link & Reunion

Summary

Pair selection day is coming up. It’s for things like class duties and organizing events, but because each pair is a boy and a girl, and you can nominate your preferred partner, it’s effectively Admit Who You Like Day. Maria teases Saki about her obvious desire to be paired with Ryou, the boy they still see as a member of Group 2 even though he was reassigned to Group 1, their group, ages ago. He takes Saki aside and admits his feelings for her, asking that they nominate each other to be partners. He says he started to feel that way during the camping trip two years ago.

That night, Saki has a dream about taking flowers to an unmarked grave. A voice asks if she’s forgotten, and when she asks to see the speaker’s face it says it doesn’t have one, though she knows it well. She sees another grave, with a mirror on it, and the voice tells her if she looks closely she’ll understand. When she wakes up this makes her follow a hunch and get a mirror from the storage room. When it reflects light on the wall, it’s revealed that the glass has ‘Yoshimi’ imprinted on it. At school, Saki takes Ryou aside and asks him some questions about the camping trip and why he broke up with Satoru, but his answers don’t match Saki’s memories. Nor can Satoru say why he liked Ryou. Saki realizes Ryou may appear in her memories, but he wasn’t the one who was really there.

The pair selection happens. Saki is paired with Satoru, Mamoru with Maria, and Ryou with another girl. After school, Saki shares her conclusion with the others, and Satoru and Maria end up agreeing with her. Satoru remembers that ‘X’s’ house was in the woods, whereas Ryou lives on top of a hill in Vista Village. They visit Fallen Tree village, which was abandoned after an accident, and discover a large pool of water right where X’s house should have been. Maria remembers that even with X, their group would still be one person short; come to think of it, wasn’t there another girl…? They wonder what’s going on, but Mamoru begs them to stop.

On their way home, Saki shows Maria and Satoru the mirror. They conclude that the characters are poorly formed, as if Yoshimi wasn’t able to use her Power very well. Maria asks Saki to stop asking questions, for Mamoru’s sake, because she doesn’t think he could take it if something bad happened to his friends. They agree, but then they’re approached by an elderly man and woman who say the Chair of the Ethics Committee – who happens to be Satoru’s grandmother – wants to see them. The girls aren’t impressed by this revelation, but Satoru pleads ignorance. Convincingly – after all, the names of the Ethics Committee members aren’t made public even to family members. Then they’re told the Chair wants to speak to them individually, starting with Saki.

Tomiko, Satoru’s surprisingly youthful-looking grandmother, tells Saki she’s wanted to speak with her for some time, because she believes Saki should be her successor. Saki is surprised by this, since her grades aren’t even that good. Tomiko explains that there’s more to being head of the Ethics Committee than Power ability; in school they also test students according to the Personality Index, which measures traits and qualities necessary for a leader, and Saki’s is exceptionally high, perhaps the highest they’ve ever seen. Even after they learned the terrible truth about their society and history, hers stabilized to its former value much more quickly than her friends. She’s the reason Tomiko asked the Education Committee, which is normally responsible for such decisions, not to punish them. She tells Saki not to think harshly of the latter; they’re only trying to prevent everyone’s two main fears – Ogres and Karmic Demons, and she knows first-hand that it’s a justified fear.

There have been 30 recorded cases of Ogres worldwide, all but two of them male, and when she was younger Tomiko encountered one, a boy she dubs ‘K.’ He had long shown signs of having morbid and violent thoughts, but because his academic performance was typical this was minimized or ignored. Then one day, he just snapped, and because the Death of Shame prevented anyone from striking back, over 1000 people died. During the night he appeared at the hospital where Tomiko worked, shivering and covered in blood. He calmly sat down with the doctor, claiming he had a cold, and when the latter saw his swollen throat he told Tomiko to get some antibiotics. But this was only to get her out of the room while he gave K a lethal injection. He was killed, but K died from the injection. One theory behind Ogre behaviour is that they’ve not only lost all restraint on their violent impulses but also fear harm from everyone around them, causing them to lash out until everyone in the vicinity is dead. Another is that killing releases endorphins that cause a state of intoxication, preventing them from stopping.

It took a long time for the town to recover, and in the process drastic steps were taken to prevent another occurrence. The recognition of an individual’s rights was changed from 22 weeks to 17 years of age, and individuals who looked like they might become another K were eliminated, the Death of Shame circumvented by using the Monster Rats. Eventually they decided they needed something more efficient for the latter and started modifying housecats; the end result is obvious. Saki is disturbed by all of this, but Tomiko speaks dispassionately, seeing them as practical measures. After hearing another story, about a Karmic Demon from 20 years ago who killed herself, Saki starts to cry, and Tomiko confirms it’s because that story is related to something from her memories. She begs to have them restored, but Tomiko declines. All information on the missing incident was destroyed to protect the psyche of the townspeople and prevent any more tragedies. Saki may be strong enough to handle it, but of course she’d tell her friends, and then everyone would know. She can regain her memories in time, if she does as Tomiko hopes and follows in her footsteps. Sakis says she could never do that. Tomiko felt the same way once, but says a time will come when she won’t have a choice, because she’s the only one who can do it.

The next day, Mamoru goes missing. Maria says he’d been upset lately because he was having trouble at school. The others sneak out during the independent research periods to go look for him, giving Ryou the slip when Satoru makes up a convincing cover story. They find sled tracks, meaning Mamoru brought stuff with him while running away, and follow them outside the Sacred Barrier. At one point snow falls on them from the cliff above, and immediately afterwards they spot Monster Rat tracks following after the sled. They find Mamoru lying on a makeshift bed in a cave, and he claims he was rescued by a Monster Rat named Skunk, who turns out to be the one Saki rescued from the water two years ago.

Mamoru says he ran away because he had to – the Trickster Cat was after him! He first noticed it four days ago, when he realized something was following him; Satoru mentions the rumors that it stalks its prey once before killing it. Yesterday, he stayed late for some extra lessons, and afterwards the teacher asked him to bring some paperwork to the storeroom, which happens to be right next to the courtyard. As he left he realized something was following him. Then a wind suddenly kicked up, and as he turned around he saw the cat getting swallowed by a blackness. He claims he was targeted because he’s weak and useless, in the process revealing that he eavesdropped when Saki showed Maria and Satoru the mirror, but his friends dispute this, reminding that his grades are good and he’s a mild-mannered guy who gets along with others, so on the surface there’s no reason to have him killed. Whatever’s going on, it can’t be good…

Thoughts

Poor Reiko. Shun at least gets a placeholder name, but she’s stuck being remembered as ‘that other girl.’ And I was wrong when I assumed disappearances like hers were the not-discussed kind rather than the memory-erased kind, because they clearly did forget about her; the narrator mentioning her and that other boy by name right after they disappeared was because, still assuming it is the adult Saki (which I’ve yet to see any reason to doubt), she did, in fact, regain her memories. Yeah, that’s an assumption too, but it’s the obvious explanation.

Except, she never completely lost them. None of them did. Saki has fragmentary recollections of her sister, Satoru still remembers where Shun used to live, Maria’s the one who brought up Reiko; Saki, at least, still remembers the stuff with Rijin, and presumably the others do to. It’s doubly odd because those in power clearly can erase memories completely, since none of them have any memory of Shun’s face, name, or fate, so why the half-measures? They seem to have half-assed replacing Shun with Ryou too, since he has no idea who Rijin is. Something like what he told her while night canoeing, or why he liked Satoru, are the sort of things where someone could think up a plausible answer, leading the other person to decide that maybe they are the ones misremembering, what happened to a person you’ve never heard of less so, so why not either get rid of those memories as well, or have Ryou ‘remember’ it? They were able to make him remember the camping trip or his ‘relationship’ with Shun, after all, at least fragmentarily. Isn’t anyone concerned that those whose memories they tamper with will notice some things don’t add up and wonder just what the heck is going on, let alone try to find out? Is it because they can’t tamper completely, despite their ability to completely erase at least some things? Is it to ease the transition for those who’ll regain their memories, allowing them to more easily come to terms with things that were half-remembered or felt out-of-place, instead of a lifetime of innocuous or non-threatening memories suddenly and abruptly being displaced by a whole heap of horrible stuff?

I dunno, it just seems confusing how they half-remember some things while others have been completely erased. Granted, the stuff that was explicitly erased was, in Tomiko’s words, removed to avoid traumatizing anyone and causing additional tragedies, but even the seemingly innocuous stuff can cause problems if there’s anyone sufficiently inquisitive – like Saki. It’s those innocuous things like memories of a camping trip not matching up or foggy memories of a sibling who shouldn’t exist that are causing her to start poking into things a little too closely and drag her friend along in the first place, and fear of the consequences is exactly what’s making Mamoru uneasy, perhaps what might be making him dangerous. Before I saw episode 13 I thought we were going to find out he’d become an Ogre; I still suspect he might, for that matter (it’s always the timid one who snaps…). Don’t know if that’s the exact reason they’re sending an Impure Cat after him, but he’s clearly been labelled as a liability somehow.

And speaking of Impure Cats, boy oh boy have we found out just how draconian this society is. Sending large predators after kids is pretty bad as it is, but now we’ve just found out that our teenage protagonists aren’t legally people yet. Yep, it’s certainly a lot easier to casually dispose of kids when they aren’t thought of as individuals with rights, let alone when they’re treated as potential liabilities. What’s even worse is that killing off those who don’t meet standards seems to be the default rather than corrective or therapeutic measures. Maybe there’s only so much that can be done in terms of a person’s raw ability to use their Power, but killing off a kid because he cheated at sports? Yeah, that was a sign of his underlying aggression, but still – no attempt to coach him towards better behaviour at all? There’ve been hints from the start that things weren’t entirely right in this society, but now that we’ve met the head of the Ethics Committee we know just how bad it is.

The worst part is, what if Tomiko has a point – is all of this, perhaps, genuinely necessary? Power is dangerous enough without the risk of people unexpectedly going on a killing spree or unintentionally turning their surroundings into something out of a surrealist painting, so it’s at least understandable why they would want to curb the extent of one’s Power and violent instincts, and condition people towards more peaceful, cooperative, and loving behaviours, despite the Orwellian and World State undertones. But these are also the things that prevent them from protecting themselves against threats like Ogres and Karmic Demons, which can be predicted to a certain extent, but not with enough accuracy to say who will definitely become one, necessitating the casual cruelty of removing any child who doesn’t measure up, simply on the basis that they might be a problem, even if it’s just that they aren’t as good as others at using their Power – and it seems like some people simply aren’t as good as others regardless of how hard they try, so that’s hardly their fault. It’s a fragile balance between quietly removing a small number of individuals for the greater good and living with the risk of a far greater number of innocents getting killed by something they can’t defend themselves against. As long as Power isn’t going anywhere, there’s the possibility that it’s just like Tomiko says – maybe the latter is, in fact, for the best. At the very least, it seems like the option that lets society continue to survive in a recognizable form. Doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.

Of course, this being a story of kids discovering the terrible truths behind their seemingly peaceful society, in all likelihood they’re on the cusp of deciding to take a third option, convinced there’s a better way. I’m not liking their chances, though. Consider the nightmare during the end credits – a girl, presumably Saki, sees three figures, two boys and a girl. Two of them, the girl and one of the boys, have masks, we don’t see the other's face, and the girl’s hair looks suspiciously like Maria’s. Hmm, come to think of it, “if [Maria] had never been born, many people would have lived,” plus the mask the girl’s wearing does look rather snarl-y…am I mistaken about which of them is going to become an Ogre? That still leaves one of the boys unaccounted for, unless he’s supposed to be the boatman, but yeah, the chances of any of them who aren’t Saki coming out alright look a bit thin right now. At least I think so. Boy, that’s a cheery note to end on…