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.
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