From the New World, Episode 19: Is its true form a giant spider?

Darkness

Summary

Saki and Satoru form a group with three others – a woman and two men named Fujita and Kuromachi. The woman is worried about a friend in the hospital, so they decide to head there. On the way they wonder why Yakomaru would start a fight he can’t win. There’s Kaburagi’s suspicion from earlier, but Kuromachi refuses to believe Power is Yakomaru’s trump card.

The hospital has a gaping hole in the front door, and not one made by explosives. They see a light in an upper window and Kuromachi gets out to investigate. Satoru realizes the Monster Rats might be waiting in ambush and tells Kuromachi to go on ahead while the others set fire to the nearby fields, proving his suspicions correct. In the hospital Kuromachi is nowhere to be found, until they see his body while using torches and a Power-created mirror to investigate the top of a stairwell. The Monster Rats guarding the landing are quickly killed.

The room the light came from contains three people trapped in cocoons made of bandages. When freed, one man flees in panic while another is a woman who can only gibber and scream. The third, another man, says ‘it’ killed everyone and took them hostage. They head for the front door and see the man who fled running around blindly and ignoring the assurances of Fujita, who stayed behind to watch the boat. Both are suddenly consumed by pink and purple flames. The others run, and Satoru demands to know what It is. The man says they should already know – they learned about it in school, after all.

At the back door the man says everyone should split up, insisting that staying together will only guarantee that It will kill them all. They hear a scream of rage – It knows they’re gone. The man heads into the bushes while the others run back into the hospital. It almost opens the door on them, but then It spots the other man, kills him, and leaves.

Saki and Satoru decide they need to warn the town. The woman from their group refuses to leave the other one behind and takes her off to hide while Saki and Satoru lie down in the boat and slip away. It’s clear to Satoru what happened to the Giant Hornet army, and what Yakomaru’s plan is, but before he can elaborate he suddenly tells Saki to keep still. Another boat is following them, and only one person, or rather, one thing, could be piloting it.

Thoughts

During that bit in episode 18 where Maria says ‘besides, two girls can’t have children, right?’ I thought to myself “good god is this going where I think it is?” Now…yep, this looks like it’s totally going where I think it is. I wasn’t sure how to reconcile the revelation about the bones with that comment or narrator!Saki’s earlier stuff about Maria being responsible for many death or how the faceless boy said she needs to die, but now it’s looking a lot clearer. Hey, no one ever said when the bones were found. In other news, Yakomaru is still one scruple-less bastard, but y’know, can’t let something like its biological parents get in the way of raising your precious little walking weapon of mass destruction! I’m just wondering how he keeps it under control when it’s not needed, or for that matter how he turned the child into whatever weird mix of Ogre and Karmic Demon it seems to be (the rampant killing suggests Ogre, the purple-black aura Karmic Demon, since K wasn’t shown with anything like that); either way, I doubt it’s pretty. Hey, wait a minute, this is assuming he’s the one in control here…

No idea what else to say about this episode; it was mostly a bunch of horror tropes, albeit not very scary. There was a mysteriously empty hospital late at night, the unseen monster who killed everyone and whom the people who have seen it are conveniently vague about, and even someone dumb enough to seriously suggest ‘let’s split up.’ OK, I should probably cut him some slack on that since none of these people have ever seen a horror movie and wouldn’t know that’s the perfect way to get everyone except Saki killed. Because her being the main character and the one whose pain and struggles we’re supposed to empathize with makes her definite final girl material, even if she doesn’t fit every element of the trope (unless I’m grossly misinterpreting some bits of episode 16), to say nothing of her status as the narrator.

Hmm, doesn’t feel like much, but I got nothing else.

From the New World, Episodes 17-18: They Evolved; They Rebelled...

Footsteps of Destruction & Scarlet Flower

Summary

Twelve years have passed, and Saki now works for the Department of Mutant Management, which regulates Monster Rat affairs. She’s visited by Satoru, who works at Saddharma Farm, and whom she’s not on speaking terms with due to an unspecified “petty squabble,” but she puts that aside when he explains why he’s here. A group of Monster Rats from the Tarantula Hawk colony, which is loyal to the Giant Hornets, was attacked from ambush while gathering mold samples. This doesn’t make sense, since colonies have to submit the relevant permission forms to the DMM before taking any military action. Saki promises to look into it right away, and when Satoru jokes about how authoritative she sounds they’re able to make amends.

Currently, the Monster Rat colonies in the Kanto Region are primarily divided into two factions. On one side are the Giant Hornets, who treat their thirteen allied colonies as vassals in a feudal-style system. On the other are the Robber Flies, who control their eight subject colonies more directly, the queens reduced to a reproductive role while an elected Diet decides their affairs. They are roughly equal in military strength, with the Giant Hornets having a slight advantage of 500,000 troops to the Robber Flies’ 300,000. An investigation has revealed that the attack was committed by the Stemborers, one of the few colonies that are still officially neutral, though they’re close to the Robber Flies. Kiroumaru and Yakomaru are summoned to testify before a panel of judges that includes Hino Koufuu of the Evaluation Committee, Kaburagi Shisei, who is the Security Committee Advisor, and Tomiko. Kiroumaru accuses the Robber Flies of orchestrating the attack, citing their desire to control the Stemborers and rumors that the Stemborer queen has been imprisoned. Yakomaru affirms that they are trying to unite with the Stemborers, but the queen is fine, though she has left her political duties to a regent named Quiche. But, he also contends that they’ve been threatened by the Giant Hornets not to join the Robber Flies. He claims the attack was a ruse using stolen Stemborer arms and armor, so that the gods would move against the Robber Flies with no cost to the Giant Hornets.

A war breaks out, and Saki and her colleague Inui watch a battle between the main Giant Hornet army and an allied enemy force from which Robber Fly troops are conspicuously absent. Inui shares a rumor that the Giant Hornet soldiers are given a chemical before battle that makes them fearless, but regardless, they win the battle. Later, however, the Department Chief has a different story – the battle between the Tarantula Hawks and the Stemborers ended when the former defected and wiped out their supporting force.

When Satoru brings news of an even more shocking defeat – the main Giant Hornet army was wiped out with no casualties on the opposing side, though Kiroumaru is presumed alive, whereabouts unknown – another meeting is convened. The Monster Rats have increasingly sophisticated technology, including firearms, leading to echoes of Satoru’s earlier suspicion that they’ve captured a False Minoshiro. Saki’s mom, testifying in her capacity as Head Librarian, refers to some ancient weapons capable of that kind of destruction, but Kaburagi insists it wasn’t a bomb – rather, because of the absence of any weapons apart from some undamaged arrows, he believes it was done using Power. Tomiko says with certainty no one in this town or any other would do that, and renegades are off the list too. A thorough analysis was done on those bones that were brought in; species, age and sex, DNA, dental records, everything matched up. There can be no doubt that Maria and Mamoru are dead. It’s agreed that the Robber Flies and all their subjects need to be exterminated, which will be carried out by Inui and his Preservation Officers.

Someone suggests postponing the summer festival, but Koufuu says they can’t stop that because of some Monster Rats. While at the festival Saki thinks she sees Maria and the others; it is, after all, the day when spirits cross over from the underworld. She also saw a kid wearing the traditional monster costume, which Satoru says she imagined since kids aren’t used for the monsters, but then she sees another one after they wander away from the crowds, pouring someone sake. They turn away for a moment and suddenly the other person’s dead; that’s no kid – it’s a Monster Rat! They found out what’s happening and are rebelling. Explosions go off in the square, and they return to find everyone gathered together under a protective shield. Koufuu and Kaburagi easily dispatch the Monster Rats, but some have disguised themselves by taking human shapes and manage to assassinate Koufuu. After Kaburagi dispatches the assassins a beam of light shoots up from Koufuu’s eyes; Saki sees a woman in the glow. Kaburagi orders everyone to form groups and eliminate any remaining Monster Rats they find, while Tomiko vows revenge on Yakomaru.

In a dream/vision/I’m not sure what, Maria apologizes to leaving Saki, and admits she did wish she’d gone with her, but maybe it’s for the best. After all, two girls can’t have children…

Thoughts

Great, just when I thought I would stick to my ‘Monster Rats are humans’ theory for a decent length of time something has to come and throw it into doubt again – I mean the start of episode 17 when Saki wonders at the choice of using naked mole rats to create the Monster Rats. Then the fact everyone wonders about or stumbles over the use of the word ‘mutant’ seems like it must be significant. I mean, it doesn’t prove anything one way or another – whether they’re descended from rats or used to be human ‘mutant’ is equally appropriate to what they are now. But if they’re just mutant rats, why bother dwelling on its use at all? That they are gives me the niggling feeling it’s meant to be important somehow. Saki’s statement would seem to prove it one way, but we’re not sure how much of what everyone knows or remembers is actually true. Of course, I’m also wondering why I bother to keep speculating on this at all; I keep waffling over which explanation makes more sense and it doesn’t feel like I’m getting anywhere.

And speaking of Monster Rats, are they ever gonna explain this whole ‘changing shape’ thing? This is the second time we’ve seen it – first it was the Earth Spider-Robber Fly war where they turned into various animals, this time they had vaguely human shapes so they could try and assassinate Kaburagi and Koufuu. They just randomly have different shapes and it goes by completely unremarked; maybe the reason is well-known to the characters, but it isn’t to the viewers, and it goes by without any context or explanation. I mean, it isn’t deal-breaking or anything because it happens so rarely, it’s just weird. But then again, why am I getting hung up on something being weird in a series that has plenty of odd things in it? Like that giant woman in the flash of blue light that came out of Koufuu’s eyes (and what’s up with that!?) after he died; it’s suspiciously similar to the image of a woman that appeared after Rijin burned the Minoshiro, and the angel-of-death-y figure that Saki saw in the smoke after he wasted the attacking Earth Spiders. Whatever it is, ‘tis significant says I. And so are Kaburgi’s double pupils, but I’ve got no idea what to make of that other than ‘well…that’s weird.’

Much less odd, but probably important in some way, is the way people kept grinning in these two episodes. Koufuu did it whenever they were talking about how suspicious or well-armed the Monster Rats were and wondering if they were planning something, but given his ‘hah! I knew it – you damn dirty rats!’ reaction when they attacked the festival, he may have just found the idea they’d try something amusing (he did look amused whenever he grinned), because he didn’t think there was any way it could succeed; it didn’t, not completely, but what you believe isn’t going to stop a bullet (presumably, since we don’t actually see what hit him). The actually suspicious, probably-important ones were when Kiroumaru grinned after it looked like the judges had caught Yakomaru in a lie, and again after he apologizes for taking more than an hour to beat the enemy force like he’d promised – how sincere was that apology? Adding to that his unknown whereabouts after the annihilation of his army and it now looks like he’s hatching schemes of his own. Which is somewhat surprising – Yakomaru has been firmly established as shady, but what little we’ve previously seen of Kiroumaru set him up as a more honorable figure. Of course, ‘honorable’ isn’t the same as ‘dense’ or ‘straightforward,’ so it’s not like it makes him incapable of thinking like Yakomaru or figuring out what he’s trying to do. Being honorable doesn’t mean there aren’t still ways for you to catch a shady person at their own game. Unless he really is dead he’s up to something, that’s for sure.

So is Yakomaru, of course, but saying so is just repeating myself. What isn’t is that there were some surprises regarding it this time; Tomiko’s assertion that the bones they eventually found were Maria and Mamoru’s was a giant ‘oh no, he didn’t!’ (in the zinger sense; well, some might mean it in a horrified way). He totally would if he saw a reason to and could get away with it, or else it puts his proposed cover story in a new light, but if that were true how do you explain the things narrator!Saki said earlier on, about Maria being responsible for many death, or that “two girls can’t have children” comment. Even if I’m assigning some things more importance than they actually have, there’s no way that little gem isn’t important. Seriously, it’s the last thing said in the episode, it’s gotta be foreshadowing something.

From the New World, Episode 16: What did Satoru put in the soup...?

To My Beloved Saki

Summary

In her letter, Maria urges Saki not to look for her and Mamoru. He wouldn’t make it on his own, and she’s certain she would’ve been deemed a failure too before long. If they’re going to be labelled defective products that have to be destroyed they’d rather run, regardless of what their fate might be. But Saki’s not like that. She’s discouraged easily and cries a lot, but she has it in her to pick herself up and keep on going, and Maria believes that that more than anything is what will allow her to survive and why the town will need her.

It’s not normal, Maria thinks, the way their society kills children to maintain stability, and even knowing the historical forces that brought them to this point, she still doesn’t think it’s something to be proud of, but she believes she understands the root of the problem – the adults fear the children. Probably there’s always been some anxiety that the next generation will reject everything you’ve worked for, but when they have to worry if each child will that one in a million who becomes a literal monster, it’s far easier to justify disposing of those they feel uncomfortable about. It made her sad that she had to leave her parents, but then she realized they’d forget about her, like how Saki’s parents gave up  on her sister, and she knows the bond she has with her friends is stronger than that and they’ll remember her as long as they can. She’s convinced her and Mamoru can use their Power to survive, and they’ll go somewhere so far the town can’t find them. She asks Saki to tell everyone they’re dead.

Saki and Satoru decide to do as Maria wants and ask Squealer/Yakomaru to go along with it, which he agrees to, perhaps a little too readily. He suggests they say the two were caught in an avalanche, which would make it harder to look for the bodies, and even offers to prepare some bones to corroborate the story. No, not like that – some Monster Rat bones are indistinguishable from those of the ‘gods,’ so those of a  taller specimen could easily pass for an adolescent god’s if rubbed down with stones a bit. This is where Saki breaks down and agrees to leave everything to him.

They continue to look for Maria and Mamoru the next day, to no avail. As they search, Saki realizes that other than her parents the only people she truly cares about are her friends in Group 1, and now only Satoru is left. He insists they won’t forget Maria and Mamoru; if the Education Committee tries to tamper with their memories again, they’ll just leave town, and they promise to find the others if they do.

Saki has a dream. It’s very trippy. A faceless boy gives her a warning – she mustn’t help Maria escape; rather, Maria has to die…

Thoughts

Well, this episode outright confirmed that the narrator is Saki, what with her using the first-person pronoun while talking about what’s currently happening in the story. I mean, I never doubted that it was her, but now the evidence supports that more strongly than ever.

And Maria is totally wrong about her parents forgetting her, literally or in the sense that they’d decide ‘eh, she was broken anyway’ and toss any attachment to her aside like a pair of old shoes. With the former it’s because adults seem to be interfered with a lot less than kids, if at all, and that’s limited to exceptional cases like Shun, presumably because they’ve passed the ‘safe to exist’ test – that they made it to adulthood implies as much. How else do you explain why Saki’s parents remember Yoshimi, let alone enough for Saki’s mom to say “I don’t want to lose another child!” and sounding upset at the prospect?  They don’t dwell on her loss, but there’s a difference between outright forgetting someone and coming to terms with your grief and moving on with your life. That’s why Maria’s wrong for the latter reason, and also the reason, more than anything, why we’ve constantly seen Saki’s parents. For all their apparent nonchalance about her coming home covered in mud or disappearing with no explanation for an entire night (they had a bigger worry at the time, but still…) they worried about her Power never awakening, they warn her against doing things they know to be dangerous, they call her by a pet name when they want to convey their concern, when she’s sent to see the Education Committee you can tell how worried they are. We know they love her, and they’d miss her if anything happened; at least when Yoshimi was taken they still had her, but it’s pretty sad to imagine what might happen to them if they lost Saki, even if nothing was done to them. Maria’s scared, and sad that she may never see her parents again; she may need to believe they’ll forget her to rationalize what’s she’s doing. It’s understandable, even if it’s not true. The adults may allow the elimination of children to happen because they accept it as necessary for the greater good, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care.

And naturally, the reading of the letter is superimposed over scenes of Saki, Maria, and later Satoru (I guess Shun and Mamoru became friends with them later) as children. Obviously it’s supposed to highlight the disconnect between these adorable little kids and how they’re the most dangerous thing out there, but until now we haven’t really seen much of their backstories or history together, so this highlights just how long they’ve know each other and how deep their friendship goes. It really underscores how Saki feels reading the letter.

So, some of the Monster Rats’ bones are identical to humans? Gee, I wonder why? I remember deciding earlier that the whole ‘they’re actually humans!’ thing wasn’t plausible, but now I’m not sure why. It was mostly because Satoru didn’t experience the Death of Shame despite killing what are, I thought at the time, actually humans somewhere deep down, but that’s assuming the Death of Shame would  apply when attacking a Monster Rat, and why would that be the case? They’re far more numerous and much more violent than humans, so there’s a need to be able to harm them if necessary. The Death of Shame may still be in effect to some extent, to prevent it from being used excessively, since it requires acting on the very impulses and tendencies those in charge have worked to suppress, but not to the point where it’ll kill you unless you really go over the top. When you get down to it, it’s the explanation that makes the most sense – it covers why they’re sentient, and the heretofore unanswered question of what happened to the Powerless majority of the human population; or at least the part of it that lived in Japan, since we have no idea what society’s like elsewhere in the world.

 

Maoyu, Episode 3: Harem Antics Ahoy?

Where Have You Been?

Summary

Six months have passed since Hero and Demon Queen came to Winter’s Pass Village, and the harvest has been a success. They visit a convent for the next stage of her plan, where the prioress turns out to be Lady Knight, one of Hero’s former companions. She isn’t happy with him for bailing on them with no word, but Queen defuses the situation by giving the cover story that he was wounded fighting the Demon King, which is exactly what Knight heard after his disappearance. His companions were offered rewards, but Knight refused hers. Another comrade, whom she calls ‘the old pervert,’ took the money and now works for an intelligence agency in the south, while Mage went off on her own and is presumably still frying demons with her magic somewhere.

Demon Queen’s secret weapon is revealed to be potatoes, and she piques Knight’s interest by offering her a bowl of mashed potatoes, which she enjoys. Queen wants her to set up a convent in Winter’s Pass to help teach new agricultural methods, with the intent to eventually build more across the region. Knight is uneasy about Hero’s new partnership with Queen but agrees, deciding to oversee the new convent personally.

After they leave, Hero asks Queen why she’s been holed up in her room so much the last two months. She mentions the Alliance, an organization of merchants whose reach extends across the human lands and whose combined wealth is astronomical. She was developing a gimbal-mounted compass, which she sent to a young merchant as a gift, hoping to win the Alliance’s support. His colleagues are impressed, but suspicious of this ‘Crimson Scholar.’ The young merchant plans to pay her a visit.

Hero tries to sneak away to look for Mage, but Queen figures out what he’s doing. She’s jealous that he’s going after another “old flame” like Lady Knight (which he denies) but sees it as an opportunity to have him take care of some of the rowdier demon lords in her absence. She gives him a suit of demon armor, a list of trustworthy lords, and a letter of introduction. She also wants to do, you know, that ritual men and women who are close do before parting, but all Hero does is kiss her on the forehead and promise to do the rest when he returns.

Thoughts

So the secret weapon was potatoes, huh? Does that mean the land of the demons is the New World or something? Whatever, I never would’ve guessed it, but it makes perfect sense considering what she’s trying to do. I just hope she remembers to introduce multiple varieties so they don’t run into any problems.

And wait, does everyone just have descriptive titles; no names? That must get confusing when people change occupations. Does Lady Knight have to spend time being referred to as ‘Prioress of Lakeside Convent, formerly Lady Knight’ so that people who used to know her can find her? How do you even give a name/title/whatever to a newborn with that kind of custom? Am I thinking too much about something that’s being done because of the nature of the story and not meant to be taken seriously? Since it’s supposed to be set in Generic Fantasyland and is a satire of the typical ‘good vs. evil’ conflict in fantasy, the answer is yes.

Anyways, I’m starting to think I was worried about nothing last time with whether this’ll turn into Demon Queen enlightening the stupid, backward humans. There’s lots they can learn from her, but nobody is outright stupid so far (well, Hero may not be the sharpest sword in the armory, but that’s not the same thing). I appreciated that the church is portrayed as an institution heavily involved in the scientific study and the dissemination of science and knowledge, just like it was in the real Middle Ages rather than a dogmatic band of control freaks mostly after excuses to set people on fire. There are self-interested groups like the merchants, but they’re the kind of people you’d expect to be since they’ve got a highly profitable grip on commerce that could be upset if outside parties get their hands on Demon Queen’s inventions and ideas. Really, the only thing that sparked my worry was Head Maid, and she probably shouldn’t count since she isn’t even human.

Speaking of Head Maid, I’m not gonna like her much, am I? First she shows contempt towards people over things they can’t help, or at least not overcome without exactly the kind of compassion and charity they received, now she’s encouraging Demon Queen’s body image issues, even though the latter is clearly attractive. Yeah, that’s gonna get annoying. And now that there are not one but two potential rival love interests about to come into the mix (one of whom stands a chance of becoming the constant butt of flat chest jokes), it looks like I’ve got different things to worry about. Not that that will necessarily ruin the show, but the main focus is becoming interesting enough that the show really doesn’t need to throw in anything else, especially not harem antics; they’ve been done a million times already and there’s plenty of new ones every year. Ah well, even if things do turn out like that, it’s still pretty minimal anyway.