It really is interesting to see the differences between the Kashima brothers and the Kamitani brothers. The Kashima brothers always had a more loving and softer relationship with both of them being pretty clingy with each other. The Kamitani brothers have a tougher love where they argue a lot and Taka is usually screaming and crying about something. One pair gets along, the other pair bickers a lot. But, at least they love each other.
We saw that again as the brothers took the spotlight in their own halves this episode. I thought the beach episode would be cute and silly, but it got pretty emotional. We’ve seen how much Kotaro worries about Ryu but we saw how understanding Kotaro is about possibly losing the last family member he has. The daycare peeps and the moms take a little beach trip and one half of the kids are terrified, while the other half loved it. Inomata was also there and honestly I don’t even know why, but her swimsuit was cute and I love that she has a little connection with Kirin. Later on Ryu goes into the water and dives and Kotaro sobs uncontrollably. Kotaro knew firsthand how scary the ocean could be and his fear that he could lost his brother made him actually try to swim. We haven’t seen a powerful reaction like that from Kotaro since episode one, where again he thought he lost his brother when he didn’t see him next to him. It’s just a reminder of their strong bond because of their circumstances, and how Ryu quickly runs to Kotaro’s aid. When you compare Kamitani’s previous actions in last week’s episode when it came to Taka (admitting to wanting to give up immediately), it’s pretty different. But that also has to do with their different personalities.
Taka is a cutie but he really is a bratty kid. Basically, being jealous that his older brother spends more time in his baseball club than playing with him, Taka grabbed an autographed baseball of his and drew a poop on it. A “See! That’s what you get!” kind of thing. Obviously Kamitani was pissed but instead of smacking Taka on his head, he completely ignored him, and to Taka that was way worse than being acknowledged for his bad deed. His mother explains the situation to Ryuichi and asks him to check on her son and the chairwoman and Saikawa watched Taka and Kotaro. With Kamitani, he’s more of a tough brother. Ryu mentioned Kotaro ruining his things but Ryu is such a soft-spoken and sweet guy that he probably never yelled at Kotaro, whereas Kamitani is a lot more harsh. He knows that Taka is a brat that doesn’t see the error in his ways but he decides to just suck it up. But thankfully the chairwoman had a very important conversation with Taka about ruining others’ precious possessions and how, yes, he was wrong. And of course he apologized in the end. I’m glad he understood that he was wrong, because just sucking it up and letting him get away with it doesn’t teach him anything. He’s at the age that he needs to learn right from wrong, and how particular actions can really hurt people. But Kamitani shows his love in the end and suggests playing baseball with the children the next day, making time to play with his little brother.
Growth was mentioned twice this episode. Ryu mentioning it with Taka growing a little in the end, and with sadness that Kotaro one day will grow and not need him anymore. But it’s steps that Taka took that leads to them being grown and responsible, and while that may feel sad at first, it’s also a good thing.
Next week is Vegetable Day and I saw the kids dressed up as veggies in the preview and I screamed. I can’t wait to see that!
However it’s not long before Konju ends up kidnapped, and Mikochi and Hakumei are unable to retrieve her immediately. They then meet Higaki Yagatamori, the second generation owner of Honey House. He was friends with Ukai, the original owner of Honey House who is now deceased.
Later in the evening some of the old-timers have Konju sequestered in an open guard tower. They’re hungry, Konju included, and they’re jealous of the delicious meal they can see the newcomers cooking on a nearby flat rooftop. But the feast is a distraction, for while Konju’s captors are drooling over food they can’t have, Hakumei and Higaki are flying by paper airplane under the cover of darkness to the guard tower to rescue Konju.
And ohhhhhh boy, Nagi is pissed. The angriest we have seen him to date. Nobody messes with his BFF song! 
Ah man, and really, I don’t like chewing Tsumugi out, but the writers are making it really hard for me not to. I was not pleased to hear she is using Iori’s ideas again. In fact, what are her ideas?! Right now her character is so hollow, there is no way for me to identify what could be her ideas. I hate how it feels more like her character is deteriorating rather than undergoing important developments. And what makes this so frustrating is that I know she can be a strong character! One of her strengths is her persistence, and dedication, but at the same time, she can be such a doormat. More often than not, just about everything seems to walk all over her. I want to see the fierce Tsumugi we know she can be! I think the last time we saw her take the wheel, was when the storm caused a blackout!
This ordeal is undoubtedly going to cause Idolish7 to experience major setbacks once again. The only way they could possibly recover from this is if the composer confesses his crime of stealing their song. Interestingly enough, Tenn sensed he did not write the song, but decided to go along with it anyways. However with how he has been incredibly hostile to Riku and took upon the role of the senior savage giving Idolish7 members an earful on the elevator, I question how reliable he will be in this conflict. But yet again, currently it appears Tenn has yet to learn that Gaku at the very least, has learned the truth about his relationship with Riku.
I was quite surprised to learn neither Gaku nor Ryuunosuke were aware the two were brothers, therefore oblivious to Tenn’s betrayal. It turns out, he isn’t as open to the others as I thought he might have been. That being said, I’m bummed out that we didn’t get see the conversation between Gaku and Riku, especially with how friendly the guy is. Like my god, he is polar opposite to his father. He is definitely at the top of my bias list right now, I love him to death. But I definitely feel like we will be seeing their conversation in a flashback at some point, perhaps next week if Gaku chooses to confront Tenn about it, or perhaps his father since he was the one who recruited Tenn in the first place.
Speaking of family, dear god… We have yet another problem to worry about. Unfortunately Sogo had not been able to discipline Tamaki enough to prevent him him from making a verbal agreement to participate in the program after a producer approached him with a carrot on the stick, claiming he heard “rumours” about him searching for his long lost sister, and how they ‘hope’ to have their program help him do that. Immediately, I was nervous about it because it could be yet another trap prepared by Sousuke. The whole thing feels too good to be true, and the fact he doesn’t know anything related to the project, nor gotten Tsumugi’s permission. And while I acknowledge this is Tamaki’s greatest flaw- I would be lying if I said it doesn’t annoy me. Rather, I can’t stand it Some people think Tamaki’s main irritating feature is his obsession with pudding, but for me, its his bratty attitude.
And so the girls look to Zero Two who has been otherwise neutral throughout this entire fight. Of course being the mischievous little devil, she cleverly tricks both parties by setting them up so they end up seeing everyone naked in the baths. For Zero Two, participating in this “human fight” was exhilarating, and it helped her feel like she could be human too. It was childish of her to steal everyone’s clothes leaving them stranded in the baths like that, but it was the least I expected from her, and it was hysterical!
Then there was a dark turn when Miku locked herself in a room that was off-limits to them. There she and the rest of the members discover a picture of the previous children of Squad 13. That is when Zero Two confirms their fear: The former members were wiped out, putting the spotlight on the elephant in the room: What happens to Parasites.
But perhaps one of the most under-rated developments in this episode was actually when Zero Two goes out of her way to encourage the girls to speak their mind, and to live whole-heartedly, since they are going to die sooner or later. It was great to see Kokoro put this in to practice. Earlier in the episodes she expressed to Mitsuru at the greenhouse that she was too scared to speak up, but by the end of it, she musters up the courage to speak her mind, and with such conviction too. It is also worth pointing out she definitely took some knowledge from the book she read in regards to child birth, as she mentioned there are certain things that can be done with the help of the boys and vice versa.
Yes, the story is about a servant of an ex-samurai. Because of customs, he cannot serve under another master and is now homeless with no money. He sits under the Rashomon (a gate) until the rain stops, wondering what he’s going to do next before he starves to death. He contemplates becoming a thief but hates the idea. Then, he hears a strange sound and sees a light inside the tower behind him and heads inside and sees a room full of corpses. And inside the room is the old woman. The servant watches as she tears out the hair from the dead bodies and the servant rushes into the room sword in hand, angry at what she was doing. The old woman defends herself by saying that she’s poor and is collecting the hair in order to make wigs, in order to survive. She tells him that her actions are okay because the hair she’s stealing from is from people who did bad things in life, like a woman that had been selling snake meat pretending it was fish meat. It’s okay because she has to survive. The servant then steals the old woman’s kimono and runs off to the nearest town to become a thief, deciding it’s okay to rob her because he needs to survive as well. And while before he had been sick of the idea of becoming a criminal to survive, he then decides to choose that over death. The story is pretty short and it doesn’t leave much answers and much ambiguity, but the story basically shows the gray area of morality when situations become so dire.
One thing the servant had was the courage to make a big decision in his life, and he chose the life of a thief to survive. He had the courage to take a step and move on in his life, and when you connect that with Akira and Kondo, it can have two different implications. One, they both find the courage in themselves to move on from their self deprecation and take the step to make their lives happier. In Akira’s case it would be her friendship with Haruka and running. With Kondo, it would be learning that his age isn’t a factor for happiness in life and move on to do the things he loves, which would maybe be writing?, maybe making amends with his wife (if he can), or…something. I’d still like to learn more about Kondo and what exactly is his problem, thank you very much. OR….or, the show is also going to tap into that gray moral area and them talking about Rashomon is foreshadowing them crossing that moral line and taking that courage to start a relationship with each other, and survive. Last week I said that Akira and Kondo complete each other because they each represent something they want in life, and them coming together would be their salvation? I always think up more than one theory and can never pick one!
And yes, the Ignis species could very well be dangerous, there have been some potential hints that despite Ai’s cute character, he might have an “evil” side. A prime example is his ability to deceive Yuusaku and Kusanagi, pretending he had lost his memories, and proceed to play dumb when in reality, he is probably a lot smarter than he comes off as. This just goes to show us how closely he holds his cards close to his chest. But at the same time, we also know there are some truths to his words, such as he was on the run, and he was trying to escape in order to protect his friends and hide the Cyberse World. He says the only reason he didn’t open up was because he couldn’t trust anyone, which honestly, whether we like it or not, can really go either way.
Revolver wasted no time going HAM in this duel, shredding Yuusaku’s health to 800 LP. Yuusaku thought he was ready to counter Mirror Force, but didn’t take into consideration Revolver would have a backup measure to ensure the trap could not be negated. It was in this moment where I felt Yuusaku was definitely not in prime condition for this fight. He appears calm on the outside, but in reality, I think the situation has quickly become incredibly overwhelming for him. Sure he got that conviction, but there are still a lot on his shoulders right now, and worse of all, he is carrying alone. He is the only one can stop the Tower of Hanoi that could wreck havoc around the world, and hopefully save those who have been absorbed by it. And now, he learns how he and Ai were connected in the past, the bloody Ignis actually has all of its memories. So because he is so focused on trying to take out Revolver as quickly as possible, that he is making some rather uncharacteristic mistakes. Yuusaku is usually extremely cautious and perspective of what his opponents backup plans are- unless he intended to take the hit to enable him to use his Skill as quickly as possible, but I doubt it.
Yuusaku also gave me the sense of, “Resolve this problem first, and talk later.” He and Ai very much need to have some alone time to learn more about Ai’s motives, the Cyberse World the Ignis species have created for themselves. In a way, you could say fate drew them together again, since Ai did not expect the one he took safe haven with to be the kid he was paired up with during his creation. Yuusaku had started questioning Ai’s character recently, so it’s a pity he wasn’t able to question him in hopes to get some of the truths before this fight. But who knows what Ai would have done. It’s still too soon to say whether or not Ai would have opened up to him, especially since he is dead-set on eliminating Revolver since he is in this ‘Kill or be Killed’ situation. This is also the main reason why he is looking out for Yuusaku, so yeah, it’s really too soon to judge whether or not Ai truely thought of Yuusaku as a friend, especially since he has proven time and time again that he sees Yuusaku more of a tool/puppet than a friend.
