#anyway! might to kaji next since I mentioned him here

[kingofanemptyworld]

Hiiragi’s Team:

Garchomp (Partner Pokemon)

Dragapult

Kingdra (loaned)

Arctibax

Shelgon

Umemiya’s right hand man! Currently filling in for Umemiya while he’s taking a break from champion duties (with Kaji and Sako taking turns as the fourth seat of the Elite Four in his stead) and mainlining medication to settle his stomach. Umemiya didn’t exactly spring this on him ��� Hiiragi could tell something was off with him for weeks beforehand — but to say he was pleased with the change would be pushing it. He’s making the most of it, and the other members of the Elite Four are doing their best to support him, but he’s hoping Umemiya’s able to figure himself out sooner rather than later.

He’s had his Garchomp (originally caught as a Gible) since he first began his journey, as his starting town was at the foot of the mountains where a lot of hardy pokemon make their home. The choice to master dragon types wasn’t really deliberate — these are just the pokemon he’s tended to gravitate towards, and he appreciates how reliable they’ve always been for him. His Shelgon, unfortunately, seems to have inherited a nervous disposition from Hiiragi’s own bouts of anxiety, and isn’t much for fighting most days. Dragapult’s taken on the task of watching over it and does its best to tease and coax Shelgon out of hiding. Arctibax is Hiiragi’s most recent addition to the team (aside from Kingdra, who isn’t a permanent member) and came as a result of Hiiragi getting annoyed with people always have an ice type on hand to take him down. Not that it always worked — but still, he likes being able to throw Arctibax out and watch his opponent’s expression drop. (He’ll deny he gets any enjoyment out of it, though)

Kingdra ordinarily belongs to Umemiya; he left it in Hiiragi’s care when he passed the champion role onto him, saying a King was fit for another King. It gets along well with Hiiragi’s other pokemon, especially Garchomp, as they’ve known each other for quite a while (Umemiya and Hiiragi having started out around the same time and continued as rivals through the gym challenge that year).

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 15

Fuckin’ finally.

I wasn’t looking forward to this one, because the next-episode preview acted like this was going to be all about Kaji and Misato “figuring things out” or some other will-they/won’t-they romantic bullshit.  I mean, if it was a different couple, then I could be down for that, but Kaji sucks, and I hate his oh-so-punchable face.  If Misato gets back together with him, it’ll suck because she could do so much better, and if she doesn’t get back together with him, then a story about it will have wasted my time. 

Fortunately, it looks like Kaji is some sort of double-agent?  We’ll get into the particulars later.

Anyway, Ritsuko, Misato, and Kaji all attend a wedding for some mutual acquaintance, and Kaji shows up late, probably because of some spying he was doing.  Misato drinks too much, and while she’s in the restroom, Kaji gives Ritsuko some kind of object, and Ritsuko warns him not to dig to deep into whatever he’s up to.  Cryptic as always.

Meanwhile, Shinji and Gendo visit the grave of Yui Ikari (1977-2004), Gendo’s wife and Shinji’s mother.  Today is the anniversary of her death.  We don’t know what happened, but Gendo says there’s no corpse, and the gravestone is just a marker. Shinji has no memory of his mother, probably because he was so young when she died, but also because Gendo destroyed any photographs and recordings of her.  I guess it never occurred to him that their son might want to see her someday. 

They came here before in 2012, but Shinji ran away.  This is part of the reason he wasn’t looking forward to returning here.  That, and he didn’t want to face his father, although things seem to go well enough.  Earlier, Misato encouraged him to see this through, because unless he takes the next step, nothing will ever change between him and his dad. Shinji tried asking Rei for advice on talking to his dad, since they seemed to get along so well, but she acts like she doesn’t know anything about Gendo, which sounds fishy.

During that conversation, Shinji mentioned that he saw Rei wringing out a washcloth, and he thought she handled it in a motherly way.  She’s deeply touched by this, I guess, though she doesn’t let on.  Wait... is Rei a clone of Yui Ikari or some nonsense like that?  Is that where this is going?  No... it couldn’t be.

No.  It couldn’t...

No.

Well, at least the Ikari boys part on good terms, even if their conversation is terse.  Rei’s in the aircraft that picks Gendo up, and I guess Shinji has to walk. 

When he gets home, Shinji plays the... cello? I think that’s a cello.  Asuka comes home to find him playing, and she seems genuinely impressed that he can play.  Shinji says his teachers made him practice and no one ever told him to stop, so he just kept at it.  He doesn’t think he’s very good at it, but Asuka seems more impressed with his persistence than his talent.  Can you play Classical Gas on a cello?  Yes you can.

Anyway, one of Asuka’s friends tried to set her up with her brother or something, and she got bored and ditched him in the line for a roller coaster.  Wow, Asuka sucks.  I always got the impression that she’s the most popular character in this thing, but like 90% of her presence in this show is just her being a huge pain in the ass.  I mean, she’s being nice to Shinji at the moment, but that’s only happening because she did something thoughtless to some other poor slob. 

Later, they get a call from Misato that’s she’s staying out late with Kaji. Asuka thinks she won’t return until morning, because it’s Kaji, and Asuka thinks he’s the only worthwhile male specimen on this planet.

Misato ends up getting so drunk that Kaji has to carry her home, at least part of the way.  So drunk, in fact, that Misato finally comes clean with her feelings.  She admits that she dumped Kaji mostly because he reminded her so much of her dead father, whom she loathed in life, but who also sacrificed himself to save her. 

That scared her, so she joined NERV to get revenge on the Angels who killed her father, but then she found out her dad used to work for NERV as well, so no matter where she went and what she did, she kept coming back to her daddy issues.  She thinks she’s a hypocrite for telling Shinji to confront his feelings about his dad, when she can’t seem to do the same.  And she thinks she’s a coward who uses men...

Kaji kisses her to put a stop to all this self-flagellation, and scene.

Meanwhile, Asuka wants to kiss Shinji, mostly because she’s bored.  Shinji’s like “okay” and she holds his nose shut because she doesn’t like him breathing on her. 

This goes on for quite a while.  Shinji finally pulls away, but I give him credit for his perseverance.  When they finally separate, Asuka runs to the bathroom and washes out her mouth, apparently regretting the whole experience.

Finally, Kaji gets Misato home and they put her to bed.  Kaji says his goodbyes, despite Asuka inviting him to hang out for a while.  Ah, that’s why Asuka was looking for ways to pass the time.  She wanted to see Kaji again when he and Misato came home. But it’s late and he needs to change for work tomorrow. 

The next day, Rei’s absent from school... again.  Huh.

That’s probably because Gendo has her bottled up in the Tang Tube here in the Central Dogma.  Well, that’s what the room is called, but I have no idea what any of this is.  They smile at each other, and that seems to be all we’ll get from this.

Even further below the Tang Tube of Destiny, Kaji tries to get into some even deeper, darker secret room, and Misato catches him and puts a gun to his head.  She reveals that she knows his secret.  Kaji works for NERV’s Special Inspection Department, but he’s also on the payroll for the Japanese Department of the Interior, who want him to spy on NERV for them. 

Kaji apologizes for deceiving her, but he wants her to see what’s in this room, which Ikari and Ritsuko have kept hidden from her.

And it’s Adam, the First Angel who exploded, causing the Second Impact fifteen years ago.  I don’t know how any of it survived the explosion, or how they recovered the remains, or why it’s been nailed to a cross, but there’s orange liquid coming out of its body, so maybe this is where they get that LCL fluid they use in the plugsuits.  Kaji says this is the source of everything after Second Impact, and I think that means the Eva’s an all the other research Gendo Ikari is in charge of, it all stemmed from Adam’s body.

And yeah, this is much more like it.  Not only are we revealing a few deep dark secrets behind NERV, but this episode has more character development than the last dozen episodes put together.  Misato gets drunk and confesses her hangups about her dad?  Shinji plays the cello?  Asuka kisses Shinji?  Gendo talks about his dead wife?  Rei blushes?  They could have spread these moments out across multiple episodes and it would have been great!  Instead they just built it up and waited until now to release it all at once.  That seems like a bad idea, but better late than never, I always say. 

And of course, we can’t overlook Adam.  I think a big reveal like this should have waited until Episode 15 or so, so I’ve got no complaints there.  It’s starting to look like I suspected.  They captured Adam in 2000, and they’ve been desecrating his corpse ever since.  The other Angels keep coming to NERV headquarters to recover the body, or to avenge their comrade, or maybe they’re just trying to destroy NERV so none of them suffer Adam’s fate.  In any case, it sure doesn’t look like NERV are the good guys...

Also, next episode apparently involves Shinji learning a “new level of anguish and despair”, so it looks like we’re finally entering the phase where this show goes apeshit.  At last, I finally meet the true Neon Genesis Evangelion. 

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Uchitama 7 - 8 | Eizouken 8 - 9 | ID: INVADED 8 - 11 | Iruma-kun 22 - 23 (FINAL) | BnHA 82 - 83

Uchitama 7

Lemme guess…this is the ve-Yep.

The name of this segment is Ottamake. The ke means fur/hair, but it does seem like it’s referring to Tama otherwise.

For some reason, Bull’s really into cats��

LOL, you can see the cat food right there is a real brand. I dunno how they got away with that.

Hmm, this show has something to say about idol business…and it does it better than some of the human idol shows! That says something.

It even comments on the “graduation” system. Whaddaya know.

Welp, I never thought an anime could pull off this with a commentary on gender presentation, to boot. (It’s not as pervasive as Stars Align’s, but it’s still one of the better ones. I guess I shouldn’t expect it as a norm though.) I thought Kai was a dude though and so Bull’s interactions came off to me as massively gay. I’ve been thinking, maybe he’s pan? Can dogs be pansexual???

Why do I get the feeling Kai is going to be introduced into 3-chome? Update: Doesn’t happen.

This song sounds very idol-like.

Uchitama 8

Aww…I feel like we’re going to learn Nora’s backstory soon. I think it’s going to be real sad.

…Yup, there goes my kokoro. Smol Nora is cute~!

Genki can mean “healthy” as well as “energetic” – the latter is why it’s translated as “spunky”.

Why do I get the feeling Nora’s owner died…?

Oh, smol Nora has a bandaid on his leg.

Let me ask the essential furry question – they hav human ears and animal ears. Which of those sets of ears do they hear with?

Yuuki Kaji does a good job as Nora.

This song’s so sad, it almost got me crying…  

Eizouken 8

This anime is like something from Studio Trigger!

The magic of Eizouken is that you get sucked into the anime they make and never look back.

Tomodachi vs. nakama, I think it is.

Id: Invaded 8

Lately, I’ve been thinking about practical cosplay (everyday wear that also doubles as a cosplay outfit). So basically, I’ve been thinking about Sakaido and El-Melloi II’s outfits a lot, since they’re rather practical while still looking cool. All I’m missing for El-Melloi’s outfit with the red jacket is a black button-up shirt, for El-Melloi’s outfit with the black jacket I’m missing a red scarf and I’m missing a brown button-up shirt for Sakaido’s (although the yellow scarf I got today to get one step closer to two of those isn’t the right mustard colour, it’s more of a lighter yellow).

Also, I noticed it’s (according to the katakana) meant to be “Id: Invaded”, but heck, it’s been ID: Invaded for so long for me, I don’t care either way.

Kiki was born in Fukui.

I always thought Mister Fixer sounded sad and now I think I know why…the bit I remember the most (the line that goes “Mister Fixer” and the bit around it) sounds like the singer is lamenting their life. Now that I see the visuals again after a few weeks (I’d get fatigued if I watched all that Fate/ and still managed to keep up with simulcasts, so I’ve been taking the simulcasts in a few eps at one time), Mister Fixer does quite sound like a crime drama song, but not as much as Thought I Knew (from Stand My Heroes).

I’ve seen images of Anaido and Sakaido in the same well for a few weeks now, so this cooperation bit is no surprise at all.

I believe Fukuda is asking why Narihisago is a –san to her even though they’ve worked together a while.

The words “data profile” are in one corner of the titlecard.

Does Anaido remember who he is in the ID Well? I presume not, but it’s hard to tell since we haven’t had as much time with him as we have Sakaido (not to mention I’ve been regularly filling my head with Fate/ and other things as well lately…so it’s hard to remember).

It’s interesting. Fukuda has the same piercings as Anaido (and even a ring on one pointer finger that matches them!), so he must’ve tried experimenting with…more legal holes, to put it one way…before getting his most iconic one.

Kaeru’s nails are chipped. Hmm.

In #Brake-Broken, which I read the first chapter of earlier (there’s a sample on the Young Ace website), Sakaido notices he doesn’t have a phone with him to call anyone or a licence (because in that manga, he wakes up in a car). It’s likely this will work the same way and Anaido won’t have any possessions on him, aside from the clothes on his back, accessories and the item that was stolen from his wrist/s.

Rings on both fingers…so I should be talking about them in plural. Update: I like how Anaido’s off-the-wall thought processes break up the inherent seriousness of Sakaido’s deductions and utilitarian way of doing things.

Anaido, you grimdark f***er. Update: For trying to eat a dead girl.

Okay, so for the sake of my practical cosplay, I knew I’d need this episode. Sakaido wears a long-sleeve brown shirt with some kind of shirt under that (either brown or black), plus a mustard-coloured scarf. (Note El-Melloi II wears a black shirt under his black button-up shirt, so I went with black as well.) In Brake Broken, I also noticed he wears dark socks (or that could be the leggings) and runners with a lightning bolt on them (I had to make do with generic black runners with a white stripe on the bottom), plus the iconic brown shorts over those (with a triangle pattern)…Why does Sakaido have a scarf anyway, versus Anaido and Miyo who don’t? As much as I like scarves, especially where colder weather is involved, getting a specific colour scarf was a bit of a headache to be honest, since I took 3 trips before deciding on the one I was going to buy (and even then, someone got it before me! The scarf I have now was my 2nd choice). Update: The shorts, leggings and undershirt are black, but I don’t know if Sakaido is wearing any socks or if they’re black too.

Just to note what Anaido has as well (although a coat like that, with the red detailing and flaps, would be hard to find…), he has a blue coat, suspenders, a white button-up top, a string tie (had to google what that was called, although its name is pretty obvious now that I know), black pants (which kinda look like leggings, but they’re not) and leather boots.

Now Sakaido can go into the loony bin…he’s talking to Kaeru.

Is Anaido going in circles? Sakaido caught up real fast…

Um, hey, protip: When stuck in quicksand, try to “float” on it. If you move, you’ll sink into it more. I don’t know how I know that, but I did stick it into my mind for times like this.

Notably, Anaido is about a head taller than Sakaido. Either Sakaido is unnaturally short and Anaido is average…or Anaido is just tall in that way some men are.

Did the bird get to this dude…?

There appears to be a man with a bun facing Hondomachi in the ED, although you can’t tell who it is from silhouette alone…Maybe he hasn’t appeared in the show yet. (Can’t be Matsuoka though. Might be the old guy who’s the head of Kura, actually.)

Update: Is the dead guy Momoki…?

Id: Invaded 9

It’s the familiar ceiling scene from Evangelion! (Okay, I’m kidding, but it’s a similar deal.)

I think the rules of Fate/ are “do it all, until you can no longer do it” (i.e. Everything is the same, until it’s different). It seems it’s the same here too.

Huh? Momoki?

“It doesn’t seem friendly.” – Yeah, and people die whe they are killed…in murder mysteries like this, usually speaking.

I noticed Narihisago’s tie is the same colour as his Sakaido jacket, if not the shirt under that.

Where did the Challenger’s clothes go after he took them off??? Hyperspace??? He wasn’t shown tossing them.

So Kaeru was Asukai all along, huh?

“Look at this.”

“It makes me think about him.” Subbers, that’s two mistakes in less than 1 minute…

I saw a fanart where Narihisago had his arm broken. I didn’t know why, but now I do. Also, TV Tropes is bad if you want to avoid spoilers…I know that already, but I go there anyway sometimes...

“It makes me wanna puke.”

Iruma-kun 22

The anime’s final episode is next week…but there’s already a season 2 in store for next year, so hopefully I survive the coronavirus and sort out all my issues this year in time for it.

Dat OP though. I’ve grown used to it and it’s actually endeared itself to me…which is odd, since I didn’t think I’d like it at first.

Demdol = akudol. Obviously, from “demon”.

Was that…Clara’s mother???  Kuromu’s older bro doesn’t look too bad, either.

Ohmygosh, this is fabulousssssssssss (and hilarious)! I’ve been waiting for this moment for many episodes, as you can tell if you’ve been following along, and I finally got the payoff!

Clara ends her sentence with –akuma (devil), hence the translation is matching it the same way.

Oh my gosh, Ryouhei Kimura (Azz-kun) sucks at being feminine, but that’s exactly what the role requires for this!

If you just pretend Azz-kun isn’t dressed in such an outlandish outfit, he looks really good…! Ayumu Murase does a pretty good falsetto, although you can tell there’s one point where Kimura’s voice gets really manly-sounding for a lady.

“Little imp” – Koakuma.  

Oh! The Keroli family is all cute.

Ooh, Kuromu’s nails are blue. Never noticed that before.

Eizouken 9

Chojugiga are ancient pictures normally depicting animals. As for sepak takraw…

I wonder if Eizouken will tackle the Manabi Line one day…?

That’s a parallel for Comiket, LOL.

“A colossus that no one can see!” – Gridman, is that you?

When did Kanamori meet Asakusa again…?

Kanamori with a bun is cool.

“There is nothing fun about social media!” – Well, social media is fun for me because it’s where I escape reality, but sometimes you gotta be like Kanamori and use it for publicity’s sake.

LOL, the username for the Eizouken is @eizoukenn.

I just realised Mizusaki’s hairstyle is irregular…it’s much longer on on side than the other.

“Mizusaki bump” – I think this references the Colbert bump. (TV Tropes link)

Kanamori – she with the word “gold”…or “money”…in her name – struggles with maths? Wow, that was something to hear. (I guess it’s kinda like me and IT (cybersecurity) – I suck at it because I suck at modulos…or division in short…and even though I can be found on my computer a lot, that’s why I don’t pursue it any longer. I was decent at accounting, but man, I’d be bored out of my brain if you made me do business IT and I have zero skills in games and multimedia.)

“Was it thuggery?” – What’s thuggery? That word sounds funny.

Did you see how Asakusa fell off the tank?

I did CR’s Eizouken quiz sometime in the past and it gave me Asakusa. That’s true, basically. I like thinking up ideas and how cool they are, but because I can’t stop from elaborating on them, they get out of hand and that’s why I have a tonne of dropped projects. (Then again, with how freely I can imagine motion, I could’ve gotten Mizusaki too.) Update: Tried again and I actually did get Mizusaki…whaddaya know.

Id: Invaded 10

People have been comparing this to Minority Report…now I see why.

I almost feel like this is a discussion of euthanasia and suicide as much as it is memory and the consciousness.

Ohh…she remembers! Hondomachi!

You can’t see Muku’s face! Ohh, scary!

Aww, the music really sold this montage. By the way, that sign didn’t say “entrance ceremony”, it said nyuugaku omedetou, “Congratulations on your entry [into school]”.

It…this singer almost sounds like Bruno Mars, but that would be basically impossible, no?

Oh my gosh…when the song swelled, I absolutely cried. That’s rare, man – that’s rare.

BnHA 82

I think the leftmost figure might be Miruko, the rabbit lady. I’ve never read anything about her outside of wiki pages ad other small spoilers, but I roughly know what she looks like.

What does Gentle mean by “Anglaise”? Surely it wouldn’t refer to cream…(crème anglaise)

LOL, Disneyland parades…

Whew…that was dangerous. I almost agreed with Mineta there (to get the festival over and done with).

I swear Midoriya gets together with All Might, just like this, at the end or start of a climactic arc. He did it in the last season of BnHA, remember?

BnHA 83

Hmm…It’s interesting that the author likes to point out who has and hasn’t met Eri. Then again, it’s good for consistency.

LOL, Amajiki my boy…you’re so relatable.

Hmm…amidst the coronavirus concerns…this cancellation business seems quite timely.

Oh! It’s a drone.

For some reason, I thought Sero was drinking vegetable juice…? Eh, no matter. They have vegetable juice in Japan – I remember seeing some on my trip.

Hmm? Gentle is like a phantom thief, I just realised. Mostly harmless, but bound to cause a big stir if he gets his way.

What is Gentle’s Quirk, anyway…?

Work Son…LOL(…?)

Who bets their moustache on this stuff, anyway…? (LOL)

Iruma 23 (FINAL)

I don’t get to see Iruma become evil this season…but he will next season! That visual I’ve been seeing by the original mangaka confirms it!

Marathon - the demon puns are back.

Demonicon =Oricon chart.

Demon Star Platinum…was that…a Jojo’s reference?! *scare chord*

Oh! Maguro (tuna).

Azz-kun being afraid of fish? That’s news to me.

Okay, subbers. Whose idea was it to translate Iruma’s words as “My feels…”…?

There’s a post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Yay! Evil Iruma-kun!...In spring 2021. (I’ve never once been so excited for a character to turn evil than this! I also like how evil Iruma said it’s the “buttcrack” of dawn…but that’s just my immature side showing.)

Id: Invaded 11

“…being taken for a ride!” – Well, you’re in a car, so you’re getting a ride nonetheless. (LOL) I hadn’t heard of the term “being taken for a ride” until…what? 2016, I think? When I was still doing language anaylsis.

Sakaido used Headbutt! It’s…kind of effective? (Writing up these pseudo-Pokémon battles is fun. I should write more.)

“…put a drill to your head…”

“The victims of John Walker’s serial killers…”

I noticed Hondomachi is touching the side of her head which had the hole in it…if I remembered it right.

Is it “the Kura”? Or just Kura?

August 15th is a popular date for anime, huh? It’s in the middle of summer. (Refers to Kagerou Project.)

That ‘who knew you needed to lose something to be complete’ thing…I think I get it, but for some reason I only ever seem to get that feeling when it’s me trying to read asexuality into things (since that’s how I learnt to interpret asexuality), so…yeah, way to go, me.

Wait…Togo visited Momoki’s bedroom?!

Yep, so I was right about that being the side with Hondomachi’s hole.

[iwatch-theworld]

The Shion and Nezumi Relationship Barometer & the reasoning behind Shion’s death in the anime

In other words, two concepts discussed at length within the audio commentaries that were too long to cap and that I also don’t care for or understand much.

But since they’re behind-the-scenes anime info still, I thought I’d transcribe them for anyone interested in reading. I’m doing what I’ve done for most of the other commentary posts and not including speaker IDs, because the people talking about this are largely the anime staff and I have some trouble telling their voices apart, but I will include paragraph breaks for change of speaker. I’m also gonna (briefly) write some of my own thoughts on these concepts, too.

So, first up is the “power balance,” or the Shion and Nezumi Relationship Barometer, discussed first in episode 6, which features Yuki Kaji, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Bones producer Yonai and Aniplex producer Kurosu.

“Apparently the relationship between Sion and Rat has something like a power balance. The scales slowly begin to swap places. Since episode 6 is right in the middle of the series, I would like to introduce Sion and Rat’s Relationship Barometer. Supposedly you actually used that. I’ve heard that it existed since before there was ever an episode one.”

“When we were plotting the course of the whole series, we already had summaries written up, but off to the side we would weigh Sion and Rat’s relationship. Like, who was on top? Which one was getting pulled along? What episode should the balance on the scales begin to shift? When should they stand as equals? It has stuff like that. And the director had his own views as well. But we really wanted to focus on the drama between Sion and Rat. So we thought that showing the state of their relationship was directly related to the enjoyment of the show.”

“No matter how you look at it, Rat starts higher on the scales. But part way through the show, Sion says he wants to stand as his equal. Isn’t it around episode 6 when they start to level out?”

“That’s right. The flow between episodes 5, 6, and 7 shows their dramatically changing power balance.”

“So it’s not a true reversal of roles, is it?”

“When first introduced, he was like the perfect guy. So he was supposed to seem perfect?”

“Sion tried to grow and grow and grow because he had Rat. Because he wanted to be equals.”

They mention the “power balance” a few more times from this point on in other episodes, but it’s mostly in reference to certain scenes and how it’s changed, or in episode 9 they mention that the music changes a bit halfway through the show to reflect the changing power balance.

I think part of what irritates me about this is I’m just not understanding what their definition of “power balance” is (fwiw, they say it in English, but I’m not 100% sure what kind of connotation these words have to a Japanese speaker). To me, “power” inherently implies dominance & control, as well as inferiority/superiority. If that’s the case, I find it strange they interpret their relationship as such (and a strange way to view a relationship in general, drama aside) and it bothers me that this was apparently a core concept for the staff to focus on (which I could rant about why... but I’m gonna rein it in for now so this doesn’t get too long lol).

However, the way they describe it also feels like they’re simply talking about a kind of narrative balance and how characters function as chess pieces in a story---like that the West Block is something Nezumi is familiar with so he takes the lead there, but Shion is the one who takes charge in the Correctional Facility mostly (for a variety of reasons). If it’s just about who is carrying a certain amount of  weight, then I think it’s true to some extent. If it’s not, though, then I don’t really like it and what it implies.

But moving on.

The second thing is the explanation of why they chose to kill Shion off for like a minute in the anime.This one I dislike because despite the fact that I feel like it should make sense I Just Don’t Get It at all. They also mention the “power balance” for a second, too.

This was discussed during episode 11, with Yuki Kaji, Yoshimasa Hosoya, the director, Kenji Nagasaki, and the character designer, Satoshi Ishino.

“There’s some trivia or a back story about this. At the end of the novel, Sion and Rat... part ways. You could say that summarizes everything. I think episode 11 mostly wanted to express Sion and Rat’s power balance and growth. So that was something you wanted to link the anime and the novels with.”

“Right. Sion chooses to return to No. 6 of his own accord. The novels end with Rat singing and speaking to Elyurias. We didn’t include that conversation. Instead we have Rat sing and save Sion, who had been shot. Likewise, Safu who has been possessed by Elyurias tries to save Sion. Those two saved him, which in turn saved them. Now he has a sense of responsibility to live because of how he’s been looked after. He walks away, bearing the weight of his reason to live. We had to figure out how to make him realize that.”

“Right. If everything went smoothly, even if he got to see Safu -- well, he did see her, even if she’s a bit different now. But his goal was to see Safu. And his goal was to break the wall enclosing No. 6. He got to see Safu, but then they had to part ways. And rather than destroy No. 6′s walls, he destroyed No. 6. After all this, Sion has lost a meaning and a reason to live.”

“In the ending, we had a key concept pop up. Sion seems happy once he’s facing summer. I think those are his true feelings. But you can’t live off those feelings alone. Growing up means doing things even if you don’t want to. You have to accept that. He’s seen all this cruelty, but Sion still walks back to the city. The anime gets to put a strong emphasis on that. We decided to let the anime roll with that concept.”

Again, my irritation at the way they explain this is probably messing with my ability to understand their perspective lol. I think I’m also resistant to their ideas because I prefer the novels’ sequence of events here more. But I suppose the main issue I take with this part is their interpretation of Shion’s character. I think part of what makes Shion interesting is that he seems both practical and blindly optimistic/idealistic, and that makes it seem as if he’s simultaneously foolish and capable of doing what he says he wants to do. I’m not really sure what they’re saying here, but I feel like they’re not reading him as someone with that complexity.

I don’t understand what they’re talking about when they mention him losing his “meaning and reason to live” ... well, okay, that’s a lie, because I do get it in the context of the anime but I don’t like it lol. I know they’re talking more long-term, because Shion tends to go off of what he sees in front of him, tends to have short-term goals. So in the novels, at this point, Shion still has two short-term goals: 1) getting medical help for Nezumi, and 2) stopping the imminent doom about to befall No.6. They make it sound like No.6 is already too far gone at this point (and that I guess Nezumi is like, not dying of blood loss after getting shot thrice, lol). But for a variety of reasons those conflicts don’t occur in the anime, so the next step is What Will Shion Do Now? And it feels like since they didn’t have the 9th novel they shrugged and went “kill him and bring him back for some fake deep reasons, I guess?” (reasons, I might add, that have already been established prior anyway) and that sort of absolved them from having to do anything more constructive than that. idk. Honestly I think them saying they had to “make him realize” rubs me the wrong way, because Shion’s priorities always seem very apparent to me, and they either have to do with Nezumi/his loved ones in general, or helping human life. Safu’s death and No.6 being uprooted don’t make him lose purpose--in fact, they help reinforce it, and in the wake of No.6′s destruction the obvious answer to me of What Will Shion Do Now? is he’d help mend what’s been broken because he cannot abandon anyone in need, no matter what (& not because he feels obligated because he’s been saved, or whatever the heck they’re getting at). So idk. Maybe I’m being too critical, but in the end I just don’t get it, because I feel like we’re seeing two different Shions.

All that being said, if anyone has any comments or interpretations to share on these concepts, I’d be glad to hear them!