So it’s time to skip backwards in time, into the time machine. We skip back a bit to before the events of episode one where the Black-haired girl wakes up and has no memory of who she is, or what her purpose is. They still haven’t given her a name as of this episode and Black-haired girl is so much to write….I am going to be lazy and call her Kuro until they give me a name.
So Kuro meets up with Nona, who I assume is really important. I think she’s Decim’s boss or something? She leads Kuro to Quindecim. First going on a train with….dead bar tender Spike…are you trying to tell us something about the ending of Bebop? They get out and enter an elevator and we meet this guy, Clavis.
He didn’t leave much of an impression on me this episode past noticing that he has the fox eye thing going on, which more likely then not means that he is going to become one of my favorite characters along the way if he’s portrayed correctly.
Anyway, she introduces her to Decim and explains a little bit of what’s going on to her. Then invites her to watch as our couple from last episode plays their life or death game. We see it proceed from Kuro’s point of view this time, including what’s ACTUALLY behind the bar.
Which aren’t dead bodies at all, but in fact mannequins that Decim builds as a hobby. OMG, he’s just so cute I can’t handle it. What an adorable hobby!
[says the girl scared to death of mannequins]
As the game goes on, we see the same memories and thoughts we did last episode. However, we’re taken to see them in a new light this time. Seeing that Machiko really was faithful to Takashi and the things she said at the end she said to ease his guilt over killing his child. As we come to the same point that we did at the end of last episode Kuro gives her point of view of things.
Decim realizes, well uh, damn. He messed up and gave the wrong person a second chance and sent the wrong Person to the void. That’s a really scary thought honestly, if an Arbiter can make such a mistake and damn the wrong soul…it’s just plain unsettling. Nona chews him out for screwing up. Like, okay, PEOPLE make mistakes. I get that, it happens but an ARBITER OF DEATH, making a mistake and incarnating the wrong person….
Makes you kind of sick to your stomach.
So Nona leaves her with Decim and they are going to work together from now on. I feel bad like, this is a pretty short review but a lot of the episode was stuff from the last episode. I love it when they turn things around and show it from another point of view. It’s like an answer arc. Overall not a lot happened this episode due to the nature of the episode but I enjoyed it none the less.
Also, the ending credits. I loved those, the song, the creepy imagery. It contrasts the opening beautifully and It’s just amazing.
Next episode will be new content, it involves bowling and Kuro being an official assistant to the Arbiters.
~Midnight
Before I talk about Nona, the Arbiter system and the Void… I’ve found something rather interesting about Kuro! It’s unsettling because for some very strange reason the idea that she was a personification of death came to mind when they first got into the streetcar…
My source IS wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcae) but the Roman mythology there states that the three Parcae/Fates are: Nona(!), Decima(?) and Morta… the goddess of death?! Granted, it doesn’t add up that she has no name, unless the explanation is that “death” wouldn’t have a name or the name of a “Goddess” isn’t known to a “lowly” Arbiter until it is given.
The other and more interesting theory is that she is part of a special case. I mean: WHAT IF two people are EQUALLY deserving of reincarnation? Do they decide together who gets to go ahead, while the other stays and works at Quindecim? Nona was speaking to Decim about a 3 month term. An Arbiter sounds like a permanent position, or at least one with a longer period of time. An assistant, however, could take as much time as they need/want.
As for the reason she doesn’t have a name: since the game is over her past self no longer matters, memories and all, but she has yet to receive her new self and so she has no concrete identity yet. She’s more or less just her “base” personality and nothing has been built on top of it again.
—
This whole Arbiter system is thoroughly unsettling to me now.
Before I get into that, I believe Nona implied they were to judge people on more than their actions and also who the people are at heart. So Machiko did cheat, once, and then turned it all around. I thought Decim got it right as far as the weight of their sins, but wrong as far as who they are currently and that both of those must be given equal consideration, no? That in Machiko’s case, because she turned her bad ways around AND had the better heart she deserved to live?
Nona and the Arbiter system:
I have two issues. 1) Why does she let a less experience Arbiter make the final call, rather than consulting?
2) Why does she seem to believe that a soul cannot change, when she said Takashi would never trust others properly? (This bothers me extra if what I asked about Machiko is true, since that proves that people can change and if they can’t then is Takashi fated to die again due to his distrust rather than external causes?)
I understand that live experience is best for training Decim, but Kuro learned a lot just by watching and given her comments, it’s rather clear that the Arbiters consulting before a final decision is a change that needs to be considered.
The Void:
I was completely wrong about it, hell, reincarnation and heaven being 4 distinct options. Still, if people can be sent by mistake, I really do hope that when a soul is “lost” in the “darkness” of the Void, it means that they’re lost wondering and reflecting about their sins, but once they understand and repent they “see the light” and get to be reincarnated too.
I feel really bad for Machiko. After everything she did for her husband she was sent to an eternal darkness of the void. Screw that A-hole Takashi.
Last week I was pretty sure that Machiko lied about cheating so her soul would be sent to the Void. But I assumed the arbiters would have known her intentions, which is why I was so confused by last week’s ending. But now that it’s been explained in this week’s episode, it kind of makes sense that Decim just made a mistake. The arbiters are like jurors at a court, and sometimes they mess up. But like you said, it was kind of sickening that such a mistake was made. It hurt my heart… :/ Hopefully Assistant-san (what I’ve been calling Kuro) will help Decim in the future so these kinds of mistakes don’t happen again. 🙁