Qualidea Code – Episode 8 [Inverse Qualidea]

This episode was… not what I thought it was going to be. After the cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode I thought the truth would come out and there’d be some big explosive battle and everything would hit the fan. But nope, what we got was a slower episode that largely took another look at the brother-sister complex relationship between Asuha and Kasumi.

I also got a couple of things wrong about the last episode. Hotaru and Maihime are presumed to be dead; I thought Hotaru had swung at the giant flying Unknown and was still alive, but she was launching an attack at Kasumi (to try to damage the plate on his neck I think). It’s also my understanding that that’s where the cut on Kasumi’s cheek also came from. But in swinging at Kasumi, Hotaru was unable to save herself and Maihime, so the entire top of the tower was annihilated when the large Unknown crashed into it. So, my apologies for missing those details last week.

Anyways, on to this episode. Gutoku and Airi are having a meeting with the conniving-looking Mahiro Okuni from episode three. She’s the Chief Medical Officer for the South Kanto Administration, and she’s at the meeting because she wants to see Asuha reassigned inland, away from where the main battle has been taking place.

Gutoku asks Aoi to take over leadship of Kanagawa, and he wants Asuha to take over Tokyo (since Ichiya is still in an unstable psychological state). However while Asuha’s ok with it, Kasumi is against it. Kasumi counter-proposes that their team scale back their forces to cover their interior territories better. Gutoku doesn’t like the idea, but Mahiro supports it. But why is the interior so important? Is something being hidden there?

Mahiro suggests that Asuha be resupported to the “inland”, the same place where Ichiya’s comrade got moved to earlier in the series, so he could be with his parents supposedly. Asuha and Kasumi are both against this idea because they want to continue supporting Chiba – plus if they left, then the morale of the remaining students would suffer. The meeting ends with Aoi taking responsibility for Kanagawa, Asuha is I’m assuming taking control of Tokyo, and Kasumi will become the head of Chiba in Asuha’s place.

After the meeting two things happen. The first is that Mahiro takes Asuha aside to try to convince her to move inland, but she refuses saying she doesn’t want to leave her brother. The second is that Ichiya confronts Kasumi outside in a hallway, upset that Kasumi came up with the idea to scale back their battle forces. Ichiya is so consumed with getting revenge for Canaria that he seems to be becoming more and more unwound. I am not sure why Ichiya can’t fight in battle if the forces are scaled back, but whatever. However Ichiya does say “this world” – can he see the real world instead of the fake one?

Back in Kasumi’s dorm room, Asuha starts going through the city planning data. After all, as the new head she needs to access that sort of information. While she’s busy working, Kasumi leaves to meet up with Aoi and go on a city inspection tour.

As the duo are walking around, people repeatedly tease Kasumi for being seen with Aoi instead of with his younger sister. He’s ridiculed repeatedly for having a little sister complex, much to his embarrassment. Aoi and Kasumi visit multiple locations, getting food along the way. Asuha does eventually comes across them when she takes a meal break, and she spends the rest of the day secretly tailing Aoi and Kasumi out of jealousy.

At the end of the day Aoi is called away by Airi and Gutoku to work on a project, while Kasumi bumps into Mahiro. She invites him to her place later that night to talk more about Asuha moving to the inland. After she leaves and Kasumi heads home, Asuha pops up next to him and teases him about being “dumped” by Aoi.

Back at home Kasumi putters around in the kitchen until he realizes it’s time to leave to meet Mahiro.  But before he goes he corners Asuha on the couch, checking the little golden plate on her neck to make sure it’s still intact. He leaves and Asuha follows him outside, where he grins at her.

Kasumi arrives at Mahiro’s place and she serves him a coffee, which she’s drugged with a substance that will make him lose his memory. Mahiro’s been reviewing footage of the Unknown’s attack and she knows that Hotaru mouthed a secret to him. Mahiro tells Kasumi that “they”, whoever they are, need the kids to stay asleep in the fake world. She also reveals to him that she has tentacles, which he can sense but cannot see. So is Mahiro another kind of Unknown. Or, another type of alien entirely?

Mahiro knocks Kasumi around and does some damage, including wounding one of his eyes, until Asuha shows up and freezes Mahiro with one of her ice bullets. Before Kasumi falls unconscious, he shoots Mahiro with one of his own regular bullets, shattering her frozen body into pieces. Asuha then melts the chunks of ice and sets the apartment on fire, so Mahiro’s dead for good. But there’s a security camera in her place, which neither teenager seems to have noticed, so who’s watching Mahiro’s death?

After the credits, Asuha brings dinner to an injured Kasumi, who’s been resting in bed since he and Asuha returned to their dorm. His eye has been bandaged, and he has some other minor injuries but appears to be otherwise ok. Asuha feeds her brother a spoonful of soup and then he takes the bandage off, saying it’s hard to eat when he can only see out of one eye. However once the bandage is off…

It seems that between Hotaru damaging the plate on his neck, and Mahiro hurting his eye, Kasumi is now able to see the “real” world. The inverted Qualidea, if you will.

My thoughts:  *mutters and grumbles about another decrease in animation quality*

I don’t know why I have this feeling, but I don’t think we’re going to see Aoi anymore. I never trusted Mahiro in the first place, but I’m also pretty close to not trusting Aoi and Gutoku anymore either. Seeing Aoi being led away by her two superiors just gave me the feeling like she was being lead to her demise…

As for what Hotaru mouthed to Kasumi, I was right, it was the Japanese word for “fake”.

After seeing Mahiro’s extra appendages, I’m guessing that there’s some kind of a war going on between Mahiro’s people and the Unknown, and all the kids with World powers have been caught in the middle. By manipulating them to think that they’re fighting off the Unknown, Mahiro’s people have been using these kids to do their dirty work for them. What’s your theory?