Shirou is now a wanted criminal and you can tell how conflicted Michiru is feeling towards the entire thing. However, Nazuna apparently is hosting a concert live. I don’t know about you, but the thought of having this “guardian deity” performing a concert is just… weird. But she also plans on confessing that she’s actually human to help and soothe the beastmens’ hearts… which she thinks will help the beastmen. Low and behold, it completely backfires when everyone starts turning into monsters due to the Nirvasyl Syndrome due to their outrage. It’s really not surprising that Alan betrayed everyone’s trust by implementing his own plan on making all beastmen human considering how shady he’s been THIS ENTIRE TIME. Don’t judge a person based on looks my butt.
Anyways, I have had just about enough of Nazuna. How… How the HECK do you think it’d be a good idea to tell the beastmen that the “god” they revered is actually a human. HOW THE HECK, would you think this was a good idea?! And while yes, she is being lied to, but she always shut Michiru down whenever she questioned it as if she knew what she was doing was 100% correct. I just cannot fathom how ANYONE would be readily okay with a plan like that. Even Michiru wasn’t too sure about it at first until Nazuna talked her into believing it was fine (even though it clearly was not). Just like Shirou says, beastmen have a lot of pride in their species and to reveal the fact that Nazuna had been lying about her identity all this time and is actually human, that definitely would not inspire peace and tranquility. Though I will admit, I did feel a little sympathetic towards her when Boris came out and betrayed her by outing her as a human. Maybe it’s because I’ve come to hate Boris more than Nazuna in that moment because of how underhanded that was. Especially when Michiru tried so hard to stop the confession from happening.
I appreciate that Michiru is starting to try and communicate more when she feels like something isn’t right. Though she was risking it by rushing at Shirou, knowing full well he had a gun. Though it is true that she had little time to stop him before he tried to hurt Nazuna. But I digress. Anyways, I do like that she and Shirou finally started opening up to each other and actually communicating without getting into an argument. They finally stopped and listened to each other’s side and ended up devising a plan to stop things to which they could both agree on. And I feel like that was such a big step in their relationship since before, they wouldn’t bother to hear what the other was trying to get across before shouting over each other. Though I wish this was established earlier in the series.
I’m thankful that Michiru finally understands how she was being insensitive to Shirou’s feelings since she knows first hand the fear of turning from one thing to another beyond your control. Though it did feel a little out of no where. Sure, she was shown to be thinking a lot between this episode and half-way into this episode, but I don’t think that was enough. The series should have shown us her going through her memories, show us how afraid she felt when turning into a beastmen and then linking it back to Alan’s plan of turning beastmen into humans. I feel like slowing down a little to show us Michiru’s thought process would have helped with her development as well. Since it still feels like we’re not as close to Michiru as a main character as we should be. But I will admit it was a touching moment to see Shirou and Michiru finally trust and understand one another.
But YOOOOOO I was NOT expecting Shirou to freaking bite Michiru. Much less him becoming victim to the Nirvasyl Syndrome himself. Though I guess it makes sense due to his deep seeded hatred towards humans and his love towards all beastmen. And the ending had the gall to show up as monochromatic instead of the typical vibrant color scheme. BNA, don’t try and make me think for a moment Michiru is dead. There is no way, not like that.
Second to last episode and this series still feels weird. I’m still not sold on the idea of stress making the beastmen turn into vicious monsters. Though it was pretty sad to see how happy and excited the beastmen were for the live, only for their emotions to be played and toyed with by Alan by reinforcing their hatred and prejudice against humans. It was all sorts of messed up. Though I am glad that mayor at least ended up not being an antagonist like I feared. So I guess there’s that. There are still a lot of things I feel didn’t have proper build up and weren’t executed well. I’ll see how the last episode goes to see if it makes things better or worse, but I’ll mostly likely address my problems in the final impressions next week.
