Alright, I already went on a rant about Hayase during last week’s episode, but she is hands down the “worst” villain I have seen in a while. And by worst, I just mean there’s absolutely nothing that can redeem her for me. I mean she could bring back March, Gugu, and unnamed boy and I’d still despise her. Does that make her a good villain? I don’t know… having a scary enemy can be a good time, even if no one likes them, but I’m reaching the point where I just want the episode to go faster when she’s on screen. There’s nothing redeemable about her, so at the very least I feel better about how much I dislike her. And I wouldn’t even call her a super scary villain! She’s just such a wild card that she gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I really wonder if they are going to dive deeper into Hayase’s obsession with Fushi. I mean, when the two of them first met he was just a bonus that came along with March to sacrifice to Oniguma. Then, upon finding out he was immortal he became a little bit more of a prize. But… how did we move from that to absolute obsession with the Immortal? Is she just obsessed with him because he ripped her face off? Why did she go through so much effort to kill Parona for him! I get that she would want to kill Parona even without Fushi being around, but the fact that it was a gift! Hayase, what is going on with you????? And on top of that, there was whatever non-sense she was trying to do with him while he was knocked out cold. I know he’s immortal, but uh…. let’s keep our clothes on. I’m pretty sure whatever you were thinking of doing is certainly something he does not want. Also… please stop licking him. I won’t even go into more on that, just…. keep your tongue to yourself please.
Okay, enough about the threat from Yanome, I just want to be honest and say that I wasn’t the biggest fan of this episode. Obviously Hayase makes me uncomfortable to have around, but whatever moments they had to balance them out were overshadowed by some pretty bad animation. Genuinely, every shot of Tonari in this episode (especially the latter half) made her look completely different. She was almost unrecognizable. I know I can’t expect everything to be perfect, but it was so glaring this week that it was distracting. I just hope that the last three episodes don’t suffer the same fate. It would be a tragedy for this anime to end on a sour note. But the animation really took me out of the episode… it was honestly a shock to see the quality. I’m still going to keep my hopes up for the remaining episodes. I need to make sure that Tonari has a successful rescue mission!! (Hahaha but if the previous arcs are any indication of what’s going to happen…. Tonari, maybe it’s better you go back to the boat. Write your story, see the world.)
Despite my mostly negative feelings towards this episode, I do want to say that I enjoyed the dream sequence that Fushi had where the boozeman, Rean, and Gugu’s brother appeared. It was just a sweet moment to seem them all again, and it’s nice to see that they haven’t been forgotten. Plus, I loved the conversation that they had about Fushi wanting to exist alongside them, but also recognizing that he can give them a sort of second chance that they’ll never be able to experience. And you know what? That actually brings up an interesting question. In order for Fushi to transform into someone, can they die of natural causes, like old age? Or do their lives have to be cut short (murder, tragedy, etc)? Because in theory, he could amass a lot of transformations in 100 years. Ah, well… Perhaps that answer will be addressed later.
So, all in all, I really wasn’t super impressed with this episode. If anything, I thought it was pretty lackluster. I’m usually all for a good villain (I mean, I’d still want to punch the villain, but a good one is always welcome), but I really don’t know how I feel about Hayase. The Nokkers are certainly the more traditional threat, but she… she’s just… something and I can’t put my finger on it to describe her. Animation this time around really took me out of the immersion of the episode. and I think on its own that wouldn’t be the worst, but with these two feelings coupled together…. I kind of wish this episode could get a re-do. Ah well… Tonari’s on her way back to rescue Fushi! I’m wishing her the best!
