To Your Eternity – Episode 19

Hayase may be one of the biggest threats in this series, but she should share her training routine. I mean, Oniguma would have literally crushed anyone else to death and yet she manages to survive. Perhaps, it was just in Fushi’s nature to not actually kill her but listen…. if he should kill anyone it’s probably her. But hey! At least we made it through one drama filled episode with no major tearful major character deaths! And at the very least if Hayase managed to survive on the boat we’re probably not going to see her for a while which would be fantastic!

I’m actually pleasantly surprise by the direction that the episode took. If it had taken the path that the previous two arcs took Tonari would be dead and Fushi would now be able to turn into her. Don’t get me wrong, the loss of Uroy, Oopa, and Mia packed a surprising punch last week, but it wasn’t anywhere near as emotional as it was previously. If anything, the most stressful part was watching them have to make the decision of whether or not to kill their (already dead) friends. And speaking of that! We really didn’t get to spend a lot of time getting to know Tonari’s gang of friends. It was only after they were dead that we got to learn who they were! It was sad, but at this point I was just surprised that they were going to tell us more about them. But still! Their deaths become a reason for Tonari to stay on the island. Hopefully with her newfound kindness Jananda will become less of a lawless place. I mean, after going through the collective event that was the Nokker’s there’s probably a newfound kinship among the survivors.

I want to say that Tonari had the spotlight in this episode as she was really going through and still considered sacrificing herself, but that would be a lie. Hayase, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, was really the core of this episode. She’s just such a threat and completely obsessed with Fushi – It’s impressive! And to top it all off, she’s strong and scary. It’s not as if she’s having other people do her bidding to take down Fushi, instead she’s able to take him down with just her strength and wits alone. Plus, she held a 14-year-old girl over the burning body pit with ONE HAND. I understand Fushi’s morals and why he wouldn’t kill her and take on her form, but she’s got a point she would be the strongest one in his arsenal (and that’s saying something!).

At the end of the day though, I’m not mad with how this all played out. I was surprised to see that Fushi brought her on the boat with him, but it really does make sense that he would just abandon her out there rather than kill her officially. Also, I kind of love her justification for her actions? Love is a weird word for me to use, but she did everything because she loved Fushi. She killed March and Parona out of love because they were taking him away from her. And it’s funny that she talks about Fushi never having experienced love, because I’d argue these last two, even three, arcs have definitely shown different types of “love”. March, I would argue is like a mother’s love. His “humanity” was still being developed, but she really was like mother to him and helped him grow. Gugu is another kind of familial love and I would argue that it extends to everyone else from that household. They aren’t the sense of Love that Hayase is getting at, but love comes in many shapes and sizes. But at the end of the day, he did not give Hayase what she wanted and potentially she just got attacked by a Nokker so now we don’t have to deal with her and her love ever again (or at least for another episode).

Speaking of which, we only have one episode left! And it looks like we’ll be reunited with Pioran! I think for the most part it will be a fun episode but I anticipate they’re going to give us one final cry. This time around if someone does die, I hope that it’s done due to old age and not murder. I think that would be a good lesson for him. Sad, but still a good thing for him to learn. And Pioran is honestly in the perfect position to teach that lesson to Fushi. Hoo…. I’ll make sure to bring the tissues next. I can’t believe we’re just waiting on the final episode!