“Gunshots on such a quiet night will be heard far and wide. This ain’t America.”
This is so fucking funny, thank you Shadow Mio.
Damn it, this episode felt way too short. The episode starts off with a quick flashback scene where we see the scene of Ushio’s drowning, and Shinpei’s “spirit” is there to see it. Nothing seems off about it, other than the fact that instead of the same dream Shinpei had before he is instead watching this. After his second death this episode, we now really know what Ushio means by protecting Mio. Less of a “look after her” and definitely a “protect her life” now that we know what’s going on.
The Re:zero comparisons are going to continue as now we know that Shinpei is just like Subaru, being that every time he dies he comes back to the same moment in time and is able to retain his memories from the past time loops before his death. Of course right now, Shinpei is coming to terms with what the hell is going on but he’s making quick work of everything he’s learned so far. He’s pretty capable and is already coming up with plans and trying his best to protect Mio and himself from these Shadows, but he still is just a normal guy trying to remain calm in this strange situation where his life is on the line. Or…is he normal?
Shinpei not even realizing that one of his eyes is a different color was very strange. We as an audience knew this detail about him obviously, but with anime you would think it was just a stylistic choice. But upon this episode, it really doesn’t seem like it now. He seemed genuinely shocked and confused that his eye was a different color, and Shadow Mio’s words before Shinpei’s death insinuates that the Shinpei who is our main character right now is possibly a Shadow? Could it be the reason that he’s in this time loop phenomenon? There is also the glasses woman that Shinpei has met. We’ve seen a lot of her in this episode and she’s definitely in on this Shadow phenomenon, whether she’s a time looper or not. She already seems to know what they are and is busy investigating them, and it’s interesting that she was there specifically at the funeral. Of course with this phenomenon happening on the island, you can say that any one of the people in the room during the funeral is a suspicious suspect. I mean, we already know that Mio has her own Shadow, and apparently Ushio did as well. But we get another hint that Shinpei may be a Shadow when the glasses woman remarked “It’s right there among them.” when she had her eyes on Shinpei when he was speaking to the little girl’s family. Sure you can say that she was maybe talking about the little girl, but the framing on the shot had Shinpei in the center so it makes things even more suspicious. If Shinpei were a Shadow, it makes you wonder why he’s different from the others and why he’s in this situation in the first place.
We finally get to see how the Shadows work and it makes the funeral scene even more strange. When creating a Shadow copy, there is a bright flash of light similar to a camera. The sound effect is even like a camera. When making the original disappear, there is another flash of light but a little different. The flash of light we see at the funeral was the same as the one where a Shadow is made, so it begs the question: Who was copied? There were so many people at the funeral that it could have been anyone, and it also means that there was a Shadow person there who had made the copy of someone in there! Was it Mio, was it the little girl, was it someone else? It could even be the glasses woman herself since she was there at the funeral. I love that this anime doesn’t really make anything obvious like a certain other anime airing this season…
The anime proves it’s also going to be really violent and gory, though the death scenes this episode were pretty weird in consistency. The cops death sounded super brutal and yet it wasn’t really shown. At first I thought they censored it, and it sort of seemed that way at first, but they purposely made it so you didn’t see it. But then we had Shadow Mio stab Shinpei’s neck once and watched him die with his blood shooting everywhere. That was gruesome so it’s weird how one death was graphic and the other wasn’t. Didn’t take away from my enjoyment but I did think it strange. Also, watching how the Shadows form was pretty creepy and cool. Got the whole Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing going on, love it.
I’m excited to see how Shinpei is going to do with this time loop and what other mysteries we’ll find out. He jumped into action quick by calling Tetsu and faking a report of a bar fight to save his life. Messaging Sou so he could talk to him in person was a good idea, and the best part was using his phone to record Shadow Mio to show the real Mio what’s going on. Mio already knows about Shadows because of seeing Ushio’s so that saves time for explanation, so it should start them on a path to investigating and avoiding death. Gotta say, I love how smart and steadfast Shinpei is.
With an anime season being boring for me personally, I’m so glad that Summer Time Render has been living up to the hype. I’m enjoying this more and more and can’t wait for the next episode! How will things fare this time?
