This episode was a lot slower compared to the last two, but still had that eerie air about it as we continue on with the mystery. Something I wondered was mentioned this episode: Knowing that Shadows do exist, how can we be sure to trust the people on this island now? We don’t know the Shadow’s numbers and where they’re lurking, but the second that was brought up the second I got even more nervous for Shinpei and Mio.
I love that Shinpei isn’t totally trusting of Sou and used his words against him…even though he did share everything with him. But the second Sou said all of that I also got increasingly wary of him and even Tokiko. At this point you really just can’t trust a single person anymore, other than Mio since we know for sure this is the real Mio and not her Shadow.
But Sou definitely made himself suspicious, or maybe we’re being teased. He seemed pretty normal and all, but I’m very curious what he was talking about when he said that he wanted to look into something important, and when Shin brought the topic up he just brushed it off. Whatever he said he wanted to look into just had to be something about Shadows since that’s what they were talking about the entire time, so why would Sou just brush it off? Also I’m not so sure about the code thing they came up with either. When we saw Mio make the Shadow copy of Tetsu, he seemed to have totally regained his entire personality and memories. Shadow Tetsu acted just like regular Tetsu like knowing the character’s names and his regular meal at the cafe. So if the Shadows are able to copy the original’s memories as well, then that would make their code completely useless. Which makes things even more unsettling because so far that we know, there really is no discernable trait they can use to tell the Shadows apart. If the memory copy is true, they can’t even ask a personal question either to tell them apart. So with Sou acting normal and being all friendly like he normally would be doesn’t necessarily rule him out. And again he’s just been really suspicious this whole time, or I’m just really on guard. Basically trust no one, not even yourself.
So now we know the answer of what happened at the funeral. Shiori had already been copied and is most likely dead and gone now, and Shadow Shiori was present at the funeral. Maybe the reason why glasses lady as there in the first place, so we can maybe conclude that her words in the forest was towards Shiori and not Shinpei. I say maybe, because this episode Shinpei had mentioned that he’s been afflicted with the Shadow Sickness now since the funeral. If I’m understanding right, being afflicted by the Shadow Sickness means that he had been copied, and that you don’t necessarily need to see your Shadow to be afflicted. Just being copied is enough. So that means, even if we don’t have the solid proof right now, that it was Shiori that copied Shinpei at the funeral and there’s maybe a Shadow Shinpei hiding somewhere. But with my suspicions, maybe Sou was copied. I know that Shinpei said that he was afflicted, but we don’t know for sure until we see another Shinpei. Still, anything goes.
Anyway that scene with Shadow Shiori was incredibly creepy, it was very well done.
This episode was more lighthearted, I won’t even get into the incest/sort of not incest romance thing we have going on and this love…square? thing we got too. They’re never my favorite things so I’ll just set that aside for now. The most important thing in the last part of the episode was supposedly Ushio walking through the festival and Shinpei running after her. The second Shinpei left the group behind to follow her, I knew he messed up. Nothing happened in the end and damn it it’s a great cliffhanger, but I expect nothing but terrible things to happen next time. I do not think this is the real Ushio, it might just be her Shadow. But then something really struck me. This is Ushio we’re talking about. She died very recently and just had her funeral, and she was known throughout the community so much so that everyone really loved her. So how was it that NO ONE in the festival recognized her and reacted in any way? Is Shinpei simply hallucinating then, or is there another weird phenomenon we don’t know about yet? It just doesn’t add up and just makes things even weirder. Either way, I feel like this was a huge mistake for Shinpei. Knowing what they know, this is not the time to be splitting up, especially when you’re chasing after the Shadow/ghost/something of the girl that just died. I was waiting for Shinpei to get shot or stabbed at the end, but instead we ended the episode off with the pretty song and that simply gorgeous shot of Ushio standing in the water in front of the fireworks. Truly dazzling. This anime really is a pretty one to look at.
We’ll probably get Shinpei’s death soon because I truly think he messed up here. I’ve seen manga readers hype up the next chapters so I’m looking forward to what happens next.
