Episode 8 felt pretty weird. It was pretty lighthearted for the most part until Shadow Mio came in to attack Shinpei, but the animation felt really different as well. And upon seeing some reactions, they actually went through 8 manga chapters this time. And it really shows because I didn’t really like this episode’s pacing. It felt janky at times and just too fast and with the animation being different this time also didn’t really help not making this episode feel off. A rougher episode this time around for sure.
We get lots of comedic moments between Shinpei and Ushio as she randomly arrives at the house. Shinpei does his best to make the events go normally but of course he also has his attention on Ushio. A change this big signified that bad things would happen and it sure did. Mio didn’t appear in front of the house like normally she did in the other time loops, instead changing into her “liquid” form and sneaking into Shinpei’s room to kill him. But first she approached Ushio and questioned her. Ushio has definitely proven that she’s an abnormality when it comes to the Shadows. She doesn’t seem to align herself to them at all and she doesn’t even know how to properly use her abilities, such as copying a person or even changing her form. And most importantly, it seems that Ushio can also time loop or see into the future. We now know why Hizuru came to the island and it was because of the message that Ushio had sent her, which she doesn’t even remember doing. There’s still so much about Ushio that we know nothing about, and seeing as how she doesn’t even remember anything herself, it doesn’t look like the mystery is going to be uncovered anytime soon.
Shinpei and Ushio have fun interactions, though again I’m not really into the whole step-siblings falling in love with each other thing. Yeah I know they’re not related, I don’t care. They grew up as siblings since they were very small children so….ehhhh. Doesn’t help that it’s a love triangle. I know Ushio wanting to protect Shinpei is supposed to be touching with her speech but I can’t get that out of my mind. And Ushio is cool and all but maybe her personality doesn’t mesh with me too. I’m more interested in the mystery of everything.
I wonder how things will go now that Hizuru won’t work with Shinpei anymore, due to him deciding to stay around Ushio. I don’t necessarily blame her but considering Ushio was the one that sent that message to her, I would think she would want to stick around.
Anyway, this was probably my least favorite episode. The pacing was not good and the tone shift was a little too much with all of those facial expressions. It feels like an entirely different team animated this episode too, so I hope this doesn’t continue.
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And just like night and day, Episode 9 was MUCH better. It really does feel like a completely different team handled episode 8. Episode 9 was an episode just as good as previous ones, back to the better animation and the better pacing as well. I really do wonder what happened last week.
So yes, this episode was great. We immediately continue where the last one left off with the video Ushio had recorded. We learn that Ushio was on friendly terms with her Shadow, and we get to see how it came to be and what happened on that fateful day when the real Ushio was killed. I say the “real” Ushio but it’s more accurate to say it was human Ushio. Because while the boys are with Shadow Ushio, she feels like human Ushio as well.
First of all, I have to say that seeing the real Shiori in the flashbacks and how sweet of a kid she was makes me pretty sad. She had a bit of a bratty attitude but she was just a cute kid that got along with the others, with her and Ushio having this sisterly relationship. We’ve only seen her face through the Shadow so seeing her always made me nervous since she was always ready to kill, so she was legit terrifying. So seeing the actual Shiori and seeing how the two Ushios tried so hard to save her, it really is sad. :/
We see that Shadow Ushio was an anomaly from the very start. She didn’t have that malice or creepy disposition that the other Shadows we’ve seen have. Instead, she’s just a perfect copy of Ushio. Same attitude, same humor, same personality, it’s more like they’re twin sisters than anything. Admittedly it was pretty fun watching them together because of how well they got along. Their little banter during the video seemed like something twins would do to mess with other people and it was really entertaining. And I know I just said that I’m not the biggest fan of Ushio, though I have nothing against her. But there wasn’t much to her other than genki clueless girl. This episode helped us see her in another light though. While she still is a very genki person, she’s also very headstrong and caring. She looks after the kids and knowing that Shiori was in danger after finding out that a Shadow needs to kill the original, she did everything she could to save her. She’s a really sweet person with determination, but unfortunately she and her Shadow weren’t able to succeed. Last episode just did not do a good job in characterization for ANYONE really, I’m still puzzled what that episode even was. It was nothing like this or all the other episodes so it leaves a sour taste, but thankfully we were able to get back on track with this one. Because this episode was able to make me appreciate Ushio a lot more, and I’m excited to see how things will develop now that Shadow Ushio’s memories have come back to her. With those memories, her powers have come back to her too and I gotta say I love her hair attack.
So now we know how everything came to be, the theory that Shadow Shiori killing both human Shiori and Ushio being true. I have to wonder though, how will this time loop go now that things have changed so much compared to the previous time loops. Ushio going out of her way to show Shinpei and Sou her memories is huge, as well as Shinpei getting into contact with Hizuru and Nezu. So much has been done to move things forward and to understand things more, so it makes me really nervous. ESPECIALLY at the very end, when that girl we saw at the festival, the “Mother”, suddenly appeared in the memory and reached out to Shinpei, leaving a mark on his arm. I do not have a good feeling about this.
Also I’m not sure whether or not this should stick out to me, but the old Hishigata clinic being abandoned makes me raise my eyebrow. I’m STILL not sure whether I should trust Sou and Tokiko, and the whole family, at this point but I wonder why their clinic had to be abandoned. Them being the only doctors (or the doctors with the biggest facility, I can’t remember) on the island, why would the building be abandoned and have rumors of being haunted. I don’t know, I still think it’s weird and suspicious…
