Weird how they dropped a bombshell like Shide being an ancestor of the Hishigata family and for the next episode to not even touch on that. I was at least hoping we would get something but instead this was a slower episode, but a decent one. This one dealt with Mio’s self hatred, and of more personal relationships between the characters and the Shadows of the people they were close to. One being Nezu’s wife, the other being a teacher Ushio and Shinpei adored. But at least we didn’t have to wait longer for an even bigger bombshell, but first…
The gang last the night and this is huge for Shinpei since he has more leeway regarding the time loops. In order to whittle down their numbers for the festival, the team decides to split into two teams and deal with the shadows they know exist. Which end up being the ones that Hizuru was able to scope out at the funeral. While the Mios and Sou end up in the group with Shinpei and Ushio, it’s really just Ushio and Shinpei that go out to hunt the Shadows. There’s a little bit of tension, mainly on Mio’s side regarding how she sees herself and her feelings toward Shinpei.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, even if it sounds mean, but Shadow Mio joining the group was the best thing to happen to Mio’s character because she’s been so static from the start. And I do blame the writing also for making Mio always be in the background doing nothing, but maybe it was intentional. Shadow Mio going off and listing out all the things Mio hates about herself and calling her Ushio’s real shadow was compelling. In the show, Mio really did become sort of like a shadow when Ushio came around. Mio is sweet and all but comparing the two sisters, it’s true that Ushio tends to steal the show both towards us as an audience and towards the characters themselves too. Ushio was the popular lovable girl who is now a shadow with amazing powers helping them all, while Mio is…just there. Everyone likes to protect her too so that doesn’t exactly help either. I’m interested to see what Mio will do from here, but it looks like she’s gonna lay it all out for Shinpei when she gets the chance.
The theme of the episode was dealing with the shadows of those with a personal connection to the characters, and I think it was alright. Nezu’s was sad but the scene was abrupt as well. The teacher was more emotional only because we got to see a flashback with her and listened to her sweet words to Ushio after the bullying incident. And considering that she taught most of the kids and adults on the island made the blow worse for them because she was an important figure for a lot of people. I like that they took the time to do this rather than just the action so I appreciate this episode.
Weird things are going on with Ushio but we’re finally going to be talking to a character I’ve had my eye on since the beginning. And I certainly wasnt expecting what we got, but I just knew Karikiri had to be involved somehow.
But the fact that he’s Shide, and his whole origin is insane. It seems like the legend of Hiruko and how Haine came to be is pretty much true and the whole “garbage washing up ashore” thing from the beginning did have meaning since it symbolizes what had happened in the 1700s. We don’t know if Hizuru’s whole story of how the being came from space is true or whatever, but it was really fascinating to see everything play out and to see that Karikiri was there to witness it. It’s just insane that the Karikiri we know right now is the son of Haine, who has his father’s memories copied and implanted into him and he’s been reborn over and over again, as a human-shadow hybrid. I really liked this reveal and everything was really intense and exciting, and it felt reminiscent of the beginning of the show when it had this type of atmosphere. I definitely like this type of drama more than the action stuff so I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The way everything went to shit at the end was also exciting, and ESPECIALLY the very end.
What’s going to happen now? Ushio is definitely very much gone unless there’s some sort of way they can get her back but I can’t think of anything. Would Shadow Mio be able to do something? The second Karikiri mentioned that it was possible he had a Shadow, I just knew that he had to so it was frustrating when Ushio went and sliced his head. It was really careless and it screwed them over. And now with this new time loop, this really is it for Shinpei. Unless they change their course, he seriously cannot die or this is it for him since he’s at that threshhold. These last two episodes were pretty good, I enjoyed these much more than the episodes we’ve been getting from this second half. I hope we keep up with this momentum, things are really getting spicy now.
