Short Synopsis: Finally! The cat!
Episode Rating: 9/10 (fantastic)
Amazing! The second season just continues to get better and better! I know I have ranted a lot about the second season so far, but the past few episodes have been utterly incredible! This could very well turn into my favourite Gainax production at this pace. This is EXACTLY what a good shounen series needs to be!
And seriously, if this episode wasn’t horror, then I don’t know anymore. We have a slaughtered group of children, a frog shikabane who brutally eats the corpses of these children, yet another group of children who are nearly crushed by a bunch of exploding cars, Hokuto who brutally kills everyone within her sight by squeezing them to death. Oh my god… you can really see that the creators were in their element when they made this episode.
So in the end, it turns out that Hokuto was simply someone bred to be sacrificed to the gods. That’s why she turned into a shikabane without any grudges, making her a simple killing machine. Makina’s ancestors were the one who killed her, and that’s why she was turned into a Shikabane: to give her a grudge. In the meantime, the cat turns out to be the shikabane of every kid who was slaughtered by Ouri’s mother. It was interesting how they saw him as a companion, rather than someone killed them in the case of Hizuchi.
Those revelations also came surprisingly early: three episodes left and most of the mysteries are gone now. The only thing that I still want to know is the background behind the final two members of the Seven Stars. In the meantime, the end of this episode definitely made all hell break loose. Usually I’d raise an eyebrow again, since this means that the show is going to turn into an even bigger fight-fest than it already was, but this series has surprised me enough times already. The creators really seem to plan to go all out with the show’s finale, and I can’t wait to find out what they have in store!
“This could very well turn into my favourite Gainax production at this pace.”
I thought Gainax had nothing do to with the second season and it was entirely by the people they co produced the first season with… um is it FEEL? I can’t really remember.
It’s called Feel, indeed. I’ve read before that the animation production changed for the second season somewhere, but the strange thing is that I can’t seem to find any confirmation of this anywhere.
This really was a great episode, and showed all the things this show can do best. The gainax animation really bought the creepiness to life, and it all looked freaking sweet. The colours and the movement.
The general plot and character interaction also rocketed on.
Basically, top marks all round. It definitely provides hope for a fulfilling finish.
i want to watch this episode where can i see it
i’m so glad they got the cat mystery out of the way. i was thinking it was ouri’s mom but the children- that’s a relatively interesting concept. but why is it that it’s a shikabane agglomeration that only Ouri can see and not others? hmmm… and i’m hoping the finale is gonna be as good as it looks like. sounds like the rest of the ride is going to be a great one for sure!
snowolf, you forget that Makina could see the cat too. I dun really think the cat was a shikabane or else Makina would have turned it into minced meat long ago. But I’m also at lost as to its exact nature. Dun forget that while it started wanting to have Ouri’s body, it turned out that what they were more interested in was Ouri’s nature. To see if the child of a Shikabane will live as a human or a corpse.
You’re right Paul! Thx!
I wonder if it’s still alive, that cat. I really liked it. Very interesting figure. I still don’t know what it is- something only Ouri can see. Maybe a bunch of ghosts?? Hm….