Welp, I’m back to the normal schedule now so my blogging will be back to normal from now on. My apology for those who waited for my weekly blogs for the last few weeks. For Kemurikusa, episode 6 was a slow one, even slower than its standard (and that says a lot), but the latest episode kicks things up a notch nicely. Before I get into the plot details, let me just mention the CG of Kemurikusa. It helps that the show doesn’t have that much of action scenes and they did a decent when it comes to these action sequences. The issues amongst its CG, however, can be seen clearly in episode 7 when Kemurikusa depicts falling objects but it feels as if they are floating instead. The gravity of the models feel off most of the time, and normally our characters get away with it given their non-human nature. When it comes to depicting something falling, however, the issues become obvious. As a whole, do I enjoy Kemurikusa? My answer is: pretty much. It’s slow burn and it has tons of issues but it still remains intriguing, and one of the joy of following this is we have no idea about the scope of the plot. Will it go down to epic path or will it finish small? I have no clue, but I’m game for more.
One of the main event in episode 6 is that Wakaba meets another Kemurikusa sister, Riku. Riku is a good addition to the cast since her personality is distinct and even her power (that she could use all types of Kemurikusa power – a nod for her exceptional “touching” sense) and she leaves a lasting impression in the first half of episode 6. She teaches Wakaba how to use certain types of Kemurikusa, and conveniently reveals more information about the worldbuilding. Two things of note is that it appears that both her and Ryoku are still safe and sound, but for some unknown reasons they prefer to stay away from their sisters. “We are supposed to be death”, says Riku. My take on it is that they are currently carrying another mission in Island 6 that they don’t want the remaining sisters to be involved, because we can clearly see how fond Riku is when she talks about Rin, Rina and Ritsu.
After the fateful encounter, Wakaba learns how to use the kemurikusa to make it as a shield, and with the Yellow one he can function it like a memory Ipad. All these letters written there are assumedly made by Ryoku, the kemurikusa scholar. The bit that remains the most interesting is the letters written in different characters that mentioned about the original self who has the memory leaf. There are two theories behind this written text. At first, my initial reaction is that the text was written by the original Rina before she splits into six. If you notice you’d see one standout Rina who sleeps/ closes her eyes all the times. My hunch is that she is the original Rina and she has the memory of other Rinas before the split. My second take on it, however, is on the grander scheme. It could be that it was the First Person who splits herself into multiple different Kemurikusa girls, each of them carry different personality and is exceptional of one distinct sense: Rin has a great vision and Ritsu can listen to other sounds by using the Midori for example.
Another important turn of event happens at the end of episode 6 where they found another water source: the giant tree with a lake the runs beneath. There’s heaps of interesting factions going on here: there’s this thick Blue Wall that separate the tree with the rest and it’s function like an Ipad Kemurikusa. There are Blue Bugs which attack the girls, but for me it’s more like they are protecting the Blue Wall themselves. My favorite moment of episode 7 is the brief moment of happiness from the girls when they find a safe place that has water and no Red Bugs to fight. We could really feel how the weight has (momentarily) taken off their shoulders. But like any good fiction, it’s too good to be all true. Wakaba and Rin find out that in the other side of the Blue Wall, Red Bug and Red Mist run amok and on its way to destroy everything. It’s a nice turn of events in general. I give the credits for the show’s confident control of its pacing. Other normie shows would rush to this high-stake part to provide “drama”, Kemurikusa instead makes all the little happy moments sink in first, then reveal this massive conflict. By doing so, we have all the reasons to feel their stake, root for them and look forward to this battle.
