The first half of this episode had something that you hardly ever get to see in anime: tracking. It was fairly basic: following someone’s sled tracks in the snow, but what made it work was the mystery: Mamoru had some kind of reason to do this, and it wasn’t even sure whether he, with his weak cantus, would have survived.
The revelation of why he ran away… yeah. For some reason the adults found it appropriate to get rid of him. Even though at first sight there might not be something wrong with him. Next episode will probably delve more into that, and why he has to fear for his life and got those copycats after him (which were quite the intense scenes, by the way).
What I’m also quite worried about was that one queerat that this episode showed. This episode avoided the issue, but it WAS walking around in holy territory, which it probably is not supposed to do. I love how gray these guys are on the moral scale: they’re always helpful, and yet there is always something itching about fully trusting them.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
This was a decent episode. So Shun was a karma demon. His cantus leaked out unintentionally. The narrator (Saki) hinted that Maria becomes a fiend.
So what’s wrong with Mamoru? Is he just too weak? Maybe they are concerned he would be come a Karma demon? The ethics committee is damn strict when it comes to eliminating kids.
Whatever it is, I think Maria is showing signs of instability. If something happens to Mamoru, I don’t doubt she will kill a ton of people.
Actually Mamoru is more likely to turn into a fiend, most kids who transform into fiends were average kids with no clear talent or overly powerful cantus, what makes them snap and start killing people is the pressure placed on them by their parents/teachers/peers, and the most common reason for that would be them having a weak PK/cantus power and falling behind their peers .. that would place a lot of pressure and stress on them .. making them eventually snap and start attacking people randomly in frea of being attacked first .. like how a weak rat viciously fights when packed in a tight corner and attacked by superior predator like a cat.
That also would explain why all the kids with weak PK/cantus were being disposed off (Saki’s sister, and the shy girl from the early episodes), the clearly paranoid Education committee is systematically weeding out any possible Fiends with vicious prejudice becasue they can’t risk having any fiend manifest as it happens instantly and they become very hard to control or kill, unlike with Karma Demons where the change happens gradually and thus allows them to isolate the Karma Demon and even help them end their own lives, Fiends are a totally different story .. once they manifest .. they are unstoppable killing machines .. that’s why they can’t risk any Fiend manifesting at all.
So like i said, that would be the only logical explanation IMO as to why the Education Committee is killing/weeding out average students/children with weak cantus (like Saki’s sister, Shy girl from the start of the series and Mamoru)
Karma Demons are more likely in talented Cantus Users like Shun.
It’s an alright episode and a great set-up for future ones. Nothing that much to talk about for this one though. Next episode looks interesting as they’ll be meeting some of the leaders responsible for the disappearances.
I’m getting a feeling that Maria and Mamoru run away together and appear on the scene later. I’ve heard the second part of the series is pretty much about queerats, so maybe they gather up an army to overthrow the current leadership? IDK, Maria just going psycho doesn’t seems too simple for this series.
I’m thinking this show is just starting to scratch the tip of the iceberg on how dark it can be. It’s only half over and we’ve already disposed of two of the kids (shy girl from the start, Shun), now it looks like another one or two are on the way. Fun and cheery, isn’t it?
Manabu (the boy who cheated during that game before time skip) as well.