At long last, we have an entire episode in flashback and explains much of its Kemurikusa’s rich settings. Even at the risk of over-informed us with details, all the information we learn this week is both unexpected, and makes total sense. Before we get into the details, (AND WHAT A MAJOR REVEAL), I feel the need to mention the soundtrack/ score of Kemurikusa. The score isn’t flashy by any mean, but it fits very well to the tone of this world. TATSUKI is the person of praise here, as you can see the pure authenticity, the total control towards this indie project. While normally characters writings (and their dialogues) aren’t his forte, the way he builds up his world-buildings – details upon details, to the point you can see every bit in its world is there for a reason – is amongst simply masterwork. More than any other episode, this week sweeps viewers away by a flashback story between Wakaba and the First Person, which turns out to be a resurrected child name Riri, at the very start of it all. And Kemurikusa manages to close the episode seamlessly when it cuts from the cliffhanger to the extended ED that just by looking at the ED alone, you’d learn the entire context of what had been happening. Beautiful. This week certainly the best episode of Kemurikusa so far, to the point where it singlehanded raise the show up a notch for me.
So the first major drop is Riri herself, whom who soon learn is “saved” by Wakaba the researcher. The show distinctly points her as the only human in this cast (leaving Wakaba as an alien. We will get to that later). She does have a talent of mixing/ creating kemurikusa, and she’s the one who creates red toxic kemurikusa out of her goodwill. The irony is certainly there as she only wanted to make it just so that Wakaba won’t overworked. I certainly appreciate the art direction of this flashback, especially in regards to the red/blue hybrid post-apocalyptic world these girls are in now. The settings are drawn with dull (and much less aggressive) color palette compared to the current world. In addition, with only little screen time, the flashback does a decent job of selling us the chemistry between Wakaba and Riri.
The reveal certainly answers many questions, but in turns it brings another one: who and what exactly is Wakaba the present? His former self is an alien scientist who studies about Kemurikusa and making islands. He is indeed the Captain of these white bugs, and lastly the Kemurikusa technology is entirely man-made and unnatural. But what about his current self? I believe he’s Wakaba’s clone who inhabits his personality but not his memory. It’s pretty much up in the air whether the original Wakaba is still alive or already bite the dust.
Lastly, we have a pretty firm context regarding the origin of Kemurikusa girls (and how each of them inherits one of the First Person’s sense), and the content of the blurry text. By combining all Kemurikusa leaves and splits into multiple red hair girls, she gives up being a human with her mission is to save Wakaba. It certainly feels bitter how these girls have been struggling (and even lost their own objective) ever since. At this point I am almost certain that we won’t see other sisters again, and hopefully, Rin and Wakaba can take Riri’asbody back. I feel pretty much rewarding that I stick to Kemurikura’s ride until now, because this episode is simply a blast that reaffirms everything that comes before it.
