Migi & Dali – 12 [Upside-Down Woman]

Welcome all, to the penultimate episode of Migi & Dali! This is a rough one for me, where I liked most of it but I just can’t get a few niggling little details out of my head. Nothing too major, but still important enough to be worth talking about. So with that, lets dive into the episode!

So like I said, this episode was mixed for me. The core of it, the primary plot and events, all worked really well. Most everything involving the twins, Eiji, their relationship was good. How they came together as brothers, or Dali deciding his revenge against Reiko and Eiji would be to force him to live imperfectly rather than die a perfect death, that all worked. Considering those are all of the most important events of the episode, it would probably be safe to call this week a success. But… There are a few things I just can’t get out of my head. Details, the way certain scenes were executed that, despite being in an otherwise solid episode, bring the whole thing down for me. So before I gush about the rest of the good stuff, lets talk about those.

Jumping right into it, the big one for me was Mii-chan’s ghost. I’m willing to chalk this up to smoke-induced hallucinations, or just a thematically appropriate way to show finding each other in the flames using one of the few positive adult influences in their lives. Looking at it literally though, as Mii-chan’s ghost clearing the flames and helping them out… I really don’t like it. It feels really out of place in Migi & Dali, an otherwise silly but grounded thriller. Sure the comedy was out there, but that was usually clearly delineated from the more serious story. You could tell where one ended and the other began most of the time. And when you couldn’t, it still never left reality, instead it was just “Improbable”. What I’m trying to say is, the whole “Ghost” thing was a bit much for me and simply didn’t fit in my mind.

Similarly, there were a lot of small details throughout the house and the escape sequence that bugged me. Some were minor, like the chandelier. Why are they trying to lift it up when they could just… crawl out from under it? Eiji wasn’t pinned, and Dali crawled right on in next to him. Yeah it makes for a nice “coming together” moment but if Eiji really was pinned than Migi & Dali didn’t do a good job showing that. As for the escape, the general absence of dialogue made the whole scene feel off. The music wasn’t too great a fit and seeing characters yelling and shouting at each other only made it worse. I get what Migi & Dali was going for here, but I don’t think it worked all that well.

Getting back to the good stuff, while the lack of dialogue was weird I absolutely loved the return of Akiyama. I cheered when bird boy returned, busting down that door and freeing them. Is it convenient? Yes, very. There’s no way he could have known about the door. But the timing was so perfect, and seeing him waltz right in wearing the tatters of his bird costume made it work. Add on him going back for the dog, jumping out the window like a phoenix, and the show finally calling out the dad for being a terrible father who ignored the issues within his family, and it all made for a very cathartic moment. I’m really glad Migi & Dali didn’t forget about either of those characters, letting the adult step up to help even if he failed and really showing off Akiyama and Migi’s friendship.

As for Eiji and everything that happened with him, the idea of Dali’s revenge being for him to live “imperfectly” felt fitting. Eiji is almost as much of a victim as Migi and Dali are. He was also stolen from his mother, raised by a madwoman, and directly responsible for Metry’s death. Sure if you want to assign blame to a child, you could call him a victim. However I see it more as the consequences of Reiko’s actions rather than his own. So by forcing him to live, rather than die a perfect death, Dali is effectively getting revenge against Reiko, robbing her of a meaningful death. Sure it doesn’t mean much to her, she’s dead. But it means something to Dali and Eiji, and that’s what matters. Because now they, all three of them, can finally find a home in a truly loving family. Maybe.

Finally I want to talk about the comedy again. I mentioned before how Migi & Dali typically does a good job of separating the comedy from the more serious narrative, and I stand by that. However in this episode we see them overlap a fair bit, and I think that’s on purpose. The comedy was usually reserved for fun, happy, loving times with family or friends. It signaled the light hearted life Migi has always wanted while Dali focused on revenge. Here Migi & Dali still use it that way, but it’s also to draw Eiji into the fold as well. To include him as part of that happy family. To connect him with Migi and, in turn, Dali. It’s the overlap of the serious revenge plot and the loving familial endgame, finally being used to drag all three of them out of a place of abuse. And I think that’s kind of beautiful.

So yeah, all in all while I’m conflicted on some of the details, the more I think about it the more this episode of Migi & Dali works for me. I also don’t mind that we still have an episode left, as I think there are plenty of loose ends for the show to wrap up. What happens to Eiji? How do Migi and Dali explain being twins to the Sonoyamas? What happens to Karen and Maruta? There are so many plot threads that, while almost complete, still deserve to be wrapped up in a sort of epilogue. Hell, maybe the show will even end on Migi and Dali showing their mothers grave to people and finally opening up! There are a lot of possibilities and I’m looking forward to what happens.