And from out of nowhere this episode reveals the big motivation for Freecell. And to be honest… it’s kindof lame. I mean, it’s clear now that in this series there are quite a few characters gay for Kaito, but this guy’s reason for being so seems to be the flimsiest of the bunch.
So, to recap: in the Crossfield academy Kaito stood out as a genius, amongst all the other kids who were being pushed to be the next Phi Brain. We know that Kaito had a really difficult time there: he lost his parents and suddenly was placed to some random school he didn’t know; it was Rook who probably got him back up to his feet.
During that time, he talked to Freecell exactly once, and promised to meet and play again. He broke that promise because it happened on the same day that Rook disappeared, which is logical. On the same day, Freecel’s mother died and because he was sad that Kaito didn’t meet him, his was sad to see him sad and so she died unhappy. And Freecell has been unable to move on for 10 years, to the point of devoting his entire life to get back at him.
Of course, things aren’t as simple as “this episode made no sense”. After all, these characters were kids. This episode raised some amazing points that really should not be overlooked: forcing kids to perform beyond everything, and neglecting to let them evolve emotionally. From the looks of it, the POG did not care about this at all and was such an unhealthy environment for kids to grow up, with the result of mental delusions. This builds further upon what the first season started, and it also showed how hard Jin’s task was to get everything under control: he could give guidance to kids like Kaito, but there were much more kids that he ignored. Probably because he was doing this in secret so his actions had to be limited. This is something I actually really like: the kids who were forgotten and not as lucky as Kaito.
The thing that bugs me lies in the storytelling and how it took some very convenient loops. First of all: having the mother die at exactly the right moment is a tad too convenient here. But my biggest beef: Kaito only talked to Freecell once. That’s all. There is no reason for this to have such a significant impact on Freecell. There was no time to develop their relationship. Losing your mother is a terrible thing, but even taking that into account I find it hard to believe that Freecell would bear a lifelong grudge against someone who made him sad on the day that his mother died.
Rook was an awesome villain because he had time to spend with Kaito: he changed. Freecell’s entire character is dominated by this revenge. The upcoming episodes will need to fix that and give him an actual character.
And on a side-note, Phi Brain: you disappoint me. Are you really planning to have five subsequent episodes, focusing on the same puzzle? That’s just lazy.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
The reason is truly lame. I hope they will give something more to that.
Someone on MAL suggests that maybe there were medecine of his mother in the pendant and Kaito was meant to solve the pendant puzzle, I think this works but I can’t help but feel that the creators don’t know what they are writing…
The characters are way too messed up and childish.
I think they are messed up because they are planning something big and surprising at the back; Plus season 2 i think come suddenly to the team as an unexpected thing…i think…so i think good puzzle and storyline will be later in the coming episode…for my personal point of view, they are slowly and trying something new….plus still it is too early to disappointed at the beginning of Season 2, yet it just only started…
I like to think that reasoning was all just one giant red herring too mislead the audience for his true motive. But, of course, that’s probably unlikely. Still, by looking at it as a red herring, it makes the episode more bearable to watch and keeps the series’ expectations relatively stable since that reasoning was really lame.
I’m pretty sure there’s more to Freecell’s backstory than this. For one, there’s the pendant that his mother gave him, which is most probably a puzzle of sorts, and it’s obviously very important, we get a close-up on it every time Freecell appears.
Also, it’s not that Freecell was sad that his mother died – it’s that his *mother* died sad. Freecell most likely wanted Kaito’s help with something that was important to his mother, Kaito never showed up, and in the end his mom died sad and disappointed.
Well, at least Kaito has an acceptable reason to forget Freecell, beyond being the usual oblivious male lead. “Oops, I missed an appointment with someone I only talked to once. Oh well…”
I don’t like this new season at all. It just doesn’t live up to the standard the first one set. Once it runs its course I hope they change the director again.
The Orpheus Order members are all so unlikable. Melancholy is one of the most annoying female characters I’ve seen in a long time, and I just want to punch Freecell.
And is it just me… or did this season forget it was supposed to be fun?