Oh my god. I’m just… at a loss for words after this episode. This episode was just beyond sad. I’ve been a huge fan of Noitamina for years now, and I have watched every single of its shows aside from Honey and Clover. But damn, this series has a good chance to be the best thing that Noitamina ever brought forth…
Now that we’ve finally arrived at the last part of the story, it’s time for all of the build-up to pay off. IE: it’s time for this series to get back to the amazing quality of the first five episodes. Mari gets home this time, and starts looking for her mother and daughter. At first sight, they appear dead, but eventually they turn out to have survived in one of the most heart-wrenching reunions. Usually when anime try to play around with “is he dead or not”, this feels rather cheap, but within the context of this series it becomes downright scary. With so many people dead, and at the same time so many survivors left not knowing what happened. There’s no way of telling who might have survived or not. Heck, are we even sure that Mirai’s parents survived?
Speaking of which: OMG at the cliff-hanger at the end. Mirai and Yuuki have actually decided to travel to their homes ALONE!? Taken into account what happened to Yuuki in the previous episode… how the heck are the creators going to end this?! Probably the most evil thing of this episode was that even though Yuuki is most likely SPOILER just about everything kept Red Herringing around him.
I now see why I was so disappointed with episode 6 and 7: with such an amazing start, I expected the rest of the series to be also this consistent in quality, while in fact they were meant as a calm before the storm: they were meant to build up, and take it easy a bit for the finale. I’ve indeed been incredibly stupid thinking that this series was going to jump the shark in its second half. This episode was utterly amazing, and the final two episodes… wow… just wow.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)]]>
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – 09
This one has a really strong potential to become my favorite of 2009. I’m highly anticipating the final 2 episodes!
They handled Mari’s reunion really really well. I didn’t know you handed out 4 stars, but I agree with it 😛
The part where Mari says “Yuuki and you?” confirms he’s DIE-joubu.
Mirai even has a flashback of the ‘dreams’ then Yuuki looks all sad, like the web of denial is breaking up.
She has to cut him off from saying ‘Onee-chan, you know…’ but he says it again at the very end.
FUCK YEAH BONES, BEST SHOW THIS SEASON!
Yes, this was a great episode that included a ton of emotional impact but I now really fear for Mirai.
I had thought that Mirai’s delusion would have resolved itself during this episode, she knows in her mind that Yuuki’s dead, so it really troubles me that the delusion is continuing. I really hope that Mari can catch up with her and snap her out of it before she has to come to terms with what she’s finds at her house, good, or bad.
I had jokingly commented on another site that Mirai and Mari would end up together because everyone else will have died, but now I’m getting a bad feeling that Mirai just might end up being a orphan; tears roll down my cheek at that thought.
I still think that the kid’s death is a quite bit cheap (now I’m ok, now I’m dead), but someone had to die for the show to have a decent ending (the kid, mari’s family or mirai’s family).
Meh, I can’t share the enthusiasm for this one, psgels. For a show that started off being a relatively down-to-earth portrayal of believable earthquake victims finding their way home to suddenly become about a healthy girl who has gone insane talking with the dead ghost of her brother….with very little transition, mind you. I dunno. Something’s off.
Couldn’t be more obvious tbh… Mari running down the escalator w/ the back pack, while Yuuki has it on his back in the truck.
@6
Real trauma and shock is sudden like that.
There was little foreshadowing, except when he trolled in EP4 and I rather like it,
I’m bored of silly build up that’s so obvious it loses it’s effect clichés.
this show is awesome beyond awesome unlike this was the first time some stupid anime actually touches me and make me tear up
Fantastic ? not quite Is was a good solid episode.
to see mari react like that just doesn’t seamed “real”. let me put it into perspective you have a girl that just lose his brother and you just lost your daughter, yes you should to be sad. however you should not ignore that girl feeling. she suffer as much as you do. to see Mirai running “alone” searching for your daughter is something that should not happen. mari should keep a close eye and distance to mirai, no matter how well she might look she still a kid, and you an adult
well this not true if yuuki is alive. but it just not seemed so.
anyway I a bit annoy by those cg background character. the cg character basically being reuse all the time, and to make thing worse they don’t even bother change the color.
Interesting episode… I thought they would start off by make it clear that yuuki is indeed dead, since after the huge discussion everyone already knows it, but its like nothing happened
So Im guessing yuuki will still be here until the last episode, and theres a high chance the cliff hanger of ep 10 is mirai finally realizing hes dead
Lets see, this show tends to be not so predictable, so it might surprise us
Reverse: actually, I think that different people in those situations act entirely different. When I’m in such a situation, I become hyperactive and start doing things that don’t make a lot of sense, so I can somewhat understand how Mari lost track of Mirai in this episode. Apparently, you are more level-headed in those sorts of situations. It’s a good trait, but not everyone’s like this.
yes that the reason I quote the real word. yes people act differently
but based on mari personality she should not do that. she had multiple chance to go home early. she decided not to.
if she do not possesses those trait, she already abandon yuuki and Mirai from the moment she got the chance
You just said everything I had on my mind. They went down at half -I hated those extra characters- but the cliffhanger has paid off. I’ll hope the end is so tocuhing I’d cry.
To me, this episode besides the closure of Mari’s story also marks the end of Mirai’s arc if you can call it that way. At the beginning of this series, Mirai simply was a spoiled brat who blamed the world for everything. But now? Though with a little push by Yuuki she unselfishly helped Mari and searched for her family, although everything seemed to be so desperate. She not only changed 180 degrees but even fulfilled her own statement in episode 5 that she can do something now. Perhaps you could even say that she symbolically defeated death, after death got Yuuki. She has done something and truly helped someone else by reuniting a family.
Since both arcs are finished I expect that the next episode will fully deal with Yuuki’s death, perhaps Mirai’ character arc will even “overstretch” so that her statement “The world should simply break” from episode 1 will transform to “I should simply break” because she might blame herself for his death (if the documents from last episode were a hint of his cause of death (Tokyo Tower incidence, anyone?)). Perhaps the next episode will even end with a suicide attempt of Mirai.
Mmmmm, I quite think that the series finale won’t really involved anyone else dying but rather Mirai’s mental condition—.
I’m really happy that in this episode the denial already started to break down. It would have been a let down it it had worked as well as in the previous episode.
Mirai is trying very hard to bring Yuuki, or the memory of Yuuki home, so I don’t see her giving up on him before that, unless she snaps.
Mari’s family reunion was also a rehearsal of what’s to come, which is good because they will have to play it differently. I’m curious as to what they have in store.
Two episodes is not much for the storm that is coming, but I hope that they leave enough screen time for an aftermath. I would like to know how Mirai evolves after this tragedy, what kind of relation Mari and Mirai could have in the future, if any.
I rewatched last episode two times because something didn’t look quite right there. And now this episode confirms it. Nobody speaks to Yuuki except his sister. No way. Is it real? Did the little brat really die? But it makes sense so much. “oneechan you know?” oh god!
Sixth Sense all over again.
There’s a scene where Mirai has to ask Yuuki’s question to Mari. They also play the game of having Mari look back at Mirai without showing Yuuki in the shot, even though he’s always standing next to or behind her. They’re really playing with the audience. Meanies.
In a way I liked Mari’s response. If we assume that Mari has long suspected that her family didn’t survive, then the way that she accepts each narrative of their demise, and how this forces Mirai to progress the story, makes a certain amount of sense. Everything confirms the doubt she carried and extinguishes the little bits of hope that have kept her going. It also provides an opportunity for Mirai to adopt some of Yuuki’s optimistic determination, since it is by proxy of her delusion of him that she looks for Mari’s family. It might even illuminate a little of the reckless way that Mari treats her own life, as she rescue Mirai from herself repeatedly in the second episode. The one problem I have is that Mari’s reluctance to inspect the bodies basically motivates the longer adventure of searching the cluster bomb of elementary schools in the area, and I don’t know how to reconcile it with my model. If she had really accepted the doom of her family, would she have been so reluctant to see her daughter’s face? Is it out of guilt? Is it the last bit of denial? Is she worried to remember her daughter as burn victim? The way that Mirai’s return with her daughter comes as a surprise to a Mari we see sitting outside, we can assume that Mari never actually identified the bodies of her family before leaving. It doesn’t look like the behavior of someone that has been completely defeated, which would be more passive and involve going through the motions, but rather the actions of someone still fighting the inevitable. Wouldn’t that Mari have looked for an escape at rubble instead of accepting their demise? Hmm, I don’t know.
@8
“Real trauma and shock is sudden like that.”
Well, no, it isn’t. In real life people don’t start seeing extended multisensory hallucinations of people unless they are, well, insane or have a history of mental issues. Grief, particularly sibling grief, has a variety of effects but hanging out with the ghost of the deceased is not one of them.
Another thing I didn’t like about this episode is how they pulled the “look they’re dead, oh wait they’re alive” AGAIN. It gets tiresome and feels cliched.
I don’t mind this kind of storytelling all that much, it’s just the first few episodes were going down the path of a believable story of people finding their way back home after an earthquake, and now it has descended into B-movie territory with talking hallucinations and bait-and-switch deaths.
To reverse: Wth, Mari thought she had lost her entire family, even if she was the most mature person in the world your feelings and mind would be fucked up, Mirai obviously understood that.
I love this show, I don’t think it’s extremely out of place that Mirai is seeing hallucinations…I mean it’s not like she is seeing his ghost, she is projecting Yuuki from her mind. I dunno, I don’t find it hard to believe. The trauma was big.
I understand that it’s an adult anime etc, but I don’t think they can seriously really “kill” Yuuki. What – with the history of lucky escapes so far. I predict that Yuuki slipped into coma and they left him at the hospital and when Mari and Mirai find the parents and get back to the hospital, Yuuki wakes up. Happy end.
I, personally, wouldn’t mind it.
Fantastic ? not quite Is was a good solid episode.
E©agree with you,E reverse.
We do not need Sixth Sense in this show.
Come to think of it: piggybank in the bag == urn?
;_;
I agree that Mari’s reaction to the “death” of her family was correct for most – I am extremely close with my mother, and if I were to find out she’d died, no child in my care would matter to me anymore and I would lose sight of everything around me and be in complete despair.
I think Mirai is slowly beginning to realize that her brother is gone – remember that the way Yuuki is manifested to Mirai is entirely her creation, her subconscious is inventing every word he says and every action he makes. At the end of this episode, Yuuki needs to tell her something – I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of, “I’m gone, let me go” and so it’s really her mind telling her (after being briefly reminded of his hospital ordeal when seeing Mari’s family in the hospital) to begin accepting it.
Earlier in the series Mirai was quite negative in some respects, kind of a Debbie Downer about things – earlier she would have accepted Hina’s death and not gone looking for her. I imagine her saying something like, “She’s dead, she’s right here in front of us…” But this time, her made up Yuuki which is in fact her own subconscious is pushing her to NOT accept it, and search anyway. Through “Yuuki,” she’s gained optimism.
So it’s my belief that Yuuki is less of a hallucination and more of a subconscious thought process, which can’t be physically portrayed in any way, as it’s someone’s mind and thoughts, so it takes form as her visualizing Yuuki. And Mirai is most likely feeling a sense of guilt, this was the little brother who annoyed her, and now he’s gone – this is her chance to be a better sister. She can’t face that she never really acknowledged her true love for him.
OH And I forgot to add this:
At the end of the episode, the anchorwoman incorrectly refers to Crash Syndrome, which is in fact called “Crush Syndrome” – the cause of Yuuki’s death. Remember when he was trapped under the rubble in the mall? He sustained serious internal injury from the crushing pressure, and is usually fatal is treatment is not immediately given.
It’s common in earthquakes.
Ah thanks for that clarification, Larien – I looked up “crash syndrome” (thinking it was Mirai’s disease) and only got some obscure descriptions.
2 things about this ep:
When they came upon the supposed bodies of Mari’s mom and daughter, I resolved that they weren’t dead unless Mari actually confirmed their faces. Especially with the mind games of the previous episode, how can you just assume they’re the right people? So that supposed death scene didn’t really affect me, rather bothered me that Mari didn’t feel like actually checking them and just accepted them as her family.
Looking back at the last 2 episodes assuming Yuki is gone, it annoys me that Mari doesn’t have a stronger reaction to Mirai treating her brother as if he were alive. I believe she figures it out in ep 8, even tears up about it in front of Mirai….and they’re always walking together; can she not hear Mirai conversing with herself? Just how long was she going to let Mirai live in denial?
I honestly was expecting the truth to be revealed when Mari and her daughter were reunited with grandma and Mirai is introduced to them – alone. But no, she wanders off again, and only now does Mari seem distressed that Mirai is out and about thinking that her brother is still with her.
Larien, I believe it was the people who subbed the episode made a small mistake in the previews. After replaying the end several times, I believe the anchorwoman said ‘Crush Syndrome’. I could be wrong, however it was harder to differentiate ‘Crush’ and ‘Crash’.
On the side note, I do believe that recycling the ‘He’s dead OR NOT’ idea, is slightly cliche. However, the producers wrote it nicely. So, I cannot bring myself to criticize and complain about it. I was relieved to see that Mari’s family were okay. Everyone pretty much said what I have been contemplating about; I do believe Mirai’s behaviour/trauma is quite realistic. Perhaps the producers failed to make it less cliche for some the viewers to enjoy. But I cannot help but to sympathized with Mirai. For someone who disregarded and barely cared for her brother, I was sad that Yuuki died right after they began to get along.
On the side note, I feel like Mari is like an adult version of Mirai. I would not know how to word it out but yeah… >_>;;
Okay guys, I can understand that some people like this stylized storytelling but can you stop using the word realistic? I’m not going to call myself an expert, but I’ve been studying psychology for 3 years and what is portrayed in this anime is certainly not realistic. In cases of trauma and grief people do not suddenly see the walking talking ghosts of the deceased as if they are alive. That is pure movie tropes that don’t happen in real life. They have brief hallucinations, yes, but only people who are already unstable in the head have the kind of experiences Mirai is having.
I knew it!!! i just knew it from ep. 8 , but I’m in denial!! and the first time I watch ep. 9, the clue of yuuki died jumps here and there, I mean, yuuki doesn’t talk with mari-chan anymore, the backpack!! oh god, I hate it!! bring Yuuki backk!!
Woah am I the only one who didn’t know he was dead?
Wow, I usually catch on to that stuff.
Mirai and Yuuki seriously have got to stop wandering off alone by themselves. Whatever happened to their promise of them telling each other where they were going before leaving? It seems like they do it every single episode! XD
Ok, I guess in this case Mirai, in her tragic state of denial, believes that everything will be all ok with sunshine and rainbows now that Mari has been reunited with her mother and daughter, and that frees Mirai and what she thinks is Yuuki to stop being a burden to Mari and to continue on their own way back home alone. I did like how Mirai, through Yuuki, was convinced not to give up and to keep looking for Mari’s family despite the odds. Yuuki’s ever present optimism, even after his death (or specifically, because of it) really did rub off on Mirai.
It’s just sad that it took the death of Yuuki for Mirai to finally start appreciating her little brother and his sunny, innocent way of looking at the world, rather than sulk and wallow in self pity and cynicism like most teenagers are wont to do, even in the face of disaster.
This isn’t the first time that an anime series killed off the sweet, innocent young brother character (for drama’s sake or whatever the case may be). Blood+ did something similar. Yes, Mirai hallucinating her brother to be alive and being in complete denial about his death is very TV/movie-tropish and not very realistic at all, but it’s all about building drama, I guess, particularly in the case where the last two episodes are going to focus on Mirai (and/or her parents) confronting the truth about the tragedy.
Still, I’m enjoying the show a lot, flaws and all. It does remind me a little bit of Grave of the Fireflies; completely different scenario and emotional tones, but comparisons can be made for how the characters react to tragedy and disaster. I’m hoping Mirai doesn’t end up an orphan by the end, though if that were the case, I could see Mari adopting her into her family as a result.
Awesome episode! espcially the renuion between Mari and her daughter (and her mother)!
However, i hated the cliff hanger at the end of the episode. I was hoping that they would clear up yuki’s death in this episode but NO….they gave us another cliff hanger and we are still in denial….
For me i hope that Yuki is still alive but just in serious condition such that hes at the hospital still and actually not dead….but we will see in the next episode (hopefully….)
I really enjoyed this episode. The only thing that made it weird was Yuuki going, “Hey, maybe they’re alive!” I can understand optimism, but that’s like, “Hey, let’s take a shot in the dark.” And it was another one of those little hints that usually mean whatever it’s talking about is true. Which it was. I would have thought that when Mari lifted the towels off the unidentified bodies and realized they WEREN’T her family they would go searching again. The situation in the episode is much more enjoyable, though.
Personally, I don’t see how Yukki could still be alive. If he was alive, and just in critical condition as people are hoping, I don’t think Mirai would have delusions about him. Additionally, why would she and Mari leave him alone in a hospital? It’s still possible I guess, and I wouldn’t mind for him to be alive, but I don’t think so. I think that the last “dream sequence” from the episode he was in the hospital, where the doctor comes out and Mirai bursts into tears, was the real thing. And if I remember correctly his heart beat went out?
The part with the backpack was the most interesting to me. After Mari ran out with the backpack in hand, and you see the close up of Yukki, it looks like he still has the straps on his shoulders. I wonder if what snaps Mirai out of it is Mari chasing after them (and catching up eventually?) and showing the backpack!
dickens: I can totally agree that that isn’t realistic. The moment I saw that the Yuuki hallucination wasn’t just going away after they went off the soccer field in the hospital it went from realistic to a little over the top.
Mari’s reunion with her family made me cry. I have teared up in this series many times but tears finally came out of my eyes in this episode. Seeing Mari hug her daughter made me so happy with tears especially since Yuuki is dead.
“Three days since the earthquake….Repeated occurrences of Crush syndrome have been reported.” Like Larian said (#27), its common in earthquakes.
He HAS to be dead. This show has been too damn good with the minor hints spread out that it will be disappointing if we get a Deus Ex Machina ending with Yuuki being in a coma in the hospital.
Not trying to be depressing but the tease of his death has made this show better than anything this year. Thursday night cannot get here sooner!
Actually there is a CRASH syndrome and it is inherited as an X-linked trait and so affects mainly boys
http://home.arcor.de/silvieanna/English/MASA_Infos.html
what? you haven’t watched honey & clover??
O_O
@Saku, what’s so strange about it? I also skipped Honey and Clover ’cause I don’t like that stuff so much (romance movies)
Regarding Mari’s hesitation to verify the identities of the two corpses, I think I can agree that this is realistic. The builds of those corpses looked similar to her mom and daughter, right down to the little girl’s hair ornaments – although they were a different color. I don’t think it’s that abnormal to hesitate to confirm a possible terrible truth – kind of like being terrified of checking the results of a medical test to see if you have some incurable fatal disease. How many of us would be prepared to look into the dead faces of a loved one? I also thought this scene and this line of story was an important illustration of difficulty identifying the dead in the midst of the major disaster. Earlier in the story, there was a minor scene where a relief worker admonished a father from taking the body of her daughter away before it was officially identified. Here, Mari was prepared to accept that her family was dead, even though in fact, they were alive somewhere else.
I thought also that having Mari pressed into duty as a nurse for her injured mother by the hospital was also a nice touch. It was both a realistic depiction of a real earthquake situation and a useful plot device to separate Mari and Mirai for dramatic effect to draw out how Mirai would settle her situation with Yuki. Although Yuki is dead, he remains a main character and I think final resolution of this won’t happen til up to the very last episode.
I agree with what people have said her about Mirai’s hallucination of Yuuki being the most unrealistic part of this story. (Actually, I’m wondering if Yuuki is meant to be Yuuki’s actual ghost rather than simply a hallucination. I agree that the situation doesn’t seem quite right for her to be seeing things – she’s exhausted and extremely stressed but not on any drugs and hasn’t had head injuries…?) However, I feel that this series is meant to be something like a semi-documentary to prepare people for events and issues that can happen during a real earthquake and unfortunately, one of the most difficult and unfortunately potentially unavoidable issues to deal with is the death of a precious and irreplaceable loved one. I’m curious to see how this show will handle this. There also remains the issue of whether Mirai’s parents survived.
@Solaris
Honey and Clover is more than a “romance” show, in fact that romance elements are the least important part of the show in my personal opinion.
Thx theowne (and saku). I might give it a try, just to make sure i guessed rigth or wrong about the anime. But i have some more shows on my watch list by now, so Honey and Clover will have to wait.
SPOILER ALERT! (for people who don’t wanna know- please skip this comment. but you probably do know because half of these past comments show the spoiler without alerting it)
Guys, hallucination is perfectly normal for under stress, pressure, strain and shock. It’s what causes hallucinations, otherwise than a blow to your head, or if you’re stocked up on drugs.
Mirai’s delusions, as we all know by now fully well that her brother is dead, it is perfectly fine for her to have delusions. She’s only a child, and is not used to having such a trauma in her life. And the fact it came so unexpectedly also adds to reason of why’d she have a hallucination. (It’s a hallucination by the way, not a delusion).
I saw episode ten, and I won’t reveal anything, but if you thought this show could get any more depressing, you thought wrong. It got a hell lot more sad, and I couldn’t stop crying.
Even more reasons- she’s tired, hungry, lonely, mentally exhausted, and loves her brother. 😀
*bring tissues for next episode*
For someone who has been studying psychology for quite some time now, I think you have disregarded the fact that visual and auditory hallucinations are down-to-earth results of extreme trauma, stress, strain and fatigue like Snowolf has stated. It was sort of pretentious of you to claim that because I am currently studying/majoring in Psychology as well. It was offending to see your remarks. While I may not be opening my textbooks while analyzing the situation, I think what most people are trying to say when they mention realistic, they mean ‘down-to-earth’, including myself. Anyone can be unstable after losing someone dear to them and children, adolescents are more sensitive to tragic experiences and it takes very little to make the tip over. If Mirai manages to get over her hallucination, then she is not as ‘unstable’ as we think…