This week’s PLatium End was a Saki episode. after 8 weeks, it’s probably time we got to know the second main character a little better. If any of you have been following along with my Platnum Ed posts, you might have a pretty good idea about how I would feel about a Saki episode.
Strap in folks, we’re obviously going to be in for a wild ride!
Let me start off with the z plot. In fact, it’s more like a tag, not enough for a plot. Metropolima’s friend, you know the ginger who wanted ugly girls to disappear (what a prince)? Well, that guy figured out Metropoliman’s true identity from a couple of bandages. That’s how we know he’ll never have an important role. If someone s skilled in simple logic were to take any sort of substantial part of the narrative, the show would be over in like 3 episodes. Nevertheless, I like this. It creates a secondary conflict away from the main cast and adds n some variety!
The B plot had to do with Mikaido…being weird. Like every time he was on screen this week, he mentioned he has cancer. Every single time except for the last scene where it was just very heavily implied. It was so clumsy that it got pretty funny. Also, he was kind of a jerk to his pregnant wife. I get that he might have been trying a bit or something but ‘cmon man, she’s just worried about you and very pregnant. Give the lady a break. Basically, Mikaido just randomly felt like a completely different character except for the scene with his kid at the end which was just a glaring collection of death flags.
And now back to the star of the show: SAKI! I’ll be frank with you guys. I was planning to write this hugely sarcastic post, enthusing about how exciting Saki is all the while describing how boring and useless her character is. But she actually did something at the end. One thing but still. And I kind of didn’t hate this episode. So my plan went down the drain.
Don’t get me wrong, Saki is still for the most part a study in lack of agency. She spends the greater part of the episode quietly moping around. There’s a flashback to when she and Mirai were kids and her big contribution was to accept a 4 leaf clover. Good job there. Heck, we even find out that her suicide attempt before the start of the show, arguably the most impactful decision she had made in her entire life was simply a spur of the moment decision because she saw Mirai jump off the building and felt very guilty and shocked so she walked out into the ocean. Even her suicide was about someone else.
I was writing snarky lines in my notebook about the climax of this episode. You see, she still wants to die out of entropy it seems and asks Mirai to kill her because our Saki is not really a doer. So he flies her up in the air and holds her by the hands and tells her to let go if she really wants to die. Even here, Saki somehow manages to do nothing. At this point, it’s a gift. She neither actively let’s go nor does she try to grab on firmer and ask to be put down. Instead, her hand slips and Mirai saves her. And that’s how she realizes she didn’t really wanna go splat after all. Because everything changes now. somehow…
So we’re like 3/4 in, it’s a Saki episode and as far as I’m concerned she’s still a waste of a character slot. When she called herself litter baggage, I agreed. But then, she wakes up the next morning all happy and we find out that now that she has her mojo back, she instantly shot her own parents and coerced them into buying her a condo or something. Considering the Tokyo housing market, this likely drove her family into deep financial debt. And she seemed very pleased with herself. Dayum! When Saki decides to play, she really plays.
Not only was this pretty hilarious but she also wants wings now (potentially because she doesn’t trust Mirai not to drop her from the sky again) and we get the usual spiel about how you can get them if you kill another candidate. But we also get some potentially game-changing info that if her angel raises his level, she could get them that way. I already liked Revel but goofy happy Revel is the best. In fact, the prospect of spending the next few episodes following Revel and his friends going to angel school and taking angel classes so he can learn everything sounds like the best possible route this show could take.
It says something when I think watching someone read books would be more fun and exciting than watching people locked in a battle for godhood. I’m not sure if it says something about the show, or about me, though.
