Hmmm. I’m perplexed. This season of To Your Eternity is not going in the direction I expected. If nothing else, I have to give it to this show for not bowing to convention. I’m not ready to say whether this is a good thing or not.
There’s a movie that’s making a bit of noise right now called Don’t Worry Darling. I haven’t seen it but I have heard a lot about it. It’s been compared a lot to The Stepford Wives. Of course, it is, when I heard the plot, I immediately thought of The Stepford Wives which is an old movie I quite like. And personally, when I think about The Stepford Wives, I think about the OG Bodysnatchers movie, another movie I quite like.
Stay with me here guys, we’re almost there. As I was watching this episode of To Your Eternity, it suddenly struck me that I was essentially watching a Bodysnatchers story, but from the point of view of the pods.
When you think about it, Fushi isn’t necessarily an obvious fit for a sympathetic character. He’s something alien or at least supernatural that can perfectly mimic the form of any living thing he sees, with some constraints. Traditionally, mimics tend to be monsters or antagonists. There’s something frightening, or at the very least creepy in the very notion of a shapeshifter. I think it’s rooted in the uncomfortable idea that people you know and love can turn out to be very different from what you thought, strangers even. There’s a sort of implied treason and it’s a very intimate betrayal. Shapeshifters personify that fear.
And the fact that Fushi can only take on the shape of living things that have died just adds another grim layer to the whole affair. It’s very easy to imagine Fushi as a monster. Think about it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know him. I don’t know, let’s say Rean’s parents. She spent her whole life waiting for a man who would never come back and after she died, something is taking her shape. Something is making her likeness do things without her permission and you don’t know why. It’s very creepy
But the story wants us to care for Fushi. It needs us to sympathize with him in fact. That’s actually a little tricky. But To Your Eternity has been quite good at making Fushi likable by making his forms likable and distracting us from the fact that he’s stealing their appearance. Also, Fushi is sort of nice and helpless at his core, like a puppy. We all love puppies.
Nevertheless, there’s a duality. And To Your Eternity is starting to explore it a bit. Fushi is famous now. He is a savior, even something of a god to some people but he’s a demon to others. Al people that do not know him mind you. It’s his very existence that is creating such strong reactions in people.
On the one hand, Fushi wants friends but doesn’t know who to trust. But on the other hand, everyone he meets doesn’t know if he’s a friend or foe. Fushi is immortal and can turn into a giant bear monster so the stakes are significantly higher for the soft little fleshbags he meets. It’s reasonable to be wary. I wonder if they’ll delve deeper into it.
But what about this episode itself. I suppose the most important part was the introduction of Bonchien Nicoli La Tasty Peach Uralis. And this is what threw me off. We haven’t had such outwardly cartoonish characters in To Your Eternity up to this point. He just doesn’t fit in and made the whole episode feel off. But at the same time, I don’t hate this character…now. I really didn’t like him at his introduction but he grew on me throughout the episode. There seems to be some idea that his cartoonish behavior is in fact some sort of mental issue so that might be a way to normalize the character but it could also be disastrous. It’s a wait-and-see sort of situation.
In the meantime, we are finally getting an idea of what this season is likely to be about. A Holy War! How is Fushi a heretic I wonder? Is there a Thou Shalt Not Change Shape commandment in this universe? And why do people know s much about him? Like how did they know about the existence of the black one? Fushi’s always been a vagabond. A man with no home or country, a stranger wherever he goes. But now he’s a celebrity! That’s going to take some adjustment.
Season 1
- To Your Eternity ep. 1 – Forever
- To Your Eternity ep. 2 – Precocious
- To Your Eternity ep. 3 – Manners
- To Your Eternity ep. 4 – Pain
- To Your Eternity ep. 5 – Orphan
- To Your Eternity ep. 6 – Maker
- To Your Eternity ep. 7 – Dreams
- To Your Eternity ep. 8 – Freaks
- To Your Eternity ep. 9 – Home
- To Your Eternity ep. 10 – Flamethrower
- To Your Eternity ep. 11 – Confession
- To Your Eternity ep. 12 – Rebirth
- To Your Eternity ep. 13 – Empathy
- To Your Eternity ep. 14 – Arrow
- To Your Eternity ep. 15 – Return
- To Your Eternity ep. 16 – Freedom
- To Your Eternity ep. 17 – Promises
- To Your Eternity ep. 18 – Mercy
- To Your Eternity ep. 19 – Dato
- To Your Eternity ep. 20 – Happiness
Season 2
I too was suprised with the direction of the show. It’s still sad in parts but also has some nice more upbeat moments as well.
It’s more of an adventure now
Yeah it is . I don’t mind it though . Of course I did just finish Made in Abyss season 1 , the movie and the 2nd season . So I had a lot of sad anime lol
It never occurred to me, but this is totally a reverse bodysnatcher tale. It makes complete sense viewed that way.
I had pretty much the same reaction to the prince. Wary at first, and then warmed up to him in the course of the episode.
Also, I thought the wanted poster was rather fun. It only has the most common form; pretty easy to evade. It’s interesting how much we associate that form with Fushi by now; the character’s totally overshadowed the original boy from the very first episode.
Which is sort of sad. Poor boy never even got a name
Fushi mentioned the man in black to Tonari and her friends, and they mentioned at the dinner that Sandel published a book about Fushi. His existence is probably fairly widely known.
It seems like such a trivial detail from their pov to put in a book. You know, a comment made once 80 years ago…