Ha! To Your Eternity usually doesn’t let me get my way but for one my wishes were granted. And I’m not sure how to feel about it. Cause they were childish, unreasonable wishes. Oh wait never mind, I do know how to feel about it. Happy and a little smug!
Unfortunately, this episode also raises some questions that could cause some potential plot holes. I guess you win some you lose some.
Do you guys like my new episode review layouts. Where I talk about the scene(s) I lay out in my screencaps instead of general episode impressions. I’ll be frank with you, it’s a lot easier for me this way. It just organizes my thoughts without me having to put in the extra effort.
The opening scene of the episode was a red herring. Oh uhm if you haven’t watched this episode of To Your Eternity, please go ahead and do so. I’m going to be spoiling some stuff here and you might not want to know about it before you get to see it for yourself. You have been warned!
So yeah, red herring. When I saw Bon’s decapitated body I was sure it was over and I was sad. It was a quiet sort of resigned sad. I had already accepted that his fate was sealed and as I said last week, his character arc was one of the more satisfying the show had to offer so all in all, I wasn’t a mess like I had been for some of the previous deaths. But I was still a little sad in a very earnest way and I realize that the character had meant more to me than I thought. It was a bitter-sweet little epiphany.
And it was all for nothing! Because they Tom Sawyered that ish! Look, it’s a bit of a cheesy turn of events. It feels like a cop-out or a Disnified moment of forced happy ending. Worst case scenario, the story could go on to undo Bon’s great development and squander all the fun and good faith the character has built up.
But you know me. I’m a gerbil-faced optimist if ever there was one. So I’m just going to be happy for now. To Your Eternity has never been a show that spares its characters, If anything, the storyline seems to be making them more expendable by the episode. So I’m just going to appreciate that a character I like gets to have a chance to enjoy his redemption. And that we got to have a nice quiet episode with families and old friends reconnecting.
Wasn’t it sweet how happy all the members of the royal family were that Bon was ok? They don’t want him to be king because, well for obvious reasons. And they worry about him. But they really love him a lot. And that wasn’t completely obvious until now. I particularly liked that his younger brother, the one he is so terribly jealous of, was the one that seemed the most ecstatic about seeing him again and the first one to tackle hug him. His brother is his biggest fan. That’s so cute.
It’s amazing how much a hairstyle changes a person. It’s particularly striking with anime characters because you can take the exact same character design, the same pose and light, and everything, just change the hair and it’s a whole new person. Heck, there are entire shows like that. Everyone has the same face. I find Bon almost unrecognizable with his new hair. I guess the no-makeup look also changes him a bit. He looks a lot younger in my opinion. How odd.
I think I mentioned once that I thought Todo looked like the girl Bon had met as a kid. But then I dismissed it because it seemed a bit too convenient. It’s a trite and tired rom-com trope. That childhood friend you’ve been pining after all your life turns out to be much closer than you could have imagined! Bleh! Talk about tired.
Yet once again I’m okay with it because it’s with Bon also Todo. I don’t know what to say you guys, I just really want these two to have a happily ever after and I’m willing to accept any cheesy and overwrought coincidence for it. I like that the diet advice we got was if you want to lose weight just don’t eat. Sadly that’s still the kind of advice you get today.
Admittedly, the force the drama in the confession scene was probably my least favourite part. I think just calling it a confession scene might be an overreach. I’m not sure why Bon just went insane for a little while there. I do understand why Todo got mad I would have as well, but she’s been putting up with so much for so long and things that were arguably much worse than this, why is this the straw that broke the camel’s back. It just seems like the sort of I’ll just character scene that writers sometimes put together to make sure the characters show their true feelings even if it doesn’t work in an organic way.
On the other hand, it was kind of cute too. Random fireworks are always welcome. Oh, and it seems they’ve adopted Chabo now. I get that Bon has changed and grown a lot in these past few weeks but I’m not sure he’s ready to be a father just yet. I’m a little worried about Chabo.
I can feel a little slow sometimes. I watched this whole episode just carefreely enjoying the improbable joyous mood. And I really didn’t think about anything other than you know how Bon and Todo were going to ride into the sunset together.
However, we actually learned a really important thing in this episode. We side right in the opening scene. Fushi can recreate living people that he knows. It’s not impossible that we’ve known this already. He could have done it at some point before and I just forgot about it. But this time it really struck me. Whether for she has done it before or not, there are many situations in which he should have done it. There were cases where he could have avoided Bloodshed and just made things so much easier on himself and those around him if he had just pretended to be someone else. But he didn’t.
Now granted. He is technically still a growing child. His powers are evolving and changing, even he doesn’t know exactly what he’s capable of. Moreover, for most of the first season literally was a child. He needed to learn about the world around him and things such as subterfuge and ruses were just way beyond his intellectual capacities at the time. That could be one explanation for why he hasn’t been using this Tower so far. Good like why didn’t he just turn into cereal and Order everybody to just released Bond maybe even pardoned him in the name of the church. Not that I dislike this time so your plan it’s fine. For Fushi it’s a pretty elaborate plan. Still, he could have made things a lot easier on himself.
However, that’s not the big takeaway of the show now is it? Nokkers can talk. Not only talk they can think and they have a moral code and of course, they think they’re doing what’s right. Most people think they’re Heroes. And it’s not like I’m predisposed to trust the Man in Black. He hasn’t exactly been the most helpful so far. I mean since the first moment I saw him I already didn’t trust him. So I’m kind of torn here on the one hand we have been taught by the show to hate and fear the knockers since the very first episode. They are D unknowable evil that’s been plaguing Fushi since he came into existence. On the other hand, any excuse to go against the man in Black is attractive to me.
Let me see if I got the story right. Essentially nokkers are souls. Something like the free energy that souls are made of. And they seem to be specifically human souls and not animal souls. Keeping that in mind, they see souls that are in the human body as trapped. Since physical bodies can feel pain and sadness they think it’s a form of torture. In their view killing a person is actually simply destroying the physical vessel in order to free the soul. And they also specifically blame the man in Black for having created this situation. Which implies that he would be good. Or at the very least the creator of mankind as we know it in the show.
And this is not the worst dilemma I’ve ever seen in one of these shows. You can almost see the nokkers’ point. Although it so alien It seems impossible to really sympathize with or relate to it in any way. Of course, I expect the great majority of the audience to be on Fushi side and that’s good. It’s not one of those morally ambiguous stories where you never know who you should be rooting for. You should be rooting for Fushi. You should want the people that we get to know on this adventure to survive and be happy and have a chance at a future.
But making these weird faceless nodules be more than mindless forces of destruction adds something to the story. It’s a bit naive for now but it has potential.
Also, I’ve been calling the nokkers, nodes because that’s what they look like to me with all those veins and dendrites sticking out. But I could also have called them orbs. They are generally sphere-shaped. We saw Fushi in his first form and he looked a little like a pearl. A perfect shiny little ball. But we don’t know what nokkers look like when they’re first shaped. This one clearly implied that they don’t actually have a physical form. So the shape we see them in is not really what they are. So are they the same as Fushi? Did the man in Black create them as well? If you just having a laugh?
For every answer To your Eternity gives, it asks four more questions. But it feels like the answers are coming. I just hope they make them good one.
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
Not entirely sure that nokkers can talk. This one can, but this one’s been living as a symbiont with talking folk (specifically humans) for some time. I’m not sure if they have a hive mind, if they have individuals, but the I’ve always felt that the nokker who invaded Hayase was intrigued by her for some reason.
The man in black might have sent more than one orb out, and it’s entirely possible that the nokkers have diversivied and spread out the original concentrated energy, while Fushi went the mimicry route. I wonder if there are others out there, and if other routes are possible? I may be overthinking this. It might be his way to collect feedback? Maybe the way he communicates with each faction influences their development, so he can figure out what to do going forth the conflict route?
Also, when I saw Bon’s dead body, I wasn’t worried. My immediate thought was that Fushi created a body double. Them passing out was way too suspicious, I suppose? After that ending last episode I was convinced he’d live (for now…), and a mere body wasn’t, apparently, enough to convince me otherwise. (Shouldn’t there have been more blood?)
The nokker attack is actually politically interesting; that city administrator/noble (?) didn’t seem an auto-ally to the church in the one scene we’ve seen him, for example.
I’m not sure if nokkers have a centralized organized core. Like a queen any or something. Are they moving completely on instinct? There are still tons of questions in this show
I have never liked this trope. Build up affection for a character, kill them off to extract the tears, and then resurrect them. I feel cheated. Let me have my grief and don’t pollute it by making death a temporary inconvenience. Ruined more than one anime.
I don’t think they resurrected anyone yet but the way the show is going I think the cyclical nature of life might become a theme so it may get rough.
amazing episode!
I dunno Rin-chan, I still expect Bon-chan to bite the dust. Wouldn’t be the first time a character gets saved by Fushi, only to be pushed down the meat grinder a little later.
But the silver lining is this resurrection business. So I guess we might get to eat our cake & have it too. Unlimited cake! Hype.
I’m still waiting for Hayase to show up, if she’s inside that Nokker in some way. Same with Pioran, if I’m allowed to beat Dawn-chan to the punch.
Regrettably, imouto is still alive. I’ve started copying her cutesy pronunciation, bringing shame to my ancestors. Heaven help me.
I hope he gets the Tonari treatment where he gets to live a full life during a time skip and we get back to him in the end. He’s a dad now after all. To your eternity hasn’t explored that much.