 |  |  |
A timeskip, a recap, and a trippy dream? Zetsuen no Tempest has returned.
I almost skipped this episode, but I'm glad I didn't. I'm not fond of recaps; I'm impatient and to some extent I just hate being forced to watch something I've seen before. It's as if the studio is telling me I couldn't possibly remember all this complexity without a refresher (though it has been a couple of weeks, so I can see why they'd think it necessary) and it bothers me, so I had half a mind to just quit this episode when I realized that Mahiro's coma was going to be used as a vehicle for a recap of the first season. Thankfully, Bones wasn't going to torture us completely, and instead this episode turned out to be an important lead in to what awaits us this next cour.
Recaps aside, we get an interesting look at what's happened from Mahiro's perspective, and I think it's fascinating to see that he visualizes himself and Yoshino as children rather than their present age. That says a number of things about him, not least of which is his immaturity or his confusion.
In any case, the bizarre dream that frames his narration switches between "reality" (what he knows happened and what child Yoshino assures him is real) and fantasy, where he imagines himself talking to a still-living Aika. When in "reality", child Yoshino explains what happened after he and Mahiro were all but killed by the Tree of Genesis. Apparently the revival of the Tree of Exodus was halted and the Tree of Genesis spread throughout the world, lessening the human population by two billion in the process. It seems the tree appears wherever there is war or conflict, and child Yoshino mentions that the world has been forcibly driven to peace. Unfortunately, in a Psycho-Pass-esque twist, even the smallest of conflicts, such as an argument, can warrant you judged as dangerous by the Tree and taken out. In exchange for this fear, the world's deserts and infertile land have become lush and have removed the impending threat of starvation for humankind. It's hard to say whether or not such a peace and prosperity is desirable, and clearly the two billion who opposed the Tree and disappeared did not feel it was a fair trade. Child Yoshino asks Mahiro if he is still determined to "make this end as a tragedy" by chasing after Aika's killer, but whether or not that will even be possible remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Mahiro's "fantasy" transitions to a memory, the moment when he found Aika dead. We've never been privy to his immediate reaction, and it's actually quite heartbreaking. We've known all along that Mahiro probably had romantic feelings for his sister, and that he restrained himself from admitting that to himself, possibly because they were family. Finding the one you treasured dead after having stopped yourself from ever even touching them is horrible, and the moment Mahiro finally touches Aika's skin, only to feel it cold beneath his fingers, it broke him and made him into what he is now.
The nightmare over, he finally awakes into the real world, where the most unlikely person is waiting for him. Samon explains that he'd placed Mahiro in an enchanted sleep for a month and that he has a request for him: would he be willing to kill Yoshino? He may just be the Exodus mage.
What neither of them know is that somewhere out in the city, a young man is on the loose with magic power, and that he's considering "saving the world" from the Tree of Genesis as the self-proclaimed Mage of Exodus.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment