Shinsekai Yori - 18

"Scarlet Flower"

It's nice to see Satoru and Saki back on good terms, but everything else has started to veer out of control.

As underhanded as the actions of the bakenezumi seem, for me this episode was about justified revolution. I don't like Squealer/Yakomaru or his methods, but really, the bakenezumi are no better than slaves in the human dominated societies, and their every movement is monitored by people who may as well be gods to them. In a single glance, the Cantus users can destroy them far more efficiently than any bomb or weapon from the past, and they have no qualms about doing so. Why would they, if all the adults are a part of a culture that culls their own children? I've not given up on my hypothesis that the bakenezumi are the mutated descendants of the non-PK users in the past, and even if they aren't, they're as intelligent as any human and are capable of the same ideas and technologies that we are. At some point, all enslaved people realize that they are enslaved, and at some point, as history has always proven, the discontent do something about it.

I'm reminded powerfully of the scene in the third episode where the Holy Sakura Emperor is deposed in a kamikaze attack; the parallels are clearly not accidental and the bakenezumi are quite that determined to be rid of their oppressors, though whether or not they have a chance is another concern altogether. While they did manage to take out Koufuu (who was a jarring personality to watch), Shisei destroyed the rest of the attack by hardly moving an inch, and not a single other Cantus-user helped (though several did die in the surprise attacks).

It's clear that, despite the unlikelihood of their success, the bakenezumi aren't about to give up just yet. Whatever is the truth behind Maria and Mamoru's supposed remains, I don't think it's impossible to think that somehow Yakomaru has gotten his hands on Cantus from somewhere, and that Maria and Mamoru are directly connected to this somehow. What worries me is that Tomiko assures the Defense Council that these bones are undoubtedly theirs, through no less than DNA testing. I have some theories about this, one of which is that, for whatever reason, Tomiko is lying to protect the two runaways, though that's not too likely when they pose a danger this great. Another is that the bakenezumi have somehow falsified the remains so thoroughly that they're perfect replicas, but again that seems a little bit of a stretch. I think the best bet is that it's not Maria and Mamoru behind this, but their child(ren).

Why do I think this? First of all, there is no clear time window about when the bones were found. It could have been days after they went missing, or it could have been years. Since there is no clarity on the situation, the possibility remains that, should Maria and Mamoru truly be deceased, they may have left behind a child. My other inclination comes from the bizarre little monologue that fourteen-year old Maria has at the end of the episode. She affirms her love for Saki, but her final words are, "but we wouldn't be able to have children, right?" Why add that bit of dialogue in there at all, if not to foreshadow something of this nature? If such a child does exist (or more than one, even), this is a child who was never monitored by the adults for symptoms of Raman-Klogius or Hashimoto-Appelbaum, a child who grew up "in the wild", so to speak, and possibly even a child raised among the bakenezumi. There's a lot of danger in the existence of such a child, not least of which is the possibility that he or she may have turned Fiend or at least allied itself with Yakomaru.

This theory also supports the foreshadowing about Maria in earlier episodes. "If she had not survived, many would have been spared." Perhaps the danger lies not in Maria herself, but in the child she bears. Of course, a theory is a theory (or more accurately, a hypothesis) but I'll keep my bets in this general area for now.

There is another woman who really puzzled me this episode, and that's the female image that Koufuu conjured right before his death. I doubt this is Maria (it's too unlikely), so who is she? Perhaps the image of someone Koufuu loved? The physical representation of his soul or his Cantus? Merely the last thing he thought about given form by his power? I'm not really sure what to take away from it, but it fit quite well in the uproar and uncertainty of the episode.

The last thing that struck me particularly hard was Tomiko's reaction to the attack. I've always viewed her as a moderate, a gentler and more humane woman than the rest, but she proved this week to be as capable of anger and violence as any other PK-user. Her promises to torture and kill every last member of the revolt chill the blood with her vengeance, and I don't doubt that she will do just that. This has become a war between humans and the bakenezumi, and I doubt the latter group have had their final say.

N.B: Thanks again to Ivan for being awesome and taking over the screencaps for Shinsekai, Kotoura-san, and Maoyuu out of pure kindness. I really appreciate the help, it makes blogging a lot easier while I'm at school.