Zetsuen no Tempest - 18

"The Dancing Princess"

Two weeks ago in my Japanese Literature class, I read a short story by Mori Ogai titled Maihime. Coincidence? Yeah, but watching Zetsuen makes everything feel like it happens for a reason.

When this series decides that it's time to take off the gloves, it doesn't half-ass. I'd argue that Bones is always at it's best as a studio when it has plenty of drama to portray, and its outright over-the-top style is a perfect fit for Zetsuen, just as it has been all this time. Take the facial expressions, for example. They're so expressive they're occasionally comical, but somehow they just work. There's no studio quite like Bones when it comes to grandiosity, and there's no series quite like Zetsuen to prove that that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like a play or symphony, this cour has been building up to a crescendo, and now that Aika's identity as Yoshino's girlfriend is out in the open, all hell has broken loose. With one piece of seemingly meaningless information, the game has changed in the blink of an eye, and even the Princess of Genesis is bent on destroying her god.

In a way, Samon is right to suspect Yoshino after all; his secret and the effect that Hakaze's words have on him ultimately lead Hakaze to the impassioned realization that she must avenge Yoshino (and by extension, Aika) by "testing" the Tree of Genesis, but ultimately her goal is to destroy the offender. She's become just as driven by passion and revenge as Mahiro, and whether that's a good or bad thing is unclear. Indeed, even Hakaze has come to realize that perhaps the Tree is no better than a dictator of flesh and blood, and suddenly the Tree finds itself with more enemies than defenders. Does this mean that Exodus has planned this all out from the start?

It's interesting to note that originally the theory was that Aika's death was brought about by Genesis to save Hakaze, but that that same theory has now been reversed. Aika, in absentia no less, has single-handedly sown chaos in the world through her death and set the events in motion in such a way that characters who should behave rationally are behaving the most irrationally of them all. It only lends credibility to the idea that Aika herself is this so-called "heart" of Exodus and that she may have committed suicide to achieve these (possibly) intended effects. Regardless, things aren't looking so well for Yoshino and Mahiro, both of whom have always been the most affected victims in this play and who are now pitted by the same force that once united them.

What's clear to me, regardless of the circumstances, is that Yoshino probably has no ties to Exodus at all, unless it really is Aika. He is affected by her death as powerfully as Mahiro is, but unlike his friend, Yoshino is so overwhelmingly logical that he sees no point in grieving. Crying, feeling hatred, and blaming Hakaze wouldn't bring Aika back, and he can't even bring himself to confront his emotions because it would be an admission that she really has died, possibly in vain. While Mahiro is using his revenge as a method to cope, Yoshino is using the possibility of a "happy ending" to try and find meaning to her death; he's essentially bottling up his feelings for the sake of moving forward without actually letting Aika go. In some ways, he's far more affected than Mahiro ever was. While he's obsessed with revenge and oblivious to his feelings for his sister, Mahiro has never wanted to "bring Aika back"; he's accepted that she's dead and gone and that all he can do is avenge her. Of course, he has bottled up feelings himself, and now that he's found out about Yoshino, those feelings will need to find an outlet soon.

Even in the midst of all the character drama, the plot moves forward: Evangeline has discovered some rather interesting connections between Genesis, Exodus, alchemy, and the traditional depiction of snake and dragon gods. While her hypothesis about aliens is clearly a bit off (or is it?) she does have a valid point in that many religions represent their gods as simultaneously beneficial and destructive. This, coupled with the fact that people are starting to see actual physical and metaphorical likenesses between the Trees and snakes just might reveal a different truth about Genesis and Exodus than that which the Kusaribe is familiar with. Now that Hakaze is actively working against Genesis (undercover as the Maihime, or "Dancing Princess") who knows what these "gods" are capable of.