Amnesia - 10

"X"

Clearly something is wrong with your franchise when the psycho who throws a girl off a building is preferable to the psycho who keeps her in a cage.

I seriously mean that too. Toma is a disgusting character, and I lost a ton of respect for Shujinko after this arc. I never liked Shujinko to start with, but I didn't particularly have any strong feelings for her, other than a small urge to support her because of Nazuka's role. Now, however, I seriously want to slap her in the face (I would have too, if I had the chance) because of her naive stupidity. I understand if prior to losing her memories, the Shujinko of this world had genuine feelings for Toma. Childhood friends are a fuzzy area for romance, so that's okay. However, once she was aware of his potential to go over the edge (a cage, Shujinko; a CAGE) her reaction should have been to get the hell away from him and never look back, not justify his behavior. If he's willing to do all of that over jealousy, what would he do if she hadn't really loved him? He even hints at it himself, by saying that he won't "care for [her] pain anymore" if she doesn't care about his. This guy is the scum of the Earth, and he makes Ikki look tame and decent in comparison. I was seriously upset by this arc, and thus I was over myself with relief when Shujinko finally got killed off.

Murdered, actually, by none other than the Mysterious Stalker, a photographer who now has a name, Ukyou (Kouki Miyata), and is either a set of twins or one guy with a split personality. It seems I was right to suspect his involvement as a love interest, though unlike the other four bits of eye-candy, Ukyou seems to have a larger role to play in the mystery surrounding the events in Shujinko's life. For one thing, he's aware of her impending death(s) and he seems to have realized that this world is specifically his arc, which means that he's aware of the parallel worlds and how they work. He spends the majority of this episode following Shujinko around, though unlike Toma or the other guys, he knows that she's wary of him and won't approach her unless absolutely necessary (slightly more admirable than Toma or Shin, who would have forced her to come along with them for "her own safety"). While there's plenty about Ukyou to dislike, it's just nice to see someone consider Shujinko's feelings for once, rather than push their own on her and justify themselves about it.

Of course, it's too early to say that definitively, and Ukyou is effectively a stalker (and a murderer), so I'm only taking that at face value. Shujinko really shouldn't let him be anywhere near her after what happened in the past arc, but we've seen that she's incapable of thinking for herself by this point (just when did Orion become her brain, I wonder?) so obviously, if she was okay with Toma, she'll eventually be okay with Ukyou. I'm more concerned with what's happening and why; we've seen that Shujinko attracts danger more often than most, but I always attributed that to her shoujo-stereotype disposition. Being prone to danger is just one of those characteristics shoujo heroines should have, so that their dashing boyfriends can come in and save the day (bleh). However, Ukyou dismisses that theory and explicitly warns Shujinko that "the world is trying to kill" her, and he seems to have witnessed this fact enough that he can predict specific events.

Maybe the world just got tired of seeing her being so passive all the time. Time to snap out of it, Shujinko.