RDG: Red Data Girl - 8

"The First Request"

What do you do when your designated manservant sprouts wings? Well, you ask him where they came from, of course.

Even with the magnificent pacing this series has been using to mask the inevitable cramming of material, it's impossible not to note that far more than usual is abound in RDG this week. I've noticed that there's a lot of confusion about just what it is that happens, and I'd be lying if I claimed to understand it all at 100%. I imagine that in order to really get behind the plot of this series, you'd have to be far better versed in Shinto and Shugendou than I am, but I can at least see the basic connections that allow for in-universe credibility. That doesn't mean that any mysteries are solved this week, nor does it mean that the appearance of Izumiko's mother magically clarifies just what's going on with Izumiko and her Himegami (or what Miyuki's growing strangeness is), but at the very least things remain as intriguing as ever.

As I mentioned last week, the issues between the Souda siblings have to do with jealousy and uncertainty; apparently Masumi and Manatsu share the same heart defect, which puts pressure on the surviving twins. Mayura places priority on her living brother but resents Masumi's connection with him, while Masumi is jealous of the attention Manatsu commands of Mayura and envies his life. Somehow the two brothers, bound as they are to eventually leave Mayura, begin to blend into one entity, and this allows Masumi's "true" form, the serpentine kami Kuzuryuu, to escape once Izumiko performs her dance in the name of saving Manatsu. Of course, Masumi isn't really the god; just as Wamiya existed as a projection of Izumiko's thoughts, so Masumi too existed as a dream given shape by Kuzuryuu and the sibling's thoughts.

Course, that doesn't make things any less weird, and they get even stranger once Miyuki starts sprouting wings and Izumiko's mother shows up at the scene, acting as a separate vessel for the Himegami and claiming that the young vessel and her protector don't understand (which is fair; we don't know anything ourselves either). Still, even with all this confusion and mystery, what this series has by the bucketful is atmospheric beauty, and if you had any doubt that there was a pairing forming between Izumiko and Miyuki, you can dispel that and revel in the subtlety that brought it about. Miyuki and Izumiko have both changed substantially from the flat characters they began as, and Wamiya's amusing alliance with Miyuki aside, this is a really well balanced relationship, with just the right touch of awkwardness and mystery that seems to characterize most everything about this series. It might not be the most straightforward series, but it certainly is one of the most gorgeous this season, and I admit I'm very sad there probably won't be more after the end of the cour.