| Title: | Mushi-Uta |
| Episode: | 10: Passing Dreams |
| Synopsis | |
| At the usual meeting place in an abandoned factory, Haji casually reveals that he knew all along that Shiika was Fuyuhotaru, and was manipulating her without Kakkou's knowledge; Kakkou is not amused. Haji sees an excellent opportunity to capture Ladybird, who he believes has made herself vulnerable by becoming attached to Shiika. At Rina's apartment, Shiika wants to leave to avoid causing her friend any more trouble; but Rina insists that she stay, citing their promise to always be together. Rina admits she was surprised to learn that Kusuriya was Shiika's boyfriend, but urges her to continue seeing him. She experiences some sort of heat flash and faints briefly. MinMin pays Rina a visit with the amazing news that she has learned the location of GARDEN--and frightening information about what goes on there. Rina vows to rescue the fallen who are imprisoned at the site. At school, Rina asks Kusuriya to continue seeing Shiika, even though he clearly knows she's a host; he assures her that he will, and that he considers Rina to be a dear friend as well. She asks him to come over to her place later in order to pose for her painting of him. Rina introduces Shiika, i,e, Fuyuhotaru, to fellow Mushibane members Snail and Mosquito. They are full of questions about how she managed to recover from being a fallen, but she cannot remember the details. As Kusuriya poses for Rina, she mentions that she'll be giving up painting for the sake of something so important that she'd gladly die for it. He is not impressed; "Dying for the sake of the future" he says; "Doesn't that mean that you've given up on your own dream?"... | |
| Comments | |
| The first time I watched this episode, I wasn't entirely pleased with it. Of course I wasn't entirely happy with the last episode either, as it seemed that things were moving too fast all of a sudden, and I was having a hard time keeping up--this one was more of the same. The logic seemed to be slipping; a strong point of this show had always been that the characters did what they did for reasons that made sense and were understandable to the viewer, but that didn't entirely seem to be the case this time around. The reasoning behind why Rina chose to go off on a one-girl suicide mission despite Kakkou's warning not to was muddled, but still understandable. And how did he know what she intended to do? MinMin had just delivered the long-awaited information about GARDEN the day before. Better lines would've helped explain the choices they made to the viewer. I couldn't help feeling that Kakkou's revelation of his secret identity wasn't as exciting and dramatic as I'd been expecting (and what happened to the apartment seemed kind of silly). I'm convinced that his plan is to go after the original three Mushi--I think they are the "enemies (that were) always right in front of our eyes". But why not tell Rina about that to try to persuade her not to go off on her own, into what is in all likelihood a trap? Still, there is a definite emotional power to this show, which was evident even the first time around (despite my disappointments), and even moreso the second time. I loved the sense of intrigue that was present with all the secret identities, and I'm sorry to see most of them revealed in relatively quick succession. We are nearing episode twelve after all, and all good things must come to an end. Even the "disappointing" episodes of Mushi-Uta are better than the "good" episodes of lots of shows! When Rina adressed MinMin by her real name, I got the distinct feeling that for the first time she lost the snide, sarcastic look--"smiling evil", you might call it--which she always has on her face. Why were Ryouko and Miharu so unfriendly to Rina at school? Have they figured out that she's a host, just like Asami was? "It was the most suitable plan to avoid the same mistake of four years ago, and to achieve victory without losing you" --Haji What "mistake" is Haji referring to? "To realise that, I had Fuyuhotaru play a role too" --Haji 'seems like this guy knows practically everything and has been manipulating everybody. Kakkou hasn't revealed Ladybird's identity to Haji, has he? Or does Haji already know? "I assumed they would eliminate each other" --Haji I assume he means Shiika and Rina--but why would they want to "eliminate" each other? "Not yet. I can't lose" --Rina Is Rina nearing the point at which her Mushi will kill her, just like Kakkou? "If the SEPB was in the way of our dreams, then I would have destroyed them long ago!" --Kakkou Yeah, this guy doesn't just obey orders blindly. Haji has got to be careful not to piss him off too much! | |
