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ファイト／ステイナイト 
With only one more episode to go, this episode tries to squeeze in as many resolution and action scenes as possible. The result is not bad at all, but it is nothing to write home about either. For a penultimate episode, this one sure lacks the urgency and the tension that other series with this kind of story present in their penultimate episodes. I never even find myself worrying much about the lives of the characters in this episode. This is mostly because there doesn't seem to be anything which suggests that their life could be in jeopardy. And if there are, the episode seems to imply that somehow everything will be returned to the way they were before the end of the series. Hell, even the crimson butterflies that fill up the sky actually make the show prettier instead of providing some kind of danger to the characters.
The episode opens with a flashback to Takeru's past. It seems that Takeru's mother left her own son so she could be with another man, who presumably didn't want Takeru to live with them. All of a sudden, chibi Takeru transforms into adult Takeru still looking longingly for his mother. Hikari then appears and tells him that this memory has always been in his heart. She thinks that as long as Takeru carries around this painful memory, he will never be able to love anyone because he'll always carry the bitterness of being dumped by the person that he loves. The show then goes Evangelion by having Hikari telling Takeru that he wants to be loved and yet he erect barriers to prevent himself from getting hurt again. In doing so, he feels that he's not worthy of love and ends up taking a subservient role, just. Hikari believes that Takeru in a way is quite similar to her.
Back to reality, Hikari tells Takeru not to hesitate anymore because although his heart tries to deny it, his body does want to kill her. So there's no point for him to resist it anymore since after all he's not that different from the other monsters. Takeru, however, attempts to ignore her and says that that is not true and Hikari is not a monster either. But before he can finish his sentence, Ioneous interrupts him and lets him know that prior to her meeting with Hikari, this being didn't have any name, emotion, or even needs. Takeru tells Ioneous that he didn't ask him but his body then starts to convulse and his grip on Hikari starts to weaken. Upon seeing this, Hikari informs him that his super-form has nothing to do with his own will. It merely is a manifestation of revenge desires from those who have been killed by Hikari in the past. Hikari, however, believes that Takeru's heart will get in the way and he'll have better chance to survive if he just gives in to his fear and desire.
Takeru once again tries his best to deny his desire to kill Hikari and tells himself that what he wants is to protect her. Hikari, however, coldly tells him that he can't possibly protect others if he can't even love the people that he wants to protect. While this is happening, their friends have been carefully listening to the entire conversation. Akari seems to wish that Hikari didn�t say some of those things to Takeru. Mari, on the other hand, is in denial and tries to tell herself that the monster can't possibly be Takeru. Anyway, back to Takeru, all of a sudden, he transforms back into his human form although it seems he still has some of the markings of the beast etched onto his forehead. Takeru then starts to fall into a state of fear and depression. Seeing this, Mari decides to confront Hikari and tells her that this is all Hikari's fault. You know, I know I said I'll cut her some slack but she really does not endear herself to me as a viewer. Mari can't seem to see that she was partly responsible in this entire thing.
In addition to this, she has the stupidity of a troll that can't seem to remember that she's in the middle of threatening an extinction catalyst who can easily kill her in seconds. Because of this, Ryo tries to warn Mari to not be stupid but she continues to threaten Hikari and almost got roasted if Akari hadn't interfered with her own power. Akari begs Hikari not to destroy the world because otherwise she'll have to fight her. Hikari coldly tells her 'sister' that if she tries to prevent her from her duty, then she should get on with it. Upon hearing this, Akari's right hand transforms into a bright laser which eventually changes its form into a bug-shaped arm. Unfortunately for us, just when we're about to witness what could have been a cool catfight between the two, Ryo decides to interfere by holding Akari's bug arm tightly and transforming it back to a normal human hand. He then places a beetle on Akari's arm and tells her that there are better things that she can do apart from this.
After stopping Akari, Ryo then gets a hold of Takeru's hand and transfers both of them to what probably is Takeru's inner heart. He tries to convince Takeru that he is the only one who can stop Hikari because he is the one who can understand her. When Takeru whinges about his assumption that Hikari never loved him just like his mother, Ryo tells him to snap out of his self-pity. He agrees that Takeru's mother should not have left him. Having said that he's also in the same boat and there is nothing that they can gain from keep remembering it. He admits that he had to tell Kimi that their parents die instead of abandoned them so in a way, he can't forgive his parents either. Takeru eventually realises that Ryo is not any different from him except the part where Ryo doesn't self-pity himself. Ryo then tells him that things are not over between him and Hikari and asks Takeru not to abandon Hikari now. Upon hearing this, Takeru remembers how he felt when he was abandoned by his mother and resolves not to do the same thing to Hikari.
After the two returns to reality, Takeru suddenly regains his ability to fly onto the rooftop even though he still is not fully transformed into Devilman Takeru. He then tries to approach Hikari. Takeru asks Hikari to go back to them but Hikari refuses and asks Takeru why he doesn't try to kill her. She ends up flying away from Takeru while Takeru himself ends up following her. When Ioneous see this, he wonders why Hikari drag this over when it could have been a short process. He wonders if she has been poisoned by human's heart. Because of this, he decides to complete the task himself. Upon hearing this, Jennifer decides to ask the robot what will happen now. Ioneous dares Jennifer to follow him if she wants to find out but he believes that Jennifer is afraid, much to her annoyance. Ioneous then decides to give his farewell to Takeru's aunt and uncle. At this point in time, I have to say "WTF?!" because this scene is pretty much a way for him to say "Well, it's nice meeting you all but I have to destroy the world and all, so good luck!".
Elsewhere in the city, Takeru and Hikari jump around from rooftop to rooftop like the casts of X. And when Hikari feels that she still hasn't been able to shake off Takeru, she decides to fly away to evade him. But Takeru persist and along the way asks her if she really hates him. Unable to answer the question, Hikari tells him not to ask questions like that and proceeds to fly to Tokyo Tower. But since that's too far, she has to settle for the nearby Electricity tower. Hikari then hits Takeru with a projectile to stop him following her around. Her attempt is a success since Takeru ends up crash landing into the ground. Upon seeing this, despite the warning from her friends, Mari decides to look out for Takeru. At the same time, Ioneous bids his farewell and disappears into an invisible hole that he has created himself. When Akari sees this, she decides to follow Ioneous to presumably stop the silly robot. Back to Takeru, he has the misfortune of encountering Jennifer, who babbles on about how she may have to change one of her theories. She then bids farewell to Takeru hoping that they�ll meet again in the future. Bye, Jennifer! Apart from your exposition, you've been useless as usual.
Once Jennifer leaves, Mari arrives to further torture Takeru. She starts by asking Takeru to not continue his quest to go after Hikari. It probably never occured to her that she kind of implied that she'd rather let herself and others die than allowing Takeru to fix things up with Hikari. Mari then reveals her own bigotry by telling Takeru that Hikari is not even human to begin with and therefore, he and Hikari will never be able to understand each other. Finally, she tops it off by telling Takeru to never think that no one loves him because she can give him love if he wants her. At this point, I was frantically looking for a bucket not because I was moved to tears by her confession, but because I felt sick. I did feel a bit sorry for her when she cries her eyes out professing her love for Takeru. But everytime I hear what comes out of her mouth, I can't help but rolling my eyeballs and instantly disliking her. Thankfully for me, Takeru tells Mari that she's wrong. The truth is, not only he can understand Hikari but Hikari also has a heart. He then uses his power again to do a jump fly and goes after Hikari, leaving Mari shocked and presumably heart-broken again.
Once he catches up with her, Takeru asks Hikari why she didn't just kill him with that projectile. Hikari, however, can only run away and order Takeru to not follow her around. In her desperation, Hikari decides to slap Takeru, sending him flying over backwards. In retaliation, Takeru uses his tentacle-like hair to catch Hikari's hand and pull her body to him. Takeru tells Hikari that if she is not going to kill him, then she should tell him that she loves him. He then proceeds to kiss her. I feel sorry for poor Hikari. I think she would have destroyed the world faster if she knew that she has to hear that cheesy line. Elsewhere, Ryo and Akari finally reach the highway only to find out that the nearby forest has been decimated by the crimson butterflies. All of a sudden, Ioneous materialises out of the ground and transform into a mechanic beast. As he does this, a blob-looking thing rises out of a hole inside the forest and eventually forms a huge creature. I want to draw comparison to Evangelion here, but I'm afraid that people will kill me if I do that. Oh wait, I kind of did :P. Meanwhile, Hikari and Takeru continue to kiss each other, creating a red vortex in the sky.
Impression:
In general, this is another good episode although one that feels a bit rushed in its execution. It's obvious to me that the writers were trying hard to present and solve Takeru's inner demon while showing some action scenes to spice up the episode. The problem is, the action scenes never fully materialised because someone always botched it just when two people are about to go head to head with one another. So we're left with Takeru chasing Hikari from one rooftop to another. Meanwhile, the emotional scenes which could have been more powerful ends up lacking the punch that they need because they are so short and are only shown to quickly resolve Takeru's inner conflict. Never the less, the choice to use Ryo to snap some sense into Takeru was a good one. He shows Takeru that just because one has a sad past, you don't have to fall into a self-pity mode for the rest of your life.
I also don't like the episode's obsession with the 'Love conquers all' theme. I don't hate the theme on its own but when executed badly, it can come off really cheesy like when this episode uses it to solve Takeru and Hikari's problem. I think this is mostly because the writers never properly develop Takeru and Hikari's relationship so that as a viewer, I will care about their relationship. To me their relationship looks superficial at best and therefore I find it hard to believe that Takeru will go out of his way to win Hikari back. On the other hand, I can actually believe that Akari will go out of her way to save Ryo and those whom he think of as friends. This is mostly because I got to see how Akari enjoys Ryo's attention and company. The two seems to be more well-developed as a couple, in my opinion, in comparison to Takeru and Hikari. Because of this, I can't help but wonder how this would have been different if the writers had used the first half of the series to focus more on Hikari and Takeru's relationship instead of on providing those ridiculous fanservice.
This reminded me of a "little Mermaid" esqe love triangele...Hikari being the little mermaid of course
With this episode I found myself finally coming to your side. This series is seriously botched. The reliance on cliches to wrap up the plot was disappointing. The problem is not really the "love conquers all" or the pop-psychoanalysis, but the fact that the show did not build up for it. For all the repetitions of the "Mama was lonely" and tossed toy car images, Takeru wasn't behaving like a neurotic, he wasn't erecting barriers or what not. His behavior was perfectly within the norm for a teenager in love for the first time. What was he
supposed to do - jump on her and profess his eternal love on day one? When Hikari tells a crowd of people how Takeru's lips taste, doesn't
he have the right to be a bit embarrassed? Remember the scene when Hikari is sitting in a tree at night and says that for all the nice things she saw, she feels sad? Takeru tells her that it often happens
that we are sad when something nice ends, which is a rather sophisticated response for a 14-year-old. How was he supposed to fathom that Hikari is sad specifically because she is programmed to destroy all those nice things? The authors in fact devoted enough time to their relationship, and I rather liked it, but obviously as far as plot is concerned, it falls short. Ryou and Akari in fact didn't get that much space. Their relationship works because Ryou is a little Buddhist, and also because it wasn't seriously tested, Akari being
less complicated character.
Jennifer really turns out to be utterly redundant after all - another disappointment. I can see just one rationale for her role: anti-Americanism, pure and simple.
Still, I liked some snippets of dialogue in this ep., such as Takeru asking Hikari, Do you hate me?, and she replying, Don't say it like that! You're just hoping that I'd say "That's not it"! I also liked the visuals, and, on second watching, began to appreciate the music.
And yes, the Evangelion influences are now more obvious. I would add one more: the thing that happens to healthy young men in sleep in the
morning. I wonder if this scene is common in anime, or if it is a Gainax proprietary thing. When it happened to Shinji in the last episode of the Evangelion series, Asuka slapped him right there and then. Mari, of course, prefers to self-righteously humiliate Takeru in front of the whole family.
That's exactly what I meant when I said that as a theme, "Love conquers all" can go wrong if executed badly. In order for this theme to work, it needs a strong basis so that the result doesn't look silly. And unfortunately, I think Hikari and Takeru's relationship didn't provide a strong foundation which the writers can then use to support this theme when they finally decided to show it in this episode.
The 'getting a hard-on scene' is not exactly common in anime but I do see it a lot in 'mature' romantic-comedy anime. I think another show which uses this is "Chobits" although IIRC, I don't think the male character in that show gets the slap in the face or complete humiliation. I am not going to recommend that show though. If you're curious, try it at your own risk. :P
It's funny how you mention Asuka and Mari there. Because I just wondered why I like Asuka but can't tolerate Mari. I end up chalking it to the part that Asuka is upfront most of the time and that some of the things that she said to others are really true. When she slapped Rei in the elevator and tells her that she's like a doll, I can see that even Rei deep down admits that she has a tendency to act like one. The things that Mari said, however, most of the time has no base in anything and ends up being annoying.
While I agree with the overall assessment (Gainaxed drama series where the climax is leaving the audience strangely detached), I disagree with alot of the additional analysis provided by you two - Garten and heavenly. Which is probably a good thing, since it leaves at least some basis for debate ^_^
I think most of my disagreement stems from the fact that you judge other peoples' actions based on your own position as more or less omniscient audience, and fail to recognize that this level of knowledge is simply _not available_ to others. Things are totally different from their point of view. Take Mari, for example. Her incredulous reaction "this can't be Takeru!" is not denial, it's a totally natural reaction (no way!!) to something utterly unbelievable and outrageous. And also (not only) from her perspective, it is _indeed_ Hikari's fault. How is she supposed to know that fiercely competing for her cousin's affection would trigger the apocalypse? :)
Mari is a bit haughty, aggressive, easily frustrated, but "bigoted"? Hikari _is_ not human, fact. "Humiliate" Takeru? Excuse me? She's one of the few interesting _human_ characters in the series who actually have a bit of character development. In my opinion the hate is unwarranted ^_^
One of the reasons why I still defend Mari here is that except for her personal tragedy (she lost), the resolution between Hikari and Takeru almost completely leaves me cold. The "good" Hikari was a very nondescript character who more or less aimlessly drifted along without any distinct personality. The "evil" Hikari was vicious and intriguing, but I can't see this going anywhere. Do I long for the world to survive? Well *shrug* I can't say I care too much. Do I want Takeru rescue and get together with the "good" Hikari? I can't say I care too much either. Somehow I missed to take the hook.
Also, the Gainax psychobabble is back in full force. Ritsuko Shikijo ends as the annoyance she was to me from day one. Ioneus ... well. I guess the discrepancy of "Your food was so delicious, I'll always be grateful when I kill you all" should be spectacular, but ... *shrug* again.
At the going rate, I'm impressed by the high degree of hostility and annoyance the two of you are experiencing. I'm just shaking my head and sighing a bit. This will be another drama-comedy gainaxed, but this time slightly differently than usual. Still unsatisfying.
Alas.
I categorised Mari's reaction to Takeru's transformation as 'denial' simply because the other characters in that scene do not look as surprised as she is, thus, I can only conclude that she tries to deny what she sees. Also, if you remember last episode, when Sakurako asks Amika what is that thing standing in front of Hikari, Mari clearly answers "Takeru-kun". I think Mari is quite aware that the 'monster' is Takeru and yet for some reason, she tries to deny that knowledge for herself.
As for the word 'bigot', I admit I liberally used it to basically refer to Mari's mostly wrong assumption about Hikari's incompatability with Takeru just because Hikari is not "one of our kind". The 'she's an alien anyway, so you won't be able to understand her' is what I loosely categorised as 'bigotry'. Humans have always fear things that are different from them. Mari is not different. She chooses to find a scapegoat to the problem that is happening around her even though if one looks closely, she was also indirectly responsible for that said problem.
I also don't care much about Hikari and Takeru but not liking them does not mean that I have to like Mari :). The two feelings are independent. I dislike Mari simply because in comparison to the other characters, she is an annoying character. As for my unhappiness about the show, I supposed it shows because the show could have been better than what it is at the moment. It's the missed opportunities that I am angry about. I can see that this show has some good basic elements but the executions leave little to be desired.
The reason why Hikari was the one who was ***WRONG*** is because, of her passive agressiveness,the cause of her not asserting her true feelings(by holding secrets). And her unableness to admit her mistakes, and get over the past. (Like Takaru, who got through it with the help of Ryou.) These two emotional problems are connected deeply. And I praise Gainax for creating complex characters. :)
It's funny how Hikari did'ent really learn this expierience like Takaru. It toke Takaru to chase,(get beat along the way) the ever stubborn and stupid(like my grandpa says, lol!) Hikari until he could shut her up by kissing her! This shows how much Takaru really loves her...
also with all the "love will concour all" theme is just a like Sailor Moon episode... :o
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