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“Dying Flowers Look Up at the Birds”
「息の根はる花は鳥を仰ぐ」 (Ikinone Haru Hana wa Tori wo Aogu)
Somali to Mori no Kamisama got hella dark. Very quickly. We went from wholesome adventures with golem dad to witnessing the horrific consequences of humans and monster being unable to make peace.
Uzoi attempts to murder Somali to acquire her blood, since she believed that it could cure Haitora’s life-threatening illness. Instead, after tumbling into water and getting wet, Uzoi changes her mind – leading to an extremely awkward moment. However the train of suffering continued piling on, full steam ahead. We finally learn why Haitora never seemed to reciprocate Uzoi’s feelings of love. The truth about Haitora killing and eating Uzoi’s mother was thoroughly sickening. It left me reeling. His situation was undeniably sympathetic, because just about any father would resort to such an extreme method when put into that kind of situation where his family’s survival is on the line. Additionally, Haitora and his family were forced into that miserable position because they were being hunted down by monsters. You can see why they would have no love for monsters like Uzoi’s mother – even when she had done nothing wrong. For all they knew, she wouldn’t have cooperated with them and might have sold them out to their doom. On the one hand, I felt extremely sorry for Haitora when his entire family suffered a horrific death. I also don’t blame him for trying to raise Uzoi to atone for his personal sins. In fact, he probably blames himself for his family’s death too. But Uzoi’s perspective is equally understandable. It has to be one sick joke, discovering the man you love as a father was actually the very individual who killed your mother and ate her. I’m not sold on how she forgave him so easily. Yet I suppose he’s all she has. Uzoi also knows that he truly feels remorse and really does care about her. So it kind of turns out to be a happy ending, though I’m not entirely convinced. Though their arc has probably concluded, and we likely won’t be seeing them again, I’ll be curious as to how the relationship between Haitora and Uzoi plays out in the long term.
Finally, I wonder if there’s a social commentary on meat eating in there. Not that I’m advocating for vegetarianism, as an avid meat eater myself. Nevertheless we raise livestock, separate them from their beloved parents or children to be slaughtered, then sold on the market for widespread human consumption. Where I hadn’t really done so before, this episode really made me consider the ethics of meat eating. I know, weird and random takeaway from this episode. But it’s better than nothing.
Anyway, that was about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you next week to see where Somali and the Golem will go next!
Preview
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i remember of some old anime, where Fishermen cautgh a Mermaid in their Net and then try to drink her Blood to earn eternal Life and they forced or something a Boy to drink it, too. But the boy just sipped on this Blood and the men drunk all of it. The Men died because the Blood is poison. Just the Boy survive, because he did not drank the lethal dose. Many years goes into the land. I do not know it clear anymore, but somehow the Boy (also the eternal Life comes with eternal youth) discover after many year, that the capture Mermaid is still alive. He then cut her lose… But the rest is really lost in the fog of forgiven
Seems like the same here? They eat her Flesh and it somehow turn out poison, just one survive because he eat not a lethal dose?
Rumiko Takahashi’s Mermaid Saga, huh? One of the rarer dark works of hers. Recommended.
As for this episode, currently not watching this show, but the blog post made me a bit more interested. Will have to see how the next episodes turn out.