Hikari no Ou – 10 (END)

「異形子ら」 (Ikei Kora)
“Malformed Children”

Kanata growling was pretty ominious-that should set off a few warning bells. Dogs have a habit of sensing a person’s nature, so I’d bet my money on Kanata’s instincts and be wary of the doctor (who is in Yusichi’s employ, if that weren’t incentive enough for caution). Hinako’s eyes weren’t a normal color, which tells me this probably isn’t just a “fever”. Hinako going in for “observation”-yeah right- that’s fishy-no doubt they know what’s really going on. Damn is Hibana cold, knocking out her own daughter with Asafuyou. Yusoichi is rather blasé about Hibana’s illegal drug usage-if it won’t effect his business then he doesn’t seem to bother about it.

Akira and Touko’s encounter with Hibari leads to an explanation (or at least an implication) of why the gods don’t do anything to help or stop the dire fire situation on earth. Like Akira boldly questioned Hibari- why don’t the gods try to do something themselves? They act like a bunch of clingy children, lamenting over their Lady Goddess’s condition but don’t try to do anything to help her or themselves. If they can’t conceive of stepping into adult shoes, taking responsibility and the Lady Goddess is in such a bad shape, it’s no wonder the fire and fiends run unabated. The only one left, then is the remaining divine “sibling”, who hasn’t yet succumbed to fatigue/fate, the Flickering Flame.

If Hibari is right, then my (and Akari’s) guess that the Flickering Flame is a human designed satellite is off. Instead, the Flickering Flame is the spirit of a god that is re-incarnated into human form. That still leaves the satellite thing and what it’s doing in space-maybe it carries the spirit around until it finds human form. From the looks of it, the flame’s human vessel isn’t too far off from finished. It connects the dots with Hinako’s Regan MacNeil-like Exorcist transformation. Hinako is more than likely that new vessel or at least connected to it in some way. Her illness from the beginning may have been related to this Flame. Did Yusoichi pick up on that, presenting a motivating factor other than Kouichi’s skills to take the orphans in? Regardless, Hinako is about to be plunged into the center of the war between gods, humans, and spiders. Given that her possession would imbue her with super-god level powers that would rival Tokohanahime and Tayurahime, I’m not too worried about Hinako-she should be able to hold her own just fine, especially if her weird climbing skills and uncharacteristic strength when rescuing Touko is anything to go off of.

Notably, Hinako’s eyes turn back to normal once she’s away from the mansion. It could very well have something to do with moving into closer proximity to the sacred shrine-palace, especially if she is the chosen vessel for the Flickering Flame. Even more interesting is Hinako’s “treatment” with the sky-fire (at least that’s what it looks like). Most likely, Yusoichi and the doctor are attempting a similar feat to the Spiders in dosing her with fire to make her resistant to it.

They leave us on quite the cliff-hanger, with flame fiends running rampant and the stalwart Tree Folks getting attacked. Touko draws her blade at last and does some damage, rending that fiend in two. From the significance of this step, Touko’s finally made the final leap into becoming a fire hunter, maybe even the contender for the fire king (queen). It’s no coincidence the Flame makes its appearance right at that moment.

So, when I started the episode today, I wasn’t expecting to be writing my final impressions. It was a total surprise to me that the first season ended with 10 episodes with a 2nd one on the way at some point in the future. Overall, my feelings are mixed on Season 1. The visuals were horrendous and the characters didn’t move me-the MCs were too passive, as I’ve noted previously.

However, the lore was fascinating and I loved seeing how the story drew upon Japanese mythology and put its own fantasy spin on a post-apocalyptic Japan. I was initially worried that if there was just one season, the character development and plot would be rushed into the remaining few episodes. However, that there is a second season and that the creators/staff are taking their time to tell this story gives me hope that the concerns I had with the character writing could foreseeably be addressed and mended in the second season where the characters really mature into their roles. That and the cliffhanger that practically dangled these burning questions in front of me gives me hope that this might be one of those slow burn shows that’s worth the investment.

Preview