ID Invaded – 08, 09

「Desertified」

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well. Or in this case, a cockpit. Diving into this cockpit within a cockpit is apparently supposed to give us a clearer shot at the answer – specifically regarding Kiki Asukai. So we’re about to see soon. That said, two things. I doubt that this desert is Momoki’s well. And if it truly belongs to John Walker, that’s a pretty disturbing reflection of someone’s internal reality.

Oddly enough, I can say that I really warmed up to Fukuda – even though he’s this raging lunatic that drills holes in people’s heads for fun. Yes, he’s a monster. But in the form of Anaido, he has a pretty chill and charismatic personality. However, it’s not like I trust Fukuda. Given how he’s part of a cabal of serial killers, it’s reasonable to suspect that he’s in the cahoots with John Walker and is acting as an inside agent to progress his cause in the Mizuhanome. Who knows? I think it’s extremely suspicious he didn’t eject Narihisago after 10 minutes in the next episode. But maybe we’ll see what that all means.

「Inside-Outed」

Even though it was just a simulation, Narihisago’s second fight against the Challenger provided much more action and higher stakes compared to the first time where he instantly shot him down. It was so visceral – with Narihisago getting his arm broken and Challenger’s eyeball being punched out of its socket making me wince. Which is to say the fight was fantastic – reminding me of The Raid, with the choreography throwing in a crazy mix of martial arts and straight up street fighting with Narihisago whipping out the gun and firing shots on occasion. For a second time, he is able to attain vengeance against the Challenger, beating him at his own game thanks to his foreknowledge – which should play out very interestingly, since we’ve seen how Narihisago’s retained memories affords him a significant advantage in gathering and seeking out the information he needs.

As for the revelations, it’s hard to fully process what it means for the series as a whole. Turns out Kaeru is Kiki Asukai. Which begs the question, if she vanished all those years ago, what exactly is going on? It’s extremely chilling to think of a possibility where she’s being kept alive in confinement, being repeatedly murdered in her dreams over and over again by serial killers. Or she might already be dead – so none of the scenarios are looking good for her. What happened to her in the past was awful and completely mindfucked me as I was mulling over it. Also, judging by her flashback, it’s become a lot more apparent that John Walker is extremely likely to be the Police Chief. Which makes me wonder, has John Walker ever killed anyone in real life? Perhaps he repeatedly killed Kiki in her dreams and induced many serial killers without killing anyone himself – though I suppose it’s very likely that the creator of the Mizuhanome was his victim.

With a few episodes left to go, we have some plot threads to tie up. Why didn’t Fukuda eject Narihisago after ten minutes? Like Narihisago, did Hondomachi also dive into Kiki Asukai’s ID well? What was Kiki Asukai’s fate? Did the Challenger really kill Muku or was he framed by a copycat? And just who exactly is John Walker and what is their modus operandi? Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. Apologies for the delays – been busy transferring to a new job in real life and will be moving out of home soon. So we’ll see where that goes? As always, thanks for reading this post and see you next week, in the hopes that we might receive more answers as opposed to ending up with more questions than we begin with.