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「君と一緒に（まあ気が合えばですが）」 (Kimi to Issho ni (Mā Ki ga Aeba Desu ga))
“Together With You (Well, If We Get Along)”
History Between Elma and Tohru
Where do we even begin. Turns out these dorogons have even more of a history way past their first encounter in Japan, which starts off around some place in what was presumably North Africa or the Middle East. Tohru seems very jaded and skeptical of Elma’s intentions, believing she must have had some ulterior motive of subjugating humans to the dominion of her draconic pantheon. Such as consuming human sacrifices like Quetzcoatl did. Nope, turns out Elma is every bit as simple as we’ve seen so far. Truly earnest, and driven by food. Yes, she lives to eat, a sentiment I can greatly relate with.
Even though it was extremely harsh, one can appreciate Tohru’s intentions of tearing down an arrangement mired in sophistry, where Elma ignores the killings and inequality derived from the zealous religious order emanating from worship towards her. She lost sight of her original intentions of stopping human conflict, just because she would turn a blind eye as long as they provided delicious food. I do feel sympathetic towards Elma, because she’s honestly just a simple dorogon with easy to fulfil needs that aren’t too demanding. But that doesn’t give her a free pass to ignoring ongoing atrocities. Tohru had to do what she did, because she definitely considered Elma a friend to be held at a higher standard. So it’s pretty much as Kobayashi says – they can only fight like this because they care about each other.
Even today, Elma lives for food. And as a hard working member at the same company as Kobayashi, her lifestyle has become infinitely more honest compared to those days. So with the benefit of hindsight, we can say that Tohru did the right thing.
Iruru Gets a Part Time Job
I think any teenager or young adult that has ever intended on having a chill summer can relate to Iruru being scolded by Tohru. That was me back in the days, when I wanted to enjoy my summer after exams. Nope. It’s time to get myself into society to get a taste of what being a working and productive person is like. So Iruru sets off to find a part time job. Fortunately, she’s able to find one to her tastes as an assistant at the sweet shop a little distance from the market precinct.
Perhaps grandmas know best. Because I actually suspect her decision to hire Iruru might have had an ulterior motive. Namely regarding her grandson, who gets confused over his grandmother hiring an adult man based on the large t-shirt he’s tasked to carry over, only for the penny to drop when he sees Iruru’s badonkers. My conspiracy theory is that she either wanted to tempt Take-chan into helping out, by using an attractive girl close to his age. Or that she’s straight up trying to ensure that great grandkids happen sooner or later.
Regardless of her motives, Take is absolutely flustered by Iruru. While he doubted Iruru to begin with, observing her for a day is enough to inform him that her intentions are nothing but pure where she just wants to spread joy to children – an earnest quality that captivates him. Maybe there’s some slight perversions, but I can sense something gentle and sweet blossoming here. He’s awkward and ended up face planting into her bosom. However he’s not trying to actively creep on Iruru, looks out for her where he can and isn’t trying to take advantage of his position as her senior. Outside of some fondness, Iruru seems generally apathetic. However, I have hope this relationship is going to grow and I look forwards to seeing where it goes.
Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you all next week!
All of the backstory scenes between Elma and Tohru after they fought and went their separate ways were anime original. And what beautiful scenes they were.
Very impressed those were anime original scenes. Props to KyoAni.
When Shota gets a bit older, I wonder about his interactions with Quetzl, looking at Take’s interactions with Iruru
O_O
( ≡ _ ≡) (Drifted off thinking about Shouta × Quetzl RomComs…)
You know that history that Tohru and Elma have is so deep, I had to rewind multiple times to understand it. Tohru is right, when you have power help mankind you should when you are mingling in their society. Elma just took food as her prize and ignored the suffering of society that worships her.
Her intentions started off fairly good. Even if she did have her ulterior motive concerning food.
However, she disappointingly strayed from that path and ended up living solely for the food, as opposed to desiring good outcomes within society as well.
We can also contrast this with Tohru limiting her power and putting herself on the line to defend Koshigaya (Maid Dragon’s setting in the Saitama Prefecture) from Iruru’s attempted attack to see Elma’s hypocrisy and Tohru’s sincerity.
This was a very good mix between more serious Tohru/Elma dragon backstory and Iruru job wholesomeness with a bit of boob jokes sprinkled in.
ironically it was chaos dorogon tohru that ended up caring more about humans under elma’s rule than” benevolent ruler” Elma herself
Take will make great companion to Irurur, teching her human common sense…
Unless there will be something more blossomings, though this series so far adamantly denied any romantic ships from sailing
I’m sensing something different with this particular ship.
I think the intent was for Kobayashi to always be a straight man of sorts to an overly affectionate dorogon.
The shotacon dynamic is playfully brought up, but I imagine heads would roll if that ship actually flew.
Which leaves the teenage dynamic between Iruru (despite her ridiculously huge bust) and Take as one of the few that could be socially acceptable to a Japanese audience.
oh yes, shota might have fun times few years ahead….
but foir now he is just no-go.
and Kobayashi is the straight woman -in both senses- to single-person-sexual dorogon,
but this ship can actually get sail in the winds, so to speak…
It’s not really ironic if you’re paying close attention to the story. Chaos dragons more or less don’t interfere with humanity, even in the dragon’s world. Although they like destruction, they’re basically more or less the good guys, acting as freedom fighters, trying to rid the world of the gods’ control so that everyone can do what they want.
The harmony dragons, in comparison, are much more toxic for humanity. They act as a liaison between the gods and the humans, keeping the humans ‘pacified’ with miracles and such, while demanding human sacrifices in exchange.
And the spectator faction cares for none of it.
I think it is kinda orange and blue morality of the dragons… they more align themselves along chaos-versus-order than good versus evil.
So it is that chaotic good Tohru finds herself more in league with lawful good Elma than both are likely to admit, like Paladin and rebellious Ranger, despite clash of formal ideololgy…
.
With the flashbacks of their past and Iruru getting a job, this episode yet again give a heartwarming effect.
friggin loved that ilulu and her job turned out super wholesome
Me too. Seems like she’s dealt with enough nonsense through her upbringing, including getting brainwashed by radical chaos dragons. Although Iruru might have lost her childhood, she is able to vicariously relive it through selling candy in a cosy store to children as a teenager.