Kokkoku – 08

「㐧捌刻」 (Dai Hachi Kokku)
“The Eighth Moment”

The crux of the issues that plague our cast in this episode of Kokkoku revolve around Sagawa learning how to inherit the powers of a handler. His experiments with Stasis are paying off on his end as he uses his newfound powers to eliminate the True Love Society members who weren’t on-board with him using them to gain powers against the teachings. Ultimately, the series uses its eighth episode to establish Sagawa as a final boss, who has enough strength and knowledge behind Stasis to become a largely dangerous threat to the Yukawa’s. Although Juri’s powers are likely to be able to expel him from their problems, he’s in the process of causing more issues to arise from their prolonged journey through Stasis.

One of the largest problems happens at the end when Sagawa uses Jiisan’s blood to place inside of the Master Stone. Because of this, Jiisan has fallen ill as he collapses on the floor in pain. Following both Sagawa’s line of thought and Majima’s hypothesis, if his blood is used to trigger the Stone, then Jiisan will be expelled from Stasis. Whether this means that he’ll freeze up or he’ll be out of the picture until the end of the series is up for speculation, but it would be one bugbear for the Yukawa’s to lose the aid of the one person who has had the most experience with Stasis. Sure, he’s fuzzy on many details and gets most of his advice from television, but this late in the game, his teleportation skills and experience are easily the most valuable traits of their party next to Juri’s expulsion power and Majima’s ability to fall slowly enough to float in mid-air.

Shiomi’s assistance is also a topic of debate as he seems to follow Sagawa primarily out of fear after seeing the potential of his powers as a pseudo-handler. His ambivalence is easy to read, but for some reason, Sagawa sees his presence as a useful convenience. Majima honed in on him being a hole in Sagawa’s defense as his status as a shakier participant of Sagawa’s study would make him easy for manipulation through outside sources. While her attempt to win him over failed, his status as a paid contractor following Sagawa fearfully could make him a wildcard in whether he could find a way to put Sagawa in a tough spot once there’s an opening.

Takafumi’s role in the episode is comedic relief as he is forced to make it look like he’s paying for a toy Makoto wanted as his son has a higher moral barometer against stealing. While his behavior around Makoto does sidestep much of his scummier behavior throughout past episodes, he does have an ace under his sleeve as he prepares to try to offer his assistance. It certainly doesn’t help that he wants his dad to teach him how to use Stasis, and tries to have Makoto enjoy the opportunity to take from a store without paying. From the previews, however, he might be in over his head by trying to take matters into his own hands, and could even lose it to a handler if he’s not careful.

Preview

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