Migi to Dali – 12

「ぼくらの復讐」 (Bokura no Fukushuu)
“Our Revenge”

Episode 12 of Migi to Dali gears up for the finale as Migi, Dali, their friends, and the last remaining members of the Ichijou household race to find an escape plan from their burning home. But in the midst of the action, Eiji is convinced that he must go down with the rest of their home.

A DISH AS COLD AS THE WINTER AIR

Dali might have a harder time understanding the empathy that Migi reserves for those around him, but the moment he hears about the communal cherry pie feast is always the moment his determination wavers. In the process, Dali takes the bulk of the attention in this episode since his epiphany drives him to deliberately want to save Eiji.

It’s ironic how Migi was dressed down for thinking they went too hard on Eiji, but Dali was the first twin to want to jump back into the burning home for Eiji. Migi is the brother to constantly drills how important it would be for the two to gain some semblance of normalcy outside their revenge, but because Dali puts more thought into whether he wants to kill or save Eiji, he tilts harder into either decision than his kinder brother.

It might not have helped though considering how the Ichijou family operates. Karen is the most relatable because she’s the most self-aware of how her family was formed as a twisted distortion of the traditional nuclear family. Reiko relied on other women to give her children only to make them disappear when they became too inconvenient to be left around. Her husband wasn’t any better as he ceded power to Reiko, especially if it let him get away with having physical and emotional affairs with other women. Even now, he’s the weakest link as a pitiful yes-man who doesn’t have the backbone to act like a responsible adult in a room full of children.

It puts a lot on Karen and Eiji to keep up the facade, but while Karen makes no bones about wanting nothing to do with her family, Eiji is involved to a fault. His connection with Reiko was the one semblance of parenthood he was raised with, and even that was fraught with emotional manipulation and indoctrination. The love and support he received growing up had made him complicit in the suffering that gave him this peace, and the presence of his two biological brothers is the catalyst that knocked down this ivory tower.

Dali sees much of himself in Eiji as two cold, calculated, and emotionally distant brothers, and the combination of circumstance and misfortune were the only two factors that prevented them from trading places. Even still, Eiji is so overburdened by the responsibility he holds for the deaths of both of his mothers that he can’t envision any other place for him to go. But the show’s finale might help to show us if Eiji will still keep taking accountability under Reiko’s shadow, or if he’ll manage to have some redemption when the finale hits around Christmas.