天下制覇

Wherin we relive Yuuichi and Ayu’s dates, past and present.

Impressions:

A much slower episode than the first, but still managed to hold the psychological thriller aspects thanks to Shiika’s visions and some great mood music throughout. They wasted no time in getting to Daisuke and Shiika’s relationship and assumably him breaking his ties with his fellow Mushi hunters to protect her in the next episode or two. On the other hand, while it’s hard not to feel some empathy for poor Shiika, I groaned the moment her whole little flashback started. I immediately knew where this was going and while it still did a really nice job with the imagery and the music to set the tone for that whole scene, I’ve seen it so many times before that it’s really a stale plot device.

Summary:

When last we left our hero, Daisuke, he was leaping past a train towards the girl in his visions. She’s frightened by him though, and recoils. Someone yells at him to stop because of how he leapt in front of the train, so he grabs her hand and takes off running, while his classmates and Rina watch and laugh about it, snapping a couple pictures of the two hand in hand.

As they’re running, the girl eventually tires and collapses to catch her breath. The two are at a bus station with a lookout point. She asks herself aloud where they are, and Daisuke apologizes for dragging her off and tries to explain that he doesn’t know why, but he felt that he needed to talk to her. He introduces himself, but she doesn’t say anything in response. He says that it must have been strange, being dragged off by someone she doesn’t know.

A cat rubs up against his leg and surprises him. It keeps rubbing against him until he picks it up and the girl’s expression softens a bit. The two start talking a little more, and she forgives him for dragging her off and says that she’s okay. Daisuke gives her his number and starts to run off, but she stops him and says that her name is Amato Shiika. He yells back to meet him in town tomorrow after school if she doesn’t mind.

Once he’s gone, she thinks to herself that she can’t remember why she’s here before suffering from a sudden flash of pain and a series of visions of places in town.

At school, Daisuke is running late and trying to lurk into the classroom. Rina sees him through the door, marches over in the middle of the lesson and drags him inside to be yelled at by the teacher. Later, he’s grilled by his classmates about who the girl is that he’s with. They ask if she’s his girlfriend, but he says that it’s the first time he’s met her.

Rina breaks up the gossip by tossing a basketball to him and confronting him about how men think about women. He says that she’s probably right and trots off while she blushes. She gets the last word by clocking him in the back of the head with the basketball.

Back in town, Shiika is waiting for Daisuke when she has a sudden flash and envisions a truck hitting her. The truck turns and follows the road though. She hears voices speaking to her as well, but shrugs them off. Daisuke comes running up, and she’s all blushes.

They head to some delicious burgers and fries while Daisuke asks her the usual questions… which name to call her by, where she’s from, what does her family do, etc. She doesn’t have much to say about anything, so Daisuke talks about his own thoughts on them. She tells him that he’s an amazing person and smiles for him. As the two leave, they’re being watched by one of Daisuke’s mushi hunter cronies.

The date continues through shopping, a horror movie, and a crane game doll… it’s like Kannon’s dating scenes all over again, only with the threat of giant insects lurking somewhere in the background. The two eventually seperate, both thanking the other for the date. Daisuke tries to ask her out tomorrow… or the day after… but she says that it’s probably impossible. He tells her that he’ll be around whenever she wants him.

Once home, Shiika says hello to her parents and sister in an empty house. She remembers them being together… eating together… and playing together. Her memories then turn to how lonely she was in school and how she felt alone when a dark figure suddenly asks her what her dream is. The scenery in her imagination collapses and she wakes up.

She wanders upstairs in the empty house, thinking again about how her sister would hang out with her in her room as she read and would listen to her worries, and promised that she’d give her a special birthday present.

Her memories turn to going to school again, and she remembers when a classmate tripped and was about to be hit by a truck. She lost control and destroyed the truck, killing the driver inside. Everybody called her a monster, including her parents. Only her sister tried to protect her, but she was stopped by her parents and Shiika was surrounded by government officials.

Back to the present, Shiika walks to the desk and finds the ribbon her sister promised her. She starts crying, and then goes out to call Daisuke. While she’s talking to him though, the Mushi hunter that was spying on them from before is sitting on top of the phone booth, and we see a Mushi just outside of Shiika’s body.