I know I said this last week, but I’m still as baffled as ever at the idea that Kokkoku has been so anonymous for the past decade. How can a series this good exist in such obscurity, even if it is a seinen? I have no doubt Geno is doing a great job with the adaptation (having the likes of the legendary Hinata Masaki – who did the end card this week – involved certainly doesn’t hurt) but it’s hard to imagine the original manga wasn’t a gem too, based on how riveting and well-constructed this story is.
It’s been a good run already, but I would say this has been the best episode of Kokkoku so far. It was tense, nerve-wracking and fascinating from start to finish – all in a way a thriller can only be when you have buy-in with both the characters and the plot. In a funny sort of way Majima-san has emerged as the true protagonist of the series in some sense, but the the Yukawa are still its heart – and when we see Tsubasa-san (who’s actually one of the lesser-developed family members) go through what he did this week, it’s hard not to feel shaken by it.
This guy has already had a tough life, clearly. As such it’s no surprise that he’s going to be devastated by the reality of what he has to do to protect Makoto-kun here – any normal person would be, and Tsubasa obviously has more issues than the average young adult. That also makes him the most vulnerable to the siren song of the Handlers as we understand it, and indeed in the aftermath of taking a life Tsuabasa seems to be giving in to the same fate that took Majima’s family. It’s only the arrival of Juri, Ojii-san and Takafumi and Grandpa’s insistence that Juri expel the jellyfish from his body that seems to spare Tsubasa that fate – though it isn’t 100% clear that they were in time.
Takafumi is another member of the family that’s been mostly a background character, but he’s emerged as a force in the past two episodes. He’s as troubled as Tsubasa in his own way – angry and bitter about his life, feeling emasculated by his inability to be a traditional protector and provider (especially since he’s had to cede that role to the women of the family for the most part). He’s rash and difficult, but at heart seems to be a guy who’s just trying to do the best he can and frustrates that it never seems to be good enough. That would seem to make him among the most vulnerable in a situation like this as well, but as we’ll soon see he too has a Stasis ability which appears to be crucial to the story.
Majima and Sako now have Makoto, but as tense as this situation is it doesn’t feel as if he’s in any real danger from them. What Majima wants is clear – to release her family from the limbo they’re trapped in, for which she needs Juri’s help. The tragic part here is that Juri would have helped voluntarily if asked, and indeed clearly believes she and Majima could have been friends. But Majima holds too much rage in her – she blames the Yuzawa for what happened to her family, she resents that they’ve done so little with the gift (as she sees it) they’ve been given, and she doesn’t trust them to know what to do – which is why she went to Sagawa and the True Love Society in the first place.
A couple of things can be extrapolated from the drama that follows when both groups intersect here. For all her despair, it doesn’t seem as if Majima-san has given herself over to hate – her attempts to summon the Herald through feigned killing intent towards a bystander are even less successful than Sagawa’s. And Takafumi, it seems, has the ability to summon the Heralds at will – though whether this is simply a matter of his bloodline (which would imply that Makoto and Tsubasa too have some unique ability) or of the darker side of his nature is unclear.
The whole sequence is boffo great – tense, emotional, breathlessly compelling. As Ojii-san and Takafumi teleport an instant ahead of the Herald’s killing hand and Makoto and Sako watch from a rooftop, Juri attempts to expel the jellyfish from the Handlers’ bodies. Finally she accomplishes this – and indeed, these are Shouko-san’s mother and father, who seem to recognize her for an instant before they expire. But the little one – her brother – may just still be alive (Makoto instantly recognizes the presence of another boy near his age). If indeed Shouko’s brother has survived this ordeal, that represents yet another game-changing layer for this superbly complex mythology, and an opportunity for even deeper emotional exploration with this excellent cast of characters.
End Card:
Stöt
February 11, 2018 at 2:58 pmDefinitely the best episode of the series!! Loved every minute of it. I took Takafumi’s Handler summoning as a sign of some nasty side of his nature, but I didn’t consider it as an ability. Maybe you’re right!
The loose ends are being tied, and I feel that there aren’t many plot lines left. A boss show-down and a twist (such as an ability from Ma-tan) is what I would expect from a lesser story. This one might have a few curveballs left in the bag, but I’m still worried.
The wild guesser
February 11, 2018 at 6:18 pmThanks to your blogging, I decided to give this show a shot.
It is now most certainly my jam
Guardian Enzo
February 11, 2018 at 6:54 pmMusic to my ears!
Jellyfish
February 11, 2018 at 9:25 pmThe story, while good, does have its lapses though. You’d think that after all that’s happened so far, the family would know better than to leave Tsubasa out in the open near the house like that (and sure enough, the preview shows he’ll be found by the hostiles). It’s not like Majima wouldn’t have given them a bit of time to move him somewhere not as easy to spot. Just being in stasis no longer seems like a safety guarantee, and having his body carried off who knows where would still be a problem for the Yukawas even if the cult couldn’t kill him while in stasis. There’s been no indication so far that Heralds would interfere with something like placing a body in front of a moving car or train, so that the person would get killed after stasis is relased.
Guardian Enzo
February 11, 2018 at 9:28 pmWhy would a car or train be moving in stasis?
Jellyfish
February 11, 2018 at 11:04 pmI thought it was clear enough from the ending of the sentence that he word “moving” was also meant from the “before/after stasis” viewpoint, rather than the “during stasis” one, but I’m glad you at least got some amusement out of what I said, Karakai Jouzu no Guardian Enzo-san
To take motion out of the equation, how about just locking a static person up in in some abandoned basement where they would end up dying many days after stasis is released.
Guardian Enzo
February 11, 2018 at 11:11 pmIt was a serious question – I didn’t realize that’s what you meant.
Stöt
February 13, 2018 at 4:44 pmThere _has_ been indication though, right? It’s been all about murderous intent and less about inflicting life threatening wounds, n’est-ce pas? So placing a person infront of a train ( or suspended in air 100 floors up) would involve some murderous intent, I’d say.
But yeah, I mentioned in a previous comment that most characters are just running around like headless chickens all of the time. The planning side of things have been frustratingly absent.
Ronbb
February 11, 2018 at 10:48 pmIt was from tense to emotional when Shouko dragged her father’s body out and hugged her mother’s corpse…nice one.
Ja
February 12, 2018 at 5:33 amQuestion is, are there any more Heralds left if anyone tries to harm a static person?
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2018 at 7:51 amI don’t think we definitively know the answer to that, do we?
I don’t think we even know if Handlers can cross from one “frame” to another, or are only on duty in the one in which they were trapped.
Earthlingzing
February 12, 2018 at 9:40 amThis isn’t the frame Majima’s parents were trapped in, so its probably safe to assume that Handlers can cross from one frame to another.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2018 at 9:43 amThat makes sense, but I don’t know if we can be 100% sure.
It’s also interesting to speculate whether – assuming he’s alive – Shouko’s brother will have any memories of his lost 17 years as a Herald. Or will it be just as if he’d woken from a coma? Either way, he’s going to have some psychological trauma to deal with.
Angeles
February 14, 2018 at 9:33 amDara’am visited Turkey frequently over the next 18 months and was asked by his handlers to transfer Hamas funds from Turkey to Judea and Samaria. His handlers in Turkey gave him hundreds of thousands of Euros for Hamas’s military infrastructure.