Well, that was certainly an improvement on the premiere for Pet in every way. Including, curiously, the visuals. You’d think the first episode would be one where the studio would splash a little budget (you never get a second chance to make a first impression – Will Rogers), but this week’s effort looked way better in every sense. Some of that was a little more of Omori Takahiro and animation director Hayama Junichi flexing their artistic muscles, to be sure. But everything just seemed fresher, sharper and clearer.
One of the truths I hold to be self-evident is that good writing is the single most important element in any series (I freely admit I’m biased). When I look at Pet against something like ID: INVADED I certainly see many similarities. These are two opaque and intentionally confusing stories at this point, but the difference in wit and intelligence is unmistakable. With Pet there’s almost none of that pervasive sense of trying too hard to be clever – and generally – you get with a show like INVADED. And there are lots of things happening on the margins that strike you as interesting enough to merit further exploration with Pet. It’s a bit of a mess but to me it’s way, way more authentic and interesting.
Things are certainly still opaque to be sure, but the premise here is starting to reveal its broad outlines. I was pleased to see that Hiroki and Tsukasa weren’t willing to meekly go along with “crushing” Kenji – given that they’re the main characters, I’d rather they be at least somewhat likeable. Hiroki is clearly a mess, mind you – perhaps a sign that all of the psychic grunt work he’s doing for the yakuza is having an impact on his mind. But he’s apparently something of a savant even by esper standards (Tsukasa is obviously the anchor trying to keep him from drifting off) and – while it’s rather childlike – he does have a sense of personal loyalty and right and wrong.
Katsuragi, on the other hand, seems like an unrepentant asshole. And his relentless meddling in the psychic shenanigans despite seeming not to have the gift himself betrays a fundamental disdain for what his crushers do. He’s an old-school mobster who doesn’t hold with all this psychic bullshit, even if it is making the organization huge amounts of money. There’s an obvious conflict at work here – Tsukasa and Hiroki certainly aren’t content to be blunt weapons doing the yakuza’s bidding, and Satoru is obviously profoundly uncomfortable being part of this kind of organization.
The conflict in this episode revolves around Kenji, whom Katsuragi wants to crush (the same way Yokota was), but Hiroki and Tsukasa believe can be manipulated psychically to the point where’s his no threat. These dives inside Kenji’s psyche are fascinating and informative, and feature some really interesting and creepy imagery. The whole psychic system seems to revolve around the peaks and valleys Hayashi-san told Satoru about in the premiere. If the valley is “crushed” (that’s what happened to Yokota), the person apparently loses touch with reality altogether. But Kenji’s memories of Yokota are so deeply ingrained – and happy – that Hiroki and Tsukasa have to get extremely creative to try and reshape them (not made any easier by Katsuragi’s meddling).
What’s clear here is that however it was this power came into being, it’s one that should almost never be used, never mind misused by the yakuza. Maybe it can impact positively in rare cases, like Hayashi bringing the young Satoru in from the wilderness, but the general impression is that these parts of human consciousness were never meant to be meddled with. Just where Pet is going with that idea it’s too early to say, but it’s encouraging that with only five manga volumes to adapt, Oomori and Sadayuki-sensei should be able to take us there exactly as the mangaka intended it be done.
animealex
January 14, 2020 at 11:30 pmJust some quick observations from me:
1.) Katsuragi has psychic abilities of his own, but it’s weaker than the younger genration’s “IMAGE” ability. He is able to hypnotize people (as seen in episode one: the cigarette and key scene while meeting Kenji) and able to “crush” them. He just doesn’t seem to have the elegance and range of abilities of the “Imagers”. As a sidenote, perhaps this is so, because he is an asshole (borderline sociopathic). If one doesn’t have any empathy, how can they perceive the “peaks” and “valleys” of a person?
2.) Hiroki is a young idealist, despite his work for a criminal outfit. Tsukasa isn’t as idealistic, but they make a good team. I wonder if this will last, especially because Hiroki sees Tsukasa with a mix of a big brother worship and (perhaps?) romantic feelings, but I’m not sure Tsukasa sees it the same way.
3.) I also wonder if Katsuragi will seek revenge for the “cigarette-incident”. I’d wager the higher-ups don’t like it when the young ones mess with their minds…
4.) If I understood the “Image” technique correct, then each “Imager” uses his own psychic vehicle to enter another persons mind. Tsukasa becomes a drop of water, Hiroki the koi (?), Harikawa the wind and Satoru uses his door. I wonder what other vehicles we’ll see and what they say about the user in question. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the fish and the water drop get along so well. Or it’s a side effect of Tsukasa being the one to give Hiroki his “peak”.
5.) The altered “peak” of Kenji wasn’t as beautiful as the original one. The IMAGE technique has it’s limitations and I ask myself: Is it worse to kill someone or to “mind-rape” them into another person?
6.) The fact that I’m able to speculate/interfere that much about a show without it being spelled out (looking at you ID:Invaded), is a sign that for me this story is much more organic, flowing and elegant than a seemingly clever constructed thriller.
If anybody bothered to read all of this: Thank you!
Guardian Enzo
January 15, 2020 at 6:45 amMy point about Katsuragi not having the gift was that it struck me that the others are “naturals”, and he was taught to do whatever lower-tier esper stuff he does by them. I could be totally wrong.
animealex
January 15, 2020 at 7:35 amAh, OK. My bad, I was wondering how you could have missed that, but your idea how Katsuragi got his powers is even more frightening than people just being born with it. I hadn’t even considered that possibility.
pi8you
January 15, 2020 at 8:53 amThere’s explicit dialogue from Tsukasa transitioning to Katsuragi early in the second episode that indicate it’s a generational thing- that Katsuragi (and others) were called crushers because they just barged in and screwed with people’s peak/valley loci, but “Since you lot came on the scene with your ‘images,’ the requests from the guys upstairs have got more and more demanding.”
So my read on it is that these OG yakuza espers figured out they could go into people’s heads and screw around, but were just bulls in the china shop. At some point they enlist Hayashi, he shows them there’s a more precise way to do things (possibly through finding Satou, revealing what he’d been taught to control his own power), and this becomes how the new espers are taught to operate. Katsuragi can’t do images because either a) it’s not how he learned it, and it’s a mental Thing that can’t be easily re-learned or b) it’s a matter of how much raw talent the person’s got and the kids have just been stronger.
Looking forward to more, that second episode did a lot to pique my interest and I’m curious to see what they’re going to dive into for the actual story arc.
dc22
January 15, 2020 at 1:59 amI agree, much better than the first episode. Lots of things got explained.
Onix Franceschini
January 15, 2020 at 3:16 amI was also impressed by how engaging the entire episode felt, which is encouraging to stick around and see where the story goes.
Say
January 17, 2020 at 12:26 amI hope this keeps getting better!