I hate to keep harping on it, but this season of Fumetsu is incredibly strange.  All the more because the first one was at least relatively conventional in narrative terms.  There just seems to be no rhyme or reason to what we’re seeing here.  Smack in the middle of the battle we get an episode that’s at least half narration, but even saying that doesn’t capture how weird this was.  It’s got to be one of the strangest second seasons in anime history, no exaggeration.

As for what actually happened, it starts and ends with Fushi being a total mess.  He’s literally overextended to a ridiculous degree.  So much so that he has to change bodies every five seconds to keep from passing out, except when he’s inside Hairo, where he gets a buffer because he feels no pain.  But that also means he feels no signals from his comrades in trouble and doesn’t notice when his own body is injured, so staying in there long-term is impossible.

As this battle rages on we’re seeing the technology of battle ramp up, to the point where we now have muskets and cannon alongside trebuchet and crossbows.  That can’t be good for the world as a whole, though Fushi hasn’t had much time to think about stuff like that.  I predicted last week that his ignorance about his ability to revive people would end here, and so it did.  I’m still not exactly sure how this resurrection ability works to be honest – what its limitations (and costs) are.  But all of a sudden Hairo, Bassar, and Kai are back – and they can continue to die and return as many times as necessary.

Of course Fushi doesn’t really understand how this works either, though he senses the game-changing nature of it for him personally.  But without going all FMA on you, I just don’t see how guys can die and be revived over and over without some cost to Fushi.  They’re actually blowing their own heads off in order to allow Fushi to be able to transport them faster, which just seems wrong.  Whenever this is over Fushi is going to have to have a very long think about all of it, and Bon is going to have a lot to answer for.

I’m no fan of Kahaku, but it’s he who gives voice to the point I raised last week.  For all that it’s natural for Fushi to want to save people, this is an existential dead-end for him.  He can’t save everyone forever.  He may be immortal but he’s not omnipotent.  Kahaku talks about wanting to protect Fushi’s humanity – and he’s about the only one who does – and that’s the core point here.  All this is taking Fushi further and further away from his own spiritual journey – he’s effectively turned himself into a tool at best and a weapon at worst, and in the process advanced the ability of humans to kill (it’s nokkers now, it’ll be other humans later).  Maybe the revival thing will be a fresh start for him, but that seems as if it could be a poisoned pill too.  Once again, it sucks to be Fushi.