This series is absolute inspired lunacy, and it’s a crying shame it seems to be drawing almost no attention. I’ve been trying to categorize it, and it doesn’t neatly fit into any one box. It has elements of absurdism and surrealism, though it’s not either of those things. And at times it almost puts me in mind of one of those wacky stories Terry Jones and Michael Palin would write in the days after Monty Python disbanded – like an animanga version of a Ripping Yarns episode. Whatever you to call it, Migi to Dari is both pretty unique and immensely entertaining.
As we saw last time, Reiko has framed Hitori for the murder of Micchan (though it would never hold up once the evidence was examined, the boys don’t know that). They’re pretty short on options, and here Migi’s more adept social skills pay dividends – he has an ally he can call on, and Dari is in no position to say no. And once Akiyama joins the fray you know things are going to get crazy. That’s especially true when – much to Migi’s horror – he invites Murata-kun to join the team. Murata has tech and he’s a sneaky bastard, and that makes him a natural ally in this situation.
All this time Migi is trying to convince Dari to reveal himself to Akiyama, but this just plays up the differences between the brothers that much more. Migi is just much more open and willing to trust, while Dari is pretty much broken socially. But once the birdboy hatches a plan (pun intended), Dari is out of options – it’s now or never. When the truth does come out Murata and Akiyama-kun freak out in truly hilarious fashion (Murata is about to push the big red “Mama” button he has in his room).
This pretty much devolves into a truly ridiculous spy caper as seen through the mind of a bunch of schoolboys, which is in effect exactly what it is. The idea is for “The Beavers” to liberate Karen – who Murata has learned via Morse code is imprisoned in her room – and have her act as a hostage to get Reiko to confess the truth on hidden camera. There’s Akiyama screaming in a bird suit, rope, barbed wire, and budding romance (Karen apparently has a tooth fetish). Karen declares that the Ichiyama house should be “brought to ruin” (sounds good to me) and the smitten Murata is only too happy to promise to do it.
At this point things get ever weirder, as the plan shifts to making Eiji the hostage – Karen figures she doesn’t have enough value to Reiko (and her explanation even more strongly suggests Metry is Eiji’s mother). But Eiji has been dumped into the same re-education nightmare that Migi endured (Akira seems to be aware of this and chooses to ignore it). Dari is convinced that a sort of Revenge of the Sith “high ground” scenario is the key to everything, the dog comes in and bolloxes up the plan, and eventually a tense standoff ensues, with Migi holding a knife to the infantilized Eiji’s throat while Reiko glowers up at them and eventually agrees to spin the tale of why Metry was a “devil”.
As ever with Migi to Dari, Sano Nami manages to maintain the structural integrity of the characters even as they’re surrounded by the bizarre. Migi and Dari’s differences have become a larger and larger theme as the series has progressed, and it seems to have been building to this – now that they (seemingly) have the person that killed their mother in their clutches, what will they do? Migi seems able to grasp that the act was unintentional, and that Eiji is really a victim too – but Dari seems unable to make that leap (yet). One suspects he eventually will, but with this series I wouldn’t make that assumption just yet.
Nicc
December 6, 2023 at 9:16 amYep, it’s one of the dark horses of the season and it’s a shame that it’s not really getting much attention. And, who would have thought that Reiko Ichijou could be in the running for one of the season’s best villains.
The boys make it back home, only to discover as Reiko has framed “Hitori” for the murder of Micchan. She was smart enough to not mention about twins being the killers as it would have made her story less plausible. That means they can’t go back to the Sonomayas for the time being or even hide out as the police are all over the Origon Village. There’s only one person they can turn to, and that’s birdman Shunpei. He believes “Hitori” immediately, but it’s clear that they’ll need more allies to expose Reiko. Shunpei brings in the Murata, who we haven’t seen since the 3rd episode. Murata bosses them around as they ask for his help, but he’s game and it seems that he’s got some game-changing early 90’s tech to tip the scales (It turns out to be a RC helicopter, but it sort of works).
They become “The Beavers” and the plan is to use the youngest daughter, Karen, to gain entry into the Ichijou household and then take her hostage to get a confession from Reiko. Still, they need one more person for this and, indeed, it’s now or never for Dali. The two boys finally reveal themselves to Shunpei and Murata. Yep, that freakout was impressive and now there’s enough people to carry out the plan. And, that was a fun caper to watch and I was reminded of the shenanigans of the boys in “The Sandlot”. Shunpei draws off the police while the other three attempt to enter from Karen’s room. That proves to be more perilous than expected as there’s barbed wire all over the property (Our HOA is rather permissive, but barbed wire on the lawn is a no-go). All three boys do make it to Karen’s room via rope climb, but it’s a close call.
They learn that using Karen as a hostage won’t work as Reiko doesn’t care enough for her. Only Eiji will work, except he’s not in his room. It seems that he’s being “reprogrammed”. And, then the ship started sailing for Karen and Murata. Well, romance can blossom from any old time, but it’s time to refocus on the task at hand. They find Eiji in the same room that Migi was subjected to baby play. Right, now it’s Eiji who will become the hostage and their elaborate plan to take the high ground (It’s over, Reiko! We have the high ground! Episode III is a gold mine of memes) almost blows up when the dog shows up, but it works out in the end and they boys have Reiko where they want her to be. It looks like we’re going to get a tell-all from Reiko and I wonder what kind of whopper she’s going to tell. I also agree that Migi seems aware that what Eiji did to their mom was probably an accident, but Dali is more reluctant. This will make it the third time that Eiji’s mind has been messed with (First the hypnosis, then the pumpkin accident and now Reiko’s brainwashing). I wonder if he’s going to be okay once he eventually snaps out of this one.
Simone
December 8, 2023 at 5:45 pmThis really feels like if Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch wrote a script together. While drunk. It’s honestly such a unique show and I guess the only thing I’m sorry about is that it seems like it got a bit rushed at points due to the constraints of a single cour. But other than that, it’s a great ride and I really hope it sticks the landing.