So what I said about Vigilante being 13 episodes earlier? IBID. For winter at least that’s the new normal. but I have considerably less confidence Darwin Jihen will get a continuation. Not none – I do think there’s a chance. This is a Manga Taishou winner, and the volume sales did tick up after the anime started. And there’s still absolutely no evidence that the anime is speeding up the pacing. If we stop where I expect to it will feel natural enough, but the best the manga has to offer is really yet to come.
Things have developed to the point where Phil represents the fulcrum of the story. He’s a product of his situation – “animal rights” is a silly concept to him. But he’s an old-fashioned guy with a personal code, and Charlie is human enough that the way he’s being treated violates it. So much so that Phil is willing to let his badge be confiscated rather than hand Charlie over to the FBI. He no fool either – his offer to let Charlie be questioned on camera with a lawyer present puts the lie to their supposed interest in justice. Ronnie is sympathetic – and feels guilty over the Steins – but Phil is really on his own here.
Well, not quite. Grace is with him, as long as he pees sitting down. Charlie may grumble about Grace fussing over him but she’s a stalwart soul. When Phil informs her about his work situation she suggests they open a massage parlor. The pair of them are annoyed at the swarm of press around their house, and he even more when Rep. Linares announces she was the one who leaked his address. But she did the right thing – all those eyes on the place are the only reason the feds haven’t acted more brazenly.
There’s a backstory here – a daughter that used to sleep in Charlie’s room – but we’re not privy to the details for now. Charlie goes in for a checkup and it confirms what he’s been saying – he’s leveling up. Puberty, in theory, Dr. Fowler says. But puberty should have hit Charlie already, and Fowler has no reason why it didn’t. And puberty doesn’t give a kid super strength and mental faculty like Charlie is showing. Grace and Phil seem none too concerned, but there are other elements to puberty in males that Fowler didn’t discuss…
As for Lucy’s secret, we learn what that is. Or at least we seem to. Considering how freaked out Lucy was when Feyerabend dropped that on her, she spills the beans to Charlie pretty casually. And honestly, being the daughter of a sperm donor is hardly some huge scandal. Charlie certainly doesn’t care – other than to ask if their somewhat analogous origins were the reason Lucy latched onto him. She’s pretty honest with him – even when he announced he wants to “mate” with her. She does correct him on his verbiage, but seems down with it – at some future point. For now it’s a kiss on the cheek – or was it the mouth? With Charlie it’s a little hard to tell.
That darn puberty. This is another dicey issue Darwin Jihen is diving into here, but the truth of the matter is this – compared to how Charlie was conceived in the first place, any consensual relations between two willing partners seem positively wholesome. Which is something you would never say about the ALA or its leader, who’ve just kidnapped Alcott, the Secretary of the Interior. The FBI has finally made its way to Major Lippman, who’s singularly unwilling to sell out his organization but tells them to go get Charlie. But if he couldn’t do that, it doesn’t seem like they have much of a chance…
