Pet certainly remains a very dark ride. The message I’m starting to take away from it is, “You see how fucked up the world is? Now – imagine if it had people who could do this.” It’s not a pretty picture, to say the least, and to its credit it doesn’t try to be. If you’re looking for a story that espouses the idea that at their core people are decent, keep shopping. Pet makes the case that most of us are pretty awful, and the only thing limiting the damage we do to each other is the scope of our abilities to inflict it.
As we’ve delved deeper into the company side of the story, things have only gotten that much more unpleasant. I think this episode may very well have featured more Mandarin dialogue than Japanese – certainly a lot of seiyuu earned their pay. Dahao (Matsukjwa Hiroki), the guy whose friend was offed on the golf course a few episodes back, is the focus of the first part of the episode. He’s a pretty deplorable piece of work altogether, so it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him when Dahao is treated like shit by his father and grandfather and drawn into a Qigong plot to kill the latter.
A civil war within the company is a good thing I suppose, in the sense that the more these people kill each other the better. The son of one of the Qigong masters eliminated by the company seems to be at the heart of a revenge plot, and he takes out the president with Dahao’s help and that of Ron. I don’t suppose this will have any impact on the company’s nefarious activities but at least there might be a few less of the higher-ups stealing oxygen from the rest of us.
For me, though, Tsukasa has a special place in my circle of loathing. The fact that he may even have convinced himself that he’s not evil somehow makes it even worse. Having crushed one of the few decent people in the cast, he now turns his attention back to the one who saved him. The way he manipulates Hiroki here is especially despicable – the only thing giving me hope is that Tsukasa looks absolutely wrecked after this ordeal, so maybe it did some kind of permanent damage to him (though I suspect not).
“Trust” indeed. While we see darkness on display in many forms in Pet, what Tsukasa does to Hiroki feels especially vile because of how personal it is. Add to that the fact that he’s now turned his sights to eliminating Satoru – who I might have said was another of those few decent souls before the whole date rape thing – in order to make himself more indispensable and Tsukasa’s stock sinks even lower. I retain some curiosity to see how all this is going to turn out, but the main thing keeping me engaged at this point is the probably vain hope that Tsukasa will get what’s coming to him before the end of the series…
Kim
February 18, 2020 at 10:00 pmWell if it makes you feel better this episode makes me feel it hinted at Hiroki betraying Tsukasa
I also hope the young girl can be saved. Perhaps they can both escape the company together
moodytot
February 18, 2020 at 11:09 pmI have to say, one reason why I really appreciate your blog is the fact that you write about under-the-radar shows like these.
Btw, Enzo, where do you watch the raws with Japanese subtitles? I’ve been looking for episodes with the original subs.
Guardian Enzo
February 19, 2020 at 7:36 amThank you. It’s always nice to hear that tbh.
There are ways to watch series that existed before the rise of streaming. A veritable t*rrent of them.
animealex
February 19, 2020 at 7:24 am1.)I might’ve gotten it wrong, but my impression was that the bald, obese guy who took revenge in this episode was the CEO of the Company itself and the victims of his revenge were members of a rival syndicate, which instigated the betrayal of the CEO’s family way back. (Which resulted in the killing of all the Qigong Masters and their families in retaliation except Katsuragi and Hayashi, or that’s what I took from Jin and Satorou’s dialog in episode 4 and 5).
2.) If Tsukasa thinks Hiroki would be willing to make “Babies” for the Company, he doesn’t understand Hiroki at all.
3.) I still had hope, that Tsukasa would “see the light” after his close brush with oblivion and the unexpected rescue due to Hiroki. (Yeah, Yeah. Silly me.) But there seems to be no chance for that.
4.) Place your bets folks: Who will off Tsukasa? Satoru? Jealous rivals in the company? Or will Hiroki be the one to put him down, when he realizes how far gone his “partner” is?
Guardian Enzo
February 19, 2020 at 7:34 amI don’t care who it is, as long as someone does it.
I wouldn’t underestimate the hold Tsukasa has over Hiroki, both literal and symbolic. Until proven otherwise I’m assuming he can literally get him to do anything he wants.
rogerp
March 12, 2020 at 9:28 pmInteresting thoughts. Concerning your first point, if the bald guy really was the company CEO, then I would see his agreeing so easily to taking his clothes off (as well as the apparent lack of surprise in the face of this on the part of his rivals) as a serious writing misstep.
rogerp
March 19, 2020 at 9:10 pmYou were right, he was the company CEO… I’ll have to rewatch the episode to get things right myself:D
rogerp
March 12, 2020 at 9:30 pmapologies, that was addressed to Animealex