Man – where the hell has this series been hiding?

In a way I’m kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop with Kokkoku – some plotquake or other disaster that would explain why it’s been so anonymous in Western (and Japanese, as far as I can tell) fandom despite being around in manga form since 2008 (and complete since 2014).  This series is just too good to be this unknown – and it’s really good in my opinion.  It’s easy to see why Geno chose it to be its first (hopefully, of many) foray into TV anime – something which seemed puzzling at the time it was announced.

So much that was genuinely interesting happened in this episode (which had me utterly absorbed, despite the fact that I was watching it in a loud and stinky airport gate area) that it’s hard to know just where to begin.  Let’s start with Majima-san, who finally gave up what she knows to Kato and Sako because she had no choice.  She told them the story of her family, which was trapped in stasis years earlier when her brother inadvertently (with his tears, interestingly) seemed to activate one of the servant stones at the same moment Ojii-san was activating the master.

There’s a lot to unpack here, that’s for sure.  Kato had been sort of sympathetic up to this point, but his true nature certainly comes out when he casually says “Are you going to let me fuck you, or what?” as a condition for he and Sako helping her find her family.  I like the fact that even the secondary characters in this series have very pronounced personalities (and that includes Sako, who will later decide to support Majima rather than keep his wagon hitched to the “insane” Sagawa horse).  But the headline is obviously that Majima’s family turned into heralds, which certainly explains both her knowledge of the process and her motivation for teaming up with Sagawa.

This two are obviously using each other to get what they want – a dangerous game for both of them.  Sagawa wants Majima’s knowledge – and is slowly piecing together what she’s hiding from him – and she wants someone with the practical means to help her “release” her family.  And when three heralds show up when Sagawa decides to test Majima’s theory about multple heralds in one “frame” of stasis, it’s her family that show up – including her brother, who appears as a mini-sized herald.  This is a sad story on so many levels, but its resolution is deferred for the moment.

Meanwhile, things are happening all across the Yukawa family as well.  Otou-san is increasingly angry at his father for not protecting his family, and bitter about his own perceived bad luck – but there are signs he’s cleverer than he appears (though that’s a low bar).  Juri leaves a note for Tsubasa at the house, warning him that it’s too dangerous there and to take Makoto and go into hiding. But one of the Sagawa thugs beats them there, and snatches the note before Tsubasa sees it.

This is tense and gripping stuff.  I was pretty convinced that when Tsubasa walked into Makoto’s room he was going to find the boy had already been stabbed – but instead it’s Tsubasa who’s the victim,  But not after a pretty fierce struggle, and considering that everyone considers this guy a pathetic failure (not least himself) Tsuabasa is proving himself quite the wolverine where his nephew is concerned.  If Tsubasa survives this fight, I suspect he’s going to see this as something of a turning point in his life for the better.

There are two more or less co-equal stories playing out here, the mythology and the family drama, and both of them are totally working for me.  The premise is clever and internally consistent, the characters genuinely interesting (most of all the Yukawa, but not only them) and the execution overall is excellent.  Maybe this series simply isn’t otaku enough to make much of a splash (though that doesn’t explain the manga’s anonymity) but it sure represents an impressive debut for Geno, and it’s one of the shows I most look forward to every week.