I really do marvel that Kokkoku seems to get as little respect as it does, but perhaps it’s just too much a relic of an era in anime that doesn’t exist anymore.  This show has so much going for it – it’s very smart, it’s elegantly-plotted and artfully paced, but it’s also just so damn much fun.  This is a classic sci-fi thriller that can be enjoyed on so many levels – it’s dark but but never dreary or bleak, serious but willing and able to poke fun at itself, a good adventure story that requires careful attention as a viewer.  In all these respects I suppose it reminds me a lot of Kamisama Dolls – which was another seinen supernatural thriller that was massively under-appreciated.

I’d definitely been wondering what all the focus on Tobino was about – it’s true that secondary characters tend to be more important than you think with this series, but he’s tertiary really.  Well, it’s all revealed here – Tobino has a strong will to live, and that leads to him becoming a herald – or so it seems to play out, anyway.  That’s going to be very important later in the episode, though for the nonce the focus is on Ojii-san – and he’s in bad shape.  It’s exactly as Sako says – he’s the key to the opposition, and once he’s neutralized the others can be picked off one by one.

Juri’s decision to smash the stone (and the thing at its core) is one borne of desperation, but it’s only Ojii-san that initially grasps why that is.  Certainly she can boot the others out of stasis by expelling the specters from their bodies, but she has to believe she can’t do that to herself (and she’s right).  Not only was smashing the stone selfless but also bold (and one could argue foolish), because she really has no way to know for sure that it will save Ojii-san.  It was a Hail Mary pass for sure – though it can be argued that it was the only option Juri had if she wanted to save her Grandfather’s life.

Even so, this is all going rather badly when Sagawa shows up – that is, until Shiemi decides to switch sides.  I have to say I had an inkling that was coming, because two things are pretty clear about Shiemi-san – he’s a very smart guy, and he’s primarily concerned about his own welfare.  It had to be pretty obvious to him that teaming with Sagawa-san was a bad long-term bet, because ultimately all Sagawa cares about is what he wants (in effect, immortality) and he has the power to snuff Shiemi out with ease whenever he likes.  Shiemi does provide a bit of physical aid in the moment, but the most important thing he brings to Team Yuzawa is intelligence – and he possesses both then innate and the informational kind.

Kokkoku is full of intriguing moral grey areas, and Sagawa is certainly at the heart of one of them.  In a sense, he’s not really intending to use Stasis for evil per se – he’s just the ultimate seeker of knowledge.  Juri is quite right to consider the possibility of a truce (and in fact, I respect her for swallowing her anger and considering it for her family’s sake), because her goals and his are not mutually exclusive – they could just let him go on his way to the future and be done with him (theoretically).  The problem is that if Sagawa is not a psychopath, he is amoral – the lives of the others are not only meaningless for him, the act of snuffing them out provides a useful data point.

The other ambiguous man here is Takafumi of course, though he could hardly be more different from Sagawa.  He has worthy goals – protecting his family, primarily – but he’s burdened with poor judgment and driven by rage at his perceived impotence against the injustices of the world.  He’s no coward – when the time comes and the Tobino-herald attacks, he’s willing to risk his life to protect Makoto-kun.  But for Takafumi, the urge to do good and the lack of common sense not to do evil are a dangerous combination.

The headline in the end, though, will be the reveal that Makoto does indeed possess a talent of his own (we still don’t know if Takafumi has one – the ability to summon heralds – or is just deranged enough to draw their attention).  Makoto-kun can order the heralds to do his bidding – which is, by any standard, a hugely useful power in this world.  Could he do so to Sagawa too, one wonders?  Even if he can’t, Makoto can use Tobino as a weapon against Sagawa.  But for the moment, Takafumi and Makoto are keeping this a secret between them – with Takafumi pretending his grandson’s power is actually his.  I can’t see that subterfuge lasting long – neither Takafumi or a six-year old boy seem like good bets for keeping secrets…