One day, every man will be able to marry the snake he loves.
What They Say:
Is the story that Ayano’s mother read to her as child more than a simple fairy tale? And how do the events that take place in it tie into the situation the Mekakushi-Dan face?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There are just two episodes left after this one, and still plenty of history to be elaborated on and characters to be more fully explored. Marry has been around quite a bit and when she is she generally has plenty of time to talk and be the center of attention, but that hasn’t necessarily served to deepen her character a great deal. Moreover, all of her involvement thus far has amounted to little in terms of her importance to the story as a whole. Sure, it’s largely about a group of people who all have backgrounds worth exploring, but as we’ve gotten into the later parts of the series, there’s been a definite shift to examining how each character fits into the overarching plot, which we’re only learning about piece by piece, mostly through these character studies. With many of the characters who might’ve seemed more major having been covered relatively well, it’s a good opportunity to get to Marry, and she ends up having a big part in how this all began, although she likely realizes it less than most who would see it.
The episode opens with a day in the life of a snake in human form, one with at least some allusions to Medusa in her design, one who seems to have originated the powers seen in each of our protagonists. Of course, normal humans will fear and attack that which is different and unexplainable, so it doesn’t take long to see this sweet life with a daughter who looks but doesn’t sound familiar turn to tragedy. In the process, we see a full display of the various eye powers one after another, used masterfully as weapons in contrast to the curse we’ve generally seen them depicted as. As we get a peek into the other world we’ve heard mentioned, we get a bit more exposition detailing what the significance of the recurring dates we see in any given year is, albeit one that you have to just accept without really thinking about the logistics, as per usual.
A generation later, we see the tragedy more or less repeat itself, this time with the little girl having grown up and moved onto motherhood with the nearly identical child she evoked such an uncanny image of, adorable little Marry. A depressing past is the name of the game for a good chunk of anime characters in general and certainly the cast of this show, but it’s still a bit surprising to see Marry having gone through some of the worst considering her bubbly disposition in the present. Perhaps it’s a testament to how moved she was by the first friend who grabbed her hand and pulled her out of despair into the beautiful open world that she didn’t have to fear any longer.
We don’t completely ignore the present, though, which is probably pretty important as we get down to the wire like this. If there’s a character we still don’t know much about, it’s Konoha, even after having seen a bit of his life as Haruka, so having him show up at Marry’s house means that should be corrected soon. His resemblance to this part-snake family and his voice being shared with whatever that snake thing really is may be red herrings, but there’s some potential there.
In Summary:
It’s good to get a more direct look at the origins of the snake, the eye powers, and the curse, and they happen to tie into Marry’s own past in a very direct way that makes her character a bit more interesting. With all that’s left for only two episodes, it’ll be a delicate act to convey it all smoothly.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
Another B-? That’s just plain lame. -_-