What They Say:
Episode 11 – Colorless Weekend
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After Saikawa-sensei and Nishinosono return home to the mainland, life goes on in a usual but tense fashion. Nishinosono has kept away from Saikawa at the advice of the authorities, and the two have begun to grow distant because of it. One day while haunting the stacks at the library, Saikawa-sensei is approached by a woman who would not be notable but for the fact that she is, in fact, Magata Shiki. Having escaped the murder scene and been in hiding since, this public appearance essentially spells her capture as there are members of the police force guarding Saikawa. She seems unfazed, and the two have a final, good-natured, almost bittersweet conversation before she leaves and enters custody. As always with Magata Shiki, however, this was all part of her plan; she slips away, likely to never be seen again.
In the ensuing days Nishinosono and Saikawa-Sensei begin to reconnect and improve their relationship, accepting each-other’s differences, flaws, and idiosyncrasies. They learn to speak to each-other again, their personalities intact but their way of being with one-another forever changed by their experience of having met Magata Shiki and lived through the incident at the lab.
The bulk of the plot was capped off by the closing credits of episode 10, so I was curious to see how this final episode would unfold and what, if any, more closure it could provide to a story that I already considered very well paced and provided with a decent amount of finality. As a long-time fan, what I didn’t realize right away was that I had become very complacent with the kind of quick wrap-ups and non-endings that are so frequent in our fandom. There are strengths in that kind of presentation, too; it’s sometimes nice to be given enough room to imagine what happened to the characters after the end of the story. But it’s also nice when a series is put together in such a way as to be able to tell its own story to completion. This episode does just that, and I was able to experience that wonderful sort of grief that comes when a story is definitively over.
I had the opportunity to revisit the first episode of the show yesterday evening with some friends, and the experience turned out to be enlightening because there are several aspects that come full-circle in the final episode. The juxtaposition of those early moments in Saikawa-sensei’s office as we are just growing accustomed to his personality (and Nishinosono’s interactions with him, naturally) with the fully-formed people we recognize by the end of the series are really interesting to consider. Now that we know about their past relationship and the role that Saikawa played in Nishinosono’s life following her parents’ death, their closeness takes on a new dimension. Saikawa-sensei has gained a softer edge, and Nishinoso is still emotionally intense but reads as more mature and less jealous. The revelation about Gido Setsuko is just the sprinkling of humor needed to round out the episode. These seemingly small, insignificant items go to show that there was truly a secondary story hidden within the series all along, and it’s wonderful to see as series do so well by its own characters, especially in such a short amount of time.
Without spoiling too much more of the plot, there was one other item that struck me as being very important to my reaction of the series as a whole. One of the things that I had the most difficult time accepting was how Magata Shiki’s life and relationships were so intertwined with death. The murder of her daughter, truly the crux of the series, as well as director Shindo’s death, were events that I really had to wrestle with in order to wrap my head around. Shindo went willingly to his death, and since we never quite got a complete POV from Michiru, it’s hard to say how willing she was to meet her end. These murders, as well as Shindo’s statutory rape of Magata Shiki (argue all you want about how mature she was at the time or how aggressive she was, their relationship was inarguably of unequal power under the law) were all things that caused me a lot of moral distress. I don’t necessarily think there was anything that occurred up to and including this episode that completely removed that.
What did, at least, give me some context to work with, was Dr. Magata’s final conversation with Saikawa-sensei about death, and in turn Sensei’s thoughts on the different kinds of love that exist, some of which most average people may never be able to understand. Supposing that, unlike many of us, Shiki and her “family” did not fear the lead-up to death, but instead saw the process as a way to freedom and an expression of love, their actions make more sense, even if they are morally deplorable. This assumes, still, that Magata Shiki was as pure of thought and Saikawa-sensei always professed, and I think some bits and pieces of this episode call that into question. If her mind were truly free, she might have been able to stay in the lab forever. But even she admits that she longed for physical freedom. Was it her daughter’s love for her mother that allowed her sacrifice, or was Magata Shiki actually more selfish? The show leaves it open for guessing and interpretation, and I’m fine with that.
The final scene of the show reiterates Magata Shiki’s ability to house multiple personalities. Whether these are truly incarnations of the people who have died or her own interpretations of them, a selfish collection all her own, is something that is similarly up for interpretation. It’s uncomfortable to think about, but this series has never been very concerned with keeping its audience comfortable. With this added bit, I get the impression that I’ll be thinking about this show for a long, long time. That, to me, is the mark of something special.
In Summary:
There are times where I feel insecure after having a strong reaction to a piece of media, especially one like this which really hasn’t gotten a lot of fanfare or recognition in many bloggers’ end-of-year lists. This anime series was not the typical fare; never flashy, always very wordy, restrained in its climaxes, it just didn’t typify the type of experience that many people seek out within the anime medium. But I found the show to be engaging in its philosophy, compelling in its plot progression, and singularly powerful in its way of presenting its characters and story throughout. It’s so incredibly rare for a series to be paced so well as to offer satisfying closure to its characters, but this one devoted an entire episode to providing that well-needed epilogue. “The Perfect Insider” is definitely one of my top anime of the year.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Samsung Galaxy S5 running the Crunchyroll Android app.
