Howdy people, and welcome again to Flawed Each Time. At this time the bells are calling from the tower of Seiren Academy, the place Saint Juste is presumably even now flinging daggers on the wall, misplaced in a reverie of abandonment and beautiful squalor. Down beneath, Kaoru-no-Kimi confronts the imperious Miya-sama, their varieties hid beneath the wafting bows of the sacred elm. And all alongside the home windows and partitions, voices chatter and eyes lurk, every confrontation a feast for his or her ravenous friends.
So, , basic highschool stuff. Sure, we’re certainly returning to Expensive Brother, and at a second of uniquely fraught drama no much less. Incensed by her heartless remedy of Saint Juste, Kaoru has known as Miya-sama out, and revealed eventually that Saint Juste is definitely Miya-sama’s youthful sister. Contemplating this drama’s constant deal with lineage and propriety, I think about that their relationship indirectly echoes Nanako’s fractured household life; and given Saint Juste’s present residence inside that alienating house, I might assume it’s not simply Miya-sama who has deserted her. Let’s see what contemporary revelations await as we return to Expensive Brother!
Episode 13
We start as we left off, our shot holding on the shimmering yellow solar earlier than descending to that fabled elm tree. The rippling focus of the shot creates a way of intense warmth or strain, which aligns with the reddish sky to make the scene really feel nearly apocalyptic, as if the solar is a mushroom cloud rising over this confrontation
As all the time, Nanako arrives simply in time to witness the carnage. She occupies a captivating position on this narrative; staring out at these larger-than-life heroes, it might be straightforward to think about her as standing in for the Greek refrain commenting on their drama (the position Utena’s shadow ladies explicitly play). However she refuses to be a bystander – in actual fact, in comparison with the stasis and gradual decay that each one three titans appear trapped inside, Nanako is by far essentially the most very important and lively, decided to tug them away from their assigned traces and the tragedy these roles indicate
Their colour selections listed here are fascinating; Kaoru’s in a yellow shirt and inexperienced pants that truly echo the surroundings, whereas Miya-sama is in a demure blue costume. The colours subtly emphasize how Kaoru is invested on this actuality and this second, whereas Miya-sama is decided to drift above it, cocooned in her tiny sorority world
“A Story of Double Suicide.” Even by Expensive Brother requirements, that’s fairly an episode title
Nanako is juxtaposed towards the shadows of birds chickening out as she leaves, making her the literal “little fowl” overhearing their darkish secrets and techniques
Miya-sama exits as nicely, saying an outsider like Kaoru has no place commenting on their scenario
Nanako once more displays on the isolation of Saint-Juste’s residence life, now with the cruel distinction of Miya-sama’s mansion to match towards it. The daylight is so successfully overbearing on this episode; the characters are smothered beneath heavy orange gentle, and each shot of the solar itself appears to current it as an ominous overseer, peering down upon the drama beneath
The prepare’s crossing gentle serves as our segue to that night, echoing the pink gentle of the later afternoon, and seeming to predict some approaching violence, some threshold that would augur good or ailing
With Nanako’s window open, the frenzy of the prepare appears to name her consideration outward, and she or he makes an attempt to name Saint-Juste
Nanako is once more in comparison with Saint-Juste’s beloved doll – as Nanako’s cellphone name fails to succeed in her, so is the doll constrained and remoted, hidden within the closet the place its judgmental eyes can’t attain Saint-Juste
“I can’t enter your world myself. I can solely hope that you’ll open your door of your individual free will.” Nanako’s needs clearly apply to greater than Saint-Juste’s house – she appears now able to take that fateful step, to embrace being a participant on the identical stage because the three titans
Ooh, love these compositions. After one shot framed trying from one mirror into one other, with the limitless copied reflections that will indicate, we then swap to a sequence of compositions the place Miya-sama and the doll are every fractured throughout many simultaneous panels, like when Miya-sama was beforehand mirrored within the shattering glass. The impact naturally echoes Nanako’s sense of being trapped in a labyrinth, unable to piece collectively the reality behind Saint-Juste and Miya-sama’s relationship
Over at Miya-sama’s mansion, Saint-Juste stares longingly in direction of the window, the place Miya-sama performs her piano inside. Terrific use of sound design for this transition right here, because the crunching of Saint-Juste’s capsules actually drowns out the sound of the piano, sonically echoing how Saint-Juste muffles her ache
Saint-Juste’s house lies throughout the river from Miya-sama’s residence, a transparent dividing line between their worlds
Nanako’s calls are lastly answered when Kaoru picks up the cellphone
“What kind of meals does she like?” “Come to consider it… I’ve by no means seen her take pleasure in consuming.” Nanako appears to convey an important diploma of normalcy to those heightened private worlds. Whereas everybody else is pondering when it comes to redemption and revenge, she’s the one ensuring everybody’s maintaining a healthy diet and getting loads of sleep
In the meantime, her engagement of their world attracts her additional from normalcy, as her lies and deceptions in direction of her dad and mom stack up
The sound of Miya-sama’s piano resounds in Saint-Juste’s ears, and she or he rushes to drown it out with the bathe. “If solely I may wash all of it off!” No surprise she doesn’t thoughts standing within the rain – it dulls the music of her despair, implies a sure sort of cleaning purity, and serves as private punishment suddenly
Now that a part of the reality has been revealed, Saint-Juste’s more and more vulnerability is emphasised via her precise nudity, and sequences of the others gently dressing her
With Saint-Juste unconscious the entire time, it feels extra like they’re dressing a corpse for a funeral
“I’ll be wonderful. I’m good at dealing with hardships.” Hilarious admission from Nanako. What a tragic proficiency!
Kaoru’s hopeful proclamation that Sainte-Juste will ultimately ask them for assistance is contrasted towards the intense yellow morning solar, a welcome sight after the oppressive coloration of the day prior to this
“Ready this out is a take a look at of my friendship.” A remark that naturally raises the query of how shut they have been earlier than
“If that’s how actual friendship works, it’s so completely different from me and Tomoko.” Goddamnit Nanako, don’t take these absurd relationships as a mannequin!
“We consider friendship as one thing which entitles, not one thing which obligates.” That at the very least is a pointy perception. Adolescence usually includes a sharpening of focus as we come to know the variations between ourselves and others, and the barrier of potential misunderstanding separating us. A pure a part of that course of is contemplating not simply what we would like, however what we owe to others
“Until this can be a deeper bond based mostly on some doomed emotion.” Contrasted towards Kaoru and Saint-Juste bare in mattress, we’re once more requested to think about the connection between love and destruction. Why do all of three of those figures specific their passionate emotions via violence, both in direction of others or in direction of themselves? I’m reminded of the basic Kaze to Ki no Uta, which equally conflated the embrace of forbidden love with self-annihilation
The seriousness and pink colours of that first sequence are contrasted towards frivolity and alluring blues and greens, as Tomoko makes an excellent efficiency of the method of midterms
Pleasant to see Shinobu treating Tomoko like a pal as nicely now. There’s hope for at the very least a few of these children!
Tomoko even jokes about their Sorority standing, emphasizing the dearth of dangerous blood between them
“Now you may show your friendship!” Her jest concerning the Sorority’s test-taking benefits contact a little bit of a sore level although, echoing Nanako’s reflections from the day prior to this
As ever, Miya-sama is outlined by the sunshine of the stained glass home windows. However she is now haunted by a ghost; she sees Saint-Juste’s kind ready beneath the elm tree, a shadow that disappears as she turns
Nanako relates a sequence of sudden mysteries on the college: a piano taking part in itself, footsteps up and down an empty stairwell, and the sound of sobbing rising from the elm tree. Shinobu explains them away as the results of pre-exam stress, one way or the other now performing because the grounded, wise member of the group. I’m so pleased with her
Shinobu relates final 12 months’s ghost tales, about two alleged Showa-era scholar ghosts who bear a passing resemblance to Saint Juste and Miya-sama. Sturdy results used to convey this historic story, mixing sepia hues with heavy watercolor backgrounds that blot out most particulars, conveying a way of a near-forgotten reminiscence
“Lastly, they lower their wrists with a razor collectively, beneath the elm tree within the rain.” A story that clearly possesses all types of resonances with Saint Juste and Kaoru’s relationship. In order that’s our double suicide
Whereas Shinobu finds this story romantic, Nanako can solely surprise if there was one other approach, hoping her present doomed companions don’t undergo the identical finish
Saint-Juste’s tune calls Miya-sama and Nanako to the piano room. The pair of sisters do certainly appear like the pair Shinobu described, with Saint-Juste’s masculine swimsuit echoing the apparel of the person from the legend
A uncommon tender second by Miya-sama, however it appears solely supposed to affirm her complete management over Saint-Juste
This after all solely stirs Saint Juste into one other suicidal frenzy. Mistaking Nanako for “Fukiko-sama,” she reiterates their pledge to die collectively
And Completed
Nicely Nanako, your coronary heart’s in the suitable place, however I’m unsure what you’re anticipating from entangling your self within the lives of those lovelorn, self-destructive titans. As she herself famous midway via this episode, their relationships appear completely alien to her personal understanding of affection or friendship; sadly, she continues to be younger sufficient to credit score that to her personal lack of expertise, moderately than the genuinely uncommon nature of her upperclassmen’s ordeals. When it comes to craft, using lighting and sound design throughout this episode was distinctive; the solar served as an appropriately merciless arbiter of the primary half’s desolation, whereas the use and absence of Miya-sama’s piano totally dictated the momentum of the second. A minimum of Shinobu’s joined the psychologically steady crew now! I’m certain that received’t final, however it’s a consolation whereas it does.
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