Xebek’s Blog

Hanyuu’s past is revealed and Rika must choose the world that she desires.

Impressions:

Well I must say the ending of this arc wasn’t exactly what I had expected. After tossing Rika into that strange world they pretty much spent the first half of this episode dealing with Hanyuu’s past and emphasizing the importance of choices. The other half was Rika being back in the world we started this arc off in and seeing what Rika learned from the experience.

Oddly enough I was expecting to see Rika go after her mother if that ended up being her choice. Of course it’s much easier to accomplish than going after Shion was in one of the previous worlds. In this case could just kill the woman in her sleep and end it simply. But after finding out this was a dream shown by Hanyuu then I guess the important thing was the fact that Rika made a choice. No matter how good that world is for some people it can’t be the world she really wanted. Maybe Rena had it right in comparing it to flowers grown in a greenhouse to those in the wild. Rika was a wild flower and just couldn’t be fully satisfied living in that other world.

I agree that the world that they won would have the most worth for Rika. For a long time previously she had been waiting for that perfect world that would lead to a victory. But what they learned was the value of struggling and winning their own futures. Random chance wasn’t going to hand them the future, what was important was that they stood up and took hold of their own futures. Of course everyone is biased by their own experiences. They can see value in how they suffered through the dark points in their lives. While the Keiichi in that dream might have been happy the other Keiichi had endured the pain and grown in a different direction. Which one is better really can be left to personal opinion, but there is nothing wrong with how he turned out in the end. He became a key piece that could create miracles after all, haha.

It was interesting to learn about Hanyuu and her past. Her origins really hadn’t been something I thought much about. Since I was more focused on the characters surviving that can probably be forgiven. Dying and being killed by her daughter were things she did after careful consideration. Something to be learned from this is respecting that people make their own choices. While we may not agree with them, we can’t just say they made those choices lightly. All people can do is live and make the best choices they can.

Overall this was a pretty tough situation for Rika. Having to choose to abandon the world they fought so desperately for or to destroy that innocent world where her friends hadn’t suffered. I’m not sure what to think of Hanyuu even though I understand her thoughts. Rika had given up on her family and distanced herself from them. Her focus was on surviving and saving her firends. Her family were just seen as people who died and weren’t a focus to be saved. She went back to the point where they were alive many times and just somewhere along the way lost her bond to them.

I’m just not sure if it’s more comforting to know this event was a dream created by Hanyuu to teach Rika a lesson or not. If it was just a twist of fate there would be no blame, but instead the difficulties endured can be pointed at Hanyuu. In the end it worked out and Rika has grown as a result. She has accepted herself as part of that world and can remove herself as a being who can just restart when bad things happen. It’s her life now and she has to live it in that way. But it just makes me feel a little mixed that things were done in this way just to make Rika learn this. Maybe because the bond between Rika and Hanyuu is so tight they can accept what happened.

This was a pretty well done arc to add to the conclusion of Kai. The group have won their future and now have to live. Whatever happens their futures belong to them now. How long they live doesn’t matter. There will be no more chances to try again. I think this was a good addition and helped to develop Rika’s character further which is fine by me since I really liked her character.

The OVA isn’t quite over yet though. Looks like there will be another less serious episode like how Rei got started. Looking forward to it.