In the end, nobody dies and nobody disappears. Oh well, at least we’re done with the whole queerat business for now. Seriously, these past few episodes have felt like one really roundabout way of showing how the kids could restore their PK powers

Plot summary: Satoru is completely exhausted after eliminating a good chunk of the enemy’s forces. He and Saki then find safety at the hands of a friendly colony led by the queerat Kiroumaru. Despite this, Satoru suspects that Kiroumaru may have received orders from the adults to kill him and Saki. The two of them thus make their escape in the middle of the night and eventually meet up with the rest of the gang. Saki helps Shun regain his PK powers, and all five of them eventually make their way home to the village.

Notes:

• How old are these kids again? I’m amazed by their composure, but I’m especially amazed by Saki’s ability to strategize even in the face of danger. I never really got any indication from the earlier episodes that she was a child genius or anything, much less a natural leader in times of trouble. Here’s what I think: the series spent too much time world-building at the start, and as a result, it didn’t spend enough time fleshing out our young characters. I especially think the show should’ve done a better job developing Saki since she seems to be the main protagonist and all. I mean, I can’t even describe her personality if you put a gun to my head. I just know that Satoru’s somewhat cocky, and one of the other kids is a scaredy cat. Other than that, I can’t really describe them either. As such, Saki’s sudden brilliance in this past two episodes comes as a complete surprise. Oh, I don’t hate surprises. I just find these new developments about Saki inorganic within the overall narrative.

• Having said all of that, they continually listen to Squealer even though he’s misled them over and over. He’s even betrayed them twice already this week, and we’re not even halfway through the episode.

• IT’S THE HORN OF GONDOR!

…I don’t even like The Lord of the Rings so I have no clue why I made that reference.

• It’s crazy to me how much the queerats vary in appearance. We’ve gone from the giant broodmother-esque queen to the ugly, midget foot soldiers. This week, we meet a macho-looking general who looks more like a lion-goat than a rat to me. Hilariously enough, it even has a deep, authorial voice. Oh, then there’s the enemy general, and it resembles a pillaging pirate of some sort with Albert Einstein hair.

• So to the victors go the spoils, i.e. thousands of baby queerats destined for slavery. It’s just that, well, as I’ve said over and over again, I got hooked on this series because of the village, the quasi-dystopian atmosphere, the questions about mankind’s evolution, etc. The fate of these queerats, therefore, are the very least of my concerns, and I don’t understand why the story is devoting so much time world-building about these creatures. The queerat colonies just aren’t remotely interesting to me.

• Man, the underlings didn’t even pat down the enemy general or anything to make sure it had no weapons hidden on its body. Tsk tsk tsk, that’s just bad training there, General Lion-goat.

• What? So after saving the general’s life, Saki and Satoru fell to the ground in this exact position:

Okaaaaay.

• Satoru’s afraid that the Ethics Committee may instruct the Giant Hornet colony to eliminate him and Saki, but how would word have already reached the village? To the best of my recollection, a monk showed up and and sealed the kids’ powers, but they never got anywhere close to reaching the village. How would anyone on the Ethics Committee have known about the kids’ transgressions? Satoru suggests that it’s possible Kiroumaru may have already reported to the Ethics Committee, but report what? The general doesn’t know anything about the fake minoshiro nor does he know that the two kids have had their Cantus sealed. I don’t know what Kiroumaru could’ve said to the village that would remotely implicate the children.

• Plus, why would the kids want to go home so badly if they think the Kiroumaru had already made his report to the village? Surely, they’d just be walking into a death trap.

• Squealer’s characterization seems inconsistent. He refers to the two kids as ‘kamisama,’ and he expects them to annihilate any trouble they come across, but he also follows them later in the episode because “I would have no excuse should anything befall you, gods.” Anyway, the kids put all their trust in Squealer yet again…

• How did the other three kids manage to survive?

• I guess you can remember your own mantra after all. According to Shun, he used mnemonics so this implies that a certain degree of brute force will suffice. And hell, the mantra is all you really need because Saki can seemingly perform the cleansing ritual for anyone. Again, this whole hypnosis thing just feels poorly planned out by the villagers.

• A cliffhanger again. Lame.

• Anyway, Satoru drummed up this whole fear about the Ethics Committee because he thinks they know about him and the gang meeting the fake minoshiro. The adults do nothing, however, when the kids return. If the adults have had no problems eliminating all of the previous problem children, why would they hesitate now with the gang? If the adults know that these kids have broken the rules, it doesn’t seem likely that they would allow these kids to continue sticking around. After all, they haven’t shown any leniency in the past.

Now, you may say that the adults can’t directly harm the children because of the death feedback, but hey, the adults have colonies of queerats under their command. What’s so hard about making, say, the Giant Hornets immediately come to the village and eliminate the kids right here and now? All of these questions thus lead me to believe the adults haven’t actually found out that the gang had broken some rules. Then again,, why does Kiroumaru think he would face a death sentence if the village learns that he had helped the children? I’m not sure, to be quite frank. I just think it’s easier to believe that the general is overly cautious than the alternative.

The narration at the end of the episode, however, seems to imply that the kids haven’t actually tricked the adults at all, but I think this is a red herring on the anime’s part. From what we’ve seen in the previous episodes, it just doesn’t make sense to me that the adults would not act now if they truly believe renegade children pose an immense threat to the well-being of the village. As such, I think the our gang will break another rule in the future, and that time around, they won’t be able to hide it from the adults as they have done here.

• I guess there’ll be a significant time lapse for the next episode seeing as how the kids all look a bit older in the previews.