Well, this escalated quickly. I had no idea that the material witness from last week’s episode would lead the authorities directly to Hiro. In fact, I thought the whole thing was just another nightmare. If anything, I assumed his financial crimes would raise suspicions first. After all, there’s no way a high school kid could afford such an expensive high-rise apartment, so investigators would start looking into the kid’s day-to-day activities. But no, it was a tip from some witness. I wonder who it was (if it was even anyone important). Oh well, I suppose it makes sense that the kid would slip up somewhere. He’s not a trained professional or anything. Rather, he kills on impulse, so sooner or later, he would get careless. Still, it looked like Hiro would’ve sworn off killing altogether to live a happy, carefree life with his mother. Alas, everything’s gone to hell.

Both the media and the general public are quick to scapegoat, and naturally, Hiro’s upbringing is the first carcass up for dissection. What is the source of Hiro’s pathology? Is it the fact that he liked to torture animals as a kid? Is it his broken home life? After all, his father is no longer with his mother. Or maybe his mother just wasn’t very good at raising him. She’s a bad parent. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Tonight, we are all armchair psychologists. Apples can’t possibly go rotten on their own. Nope, no way. It must always be somebody’s fault. Hiro’s mother eventually commits suicide, but it wouldn’t be fair to pin it on the court of public opinion either. Even if everyone had been as respectful as possible, that woman looked as though Hiro was all she had left. To learn that her son is a serial killer must have been devastating. She would’ve been a suicide risk no matter what.

Hiro immediately seeks revenge. Since they can no longer continue to harangue his mother, the media circus has appeared outside his father’s home instead. Hiro crashes the party and kills everyone, blunting the horror of his actions by replacing actual gun sounds with childish sound effects. Well, almost everyone. He spares his father, and I wonder why. He has no ill-will towards his father at all? Curious. I really wonder why his parents divorced in the first place. Maybe the shame of having a serial killer for a son is a fate even worse than death, but I doubt Hiro would actually come to such a conclusion. He then tracks down 2ch trolls who had mocked his mother. He actually appears on their electronic devices, i.e. computer screens, laptops, cellphones, etc., and shoots them to death through… through what? I actually did not like this part. It’s one thing to be an alien killing machine, but how is Hiro shooting projectiles through a screen? At a certain point, you begin to approach the realm of magic.

After killing the guy who had leaked Hiro’s info to the press, he proceeds to murder everyone else who had posted in the 2ch thread. Judging from the montage, they all appear to be dudes. Hm. It’s also curious that the first 2ch troll is portrayed as a chubby, middle-aged otaku who lives with his mother and jerks it to loli porn. This is a little too facile in my opinion. Regardless, watching Hiro go on his rage-induced killing spree makes me wonder what the right thing to do truly is. Again, the kid swore at the end of last week’s episode that he was done killing people. We really have no way of knowing if he really would’ve stuck to his promise, but let’s just assume he had a change of heart for the sake of this thought experiment. In that case, isn’t it better to let him go? All these people wouldn’t have had to die. Whether or not they deserve to live is a different issue altogether. On the other hand, his first fifteen victims would not get the justice that they deserve if Hiro is not caught and put on trial, but what’s the price of justice?

I suppose when you come right down to it, Hiro is too dangerous to leave to his own devices. Even if his mother’s continued existence could corral his murderous impulses, she would eventually die from old age (unless Hiro has a built-in fountain of youth as well). Plus, like I suggested at the top of this post, his financial shenanigans will eventually catch up to him, so this whole mess would still play out albeit at a much later date. I wonder what that material witness must be thinking right about now. If they’re not scared shitless that Hiro could be coming after them next, they must at least feel the guilt of indirectly causing so many deaths. Or maybe not. People are odd creatures sometimes. Like Pube-Head, a.k.a. Shion. At the moment, she continues to have faith in Hiro; the girl doesn’t think he’s the real killer. At some point, however, she’ll have to discover the truth. She can’t cover her eyes and ears forever. When the other shoe finally drops, will she be one of those crazy women who fall in love with serial killers anyway? Shion’s unconditional love for Hiro might make him replace his mother with her instead.

Elsewhere, Naoyuki continues to help Ichiro realize the full potential of the latter’s robot body. Not only can it answer and place phone calls, Ichiro manages to fly himself all the way up into space. Considering he got his body from aliens, I suppose this isn’t too surprising. Nevertheless, Ichiro and Hiro’s former best friend play a very minor role in this week’s episode. We even catch a glimpse of the old man’s family, but they have little insight to offer. Instead, the son makes a joke about how Hiro might have already killed Ichiro. What a loving family. If anything, I feel like the show has progressed too quickly. We’ve barely seen how Ichiro’s family is reacting to his routine disappearances as of late. It’s very likely they just don’t care what he’s up to, but still, none of them have found it odd until now? Likewise, I wish we would’ve gotten more time with Hiro’s mother. Investing in her character development would’ve given her eventual suicide and her son’s subsequent breakdown greater emotional impact. As with all stories, something must always end up on the cutting room floor. Let’s hope what we get instead is worth it.