When we last left off, Ono finally revealed herself to Fuyumura. She even explained how she ran away because she had undergone puberty, so she feared reprisal from Oshibu. Unfortunately, the man is conveniently here to apprehend the poor girl. I need to reiterate how messed up it is for the creepy headmaster to refer to Ono as “an adult intruder.” It is sick, actually. It is utterly sick to look at a pubescent child and see an adult. Unfortunately, Fuyumura’s response doesn’t help either. I mean, sure, I get what she’s trying to say, i.e. even though there’s a clear difference between a body that has undergone puberty and a body that hasn’t, that still doesn’t make Ono an adult. I agree. But it still feels wrong to say that she has “an adult body.” In doing so, it feels like we’re trying to meet Oshibu on his level. In reality, it doesn’t matter what body Ono has. She could literally have a 150 year old’s body and it still wouldn’t matter. In fact, we should stop talking about our physical bodies altogether. With Ono’s life experiences, her knowledge, her memories, and her current mentality, she is clearly and utterly a child.
Sanda still can’t transform, but he can’t stand idly by and watch Oshibu terrorize Fuyumura and Ono. As a result, he bravely rushes out to confront Oshibu as his ordinary kid self. He even reveals that his true identity is Santa. That’s pretty cool of him, but a couple things. First, I can’t believe Oshibu still hasn’t put 2 and 2 together and realize that Sanda has been Santa all along. I mean, it’s not exactly a well hidden secret. Hmm, the two troublesome kids keep hanging out with this one twerp. I wonder who that twerp could be! Second, the show has already told me that kids can kill adults without any repercussion, so I don’t really understand why everyone is cowering before Oshibu. If someone is threatening your friend, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Unless, of course, I was lied to about the no consequence thing. Granted, we’ll quickly learn that Oshibu can put up quite a fight. None of these kids really stand a chance.
Luckily for Sanda, Oshibu’s eyes literally pop out of his eye sockets before he could take in the boy’s visage. A quick-thinking Amaya then buries Sanda under a mountain of red jackets. We then learn that Oshibu has Ship of Theseus himself into a cyborg. Yep, even his dick and balls are now fake. He even claims that one of his artificial eyes cost a hundred million yen. A hundred million. Bro, what? You’re so obsessed with being young that you’re barely even human anymore? How does that even make sense? Youthfulness is an aspect of humanity. It doesn’t freaking count if you’re a robot! Next, I’m so curious about the wealth disparity in this alternate, dystopian Japan. Obviously, Oshibu is one of those hypocritical fat cats sitting at the top of society, sucking up all the money and resources. But how does this all work? How does putting kids on a pedestal — but also turning them into mindless slaves — somehow translate to an even wider gap between the haves and the have-nots? But there’s an even more important topic to dwell on.
Oshibu basically wants to be immortal. He got all this plastic surgery in order to fight “the ravages of time.” Funnily enough, the Dark Souls series really hammers home the folly of this sort of thinking. Everything has to die so that we can eventually be reborn anew. Why? Because Oshibu isn’t necessarily wrong about one thing. Earlier in the episode, he ranted about how empathy was a double-edged sword. Sure, it allows you to relate to others, but in return, all those negative feelings will build up inside you. Oshibu’s bizarre conclusion is that this will eventually render an adult weak and broken. All those accumulated sorrows will weigh us down until we can no longer move on. But I mean, that’s literally why we cry, right? When it starts to become too much, we cry and let it all out. Crying is a way to reboot our emotions. Crying is one of the solutions to the very problem that Oshibu is talking about.
But sure, there’s something to be said about how we can’t simply purge all of the negativity in our lives. No matter how hard we try, via crying, therapy, or some combination of the above, bits and pieces of every negative experience will linger. They will leave their mark on us until the day we die. It’s like how you can put a broken vase back together, but the cracks still remain. Sure, dress it up in gold and call it kintsugi if you so desire, but the damage has still been done. To put it another way, dregs from our negative experiences will sink to the bottom of our soul and remain there. Over time, those impurities will build up until they overwhelm us and become toxic. And that’s precisely why we have to embrace change.
For some, like Oshibu, change might seem like death, but it is a necessary part of growth and renewal. Any unmoving body of water will stagnate and eventually putrefy. As such, we have to let go and embrace change so that those impurities can be washed away, making room for the new. On the other hand, a country that refuses to embrace death and change will slowly rot from the inside. And doesn’t that perfectly capture Oshibu’s essence? He’s replaced most of his body with new, artificial parts, but his rotten soul remains. Rather than entrusting his legacy to the next generation, he struggles with all his might to remain in power and thus fester in place. And like a broken vase, those scars of his will eventually show themselves, especially under duress. Even the best, most expensive plastic surgery can’t hide them.
This is partly why I don’t worry about aging. First, I can’t fight it anyway so why worry about something that’s out of my control? Second, there’s honestly nothing uglier to me than weird, puffy lips or skin that has been unnaturally pulled back to hide all semblance of wrinkles. I don’t want to judge people for their looks, but when they pay big bucks to cut up their own faces, I find it difficult to muster up any sympathy. Plastic surgery churns out faces that are so uncanny that they’re almost ghoulish. Third, when people talk about immortality, they always bemoan the fact that they’ll live on while all their loved ones die. And sure, I get that. But you can make new loved ones. That sounds harsh, but if you really think about it, it’s not as bad as it seems. Am I really going to not adopt and love another cat just because my first one passed away from old age? No, right? So if I was somehow magically blessed with immortality, I don’t know why I have to assume that I’ll eventually be left alone. It sucks to lose the people you care about, but just like with anything in life, you cope and move on. Rather, the real problem with immortality is everything I stated above. I can’t imagine a healthy, functioning society where people and their beliefs never die. Stagnation is worse than death.
Well, Sanda quickly solves his Santa impotency by essentially believing in himself and his convictions. If he lets others worry and fret over him, he stays a child. If he embraces becoming an adult in order to protect all the children, then Santa naturally emerges. As such, a fight between the two old men can ensue. Unfortunately, believing in himself isn’t enough to make him strong. Luckily, we already have a solution. As we all know, jolly Saint Nick is powered by children’s hopes and dreams. The rest of the gang thus have to literally put themselves to sleep in order to “dope” Santa up. And now it makes sense why Santa disappeared in the first place! Ono told us last week that kids have more or less stopped sleeping. Fuyumura is an exception… so is that why she could tell Sanda was Santa? And if Santa wants to become strong enough to save this country, he’ll have to hire the best PR agency? As an aside, I would be the worst ally, because I cannot simply put myself to sleep on a whim like that. Sorry, Santa, but you’re on your own.
Unfortunately, the beliefs of three whole kids (assuming Ono even bought in) isn’t enough to carry Santa to victory. He was about to lose his life to Oshibu when out of nowhere, an obaachan-looking woman shows up and puts the creepy cyborg headmaster in his place. Not only has she embraced aging freely unlike every other adult in this dystopia, she’s actually chief director of the whole academy. Sanda has never seen anyone so wrinkled. But is she really as friendly as she seems? After all, this academy is a hellhole, so that makes her chief director of a hellhole. Moreover, she talks as if someone else needs to be strong enough to change the place — that someone being Santa, of course. But if that’s the case, what exactly has she been doing here? Plus, where has she been hiding? Why has she allowed Oshibu and his goons to have free roam of the place? I dunno, man, she seems shady to me. Nevertheless, Santa begs her to take him under her wing.
In the aftermath, there’s a palpable distance between Fuyumura and Ono, and the future of their relationship is murky and unclear. I’m not surprised. Ono is coming on way too strong, so their dynamic has inexorably changed. This is probably her first love, so she’s just chomping at the bit to dive right in. As a result, Ono is not giving Fuyumura time to adapt. Maybe Fuyumura can eventually love her back, maybe she can’t. But it won’t do Ono any favors to push her best friend before the latter is ready. When you have someone who keeps flinging themselves at you, it just feels weird. Doubly so when they’re supposed to be your friend. Where will the story go from here? Even though childish jealousy would be perfectly understandable considering their age, I just hope this doesn’t lead to Ono doing something stupid. Like what? Like perhaps revealing Santa’s alter ego in order kill two birds with one stone: save her skin and also eliminate someone she sees as a rival for Fuyumura’s attention. I’m just spitballin’; I don’t know what Ono’s going to do. I just know I have a bad feeling.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- He says this like it’s a choice.
- These are very weird statements considering how much kids cry. Babies literally cry when they emerge from the womb. Children cry when they are overwhelmed by their emotions and can’t cope. Crying is one of the most natural thing a child can do. As a result, it’s so bizarre to try and associate crying with being adult. If anything, a lot of dumb adults often tell people to “grow up” and thus stop crying — that “crying doesn’t help.”
- Oshibu claims that if Santa wins, Ono will be reinstated as a student. I’m not really sure what this entails. What, is she really going to be safe from now on? Can you really trust the word of a man like Oshibu? Even though he literally despises Ono for being an “adult”, he’ll stop harassing them? I doubt it.
- This is certainly one way to interpret that famous quote from Spiderman.
- Yeah, this came up in last week’s episode, but I still don’t understand the logic. I feel like not sleeping would actually age your body faster. Yeah, without sleep, you won’t grow up healthy and strong, but you’ll just grow old and weak instead.
