Nijuu Mensou no Musume - 12
Short Synopsis: Lots of things happen, among which is Akine’s backstory.
Highlights: Hard to talk about without spoilers.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Oh my god… this episode is exactly why I’m watching this series. One episode might seem to suggest that this series goes nowhere, and then episodes like this one come and the entire plot makes a complete 180 degree turn. If you’ve yet to see this episode, you’d best not look at the rest of this entry. ^^;
I’ve forgotten the name of the glasses-guy, the one that gave Chiko the hint that Nijuu Mensou was still alive and who gave her his treasure. With this episode, it’s obvious why the guy would have all this, because this episode reveals him to be Nijuu Mensou himself. It’s quite sneaky: the attempts at foreshadowing this plot-twist are deliberately done a bit too obvious to take seriously. Both Chiko and Ken note how the guy resembles Nijuu Mensou, so through reverse psychology, there has to be more to the guy than just that. Well, no.
This episode continues to pull tricks like that throughout the episode. The doll-person also shatters the head of a tome-statue in this episode. Obviously, Tome didn’t die, but she was inside this statue, below the head, nonetheless. At the end of the episode, the puppet-woman (yes, woman) also makes a controlled Chiko stab Nijuu Mensou in the back. Thanks to Ken’s smokescreen, we may have to wait five more episodes before we find out how Nijuu Mensou survived that blow.
But really, I’m still surprised at how this series holds no punches at all when it gets serious. Heck, on top of all of that, Chiko ends up kidnapped at the end of the episode, and the puppet woman turns out to have been some sort of part of Nijuu Mensou in the past, suggesting that he abandoned his crew more often in the past. This does explain why all of these supernatural people are suddenly after Chiko: they’re probably all things that Nijuu Mensou left behind and was too lazy to clean up.
Also, what was this about Akine? Why did he use two different names for Chiko: Chiko and Chizuko? Up till now, I just saw him as a rather unlikable lazy guy, but as it turns out, his bond with Chiko (or at least the younger Chiko) turns out to be deeper than suspected. If I understood correctly (and correct me if I’m wrong) during the war, Akine once took Chiko to a foreign country and then lost track of her. Nijuu Mensou then was responsible of bringing her back. If this is true, then Nijuu Mensou did more than just pick a random talented girl off the street…