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...Huh. I just realized--Maniwa wasn’t running into Li’l Slugger by chance, or even hunting him down. Li’l Slugger came for him, the same way he came for everyone else, but Maniwa was holding on to the right combination of willpower and single-minded focus that allowed him to fight back. It drove him crazy, of course, but he fought back nonetheless.
And that’s all it took.
All that anger, all that pain, all that suffering she caused, and all she had to do to end it was face herself and accept in her heart that she was the one at fault.
It’s a hard thing to do, accepting responsibility. But she seems to have done it.
Goodbye, Li’l Slugger.
Rewatching the episode up to this point, this moment really struck me. Ikari takes the Maromi keychain he picked up and hits it away from himself. Maromi, the parasite--Maromi who’s using him to hide Tsukiko from the world. The Maromi craze overtook the minds of the Japanese people. All it took was getting some merch and he had a foothold in your psyche. You didn’t even have to buy it; having it was all it took. Keiichi never got any of it, though. Not one single Maromi passed into his possession, and so Maromi had no hold over him until he gave up and picked the keychain up to keep.
In this moment, he takes that piece of Maromi and forcibly removes it from himself, breaking Maromi’s hold over him and bringing him and Tsukiko back to the real world. A powerful moment, that.
Life goes on. His wife is gone, but he still needs to pay the bills.
And that’s...the show.
Man. What a show. That kept me guessing all the way through. The core mystery of is-it-magic-is-it-not really kept me going for a while there. A compelling cast of characters, too--even the one I utterly fucking despised.
Tsukiko and Ikari’s parallel stories converging as each of them hits the breaking point and finds it within themselves to accept the way things truly are was masterfully done. And that’s all it took, in the end--looking within oneself and no longer denying the truth defeated both of their inner demons and in the process saved countless lives. We could all do with a bit more introspection from time to time.
“My place disappeared from this world a long time ago. The reality is that there is no place for me anymore. But that’s the reality I have to face!”
The world changes, the world moves on. It’s up to us to decide if we want to join the new world or whether we want to wallow in our self-pity over being left behind. That is definitely a lesson a lot of people in the modern day need to learn, and the source of no small amount of societal ills befalling us. Words of wisdom.
As for the individual victims of Li’l Slugger...I wish we got resolutions for some of them. Taeko in particular being amnesiac and back in the grip of her pedophile father seems a rather horrific end. Harumi also makes me wish we’d gotten a resolution to her issues; I’ll forever wonder if she got treatment, if she resolved her DID or if it consumed her and destroyed her marriage.
Hopefully Maniwa’s getting the help he needs. He’s in the care of a mental hospital, at least, though I don’t know how well he’s being treated. What would you call his deal, anyways? A psychotic break? Paranoid schizophrenia where the paranoia part happens to be about something that actually happened? Or is it just “Mental IllnessTM” and leaving it at that?
And...Tsukiko. Tsukiko, who appears to have moved on with her life to some degree. (How she managed that swim back home is beyond me.) It’s not like anyone would...actually, hrm. The destruction happened after all the Maromi merch in the country spontaneously vanished. I’ll bet at the very minimum Tsukiko is the subject of some very dedicated conspiracy theory communities, even if the larger society doesn’t have enough information to put together her involvement. Still, she’s moved on, past the disaster she was responsible for; I’m not sure what sort of consequences she should have actually seen, in a Watsonian sense, but approaching it with Doylist intent, the message of finding peace and moving on after accepting the truth trumps that.
This is the first of Satoshi Kon’s works I’ve seen, though I’d seen a copy of Tokyo Godfathers on my local library’s shelves years ago--I meant to borrow it, but never did. Maybe I should change that; this was certainly an excellent work, one I’d happily seek out more of.
Rest in peace, Satoshi Kon. You’ve touched the world, by all accounts, and you especially touched the patron who chose this show.
Thank you, by the way. This was an excellent show, and your support over the past two years has helped me immensely. I’m glad we’re friends.
Well! That’s Paranoia Agent. That’s the end of this particular Patron Pick; the patron opened up their spot and another took their place immediately, so in the next cycle of liveblogs you’ll be seeing something new! It’ll be a surprise, though, since I’m sure a bunch of you are excited to see me do it. That’ll be it for tonight; up next is going to be Baccano, which we’ll continue Wednesday. Also, tomorrow, I’ll be completing my playthrough of Resident Evil Village on the hardest difficulty, so tune in at my Twitch channel or catch old streams on my Youtube if you’d like!
As always, thank you for tuning in, and thank you to my 62 patrons who make it so I can do this for a living! And especially thank you to the people who have been so kind as to donate over the past few months of mental health issues I’ve been having, you’ve been lifesavers. I’ll see you guys next time!
IN OTHER NEWS:
I recently completed my blind playthrough of Resident Evil Village! You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!
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You should also go pledge to Gio’s Patreon, or his Sponsus–our Discord server maintenance tech, creator of Rubybot, and community Minecraft server overlord deserves far more than I can afford to pledge to him by myself.
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My Episode Lists master page, where you can find every show and liveblog I’ve done!
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It’s your kindness and support that lets me do this stuff, and I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you to do it for. Thank you all so much for your support, and for tuning in every episode!
OTHER PEOPLE YOU MAY ENJOY:
I may have been one of the earlier Steven Universe liveblogs, but a whole community of livebloggers has sprung up over the last five years! I linked to a bunch individually for a few wrap-ups, but honestly, this end-slate is already eight billion miles long, so I’m just gonna link to my links page. Click here if you want recommendations of other livebloggers, or other neat people, or webcomics and podcasts that I recommend.
Cultural change is difficult, and it takes time, but it can be done. It doesn’t always have to spin back to where it began.
THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO LEAVE US ON? HIM NOT FINDING THE ANSWER?
Well, actually, I guess that fits. Life goes on, it seems, people fall back into the same patterns, and some things refuse to change.
oh shit it IS maniwa
