This episode can be summarized in three words: Rick gets angsty.

He spends the entire episode brooding about his past, and wondering whether he really even wants to know what it is. If that knowledge comes to him, will it make things better or worse?

We're introduced to another new character. Her name is Flora and she runs a bar. And she's yet another castaway who can't remember her past.

There's a feeling of unreality about all of this, and I can see why some people have speculated that the island is a form of Purgatory. For the castaways it's a place to start over, to become something new, unburdened by whatever past they might have had. In that vein, it might be that Rick died in battle or something.

I doubt that's really what's going on, though.

Kaguya is awake now, and she's acting a bit odd. She claims she doesn't remember her past, but she is also acting in a way that suggests she knows more than she's revealing. No idea yet what that may mean.

Next ep we're back to action. The longtailed thief is going to hit the castle again, and this time she'll get something important. The story is moving towards resolving the story about the thing hanging in Hank's workshop.

And there's also the looming menace of that immense battleship.

UPDATE: I have an intuition about where the series is going.

To be the best possible baker, Rick has to have a peaceful heart. He has to be a man of peace. If he chooses to be a swordsman, he may still be able to bake bread, but it won't be good bread. His heart won't be pure; the bread will be affected.

That's why Amil has been worrying about him. She senses this deep truth, and fears he will return to being a swordsman.

The series crisis will, I think, require Rick to make that choice. He'll be put in a situation where he must fight to protect the island. But if he does, and saves them all, he will also give up his own future as a man of peace, a master baker of bread. Perhaps he will even have to leave the island.

Sheep, wolves, and sheep dogs. Everyone is one of those three. The sheep are peaceful; they want to live, work, have babies, and grow old. The wolves prey on the sheep, kill and destroy and loot. And the sheepdogs? They are men of violence who work to protect the sheep. They fight in a good cause. They're soldiers, police.

A sheep dog may know the sheep, live amongst them, but can never be a sheep himself. He is always apart. That is the choice Rick will be forced to make, the sacrifice it will cost him.

That's where I think this is going. How will it manifest? My guess is that the thing in Hank's shop is a superweapon of some kind. The battleship will come, and Hank's figure will be the only thing that can stop it. But Rick will have to be involved in that, likely because of his (presumably magic) sword, which is still at the castle. It will be him that orders the attack against the battleship. Perhaps it will be him that carries it out.

And when that happens, he becomes forever a sheep dog. He can never be a sheep.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:22 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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