Technically, the next major event in the story is Yoshimatsu tasking his secretary, Himegama (Satomi Ōtani), with infiltrating the clinic where Chisato gets her physical checkups. However, that is not actually in the foreground of this episode’s narrative. Rather, the main plot has Takina realizing that LycoReco is running at a deficit so she decides to take charge of its finances. Among her strategies are getting Chisato to use less resources during missions, have the two of them partake in various odd jobs, and selling a new parfait that literally albeit unintentionally looks like crap that gets trending on the social media.
I really shouldn’t be surprised by this. This far in, I’m well aware that this show gets sidetracked pretty easily. I admit that it can feel a little frustrating. Some episodes, including this particular one, skew a bit too heavily towards the whacky hijinks. Plus, having the story be so unfocused is making it harder to keep track of the stuff that actually matters. That said, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have fun with the antics. Chisato being largely responsible for LycoReco’s budget issue and Takina nagging and reeling her in is very on point. Takina’s eventual realization at what the parfait resembles got a laugh out of me. I particularly love the fact that Himegama’s plan almost fails because Chisato is too busy with Takina’s demands to go to the clinic.
There is also something sweet about Takina’s efforts to keep LycoReco afloat. It is in-character of her to do that since she likes to be efficient but she is also doing it because Chisato is her friend(?) and she understand how important the cafe is to her. That’s the thing about Lycoris Recoil. Its two main characters are so darn charming and they have really good chemistry together. If it weren’t for them, this entire show would fall apart by now.
Midway through the episode, Chisato gets a surprise visit by Majima. That’s right, our residential terrorist remembered that he already knows where Chisato lives. To be fair, it’s also stupid of Chisato to not relocate. Despite having Chisato cornered, Majima isn’t really at her apartment to kill her. Rather, he reveals to Chisato how the two previously met at the old radio tower and that he is also an Alan Child just like her. Like Chisato, Majima also has his own special talent. In his case, he has superhuman hearing. I noticed in the radio tower flashback that Majima has a blindfold so I wonder if the augmentation he got from the Alan Institute is a pair of cybernetic eyes. At least this explains why Majima didn’t immediately recognize Chisato in the present.
Majima and Chisato seem to have different opinions on what the Alan Institute wants out of them. Chisato thinks the organization wants her to help a good cause but Majima says the institute aren’t peacekeepers, they’re just looking for children would be of use to them. It’d be easy to dismiss Majima’s take, what with him being a psycho and all, but given that Yoshimatsu doesn’t approve of Chisato’s efforts, you’d be hard pressed to say that Chisato is right about the Alan Institute. In a weird way, both of these characters are doing their own thing, against what the organization wants them to do.
I’m very curious about the dog keychain Takina gives to Chisato at the end of the episode. The timing feels very deliberate in light of what happens next. I think this will eventually replace the Alan Institute emblem Chisato has as a reminder of her mission. Like at the some point, Chisato will become disillusioned with Alan once she learns more about them and the keychain will remind her of the good she’s done, convincing her to continue helping people. If nothing else, this scene is a nice moment between our two main characters.
As for the ending, it looks like Himegama is trying to remove Chisato’s artificial heart or at least make alterations to it. I’m doubtful that the show is going to kill off Chisato next episode. The girl is one of the two main protagonists, and a very marketable one at that. Like hell, she’s going to die. Still, I expect a stake of some kind. Maybe Yoshiamtsu is trying to test Chisato again by having her kill Majima and he plans on using her heart to coerce her into doing it.
Part of me does think that it’s a bit dumb that all of this happening because Mika couldn’t bring himself to shoot Yoshimtasu. There clearly is a complicated relationship between him and Yoshimatsu so I understand where the hesitation is coming from. But I don’t know, the guy knows Yoshimatsu is up to no good. I have a hard time believing that Mika doesn’t think Yoshimatsu wouldn’t go this far or that he doesn’t realize that not doing anything is sentencing Chisato to death. I hope when Mika runs into Yoshimatsu, things go differently than last time.
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