12.13
Somebody tell me what the Kanji on her right eye means.
We are almost a few episodes away before mid-series, and there’s already a huge reveal involving the parasol girl, Harime. Harime looks like she comes out of a completely different show, which amplifies how disturbing her entrance is. She just appears out of nowhere, makes an ass out of Sanageyama, and reveals herself to be the real instigator to Ryuko’s quest. Normally, that would be horribly stupid and something only a hack writer could do. But here, it establishes that Satsuki’s not going to be the apex of Ryuko’s problems. She’s only been challenging a single school, when there’s a whole world full of factions like Nudist Beach and such. After being comfortable with beating the Elite Four one by one, Ryuko’s thrown back into the unknown, and all these advantages she’s accumulated through the Life Fibers are now tested.
And while I would have been happy with another Sanageyama fight, this move illustrates how the show like to bait and switch. The show always pulls that trap to confuse the viewer, like the Satsuki fight in episode three. Whenever there’s the feeling the audience can figure out what’s going on, something happens to shake that expectation. For instance, I was thinking that Mako would be the final villain before that “get rich” episode occurred. There’s a teaser at the end of the episode where Senketsu talks about how some of the oddest life choices as being just youth. If youth were predictable, then wouldn’t it have been an easier ride than most of us remember? Youth is the chaos that a lot of teenagers think they can control, but never really can.
That’s what Satsuki wants to stop. And seeing how Harime is outclassing her, she fights a losing battle like everyone else. You can tell from the flashbacks and hands-off relationship with her mother, she’s fighting against a system just like Ryuko is. She wants to be the king instead of the pawn, trying to enforce her idea of order when rebelling against another status quo. However, nobody can master youth. Satsuki can use whatever money and manpower she has, but she can control neither the future nor serendipity. That’s how Ryuko’s been besting her so far, due to adapting to her strengths while being too much of a loose cannon to accurately predict.
That ties back to the show’s game, playing with your mind by giving you false expectations only to provide a swerve. For example, the Kamui outfits made people think this show would be fanservice bait, only to switch that trope around with Satsuki’s argument that she doesn’t let looks get in the way of her agenda. Now, there’s something that even turns that dispute around, with a couturier that can dispel almost every trick we’ve seen in the show so far. After three months of using Senketsu as her trump card, Ryuko’s forced to think on her feet like a sniper who run out of bullets. And that hindrance makes the fight next week all the sweeter.