That was spectacularly, gloriously batshit nuts. Migi to Dari is a damn good series – one of many being criminally ignored this season. But that episode took things to another level (which is saying a lot). To have something that absurd and scattershot hold together is some damn fine writing, which just makes the loss of mangaka Sano Nami that much more heartbreaking. In all the chaos, there is order. The plot makes sense, the characters – as loopy as they are – behave in a way that’s true to themselves. All these fascinating and weird elements have been laid out for six episodes, but this is where they really started to come together.
The driver for this newest batch of insanity is Dari’s decision to go undercover as Sali again, this time to spy on Eiji. Dari is a master of hypnosis apparently (naturally), and plans to get close to Eiji and use it on him. There’s also some blackmail involved, after Sali catches Eiji having a barf-laden panic attack in the boys room after some lunchroom comments about blondes hit too close to the mark. There’s risk in taking Sali out of storage of course, given her past with Migi. But Dali is nothing if not overconfident
Dari’s manipulation of Eiji does seemingly go quite well – “she” manages to wrap him around her little finger quickly enough. But he starts to do a little digging around, and realizes there’s no one matching her description at the school. Meanwhile Migi has found Sali’s half of the dolphin pendant (Dari’s right, that was a whopper of a mistake) and put up some hilariously bad wanted posters of Sali. Shunpei has apparently become Hitori’s stalker/dogsbody, and he refines Migi’s outrageously childish doodles into a perfect mug shot of the girl of Migi’s dreams.
All this builds towards a confrontation when Migi finally spots the pair of them, putting Dari in one hell of a tough spot. He sticks with the plan, telling his brother he’s dating Eiji. Mama-san decides that the right sort of parenting with a distraught and lovestruck 12 year-old is to get everyone drunk on red wine, and Dari gets himself invited to the Ichijou mansion for a study session. The master plan is to get Eiji hypnotized, but that means getting him onto the bed first and that proves to be a real challenge. Eiji is a real freak too, for what it’s worth.
It just keeps building and building. Eiji’s reaction to Sali trying to seduce him is so preposterous you can’t help but laugh. And that bit where he put all the Origon dolls in bed with her, I just about lost it. And then that “buss”, thing – I thought maybe that was a day when I was sleeping in Japanese pop culture 101 but no, Dari had no idea either. Turns out he meant “kiss” – but how in his freakish mind did that become “buss”? Anything for the cause, and Dari doesn’t bail – but when Migi shows up at the (second-floor) window, that’s when all hell really breaks loose (how did Migi walk away from that fall?).
Via this development, it seems we have virtual confirmation of what happened to the boys’ mother. She tried to come through Eiji’s window on Christmas Eve, he panicked and pushed her (apparently to her death). The big question here is, why was she doing this? Did she think she was entering Akira’s (presumably her lover) room – or (my preferred theory) is she in fact Eiji’s mother too, and she wanted to bond with him on Christmas Eve? I think it’s pretty obvious Reiko knew what was going on between her husband and the maid, but in a place like Origon Village appearance is everything.
Utterly ridiculous, completely logical, and fabulously entertaining – a remarkable trifecta for Migi and Dali. What happens next is a big question mark, now that Migi (with a strategic bite) has learned the truth about Sali. That’s a lot to forgive, and to me Migi never seemed as committed to the revenge obsession as Dari. Could this be the start of the major fissure between the brothers that I’ve speculated on? We’ll see, but if we get more episodes as delightfully unhinged as this one I’m just going to enjoy the ride.
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