Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the tangled drama of Blue Reflection Ray, a fact I announce with some trepidation, given the show’s recent turn towards genuinely harrowing personal drama. Princess Yuki’s experiences with online abuse served as a thoughtful exploration of both the promise and dangers of seeking community online, effectively capturing the contradictions of socializing in online spaces. For the many people feeling isolated in our increasingly atomized modern world, online communities are a crucial lifeline – but crowdsourcing your sense of self-worth is an incredibly fraught gambit, thus necessitating the forging of genuine, intimate connections like Yuki’s bond with Miyako.
Then we got into Niina’s story, which has proven even more devastating. Abused by her mother and eventually cast out on the street, Niina had lost all hope for the future when she was discovered by Hiori’s sister Mio, and drawn into the company of the red reflectors. Could any promise our team might offer sound like anything but fanciful, naive lies to one so mistreated by life? Regardless, I’ve been thoroughly impressed by Blue Reflection Ray’s refusal to pull its punches, and can only hope better things lie ahead for poor Niina. Let’s get to it!
Episode 7
“Please, Just Let Me Have What I Want.” A title that immediately brings the Smiths song to mind, though I highly doubt that’s an intentional connection
“Maybe this rain is like their tears of joy. They’ll be reunited. I’m sure of it.” A mysterious cold open, accompanied only by a gray, cloud-blotted sky. The match cut from this shot to the blue sky of the opening seems like a promise – can we draw these lonely characters back to the light?
A montage of scenes featuring Mio and Momo seem to imply we’re finally revealing Mio’s story. Given these scenes are apparently flashing before Momo’s eyes, it seems like she actually felt Mio’s new partnership with Riina taking the place of their own prior bond
Even the other girls realize something has happened to Momo, but she tells them it’s nothing
In the wake of Mio sharing her vision, Niina lies stunned on the couch. Uta tries to guess whatever Mio showed her, revealing her own insecurity in her attempts to dig at her former partner. Uta claims to only love suffering, but her true desires are always written on her sleeve – she’s actually a pretty standard adolescent, divorcing herself from vulnerability through her melodramatic poise, but secretly desiring the same things as everyone else
When her first two provocations fail to gain a response from Niina, Uta then guesses that Mio declared Niina was “lukewarm and dull.” An attempted insult that only demonstrates how much Niina’s previous words struck home for Uta, such that she cannot think of a more damaging insult to throw back
Once again, Miyako proves herself the brains of the group by bringing up Momo’s strange behavior from earlier
Miyako and Ruka both already have their overall group’s schedules plotted in their phones, which Hiori interprets as a reflection of their love for Momo. The truth lies somewhere in the middle – Hiori’s lack of scheduling is really just a result of her scatterbrained personality, but Miyako and Ruka’s dedication to their duties does indeed speak louder than their actual ability to articulate their fondness for each other
Ruka still addresses Hiori formally as she asks about her sister. A neat encapsulation of her personality, as Hiori pointed out regarding that girl who needed help earlier – Ruka is quick to recognize the feelings of others, but lacks confidence in imposing herself in their lives
“It was a rainy Tanabata,” Hiori explains as we cut to Niina, implying this memory is the same one Mio shared with her
This memory reveals Hiori being her same caring self, fretting that Tanabata’s star-crossed lovers can’t meet on a rainy day
“Maybe this rain is like their tears of joy.” Flashback Mio attempts a positive reinterpretation of this rainy Tanabata. Her musing over the lovers’ separation seems entwined with her coming separation from her sister
Both of them have written wishes for their mother to come home, the true inspiration for their lonely reflections
Clearly impacted by this alternate tale of a neglectful mother, Niina heads out
Miyako receives notice that Uta might be showing up at the Tanabata festival. A closed loop, then – Tanabata is when Mio disappeared from Hiori’s life, and this current festival might just be the moment she returns
Ruka bumps into Momo at the convenience store, who’s shouting at some unknown superior on her phone regarding the relationship between her and Mio. Welp, no hiding it anymore, Momo – though I’m personally most curious as to who she’s talking to. What organization actually exists around these reflectors, and why is that organization keeping itself concealed?
Oh my god, hearing Ruka describe Hiori as her “buddy” is so much. God this girl is awkward
Momo reveals as little of the truth as she can, stating only that she’s learned Mio is working alongside Uta and Niina
“Yesterday, Mio’s memories flooded into me for some reason.” Ah, so Momo actually wasn’t hiding the truth – her knowledge of Mio as a partner was erased as well
Excellent deadpan beat of some random guy walking up to the convenience store, seeing the clerk is engaged in some sort of urgent magical girl debate, and swiftly making his exit
So this whole memory deal is somewhat interesting, as it seems too adjacent to the red reflectors’ promise of “stealing away all your painful memories” to be a coincidence. When you place that alongside the fact that Niina seems to have absorbed Mio’s memories, the relationship between reflectors and memories seems even more obscure. Are red reflectors just acting as containers for each other’s memories, sharing their suffering because the burdens of another are easier to bear than your own? There’s actually a certain truth in that, which is in keeping with this show’s general implication that the red reflectors clearly aren’t “evil” or anything, they’ve just embraced less healthy methods for grappling with their trauma
The fact that Momo’s memories of Mio were wiped is still quite mysterious, though – that makes Momo seem like she was actually Mio’s first “victim” as a red reflector, that Mio immediately stole her memories of their partnership, but sharing those feelings with Niina brought them back to the surface
“How can you be sure?” “We resonated.” Seeing an echo of your pain in another – rather than attempting to make your pain disappear, taking solace in our common experience of suffering, and our mutual desire to overcome it. The whole resonance system echoes our general productive means of overcoming trauma, the same recognition that Miyako offered to Princess Yuki
“Saying that you like being alone just proves you have no idea what it’s actually like to be alone.” Our Uta-adjacent target Kana seems to have a similarly misanthropic philosophy
Uta arrives to devour Kana’s prey
And then reflector time activates. I’d almost forgotten Miyako hasn’t actually activated as a reflector – I am immensely curious as to who she’ll end up resonating with, and have to assume it’s one of our red reflectors. Her and Uta would make for a hilarious pair, but I’m pretty sure Miyako would actually kill Uta
Niina arrives as well, and immediately blasts Uta. She demands a one-on-one battle with Hiori, clearly intent on taking Hiori’s place in Mio’s heart
“Why does my chest feel tight? I feel like crying.” Hiori can’t help but resonate with Niina’s pain
Hiori tragically tries to bond through them apparently both having older sisters, which of course only pisses off Niina more
Love this depiction of Mio approaching as a morphing silhouette, making her seem like some monster from beyond the stars
The flower is plucked, Mio and Niina make their exit, and Hiori is once again left alone on a cold Tanabata night
“Or what? You just wanted us to suffer forever?” Then Uta’s acolytes surround the party, admonishing them for their “cruelty” in refusing to let others abandon their fragments
And Done
Jeez, nothing’s ever easy for our poor girls. The team’s grand reunion with Mio proved to be a disaster for everyone, with Hiori obviously suffering the worst from her sister’s new apparent nature. In the wake of her mother’s disappearance, Mio was the family she clung to, her one source of warmth in a world that’s frequently as isolating and disappointing as Niina knows it to be. She’s been putting on a strong face ever since then, but her wish upon the Tanabata tree demonstrates that she has in truth been propelled by an undiminished faith, a hope that one day her sister would return. And now she finds out that not only is Mio an enemy, but she’s even replaced her with a surrogate younger sister? I’m not sure even animal-faced ice cream will lift her spirits at this point, but goddamnit team, you gotta try!
This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.
