Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I hope you’re all on your best behavior, as today I’ve booked us a visit to the hallowed halls of Seiren Academy, where the young Nanako continues to navigate the larger-than-life hurdles of her high school education. Strung between three dazzling upperclassmen and bound to the will of the Sorority, Nanako is navigating a labyrinth with no certain exit, her scholastic hurdles paling in comparison to the social spiderweb entangling her.
Lording over all these affairs stands the cruel, imperious Miya-sama, a tyrant whose chief pastime is inflicting random acts of cruelty on the obsessive Saint Juste. Granted, it seems the only person harder on Saint Juste than Miya-sama is Saint Juste herself, who made no less than three suicide attempts as Nanako dragged her home. Whatever Miya-sama represents to Saint Juste is clearly something she values more than her own life, but with her delirium now conflating Nanako with whatever “little doll” haunts her past, we might at last get a chance to illuminate her nightmares. Regardless, I am sure Ikeda and Dezaki have more bombastic, lushly illustrated horrors to share with us, so let’s get back to the campus!
Episode 12
“For you, for love, I would empty my bowls of the past.” The OP promises a wholesale abandonment of prior identity for the sake of an uncertain future, a single precious bond. Adolescence is indeed a time of dramatic reinvention, but given the events we’ve seen, these lines have become increasingly ominous. Did absolute surrender of their individual identity help Saint Juste or Shinobu find happiness? Sacrificing oneself for love sounds romantic, but doing so for a love unreciprocated just leaves you hollow
Rain continues to pour down over Saint Juste’s demented hall of mirrors. Her apartment emphasizes identity in its own way, as if she surrounds herself with mirrors to remind herself she even exists
Nice screen partitioning trick as Saint Juste collapses in Nanako’s arms. The thin vertical panels and increasing closeness of perspective emphasize their intimacy, pressing them together within the panel walls. The scene also feels more urgent because of the rapid tempo of new panels, more so than just one fully animated shot would
The apartment also contains a doll and a silver music box shaped like a carriage, the “bowl of unhappiness”
Cradling her doll, Saint Juste collapses again. She continues to prove she values these objects of worship more than her own life
“The Scar”
As Nanako tends to her with a damp cloth, Saint Juste imagines she is floating down a river like the doomed Ophelia, doll in hand
She reflects on a cobblestone road lining a sunlit hill; her fictions seem more real to her than her own life
“I think I’ve always known my final destination. There, on the top of the fifth hill.” Even this fantasy has an ominous edge of finality
Nanako brightly declares she’ll whip up some food, to which Saint Juste can only laugh. Her attempts to enliven this lonely world are immediately thwarted; not only do the lights not work, but there is no food in the kitchen either. A sequence that emphasizes the cascading deprivation of Saint Juste’s life, a world beyond Nanako’s ability to repair
Kaoru is less tolerant of Saint Juste’s self-inflicted squalor. When Saint Juste says she “likes it that way” in regards to her high fever, Kaoru simply slaps her. An echo of Kaoru’s feelings regarding Shinobu – as someone who is forced to exist on the brink of death, she cannot stand it when others take their precious lives so lightly
“This thing is a curse you’ve placed on yourself!” Kaoru rips off Saint Juste’s bracelet, which appears to be covering the scars of a prior suicide attempt. But what does the bracelet itself represent?
“This is the curse of Miya-sama!” Of course, it’s her sole gift from Miya-sama, her perpetual assurance that she means something to that monster. Great use of the mirrors as the two clash in the hall, with shards reflecting Miya-sama’s looming presence
When Kaoru attempts to fling the bracelet out the window, Saint Juste stops her with her goddamn throwing knives. We’ve never seen her with this grave of an expression; the bracelet is a past she cannot empty, cannot escape
“Nothing will change while you wear that!” She seems to know this, but would rather cling to a remote past than seek an unknown future
Her preoccupation with dolls makes sense; dolls do not change, do not age or alter in their affections. She clings to her memories of Miya-sama like she clings to her beloved petite doll, and refuses to let herself change either. Of course, a refusal to change will in itself invite certain kinds of changes – living in the past is leading her present to decay
Kaoru asks Nanako to forget what she saw today, to “treat it all like a dream.” Her protectiveness of Saint Juste echoes the dream imagery from earlier; to Saint Juste, all of modern life is a dream
Even Nanako can’t avoid the assumption that the scar denotes a suicide attempt, or find it hard to believe that Saint Juste would have made one
Nasty transition from that thought directly to Kaoru cutting into a bright red apple, emphasizing the tactile act of a knife cutting flesh
Even now, Saint Juste asks Kaoru to visit the elm tree and see if Miya-sama is there. Her delusions are all she values, all she has left
“I can tolerate such a thing, myself, easily. But it’s different if it’s HER getting wet in the rain…” Her doll must remain pristine. And she cannot extrapolate this sort of thinking to those around her – to considering the suffering of those who actually value her life, unlike Miya-sama
Nanako calls Miya-sama to apologize for leaving the study session. Excellent use of Miya-sama’s eyes throughout this conversation – they remain politely closed as she accepts Nanako’s apology, but open to reveal her hungry, violent gaze when she enquires about what happened
The shattered mirror recurs in memory; a fractured reality, a past not quite perfectly remembered, or a present whose ugly cracks you cannot tolerate. It’s a flexible symbol
Nanako wakes up early, prepping lunch as she gets ready for a cram session at the Sorority House. It seems clear she needs this right now; tasks she can easily set her mind and body to, productive work that is absolutely within her grasp. Compared to untangling Saint Juste’s situation, there is a comfort in these familiar rituals
Her father’s reflections, emphasizing how quickly Nanako seems to be growing up, are given a cruel twist when Nanako reveals she doesn’t actually have a cram session. Though her relationship with her parents is warm again, there is still a distance now, a darkness she cannot share instilled by her trials at Seiren
Of course, by engaging with this darkness, she is hoping to illuminate these tragic figures with her own light. Extremely Nanako of her to leave a multi-page note with her picnic basket at Saint Juste’s door
Shinobu fills Nanako in on the further events of the cram session. Quite refreshing to have her as a stable ally at this point
Nanako realizes she needs to get her story straight with Tomoko. Another beat emphasizing how Seiren is changing her, forcing her to embrace underhanded methods even as she hopes to bring light to her classmates’ lives
Tomoko’s agreement is complimented by light being reflected on the cel, emphasizing how there are still fragments of light in her world
“I’ll explain later!” “That’s okay, you just owe me one!” Their absolute trust serves as a contrast against Shinobu’s paranoia, her need to know all the details of Nanako’s activities
When Nanako attempts to return Miya-sama’s umbrella, she says “keep it. Throw it away if you don’t want it.” Her words resonate with how she treats her underlings, an effect further emphasized through her riding crop and the beating of horse hooves beyond her – choices that collectively state ‘anything Miya-sama dislikes will be trampled or discarded’
Miya-sama warns her not to get close to Saint Juste; both a threat and an acknowledgment that Nanako’s lies did not fool her
The umbrella also echoes Saint Juste’s bracelet, a fellow token of connection with Miya-sama. Nonetheless, Nanako cannot deny her kind nature; she immediately seeks out Kaoru to inquire about Saint Juste’s health
Kaoru calls out Miya-sama, saying she’ll meet her “under the elm tree.” I love how Miya-sama is so often suspended in this hallowed liminal space, herself and her acolytes framed against the great stained glass window in a total void
The bombshell is revealed at last: Saint Juste is Miya-sama’s younger sister!
And Done
Ah, the torment of adolescence! Well, you gotta give credit to Nanako for doing her best under preposterously hostile conditions here, as she juggles the expectations of family, friendship, and these three titanic luminaries of Seiren Academy. In spite of featuring nearly every character so far introduced, this episode did a fine job of maintaining dramatic clarity, using all of these brief interactions to illustrate both Nanako’s evolving personality and the tonal contrasts of the various worlds she inhabits. Even Miya-sama’s threat to her underlines her growing significance in this world, the light she brings to these shaded corridors. Hold strong, Nanako!
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