Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to Blue Reflection Ray in the heat of the action, as blue and red reflectors clash while a new world struggles to be born. Driven by the seemingly apocalyptic machinations of Shino, Mio was drawn into battle against her sister Hiori and former partner Momo. Now Momo lies dying among the pews, Mio has become lost in her own feelings of despair, and the world seems poised to collide upon itself, the realm of fragments and feelings known as the “Common” collapsing upon our own world of closed, physical shells.
That’s probably not good! Though Shino claims she intends to manage the roiling emotions of the Common directly, I cannot imagine she possesses either the power or temperament necessary to install herself as perpetual ruler of human sentiment. Unfortunately, the blue reflectors have themselves done little to offer a compelling counterargument, instead hinging their philosophy on feel-good “we must embrace our trauma to overcome it” bromides that offer little of substance to lost souls like Niina. And I love that! I love that no one in this show seems to have the “correct” answer to emotional pain, I love that reflectors are being framed as inherently out-of-place intrusions on reality, and I love that we’re reaching the halfway point of this production with an apocalypse looming and no clear way to avoid it. This production’s overarching narrative is proving as confident and distinctive as its psychological inquiry, and I’m eager to see how it surprises me next. Let’s get to it!
Episode 12
“Greatest Depths.” A title that can refer to emotional rock bottom, to the most central core of your identity, or to the bewildering far planes of the Common, all of which seem appropriate interpretations for this episode
Mio is unsurprisingly stunned by what has transpired, and calls out helplessly for Momo. The veil is lifting from her eyes, but it’s too late now
“Our sister’s sins are blooming. Now let them bloom in their fullest!” Interestingly, it seems Shino’s plan actually mirrors the behavior of the blue reflectors – asking those who suffer to embrace their trauma. But rather than using this as a method to come to peace with their pain, Shino sees this as a way of being consumed by it. This corroborates their earlier argument – some people’s pain is too acute to be acknowledged and overcome, and thus erasing it is the only answer
Oh wow, we’re just continuing our apocalyptic drama right through the OP. That’s certainly a great way to convey a sense of urgency, implying that things are so desperate we can’t even pause for the show’s inherent structural breaks
We touch in briefly on Yuri and Miyako, still holding down the home front as the sky turns black. Once again, Miyako can only be a spectator
“You knew this would happen, and still forced Sister into this!?” Niina continues to be the most sympathetic of the red reflectors. This situation feels like a painful echo of her previous brief sanctuary, the home that was stolen from her by another manipulative ringleader
Some nice effects animation for this storm of feelings. Glad to see them raising the show’s aesthetic profile a bit for this climactic moment
Caught in the maelstrom, Hiori receives a full blast of Mio’s anxious, uncertain feelings. Presumably this is a taste of the world Shino is trying to create
Mio “blooms” into an array of vines cradling all of her precious attachments – objects that resonate with her feelings, talismans representing the bonds she still treasures. Visually, this scene offers a nice variation on the general “reflector world” patterns we’ve been seeing since the beginning, with the oily swirls here implying that these backgrounds have always echoed their summoners’ mental state
And yet Niina still defends her from the blue reflectors. She’s a great riff on the classic “noble knight fighting for an unworthy cause” archetype
“We’re not reflectors. What can we possibly do?” “It’s not about what we can or can’t do!” Yuri seemingly unintentionally pushing Miyako to embrace her own emerging values, to take the very Shiori-like act of charging into battle to protect her friends, even with no coherent plan of action regarding how she might help them
“Look at how much Momo hurt my sister!” Niina argues from a position of preferring numbness to the possibility of pain, condemning Momo and Hiori for getting close enough to Mio to deeply hurt her
And Hiori is still unsure enough regarding why her sister abandoned her for that critique to actually land. Fortunately, Ruka’s here, and now confident enough to defend Hiori’s feelings even when Hiori herself can’t manage it
“Once you care about someone, a connection is formed, and you’re tied down by unnecessary emotions.” Uta again proving herself the most simple-minded and emotionally stunted of the group
Of course, poor Niina will take any solution that might aid Mio, and swiftly rationalizes obliterating her own emotions as “returning” her to the version of herself that Mio first called out to, back in her moment of greatest desperation
A music box among Mio’s relics begins to open. An inherently charged image, gesturing towards childhood security or even Pandora’s Box, within which all the horrors of human nature are packed atop the flickering light of hope
“At some point I started to fear that I would end up losing the first place I felt like I belonged, and this feeling I’d never felt before. But I was wrong. I’m not angry or sad – there was nothing there to begin with. I never had anything.” Niina tragically embracing the strength of emptiness
“We feel the same.” But Hiori refuses to let her hide behind Uta’s paper shield. Deny it as she like, she’s only craving this feeling of empty absolution because she is bearing such pain regarding her role in Mio’s misfortune
“Whenever my sister is in pain or sad, I want to share her burden.” Basically the same distinction as Evangelion – the work of becoming human is learning to share our true feelings with others, but we cannot take shortcuts on that journey, cannot embrace either the freedom of feeling nothing or the assurance of having our emotions inherently tangible to others. We must perform the work of connection ourselves
“I’m always thinking about her. She’s that important to me.” Hiori’s reflections naturally challenge Niina’s embracing of emptiness; if someone is important to you, you must accept the pain of keeping them in your thoughts
“What is this emptiness I feel? My heart feels nothing.” As many of the red reflectors’ victims learned, a lack of feeling can be initially liberating, but will swiftly sap your investment and attachment to the world. This is the truth of depression – not perpetual sorrow, but perpetual emptiness, a grey and spotless horizon
Oh, this is quite nice. The very fact that Niina abandoned her feelings “for Sister” is what saves her – the strength of that final emotion, the feeling of sanctuary she found in at last being understood by someone else
“How could you possibly understand the importance of feelings when you’ve stolen so many?” Ah, Uta now relying on the old “you don’t deserve forgiveness” line. Really pulling out all the stops to keep Niina pinned down
“It doesn’t matter how Sister feels. My feelings are genuine.” Niina at last steps up, defending our blue reflectors and parrying Uta’s “Mio never cared about you” speech with a paraphrasing of one of my very favorite quotes, “you are what you love, not what loves you” from Adaptation
Unfortunately Shino has also transformed into a sort of moth-reminiscent superform, and easily blasts Niina aside. Sorry girl
“Feelings are fearsome things disguised within humans.” Shino’s perspective seems the most alien by far; she hasn’t rejected her feelings because they’re painful, she just sees them as unnatural and illogical in the first place
Driven back by a combined assault, we at last get a brief glimpse of Shino’s own feelings – two empty beds, and a young Shino with a knife in hand. So she’s not actually divorced from feeling entirely, she’s just bound at the very far end of having become so detached from her feelings that she can’t even understand their purpose anymore
It seems even in this state, Mio is again choosing to sacrifice herself for the sake of others, now seemingly embracing Shino’s plan in order to let the others escape
“Welcome back.” A poignant final beat for Miyako – even if she didn’t help with the battle, she can still be the happy home they return to
And Done
Well shit! I’m not sure we can really call that a victory for anyone; Shino failed to breach the gate between realities, but Mio actually had to double down on her sacrifice, and Momo clearly isn’t in great shape either. Nonetheless, our team hit a crucial threshold this episode, by at last connecting with the perpetually suffering Niina. Shino’s philosophy simply can’t withstand the power of repeated, sincere offers of affection; even Shino herself seemed to be wavering this episode, while Uta’s last glance back towards Niina proves there’s a touch of consideration hiding behind that brittle jester’s mask. As Miyako said, “it’s not about what we can or can’t do” – by perpetually extending their hands, our leads are committing to the difficult, essential work of loving people who have not learned to love themselves. Now let’s get Niina on the team!
This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.
