http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seito_S..._.22Onibara.22
Did somebody post this before? Well, here it is again.
Also, you guys are taking way too detached a view of things if you think that "invisible existences" or "people who won't amount to anything" refers to just the poor, discriminated against, or disadvantaged. Keep in mind that Japan as a
whole has been in a depressive/deflationary state economically for several decades. Also understand in general the self-denial, pessimism, guilt, and submissiveness that are the lingering echoes of Japan's loss at the stage of the second World War. The Child Broiler is not the metaphor; the metaphor is the children themselves--because it is the entirety of Japanese society that Kiga (or Pingroup or Aum Shinrikyo) sees to be at risk of turning invisible.
"Survival Strategy", indeed. This question is tangential to the characters, their drama, and relationships, but what exactly does it mean to "amount to anything"? Can any person actually claim that? Under what circumstances, through the lens of which ideology, when and where? Himari said, "to live is to be punished". From a nation which lived through both this years' Great East Japan Earthquake and the atom bomb, this line sounds natural, doesn't it? The line between life and death, "chosen" and "unchosen", is not so simple as a mere moral directive not to ignore the unfortunate. That complacency or sense of personal security is itself ignorance. When Mawaru Penguindrum's characters speak, "you who will never amount to anything", they are addressing every last person who sees the show him or herself.
lol, this was a pretty godly episode. Also hilarious in its ridiculousness, directness, and irony. "Countless children are turning invisible as we speak"--yeah, the very ones watching the present episode, subsection of the otaku/anime subculture which is a breeding people who've turned away from reality: the NEETs and hikkikomoris of Japan. The barely disguised social commentary was both so ballsy and so pretentious it nearly had me laughing my ass off.
Anyway, characters, characters. Yeah, I really love them. Himari is a fucking sex symbol--I think I've got a fetish by now after those relentless post-credit voice samples. Don't have sex, do not chase, because if you let your cuteness be consumed, you'll be thrown away. To be "chosen", to be alive now, means in no way that you will remain so indefinitely. That inevitability is what Himari is afraid of. She wants the Fruit of Fate. In a way, this is her own "Survival Strategy".
I feel so fucking lonely for Kanba. In the OP, his is the only profile running off to somewhere else. Well, this is something I remembered during the previous episode--though it's kinda trivial to bring it up now that his Natsume relation is confirmed: Shouma 晶馬 is the same 晶 as the Princess of
Crystal (晶). Kanba 冠葉 is the same 冠 as the Prince of the
Crown (冠). Regarding Kanba's motivations, it is now clear that he is not moved by blind "faith" in his parents. From the beginning, Kanba has thought "Shouma, keep your innocence for Himari". Now twice, Shouma said "We don't need parents", and Kanba's agreed. Kanba protects Shouma/Himari as much as his parents in hiding his association with the latter. Let the "innocent" ones stay "innocent" of associating with terrorists, in other words; not to mention he was protecting his source of money for saving Himari's life.
Kid!Shouma was a bit of a bleeding heart. The "Fruit of Fate" appears to have been something which allowed him to "save" someone he'd "chosen". Was that a gift from Kenzan: a single chance for him to change the fate of someone in this frozen world, separated into the "chosen" and the "unchosen"? Himari told Shouma, about "Sunny" the cat--do not show kindness to someone if you have no intention of saving them fully. But, by the end I think that Shouma was prepared for and understood that it was not "everybody" he wanted to save, but Himari, specifically, herself. It was this burden, this acknowledgement of responsibility (that having saved Himari, Shouma had decided that he would save her to the end), that is the source of his current guilt.
The main point in all three cases is, of course, where does one get the arrogance to think of "being chosen", "protecting", or "saving"? If to live is to be punished, that goes for every last human. "Saving others", "being saved"; before such things as that, what is most important is first every person's determination to be able to "save" themself.
Well, here is a more immediate question. Natsume was wrong; of course both Kanba and Shouma believe that the Takekuras are a family. However, in either case Himari is the obvious center of the whole thing. If Kanba is not bound to Himari by "fate", then how do either Himari and Shouma respond to Natsume's attempts to "reclaim" her brother? Do they resist, do they have reason to resist? And if they do not resist, then how can Kanba possibly respond to them? I see Himari as sex, but it is true that neither Kanba nor Shouma wish to see her romantically. If the familial relation cannot be maintained, however, then under what premise do they continue relating to each other?
On a last note, incidentally, I still think that Sanetoshi and Kiga are no longer associated/equivalent entities. At some point they fell out. Sanetoshi gave Pingroup the illusion that they were "chosen" to correct society, but after their failure, Sanetoshi ditched them, Pingroup renamed themselves, and they ran away carrying on that illusion. If what "Mary" stole from the "Goddess" was some sort of component of the Fruit of Fate, then what Sanetoshi is using the children for might be some way of getting it back.