Apparently life in the Kuhouin household is even worse than what we already know about it.
I just want to say that, yes, incest is bad. And before you incest fetishizers get on my case about it, yes, it can be hot (because I’m fairly certain that there isn’t a thing on Earth that someone can’t find sexually arousing–I mean, in a world where people have married the Berlin Wall and attained sexual pleasure with it, anything is possible), but, thanks to the Westermarck effect such an incestuous relationship is condemned to fantasy forever–unless, of course, the siblings are never raised with each other and are not told of each other’s existence, in which case it’s hard to call them “siblings”. But there’s something just a bit…strange about forced incest. Or something.
I’m completely unclear as to the parentage of Murasaki–I’m trying to figure out whether her mother–her real mother–was a Kuhouin woman or not. I’m sure it’s been mentioned in a past episode and I’ve forgotten about it, but it’s just confusing me.
But that’s kind of unimportant considering what happened these last two episodes (I hadn’t watched 8 yet because I thought I had, but then it turned out I hadn’t, which I rectified when I finally got around to watching 9). The prior episodes of light silliness/mild drama have served as buildup for episode 9, focusing on Shinkurou’s relationship with Murasaki. The fun thing about episode 9 (well, okay, it wasn’t fun, but you know what I mean) was that, despite all of Shinkurou’s boasting that he could protect Murasaki from the Evil Clutches of her brother, he rather decidedly does not, and gets beat up instead. If we recall, Shinkurou decided to join Benika’s orginaization after she rescued him from terrorists, although only after they had killed his parents. The reason was, of course, he wanted to be strong and protect people…except that Shinkurou is anything but strong. We’ve seen this countless times before in the series–refusing to confront jerks on a train, being unable to accomplish any kind of mediation job without resorting to violence and awakening the bone-blade-thing, etc., but never is his very weakness driven home so hard as it is here, where, despite his weak and feeble efforts, he simply cannot rescue Murasaki from a fate she obviously dreads, leaving her to simply acquiesce to her brother’s demands.
Murasaki does this, of course, because, as she just revealed not five minutes earlier, Shinkurou is someone who means a lot to her–he’s someone who, despite his flaws as a person, has showed her true friendship, kindness, and–perhaps more than anything else–respect. He means so much to her, that she’s perfectly willing to sacrifice her own freedom simply to ensure that he lives on. It’s painfully obvious that she doesn’t want to do this, but, alas, if she doesn’t, then she truly will be unhappy, because despite his protestations to the contrary, there is no way you can “protect” someone if you’re being clobbered with high heels, and he would have been killed, and then she’d just have to go back to the Inner Sanctuary anyway, except this time Shinkurou is dead.
I’m fairly certain that Murasaki sees Shinkurou more as a replacement for her own birth mother than as any kind of intimate lover (although, given some of her recent lines, who knows what’s running through that child’s head), so, most likely, she went with her brother simply to avoid the pain of having another parental figure die. I can’t quite remember if her mother’s death was somehow related to her in some way (I believe it was, somewhat indirectly, but I’m kind of fuzzy), but even if it wasn’t, having two such figures die in relatively short succession would be nothing short of traumatizing, especially for a child that age. Perhaps she made the decision as much to spare her own pain as that of Shinkurou’s.
Also, is it wrong for me to want to see Renjou get punched in the face–hard–by Shinkurou? That would be an excellent series concluding scene, I think. Maybe with Murasaki biting his ankles.
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! 