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akinoameOlder Sister, Doctor, The Truth About Ankh (Kobayashi/Tasaki): Eiji wakes up early in the morning to find Ankh gone again, still looking for whoever has his Medals. A bird flies by, dropping a white feather, which Eiji catches like an omen before deciding to get dressed. Elsewhere, Ankh and his other reach out for one another, sensing each other out, as a soft voice from the other calls out, "Where?"
Also, it's Maki's birthday, and for some reason, Kougami thinks it's a good idea to give him a party hat and a cake. There's also a cake for the doll, and there's a running gag of Satonaka finding the candle blown out every time she looks. And by "running gag," I mean "horrifying" because seriously, that doll, man. Maki reminds Kougami he doesn't like celebrating birthdays, but Kougami doesn't care and quizzes him before gifts. What's Kougami's favorite thing? Desire, particularly his own desire. So he warns that if anything threatens his desire, even another really good desire, he will eliminate that threat. ...I think I'm actually afraid of crazy cakeboss now. As Maki's gift, he warns that he needs to end his dealings with Kazari, since Kougami can't run the risk of OOO being defeated, and he asks if Maki really wants to disappoint the man who discovered his genius. This triggers a strange, hazy memory of Maki as a child, crying at his parents' funeral while Hitomi, veiled in mourning, leans over to him with an oddly cold expression. He leaves to lay flowers at her grave, and his memories appear in reverse—the doll lying among flames, flames returning to a fallen candle. Kazari arrives and Maki tells him to absorb the last four Cores and evolve, warning that Kougami is on to them and they need to move more quickly or their plans will fail. But Kazari wants to get his last Core, afraid to rush and lose control. But that's Maki's plan—an out-of-control Greeed as the Medal vessel to bring about the end of the world. Kazari finally has enough and creates a Yummy that honestly just wants a hug. But there's a destructive edge to that desire—when it hugs Hitomi's headstone, it starts to crush the cross until Maki stops it. Kazari's intrigued, but honestly, he has other plans—namely investigating whoever created the bird Yummy and figuring out just what it is that makes Ankh so different.
Chiyoko and Hina are out advertising in the plaza, dressed in Italian Carnival costumes, complete with masks. As they head back to start cooking, Hina notices a bird, just as Eiji had, and thinks back to Ankh's failed regeneration, wondering what's wrong with him and her brother. Eiji, meanwhile, manages to track down Ankh with Taka and runs up to him with breakfast—a huge supply of fruit and an ice pop. Guess which one Ankh takes. He complains about Eiji distracting him, but Eiji wants an explanation as soon as they find whoever has his Cores. But Ankh reminds him that it's more like "if" they find whoever it is, and Eiji makes a face at him. And Goto and Date practice shooting, as Goto gets ready to head back to the Foundation to beg for his job back. The plan is to put himself in the prime position to investigate the truth about the Medals, the Greeed, and OOO. Date's not as good at investigations, but he cheers him on, since he knows Eiji and Ankh are in danger and need all the help they can get. Goto bows extremely low as he enters the office, apologizing for leaving, but Kougami knows he's been Date's sidekick. As for why he needs to come back, Goto claims that he's not making enough to live off of—much to Kougami's amusement—but his job as captain has already been filled. Satonaka, however, says that she needs an assistant, and Goto proves his new humility by digging into her cake.
The Yummy begins to attack women in the plaza, hugging them until they collapse, unconscious—or at least, I hope they're unconscious, but the Yummy seems very bothered when they don't get back up. Maki watches, furious, although he has to admit that this is his truest desire, remembering hugging Hitomi as a child...and then hugging her wedding dress as it waits on a dummy. Odd, that. He admits it's motherly love he wants—thank you, Freud (no, really). His ambition to end the world isn't a desire, but a mission—thanatos, the death drive as hypothesized by Sigmund Freud. I'll go more in-depth in the endpoint because I don't have a psychology degree for nothing, you know. The Yummy evolves into a hybrid of an orca and a panda, and the winds of chance blow a flyer featuring Chiyoko onto the Batta camera. Maki then realizes that's where the Yummy's headed next. Date goes to fight it, trying to gain ground with Crane Arm, but he almost hits the boyfriend of one of the injured women and has to stop himself. The Yummy then grabs his cable and throws him into a wall. He loses it and gets on himself for letting himself get beat because he thought it was cute. The Yummy finds Chiyoko, but Maki tries to hold it off with a new candroid, Ptera, another flying-type that emits sonic blasts. But they're not very effective, one blown up and another thrown into Maki's arm. Chiyoko hears the sound of the explosion, and Date arrives in time to save Maki, taking the fight elsewhere. Chiyoko and Hina run outside to find Maki bleeding, and the sight of her face triggers the conflicting images of Hitomi again, along with the memories of a fallen candlestick setting a room on fire, with the doll among the flames, as Chiyoko bandages him with her handkerchief. Date, meanwhile, almost gets hugged to death, but Drill Arm saves him. However, the Yummy escapes on a passing truck.
Ankh also senses the Yummy, although he can't tell what type it is at first. He and Eiji start to run toward it when he senses the mysterious Greeed too, and they go the opposite way. He stops when he finds a curled red feather before continuing to run, Eiji realizing just how close they are to the truth. But Kazari appears, having also found a feather and decided to investigate, since he remembers those feathers from 800 years ago. Ankh tries to cut off the conversation, but Eiji still wants answers. Kazari promises to tell, but he sends a tornado that rips off chunks of a bridge to fall on them. They escape, and Ankh gives Eiji TaJaDor, but they're evenly matched. However, the mystery Greeed has noticed them, shedding more feathers. Red flames swirl around him as he descends, one left wing unfurled. Quite honestly, he is beautiful—overall, kind of parrot-like in design with red, yellow, and green accents to his feathers, peacock eyespots across his body, and a mantle of black feathers over his shoulders. His right arm and the right side of his face are incomplete and purple, but it's not the right side that Eiji notices first; it's the left hand. And Kazari calls this new Greeed "Ankh." But the other Ankh blasts them with fire, asking in his lost, childish voice, "Where am I?" Lost Ankh turns out to be much stronger than TaJaDor, and our Ankh screams desperately at Eiji to defeat him. Lost Ankh and TaJaDor manifest their wings, blasting fire and energy. Eiji uses the explosion as a distraction as he soars for his Rider Kick, but Lost Ankh meets him with a similar attack, and they're both thrown to the ground, at a stalemate. Lost Ankh gets up, but Eiji collapses, reverting. Ankh comes down to yell at Eiji some more, but he and his double feel an immediate psychic connection, and Lost Ankh recognizes him as part of himself. And I'll probably go into this more in-depth in the endpoint, but neither Ankh uses the same personal pronoun. Our Ankh uses "ore," more grown-up and assertive. Lost Ankh uses the childish, humbler "boku." So there's an interesting exchange where Lost Ankh refers to himself and Ankh as "boku," and Ankh is very deeply unsettled and resentful of being identified that way and replies that it's the other way around, "ore," setting himself as separate and assertive as his own being while also saying, "No, I'm not you, you're me," in a way that doesn't come across as cleanly in English. They try to absorb one another, but Ankh begins to break down, his Cells entering Lost Ankh as Eiji struggles to get up...
King, Panda, Memory of Flame (Kobayashi/Tasaki): Eiji manages to get up and tackles Ankh, breaking the connection. He then takes Shachi-Unagi-Batta to spray Lost Ankh with water before carrying Ankh away. Kazari approaches Lost Ankh, discovering that he has none of the original's memories, and decides to bring him on as an ally. Meanwhile, Chiyoko brings Maki home instead of to the hospital, at his insistence. At first, he tries to explain he lives in Hirao-shi (Hirao City), but as he remembers Hitomi presenting the doll to him, it with long hair, a bonnet, and a dress, he instead answers Tsurukawa St. With Chiyoko gone, Eiji brings a badly exhausted Ankh inside Cous Coussier, and Hina helps sit him down at a table. Date walks in, asking if they caught the Yummy, but he stops when he sees Ankh's condition. And once Kazari gets Lost Ankh out of there and switches to human form, Lost Ankh tries to create a Yummy from him. Kazari knocks his hand away, but he's intrigued that he remembers how to create Yummies, if nothing else. He teaches him how to change forms, and Lost Ankh spots a young boy passing by and patterns off of him. Kazari then encourages him to find Ankh and take his Cores.
The house on Tsurukawa St. is a large mansion, long since abandoned, with porcelain dolls on display that likely belonged to Hitomi. All of the furniture is covered with cloth, and the main hall by the staircase is mostly empty, except for a fallen candlestick in the middle of the floor. Maki admits that he used to live there, but it was closer than his house, and Chiyoko goes to find the first aid kit. He remembers Hitomi sweetly promising to be with him forever, telling him to be confident and calling him a genius, but a candle falls from its holder, and the memories of flame persist: Hitomi's bedroom going up in a blaze while she slept. Chiyoko finds pictures of Hitomi and is struck by the resemblance. All of the photos show Hitomi smiling...except for one, turned face-down, showing her stern and cold. He explains that Hitomi had been his much older sister, who had taken the place of his mother when their parents died. But she too died, in a fire the day before her wedding. Cinematography is fantastic in this episode, handling the glimpses of the unpleasant truth. We see a crumbled picture of the siblings upstairs, above the conversation, and it only comes into focus for a moment, just long enough to again see Hitomi looking cold. Chiyoko apologizes for bringing up painful memories, but he admits it's okay, and he'd come there because of meeting Chiyoko.
Eiji explains everything about the attack to Hina and Date, and Date realizes that both Greeed had originally been one, but somehow revived separately. With Ankh in pain, Eiji asks Date for some Medals, promising to pay them back. Ankh tells him not to take out another loan (see episodes 8 and 9), but Eiji argues Ankh's not much help in this condition. Date agrees, as long as Ankh tells him everything about his other and OOO. He admits that he and Goto have been looking into it—Goto secretly trying to access documents pertaining to OOO and the Medals when he's supposed to be entering birthday data for new hires. Ankh says they don't need to know, but Eiji insists he wants to know, saying it's a deal for them, although Ankh says he's selling them too cheaply. But Eiji shows his devious side again, taking the Medals from a disbelieving Date and insisting that the deal is done, so Ankh has to pay up. At the same time, Kougami picks up on Goto's activity and tells him to come to Reference Room 25. Though positively terrified, Goto goes, meeting Kougami in his huge archive of documents and artifacts from the time of the Greeed to their sealing. Kougami explains that the Greeed were created because a king wanted the power to conquer the world. And the historical documents we see are the best damn worldbuilding Kobayashi has done to date—there are stylized drawings of OOO and the Yummies, as well as of the Medal Tree, a map of the Core Medals designed to look like the sephirot from the Kabbalah. There is also a picture of the King, who Kougami explains was the original OOO.
We see the past the way Ankh remembers it and Kougami tells it—the King OOO standing in the burned-out ruins of his castle, with Uva, Kazari, Mezool, and Gamel attacking. But the King is protected by Ankh, his secret ally—news that shocks Eiji, Hina, and Date, since up until this point, they had no real reason to suspect that Ankh had worked with the last OOO too. But this explains why he and the Greeed are so suspicious of one another. However, as Ankh explains, the King was a greedy jerk, who had wanted to become a god by absorbing all of the Medals. He even literally stabbed Ankh in the back to get five of his Medals. He overused his powers, scanning all of the Medals he'd taken at once, and lost control. The power spilled over, the Greeed getting caught up in it as his body turned to stone. Ankh placed his consciousness into a single Taka Core in his right hand, which had gotten caught up in the eruption. But instead of taking back his Medals, he too was sealed, as the King's petrified body became the coffin the Greeed escaped from in the first episode. Ankh's body should have broken down into Medals, but instead, it mummified. Kougami found it during his New Year's vacation in Europe, brought it back, and removed a Core, reviving him.
Chiyoko makes soup for Maki, asking if his doll had belonged to Hitomi. He explains that since he'd never been apart from her, she'd given it to him as a surrogate for her before the wedding. But his memories show a darker side—Hitomi in her wedding dress, shoving him away when he tried to hug her. He tells Chiyoko the same thing he told Eiji when they met—that just as a story reaches its conclusion, death is what completes humanity. And he suddenly remembers that he learned this saying from Hitomi, during their parents' funeral. But Chiyoko puts a comforting hand on his, insisting that Hitomi will always be with him, always being that same, kind sister. He starts to give in, even looking directly at her, but the Yummy begins to react. At the last second, as his doll falls over, Maki realizes that Hitomi was nothing like Chiyoko. The kind memories were a comforting lie; she was really cold, cruel, and twisted. He pulls away from Chiyoko and knocks over a candle, sparking the fire in his mind once more. Chiyoko picks it up, but he tells her to leave, hiding with the doll and crying as she invites him to see her again. As she finally leaves, he approaches the boarded up door to Hitomi's room. He opens it and confronts the truth, as the room behind the door continues to blaze in his memory, the wedding dress right in the middle. He drops the doll and closes the door to truth, sobbing.
With the Yummy back, Date goes off to fight, leaving the last of his Medals with Ankh and thanking him for the story. The donated Medals are enough to heal Ankh completely, and he and Eiji follow. But Hina worries about how the King overused OOO's powers and lost control, worrying that the same might be happening to Eiji, who most certainly overdoes it. On the way to battle, Eiji realizes that Ankh hasn't explained what would happen if he and Lost Ankh became one again. Ankh finally says that the weaker one would probably disappear, but he has no intention of that being him. The Yummy targets Chiyoko again, but Date tackles it into the woods, spending most of the time wrestling it. Eiji starts to help, but when he asks for a combo, Date reminds him of the story, also worried that Eiji will lose control like the King. Eiji hesitates, and Date tells him to keep the Yummy busy for him. Ankh tosses over Kujaku only, and fireballs take out the Yummy's spinning fins while Batta's kicks counter its martial arts. Date super-charges Breast Cannon and shoots the Yummy into Medals, which Eiji scrambles to gather so he can repay the loan. Date again marvels at his honesty while Ankh tells him not to bother, Eiji's just an idiot. But at least for now, their fears of his fate are allayed.
Maki admits that he couldn't forgive Hitomi for abandoning him, no matter how she had treated him. When she pushed him away, she gave him the doll to have as a surrogate older sister, cruelly pointing out that he was a genius, so of course he'd be okay all on his own with no family to love him. So while she slept, he snuck into her room with a candlestick and intentionally set the room on fire, taking the doll from the flames. This way, he could ignore reality and remember her only as kind and loving, thus "completing" her. Kazari enters with Lost Ankh, asking if Maki's going to join them. Maki is intent on destroying the world—this time, to prevent Chiyoko from becoming as ugly as Hitomi really was. He presses a detonator, and as Date returns to the lab, he sees equipment short-circuiting and candroids flying off.
Ankh and Eiji walk home to see Maki alongside Kazari and a small boy, who sends a psychic pulse to Ankh and reveals his true form. Kazari warns that Ankh may not remain for much longer, and the candroids carry the painting away as they all leave...
Repaying a Favor, Scheme, Purple Medals (Kobayashi/Morota): Date and Goto meet Eiji and Ankh over dumplings at a restaurant for a debrief. They reveal that in addition to all the other stuff he broke, Maki stole something from the Foundation—something that has Kougami worried. Meanwhile, Maki brings that very something down to show Kazari and Lost Ankh, who toss around a soccer ball while killing time at the mansion. They stop when Maki shows off a stone case, explaining he took it in lieu of his pay—something Kougami had found in Europe, along with Lost Ankh, but had been too cautious to open. Which means it's bad, considering this is the guy who decided to revive Lost Ankh for funzies.
That night, near midnight, a young man visits a busy credit office. As the clock strikes 12, Trash Yummies emerge from all of the workers, spitting out one Medal each—all that their greed for the day could build up. All of the Medals are gathered into a sack and given to the man, who delivers them to Uva, who has built up a huge stash. And this is brilliant. Just like the idea of hijacking the Medal transport, it shows the Greeed actually thinking about how to maximize their Medal profits, but this time, limiting the danger to themselves—like combining it with Gamel's idea to try to find any dropped Medals by the Ride Vendors. The Trash Yummies are too weak to build up much, but one at a time, from a lot of people at once, over the course of time takes care of a lot. It's clear Uva's been running this operation for a while, all without drawing any unwanted attention.
But while Lost Ankh sleeps, Kazari watches Maki finally open the case, revealing a set of ten purple Core Medals, never before used—Ptera, Tricera, and Tyranno. Oh shit. It's morphin' time. Kazari's shocked to see they even exist, and he's even alarmed when Maki decides to remove one of the Medals to see if he can create a Greeed.
Date and Goto try to piece together the lab and figure out what was stolen, but most of the data on the computer has been corrupted. However, Date finds a new candroid that got left behind, Tricera. Kougami, meanwhile, deals with his disappointment with wine. He's genuinely hurt that Maki left, and he pours half of his drink on the floor, as if in memorial. But worse yet is the knowledge that Maki is trying to awaken the Greeed of the purple Medals.
Cous Coussier celebrates the new spring school year with cherry blossoms and school uniforms. Though Hina's not working the lunch shift that day, she brings a friend, Suzuka Mihara, to talk to Eiji. Suzuka explains that every night since fall, someone leaves an envelope of money in her and her mother's mailbox. The envelopes are addressed to her late father, a high school teacher. She wants to find whoever it is and thank them, so Eiji agrees to wait for them that night. The Medals are picked up again and delivered to Uva for cash. The young man, Kousuke Sakata, then takes some of the money he's earned and puts it in an envelope, placing it in the Miharas' mailbox, but Eiji reveals himself and says Suzuka asked him to meet him. He brings him to Cous Coussier the next morning, and Sakata explains that Suzuka's father had helped him out in high school, getting him out of a bad group of friends and lending him money so he could live on his own. As he sees it, the least he can do in return is help Suzuka and her mother. But when Suzuka comes in, she begs Sakata not to send any more money; her mother's become spoiled by the gift, skipping work and shopping so much that she has to take out loans to pay her bills. Sakata collapses in shock, dropping a Cell Medal. Ankh hears it and looks over, Eiji also noticing immediately. But Sakata takes off, pursued by Eiji, Hina, and Ankh, who nearly run over Chiyoko on their way out. Ankh detaches to grab Sakata and stop him long enough for Eiji and Hina to catch up, then grabs him by the face and demands an explanation. While Hina and Eiji try to hold Ankh back, Sakata sees Suzuka meeting with her mother's creditors, the very same people he works for, and he realizes he's caught up in some kind of scam that's hurting the Mihara family. He runs to the office and begs the president to leave them alone, promising to pay back their debt himself. But the president is intent on working and throws him back with inhuman strength, the Trash Yummies emerging from everyone. The others rush in, and Eiji has Hina run with Sakata to safety while he and Ankh fight. Hina tries to stop Sakata from getting too far from her, but Uva appears and creates a Yummy from him, now that his scheme is exposed. Meanwhile, TaToBa's claws make quick work of the Trash Yummies, and Eiji and Ankh meet the others outside, where Hina explains what happened. Sakata's in shock over his role in this, and they take him to the park, where he explains everything. He'd taken the job because it was easy money, and he could make his deliveries to the Miharas more frequently. But he blames himself for their misfortune now. Hina tries to explain that it only backfired—it wasn't his fault. Sakata takes comfort from this and decides to earn more money to pay off the debt—something Ankh points out would create a very good Yummy, while Eiji goes quiet and pensive. Hina tries to explain that what Sakata really wants is to repay the favor, not provide money, but Eiji says he understands. Though Sakata's intentions were good and this was just an accident, he knows that sometimes "things happen" when you try to help others. Hina realizes he's talking about himself.
The Yummy steals from a bank, throwing the stolen money to the people outside, evolving into a butterfly. Everyone takes chase as she dumps the money on the city. Taka-Unagi-Tako catches her and brings her down to fight. Sakata asks if the Yummy represents his desire, and Hina explains that it makes desires go out of control. Goto warns Date not to take any of the money, but as he henshins, Date says money should be earned through hard work. Good show, Date. Goto shouts at everyone to run, and they finally realize that oh, there's a butterfly monster fighting, and they run off. Uva joins the fight, but Eiji deflects his lightning with the Unagi whips. His own attacks do no damage, however, and Uva reveals he's taken in so many Cells that it's about as good as being a vessel for the Cores. Hmm. A vessel for Cell Medals. Intriguing. This time, Uva's attacks land, and Eiji asks about Uva's weakness. Ankh says fire and tosses over Kujaku and Condor. Date reminds Eiji he needs to stop using Combos, but Eiji's desperate enough to risk losing control.
At Maki's mansion, five of the purple Medals suddenly shine and fly off, to even the doll's shock. Date fights the Yummy, getting reloads from Goto and Tricera. Eiji gives Uva a thorough beating, and Ankh snatches two of Gamel's Medals. Using the Cells in the Spinner, Eiji sends off a white energy Giga Scan that still manages to destroy the Yummy before turning toward Uva. But then the purple Medals swirl around him and enter his body. Purple energy runs through his body, ejecting the TaJaDor Medals. Ankh manages to grab two, but Uva grabs the last, asking just what those new Medals are. Eiji drops to his knees as the Medals within his body pulse, and his transformation dissipates in a cloud of purple. He falls forward, his eyes flashing purple, and Date, Goto, and Hina rush to his side. Though Eiji's unresponsive, Date finds normal breathing and pulse. Ankh shoves them all away and tries to shake him back to awareness. Obviously, that doesn't work, and Date and Hina pick Eiji up to bring him to the hospital, unaware of the violet flash in his eyes again...
A New Greeed, Void, Unrivaled Combo (Kobayashi/Morota): Eiji's asleep in the hospital sometime later, everyone watching over him. The doctor arrives with a chest X-ray he did at Date's request, but there's no sign of the Medals. Additional tests conclude that Eiji's in perfect health and nothing is wrong with him, so all they can do is wait for him to wake up and send him home. As the doctor leaves, Ankh says that all this proves is that human technology can't detect the Medals. Goto frantically presses him for info, but Ankh yells back that he doesn't know anything. As Date gets them to settle down, Eiji wakes up, normal, if confused.
Kazari asks why the Medals entered Eiji, and Maki theorizes that they were drawn to him as a suitable vessel. Something about Eiji is in-line with their inherent desire, so they will try to revive through him. Kazari points out that Eiji will probably figure out some way to seal them, but Maki says that the Medals weren't awakened until now, so they have no information on their battle capabilities. So, like the Greed, Maki says they have to ensure the Medals don't go out of control. And then he notes that he's not currently experiencing any problems. In addition, two Pteranodon Yummies, male and female, have been born and seek to bring everything to nothing.
Goto and Date go to get Eiji checked out and pay his bill. Eiji steps out to see Sakata waiting outside the room. Both ask if the other's okay, and Sakata wonders if he did the wrong thing, accident or not. Eiji's warning has given him pause, and he doesn't want anyone to hate him for trying to do good. Eiji admits that he's the same way and made a lot of mistakes. He explains that he'd once tried to raise money for poor countries, but the money was used by greedy people. In fact, his money was even used to fund the civil war he'd been caught up in. Since then, he's decided that maybe all he needs to do is reach out his hand as far as it can go to help—to focus on what's right in front of him, instead of the future.
Ankh senses the Yummies, who are targeting a mall—the Pteras breathing a mist that disintegrates everyone it touches. The Butterfly is also en route there, but people are rushing to get out of the mall before the mist can reach them. Birth and Taka-Tora-Tako fight the male Ptera, but they can't keep up. Given that this is a male Pteranodon and as of this writing, Power Rangers Dino Charge still hasn't shown the Gold Ptera Ranger...I'm going to nickname this one Utchy. The other can be Kira from Dino Thunder, since I already did a MMPR joke, and they've got sonic screams anyway. Utchy-Yummy claims to be able to cancel out desire, and what else are Core Medals than desire incarnate? Volts of purple energy cancel Eiji's transformation before he collapses and falls down the stairs. Utchy-Yummy's ready to finish him off, but Date leaps in, only to be batted aside, his henshin breaking. Kira-Yummy joins in and starts blasting fire at Eiji, who jumps off the stairs to avoid it. Date pulls him underneath for cover, urging him to run, but they see people trapped inside the mall. Eiji runs to save them, but he's hit by the backlash of an explosion. Date pulls him back under, cursing him. Eiji insists he can't leave everyone still trapped and asks Date what he'd do. Date's answer is that as a doctor, he has to ensure his survival first before he can save anyone else. But Eiji decides it's a good thing he's not a doctor, running over, just as the Yummies emit crashing soundwaves that catch him in a huge explosion.
He comes out of it with extensive injuries, and they patch him up that night at Cous Coussier. As he bandages him, Date realizes that although Eiji values lives above anything else, he doesn't hold the same value for his own life. Eiji insists he doesn't want to die, but Date points out he's not taking the possibility of his own death seriously. He knows Eiji once valued his life and understood the risk, but something has broken him. He knows Eiji. He remembers him. Eiji quietly goes up to his room and sees Ankh lying in his nest, carefully asking if he's okay. He freezes and doesn't turn around as he says yes, placing his things down and changing into his pajamas. As the others clean up the first aid kit, Hina and Goto ask Date how he knows Eiji. He explains that they never met, but he'd seen Eiji during his work in Africa. A politician's son had gotten caught up in a civil war and made news risking his life to save a village. Goto remembers the news story, but he's shocked to realize that the son was Eiji. Hina, also shocked at his origins, adds that he'd told her that he'd failed to save a young girl. Date explains that there's a third side to the story, one Eiji hasn't told them. Yes, he risked his life trying to save that village. Yes, he failed to save that girl. But the truth is that he survived because his parents paid a ransom to save him. Date had worked in a field hospital there, treating civilians injured in the attacks. He watched as men who worked for Eiji's father took him away to a helicopter, apparently before receiving any treatment. Eiji dropped to his knees, crying, and the negotiator had to carry him in, telling him it would be all right and he'd be home soon. The media only picked up on the part about him trying to save the village, and to make matters worse, his parents and siblings used the story to their advantage in the polls. Goto's upset at the fact that Eiji's own family didn't care about what he'd wanted, and he wonders how he'd react under the same circumstances. Date notes that while some people might become angry or bitter, Eiji's one of the strange ones who "dry up" inside, losing all desire for himself.
And we see this, as Ankh gets up and walks over as Eiji silently rocks himself back and forth in the chair, staring out the window at nothing. And it's here that I have to point out again that Shu Watanabe was only about 19 when doing this episode. This is a difficult thing, to portray so much emotion without saying a word, and he nails it, perfectly. This is a difficult part, a traumatized young man. And Shu has grown, from the screaming flashbacks of the first episodes to these two views—broken, with no one sure how to fix him. All at once, we see his age in this raw, yet quiet performance. Eiji is young, and it hurts all the more. As a nice touch of ambiguity, it's not shown how much of the story Ankh knows, if any of it. He's not downstairs for the discussion, he's never around when Eiji talks about it. It's very much in-character for him not to want to hear it—at first because he didn't care, but now because it makes him uncomfortable to see Eiji like this, young and broken. He asks if Eiji was once a "whirlpool" of desires. Eiji says yes, but he's lost all of that now. Then, forcing a lighter tone, he insists he can't obsess over it forever. Ankh doesn't answer, staring out the window while Eiji quietly looks down. Hina's heartbroken over the full extent of Eiji's trauma and the scars it's left him with, and she can't understand why. Date says it's okay that she can't, and Eiji is dealing with it, but in his own way. But he reminds her that Kougami would argue that desires are the energy for life, doing his best impression of crazy cakeboss man. Eiji's desires can't be completely gone, if he's still alive—somewhere inside him is something worth living for. And at that moment, Kougami bursts through the doors with Satonaka, bellowing that he couldn't have said it better himself. Date especially nearly has a heart attack, but Kougami says that this void of desire inside Eiji is what makes him suitable as a Medal vessel, even if he doesn't realize it. As it turns out, there's no danger of Eiji losing control from overusing the Medals and combos the way the King had, thanks to this void. But now, things have changed, and he has to warn them. He decides to do this with a cake, which Satonaka presents—topped with purple decorations: roses and two dinosaurs, one of which is a T. rex. Kougami wishes a happy birthday to the Greeed of the purple Medals, which were born from extinct animals and those only existing in dreams. Their power is nothingness, and it's possible they can work their way into Eiji's latent desires and create a true void there, causing him to finally lose control. Upstairs, Ankh asks if Eiji knows about the Cores inside him. Eiji admits he does feel them, somehow, but he's still going to focus on saving the people he can reach. As Eiji climbs into bed, Ankh says it's lucky he's an idiot. Eiji complains about the backhanded compliment, with Ankh being an assbird instead of being nice again, before allowing himself one last moment of seriousness before falling asleep.
Utchy and Kira attack an amusement park, because Yasuko Kobayashi has something against them, apparently, destroying the people there. At the same time Ankh senses them, the Medals react inside Eiji, and his eyes light up. Hina sees them running from Cous Coussier and chases after them. Ankh reminds Eiji to avoid the Yummies' attack, handing over TaToBa, Hina watching and worrying about Eiji's condition. Date and Goto arrive, also worried, but Eiji seems normal. They fight, but the Yummies are strong. Eiji hears a little girl crying, possibly the only survivor, and finds her hiding. Immediately reminded of the girl he couldn't save, he gets up, taking fireballs to his back. Injured, he reaches out to her, telling her to come. Hina realizes just how much he's reached out to others—to her and her brother too—but who's reached out to him all this time? He finally manages to get up and grab onto the girl, shielding her from attack while sending her over to Goto, who takes her in a hug. Kira-Yummy blasts at him, undoing his transformation, forcing him to his hands and knees. Goto shows the girl where to run and stops Hina from running out into danger. Eiji picks himself up as Kira throws a fireball at him, but the Medals in his chest flare, three of them exiting with a shock to him as they block the attack. They insert themselves in the Driver and activate, as his eyes flash and he goes expressionless again. Purple Medal energy swirls around him and transforms him into PuToTyra.
Ice billows from him, freezing over Kira-Yummy. With a fierce cry, he breaks it, throwing her back. Both Yummies recognize his power as similar to theirs, but they still know him as the enemy and attack. The wings on his helmet extend and blow them back. They also allow him to fly, and he chases them into the sky. The split skirt at the back of his suit merges into T. rex tail and knocks them out of the sky. The finisher extends the Triceratops horns on his shoulders, piercing Kira-Yummy. Pteranodon wings blast ice, freezing her again, and then he smashes her with his tail. Only one Medal is retrieved, and he grabs it, reaching into the earth and retrieving his weapon, the Medagabryu axe. It gulps down the Medal and becomes a blaster as its finisher, destroying Utchy-Yummy as well. But in the tense silence after the battle, PuToTyra doesn't stop. He converts his weapon back into axe mode and attacks Date, with feral cries and growls. It's finally happened; Eiji is out of control. Date takes a serious beating and Goto fails to talk Eiji down from the sidelines, so Hina runs in and puts herself in the way as PuToTyra tries to bring his axe down on Date. To everyone's shock, however, he stops, barely a breath away from her face. He's still breathing heavily, still feral, but he's listening as she says she can't understand what he feels, after all he's gone through. But she's still going to reach out to help him when he's in pain. With him still frozen in place, she drops to her knees and holds him around the belt, pleading with him to return to normal. And it works. Eiji drops the axe and grabs his head, backing up as the Medals return to his body. He barely has time to thank her before he collapses, but she stays right by his side through the pain, as the others watch on in concern.
Maki dresses up the doll in a new white suit. Kazari asks him how he feels, and Maki insists he's not experiencing any problems. So Kazari inserts the last purple Medal into him, making five. As with Eiji, Maki's eyes flash purple, and Kazari admits his interest in the idea of a human Greeed. Maki takes a Cell Medal and tosses it into a candlestick, creating another Ptera Yummy, showing he has much more control over his powers than Eiji does...
Also, it's Maki's birthday, and for some reason, Kougami thinks it's a good idea to give him a party hat and a cake. There's also a cake for the doll, and there's a running gag of Satonaka finding the candle blown out every time she looks. And by "running gag," I mean "horrifying" because seriously, that doll, man. Maki reminds Kougami he doesn't like celebrating birthdays, but Kougami doesn't care and quizzes him before gifts. What's Kougami's favorite thing? Desire, particularly his own desire. So he warns that if anything threatens his desire, even another really good desire, he will eliminate that threat. ...I think I'm actually afraid of crazy cakeboss now. As Maki's gift, he warns that he needs to end his dealings with Kazari, since Kougami can't run the risk of OOO being defeated, and he asks if Maki really wants to disappoint the man who discovered his genius. This triggers a strange, hazy memory of Maki as a child, crying at his parents' funeral while Hitomi, veiled in mourning, leans over to him with an oddly cold expression. He leaves to lay flowers at her grave, and his memories appear in reverse—the doll lying among flames, flames returning to a fallen candle. Kazari arrives and Maki tells him to absorb the last four Cores and evolve, warning that Kougami is on to them and they need to move more quickly or their plans will fail. But Kazari wants to get his last Core, afraid to rush and lose control. But that's Maki's plan—an out-of-control Greeed as the Medal vessel to bring about the end of the world. Kazari finally has enough and creates a Yummy that honestly just wants a hug. But there's a destructive edge to that desire—when it hugs Hitomi's headstone, it starts to crush the cross until Maki stops it. Kazari's intrigued, but honestly, he has other plans—namely investigating whoever created the bird Yummy and figuring out just what it is that makes Ankh so different.
Chiyoko and Hina are out advertising in the plaza, dressed in Italian Carnival costumes, complete with masks. As they head back to start cooking, Hina notices a bird, just as Eiji had, and thinks back to Ankh's failed regeneration, wondering what's wrong with him and her brother. Eiji, meanwhile, manages to track down Ankh with Taka and runs up to him with breakfast—a huge supply of fruit and an ice pop. Guess which one Ankh takes. He complains about Eiji distracting him, but Eiji wants an explanation as soon as they find whoever has his Cores. But Ankh reminds him that it's more like "if" they find whoever it is, and Eiji makes a face at him. And Goto and Date practice shooting, as Goto gets ready to head back to the Foundation to beg for his job back. The plan is to put himself in the prime position to investigate the truth about the Medals, the Greeed, and OOO. Date's not as good at investigations, but he cheers him on, since he knows Eiji and Ankh are in danger and need all the help they can get. Goto bows extremely low as he enters the office, apologizing for leaving, but Kougami knows he's been Date's sidekick. As for why he needs to come back, Goto claims that he's not making enough to live off of—much to Kougami's amusement—but his job as captain has already been filled. Satonaka, however, says that she needs an assistant, and Goto proves his new humility by digging into her cake.
The Yummy begins to attack women in the plaza, hugging them until they collapse, unconscious—or at least, I hope they're unconscious, but the Yummy seems very bothered when they don't get back up. Maki watches, furious, although he has to admit that this is his truest desire, remembering hugging Hitomi as a child...and then hugging her wedding dress as it waits on a dummy. Odd, that. He admits it's motherly love he wants—thank you, Freud (no, really). His ambition to end the world isn't a desire, but a mission—thanatos, the death drive as hypothesized by Sigmund Freud. I'll go more in-depth in the endpoint because I don't have a psychology degree for nothing, you know. The Yummy evolves into a hybrid of an orca and a panda, and the winds of chance blow a flyer featuring Chiyoko onto the Batta camera. Maki then realizes that's where the Yummy's headed next. Date goes to fight it, trying to gain ground with Crane Arm, but he almost hits the boyfriend of one of the injured women and has to stop himself. The Yummy then grabs his cable and throws him into a wall. He loses it and gets on himself for letting himself get beat because he thought it was cute. The Yummy finds Chiyoko, but Maki tries to hold it off with a new candroid, Ptera, another flying-type that emits sonic blasts. But they're not very effective, one blown up and another thrown into Maki's arm. Chiyoko hears the sound of the explosion, and Date arrives in time to save Maki, taking the fight elsewhere. Chiyoko and Hina run outside to find Maki bleeding, and the sight of her face triggers the conflicting images of Hitomi again, along with the memories of a fallen candlestick setting a room on fire, with the doll among the flames, as Chiyoko bandages him with her handkerchief. Date, meanwhile, almost gets hugged to death, but Drill Arm saves him. However, the Yummy escapes on a passing truck.
Ankh also senses the Yummy, although he can't tell what type it is at first. He and Eiji start to run toward it when he senses the mysterious Greeed too, and they go the opposite way. He stops when he finds a curled red feather before continuing to run, Eiji realizing just how close they are to the truth. But Kazari appears, having also found a feather and decided to investigate, since he remembers those feathers from 800 years ago. Ankh tries to cut off the conversation, but Eiji still wants answers. Kazari promises to tell, but he sends a tornado that rips off chunks of a bridge to fall on them. They escape, and Ankh gives Eiji TaJaDor, but they're evenly matched. However, the mystery Greeed has noticed them, shedding more feathers. Red flames swirl around him as he descends, one left wing unfurled. Quite honestly, he is beautiful—overall, kind of parrot-like in design with red, yellow, and green accents to his feathers, peacock eyespots across his body, and a mantle of black feathers over his shoulders. His right arm and the right side of his face are incomplete and purple, but it's not the right side that Eiji notices first; it's the left hand. And Kazari calls this new Greeed "Ankh." But the other Ankh blasts them with fire, asking in his lost, childish voice, "Where am I?" Lost Ankh turns out to be much stronger than TaJaDor, and our Ankh screams desperately at Eiji to defeat him. Lost Ankh and TaJaDor manifest their wings, blasting fire and energy. Eiji uses the explosion as a distraction as he soars for his Rider Kick, but Lost Ankh meets him with a similar attack, and they're both thrown to the ground, at a stalemate. Lost Ankh gets up, but Eiji collapses, reverting. Ankh comes down to yell at Eiji some more, but he and his double feel an immediate psychic connection, and Lost Ankh recognizes him as part of himself. And I'll probably go into this more in-depth in the endpoint, but neither Ankh uses the same personal pronoun. Our Ankh uses "ore," more grown-up and assertive. Lost Ankh uses the childish, humbler "boku." So there's an interesting exchange where Lost Ankh refers to himself and Ankh as "boku," and Ankh is very deeply unsettled and resentful of being identified that way and replies that it's the other way around, "ore," setting himself as separate and assertive as his own being while also saying, "No, I'm not you, you're me," in a way that doesn't come across as cleanly in English. They try to absorb one another, but Ankh begins to break down, his Cells entering Lost Ankh as Eiji struggles to get up...
King, Panda, Memory of Flame (Kobayashi/Tasaki): Eiji manages to get up and tackles Ankh, breaking the connection. He then takes Shachi-Unagi-Batta to spray Lost Ankh with water before carrying Ankh away. Kazari approaches Lost Ankh, discovering that he has none of the original's memories, and decides to bring him on as an ally. Meanwhile, Chiyoko brings Maki home instead of to the hospital, at his insistence. At first, he tries to explain he lives in Hirao-shi (Hirao City), but as he remembers Hitomi presenting the doll to him, it with long hair, a bonnet, and a dress, he instead answers Tsurukawa St. With Chiyoko gone, Eiji brings a badly exhausted Ankh inside Cous Coussier, and Hina helps sit him down at a table. Date walks in, asking if they caught the Yummy, but he stops when he sees Ankh's condition. And once Kazari gets Lost Ankh out of there and switches to human form, Lost Ankh tries to create a Yummy from him. Kazari knocks his hand away, but he's intrigued that he remembers how to create Yummies, if nothing else. He teaches him how to change forms, and Lost Ankh spots a young boy passing by and patterns off of him. Kazari then encourages him to find Ankh and take his Cores.
The house on Tsurukawa St. is a large mansion, long since abandoned, with porcelain dolls on display that likely belonged to Hitomi. All of the furniture is covered with cloth, and the main hall by the staircase is mostly empty, except for a fallen candlestick in the middle of the floor. Maki admits that he used to live there, but it was closer than his house, and Chiyoko goes to find the first aid kit. He remembers Hitomi sweetly promising to be with him forever, telling him to be confident and calling him a genius, but a candle falls from its holder, and the memories of flame persist: Hitomi's bedroom going up in a blaze while she slept. Chiyoko finds pictures of Hitomi and is struck by the resemblance. All of the photos show Hitomi smiling...except for one, turned face-down, showing her stern and cold. He explains that Hitomi had been his much older sister, who had taken the place of his mother when their parents died. But she too died, in a fire the day before her wedding. Cinematography is fantastic in this episode, handling the glimpses of the unpleasant truth. We see a crumbled picture of the siblings upstairs, above the conversation, and it only comes into focus for a moment, just long enough to again see Hitomi looking cold. Chiyoko apologizes for bringing up painful memories, but he admits it's okay, and he'd come there because of meeting Chiyoko.
Eiji explains everything about the attack to Hina and Date, and Date realizes that both Greeed had originally been one, but somehow revived separately. With Ankh in pain, Eiji asks Date for some Medals, promising to pay them back. Ankh tells him not to take out another loan (see episodes 8 and 9), but Eiji argues Ankh's not much help in this condition. Date agrees, as long as Ankh tells him everything about his other and OOO. He admits that he and Goto have been looking into it—Goto secretly trying to access documents pertaining to OOO and the Medals when he's supposed to be entering birthday data for new hires. Ankh says they don't need to know, but Eiji insists he wants to know, saying it's a deal for them, although Ankh says he's selling them too cheaply. But Eiji shows his devious side again, taking the Medals from a disbelieving Date and insisting that the deal is done, so Ankh has to pay up. At the same time, Kougami picks up on Goto's activity and tells him to come to Reference Room 25. Though positively terrified, Goto goes, meeting Kougami in his huge archive of documents and artifacts from the time of the Greeed to their sealing. Kougami explains that the Greeed were created because a king wanted the power to conquer the world. And the historical documents we see are the best damn worldbuilding Kobayashi has done to date—there are stylized drawings of OOO and the Yummies, as well as of the Medal Tree, a map of the Core Medals designed to look like the sephirot from the Kabbalah. There is also a picture of the King, who Kougami explains was the original OOO.
We see the past the way Ankh remembers it and Kougami tells it—the King OOO standing in the burned-out ruins of his castle, with Uva, Kazari, Mezool, and Gamel attacking. But the King is protected by Ankh, his secret ally—news that shocks Eiji, Hina, and Date, since up until this point, they had no real reason to suspect that Ankh had worked with the last OOO too. But this explains why he and the Greeed are so suspicious of one another. However, as Ankh explains, the King was a greedy jerk, who had wanted to become a god by absorbing all of the Medals. He even literally stabbed Ankh in the back to get five of his Medals. He overused his powers, scanning all of the Medals he'd taken at once, and lost control. The power spilled over, the Greeed getting caught up in it as his body turned to stone. Ankh placed his consciousness into a single Taka Core in his right hand, which had gotten caught up in the eruption. But instead of taking back his Medals, he too was sealed, as the King's petrified body became the coffin the Greeed escaped from in the first episode. Ankh's body should have broken down into Medals, but instead, it mummified. Kougami found it during his New Year's vacation in Europe, brought it back, and removed a Core, reviving him.
Chiyoko makes soup for Maki, asking if his doll had belonged to Hitomi. He explains that since he'd never been apart from her, she'd given it to him as a surrogate for her before the wedding. But his memories show a darker side—Hitomi in her wedding dress, shoving him away when he tried to hug her. He tells Chiyoko the same thing he told Eiji when they met—that just as a story reaches its conclusion, death is what completes humanity. And he suddenly remembers that he learned this saying from Hitomi, during their parents' funeral. But Chiyoko puts a comforting hand on his, insisting that Hitomi will always be with him, always being that same, kind sister. He starts to give in, even looking directly at her, but the Yummy begins to react. At the last second, as his doll falls over, Maki realizes that Hitomi was nothing like Chiyoko. The kind memories were a comforting lie; she was really cold, cruel, and twisted. He pulls away from Chiyoko and knocks over a candle, sparking the fire in his mind once more. Chiyoko picks it up, but he tells her to leave, hiding with the doll and crying as she invites him to see her again. As she finally leaves, he approaches the boarded up door to Hitomi's room. He opens it and confronts the truth, as the room behind the door continues to blaze in his memory, the wedding dress right in the middle. He drops the doll and closes the door to truth, sobbing.
With the Yummy back, Date goes off to fight, leaving the last of his Medals with Ankh and thanking him for the story. The donated Medals are enough to heal Ankh completely, and he and Eiji follow. But Hina worries about how the King overused OOO's powers and lost control, worrying that the same might be happening to Eiji, who most certainly overdoes it. On the way to battle, Eiji realizes that Ankh hasn't explained what would happen if he and Lost Ankh became one again. Ankh finally says that the weaker one would probably disappear, but he has no intention of that being him. The Yummy targets Chiyoko again, but Date tackles it into the woods, spending most of the time wrestling it. Eiji starts to help, but when he asks for a combo, Date reminds him of the story, also worried that Eiji will lose control like the King. Eiji hesitates, and Date tells him to keep the Yummy busy for him. Ankh tosses over Kujaku only, and fireballs take out the Yummy's spinning fins while Batta's kicks counter its martial arts. Date super-charges Breast Cannon and shoots the Yummy into Medals, which Eiji scrambles to gather so he can repay the loan. Date again marvels at his honesty while Ankh tells him not to bother, Eiji's just an idiot. But at least for now, their fears of his fate are allayed.
Maki admits that he couldn't forgive Hitomi for abandoning him, no matter how she had treated him. When she pushed him away, she gave him the doll to have as a surrogate older sister, cruelly pointing out that he was a genius, so of course he'd be okay all on his own with no family to love him. So while she slept, he snuck into her room with a candlestick and intentionally set the room on fire, taking the doll from the flames. This way, he could ignore reality and remember her only as kind and loving, thus "completing" her. Kazari enters with Lost Ankh, asking if Maki's going to join them. Maki is intent on destroying the world—this time, to prevent Chiyoko from becoming as ugly as Hitomi really was. He presses a detonator, and as Date returns to the lab, he sees equipment short-circuiting and candroids flying off.
Ankh and Eiji walk home to see Maki alongside Kazari and a small boy, who sends a psychic pulse to Ankh and reveals his true form. Kazari warns that Ankh may not remain for much longer, and the candroids carry the painting away as they all leave...
Repaying a Favor, Scheme, Purple Medals (Kobayashi/Morota): Date and Goto meet Eiji and Ankh over dumplings at a restaurant for a debrief. They reveal that in addition to all the other stuff he broke, Maki stole something from the Foundation—something that has Kougami worried. Meanwhile, Maki brings that very something down to show Kazari and Lost Ankh, who toss around a soccer ball while killing time at the mansion. They stop when Maki shows off a stone case, explaining he took it in lieu of his pay—something Kougami had found in Europe, along with Lost Ankh, but had been too cautious to open. Which means it's bad, considering this is the guy who decided to revive Lost Ankh for funzies.
That night, near midnight, a young man visits a busy credit office. As the clock strikes 12, Trash Yummies emerge from all of the workers, spitting out one Medal each—all that their greed for the day could build up. All of the Medals are gathered into a sack and given to the man, who delivers them to Uva, who has built up a huge stash. And this is brilliant. Just like the idea of hijacking the Medal transport, it shows the Greeed actually thinking about how to maximize their Medal profits, but this time, limiting the danger to themselves—like combining it with Gamel's idea to try to find any dropped Medals by the Ride Vendors. The Trash Yummies are too weak to build up much, but one at a time, from a lot of people at once, over the course of time takes care of a lot. It's clear Uva's been running this operation for a while, all without drawing any unwanted attention.
But while Lost Ankh sleeps, Kazari watches Maki finally open the case, revealing a set of ten purple Core Medals, never before used—Ptera, Tricera, and Tyranno. Oh shit. It's morphin' time. Kazari's shocked to see they even exist, and he's even alarmed when Maki decides to remove one of the Medals to see if he can create a Greeed.
Date and Goto try to piece together the lab and figure out what was stolen, but most of the data on the computer has been corrupted. However, Date finds a new candroid that got left behind, Tricera. Kougami, meanwhile, deals with his disappointment with wine. He's genuinely hurt that Maki left, and he pours half of his drink on the floor, as if in memorial. But worse yet is the knowledge that Maki is trying to awaken the Greeed of the purple Medals.
Cous Coussier celebrates the new spring school year with cherry blossoms and school uniforms. Though Hina's not working the lunch shift that day, she brings a friend, Suzuka Mihara, to talk to Eiji. Suzuka explains that every night since fall, someone leaves an envelope of money in her and her mother's mailbox. The envelopes are addressed to her late father, a high school teacher. She wants to find whoever it is and thank them, so Eiji agrees to wait for them that night. The Medals are picked up again and delivered to Uva for cash. The young man, Kousuke Sakata, then takes some of the money he's earned and puts it in an envelope, placing it in the Miharas' mailbox, but Eiji reveals himself and says Suzuka asked him to meet him. He brings him to Cous Coussier the next morning, and Sakata explains that Suzuka's father had helped him out in high school, getting him out of a bad group of friends and lending him money so he could live on his own. As he sees it, the least he can do in return is help Suzuka and her mother. But when Suzuka comes in, she begs Sakata not to send any more money; her mother's become spoiled by the gift, skipping work and shopping so much that she has to take out loans to pay her bills. Sakata collapses in shock, dropping a Cell Medal. Ankh hears it and looks over, Eiji also noticing immediately. But Sakata takes off, pursued by Eiji, Hina, and Ankh, who nearly run over Chiyoko on their way out. Ankh detaches to grab Sakata and stop him long enough for Eiji and Hina to catch up, then grabs him by the face and demands an explanation. While Hina and Eiji try to hold Ankh back, Sakata sees Suzuka meeting with her mother's creditors, the very same people he works for, and he realizes he's caught up in some kind of scam that's hurting the Mihara family. He runs to the office and begs the president to leave them alone, promising to pay back their debt himself. But the president is intent on working and throws him back with inhuman strength, the Trash Yummies emerging from everyone. The others rush in, and Eiji has Hina run with Sakata to safety while he and Ankh fight. Hina tries to stop Sakata from getting too far from her, but Uva appears and creates a Yummy from him, now that his scheme is exposed. Meanwhile, TaToBa's claws make quick work of the Trash Yummies, and Eiji and Ankh meet the others outside, where Hina explains what happened. Sakata's in shock over his role in this, and they take him to the park, where he explains everything. He'd taken the job because it was easy money, and he could make his deliveries to the Miharas more frequently. But he blames himself for their misfortune now. Hina tries to explain that it only backfired—it wasn't his fault. Sakata takes comfort from this and decides to earn more money to pay off the debt—something Ankh points out would create a very good Yummy, while Eiji goes quiet and pensive. Hina tries to explain that what Sakata really wants is to repay the favor, not provide money, but Eiji says he understands. Though Sakata's intentions were good and this was just an accident, he knows that sometimes "things happen" when you try to help others. Hina realizes he's talking about himself.
The Yummy steals from a bank, throwing the stolen money to the people outside, evolving into a butterfly. Everyone takes chase as she dumps the money on the city. Taka-Unagi-Tako catches her and brings her down to fight. Sakata asks if the Yummy represents his desire, and Hina explains that it makes desires go out of control. Goto warns Date not to take any of the money, but as he henshins, Date says money should be earned through hard work. Good show, Date. Goto shouts at everyone to run, and they finally realize that oh, there's a butterfly monster fighting, and they run off. Uva joins the fight, but Eiji deflects his lightning with the Unagi whips. His own attacks do no damage, however, and Uva reveals he's taken in so many Cells that it's about as good as being a vessel for the Cores. Hmm. A vessel for Cell Medals. Intriguing. This time, Uva's attacks land, and Eiji asks about Uva's weakness. Ankh says fire and tosses over Kujaku and Condor. Date reminds Eiji he needs to stop using Combos, but Eiji's desperate enough to risk losing control.
At Maki's mansion, five of the purple Medals suddenly shine and fly off, to even the doll's shock. Date fights the Yummy, getting reloads from Goto and Tricera. Eiji gives Uva a thorough beating, and Ankh snatches two of Gamel's Medals. Using the Cells in the Spinner, Eiji sends off a white energy Giga Scan that still manages to destroy the Yummy before turning toward Uva. But then the purple Medals swirl around him and enter his body. Purple energy runs through his body, ejecting the TaJaDor Medals. Ankh manages to grab two, but Uva grabs the last, asking just what those new Medals are. Eiji drops to his knees as the Medals within his body pulse, and his transformation dissipates in a cloud of purple. He falls forward, his eyes flashing purple, and Date, Goto, and Hina rush to his side. Though Eiji's unresponsive, Date finds normal breathing and pulse. Ankh shoves them all away and tries to shake him back to awareness. Obviously, that doesn't work, and Date and Hina pick Eiji up to bring him to the hospital, unaware of the violet flash in his eyes again...
A New Greeed, Void, Unrivaled Combo (Kobayashi/Morota): Eiji's asleep in the hospital sometime later, everyone watching over him. The doctor arrives with a chest X-ray he did at Date's request, but there's no sign of the Medals. Additional tests conclude that Eiji's in perfect health and nothing is wrong with him, so all they can do is wait for him to wake up and send him home. As the doctor leaves, Ankh says that all this proves is that human technology can't detect the Medals. Goto frantically presses him for info, but Ankh yells back that he doesn't know anything. As Date gets them to settle down, Eiji wakes up, normal, if confused.
Kazari asks why the Medals entered Eiji, and Maki theorizes that they were drawn to him as a suitable vessel. Something about Eiji is in-line with their inherent desire, so they will try to revive through him. Kazari points out that Eiji will probably figure out some way to seal them, but Maki says that the Medals weren't awakened until now, so they have no information on their battle capabilities. So, like the Greed, Maki says they have to ensure the Medals don't go out of control. And then he notes that he's not currently experiencing any problems. In addition, two Pteranodon Yummies, male and female, have been born and seek to bring everything to nothing.
Goto and Date go to get Eiji checked out and pay his bill. Eiji steps out to see Sakata waiting outside the room. Both ask if the other's okay, and Sakata wonders if he did the wrong thing, accident or not. Eiji's warning has given him pause, and he doesn't want anyone to hate him for trying to do good. Eiji admits that he's the same way and made a lot of mistakes. He explains that he'd once tried to raise money for poor countries, but the money was used by greedy people. In fact, his money was even used to fund the civil war he'd been caught up in. Since then, he's decided that maybe all he needs to do is reach out his hand as far as it can go to help—to focus on what's right in front of him, instead of the future.
Ankh senses the Yummies, who are targeting a mall—the Pteras breathing a mist that disintegrates everyone it touches. The Butterfly is also en route there, but people are rushing to get out of the mall before the mist can reach them. Birth and Taka-Tora-Tako fight the male Ptera, but they can't keep up. Given that this is a male Pteranodon and as of this writing, Power Rangers Dino Charge still hasn't shown the Gold Ptera Ranger...I'm going to nickname this one Utchy. The other can be Kira from Dino Thunder, since I already did a MMPR joke, and they've got sonic screams anyway. Utchy-Yummy claims to be able to cancel out desire, and what else are Core Medals than desire incarnate? Volts of purple energy cancel Eiji's transformation before he collapses and falls down the stairs. Utchy-Yummy's ready to finish him off, but Date leaps in, only to be batted aside, his henshin breaking. Kira-Yummy joins in and starts blasting fire at Eiji, who jumps off the stairs to avoid it. Date pulls him underneath for cover, urging him to run, but they see people trapped inside the mall. Eiji runs to save them, but he's hit by the backlash of an explosion. Date pulls him back under, cursing him. Eiji insists he can't leave everyone still trapped and asks Date what he'd do. Date's answer is that as a doctor, he has to ensure his survival first before he can save anyone else. But Eiji decides it's a good thing he's not a doctor, running over, just as the Yummies emit crashing soundwaves that catch him in a huge explosion.
He comes out of it with extensive injuries, and they patch him up that night at Cous Coussier. As he bandages him, Date realizes that although Eiji values lives above anything else, he doesn't hold the same value for his own life. Eiji insists he doesn't want to die, but Date points out he's not taking the possibility of his own death seriously. He knows Eiji once valued his life and understood the risk, but something has broken him. He knows Eiji. He remembers him. Eiji quietly goes up to his room and sees Ankh lying in his nest, carefully asking if he's okay. He freezes and doesn't turn around as he says yes, placing his things down and changing into his pajamas. As the others clean up the first aid kit, Hina and Goto ask Date how he knows Eiji. He explains that they never met, but he'd seen Eiji during his work in Africa. A politician's son had gotten caught up in a civil war and made news risking his life to save a village. Goto remembers the news story, but he's shocked to realize that the son was Eiji. Hina, also shocked at his origins, adds that he'd told her that he'd failed to save a young girl. Date explains that there's a third side to the story, one Eiji hasn't told them. Yes, he risked his life trying to save that village. Yes, he failed to save that girl. But the truth is that he survived because his parents paid a ransom to save him. Date had worked in a field hospital there, treating civilians injured in the attacks. He watched as men who worked for Eiji's father took him away to a helicopter, apparently before receiving any treatment. Eiji dropped to his knees, crying, and the negotiator had to carry him in, telling him it would be all right and he'd be home soon. The media only picked up on the part about him trying to save the village, and to make matters worse, his parents and siblings used the story to their advantage in the polls. Goto's upset at the fact that Eiji's own family didn't care about what he'd wanted, and he wonders how he'd react under the same circumstances. Date notes that while some people might become angry or bitter, Eiji's one of the strange ones who "dry up" inside, losing all desire for himself.
And we see this, as Ankh gets up and walks over as Eiji silently rocks himself back and forth in the chair, staring out the window at nothing. And it's here that I have to point out again that Shu Watanabe was only about 19 when doing this episode. This is a difficult thing, to portray so much emotion without saying a word, and he nails it, perfectly. This is a difficult part, a traumatized young man. And Shu has grown, from the screaming flashbacks of the first episodes to these two views—broken, with no one sure how to fix him. All at once, we see his age in this raw, yet quiet performance. Eiji is young, and it hurts all the more. As a nice touch of ambiguity, it's not shown how much of the story Ankh knows, if any of it. He's not downstairs for the discussion, he's never around when Eiji talks about it. It's very much in-character for him not to want to hear it—at first because he didn't care, but now because it makes him uncomfortable to see Eiji like this, young and broken. He asks if Eiji was once a "whirlpool" of desires. Eiji says yes, but he's lost all of that now. Then, forcing a lighter tone, he insists he can't obsess over it forever. Ankh doesn't answer, staring out the window while Eiji quietly looks down. Hina's heartbroken over the full extent of Eiji's trauma and the scars it's left him with, and she can't understand why. Date says it's okay that she can't, and Eiji is dealing with it, but in his own way. But he reminds her that Kougami would argue that desires are the energy for life, doing his best impression of crazy cakeboss man. Eiji's desires can't be completely gone, if he's still alive—somewhere inside him is something worth living for. And at that moment, Kougami bursts through the doors with Satonaka, bellowing that he couldn't have said it better himself. Date especially nearly has a heart attack, but Kougami says that this void of desire inside Eiji is what makes him suitable as a Medal vessel, even if he doesn't realize it. As it turns out, there's no danger of Eiji losing control from overusing the Medals and combos the way the King had, thanks to this void. But now, things have changed, and he has to warn them. He decides to do this with a cake, which Satonaka presents—topped with purple decorations: roses and two dinosaurs, one of which is a T. rex. Kougami wishes a happy birthday to the Greeed of the purple Medals, which were born from extinct animals and those only existing in dreams. Their power is nothingness, and it's possible they can work their way into Eiji's latent desires and create a true void there, causing him to finally lose control. Upstairs, Ankh asks if Eiji knows about the Cores inside him. Eiji admits he does feel them, somehow, but he's still going to focus on saving the people he can reach. As Eiji climbs into bed, Ankh says it's lucky he's an idiot. Eiji complains about the backhanded compliment, with Ankh being an assbird instead of being nice again, before allowing himself one last moment of seriousness before falling asleep.
Utchy and Kira attack an amusement park, because Yasuko Kobayashi has something against them, apparently, destroying the people there. At the same time Ankh senses them, the Medals react inside Eiji, and his eyes light up. Hina sees them running from Cous Coussier and chases after them. Ankh reminds Eiji to avoid the Yummies' attack, handing over TaToBa, Hina watching and worrying about Eiji's condition. Date and Goto arrive, also worried, but Eiji seems normal. They fight, but the Yummies are strong. Eiji hears a little girl crying, possibly the only survivor, and finds her hiding. Immediately reminded of the girl he couldn't save, he gets up, taking fireballs to his back. Injured, he reaches out to her, telling her to come. Hina realizes just how much he's reached out to others—to her and her brother too—but who's reached out to him all this time? He finally manages to get up and grab onto the girl, shielding her from attack while sending her over to Goto, who takes her in a hug. Kira-Yummy blasts at him, undoing his transformation, forcing him to his hands and knees. Goto shows the girl where to run and stops Hina from running out into danger. Eiji picks himself up as Kira throws a fireball at him, but the Medals in his chest flare, three of them exiting with a shock to him as they block the attack. They insert themselves in the Driver and activate, as his eyes flash and he goes expressionless again. Purple Medal energy swirls around him and transforms him into PuToTyra.
Ice billows from him, freezing over Kira-Yummy. With a fierce cry, he breaks it, throwing her back. Both Yummies recognize his power as similar to theirs, but they still know him as the enemy and attack. The wings on his helmet extend and blow them back. They also allow him to fly, and he chases them into the sky. The split skirt at the back of his suit merges into T. rex tail and knocks them out of the sky. The finisher extends the Triceratops horns on his shoulders, piercing Kira-Yummy. Pteranodon wings blast ice, freezing her again, and then he smashes her with his tail. Only one Medal is retrieved, and he grabs it, reaching into the earth and retrieving his weapon, the Medagabryu axe. It gulps down the Medal and becomes a blaster as its finisher, destroying Utchy-Yummy as well. But in the tense silence after the battle, PuToTyra doesn't stop. He converts his weapon back into axe mode and attacks Date, with feral cries and growls. It's finally happened; Eiji is out of control. Date takes a serious beating and Goto fails to talk Eiji down from the sidelines, so Hina runs in and puts herself in the way as PuToTyra tries to bring his axe down on Date. To everyone's shock, however, he stops, barely a breath away from her face. He's still breathing heavily, still feral, but he's listening as she says she can't understand what he feels, after all he's gone through. But she's still going to reach out to help him when he's in pain. With him still frozen in place, she drops to her knees and holds him around the belt, pleading with him to return to normal. And it works. Eiji drops the axe and grabs his head, backing up as the Medals return to his body. He barely has time to thank her before he collapses, but she stays right by his side through the pain, as the others watch on in concern.
Maki dresses up the doll in a new white suit. Kazari asks him how he feels, and Maki insists he's not experiencing any problems. So Kazari inserts the last purple Medal into him, making five. As with Eiji, Maki's eyes flash purple, and Kazari admits his interest in the idea of a human Greeed. Maki takes a Cell Medal and tosses it into a candlestick, creating another Ptera Yummy, showing he has much more control over his powers than Eiji does...
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-16 07:51 pm (UTC)You have a psychology degree? That explains a lot about your analysis's and writing.
I'm still a bit confused why Kougami intentionally brought Lost Ankh into existence instead of just taking the medals - could he not without triggering Lost Ankh? I mean, we know Kougami's a manic eccentric, but most of the stuff he does benefits him in some way, and I don't see how Lost Ankh does that.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-17 01:09 am (UTC)But his intentions as far as Eiji are concerned are MUCH more dire, as you'll see in later reviews.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-17 05:39 am (UTC)The thing you're referring to with Eiji I wish got touched on a bit more in the series (Kougami's ultimate intentions are skimmed over in my opinion), but it does end in the scene in episode 47 I've referred to as "Peak Kougami", when the actor's performance reaches peak crazy. I've always wondered what they told his actor to get the results they did.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-17 02:33 pm (UTC)