Shuuichi meets his new allies. Yoshioka hides what happened, between her and Elena in the forest, from Clair.
Episode 8 – “Shadows in Memory”
Hmm.
Gleipnir gave us an episode to catch our breath. A lot of things happened last time, and we learned a lot about Shuuichi’s past and his relationship to Elena. Now’s the time to let all that simmer and slowly build more suspense for even more dramatic revelations later. Elena hinted that there might already be a supervillain (with big boobs) that all the Gatherers need to defeat. We shall see about that.
The clues Gleipnir gave us about Shuuichi’s memories having holes where Elena used to be (and the big boobs) makes me speculate that Clair was also very much involved with the alien Star Coins and she may have memory holes of her own. It’s a common plot device where the characters who look like villains at the beginning turn out to be the good guys all along. Does this mean Shuuichi and Clair became the bad guys at some earlier point? The foreshadowing is strong that there are going to be plot and character twists among the principal cast. One thing that Gleipnir absolutely confirmed this week is that Ikeuchi is a garbage person. He’s the NTR character that deserves to end up alone.
Heh.
Oh, finally. Gleipnir keeps telling us about this cram school Shuuichi goes to. This seems more like a glorified after-school daycare. The young Shuuichi seems nervous about making friends. This kindly old lady teacher might be important to how Elena and Shuuichi ended up in such a fantastical situation.
And we’re back to present-day Gleipnir. I’m not a fan of that anime device of calling memories “dreams” just so they can stay in the background until they become important. Ah. Clair is there with the apparently fine Shuuichi. Ha! Look at the glare she gives naked Chihiro! Oh good. Youta found Chihiro’s clothes and her wallet. There was that huge fight last episode, and Subaru still had the wallet when he left. No mention of whether he dropped it, or Elena made him drop it.
Done deal. Shuuichi is officially part of Team Choker. With how Sayaka fills out that top I might start calling her band “Team Poker.” Shuuichi claims not to remember anything after Subaru squished him. Good to know. Gleipnir makes it look like Chihiro is lying about what she remembers. Clair picked up on that. Ikeuchi needs to shut his trash mouth. Haha. Youta calls Shuuichi a “worthy rival.” Clair didn’t like that last part.
Beast man talks! Aw. He’s a cute kid named Isao who likes plants. I have no idea how that translates into a yeti-looking thing with floppy ears. Oh, come on, Clair. Don’t glare at Isao too. Maybe Clair just has a “resting bitch face.” He’s adorable. He grew flowers to welcome Shuuichi. Not for Clair, I notice. Gleipnir supplied a nice scene for showing how alien powers work. Hoh. Isao recognizes Shuuichi from the Yamada Cram School. This is good. Slowly introducing Shuuichi’s swiss cheese memory of his time there. Shuuichi claims he was the only student at the cram school! Mysterious! Both Clair and Chihiro don’t like the sound of that.
Yay! Poncho Person is the Invisible Girl. Ha! Hahaha! I knew it! I knew that convenience store clerk had too much flare, which guaranteed Gleipnir would show her again! Har! Shuuichi recognized her smell. Miku Aihara has her own kind of disinterested charm. It’s also a good lesson on how there are no coincidences in fiction writing. And Sayaka Koyanagi’s name finally appeared within the context of a Gleipnir episode. I’m still going to call her collection of Gatherers “Team Choker.” Youta thinks Shuuichi needed to know she’s an aggressive lesbian. Bros sticking together!
Team Choker’s surmised events of Team Furry’s fight with Subaru leaves out their combination form. Shuuichi can’t remember it and Chihiro is keeping that stuff to herself. Meeting Elena and seeing her in Shuuichi’s memories is the cause of this reluctance. Isao’s beast form can grow trees without seeds. That’s helpful. Clair shows how she fights with Shuuichi’s costume, and garbage person Ikeuchi expected Shuuichi’s damage to be different for some reason. Trashy voyeurs sure are observant. Gleipnir keeps Youta’s ikemen fighting skills a secret for the time being.
Oh yeah! Here comes the catfight between Clair and Chihiro. Clair knows Chihiro remembers everything. Chihiro knows the combination form only lasts while Shuuichi’s partner agree on a common goal. This concept must be why Elena and Shuuichi are no longer partners.
Once again, Shuuichi has no idea how hot girls think. They don’t get mad if you pay attention to some mousy girl. They make you crazy about themselves again, just to show how easy it is to control you. Gleipnir is good at reference material for how mousy boys can deal with hot girls.
Chihiro wants to call someone. Who? Huh. Not sure how important it is to show that Shuuichi’s buddy Abukawa likes to kill animals after cutting off their tails and hangs out with delinquents. It seems like a way for Gleipnir to illustrate Shuuichi’s swiss cheese memory for later.
Nana has a CGI mountain bike totally out of character for commuting to school. I haven’t seen hydraulic rim brakes in an awfully long time. The chain just fell off the front derailleur. Shift to the big ring and pick up the chain by turning the crank. Yeah, a mousy guy helping a mousy female friend means Shuuichi totally has a harem. Way to overthink it, Ikeuchi. Gleipnir still needs to show how Sudo the Green Titan had a hold of him. From how Shuuichi fights, Ikeuchi knows he didn’t slice that guy in half. Everybody has secrets of some kind.
The rural mountain area in Gleipnir has a lot of abandoned buildings with running water and power. Elena wears small panties. Good to know. Wow. Chihiro is a smart girl. She pieced together information on Elena from Shuuichi’s memories because of how clumsy her erasure was. This situation smacks of BBB’s Monkey’s Paw consequences. Chihiro broke Elena’s heart all over again by talking about Shuuichi.
Elena warns Chihiro that somebody already collected a hundred Star Coins and that’s the real threat they’re facing in the mountains. That shadow Elena refers to looks like a hot girl. With big boobs. Uh oh. I think we already know a hot girl with big boobs in Gleipnir. Elena says she and Shuuichi have different goals, so they can’t combine anymore.
Clair feels tempted to get alien powers so she can fully combine with Shuuichi. I have a feeling that’s a bad idea. Team Choker’s goal is the alien spaceship and they have a search pattern to get to it. They’ll have to cut through a lot of other Gatherers’ territories to get there.
Gleipnir streams weekly on Funimation.
