Elena recalls her childhood friends and the tragic events that led up to meeting the alien who searches for Star Coins.
Episode 12 – “Where the Promise Was Made”
Hmm.
I had thought the main theme of Gleipnir was how everyone has a monster inside of them and only jokingly said that it was NTR. I was wrong! The main theme is NTR. The more serious way to write that is that Gleipnir shows how people’s small secret jealousies can build into a tidal wave of decisions and actions which they can’t take back, leaving a path of destruction in the consequences’ wake. The six kids from the Yamada Cram School, which really was a daycare for latchkey kids, became friends and fell in love with each other to varying degrees, but some suffered unrequited love. Everyone agreed Shuuichi and Elena belonged together, but the other four had a complicated relationship web.
Naoto and Aiko, the twin-tailed girl, paired up frequently and started dating in high school. Honoka secretly liked Naoto, while Kaito, the wild-haired boy, always noticed Honoka. Gleipnir gave us puppy love NTR! Years later, when Honoka first met the Beautiful Blonde Boy alien, Aiko suffered bullying while Honoka had family trouble because her father went to prison. Through some brilliantly tragic storytelling, Kaito ended up killing the girl he always loved for something she didn’t do.
Perhaps he went mad by his realization that Honoka was innocent of killing Aiko, but Kaito later justified his misreading of his friends’ reactions to discovering Honoka was impersonating Aiko that it was better that Honoka no longer existed. Gleipnir showed that Kaito hadn’t seen his childhood friends, besides Naoto, for a long while, so he shouldn’t have been so sure that he could read their moods as well as he used to. Kaito acted impulsively and if he had only waited a day or so, he would have learned that Aiko killed herself and Honoka found a way to keep her “alive” thanks to BBB. Gleipnir did a good job telling a story full of regret and wistful yearning. That’s also known as the normal teenage years for many people.
Heh.
We’re starting off with Elena’s gathering group. They just recruited a strong guy to help them. The way they talk, they’ve already confirmed that Gleipnir’s 100 Star Coin monster is the wild-haired boy with Honoka swinging around a horse-cutter blade. Elena’s partner here is Naoto. Elena confirms that she and Naoto were childhood friends with the dangerous guy protecting the alien crash site.
“A few months earlier,” oh. It’s time for a Gleipnir flashback episode. Naoto talks with the wild-haired boy about his girlfriend Aiko’s personality changing. That’s never good in this show. Flashback within a flashback. It’s the Inception of flashbacks.
As I suspected from earlier Gleipnir episodes, the Yamada Cram School didn’t have a lot of cramming going on. The cute kids are playing around while the old lady Yamada brings them snacks. It’s an afterschool daycare. Look at the smile on Shuuichi’s face. Could he ever make one like that now? Ah. The wild-haired boy’s name is Kaito. Crap. It’s a preteen NTR! Look at Kaito’s side-glance at Honoka.
Back to the high school flashback. Naoto doesn’t look happy that Kaito wants to see “everyone” again. Someone’s missing. Who? Aiko is the twin-tailed girl from back then. She’s going out with Naoto now. Ah, it looks like Honoka is missing. Kaito hasn’t been keeping up with his old buddies. Gleipnir does a good job of showing how childhood friends lose touch as they grow older. He doesn’t know that Honoka has family problems and moved away. Aiko wants to avoid talking about Honoka. Kaito wouldn’t accept the easy answers. That same schmaltzy music plays as he tries to track her down. But Honoka is just gone.
We saw how much Kaito paid attention to Honoka when they were younger, so it’s not surprising he picked up on Aiko using her nervous habits. As in literally Aiko acting like Honoka. Obvious Gleipnir plot point is obvious. Yeah, well, Kaito was going to find out about BBB at some point, otherwise we wouldn’t see him using Honoka to behead Gatherers. That Kaito guy. He’s the one who got the rest of the Yamada Cram School friends involved.
Trying to find out what happened to the real Aiko is where the trouble is going to happen. Kaito doesn’t know what’s been going on with his friends, but the other three have kept close with Aiko and Honoka. Their judgement that it’s better this way is ominous. It looks like Kaito should have asked more questions of them before going off on his own. Aw, crap. Naoto recalls some bullying done to Aiko. Bullying usually leads to suicide in edgy stories like Gleipnir. Elena’s empathy picked up on Naoto’s cues. Shuuichi just followed whatever Elena wanted. This is good character writing. Kaito went his own way, like how he didn’t keep up with his childhood buddies. Tragic events to follow, I’m sure.
Oh boy. Honoka went straight to Aiko’s grave marker. Kaito thinks Honoka killed her, but Naoto and Honoka know differently. Terrible. Kaito executed Honoka. He was too impatient. This is tragedy in the classic literature sense. What is this doing in my Gleipnir fanservice horror anime? Kaito should have been leading Team Choker all along…
Yay! Younger Clair in braids! Too bad Elena is sad. Ugh. I’m not looking forward to Kaito’s Oedipus Rex moment when he finds out the reality of what he’s done to his true love. Naoto tells Kaito that Aiko left a suicide note for Honoka because she couldn’t take the bullying from a mean girl crew. Holy cow, that’s ironic. Kaito made it look like “Aiko” hanged herself from the very tree where Honoka found her. Well done, Gleipnir, well done.
I wonder how long BBB’s Star Coin game was going on before Honoka made her wish to replace the dead Aiko before anyone found her body. Wouldn’t it be even more tragicomically ironic for Aiko to be defending Ikeuchi from girls beating him up for sneaking candid shots?
And then began Kaito’s reign of terror with Honoka’s ghost. The others became super friends to stop him, and how the hell is Gleipnir going to explain what happened between Shuuichi and Elena in less than one episode?
Back to the present. Finally. This is when Clair interrupted Shuuichi’s fight with Blind Samurai in the last Gleipnir episode. She found the stuffed toy that Shuuichi turns into! Bah. What does Chihiro have to talk to Elena about? She can only leverage other things she saw in Shuuichi’s memory, but to what end? I suppose we’ll find out in the season finale next week.
Gleipnir streams weekly on Funimation.
