Gleipnir, Episode 13 [END]: Say My Name, Say My Name

Shuuichi and Clair decide to end the Star Coin game themselves, but Elena’s interference brings dramatic revelations about their pasts.

Episode 13 – “We Two Are One”

Hmm.

Gleipnir should have added a disclaimer to its title, “to be explained later,” because we didn’t get much further in solving Shuuichi’s origin story or whether the title of the show itself is related to its premise. I would have liked to get more answers in the anime adaptation, but since the Gleipnir manga continues its story, we’ll just have to wait for them to explain things before we get another season.

There was one scene I particularly liked because it brought together the two main themes of the show in one piece of dialogue. Honoka’s vengeful spirit proclaimed that she wasn’t interested in monsters, only the bonds between people. This is how Elena has been protecting Shuuichi and the world, according to her, because if Shuuichi doesn’t remember who he loves the most, Honoka and Kaito can’t use him somehow. So, one theme in Gleipnir is that everyone has a monster in them, and the other theme is that breaking bonds between people has consequences. Honoka prefers NTR to monsters. There’s a purpose here, but I’ll have to use that disclaimer, “to be explained later.”

Heh.

Continuing from last week on Gleipnir, we see Elena let one of Aiko’s bully’s get her punishment from Honoka’s vengeful ghost. She seeks out people who knew Aiko and erases them, just as the real Honoka erased herself for Aiko’s sake. Very twisted, Kaito, very twisted.

Hoh. Shuuichi wants to continue to the alien crash site without Team Choker. Chihiro has her own agenda and it looks like she has the same idea for Shuuichi to give up his Star Coin quest.

Clair still wants her movie date, but she wants to stay over at Shuuichi’s! Will Gleipnir finally make it happen for her? She sold it by saying they can leave for the mountains together early in the morning! Shuuichi, bro, come on. Ooh, so assertive, hugging Clair like that.

Uh, Shuuichi’s home looks abandoned. Has he really been living here? Oh no. Shuuichi’s memory wipe is more than just Elena. Where are his parents? Now Gleipnir feels like a horror film again. Nice dead eyes on Shuuichi when Clair asked him when he last saw his parents. This is a big clue that Clair might also have jumbled memories of her parents.

We’ve come right back to Gleipnir’s beginning. Shuuichi hasn’t wanted to ravish Clair like this since the first episode. NTR again. Shuuichi’s memory of hugging Elena triggered carnal lust. We haven’t seen Clair’s underwear since the 5th episode.

Boo. Just when we were getting to the good part, Gleipnir choke blocked Shuuichi. Sayaka let Clair and Shuuichi go from their little group. Chihiro wants to give Team Choker’s coins to Elena, but she needs to make sure Clair and Shuuichi are far away.

Naoto and Elena look at the mass of nanomachines coming from the crash site. They confirmed that it was only a matter of time before Honoka’s ghost sought out Aiko’s bullies. So ominous. Naoto says if “Honoka” remembers everything from Shuuichi, “this world will end.” Thanks for telling us that on the last Gleipnir show of the season.

High school cloak and dagger is fun and all, but Gleipnir is losing track of what we need to see before the end. Clair made Miku wet, but not wet enough for fanservice. She also gave good advice on her chances with Sayaka — stop being so easy, needy, and clingy.

Here we go. Noble NTR. Nana will help Clair meet Shuuichi in time with her nice CGI bike. I knew Gleipnir would show it again. I love that mean look Clair shoots Chihiro. Makes me shiver. Ack! Don’t just pull out that stuffed animal like that, Clair! You’re going to trigger a massive mental trauma!

And just like that, Shuuichi remembered Elena. Of course, Gleipnir isn’t showing us what else he remembered. Stingy. Wow, his memories are like a homing beacon to Honoka’s ghost. Clair just realized that Elena might have messed with her memories too. Oh crap. This flashback shows Honoka disintegrating Shuuichi’s parents. Did she do the same to Elena and Clair’s parents?

I don’t like seeing two good guys fighting, so I’m just waiting for Honoka to show up to be Gleipnir’s real bad guy. Oh, nice move. Elena grabbed Shuuichi’s gun, so he just pistol-whipped her instead. This is good hand-drawn action animation. Enough of that, Honoka needs to know if you can say her name. What happens if you say her real name? Elena’s goal is to make sure Shuuichi doesn’t do that. For reasons “to be explained later.”

Welp, that’s interesting. Honoka just went inside Shuuichi’s mind’s eye. Gleipnir is heavy on the symbolism. To escape Honoka, Shuuichi had to shoot Elena, which meant she had to use her power again to erase her bonds with him. Coughing blood is no good.

Honoka stopped caring about Shuuichi when he lost his memories. He’s just another “monster.” She’s only interested in the “bonds between people.” But she’ll kill “monsters” if they come to “the place.” Yeah, Gleipnir already showed us what she does with her horse-cutter blade.

And that’s the end? Team Choker went back to their normal lives? Sanbe joined Shuuichi and Clair for some more fun in the forest. Shuuichi keeps saying he’s not the main character of Gleipnir because of how he’s an empty suit meant for someone to fill. I’m sure there’s even more to his suit and powers than we know, “to be explained later.”

Final Thoughts.

Shuuichi claims he is not the main character. I’ll take him at his word. Clair carried Gleipnir through much of the season, with her sexy style, sassy attitude, and rare moments of vulnerability. She was the mysterious girlfriend. Shuuichi’s ex-girlfriend Elena was absolutely the yandere type. It’s too bad we didn’t spend enough time with her until the end because I’m intrigued by how she grew such a ruthless streak while still carrying brittle feelings for Shuuichi. That both main characters were sisters only adds to that delicious NTR theme with a possible harem ending.

Gleipnir disappointed me with its middle parts of the season when it turned into a gee whiz monster powers demonstration with shounen battle tournaments. It spent so much time in the mountains that it rushed through the big clues about its central mystery at the end. This meant Gleipnir missed out on opportunities to show more of Clair’s interesting underwear.

Gleipnir’s flashback episode of the Yamada Cram School friends was good storytelling for the tragic events leading to Shuuichi’s eventual amnesia, but far too late in the season to explain why he chose his certain powers. His fight with Elena was anticlimactic because we knew Elena was a good guy. It wasn’t the cathartic end to the season we needed.

Adaptations always have limits on how to break up a manga story into episode-size chunks to fit a season, so I can’t fault the producers for having trouble. If there’s going to be a next season, I wish for them to concentrate on skimpy clothes during exposition scenes and fewer monster-of-the-week type battles. Gleipnir works best when it balances slimy girls inside Shuuichi with dramatic info bombs about the group of friends fighting each other for an alien crash site. If Gleipnir puts more emphasis on the slimy girls, I’ll watch a second season.

Gleipnir streams on Funimation.