Episode Synopsis:
The girls arrive in Ikebukuro, and Pochi immediately picks up on Yoka’s scent. When they find her, though, she doesn’t seem to recognize them, and their attempts to jog her memory only draw out violent applications of 7G. Pontaro shows up shortly after them, forcing them to retreat. They take refuge in the previous station, and, like, thirty seconds after coming to a stop, their bitter melon plant manages to drop a root to the train track that allows audio communication with their associates in Agano, who advise them to locate and deactivate the 7G Button.
Kuroki then arrives with the zombie horde, driven from their original habitat by changing climate. Not only is she willing to assist in this endeavor, she concludes that an aberration in the horde’s behavior on the way to this station was most likely caused by their proximity to the Button, even as Pontaro was attempting to hide it away. The whole group investigates, and locates it. While Pontaro’s security forces and the human Pochi are kept at bay by Shizuru, Reimi, Nadeko, and the zombies, Akira and Kuroki manage to (un?)press the Button – but to no avail. The world remains changed, and Pontaro escapes with Yoka by growing a new rail line and taking an armored train to parts unknown.
Episode Review:
This is a largely interstitial episode with some highlights but also some questions. Top of the first list is probably how the banter when they arrive at the department store pivots on the line in the featured image from idle chatter to a reinforcement of Shizuru’s current quest to apologize to Yoka, which Nadeko is strongly encouraging. It doesn’t seem like Nadeko has intuited that the entire 7G situation may revolve around Yoka’s mental state, which remains deeply affected by Shizuru’s dismissive conversation with her, but she’s certainly concerned about both of her friends, and this is the course of action most likely at this point to make any real progress towards returning Yoka to “normal”.
I was amused by Reimi testing out the bitter melon phone and becoming immediately, palpably disappointed that it doesn’t make video calls, but it struck me as a little weird that Akira was so insistent that the male voice on the line belonged to Zenjiro – it makes sense, of course, but she seemed pretty sure for someone who’d only talked to him over Morse code (as an aside, the whole bitter-melon-as-a-plot-point thing keeps reminding me of how central udo was to World Conquest: Zvezda Plot, which doesn’t seem to have had any of the same writers).
I’m not really sure why Akira and Kuroki bothered to lug the Button assembly to the rim of the pond instead of just pressing it immediately. I guess it’s to draw out the fight with human Pochi? Not that I would actually call the fight drawn out – it feels pretty tight, and the guy makes good use of the time by batting away his opponents and their arguments with the same blunt force. Very cinematic that way – plus I appreciate that the contributions of the mooks that step in at the end.
Human Pochi refusing to fight his namesake is an interesting touch, and I continue to hope for a good heel-face-turn in the coming climax.
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