Well I am very late with this one, because the subs I were waiting for were slower than usual. No matter though, I can always wait for quality stuff. The most controversial part about this episode must have been the Tokyo Tower collapse at the end, but of course, we will leave that in chronological order for the last. Also I will not read others’ posts on this until I have finished with my own, taking a different method this time round.

Well the episode starts out with a disaster for Mirai – that of a stomachache which she cannot heal. I believe most of us have been in a situation whereby we have this huge desire to let out our debris but because of long queues at toilets or other issues, are unable to for quite some time. Bad feeling indeed. What makes it worse is that for females, toilet waits are even longer than males since either the big or the small businesses all have to finish in the cubicle. And for Mirai, she is in a disaster-stricken area, with little hope of finding a toilet at the usual places, and all the ones that still stand are jammed. Sticky situation.
 

For Yuuki especially, being able to see Tokyo Tower must have been a real relief for him at his young age. Considering the fact that they can also see Tokyo Tower from their house, it goes to show that Yuuki can at least take some (ill-placed) comfort in being able to see the Tower itself. After all, it is a landmark that has been there all his life and one on which he can base his home’s location (emotionally) on.
 

Priceless expression is priceless. Sorry I just had to stick this here.

Well I did not know they had these. And I laughed quite a bit at Mirai’s embarrassment the whole time; she stayed still with that expression if you recall. Then Yuuki actually demonstrated how to use one. Well, now we know how it is done out in the wild with one of these. A nice roundabout way of teaching people tricks to survive toilet jams in a disaster. Maybe that was the whole idea behind Mirai’s stomachache.
 

This teaches us an important lesson – in times of crisis, throw shame to the wind, and use portable toilets if you need to use the toilet for big businesses at all.
 

Well a good demonstration of how thoughtless some people can be, cutting the queue just because a kid failed to move ahead in the queue in time. Of course, that would bring about some indignation, but I was rather surprised at the lack of it by others except the guy directly behind Mirai. Then again, it ending in a scuffle was hardly unforeseeable either, considering the situation and the anger and fear that had been festering in people due to the quake.
 

What is probably significant is how Mirai chose to deal with the situation – she ran away instead, finally swallowing up her pride and shame to use the portable toilet Mari had offered her earlier. This probably sums up how Mirai used to always deal with her own problems most of the time – run away. Well, she is most likely not alone in that aspect for a lot of contemporary folks, I guess.
 

Well Mirai’s first thought on the man carrying two cups of noodles reflects that she still uses that same old mentality of hers to look at certain issues, being egocentric and always putting oneself on the “right” side, so to speak. Mari then comes out and shows her empathetical side by explaining that it might be because he had to bring a cup to someone who might not be able to move far.

The interesting thing is how her empathetical side is put to the test right after that when the woman bumps into Mirai and leaves without apologizing. Obviously, the woman was in the fault this time, and she just walked away like that. A nice contrast. I might add that the woman might be a mirror of Mirai; it was not her fault, in her own thoughts, just that Mirai happened to be there and Mirai was the one who caused some of her noodle soup to be spilled. Too bad for Mirai then.
 

Mirai is having a bad day. First the stomachache, then the toilet queue incident, followed by the ramen soup spill, the dropped ration pack and people stepping on her foot.

At least the reason for the man stepping on Mirai’s foot hurrying becomes clear – he and his wife are looking to see if maybe their beloved or relatives are among the dead bodies that had just beenbrought in. I am sure it is painful having to see if someone you know or love is among the dead, but confirmation of them being dead at least ends the uncertainty and anxiety, which can be way more painful than not knowing what has happened to them.
 

I did not realize the significance of this gesture at this particular part until much later in the episode.

Mirai’s emotional foundation is still not back yet, but she now has other problems with it than just that – none other than the lack of communications between her and her parents. I am still missing the significance here, but we will get to that later.
 

So Yuuki opens up this short conversation with a question about the chestnut tree, which leads to his real question – are their parents fine? Of course, Mirai gets irritated, but more out of fear than real anger at her younger brother. Yuuki is looking for reassurance from his sister that she cannot give, having had none herself, so of course she gets irritated, when she too worries about their parents.
 

Well, Mari can see that Yuuki is trying to cheer up his sister the whole time even if he cannot express himself properly. Of course, his sister hardly likes that – she does not get why he would bother to go to such lengths. What a nice younger brother Yuuki is. Then again, with his parents’ kind of concern, I guess his sister would mean almost the whole world to him, since she is the one that always takes care of him and is closer.
 

I like the depiction this particular screenshot gives. Mari has no idea what is going on between Yuuki and Mirai, Yuuki is still concerned about Mirai, and Mirai is basically shutting herself out from everything due to the worry and fear.
 

Of course, Mirai is somewhat jealous Yuuki now seem to be closer, but Yuuki of course does not want his sister to think that, so he asks after her stomach and tells her he will give her more than just pudding when they get back, since she is, after all, the one person he is closest to. Mirai is probably afraid of losing someone who is dependent upon her (even if emotionally) as well – it might take a lot out of what little meaning her life has in her own sense.
 

The house not being intact, I feel, was just an excuse that Mirai blurted out; her true concern was the fact that neither parent had bothered to contact them back. What I still missed at the time was the true significance of Mirai’s tears after her outburst; I thought that, at this time, what made Mirai cry was the very possibility that they were both being neglected by their parents.
 

And so all of Mirai’s pent up frustration finally releases itself when Yuuki kept trying to return the phone to her. To Mirai, it must seem like Yuuki always has something to say but never says it, and that pisses her off because she never really understands what he wants. From Yuuki’s point of view, just his being there and being able to comfort his sister in some way must give him some comfort, since she is the anchor in his life. Of course, her outburst at this point is baseless, and even Mirai realizes it herself right after she said it, but by then the damage had already been done. Quite obviously, Yuuki would be heartbroken at this point to be called the reason for the quake and their current circumstances.
 

A simple wish to be with the one closest to him in his life and the only one who seemed to care. How can anyone blame him for wanting such a simple thing like that? He just had no idea there would be a quake and such devastation.

A preview of what is to come later; the most recent aftershock has shaken the very foundations of the Tokyo Tower.

And of course, Yuuki is reminded of his family, or lack thereof, at this part, especially since he has already run away from his sister at this point. A nice way to contrast his situation and that of the family’s.
 

Yuuki is trying to search for something solid and concrete both he and Mirai can work on, be assured upon – that of their house still standing, a place to return to for sure. But his and Mirai’s real concern lies beyond that.
 

And this is what I said I have been missing all along – the fear that both their parents might be dead and gone from them forever. I was cracking myself on the head when I finally saw this – how could I have missed something so important as the implied fact that both parents not replying to them might be because they were dead? Mirai was shown the dead bodies; the way she responded to them was also another indication. Finally, if their house still stood, there was a chance both their parents were also still alive. Man, I fail.
 

It is nice to know that there are still helping hands out there even when things get rough.

The most dramatic part of the episode – the Tokyo Tower collapses, its very foundation shaken by the aftershock earlier (and previous aftershocks, of course). I like how they never omitted the possibility of people dying as the tower collapses, crushing them under it, yet never showing explicitly that they die. A fine way of keeping it clean while reminding the people of the horror.

And, as we all know, Tokyo Tower is a huge symbol to the Japanese. Its collapse implies way more than just the collapse of a landmark. This is what I said in the post for episode 3:

This scene at the end is notable for the fact that the Tokyo Tower, long considered the symbol of Tokyo, has gone down, together with the Rainbow Bridge from earlier. The impact of this upon the Japanese would probably be the same as London Bridge and the Big Ben going down for the British, and the Versailles and the Eiffel Tower for the French; it should not be underestimated.

So in effect, we were told beforehand that the Tokyo Tower was going to collapse, yet the drama surrounding its fall probably added a lot more realism to it, and for the folks in Tokyo and even in Japan, it must have shaken them quite a bit to see it all being played out and animated. At least, that would be the effect that BONES is trying to convey to the audience.
 

Since Yuuki saving Mirai happened so fast, I thought it was Mari that saved Mirai at first. Anyway Yuuki was not really playing a trick on her I guess, but he was doing it deliberately. At least he knows his sister still cares a lot for him. The saving of Mirai by Yuuki though seems to hint that Mirai still cannot get out of situations on her own, and still needs others’ help, even if it is her younger brother.
 

Impressions

So I did take part in the rant at the time, knowing the Tower had already collapsed. Usagijen is pissed that someone could call the Tokyo Tower’s collapse “overrated”, calling it being “jaded and indifferent”. I agree to a certain extent, but can we really blame the person? I feel it is more society’s fault for making people so cold and hostile nowadays. Alienation and all, but you can always read that elsewhere.

Mirai’s outbursts against her younger brother and nearly causing their deaths is actually justified (as I have pointed out) throughout the episode, mainly by the fear that their parents might already be dead and that their search for their parents and the return trip home might be a lost cause. “Home”, to them (and to most of us), is not just the place we return to daily, but also includes the people we call “family”. For the two young kids, losing their parents would mean losing their world, their very basis for living till now.
 

The portrayal of the fear and concern throughout the episode for both was pretty good, not to mention the subtle hints we were given as the episode played itself out. The reconciliation at the end was immediately affected by the imminent Tokyo Tower collapse, the crushing of an important symbol in the Japanese culture by the forces of Nature. Effective.

Unfortunately I too, like usagijen, have no symbol to go by, but I can understand the impact of seeing one lost, much like how 9/11 had its huge significance reverberate the world over, and not just in the USA. Not too sure if usagijen misunderstood my comment as me being jaded as well, but I certainly am not, at least about this issue.
 

Further reads below, which I read after finishing this post:

Ghostlightning has a great post on the episode itself and its implications and is a highly recommended read – he includes the symbolism of Mirai’s failure to digest the cake, and the fact that Mirai, despite all her troubles, sees the body bags and realizes she is still alive, not having paid the price others have. The comment discussion in that post is also well worth the read.

Usagijen’s rant mentioned above about people who feel the Tokyo Tower is overrated can be found here; the comment was originally posted in ghostlightning’s post above.

Anientity believes the Tokyo Tower collapse is not just impactful; BONES might have “have erred on the side of ‘fiction’ and ’stories’ rather than ‘tremendous amounts of research and verification.’ I do believe though the collapse is highly possible, considering the foundations were shaken by the aftershocks after the main one, thus destroying bit by bit the stability that kept the Tower in place, leading to its eventual fall.

Tekky99 holds the view that “For the character’s sake, I hope their parents are alright, but for the anime’s sake I hope otherwise.” I am fine either way; it all depends on how BONES would end this. The journey there is the essence of the whole series after all, not the destination.

Seinime agrees with ghostlightning in large part that “Mirai’s whining is actually justified.”

Hanners thinks that the episode shows “the circumstances of the situation free from politics or other concerns that might affect grown adults, giving us what is almost a wide-eyed and innocent view of such a shocking natural disaster.” That is quite a fine way to look at it; after all, our understanding of things is often “colored” by the subjective opinion of our very own selves.

psgels points out that the show is engaging for a good reason – it “brings things surprisingly close to home: ‘it could happen to you’. And I think that that’s what makes this so engaging.”

The Fin “does not get it“. That being said, it is only right that some people may not see the charm that others see in certain anime series; it is a matter of opinion after all and subjective views are never right or wrong.

Orion responds to usagijen’s rant by expressing his thoughts about the Tokyo Tower – “you certainly can’t deny its major cultural significance. Even from just a purely visual, aesthetic standpoint, I still find it quite beautiful.”

msdzero is “speechless” at this episode.

Finally, the lulziest post of them all – kanzeon said “/a/ summed it up for all of us”.

Related posts:

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2. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 11 – Yuuki e…
3. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 03 – AfterShocks
4. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 08 – Onozawa Mirai
5. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 07 – A Twist of Duties