And in episode 7 this time round it is Yuuki who is afflicted with feelings of illness and not Mari, yet there was also mecha action of sorts, though it was largely to display the capabilities of robots in rescue operations, a fact we will see being applied more and more as the years go by, for robots can do far more than humans can in many aspects regarding search-and-rescue operations.

This is just a further example of the points made in previous episodes regarding how the whole place, once so familiar to Mirai who used to walk past here daily, has changed into something of a desolate and different scene. Of course, we are not left to dwell upon this point much, but I thought they let her say it once again for emphasis.
 

The first sign that Yuuki is in trouble with his physical health. We are left to wonder exactly what throughout the episode, though Mari provides a possible explanation (that is also wrong) later on.
 

Well Yuuki certainly regains energy, like a child, to run after the things he is interested in. For his case, it is the robots that scurry around trying to find survivors, and here too, at the site of a rescue, he meets our next side character, Nonomiya Kento. Despite ANN not listing any seiyuu for him yet I find his voice to be quite possibly Yoshino Hiroyuki’s, but I could be wrong. It sure sounds like a toned down version of Yoshino though.
 

This is an apt demonstration of the possibilities of robots being used in rescue operations, especially in the aftermath of large-scale disasters. Robots can be used to detect (as in the case of this RescueBot) and locate survivors among debris (which human rescuers cannot do as well, for obvious reasons), or to lift heavy debris (as in the case of the huge lifting robot). Of course, there are hardly many chances to test the usability of robots in actual situations, so TM8.0 provides a rare artificial yet seemingly realistic (since it is, after all, taking place in a hypothetical situation and not in real-life) example of how these robots can be put to good use.

Instead of using robots for daily conveniences, TM8.0 is certainly showing us the other more useful and “good” ways robot technology can be put to more worthwhile use in.
 

We will see the further significance of this statement later; for now, it is enough to note that this is essentially giving Mirai a false impression that Kento is a robot-otaku.
 

Priceless expressions directed at Mirai here, the one who does not understand what is going on and thinks the robot is “dumb”. And when the explanation comes out, of course she is embarrassed not to have thought of it herself. Just some more Mirai pwnage brought to you by the producers of TM8.0.
 

Priceless expression by Mirai.

This is the first time I actually heard “otaku” being applied to as a “robot-otaku”. And WTF, it was only while doing this post that I realized Yuuki was doing a “:(” at this statement.

I have never heard that quakes were classified this way. So I decided to try and break down the possible meaning of this classification (without looking elsewhere). A metropolis is, as I learned from texts, a congregation of cities into one big mega city (or urban area), which fits the description of Tokyo. For it to be a “Metropolitan Epicenter Earthquake” this must mean that it struck pretty close to a metropolis, at least enough to devastate, should it be on a large enough scale, most of the metropolitan area.

Wikipedia has a definition similar to what I have written about the metropolis, and there are no known articles of earthquake classification found there. Slightly further searches reveal that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Disaster Prevention homepage once had a report on the possibilities of such a quake (which was possibly where the classification’s name came from) in the Tokyo area.
 

The only notable earthquake in recent times for the Tokyo area approaching the magnitude and scale of the one we are shown in TM8.0 is the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which had a Richter magnitude of 8.3, and, as the news report informs us, a death toll of over 140,000 deaths. Thus, for TM8.0’s quake to have gone past its death toll, we are only left in awe and horror at the amount of destruction it has quite possibly caused, or perhaps, I should rephrase that to “will cost” if and when it happens.
 

That was an awfully big reaction even for someone who hates rats. Lol @ Mirai.

I have no idea if what they said in Japanese really meant “heat stroke”, but if it was truly heat stroke, Yuuki would have been dead in under 5 minutes. A heat stroke is a serious case of heat exhaustion and dehydration, and is a medically critical situation. Ironically, I was taught this in National Service, one of the few things that I actually remember from the basic military training phase.

A more likely explanation could be heat exhaustion, but Yuuki’s symptoms are a little vague, though it is not improbable that lack of water and the heat could be the cause. This just leaves me feeling weird though, he feels tired throughout the episode and has instances where he cannot even walk, yet feels faint and dizzy at times. Such symptoms could be applied to a variety of other causes as well, so we can only wait and see.
 

When Kento also says that they really do not need it, I was in agreement with him the first time round. Then I got to some thinking – these robots may have a use for it after all. However it would have to be a really drastic situation – like the melting of the icecaps to raise the sea level for these robots to search for victims underwater to that kind of depth. I wonder if they can be used in amphibious circumstances too.

Just knowing a lot about a particular subject makes the person an otaku according to Mirai. So if I know a lot about bikes (implying that one might like them even if that is not the case, for example one might need to know about them for one’s job as a mechanic), that makes me a bike-otaku? Wow that sure is new to me.
 

Well Kento’s backstory was nothing much, but it did illustrate an important point – he got into robots because they had once saved his family. There is the implication here that he also became interested in them partly due to him being grateful to them for not just saving the loved ones closest to him when he wanted them to live, but also to have changed his view unconsciously of his own family members, whom he used to think were irritating. I am sure some of us grew interested in a hobby or pastime or in certain objects due to such similar reasons, and Kento demonstrates the long-lasting effects of such an episode in his childhood.
 

Mirai’s expression right after this also suggests that she too, has felt the same emotions after the same sort of thing (ie. the quake) has happened to her. She no longer finds her parents annoying or carefree; rather she longs to be with them again, something she might not be able to do if they were already dead and gone. It is often only when we lose our loved ones that we realize how we have taken them for granted and never cherished them. This lesson has been taught over and over, and yet it almost always takes the hard route for people to learn this intuitively and comprehend its full meaning.
 

I must contest that he was only able to run around because he temporarily “forgot” he was unwell. After all he was so indulgent in the robots and Kento, one of his favorite hobbies. At that age, for Yuuki, emotion outweighs rationale, something which he has not yet developed very much at that point in life anyway. Thus, the “running around” might have done him far more harm than good, as we will see later.
 

In a twist of duties, Mirai finally takes care of Yuuki for once. Sure, as the big sister to Yuuki, she is obliged to do so and should care for her younger brother, but as we have seen throughout the series, she has not done so even once until now. Yuuki has in fact been “taking care” of her, and Mari has always been the one consistently looking after the two of them. It is nice to see that Mirai is finally moving into her role as a caretaker for Yuuki, though it did take the quake to realize that she might have lost him forever.
 

This signifies that importance of what Kento mentioned earlier about wanting to make robots, and ties Mirai’s realization at the start of the series in episode 1 that she still has no idea what she wants to do, and no aim in life at all, unlike Kento, who is of the same age. Perhaps, this might be the start to Mirai finally deciding to do something with her life, even if it has no final aim at this point in time.
 

And Mirai finally comes around. Yet this also implies that the parents might not really know what is “best for their children” but rather what they thought was “best for their children”. There is a huge difference here between the two. One is the “correct” thing to do; the other is what the parents think is “correct” to do. But Mirai understands that both her parents are just trying their hardest to make their kids happy, and acknowledges in the conversation that she might not have been a good kid after all.

This part of the conversation also serves to further strengthen my conviction, after the two siblings talk about going to Odaiba and their parents and all that, that their parents might be dead by the time they get back home. Amid the flurry of discussions that has already gone into the possibilities of their parents being dead or alive, I now add my voice to the debate. It will be a sad end, though not unlikely.
 

It must have been tough on poor Yuuki, who finally managed to touch the object of his current obsession, being told by the robot to “get out of the way”. Of course, the rescuer controlling the RescueBot had other more important things to do and was probably pressed for time to try and find more survivors, but still, it did leave Yuuki in disappointment, something most of us can empathize with if we were in the same situation as a kid.
 

And in another reversal of duties, the robot is now the one being rescued by the human, instead of the other way round. Of course, just why Kento feels it is necessary to save a robot by risking his own human life is left open for debate. This goes beyond interest for the damn thing, bordering on craziness. What is more, what the rescuer said after they were rescued was true – the robots were there to prevent further mishaps from happening, and the kids’ getting injured and putting themselves in danger rendered that kind of philosophy useless.
 

Possible Kento X Mirai ending.

Of course, I was alerted to this by inadvertent blog post titles regarding the episode, but it looks as though Yuuki has just collapsed, and is quite probably not dead. I know I mentioned on Twitter that I actually hope they kill him, but that seems unlikely. He might have just slipped into a coma from the heat exhaustion, or collapsed due to fatigue, lack of water, the heat, any number of possible reasons associated with his symptoms. Quite frankly I doubt they will kill him off this easily with little fanfare, but that would be a nice twist.
 

And so the number of casualties is now confirmed to be greater than that of the previous great earthquake Japan remembers, confirming the horror and devastation of the quake we are shown and its possibilities in TM8.0.
 

General Impressions

This episode was largely about, as I mentioned, robots and their feasibility in S&R operations, perhaps trying to drive yet more money that is already pumped into robot research technology in Japan into the right areas (ie. such rescue-type robots). Further, we are given continued character development for Mirai, though Mari was somewhat out of the limelight in this episode.

Yuuki collapsing at the end was kind of unexpected (if I had not been spoiled), in fact I still question exactly what he is down with and why it is affecting him so much. There are, as I already said, any number of reasons for his collapse and illness, though perhaps Kento being around with the robots was a good thing. One could argue though that the last dash to find Mari was the last straw for his overworked and physically unwell body that led to his collapse.
 

Further Reading

ghostlightning does not want them to remove Yuuki, and considers that the episode “contextualized” Mirai’s growth more than anything else, a point I can agree with as you can see in my episodic. usagijen also almost has the same thoughts as me, but differs in that she believes Yuuki will not die.

Miken feels the whole episode was partially contrived. Since I already mentioned Kento’s disaster and how it affected his love for robots, I must also say that this one hardly hits him as hard, considering that he had been through what he considered to be the worst disaster of his life. His manner and attitude so far does not seem to indicate that he lost anyone in this quake, and thus the catastrophe was not as strong for him as the last time.

Gene thinks both Yuuki and Mirai should “chill”. He also has an interesting thought on the epilogue for the series, something akin to what I said in this post. Looks like I was not the only one who found the possibility of a Kento X Mirai pairing; usagijen and msdzero also had the same thought.

Rednights wonders if the robots were even real, and he did find examples, but none of the RescueBot. Far as I can recall the RescueBot is still in theoretical phase, though I might be wrong.

Despite everyone, including me, calling Kento’s attempt to save the robot stupid, Janette “liked how he tried to save the robot.”

Hanners feels “this robot-centric episode” proved “to be interesting without managing to convey the same sense of reality as previous installments and feeling a little more like a flight of fantasy thanks to its use of middle school kids chasing after robots.” I am sure however that such robots are in theoretical phase and some are even off the drawing board and in production; we just do not see them most of the time since who would bother, honestly, to keep up with S&R robots unless you are into them like Kento?

Finally, psgels believes the problem  “with this episode was that the creators are trying a bit too hard, which takes away a bit from this series’ realism”. As has been mentioned by several of the links above, I still feel this episode was pretty much real in a country like Japan. We all know how much Japan invests in its robots, and certainly, with its quake-prone possibilities, these robots are not too far from reality for me.

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