To Your Eternity Season 2

Episode 8

I was prepared to write off “Beyond Dreams" as another missed opportunity, because the first two-thirds of the episode was a letdown. Obviously, Fushi's clever ruse to fake Bon and Todo/Iris' death is something that was supposed to feel triumphant and exciting, but my reaction to learning of old Tasty Peach's survival was identical to my reaction to his imminent demise: “Meh. Okay then.” Then, on top of that fizzled-out climax, we have to spend a whole bunch of time on Bon and Iris' crappy romantic subplot? No, thank you.

It doesn't help that To Your Eternity decided to go with the ugliest possible direction for Iris' development, which is that her days of being starved and psychologically tortured were more or less a net win for her, since she ended up skinny and “pretty" again, which is apparently all that was needed for her and Bon to finally end up together (she even gets to use her feminine name again, now that she has an “acceptable” figure for it). Yes, the show goes out of its way to insist that these nasty optics are not reflective of the story's intent, but I'm sorry, it's just a catastrophically shitty punchline to this whole storyline that it completely soured me on the pair's whole relationship. I no longer care one bit about what happens to Bon or Iris, because their story is just really, really dumb.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the very end of the episode managed to turn back into Good To Your Eternity, if only for a bit. Sure, it's kind of hilarious how pathetic and irrelevant Kahaku has become ever since Fushi rejected him, but we can overlook that since his Nokker Arm can freaking talk now. Seriously, this is the first time we've ever gotten meaningful characterization for the show's key antagonistic force, and it's actually interesting! I love the idea that Fushi's immortality is an affront to their entire worldview, and that the Nokker's human extermination mission is actually a benevolent one from their point of view, as they are protecting the souls of this world's life from the blasphemy of the flesh.

It even ties in perfectly with the one good Bon moment of the episode, where we learn that he is holding back on telling Fushi about his revival magic because Fushi doesn't yet understand the painful burden that immortality would bring his dead loved ones. He is still young, in the grand scheme of things, and can only perceive his friends' deaths through the lens of his own grief. If he is truly going to be deserving of the power that he wields, Fushi has a lot to learn about the fundamental jobs and perils of life, and the only way for him to understand any of that is to find the value of death and impermanence. It's a hard lesson to learn, but then again, he has all the time in the world.

Rating:

To Your Eternity is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.