I watched the first two episodes of the To Your Eternity bluray I bought yesterday. As expected, it’s really good, featuring the story of an entity that is dropped on Earth as a rock, then it becomes a wolf, and then finally a young boy. The first episode was all about the entity’s relationship with the boy when it is still a wolf that is his companion. It’s a sad tale of survival in the frozen tundra of what I assume is Hokkaido, Japan. Basically, the boy doesn’t survive; but then the wolf becomes the boy. The second episode is set in an Ainu village on Hokkaido where a young girl called March is chosen as a sacrifice to the local monster (probably a giant bear) for the usual superstitious reasons. But she escapes and encounters the boy/entity just as he is being reborn from a recent encounter with the bear (his body regenerates every time he dies). The boy still knows nothing about human ways, not even speech, so March begins to show him how to catch fruit and how to eat, and it looks like a friendship will develop. I love these redemption/learning stories and am looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.
I watched a couple more episodes of To Your Eternity. There was a strange scene where the boy fights and kills the giant bear. Then he and March are taken to the village of the people who have been initiating the sacrifices. The boy has now been able to say a couple of words – mainly ‘origato’ and ‘it hurts’. And he can revert at will back to the body of the wolf.
Watched episodes 5, 6 and 7 of To Your Eternity. The March storyline finished tragically but the new story has our shape-changing boy Fushi getting involved with an old couple who run a distillery, and a young boy called Gugu who has been disfigured in an accident and wears a mask. Fushi is able to speak in full sentences now though he still has a lot to learn about being human. Gugu is in love with a young girl who, unfortunately for him, has taken a shine to Fushi. Before all this there was a terrific sequence in episode 5 where Fushi and his travelling companion, the old woman, are attacked by an evil shape-changing plant, and we meet Kansatsusha, the entity that created Fushi. I’m really enjoying this flat animation style the anime employs. It’s very different to the usual styles I’ve seen.
I watched another two episodes of To Your Eternity. It continues to be kind of annoying the focus on characters other than the MC Fushi. The tenth episode was the return of the shadow creature Fushi encountered in an earlier episode, but most of it dealt with Gugu, the boy who wears a mask to hide his disfigured face, getting help from other to fight the shadow. He gets it in the end, and saves Fushi, but it’s a long wait. In the eleventh episode five years have passed and Gugu is a well-built man and Fushi an older boy beginning to grow stubble on his chin. It’s as mundane as that.
Watched three more eps of To Your Eternity. These were eps 12, 13 and 14. After Gugu dies, Fushi leaves the Old Drunk’s house and travels to a port with Pyoran. There they are kidnapped and taken into slavery on an island. I liked this change of scenery as I was getting sick of the whole Gugu thing.