English Dub Review: Island “Holding Hands To Tomorrow”

What do I even say about this finale?

Overview:

Setsuna tries to get things right.

Our Take:

A little fact about me: I am used to following very convoluted plots for stories, including some wild plot twists. This? This is something else entirely. I’ve said before that this series is unnecessarily convoluted beyond belief, but every single additional episode just got me confused.

A few things- Kuon is still Rinne’s mother in this world and yes, Setsuna somehow had a child with her. So it turns out that the whole world that Setsuna came back to isn’t the past- it’s in the future because the whole universe is set in a time loop- that never ends up getting resolved, mind you- so he’s still in the future, it just looks like the past. However, when this truth bomb is dropped on everyone, they kind of roll with it? But then again, nobody had any sort of reaction when Setsuna announced that he’s a time traveler, so maybe this is just standard fare for the island. The dystopian future that happened two episodes before was in the future- but this is in the future too.

Kuon, Rinne’s mother, is actually the Rinne from that future that met and had sex with Setsuna, and Rinne is the child from that encounter. She built herself a time machine as well-or a time-freezing device and tried to stay with Setsuna. However, she woke up too early and without her memory, and ended up giving birth to Rinne while under the family employ. Since another child would cause an issue in the family, Kuon’s child was taken into the family and even though she doesn’t have any blood relation, she became one of them.

Setsuna finds out that he’s Rinne’s father, and Rinne has a moment of panic, which is normal for anyone who’d find out that they’re dating their dad. But in the end- it’s okay because Setsuna and Kuon get together again, and nobody asks any questions. Since Kuon gave Rinne her name when she gave birth to her, Rinne gives her name back. What’s former-Rinne’s replacement name? Nobody knows!

I guess it didn’t turn out to actually be incest. Or maybe it was since they’re the time-traveling reincarnations of two siblings? I don’t know, but I’m glad that it’s over. That this got funding says more about the anime industry’s current state than anything else, really.