English Dub Review: Gleipnir “The Price of Resolve”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Elena and the alien talk and his comment on Clair’s ability causes Elena to threaten him and cry at the alien’s words. Meanwhile, the fire died down and Koyanagi thinks that they shouldn’t continue hiking. Clair disagrees since there could be survivors that have seen their faces and they should continue. Then the members of Koyonangi’s group chat with one another on the events of the day.

The next day Shuichi’s friend, Abukawa doesn’t show up to school. A few days after that, a student talks about how they found a burned body in the river, and they assume it’s Abukawa. Shuichi goes to the alien alone and looking for answers. After their talk, Shuichi heads to a car dump and tells a survivor of the fire to come out before they fight. Shuichi gets a call from Clair asking where he is and he says everything’s fine before shooting the survivor. The alien reminisces on a girl and the creation of the game to find the coins. Meanwhile, a guy slaughters a group of monsters after the coins in the spaceship.

Our Take:

There’s a price to the decisions that people make. This episode makes it abundantly clear what the price is for Clair and Shuichi when they made that choice. The conversations with Koyanagi’s group offer a look at their current mindset. Koyanagi’s desire to prove her beliefs with Aihara to Isao and Yota commenting on the calm behavior of Clair and Shuichi.

Speaking of Clair and Shuichi, it’s nice to see them being teenagers on the walk home. I do like the music that comes on the background ground when they have these heart to heart moments. Their walk doesn’t erase the fact that they choose to set the oleander on fire. Clair wants to take all the blame for the crime again. However, Shuichi admits that there’s another side of him that wishes that the other group is dead. It’s interesting to see the shift in their dynamic with Clair being the softer of the two while Shuichi admits to his darker thoughts.

Afterward, the effect of the fire isn’t noticeable at first when they headed back to school the day. However, Shuichi notices that something was off and that Abukawa was missing. The cruel realization that Abukawa was a member of Madoka’s group hits Shuichi as a day to be remembered. Then there’s his confrontation with a survivor from Madoka’s group and how at the end Shuichi shoots the guy. That scene was chilling especially where Shuichi assures Clair on the phone that everything was fine before shooting the survivor. He’s gone down that path of no return and Clair isn’t there to stop him.

The alien’s conversations with Elena and Shuichi gives a lot to their motives for the coin gathering. Elena’s conversation with the alien was short, but we get bits of the alien’s mindset with his comments on humans and their creative uses for their powers. Elena’s reactions definitely pin her as a tragic character in this story. Then there’s Shuichi’s demand for answers which turns into a reflection on both of the groups in the fight. Shuichi resolves to gather the coins to return to his normal life, but I don’t think we’ll be able to see that with only two episodes left.

Then there is the origin of the coin gathering game. It started off as a simple idea between the alien and Honoka, a girl who appeared to be friends with Shuichi and Elena. Honoka was the first person to find a coin and the alien offers her a wish. He admits that he finds his immortal companions too dull and he’s lazy to retrieve them. Therefore, Honoka suggests that she tell her friends about the alien and sets up the idea of using a vending machine to insert the coins and get a wish from the alien. It’s a simple plan, but it quickly evolves into a dangerous game. Her actions were nice, but she didn’t look too far ahead with the consequences of her idea which often results in tragedies for the people in the present.

Overall the episode was good with the origin of the coin gathering game. However we’re eleven episodes into the anime, and no closer to Clair and Shuichi’s goals. I’m starting to think that we won’t get a good conclusion to the anime. If we get another information dump then I have to question when the story is going to move forward in the present timeline.