Concrete Revolutio

Episode 17

Concrete Revolutio continues its streak of episodes that are surprisingly easy to follow. Like the other entries this season, this week's installment made it easy to track its plot logic from start to finish. It's nice that the writers are finally getting the story's many tracks under control and not introducing any new stuff until everything is in sync. That's easier at this point in the game, now that the first season plowed through all that introduction, albeit less gracefully.

Unfortunately, episode 17 is not as thematically coherent as the rest of this season so far. The last several episodes, particularly episode 16, have been easier to dissect not only from a plot point of view, but a thematic one as well. This one is a bit more esoteric. Still, it's the kind of episode that leaves you wondering if its obtuseness is the point after all.

We jump ahead to the end of 1972, where there's a sudden tunnel crash that leaves the government blaming superhumans. The Superhuman Bureau know they personally have nothing to do with it, so they're frustrated with the government constantly pointing fingers at them to justify its strict legislation of superhumans. Still, they have some idea who might be responsible—which sends Emi searching underground, at the secret subterranean civilization ruled by a pair of demon twins, Devilo and Devila. You'd think that all this talk of the "demon world" would mean Kikko would be the Ambassador, with her sudden devil princess side that was revealed at the end of last season. Instead, Emi is the one who does the negotiating, as the "least human" of the group and a revered figure among this subterranean community. Like some of the monsters we've seen her conjure in the past, they revere her as their "ogre princess." This isn't explained much more, though hopefully it's a nod toward a more in-depth backstory for Emi in the future. They also aren't fond of Fuurouta, seeing him as too close to humans and a "lowly creature borne from human minds."

The tunnel was part of a larger project by human governments to colonize this subterranean world, and it's suggested by Emi and the other superhumans that the crash might be this society's own form of resistance. Talking to the creatures who greet her doesn't yield many clues, so Emi searches out its ruler, Devila. Devila is a sort of serpent-human hybrid who seems to enjoy swimming naked in lava. (Concrete Revolutio is surprisingly revealing here, showing her naked nipples throughout the episode, even during its climax.) Emi notes that Devila doesn't care much for humans and isn't interested in doing things their way. Her brother Devilo, on the other hand, is a much more kindred soul. The superhumans find him in the Tokyo subway system, enchanting people with his "power over words"—he can hypnotize people into following him, Pied-Piper-style. He doesn't seem to be doing this on purpose, though. It's just a strong power that he doesn't have full control over yet.

Devilo is a bit younger than his sister, so he's not in full command of his powers yet. That's why he needs Zumanan, a giant catfish-cockroach-snake-hybrid monster, to protect him. Zumanan mostly appears as a big shadow with long, glowing whiskers, which it uses to attack. As the above-ground superhumans and the Public Security Force figure out that Zumanan might be to blame for the tunnel collapse, they begin attacking him, which just makes him all the more enraged as he tries to protect Devilo. As the Superhuman Bureau figures out what's going on, they too rush to Devilo's side—pitting the Public Security Force against them.

This results in a very strange sequence, as Devila rises from the ground, giant-sized, with her head and naked body overwhelming the sky like Rei in the climax of End of Evangelion. It's revealed that Devilo is about to take on his sister's serpentine form, but he wanted to visit the surface and walk among its people before he became less humanoid. As he develops into his mature form, he and Devila float away from Earth, but not after sending water around the world shooting into the sky with them. They suggest that if the humans won't let them live underground, they will find a place to swim in space. They will create an ocean up there, and seem to invite any interested humans to join them.

Another piece of subtext behind this is humans' own explorations of space. The news reports on the final lunar mission, Apollo 17, which happened near the end of this year. When Devilo and Devila float into space and bring water with them, it's considered disruptive to the mission. It's hard to know what specifically to parse from this episode, but the ultimate effect is some Space-Age-style optimism about exploring the heavens. Devilo and Devila suggest that space could be a place for those not welcome in our own world to go—or in a broader sense, that there's always the option of leaving and finding your own place if you don't fit in somewhere. Still, they impart the series' usual environmental message for the humans remaining back home, reminding them that the point of living on Earth is not to try and assimilate with other creatures, but to appreciate and love everyone's differences.

It's a strange episode that shows some of the usual pitfalls of Concrete Revolutio: an unfocused message and lots of wild visuals purely for their own sake. Still, episode 17 demonstrates how far Concrete Revolutio has come. Something like this would have been a complete mess in the first season, but it still manages to make sense as a story, even if it's thematically confused. Plus, Devilo is a charming character, reminiscent of some of the naïve episodic heroes of last season. Concrete Revolutio doesn't always have all its ducks in a row, but it's clearly getting there.

Rating: B

Concrete Revolutio is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.