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Concrete Revolutio
Episode 12

by Rose Bridges,

How would you rate episode 12 of
Concrete Revolutio ?
Community score: 4.5

It's time for the penultimate episode of Concrete Revolutio, which means it's also time for the show to go absolutely bananas, unraveling all its previous twists and unanswered questions. Finally! It also manages to do this without dropping too many new questions onto the fire.

Let's start with Kikko. It turns out her "evil" form from last week is in fact her true form. Kikko is some sort of devil princess, and her real mission here on Earth is to find a partner to marry so she can become the queen of her realm. The superhuman stuff is just passing the time until she reaches her goal. That explains why Kikko comes off as such a naïve teenager, still learning the basics of morality and how the world works—because that's what she is, and she wasn't concerned with any of that stuff before arriving on earth. This also explains her fascination with and strong crush on Jiro. She sees him as an ideal candidate to take home as her devil king.

We learn about this from a mysterious boy named Jin, who seems to know quite a bit about the devil world, along with Dr. Hitoyoshi. Their research suggests that this place is not as "evil" as the name suggests. Claude thought of Kikko as one of the "good superhumans," after all. That's important, because Claude is one of the main focuses of this episode, as the Superhuman Bureau is determined to figure out his identity. Claude's interception of Antares caused them trouble, and now he's planning another similar crime. A Soviet superhuman, Golubaya Laika, is entering Japanese airspace, and the Superhuman Bureau doesn't know what this means for them or Claude. It's interesting that they take him much more seriously than any previous enemy who got away—including others they believe to be affiliated with Imperial Ads. He's the only fugitive that's remained in their sights beyond one episode. It makes you wonder what the Superhuman Bureau's priorities are.

Well, it looks like we'll get an answer to that when we finally see just what turned Jiro away from the Bureau after all. He finds Claude and discovers that he and Jin are one and the same. Jin is the boy in the photo from last week, a person from Jiro's past that he no longer remembers. This may be a machination of the Superhuman Bureau too, because they have a strong motive for getting rid of Claude. He knows what their real not-so-benign goal is, and he wants the world to know the truth about it. He begins this process with Jiro.

Jin reveals that there were many more "superhuman experimentation" labs than just the one in America. There were some in Japan, such as on the Bonin Islands, and the Japanese government and others have been involved. The Superhuman Bureau was actually founded as a cover for those research facilities. Hunting down Rainbow Knight was part of their agenda, in an effort to control the press coverage he was getting. Rainbow Knight didn't actually kidnap kids for ransom money. He was trying to save those superhuman children from the experimental labs. While the rank-and-file of the Superhuman Bureau are clueless, its creators and organizers—Dr. Hitoyoshi and Akita—always knew exactly why it existed. Jiro was duped even by his own father, and Jin himself is living proof as a survivor of the superhuman experiments. Jiro might have joined him if not for his family connections.

So everything Jiro—and the audience—knows is wrong. Jin/Claude may have cried wolf last episode, but this time he has a willing audience. Jiro's reaction is the turning point that switches his loyalties against the Bureau. Previous episodes weren't nudging him toward this resolution enough, but one shocking revelation undid everything.

There's also some weird stuff about Kikko mistaking Jin/Claude for Jiro and trying to take him back to the devil realm with her. Her actions make you wonder how she could possibly get back with the Bureau and continue mooning over the real Jiro, after everything blows over. Still, it's hard to focus on that yet, when the main plot of this episode is so meaty. Concrete Revolutio finally made 11 episodes of density and confusion pay off by answering almost all of the audience's burning questions. The biggest remaining question about Akita's true form and purpose will likely be answered next week.

Another area left hanging—or perhaps, confused further—is the question of What This All Means. I proposed a theory last week, but this episode makes those initial parallels feel overly simplistic. Imperial Ads is clearly a minor threat compared to the Bureau itself and the experiments associated with it. That's part of the trouble with Concrete Revolutio: it's constantly throwing new ideas and imagery at you, kicking over your sandcastle just as you've completed it.

Looking back at this cour so far, I think that's the show's greatest weakness. Every episode of Concrete Revolutio is packed to the brim with new characters, themes, and worldbuilding details, more than in most entire series of other anime. It's hard enough to keep track of one episode's complete plot, much less the week by week story. From there, it's a further puzzle to sort out what's important vs. just high-concept window dressing. Concrete Revolutio would be a stronger show if it did a better job of drawing those lines. The important stuff should be memorable enough that viewers won't forget it several episodes later. We're a full cour in, and I still have to double-check most of the main characters' names, not to mention which supporting characters featured in which episodes.

Shō Aikawa and Seiji Mizushima have plenty of ambitious collaborations under their belt already. But in shows like Fullmetal Alchemist, characters were more memorable and relatable, and themes were more basic and universal. It wasn't a guessing game to figure out what every episode was trying to say. That's not to say dense symbolism can't work, but shows that pull it off still give viewers characters they can root for or a world they can get lost in. In trying to be everything at once, Concrete Revolutio forgot its most important element: an emotional core.

All the same, this episode got the closest to achieving that core. I felt genuinely horrified when I heard about the extent of the superhuman experiments. I also felt fearful for Jiro, sensing his deep feelings of betrayal. Concrete Revolutio is a lot of fun for my brain, but I wish it captured more of my heart. I understand why it's fallen short of that in the past, but I also can be hopeful for it going forward.

Rating: A

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.


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