Utawarerumono: The False Faces

Episode 4

I called it. I totally called it. You're not fooling anyone, Princess.

Sure, Princess Rurutie may look completely innocent, giving no indication whatsoever that her mind is filled with visions of sweaty abs mashing up against each other, but any female anime character, no matter how sweet, who says that she thinks "friendships between men are wonderful" is a fujoshi in disguise! The little wolf-girl has not one, not two, but three separate fantasies about Haku and Ukon sharing an erotic rendezvous inside of 24 hours. It's frankly a miracle that she hasn't died of nosebleed-related anemia by the end of the episode.

Anyway, if the screencap here wasn't a massive tipoff, this is a hot springs episode, set in the luxurious capitol that our humble village cast had been journeying toward. Still, in keeping with the tone of the show so far, it's the pleasant kind of onsen outing that makes you feel warm and bubbly inside, rather than dirty and sweaty. (The fanservice is cute, snuggly, and equal-opportunity, and that's kind of all there is to say about it.) More importantly, this episode explores the newest addition to Utawarerumono's cast (and the filling in the bathtime hug-sandwich pictured above), Ukon's cultured sister Nekone.

Let's be honest: "sister" should be in air-quotes here. The behavior of both siblings indicates an adoptive relationship over blood (and that's before a big reveal in the episode's final minutes that blurs the lines further). Haku mentions that the tiny Nekone seems more like a daughter than a sister to Ukon, Nekone has a few flashbacks that seem to imply a degree of separation between them, and Ukon overcompensates for these suspicious factors by saying their tails are nearly identical. Ah, so he's a Tusukuru-esque dog person! ...With no dog-ears, just a tail. Yeah, there's still something fishy about all of this. At the same time, I'm not sure how he could fake having a tail while naked in the bath. My guess is that it was attached to the towel he was wearing. (As of this episode, I think he's actually pure-blooded human, but I'll explain why when we get to that minor bombshell at the end of the review.)

Nekone is a little genius in a big hurry to catch up with her politically entangled brother, but intelligence can't quite compensate for lack of experience in the eyes of the bigwigs around her. She wants to be a court scholar and even set the record for the youngest person to pass the toughest academic exam the capitol has to offer, but the fact remains that she's just too young. This leaves her with a lot of anger to take out on Ukon when he's been gone too long, and seeing her big brother become comrades with an uncultured man she's never met before only rubs her the wrong way more. The other girls convince Nekone to give Haku a chance, so she decides to give him a free tour of the glorious capitol.

She shows Haku the palace of the immortal emperor, who founded their great nation hundreds of years ago and is somehow still alive. Haku has questions: "Is he really immortal though? Is that just what people say? I mean it couldn't be the same guy, right?" She shows Haku the Holy Court, a towering pyramid made of a mysterious substance of unknown construction processes. Haku has questions: "So what makes it holy? It's just made of holy things? I don't know." She shows Haku the celebratory procession accompanying General Oshutaru's return to the city. "Is he really that great? Why?" Nekone finally flips out. What does Ukon see in this guy? She thinks of Haku as a child because he questions things that most people are content to simply be impressed by. Of course, this betrays her own childishness, and as the episode passes, she starts asking some questions of her own that lead her to slightly more grown-up answers. Haku and the girls warm her to the idea of accepting the world for what it is: a constantly changing field of uncertainty and diversity. She'll be a court scholar someday, but for now maybe she can take it slowly and learn more about these other country bumpkins instead of judging them. It's cute! Simple, but cute.

On a different note, Haku's unexplained powers of charisma are a hot topic in this episode, and just like the protagonist of the first Utawarerumono, they might be a magical contrivance rather than a narrative one. In the first series, Hakuoro's charisma that turned almost every enemy into a friend and allowed him to become a father to many and conquer multiple nations mere months after waking up with amnesia was completely ludicrous, but the show always seemed vaguely aware of it right up until the big reveal. Yes, I suppose it does make sense for Hakuoro to be an ultimate charisma-tron if he's possessed by (the benevolent part of) the god of this world. There's no such explanation for The False Faces's Haku yet, but the show is also way more self-aware about it. In fact, Nekone can't stop talking about how incredibly weird it is that even patrons of the restaurant where he's acting as a (remarkably incompetent) waiter are surprisingly nice to him, not two seconds after being angry enough to punch him in the face. If Haku's magnetic soul ultimately just stems from his personality with no further explanation, it'll be bad and lazy writing, but at this point, I think it's safe to assume there's more to it. At least the show is more blessedly self-aware about his unearned adulation than all the painfully pandersome light-novel adaptations that churn out such protagonists.

At the end of the episode, General Oshutaru summons Haku to his chambers (we'll all wait for Princess Rurutie to calm down) and we get our first major plot bomb. The general sees great potential in Haku and wants to be his "patron," whatever that means, for some upcoming campaign. Funny enough, this may not have anything to do with Haku's mysterious charisma powers. After all, Oshutaru is the spitting image of Haku, so he probably knows something about his true nature that we don't. Right when I began to suspect that Oshutaru and Ukon were in cahoots, having used the weird staged robbery from the previous episode as part of some plot, Oshutaru reveals himself to be Ukon! Wow, that's one convincing fake beard/wig if it can fool Haku right up close like that. Actually, Kuon figures it out when seeing him from afar, so maybe Haku's just a few dozen IQ points lower than the show keeps telling us he is. So you can see why I think that the tail Ukon went out of his way to show off is fake. This guy's probably human, making him and Haku clones or siblings or fated bros of some kind. If I didn't trust Ukon before, I really don't trust him as General-Oshutaru-in-disguise. It is neat to see Oshutaru being characterized in exactly the same way as Hakuoro from the first series, but with a darker flavor instead. Haku has no idea what he's in for...

The episode closes with the kingdom's mysterious, ancient emperor learning of Haku's arrival and celebrating with stunned rasps. "How long have I waited for this day? It must be by the grace of Heaven that he has appeared before my life ends." Hm, I smell a fated destiny on the horizon for our time-displaced otaku! I just hope the inevitable twisted explanation for all this is satisfying.

Rating: B

Utawarerumono: The False Faces is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.