Dusk Beyond the End of the World

Episode 9

Well, that was quite a ride this week, huh? A weak first half, a weaker second half, and then a last like, five or so minutes that actually had some sauce to it, and set us up to finally learn the truth about what happened.

As always, I just can't find it in myself to care about the main storylines this anime has given us, and I think that has a lot to do with how bland our protagonists are. I felt that turned up to an eleven this week. Multiple times in this episode, we were given what I'm sure were meant to be pretty big moments. And while I was surprised that this anime had the guts to break up the couple that they met on the train, aside from that, I just couldn't find it in myself to feel any level of interest or investment in what's going on—however big or small the show seems to want it to be.

Lest I keep complaining about things I've already complained about at length in weeks prior, I'm just going to cut to the good part: So Akira is an android! It makes sense, all things considered. My prediction is thus: The real Akira died in that shooting we saw all the way back in episode 0. The Akira we've been following, meanwhile, is an android that Towasa cobbled together in the aftermath of that shooting. And based on that figure who looked very much like Akira in that flashback of the other androids, I'm willing to bet that he's been living with Towasa (who is, perhaps, also still alive as an android?) more or less the whole time until relatively recently—when he “woke up” from what we've been led to believe is a 200-year-long cryo-sleep. But then for the same reason he's no longer with her, his memories of that time with Towasa were deleted—memories of his existence as an android. As for why OWEL is after him, it's harder to say. On one hand, the other Towasa-made androids seem to be able to travel around at their leisure. But on the other, those androids aren't exactly walking around with Akira's name, face, and perhaps as far as OWEL knows, memories.

Needless to say, all I can say in response to the final moments of the episode, where Yugure says that she's going to explain everything, is: F I N A L L Y. It's about time, indeed. That being said, I'm still skeptical that this anime is going to be able to wrap itself up in only three more episodes. If next week's episode is spent entirely in exposition—and to be fair, it very well might!—then there might be a chance, but even then, the key words are “might” and “chance.” As we've seen throughout the whole series, and even this very episode, Dusk has had a tremendous habit of getting easily sidetracked, and I'm not sure it's going to suddenly just stop doing that in its last stretch. But I'd love to be wrong—I've been saying more or less the whole time that the worldbuilding and everything going on in the background is so much more interesting than Akira's search for Towasa, or the possible romances between Akira and Towasa, Akira and Yugure, or Akira, Yugure, and Amuro. This is all to say that I think there's a lot riding on next week's episode, in particular. Whether or not it can stick the landing could very plausibly be what makes or breaks this series.

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Dusk Beyond the End of the World is currently streaming on HIDIVE.