To Your Eternity Season 3

Episode 8

For an episode called “Trouble,” you'd think that this week's chapter of To Your Eternity would contain more…well, trouble. Sure, there's plenty of conflict still brewing after last week's absolutely gonzo “The Attack,” but as concerned as Fushi is to deal with the resurgence of the Nokker threat, To Your Eternity seems content to stew in the new status quo for a bit longer before ramping things up to the next level. Then there's the ending of the episode, but we'll…yeah, we'll get to that.

If there's one thing about this new arc of TYE that I am endlessly fascinated by, it would be the complete change-up in tone compared to the epic fantasy journey that came before it. It's so funny that, despite going out of its way to preserve almost the entirety of the original cast across thousands of years, To Your Eternity almost feels like a completely different show in this third season. There are many ways we could have followed up with Nokker!Mimori's attack on Fushi and Co., but I didn't expect that we would dive straight into the “Mizuha Teaches Fushi About Love and They Go On Cute Dates” part of the story.

This isn't a complaint about tonal inconsistencies, either. If anything, I think the wealth of distractions is part of the point that To Your Eternity is trying to make. Even Tiny Beholder is more concerned with the everyday problems of homework and fitting in with his family than anything to do with the Nokkers, and while Fushi's frustration is very amusing, I think I get T.B.'s side of things, too. This is a big, messy, and complicated world, and for all of their terrifying qualities, the Nokkers are still a fundamental truth of the world, like any other virus or plague. Fushi is determined to create a world that is completely and totally free from all danger and Nokker influence, but what if that isn't possible? Wouldn't it make sense to simply focus on your life and live the best that you can? Even the original Mimori, speaking as a ghost through Bon, tells Fushi to just let the Nokker issue go.

Clearly, that isn't going to happen, or at least, not yet - we've still got plenty of episodes left to go, this season. Still, I appreciate the way that TYE is using the genre trappings of this new modern setting to investigate this literally ancient conflict from a new perspective. It's also been great to see Fushi acting more and more “human”, for lack of a better term. I'm still not clear if the show wants us to think that learning about romantic love is a reasonable or even possible goal for ol' Orby, but given how long our hero spent as a barely sentient animal, it's cool to see just how much the Orb has evolved across these many lifetimes.

Granted, I'm sure the jarring tonal change-ups aren't going to work for everyone. The incredibly exaggerated and deliberately poor-taste nature of Nokker!Mimori and Hirotoshi's whole dynamic is bound to alienate plenty of viewers who understandably weren't looking for To Your Eternity to play with all of the modern anime cliches. I don't hate it, if only because the show is obviously not taking the “creepy otaku” and “evil loli” cliches all that seriously. Bon's delirious monologue that accompanies Hirotoshi flashing his “happy trail” was so completely out of left field that I couldn't help but laugh. It's not the kind of joke that I need (or want) To Your Eternity to indulge in every week, but there's enough great material to work with in these latest episodes that I can forgive the show if it wants to take the piss a little more than usual.

Episode Rating:

To Your Eternity Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.