lizardjay

I'm getting to the point where I have to rewatch large parts of episodes just to get my thoughts straight 😅

EPISODE THIRTEEN

A recap, but not.

Confirmed that Nanami and Touga live at home. (So does Miki, seen later). Touga is... listening to a tape recording of his own part of the elevator speech, apparently non responsive. That's.... ominous! I worry for him! Despite my belief that Touga is scum, you have to assume that there's a reason he became this way. End of the World? His parents??

And poor Nanami. She's also a piece of work, but she's 13. Who among us was not at least a little weird at 13. It's scary to see something happening to your brother!!

The duel concepts in order for my reference:

• friendship
• choice
• reason
• love
• adoration
• conviction
• self
• ...
• revolution...?

I'll save my comments on the new guy for next episode :D

EPISODE FOURTEEN

Anthy has a surprise brother, Akio! Old enough to be acting chairman. Engaged to (and kissing!!!!) a high schooler. That's.... fine.....

He's also the guy from the last episode. So he knows pretty much everything, but he's asking very pointed questions about how Nobody At This School Fights, Right? And Anthy doesn't want him to know she's the rose bride.

Maybe he was a duelist in the past.

He and Anthy have different last names. I mean, Himemiya meaning princess is a bit much. Maybe it's a cover name. And his name, Ohtori, is... the name of the school?

(From later in the episode: Kanae's last name is Ohtori... oh, so when she said Akio got himself adopted into the family, she didn't mean like. Metaphorically, because he's marrying in. She meant for real!)

Mikage, a high schooler, is writing papers for college professors, but refusing their bribes.... suspicious guy. And now he's trying to bring Miki into his club. NO THANKS! Miki doesn't even open the soda he was offered :D

"Apparently, a long time ago, 100 boys were buried alive in here!"

THE SHOES!!!! (of the dead boys, surely???) And Mikage is standing as if he's among them!

Rose Groom (sorry I don't remember your name) is getting dressed? WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO DOWN HERE? IN THE ROOM LATER REVEALED TO HAVE CORPSES?

So the plan is to kill Anthy. There's nothing less extreme you can do???

The interview hallway is so creepy!! I mean, of course, the whole elevator interview thing is insane, with the de-evolving butterfly and the coffin things in the walls and the psychological pressure, etc etc. But the interview hallway is what starts the madness. We're in a horror anime now???

Kanae thinks Anthy is creepy and cursed her father to be sick??

Anyway then we force Kanae into the cult of the Black Rose. From CORPSES!!!

So... many past duelists have died in action! I guess 100. How far in the past is unclear; long enough that it's rumor to Miki, but that doesn't mean a whole lot.

The shadow puppets are now in real life.... Utena can interact with them.

The absolute destiny apocalypse song is different now. It has a guy's voice added (or at least much louder now; it might have existed before in some lines), and some more drums, at the very least.

The desks with the flowers? The body outlines on the floor??? Kanae falls into one when she loses? THEY INCINERATE THE CORPSE WHEN SHE LOSES??

......ah. So Anthy's brother is also a creep. I mean, we could assume this from the high school fiancee, but. TO ANTHY TOO???

EPISODE FIFTEEN

And Miki's teacher is ALSO a creep. M and I spent this episode (and the last one) yelling "IS NO ONE FREE FROM SEXUAL PREDATORS???"

Relatedly, as part of my Miki stopwatch research (see below), I went back to all the Miki scenes. And with this new information... here's the (chronologically) first scene we see Miki in:

*Miki is playing the piano*
*Nanami shows up and claps*
Nanami: your piano playing is wonderful, Miki. The pride of the school. Thanks to your performance, that part the other day turned out so wonderfully. But why did you drop out of the competition? The teachers were so disappointed.
Miki: *silence. Plays a single piano key*
Miki: This piano's a little off key.
Nanami: Really? It was just tuned recently.
Miki: Then maybe I'm the one who needs tuning.

...... of course, this can merely be about his Sister Emotions, or his Anthy Emotions. AND YET. AND YET!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 😥

Touga is now listening to a record of very peaceful instrumental music, still nonresponsive. I'm sure he's.... fine....

KOZUE PUSHED MIKI'S CREEPY TEACHER DOWN THE STAIRS A WEEK AGO!! So proud.

ORIGINAL ELEVATOR SPEECH
Touga: If it cannot break its egg's shell, a chick will die without being born. We are the chick. The world is our egg. If we don't crack the world's shell, we will die without being born. Smash the world's shell!
Touga/Miki/Jury: For the revolution of the world!

NEW ELEVATOR SPEECH (I'm not confident on the voices here)
Someone: If it cannot break its egg's shell, a chick will die without being born.
Maybe Someone Else: The chamber of freedom and the cage of freedom. Without revealing the vastness of the sky, both care for the chick. Smash the world's cage!
Jury/Miki/Nanami: For the revolution of the world!

I really want to know whether Akio's quote about the moon is how a little sister feels about her big brother, or how a big brother feels about his little sister. This is.... an important distinction.

Kozue..... Miki..... idk what's going on with you guys. AND MIKI WAS AWAKE FOR KOZUE KISSING HIS HEAD? I have many questions.

Once again, the rotating rose in the corner appears for a Kozue scene. That uncomfortable almost-kiss..... and I see, we can LITERALLY draw out swords from people. It's not just Anthy.

And after everything, Kozue is acting closer to Miki again, despite forgetting the duel? (And the rotating rose SHOWS UP AGAIN 😖)

These last two episodes each felt like four episodes worth of stuff was put in one.

I then spent an entire hour analyzing every time Miki pulls out his stopwatch.

MIKI STOPWATCH

• episode 4, timestamp 05:37: 39 seconds on the clock. Rewinding that far gets you to an unremarkable moment of Anthy filling the same watering can. After the stopwatch, Miki yells at Nanami's friends who are bullying Anthy.
• episode 4, timestamp 06:52: 51.... whatever the less-than-seconds are. (Hundredths? Or sixtieths?) Less than one second, anyway. Miki is currently studying in the library.
• episode 5, timestamp 08:47: 9 seconds and 27.... less-than-seconds. We're at a council meeting. Rewind that much, and it's... how long Touga took to say a sentence?
• episode 8, timestamp 04:45: 12 seconds on the clock. Miki confesses that it's his fault that Anthy exploded trying to cook curry. 12 seconds ago, Touga was in between a couple of sentences. Notably, Miki reacts to the stopwatch with surprise before speaking.
• episode 10, timestamp 03:44: 29 seconds and 52 less-than-seconds on the clock. Another student council meeting. Touga has just said that there is another duelist. 29 seconds ago is approximately when the scene started with Touga throwing down a letter from End of the World. After stopwatching, Miki says "That's impossible!"
• episode 11, timestamp 06:06: 6 seconds and 54 less-than-seconds on the clock. Notably, this is when Miki says "6 seconds, 12..." while looking surprised, when there's no 12 in sight. This is at the council meeting with the balloons while discussing Nanami's loss, after Miki compared Nanami to a pet cat, and they all stood in silence to maybe think about that poor drowned cat. Touga moves on with the convo after the stopwatch. 6-7 seconds beforehand is... when Miki said the pet cat thing.
• episode 12, timestamp 06:11: 28 seconds and 12 less-than-seconds on the clock. This is the first shot of the council meeting after Utena losing. Therefore we don't know what happened 28 seconds ago.
• episode 14, timestamp 08:42: 17 seconds on the clock. Miki is chatting with Anthy and Utena after leaving the library (and having a meeting with Mikage). Utena has just said she didn't know the library existed. 17 seconds ago, he'd asked them why they were here.
• episode 15, timestamp 10:51: 42 minutes 38 seconds and counting on the clock. He doesn't actually stop it. This is the first time it's been used for straightforward timekeeping. Miki is waiting for Anthy to show up.
• episode 15, timestamp 11:59: 1 minute, 3 seconds, 6 less-than-seconds on the clock. This proves Miki was awake when his sister kissed his head. Hard to tell when exactly he started the timer since there's some flashback shots in there.