Fappa said:To clear some things up. What happened in this episode introduced us to a dark side which will control this story. Death is an omnipotent thing that can happen anytime to anyone, that’s what this tries you to teach.
For the first time they’ve faced the consequences of their actions in the most direct way, death.
Some people maybe think now „I can’t feel bad for his death when I barely knew him as a character“ and yes that’s somewhat the point.
Neither we or them really knew Manato as a person. We as the viewer and them as a team were on the way to get to know each other more but with a finger snap he’s gone like that, forever. It’s supposed to show us and them how fast a human being can die in the blink of an eye and because of a single mistake.
And we see how hard his death hits them emotionally. Each character reacts individually to this and will develop into a different direction. This is the first of many traumatizing things they will have to suffer. First the act of killing but now they face an even more traumatizing experience. The death of a human being that they have known and spent every single day with. It’s actually interesting to see how every single one of them has a different facial expression and gestures, shows you how those basic characters slowly develop into actual complex characters.
So what mistake did they actually do that cost Manato his life? Both Manato and the others made mistakes over and over again without knowing it.
- Manato was way too cautious. He basically healed every single wound even if it was just a scratch and hurt a little bit which caused him to run out of stamina really fast. You can’t blame him he was scarred about the others’ well being and maybe also couldn’t estimate the seriousness of the wound. So in the end it all came down to inexperience and lack of communication.
- Also did you realize that their priest, their healer, was constantly at the front lines basically acting like a tank? The one class that was supposed to be the farthest away from battle was the focus of the battle instead. This was bound to fail sooner or later but they couldn’t help it.
Now they are deprived of their healer, their leader and most of all their voice of reason. If you think about it Manato did a lot of things therefore his loss is especially hard for them.
Manato supervised their finances, he gathered information about good hunting grounds, he planned what they would do each day, he made the strategies and made the calls for certain actions in combat and most of all he was the person that brought them together and kept them together.
-For Shihoru he was the person to see her weak personality and comfort her. They emphasized on that with the scene at the start
-For Yume he was the most caring person who looked out for others, especially Shihoru.
-For Haruhiro he was the closes to a friend in this world.
-For Ranta, well I guess he was the one keeping him at a leash.
-For Mogzo he was another person with a rather calm personality with whom he could be at ease.
Now all that is gone and you see how hard it hits them. Right now they don’t have a perspective and not the will to go on. Soon enough they will have to move on and they have to ask themselves… Where do we find ourselves another healer? Who will be the leader from now on? How do they have to change in battle, where can they improve and let something like that not happen again? These are some of the things that we will have to see in the upcoming episodes.
I simply love the ending sequence where they show how they say their goodbyes to Manato by scattering his cremated remains with the wind.
As a LN reader I'm satisfied.
Best post I've seen all month...Well said