This was another really interesting episode with a self-contained narrative that starts and finishes in this episode itself, this time focusing on the more fantasy side of Moribito, which the show had been a tad quiet on for the past couple episodes as the show focused more on Chagum adjusting to the commoner life as well as learning some backstories of Balsa, Chagum and his brother Sagum, etc. This episode focused more on Saya and Toya, the two orphaned children that have been with each other for a very long time at this point.
Before this episode, Toya when meeting up with Balsa and Chagum spoke a little about how Saya had been a hardworker for the village that both of them had been residing in, that she was getting multiple marriage offers over there. And I can see why. She's a lovely girl with a sweet personality yet a hardworking spirit to her, a valuable commodity for the residents there to have their child be married to her.
But despite marriage offers that would normally be very tempting to accept, especially for Toya's side since he wants happiness for Saya regardless of his feelings since she referred to as a daughter/younger sister in the interview this episode, Saya didn't want to accept any marriage offers due to being in love with Toya for a long time. She didn't have the courage to properly turn them down though, and through the flower wine (not despair), her soul disappeared from her body as she was trapped in a different dimension of sorts, to Nayug.
Since she drunk the flower wine, she was able to return back to her body with the help of Tanda; who despite knowing about how reckless soul summoning can be for someone as inexperienced as he was in the field unlike Torogai, had to do it anyway to tell her to wake up. He didn't drink the flower wine though and was trapped at Nayug alone, trying to find a way back. At least he got to witness what a beautiful, Ghibli-like world Nayug was and I have to say, it was some of best background art I've seen in TV anime in quite some time. He did get to leave eventually due to the help of the egg residing in Chagum, where he was able to communicate through to Chagum that the flower wine could wake him up and send his soul back.
The one underlining aspect though that had me more fascinated than the beautiful fantasy world that is Nayug, and Toya-Saya's relationship, was Balsa and Tanda's. Their relationship hasn't been explicitly described but the subtleties have been present bit by bit in most episodes of the show since they caught up to each other when Tanda had to heal Balsa from near death. Before Tanda got to explore Nayug, it was fascinating seeing them have a conversation with each other, despite not being able to hear each other due to being in different dimensions. Shows how much of a different wavelength these two are together. It was nice to seem them elaborate though a bit on how their relationship was in the past and how a couple years ago, there was a wedge drawn between them but that same wedge also set Balsa on the right path to becoming who she is now, not killing anymore and helping out people to atone when she could. It was the wedge that brought her back to him now, with Chagum and with a more mature mindset.
Even better than that, was seeing how the two adults, Balsa and Tanda, there were analyzing Saya and Toya's relationship and how the signs were there for their feelings for each other, with observant Chagum staring at the both of them, knowing that those two are also on that same path before having a chuckle as they walk through the rice fields. Not much was said, but a ton was inferred. Love that so much, quality shit there. Would gladly love to know more and more about Balsa and Tanda's relationship together in the past and see how they also develop further into the future.
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