Aaand I'd be calling the cops! (episode 6 spoilers)

Most people are not going to believe in the concept of reincarnation, let alone a living breathing talking example in front of them, unless they already belong to and are devout believers in and practitioners of a religion which codifies it as doctrine, or their own individual interpretation of spirituality inspired by one or more related religions.

And as a single parent working a shitty, entry-level, presumably low-paid job in a fast food restaurant, with a terrible relationship with her own parents, a divorce and terrible relationships and luck with men, as well as a fraught and difficult relationship with her own daughter since she is still shaped by ghosts of the past and her daughter has been going through something which she wasn't aware of, I doubt very much she ever had the time or energy to become the kind of person sitting around philosophizing about theoretical principles of reincarnation or any such thing. She's just the average person, and even more jaded, angry, bitter, cynical, etc. than average due to her life circumstances and being hurt.

So my point is that even with the developments in the latest episode, I doubt that she - at least at this point in time anyway - literally believes Marika is the physical reincarnation of Takae and all the specifics and details of their story and account of events. But I think she's also not too far gone not to realize that her daughter has been going through something major for quite some time now, something she could never talk about previously which has been weighing on her. Something enough to change her behavior and personality, is emotionally difficult for her to express or for the mother herself to understand or accept, and which is obviously extremely important to her and in part shaping her life right now.

So my interpretation or impression of it is that while she probably doesn't believe or accept it all as a literal phenomenon, she's willing to at least humor it, try to listen and understand, and see how it all plays out, since it's something important to her daughter and she doesn't want to lose her. At least not yet. Either lose her in a literal physical sense (as in, she leaves the house) or be severed from her emotionally.

@WatchTillTandava

If we're gonna rationalize it, my take:

I think the mom is being completely emotionally overwhelmed right now. It's actually at the level of mental abuse, even if not intended by the husband. Marika's mom already came from a shitty childhood, had no dad, and her new found love revealed himself to be a cheating bastard who's already married. Then she sees her little daughter walking into the house of stranger adults. Then that house's man dares approach her and call her bad parenting out. The accumulated shock plus the painful true words sent her back home. AND NOW that weird man even comes to her house, carrying her sick daughter AND she's being told the reincarnation story - WHO TF wouldn't feel overwhelmed by now?!

The fact that she's not instantly calling the police is a mere consequence of her being out of fucks given. Aliens might land in a spaceship next to her house at this point, whatever.

None of this makes the things okay that happened, but it also means there could be a delayed reaction. The big saving grace for the husband is that his adult daughter is there with him. Gives a much better look than just him as an adult man appearing.

Still, irl the police would be there already.

@MyllerPhiem From everything you have written so far I get the thing that you either do not want to understand the story an push your 'agenda' whatever it is or you are really ignorant of the story so far.

Let's just say that the police shows up - you really think they will arrest Keisuke, who is your normal hard working salary man, or Chika who has been shown to pretty much everyone around her how she treats her daughter.

Police would just come to conclusion after hearing everyone (and that includes Marika's teachers and friends, all of whom know what is happening in her household) that she mishandled her daughter so much that poor thing needs psychological treatment and take her away from her.

IRL, Marika would be taken away from her and Keisuke would be just an adult to whom Marika run away and tried to get some help from her abusive mother. I would not be surprised if they decide to give him the custody while Chika goes to prison.

But this is not the real world and Keisuke is not bad man like that, so this entire debate with the police has no meaning.

I keep seeing takes like this on this thread, "it's anime, it's not meant to be realistic," and I don't really get it.

Anime doesn't have to be realistic, yes, but characters have to act like people. Or at least act in a way that's understandable. Otherwise, why are you watching this (supposedly) down-to-earth family drama in a modern-day setting?

OP raised a valid point about Marika's mom having no real reason to be so accepting of these strangers' claims, instead of doing the extremely normal thing of trying to remove them from her house, i.e. calling the police. OP also speculated that Marika's mom is so in distress from everything happening in her life that she reacted to this news purely emotionally. I also think this is the most believable explanation, even though I think the show could've made this a lot clearer.

If you can overlook this turn of events, fine. But you can't fault people for losing their suspension of disbelief from some irrational or confusing behavior. Especially when this was such a critical moment in the story.

@BrotherCoa Touch grass and touch it quickly. Keisuke would be fucked irl. And that's not up for debate. The only ignorant person here is you, holy shit. Strong advice, Coa: Never take stranger kids into your house.

@MyllerPhiem A person who cannot differentiate fiction and reality is telling me to touch grass?

I think we all know who needs to touch grass here. :)

Please go outside and hang out with people, I wrote what I did becasue I do go around and see how real people function. Do you?

@perseii
Well, the topic discussed here is one of those rare cases where "it's fiction" has to be applied, otherwise there's NO reason to even start arguing.
I mean, in real life reincarnations can't ever happen! Hopefully we all agree on this. In real life Marika can't ever be a reincarnation of someone's wife for starters; she'll always be but a normal kid (at max. she can be brainwashed and forced to believe she's reincarnated, though how believable she can make herself is another issue). How can you make it "understandable"? Keisuke also would 100% always be a schizo and a creep IRL. Meaning police would be called 100% times because again, Marika is out of the picture as a reincarnated adult in a child's body. There's no "WHAT IF" scenario in real life where mom can be sane but chooses to believe Keisuke. Are we discussing reality here though? What's the point applying logical reaction of mom in real life with the reaction that can be logical only in fiction and fiction alone??

In this anime reincarnations can happen and can be proven. Marika isn't making it very hard to believe. IRL it's pretty much impossible that a kid her age would be so delusional or manipulative to succeed convincing her own mom she's an adult who was mom and wife in previous life! Marika acts and talks NOT like a normal child in this show. It makes sense in fiction to believe her and Keisuke. There's logic there too, not just emotion! Imagine hearing something as world-shattering as reincarnations being real, and your daughter being someone else; that would make anyone emotional. When talks began she was calm and collected though, so bringing up her "traumatized by life" argument isn't really THAT relevant here. She would've reacted emotionally to the news even if she didn't have traumatic past. Heck, if she was a loving and caring parent, it's more likely she'd notice her child suddenly changing and acting strangely sooner.

Unlike real life where mom can't ever be sane for believing in reincarnations, in this fiction mom CAN be sane and believe in reincarnations! Her own observations of her daughter changing and acting strangely is what mattered more than what she heard from 2 strangers. Even before talk about reincarnation was brought up, mom did ask Marika if she was really her daughter. She was already pretty shocked discovering how strange her daughter acted in secret and how different she was. It wasn't all fresh news to her when the talks began; she was already accepting that her daughter was weird. That's why her NOT calling the cops makes more sense in this fiction. She had doubts and she had reasons to believe. When compared to real life, Chika would ALWAYS be mentally ill/unstable to fall for schizo father's BS and believe her NON-REINCARNATED daughter is someone else in a child's body. But again, IRL Marika would likely not act strangely to begin with since she'll be normal child, while Keisuke will be messed in the head and/or have ulterior motives 100% of times. So what are we discussing again in this thread??? "it's anime, it's not meant to be realistic" - without this logic, OP already knows the answer. Cops get called, the story ends. And?

P.S OP isn't known for arguing in good faith, so you're giving him too much credit.

@perseii
Well, the topic discussed here is one of those rare cases where "it's fiction" has to be applied, otherwise there's NO reason to even start arguing.
I mean, in real life reincarnations can't ever happen! Hopefully we all agree on this. In real life Marika can't ever be a reincarnation of someone's wife for starters; she'll always be but a normal kid (at max. she can be brainwashed and forced to believe she's reincarnated, though how believable she can make herself is another issue). How can you make it "understandable"? Keisuke also would 100% always be a schizo and a creep IRL. Meaning police would be called 100% times because again, Marika is out of the picture as a reincarnated adult in a child's body. There's no "WHAT IF" scenario in real life where mom can be sane but chooses to believe Keisuke. Are we discussing reality here though? What's the point applying logical reaction of mom in real life with the reaction that can be logical only in fiction and fiction alone??

In this anime reincarnations can happen and can be proven. Marika isn't making it very hard to believe. IRL it's pretty much impossible that a kid her age would be so delusional or manipulative to succeed convincing her own mom she's an adult who was mom and wife in previous life! Marika acts and talks NOT like a normal child in this show. It makes sense in fiction to believe her and Keisuke. There's logic there too, not just emotion! Imagine hearing something as world-shattering as reincarnations being real, and your daughter being someone else; that would make anyone emotional. When talks began she was calm and collected though, so bringing up her "traumatized by life" argument isn't really THAT relevant here. She would've reacted emotionally to the news even if she didn't have traumatic past. Heck, if she was a loving and caring parent, it's more likely she'd notice her child suddenly changing and acting strangely sooner.

Unlike real life where mom can't ever be sane for believing in reincarnations, in this fiction mom CAN be sane and believe in reincarnations! Her own observations of her daughter changing and acting strangely is what mattered more than what she heard from 2 strangers. Even before talk about reincarnation was brought up, mom did ask Marika if she was really her daughter. She was already pretty shocked discovering how strange her daughter acted in secret and how different she was. It wasn't all fresh news to her when the talks began; she was already accepting that her daughter was weird. That's why her NOT calling the cops makes more sense in this fiction. She had doubts and she had reasons to believe. When compared to real life, Chika would ALWAYS be mentally ill/unstable to fall for schizo father's BS and believe her NON-REINCARNATED daughter is someone else in a child's body. But again, IRL Marika would likely not act strangely to begin with since she'll be normal child, while Keisuke will be messed in the head and/or have ulterior motives 100% of times. So what are we discussing again in this thread??? "it's anime, it's not meant to be realistic" - without this logic, OP already knows the answer. Cops get called, the story ends. And?

P.S OP isn't known for arguing in good faith, so you're giving him too much credit.

@Sigmar-Unberogen
You do realize the world is a big place and that eastern and western sensibilites do not always match. What for western societies at large it may seem like a fiction-only concept, mostly due to Christianity being a heavy influence on the western zeitgeist, the same is not true for many eastern societies, where Buddhist philosophy has had historically a much greater influence than Christianity. And Buddhism does contemplate the cycle of death and rebirth. So calling Chika "insane" for believing them is ignoring the whole cultural differences.
So no, we cannot "all" agree that reincarnations can never happen, for we're dealing with something that currently can neither be scientifically proven nor disproven.

I keep seeing takes like this on this thread, "it's anime, it's not meant to be realistic," and I don't really get it.

Anime doesn't have to be realistic, yes, but characters have to act like people. Or at least act in a way that's understandable. Otherwise, why are you watching this (supposedly) down-to-earth family drama in a modern-day setting?

OP raised a valid point about Marika's mom having no real reason to be so accepting of these strangers' claims, instead of doing the extremely normal thing of trying to remove them from her house, i.e. calling the police. OP also speculated that Marika's mom is so in distress from everything happening in her life that she reacted to this news purely emotionally. I also think this is the most believable explanation, even though I think the show could've made this a lot clearer.

If you can overlook this turn of events, fine. But you can't fault people for losing their suspension of disbelief from some irrational or confusing behavior. Especially when this was such a critical moment in the story.

@perseii you have a point, but there's one major problem: OP is a grifter and it's not the first time they're accusing this anime in committing all possible unforgivable sins.
They should've touch grass themself and just stop interacting with the media piece which disturbs the peace of mind.

@perseii you have a point, but there's one major problem: OP is a grifter and it's not the first time they're accusing this anime in committing all possible unforgivable sins.
They should've touch grass themself and just stop interacting with the media piece which disturbs the peace of mind.

@perseii you have a point, but there's one major problem: OP is a grifter and it's not the first time they're accusing this anime in committing all possible unforgivable sins.
They should've touch grass themself and just stop interacting with the media piece which disturbs the peace of mind.

@ruicarlov Sure... If you're irked by my "100% statement" I'll retract it. In this world 100% of people won't agree even on 2+2=4.
Yes, due to religious beliefs, in Asian countries we can argue it's less likely people will call cops when someone claims to be reincarnated.
But religion has very little to do with Marika's case here.
In real life Marika can't be a reincarnated person. What would make it hard to believe Marika in REAL LIFE, even if you're buddhist, is the fact that you're dealing with a young child. A child her age will hardly convince an adult that they're reincarnated person. Again, it doesn't matter if you believe reincarnation can happen. If you use common sense you should understand if the child has mental issues or is lying - and that would 100% be the case with Marika in real life. With that in mind, Chika would still 100% be insane for believing them, since I don't believe a child like Marika can exist who (unlike fictional Marika) can talk about past life memories for instance, or talk about topics that are difficult for children to understand; in other words you should figure out they're NOT reincarnated. In this fiction however, you have clues that makes it believable!
Now, if you believe that there can be a reincarnated person like Marika out there in real world, I'm not gonna argue with you. You're free to believe in whatever, and I don't have any desire to turn this into religious debate. It's not my intention to call religious people insane.

@ruicarlov Sure... If you're irked by my "100% statement" I'll retract it. In this world 100% of people won't agree even on 2+2=4.
Yes, due to religious beliefs, in Asian countries we can argue it's less likely people will call cops when someone claims to be reincarnated.
But religion has very little to do with Marika's case here.
In real life Marika can't be a reincarnated person. What would make it hard to believe Marika in REAL LIFE, even if you're buddhist, is the fact that you're dealing with a young child. A child her age will hardly convince an adult that they're reincarnated person. Again, it doesn't matter if you believe reincarnation can happen. If you use common sense you should understand if the child has mental issues or is lying - and that would 100% be the case with Marika in real life. With that in mind, Chika would still 100% be insane for believing them, since I don't believe a child like Marika can exist who (unlike fictional Marika) can talk about past life memories for instance, or talk about topics that are difficult for children to understand; in other words you should figure out they're NOT reincarnated. In this fiction however, you have clues that makes it believable!
Now, if you believe that there can be a reincarnated person like Marika out there in real world, I'm not gonna argue with you. You're free to believe in whatever, and I don't have any desire to turn this into religious debate. It's not my intention to call religious people insane.

I didn't personally have a big problem with this plot point and the way it was handled specifically, but for those that did, I feel it's important to point something out: Whether it's that plot point or any other in this series or in many other series, it all stems from the same central problem of rushing at breakneck pace to cram an entire story and what could be a much fuller-length series into an arbitrary one cour 11 - 13 episode format as so many newer anime series have been apparently compelled to do increasingly in the past 10 - 15 years or so, since sometime around the start of the 2010s.

Some, if you trace them back to their source material, maybe are just that shallow and sparse on details within their source too, but many many, I believe the vast majority, are anywhere from slightly to extremely more detailed and elaborated upon in their source, which would provide a lot more context and rationale, and specific thoughts, feelings, and unique individual circumstances behind many different conversations and events which are just skipped over and omitted entirely. I'm not saying it's necessarily the case here but it's a beyond prevalent, recurring theme. If you took a series which could be 26 or 45 episodes and went through it with a butcher knife hacking out anything deemed as excess fat to the point where it was a fraction of its original state, surely everything would seem a lot less justifiably motivated in the narrative and make a lot less sense.

The same if some overzealous editor slashed a three or four hour movie down to 90 minutes. But that's exactly what many of these series, for one reason or another (mainly it seems like financial and greed-based reasoning) have been ordered or pressured to do. Which would affect writing and plausibility, weaken depth, and leave the artistic expression and ability of anything hamstrung.

Series like this one, as one of many examples, used to get a few dozen episodes no questions asked to breathe and do their thing in the 2000s and all the decades prior. That's my biggest gripe with a lot of new anime.