"You don't have that time to spend anymore.
It truly is... too bad..."
It truly is... too bad..."
"The translator, too, has finally given in and died during this scene - from dehydration through crying and a heart attack caused by too much heartache..."
— Spice Up the Subtitles from the Youtube release right before the credits
As a series made by the creator of Osana Reimu, this Film Comic is just as effective at making people cry.
Unmarked spoilers below.
- To provide some Mood Whiplash from the lighthearted party scenes from the first episode and give a sense of what the series will entail, we get a flashback scene of Kasen as a child from before she became an oni. She's starving to death because she's waiting in vain for her mother to return.
- Becomes even sadder when the credits for episode four provide some extra context: Everyone in Kasen's village except for her mother hated her because they found her creepy, and her mother really did mean to return. Unfortunately, the villagers decided to sacrifice her to appease the water god and stop a terrible storm that they believed Kasen had caused with her presence. And Kasen never found out, believing that her mother abandoned her by choice.
- After arriving at Rajoumon and finding that she cannot enter, Kasen begins to think back to her time growing up with the oni bandits. The life that she doesn't have anymore, and can't go back to without her arm. She then uses the smoke that remains of her right arm to reach out into the sky with Dull Eyes of Unhappiness. Poor girl has been broken.
- Moments before Kasen attempts to off Yoshika, the latter reveals herself to be a Stepford Smiler whose main happiness has come from their recent friendship and that she can't stop thinking about the day of her death whenever she is alone, breaking down crying from her confession. This is enough for Kasen to cry too as her Heel Realization kicks in.
- When Yoshika gets rejected by the reikon, her look of desperation and despair says it all. Even Seiga appears to be saddened by the news, and then seeing Yoshika leave to cry alone (pictured above) is just heartbreaking.
- After the above, Seiga finds out that Yoshika is dying of a terminal disease. Seiga regretfully tells her that the sickness doesn't appear to be curable with medicine from the time, and tells Yoshika that she has no hope left (quote from the caption for the picture above).
- For the inevitable scene of Yoshika becoming a jiang shi, the audience is given a nasty punch in the gut. Yoshika gets poisoned and has her dreams crushed by Seiga, the same person she trusted to help her and had followed through with her end of the deal up until then. And then Seiga has the gall to mock Yoshika's goal of becoming a hermit for Kasen's sake.
- Seiga is given more humanization in the form of marrying a man named Kan Kaku. Unfortunately, she had to leave him to become a hermit. After he found out about her Faking the Dead, they are forced to separate again and Seiga is clearly heartbroken about it.
- Suika, just like Kasen, was an abandoned child before she became an oni, and her original name translates to "Throw-away Kid". When Kasen brings up an Armor-Piercing Question that reminds her of this, Suika is left in shock.
- The Big Damn Reunion qualifies for both this and Heartwarming Moments. Kasen finally gets to see Yoshika again and hugs her as she cries... but she has no memory anymore and asks who Kasen is. And then as Yoshika gets her memory back and they get a proper reunion, she dies soon afterward, right after realizing that she was looking for someone to spend time with rather than immortality. Ouch. All that Kasen can do now is cry, before saying her goodbyes to Yoshika for the last time.Kasen: "Sleep tight... Yoshika..."
