hontou ni sou omou?

Chikane struggles against temptation in Miyako’s mirror world while Souma defends Himeko against the Chainguy orochi and then the mecha of the idol, nurse catgirl and mangaka. Chikane’s despair of ever gaining Himeko’s love is Miyako’s lever to prevent the mikos from stopping her master but the lunar shrine maiden manages to resist. For now. Souma kisses Himeko after emerging victorious and this is witnessed by Chikane whose moon mark then restores the memory backups of her past live. With this knowledge and Himeko’s own admission that Souma might be the one for her, Chikane makes a fateful decision.

Having the basis of her attraction to Himeko established in the previous episode, this encounter emphasizes that Chikane’s love for Himeko also has a strong element of sexual desire. The key assumptions for her despair that it is not acceptable for a girl to love another girl that way may seem anarchronostic but one supposes that Jp is still more conservative about this and Chikane’s own aristocratic background and upbringing further compounds this kind of conservatism.

The art for this part evokes a familiar imagery which I last saw in the Forest of Thorn (Ibara no Mori) arc, centring on Sei and Shiori’s ultimately doomed relationship.

Chikane is able to overcome the illusion because Miyako goes too far and “Himeko” is played completely out of character. Even though Chikane might wish for Himeko to desire her so but its divergence from the Himeko she knows and loves shatters the fantasy. I wonder sometimes if Chikane’s deeply held belief, that Himeko will never love her like that, also played a part in this.

Augh, the mecha designs. Especially the golden thing. Remind me not to complain about the Akitsuki ever again.

After being graphically confronted with the depth of her own desire for Himeko, Chikane is then subjected to further emotional hammer blows that set the scene for the next episode. She sees Himeko allowing Souma to kiss her and then later, in what seems to be the last straw, Himeko draws on the sea shell pairing story that Chikane told her to point to Souma as The One for her. At this point, we are not yet told of the significance of Chikane’s Tsuki no Miko flashbacks (which are only explained in the last episode) so when I first watched this, I thought that Chikane had given in to despair after getting confirmation that she’ll never have the love of the only person she wants.

Some other miscelleneous observations. I actually really like the character designs for the previous incarnations of Chikane and Himeko. Less of the big hair thing as well as the annoying red bow and yellow hair band. The previous Hi no Miko looks less mousy than Himeko and the previous Tsuki no Miko less feline and sharp-corned eyed than Chikane. There’s also a terribly gentle feeling about the pair.

Otaha’s intervention of a (probably fabricated) phone call was well meant - saving face for her mistress who was already on the verge of emotional collapse but I also do wonder if Chikane had broken down then in front of Himeko, whether things would have turned out differently.