Impression:

Have you ever watched a series that seemed like it was being sad for the sake of being sad? I have gone back and forth regarding whether or not I think that this is one of those series. After having watched this episode, I do think that there is deeper meaning behind it than just sadness for the sake of sadness.

That was expected.

A lot of fairly obvious thing occurred in this episode. Humpnie revealed the fact that his wish is to die. That is a fairly common desire amongst immortal people because of various reasons. Humpnie’s is a fear of being the last person on the planet. He likes people and the thought of eternal loneliness is not fun. I doubt that even anti-social people would enjoy that. It is also fairly tough to sustain your life without help. After this, Humpnie kicks Ai off of a bridge into the water. She is pretty pissed, but Yuri calms her down by explaining how he saved her. Humpnie was about to be attacked and he forced Ai away from the violence. After that, Yuri shows Ai a picture of Humpnie with the woman that he was looking for. It was Ai’s mom. If you didn’t see that coming, then you weren’t watching the same series that everyone else was. This convinced Ai to rescue the guy with the help of Yuri and Scar. Those two people know how to show up at the right time. A bunch of sadistic dead people captured Humpnie because their leader is kind of a stalker. Unfortunately, Humpnie wasn’t as sick and twisted as the guy thought, so torture ensued. The Earth became a pretty sick place. Apparently, being a gravekeeper means that you have super strength because scar busts in and takes out the biggest guy there with ease. Also, Ai can dodge bullets. I will forget that odd sequence. The important thing is the fact that Humpnie finally dies even though he found a reason to live. The irony was not even entertaining. He spends one day with Ai and she has to bury him soon afterwards. This little girl cannot catch a break.

Some people wish for death.

Current Opinion of the Show:

I am really enjoying this series. They continue to tackle very interesting questions about life, wishes, and the choices that we make. Humpnie’s desire for death, and then life, is an example of the communal aspect of life. Humans, like most animals, seek out companionship. Even people who say they dislike others find themselves attached to something. Life itself is not a reason to live. There needs to be something tangible that keeps us wanting to press on. Unfortunately, it was fairly sad watching Ai bury her father as soon as she found out about him. I honestly thought that this was going to be a story about their journey together, but I guess that Ai is going to be the star of the show. The progression did feel odd though. If this was a shoujo manga, then we would have to wait for the author to get sick and take a break before we realized that we were halfway to this point in the story. Ai realized that the villagers were dead, her father was revealed, and Humpnie’s wish was granted even though he lost sight of it. A tear-filled sendoff like this one seemed like it was going to be endgame in my eyes. Things are taking an interesting turn.

These people are sick.

Well, I was reminded of the fact that this world had become a sick place after seeing these people. They didn’t animate what was done to Humpnie, but these people were holding tools for torture and it was revealed that Humpnie died in a traumatic fashion. The crazy thing is the fact that what happens after this point may bother me quite a bit. I am kind of weak when it comes to dealing with bad things. What I mean by that is I get bothered by misfortune in anime quite easily. What we received thus far is fine, but I don’t want Ai to encounter a bunch of sick people on her journey even though I am pretty sure that will happen. I am not sure exactly what will go down moving forward, but this is definitely going to be about Ai’s journey. I wonder if this will be happy or a more neutral story. I doubt that it will have a completely bad ending. Having said that, I am not sure how this series will end. All I know is that I will cry if I have to keep watching Ai bury the people who are close to her.

That was rough.