A Call From the Dead, from two dead people actually. From Lillian, who passed thousands of years ago, and from Senku, who is assumed to be dead. Manga spoilers ahead! Take caution unless you’ve read. If you get spoiled you can’t say that I hadn’t said.
This episode opens with a small bonus that we didn’t see in the manga, which is a look at life in the Tsukasa Empire. A bunch of goons, Yo, Yuzuriha, Taiju, and Nikki are gathered around a fire for dinner. The dinner is crudely prepared (maybe even below Ishigami Village standards) and no one is talking or even acknowledging each other, except Nikki focused on our spies. Yuzuriha and Taiju are the only ones actually enjoying each other’s company here, and of course Yuzuriha is daintily sipping soup with a spoon unlike anyone around her. I guess we won’t see her holding a giant bone and tearing off a big chunk of meat, or double-fisting drumsticks like Yo was doing.
The scene of Taiju finding the phone and crying (because he finally has something resembling a smartphone-- I mean, because he reconnects with Senku) is played again with some added detail about Yuzuriha spotting it and Nikki watching them. While it sets up the episode, this also brings back the emotion we felt at the end of last episode, but then gives us a shot of comedy (“I’m Senku!”) before starting the intro. This episode could have played out in a serious tone with such high stakes, but instead, it has tons of comedy.
Emotion is turned into inspiration as Senku jumps right into the Lillian scheme. Kohaku mentions one of the most wholesome concepts of this series, that these friends’ trust in each other never wavers, even after a year apart, and it’s a major strength of the Kingdom of Science throughout the whole series (not just between Senku and Taiju). We see plenty of these moments during the Treasure Island arc. For example, when Ryusui dives to revive Taiju, and when Senku revives Ryusui to help him fight Ibara. Another example being when Senku entrusts Chrome to handle business in the America arc. It’s a huge overarching message throughout the series that makes us love the characters and root for them. Does it have any effect on the way you feel about the people in your life?
How about that jazzy new OST while Gen escapes back to the village? I think they might could have done a bit more to extend the suspense of Gen making it back to the village in time. There are moments in the manga (and more so the further on it goes) that suspenseful moments are over too quickly, and will hopefully be drawn out more when animated.
This episode is really all about Nikki. When she first appears, she is scary, harsh and unrelenting. At least, that’s the front she tries to uphold to keep Yuzuriha and Taiju in their place. With the threats and having the first instinct to beat up Taiju to keep him in line, it speaks to her abusive background which we learn about shortly after.
Hearing the real Lillian softens her up as she’s happy to find a team that promises to protect something so precious to her. We don’t really see any kind of outburst from her again until she takes on the leader role in America (Lillian is again mentioned in that scene). There she's still unrelenting and forceful, but not mean. Joining the Kingdom of Science has helped her let go of those habits, but her fierce personality still comes through in an effective way.
I don’t know how obvious it was, but I almost couldn’t handle Senku’s “bad Japanese” when he was playing the interpreter Sebastian. I knew to expect English being spoken over the phone soon, which to be honest I thought would happen this episode. But the silly “foreigner” Japanese he used about made me fall on my head. It was really bad pronunciation on purpose to play the part of the Japanese-as-a-second-langauge interpreter. Senku has ten billion facial expressions, I guess he also has ten billion voices, too. Other moments that come to mind are when he yells at Taiju (maybe to match his loud voice?), when he has his “villain face” as Kohaku calls it and sounds evil, his voice becoming raspy when emotional, trying to play innocent like announcing the need for a second cell phone and sounds overly cute, and of course, Mecha Senku’s voice (also cute).
Some other quick observations:
When Yuzuriha realized Senku’s plan, I heard a very familiar “Wooooow” from her. It’s so great to have these two back in the story!
Of course Senku is the type to give one-word responses to his dad’s paragraph texts.
At the concert we see Lillian in all her gorgeous glory, to see her sing must have been exhilarating. It looks like (and sounds like) she puts out so much energy while she sings.
We’ve had plenty of unforgettable moments in every episode so far. What are your favorites from this season?
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