Mirai Nikki Episode 21

I’ve finally started my work placement, at two libraries! The first is in Barmouth, where I started last Thursday, and the second is Blaenau Ffestiniog, where I’ll be on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings next week. 🙂 Because I started late due to complications, the people running the course are looking into extending it so I still get the full 4 weeks experience. Which is a good thing for the most part… but it screws up my plan of ending in time for the new anime season. 😦

—

Ep 21 begins with Yuno running around killing some very derpy looking civilians on her way up the tower…

Eleventh soon hears about this rampage, but before he can do anything, a helicopter appears outside his window, and a reporter inside reads out Yuki’s demands – Bacchus must release his friends, then kill himself… can’t see it ending that easily, though. Meanwhile, Yuno reaches Yuki and Minene – Yuki sends her to rescue Kousaka and the others (is that really a good idea?), while he declares he’s going to kill Eleventh. As for Minene, after a final farewell to Nishijima, she follows Yuki.

Before long, however, Minene calls Yuki to a halt. It seems she’s getting tired of their alliance, saying she’ll let Yuki live until he’s killed Eleventh… but if he messes up along the way, she’ll kill him there and then.

In the other tower we see Kousaka, Hinata and Mao (still captured at gunpoint) messing around as if it were a perfectly normal situation. Watching them, the guards wonder whether they’re even worth killing. Until Kousaka makes the brilliant mistake of mentioning HOLON, the super computer – at which point it becomes clear they know too much. Yuno comes to the rescue though, making quick work of the guards.

Heading upwards towards Eleventh, Yuki and Minene eventually arrive at the safety deposit lobby of ‘Gasai Bank’… a familiar and plot relevant name. As Eleventh (now right in front of them) explains, It was formerly owned by Yuno’s parents, but since going bankrupt is due to become city property. Before they can get to him, Eleventh locks himself inside the enormous bank vault. Fortunately for Yuki, he leaves the card-key behind, along with his secretary who (with a bit of ‘persuasion’) gives them the PIN.

Unfortunately, behind the giant steel door of the vault is… a second door, this time with no easy method of access. Behind this door, Eleventh makes himself quite comfortable. In the South Tower, Yuno learns about Yuki’s situation from her diary, and without a word to Kousaka and Co. she abandons their mission to destroy the HOLON unit, instead running off in another direction entirely.

After many failed attempts by Yuki to get through the second door, Minene makes good on her promise, and starts shooting at him! Yuno reads about this too, but the others who until now had been following her stop when Hinata’s phone rings – the call is from Aru.

Having escaped from the bank vault entrance, Yuki hides among some desks in an abandoned office while Minene searches for him. His diary predicts she’ll kill him, but even if he or Yuno took action to change things, the usual static sound from his phone would immediately give away his hiding place… not a good situation. Minene, however, is becoming increasingly weakened due to blood loss from her arm (or lack of it), and stops to rest for a while. She talks aloud during this time, knowing that wherever Yuki is hiding he’d be able to hear her, calling his reasons for trying to become god selfish. Then, she tells him of her childhood.

Considering they’ve been showing flashbacks to it for a long time, I was hoping Minene’s back story would be complex… so I was a little disappointed to learn that ending up in the Middle East with her parents (for reasons not explained), losing her parents (for reasons not explained), then stealing food and dodging bullets to survive for many years was all there was to her past. Still, it’d be a horrible situation to find yourself in at such a young age, so it’s easy to see why her childhood still haunts her.

Brief flashback over, Minene tells Yuki that she actually likes him, and sees much of her past self in him. But for the same reason, she tells him to face the reality that his dreams of a happy life with his own deceased parents will never come true. This isn’t enough to provoke a response from the boy though, so Minene continues her search. Meanwhile, Yuki is becoming increasingly desperate to escape, but notices some paper and a pen near his hiding place…

Inside the bank vault, Eleventh watches everything that’s going on in the building, while confidently thinking aloud about the fact that only he and the deceased members of the Gasai family can open that bank vault, making him perfectly safe… Of course, we now know that Second isn’t the real Gasai Yuno, so even she’s no threat to him.

At the same time, Yuno comes across the room where Eighth is being held captive – by Aru, dressed as one of the building’s guards! Yuno moves to attack the other diary user, which would bring Yuki one step closer to godhood, but Aru intervenes. He may be a super detective, but I doubt he’d have lasted long against Yuno had her future not changed just as she prepared to attack him; the diary now mentions Yuki writing his ‘last words’ on a notepad!

Yuki’s future changes soon after, giving away his location to Minene… or that of his phone, at least. He left it behind while he moved to another hiding place, and when Minene finds it, he takes advantage of her confusion to disarm her! By that I mean he shoots her gun out of her hand, as opposed to removing her remaining arm, which would just be mean.

Yuki explains that he wrote his ‘last words’ down with the intention of making Yuno change the future, luring Minene into his trap with the noise. Clever… but he can’t bring himself to finish the job by killing her.

Minene rushes forward and punches him to the ground. If he won’t kill her, she certainly has no worries about killing him! She then moves to pick up her gun, turning to point it at Yuki in a single move… but she sees the image of her childhood self hiding behind him, and realizes that what she was about to do was no different than what happened to her in the past. While she is lost in this realization, Yuki shoots and finishes her.

Yuki returns to the bank vault, but still has no way of getting through the second door. Eleventh’s voice taunts him through speakers in the room, calling him dull for just standing there uselessly, defeated, instead of at least trying to gain access somehow. He also calls Minene boring… something she doesn’t seem to appreciate, as she walks into the room to join Yuki – not quite finished yet, and determined to prove she’s far from boring!

Minene is armed with a bomb rigged to explode once her heart stops beating – good thing Yuki didn’t really kill her! She uses the last of her energy to move in front of the locked door, intending to open a path for Yuki. Even Eleventh is worried about this turn of events… however, the blast isn’t strong enough. At least Minene’s end isn’t completely unhappy, as she sees the phantom of her childhood self reunited with her parents, while her adult self is reunited with Nishijima.

Just as the smoke from the explosion clears, Yuno arrives, relieved to find that Yuki is alive and well. She tells him to go and deal with the South tower HOLON unit, leaving her to ‘watch over’ Eleventh. What else can they do, after all, if not even Minene’s bombs can take down the door?

Eleventh isn’t overly concerned about the loss of HOLON, and still seems relaxed… that is, until the door to the vault opens up behind him. He slowly turns around to find Yuno peeping at him from behind a corner. He’s convinced she must be an illusion, but the bullet she puts through his head seems real enough. Bacchus’ end is swift and undramatic compared with Minene’s, and events quickly move on.

Some days later, we find Yuki and Yuno safe at Yuki’s house. Two diary owners down in one episode, so aside from them only Eighth remains. Can’t say I’d have predicted she’d be the last one standing. 😛 According to Yuki’s diary she’s now in Aru’s care, and the boy detective wants to talk to Yuki regarding this.

Meanwhile, Aru tells Eighth that he may hand her over to Yuki – she seems alright with this, seeing as she’s lost everything and didn’t want to become god in the first place. Seems that victory is at hand for Yuki! The one thing holding Aru back, however, is Yuno. He doesn’t trust her, as on top of everything he already knew about her, he also witnessed her opening the door to the bank vault by retina scan… she’s obviously not your average impostor!

Then… the world starts falling apart. Literally. Black spheres containing turning cogs appear all over the place, quickly expanding and destroying everything they touch! Yuno believes this must mean Deus’ life is nearing its end, meaning they have little time left to find a new god to replace him! Less time than they should have had, according to Murmur, who believes Deus must have taken some sort of action to hasten his own demise! Is this connected to that weird scene where he split Minene in half?

The episode ends with a further twist – Eighth appears before Deus and Murmur… and she’s bought Aru along with her! Murmur tries to get rid of him, but Deus stops her. Aru then proceeds to ask an unexpected question: Can everything be returned to normal, even with the appointment of a new god? The answer will have to wait for another episode!

—

And so the dangerous enemy diary owners are all out of the way, but with this twist the next episode shows no sign of slowing down or becoming dull! 😀 With any luck I may even be able to watch and post about it tomorrow (dependent on subs being released in time, of course) as I have the day off. 🙂