Episode 32: A Crime
Summary:
Still in the sky, Erin asks Lilan to head down as they enter snowy territory. She sees a signal down below in the forest. Nason greets them when they land. He moves to blow his mute whistle, and Erin asks him not to, but he does it anyway. Erin realizes he’s of the Mist People when he lets down his hood. He explains how he’s been watching them and says she resembles a younger Soyon. He further says that if things had gone according to the code, he would have married Soyon. In order to save Erin, Soyon broke the code by using the skills of a Renditioner to control the Touda. They first thought Soyon had passed down her skills to Erin, but after seeing the events at Kazalm, that isn’t the case. He states that they are taught the skills of a Renditioner exactly because they want to make sure no one unfolds the skills. However, Erin created her own skill, which had been their greatest fear. Erin explains she only wanted to communicate with Lilan. Nason writes the symbol for ‘crime’ in the snow, and Erin recalls her last moments with her mom. She inquires about this ‘crime,’ and he says it involves communicating with beast-lords and Touda. Nason takes out a medallion and says he’ll explain everything now. Erin wonders what will happen if she doesn’t understand based on his story, and he threatens to kill her to avoid calamity. With that, he tells her to listen carefully.
As he points to places on the medallion, he explains there existed, in ancient times, a prosperous kingdom known as Ophalon on Ephon Noha. As a result, neighboring kingdoms tried to invade its territory. One of the King’s retainers recommended they seek help from the green-eyed people, who had the power to control Touda. Ophalon won the war, but the King, blinded by ambition, decided to invade neighboring countries with his Touda army. Anyone who questioned him faced harsh punishment. Consequently, the same retainer with the green-eyed peopled exiled him and his followers.
The setting shifts to the past, where the companionless King, dawning a cape and black hair, is confronted by a Touda. He is saved by a beast-lord from the sky, which he’s never seen before. A yellow-haired woman with golden eyes greets him and introduces him to this new creature. They return to her homeland in the snowy mountains. She thanks Luke, her beast-lord, and tells him to go home. The King remarks how it seems to understand her, and she says it’s natural given how their people grow up with them. This intrigues the King. Later, she hands children fruit and presents it to the King. Seeing these people and their happy faces, he is reminded about Ophalon, and remarks how they have a “thrifty lifestyle” here. He assumes they must wish for a more plentiful life, and the woman, known as the “Priestess,” says they are satisfied here. He mentions how this place and Ophalon are different then. His kingdom’s name sparks her interest. He tells her of how his dream and kingdom vanished before his eyes, and sways her with talk of freeing the beast-lords from hunting.
He speaks of his ambition and how he suppressed those who thought differently from him. He had hoped that they would eventually come to understand his ideals, but that never came to pass. What’s left now is his shattered dream and a persona filled with hatred. The woman thinks for a second and wonders what it would take to free him from hate and allow his heart to fill again with dreams. He tells her that she’s a kind girl, and comes up with a plan: they could raise a beast-lord army and demonstrate their power over Touda to raise fear in his enemies. Once that happens, they’re sure to surrender. At that point, he would offer her the throne. She wonders why he wouldn’t reclaim it, and he explains how he only wanted to make his people happy. Now, he wishes happiness for them- those who have provided him shelter.
At an assembly hall meeting, this idea is met with opposition. The elder protests that they are already living in peace and happiness here. The woman explains how they have many struggles and that if they were to go to Ophalon, their lifestyle would improve. This garners additional support. Over the next 10 years, they increase their beast-lord count to 2000. On the day before the attack, the King approaches the woman and says it must be hard to leave her home country. However, she tells him she’ll be fine as long as she has Luke.
On the day of, the beast-lord army descends on Ophalon with a grimacing red sky, perhaps foreshadowing the blood that will be spilled. One of the archers notice the King and they send their Touda army. The beast-lords demonstrate their skill and feast on the immobilized Touda. It seems the Touda are retreating back into the kingdom, but it’s revealed they have gone berserk, marked by their red eyes. The beast-lords demonstrate this same condition, and abandon their riders– leaving them to fall to their deaths. Beast-lords and Touda fight over the kingdom, destroying its walls, buildings, and people. As the kingdom burns, the woman spots some children being chased by a Touda and has Luke kill it. As she turns back to Luke, she is devastated to see he too has gone berserk. He flies off, leaving them to another Touda. The King raises his sword to fight it. As the two engage in battle, a sail-like structure of Ophalon collapses, in-sync with an icicle back in the woman’s kingdom. Nason reveals that the two sides went berserk and the massacre continued until the end came. Where Ophalon once existed is now only a cursed land. The green-eyed people sealed away the skill to control beasts and became nomadic and followed a strict code to prevent a future tragedy. Erin deducts they are the Aowrow, and Nason confirms this fact.
She inquires about the woman’s clan, and he says she is actually the founding Queen, Je, first Queen of the Holy Kingdom of Ryoza. Given what had happened, she exiled herself from her home and flew over Ephon Noha. He requests she not allow Lilan to fly again and raise her according to the code. Nason wants her to follow Soyon’s intention of obeying it, which presumably included purposely killing Touda that had reached mating maturity to prevent their numbers from rising. Erin wonders if Soyon really killed the Kiba to abide by the code, and also questions if she really thought it was a crime when she used the Renditioner skill. As she thinks, Nason vanishes.
Erin further contemplates whether it’s a crime for a tamed beast-lord to fly. She doesn’t think so, and concludes all this couldn’t have happened based on just this trait. She then wonders if her mom really did throw away a future of living with her over all of this. She sympathizes with Soyon’s suffering, and thinks how the Touda would have had their freedom in life and death if things had been natural. Erin hopes this is what her mom thought. Lilan calls out to her, making Erin realize she’s awake. As she embraces her, Erin promises that she won’t stop her from flying. Lilan sighs, and Erin once again looks at the symbol of “crime,” saying she won’t ever tie her down with codes. Erin wishes for Lilan to live as she was intended.
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My Thoughts:
We finally learn the true history of Ryoza. I thought it was fishy about all that talk of Queen Je being the only one that could control beast-lords when Erin had Lilan. Speaking of Je, I thought she was a guy in the beginning. If people were to actually know about this, the ‘holiness’ and ‘godly’ status of the current Queen could be in jeopardy. This is good news for Shunan, since once he finds out there shouldn’t be any issue of marrying Seimiya.
That King was sort of a jerk from the beginning. He may have thought his intentions were good, but I think it was more blind, selfish ambition. How can you make your people happy when you’re sentencing those that even speak back to you? Think about the families affected. He just got a power trip from seeing the Touda and decided to abuse it. It was the same thing with the beast-lords. Je’s kingdom seemed like a nice and peaceful place; sure, it perhaps wasn’t as great and warm as Ophalon, but did they have any issue before he came along? No, not really. He simply saw the power of the beast-lords, and with that revenge flowing in his blood, convinced Je to raise an army for “intimidation.” Sounds innocent, but in reality Je was manipulated because of her naivety. I feel sorry for her, especially when Luke turned berserk. I wonder how she managed to get over Ephon Noha if all the beast-lords went berserk, though? Perhaps the conditions isn’t permanent.
In many ways Je reminds me of Erin, but I’m glad Nason told Erin of the tale so she would at least realize that sometimes, even with the best intention, reality can skew a plan. Moreover, the hard lesson is knowing when ‘enough is enough.’ Je’s people seemed content, but that idea of wanting more based on the King’s words opened a can of worms. Sometimes ignorance is bliss (as they say, right?).
I agree with Erin on how befriending beast-lords isn’t the only factor that played a role in the tragedy. The core issue was man’s greed. Then again, it is a natural flaw and is easier to achieve than making friends with a beast-lord (hence, why the Mist People opt to prevent the latter). However, I think if the full story was revealed to everyone, that would be one step towards prevention. Yet, you’d still have people that would abuse it. It’s just like technology today: it helps people do a lot of stuff, but it’s also abused. Does that mean we should totally abandon it? Even Touda that aren’t friends with humans are used in ill deeds. Moreover, without beast-lords or Touda, Ryoza could easily be invaded, so having that relationship is necessary. In that case, I think a pursuit of friendship with both Touda and beast-lords is something worth fighting for. We’ve seen it done with Erin.
The way Erin phrased how her ‘mom abandoned her future with me’ for the code was sad. This all hinges on whether what Nason said was true. Then again, I’m not sure why he said it since he was unsure of what caused the Kibas’ death initially. Maybe it was a bluff to stop Erin from letting Lilan fly? Also remember what Soyon told Erin in episode 6: she had abandoned the code after marrying into Ake. Something just doesn’t add up. Hopefully they touch on this point more before the series ends. Otherwise, I’ll be more frustrated with Soyon and feel even worse for Erin.
Despite his lecture, Erin is still going to let Lilan fly and raise her the Erin way (she should open up the first Burger King). The next episode sends an even stronger message of this, since she’ll be gearing up for a second go! Catch it next time, on Kemono no Souja Erin: “Fly!”
Tags: anime, fantasy, heart-warming, Kemono no Souja Erin
