Episode 35: New Life
Summary:
At night somewhere in the mountains, a group of rangers and wardens have just captured a beast-lord. Its parent flies in and tries to stop them. However, they immobilize it using their mute whistle, causing it to crash into the nearby trees.
The same beast-lord is brought to Kazalm, met with the students’ curiosity of seeing an adult wild beast-lord. Spring has returned. Seeing the wild beast-lord reminds Nukku of how happy Erin was when seeing one in the mountains; Mokku meanwhile notices a dropped feather and grabs it. The two argue on who should deliver it to Erin. She, Yuuyan, and Kashugan watch the beast-lord be taken into the shed. Yuuyan wonders about its injuries, and Kashugan explains how it returned while people were taking its baby away. Instinctively, they blew the whistle to halt its advance, but caused it to crash into the trees, injuring it. They just couldn’t ignore it, and so they sent its baby to Lazal and brought it here for treatment. Yuuyan assumes it’s female then, but Kiriku approaches them and says it’s actually a daddy. They’ve already named him “Eku,” which means “male” in the ancient language. Kiriku also informs Erin that Esal-sensei wishes to see her.
In her office, Esal-sensei reads Lazal’s report about Eku, and other teachers complain about them doing their dirty work; Eku’s condition is not in their favor. When Erin arrives, Esal-sensei gives her the synopsis: even if they treat Eku’s wounds while he’s immobilized, his wounds reopen because he goes berserk once he awakens. In his shed, the other teachers watch him regain consciousness, but he soon repeatedly head-butts the cage. Esal-sensei tells Erin that the sound of the whistle and the injury have been linked in his mind, causing him to panic. She then asks her a favor: whether she could try calming Eku with her harp. Erin reasons that it’s different than Lilan since he’s fully grown now, but she will give it a shot.
Things seem to be getting out of hand in the shed when Erin and Esal-sensei arrive. She asks Erin whether she can do this, and Erin says she doesn’t know, though it probably won’t work now because of his panicked state. She decides to spend the night in his shed.
Yuuyan informs everyone of the news in the classroom. Outside, Nukku and Mokku watch Erin make preparations, and are scared off when Lilan approaches them near the fence. They drop Eku’s feather, and Lilan notices and picks it up. In his shed, Erin fetches Eku water and tries to calm him down with words, but he still bangs his head against the wall. At night, Erin kneels and stares at the still-hostile Eku. Noticing if he’s calmed down, she begins playing the harp and gets him interested, indicated by him drawing closer to her. Erin then slowly plays the harp and gets him to respond with each sound. It seems she has successfully calmed him.
The next day, Esal-sensei congratulates her on a job well-done, and wonders if she can communicate with all wild beast-lords using the harp. Erin thinks so, though her words bring worry. She recalls Nason’s warning, and decides to tell Esal-sensei about Ryoza’s true history.
Esal-sensei hears her words well and says she also once met a man of the Mist People in the mountains. She had been searching for wild beast-lords, but he appeared and claimed doing so would create a seed for catastrophe. Now, after hearing Erin’s story, she finally understands his words. Erin tells her how she was told to stop communicating with beast-lords and prevent them from flying. She thinks this isn’t necessarily right, but rather it should be humans who keep watch on themselves to prevent the past tragedy.
Erin again stays with Eku near the evening. Tomura comes from behind and calls her amazing, saying he never thought she’d be able to tame a wild beast-lord. Erin thanks her harp, saying a simple sound can mimic a greeting. She observed that when Lilan gets close to other beast-lords, she uses a sound to signify non-hostile intent. Tomura thinks this might mean they live in packs, and Erin agrees, saying there would be no reason for them to communicate otherwise. He concludes beast-lords are still full of mysteries.
Ever since answering Erin’s harp’s tune, Eku has calmed down and is slowly recovering. Instead of immobilizing him with the mute whistle, they use sleeping pills in the food. Esal-sensei reveals that once he fully recovers, he’ll be able to return to the wild.
Erin thinks about her words as she brushes Lilan. At one point, Lilan fetches Eku’s feather and shows it to her. Erin asks whether she finds his scent attractive, and notices that the fur underneath her chin has turned pink. Esal-sensei is unable to find anything about this in her books. She wonders if it might be the food, and asks about the feces. Erin says things look fine, if not better than usual, but reveals that she’s interested in Eku’s scent. In any case, Esal-sensei says it seems the two can at least get along in the fields tomorrow; she’ll continue researching and tell Erin of any discoveries. The next day, all the students watch Eku walk around in the fields. He tries calling out to the brown beast-lords, but none of them seem interested. Lilan is also released into the fields, and approaches Eku. The two approach and communicate with each other using sounds and body language. Everyone is glad to see them getting along, and Tomura approaches Erin happily. She thinks this is how they should be: acting like in the wild.
Things get more interesting when the two start emitting a peculiar sound; Lilan also turns completely pink. Everyone watches as the two fly up into the sky. Eku mounts Lilan and the two’s noses touch. They then fly around together in that formation, and then break by repeatedly flying in a circular fashion. Everyone is instilled with awe, and Kiriku and Esal-sensei think they are mating. A dazzled Erin continues to stare at the power and beauty of their union.
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My Thoughts:
The main point of this episode was to introduce Lilan’s significant other, Eku. I feel bad for his kid, since he probably won’t get to see it again. It was interesting to see how Erin tackled her challenge of calming Eku, and she did a great job. Her observation of how Lilan makes a noise to other beast-lords as an expression of non-hostile intent was sharp; only one that truly cares about beast-lords would pay attention to something like that. Esal-sensei gets the scoop on Nason, which is good since Erin has a close person that knows the truth. It’s pretty coincidental that Esal-sensei ran into that elderly man whom Nason talked to in an earlier episode; I was impressed at how fast he was able to disappear after speaking his mind.
The scene where Lilan and Eku flew and mated was pretty cool, but still didn’t beat the time when she first flew with Erin. More than likely Eku will be staying longer now, since he’ll be fathering Lilan’s child.
Next episode, it looks like we say farewell to Yuuyan and the others. Kiriku also seems to be reporting to the palace about something. Perhaps a rendezvous with Damiya? Will Kazalm’s secret finally be fully exposed? See it next time, on Kemono no Souja Erin: “Graduation Trial!”
Tags: anime, fantasy, heart-warming, Kemono no Souja Erin
