Hello and welcome all back to Wrong Every Time. Today we return to Southern Cross Isle in a moment of crisis, with Mizuno having just discovered the true, inarguable limits of her gilded cage. After a lifetime of considering this island her sanctuary, the return of her despised mother made it suddenly intolerable. Seeking escape by ferry, she soon realized that shrine maidens aren’t simply forbidden from leaving the island, they physically cannot escape it. Every attempt to escape its grasp sent her tumbling back to the prior morning, with only increasing cracks in this island’s supernatural firmament to show for it.

Alongside its clear narrative import, all the visual signifiers of that last episode further emphasized that we’ve reached the conclusion of Mizuno’s comfortable fantasy. All of the sequences that initially introduced her (the ferry passing, the bird nest) were here reframed as conclusions, new friends and baby birds replaced by Mizuno’s mother and an empty nest. I’m feeling for Mizuno, but also eager to see how all these revelations change her relationships with the rest of the cast – after all, as Kanako and Benio have demonstrated, it is only once these students shed their false, expectation-borne shells that they can express their true selves. Let’s see what chaos awaits as we return to Star Driver!

Episode 16

“Takuto’s Emblem.” So we’re also getting Takuto roped into whatever Mizuno revelations await. Good; Takuto could use some texture, and getting him involved in the messier elements of this island’s systems seems like a fine way to start

It’s frankly a little odd to me at this point how one-dimensional Takuto feels relative to most of the cast. He’s such a straightforward gallant hero that he’s not particularly relatable – there’s only his relatively childish understanding of romance to give him much individuality

We open on a beautiful shot of Mizuno walking up from the shoreline, a clear visual indicator of her abandoning hope of escape

Back at home, her aunt says her mother will be in town for another two or three days

Mizuno admits that she said something horrible to Marino, and her aunt seems shocked when she further states that she “doesn’t know where Marino is.” To this, her aunt immediately replies with the charged line “if Marino never came back, you’d be okay, wouldn’t you?” So it seems Mizuno’s aunt is aware of whatever strangeness is affecting these two sisters, and why Marino didn’t show up in those memories

Previously resonance-rich imagery now used to evil purpose, as that classic shot of the two sisters aligned in their matching beds now only serves as a reminder of Marino’s absence

Mizuno interprets her aunt’s words to mean that Marino can leave the island because she’s not a shrine maiden. Once again, Mizuno seems largely unaware of her own true circumstances

Mizuno meets up with Kate in her creepy science lab

Kate offers a speech about how the familiar school “feels like a foreign place just because it’s a day off,” with her words clearly more intended to reflect Mizuno’s overall realignment of relationship with this island, rather than the fact that they’re at school on Sunday

Mizuno just seeks a way off the island, but Kate tricks her and knocks her out

Ooh, I like this. Back at Sugata’s estate, we find him genuinely admitting his secret desires to Takuto, stating that alongside protecting Wako, he couldn’t help but be curious about the powers gained by apprivoising. Glad to see he considers Takuto enough of a friend to share this information, even if it’s mainly to gauge Takuto’s reaction

“And what about you?” Yeah, his body language makes it clear that he’s most interesting in feeling out where Takuto would stand if their goals changed

We get a rare glance of Takuto’s own pre-island life in response, as he and two friends appear to be prepping for the flight of a tiny aircraft. Our cut back sees him idly brushing the massive scar on his chest, implying that flight was ultimately disastrous. So Takuto can relate to the desire to express power to its fullest, but has already been chastened by that hubris in the past. Nice, this is precisely the kind of character furnishing I was hoping for

Mizuno awakens tied to a chair, set before the assembled Kiraboshi operatives

“Who knew you had such a powerful 1st phase. You’ve never seen a Cybody. You’ve never been to zero-time.” So Mizuno’s ability actually shielded her from the general consequences of having such an ability. See, this is why it’s probably not productive to guess at specific mechanical explanations in a story where magic is real

“Or have you been imposing that duty on that alter ego you created, perhaps?” Well that’s at least basically what I was expecting regarding Marino. The only odd note was how much substance she seemed to possess outside of her relationship with Mizuno (she’s the school’s baseball ace! She’s a key player in Kiraboshi!), but I suppose we can just further explain all that through Mizuno’s shrine maiden powers

And at last Mizuno is summoned into zero-time, in a cybody that’s actually integrated into the massive seal overhanging our usual battles

Mizuno’s seal is shattered! Well, I suppose Kate wasn’t lying about finding her a way off the island

It’s Head who commits the deed. He further announces that it’s time to destroy Tauburn, as well

“Don’t think that you’re the only Ginga Bishonen!” AW SHIT

Head’s mech is indeed a mirror of Tauburn, simply with blue instead of red highlights. And he appears far more confident in managing the cybody’s secondary functions

Ooh, I am loving the sense of weight and momentum as these two mechs blast towards each other. Rather than maintaining a continuous, seemingly weightless speed of approach, it is easy to parse how each of them are driven forward by individual rocket bursts, their bodies essentially “flying” via controlled explosions that send their hips rocketing forward, with all their limbs dragged behind that central force

Takuto is swiftly defeated, and Head announces his secondary power: sapping away the emblems of those with weak libidos

Basically all of Head’s powers and activities center around his lust for capture and control, whether it’s his caged maiden, his desire to “capture beauty in painting,” or this power. He personally embodies the urge for control that defines this island’s whole mechanical system

I love that Mizuno is just sort of floating in the same hangdog pose from when Takuto pushed her away, rather than pretending she’s standing on air like the other bubbled characters

Takuto rises, and Tauburn receives a spiffy new visual upgrade. Then we jump back to that early memory of his, this time with Mizuno’s spirit in attendance

“When what you want to do and what you ought to do are the same, you can hear the voice of the world.” It appears Takuto learned this phrase from this friend, the boy who built the plane

Young Takuto is significantly more timid than our current version; it appears that this boy Natsuo’s instincts rubbed off on him in a variety of significant ways

We then learn Natsuo was hiding a fatal illness from his friends. So it seems Takuto decided to live enough for both of them. And as expected, attempting to echo Natsuo’s feats earned him those chest scars

Mizuno sees Takuto as even more of a kindred soul once she learns he was abandoned by his father. But unlike Mizuno, who flees any and all confrontation with her mother, Takuto is determined to find and confront his own absent parent. Presumably his strength will inspire her own, just as Natsuo inspired Takuto to become his greatest possible self

With Takuto’s conviction restored, Head is defeated! We jump right to Takuto and Mizuno meeting on that fated bus, icon of traversal both off the island and into zero-time

No Mizuno, don’t accept that Takuto will never have feelings for you that way! Don’t get on that ferry without a word! You are so much cooler than Wako, goddamnit!

Of course, it does make sense for her journey that she must now follow Takuto’s example, and hunt down her mother as well. But this story will be so much less bright without her!

In the end, Marino also appears on the ferry. I am no longer going to make any statements regarding her existence, she can clearly be as real as she wants whenever she chooses

And Done

Woof, that was everything and more! We at last got the long-awaited reveal of the deal between Mizuno and Marino, and though it seems like the show frankly can’t decide precisely how real it wants Marino to be, I’m at least thankful that all of this doppelganger mischief is out in the open. What I wasn’t expecting was how much this episode would contextualize Takuto’s behavior, giving us a clear understanding of precisely how he came to be this way. I’m generally not a fan of “characterization as mystery hook,” wherein the explanation for a character’s behavior is held in reserve as a payoff, so I was delighted to see so many chickens finally coming home to roost this episode. Mizuno better not be gone, though! I will not allow it!

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