Android children are what happens when a child’s parents die and as a result they end up being raised by Giftia’s. Tsukasa and Isla are sent out to retrieve an Android child.
Of course, no job can be easy for Tsukasa and Isla. Well, actually I think the problem is it was a little too easy. The little boy Souta, who’d been raised for the last three years by the Giftia Marcia. A sweet girl who’d been with his family even before they died. The issue is, upon finding out about her life span he begins to take everything she says as a lie. In the past, she said she would never leave him, for a little boy who’s already lost his parents to have that promise made and then hear that she has to go away. Well, it has to be hard.
So he believes everything she says is a lie, even the things about his parents. Things he should remember, he even starts to believe that his own memories are lies. He’s far too willing to give her up, Tsukasa refuses to accept his signature until things are made up. So, now it’s time to brainstorm how to make this kid believe in his memories once again.
Michiru has a pretty good idea of making him feel like he is loved. Now, the question is, how do we do that?
We pour over photo albums of him and his family and figure out that his birthday is soon, we find the recipe to the strawberry tart that his mom always used to make for him. So they decide to throw him a birthday party, with lots of decorations, his favorite foods and of course the all important strawberry tart.
At HQ, the boss of their department is getting chewed out for not cutting costs appropriately. Fairly sure, this isn’t going to come and bite us in a later episode. Nope, not at all. Also, we learn about the Black Market retrievers. People who pose as people from Terminal Services and take Giftia’s away illegally.
Now about this birthday party. They begin preparing things but it becomes obvious pretty early on that Tsukasa is an absolutely horrid cook and Isla is no better. Good thing we have Michiru and Zack to save the day. They come in and Michiru happens to be a really good cook. Michiru herself is an Android child, she learned to cook for herself and her Giftia father.
We find out a little about her past in that she was rather the opposite of Souta. She clinged to her father so hard that it went past his time and he became a wanderer. A wanderer is when a Giftia goes past it’s retrieval time.
Alright, she still grates on my nerves and she’s got a lot of annoying personality traits that just rub me the entirely wrong way. However, this episode was a good step towards making me like Michiru more. Now if she could just ease up on Tsukasa and not be such a pain towards him while obviously liking him, we could be much better off. She’s dancing the line between ‘good tsundere’ and ‘OMG WILL YOU STOP THAT ALREADY, annoying tsundere’
Anyway, they make the stuff. Have the party, happy ending.
Then at his door the day before the official retrieval comes a guy claiming he’s from Terminal Services. No, BAD, GO AWAY. LEAVE SOUTA AND MARCIA ALONE. They’re too pure for your Black Market antics! Go away!
So what is this now, three out of four episodes to make me cry? Four out of four? It’s at least ranking at a three out of four. This show is so heart breaking and yet so beautiful on every level. The animation, the soundtrack, the stories. Most of all I just want to reach out and give Isla a hug. As she strains all episode to smile, it’s painful to watch. She is trying to live out the last bits of her life the best that she can but each day is ticking down to the moment they will have to terminate her.
We also get a small glimpse into her past with Kuzuki and the moment their partnership broke out. We still have no context or reason as to what split their group but i’m sure the story will come together shortly.
I both love and hate the idea of the Black Market people, mostly because I just..want things to go right and happy for once in this series. It’s a wonderful concept though and something I believe would show up in real life if this was the kind of world we lived in. I wonder what the Black Market does with them. I wonder how prominent they will become to the story.
I have my concerns on how they will come into play with Isla’s story, we’ll just leave that alone for now though. I love this cast of characters so much and I really hope we’ll get a chance to expand on more of them. I want Michiru to grow, I want Isla to be happy, I want Tsukaka to have to fact that his partner is coming close to her termination.
I want good things that probably aren’t going to happen…
~Midnight
It’s three out of four for me. The last episode was rather touching and made me want to smile more than tear up 🙂
I’d been wondering if Giftias were also purposed as a form of therapy for people who’d lost loved ones and this episode veered a little closer to that idea. Granted, Marcia was already part of the family before becoming Souta’s guardian Giftia and I don’t know what happened to Michiru’s original parents.
I hope this doesn’t turn into a violent mess next episode, although, this would be another one of those unpleasant but undeniably realistic possibilities. Marcia’s losing her memories, perhaps they’re even melding together in delusional ways and she believes they hurt Souta, so she goes to town on a Black Marketer or two.
Either way, just the fact that Giftia can become violent as they become Wanderers really gives the more serious tone that marksman and spotter implies, even if combat and firefights aren’t the only situations they’re meant to be used in by definition.