I don’t believe I’m gonna say this, but I adored this episode! The series might have been a continuous on and off, but it seems like it’s finally going somewhere. We got a pretty interesting twist and learned something new about Takuya’s past. All I can see is improvement and I cross my fingers for things to stay that way. So, let’s see what was so amazing.

Plot

First, the most fascinating thing of them all is that we are finally able to understand what happens and who is who. There is a decent flow, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, alongside some proper explanations and character introductions! Congrats, it was about time.

So, in this episode Takuya with an elite team go to investigate ‘Light of Hope Academy’ to find some evidence against the agency. As soon as they arrive, they end up in a time loop similar to the one in Episode 3. The only way to get out of there is to redeem the person whose regrets created that place/ memory/ you name it. The main caretaker of the orphanage seems to be Hinako, an amazing lady who had more character development in one episode than most of the heroes had in the entire series -true story. She is nice, pretty, andI ship her with Takuya -but, back to the plot! After Takuya realizes what a jerk he was to the love of his life and redeems her, he returns to reality and finds some data that Hinako left for him.

I am glad to say that Yuki was almost nowhere to be seen! She was home, chit-chatting with Yumiko while waiting for the spoiled little brat Souma to wake up. The less Yuki we see, the better episodes we get, don’t you think?

Episode Highlights

Hinako: Hinako managed to touch my heart. Her loneliness, her lack of confidence, her melancholy, and her inner strength made her by far the best character I’ve seen in the whole series, alongside Ryoko. Though, she’s dead. Because in AFTERLOST all the fascinating and touching characters die. Madhouse hates its audience.

Ohhh, The Memories: The time loop event was pretty emotional. The ending scene, where Hinako heads to the circus with the children, tore me apart…

The Scooter: Finally, the badass scooter is back. Though, we didn’t see Takuya riding it, at least it got some screen time and we found out where this crazy machine came from.

Themes & Trivia

Do orphanages take advantage of children?: In this episode, we see that ‘Light Of Hope’ takes advantage of orphans to cast scientific experiments on them. But, in reality, do orphanages take advantage of children? Sadly, yes. We live in a cruel world which cannot even protect its most innocent and pure members: children. There are many cases where children in orphanages got used in many ways. A recent example occurred in Cambodia, where, in an orphanage, little kids were forced to work many times per day, making souvenirs. Also, they sang for the tourists arriving there -since the orphanage is in a touristic area- and tourists in exchange donated money. This money was never used to raise the children, to offer them food or proper education, but instead they benefited the members of the Gang. The orphanage is closed now and many children are reunited with their families. The example above is one of the softest I found and it is cruel, inhuman, and frustrating how a human can treat another human like this, especially a kid…

Comments

This was my favorite AFTERLOST episode so far. It had an interesting storyline where everything makes sense, morals about our society, and alluring characters. It was almost like it was a whole different series! It managed to get me quite emotional, mostly because I knew everything was futile, since neither Hinako nor the children made it out of Lost alive… Everything was simple and the plot was unfolded more slowly, giving time to the viewer to think and realize what they see. The simplicity and the bittersweet sadness managed to add up to the story while we got many clues about what’s going on and what exactly the orphanage did, alongside an extremely touching side story. Hinako got rid of her conflicts and helped the children and Takuya understood that he shouldn’t judge people so quickly.

I think the involvement with the Agency, the Orphanage, and some of our main characters is even deeper and trickier than we suspect. The point is, I am finally excited for the next episode!  

‘Those children were tossed aside by everyone, even by their parents…’

AFTERLOST might give us the quality twist we were waiting for. This episode was very good and it mixed mystery and drama in just the right amount. I hope for the next one to be like this! What is your opinion about the incidents?

Don’t forget to check the rest of our Spring 2019 reviews. AFTERLOST is also part of our weekly anime previews.

Shoumetsu Toshi (AFTERLOST)

Spring 2019 | Anime Info | Simulcast