Texhnolyze S1E10: “Conclusion”

Been a little while, but we're back to Teletubbies. I'm a little nervous about trying to continue this series in my current state. Covid headaches are finally starting to get better this last week or so, but I'm still not 100%, and Tzetzefly isn't the easiest story to wrap your mind around in even the best of conditions. But, I'll give it my best shot.

Where we left off, the city was in chaos, Onishi was struggling to reassert control of the Organo while keeping Ichise squirreled away in his home, and an envoy from the mysterious "People on the Hill" was arriving by train. Let's see what happens next.


After a quick reminder shot of the cloaked and hooded hill-person disembarking at the station, we jump over to Ran, Yoshii, and...what was that other guy's name again?...oh right, Tatsuya. The three of them are riding the train to somewhere. Ran as impassive as always, Tatsuya haggard, and Yoshii sort of thoughtful.

I'm really not sure why Tatsuya is still hanging around with Yoshii at this point. Maybe he's just too afraid to attempt escape.

Tatsuya asks where they're going, and Yoshii rambles about there being a boy who wants to meet the hill-people, and Yoshii wanting to show him the truth behind them. I think the boy in question is Yoshii himself. Or maybe a younger version of himself, talking about a perspective he had in his youth that he's now soured violently on. He did mention a couple episodes ago that he "once" aspired to be like Tatsuya, whatever that means. Maybe, I don't know. Ran, of course, says nothing.

Outside, the title drops in a spooky, ghostly white font over the cityscape, and more gang warfare goes on. It appears that an Organo base - maybe even their main base - is being overrun, with Union numbers and Racan combat skill being unified (at least for the moment) against them. The outer guards fall to Racan drive-by shooters, allowing Union mobs to swarm into the building and start blowing up barricades in their search for soft targets.

Then, we move to the bar where Onishi was hanging out before. Some people barge in looking for Onishi, and the bartender claims to have not seen him in a long time. When they leave, Onishi emerges from hiding, stocks up on the bartender's hidden stash of ammo, and hands him a wallet full of cash. Mr. Bartender insists that his old friend doesn't need to reward him for this, but Onishi insists; besides, he's probably not going to have much use for cash himself for the near future. They share a drink before Onishi heads out into the night while murmuring to himself that "this is just like ten years ago."

What happened ten years ago, again? The power struggle that put him in charge of the Organo? The weird event with the environmental controls that caused everyone's eyes to change? Both? I can't recall.

Cut to one of the other Organo bigshots, who is sitting by the dig site that has been recently converted into a koi pond. This is apparently the guy who sent those people looking for Onishi, and he's trying to use this chaos to eliminate other potential rivals as well.

Cue prolonged sequence of various Organo officers conspiring to put their rivals' forces on the front lines to weaken them for the inevitable postwar intra-Organo bloodbath. There's an odd motif in this sequence; all of the conspiring petty chiefs are on or in a body of water during their snippets. Over a koi pond. In a bath house. Etc. There are a bunch of names established, but...unfortunately I'm in no state to remember them all, so for now I'll just say that Fish Face is trying to get his rivals killed in battle with the Union, and that Tub Boy and Smarmy are conspiring together to keep their underlings unscathed by the fighting and wait for the rest to wear themselves out.

We then jump over to the Racan, hanging out in...either an abandoned building, or the bombed out remains of their original lair. It's grungy enough to be either of the above. Shinji, who is sulking after his own failed attempt to take out Onishi, receives intel updates about Organo status. Apparently the Racan and Union have still been mostly fighting each other. Whether this means that the Union has figured out who actually firebombed their base or if it's just down to impulsive violence is unclear. When Shinji asks for a Racan status report, he's told that they have about 60% of their forces up and ready to go, with the rest still being injured or exhausted. Hmm, sounds like the Racan are significantly bigger than I thought. Just at that moment, Yoshii walks in and challenges the "sixty percent ready" statement.

He repeats what Shinji told him earlier in the series, about the Racan's anarchistic, voluntary nature. In light of this, he says, when 40% of their forces don't show up to fight, what does that ACTUALLY mean? And, more to the point, how does a nonbinding "social club but with crime" like the Racan possibly stand up to the ruthlessly organized and hierarchical Organo?

...

Oh god are we having an anarchist versus statist debate? Holy shit no, please, not here too.

That said, I have to express my amusement with the Jokeresque figure taking the statist side in this debate. When this argument happens in fiction, it's just about always the opposite. And, notably, Yoshii *isn't* hiding his Joker in this scene and going back to his earlier, mild mannered persona. He's got the predatory smile and the whispery serial killer voice going strong throughout it.

Not sure if this says anything about the creators' politics. After all, it's not like the Racan have been portrayed all that positively themselves. Just a novelty in how it differs from the usual framing.

...

The Racan aren't really pleased to see Yoshii after he bailed on them during the firebombing mission. They have not yet learned that they have quite a bit more to be displeased with him about, though honestly I think Shinji has everything he needs to figure it out at this point. Yoshi got them to launch a false flag base-destruction mission for him, and then he disappeared and their own base got destroyed, so um...yeah. Maybe he'll figure it out soon. Anyway, for now Shinji just asks Yoshii what he wants now and why they should pay his pontificating any mind. Yoshii replies that he's here to tell them that someone from The Hill has come to Lukuss and is currently meeting with some Organo officers. The vandalization of the dig site apparently shattered the Hill's trust in the Organo, and they're reconsidering their support. This could be a critical opportunity. Yoshii then says that he and his companions (who emerge from the shadows behind him) were just on their way to have a look at the visitor themselves, and the Racan are free to come along.

O...kay. So, if I'm understanding this right, the Organo didn't just take over Lukuss by virtue of having the most guns after the raffia mines ran dry. They were...if not appointed, then at least supported...by these Hill People. For what purpose I really couldn't guess. It's not like Lukuss is producing much of anything that an imperial power could want, let alone bother propping up a puppet government to get. Anyway, recent events (especially the dig site being turned into a fish pond) have made the Hill People wonder if they backed the wrong horse with the Organo, and now Yoshii wants the Racan to...capture the Hill Person envoy? Dramatically kill all the Organo around the envoy to impress them with the Racan's superior getting-shit-done ability? Kill the envoy in the hopes of provoking the Hill People into doing something else? One of those three, I'm pretty sure.

Well, correction. Yoshii wants to make the Racan THINK they should do one of those three things. How Yoshii himself plans to exploit the situation is another story.

Some of Shinji's sidekicks warn him not to trust Yoshii again after he bailed on them before (I wonder if they might also be starting to suspect him of the bombing...), but Shinji just tells them to wait here and keep gathering strength until he gets back. He, Yoshii, Ran, and Tatsuya then depart into the night, ostensibly headed for the Hill Person.

As soon as they're out of sight, Shinji's second in command tells everyone to mobilize a full defense and start patrol sweeps all around their neighborhood for signs of an offensive. He'll honor Shinji's order to not launch any attacks until he returns, but he's NOT going to just sit and wait for more volunteers to trickle in.

This ends up being...either a really good move, or a really bad one. Good because Onishi approaches their (new?) base, on foot, just a few minutes later. Bad because the patrol team that encounters him is just two normal (or just slightly technoloko'd) guys who - in typical display of Racan bravado - try to take him out, and fail miserably. One bites it immediately to Onishi's blade. The other, Onishi subdues and demands information from. He knows that a mysterious visitor has been by the Racan HQ lately; where is that person now?

The Racan guy pretends not to know anything about Yoshii. Onishi responds by stuffing his mouth with bullets and threatening to hold a flame to them.

That...is such an inefficient torture method I don't even...like, okay, FIRST of all, how much fucking trouble is it to stuff that many bullets into a guy's open mouth versus just holding that flame to one of his fingers or something? Second, the guy will need his mouth free in order to say anything, so Onishi has to wait for him to nod his head yes and then take all the bullets OUT of his mouth again so he can talk. Also, what if he swallows one and chokes?

This is pretty hard for me to take seriously except as a "here's a scene to show that Onishi has completely lost it" sort of deal.

We don't see if he ends up blowing the guy's head up or not, though. Instead, he just jump ahead a bit from there to Onishi walking away from the scene, and his secretary driver lady who is NOT his wife showing up with a car to pick him up. Onishi is surprised that she's still out here risking her life for him, but she's matter of fact about it. He gets in, and finds Ichise already sitting in the back. Onishi sits beside him and just watches him, quietly. Ichise says and does nothing.

Cut to more Organo politicking, with an old man who I don't think we've seen before and who the others address as "Great Father" weighing in on the question of succession. I had to go back and double check if this was the Sage from the first few episodes, because that was a seemingly important old man with Organo ties who we haven't seen in forever, but no, different guy. Who is this new old guy then? I don't know. I'm not sure if this is the show's fault or my not-operating-at-full-capacity-brain's. Is this the guy who was running the show before Onishi, maybe? Maybe. Anyway, Grandpa Organo talks politics with his own underlings for a while. Then, he enters a cathedral-like building where the cloaked and hooded Hill Person is seated on a throne, and approaches them as if in supplication while creepy music plays.

I was hoping I'd get a good shot of both of them in-frame for a screenshot. However, it quickly turned out I wasn't the only one waiting to line up a good shot.

Not sure if Yoshii is actually planning to snipe one or both of them, or if he's just using observing for now.

Also, if the People On the Hill are full body replacement transhumans like I suspect, then I'm not sure if a bullet is even guaranteed to do anything to one. The "brain" could be anywhere in the body. Including "a series of backup nodes spread all throughout it and also hidden around the room."

It turns out that this isn't actually Yoshii looking through his scope, but Shinji using a telescope as Yoshii and Ran stand beside him. Here, Yoshii tells him, is a member of the Class. A resident of that celestial world that Shinji and his fellow realspace people envy and fear. And yet, Yoshii continues, they are truly just a race of cowardly weaklings. He uses the word "invalids," actually.

Hmm. Well, he may be accurately describing their personalities or spiritual qualities or whatever, but practically speaking an invalid in an indestructible robot body with flamethrowers that pop out of its face isn't much of an invalid lol.

Granted, my whole understanding of the surface, the "class' etc is largely supposition based on very questionably translated dialogue. I might be wrong altogether about Lukuss being a remnant human enclave buried under a world of posthumans. However, this scene does at least confirm that the Hill People and the Class are the same thing (or at least, the Hill People are members of the Class). So, that's something at least.

After his speech, Yoshii does another creepy smile and raises his actual sniper rifle. Shinji asks him what he's doing, and Yoshii just says that he's helping him deal with the Organo and also "destroying the thing that keeps your power sealed away." As he speaks, he shoots the gaggle of Organo bodyguards stationed outside the shrine, and then gets a bead on the hooded Class envoy seated inside. Before he can shoot the envoy though, Yoshii has a gun pulled on him himself.

Shinji has figured it out.

He asks Yoshii why he blew up the Racan den and killed/maimed so many of the people who had befriended and hosted him. Yoshii just says some cryptic bullshit about how he's trying to save Lukuss by awakening its shiftless sheeple residents and creating a worthy king to rule it, and how he's chosen Shinji for the job. This latest display of intelligence from Shinji is just another show of worthiness.

Then, Shinji hears another handgun cock behind him, and looks back to see Tatsuya pointing a pistol at his head. Mexican standoff. Or not, if Yoshii turns out to be bulletproof himself.

I'm not really sure why Shinji didn't just shoot Yoshii as soon as he confessed to the bombing. Oh well.

Down in the cathedral-type structure, the Hill Guy is demanding to know why the Organo has allowed the precious dig site to be sabotaged. That dig site is the only reason that the Class permits this worthless city to continue existing, and if it can't be secured then that means they might as well destroy the city. Also, it's revealed that the dig site is, in fact, a raffia quarry. Presumably the last raffia quarry in Lukuss, and producing only small amounts of it. Grandpa Organo assures Classy that it'll all be worked out soon, there's no need to cut off their tributary of Lukuss over such a small, short-lived disruption.

Outside, Onishi starts running toward the cathedral. Yoshii sees him, and tries to shoot him before he can make it to the door, but Onishi's telebeledingdong senses alert him to the threat and he dashes into cover before Yoshii can shoot. Onishi manages to make it into the building and shout out a warning to Grandpa and Classy, allowing them to get down and take cover just an instant before Yoshii shoots out the windows.

Yoshii is then distracted by the sound of a gunshot behind him. He turns, and sees that Tatsuya has staggered back and is nursing a bullet graze wound. It looks like he looked away from Shinji for a second, and Shinji used that opportunity to take a shot at him and then dash out of the room.

...why didn't he shoot Yoshii? Why would he just disable Tatsuya and then run? This really feels "because the plot says so."

Yoshii murmurs some appreciation for Shinji's proactivity, and about how "there may be hope for him yet," before he puts away his sniper rifle, pulls out a pistol, and goes after him. Tatsuya starts to follow Yoshii, but Ran stops him.

She also starts telling him WHY he shouldn't follow Yoshii but before she can explain anything the camera cuts away to Yoshii trying to catch up with Shinji. Lol, real classy, show.

Yoshii hurriedly descends the staircase after Shinji, but is cut off when Onishi throws a grenade into one of the windows near his path, destroying the trail and forcing Yoshii to turn his attention back on Onishi. The two cyborgs chase each other through the rubble. Yoshii spraying bullets everywhere he thinks his opponent might be hiding. Onishi running with his blade out, trying to get close enough to plant it. Then...okay, this is weird. This loud, unfamiliar voice starts taunting Onishi about his recently dead wife. I thought maybe it was Classy for some reason, but no, the word choice and POV clearly identifies it as Yoshii. It just doesn't sound anything like Yoshii's usual voice, and Yoshii isn't moving his lips while it speaks. I guess maybe he has speakers built into his chest or something? I guess?

Meanwhile, Ichise slowly walks from the cathedral toward the half-ruined building that the other two are fighting in. Looks like Ichise finally woke up again. Is this going to be the Ichise vs. Yoshii duel I've been anticipating, or not quite yet?

Back to the duel. Onishi manages to parkour his way between Yoshii's bullet volleys and bring his sword down. Unfortunately, Yoshii is able to parry it with apparent ease. Using his arm.

There's no doubt that Yoshii's cybernetics are superior to even the exemplary work Doc seems to have done on Onishi, now.

This is rubbed in further a moment later, when Yoshii extends a sword of his own from his other forearm and slashes Onishi across the midsection under his guard, while he's paralyzed by the parry.

I suspected Yoshii had built-in weapons, and now it's confirmed. That armblade might very well be the least of them.

Yoshi stomps on the wounded Onishi, and continues taunting him. Telling him how he's going to make him scream and whimper before he finally kills him. Taunting him even more about how he's destroyed everything in his life. Onishi asks Yoshii what his damage with him even is, and Yoshii responds by saying that he and Onishi have the same goal, but that Yoshii is just much better at pursuing it.

Ah. It appears we have another philosophy club member added to the roster. Mottom, Kimblee, Gilgamesh, please give him a big welcome.

Before Yoshii can say or do anything worse, Ichise makes it over. Yoshii gives him a bemused expression. Ichise glares at him, and tells him to leave. Now.

I'm not sure if Ichise is just doing a random aggressive action like when he started the fight at the gang standoff, or if he actually remembers that Onishi (kinda?) spared his life back in the pilot. Or else he just doesn't like the cut of Yoshii's jib.

Yoshii does not leave. He starts to raise his pistol toward Ichise, but Ichise has gotten a lot faster and better coordinated over the course of the series. I was expecting an extended robo-duel between Ichise and Yoshii, but as it turns out the battle consists of but a single attack. Ichise punches Yoshii hard enough to dent his reinforced skull, and sends him, screaming in surprise and rage, over the bannister to fall several stories to the pavement below.

Well fuck. Aside from the arms, Yoshii's body seems to have not really been all that armored. Looks like the son of a bitch is actually down.

Ichise stands over Onishi's wounded form, staring for a while, before starting to move, seemingly to bring him back to the car. Onishi's in bad shape, but he doesn't look like he's about to bleed to death in the next minute. As "dawn' breaks, Tatsuya and Ran go outside and stand over Yoshii's own writhing form. He's still alive, but he's taken what looks like crippling damage from Ichise's strike, and even more crippling damage from the fall.

Yoshi weakly calls out to Sakimura by name. Sakimura replies with his own, and quietly says that Yoshii must be exhausted. He then uses his good arm (the other was grazed by Shinji's bullet) to point his gun at Yoshii's head and finish him off. Whether this was an act of mercy or one of defiance, I really couldn't say. Either way, Yoshii stops writhing in a manner that suggests that there will be no rebuilding him after this. The damage may already be done. Lukuss may still self-destruct, and Onishi might never be able to regain his position, but at least Yoshii isn't going to be able to catalyze any more disasters beyond those.

Final scene has Shinji running along the train racks, seemingly toward Gabe where the Sage lives. Why is he going there? Why didn't he shoot Yoshii when he had the chance, twice? No idea. Still, at least Ichise was there to pick up the slack. End episode.


I think I'm going to postpone the remaining Tentaculat episodes in queue for a week or two. My head IS getting better, finally, but its a gradual process, and until I'm back to 100% cognitive functionality I'm not sure if I'm up to tackling this this show. Sorry @WheelOfFortune, but I think you'd rather I do a good job analyzing this show later than a bad job analyzing it now.

Still, despite the parts that I had trouble parsing (whether due to head spinning or due to the show actually not making sense), I liked this episode. Good drama, good tension, good climactic action sequence. And, of course, a good sendoff for the arc one antagonist.

I'm normally pretty neutral on the "some men just want to watch the world burn" villain archetype, but Yoshii was a much better than usual take on the concept. The way he passed himself off as a potential big GOOD rather than big bad for the first few episodes was really masterful, like he was working his psychopath's charm on the audience as well as the other characters. The way he keeps up a continuation of "normalcy" even after he goes over to psycho-grin-and-predatory-whisper mode also gives him a kind of reality AND surrealism all at once. He was a really good baddy, of a kind that I don't usually have much appreciation for.

I'm a little unsure as to how seriously the show wants me to take Yoshii's philosophical ramblings, though. They made little enough sense (especially in the context of Lukuss) that I'm inclined to just say that Yoshii was a mere thrill-seeking violence tourist, and that the justifications he gave for his actions were just stream-of-consciousness nonsense he made up after the fact. The way it's framed though...again, the fact that the localization often feels clumsy makes it hard to tell if this is a case of his motives getting garbled in translation, his motives really not making as much sense as the writers intended, or his motives making exactly as little sense as the writers intended.

In any case, it looks like the consequences of Classy's near-assassination and Onishi's attempts to get the Organo back under control are going to drive the plot for the second half of the show. This was 10 episodes so far, out of a total of 22, so clearly there's a lot more that's yet to happen.