It's rather hilarious that Maru and Kiruko have all the confidence in the world when it comes to tackling the various Man-Eaters in this world, but when it comes to a "nothing special wild animal," they have absolutely no idea what the hell to do. As they sit atop the Teen Titans tower, the gender and sexuality question crops up again, with Kiruko using it as a bargaining chip - go get the battery I dropped, and I'll let you touch my boobs. In essence, she's pulling a similar trick that Power and Himeno did with Denji in Chainsaw Man, using their own sex appeal as a device to achieve a particular end. The twist, of course, is the entire matter surrounding Kiruko's transgender identity through the brain swap. Maru still sees Kiruko as a woman that he has feelings for, so it takes little effort to get him to do what Kiruko wants. Is it a rather juvenile joke about "guys want only one thing?" Yeah, but considering the circumstances and the very nature of their dynamic at six episodes of this show so far, I don't mind it.

And hey, sex and people being horny in the apocalypse is not exactly that rare a convention for these kinds of stories. Just ask the hotel girl, who more or less is trying to make Love Hotels in the post-apocalyptic time. I fault no one for raising an eyebrow though at how it was presented. Though this does raise the rather peculiar question of why Maru's touch can enter humans, too. How curious...

It's also important to highlight the increased closeness between Maru and Kiruko. I mentioned it in last week's writing, but there is clearly a deeper something developing between them.

You cannot spend that long with someone in harrowing situations and not have SOME kind of attachment form. It's not clear whether this is romantic in nature (which Maru certainly wouldn't object to), or if it's indicative of something far more endearingly platonic.

At-present, it seems to be leaning more towards the former, though it could also simply have its roots back when Kiruko was Haruki and a more-fundamental sense of wanting to be important. As the inner-recollection points out, this is connected to Robin, the man in the other photograph that isn't the doctor. But even so, it's difficult not to draw a romantic reading to this moment. There do be quite a bit of blushing Kiruko does when Maru sincerely compliments them and insists that he would have died many times if not for their crackshot firing. And even though the plan hinged on Maru running away, he didn't. He stuck with Kiruko. Goddamn, I love these two! And yes, they held hands. In anime logic, they've basically reached third base.

In the continuing spirit of yesterday's allusion to Dragon Quest II, we get another time of pixelated CRT goodness as an aesthetic decision. Unlike before, it's used for some comedic levity in an otherwise tenser situation. Besides, we know that they're going to survive the encounter, so it's not like the stakes are absurdly high. And even if we didn't know that...well, compared to previous moments, it's a bear vs. a giant man-eating monster.

Back at the nursery, it seems like nothing is physically wrong with Tokio, but something is still VERY wrong. With Asura appearing above her bed in the ward, they cryptically asking, "What are you good at," there's a disturbing moment with something happening to Tokio's leg. Though they wake up from an apparent "nightmare," the doctor attending to her has thoughts of their own.

And all the while, more machinations are at play with the security. Tokio manages to sneak off to Kona's place and they kiss, talk about Asura, how Tokio saw them, and how Kona's love for them differs from their love of Tokio, and disrobe. The doctor gets a strongly positively ID on the footprint.

There is so much intriguing mystery in this show. I genuinely wonder where it will go with a lot of it.