To Your Eternity Season 2

Episode 11

The further we get into this Renril Arc, the more it feels like the extended period of planning and table-setting that we got back in the Jananda Arc, except the sense of direction and momentum we have with the upcoming Nokker war helps To Your Eternity to avoid the listlessness that plagued that earlier storyline. On the surface, this is another episode where it would be easy to complain that nothing much “happens” so far as major plot developments go. There's enough interesting stuff going on character-wise, though, that it makes up for the still somewhat nebulous final destination we're heading towards.

For one, I have to admit, I'm warming up to Prince Bon. It helps that his post-“execution” personality has largely outgrown his most obnoxious characteristics, allowing the man to fully own the strong and surprisingly pragmatic leader he was always capable of being. Most of the episode this week concerns his efforts to convince Fushi to “recruit” three new allies to the orb's collection of forms. In Kai, Hairo, and Messar, the prince sees valuable skills that could aid Fushi greatly in the coming strife; he also recognizes the need for Fushi to develop a reserve of viable personas in case the Nokkers succeed in stealing more from him. Fushi, for his part, is appalled that Bon would be so willing to sacrifice other people for such ruthlessly practical reasons, especially since Fushi is panged with guilt whenever he “steals” the shape and skills of his loved ones. Bon hasn't told Fushi about the whole “you can totally bring these people back from the dead” thing, which I'm sure is a simmering conflict that is just bound to boil over sooner rather than later, and it makes for interesting conflict in the meantime.

Speaking of interesting conflicts, Fushi is growing into quite the nuanced little person-thing as of late. His still mostly simplistic and naïve motives—“Help people,” “Don't let loved ones die”—are becoming more and more difficult to reconcile with the complexities of the world he is trying to defend. His struggle to come to terms with Bon's arguments make perfect sense, forcing the audience to reckon with whether a being with powers as great as Fushi's can afford his “innocence,” as it were. On the one hand, we do not want to see Fushi made to suffer or to have him make the terrible choices that we mortals sometimes have to deal with to make it to the next day. On the other hand, if he's going to become powerful and wise enough to take on the Nokkers, Fushi may have to find those compromises within himself. Perhaps that is when Bon will see fit to let Fushi know what he's truly capable of.

Then again, Fushi might also have the power that allows him to find solutions beyond what our mortal minds are capable of conceiving. For example, while Bon balks at the notion of winning over all of Renril, which is what the princess requires for Fushi's request to have access to all of the city, Fushi dives headfirst into solving the kinds of problems that only he can solve, such as repairing a broken-down watermill in only one night. Time will tell if these gestures are enough to overcome the challenges that await him, but our Fushi is determined to stick to his guns in the face of overwhelming odds, which may be the most human thing he could do in this situation. Given how rough the production continues to be, I don't know if To Your Eternity will be able to deliver a final confrontation that truly lives up to the buildup, but for the first time in a while, I'm eager to see it try.

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To Your Eternity is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.