Bethel Anime Club

Episode 7 and 8 Synopses:

Episode 7 (“The Rain Falls, A Rainbow Forms”): And there it is: a beautiful rainbow arcing across a glistering sky. Beneath, a young man begins to run after it, panting desperate words: “Don’t fade! Don’t fade…”

In a driving rain Ginko takes shelter under a tree and meets two other travelers. One is a goateed sarcaste and the other is the young man from the opening, who informs them that it will continue to rain for another half an hour. Ginko notices that the young man has an enormous jar strapped to his back and asks if he has any food, but the response is unusual (to say the least): the traveler says that the jar is to carry home a rainbow. Ginko and the other man are both interested in such an unusual story (Rashomon influences, anyone?) and so the bejarred fellow begins his tale:

When he was a child, his father would have strange fits every time it rained: he would run, laughing and leaping, into the hills, roaming around until he was found stuck in the mud or returned on his own. When it wasn’t raining, he would drink enormous quantities of water. His wife and his older son were ashamed of him but his younger son, the man telling the tale, was fascinated by the story of the rainbow that drove his father mad. The day before the younger son was born, the bridge on the river had washed away again. This bridge was the responsibility of their family, and had been for countless years; they redesigned it constantly, trying to make it better and stronger, but every time the river flooded the bridge was washed away. On this day as the father pondered over how to redesign the bridge, he saw an unusually close and clear rainbow. Investigating, he discovered that it was literally springing from the nearby riverbed, and when he touched it, he found that it stuck to his hand.

After that, the rainbow often appeared to the father and entertained him—but he and his infant son were the only ones who could see it. After a few months the rainbow left, and ever since that time the father was afflicted with the strange malady that has convinced the village he is insane. The younger son was very impressed with this story, and when he asked his father if it was fun when he ran in the rain, the response was: “it really is fun.” Eventually the father began to weaken, and had to be restrained every time it rained. In fear for his father’s life, the younger son left his town and began a journey to catch the rainbow that caught his father so that he could show it to everyone.

The story’s end coincides with that of the rain. The third traveler says that the ending is a little weak, and makes off; but Ginko offers to help the young man in his quest, at least until fall. He says that the “rainbow” is actually a Mushi called “Kouda,” and although he has seen it from a distance once he would very much like to see its base. All he asks, of course, is that the young man pay for his food—and sell the absurd jar. As they set off Ginko says that the Kouda tends to appear in the direction of the sun, and that its colors are in reverse order. The search goes on for quite some time, until Ginko finally asks how long the young man has been traveling. “Five years,” he replies. Than the story, Ginko points out, was a lie: he wouldn’t leave a sick family member for five years. The man says that the story was true, but he hasn’t been entirely honest about his motivations. His name, he finally reveals, is “Kourou:” “bright” or “brilliant,” after the rainbow. Just before Kourou began his search he injured his left hand, so that he could no longer help with the bridge-building. His brother was the real architect, anyway—Kourou seemed to have no place for himself except at his father’s side. The villagers made fun of his name and his worthlessness just as they made fun of his father’s obsession, and what Kourou really wants is to show them all that they were wrong. He accuses Ginko of traveling with him only for a lark, but Ginko replies that it is better to set a goal merely for the sake of attaining it than because of a desire to “win.” In fact, Ginko rightly guesses that Kourou is only journeying to hide his guilt: he truly is impotent and without any purpose.

The next day, as Ginko sells mermaid’s nails to a passing farmer (who seems rightfully incredulous), Kourou feels a twinge in his hand, smells rain in his nose, sees the Kouda in the distance and begins to run. Ginko packs up and takes off after his, but the two cannot reach it in time. However, Ginko points out that it should rain again fairly soon and the Kouda probably won’t go that far, and so they settle down to camp overnight. Kourou dreams of the last conversation he had with his father: he was told that his father had thought of a better name, one that wouldn’t make people laugh at him. Something about that gesture made Kourou begin to cry: his father seemed to be denying that which had defined him, for good or ill, his entire life. That night, desperate to find some meaning for both their existences, he left.

When Kourou awakens in the morning he sees, entirely unexpectedly, the Kouda. This time it is not too far away, and Ginko and Kourou reach it in time: it is enormous and beautiful, and immediately Kourou touches it. For a moment he feels that he is inside of it—but Ginko pulls him back out and calls him a fool. The rainbow is a type of Nagaremono, a kind of Mushi that doesn’t even have sentience or will. Apart from the fact that it has life, it is exactly the same as a rainbow that is formed by natural causes. It can affect others, but nothing can affect it. Kourou’s father’s madness was not the result of the rainbow’s will, but simply his reaction to something he perceived as the most beautiful thing in the world: the Kouda has power based only on the reactions of those perceiving it. After hearing this news, Kourou simply lies back in the grass and smiles: Ginko is like that Kouda, he says. After walking out of Kourou’s story, Ginko will simply flow away again.

But as Ginko narrates the episode’s end it seems that the very pointlessness of his endeavor gave Kourou a sense of purpose. On the river that’s always flooding, where no bridge was ever strong enough, someone finally designed a means of keeping a structure up: when a flood occurred, the bridge’s bindings would be removed and the anchored pieces would be allowed to flow with the river. Afterwards, the bindings would be put back in and business could continue as usual. The name of this bridge… was Nagare.

Episode 8 (“From the Sea-Border”): Many strange things wash up on the beach: animals, boats, wreckage, people. One such thing is a young man named Shiro, who sits and watches the sea at a certain fishing village. One day Ginko encounters him and asks if there isn’t a ferry that goes to the other side of the bay. Shiro responds that there is, but Ginko will have to wait until the fishermen come back from their work. Ginko asks what he’s doing, and Shiro responds that he’s waiting for his wife, who was lost in a strange manner. Ginko requests the whole story, and Shiro tells his tale:

Two and a half years ago Shiro and his wife Michihi were spending their honeymoon fighting. Shiro, it seems, had been the top employee at Michihi’s father’s wholesalers, and had been expected to inherit the establishment when her father died. But immediately after Shiro and Michihi married, Shiro was fired for an extremely minor mistake and the two were now returning to his hometown on the sea. Michihi, a city girl, hated it: it smells like fish and it’s not clean. Shiro, in an understandably rotten mood, accused her of marrying him only because she wasn’t the only daughter. She had no love for him, he declared: her motivations were purely commercial. The argument ended in silence and hurt, and Shiro told Michihi to go home. But she when the two ferries arrived, she got on the second and followed him across the bay. Shiro realized that he’d been cruel, but decided not to apologize until they reached the other shore. However, he never got the chance: halfway across the bay, the sea began to swarm with white snakes and a strange fog rose. Michihi’s boat began to drift away from Shiro’s, and although he tried to call her back she wouldn’t get in the water for fear of the snakes. (The man who had been ferrying her, however, could not see the snakes and swam back safely.) As Shiro watched, Michihi drifted away into the fog. Moments later, the boat was overturned by an enormous wave of snakes.

Because of the currents, Shiro explains, anything lost at sea returns directly to the shore. He came back, and so did his boat; but of his wife, her vessel, or its cargo nothing has ever been seen. So he’s waiting for her, because he doesn’t know what else to do. Ginko points out that at this point she’s either dead or has moved on with her life; it’s time for Shiro to move on as well. Then Ginko leaves while Shiro ponders his future.

Later that day Shiro sees a young fisherwoman, Nami, being given a very small price for her fine catch. Shiro realizes that although he has never noticed it before, the fishermen in the area are very poor and have no idea of the true value of their work. He accosts the merchant and haggles for nearly twice the old price; Nami is delighted and Shiro tells her to let everyone know that it’s fine to ask for that much.

As time passes he becomes a valued member of the community and Nami develops an obvious attraction for him. Although Shiro will sometimes see odd things in the water, like the shadow of a shark that doesn’t exist (Angel’s Egg influences, anyone?), things seem to be going swimmingly… until, after six months, Ginko returns. The first person he runs into is Nami, and although she tells him not to bother Shiro his sudden appearance frightens her. She tells Shiro that she’s afraid: Ginko’s returned, Shiro’s being saying strange things, and the tide continues to rise. “It feels like you’re going to be washed away,” she sobs, and Shiro doesn’t know how to comfort her.

The next day he hears the fishermen talking: a strange mist has risen on the sea, the tide is higher than it has ever been before, and they will stay on the shore today. They mention that during such occasions people are sometimes taken away, and their empty boats come back three years later. In a rush his guilt over Michihi’s disappearance overwhelms him again and he heads for the boats. There Ginko meets him and tells him what’s going on: a Mushi, composed of many snakes, that lives three years on the land and three years on the sea uses this spot as its migratory point. Three years ago Michihi was carried away by the Mushi heading out to sea that are returning now. Shiro believes Ginko but still wants to go out in a boat to meet his wife’s boat. As they travel, Ginko tells him about the mist: when you are in it you can see the shore clearly as long as you want to return to the shore; but the loss of desire means the loss of vision. The reason Michihi was carried away was that she wanted to be lost. But Shiro now has something to live for: the fishermen, his new existence, perhaps Nami. And indeed as they enter the mist Shiro can see the shore clearly.

The snakes begin to appear, and among them is a small boat bearing a kimono-clad form: it’s Michihi’s boat. Ginko steers them alongside it and Shiro removes the cloth, expecting to find a shriveled corpse… but instead, he sees his wife, sleeping. She awakens and asks Shiro why he left her wandering for three days; Shiro apologizes for his harsh words and the long wait, but she tells him that his action in saving her speaks louder than any words he might have. Just as she is about to step onto their boat, Ginko asks Shiro if he can see the shore. He confidently points—in the wrong direction. The water begins to roil, and Ginko tells Michihi to let go of “that;” for Michihi is no longer human and as soon as Shiro lets her go she dissolves into nothingness. Then a huge tidal wave of snakes hits, and the boat begins to rock…

Back on shore, the fishermen have given up all hope. It takes one month for Ginko and Shiro to come back, for inside the mist they are in the Mushi’s time-frame: to them it seemed like a just few hours. When they do return, an elated Nami embraces Shiro and he actually hugs her back. The next day Michihi’s things wash ashore and Shiro lets Nami take his wife’s kimono. Ginko leaves as the two smile at each other, and all seems right on the seashore.