LogFAQs > #972152445

Yuki Takamiya
Yuki meets Ei in the 'abandoned' north building that everybody goes to all the time. Ei knows her somehow, but BJ!Miura does not. Nat-chan has been left behind in the ruins of 2025, I'm sure we'll find out how soon enough. Then we're back in the '80s to focus on the android formerly known as Tomi Kisaragi, currently Erika Aiba AKA Tamao Kurabe AKA 426. ...AKA Juro Izumi! 426's identity is finally revealed thanks to Morimura. Juro Kurabe should already be around at this point in time (though I don't believe we've ever met him as Yuki), so what does this mean? If Izumi's personality was reconstructed into Kurabe, who is the 426 that Morimura shoots here on Sumire bridge (and apparently not for the first time)? Is he an Izumi from a past cycle, someone else who thinks he's Izumi, or is Kurabe an elaborate construction who is actually entirely separate? If Izumi is an AI, is everybody here an AI or is he cloned from the regular Izumi who is now Kurabe? I've no idea, but I am now eager to get back to Juro's storyline.

Whoever he is, this Izumi has a strong connection to Morimura and we witness an argument that is well beyond us. Juro claims Morimura is merely trying to save her own ass by derailing 'the interstellar project', and she claims she's doing it for them both (I guess Izumi is the 'he' referred to earlier), particularly for the Juro before he awoke here... Interesting. They both seem to accept that 15 other people will be 'denied their own future', my guess from the description here is that they'll be trapped in these sectors or this loop if Morimura's plan succeeds. 15 is an interesting number, I assume the 13 playables are among them but who are the other two? Tamao perhaps? Okino? And maybe Juro Kurabe isn't part of that number...

Izumibot jumps off the bridge and everyone exits to do some plot stuff, leaving Yuki to ponder what just happened. This pretty much encapsulates what this storyline has been like. I like Yuki, and there's been some fun plot development here, but it's as if she's on the periphery of her own story. She doesn't seem crucial to anything happening and there's not one single throughline connecting all of these scenes, she just happens to be around to witness other people having snippets of their own stories. Her only real drive has been to locate Natsuno, and that's not exactly led anywhere. It's a shame, as I do like her character. We're not done with her yet, so maybe she will get more to do, but for now we're locked off.

Ryoko Shinonome
Ryoko is from 2064, the same as Ei it turns out. She has a crush on substitute teacher Ida that it's unclear if he reciprocates- he is all business and focused on the mission but he's not exactly disavowing her of her romantic notions. Hanging over this whole story is the knowledge that 2188 Ryoko feels utterly betrayed by Ida, having been used by him from the start, so it's impossible not to go into this viewing him as a likely villain.

Ryoko and Ei eagerly sign up as child soldiers, and we get to witness the Sentinel Infection mentioned a while ago from the POVs of Morimura, Gouto, and Ida. Ei's sentinel seems to transmit an infection to all the other sentinels, and only 5 of them manage to make it out (12, 13, 14, 16, 19). Ida heroically sacrifices himself (hmm...), and in the wreckage of 2025 Ryoko attempts to avenge him by killing Sekigahara aka Prisoner 426. She fails, and Ei claims he tried to save her but couldn't.

After the prologue we're back in 1985 with a very unwell Ryoko at the whims of the Devious Duo. The 'repeating day' mechanic that has been used in most storylines works really well here. With Ryoko's fragile mental state and overpowering memory loss (even by the standards of 13 Sentinels characters), the repetition here feels sinister and worrisome, the background tone of this section isn't far off psychological horror. The blinking screen is effective too, missable at first (I did wonder if it was my eyes or the TV the first few times >_>) but getting worse and worse until you have no choice but to take the pills that you know are probably bad news for Ryoko. We're interviewing students much like Yuki did, but their reactions to Ryoko make no sense to her and only increase the tension. Tomi straight up tells her to run away (and we do thanks to some wonderful distraction work from Miwako!).

We take a few trips around this nightmare, first seeing Megumi get trained to replace Ryoko as pilot of #14 (she blames Juro's death on her and taunts her for it), and then reading medical records showing that her personality is separating and she is beginning to 'disappear' like Izumi did in Kurabe's body. Is Morimura careless, or does she simply not give a damn about her students/experiments finding their medical records openly on her desk lol. In the case of Ryoko, I suppose she's not the slightest bit concerned as she'll forget everything in a moment anyway. If I have my timelines right (a big if), I believe Gouto is suspicious of this Morimura at this point so she may be 426 herself.

One day we confront Ei in the science room repeating the exact same dialogue from the prologue, and then jump to 2025 where we once again repeat the conversation almost verbatim. Man, poor Ryoko, whatever happened to her has her well and truly fucked up. Ei claims not to be 426, and calls her big sister (not sure if that's meant to be literal or some kind of honorific like Senpai). Even after all that, we wake again in the nurse's bed to repeat the same dialogue as ever. Seriously, poor Ryoko.

She later remembers being rescued by Ida in this timeline despite him apparently dying, and she realises that Shu Amiguchi reminds her very strongly of the man. It is here that I remember Amiguchi being called 'Ida' waaaay back when, and I'm suddenly tempted to try his storyline next. We're locked out of Ryoko for now.

Current progress:
Yuki Takamiya- 85%
Keitaro Miura- 75%
Ryoko Shinonome- 75%
Natsuno Minami- 62%
Juro Kurabe- 55%
Ei Sekigahara- 28%
Iori Fuyusaka- prologue done
Takatoshi Hijiyama- prologue done
Megumi Yakushiji- prologue done
Shu Amiguchi- prologue done
Renya Gouto- prologue done
Tomi Kisaragi- prologue available
Nenji Ogata- prologue available