Animanga Brainrot

Bonus: Casual hand holding

One thing I’ve loved about this anime is how they set up certain scenes over the series to look similar so we can draw inferences about potential meaning behind those moments. Before, in The Hunt episode where Jinshi and Maomao are behind the waterfall I made an observation about how while Maomao sees herself in a diminutive light, Jinshi does not. Well for this scene we almost get a reversal. How Jinshi sees himself vs. how Maomao sees him.

Jinshi here is the insecure one. He’s asking Maomao, “Is my pretty face the only value I hold?”. Immediately she shakes her head no. We then see Jinshi from her perspective as before we saw Maomao from his. We notice she knows he is objectively beautiful, although to her maybe too much so as it causes people to focus only on that.

But her internal thoughts are about who he is as a person, that his essence isn’t like his appearance. That he’s solid and practical which she says is “probably more valuable than his appearance.” It gives us the first real glimpse at what Maomao thinks about Jinshi vs her outward reactions which can be misleading. She then tells him he is more manly than before. To her this appears to be a small comment, like anyone else can observe it. But to Jinshi it’s everything.

HOWEVER, the manga cuts off at this point, keeping strictly in Maomao’s perspective, and cuts straight to when she regains consciousness in bed after being treated for her injuries. The manga doesn’t show how she got back. They SAY how, and she briefly mentions, “wow that must have been embarrassing; he carried me back,” but we don’t SEE it. We don’t get to feel the true impact of what that means. But the anime DID show us, and holy shit.

They SHOW us how taboo this is. They show Jinshi carrying her out of the temple, after a public attempt on his life.

They show us the shock and horror on Lakan’s face as Jinshi silently walks past him. Horror at the state his daughter is in, horror at another man—a man with a status he could never dare to question—staking such a public claim over his child, horror at the fact that he could never have this level of closeness with her (as Maomao would never allow it).

Everyone hides their gazes, as is their custom when someone of his rank passes by, but the air is different this time. Jinshi is furious, he’s terrified, and he could not give a single shit about how inappropriate it looks to these palace officials.

The shot that slowly follows her trail of blood—even though it’s a small detail—that in particular leaves such a intense impression of how poignant this is for him.

Maomao talked about this scene in the manga like it was nothing to her. She did what she set out to do: she saved the person who was targeted by the attack. She didn’t even know the target would be someone she knew. But she has no idea that this happened afterwards as a result of her bravery. To her, it likely wasn’t even an act of bravery at all. She acted on impulse; she did what she knew was the right thing to do.

I hate myself so much that I keep fantasising about the loving devoted husband Toji was with Mamaguro and what an amazing father he could've been for Megumi if she didn't die