Tokyo ESP — 05

• Episode 5: Scene 05: Meeting, Phantom and Girl

It only looks peaceful on the surface, everything is already completely rotten underneath.

With the appearance of the Professor, Rinka and Murasaki experience his incredible illusions, made by sending images directly into other people’s minds. And while it’s only images, he can also affect the sense of sound, taste, smell, and touch also. His “negotiations” are more or less an explanation of the glowing fish, the rock (which is actually part of a stone tablet), and the collector (which is what Peggy is), and asking Rinka why she fights. It didn’t surprise me that the Professor asked if Azuma was the reason, but at the same time, it really bothered me that Rinka’s sense of justice and pursuit of heroism were reduced to “feelings for Kyotaro” even though we know she’s been a fighter and protector all along. He then asks her to join forces with him and create a new world order and says that a “miracle” will happen to the city in a week. Did we suddenly catch up to the first episode? Is the miracle the floating parliament building?

We find out it’s not, but it’s definitely connected. The miracle this time is a levitating tanker and the demand to create a Special ESP Zone, which was mentioned in the first episode. The Professor is confirmed to be Azuma’s adopted father and we’re shown a flashback to when the Professor and Minami picked up Azuma and adopted him into the family. It was a bit hard to tell whether or not Minami was seeing Azuma as anything more than a brother, but it’s sure that her devotion to the new world order is stronger than her attachment to him.

While Azuma held onto the idea that maybe Minami was being controlled by the Professor, he’s easily proved wrong when she straight up tells him she’s doing this of her own free will. The defeat of Azuma and Kobushi are made easier by the presence of Kobushi’s younger sister, Kozuki. Her esper powers are creating solid objects with her mind (basically like Green Lantern), and their similar costume and mention of thievery make it obvious they’re in the same line of business (maybe the family business?) except that now they’re on opposing sides. Of course, the Professor also shows off his powers by making it impossible for Azuma to teleport away and causing wounds that may or may not be real.

Of course, Rinka drops by (literally) to help out and fights Minami. It’s Peggy who actually defeats Kozuki for now, by knocking her off the tanker. But Minami defeats Rinka, Kobushi has been shot in the shoulder, and Azuma’s hand is impaled onto the tanker. When the red samurai guy tilts and ship and Rinka starts sliding down, Azuma rips his hand free through the sword, carries Kobushi, and reaches out to the unconscious Rinka.

The episode ends there, but at least two of the three will be safe after the fall. This may explain why Rinka and Kobushi are in the events of episode one but not Azuma. Although a lot of things happened, this still felt a bit like a set-up episode for me. While the tanker was a surprise–or a “miracle” as every other character would call it–it doesn’t measure up to the chaos of the first episode and instead seems like a gradual ascent to that level. It’s still intriguing, though, to learn about Azuma and Minami’s parents, although they raised a lot of questions. Did the Professor kill Azuma parents? How did Minami’s mother die and did it involve ESP or the tablet? These are questions that wouldn’t exactly be necessary for the plot, but would definitely add some more depth to the emotions and motivations of some of our main characters. Lastly, we seem to be heading straight to the events of the first episode, and yet we haven’t met Ayumu yet, who was shown to be very involved with the current group. I hope the way we get to episode one won’t involve an awkward time skip or a sudden addition of a character. I’m sure Tokyo ESP will work out the pacing well since it had pleasantly surprised me time and time again with how well the events of each episode are flowing and how well-paced the plot is.

Notes:

1. How long did the Professor have his scars? Had he been hiding them all his life (assuming he had esper powers earlier than the rest and that’s why he was researching the tablet)? Or was he scarred during the archaeological dig when he gained his powers?
2. How long are you going to wrap that one part of his hand???
3. I thought the police would either figure out the White Girl’s identity immediately or never, but they surprisingly solved it in a reasonable timeframe and even arrested Rinka, Rindou, and Murasaki. Too bad Rinka’s powers make escaping all too easy.
4. Minami as another motherless character: confirmed!