Definitely some shades of Akira and From the New World here, and I'm always a sucker for "superpowered lab experiment gets loose, reks havoc on the world. The generation gap between the original and her daughter/the subsequent merger has some interesting parallels, and Salt/Gendo (he totes reminds me of Gendo from Evangelion) is a pretty neat character. Even if it's the classic 'throw away professional cool because you have a kid,' wwww. Him doing the formal bow/request to Yayaka was a p significant moment of character development, and I like how Papika's stuff is confronting her explicitly.

We also have confirmation that each person has their own world of Pure Illusion, and that the door leads deeper into their unconscious/can actually change who they are as a person. The whitecloak baddy being Salt's dad, (accidentally) driven mad by Mimi, is actually really interesting. It ties in the consequences of the past more clearly to the present.
The twins and the third child are like not relevant at all at the moment, haha, but that given they have an amorphous inside them, I'm sure that'll change.

Chrono I think was right that the ep 1 snowy world is Cocona's Pure Illusion, given that it came back here, and Mimi identifies it as the one Cocona likes most. I also like the resurfacing of "switch out with me" from ep... 7? with the flashback to Papika/Cocona in Iro's childhood. The idea of having multiple selves, and Mimi basically switching out her superego for her id as a means of dealing with a catastrophic situation.

Chrono earlier said that Papika = id, Cocona = ego, Yayaka = superego, and I think if not those exact comparisons, that kind of discourse is p on-point for this show. It seems to be tapping into the same psychoanalytic vein as stuff like Akira, From the New World, Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, etc

adult!Salt, Mimi, and tomboy/bi-coded? Papika in pants/short hair is OT3 af

I expect some people to have feelings about Mimi and Papika having run away together to raise a child together for a year

I liked the whole dynamic going on between Cocona/Papika/Yayaka in Ep 9's Pure Illusion. Yayaka herself is pretty great. I know I've seen this sort of "who are you to claim X for yourself, I've known X longer than you and she's MY love interest" dynamic somewhere else before. The monkey-hand arc in Bakemonogatari?

Kind of disappointed that her meeting Cocona was framed as being staged, but I can't really say that when I found Cocona's grandmother standing and being all "seize her mwahaha" to be such a HOLY SHIT moment.

I think I missed a ton of those Episode 10 details, Satty. I'm not entirely sure where you're getting all of this info...? Unless you were referring to the episode that just came out today, which I haven't watched yet.

BUT HOLY SHIT

Cocona saying "fuck this, I'm out" toward the end of the episode and then going total Tetsuo was a development that I was super-hoping would happen. God, yes. Ahahaha, I am pleased.

I love it when characters who seem inclined, by nature, to shirk from duty/hardship/stress wind up actually doing so, because jfc look how interesting this got.

My only criticism at this point is that everyone shouting each other's name is annoying af. That and Papika is still kind of "eh", but it looks like that might be remedied soon, if Ep 10 is any indication.

Rofl yeah, it is totally Tetsuo, isn't it?

And yeah, the whole "yelling names in lieu of actual dialogue" is p bad. I think the dialogue is probably the show's biggest weakness?

fucking aaaaaaaaaaargh

(I'm only halfway through but I had to say something)

IIIIII don't know if I like how this turned out

I think I hated the Mimi backstory.

While I thought it was well-executed in that it had all the feels and the music and was, in terms of presentation, great, the degree of Salt's involvement was a shockingly abrupt development and I didn't care for it at allllll. Like, who is this guy and how is he suddenly so easily part of Mimi and Papika's inner circle? It was such a sudden thing that was hardly reflected in his present character even after the fact. Like, ofc he bows to Yayaka at the end and yes sometimes less is more, but his confrontation with Mimi in the present was so forced and unearned. I think the show has so far benefited from its uptempo pacing, but not here.

But the real reason is that he ruined my perfect yuri paradise and I'm mad salty as fuck.

Also I guess I should be careful what I wish for, because bringing Cocona's story full-circle to this "my overprotective (for good reason) mother is the cause of everything" thing wound up not doing a whole lot for me, partly because it was a product of that aforementioned Salt development. Although Cocona being all "there's so many things I wanted to talk to you about ;__;" was so great. Still best. She's best because of how she deals with all these circumstances, even if I think some of these circumstances have been bad.

Finally learned more about Papika~ Happy with that. Kind of wonder what her relationship with Cocona is going to be like now?

idk, I think I preferred this when it was just silly adventures in wonderland.

I didn't mind the Salt backstory because I figured that wasn't the interesting part of the show, and 10 seemed to show that it was his leverage with his father that enabled Mimi and Papika to have the degree of freedom they did, and Papika herself seemed to be facilitating that dynamic a lot.

roflmao Asph, there is more to love than just yuri

In this case OT3 yes


Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm super a fan of overprotective mother. Like, if Cocona's mother / parents/lack thereof had been more of a thing before I feel it would've been more meaningful, but it's been practically a nonissue for the entire series. Which is why that memory dive in Pure Illusion got me so excited at first, since I thought we were finally getting some of how Cocona thought about her parents, and that kind of thing.

As is, overprotective has only kinda been a thing with Yayaka towards Cocona, and even that is a bit dodgy. I feel like "overpossessiveness," too, while kinda developed towards the end with Papika and Cocona, it would've been nice to see that played out a bit more.

In some respects I think I'm the opposite of you, Asph, I wanted a bit more of this serious stuff leading and and leading up to it, and a bit less of just "adventures in wonderland" xP

Yuri >>>>>

This is a bridge that cannot be crossed, I'm afraid ;___;

And yeah, I agree with you on the memory dive thing, which is why I was loving Episode 6 (the Aunt episode) until the end-of-episode reveal. I was looking for the show to find ways to show us what informs Cocona's character and to kind of explore these different parts of her personality. I think the wacky adventures in wonderland did a good job of scratching the surface in that regard. I guess what I meant to say is that I'm not a fan of things going completely sci-fi and moving the story in a direction that relies so heavily on characters that have, until now, been mostly kept to the backstory. I think it's taken almost everything out of Cocona's hands - her agency is why I wound up loving Episode 10 as much as I did.

I'm all for seriousness otherwise, and was hoping for that, too - I just don't like this particular route the story's taken.

Oh yeah, I agree, Cocona's loss of agency is shit

I would've been a more interesting angle, I think, if instead this whole side of Mimi was actually Cocona >projecting herself a mother figure, and it was actually all her doing it instead

Since Mimi herself also hasn't really been relevant until like
episode 10 lol

Yeah, I think if Cocona's development ultimately culminated in her wrecking shit on her own (or at least having an equal amount of agency, because obviously the show's been highlighting her reticence to do anything at all), that would've been ideal. I always thought that Mimi was going to be, like, some girl that got lost or consumed by Pure Illusion, a harbinger of some other threat, or was an aspect of Cocona's personality that she'd sublimated somehow. Her actually being her mother was kind of disappointing to me, hahaha

idk, I feel like the show wasn't necessarily working toward momness as a theme.