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“Hikaru… was like the main character of a manga. He could talk to anybody…”
Yoshiki goes down the memory lane in ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’, recalling how the human Hikaru different from the entity inhabiting his body now. Interestingly, these flashbacks are prompted by the entity’s question about whether Yoshiki misses the “real Hikaru.”
Quick Recap of The Summer Hikaru Died’ Episode 10
Determined to keep digging into the mysterious Nonuki-sama legend, Yoshiki and Hikaru visit the village temple, which turns out to be a chilling shrine lined with wooden heads. As Hikaru’s locked-away memories resurface, he reveals the village’s grisly past of sacrificing human heads to appease a deity and ward off disasters like famine or crop failure. “This place is a freaking murder village?” – that’s Yoshiki’s blunt summary of the dark secret.
Titled “Indo’s Sin,” episode 11 of The Summer Hikaru Died finally reveals the extent of Hikaru Indo’s family’s connection to the curse plaguing Kubitachi village. After pressing his father, a former close friend of Hikaru’s late father, Yoshiki learns of a sinister tradition passed down through the Indo family for generations.
It was old man Takeda who in episode 9 of ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ violently reprimanded the boys for being ignorant about Indo’s history. But learning more about the Nonuki-sama or the ‘Indo’s Sin’, does little to solve Yoshiki’s existential crisis and confusion over what he should do about the bizarre situation he is in.
This ‘Summer Hikaru Died’ chapter brims with revelations, unsettling events, and raw emotion, but for once, it isn’t Yoshiki falling apart. Instead, it is Hikaru who is overwhelmed with his inner chaos, torn between his alien nature and human attachments, grappling with his connection to Yoshiki and his strange desire for a place to call ‘home’.
Perhaps the most surprising element of this chapter is Hikaru turning to the matronly Rie for advice. Until now, his serious interactions were limited to Yoshiki, with the rest of his time spent goofing off with classmates. But his exchange with Rie highlights how unnervingly human he seems, even if tinged with immaturity. And seeing someone other than Yoshiki respond to him with genuine concern underscores that it isn’t just Yoshiki clinging to his dead best friend, this entity has a hold of its own on people.
With only one more episode of ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ left this season, I’m as unwilling to let go of Hikaru as Yoshiki is. The animation could certainly be sharper, with backgrounds that often lack detail. Yet the sheer intensity of the story, blending emotion and the supernatural, keeps the anime gritty, engaging, and riveting at every turn.
Watch ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ on Netflix.
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