Deep Insanity: The Lost Child Episode 9

Deep Insanity: The Lost Child Episode 9

Vera’s Time Control

It’s unfortunate that I’m reviewing my least favorite anime of the season on a Friday, but here I am. But to be fair, Deep Insanity: The Lost Child Episode 9 wasn’t a terrible episode. The series does continue to introduce somewhat interesting plot developments.

In Episode 8, we learned that Commander Vera has the ability to reset time. That was kind of a big revelation. And in Episode 9, we learn a bit more about how she views this ability of hers. Unfortunately, we still don’t know how the ability actually works.

Vera appears to view her ability as if it’s completely natural. She knows she has the ability and it’s why she isn’t worried about failing her assassination mission. However, she doesn’t use it as liberally as I would have expected her to.

Commander Vera checking her messages from the anime series Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
Commander Vera checking her messages

For example, we saw glimpses of many different timelines in which Vera failed and then reset time. So we know she has no issue with using her ability when necessary. But, she doesn’t rely on her ability as I would expect from someone who gained it somewhat recently.

When Leslie died in the current timeline, Vera was in no rush to reset. She hasn’t even considered resetting. This tells me that she’s confident that when the time comes, her ability will work as intended and she’ll be sent back to the start (whenever that is).

Vera’s use of her ability is pretty strange. I would have expected her to use it whenever anything went wrong and then attempt to change the future. That’s not what we’ve seen. In fact, she seems to not like when the future is different. She has a specific endpoint in mind and she’s working toward it.

BBQ with the Commander

The whole part of the episode about inviting Commander Vera to a barbeque party with the rest of the platoon wasn’t exactly the most exciting content. But, it did allow us to see how Vera views her subordinates and her role as their commander, which was nice.

Vera has a complicated relationship with the rest of her platoon. She doesn’t want to get close to any of its members, and she claims this is because if she becomes too friendly with them, they’ll stop viewing her as their commander and following her orders.

I still think there’s another reason for Vera distancing herself from the rest of the platoon. Since she’s going to see them dying a lot as she resets time whenever they fail their mission, she doesn’t want to be too attached to them. This is why she’s able to go on even after Leslie’s death.

Commander Vera dissociating from the anime series Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
Commander Vera dissociating

At the same time, Vera also doesn’t want to separate herself too much from her subordinates because that could affect their morale. She wants them to follow her orders, but also have faith in those orders so that they succeed.

What I’m curious about is how she determined that this was the right way to operate her platoon. Did she arrive at this conclusion through trial and error? Were there times she was too close to her subordinates and it caused them to feel comfortable questioning her orders? Were there times they became disheartened due to her cold treatment of them?

And, if she’s determined that her current balance is the right one, why did she allow Leslie to get closer to her than the others? She wasn’t exactly open with him, but she also didn’t push him away as he began to suspect something was strange about her knowledge.

Shigure’s Retconned Backstory

The most confusing part of this episode was when Shigure’s backstory was seemingly retconned. Maybe I’m just forgetting what his backstory originally was. But I’m pretty sure it was very different from what was portrayed within Episode 9.

Vera claims that she selected Shigure to be assigned to her platoon because he had distinguished himself as a skilled sniper after coming to the Asylum. And she felt that someone with his skill set would be perfect to carry out her assassination plan.

That’s not at all how I remember Shigure’s backstory. When was he a distinguished sniper in the Asylum? Wasn’t his first mission with Vera Platoon the first time he had entered the Asylum? And at the start, he could barely figure out how to use his weapons.

Shigure and Vera from the anime series Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
Shigure and Vera

I even distinctly remember that Shigure was assigned to Vera Platoon after Commander Vera requested additional soldiers. She didn’t select him herself. And she was even a little ticked off when she was told that all she would be getting was a rookie.

If you recall, Shigure took the job because he wanted to be a hero. He had no combat experience. So I’m really not sure where this new backstory for Shigure is coming from. It makes no sense.

The only explanation I can think of for this change in his backstory is if it’s revealed that Shigure actually was an expert sniper in a different Asylum platoon and that he was brainwashed to forget that and to instead think he’s there because he wants to be a hero.

That would be a pretty stupid development, though. And even if it does come to pass, it still doesn’t make sense. Vera would want the expert sniper Shigure, not the wannabe hero Shigure. So there’s no reason to replace his memories.

Conclusion

What do you think of Deep Insanity: The Lost Child? Will Vera ever reset time back to before Leslie died? Do you think she’s actually going to open up to her subordinates? And what did you make of Shigure’s retconned backstory? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 10 is available now.

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