To Your Eternity Episode 12

To Your Eternity Episode 12

Fushi and Gugu Tag-Team

Episode 12 is easily the best episode of To Your Eternity so far. And, as I’ll go into later, I also think it was the best episode of any anime I’ve watched this season. It even gave me the same feelings as my favorite episode of anime ever.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s really begin this review by going over the tag-team fight Fushi and Gugu had against the Nokker. This is the kind of action I’ve been wanting ever since the first fight against a Nokker.

At the beginning of the series, I honestly wasn’t expecting there to be any action. But with the March arc, it was clear that there would be some. And once the Nokkers were introduced, it was obvious there would be a fairly significant amount of action going forward.

Fushi holding up the mansion ceiling from the anime series To Your Eternity
Fushi holding up the mansion ceiling

So, what made this fight so good? Well, first of all, it had some very good animation. It wasn’t a long fight scene of constantly great animation. But it definitely had its moments, which is all I really need from a series like this.

More importantly, though, we got to see Fushi and Gugu make plenty of use of both of their powers. Gugu used his fire and Fushi used his transformation and creation abilities in dynamic ways. I loved seeing Fushi go from one transformation to the next depending on what he needed at the moment.

Also, by the end of the battle, I’m pretty sure Fushi lost two transformations and gained one. He lost Oniguma right at the beginning, he lost March partway through, and he gained Gugu in the end. R.I.P. Gugu.

Gugu the Hero

As I’ve been saying for weeks now, Gugu wasn’t going to still be alive by the end of this arc. And further, just last week, in my review of Episode 11, I pointed out that Gugu’s “dream” of being loved by Rean could be accomplished without the two of them getting married.

The first sign that Gugu wasn’t going to make it out of this episode alive was when he shook off Rean’s hand and rushed to Fushi’s aid in the collapsed mansion. He loves Rean, but he’s the kind of person who would rather die saving someone than getting to live a happy life himself.

I actually thought that he was going to suffer wounds in the battle against the Nokker and die that way. His leaving Rean was the perfect setup for that. And when we got that close-up shot of Fushi smiling as March, I expected Gugu to be the one to get attacked rather than Fushi.

Gugu preventing rubble from crushing Rean from the anime series To Your Eternity
Gugu preventing rubble from crushing Rean

In the end, Gugu obviously dies while protecting Rean from being crushed by a pile of rubble within the mansion. And, as I just explained, Gugu wouldn’t have wanted to die any other way. He even got a kiss in the end, so good for him.

After Gugu’s death, Fushi, Pioran, and Booze man hide the fact that Gugu died from Rean. At first, it seems like she falls for it, but in the ending scene of the episode, we see that she knows Gugu is dead. How exactly she figured this out is unclear.

But what’s more unclear is why Fushi would disguise himself as Gugu in the end. It didn’t seem like he did it because he wanted to make Rean happy. He did it to hide his un-aged appearance from her. So why not just go into his Joaan form instead?

Lying to Rean about Gugu’s death seems a bit cruel to me.

Best Episode of the Season

The action in the first half of this episode definitely contributes to me saying that it was the best episode of the entire season (across all the anime I watched). But, the action alone isn’t enough. If that was all I wanted, then Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song would have the best episode.

What really makes this episode the best of the season is that it almost made me cry. I have 455 anime completed as of the writing of this review, according to MyAnimeList. And so far, I’ve never actually cried due to an anime — or at all in the past 12 years.

But, I’m always looking for an anime that will make it happen. The movie In This Corner of the World almost did it, and that’s a 10/10 movie, in my opinion. Violet Evergarden Episode 10 also almost did it and is what I consider to be the single greatest episode of anime.

Everyone mourning Gugu's death from the anime series To Your Eternity
Everyone mourning Gugu’s death

The entire scene of Gugu realizing that he died was perfect. That part of the episode alone was a 10/10. Having everyone walking with Gugu freeze and then get blown away when he realizes Fushi isn’t with them was great.

Obviously, those other characters weren’t dead. So I think the reason Fushi wasn’t depicted alongside them was that they’ll eventually reunite with Gugu when they die, but Fushi won’t. However, Gugu will always be with Fushi as one of his forms.

If the second half of this episode didn’t make you feel something, I’m not really sure what will. I actually bumped up my rating of To Your Eternity specifically because of this episode. Let’s hope that the next arc hits this hard as well.

Conclusion

What do you think of To Your Eternity Episode 12? Was there anything you would have liked to see during the fight that didn’t happen? How did you think Gugu was going to die? And did this episode make you cry? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 13 is available now.

2 Replies to “To Your Eternity Episode 12”

  1. The only time I’ve ever cried watching an anime was during an episode of Full Moon wo Sagashite towards the end of the show. I didn’t think a shoujo aimed at little girls would be the one to do it, but it had reinforced a particular character’s stance on something for a long time, and for her to finally look past her own experience on the matter led to a very satisfying moment emotionally that resonated well with me, and that was what led to me crying. My mom actually walked by after my tears had settled on a particular part of my face, and I wonder what she was thinking in that moment.

    This was definitely not my favourite episode of the season. I really disliked Fushi pretending to be Gugu when all he wanted to do was to prevent Rean from seeing him de-aged. As for what I found to be the best episode of Fumetsu no Anata e, it was the previous episode, Episode 11. It hit all the right character beats for me and was the first time I really, really enjoyed the show.

    1. I completely agree about Fushi turning into Gugu. He should have turned into Joaan instead. Rean had already seen him in that form before, I think. So she wouldn’t have thought it odd if there was a large dog there.

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