Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 9 Review

Yohane’s Magic

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 9 gave us a bit of lore regarding Lailaps. As you’ll know if you’ve read my previous reviews, I’m not convinced everyone can hear her. But, I’m sure that Yohane can.

As far as I know, we’ve never seen Lailaps talk to anyone other than Yohane. So, it could also have been possible that it’s all in Yohane’s head. She could believe Lailaps is talking to her as a coping mechanism for being lonely. Well, at least that was a possibility until Episode 9.

We now know that Lailaps can indeed speak. Though, it’s still up for debate whether or not anyone other than Yohane can hear her. But, at this point, I’m going to predict that they can but haven’t. What I mean by that is that Lailaps could talk to them, but she chooses not to.

So, why am I saying that we now know that Lailaps can speak? Well, at the start of Episode 9, we saw a flashback of Yohane and Lailaps when they were younger. And in this flashback, Yohane “casts a spell” on Lailaps to make her a “cute little sister who can talk.”

Yohane doesn’t seem to realize it, but this spell worked. The issue is that Yohane hasn’t put it all together. She doesn’t realize that it was this spell she thought was make-believe was real. And, Lailaps tries to tell her that.

In Episode 8, Lailaps tried to tell Yohane that her staff isn’t the source of her magic. And in this episode, she tried to tell Yohane that her magic far precedes the staff. Yohane has always been able to use magic. Unfortunately, she doesn’t give Lailaps the chance to explain it.

Investigating Lailaps

When Yohane won’t get out of bed at the start of the episode, Lailaps goes out on her own. Of course, she knows that this will get Yohane to get up. There’s no way Yohane could resist following her to see what she’s up to.

As we know, this was all part of Lailaps’s plan to lure Yohane to the spot where they met. When Yohane was younger, she met Lailaps while lost. And, today is the anniversary of that meeting. So, there’s no better time for Lailaps to reveal that Yohane could always use magic.

But, what this also revealed is that Lailaps is very much her own person. Despite referring to Lailaps as her sister, Yohane doesn’t view Lailaps as independent. Sure, she views Lailaps as more than just a pet. However, Yohane can’t accept that Lailaps could have her own life separate from hers.

While tailing Lailaps, Yohane, Riko, and Ruby learn a lot of things about her. It turns out that Lailaps regularly helps people around Numazu. She gives old people rides, plays with children, and does various other odd jobs. Basically, she does all the things Yohane has been doing.

But, it doesn’t seem that Lailaps is imitating Yohane. Remember, Yohane was away in the city for a while — a few years, if I’m not mistaken. What do you think Lailaps was doing all that time? Why do you think Lailaps is so familiar with the town and its people?

On top of all that, Yohane realizes that she doesn’t know everything about Lailaps. And, I’m pretty confident that this will be one of the most important realizations for her. This is what’s going to make her want to stick around in Numazu. She’ll want to learn more about Lailaps.

Find Lailaps

Alright, so Episode 9 was all about finding Lailaps after she went missing. But, she was never really missing. She was trying to direct Yohane to the place where they first met. However, I’m going to predict that Lailaps will go missing in one of these final episode.

The final scene of Episode 9 was pretty powerful. Lailaps tries to tell Yohane that she’s always had the ability to use magic. But, she’s interrupted by the rest of the Aqours girls showing up. And then, as Yohane is talking to them and ignoring Lailaps, we get a shot slowly zooming out from Lailaps.

To me, this is foreshadowing that Lailaps is going to leave Numazu. Now that Yohane has friends, she has no more need for Lailaps. The whole reason she spent her childhood with Lailaps is that she couldn’t make friends.

This is how I’m expecting Lailaps to take things. She’ll believe she’s no longer needed and go off on her own. But, of course, that’s not actually true. Even though Yohane has other friends, she still needs (and wants) Lailaps around.

After going missing, Lailaps is also probably going to get caught up in the calamity. After all, that was never actually resolved, despite what Yohane thinks. We’ll likely see Lailaps acting in an aggressive manner and with red eyes. You know, like the deer from earlier in the season.

Yohane (and the other girls) will come to her rescue.

This is when Yohane’s going to stop the calamity with the power of her song. It’s still a bit unclear how her song is going to stop the calamity. But, we know her music is magical. And we can be pretty sure her singing is what’s going to bring Lailaps back to her senses.

Conclusion

What do you think of Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 9? Were you expecting the twist that Yohane gave Lailaps the ability to speak? What was the most surprising thing we learned from following Lailaps? And, do you expect Lailaps to get caught up in the calamity? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 10 is available now.