I give it a 9 because those fight-heavy episodes felt a bit like filler to me, but I still get the point they were trying to make. It becomes another (of MANY, seriously) portrayal of reality that this anime nails—people obsessed with the internet, games, etc., to the point they commit atrocities, and in their minds, it’s still somehow tied to the media they consume so much. It even reminded me a bit of Videodrome.
Going into the final arc of the anime, I really want to highlight episode 11—the detective’s wife vs. the kid with the bat—it’s a TRUE BOSS FIGHT OF WORDS, HOLY SHIT. In that scene, the bat kid basically represents her will to die, to give up, and she herself represents the drive to live. You see the situations she brings up—losing her baby, telling her life story—while the bat kid laughs, his body growing like he knows he’s about to land a hit on her. But he destroys the whole house and still can’t touch her, because she understood that despite all the suffering, without suffering, there is no happiness.
Now talking about the series ending—I really want to point out how Shounen Bat and Maromi are two sides of the same coin. But Maromi is way worse, because he represents the most modern form of escapism, especially in Japan—using cute things like a kind of drug, projecting your frustrations onto them. And the answer to all that escapism is right there in the anime’s ending. Notice: the ending is literally the same shit as the beginning, the world hasn’t changed. Pessimistic, right?
But that’s the thing—what had to change, did. Sagi no longer depends on Maromi. When she accepted responsibility for her dog’s death, EVERYTHING ended. Shounen Bat and Maromi no longer exist. To me, what the creator wanted to show is that even if the world doesn’t change, that’s no excuse to run away from all the negativity. In fact, it’s even more reason to accept reality for what it is—or better yet, change your own reality just by stopping the escape. Because that does make a difference. Not in the world, like in Paranoia Agent, where everything just reset, but in your social circle and, most importantly, in you
