Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyō - 5

Shirokane Ginka finally hits the spotlight, with this episode being almost solely dedicated to her, and her background story. Naturally, our Daemonia of the Week is none other than... Uncle Honda. Asides from sharing a name with a large, Japanese Car manufacturer, Honda had been a very successful businessman, who happened to know Ginka's father very well. In times of difficulty, and stress, Uncle Honda often came round to help them, even though he could've just simply not bothered. However, good times don't last forever, pushing him to the brink of suicide. Then salvation was offered in the form of darkness, and it was there that Honda predictably fell to temptation. Classic heel face turn, and a really sad end for such a kind man. Gen'ei really demonstrates a harsh reality, bringing a whole Astralux of pain down upon our magical girls.

A key revelation was that Akari’s “stronger emotional pulse” allows her thoughts to materialize more readily while in the Astralux, meaning she could hear the Daemonias voices'. As Seira points out, 'Ignorance is Bliss', with prior knowledge potentially casting a double edged sword. Upon realizing the Daemonia is her beloved Uncle Honda, Ginka comes in contact with Akari in order to hear his final words, before finding the conviction to mercifully dispatch him. While she curses the gift at first, she manages to make peace with herself, knowing full well that Honda would've wanted to pass on. In a sense, the girls who possess Akari's ability to hear the voices are gravekeepers. They have become a kind of living record—keepers of memories that others will forget, and of proof that the people possessed lived in the first place.

Interestingly, we can see how Ginka's past has molded her. She is carefree, cheerful and quite resilient as a result of the hardships she faced. To find even the plight of Magical Girl as lucky compared to living as a penniless pauper just goes to show how she'd rather do anything than go back to her old way of life. She also serves as a direct “bridge”, since she reconciles Akari’s will to listen to Daemonia, with Seira’s desire to kill them – though her motive is more “putting out their misery” “than “passing judgement onto them”. nd just as the past led them to this day, it also led (literally via genetic lineage) the other girls to Sefiro Fiore too, and arguably, it was the past that led the individuals in the past five episodes to fall into temptation too. With this interesting time concept introduced, as well as the face of our antagonist, all that's left is a brazen Seira based episode to get everything necessary out of the way for some true action.

The Moon was always a symbol of envy. I hope this isn't an ominous foreboding