To Your Eternity “Gift From The Past” Review
To Your Eternity “Gift From The Past” is the eleventh episode of the To Your Eternity anime. Following his earlier commentary in episode 10 about the Nokkers. And how Fushi isn’t growing as he is stagnant as a human. Fushi, Gugu and Rean live their normal lives up until Rean’s 16th birthday party. Then things start to go horribly wrong.
Fighting Fate
Rean and Fushi are making cloth gifts as she teaches him needlework. He makes a sweat rag for Booze Man and Rean makes a crayfish mask for Gugu. During thier little chat whilst working, Rean inadvertently admits she loves Gugu and Fushi points out to her that she knows Gugu loves her too. She’s getting introduced to her suitor on her 16th birthday and is desperate not to marry him. So she decides to go for Gugu as a boyfriend as she can’t be seen to be getting married to someone else when she has a boyfriend (that’s her logic anyway.)
Whilst all this is going on, Gugu’s brother shows up out of nowhere and asks forgiveness. Saying he was a terrible person but that wasn’t him. He’s making something of his life now, selling farm tools. It’s not big money but it’s stable and better than what they had. Gugu doesn’t give an inch though. He tells his brother basically back the hell off and leave him alone. His brother gives him back the ring. His brother later leaves but not before he goes to give back the ring for Gugu to have, Rean recognises it and asks if she can give it to him.
Proposal
Rean goes to find Gugu and finds him asleep outside on a bed of flowers. She goes to put the ring on his stubby finger but it’s way too small. Waking him up in the process, Rean continues to ask him out telling him about the arranged marriage. He gets all flustered and she tries to call his bluff by quoting his words back at him that he said before fighting the Nokker but he can’t remember because he was drunk at the time. She leaves frustrated but it’s not all bad news for Gugu. Booze Man presents him with a new mask that can spark itself as he slams the lid down. Useful against the Nokkers.
Realisation
The day of the party is here and Fushi and Gugu make their way to the venue. Fushi bringing vegetables as gifts and Gugu buys a single Dream Bellflower, the same flower Rean was inspecting when she was saved by Gugu four years ago. They show up and Gugu gives her the flower, immediately making Rean think, but he gets mostly hated for it as people are worried it would upset her. She contemplates on it. Knowing Gugu had her ring and has now presented her with the exact flower on the day of the incident.
Being introduced to her new fiancé she has to spend time with him, though she’s clearly miserable. Gugu gives up and tells Fushi he’s off and he’ll meet him later. Rean chases him down in the gardens and they both use the incident as a hypothetical of what may have happened, even though Rean’s clearly figured it out by now. Just as they both figure out that they’re finally on the same page. The patio that Gugu is standing on crumbles and he falls pushing Rean out of the way and saving her again, whilst elsewhere “The Creator” warns Fushi that the Nokkers are here.
Review
Wow, OK, a lot to unpack. I’ll admit when this episode started I was worried it was going to be a typical filler episode, which are all necessary and fine but not much was happening. All it was was characters discussing what we already know and have seen multiple times. The ending sequence really got me though. In a matter of seconds we see more character development in Rean than we have in weeks. And the clear love they both have for each other is made painfully obvious, just as the Nokkers ruin it.
Gugu saving Rean again in spite of his own life, I don’t think is going to end as luckily as it did last time. True he has an anti-Nokker mask now but it’d be shocking if he survives this attack. Every hint the show has made has made it clear that The Creator doesn’t care for humans. And I feel like the subsequent episodes are going to show his point in no uncertain terms. Fushi cannot stay human or live for too long as a human without evolving. The Nokkers are just too dangerous and he’s the one they want to take out.
Overall, a great, if not slow episode. The last few minutes are almost worth the monotony of the rest though.
