REVIEW: ‘To Your Eternity,’ Season 2 Episode 9 – “Expanding Consciousness”

With Bon now safely removed from the Church of Bennet’s clutches, Fushi and company return their focus to the ongoing battle against the Nokkers. But after a harrowing fight where several of Fushi’s forms are stolen from him, it is clear in To Your Eternity Season 2 Episode 9 that something must change if Fushi is to continue to defy his enemies.

First off, I’m happy to see this series refocus on the Nokker threat after recently centering its story around its protagonists’ struggles with the Church of Bennett. Evil religions are a dime a dozen in anime, and I feel like the Nokkers represent a lot more promise for a unique and engaging primary antagonist. While the Church is still present, I think it will work much better as a secondary threat for Fushi to contend with.

Playing out between his clashes with his old foes, To Your Eternity Season 2 Episode 9 sees more exploration of Fushi’s ever-expanding power set. I like this form of purposeful expansion of Fushi, rather than surprising viewers with new abilities that magically appear just as they are needed. This approach gives the narrative a far more thought-out feeling. There is also an interesting tidbit about the nature of Fushi’s relationship to those whose forms he holds onto thanks to Bon. While this moment doesn’t give any exact information or immediate impact, it continues to raise questions about the exact nature of the interaction between them.

While I mostly enjoy the changes that To Your Eternity Season 2 Episode 9 brings, there is a glaring oddity in its tale. As commented on above, during Fushi’s battles with the Nokkers in this episode, he is stripped of several of his forms. While this has happened before, the oddity comes in how easily he loses them. In one particular scene, the Nokkers go through Fushi’s forms as I go through a bag of potato chips. If it’s this easy for them to score hits on Fushi, how has he not been forced to go back to just being that little black orb that fell from space already? This drastic improvement in the Nokkers’ ability to contend with Fushi will hopefully be addressed by Fushi managing to expand his abilities to counter his foes. However, I worry that this will simply be a momentary improvement to compel the story that will quickly revert itself once some particular plot point has been served.

With several new elements being introduced to Fushi’s story, To Your Eternity Season 2 Episode 9 expands its strong visual elements to incorporate them smoothly into the narrative. Along with the presentation of new things, the animation delivers the episode’s action sequences in a way that brings tension and danger to these moments.

Bringing it all together, To Your Eternity Season 2 Episode 9 starts off the next leg of Fushi and company’s journey on a strong foot. With new elements to explore and old foes to fight, it looks like the series has plenty of fertile ground to sow compelling narratives for its audience.

To Your Eternity Season 2 Episode 9 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.