REVIEW: ‘To Your Eternity’ Season 3 Episode 6 — “Proof of Peace”

To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6, “Proof of Peace,” sees Fushi (Reiji Kawashima, The Wrong Way To Use Healing Magic) learn the truth about what is happening to people, as well as where The Observer (Kenjiro Tsuda, Sabikui Bisco) has been. The revelations challenge Fushi’s objectives and set him on a new mission. One that may prove to be his most difficult yet. 

The opening portion of To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 sees Fushi continue his efforts to assure Tonari (Eri Inagawa, Devilman Crybaby) that the world is at peace and that she doesn’t need to be suspicious about the Nokkers or Mizuha (Tomori Kusunoki, Chainsaw Man The Movie – The Reze Arc). While his intentions are clearly good, Fushi’s approach is incredibly flawed here. Furthermore, Tonari outrightly rejects any possibility of trusting Mizuha, even acknowledging that her feelings are based on the past, rather than anything the girl has done. 

This confrontation opens up To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 with a complex interaction. Tonari is willing to admit she’s being unfair; she even acknowledges that it’s hypocritical for her to feel as she does, given her own past. Nonetheless, it’s how she feels. She wants to make sure Fushi is safe, and she cannot believe that safety will be found around Mizuha. 

To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 starts with a heightened confrontation, setting the tension from the jump.

Tonari is in the wrong here.  She is punishing someone for events that happened hundreds of years before her birth. And yet, the concern and indignation that Tonari projects as she declares her feelings test logical reasoning, almost beconing the audience to take her side. This moment in To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 highlights just how persuasive passionate arguments can be, even if an observer knows they are not based on facts and are presented by a voice one is inclined to trust. 

Fushi’s attempts to make peace between his two friends are put on hold in To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6, when Bon discovers a young girl who has also been possessed. When Fushi tries to deal with the girl, the situation takes a sudden dark turn that could have major consequences in future episodes. 

This moment in To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 is the first time this season we see the horrifying side of the narrative. The way the animation twists the young girl’s face into a monstrous visage is shocking. But while much of the moment goes horribly wrong, there is a silver lining: it leads Fushi to The Observer. 

Horror takes hold with a possession, but it leads to a very important figure.

Now in the form of a child, The Observer explains much of what has transpired. The Nokkers are still around, but due to radical changes they’ve undergone, they are far more difficult to detect. And, according to him, they’ve already won. The battle is over, and there is no point in trying to do anything about it. Unsurspinginly, Fushi finds this state of affairs unacceptable. 

How Fushi goes about trying to discern the next steps to take in ending the Nokkers’ threat is unsatisfying. The conclusions that are arrived at seem nearly random, with no basis in observation or fact. It just feels like a convenient excuse to push Fushi down the next path in becoming more human: to understand love. 

The opening steps in Fushi’s latest emotional evolution leave some strong concerns. It appears that the narrative aims to reduce love to the romantic concept of attraction, intimacy, and all the associated aspects. If so, that would be missing the point of what love truly is. However, much like how they conclude that love is the answer, the idea that Fushi needs to learn what love is at all feels like a nonsensical concept that serves a foreseeable plot path.

Unfortunately, key elements introduced don’t pan out, leading to more frustration than not.

While trying to discern what love is, Fushi is told that love is “Love is a sense of belonging. A feeling of altruism, of cherishing one another.” This is an excellent description of love in the broad sense. To cherish and treasure others, often even putting their interests before yours, is the essence of love. And it’s something Fushi has been exhibiting since season one. 

From his rage at March’s death, his time helping Gugu, the effortless work he puts into the battle in season two, and even his genuine concern over whether or not he was right to bring his friends back into this “peaceful era,” all showcase Fushi more than understands this core tenet of love. He has been putting others before himself since he first uttered “thank you” for March’s benefit. 

It feels like the series is going to overlook all this to push Fushi into an awkward romance arc, so he can understand what “love is” feels unfortunate. It feels like a huge disservice to the greater concept of what love is. Hopefully, this will be one of those times when I can look back at my writing and smile over being wrong. 

To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 does some things right, while getting other things off on a questionable foot. Fushi’s search to experience and understand things is being taken in a direction that is probably expected to happen eventually, but the hyperfocus and approach it appears to be using leave doubts as to how it will play out. 

To Your Eternity Season 3 Episode 6 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.

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