Episode 7 begins with Natsuki investigating further about Atri’s emotions, to figure out whether or not she has a “heart”. But there was one thing that Natsuki kept on overlooking when he was testing her: The clues she kept leaving about whether the way she responded made him happy.
In the beginning of the episode, Natsuki was struggling to understand how his memory worked with Atri being the supposed one to save him when he only recalls an older lady during his time of need. But Atri filling in the gaps that seemingly continue to prove that perhaps it really was her makes it confusing for him to the point that the visual of his memory is being “overwritten”. And in all fairness, it is confusing. How is it she is able to perfectly line up those memories and know that song, all while he himself doesn’t remember her as she is? This does make me wonder if Atri actually been modelled off that specific individual, and perhaps even been made to inherit her memories once when deceased. But until we figure out whether that’s a possibility or not, there’s a much more pressing issue at hand, and that’s whether Atri actually has a “heart” or not.
Then sure enough, Episode 8 ended with chucking everything that led them to believe Atri having a “heart” out the window. And ohhhhhhh boy, that was one hell of a bomb-shell to drop there, and I’m here for it.
This is interesting considering we saw Catherine and Natsuki discussing how emotions makes robots dangerous, because here we are having the exact opposite effect. A robot that looked remarkably Human, creating an illusion based on studying Human interactions that it too has a “heart”. Rather than destruction, we have a situation of setting someone up for disappointment.
That issue also validates an additional reason why seeing them kiss was terribly uncomfortable. Atri merely did it because she saw that’s what Natsuki wanted, and gave it to him. Oh and if that wasn’t bad enough? He fell asleep right before he could hear her wave that red flag in front of him: She only said those words to him back then because that was what she was taught to.
Hooooooohhhhh boy, with four episodes left I wonder how this is going to end because things sure got messy. Doesn’t help that the antagonists are on the prowl, just waiting for the prime opportunity to strike.
And then there’s still the issue with the antagonists who have taken a backseat until further notice, so who knows what they’ll do next.There’s not much time left, so they are bound to act within the next episode or two. Quite possibly next week if Natsuki orders Atri to disappear from his sight. That is certainly the window of opportunity they’d be waiting for. We still don’t know what they mean by “(claiming Atri) is their right” though.
With that said, I came into this week uncertain whether I was going to continue to coverage. I might just need to do double-posts for the remaining four though, varies how much there is to talk about. I’ll play it by ear and see how it goes.