Review of Seinaru Kaibutsutachi Episode 3

Things are heating up, literally. Although this episode did feel a bit slow at times especially when it featured the side story of Shiba seeing patients in the hospital, I think the introduction of such side plots could be due to the scriptwriter's intention to show a contrast between the main story's key players' idea of what it means to be parents and the "holy" side of motherhood. As Shiba's ideals get more and more detached from what's happening around him without his knowledge, the impact would probably be greater by the time he knows what's going on.

In this particular episode, Shiba encounters a mother-to-be who finally gets pregnant after a long time of trying. Unfortunately, she is down with cancer and has to choose between starting treatment now and later. If it's the former, her baby would not live and if it's later, she would lose her life. It's a no-brainer that the mother would definitely choose her baby's survival over hers while the husband objects. Although she loses her voice as a result, at least she's around to hold her child. Seeing this, Shiba starts to get this idea that mothers can sacrifice anything for their children. I'm starting to wonder how he will react when he realises that the people around him who all appear so kind with lofty ideals about taking care of patients aren't that selfless after all.

In the main story arc, Mie is finally confirmed to be pregnant with Toshio and Keiko's child. Although Mie had claimed that she wanted to help Keiko realise her dream of being a mother, the fact that she strongly objected to Kasugai's request to sign a contract giving up all rights to the child after giving birth is something that should ring an alarm bell in the heads of everyone. I don't think Keiko realised that there was something not quite right with Mie but Kasugai seems to have picked up something from this test. Nonetheless, Kasugai "reminds" or rather threatens Mie by saying that it's worse to betray someone than to kill him i.e. if she dares to go back on her word of giving up the child to Keiko, Mie will not be able to get away with it as well.

One unexpected development (at least to me) was to see Shiba and Yoko get together. I knew they were supposed to be together at some point in time but that's kinda fast. And when Shiba's ex-colleague asks him about Yoko, this naive guy still doesn't know that he should be wary of Yoko. There should be something suspicious as to why Yoko left the university hospital and being evasive when asked about her family background. At this point, I'm guessing that someone in her family, maybe a brother or even an ex-boyfriend is extorting money from her so that's why she's getting money from other men. Yoko didn't seem to appear in the opening scene of the first episode so I'm guessing that Shiba might have known the truth before Mie's delivery so Yoko might have left the hospital by then. I just hope that Shiba wouldn't accept the truth so readily and at least flare up at Yoko for lying. Otherwise, he'll just appear as a meek fellow who accepts the nonsense people give him without making any noise.

As Mie's pregnancy progresses, Keiko starts to imagine that the baby is growing inside her and pretends that her tastes have changed and even stuffs a cushion into her clothes to appear pregnant. Seeing how his wife has become obsessed with the idea of motherhood, Toshio's feelings seem to have changed a bit. Actually, I'm not even convinced that he married her out of love. More like, she was pregnant and he had no choice but to take up responsibility. I just feel that Toshio is just riding along to fulfill Keiko's dream but the truth is, he probably doesn't care whether they have a child. When Mie starts to act strangely and Keiko finally realises that Mie seems to be thinking of the child as hers only, the trust relationship between Mie and Keiko (or rather Keiko's blind faith in Mie's loyalty) seems to be crumbling.

Right from episode 1, Mie appeared to have an interest in Toshio but I don't think she was thinking of beginning any relationship with him at that stage. However, when Keiko came to look for her to be the surrogate mother, I am tempted to think that other than the reason of wanting to bear a child herself (on the surface claiming it to be for Keiko's sake), the fact that Toshio will be the father of the child just lends more credibility to why Mie would accept such a proposal. The idea of bearing the child of the man you love would be too tempting for Mie. I'm starting to think though, what if the child in Mie's womb isn't Keiko's and Toshio's? Did Mie and Toshio do something before the implantation procedure? Or were Keiko's eggs switched with Mie's? If it so happens that the child isn't Keiko's after all, how will Keiko react to this and ensure that she has a baby at the end of the story? Looks like there will be more twists and turns before we get to the conclusion.

I think it's predictable from the first episode's opening scene that the key players succeeded in getting Mie to carry the baby to full term. However, why did they dump her outside the Okubo hospital? Wasn't a gynae who received money from Toshio in charge of Mie? Something must have gone wrong with that gynae so they switched to the hospital with Kasugai lending a helping hand. It's only episode 3 but there are quite a lot of complications to contend. Wonder how low these "holy" monsters will stoop to in order to achieve their aims? Omoshiroi ne~ ^__^