Sandra's true self and the origin of Shinju-hime; Teardrop of Crystal episode 11 Impression
Synopsis
Shinju-hime and Ruri entered the place as if they were summoned by Hotaru-hime's radiance. Just as Shinju-hime got closer to her, both of their core started shinning and Shinju's core turned into black color. After a brief introduction between them, Hotaru touched Shinju-hime's core and asked for the real persona to appear..After a few moment, Shinju-hime turned into lady BlackPearl. Florina asked Pearl about the current situation of the Mana sword but from her reply, it seemed that she was unable to get the sword. As for the sword of Fate that Ruri had, Pearl obtained it from an ancient nomad tribe and she was the one who gave it to him before.
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| Lady BlackPearl is Hotaru-hime ex-knight and now she is Ruri's Hime xD a bit confusing relationship they had xD |
Ruri told them his experience when he was still alone and ran away from the chase of shadowy creatures. As he was fell of in the desert and the creatures caught on him, Pearl saved him from the creatures. Lady BlackPearl introduced herself to the young Ruri and told him that she was in the middle of important journey. In addition, she asked if there was anything that he wanted. At the beginning, Ruri wanted to have a friend to accompany him on his journey. However, since Pearl couldn't accompany him due to her solo mission, she gave the sword of Fate instead.
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| This is actually a picture of a young boy trying to wake up a 1000 years old lady |
Florina home gave a chance for Ruri to asked something that bother him. Then he told his past when he met Lady BlackPearl unconscious in the dessert. At that time, her Black core suddenly had a shine despite the fact it was black colored and after a bright radiance, she turned into Shinju-hime that we all know. In short he wanted to ask how Shinju-hime born from her core; creating a dual personality inside one body. Hotaru-hime already made a firm resolution to hear whatever Pearl would say regarding her dual personality. Pearl then told a story in the past about her and Alexandrite. He was Sandra in the past and he was also the one who kidnapped Hotaru-hime. She met with Alexandrite in the dessert at night questioning his motive for taking Hotaru-hime with him. Alexandrite told his motive that he wanted to save Hotaru-hime from dying. On the other hand, Pearl reasoned that she was ready to lose her life for the continuity of the other Jumi's life.
They were in deadlock as even though Pearl begged for Hotaru release, Alexandrite argued that she was already at her limit. Lady BlackPearl said that even though Hotaru-hime might had to sacrifice herself, she was fully aware of the risk and she could not let the other Jumi suffered in the war. In contrast, Alexandrite planned to put her In a Pandora box and let her rest for eternity as the time inside the box was frozen from the outside world. He even said that a doll gem like Pearl would never understand because she lacked the emotion of caring and only worked on any assignments given to her. He mentioned that as a doll gem, her core lose it's radiance and turned into a lifeless core without shine on it. After a bit of heated argument, Alex used her knife to stab the Black Pearl core and it left a wound on her core. Lady BlackPearl surprised at his betrayal and fell unconscious in the desert until Ruri found her. As Ruri tried to wake her, the core in her chest shine and turned her into a different entity.. The new pearl lose all of her previous memory and she felt afraid not knowing anything. In order to ease her worry, Ruri told the new BlackPearl that he was her knight and he gave her the name; Shinju-hime.
Florina cried after hearing the truth. For lady BlackPearl had to endure suffering and lost her identity in order to save her from certain doom. She made another resolution and asked Lady BlackPearl to stop Alexandrite. At first Pearl wanted to kill Alexandrite yet Hotaru halted her intention as she wanted to heal the pain that had been devouring his heart instead. Hotaru felt weaker and she gave an artifact to Shiloh. The artifact contained the city of Jewel and she begged Shiloh to help the Jumi. As they made Hotaru-hime resting, Lady BlackPearl told Ruri that it was the time for the new generation to take the lead. She grabbed her core and turned back into Shinju-hime. Shinju had remembered everything now. How she come into existence and how she got the name. As she wanted to go alone facing Alexandrite, Ruri stopped her. Both Ruri and Shiloh convinced her to stay with Hotaru-hime as she was her knight all along and someone need to accompany her while she was resting. Shiloh decided to go along with Ruri as he also wanted to know about Serafina's Objective for helping Alexandrite. After Shinju asked Shiloh to help and take care of Ruri, Shiloh used the artifact to reveal the new map of the Bejeweled city.
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| The fun fact is this anime actually played the hard mode |
Just as they entered the city, Shiloh could see the memory of the Jumi from the past. For example, Shiloh saw the past when Lady BlackPearl arrived in the city for the first time and how Diana greeted her. Then another memory showed the part when the Jumi fought against the empire armies and how Pearl got hurt from the ensuing battle. Fast forward, he saw how Diane asked Sapphor to find a Hime who could cry and produce the teardrop crystal. The next image showed Hotaru-hime who used her tears to rejuvenate Pearl. Hotaru-hime got the position as a Gyokuseki Hime and she made an oath to readily gave her life force to ensure the survival of the Jumi tribe. It means she had to sacrifice her life bit by bit to produce the teardrops crystal.
Times kept moving on and the war between the empire and Jumi tribe still rages on. However, as she kept crying to produce the healing crystals, her main core started to crack and she fell unconscious. Alexandrite was around when she was unconscious. The news that Hotaru-hime collapsed due to the constant usage of her life force made the Jumi people felt uneasy. After all, the amount of the teardrop crystal kept diminishing while the only person who could create it was in the verge of dying.
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| Every Jumi actually connected to one another..this episode completed the arc background story |
Lady Pearl talked with Diana that it was time for her to protect Hotaru-hime in return. She planned to find the holy sword; The Sword of Mana in order to finish the war as soon as possible. She also asked Diana to spread a rumor of her being kicked out from the city so that there will be no uproar after her disappearance. She asked Alexandrite to take care of Hotaru-hime while she was out, searching for the aforementioned holy sword. Instead of protecting her as Pearl's request, Alexandrite opted to take Hotaru Hime with him creating another unrest to the town's civilians. The scene moved forward to Esmeralda's sisters finding out about Lady Pearl's mission to find the legendary sword in the tower of Leires. Soon the townspeople could not wait any longer and with the disappearance of Hotaru-hime as well, they moved away from the Bejeweled city. Esmeralda's older sisters knew that the city was doomed and they planned to run away from the city bringing their little sister along. The last scene that Shiloh saw was Rubens finding out that Diana had turned into a statue after crying. All of the images as if flying into Shiloh's mind telling him exactly what was the events that happened on that deserted place.
Review
We are close to the end of the anime and now the revelation started to show. Sandra real identity was one of the biggest shock that the writer wanted to give for the watchers. Not only that she was a Jumi, her alexandrite nature also allow her to change gender as easy as picking up clothes. That's why he had two names Alex as a shop keeper and as well as her boy version and Sandra as the Jumi huntress. Both of them was only half of the truth because her (or his) real persona was a being named Alexandrite. Alexandrite had a bit character background here as he was the one who witnessed Hotaru-hime's sacrifice and he was just trying to alter history and save her. I thought it was a good plot twist if I happened to not knowing the plot.
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| The Jumis started to lose their hope |
Another revelation on today episode was the birth of Shinju-hime. Even as the game Players, I still forgot about the part when Shinju was born. Fortunately, the anime did make us easier to understand about her double persona. Both of Shinju and Lady Pearl was the same person altogether. The only difference was Shinju born through Pearl's injured core. After sustained the damage, the Black Pearl got the BlackPearl's core radiated a shine light and made another Jumi that we know as Shinju-hime. This episode revealed the mystery of her dual personality as well as giving us the conclusion of her role in this anime.
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| Diana cried for Hotaru and how every plan had ruined. Which made her turning into a stone |
Sadly, despite answering some of the mystery for the anime's plot, the episode still lacking thing like Serafina's role in this anime. After her face-heel turn, we had not seen anything more from her as if she had just too little importance in this series. We barely even saw her fighting anything expect of trying to hold Shiloh of during Sandra's decision to take Diana's core. The next episode Will be the last episode of the legend of Mana; The Teardrop Crystal. Actually I am not sure with how they could handle the last episode well. However, with only 22-24 minutes airing time left, I think they may work the plot fast ..a rushed finale is a bit obvious here.
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