Feeling sorry for the murder ghost.
So, this episode starts out with round 2 against Acrobatic Silky. It’s quick, but effective as Momo and Okarun lead Silky on a chase that gets her ensnaring hair tangled in the structure. From there, Silky is able to be kicked into next week by Okarun.
Turbo Granny, after confirming that Silky shouldn’t be able to be a threat for a bit, picks Aira’s pockets for the ball. Celebration, however, is short lived as Granny declares that Aira’s not just unconscious, she’s dead.
Okarun and Momo attempt to resuscitate Aira, but Turbo Granny explains that it’s a more metaphysical reason: Aira’s aura is flickering out because she, a normal human, was eaten by a Yokai. When all seems lost, Acrobatic Silky shambles back on scene to offer an aura transplant, which Momo hesatantly accepts after the spook makes a show of good faith.
We then spend what I would say is the meat of the episode experiencing Acrobatic Silky’s life, as witnessed by Momo while channeling Silky’s aura into Aira.
We see a woman, a single mother, willing to do anything for her daughter. We see the good times they had together, with the woman teaching her child ballet despite having to work multiple jobs (some more legitimate than others) to make end’s meat.
This comes to a tragic end when gangsters attack. We don’t know what their story is, but they beat the mother and leave her for dead and kidnap the daughter for good measure. The bleeding, broken woman races out into the street after them, and finally expires. Her tormented ghost lingers, looking for her child, bitter that she didn’t do more.
Then a little Aira tugs on the ghost’s sleeve and calls her “mommy”. Aira’s father arrives shortly after the case of mistaken spectral identity (confirming that Aira’s mother is dead), but the woman’s ghost latches on to this encounter, devolving into an obsession that will eventually transform her into Acrobatic Silky.
This entire sequence is done with almost no words; it’s more or less a silent piece, with only some classical style music and ambient sound to express what’s going on and what it means. A lot like the very first episode of Texhnolyze (which I still respect no matter my feelings on the whole show), it cranks up the artistry to create an emotional experience.
The transfer revives Aira… but Acrobatic Silky didn’t have enough aura for two. Out of juice and full of regrets, Turbo Granny says she’ll fade away, unable to pass on and doomed to an absolute void where the living and dead alike will forget her. As Silky crumbles to ash, though, Aira (who presumably also saw what Momo saw) proves she’s possibly not that bad and runs over, giving her a hug and saying what Silky must have wished to hear from her child, an affirmation of love and of thanks. And she swears she won’t forget.
Thus ends Acrobatic Silky and the episode. We’ve got one ball in Okarun’s possession, a somewhat spooked-up and calmed-down Aira, and a few episodes to go.
All in all, Silky had a short run, with little of her lurid pink framing the scene… but it is an impactful one. This is the first time DanDaDan has seriously tried to invoke pathos. Sure, we got some hints with Turbo Granny’s not-so-evil reason for being, but that was brief and defused by comedy pretty quickly. Acrobatic Silky hits you with a whole episode, and after the sequence starts with Aira being pronounced dead, there are no laughs to distract from it. It’s something that could have been excessive in its ambition, but DanDaDan stuck the landing.
If I didn’t know the source material, I might not have been totally sure about DanDaDan before now. It seemed like it could walk the walk and be a fun show with its high energy, but also like the crude humor and sometimes tawdry setups could drag it down. In the depiction of Acrobatic Silky, though, the show proves it has the chops to do drama as well. If you’ve been reading these summaries or other reviews, and you’ve been on the fence, really consider checking it out with this arc in the bag to see how you feel about it.