Hateful Maiden (怨念乙女, On'nen Otome) is the ninth episode of the Tasogare Otome × Amnesia anime series. It was released on June 4, 2012.
Synopsis[]
Kirie froze in place. The shadowy figure that has been stalking her has finally confronted her personally, and this figure, also known as Shadow Yuuko, speaks of pain, suffering and rage as she shows her frightening visage.
Then, Momoe suddenly appears, startling Kirie even further.
Momoe appears to be relieved to have seen Kirie in the Paranormal Investigation Club, as she hasn't heard from her for some time now, especially since Teiichi began recuperating from his accident. Kirie remembers that she did stop staying at the clubroom for some time, but she is more preoccupied by Shadow Yuuko's abrupt disappearance at that moment.
The next day, Teiichi's day began with Yuuko's bright presence as it has been before. However, the confession from the day before changes things a bit, especially since it gave more fuel for Yuuko to tease Teiichi with... although she did long for Teiichi's "I love you" one more time.
But just when Yuuko is about to get to the good part, Kirie interrupts them and seemingly takes away Teiichi's attention from Yuuko. This awarded her a slap on her face before Yuuko pulls Teiichi away from Kirie. At that moment, Kirie was surprised that she got angry at her for the first time.
Later that day, Yuuko continues to accompany Teiichi, and she picks that worst time to get his attention: he is currently in the middle of an exam, and Yuuko is sitting on his lap. Teiichi tries his best to focus on the test and "talking" to her by writing on his exam sheet, but Yuuko continues to bug him.
Teiichi ends up writing a big "I love you" on his exam sheet, and before he could do something about it, his paper gets passed. He ends up getting scolded because of this.
At lunchtime, Teiichi feels a bit down due to what happened to him during the exam, and Yuuko decides to give him a bento she personally made as an apology to him. Teiichi is quite amazed that she was able to prepare lunch in such short notice, but soon faces an embarrassing scenario where he gets fed by a ghost. Yuuko, nonetheless, insists on feeding Teiichi lunch, and even assures him that no one will notice them with his little presence.
Soon, however, Momoe arrives carrying her own bento — and her own intentions of feeding Teiichi her lunch — and accidentally, she pushes away Yuuko's chopsticks, causing the omelette she personally prepared to fall to the ground. This caused Yuuko to cry and run away, and while Momoe is oblivious to what she just did, Teiichi could look on with worry.
Yuuko ended up at the school's outdoor pool and there, she sulks over what happened a while ago. In her fit of irritation, she threw a nearby floater to the water, but ends up falling to the water. Because of this, she ends up going back to the clubroom to dry herself up. As she is down to her underwear, Teiichi unexpectedly comes and, to the surprise of Teiichi, Yuuko screams and demands him to get out, even throwing the decorative skull on the clubroom's desk at his face.
Yuuko manages to change to a new set of clothes, and she and Teiichi are later visited by Kirie, who wants to clear up some things, especially the one about what happened that morning. Kirie tells them that she had seen Shadow Yuuko on the clubroom the day before. However, what shocked them is Yuuko's response.
She does not know Shadow Yuuko nor does she see her.
This only confirms Kirie's theory about Yuuko disassociating her memories.
Soon, Momoe, with her eyes gleaming with anticipation, asks Teiichi about the ghost in the clubroom, much to Teiichi's surprise, and Kirie tells Teiichi that she has decided to tell Momoe about the existence of a ghost in the clubroom. She thinks that having one more ally will allow them to see Shadow Yuuko, now that they allowed Momoe to gain a sense of awareness of Yuuko's presence.
Teiichi, however, thinks that Momoe is aware of Yuuko... just in the wrong way.
Meanwhile, Yuuko decides to help out with the investigation about her memories and even points out that there's a certain Rock of Curses that has been recorded in the school's Night Duty logbook.
At that moment, both Teiichi and Kirie are shocked at Yuuko's statement. It just proves that there are still pieces of her memory still missing.
Amnesia.
That afternoon, Teiichi, Yuuko, Kirie and Momoe visit the Old School Building Courtyard, where the Rock of Curses is found. Teiichi's reaction is quite different from when he first saw the rock, and he is quite sad that this part of their relationship with Yuuko seems to have been forgotten by Yuuko as well, although Yuuko still has her playful side as well which she shows when she wrote Momoe's name on the rock.
Soon, Teiichi and Kirie discuss about Yuuko's current state. Although Yuuko appears to have forgotten her first visit to the Rock of Curses with Teiichi, Kirie points out that something has changed in Yuuko as well: she has shown the emotions of anger and sadness, and she has developed a more self-conscious personality. Teiichi wonders where Yuuko has displaced her memories once again, and Kirie already knows the answer to this: Shadow Yuuko.
As Momoe continues to fall prey unto Yuuko's pranks, Kirie and Teiichi continue their discussion on Yuuko's memories. According to her, during her sightings of Shadow Yuuko, she witnessed an emotion that she hasn't seen on Yuuko: jealousy. She thinks that Yuuko might have abandoned that aspect of her along with her memories of Teiichi into Shadow Yuuko, and some of those memories might have returned when she and Teiichi reconciled.
The time for Teiichi and the others to leave the school behind for the day, and as Momoe sulks over getting pranked, Yuuko urges Teiichi to stay. However, he knows that he can't do that, and he goes to say goodbye while promising that they'll see each other tomorrow. Although Yuuko manages to smile at Teiichi, her face soon shows her constant longing to Teiichi's presence, which is now being drowned out by the sunset.
Then, the urge to follow Teiichi overwhelms Yuuko.
However, as she runs to Teiichi, the end becomes farther and farther, as if she is running away from it than towards it. As the impossibility of leaving the school dawns on her, tears flow down Yuuko's face.
Yuuko wonders what the heart-wrenching feeling she is currently feeling is, and soon, as she realizes that it is loneliness, she calls out to Teiichi, who is now too far to be able to hear her. There, memories of her past momentarily flash in her head, and she is joined by her shadowy persona.
Shadow Yuuko urges Yuuko to accept the reality of her true self, but Yuuko continues to deny the shadow's existence, with no intention of being "ugly" in Teiichi's eyes. Soon, the gruesome Shadow Yuuko slowly changes her form into that which resembles Yuuko, except for a blue flame replacing her left eye.
As Yuuko remains stubborn to reject her own shadow, Shadow Yuuko reminds her that they are one... they should be one... and she is Yuuko's memories incarnate. And because of Yuuko's insistent rejection to the painful memories she had, Shadow Yuuko continues to suffer... and now, she feels the pain of jealousy, that which Yuuko just "transferred" into her.
And Shadow Yuuko expects Yuuko to "transfer" this new pain she is experiencing, the pain of loneliness, into her, just like in the past.
Soon, the two are joined by Teiichi, who suddenly takes Yuuko from the clutches of the shadow.
They try to escape Shadow Yuuko, who has the ability to move through walls and floors with ease, but they manage to hide inside a classroom. There, Teiichi tells Yuuko that he came there out of anxiety over Yuuko. He soon decides to talk to Shadow Yuuko personally, and despite Yuuko's worries, he looks for Shadow Yuuko alone.
Elsewhere, Teiichi encounters Shadow Yuuko and confronts her about how she constantly torments Yuuko. Shadow Yuuko points out that it is Yuuko who is tormenting her, and she is essentially the personification of Yuuko's painful memories she rejected from herself.
Shadow Yuuko then asks Teiichi if he hates her. He was not able to give a swift answer, and the shadow suddenly disappears. Shocked by her sudden disappearance, Teiichi looks for Yuuko, and he finds her in the hands of Shadow Yuuko, who plans on forcefully integrating herself into Yuuko. Teiichi quickly pushes Shadow Yuuko away, but as his hand touches Shadow Yuuko's breast, Teiichi sees flashes of Yuuko's dark, painful and real memories.
Although taken aback, Teiichi runs away with Yuuko. However, he realizes that taking away Yuuko from the school grounds is impossible as, like what Yuuko experienced, the school gate seem to become more and more distant as he runs with Yuuko towards it.
However, an additional problem for him and Yuuko is Shadow Yuuko casually walking towards them.
Teiichi thinks that running away from the problem is not going to solve things, so he decides to face it head on.
He tackles Shadow Yuuko, and this triggers his mind to go back sixty years...
...into Yuuko's memories.
Characters[]
By order of appearance
Adapted from[]
The story in this episode is based on a revisit of Chapter 12 of the manga series.
Trivia[]
Referbacks[]
- The story of the Rock of Curses has been introduced in the anime series during Episode 04 and has been revisited on Episode 07 for the first time.
Cultural References[]
- The chupacabra is a mysterious creature that is famous for sucking the blood of livestock. Sightings of this creature are common in the Americas, especially regions near Latin America.