Amnesiac Maiden (忘却乙女, Boukyaku Otome) is the seventh episode of the Tasogare Otome × Amnesia anime series. It was released on May 20, 2012.
Synopsis[]
The Paranormal Investigation Club visits Seikyou Academy's Music Room, where the grand piano is supposed to play by itself. As Momoe gasps in horror at the sight of the piano playing without a visible player, Teiichi, who knows that Yuuko is the one goofing off with the piano, just plays along. Then, Teiichi prepares an amulet as he begins the task of purifying the spirit haunting the piano. After a short while, the spirit is gone, and Momoe congratulates Teiichi for a job well done.
Of course, there's no real purification ritual involved in this, as it is merely just a scripted plan. Unfortunately, it seems that it is also the last time Yuuko would play the piano in the music room to kill time. Yuuko accepts the disappointing truth, and she tells Teiichi that he has to spend more time with her, as he just took away one of her "hobbies" inside the school.
Soon, Momoe hands Teiichi a handkerchief to wipe his sweat with. Afterwards, she finally takes the chance to ask Teiichi for a private lesson on ghostbusting.
At that moment, Yuuko feels jealous towards Momoe. She kicks the piano stool in response, startling Momoe.
Meanwhile, Kirie is busy looking at an old portrait of two people, and she remembers her encounter with a shadowy figure at the clock tower of Seikyou Academy during the school fair. That day, the shadow talks to her about things acting as a mere repeat of itself, and warns that something will repeat once again.
At that moment, Kirie is convinced that she hasn't seen someone's true colors yet.
The next day, Yuuko waits for Teiichi on the school's entrance, and she surprises him by wearing the school's PE attire. She would later join him on his PE class, and her antics would confuse the whole class, especially the part when she shoots a lay-up and dives into Teiichi after making the shot.
Yuuko sits on Teiichi's lap and acts as a helper (and distraction) during class.
Yuuko continues to accompany Teiichi during class, and helping out in his mistakes thanks to her impressive memory. Teiichi thinks that she has the advantage of having listened to lectures like this for a long time, and her mention of "impressive memory" is somewhat ironic, considering that she has no idea on how she died. Yuuko points out that she lives in the present, yet another ironic statement, considering that she is now a ghost.
Teiichi soon remembers that he needs to proceed with investigating about Yuuko's death. However, he notices that he has spent more time being together with Yuuko than focusing on the case.
Also, this degree of intimacy Yuuko has shown throughout that day appears to be unusual.
Yuuko suddenly becomes the third wheel as Teiichi and Momoe enjoy lunch together.
Lunchtime soon arrives, and Teiichi is pulled by Yuuko out of the classroom, who promises to feed him lunch. However, her plans for lunchtime were suddenly interrupted by Momoe, who personally asks Teiichi to join her in lunch, to which he quickly agrees.
Yuuko refuses to let go of Teiichi, and she joins the two in lunch, although Yuuko appears to be there to watch over Teiichi. Her presence made Teiichi at first, but he manages to have a conversation with Momoe, who is happy that she was able to have lunch with him. Momoe's happiness, however, appears to make Yuuko uneasy, so she decides to eat the rest of Teiichi's clubhouse sandwiches. Teiichi ends up without lunch all of a sudden, so Momoe decides to share an egg roll with him.
At that moment, Yuuko's mood dramatically changes, and she swats away Momoe's hand, causing the egg roll to fall on the ground.
Teiichi watches as Momoe apologizes for clumsily dropping her chopsticks and runs off to clean it. With Momoe gone, Teiichi goes to confront Yuuko about what she just did. Yuuko manages to apologize, but it doesn't take away Teiichi's worries about Yuuko acting unusual.
Later that day, Teiichi talks about Yuuko with Kirie. He tells Kirie that Yuuko's personality lie on two extremes: that she acts like her normal self too much, and that she acts like she is not her usual self. Kirie takes this chance to talk about something related to Yuuko as well... and it is about Shadow Yuuko.
Kirie describes Shadow Yuuko as an entity who, despite looking like Yuuko, appears to be the personification of envy, hatred, wrath and grief. And Kirie knows that the Yuuko they know is someone who is gentle, cheerful and loving... and she does not get angry.
And Kirie thinks that this aspect of Yuuko's is unnatural.
Teiichi thinks that her lack of negative emotions is due to her nature as a ghost. However, Kirie points out that Yuuko's emotions go haywire every time Teiichi is involved, especially during her outburst at lunchtime.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Teiichi and Kirie, they are watched by Yuuko, who upon seeing the two together suddenly feels an overwhelming feeling of jealousy. Then, she is accompanied by a shadowy figure, who urges her to remember her and stop pretending that she does not exist.
A stylistic representation of the two Yuukos.
Kirie and Teiichi continue their discussion about Yuuko elsewhere. Kirie is still trying to link together Yuuko and the shadow. Although Teiichi doubts that such a link exists, Kirie uses her experiences with the Akahito case, and especially its perpetrator and victim — Yuuko Kirishima. Kirie thinks that similar to how Kirishima has projected all her negative emotions to Yuuko, Yuuko might have been doing the same thing, and this time it is another aspect of her self that is on the receiving end.
Kirie calls this condition of Yuuko's as dissociative identity disorder. According to Kirie, Yuuko, in order to protect herself, transfers all of her negative emotions and memories into another entity, which causes Yuuko to display none of the negative emotions that a normal person has. Thus, it is impossible to regain the memories she lost... because they were never lost to begin with.
This revelation shocks Yuuko, who manages to listen to their conversation, and with the pressures of Shadow Yuuko straining her mind, Kirie arrives with her conclusion: the Shadow and Yuuko are one person split into two.
And these two separate entities are now in front of Teiichi and Kirie.
At that moment, a faceoff between Shadow Yuuko and Yuuko erupts, with Yuuko refusing to recognize her shadow, and the shadow continuing to insist her existence. Yuuko, despite the shadow's persistent remarks, still refuses the existence of Shadow Yuuko and runs away, causing Teiichi to pursue her.
Teiichi manages to reach her at one of the hallways connected to the Old School Building Courtyard, and seeing that place reminds Teiichi of the Rock of Curses.
Yuuko, followed by Teiichi, come to visit the Rock of Curses one more time, and as Yuuko holds on to her belief that Shadow Yuuko doesn't exist, notices something unusual with the rock itself. Thanks to better lighting, he was able to notice the much more orderly names carved in the rock. Then, after digging around the rock to follow what the orderly writing reads, he is shocked at his discovery.
It turns out that the Rock of Curses is a cenotaph, a stone commemorating the death of many students during a plague in 1953. And Teiichi discovers Yuuko's name etched in the cenotaph as well.
Yuuko realizes that she might have been a victim of the plague, but Teiichi disagrees, especially since her remains are found elsewhere.
Teiichi soon remembers part of the lyrics recited in the game of "Hidden Demon", which stated about someone being "buried as a pillar". Soon, the different mysteries begin to blend in. The "Hidden Demon" and its lyrics, the names and the plague in the Rock of Curses, the idea of human sacrifice in the Akahito story, being spirited away, and finally, a corpse hidden in the Old School Building.
All of those mysteries end up related to Yuuko.
Yuuko, surprisingly, appears unmoved by the revelation, but she is quite relieved, as she thinks that she volunteered herself to be sacrificed, which caused her to not harbor any lingering regrets.
It appears that the case of Yuuko's past is finally closed, much to Yuuko's disappointment.
However, someone refuses to let this all end. Shadow Yuuko.
Shadow Yuuko appears to remind Yuuko of the negative emotions it had to carry only for Yuuko to remain beautiful, and Yuuko confronts the shadow about it, telling it that she cannot do anything about it now. However, all Shadow Yuuko wanted is for Yuuko to remember everything, or she will experience that same thing that she had experienced before.
The shadow reminds Yuuko that her love for the first time has breeded another negative emotion — jealousy — and it wonders if Yuuko would also throw that emotion into her shadow. Yuuko continues to deny the shadow's statements, but the shadow appears to accept its responsbilities as the one who will carry Yuuko's negative emotions and memories. Then, she dives into Yuuko...
...And when Kirie arrives at the roof top, Shadow Yuuko is gone.
As nightfall approaches, Yuuko, alone inside Seikyou Academy, remains uneasy, now that Shadow Yuuko's presence continues to haunt her.
Teiichi lies shocked as Yuuko pushes her off the stairs.
The next day, the daily routine between Teiichi and Yuuko continues once again. This time, Teiichi doesn't have the usual face of happiness, although he decided to go with Yuuko at lunchtime. Everything appeared normal between the two... but within Yuuko is fear. Fear that Teiichi is already looking at him as Shadow Yuuko.
At that moment, Yuuko has decided. She will dispose of her memories of him.
Yuuko soon approaches Teiichi and pushes him down the stairs.
The last thing Teiichi saw was a shadow looming behind Yuuko's back.
Several weeks following that accident, Teiichi returns to Seikyou Academy with a cast supporting his broken left leg. Throughout the day, he experiences the first school day without Yuuko to accompany him. Then, on his return to the Paranormal Investigation Club, now an abandoned clubroom like when he found it for the first time, he sees Yuuko once again...
...only to find out that Yuuko has forgotten about him.
Characters[]
By order of appearance
Adapted from[]
This episode is based on Chapter 17, with some details taken from Chapter 12. There are also some details which are original to the anime, one of which is the mystery of the self-playing grand piano in the Music Room.
Trivia[]
- Yuuko does not appear in the closing credits.
- The artist who made this episode's end card is Nylon, who is a mangaka famous for his work Photo Kano.
Cultural References[]
- Dissociative identity disorder is condition in which there is the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that recurrently take control of behavior.