ID: Invaded (Episode 9) - Inside-outed

Narihisago wakes up in his own bed and his family are alive. He has all of his memories, but what is this place? The ID Well within the ID Well seems almost too perfect. Why would anyone want to leave?

What happened?

With no idea how long he’ll be in this version of reality, Narihisago is quick to take care of some things. Having hugged his family for the first time in years, he goes out and finds Momoki, telling him that he knows where the Challenger is. They arrive at the house and Narihisago enters through the front door while Momoki comes around the back. Once inside, Narihisago challenges the Challenger. Once out of his regular clothes, the Challenger is surprisingly stacked and is a brutal fighter too. Narisihago continues to berate him, but the fight really isn’t going his way. That’s when he pulls his gun and shoots the Challenger. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to keep him down and after a little more hits the fight is over and the Challenger is dead.

Momoki comes in and rushes to Narihisago’s aid, but Narihisago tells him about a room behind a curtain and the latest victim of the Challenger. There, Momoki finds an arena and a little girl slumped in the middle, covered in blood. She tells him her name is Kiki Asukai and she looks remarkably like Kaeru! Later that night, Narisihago visits Kaeru in the hospital and runs into another serial killer, but it was all a dream. Wasn’t it?

ID Invaded Episode 9 Narihisago reunited with his Family

What was your favourite element?

All right, where to begin with this episode? At this stage we don’t know exactly what this place is, but it seems to be the world before the Challenger killed Narihisago’s daughter. We meet Kiki Asukai and she seems to be visited by serial killers in her dreams. She always has and has no way to stop them. Every night as she sleeps they murder her and she remembers all of it. If this isn’t one of the darkest things I’ve seen in a while, then I don’t know what is. I also love the idea that Kiki is somehow powering the Mizuhanome. This leads me to believe that John Walker is also somehow involved in it. That’s right, I think it’s the chief! He’s behind everything.

ID Invaded Episode 9 Narihisago sees Kiki Asukai

What have you learnt?

So this series started out as a dark science fiction series with mysteries and a detective. There was never really an explanation behind the Mizuhanome or the Wakumusubi or even cognition particles. We just had to accept it and enjoy the weird and wonderful worlds that this lead us to. Well, now it’s taking a slightly more supernatural feel and honestly, this makes more sense to me. It’s interesting that none of the team working with the Mizuhanome know anything about it and the entire thing is top secret.

This has given the series a huge twist and I feel like it’s only going to become more tangled and shocking as the nature of everything is revealed. I do like the idea of switching genres like that. It reminds me of fantasy stories that are really far future post apocalyptic. There’s a lot of fun to be had with this sort of idea, however, it won’t appeal to everyone and some will even feel a little cheated because they were expecting something else entirely.