Marriagetoxin episode 5 starts with a challenge called “test of courage”. But for security reasons, the students are not brought to the shrine itself. Instead, they are sent to a midway photo stand-in location where the real challenge begins.
The students pair up to do the task. Gero teams up with Shiori, who is quite nervous for much of the exercise. She only starts to relax when Gero reassures her and encourages her to enjoy the moment. We see the effect his kindness has on her as she becomes excited to take a picture with him.
But things start getting weird when Shiori looks at their selfie. Gero’s face is a strange symbol, and then he is not beside her. She is scared and bewildered and eventually finds him again. But now he is a shadowy figure marked with the same symbol. Shiori panics and runs off, where she finds a shrine, and a rope inside.
The shadowy figure goes back to the shrine and turns into her father. In the beginning he is calm and supportive . Then he begins to criticize her and to regret making her his successor . Then Shiori’s eyes turn into that same strange symbol and she is under Naruko’s influence. Under this control she is about to take her life.
She was fortunate to come to her senses in time to run from the shrine. But her situation worsens as the exit leads straight to a cliff. Shiori is about to fall, but Gero arrives just in time and saves her before she can do anything.
It is later revealed that Naruko had previously intervened during the photo stand-in, mentally attacking Gero and stopping him from protecting her then. Naruko presses his attack, forcing Gero to carry Shiori as he avoids blows. However, Naruko’s sound powers still affect Shiori, making her hallucinate again—this time, seeing her uncle in a warped way, blaming her and wishing she was dead.
Gero once again pulls her back to reality, not by force, but by words. He explains that her uncle cared a lot about her and he worked hard to ensure she had a capable bodyguard. His words help Shiori escape the illusion.
Gero ensures Shiori’s safety and orders Kinosaki to look after her as he confronts Naruko alone. Here, he attempts to finish them off, knowing that otherwise Naruko will continue to pursue them.
During the final battle things escalate as Naruko creates a huge shadow-like being that wreaks havoc on the forest. The creature even tears down trees in an effort to attack Gero. But Gero retaliates by accelerating the growth of the trees with fertilizer, destroying the strings in Naruko’s control over his attacks. This strategy gives the edge to Gero.
This looks like a good thing, but Naruko demonstrates he is still ahead. Other students at the camp start to hallucinate as well. Under his influence, they believe a horror story told to them before and start looking for a “sacrifice,” with Shiori as their target. Shiori and Kinosaki are in imminent peril, and Gero is too far off to intervene.
Episode Review
Episode 5 continues to showcase the series’ strengths, especially its over-the-top character abilities and dynamic presentation. All of these things make even the simplest scenes engaging and visually interesting. But this episode also has some problems with its execution.
Naruko’s powers are interesting in concept, but feel overly complex and at times confusing. His ability to warp sound and conjure hallucinations is fascinating, but it’s hard to follow the scope of what he can do. It raises questions about what’s real versus illusion, especially when hallucinations seem to have physical consequences. Also, rules of the ability are unclear, due to the inconsistency of how his powers affect different characters.
Another issue is the small part for Kinosaki. The more intense the action , the less she participates , and the less influence she has on important events . This is indicative of the larger problem of female characters being relegated to passive positions and waiting to be rescued rather than participating in the action.
The episode is fun all around and keeps the high energy style of the series. But the exaggerations that make it fun also begin to introduce narrative confusion and structural imbalance to the story.
