Petals of Reincarnation 1×9 and 1×10 Review: “All Begins and Ends at the Seed” and “The Faceless Man”

Petals of Reincarnation anime season 1 episode 9, titled ‘All Begins and Ends at the Seed’, and episode 10, titled ‘The Faceless Man’, gave a bunch of answers to some longstanding questions about the Returners.

With humanity being given three months by the Forest of the Greats before enacting their plan to restrict the human population to a controllable size to continue the cycle of reincarnation, I liked the dilemma the narrative gave Toya about what should be done next.

As a Returner, Toya’s conflicted about his feelings. He started off wanting to become a Returner who stole everyone else’s talents to become the most powerful Returner of all as a way to finally come out of constantly living in his brother’s shadow. However, having recently learned about Seiya’s involvement with creating the Forest of the Greats and wanting to achieve global peace, Toya realized that collecting talents didn’t matter in the long run. What mattered was a person’s resolve and what they were willing to do to benefit others.

It made sense for Toya to want to help Kitazuka, even if Kitazuka mentioned how he couldn’t trust Returners and that it should be humans banding together to face the incoming extinction-level threat, no matter the odds. Toya was ready to stand against his “own kind”, even risking the elimination of all Returners, to ensure the survival of the human race. Considering how he was at the beginning of the anime series, Toya has progressed quite a lot as a character.

Working with the AI version of Neumann for assistance, ‘All Begins and Ends at the Seed’ shared information that Minami had gained about the Branches of Reincarnation. From my understanding, the petals were linked to the branches, and the branches were connected to the tree of reincarnation. And that particular tree originated from the seed of reincarnation. Apparantly, destroying the seed would stop the creation of more Returners and even eliminate the ones roaming around.

There’s likely a lot more going on than just Minami’s theory about the Branches of Reincarnation. But I’m glad that the narrative has started to share answers. The appearance of the mysterious faceless man really amped up the tension. But I’ll get to him in a bit.

With Toya siding with Kitazuka and agreeing to destroy the Seed, I liked how Haito pushed back against Toya. Not only was Toya willing to kill all existing Returners, but he was also okay with helping Kitazuka’s crew hunt and kill Rogue Returners to gather the necessary amount of Branches of Reincarnation to locate the seed. Yes, a whole bunch of Returners were the bad guys right now, but most of them were under Nightingale’s control. Of course, someone like Haito would feel it’s unfair to kill Returners in such a manner.

I wasn’t expecting an anime like Petals of Reincarnation to make me think about the morality associated with life and death situations when the greater good is involved. I understood where Haito was coming from. However, I also got what Toya was saying about wanting to save humanity because the Returners were essentially dead and thus, not really human anymore. Complete Returners didn’t even retain the memories from their time as humans.

With Haito running away from Kitazuka’s base with Toya and Jubei going after her, Ein decided to stay behind to help Kitazuka with his mission. I liked how Ein had her own plan about the fate of the Seed. ‘The Faceless Man’ revealed that Ein wanted to force the Forest of the Greats and Kitazuka’s crew into a deadlock by acquiring the Seed herself. Ein’s plan to force some kind of resolution made sense. But considering the kind of characters we are dealing with, I highly doubt Ein’s going to get what she’s hoping for.

Coming to the mysterious Facelass Man, he went by the name Alan Smithee. For those who might not be familiar, Alan Smithee is a pseudonym used by directors who want to disown a project. Even though Alan didn’t lift a single finger to fight any of the characters, he still maintained a dangerous aura because of how he moved and was so sure of himself. Alan came across as the orchestrator of everything, complete with walking around with a briefcase full of Branches of Reincarnation.

Apparantly, he felt the need to show up because he was kind of disappointed by the state of his project aka how humanity and the Returners decided to go to war after certain people had accepted his gift of being turned into a Returner. Thus, staying true to the spirit of using the name Alan Smithee and possibly trying to course correct. The fact that people didn’t remember meeting him once he left was a nice touch to his powers.

Only Jubei remembered meeting Alan, because he had wanted her to. And Kitazuka was able to hold onto his memory of being shown that the Seed existed. However, the rest of the crew had no recollection of Alan. With how things went, Alan’s very likely going to show up again very soon.

Nightingale forgetting interacting with Alan but still being aware that someone God-like was responsible for creating Returners was another interesting choice for me. I’m still unsure about what Nightingale really wants to achieve. Also, her powers keep becoming even more OP on a whim. Like, what do you mean she’s capable of creating ice-like crystals that cause instant death upon touch? What else is the creative team planning to give her when she comes face-to-face with Toya?

‘The Faceless Man’ concluded with Toya and Jubei finding Haito in the ruins of her family’s dojo. Haito’s been working towards becoming the greatest swordswoman to atone for injuring her father. However, it was too late. I felt sad for Haito when she realized that her father had passed away while she was busy working for the Forest of the Greats. Having lost her purpose in life, it made sense for Haito to want to end things for herself. She was going to die anyway if Toya destroyed the Seed while working with Kitazuka.

With Jubei being more than glad to grant Haito’s wish, I’m looking forward to the two swordswomen talking about their past and how, apparantly, Haito was responsible for Jubei losing her family. Toya’s not going to allow Jubei to kill Haito, but I’m still expecting a lot of emotions.

Did you watch Petals of Reincarnation anime season 1 episodes 9 and 10? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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