Humanity Has Declined Episode 7--I Think I'm a Clone Now(?)

Let the speculation begin!




At first I thought that we had jumped even earlier in the timeline when Watashi's grandfather asked her to pick up Assistant, but now I'm honestly not sure when we are. This is the first time the show has used the out of order timeline to its advantage. Assuming that we are earlier in the timeline, we already know how this gets resolved; however, the confusion of the literal time slip lends a lot to the tone of the episode.

Let's start with what's obvious: the fairies are up to no good, only caring about getting more sweets, and are getting creepier by the episode. It's their methods that are left open to interpretation. Because of the conversation that they have with Watashi at the beginning to the episode, it's easy to conclude that they're cloning her, gradually creating a small army of sweet-makers. However, there is evidence in the episode that suggests it's not quite as simple as 1-to-1 cloning, or at least that there is more going on than that.

Watashi rejects their cloning offer at the beginning of the episode. As far as we've seen, the fairies do like her if only as the source for their beloved sweets. It's possible to view the time-slip as their attempt to trick her into the cloning process over and over, but that doesn't explain the appearance of the first clone or explain the dog(s). Another theory, which is the one I'm going with until I'm proven wrong next week, is that instead of cloning Watashi, the fairies are repeating a stretch of time Endless-Eight style to catch her alternate universe selves. This would explain the "disconnect" and why small details would change--for example, whether she lost the watch or not, or what kind of gun her Grandfather was cleaning. It would also explain the creepy scene where her clones state that they share her opinion, whatever it might be. But it still doesn't explain the dogs.




I apologize if it seems like I'm running around in circles, but it's nice to have an arc that isn't blatantly taking the otaku humor path. There is a lot to mull over in this episode, and I wonder how much will be ultimately explained, or in the fairy's case, unexplained. As my theory about alternate dimensions shows, I've long ago accepted that the fairies can do whatever they please, logic be damned... except make sweets. But even more interesting than that is the implication at the end of the episode that Assistant might share some of that strange power to do the impossible.

Hear me out. We know basically nothing about Assistant expect his name and how he's acted so far. I'm pretty fond of him, since he's given me more than a few laughs. This is the first time the show has put him outside the context of his dual purpose name and role, and one of the first things we hear about him (aside from people telling Watashi to find him) is that he has no words. This is obvious, since he doesn't speak. But the doctor's statement that he has no words but still wondered about himself is incredibly interesting. There's also a scene where Watashi's clones/other selves ask her what she thinks Assistant is like, and she responds with what shirt he likes to wear, despite not knowing where that conviction came from.

From there, the question of time gets even more interesting. The viewers already know that what Watashi says about Assistant is true, but if we're at the earliest point in the timeline, there's no possible way for her to know that. If Assistant had no words to define himself, is he borrowing from her? There's an interesting undercurrent about identity in this episode; Watashi doesn't recognize herself in the other clones/selves, yet recognizes her possessions (the watch). We seen that she has a mirror, so that's not the problem. So is she suffering from a different kind of disconnect? If this is all true, then we've got some crazy deep philosophical stuff going on here. Or I'm thinking too hard about this.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.