Annotated 45-2
Misa may not be Taro’s mental peer, but she’s at least sharper than Iwatani Sr. about the most pressing issue.
We mentioned “appetite” when we introduced the Iwatanis, which is a bit of a nod to their name’s inspiration, the creator of Pac-Man. From the script: “Okay, I may have one or two affairs a year that you know of, but cripes, do you have to be such a sourpuss about it? You always find out way too fast and ruin my fun anyway.” These two are not relationship goals.
I gotta give Taro a little bit of credit here, honestly. Considering what’s starting to happen in the last panel, you might expect him to be cackling with glee on this page, or at least unusually kind and forgiving: “I’m sorry, dear mother, I’ll try to—MWAHAHAHA! GWAHAHA! BAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA—be a better son.” But he knows there’s a chance, however slight, that the poison won’t work. So he acts as if he has no scheme at all until he’s sure.
FB: Homeschooling kids this age usually involves some arts and crafts. For instance, this morning Taro’s turned breakfast into a pity party.
His Grave [typo, but it’s appropriate, so I’ll leave it] at least gets to go out on a fairly good joke.
(I know this isn’t technically his last line, but it’s close enough.)
I remember my first view of this scene. The sudden silence from Her Grace meant that she was off, and I was sure another character was about to die… and yet I was sure as sure it was going to be Taro. Because… Taro had already shot his bolt for relevance as a character, hadn’t he? As Misa even stated in this panel, Taro never learned and always acted too rashly. And there was no way that Iwatania, ink barely dry on that name, would survive past His Grace without any time for his successor to establish even the most tenuous of legitimacy. So surely it would be Taro here acting too rashly again, and in the next page to start gloating, only for Misa to have ‘Uno reversed’ his food-gambit and for Taro to be the second figure to collapse, thus revealing at least one of Iwatini’s children might have been taking notes of his lessons, and would stand ready to be an actor at his side through whatever final showdown occurred toward the final defeat of him and his nation.
Because there was no way that a bloodthirsty incompetent like Taro could really have any credibility as King and a fitting ‘Final Showdown’ for the five, was there?
…I am terrible at predictions.
I felt the same way when making certain other predictions back in 2016…