Shonari (episode)

Shonari is the second episode of season 4, FLCL: Grunge and the twentieth overall. It premiered on Adult Swim on the Toonami block on September 16, 2023 at midnight ET.
==Synopsis==
A young alien named Shonari spends his days helping out his older brother, Dainari dispose of corpses in the local fishing area, due to his work for a local yakuza group known as Keshibishi-gumi. As war between Keshibishi-gumi and their rivals, Samueda-gumi, escalates in Okura City, Shonari sees a woman named Haruko take over as the newest leader. He soon begins to question his feelings for his former classmate, Orinoko, as well as what exactly are Haruko's true intentions.
==Summary==
Standing on a dock, a 10 year old alien named Shonari begins to cry, while his older brother Dainari, looks out at the ocean, as they prepare to dump the bodies of their recently deceased parents there. At school, the timid Shonari is constantly bullied and pelted with rocks by his classmates for being an alien with rock-like skin. He eventually stands up for himself by throwing a rock back at one of his bullies, only to severely injury him. After Shonari is put in a jail cell, Dainari scolds the police for arresting a child, but the police tell him that no one would ever believe that Shonari is a child, due to his massive size. Upon his release, Shonari apologizes to his older brother, but Dainari tells him that does not owe him an apology at all and that the bully he injured was a weakling. He then tells Shonari that he wants him to continue his education and get a good paying job, so he can save up money and leave the planet. Shonari eventually returns to school and is befriended by a boy named Shinpachi. Although things go well with his newfound friendship, he panics upon seeing the Medical Mechanica building setting itself atop of a nearby hill and implies that he and his family had fled their previous planet to escape from the same group. Meanwhile, Dainari begins working for a local yakuza group called Keshibishi-gumi, where he brings an explosives-filled package to unsuspecting members of another group, Samueda-gumi, as well as dispose of corpses. The death and destruction starts to take a toll on Dainari's mind and body, as he resorts to drinking alcohol to numb the pain.
Five years later, the now 15 year old Shonari serves as a driver / assistant for Dainari, who continues working for the Keshibishi-gumi, but is now suffering from the effects of alcoholism and brain damage. As they drive back to town, Dainari pulls out a large pile of cash from his pants and tells Shonari that he will soon have enough for a ticket for the rocket shuttle so they can leave the planet. He then proposes that Shonari take the ticket, but the younger alien suggest that Dainari go first instead. He then laughs at the suggestion, as he knows his brain and body are in bad shape from the alcohol and the damage that he has taken from being around explosives and tells Shonari to find something for the both of them in the new world. A few moments later, Shonari sees his old classmate, Orinoko, walking along the road with a basket full of scrap metal and offers her a ride back into town. After dropping her off near her house in a bamboo forest, Shonari begins to admit to himself that he has feelings for her.
A narrator begins to explain to viewers the origins of the battle between the Keshibishi-gumi and Samueda-gumi: Shouzou Samueda, the head of Samueda-gumi had a beloved Persian cat named "Mina-chan". In an attempt to gain control of the territory, members of the Keshibishi-gumi tried to kidnap Mina-chan by luring her away using several kinds of treats. Instead, it lead to the overweight cat developing diabetes and dying shortly afterward. The narrator mentions that a theory that had been floated around was that the cat was not kidnapped for the sake of gaining power and territory; rather, the cat was kidnapped because the wife of the head of Keshibishi-gumi wanted the cat as a pet, before pointing out that in the end, the wife was not fond of the cat. Furious at the death of Mina-chan, Shouzou order his group to attack Keshibishi-gumi, leading to an all out war across Okura City. Both groups eventually decide to bring aliens known as "Rockiens" to help with the battle. The battle reaches its boiling point after an injured Dainari witnesses a fellow Rockien kill the head of Keshibishi-gumi. 
After hearing about the battle, Shonari rushes over to the Keshibishi-gumi headquarters, where he finds Dainari sitting on the floor with his midsection wrapped in gauze and several members running around in confusion. Dainari tells Shonari that the Samueda-gumi hired a fellow Rockien who was able to slip past them and kill their leader. A moment later, the sound of a female voice is heard yelling at the group to get their act together. As Shonari looks on, a woman in a kimono walks into the hall as the members bow their heads and address her as "Ane-san" (lit. Big Sister). She then kneels next to the corpse of the the deceased leader, and informs the member that as the leader's wife, she fully intends to take over and lead the group, before asking if anyone opposes her taking the position. While the majority do not oppose her, the wakagashira (second-in-command) comes out and opposes her, saying that being the boss' mistress does not give her the right to take over their group. She immediately pulls out her sword and cuts him down. One of the members tells her that while they will accept her as their leader, it was a bit too much to kill the wakagashira. She proceeds to show the group a collection of photos of the wakagashira having drinks with Shouzou Sameueda, indicating that he was a traitor that helped the enemy in killing their leader. She then reminds them that they must fight to avenge her husband and prepare for war. Shonari tries to join them, but Dainari stops him, telling him that it is his war and to go wait at home for him.
After another night of brawling between the rival groups, Shonari drive his brother back home before seeing Orinoko on the side of the road. After giving her a ride home again, she asks if he has been the one leaving food near her family's home for the last few days. He nervously tells her that it was him and she thanks him, implying that it has been helping her and her family. He gives her a magnet from the truck's speaker and tells her with the magnet she'll be able to find iron ore easily. He then makes a request: if she can find enough iron, he would like her to ask her father to forge a katana for Dainari. While she is hesitant to do so, due to her father being sick and his skills starting to decline, she eventually agrees to do so. As the bother continue their job of disposing corpses, Orinoko eventually finds a large piece of meteoric iron with the magnet Shonari gave her. She then proceeds to fulfill her promise and gets her father to forge a well crafted katana.
At Miyabi Sushi, Mayor Kuroiwa and Director Yamaguchi discuss the arrival of EBI Agent Amarao and how he posses a threat to Medical Mechanica. As the mayor criticizes Amarao's appearance and the chefs are busy with food preparation, the mayor's date, Haru, slips under the counter to pull out a USB drive that is shaped like a slice of maguro. Nearby, Orinoko delivers the katana to Shonari at the apartment that he shares with his brother. She lets him have it for free and although he insists on paying her, she tells him its to pay him back for all of the food that he had been giving her. Orinoko then tells him to use the katana to protect the person he loves and as he begins to think she will confess her love to him, she tells to protect someone he loves like his brother, leaving the young alien feeling embarrassed. Suddenly, the sound of an alarm from the Medical Mechanica building is heard, as Yamaguchi goes berserk from consuming the USB drive that Haru snuck into his sushi. Shonari views it as a sign and runs off to fight. Before reaching the entrance to the main district, he is stopped behind Amarao's car, as the police are not allowing anyone in. Despite informing them that he is a government agent, the police suddenly draw their weapons and threaten to shoot Amarao, who then turns his phone into a hi-tech rifle and prepare to fire at them. Annoyed by the delay, Shonari rushes past Amarao, drawing his sword and inadvertently shaving off his eyebrows, before destroying the police barrier. 
Meanwhile, the rival groups continued to fight in the city's main district, with Dainari trying to keep the new leader safe. Suddenly the rival alien appears and charges at her, before Dainari gets her out of the way. The rival alien then place an explosive into Dainari's gapping midsection, while boasting that the he will be the last man standing. Knowing that there would be no way to survive the explosion, Dainari then decides to keep his hold on the alien to ensure that they both die together.
Upon entering the main district, Shonari found Dainari grappling with the rival alien. As Shonari calls out to him, Dainari tells him to stay back and to find the future. Not understanding what he exactly meant, Shonari desperately tried to get to Dainari and help him out, but the explosives finally go off and knock him back. After waking up, he walked over and found the Keshibishi-gumi's leader, clutching Dainari's severed head, as it was the only thing left from the explosion. As they mourn over Dainari, she points to a poster of Mayor Kuroiwa on a nearby wall and tells Shonari that he is the one responsible for the gang war. 
As the police and Samueda-gumi member are informed to be on the look out for the mayor's girlfriend, who had just assaulted him and ran off with his pile of shuttle tickets, the Keshibishi-gumi leader quickly drives to the Mt. Fuji Cabaret club to change outfits, revealing that she is Haru, the mayor's date. As the confrontation scene from the previous episode plays out again, Shonari spots the mayor and sneaks his way up to the top of a nearby building. Just before the mayor orders the yakuza to kill Shinpachi, Shonari jumps down from a nearby building, knocking the yakuza back. He then charges at the mayor and beheads him with his katana before tasting the blood that fell upon him. Now without the mayor to lead them, the remaining police and Samueda-gumi members decide to just continue searching for Haru, who had just tried to sneak past them. The next wave Keshibishi-gumi members immediately arrive and she orders them to fight on, before quickly fleeing. 
Shiinpachi finds Shonari and tells him that they need to help Haru. As they drive toward the Medical Mechanica building, Shonari finds himself questioning who exactly Haru is, as she was the head of the Keshibishi-gumi moments earlier and now is the mayor's girlfriend who was being chased by the police and the rival gang. Meanwhile, Haruko finds her way to a hidden storage area and reunites with her Vespa and speeds off towards Medical Mechanica. As she gets closer to the building, its security system activates a security protocol and uses the robotic flies that had been pestering the citizens to swarm her and throw her off course. On the other side of the bridge, as Shonari still tries to understand who exactly Haru is, he decides to put it aside and declares that he just wants to cut loose and smash some more skulls.
==Songs==
*"Sleepy Head"
*"Stalker"
*"Brand New Lovesong"
*"Sayonara Universe"
*"Blues Drive Monster"
*"Vivid Venus"
==Credits==
===Japanese===
* Sakiko Uran as Haruko Haruhara
* Junko Takeuchi as Shinpachi
* Yuna Kitahara as Orinoko
* Seiyu Fujiwara as Shonari
* Taichi Takeda as Dainari
* Takeshi Maeda as Commander Amarao
* Motoi Koyanagi as Shinpachi's Father
* Hiroshi Shimozaki as Mayor Kuroiwa
* Masaaki Yano as Director Yamaguchi
* Shinya Takahashi as Keishibishi-gumi
* Hiroki Maeda as Samueda-gumi
* Takuro Sakashita as Riot Police Commander
* Taisuke Nakano as Rockian
===English===
* Kari Wahlgren as Haruko Haruhara
* Casey Mongillo as Shinpachi
* Michelle Marie as Orinoko
* Luis Bermudez as Shonari
* Marc Thompson as Dainari
* Aaron LaPlante as Commander Amarao
* Arthur Romero as Shinpachi's Father
* Dino Andrade as Mayor Kuroiwa
* Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes as Director Yamaguchi
* Marc Thompson as Keishibishi-gumi
* Kamran Nikhad as Rockian
* Samantha Weinstein as Akira / Saya
==Gallery==
Shonari(Episode)/Gallery
==Trivia==
Category:Grunge
Category:Episodes