Horray, there's a flashback, and it shows Ai's mother. Who, yep, pretty much just looks like an older version of Ai. She seems so happy and functional. It's surprising that she was a grave-keeper, as she is much more vibrant and energetic, even in these flashback stills, than Scar ever could dream of being. Ai's mother expresses her want to make the village a safe haven, or a heaven, here on earth for those that were dead. She just want's them to be happy.
On the normal timeline, it is revealed that Hampnie, although immortal, basically is looking for a way to kill himself. In no way does he want to be the last human being on earth. The thought of it disturbs him so deeply that he starts to shake Ai with a fervor. And just as Ai has decided again that Hampnie sucks, he places a boot in her back and kicks her off the precarious, canyon spanning bridge they were in the midst of crossing.
Ai comes to later on, with Julie, who fished her out of the river and set her clothes to dry. Julie reveals that Hampnie kicked Ai off the bridge in order to save her from the undead ambush that subsequently got him captured. Julie has a picture of the woman that Hampnie refers to periodically, the one he has been wandering around looking for, and he called fat. He calls her Hana, but it is clearly a picture of Ai's mother.
Anyway, they go to rescue Hampnie from the crazies. Scar appears suddenly and accompanies them. Hampnie's captives are pretty wacky. As the entourage comes to save the day, Ai reveals that she is his daughter and that the town she lived in was full of dead people pretending to be alive to keep her happy. And, after murdering everyone, Hampnie dies for real because of wish fulfillment or some other such bogus nonsense.
So, he wakes back up, undead and he and Ai have a day of father daughter bonding which ends with her burying him and essentially killing him and sobbing into a dirt pile. And so she vows to save the world from whatever it is that's going on with it and goes off with Julie and Scar.
This three episode arc was awesome. I would gladly have had the anime end here. It showed heart and insight and interesting characters. It embraced its tropes but crashed through others. I loved every minute watching it. It would have made a great OVA, but the fact that there are more episodes is also intriguing. Though, why there is a VW bus, I have no idea. Everything looks so plebeian otherwise. I'm going to keep going. But, had this been how it ended, perfection.
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