Grandpa & Grandma Turn Young Again episode 5 is out, and it’s an honest glimpse into pitfalls we don’t think about when we wish for extravagant things. Have you ever wanted to travel in time? Then, you need to be able to travel in space as well. Want to be invisible? You better be prepared for temporary blindness since your eyes won’t be able to pick up light. Want to get a Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout? Prepare to line up with some of the most annoying people you’ll ever meet. Want to be a younger you? There are some downfalls you’re probably not expecting.
Back in Time
As Grandpa & Grandma Turn Young Again episode 5 kicks off, a rejuvenated grandma is back in her teens. But there’s a catch. Her memories are gone, and there’s a good reason for that. We’ll get to that in a bit. What’s important for now is that even though Grandma doesn’t remember the past 50+ years of her life, she believes what she’s being told about her current life.
Likewise, despite not remembering any of it, Grandma finds comfort in the life she has. The ebb and flow of housework, the comfort that Grandpa brings, and the love she has from her family still resonates with her, even though she can’t remember the life they built together. Whenever Grandpa isn’t around, she misses him and grows anxious. That realization ends up being the spark that allows her memories to come back, and with that, the happy couple is reunited.
What’s a Memory?
The human brain is far more complex than we think. Several of its processes aren’t yet fully understood. How memories are formed, for instance, involves way more than just learning new information or registering an experience. It involves multiple regions of the brain and the creation of neural connections and pathways. How A memory is stored further adds to that complexity.
To really dumb down a process that takes quite a bit to thoroughly explain, assuming everything in your brain is working condition. When you experience something new, this leads to synapses forming, which connect neurons together. When we repeat that action, those connections strengthen. That strengthening, known as long-term potentiation, is what helps you log memories and learn new skills. The better this works, the better your memory.
But as one can see in cases of traumatic brain injury or with mental diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, these connections aren’t set in stone. With Alzheimer’s, synaptic plasticity is disrupted, and the accumulation of Beta-Amyloid Plaques and Tau Tangles causes damage to the connections previously mentioned and, with that, damage to memories. But damage and degradation aren’t the only things that could affect memory — regression is also an issue.
Up to now, Grandpa and Grandpa have had their bodies partially rejuvenated, not their minds. So, when Grandma rejuvenates, all the neural connections that lead to memory are lost. Due to her behavior, we can surmise that some recollections of her life remain. After all, if most people woke up in a house they didn’t know had a stranger in it, their reaction would be far from calm.
But throughout the episode, we see Grandma retaining some sense of security in her home and around her family. This, however, can be an even deeper question once we leave the physical and enter the metaphysical.
As anime fans, we’re all familiar with reincarnation. Getting plowed by a truck and ending up with a better life is so ingrained in us that when I’m doing my afternoon runs, those 16-wheelers look really inviting. However, if one looks at reincarnation in this life. The idea of past memories would challenge all scientific understanding of biology if proven true because this would mean that memories aren’t something physical. It’s something more akin to one’s soul than one’s body. If this is the case, then Grandma’s very essence could be telling her she’s on safe ground.
Grandpa & Grandma Turn Young Again Episode 5 Wrap-Up
What is love? How is love gauged? Biologically speaking, love is nothing more than chemical and electrical impulses. So, whether people like it or not, the love we feel for a person and the love we feel for a drawing on a screen have no distinction. Both of those things are love.
But that’s seeing the feeling from a biological standpoint. When you see it from a metaphysical perspective, you get into some murky waters. Because at that point, you gain something impossible to fully grasp. And this episode showed that eloquently.
Despite not knowing who she was with or why she loved him, Grandma understood there was a connection there that meant a lot to her. And maybe that’s what love is — a feeling you can’t explain and you don’t understand, but one that says, “Here, you’re safe.”
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©Kagiri Araido, KADOKAWA/ Grandma and Grandpa Rejuvenate Production Committee
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