The following contains spoilers for Episode 12 of SAKUGAN, "TO BE CONTINUED," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
From the beginning of Sakugan, there have been multiple facts that have been repeated continuously. Gagumber is Memempu’s father. Memempu is a highly intelligent woman who was the youngest graduate of Pinyin University. Memempu sees the same place in her dreams over and over again and wants to be a Marker to go to that place, whatever it might reveal.
Memempu and Gagumber might have a tension-filled relationship, but for all their petty squabbles, it's clear that each cares for the other deeply. In Episode 12, all of these facts except for the last are proven to be questionable.
Shibito, the terrorist group that has been throwing many Colonies into mayhem, finally succeeds in kidnapping Memempu. The leader of this sect of Shibito calls Memempu a "rainbow child." According to this person, rainbow children are made from “genes containing biochemical factors from this land, designed to preserve a world in defiance of natural order.”
The leader indicates that rainbow children shouldn’t exist, as they only bring pain to others. He proves to Memempu that she is a rainbow child by stating that she should have memories all the way back to her infancy -- and indeed, Memempu does, but she has been writing them off as dreams all this time.
Memempu's intelligence is also considered characteristic of one of these rainbow children, and it's revealed that Gagumber is not her biological father. All of these facts leave Memempu in confusion and despair -- her life up until now has seemingly been a lie, and she questions the nature of her relationship with Gagumber. Understandably, this throws Memempu into an existential crisis. Thankfully, Gagumber arrives just in time to snap her out of it.
Despite Gagumber’s lack of ability to be the ideal father, this doesn’t change the fact that he raised her. To say that familial bonds are only built on genetics is incorrect -- it's painfully obvious that Gagumber cares for her as his daughter, and that he will fight to protect her and her well-being against anything that would threaten it, whether that be kaiju, terrorists, the government, nature itself or anything in between.
In the end, Memempu's genetic makeup or the fact that she isn’t an actual human doesn’t matter to Gagumber. What's certain is that Gagumber and Memempu will be sticking together, with their relationship remaining just as it always has: father and daughter.
