WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 16, "World's Greatest Assassin," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
Nasse the playful angel granted Kakehashi Mirai the wings and arrows of an angel, thrusting him into a deadly battle royale to decide the next God. Mirai needed allies, and he first teamed up with classmate Hanakago Saki before recruiting Mukaido Nanato, a veteran, to the team. Mukaido paid with his life to take down Metropoliman, and now, Mirai needs a replacement ally.
As of Episode 16, Mirai finds himself in a tricky defensive position, with the entire world scrambling to hunt down the God candidates to either exploit or eliminate them, and Mirai and Saki alone can't hope to survive this new conflict. That's when two sympathetic police officers, Hoshi Masaya and his partner/fiancee Yumiki, enter the picture.
With the brutal Metropoliman/Uryu Kanade dead, the young Susumu stands as Mirai's worst enemy, even if Susumu means well. The boy's plan to publicly gather the God candidates and elect one as God troubles Mirai, but for now, Mirai sees no way to defeat Susumu in a battle of wits. He and Saki lay low and resume their usual high school life in September, until the battle royale catches up with them once again. Separately, Mirai and Saki encounter police officers who seek to aid rather than capture them.
World governments, including Japan's, aim to capture the God candidates and use them as a replacement for nukes as deterrents, but a police officer named Hoshi Masaya and his partner/fiancee Yumiki feel differently. They don't want the God candidates to be exploited like that, especially not innocent adolescents like Mirai and Saki, and they approach Mirai and Saki as allies. Saki also pierces Yumiki with her red arrow, and Mirai wonders if Masaya allowed that so he and his partner could earn Mirai's trust.
In any case, it works, and Mirai and Saki accept Masaya and Yumiki as unexpected allies. Mirai sees enemies everywhere, especially since Susumu has revealed the battle royale to the world, but Nasse determines that Masaya and Yumiki are honest with their intentions. They even share their secure apartment as a hideout for the four of them, and these two police allies lie to their chief to protect their God candidate friends. For now, Mirai and Saki can count on them for aid, and unlike Mukaido, they provide inside help where the police and Japanese government are concerned. This is an advantage Mirai and Saki never had before, and its potential is formidable.
On the face of it, Mirai and Saki both lucked out by obtaining two police officer allies who vow to shield them from the turbulent political landscape of the current age. However, this also begs the question of what Mirai and Saki will do and what their goals are. Once again, Mirai and Saki have defensive and humble goals, aiming to live ordinary and happy lives as they always intended. However, that won't allow them to win the battle royale, nor will it impress anyone if Susumu's intended election takes place. Mirai and Saki have a passive role in the story once again, and they now follow Masaya and Yumiki's lead, just the way they once followed Mukaido Nanato's lead, since he was more experienced and proactive.
This new development, while a positive one for Mirai and Saki, highlights their youth and their inability to set a solid goal and pursue it as true shonen protagonists. Mirai and Saki are ordinary adolescents, and neither of them intends to take a life or become God, even if the battle royale demands it. They're almost like children, hanging onto the responsible and wise adults around them who show them the way, and they can't get much done on their own. Adults such as Mukaido, and now Masaya and Yumiki, are the ones making hard decisions and planning strategies, and it's all Mirai can Saki can do to keep up.
If this trend continues, Mirai and Saki will be in big trouble if their new police allies fail them somehow or worse, turn on them for some reason. Mirai and Saki must grow up sooner rather than later if they ever intend to live that ordinary, happy life.
