The following article contains spoilers for To Your Eternity Season 2, Episode 1, "Infatuation Reborn", now streaming on Crunchyroll.

The events of To Your Eternity's first season put its protagonist Fushi through the wringer. An immortal being sent to aid humanity by the mysterious Beholder, Fushi started life as an orb before being able to transform into the people around him -- but only once they were dead. Fushi would soon discover his role was to protect the world from the Nokkers, mysterious supernatural creatures who threatened humanity.

Over the course of Season 1, Fushi would learn to walk, talk and integrate himself into human society, making many friends along the way. Unfortunately, each new bond would inevitably end in heartbreak and death, and each new form he gained served as a physical manifestation of his grief for a fallen friend.

RELATED: What Were the Most Powerful Cards Used in Yu-Gi-Oh! Battle City?

To Your Eternity Season 2 Makes a 40-Year Timeskip

Fushi regenerates in the ocean

In Season 1's final episode, after many harrowing battles with the Nokkers, Fushi found himself caring for Pioran in relative peace. After traveling with the elderly woman on and off since the season's beginning, he tended to her needs as she gradually succumbed to dementia. Pioran wrote a note to Fushi before her passing, thanking him for looking after her and encouraging him to live life doing whatever he wants. The message clearly touches Fushi, and the season ends on a bittersweet note -- before cutting to a scene set an unspecified amount of time in the future, showing an older Fushi having just defeated a Nokker.

At last, To Your Eternity's Season 2 premiere picks up where that scene left off, showing what this older Fushi has been up to. He now lives alone on a tropical island, spending most of his time fighting Nokkers. He's become so adept at it that he's accumulated an entire collection of Nokker cores, cooking them to make ''Nokker jerky''.

When the Beholder pays his creation a visit, Fushi asks how long he's been isolating on the island; when the Beholder reveals it's been 40 years, Fushi laments the wasted time. He asks the Beholder how much longer until he's ''complete'', but the Beholder replies this won't happen until he's able to conjure an entire ocean -- an achievement Fushi bemoans will take a thousand years.

RELATED: Naruto Creator Did Not Write the New Sasuke Manga Despite Being Credited

Why Has Fushi Become So Jaded in Season 2?

Fushi and the Beholder

After spending much of Season 1 as a wide-eyed idealist, this cynical iteration of Fushi comes as quite a shock to To Your Eternity fans. It's hard to blame him, however, given how much death and destruction he's born witness to. Despite the optimism of Pioran's final message to him, Season 2's premiere reveals that he took her last will and testament as an encouragement to isolate himself away from people.

Fushi spends some time as a crab on the ocean floor, accumulating various sealife in his growing collection of transformations. Although he finds the simplicity of ocean life refreshing, it's clear that his inability to make friends with any of his fellow sea-dwelling creatures takes its toll. Soon his life under the waves comes to an end when the Beholder informs him that Nokkers have arrived on the island. Thanks to the new forms he had accumulated near Season 1's end, Fushi's arsenal against his enemies has greatly expanded, and he disposes of them with ease.

Unfortunately, the less-than-savory circumstances that led him to gain these new abilities are an obvious sore spot for Fushi. He resents that his survival is built on the foundation of the deaths of people he cared about. This, combined with the repetitive isolation of his life for 40 years, has led to Fushi being the world-weary wreck Season 2 greets viewers with.

RELATED: One of Dragon Ball Z's Most Gruesome & Impactful Deaths Is Often Overlooked

Fushi's Exile Is Interrupted by an Unexpected Guest

Fushi takes on the form of Uroy

Despite his depression, Fushi's sense of justice in To Your Eternity hasn't eroded. When the Beholder informs him that the Nokkers have finally wizened up and are attacking people on another island, Fushi lights up with righteous fury, wasting no time in preparing to go and stop them.

Before he can leave, however, he's greeted with a haunting sight: a young girl the spitting image of his former nemesis, Hayase. When the girl introduces herself as Hayase's granddaughter Hisame, it becomes clear to Fushi that after four decades alone, no matter how far he goes the past will catch up to him eventually.