Karin – 04

Short Summary:
Karin prepares another lunch for Kenta, but is unable to give it to him after she catches him reading a book about vampires. Although Kenta has been growing more and more suspicious, Karin hasn’t been acting like a normal vampire would (no aversion to water, crosses, garlic, sunlight, etc). While running home in the rain one day, Kenta is stopped and warned by Anju not to corner Karin, but also gets a hint that there’s a truth about Karin. The next afternoon, Karin is harassed by a random man off the street, and Kenta comes to her rescue. Karin gets flustered after Kenta starts to apologize for thinking that she was a prostitute, and so she runs away. In the park, Karin starts longing to bite someone, and finds a drunken woman. After she sinks her fangs in, she realizes that Kenta is watching, having been led there by Anju. Kenta confirms that she’s a vampire by examining her fangs, so Karin starts calling for Anju. When Anju doesn’t respond, Karin breaks down crying. She’s afraid that if people know she’s a vampire, she won’t be able to live there anymore. Kenta makes her realize that he’s not the type of person that would tell her secret or judge her like that. Karin’s victim soon wakes up, so Karin pushes Kenta into the bushes. Then, Anju, who has been watching from above, faints and falls on top of Kenta. After Kenta learns that the two are sisters and starts carrying Anju home, the elder brother arrives and wants his sisters back.

This is a decent episode, but for whatever reason, I’m growing pretty weary of this series. The first half of this episode just doesn’t hold my interest, though the second half is a lot better. Along those lines, I think the vampire aspects of this are interesting, but the Kenta and Karin romantic/getting-to-know-each-other aspect is not.
The flashback scene when Karin thinks about the first time she had a nosebleed in middle school is fairly good, but suffers from the producers rushing the story. That particular part would have had a lot more impact, especially in showing how much Karin’s parents care for her, if they had kept all of the dialogue in and didn’t shorten it to a series of quick images. Come to think of it, they did manage to cover material spread over four chapters (parts of chapter six, most of seven and eight, and the beginning of nine). However, I am quite pleased with how they follow the rest of that scene, including Karin’s crying and Kenta saying that he would keep her secret. That includes how the music is very fitting for that part.
This episode is a lot better than I had initially given it credit for, but I’m still a bit disappointed with the series in general. There’s a good chance I may decide to drop this if I end up not liking next episode (which should include both family visits).