Summary:
Saya learns from Min that there’s going to be a school excursion to Hanoi. When the two get to their classroom, they find a group of girls gathered around Saya’s desk because of the blue rose on it. The girls speculate that this must be the Phantom’s confession. At lunch, her friends tell her of a forbidden rose garden by the church where blue roses apparently blossom. Saya heads there after dark with Hagi, and the two do indeed find blue roses, which happen to be growing around the entrance to an underground area. Once they go below the garden, they find that the door to the rest of the area is locked, but Saya does see a container with the number 721226 on it. Ms. Lee hears the rattling from Saya trying to open the door and investigates, but she doesn’t actually go down the ladder or find them. Saya and Hagi take their leave once she’s gone.
On her trip to a war museum in Hanoi, Saya calls David to update him again. After Saya hangs up, Julia suggests that they have a chance to go investigate during the upcoming school dance. Inside the museum, Saya starts to have flashbacks after she sees various photographs of the war, and starts to run in panic. She continues to run in a semi-hallucinating state until it’s dark and she has ended up in an alleyway. From out of the shadows appears the Phantom holding a blue rose. Hagi intervenes and throws Saya her sword, but the Phantom knocks him into a wall where he’s buried in debris. As the Phantom tries to stir her memories of that fateful night long ago, Saya’s eyes start to turn red. But after she remembers the words of Kai, Riku, and her father, and she turns back to her normal form. She cuts off the Phantom’s arm, and tells him that she accepts her past. At this point, Hagi emerges from the rubble, so the Phantom decides to retreat. But before he goes, he reveals himself to be Karl, the director of the school.

Seriously, how could you be surprised that the Phantom is Karl? The hair, facial features, and general physique make it pretty obvious. Guess it just goes to prove the Law of Flimsy Incognition. More interesting is why Karl is trying to stir Saya’s memories, perhaps returning her to the psychotic killing state of mind she had that night. I don’t know what he has to gain from it, especially if he’s part Chiropteran. Perhaps he was there that night, or shares some sort of memories with her. There also is the blonde man in Paris that he’s talking to at the beginning, who mentions the word Chevalier, which also comes up again later out of David’s mouth.
I found the flashback parts of this episode to be particularly creepy, especially when Saya is sees her reflection in the museum. I was afraid that she might just lose it right there and start killing random people or something. So they do a pretty good job of keeping the suspense up for that part. Overall, this is much more enjoyable than last week’s Kai and Riku episode, and next week looks even better, with Saya fighting in a ball gown.

Closing Thought: The next OP and ED for this series, starting I assume at the 13 or 14th episode, have been announced! The OP will be HYDE – 「SEASON’S CALL」, and the ED will be Nakashima Mika – 「CRY NO MORE」.

12 Comments

  1. Correct me but Min is suppose to be spelt Minh and i have never seen no Viet name as Min. I dont wanna be a wanker but i just felt like i had to say and yes i can feel the story evolving on a good scale.

    Devil Emperor
  2. can’t wait to watch this. just wondering though whats the best fansub group for blood+. i know live evil are good but they’re hella slow, and im currently watching the shinsen subs version which seems ok. any other fansub group recommendations? thanks in advance ^_^

    stumpy
  3. If there was something anti-American about Blood+, it’s subtle and understandable from the point of view of the slightly-nationalist Japanese, most especially the Okinawans. But instead I believe that Red Shield is one American covert agency trying to fight a powerful, conspiratorial monolithic corporation/entity responsible for the Chiropterans, and even has the US government and military forces under iron-fisted control. It’s like the X-Files and Blade wrapped into one better package, IMHO.

    But having seen eps. 8 and 9, I can’t wait to see these incoming story twists, just as we thought the series was getting dull and slow.

    Capping off, judging from the screenshots for ep 11 from the official site, we’ll be seeing Saya and Kai dance together. And of course HYDE fans will be blown away once more. :))

  4. hmm.. i’m not sure if anyone’s going to see this, but i have a question:
    the 2 fansubs have conflicting interpretations of what the phantom said to saya right after he departed. one interpreted as him saying that saya “is dangerous”, while the other says that saya “is in danger”. now, i’m sure we’ll find out in later eps, but it’d be nice if there are ppl here who know a bit of jap who can clearify this discripency. ^^

    btw, where does hagi get his daggers?.. seems like everytime he fights, the daggers are either lost or dropped, so where does he get his supply of them? lol~

    wikiblah

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