OP2 Sequence

OP2: 「ラブレターのかわりにこの詩を。」 (Love Letter no Kawari ni Kono Shi wo.) by 星羅 (Seira)
Watch the 2nd OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「死骸博士」 (Shigai Hakase)
“The Corpse Doctor”

One week after the post-Christmas break, we have new opening and ending themes as expected. The story gets back on track about Gauche too, thanks to the highly misunderstood and misperceived doctor/biological specialist of the Bee-Hive, Dr. Thunderland Jr., a.k.a. the corpse doctor.

It was only a matter of time before someone took notice to all of the peculiarities surrounding Lag again and acted upon it. Spirit amber left-eye, dingo of legendary Maka blood, and the odd-looking creature that sits on top of her head. Well it turns out that Steak is some extinct species known as a Kapellmeister, and the resident corpse doctor has an obsession over dissecting things (much like a certain Dr. Stein in SOUL EATER). For those very reasons, Thunderland (Ishikawa Hideo) drags him off to his “Hell’s Kitchen”, so Lag and Zazie go after him to prevent Niche’s head ornament from becoming a real steak. Humorously enough, Niche merely understands this as her food being stolen, suggesting that she still plans to eat Steak one day. Most of the episode involved a mini chase into the doctor’s lab, where Lag’s shindan ends up revealing that Thunderland’s a friend of Gauche’s and quite sentimental towards the corpses he studies. Once the doctor learns of Lag’s ties to Gauche, he gives up on Steak and Niche for the time being and thinks of how he can entrust finding Gauche to Lag.

Fairly simplistic progression this time, but Thunderland was surprisingly refreshing with his quirky/obsessive behavior. That was nice to see, in conjunction with the Gauche-related story elements that have been absent as of late. They were somewhat minor, but reminded us of how Gauche’s mysterious disappearance is still the focus here. Other than that, it was interesting to see them bring up the stray cat from the Christmas episode, which Zazie incorrectly assumed Thunderland had dissected when he actually quarantined it due to a disease. From that, we officially learned that Zazie’s shindans are fragments of the malice within his heart and that shooting shindans at humans makes them experience the emotion/desire inside. In addition, Aria demonstrated her shindan’s ability to heal people via her violin’s music, something that Lag needed to recover from overusing his own shindan.

As for the two new songs, the second opening is much more mellow than the first. When combined with its sequence, it makes the series come off as cheery and hopeful despite depicting how Gauche is still missing. As such, I find that it’s a nice contrast of emotions. For those wondering, Seira’s song is titled “Instead of a Love Letter, I Have This Poem” to give you an idea of what the lyrics are about. On the other hand, “Memories of the Light” by Angelo sounds really good as an outro to each episode, much like HIMEKA’s song did. It’s mostly due to that mellow/surreal feel it and the sequence give off, which I tend to associate the world of Amberground with. I already like both songs after the first couple of listens, so I only see them growing on me more over time.

The next episode looks somewhat filler-esque, but I’ll reserve labeling it as such until I actually see it.

 

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「光の記憶」 (Hikari no Kioku) by Angelo
Watch the 2nd ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

20 Comments

  1. It was cute seeing Lag and Niche returning home to Sylvette after a long day of delivering letters in the OP sequence; hell, Lag and Sylvette looked like a married couple for a moment there too. I personally like the first OP song better though.

    Also, lol @ Zazie’s weakness being cats.

  2. Yep, no more fillers. Looks like everythings goin’ back on track again, worth d’ wait. Added the new OP & ED, not bad for the bees to start the year.

    I find the sub-master playing her violin the best part of this episode, its would be nice to know what the title of that piece is. Anyone? xD

    Progeny
  3. To everyone scornful of the filler content of late, the line for butthurt starts well behind me over Zazie being a boy (instead of a tomboy with feline features, as the laws of the universe demand). You’ll each get your turn, someday, perhaps after I die, to have your concerns dealt with.

    m
  4. Aria!!! I was totally happy watching Aria perform. The new OP and ED are ok but I need time for them to grow on me. I was so used to the first op it left me pumped for action. this doesn’t have the same feeling, again need to hear it more. As for the ending I was in love with Himeka so this new one hurts me ( is not bad; it’s just I loved the other one SO much *sniff) will see how the series develop now

    Island Esper
  5. Sorry but both the ED and OP suck. I want the old wants back, they were better a thousand times. Could even listen to the new ones until the end.

    And I wonder if this series will some day get back into the real plot about Gauche and the guys who were chasing him. Just a bit Gauche here and there isnt enough. And next ep doesnt look like it will change its way -.-

    FlyTaggart
  6. I wonder if the current head bee wanted to have Aria for himself and he is behind Gauche’s disappearance or something? Obviously Aria cared for Gauche and Gauche reaslly loves his sister so I can’t see him going off and not coming back to the 2 important women in his life unless someone won’t let him (perhaps he got amnesia or some other lame plot device). I don’t read the manga so I’m just wondering whats the deal?

    Splash
  7. I’m kind of disappointed that there was barely any emphasis on Gauche in both the OP and ED; there was the photo of Gauche towards the end of the OP, though. But I hope they’re not implying that Gauche is all but just a distant memory. I really want to plot to move back to him!

    Lightning XIII

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