Sarah and Hunt are back! I’m surprised Thunderland hasn’t said anything about wanting to dissect Hunt even though he’s his new assistant.

「ロダ、彷徨う」 (Roda, Samayou)
“Roda, Wanders”

With all the suspicion surrounding Gauche and how he might still be Noir, I would’ve been more surprised if all that foreshadowing wasn’t made good on. All it really took was one shot of Gauche lying in bed to put a lot of doubt about his return to his former self, so I was more taken in by the focus on Roda and her loneliness without him around. The screenplay in this episode reminded me of Narita Ryougo’s Bacanno and Durarara series, with parts of the previous episode shown again from Roda’s perspective. Much like it was hinted at last time when she was waiting outside Sylvette’s home, that depiction helped emphasize how Roda’s clearly conflicted between what appeared to be Gauche returning to his former life and her desire to be with him as his dingo.

 

Roda’s like a stray dog and shows signs of her former self with the way she cleans her face.

I could sense a bit of anger and sadness in Roda’s voice when she told Sarah she has no name.

I’ve been wondering if Roda’s loyalty lies more with Gauche than it does with Reverse, and I’m now inclined to believe that’s the case after seeing her hesitate to approach him. She’s given every indication that she would’ve stayed out of his life if he was truly happy returning to his former one, which had me sympathizing for her situation. The thought of returning to Reverse and continuing on with their plans never seemed to cross her mind, and it looked like she had fallen into a depressed state after losing her purpose in life. Because of that, I was happy to see Noir come by and rescue Roda from Niche, despite feeling bad for Sylvette after she was finally being reunited with her brother after all these years. Naturally, I was hoping that Roda would return as Gauche’s dingo, except the scenario I had in mind saw the latter in a Bee uniform again. Admittedly, I’m still holding onto hope that we’ll see a truly happy ending like that at some point.

 

“No cheap feels while I’m running things around here!”

Roda was absolutely adorable when she was younger.

Now she’s as beautiful as she is dangerous.

Niche has clearly gotten a lot stronger since meeting Maka and her sister again, so much that Roda had given up and resigned to her fate.

That is, until her knight in shining armor came by to rescue her.

Considering they were nowhere to be seen in the preview for this episode, I really wasn’t expecting to see Sarah (Komatsu Yuka) and Hunt (Chiba Susumu) again. The nostalgia was definitely there and it was nice to see how the two of them had turned their lives around since the Honey Waters incident at the end of the first season, plus Sarah in particular had some funny moments in her new job managing dingos for hire. Their kindhearted gesture towards Roda looks like it may have slightly changed her view on the world as well, and may just become the chance encounter that affects her decisions in the future. Similarly, I get the feeling that Gauche’s memories will come into play when he returns to Reverse.

At the moment, it’s too early to tell if he’s doing so to put a stop to their plans; however, there’s a good possibility that he won’t simply shoot Lag without a second thought. The preview also shows Jiggy Pepper again, whose run-in with Reverse seems inevitable. He’s the top Bee in Yuusari as far as I’m concerned, and if someone’s going to match up well against Garrard and Valentine, he’d be my best bet.

 

It looks like Lag’s quest to bring Gauche back isn’t over just yet.

Preview

Lag’s in a bit of a pinch. Will Noir shoot or not?

17 Comments

  1. I am absolutely heartbroken to find out that he was Noir all that time. I mean just when I was exploding with joy that he meets Slyvette again and that Lag could show him what a fine Letter Bee he is. It’s an uncalled for plot twist. Hopefully a second attempt to bring Gauche back will put this series in a happy ending. I hope that there’s still some chance that Gauche’s heart is beating inside of Noir’s.

    Rika
    1. I believe that they are 2 or 3 chapters behind the Japanese manga at this point. In terms of what’s already been scanlated, they practically just caught up to the manga, though it is rather ambiguous due to the deviation from the actual manga plot. The manga scanlations are currently 3 chapters behind what’s currently been published due to unfortunate delays on the part of the scanlation group.

      Kalamity
  2. It’s interesting to note Roda performed the same move at the same screen on Niche this time with her jump stab and this time it missed. I guess Divine forgot to mention that it was the same exact move shot in the same exact way to show Niche’s growth.

    thenewhorde
  3. @Divine: But if Noir pretended to be Gauche only to deceive Lag what good did that do…all that resulted was Reverse is now after Noir’s life.
    When I look back at how Noir smiled like Gauche in the last episode, it’s too convincing to say that his heart was affected by Lag’s letter bullet. I mean it makes me wonder now if Noir is staying as he is in order to protect Roda and keeping Reverse away from the others. From what has been said, it’s hurtful to see Noir/Gauche distance himself from everyone after that reunion.

    Rika
    1. I think this may help

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Shadiic

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