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「復讐乙女」 (Fukushuu Otome)
“Revenging Maiden”
Sorry for the delay! Today was one of those rare days when I have work and class on the same day.
This was somehow both unexpected and expected…
While this show is labeled as “horror”, it has been taking a different turn. The horror has been there, but it has been overshadowed by the very mellow and more amusing moments. I think I had gotten used to all the humoristic, fanservice filled moments – so this episode surprised me a little, but in a good way!
I do think the mystery of this week was a bit insane and a little too sudden. It’s hard to adjust to the amount of creepiness in this episode after five episodes filled with, what I’d call – slice of life actually. This week’s mystery was good but it was so fast paced so it felt very forced. It reminded me a little bit of the final episodes of Another – a great show which took an insane turn at the end (but it was still good if you ask me).
I think this story would do better if this had been split over two episodes. I’m trying to figure out why this was so fast paced. Are the remaining episodes going to focus on story progress? Was that the reason why this had to be crammed into 22 minutes? If so, why couldn’t the previous, more mellow episodes been used more wisely? Hmm, I shouldn’t think so much about that with six episodes remaining…
The mystery of this week was a very good one – Akahito-san – a rumored monster who is looking for human sacrifice – his victims being students who stay too long in school. We have a new character for this episode – Kirishima Yuuko (Koshimizu Ami), a girl who has been suffering because of her name and all the things it’s connected to. This rumor was created by her so she could end all paranormal activities and rumors surrounding the name “Yuuko”. Little did she know that this would lead to her fellow classmates going insane, trying to sacrifice her to the monster she created herself.
While I do think everything went too fast in this episode, I still find it interesting. I guess that’s because this mystery was rather psychological than paranormal, which makes it easier for me to relate to it.
Leaving that, I hope you all watched this episode until the end because there was a short clip after the ending sequence showing Kirie and Momoe (they had nearly no screen time at all this week) and what they did behind the scenes (when Yuuko saved Kirishima). Unfortunately, that scene left us with a very annoying cliffhanger. The shadow is back, and it seems to me that it has set its eyes on Kirie. It better not be to hurt her…
Full-length shots: 1, 2, 5, 25, 26, 31, 36
Note: Please, use spoiler tags. Remember, you can always preview your comment before posting it!
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I’d love to say this was a very interesting episode… But I can’t
“This was somehow both unexpected and expected…”
this pretty much sums it up.
*random character appears*
*quickly switching view points*
*viewer confused* “It’s super effective!”
They just blazed this arc just like that. Wow.
This arc was 3 chapters in the manga but in my opinion condensing it to one episode was a good thing. What I would have liked is that Kirishima’s first appeareance should have been in the previous episode as a cliffhanger plus them mentioning/questioning Akahito-san’s rumor as a cliffhanger too. To help build up this mystery. Oh well the episode was pretty creepy with the animation and music. That taunting with the faces and the letters was chilling, albeit a bit too long.
Plus they’re still keeping the shadow mystery alive, mostly.
Yeah, compared to the manga, the anime made the story feel really rushed out. Like they suddenly realized, “Uh oh. Too much time on Yuuko’s chest and Kirie’s legs! Better get back to (parts of) the actual story!”
Hard to see how the story can really keep going with the series being half over already unless they plan on another season or 2 (hard to see THAT considering where the manga is right now though).
If they ever intend another season, I’d say they would be better off with a remake. With a different director and a different studio :p. This anime fails at storytelling in too many ways. The voice acting is great, but everything else about it feels like they threw everything they had into it nonsensically (including the kitchen sink), making it look worst than a mystery soup made from molding month old leftovers in my opinion.
Kirie, HNNGGGG…
I second that. Yuuko-san is great, but Kirie is da best! (No offense to Yuuko-san fans out there)
lookin fwd to how this series would pan out
This is totally random yet un-random:
I’m currently in a queue for Diablo 3 launch event over here and the dude to my left is watching this episode as I type this!
/seewhatididthere
Too broke to afford D3 right now. 🙁
A bit darker than earlier episodes. It kinda caught me off guard
because I was expect the lightness to return at any minute.
BTW, what was Yuuko’s last line? I didn’t understand it.
The whole “kill Yuuko” tactic backfired spectacularly, it was as if Bugs Bunny told Elmer Fudd that, yes it is in fact wabbit season and should shoot a wabbit (while standing in-front said hunter)
The point of the episode was that one’s lack of understanding of the unknown (i.e: legends, ghosts, demons, anything etc.) is VERY dangerous because your imagination will fill in the blanks with something even more horrible than what it looks, like seeing monsters in the shadows when alone at night when you were a kid
Now instead of one person make it several panicking people ‘believing’ that someone HAVE to die to save their own skin which is the source cause for most human (or any animal for that matter) sacrifice in the past and Kirishima’s actions was the match to set whole the situation ablaze, I know she didn’t have many options and was bullied but like many rumors if left alone with no incidents (deaths) it will die down or report being bullied (Ii know that this hardly works in real life, I have been a spectator to some of it)
There’s no way I can justify the treatment they give her, telling her to disappear or die, mistreating her belongings too.
Under all our logic and reason is a panicking beast hiding behind what we know as “facts” and society to keep us in check, creating fire to keep the darkness at bay
I wonder why that shadow keep showing up to be seen purposely when Kirie is alone even when her companion (Momoe) cant see ghosts but if what was mentioned in the beginning of the episode is true may point that this shadow is something that can be seen by everyone and is far, FAR more dangerous and is after Yuuko’s family existing bloodline for some reason
I saw the irony coming a mile away.
Certainly the darkest episode to date. Quite literally too since many of scenes were like just black. Figures that there would be a nice conclusion at the end, though they did not exactly alleviate the fears of the students who went nuts. But it looks like even Kirishima Yuuko was able to see Yuuko herself at the end (hinted when she apologized to Yuuko).
On a side note: There wasn’t really enough Yuuko nor Kirie for my liking in this episode. But at least they did give us Kirie in them nekomimi-meido outfit once more 😛
The teachers…where the heck are the teachers? The school is full of raving mad, rampaging idiots….I mean students.
That’s cuz in the future this school will be bulldozed and replace by the one Shu went to in Guilty Crown.
As you can see the tradition will continue far into the future.
I have to agree with a lot of the above comments: It did feel really rushed and unexpected. It would have been much better if the producers included this episode’s material with that of last week’s. I wouldn’t have minded a cliffhanger at the end of last week’s episode, as long as the pace was steady and not sudden like it was here.
Otherwise, great episode. I like the artistic direction, with the use of twisted figures and the darkness to add to the sense of madness.
I liked this episode, but I’m wonder: just how STUPID can those students get in believing ghost stories to go bat s#$t crazy to willing sacrifice someone.
*edit* I’m “wondering”. Sorry, my own bad grammar pisses me off.
The shadow is not back because it was never gone.
Ever since Kirie was introduced, the shadow keeps stalking her.
WHY THE HELL ARE THEY OVER A STUPID RUMOUR??? YUUKO-SAN, YUUKO-SAN, AHHHHHH!!!! WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!
Interestingly I find they condensed the Akahito-san arc into one episode to be just right. Since in the manga there were some red-herring mysteries about Yuuko thrown in the the Akahito-san was one of the major red-herrings mysteries that had a lot of character development impact for Yuuko.
I can guess now where they’ll end this anime and look foward on how they’ll animate that scene. ^_^
They changed the plot a little bit from the manga, but I guess that’s is to be expected. And the human yuuko is as hot as the ghost one XD