「血の女子高生」 (Chi no Joshikousei)
“The Bloodstained High School Girl”

It’s undeniable that Himiko (Mimori Suzuko) is the ideal girl to many people, especially those around her. She has the looks (as a foreigner, she stands out a lot), is a gamer, has a decent social life, and her neighbor is a popular guy from “Judgement Flash”, a rock band. There is no need to question why her friends look up to her. And even in BTOOOM! she manages to catch the attention of the best Japanese player (and virtually marrying him). Himiko’s life can easily be described as the ideal average life, and I can see why men take notice of her. Unfortunately, gaining too much attention can cause some trouble. In Himiko’s case it’s not just “some trouble”.

Today’s episode was disturbing. I can’t describe it with any other word but that one. As a fan of the manga, I knew this was coming, but still, seeing it animated with sounds made me cringe. Even though some parts were censored, just the thought of rape was enough to make me upset. I felt so sorry for Himiko who had been tricked by her neighbor – someone you think you should be able to trust. Whether her friends being raped was Himiko’s fault or not is a questionable topic but I can’t blame her friends for hating Himiko for it. They had every right in the world to be angry at her. While Himiko didn’t know that her neighbors would rape her friends, it’s only natural for them to vent out their anger at her. Himiko introduced them to the band, she left them to buy snacks – but it’s not her fault they were raped. Would she have stayed, she’d be a victim too. Still, her friends have been damaged for life so telling Himiko to disappear felt like a reasonable thing to say.

I do wonder if the disappearing offer where you name someone you wish to get rid of is connected to BTOOOM!… If that’s the case, Himiko’s friends have received a lot of money for throwing her into this survival game. Wanting Himiko to disappear from their lives makes sense to me, but I don’t think wishing her to die is fair. While some people in the game deserve some sort of punishment (no one deserves to be in the game though), I can’t say I think that applies to Himiko. She was blamed for something that wasn’t even her fault. I’d be very sad if she were to die near the end of this series (if she dies, I don’t expect her to do that before the ending because she is one of the main characters).

Himiko’s past is not a beautiful one. Rape is and will always be wrong. You’d think you’ve seen enough, but no, there was a rapist in BTOOOM! too and unfortunately, he had his eyes on Himiko who seems to be the only girl in the game so far (look at the opening sequence). It’s not hard to figure out that all participants in this game are social burdens or criminals. All of them have stained pasts. So in a way, this game seems like it’s made for entertainment, but it also has a political purpose such as punishing people – which reminds me of Deadman Wonderland! We still don’t know any rules of the game though, just the concept. Suitcases filled with food and water are distributed randomly through parachutes (like The Hunger Games), which makes me wonder if they’re used for keeping people alive or attracting players for death matches.

At least, the rapist is gone, so good riddance. However, knowing that Himiko loathes men won’t make things better for our protagonist who at the moment is right in front of her. I’m a bit surprised none of them noticed each other considering that they both are aware of the radars in their hands which seem to fall off when you die. But I guess it’s acceptable that they’re a bit slow and shocked considering how both of them just ran away from their first kills. For now, I guess Himiko is more lethal than anyone because she has four bags with different BIMs with her (unless she left them which wouldn’t be very clever), so run Ryouta, run!

Random thoughts:

  • Just by looking at Miyamoto Masashi you can tell that he is dangerous.
  • Why are Himiko’s skirt and tie so different from the other girls’? I assume those aren’t part of the school uniform.
  • A third BIM type has showed up – defoliants!
  • Even though the survival game is designed to be like BTOOOM!, I don’t think its participants are all familiar with the game itself. I just think the people responsible for this stole the concept of the game for punishing social burdens.
  • I wonder what the teacher’s “crime” was.
  • While Ryouta had a slow start with a lot of problems figuring everything out, Himiko is brilliant. I love strong female leads!
  • Full-length images: 1, 2, 11
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    Preview

67 Comments

    1. Hey, don’t write off the fat sweaty guy just yet! We didn’t see him blown up like the bad guy in the 1st ep. We just saw him jumping off the cliff into the water. In the anime world, that means “escape without even a scratch”. I suspect he may pop up later -and maybe gets killed for real that time.

      deathtogenericshows
    2. So for those that have read the manga (don’t want to check it out just yet in order to get a bit of non-biased perspective) and given that I haven’t yet steeled myself to watch.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      An honest answer please.

      WAT
  1. The situation leading up to Himiko’s friends nominating her to participate in the game was rather tragic.

    My guess is that in Ryouta’s case, his mother had reached the end of her tether and she was the one who nominated Ryouta because she wanted to see him become more responsible.

    Hopefully Ryouta and Himiko will help each other out and both become stronger :).

    Jenanime4eva
    1. I doubt you can become more responsible by dying. Though, I can see his mother just wanting to get rid of him!
      Himiko getting there was definitely tragic, as her responsibility for her friends rape was questionable at best.
      I doubt things will go good between them fast due to situation. She is unlikely to trust any man soon. Well for once we will have no rush of haremettes onto MC!

      ewok40k
    2. I didn’t get the hatred on the girl’s backstory.

      What was this blonde girl with big boobs supposed to do at the house other than escaping from 3 men who are angry and ready to rape her and calling the cop? Fight them and rescue the glasses girl? Or get raped along side like a good pal? Nonsense!! She a blonde girl with big boobs; she can barely fend off one dude. So she escaped and called the cop right away, putting those rapists in the slammer, but somehow that’s abandoning her friends for dead? This makes no sense and the glasses girl hated her so much that she wrote her name into death note. And blonde girl with big boobs blame herself?? Yep, this motive makes no sense at all.

      deathtogenericshows
      1. Long story short their is a great deal of stigma placed on a rape victim in Japan still. It has change with more public awareness in this type of crime but a number of people still think it’s the victims fault that they were raped. The reason the girls moved wasn’t to just get away from the area but to get away from any snide/rude/nasty comments they where probably hearing about themselves.

        It’s true that if Himiko stayed the situation would have probably escalated and her running to the police was the right thing to do. But with her three friend become social pariahs having the rape case being a public one with a pop band means that her close friend could not get a break after it was publicized either. Her putting Himiko name down in the chain letter was just a way to vent her frustration.

        As to the teacher’s crime. He probably pissed off one of his students that put his name down as a joke out of aggravation. 🙁 I you only need one person to have a grudge about you to send you to this death camp.

        Another person that could have nominated Ryouta it the COE(?) of the company that runs BTOOOM! as well, Tyrannos Japan.
        https://randomc.net/image/BTOOOM/BTOOOM%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
        Not the face of someone that want to great you again. lol

        Ani_BEE
  2. I could have skipped this episode, really. I would have been okay with “she is not going to react in a sane manner to anyone intruding upon her in this clearly horrible place” without this little detour into “the world is a bad place and the people in this show are nearly uniformly bad.”

    Jean
  3. The episode was awesome and translates very well from the manga.. however, was it really necessary to censor the breast scene? It just made it look silly… Should have left it intact just like in the manga…

    dimasok
    1. manga/ anime pacing is set up a bit differently. looks like the anime is to be more flashback based.

      the anime also pulls its punches a bit with the graphicness of various stuff, to be expected i suppose,(will be interesting to see how this pans out in later episodes)

      defunktbots
  4. Oh God, this is one of those anime where everyone except the hero, the heroine, and some poor nice people (death guaranteed) are all psycho, right? Episode 3 will be the time I put down the hammer, then. If they can keep the storytelling quality up till then, they’re good.

    PassingThrough
  5. Quote: Just by looking at Miyamoto Masashi you can tell that he is dangerous.
    OMG this is really his name?
    He is a “wild warrior” type, definitely… badass, but not a friendly type. How it was, killing God or Buddha if they stand in your way?

    ewok40k
    1. Every characters in the series have name tied to famous historic figures. For example – Sakamoto Ryota (Sakamoto Ryoma), Himiko (Himiko) and that fat raper Akechi Mitsuo (Akechi Mitsuhide).

      Serapita
  6. As sad as it was for Himeko’s friend, I was under the impression that Himeko only introduced them to her neighbours on the request of her friend with glasses. So in a sense, she was only trying to meet the wishes of her friend, and it all ended up like this in the end.

    taiakun
    1. True, if any of the girls would be considered responsible, then the glasses girl would be it. Although I guess she may blame Himiko for running away rather then helping her get away as well. Not the most logical thing as Himiko were as likely to be able to do that as the glasses girl herself. She most likely didn’t do any helping while her friends got raped either. So any blame she has for Himiko is most likely just to push the blame away from herself.

      But the obvious ones to blame is the rapists themelves and this is actualy one of the few cases in manga and anime where I have seen rapist or attempted ones actually get to go to jail.

      znail
    2. Himiko made the proper decisions in the horror scene she just walked into. She had no capacity to save her friend, given the situation. She ran, got the cops, her friends all lived. They wanted to shove the blame for their decisions onto Himiko. Accepting you made a chain of terrible decisions, wholly of your own free will, that ended in that situation is not something most people are capable of doing. Then glasses girl compounded it by sending Himiko off to her death. (Guess that goes to the whole “rotten world” concept with the series)

      I do appreciate Himiko going for strong strikes against the main guy. Though, in the most oddly unreal bit of that entire scene, those two hits the guy took should have knocked him out. Elbow to the under side of the jaw will normally level you. Foot across the brow should have knocked him clean out, as well.

      SQA
    3. I think it is entirely possible that Himiko actually saved her friends fromn death. Judging from the criminals level of violence against girls they would not hesitate to get rid of them in a most permanent way…

      ewok40k
    4. Given the type of series it is, you could make an argument she saved them not from death, directly, but from ending up as part of human trafficking. Which is, in a few ways, a fate worse than death.

      She most definitely saved from their tragic situation becoming far worse (one way or the other). And now she’s on an island in a “winner-kills-all” fight for her life. Life’s not gone her way lately.

      SQA
  7. Out of the entire series that’s been published so far, the rape chapter was one of the most disturbing and frankly, very upsetting, chapter I’ve read. The part in the anime, although still very off-putting, doesn’t even come close to how disturbing the manga chapter was. I’m actually kind of glad they edited it for the anime.

    Roo
    1. The teacher was pretty much a control freak though, so he is bound to have anoyed plenty of people. While he didn’t deserve to die for it, so was he pretty stupid to go ballistic over them eating what was obviously fresh food that wouldn’t even last a day in the tropics.

      znail
  8. Yeah, this was just as uncomfortable to watch as it was to read. Still, I think the anime producers were smart to rearrange the anime so that Himiko’s backstory is all in one episode. I really like her character, and these first two episodes have been excellent adaptations of the manga. Really looking forward to next week!

    Ath
  9. so now blonde himiko story give living a normal life with girl pals til one day a band appear her girls pals just been “got” & yet himiko run away get call cops while leave them.

    cause of this they all left her & now she in island oh meet 3 guys seem bit hmm til food arrive cue every person for themselves.

    then fatty try to eat himiko til bring blonde bombs to kaboom fatty & on her own with now focus rid of men on the island til met ryouta?

    mus
  10. Irrational hatred from glasses girl was completely unbelievable. Ruined the episode for me. I tried thinking maybe it was a huge misunderstanding but that’s a stretch. Jealousy because she escaped being raped and managed to call the cops? That’s dumb. I’ll chalk it up to the shoddy writing. It falls in line with Ryouta’s idiocy with bombs in the previous episode. But then I realize that there are extremely stupid people in real life that do illogical things so maybe BTOOOM! is somewhat realistic…

    I guess the moral of BTOOOM! is that the world is filled with scum like NEETS, rapists, psychopaths, fatties, teachers with a 5 o’clock shadow and big boobed blonde blue-eyed babes. Instead of simply killing them off, why not put em together on an island and so they can blow each other… up for our entertainment.

    Despite some facepalm worthy flaws in 2 straight episodes, I’m still intrigued by the shows premise and will keep watching. I wanna know why they’re on the island in the first place and the reason for the whole event. I would guess that it’s just like Deadman Wonderland. Money. OR they might be beta testing a virtual reality version of the videogame. Looks and feels realistic like Sword Art Online. The twist will be that Ryouta is actually helping in making a videogame. Just as planned. He just doesn’t remember.

    Chillax Mang
    1. I interpreted it as: Himiko’s friends thought that she knew about the band’s plans. Himiko is friends with the band leader, she invites her friends over, mysteriously disappears and miss the rapes? All her female friends got raped, I’m sure they are pretty irrational at that point.

      Nugester
      1. Nonetheless, presumptuous at its maximum. She expressed a limited acquaintance with the band member and was even being conspicuously targeted in the same building herself (but in this case, the ptsd would reasonably be enough to render the victims unaware).

    1. You realize the premise of the story, don’t you? The supposed “scum” of society are sent to play a cruel and ruthless game. Not to burst your bubble as well, rape and other deprave things to happy in society …

      Nugester
      1. So then this Anime focus on a Nearly Victim of rape, and like you said. These Peoples in this Game are “Scum”… So a Victim of a Crime are Scum…

        And the Word “Scum” is that will stick in the Viewers mind, no matter why he/she came into this Game. “They must have done something, because they are into this Game!” thinking?

        The Red Line here is not right. Sorry, i think this “Serious/adult” like Anime has taken the Wrong path (and its only about to start)

        Germanguy
  11. For once I’d agree with deathtogeneric-san and whiners…. (URGH) WHT WRONG WITH GLASSES GIRL!!??? Sure I knows she frustrated and being a rape victim and stuff. Its OK if they just broke off with Himiko cuz its fairly reasonable but nooooo she just had to kill her BFF tht might just came back with cops in time to save them. Himiko made a right decision to run away IMO cuz she knows she can’t fight them so she has to get the cops here.

    AHEM now I get the rant outta way. I will say this episode is actually better than the 1st IMO. Facepalm moments?? Except the deal with Glasses Girl I find it not as bad as the 1st “How to use a bomb”.

    Himiko backstory is just tragic. OH THE FEELS. And Ryota meet Himiko right after she almost get raped… How I wish Ryota plot armor would fail lol.

    If the teacher reason for being sent to the island is student being annoyed with him… Tht tragic too.

    Fat dude, ITS YOUR ATTITUDE. Good thing he’s dead. (I hope) Thk GOD for the censor.

    Now I am curious on the purpose of this deathgame… Is it for entertainment lk The Hunger Games?? Some sort of social experiment?? And wht does BTOOOM! and its company had to do in all this… I’m curious…

    D-LaN
    1. It is highly possible that her friend thought she was in on band’s rape. Seeing her friend flee after begging her to help could have confirmed that for her. Who knows what was going in all of Himiko’s friends minds …

      Nugester
  12. “She was the cause of something she couldn’t help”

    I can’t help but think that this could have been worded better. She was the cause of her friends’ rape because she introduced them to a bunch of guys? She was the cause because she left to buy snacks? Rape is wrong and the only ’cause’ of rape is the rapist himself. That’s like telling women, “you shouldn’t go to the grocery store alone because if you get raped in the parking lot, well that’s you being the cause of something you can’t control.” So the one to blame is the woman who has the right to go and do things and be able to live her life? I can understand why Himiko’s friends would be upset with her because after such a horrifying experience they would indeed lash out to anyone and anything that may have led to that situation because their views and emotions were skewed by what they just experienced. However, for you to sit here and say that a woman is to be actively blamed for causing something “she couldn’t control” is both an oxymoron and a very hurtful comment for women who have experienced such a thing. THE ONLY PERSON WHO IS TO BLAME IN RAPE IS THE RAPIST HIMSELF.

    Naiika
    1. I’m not accusing Himiko, only the rapist. I’m very sorry I worded that line like that. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I have changed the line to something that hopefully sounds less offensive.

      I am only blaming the rapists, but in the end, Himiko ended up in the game because she was blamed by her friends. They saw her as the cause, which is natural. That’s what I was trying to imply. I’m sorry.

  13. Poor Himiko, you do wonder just why she had to put up with such sh!t, all because she didn’t expect her sempai to be such scum and ruined her friends’ lives.

    The psychopathic Miyamoto is voiced by Kuroda Takaya, who seems to have a penchant for voicing forboding-sounding villains with his deep brass-like voice, from Darcia in Wolf’s Rain nearly a decade ago to Sabrac in Shakugan no Shana recently.

    Kinny Riddle
  14. Sure, i can see that the author wanted to bring in negative traits of humans to make those killing seemingly less moral taxing. However, why he/she pick raping of all thing… I’m that close to skipping the episode the moment it was animated with very convincing voice acting. Hate that stuff, no matter it’s fake or not.

    Despite the negative topic mentioned, i still like the potential this series have to offer. Hopefully the future episodes will be less offending and more spectacular actions.

    Bakaro
  15. Welp this is anime so the rape episode was pretty much inevitable. Hopefully this show has it out of it’s system now and we will not be treading these waters again.

    Way too much rape in anime these days is the point I am trying to make I guess.

    I almost turned off the episode when the fat guy was on Himiko and the sound effects started. Ugh.

    Beckett
    1. It’s not just anime but all of japans media the surfer from this “the male dominated system” need/trend/backlash to the woman’s rights movement in Japan. There are articles on it but the current push to clean up the airways from the government is also fueled by this gowning trend.

      The fact that the these scenes in the anime is taking it que from to female victims in tone this episode is a HUGE shift compared to anime produced a few years ago dealing with the subject matter as it was always from the males rapist prospective. Even Phyco-Pass first episode setup was about a rookie trying to reach out to the victim that was being treated like a guilty person. Talk about some social parallels.

      Ani_BEE
  16. Not too many anime review in ramdomc that had number of comments from secord episode more than first episode,guess this is good direction for BTOOOM!.So please continued review BTOOOM! I liked this anime.I don’t expected anything from this but after 2 episodes in,I hooked up to this.It’s excited and have interesting situation with various charectors type.

    Topboy
  17. Yikes, that was not an easy episode to watch. TBH I wanted to skip the episode entirely because goddamn, that rape scene was just plain uncomfortable to watch. It’s a perfect showcase of that disgusting “Oh, if they don’t resist, it’s OK” mentality, which I never really understood. This seems better handled than the laughably simplistic solution presented in one of the recent anime though, so that’s something. Seeing the event lead to an actual consequence is sensible since a trauma of this level doesn’t just go away with kicking someone in the balls.

    But uh… dunno how long this hatred of men will last with Himiko based on the OP…

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