「エレナ」 (Elena)
“Elena”

With Episode 03’s focus being redirected towards Shuuichi and Clair’s hunt for her sister Elena, Gleipnir does a course correction of sorts by trying to make our protagonists more tolerable than the initial impressions they gave us. Because the two are now supposed to be a collaborative team, this episode makes for a decent argument that the duo isn’t entirely mismatched with how determined they are to track down Elena and make sure they get a straight answer on the existence of monsters like her and Shuuichi.

Although the damage might’ve already been done for those turned off by Clair’s manipulative yet short-sighted mindset or Shuuichi’s lack of backbone, this episode tries to remedy their negative traits by making them more cooperative in their pursuit of Elena. Clair comes off as sympathetic in this episode with how she tries to work with Shuuichi to gain revenge.

While past episodes focused on her intention to blackmail Shuuichi into helping her and force him into her struggle, it was easier to feel for Clair when she is taken aback by what Elena had done. It gives her something interesting to work with by showing how she wears many of her flaws on her sleeves such as impulsively drawing a gun on Elena and letting her voice out for her to hear.

Shuuichi is still very awful, but his determination to track down Elena, help out Clair, and even try to entertain Elena while she’s feeling less driven to rip his head off was some pretty good development for the character. He might always be the type of character to freak out while Clair strips or pull the gun away to stop Clair from exacting her revenge, but if every episode was as pleasant as this third one, it might make it less painful to see where the show goes and if Shuuichi and Clair will eventually find the truth about what happened with Elena and why she and Shuuichi have these powers.

6 Comments

  1. Sigh. So I have given it the 3 episodes treatment and I am still not liking the protagonists. Even Elena came off as more likeable in the few minutes we have seen her. Unfortunately apart from this show I am only watching tower of God so not much options on the table. Will give it a few more eps..

    Kurik
    1. FWIW, I think that the characters are more complex than what many viewers expected. I’ll add that given how maybe 75% of each episode (made that number up) has only the two main characters, this is important. Otherwise, we’d quickly get sick of them. Even the few lines we heard from Elena were enough to complicate things further.

      While that might not garner the broadest possible audience, I’m hopeful that it will make for an interesting show. So far, so good for me.

      I second your take on the season though. Of the shows that are new, while I’ve watched an episode or two of ten shows, it’s looking like I’ll only be watching Kami no Tou and BNA (which maybe should have been titled, Little Beastgirl Academia).

      Mockman
  2. I like both protagonists. It’s kind of obvious they won’t stay like they are, and Clair’s cheerful, brave. vengeful but manipulative persona is complex and refreshing.

    DP

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