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「逢魔が時 félhomály öv」 (Ouma ga Toki)
“The Witching Hour”
Crazy episodes are crazy. That’s far from being the best way of describing things, but with Misuzu cutting herself, Kakeru drinking her blood, Kusakabe Misao re-emerging, Shiori revealing her true identity, and what looks like our first casualty of the series, I’m a bit shocked by it all. To top it all off, Yuka continues to creep me out. *shudder*
Surprisingly, this is probably the first episode that didn’t involve the Red Night at all, yet it managed to be the biggest head turner. It was one shocking occurrence after another, with some being slightly predictable and some being completely unforeseen. For the most part, it was a recuperation day for all the characters after the previous extended Red Night, where only Avaritia and Superbia remain. As one of the two remaining Black Knights, Superbia takes it upon herself to take care of things. In the normal world, Kakeru confronts Kukuri about the message saying he awakened the demons and is suspicious of her intentions, but simply begs her to leave Yuka out of it. He leaves without giving her a chance to respond, unaware that Kukuri was trying to find the page that says she has no memories of her past.
Meanwhile, Yukiko is dwelling on the fact that she inadvertently injured Kakeru last time, and explains to Takahisa how she’s happy to have friends again even though she swore to never get attached to others anymore. Her memories of having all her loved ones killed before her led her to a life of solitude, but she tells Takahisa that he’s no longer alone either (i.e. Saiko). Elsewhere, Misuzu is still troubled by the whole Red Night/fragment stuff and has set up a barrier around her home as a safety precaution. The main reason for this is her realization that Superbia is the exiled Kusakabe Misao from 70 years ago, who’s likely stayed alive all this time in the time-distorted Red Night. She tells Kakeru of this and explains how she’s powerless to defeat her, so she gets him to drink her blood to obtain the Kusakabe powers. While Kakeru is able to obtain some of Misuzu’s power this way, Yuka oversees this and misunderstands things, leading her messed up mind to lick Misuzu’s wound later on.
At school, Shiori notices a crow that’s spying on her and takes it out, making her realize she can’t avoid getting dragged into things now. Takahisa on the other hand manages to comfort Yukiko in return for earlier by offering to be the new person that gives her encouragement in life, much like Saiko has for him. Back at Misuzu’s place, Kakeru takes care of the troubled Yuka and checks upstairs after hearing a noise. There, he’s briefly attacked by Shiori, who introduces herself as “Ursula of the Bookshelf” 「書架のウルスラ」 from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum before reiterating that Kakeru’s the one who awakened the demons. Back at school, Takahisa invites Yukiko to a yakiniku feast with Saiko, but finds her tied upside-down and impaled in the nurse’s room along with a waiting Superbia.
First off, I love how they transitioned into the ending theme after Shiroi shocked Kakeru with the whole “awakened the demons” line. That abrupt start to the song had way more impact than the way they usually ease into it. Following that up with what happened to Saiko post-credits made it all even crazier. The sight of her lifeless body strung upside-down made me think that this was some grotesque horror anime. As such, that was undoubtedly the biggest shocker of the episode, but it didn’t take away from some of the other less surprising things I’ve been waiting to see.
After episode five glossed over Kukuri’s introduction, I’ve been patiently waiting to hear how she’s connected to Kakeru’s deceased sister. The most obvious assumption is that she is his actual sister given all the indications (name, appearance, Abraxus chain), but the subject wasn’t brought up again in the last two episodes. Seeing as this has been on my mind ever since the opening scene in episode one, I was a bit disappointed to say the least. Well eight episodes later, they finally throw me a bone with Kukuri’s memory loss, which isn’t much but I’ll take anything at this point.
Other than that, there’s Kusakabe Misao as Superbia and Shiori as Ursula. Neither of these are much of a surprise anymore after how obvious they made it last episode, aside from Shiroi’s real name and organization (which the bible she carries gives away anyway). However, the preview does answer my question on who the girl in the ending sequence is. What I’d like to learn more about now is the connection between Lisette and Liselotte, who’s looking very Suigintou-like with that white hair and black dress.
As for Yuka, people have been saying she’s more dorodere (gentle and loving to disturbed and troubled) than yandere (gentle and loving to psychotic and murderous). That definitely seems to be the case for now, but I still find her creepy when it doesn’t take much for a dorodere to cross that fine line and become a full-fledged yandere. This licking Misuzu’s wounds just because Kakeru did business is pretty messed up in my books!
Preview
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it wouldn’t be a surprise if yuka ends up being a stalker
Well, it does seem like they are going for the Yuka X Kakeru ending. Actually, I don’t even see any potential love triangles developing, it’s just Yuka making things up herself. I don’t actually see Misuzu showing any feelings for Kakeru, she’s really just obsessed with fighting and stuff…
nah this is simply the Kotonoha-type she will go berserk and kill Kakeru oh and btw i think Takashisa is broken
That ending was just….wow…
…um, yeah…
That pretty much sums up what I think of this episode. I have the feeling that alot more shit will hit the fan b4 all is said & done. This series isn’t one of the best in my book but it certainly isn’t one of the worst. If they keep it going like this, I may even marathon it when its over 🙂
you know, it didnt surprised me at all that Saiko was killed, cause just after he learns that you understand that you loved that person once they are gone… that was like telling Saiko its going to die the second next, though it surprised me HOW she was killed and that that black knight was at the real world, its like WTF?? seems now that the fights are gonna take place in the real world instead ivolving people on it, i wouldt be surprised if there were more deads from now on…
as for whats going to happen on the next episode, i believe that takahisa goes berserk burning all the school while mad attacking her in avengace, so she kill him off…
Dam, this getting good. Can’t wait to watch.
Btw, this is the first I ever heard of dorodere. New term?
Pw3age:
Yeah, it’s not widely used. I was actually unfamiliar with the term until a couple of weeks ago.
dorodere refers to a person who is dorodoro on the inside (disturbed) & deredere on the outside…it came to be by some goof trying to describe Luca from Ar Tonelico 2.
Yuka is also dorodoro on the outside too so she is the perfect dorodere. Describing her as a ‘yan’ is alittle premature since she hasn’t done in anyone yet, much less do I expect her to do so – Kakeru will end up giving in to her just because this shit will never end if he don’t 😛
Well I smell Yuka is going for a Kaede (shuffle!) spin, aka totally loco. I sat the knights will kill her foster parents, she will go gunho and one of the crew will hit the dust for that.
As for the way the kill Saiko (sword to the throat hardly a chance to survive that) and hanging upside down was gross. Reminded me of an old bsdm movie. Luckly next killing will me toned down.
Actually they fog nips but show that… censors got to love them.
Today, I accidentally watched this with English subs, and I was pretty much surprised, when the title “Félhomály öv” (Which means “Twilight belt”) somehow become “The witching hour”…
Oh well, for the story… It wasn’t much of the surprise after they pretty much spoiled everything with the shikigamis, and made a death flag for Saiko.
Yuka needs to die. Dude can’t still be all <3 <3 for some psycho chick. Who writes this sorta crazy shitz? Seriously though, it’d make the show better if we get some self sacrifice outta yuka. Creepy chicks are a no-no in my book. The least she could do is go out in a blaze of glory helping the others out of some pinch.
As if giving her the most hax ability in the show wasn’t bad enough as it is, to have her stick around just to creep you out and be super clingy and obsessed, no thanks.
And guy with some common sense would gtfo of town and away from this sorta female mad quick.
Linzermaster:
「逢魔が時」 can mean “twilight” as well, so it’s not too far off. Witching Hour is just another interpretation of it.
waaaaa saeko died!!! goosebumps
Dropped and picked up again after reading this post. And I’m glad I finally watched an episode of this without wanting to gouge my eyes out. Yuka crossing the line from extremely annoying to mildly disturbing is a welcome development. In any case, whatever label people put on her, I personally find that she makes the show terribly painful to watch. If it were not for Misuzu….
@Alex
I’m with you 100%. Her type of characters are too often popping up in more shows. So are your default tsunderes, but I’m bias to those since they’re closer to the type of female characters I like overall.
This show needs more death now.
Finally, Yuka makes the transition from whiny useless character to completely broken. This is honestly better than I was even expecting, I figured she’d just get angry at Kakeru and then not let him clear up the misunderstanding. But instead she’s gone and become completely broken now. I like this way better, makes things more interesting :>
school days
In think the warrior lady in the prewiew also Saeko. She looks familliar.
Prof. William:
I didn’t outright say it in my post, but I believe that’s supposed to be Kusakabe Misao’s human form. i.e. Superbia.
I liked Saiko. Didnt wanna see her go in such a horrible way.
I actually start to dislike this series. Since it has only 12 episodes, they have to rush a lot of things and it really hurts the plot, which is already seems to be too predictable.
Look at Kakeru’s power development for example. He started off as a totally average guy, trying to awake his powers, and it was okay. His awakening was also fairly good, I would actually call it the most badass moment of the series until now (perfect background music and all), although I didn’t like it how did he gain that much strength to kill a Black Knight in one hit. It was supposed to be the turning feelings into power moment, but it looked like his eye gave him that power. And now I really got upset about how he leveled up again in this episode. Yeah, drink her blood, and you’ll become as strong as she, who trained for many years to achieve this level of strength. Don’t give me that crap. And here I though we are going to have a series where the protagonist is not going to be the most powerful being at the end.
Some other radom thougths:
I also dislike some character developments. Especially Yukiko, who was acting all friendly, happy and energetic at the beginning and now she turns out to be a totally depressed character who didn’t even want to make friends.
Takahisa is also an interesting one, he’s talking about winning is everything when he didn’t even kill a Black Knight yet, and I think it’ll stay like this, since Superbia is going to be Misuzu’s main opponent while Avaritia will be taken down by Kakeru himself or in a team work where Kakeru’s giving the finishing blow.
Speaking of Misuzu’s main opponent, for me it was obvious that the girl in the ending credits was Misao. Just look at that string in her hair, it’s similar to Misuzu’s. I just hope that the plot will show some twist and Misao won’t end up being killed.
I could probably go on endlessly with mentioning the miserable and totally pointless comic relief made by Tadashi, Kakeru’s rather controversial actions about Yuka (who is probably the ONLY character without any inconsistency), and so on, but I’m already worried about that you won’t read this comment because it’s long 😛
Jurkasz:
I read it. =)
Any one else get that School Days/Higarashi vibe with Yuka? I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting for her to go crazy.
Yuka=freak