So hot when she checked / Her own 3-G coverage.... / Oh, whoops, wrong picture.
Summary:
The episode opens with your typical church interior scene, replete with your standard stained glass windows, candles, chains, and bound naked vampires. The previously pantsu-less former student council president Nanami seems to have lost the rest of her clothing, but Hysterica offers to help save her from hypothermia by sharing her own warmth, the first of many such “touching” scenes.
Cut to a TV broadcast where Mina issues a public challenge to Hysterica in Ancient Sumerian as Japanese subtitles tell a completely different story to an unsuspecting public (Two! Complete! Sets! for only 19.95!). We then get to listen in on Vampire Bomb 101 with the Elite Eight, and find out that the remotely detonated bombs we saw last time are actually based on an old vampire party trick involving the use of a chemical known as Agne’s Blood. Mina, suspecting that Hysterica will try to use terrorist tactics using the walking bombs, dispatches her wolf boy army to sniff out the trouble amongst an urban forest of static images.
Maybe the next time / They'll draw some more scenery, / Mouths, et cetera.
While ostensibly out on patrol with the other wolves, Akira runs into Yuki and she shares the fact that poor Yuzuru is basically an orphan because his parents are more interested in stocks than their son. We’re not given much time to lament this fact though, as we discover that he’s already located a replacement mother in the voluptous Vera, who shares with the boy her reasons for becoming a vampire.
Fade to night and Mina awaits atop a darkened building for Hysterica and a small group of her minions, including a now dressed Nanami, to arrive via chopper. Hysterica tries to bully Mina, and Mina retaliates by having Vera break Hysterica’s toys. A now enraged Hysterica threatens to use her trump card, the explosive vamps that are roaming the subways, but before she can do that Mina alerts her to the bomb she happens to be standing on, which goes off and dumps everyone into a big anti-cell phone box filled with chaff.
Here's a visual; / In case you missed the memo, / I foiled your plan.
Shenanigans ensue and all of Hysterica’s vampire buddies are wiped out except for Nanami, who gets stabbed by Yuzuru in a rear guard position. Hysterica forces Mina to take on her true form, and excited by all the skin Mina has on display, tries to call her boss and share the good news only to have Meiren pick up the phone.
I'm so sorry ma'am, / But your contract says clearly: / No roaming charges.
Nanami, who apparently wasn’t dead, just resting, stabs Hysterica and Vera jumps in to put her down permanently. Crisis averted, everyone then wanders off to enjoy their good end.
Touching reunion / And when I say touching, I / Mean heavy petting.
Reaction:
While not quite at the “we so totally gave up” level of parts of Real Drive’s scuba episode, I saw more animation shortcuts in this episode than I think I’ve ever seen in the space of twenty minutes. Touched-up photographs for backgrounds, still scenes, extreme close-ups, speed lines, characters facing away from the camera, characters with concealed mouths, shots held at a distance, and the use of real life items all speak to the problems that SHAFT has had lately getting their animation produced on time. There were several scenes where the character art was way off as well, but at least they (sorta) tried to keep things animated. Fortunately, the scenes with Hysterica seemed to escape most of these problems, as the episode would have been a total disaster (not in a good way) otherwise.
I’ll admit that I was a little confused by Mina’s use of a pit trap to foil Hysterica’s plan. Sometimes the oldest tricks are the best (especially if the villain follows the rules and totally steps in your trap), but you would think that with the enormous resources available to Mina she could have… I don’t know… canceled Hysterica’s cell phone contract? Or at least taken a page out of Balalaika’s book and had a couple of snipers stationed to take out the phones after Vera wiped out the helicopters. Maybe I’m thinking about it too much, but I expected something more.
What we did get more of this time around was cheesy melodrama, with a few more details of Hysterica’s and Vera’s shared past, the oh-you-were-still-alive-BOOM Hiko situation, and the crown jewel of this episode: the reunion between shota and stalkerYuzuru and Nanami. Though the final scene between them was supposed to be touching, it came off as more disturbing than anything. On the one hand I want to congratulate him for scoring with his hot onee-chan stalker, but on the other hand I really don’t think he knows what he’s getting into. Forget the fact that he’s like 10, the real problem is that they haven’t even lived together yet. What happens if she doesn’t like the way he mangles his victims? Or when she decides that maybe she should have let certain parts of him grow up a little more? Or what if he decides that he needs a little alone time? To me it seems like they’re really rushing things when they should have spent more time getting to know one another. I realize that in the heat of the moment there are few men with the strength to look a gift onee-chan in the mouth, but I seriously worry about their immortal future together.
Speaking of futures, this episode proved, again, that the only reason Mina keeps Akira around is for his looks. Though he had every opportunity to take Hiko out, he risked the humans that Mina had tried to protect, and helped cause quite a bit of collateral damage, by allowing the terminal-yet-still-depressed Hiko to punch his own ticket. Akira’s inability to follow orders should lead to an automatic “Old Yeller,” but all he gets here is sympathy from Mina and an admonishment to grow stronger. While I admit that the series wouldn’t be very interesting without him, I really feel that he ought to be putting in more effort. Stop skating on that consort status already!
Finally, though I am disappointed that Hysterica is already gone, I’m looking forward to more of Bund for a change. It looks like we get to meet the Three Clans next time, and hopefully we’ll get to see more of Meiren now that we know she’s their agent (unless Hysterica totally drunk-dialed that call). I just hope they animate a few more frames next time….
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This post was written by...
Halfadeckshort – who has written 92 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
I always wanted to be the handler of a hot all-girl spy team, and joining Sea Slugs! made that dream come true. Well, the being part of a team portion of the dream, anyway. When I'm not busy trying to accomplish the rest of my goal, I enjoy watching anime from almost every genre with a focus on anything featuring sultry female voice acting or meganekko.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Good night, everybody! He’s here twice a week!
I actually liked this episode, which tells me that I am probably used to SHAFT pulling out more short cuts than an expert time trial run on Rainbow Road. I do share your disappointment about Hysterica biting it (lol) so early, though — surprising fact: She is voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Totally did not notice that at all, although I could tell after the fact. :p
Haha, the roaming charges one was almost as bad. The first time I watched the episode the shortcuts didn’t stand out as much, but when I watched it again they were really obvious. It was actually a decent episode despite the animation, and a lot of that has to do with the voice work, as you pointed out.
You do like the crazy ones, don’t you?
Guilty as charged. Most often I go for the tougher, more assertive characters, but a decent portion of them fall into the “crazy” category as well. :p
Cancel her phone contract?! HAVE YOU NO HONOR?!?!?!
Hysterica should have used the same phone/calling plan as Mikado. Actually, it would have been hilarious if Mikado was about to send his text and suddenly he fell into Namie’s pit trap and a bunch of foil confetti fell on him.
Mina keeps Akira around for the same reason most humans keep dogs around.
Hmm, but that would make Mina more of a dog humper then. She really wants his bones, and I ain’t talkin’ ’bout the ones he buries in the back yard.
Honestly though, what is the “pure” vampires growth rate anyways? Apparantly Mina is unique since she’s not maturing fast enough after 100-300(?) years and all the other 3 male clans are all like… older, even that one old guy… ewww if that ain’t super pedobear I dunno what is. He’s got wrinkles for cryin out loud!?!? Whats that require? Vampiagra or something to make babies? Shouldn’t he be impotent?
Yeah hawt shota stalker pres is really just a 17 yr old undead girl now. And her shotaboy is actually supposedly 13 but still should have been allowed at least 3 more years to mature before going to the night side. He was “turned” too young but she likes ‘em like that. They both lacked the maturity (Like many teens and barely past puberty youth) to think about the FUTURE. Still I’m jealous though.
I gather that this is why Hysterica was so eager to report Mina’s transformed state: while Mina’s loli form is just pedobait, her other form looks to have childbearing hips. Given her other options I guess it’s not a surprise that she’d choose Akira, fleas and all.
Though termination fees can be harsh, sometimes they’re an unavoidable evil.
So she has someone to bring in the paper on cold mornings?