I’m actually fully caught up on this series (sorry Kabitzin, I’m just really busy this summer!), so I hope I don’t screw up my review by adding in details from future episodes…
Hey you there. How did you get your hair so messy? Let's trade hair tips!
Summary:
Natsuno makes girls cry, what a jerk. Oh wait she just killed his best friend.... snap.
The episode starts off with a budget saving feature innovative scene of playing the same scene forwards and backwards as we see Natsuno rip up Megumi’s summer greeting card and her vampire self crying over it. Meanwhile at the doctor’s office, yet another elderly man showing similar symptoms presents to the clinic as his wife tells Toshio that she was giving him herbal medicine which did not work. Toshio proceeds to completely lose his cool to the wife berating her for not going to the doctor’s sooner.
"UURRRAAAGH!! Toshio mad! Toshio kick stuffs! OW FOOT HURT BAD!"
Meanwhile Seishin reports his latest research to Toshio as he tells him that all of the victims neatly cleared off their affairs or even left the town before they died making it seem like a lot less people had died in the official statistics. Toshio doesn’t care and loses it on his friend as well. We soon learn the root of Toshio’s anger originally stems from his father who was Sotoba’s previous doctor and whom had told his son that he must be the new doctor and never let anyone under his care die… ever.
During this time, Natsuno has been doing some research of his own after suspecting that Megumi is back from the dead. As he watches various vampire movies, he broadens his research to the library only to discover that Seishin has taken out all of the vampire books in the village.
The women of this town are deadly... one second they are hot and well endowed, then they age and look like this
The next day an elderly woman presents to the Ozaki clinic with anemia yet again. Toshio decides to treat her with his standard regimen of ‘iron supplements, vitamins and antibiotics’, but this time also decides to add a blood transfusion as well. To his astonishment when he follows up with her the next day she actually looks a bit better, but as she refuses to go back in the clinic, eventually her condition declines yet again. Frustrated and with no leads an angry Toshio is met by Natsuno who asks him if someone could come back from the dead which finally triggers the word vampires in Toshio’s mind as he finally connects the dots. The episode ends with Megumi’s friend Kaori and her little brother seeing one of the ‘dead’ villagers enter the Kanamasa residence as wolverine hair guy looks on.
Reaction:
Wow! Finally! It’s been OVER A MONTH and a ton of deaths since this began and the good doctor finally decides to treat anemia with… a blood transfusion. While the viewers of this show may not have the most uptodate medical knowledge I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone that if you see someone with so little blood that they will die, the best idea would be to… give them blood!
Here’s an analogy:
- Toshio: “Hmm, I have not filled my gas tank for a month and I’ve driven my car a lot. The fuel gauge reads ‘E’ and the red light’s been on for a while. The car stopped working today and won’t turn on. What should I do? I know… I will refill the windshield washer fluid, change the oil, replace the engine, do an emissions inspection on the tailpipe, rotate the tires, and wash the car. Let’s see if that will work”
- 4 weeks later
- Toshio: “Okay so I think I will try adding $2 of gas”
- 5 minutes later
- Toshio: “Wow! I can’t believe adding gas was all it took to make this work! Anyway, let’s not add anymore gas and see what happens”
- Next day the car dies yet again.
- Toshio: “DAMMIT WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?!”
I also find the whole story of his father being the previous doctor and telling his son to not let anyone die to be quite amusing. First of all, we find out how such an incompetent guy is the local doctor… because nespotism is alive and well in Japan even in medicine. Secondly the entire idea of ‘not letting anyone die’ is ridiculous. In a town of 2,000 people with an average life expectancy of roughly 80 years, simple math tells us that in any given year 25 people (or 2 a month) will die of all causes. People die all the time, and you’d think a doctor would know that.
The more interesting part of this episode was Natsuno’s little investigation into vampires. Looks like he’s already clued in to what it may be even if he doesn’t fully accepted it yet. Also his realization that Seishin has been reading up as well on vampires may allow him to know that Seishin can be a valuable ally in the future.
The episode ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. Will those two kids be the next victims or not?
This post was written by...
Epi – who has written 193 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
As a huge fan of all things mecha, high school and tsundere, I've been writing for SSAB! since the summer of 2009, although my love of anime spreads through all genres. I'm not as witty as some, but I aim to bring comprehensive and well-written anime reviews out there for you all out there to enjoy!
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
So do you do work in the medical field? I admit I’m completely ignorant of most of the medical stuff he’s saying, so it’s good (or in this case bad) to get a good reference for what he’s actually saying. Feels like someone just picked up a medical dictionary, read a few lines, and said “eh that sounds good enough” and this is what we got.
Without elaborating on my real life, yes I know my stuff. And actually the stuff they say in this show isn’t bad, it’s just that this doctor misses the most obvious things. Neither does he talk ‘normal’ like say people on House or ER do.
To be fair though, if the doctor was realistically competent then it wouldn’t be as fun for the reader/viewer laughing at the absurdity behind the deaths of the people in Sotoba.
It would be safer for the gazeebos though.
That’s exactly the one bone I have to pick with this show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably one of my favorites this season, but it often gets frustrating because the villagers are completely oblivious to painfully obvious clues to what’s going on. I mean, I like the mysterious, suspenseful atmosphere and all, but after 20-30??? deaths, all of which were in the exact same manner, you’d think someone would have realized what’s going on long ago- here they’re just beginning to touch the tip of the iceberg…
What’d be better might be this: Instead of vampires simply killing off random idiot villagers, let’s actually have some people of adequate intelligence find out about them (aside from the main characters) periodically and be eliminated by the vampires to keep things quiet. Then the main characters can piece together the clues these intelligent but unfortunate souls left behind and fight back successfully, for now they are armed with all the necessary knowledge to do so. Makes for a MUCH more believable story without compromising the atmosphere, in fact, it would probably add to the suspense and mystery…
That is just too presumptuous for me to handle, especially when you end your statement using shows like house and ER instead of using real life experience. Heck saying you volunteer at a hospital would have been better than using reenactments…but you did say you didn’t want to elaborate on your RL so I guess I’ll let it slide…for now.
Myssa: Good point haha.
SHIKI succeeds as a horror series in a strange sort of way for me. It doesn’t scare me directly at all, but it always makes me fear for the safety of the characters, who (Aside from the 3 main characters) tend put themselves in needless danger time and again due to plot-induced obliviousness- and nearly always end up dead…
(replying to your comment above)
I think you have to remember that if vampires actually existed in real life, I think even if it were happening in your village it’d take you a long time to really believe it. I mean it’s one thing to say characters in an animated show don’t “get” it, but if you think about real life, I think it would make sense that it took them so long!
I do realize that, but it’s just that it frustrates how those villagers are all the literal epitome of the saying “like lambs brought to slaughter.” Might as well be LINING UP to be sucked dry… You’d think they’d be just a little bit more capable of defending themselves…grr…so frustrating!!!
Lol, emotion has overcome my sensibility, I guess…
Though this seem to be an easy answer, I really don’t find it practical to suddenly give a person a blood transfusion especially if the symptoms display only typical anemia. This felt more of a temporary solution to the problem then a cure. It doesn’t make sense to keep filling a tire with air when you have yet to find the hole that the air is leaking from. Also taking into account medical cost, blood supply, and compatibility issues but bringing that up would be just too bothersome.
Though I still loathe the doctor’s decision to leave Megumi in (her death)bed, then to bring her to the hospital since she practically was found dead in the forest (and looked the part too). That was just too irritating to bear.
No matter the cause of anemia, if it’s so bad you’re about to die, I think you’d get blood. But that’s just me I guess…