Owari no Seraph – 12 (Fin)

The final Seraph of the End episode until October was quiet, contemplative, and suffused with unease and a kind of restlessness that’s understandable considering what everyone just went through and how still things stand now.

The only battle being fought is Yu’s slow but apparently certain recovery. It’s a battle we don’t see, because most of the episode is from Shinoa’s point of view. She’s an uneasy, impatient, somewhat outraged Shinoa who wants to know what the hell was in the pills Guren gave her to give Yu.

When she uses her family name to get into a top-secret installation where the army is experimenting on vampires and wants to have words with Guren on the matter of Yu’s little transformation, Guren has no words of comfort for her, except that if she thinks she’s fallen for Yu, all she can do is stay by his side and wait for him to wake up.

Since Yu’s well-being is more important to her than whatever devious mad-scientist shit Guren is up to, she does as Guren recommends, pleading with the comatose Yu to please wake up soon.

Unfortunately for Shinoa, it’s Yoichi’s turn to sit by Yu’s bed when he finally does wake up, though Yoichi has the good sense to let Shinoa have some time to herself with him before calling the others in. The camera slowly pans from Yu, crying over having seen Mika alive and well, to Shinoa lurking in the doorway, snapping into smartass mode, hiding the worry she wore on her face while he was out and teasing him for crying, even though she’d do the same thing in his case.

Being a Hiiragi whose sergeant rank is lower than it could be if she played the game, and the fact she got into Guren’s lab, we know Shinoa knows more than any of the others the dark directions their duty could take them, and in the brief flashback as Shiho carries Yu away, there’s a hint of guilt in her face, as if she’s facilitated Yu’s transition into something way bigger and nastier than he’s aware of.

Yet none of that matters when Yu places his hand on Shinoa’s shoulder, voicing concern for her bitten, bandaged neck. She doesn’t want to be in love with her underling, but as she learns more about the person Yu is, that’s increasingly the case, as her blushing betrays.

Even better, Yu makes himself to be someone worthy of being fallen for, as once everyone is assembled in his hospital room, he takes the time to earnestly thank everyone from the bottom of his heart, and express how blessed he feels to have such good friends. Mitsu and Shiho are taken aback by this change in him, but Yoichi and Shinoa less so, as they know him better and have seen hints of this side before.

Yu isn’t just happy because he’s okay and his friends are okay; he’s also elated that Mika is alive, an attitude I’m frankly glad for. There’s no angst in the way things are. Friend or foe, Mika is alive, and that’s enough for him, for now. It’s the first time in a while that something has been enough for him, and while he yearns to see Mika again (and Mika him), his provisional inner peace is clear to see. He’s realized his live isn’t that bad, and is worth preserving, both for his friends’ sake and Mika’s.

I was totally on board with the peaceful end to this first rousing cour of Owari, especially all the scenes of people on both sides just kicking back and enjoying their hard-earned break from death and destruction. But judging from the final scene, that peace will be short-lived. Lord Ferid is apparently exchanging research with, and I’m just guessing here, Guren, both motivated perhaps by their mutual disgruntlement with the higher-born higher-ups.

Just as it wasn’t 100% clear it was Guren on that rooftop (we never see him), I’m not sure if Ferid is working against the vamps, Guren is working against the humans, or both of them are just working towards their own goals. But whatever it is, Ferid believes it’s going almost too smoothly, and it definitely stirs up intrigue for the second cour this Fall, in which everyone continues to be sinners, doing sinner shit.

Owari no Seraph – 11

Mika has finally reunited with the one surviving member of his family, Yuu, who he’d shoved and insisted he run away while he was bleeding on the floor many years ago. The conditions of their reunion aren’t ideal, what with Yuu’s sword being in Mika’s chest, but once Yuu sees Mika’s face, he’s unable to close the deal and kill him, even though Guren is yelling at him to do so. Yuu may be getting used to his new family, but faced with his original family, he can’t do anything, even if Mika is in a white coat.

Mika’s plan is as half-baked as the original plan that got the two of them in their predicament to begin with: he wants to run off with Yuu. But where? How? What will they do? How will they live? For all the years he’s had to think about it, it just doesn’t seem like he’s thought about it that much. All Mika knows is Yuu is being used (Yuused?) by the other filthy humans, and he wants to run away with him. Yuu…isn’t so sure. Those filthy humans are his friends and comrades now.

Mika literally whisks Yuu away in his arms, but Yuu resists, looking back at a troubling sight: all of those friends being restrained by powerful vampires, some of whom proceed to feed off of them. The Extermination Squad has never been in a worse way, and thoughout these intense cuts I was screaming at Yuu to do something, anything to save them. At the same time, I knew in his current state there was no way Yuu would be able to save everyone at once.

Finally, as if a switch were flipped as a result of his predicament, one of Yuu’s eyes fills with blood, and he recedes into his subconscious, where Ashuramaru tells him even she fears the monster stirring within him and advises him to run off with Mika. But that’s something he simply can’t do; his loyalties between his friends and Mika are split down the middle.

The monster awakens and erupts from him, and he proceeds to go absolutely berserk on vampires and humans alike, something Guren apparently had been expecting, calling Yuu his trump card. Yet Yuu is about to slice Shinoa in two when Mika of all people comes between them, urging him not to kill humans, lest Yuu become like him. Then Shinoa manages to grab hold of Yuu and calm him down, but she’s obviously quite freaked out by the whole situation. No casual banter this week, no siree!

Then Shinoa’s relative—maybe brother?—shows up with the cavalry, praising Guren’s “low-level” outfit for holding out as long as they did before ordering the live capture of the nobles. And just from the badass look of the guy, that order doesn’t sound all that far-fetched.

While it looks like the humans may be on the verge of winning the day, Yuu has clearly been changed forever, both in now knowing Mika is still (sorta) alive, and having awakened the indiscriminately ferocious beast within him. Looking forward to the aftermath in Owari’s first cour’s final week.

Owari no Seraph – 10

A bunch of vampires go up against a bunch of humans this week, and in a show that I’ve felt for a while now has only eight or nine tenths of the budget it should, the seams were more visible than usual this week.

Showing everyone posing and looking menacing is all well and good, but once the action actually starts, much of it is slow and choppy, or simply not animated at all. The pans of still shots with moving scratches on either side is an old trick when you can’t animate everything you want, but they looked cheap.

Since there’s a flashback to when Mika first proposes “doing something” about his and Yuu’s family escaping (something Yuu thinks is inconceivable, calling Mika a weirdo), we knew the reunion between the two brothers was imminent. However, several events delayed that…and worse, they kind of felt like stalling.

After Yuu and Shinoa drop the corporal off at the hospital, Yuu hears that a unit of three Demon Moons are in trouble. Assuiming it’s Shiho, Yoichi and Mitsu, he ignores Guren’s standing orders to help them out. Shinoa follows, because like him, she cares about her new family.

Their friends turn out not to even need their help (while Yuu and Shinoa both save Shiho and Mitsu from attacks from behind, they were the ones who distracted them in the first place). But Yuu tells Shiho it’s not that he doesn’t trust them to carry their weight or survive their fights. It’s the fact that they’re family, and if he hears they’re in trouble, his first priority is to them.

Helping them and ensuring they’re safe has not become as if not more important to him as killing vampires. But you can’t help but think one or more of his new family will lose their lives at some point, and it’s important not to fall into a cycle of love and despair; that’s no kind of life.

The more elite Demon Moons are having a little trouble with Ferid’s similarly elite squad, and Guren has trouble with the incredibly strong (and arrogant) Mikaela. Again, the battle is made more underwhelming thatn it should have been with the same technical problems I mentioned earlier. Guren resigns himself to the fact he’ll need to take two pills; I was left wishing the show had taken two pills.

And while Mika, Ferid, and a lot of other vamps and humans spent a lot of this episode standing around talking about fighting rather than actually doing so, Mika decides not to give Guren twenty seconds for his pills to kick in, and stabs him in the chest.

Before he can land the killing blow, more humans arrive, and when Mika turns around and sees Yuu’s face, he freezes. Yuu stabs Mika in the heart with full force, but half a beat later, recognizes him. And just like that, childhood friends and adoptive brothers, reunited with blood and steel. Considering the casualties on both sides, I imagine a mutual retreat next week.

Owari no Seraph – 09

Owari no Seraph brings the action this week, starting with a gloriously ridiculous cold open in which a squadron of Vampire Apaches are taken out by a line of Demon Army archers, before two higher-ranking Vamps fly a C-130 into Shinjuku’s barrier wall, blasting a huge hole in the humans’ defense.

It looked for all the world like a suicide attack, but not only do the two co-pilots survive without a scratch, but they even carry on a casual, Joss Whedon-style dialogue, like it’s just another day at the office.

Things are a bit tenser for our young Moon Demon Company members, as the war literally comes to them and doesn’t ask if they’re ready. Thankfully, they are, and we get to see the whole gang flying and slashing through the air in a brilliant sequence that captures the tense chaos. Unlike many action blockbusters, the relatively steady camera makes it pretty easy to see what’s actually going on, which I appreciated.

As I said last week, the setting of all this fighting couldn’t be more gloomily appropriate: the ruins of Shinjuku are a constantly unsettling reminder of what’s already been lost and how little is left. Particularly striking is the shot of a school—once the site of silly clubs and laughter and columns of teammates chanting “Fight-o”—converted to a field hospital. Even if all the vampires were to drop dead, we’re not even sure humanity’s gene pool is diverse enough for the species to survive. And many humans will die before this new offensive is over.

I also liked the contrast between the urgency of Yuu & Co. with the relative calm of Guren and his immediate subordinates. They’re veterans who have seen it all, or close to it, and they seem a little more comfortable in their skins and confident in their abilities. Even when Guren spots Feris with a scope and Feris stares right back, it doesn’t faze him. He’s also on a first-name basis with the others, like the power-punching Mito.

Like Guren, Feris is just kind of chilling as the underlings get valuable battle experience; ready to swoop in if there are any problems. Mika is with Feris, but soon goes off on his own. Feris’ insistence he drink someone’s blood takes Mika back to his first days as a baby vamp, during which Krul Tepes was trying to get him to do the same.

Mika refused a human boy’s blood, and knocked a cup of Krul’s own blood out of her hand…but the sound of that blood pouring and splattering on his face has a visceral effect, and in a moment of possible weakness, possible necessity, he finally digs into her arm. She’s very clear: Mika is her dog, and will always be her dog. In the present, he still carries vials of Kurl’s blood—no one else’s—and he has 10 days of it before he needs more, during which time he hopes to find Yuu.

That makes Krul’s blood a drug that keeps Mika alive and not a reasonless demon. Turns out, it’s also drugs that, in a pinch, give the humans the edge they need to have a chance against higher-ranking vamps. Shinoa whips them out as casually as Bleach’s Kuchiki Rukia introduces the body-swapping Soul Candy to Ichigo.

In both cases, a fundamentally terrifying biological transformation is treated like taking your Flintstones vitamins. But that’s Shinoa for you; always keeping it light and breezy.

Then there’s the fact that she gives everyone, including Yuu, more than the maximum of two the human body can tolerate, almost assuring that when he’s in a tough spot, Yuu might get stupid and take more than two.

There’s a foreboding to the truck driven by Corporal Nagai taking them to the front line, but that’s replaced when an Apache ambushes them. The team works together to save Nagai and destroy the chopper, but they end up separated when the street collapses and they fall into the subway below. Yuu is with Shinoa and the unconscious Nagai and head for the nearest base, while Mitsuba, Yoichi and Shihou head to the defense line where they’ll ideally meet up later.

Meanwhile, as Mika is milling around, looking for Yuu, a cloud of dust is kicked up, and a detached vamp limb flies by his face. As the dust clears, we see Guren, ready to exterminate his next target. It’s kind of fitting that Yuu’s brothers, past and present, meet before Mika and Yuu, though I don’t see either defeating the other, nor do I see Yuu being brought up unless Yuu himself enters the fray.

However this goes, the buildup in the end, presented without music—just the falling rain and a cut to silence—was very effective. Guren v. Mika: Who ya got?

Owari no Seraph – 08

Ahh, good ol’ Omotesando Station… I remember it well, travelling on the Ginza Metro line between Shibuya and Shimbashi. It was in a far better state of repair when I was there. On Owari, after the fall, it’s been re-purposed as a creepy lair for the team’s next targets: seven vampires. Shinoa says they’d probably do okay fighting individually, but better to work together and defeat them without a scratch. For once, Yuu agrees.

They enter not to find fello Metro users like myself, but the vampires’ thralls, who give their blood in exchange for protection from the monsters above ground. They glare at the soldiers as they press on to their primary targets; saving them is secondary, and for once, Yuu doesn’t protest. They glare because they wish they had the power to choose a different fate for themselves besides this or death.

When Mitsuba gives the order to prepare their weapons, Yuu takes it upon himself to cut down an unarmed vamp, their first catch of the day, following the letter but not necessarily the spirit of his orders. This irks Mitsuba, but he catches her hand before she can slap him again, then maneuvers her out of the way of a second vamp’s strike, whom he takes care of without any trouble. Two down, five to go, and Yuu’s first rescue of Mitsuba.

When they confront the final five, three more pop out from behind Mitsuba, and one of them grabs her by the throat. But in one of the vamps’ sillier choices, he decides not to kill her immediately, but wait until Yuu and the others have engaged his comrades to do it, by which time it’s too late, and Yuu slices him in half.

With Mitsuba rescued by Yuu once more (who regards her as his family), the team closes ranks and mops up the remaining vamps, armed with second-rate weapons no match for their cursed gear. In all, it’s a good first subterranean fight, packed with peril but ultimately not too difficult to pull off with the lessons they’ve learned.

The girl who told them about the vamps in the station lowballed the figure to save her own friends/family, something Yuu doesn’t hold against her when they return to base camp, where other former thralls are being tended to by the army. When Mitsuba learns from Shinoa about Yuu’s past, and how it so closely resembles her own, but his denseness annoys her and she storms off without telling him anything. There’s pretty textbook romantic bonding exercise in practice here, but not unearned due to solid fundamentals and decent voicework by Iguchi Yuka.

The second half opens with Shiho getting a derelict Hummer H2T running again to shorten their trip to Shinjuku. While Yuu grows up a lot in this episode, the comedic scene the show allows as a breath between life-and-death ordeals successfully reminds us he still is a kid, judging from how stoked he is about driving a car for the first time. This is Yuu as a charming, wide-eyed kid, not an annoying angsty or arrogant; and it’s nice.

The shot of Shiho gathering the others, as Yuu drives into the frame and crashes into a lamppost, demonstrates decent comedic timing (plus it looks like Yuu is having a ton of fun, which I can speak to having driven one of those brutes). Shinoa sitting in the drivers seat is a nice sight gag, as is her off-camera revenge over the lads for laughing at her.

Once everyone’s aboard and they near the Shinjuku barrier wall, they spot a Vampire Noble, the first we’ve seen in action since Yuu ran from Ferid. Everyone bails as they set the Hummer on a collision course with the vamp, but he stops the three-ton SUT with one hand and flings it back at them like a toy. *GULP*. They had a relatively easy time with vamps up till now, but it’s clear this will be a little different.

The noble is so fast he’s upon Shinoa before she can raise her weapon. Yuu is able to block his blow and disarm him, showing her yet again why he and Shiho are Guren’s favorites. The noble is a little impressed as two more noble vamps descend from the sky, flanking him.

Yuu asks if they should retreat from this. Let me repeat that: Yuu mentions retreat. But it’s too late; Shiona believes they’ll still have a chance if the five of them work as one unit at the very limit of their demon power, but she doesn’t pretend there won’t probably be a casualty or two.

The lady vamps have come to bring their comrade to the front lines, and he grudgingly goes along with them, sparing Yuu & Co. from a fight but promising he’ll drink their blood when they meet again, casually tapping him on the shoulder before flying off. That easy arrogance really ticks Yuu off, but Shinoa is still visibly terrified from the bullet they just dodged.

Even if Yuu had what it took today to take that noble on one-on-one, his friends would get killed as he fought without teamwork. Shinoa also does what Mitsuba couldn’t: thank him promptly for saving her life, noting that as Guren said, he really does care about his friends. Her gratitude brings the bashful boy out in Yuu.

Those nobles were pretty damn scary, but they’re gone for the moment, and while the episode ends with the team staring down a Shinjuku under assault, about to enter that inferno themselves, it ends with an upward pan right into the smoke, as upbeat music plays. It will be tough going from here on, but they’re going in together, and whatever they face in there, they’ll get through it with teamwork.

Owari no Seraph – 07

“She’s already dead.” That’s the line Shinoa delivers to Yuu as they prepare to strike out into Tokyo’s ruins beyond the walls, referring to her late sister, who had big boobs, thus giving Shinoa hope for the future regarding her own developing bod.

Boobs aside, there was something chilling about how cool and calm and almost enthusiastically she uttered those three words—the same way she always talks around Yuu. To be a fly on the wall when Shinoa first contracted with her Cursed Gear, eh?

(Kudos to the art team for rendering a brooding, ruined Tokyo full of tragic awe and grandeur, which is unveiled vista by vista as the two soldiers set out).

Thankfully, Shinoa doesn’t end up measuring boobs with the newest member of the five-team squad, Sanguu Mitsuba, voiced with angst by Iguchi Yuka (Index), but they may as well be measuring some part of their body the way they go at with weapons drawn at the first sight of each other. Or rather, it’s Mitsuba who draws first, provoked into anger by Shinoa.

Sound familiar? That’s becaue Mitsuba is the female version of Yuu on this trip. Cursed by a dark past, she finds having all these amateur newbies to care for a big pain in the ass, and obviously she also resents the guy who’s most like her in Yuu.

But Mitsuba seems capable enough, and as Guren says, squads of less than five don’t typically fare well, so her addition is not only welcome, but vital to the squad’s survival. That is, if Yuu doesn’t screw up and get them all killed.

Naturally, the moment she orders everyone to stay in formation when the vampires release bait in the form of a human girl, Yuu disobeys and rushes off on his own. A furious Mitsuba understands Yuu’s desire to save the girl; she’s been there, but she also knows what becomes of reckless, selfish actions in the field.

Three vampires descend on Yuu with frightening speed, and all of a sudden shit has gotten real, with Yuu struggling to block and parry one foe’s strikes while keeping track of the other two. There’s a great sense of occasion to this sudden fight, the distinct sense things could go very badly in the blink of an eye, and the reality that Yuu truly is a rookie this far out in the ruins.

He survives because Mitsuba and the rest of the squad follows him into the trap she knew was set for them, and they simply hope for the best, meaning everyone is lucky to be alive. Shihou’s twin blades, Yoichi’s arrows, and Mitsuba’s—er…Axe? Mace? Hammer?—Mitsuba’s Salad Shooter manage to bail Yuu out, but he needs to knock this shit off, because there are lucky days and unlucky days, and you can guess which is more frequent for the downtrodden humans.

Mitsuba tries to make this clear to Yuu after slapping him in the face and pointing at him the way pint-sized blondes tend to do; but it’s not until she’s showering with Shinoa that we learn why she hates reckless people like Yuu so much: because she used to be exactly the same, had a bad day, and blames herself for getting a comrade killed.

Here again we see the stark contrast between Yuu and Mitsuba’s mindset (or even Yoichi and Shiho’s, for that matter) and Shinoa’s continuously upbeat, happy-go-lucky attitude. Is it a product of her Hiiragi upbringing? Did the events in her past force her to forget them, at least on the surface, in order to keep living and fighting? I for one hope we learn a bit more about her at some point.

Owari no Seraph – 06

Last week was all bickering and buildup, but this week was the payoff, with Yuu, Yoichi and Shihou battling both the demons of the cursed gear and their own demons within. Thankfully, this week was a lot better, even if the show seems determined to drill the same lessons into Yuu & Co.’s heads every week. One hopes it sinks in more now that they’ve been through this initiation.

That lesson is that it’s not enough to life for revenge. Demons will take your lust and warp it to their own purposes, or just take over your body outright and make you a full-fledged monster. The key to subjugating a demon, or at least coming to an understanding with one, as Yuu kinda does, is balancing lust and love; the desire to protect one’s new family, not avenge the old ones they failed to save.

And wouldn’t you know it, Yuu’s new blade and partner in vamp-hunting has a name (Ashuramaru) and a loli/elf character design. She also carries a healthy distrust of humans, and warns Yuu they can be worse than either demons or vampires simply because they’re so goshdarn conflicted and unpredictable.

Yoichi has a different problem. It’s not that he doesn’t trust his friends, but like Yuu, having seen his family die right in front of him infused him with a deep-seated survivor’s guilt. The feeling that he doesn’t deserve to live while his sister died holds him back. She told him not to come out from under that bed no matter what, but he has to if he’s to subjugate his demon and gain his cursed gear.

Yuu and Shiho come out of their ordeals easily enough, but Yoichi ends up turning into a demon, which Guren orders them to exterminate with their newly-contracted weapons. Already, Yuu’s heart is tested, and neither he nor Shiho can kill their comrade.

Yuu tries the classic “Snap out of it!” routine, but ultimately, it’s casting his weapon aside and trusts in the Yoichi still inside, against Ashuramaru’s recent warning.Because Yuu can’t kill a comrade, he surmises that Yoichi can’t either. Guren, who’d been holding back to that point, finally pipes up, telling Yoichi to come out from under the bed. The arrow the demon knocked misses to Yuu’s right, causing Yuu to smile.

As Yoichi’s tearful embrace of Yuu that follows illustrates, Yuu, Yoichi, Shinoa, and Shiho are their new family. Protecting each other takes precedence over avenging their old families. Guren tells Yuu to forget his old family, and while Yuu isn’t going to be doing that, he now has his priorities stright. Maybe. Ashuramaru will surely try to challenge them!

O hai Mika! Considering how early in the run of the show it was revealed he was still alive and a vampire (by “early” I mean “immediately”, in the OP) I’ve been waiting for him and Yuu to meet face-to-face. It looks like that’s going to happen with the two descending on Shinjuku. Here’s hoping it’s not a tease.

Owari no Seraph – 05

This week, on Owari no Seraph:

• We get a verbatim repeat of the vampire war speech for some reason;
• Mika wanders around and scares some children;
• Guren clashes with the higher-ranked Hiiragi family members in an army;
• Yuu, Shinoa, and Shihou are allowed to interrupt class with their endless bickering;
• Guren nearly kills said class with his cursed gear, and lets everyone left standing join him in the weapons repository to choose their own gear.

In other words, not a lot happens. I understand the desire to keep the mood light while at school, but Guren’s childish behavior at the army meeting, and the extended antics in the classroom this week, were both a bridge too far. I get it: Guren’s a “bad boy” like Yuu with a chip on his shoulder, and the bureaucracy is a super hassle and all, but what does acting like a petulant punk get you?

This episode also underlines Yuu’s refusal to grow the hell up. Even after coming to a kind of understanding, if not forming an official friendship, with Kimizuki, and yet here they are, still resenting one anothers’ existance so much they feel the need to disrupt whatever is going on to engage in name-calling and brawling. It’s wearing thin, as is Shinoa’s constant high-and-mighty attitude and mocking/teasing of Yuu (even though he deserves it).

Even if you forgive all this immaturity, bickering, and horseplay, all of which takes up much of the episode, it’s still retreading things I already thought were established, such as the fact Yuu, Kimizuki and Yoichi were all valid candidates for cursed gear.

Yuu’s “0” in Japanese spellcraft because he can barely read or write Japanese because he spend his childhood as livestock hardly seems fair, but then the test results end up completely meaningless when Guren busts in and simply unleashes the demon power on everyone.

Not one other student in the class, besides the main characters we knew would move on, pass the test, rendering them just as pointless as the class itself. It would be nice if one or two new characters we hadn’t met yet would have passed; at least there would have been a reason for the test then.

Everyone also singles out Yoichi, whom they think is too soft to accept a demon. After Yoichi saved his life two episodes ago, Yuu tries to throw him under the bus. Dude, he already decided to come along, and it’s clear he’s tougher than he looks. Why all the discouragement?

And just when something interesting is about to happen—Yuu draws a cursed blade and prepares to face the demon—the episode ends. Much of this episode felt like half-hearted filler, which aimed to add texture to relationships and politics, but piling on all this over-the-top dysfunction with no real meat only served to make everyone more irritating, not endearing. War is coming, and selfish personal quests for vengeance aren’t going to help humanity.

Owari no Seraph – 04

Mika screwed up, in part because he put everything on his shoulders. His plan to free his family, which was more than fine going along with it, ended up killing them all except for Yuu. Mika himself would have bled out, were it not for the intervention of Krul Tepes, Loli Vampire Queen, offering him, nay, forcing upon him, her blood.

Now he’s a vampire, and the pain and guilt could stay with him for centuries, potentially twisting him into a wretch. Yet he still carries out his duties alone, eliciting resentment form his vamp peers but gratitude from a single girl he saved from a monster, who gladly offers her blood to him as thanks. Once his escape plan failed he had no choice in becoming a vampire (Tepes wouldn’t let him die), but he can choose what kind of vampire to be. It’s a choice that’s perhaps lost on someone so racked with guilt.

From checking in on Vampire Mikaela the episode segues to Yuu and Yoichi transferring to the Moon Demon class, where he makes the most ridiculous overbaked shonen speech possible about not being there to make friends and declaring he’ll get the best gear. His seat happens to be positioned right in front of that of Kimizuki Shiho, the dude who picked a fight with him earlier to test his ability.

And so we have our two arrogant, hotheaded rivals who both have something to learn from one another and will become tentative pals by the end of the episode through greater understanding of where they’re coming from. If this sounds somewhat rote, it’s because it is; nothing out of the blue here.

Like Yuu, Shiho lusts for power…all of the power, though not for revenge, but to save his sister, who is dying from the Apocalypse virus. But Guren warns him, with demonic visual aids, no less, that Shiho can’t go anywhere near cursed gear as long as that lust for power drives him. Like Yuu, Guren needs him to make friends and learn to rely on the strength of others. Going it alone won’t end well for anyone.

Shinoa fixes it so at their first major evaluation, Yuu and Shiho are paired up. Predictably, they try rushing in opposite directions despite the fact they’re handcuffed to each other. Seriously is their mutual lust for ultimate power so strong, it affects their basic understanding of the physical limitations of handcuffs?

Apparently, but they don’t get to demonstrate just how badly they fight together, because word comes Shiho’s sister has taken a turn for the worse. Suddenly understanding why Shiho is so gung ho about beating him, Yuu insists, with prejudice, that they go to the hospital. Being with his family is more important than the evaluation.

Shiho relents and goes, and doesn’t regret it. His sister pulls through, but the doctors warn regular medical equipment will only keep her alive so long. The military has tech that might be able to cure her, but the military, like society, is transactional: if Shiho wants that tech, he’ll have to distinguish himself in the Moon Demon Squad.

Yuu, jerk that he is, still won’t back down on claiming the best demon gear the army has to offer, but he won’t stop Shiho from taking the second-best, now that he understands what Shiho is fighting for. Both guys failed the evaluaiton, but while Shiho feels defeated, Yuu tells him it’s no time to give up. He’s going to do everything he can to avenge his family, regardless of evaluation scores or moon squads. He expects Shiho to do no less to save his sister.

Mind you, I’m not sure the lesson about teamwork has quite stuck, since both seem dug into their own separate aspirational trenches, but the seeds of a alliance or possible friendship were certainly sown.

That’s good, because Yuu and Shiho can ill afford to stay ineligible for handling cursed gear. They need to get into good fighting shape soon, because Tepes has formally declared war on the humans who would organize into armies to oppose them. A rancher wouldn’t let thier cows join a union barring slaughter, now would they?

As for Mika, he’s determined to “rescue” Yuu, and while I’m not sure what that entails, if he’s planning on loading everything back on his shoulders once again, he hasn’t learned much. As repugnant as Ferid is, he could be a valuable ally against Tepes, the mutual thorn in their side.

Owari no Seraph – 03

Episode three opens with Yui receiving a love letter from a cute girl. Falling for a not unattractive young lad who saved you from being drained by an escaped vampire prisoner is not an unreasonable thing for this girl to do, but as strong and brave as he is, she still doesn’t know him, and he’s too busy with his quest for vengeance to notice or deal with romance.

While this girl sees him as a hero, Shinoa continues to look down at him as a novice, as well as a frustrated virgin. She points out the Demon Army isn’t just about killing vamps, but also creating an environment suitable for human procreation. The virus killed 9/10ths of them, after all, so the remaining tenth “needs to make babies”, to quote Commander Adama.

Shinoa doesn’t doubt Yui’s physical strength or his courage, but warns him he shouldn’t move to fast with his training. Only those with cursed gear can fight vampires, and the demons within them will consume, rather than contract with, those with “weak hearts.” Shinoa believes Yui’s unyielding thirst for vengeance makes his heart weak. Not a bad conclusion, but incomplete, as we see.

When one of their classmates wanders into a forbidden dungeon below the school, where demons roam ready to take the souls of the weak, Yui, Shinoa and Yoichi head down there. Shiona reveals it’s really a training ground for the VEU, and the whole school is a human experiment for recruiting VEU members, who are naturally drawn to said dungeon.

So while there are bullies and love letters and cut euniforms, the school isn’t just a regular school after all. Shinoa even mocks Yui for potentially thinking “such a peaceful place” as the school appears on the surfact could ever exist in such a messed up world.

If Shinoa was hoping to intimidate Yui with all this show-and-tell, she failed, and if she didn’t want him to do anything rash, she shouldn’t have let him in the dungeon at all. Then again, when Yui goes through the forbidden door, she doesn’t stop him, suggesting she’s letting him make his own choices. Once there she insists he not touch he demon gear his classmate is holding, lest he become consumed by a demon. Again, Yui ignores her warnings and grabs the ax with a nifty little move.

Then all of a sudden he’s gone back in time with Mika and his family. Shinoa didn’t say how the demon would consume him, but creating a very real illusion of his past is a good way to start. But where both Shinoa and the demon underestimate Yui is in not in their calculation of his desire for revenge—which is high—but the fact such a desire is a weakness.

Yui knows his desire is wrong, so it can’t hurt him as badly. He also knows it’s something Mika wouldn’t want, so as soon as Mika and the other kids are acting totally out of character, Yui knows he’s in an illusion and breaks free.Doing so impresses Shinoa once again, who again seems put out that he proved her wrong yet again.

Yui’s heart isn’t as weak as she thought, but will see what happens if and when he learns Mikaela not only wasn’t killed, but became the very thing Yui wants to wipe off the face of the earth. We finally get a good look at Vampire Mika, who doesn’t seem particularly friendly with Ferid. More likely, he’s done what he’s done all this time to survive. He always put others before himself, so I’d like to think a few years of being a vampire hasn’t bleached out that inherent goodness.

Owari no Seraph – 02

As the credits rolled and SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Yosh’s excellent ending theme “scaPEGoat” played (the OP was also dope), four words blazed through my mind: “Are You Not Entertained?!” I certainly was.

This ambitious, thrilling episode had a complete and compelling arc and aced all the fundamentals, giving it the feeling of a rich, self-contained short film when combined with the premiere.That premiere was key in setting the brutal tone of the human/vampire conflict while creating solid kinship and sympathy with young Yuu and buying into his motivations for wanting to live a life of revenge. This episode would not have been nearly as emotionally resonant without it.

Owari also surprised me quite a bit with its deftness with bait-and-switches. Last week’s cold close created an It’s On Like Donkey Kong vibe, but Private Hyakuya Yuuichirou proves to be a rough fit in the demon army, where soldiers are expected to put their personal feelings or vendettas aside and obey orders. Yuu breaks the rules, and so he’s punished…by being sent to school.

This sudden addition of the school drama allows the show to let its hair down a little after a stodgy start and finds a pretty strong comic voice in the process. Yuu isn’t just banished to school, but there’s a soldier posing as a classmate whose tasked with supervising his progress in making a friend. If he keeps breaking rules, his suspension from the army will only be extended.

That soldier/classmate is Hiiragi Shinoa, deftly voiced by Hayami Saori, whose standout performance blends military formality and authority with feminine grace and sly humor. Her character design and eyes in particular somewhat remind me of Steins;Gate‘s: clean, attractive, and stylish.

Yuu’s punishment makes sense. Yes, he’s scarred by past traumas, but if he wants a future fighting vampires, he needs to learn how to engage people and work in a team, which means forming bonds. That’s not going to be easy for someone who lost his whole damn family, and you could say the show’s being tough on him, but I think Yuu has just the right amount of arrogant, rebellious dickishness to allay that concern for me.

And just because humanity’s population has literally been decimated (not entirely wiped out as Yuu thought; but then he grew up absorbing vamp-prop), high school is still high school, so there are bullies and weenies and he decides he won’t let the former have their way with the latter…which is when Shinoa helpfully warns him his suspension will be extended if he harms a civilian. This guy can’t win!

The exploded soda as a lingering presence of Yuu’s defiance is a really nice touch.

But in another glorious case of the good kind of bait-and-switch, the would-be victim of bullying, Saotome Yoichi, turned out not to be a weenie after all, nor was he being bullied: he wanted the non-bully to put in a good word for him with the demon army. Yoichi tried to enlist and failed the exam, but he wants to keep trying so he can avenge his sister, who died to protect him, as we witness in a grim micro-flashback that made my heart sink.

This externalizes Yuu’s own desire for revenge, but in this case, he justifies his own desire as backed up by his strength and ability. On the other hand, he still thinks Yoichi is a whiny little weakling who’d only get killed, and in any case, his sister probably wouldn’t want him avenging her. The discussion is put on hold when a bomb goes off and the city P.A. alerts everyone of an escaped vampire test subject.

Seeing this as a perfect opportunity to prove he belongs in the extermination unit, Yuu runs to school to seek out the vampire, stopping her from feeding on a student. The non-bully is there too, but in this moment of crisis, he’s paralyzed, and admits he lied about wanting to enlist.

Here, the show shows off its readily apparent action combat chops, as well as the inherent trickiness of fighting a vamp with a regular katana when her wounds and severed limbs quickly grow back, and any bystanders are like phoenix down for her. Yuu needs help, and he gets it when Yoichi tackles the vamp minx. When Yuu asks why, Yoichi calls him a friend. Yuu then holds the vamp back and they go out the window, Spring Break-style.

Yuu is able to get the vamp to land on his sword, but it’s still just a sword. Enter the anti-vampire spell-dosed sword of Lt. Col. Ichinose Guren, commander of the Vampire Extermination Unit, Shinoa’s superior, and the man who rescued Yuu four years ago. When he pulls out that sword, the vamp dissolves into a cloud of gore and ash.

Ichinose thinks Yuu looks every bit the helpless little kid he saved back then, but he can’t deny the fact he held his own with that vamp pretty well, and also minimized causalties. He also can’t go back on his promise to lift Yuu’s suspension if he makes a friend, both because Shinoa won’t let him, and because Yoichi is so happy his friend Yuu is okay he pounces on him like a cat, knocking his head on the pavement.

In the episode’s beginnings, Yuu remarks how every time he closes his eyes he sees the faces of his family before they’re murdered by vampires. So while he’s out cold after a life-changing day, there they are. Only this time, they express their relief Yuu was able to live and fight for something other than revenge. Just as Mikaela put his life on the line for Yuu, and Yoichi’s sister for him, Yoichi and Yuu protected each other.

From now on, he won’t be living just to avenge his family, but to protect the two friends he’s made today, all the other friends he’s sure to make in the Vampire Extermination Squad (which he and Yoichi are assigned to, joining Shinoa), and to protect a humanity in resurrection. This looks like the start of something great…especially if we take the hints that Mikaela didn’t die, and is now a vampire.

Owari no Seraph – 01 (First Impressions)

Owari no Seraph’s opening episode was a swift, merciless Saturday afternoon gut punch. It was all about getting things done. I mean, the entire population of earth over thirteen years old simply keels over in the first minute. No messing around!

As for the little ones who are left, well…my heart’s not made of stone; it’s hard not to sympathize with their plight as they cower in their home and are taken captive by scary red-eyed vampires in robes. The power differential is simply staggering.

The episode jumps forward four years to when Yuuichirou and his “family” of fellow orphans, including Mikaela and Akane who are his age, live a dreadful underground existence as living blood bags to be periodically squeezed for the vamps’ use. But everyone adapted and made the best of a shitty situation. Yuuichirou is always talking of fighting back one day, and while it’s all talk, the smaller kids believe him, and that hope sustains them.

It turns out to be Mikaela who actually does something, acquiring a pistol and a map from a vampire noble and suggesting they book it out of there. Nobody here on RABUJOI cared enough for Rolling Girls to watch it all the way through, but that certainly wasn’t because of Wit Studio’s animation, which was very crisp and zany and pretty.

Wit shows RG was no fluke with another gorgeous presentation, only this time the big backgrounds are filled out with lush detail of the subterranean city. Sawano Hiroyuki (Kill la Kill, Aldnoah.Zero, etc.) contributes another soaring score that lends gravitas to the proceedings.

Unsurprisingly, the kids end up caught by the very noble who liked the taste of Mikaela’s blood so much he kept him around. So far at least, this is not one of those shows with grey areas in the affiliations, as Ferid is pretty much pure evil and likes the look of despair and hopelessness in the kids’ eyes. As they try to run for it, he kills them one by one with lightning speed.

All of them except Yuuichirou. Mikaela is able to distract Ferid long enough for his brother to get a clean headshot off, but as Ferid had just put his hand through Mikaela, all Yuuichirou can do now is RUN, alone, out into the unknown world. Ideally, twelve-year-olds shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of trauma, but kids are all that’s left of humanity, and those kids have been dealt a tough hand.

Upon emerging from the caverns, Yuuichirou finds three adult humans in uniform who have been waiting for him, following some kind of “prophesy.” How long have they been out their waiting? Did they take shifts? No matter, they were here when they were supposed to be, and the kid emerged on schedule.

Now they intend to use him to defeat vampires, something Yuuichirou, who may be in shock but is still lucid enough to express his interest in helping them. After all, he pretty much has every reason in the world to want to dedicate the rest of his life to exacting revenge.

We jump forward another four years, and we see Yuuichirou more grown up and in a very slick-looking suit, patrolling what looks like the ruins of Tokyo. It’s a wordless, music-less scene made all the more powerful by its use of silence and the white noise of the wind, a silence that continues into the credits.

Presumably we’ll watch Yuuichiro’s life as a budding professional punisher of vampires in the episodes to come, but it was a good idea to begin with a prologue that shows us just how much torment he, and probably everyone else who managed to escape the vamps, went through. After all that darkness, I won’t begrudge them their righteous vengeance. Even so, less one-dimensional vamps would make for more compelling foes.