Owari no Seraph 2 – 04

On the way to Nagoya, after fighting off Four Horsemen of Johns, Shinoa has a little fun by leaving Yuu behind to walk the rest of the way. In addition to being a little too mean, it seems extraordinarily stupid thing to do under such serious circumstances. The show thinks it was dumb to, and Shinoa later comes to regret it, because Guren throws and elaborate lesson their way that drives the message into her and all the other newbies’ heads. Fooling around will get your family killed, so knock it off.

When the five show up late, they make a bad first impression on the more experienced squads Guren has amassed. Then Yuu takes full responsibility, but Guren knows he’s covering. Then he, Shinya, and Mito face off against the five right there and then to test how well they gel as a team. Even three-on-five, the older soldiers barely break a sweat overwhelming the noobs. Yuu hangs in there with Guren, but in the process, all of his comrades are “killed” by the other two veterans.

The lesson is, take this seriously and learn to work better together under duress, because the vampire nobles they’re going after are even tougher, and won’t end the lesson by sparing lives and mussing Yuu’s hair. Yuu is uncharacteristically mature throughout this lesson, already working out how they should handle such a fight next time, and taking it in stride when Sgt. Narumi protests the newbies’ inclusion in the plan.

Speaking up backfires for Narumi, as Guren puts him and his haughty squad in charge of teaching Shinoa’s squad the ropes, much to their chagrin. But Yuu doesn’t feel like a hot potato, or at least doesn’t show it: he’s eager to work and learn. As long as he can kill vampires and get Mika back, he’s growing up in a hurry.

As for Mika, the day Krul warned about—when her blood alone would no longer be sufficient—is fast arriving. Mika has insisted on not drinking human blood, but the blood calls to him as his partner and their squad rounds up children for tribute to the very nobles Guren’s group of 100 are going after.

He pounces on a girl and grabs her by the throat, but is able to pull himself back…for now. But that control will only get more and more difficult to maintain. When that happens, he’ll have little choice but death or human blood. But would he really choose the former, knowing what it might do to Yuu?

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.