The conflict between Haseo and Sakisaka extents further, and now Tabby and Shino also become involved with it. This is awefully fast, though it does mean that it’ll be solved relatively quickly in the range of the anime. What will happen once this is solved?
Haseo was great once more. Even though he doesn’t show it, he is worried about the PK-ing, and goes to investigate, and again visits a number of people. It’s a good thing that, even though he’s part of the Twillight Brigade, he does visit other people, unlike other members. Unfortunately, Tawaraya is one of the people he visits, which doesn’t really create good rumors. I find him rather uncertain and nonchalant at the outside, though I thing that he probably knows what he’s talking about, though he’s just doesn’t want to make any false statements. I like the way he talks, though. It’s so much better than all those impulsive main characteer. I also loved him after his conversation with Ender.
I was finding Tabby in the beginning just plain annoying, though now I see that she also has a couple of good sides. I just can’t stand her character design, especially the look she has when idle. Can’t she just not smile? Though the way she stirred up the conflict in this episode was brilliant, not to mention her annoying behavior towards Haseo, who wants to just be left alone and do his own things.
Ovan was a bit boring in this episode, though I think he’ll begin to shine at the last part of the show. He’s really not meant to show himself at the beginning of the series. I’m also wondering what he meant “So this is all of them”. I guess he meant that he just caught the last of the virus cores that was to be appearing at that time and place, though the moment I saw it, I really think that that was the last of the virus cores to ever appear.
Shino’s a bit boring. At least, when she’s not giving her attention to Haseo. When she’s not with him, she tries to be a bit advicing or serious, but it doesn’t work. When Haseo’s around, though, she finally acts a bit more natural, kindof like a motherly type. These moments are very enjoyable, both when the two of them agree with each other, and when the two of them are on different tracks, like the end of the episode.
Another person I love is Sakisaka. Although it won’t seem that he’ll ever be able to escape the miseries of being a side-character, he plays his part very well. He too, begins to question Ovan and the Twillight Brigade. Tawaraya only makes this worse, and he’ll probably explode in one of the following episodes. Two things can happen afterwards, he can either calm down, and stay with the guild, or he’ll leave the guild just like Goad and B-Set. So far, I haven’t seen any true motivation from him to be remaining on the Twillight Brigade, so I think it’ll be the second. I also loved the way he tried to hide the things he knew.
Goad also came in as a surprise. When I first saw him, I believed he was only to return for a couple of more episodes, though it does seem that he’s going to play an active role in the story. It was also great to see some character development from his side. His pride, is of course being hurt, so he will take revenge against Ender. But how?
I’m a bit worried about the leader of TaN. He just seems so much like the standard I-sit-in-my-chair-while-all-my-subordinates-carry-out-my-evil-plans-muaha-evil-villain. I hope that there’ll be a change in this pattern, as he’s probably the member of the cast who so far has experienced the least character-development of all (a fancy way of saying that he’s had no character development at all). Will he really make for a great bad guy?
B-Set also shows a lot of potential for the rest of the show. I’m somehow reminded of a weaker version of B. T., a member of the .Hack//Sign cast. She was once member of the Twillight Brigade, but she left. But still she can’t forget it, and Haseo doesn’t make it better. The previous episode showed that she has quite some character, so she’s probably going to have a couple of moments in which she’ll shine.
Tawaraya is, unlike the leader of TaN, a good example of a villain. He’s more of a merchant, so he doesn’t go into fights, as opposed to Ender, so the two of them make a good combination. It also seems that this won’t be a contest to see who can collect the most virus-cores, as he doesn’t just gloat when he enounters one. Still, I love it how he loves to stirr a bit of conflicts in the Twillight Brigade. I only don’t like him when near his superior.
The little furry animal (what’s his name again?) is fairly unique to anime. He’s a character you can just talk to, and he’ll give you some interesting and very useful advices. He says he plays the game to kill time, though I think he actually enjoys listening to those people, and giving his opinion.
Ender seems to be a villain which will last till about episode 10. I don’t think she’ll play a big role afterwards, but the role she has right now is pretty entertaining. I have no idea why she randomly PK’s people when they don’t have the answers she needs, though I think it’s to intimidate the opponent.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, this was my first attempt at an in-depth character-analysis. I got the inspiration from Willuknight, and his post about the characters from Air. I dont think I’ll be doing this very often, as it takes one hell of a job to write. Still, I’m quite pleased with it, although it could benefit from a number of improvements.
