Now that Alois is gone, this series did lose a big part of its fun factor, but this episode seemed to realize that and really had fun playing around with the rest of the cast to make up for it.
I mean, a plot to brainwash Ciel and make him think he’s Alois? That’s quite intriguing. If anything because of how the end of this episode promised Sebastian to go completely insane in the next episode. That shinigami that attacked Sebastian with that lawn mower also was another one of those crazy ideas I loved.
Not to mention that, even though this episode had quite a bit of action, the scenes that the animators spent the most frames on yet again was Claude’s hands as he was crocheting. It looked very good and realistic, really. But why that scene, of all places?
Now, the only thing I’m a bit worried about is the conclusion here. I mean, at this point the creators can easily revert everything back with another Deus ex Machna again, because at this point, this really seems to be one of those plots that the creators make up as they go along. I really want to see this show end with something epic. I don’t really care about the depth, this show never was one of those where you can expect that.
Rating: * (Good)
While I also liked this episode for it’s good ideas to play this scenario out, I still kinda fear what result they are aiming at.
Right now it seems they are just desperately searching for a way to have the pact between Ciel and Sebastian be undone at the end of the season, so that they can coexist as the homosocial employer/employee that they are.
Having Ciel be brainwashed into nullifying the contract…that is some stuff to do and it could easily become a weakpoint that would make this season feel terribly contrived. Especially if there is no bigger reason behind Claude’s goals than ‘Hmm, souls are yummy’.
At least season 1’s antagonist had a bigger goal in mind and an actual beackground. I really don’t want this to end up becoming like Rozen Maiden Träumend, which also ended up being a totally contrived filler arc which left the TV-anime forever discontinued.