So, we’ve waited a number of episodes, so finally it’s time: the entire episode was pretty much building up for it to happen at the end: Natsuno’s return, and probably the start of a serious counterattack to the vampires.
It’s not outright stated, but my guess is that Natsuno’s father somehow managed to hide his body out of the reach of the vampires, telling everyone that he was going to be cremated outside of the town. This episode also showed me that Natsuno is the real main character of this series. Of course, Toshio did something amazing in the last episode, and that guy can indeed do some outrageous things, but it took fourteen episodes for him to get there. This episode too just shows Toshio wandering around randomly, looking for allies, whereas Natsuno would have immediately started doing something concrete. The only thing that really stopped him during the series was the fact that he couldn’t move due to his blood loss.
Speaking of which, Seishin suffers from this even more: he was introduced as one of the main characters of this series, and yet he didn’t really do anything: he’s capable, but again he really needs Natsuno to push him forward, and unfortunately the two haven’t even met yet.
Most of this episode was building up, though there was a lot of interesting stuff that happens: we’re shown a bit of the prejudice of Toshio’s mother, along with Isaki (one of the nurses) finally quitting, along with a bit of a strange turn of events with a really flamboyant undertaker who… does just about everything you shouldn’t do in order to remain unsuspicious. It’s a… strange twist, especially for this series.
Rating: * (Good)
I just can’t get enough of this series. Slow but never dragged out. Suspenseful, well characterized and excellent use of music. It’s imo easily the best anime that is airing right now.
I personally assume all this building means Toshio will be the main character of the show.
actully Toshio is the main charecter in the novel (as Natsuno dies) and he still is in this one even if Natsuno gets more attention
and yeah the guy that run’s the shiki funral’s Yoshie, Tatsumi, Chizuru, Sunako or who ever picked him really could have done a better job
They should’ve made this a period piece, like say the Edo period. As it is, I just can’t believe that the Japanese Center for Disease Control or whatever it is isn’t all over this outbreak.
@jcb: There are several reasons why this is not noticed outside the village.
Health care and disease prevention is divided into a municipal, prefectural and only then national structure. Because the Shiki quickly converted important roles in municipal administration, they were able to hold back the most important information.
We learned this episode that the deathtoll for Sotoba is around zero, because they changed family records and death certificates…and as long as nobody within minicipality doubts those, everything will go on as planned.
You also have to consider that this is really quite a small village, which probably does not even have public internet provided for the whole village…and mobile reception might also reach zero around there.
While I would agree that there are some slight logic errors in Fujisaki’s interpretation of Ono’s story, I think the setting is not to blame at all.
To jcb & chounokoe:
The time of the story is 1994 summer, where mobile phones and internet is not common especially in a rural village such as Sotoba.
The Edo period is roughly from early 1600s to late 1800s, I don’t think that will work at all. Maybe you want to set it at the Showa period. But I don’t think the time setting now have any problem.
@jcb
As far as anyone outside the village is concerned there is no outbreak.
The shiki are cooking the books and filing moving papers on anyone that dies.
Instead of having a large number of people dying in one village and drawing attention they spread the deaths out to other villages where a few extra deaths go unnoticed.
It finally happened! Toshio finally started pushing his pride aside and asked for help… finding none.
Now that Natsuno’s back, and apparently unnoticed by the other Shiki, I wonder where they’re going with it. Obviously helping Toshio in some way, but he’s treading a very thin line, especially if he’s spotted by the other Shiki.
Though, it seems strange that they wouldn’t know. The Shiki are clearly capable of influencing human action in some way, so one would expect that a sufficient amount of “programming” would have been imprinted in Natsuno so that he’d report in once becoming one of them, rather than fight them.
Though, I did like the scenes where Seishin contemplated “murder” versus “accident”. So far, the deaths have usually been gradual enough that only repeated feedings are fatal (either group attacks or over time), and their amnesiac abilities are sufficiently potent to keep things completely silent, so even mere feeding wouldn’t cause the Shiki to be killers; they needed to *choose* to continue to feed on the same people, which killed them.
This episode was good just for the FABULOUS funeral service. The reactions were hilarious.
(First post here)
I love this series to bits, both the manga and the anime. It seems the storyline has begun straying from the manga storyline (there are dead characters in the anime that are still alive in the manga, and they also skip a bunch of stuff), so I expect a proper ending for the anime.
Based on the preview, we should be getting Sunako’s story next episode. Finally some glimpse into the Kirishiki’s backstory.
Yay this episode was interesting but I did not like the crazy undertaker scene. I really think it didnt fit with the whole Shiki vibe. Can’t wait to see what Natsuno does and if what Invitan said above that we get Sunako’s background I have one more reason to be excited. I just love that character and her relationship with Seishin!