I had my doubts when I heard that the goofballs of the first season would return in this episode. Especially combined with Hei, shaving his beard: the creators would have to very skillfully write these final episodes, even more than the previous eight episodes. The danger of this show turning into one that goes into its on direction, yet gives up in the end and simply decides to go with the tried and true formula of the first season would be disastrous.
Instead, what this series now has to do is instead of completely going back to the style of the first season, bring both seasons together: converge the two of them into one. And bloody hell, this episode actually did it.
Of course, this perhaps wasn’t the best episode of the second season, but the two goofballs were a lot less annoying than what I remember them to be. They again had a clear purpose: to form a contrast with the contractors in this series, and they went further than the goofball in this series by actually pushing Suou towards meeting her mother; something that she for some reason didn’t look forward to. It’s a really good episode that contributed to how she’s struggling with her own identity as a contractor, while brilliantly having her avoid the usual angsty indecisive teenager route.
On top of building upon the themes of the second season, this episode was also chockful of references to the first season: Amber seems central to the plot, Hei has cut off his hair and finally has another reason to act like the nice guy he pretended to be in the first season. What’s more, some of the characters of the first season seem vital to the plot of the second season. You can see that the creators have put a lot of thought into it.
That scene in which Suou met her mother surprisingly lacked impact for me, though. I’m not sure what it was, but I was much more interested in just about everything around it. There are still a few huge questions behind it that need answering: why that woman from the CIA direct Suou to her mother? What is she trying to achieve? What has Suou’s mother been up to anyway?
Also, colds in Japan are weird. Instead of taking quite a few days to blow over, you simply faint, sleep and it usually completely disappears after a few hours. Either that or a lot of Japanese mistake colds for anemia, which is also much more common than where I live…
Rating: * (Good)
There’s a scene after the ED I don’t think you should miss btw.
Ah, I hate it when shows do that. I just watched it, and you’re right, that was one hell of a plot twist.
Psgels, I think the scene with Suou and her mother was lacking in emotional charge because Suou had little to no emotional reaction to it. At least visibly.
And I don’t think the blond woman is CIA. Previous episodes seemed to peg her as an independent information broker. Hei was working for her when he was working for the CIA, yes, but I think the two were presented as seperate loyalties.
The following contains… well hardly spoilers, but spoilerish speculation. Consider yourself warned.
Shion’s power is resurrection? Great Christos.
That, at least, is my interpretation of Suou and Dr Pavlyuchenko’s mysterious returns from death.
I loved the Hei chase scene where we get the little techno background… Everytime the soundtrack kicks in this anime rocks (more than usual)
And yeah, wasnt expecting that plot twist… I wonder what else they can fit into 12 episodes
The funny thing about the two “goofballs”, the writers even acknowledge that they are annoying.
When Kiko enters the subway, she is complaining about a movie she just saw saying:
“That was terrible! What the heck were they expecting from us? Who even wants a gag character like that these days? I was actually getting into it because it was starting to get good and serious! I’m not going to let the director get away with this!”
Exactly! The writer/director understands clearly, then why are they foisting these annoying idiots upon us?
Also that scene after the closing credits was HUGE! I would have missed that if Puran hadn’t mentioned it. Now I am going to have to go back and see if I missed any others.
Wow resurrection?! That’s really interesting monster. Does that mean he has two powers then? Resurrection & gun/copy?
Anyways I thought this would be some kind of humor filler (which I thought would be lame considering the lack of episodes this season), but it was a great episode, I enjoyed it almost as much as any other this season. Man they make this anime really well.
@Alex – yea I’ve noticed a lot of shows including FMA employing an epilogue kind of scene at the end of episodes.
The only reason I caught it for DtB is that I really love the OP & ED of this show so I just watch it until it closes and that is a pretty crazy plot twist.
Hei is back! I loved his fight chase scene…wished it was longer. Yeah, Hei has good fighting skills rather powers to defeat his enemies.
Geez, 12 episodes…what is up with good animes that stops are 12 episodes? Is it budget cut? I need a second season to this anime!!!
i noticed Suou’s mother called her Shion. i find that pretty strange. Would a mother forget her children’s names?
Sywen, SPOILERS COMING UP:
Suou’s mom called her Shion because they look alike. When Suou tells her that she’s mistaken, she suddenly is shocked, and tells Suou that this cannot be possible as Suou died 8 years ago.
Speculation: I personally think that this is a matchup mess….didn’t the comet hit two years ago? So many damn questions!
1.) What the hell does Izanagi have to do with the plot?
2.) What is this eternal strife?
3.) What is Shion’s power? Resurrection?
4.) What happened eight years ago? Did Shion have to pay the price of resurrecting Suou by sitting in that wheelchair all this time? If so, it’s to be said that Shion was a contractor BEFORE the comet…..right?
5.) Who is that blonde chick? And is she really part of the CIA? What are her true intentions?
6.) So does this mean that Suou hasn’t seen her mom in eight years?……
7.) Will Hei get his powers back?
8.) Why did Hei kidnap that lab girl? To get back his powers? Or to find where Izanami is?
9.) What is Izanami’s true power? And how does this relate to the fact that she’s an Anti-Contractor weapon?
10) Why couldn’t Hei see Yin’s observation Ghost in episode before last, and Suou could?
I think some of you missed the short scene after the ED.
The reunion was not emotional because it was extended into this scene. Check it out =w= b
just a thought… was it mentioned anytime in the series as to how long the doctor has been working/researching about (the) ME? i can’t recall (and just too lazy to watch the last 8 episodes right now, hehe). anyhoo… could it be that the doctor used it on his wife? the project would have been in its early stage so the effect wouldn’t have been the same as a total erasure. hmmmm… hmmm… HMMM…
oh, and i hope this is the start of more fight scenes with BK201. i just can’t get enough of them, hehe.
can’t wait for ep 10!!
Snowolf, I think the reason that Hei is no longer able to see Yin’s observation ghosts is that he’s no longer has the powers of a contractor. I’m pretty sure at some point they mention that only contractors can see observation ghosts.
The real question is why Suo could see the observer ghost in episode 2, before she became a contracter.
I think something else you glossed over was the fact that it is directly stated that SHION killed Tanya not Suou. Also the gun remianed after the event so therefor, it is unlikely that it was created from a contractor power like Suou’s.
Could be important in the coming eps/
I don’t know about resurrection, but isn’t it possible the Suou we know is actually just a doll?
@Sam – That could be totally possible.
Remember the one chick from the first season in the first episode, the one that ended up being a doll? Her eyes glazed over at one point and so did Suou’s right before she became a contractor, when she was shooting at Tanya and stuff.
sorry, I forgot the one girl’s name ^^
@kurage – 10:36 to 10:45 of episode 3, i think that’s the first time that suou saw an observation ghost. did you happen to notice hei’s reaction? he knew that she’s already a contractor.
@victoria – i think you’re talking about chiaki. reason behind the glazed eyes was she was switched off by jacques by saying a certain phrase if im not mistaken.
Maybe I missed something, but why did hiei kidnap that girl?
Oh, and did you stay for the final scene with sou’s mother? There was one after the credits where it indicated that she literally thought sou was dead.
It’s implying that she saw her die.
Hmm… do we know who Izanagi is yet? I think Izanami is supposed to be Yin… so who’s the other half to the deadly equation?
but didn’t every episode of dtb2 have a scene after the ending? wonder why so many people seem to have missed it @_@
somehow I hope that Shion’s power is not ressurection… though it would really explain some things.
Just in case: ALL the episodes had an additional scene after the ending song.
Like what it was stated in ep 1, Shion became a Contractor after the meteor strike…
But did anyone find it weird that their father was only worried about Shion alone?
And that the Suou Shion saw looks disturbing like an observation ghost?
What if… I know this sounds totally far-fetched… What if his power is to not resurrection but to “give” emotion onto someone?
Cos Contractors are not without emotions, they just are not ruled/affected by them. But dolls… Dolls ARE emotionless.
And after all, Suou did NOT materialize the gun. It’s the pendant that did it after absorbing Hei’s power.
The theory is probably too far out but just throwing my 2 cents in. XD
@PhantomX — It was mentioned in Episode 7 (when the Section 3 chief Kobayashi was talking to that old guy) that Izanagi is Shion. He actually says: “Is the information on Izanagi’s Father being here already true?”
omg, I just went back and looked at the end of a couple of others. The other episodes DO have stuff after the credits! Arg!
LOL Alex, tough luck missing on so much. I hate missing those plot twists, they reveal a lot. At least you know better from now on.
My first thought was actually not a Resurrection power, but clones and a memory transfer machine. Remember, the Russians tried to do a memory scan of the “dead” Dad and found it only had one day’s worth of memories.
Maybe it’s somewhere in between. Shion has the power of “Creation” of some sort. Recreating Suou this completely gave him a remuneration high enough that he was crippled for years. Creating a dupe of his Dad with only a single day’s life was much easier. And via the meteor amulet Suou can borrow enough to create the rifle.
Eh, no way to really know yet.
About the colds in Japan, it’s probably just because it’s anime? Anything goes in anime. ^^;
ahhh the plot twist, I remember readingsomeone who predicted that early in the show. but it got axed quickly because the similarity with Tm8
his predicted wasn’t wrong as I though it would be