Spoilers up ahead! Let me repeat: spoilers up ahead! This is one of these episodes you need to have seen before reading such an entry about it, so this sentence is meant to fill up the blurb that appears on the blog aggregators with. I am SO glad that I decided to blog Nijuu Mensou no Musume.
Because oh my GOD! I kind-of suspected that Nijuu Mensou would end up dead somehow, but talk about bloody overkill! This is even worse than the first episode of Chevalier: the ENTIRE cast is slaughtered apart from two people. It is only now that I finally understand the OP, where they only show the grown-up version of Ken, and not everyone else. I now also understand why Ken was the one who ended up with his eye poked out: doing this on any of the other characters wouldn’t have mattered anyway, since they would have died within an episode anyway.
Having said that, I do want to add that Nijuu Mensou’s death lacked a bit of impact. Chiko’s reaction on seeing him die was of course amazing, but I’m wondering why he couldn’t just detach the train and then quickly hop onto her car. With his skills, he could have easily done it. Or did he die on purpose? Did he feel like he would abandon his comrades if he didn’t die with them? I still somehow feel that the creators could have developed the guy a bit more, but at least he and his crew did a terrific job in developing Chiko. I’m really getting pumped up now for the rest of this series!
wow, bloody hell..Sorry, haven’t watched the episode yet but i just couldn’t resist reading the rest of your entry. I’m curious at how bloody this episode was..Baccano! style? Shit, hope not ^^;
This episode was both epic and surprising. I started watching this show for Hirano Aya — and I think she’s doing great — but the show itself is really something. Moral complexity, human tragedy, human triumph. Note: I think that if the Tiger could survive that train crash, NJM may survive this.
@rei — Baccano-style violence? Close. No children’s heads blown off, but lots of blood and bullet-holes, and only one case of someone surviving something that should have killed them.
I don’t think twenty faces is dead. Everything he’s done to this point makes me think that it would take a lot more than an exploding train to get rid of him.
I Predicted this would happen, and wrote a comment about it in ep 4’s discussion.
I also prediced that twenty faces would fake his death, despite the dramatized tradegy.
What happened to the crew was obvious.
It was also obvious that 20 had a sinister plot. But that predicion may very well be my undoing. However, I’ll say it again that Bones always brings out a story with a sci-fi/supernatural unraveling plot.
In this ep, 20 faces was mentioning the clock that the wise men from the bible had.
Could this be another Hitler-Indiana Jones-Holy Grail plot? Find out Next time.
Whilewatching this episode I just sat there thinking “that can’t possibly be?!”
They really killed all of them! *cries*
Especially Hans I liked very much and I almost cried when he was shot. Man, so cruel!
But nevertheless it was a great episode and I#m so glad I started watching this series as it is just so great!
Oh, and I don’t think Twenty-Faces is dead. He isn’t the type to just stand there and wait for his death. So I’m rather sure he made his escape in the last moment.
But I think, he won’t show up for the next time, so that Chiko can decide the rest of her new path by herself.
And I guess this is another step of his plan of making Chiko like himself. But therefore she has to proceed by herself from now on. Pehaps he wouldn’t have made this Step this early by himself, but he will let it be as it is for now.
But I’m rather sure he will show up later again !
Well, but for now let’s just wait for Chikos developpement and I’m glad that at least Ken survived *sighs*
Man, can’t wait for the next episode to come out!
Where to begin? This was definitely a really sad episode but great episode. Why did they all have to die?! I liked many of them like Stripper, Muta and especially Hans!
Looking back at the opening and the ending, it explains some of the images, and how Chiko could meet the other two ‘Detective Girls’.
I am glad that Ken is still alive. It will be interesting to see how this incident will affect him. I wonder how he and Chiko will meet, and if he even knows that she also survived.
I think that Twenty-Faces must have somehow survived, although I am having a hard time figuring out how. After all, they haven’t explained his true motive, and what the Mayor handed to him.
I wonder where the story will go from here. Might be something will prompt her to figure out who the man behind the Twenty-Faces truly is. But judging from the preview, I think the next few episodes will focus on her situation with her Aunt. Hopefully Chiko will use some of the things she has learnt and deal with her Aunt once and for all >:)
So far this show is among my favorite shows this season. Look forward to the next episode!
I’d admit it was overkill. Only when the killings occur that the OP and ED struck me; the ED sequence of Hans and the rest felt like a memory, flashback or something.
…I feel so…. after watching this episode, but I’d still continue this series, just to see what happens.
I agree with the above posters — till I see a body (in anime) I can’t entirely believe he’s dead. Ditto for Angie.
That was a rough episode. I liked Hans!
have you guys watched the ending?? the ending shows three girls, maybe Chiko will follow his steps and make a new crew, kinda reminds us of charlie’s angel and cat’s eye, but i’m a bit confused, he said something about making someone (most likely her) into the next him…
and i’m guessing dying was his way (cruel btw) to pass the torch to her.
I’m guessing this is a flashback explaining how she became the future theif??
Probably the most intriguing theme presented in this anime to me so far would be that:
Chizuko is/as an incomplete person.
Chizuko was meant to be raised for one particular purpose. Nijuu’s ultimate plan.
However what is EVEN MORE amazing about this story is that, she never got to know what this plan was about! All she heard during a short eavesdrop session was that someone will take on that plan, and she merely wishes herself to be the plan’s main perpetrator. (indeed it could have been any of the Nijuu veterans within her understanding. however since the crew is dead, we can know that she will force herself to be that plan’s main instrumentalist).
It’s one thing to carry out a dead person’s will, their very last words and swear by it. This is how you get strong characters. However Chizuko is truely an incomplete person in that she could not find out the very reason for her existence before the end.
Nijuu has not decided to tell her about this ultimatum yet before he died.
Yet after thinking it through further, this can’t be surprising at all, as it is a common scenario for people’s lives to be estrangely disrupted by the premature death of an important person in their lives.
However I’ve never seen it so poignantly portrayed in media.
Well nobody believs 20 Faces is dead for real 🙂
Btw, this show is taking off seriously. It started so so, with exagerated happenings, but now… man what a tragedy. I didn’t expect nothing like this, and not so suddenly in the first place! There are still many unresolved questions. Who the hell were Tora and 20 Faces? Tora is weird, he seems non huma too. What’s his connection with 20 Faces? And what was up to 20 Faces plan? Cause he clearly had some weird plan to do… So his death occurs with a wrong timing. So i don’t really think 20 faces is dead for real, but now he becomes a secondary char moving in the shadows!
I expect now Chiko to uncover the secret plans of 20 faces and answer all unresolved matters!
Like my momma always said,
“Bones = Supernatural thriller”
on another note – Ha Ha Ha Ha, they forgot to use silver bullets. (So maybee they’re all alive)
Damn it!!! They all fricking died!!!! I was so troubled I kep t skipping the video!!! >.
Its similar to gundam 00 where they killed off the pilots in the last episode…is overkill a trend in animes now…..
Do you think Angie is dead? I feel relly sorry for her, besides Chico betrayed their friendship. Well, I kinda liked that character, she’s quite alike with Chico but on the mean side. I hope she could turn back to life at the end. Angie’s definitely my favorite character,don’t know why since it’s not like I don’t like Chico or something( the second one is the aunt, she a two-faced character and I just love her acting, a considerate , caring and nice aunt who’s all the time worried about her niece and the despicable and cold – hearted woman she really is )! She even tricked me when I watched the 1st ep.