Well, so the animation was another step down, but the plot is progressing pretty nicely, and at the same time the characters also take their time to get fleshed out. While this episode started out as a bit of a pointless one, the second half was… disturbing to say the least. Though now that most of the characters except for one are introduced, we can start to develop this story a bit.
The set-up bears quite a few resemblances to Higurashi, actually. There’s something going on in the village that effects probably all of the original residents. There’s probably some sort of beast of wolf instinct that’s taking control over them, and the oranges are the only cure for it, it seems. My guess is that they’re either Jouga wolves in disguise, or it’s similar to the Hinamizawa disease of Higurashi.
And yeah, the near-rape scene. I definitely didn’t see that coming, especially this early. Could the reason be the same as why Hiro’s classmates are so attracted to him? Small villages usually are tight-knit communities who don’t like outsiders, but this obsessive fixation over Hiro may seem like they’re looking to either make him one of them, or waiting for the right time to do something horrible to them. I actually think that these fishermen we saw in this episode weren’t part of this plot, but they did know about it.
Rating: * (Good)
I’ve never made it through more than one episode of the adaptations of the author’s related works, so I’m walking into this blind.
This obvious route is that the wolves have taken a human form, and instituted some strict rules of behavior to keep from being noticed and hunted to extinction by humans. I’m curious if the inhabitants are really just possessed or cursed by the wolves for hunting them to extinction instead. Either way the oranges seem to suppress the more aggressive behavior of the wolves/cursed. Our protagonist appeals to the wolves/cursed, because his odor does the opposite. He’s like catnip for them.
Neither his sister nor his father seem to be of any interest to them*, which makes me wonder if he’s actually related to them or if he’s a lost pup from this town**. I gather from occasionally reading the discussions of the other shows involving the author’s writing that he isn’t above packing it full of unbridled crazy, so it’s hard to say that it’s not some coincidental magic.
The pharmaceutical executive seems interested in his blood, since they went through the trouble of meeting with his doctor. It may be a red herring, but I’m used to economizing writers leaving a straight trail of breadcrumbs to the finish. Maybe some group of the afflicted want to throw off the social order being maintained by the moon girl and her gang of enforcers, and kicking the orange and taking up a Hiro habit is just what the doctor ordered.
* With the possibility that they might want to eliminate the father for being too nosy.
** Perhaps his mother fled from this town.
Might as well give you the effect/affect grammar lesson. It’s one of the most common mistakes in English, even among the fluent.
In most cases, affect is the verb and effect is the noun. Like, ‘she was affected by her friend’s death’ and ‘the effect of her friend’s death was too much.’ There are cases where this is not true, but the words have entirely different meanings. An affect is usually a mental flaw or handicap of some kind(it’s very rarely used, though). Effect as a verb that means to bring about/accomplish, like effecting a change. Saying that a person or any living thing is effected doesn’t make sense in any context I know of, but you could say that someone effected a change in a person. It’d be easier to say that someone affected that person, and more importantly, it makes more sense to say that something affected a person than to say that something effected a change in a person.
I apologize if grammar remarks get annoying. For one, it seems I never have anything to say about the content of episodes anymore, even when I’m watching the series or consider it decent.
I watch/ read BL stuff but this episode was REALLY disturbing. At least things make sense a bit more now. Even though the characters are annoying to hell (with the exception of Kaname) the plot is at least interesting enough for me to continue watching it…
It was nice to see mr. perfect show a dark side, even if it was a little difficult to watch
Disturbing to say the least. Hiro should be able to tell by now that he wasn’t joking. Best get out of there asap!
i wonder how hard it is to change the clothes of the characters.