You can see that this series is using most of its time to build up at this point, but it still has quite an excellent atmosphere. The horror is already quite good, and even though this seemingly wasn’t a major episode at first sight, the episode did end with one heck of a cliff-hanger.
At this point, I think it’s clear now that we’re dealing with Vampires here, and they seem to be more similar to the classic vampires compared to what vampires have evolved into in modern pop culture. It’s true that we’ve seen none of the potential vampires appear at daylight, right? The older stories about vampires have also talked about how Vampires first need to get invited, before they can claim their victim. This is why they’ve tried to get friendly with everyone here.
Natsuno’s delusions are something I haven’t figured out yet. If the OP hints at anything, this show seems to be developing its own army of dead people turned into vampires, but I’m not yet sure whether the end of this episode actually happened, or whether this stayed in Natsuno’s head. We know that that cat guy is trying to get into Toru’s house, but why he decided to bring Megumi along is a bit of a mystery to me.
In the meantime, the animators. I can understand that they can’t make all of the drawings as detailed as in the manga, but you can see that they’re having fun with the visuals here. Like the church scene for example, that looked really good, but the visual effects they pulled on the climax of this episode also looked quite interesting here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Sleep-deprived Yuuki makes the audience’s job a harder with his tenuous grasp on reality; the next episode could give us a dose of it-was-all-just-a-dream-or-was-it. Although it would be funnier if Yuuki ended up as snack food, that would be a surprisingly short stint as protagonist.
I’m assuming the events really happened, because I don’t recall Yuuki meeting Tatsumi. It’s not the most well-founded assumption. We might end up backtracking on the timeline or a reveal as a flashback or something. Plus my brain could be made out of yogurt.
I have to give Megumi a little credit: when you escape from one of the hells to chase after the boy you like and then proceed to eat his best friend for being prettier than you, you have mastered stalking.
If Tatsumi is a vampire, then he should be able to enter the house, because he was invited in the last episode. That’s probably where Megumi secured her invite as well, since he asked if he could bring someone. It’s possible he’s just a servant of some kind or that he just likes to watch.
I really like the track they’ve used near the end of episode 3 and again when Megumi is crawling out in episode 4.
I am doubting the show will be as suspenseful as I was expecting it to be. It’s not a big deal, because it’s entertaining, but I had thought the vampire angle was going to be a feint. Here you have these outsiders that come and move into a castle, they only show up at night, people start inviting them in and then die after showing signs of anemia, and you have all of these really suggestive character designs. It hasn’t been subtle in the slightest, and I thought of it jokingly. I was expecting the townsfolk to eventually freak out and scapegoat them, but it’s looking more straightforward than that. Although we don’t know that anyone else in the castle is involved, Megumi does show up with eyes befitting Sunako, and Sunako has that evil dove laugh. If the designs inform the character, then I suspect that Tatsumi, rather than being a cat, is actually a wolfman, because his hair tufts look like an alert wolf’s ears, and, well, it’s a horror story. I’m not that confident about it though.
Wow! I’m really enjoying this series so far. I thank you ~
First of all, I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore your blog. I find a lot of good anime to watch because of your reviews. (Rainbow for example; can’t wait until the next episode. Then there’s Brotherhood, that little movie Comedy… Too many to list.)
Second, even though it has nothing to do with this, I was wondering if you’ve ever watched Nana? I’d be genuinely interested to see what you’d think / have to say about it. Even though (A) the anime and manga are on a bit of a hiatus until the manga’s creator recovers from her sickness (last I heard, anyway… I think she’s better…) and (B) it’s primarily geared towards females. But you may enjoy it anyway. I saw you did a review on Paradise Kiss a while back, so I was wondering how you’d like her other work. Just curious.
Keep up the great work, man! I’ll continue reading.
Just: It’s on my to-watch list. I didn’t pick it up when it first aired, but the raving reviews have definitely piqued my interest.
Psgels: Great to hear! (Wasn’t expecting a reply so fast.) I know you have other things packed onto your schedule, but this makes me happy. ^^ Happy blogging.
Really enjoying this series so far – nice ep review – very climactic start!
I don’t know if you regard that as a spoiler, psgels, so I’m gonna hint at it rather than say it out front…you can still ask afterwards if you really want to know.
If you have ever heard of a novel by a famous American horror writer, in which strangers move into a a mansion on a hill, in a small village society, and after that people start dying…you’ve got the actuall inspiration for Shiki.
The title of said novel even became the subtitle of the Shiki novel.
Just watched this episode and it stayed close to the manga. I was disappointed that Takami’s scene (the policeman who died) wasn’t shown at all. Also, Sunako reminds me a lot of Rika/Maria of the Higurashi franchise.
Yeah, this is getting better. I really like the sound track playing during the church scene and the ending scene. Kinda reminds me of Jigoku shoujo.
ahah the end of the episode gave me chills… 🙂
We know that that cat guy is trying to get into Toru’s house, but why he decided to bring Megumi along is a bit of a mystery to me.
Maybe they hunt in pairs? As m reminds us in the first comment, Tatsumi asked if he could bring someone along, and also when we met the couple in the previous episode they were both invited back.
I also love the fact that Megumi is even creepier than she would be as a ‘normal’ vampire, the fact that she was already such a stalker makes me think that there’s no end to the possibilities for evil shenanigans on her part… and to the range of goth-loli outfits, lol.
@Hana
I personally believe that the vampires cannot get into one’s house unless they’re invited. Remember Nao? She said that they could visit their househould anytime. And the Kirishikis retorted that they would drop by and visit soon.
Also, Toru invited the cat guy into his house: “Sure come and drop by anytime”. Then the catguy asked: “Mind if I bring someone along?” Toru replied: “Sure no prob”. I’m pretty sure that this is how Megumi got into Toru’s house without direct permission from Toru.
I’m pretty sure the priest also invited Sunako back to his “secret base” but recommended against it, so I don’t know if that will count.
Hospitality will kill the whole village.
Wow, Shimizu was incredibly hot in the scene at the end… I already loved her in the first episode but those clothes, ahhhhh I hope she gets more air time… So sad she had to die right on first ep
Btw I just read the comments and you never watched Nana? BLASPHEMY! It puts every 2000+ romance anime to shame