Impression
I didn’t really expect Raishin’s confrontation with Magnus to get anywhere – we’re still a little too early in the series for that. The OP does show a bit of a brawl between them, so we should get some of that eventually. While Magnus is pretending they’ve never met before, Raishin seems to recognize his automatons at the very least. Whatever caused the fire resulted in the deaths of his dad and little sister, so it’s definitely justified hatred. With Raishin commenting on how his family specializes in group tactics, I’m even more convinced now that Magnus is his older brother or something. He used six of them at the same time! And they were all humanoid too, though it was slightly unsettling with their faces covered.
But yeah, this is definitely an entertaining show. Yaya was as forceful as ever this week, even in the shower! I was actually surprised by how bold she was – but then again, she probably needs to be this assertive to get any sort of reaction out of Raishin. It’s not something you see every day in anime… I mean, she’s hugging him while they’re both naked in the shower. Lerche were pretty bold with their lack of censoring too – while you can argue that she’s technically just a doll, Yaya’s very human in her intelligence and personality. It’s probably how Shouko (whoever she is) intended her to be when she was created. And of course, for ecchi purposes it doesn’t matter if she’s strictly human or not, as long as she’s got boobs.
Seems like this first arc will focus on Cannibal Candy, a puppeteer who’s been going around “preying” on various automatons. In exchange for an entry into the festival, Raishin’s headed off to try and stop him (or her). The weird corpse-like thing from last episode ended up being the remains of an automaton! I think it’s pretty much beyond repair like that… if it no longer has its Eve’s Heart (which gives it life) it’s gotta be dead, right? It’s a bit weird to just indiscriminately attack both students and automatons alike – what’s this person got to gain from taking out 26 students and a further 12 automatons? Raishin seems to know what he’s doing, at least. For someone as pragmatic as he is, I don’t think he’d take out Charl on a date for no good reason.
I did have suspicions that Cannibal Candy was actually Charlotte – both from the revelation that Sigmund is a Banned Doll (an automaton with flesh and blood parts) and her comment on how she’s sinned before, and wants to be punished… okay, that sounds really wrong out of context xD And she was acting odd after seeing the automaton’s corpse too. But if Cannibal Candy attacked while Charl was on a date with Raishin, then it can’t be her unless it’s not just the work of one person. To be honest, I’d also prefer for it to not be her. Charlotte’s sort of grown on me now! Just the right mix of tsundere and ojou-sama, without too much of either. I’m not sure whether I want to support Charl or Yaya right now… though Yaya’s literally busy drowning in her tears. What was she crying, marbles?
If I were a betting man, I’d give 50/50 odds of Cannibal Candy actually being that student council guy who brought Raishin in to investigate the attacks in the first place. He seems just a little too perfect, and the fact that his underling (entirely of her own volition of course, it couldn’t POSSIBLY have been his idea) went and placed suspicion on Charlotte just loops things around to make me more suspicious.
But then why would he involve Raishin, especially after acknowledging his strength? Unless Raishin and Yaya are actually his next victims, and this whole thing is a trap to lure them somewhere.
It’s a plus for Raishin though. If that guy really is Cannibal Candy, then regardless of what the student council promised Raishin can still earn a spot in the festival by defeating him.
I don’t know what his specific reason would be, besides the standard “to direct suspicion away from himself.” Individual reasons can vary from story to story, afterall, and we can’t know what his might be until we find out for sure if he actually is responsible. It is is a pretty common storytelling tool that the person who hires or recruits someone to investigate a crime actually turns out to be the criminal themselves. I’ve seen it often enough that I automatically become slightly suspicious of anyone who gets someone to solve a mystery for them. This guy, however, has enough other little things about him that send up warning flags that I am more than just “slightly” suspicious of him.