Impression
What comes suddenly and never leaves?
Looks like it’s confirmed then – a weekly episode for each assassin is probably how things will play out. Which is a bit unfortunate really, because that means we can’t get any proper character development for each girl beyond introducing their backstories before they fail and are carted off to who knows where. I didn’t really feel anything for Kouko because of this – she just came and went so quickly. At least we had a very different atmosphere with her than we did with Otoya though, with differences ranging from their methods and motives to their personalities.
Kouko was more pragmatic in trying to kill Haru through explosives – it was far more efficient than what Otoya tried, although admittedly she didn’t have a strange fetish that hindered her overall goal. Her bigger problem was that she just wasn’t very good. That did surprise me – it seems like not all the assassins there are experts at their art, and Kouko at least always seemed to look like she knew what she was doing with such a calm and collected face on. It certainly feels like she’s never successfully carried out a mission, and it’s sad to know that one of her past failures involved the death of her senpai (I think the bomb went off too early or something). As Tokaku pointed out, it really was strange that her wish involved quitting her job as an assassin, while reaching that wish required her to fulfil the role of one. I’m not sure whether that sort of contradiction arose just because Kouko wasn’t thinking properly, or because she wouldn’t actually have been able to quit, even if she wanted to. I’m not sure they can just voluntarily get out of this… and even then, she probably wanted to fulfil her senpai’s expectations at least once.
Haru really hasn’t learnt from her mistakes, has she? Nio’s story about the hidden room in the library just screamed danger, and it was sort of dumb to decide to go there right after having received an advance notice. Though Tokaku probably knew that she couldn’t have convinced Haru to stay in their room – and that she would sneak out and would need her ass saved again. Haru would definitely have been killed a long time ago without Tokaku around – what’s more surprising is how she’s managed to live this long! Why on earth did she touch the book that was so obviously booby trapped?!
Anyway, I’m hoping the assassin-per-week thing will be subverted once we’re done with the girls who aren’t as significant, and that we’ll get some twists with some of the more unique members of the “Black Class”, including Nio, Isuke and perhaps Chitaru, who ostensibly doesn’t want to kill Haru. She sounds surprisingly genuine – but of course, we’ve heard that before, and the fact remains that they’re all assassins. It seems like there are some things yet to be revealed about Tokaku as well, whose bloodline was referred to again this episode. Does she have some sort of heritage?
“Looks like it’s confirmed then – a weekly episode for each assassin is probably how things will play out. Which is a bit unfortunate really, because that means we can’t get any proper character development for each girl beyond introducing their backstories before they fail and are carted off to who knows where.”
I would suggest reading the manga if you can. The anime has already deviated noticibly from it (making both Haru and Tokaku less competent than they should be, and, of course, cutting out lots development). The manga has been taking the time to develop girls fairly well. It has its own flaws in terms of writing (practically any piece of fiction does, after all), but at least it doesn’t feel rushed like this.
I’ve been intentionally avoiding the manga in order to approach the anime fresh without any preconceptions, but I suppose it won’t hurt as much if it’s really that different. I’ll read the first couple of chapters and decide whether to continue on or not after that!
If it helps, at the rate they’re adapting they’ll have overrun the manga by the end of the next episode, if they stick to one assassination attempt per episode. The translators claim to be up to date on releases, so they won’t just be past the translations, but they’ll be past the Japanese manga releases as well. The third “official” assassination attempt hasn’t even happened yet in the manga, after all.
If they reach that point a mere five episodes in, it’s a fair guarantee that the stuff afterwards will be anie-original. Either way it won’t hurt you to read the manga., I don’t think.