In this third episode, we get a closer look at the Sakie Satou’s life. She’s 24, single… and a succubus. This means she isolates herself from people, especially from men, because if she’s not careful about how she dresses or behaves, she can create erotic thoughts in someone (especially men) just by touching them. Furthermore if that wasn’t restrictive enough, if she falls asleep and lets down her guard, she can cause people around her (again, especially men) to have sexy dreams. It’s why succubi are sometimes called “dream demons”, and it’s also why Sakie lives out in a very remote area; if she fell asleep in an apartment complex then her succubus nature would cause problems for the other tenants.
As one might imagine, this poses a problem when it comes to trying to have a romantic relationship, or even friendships. If Sakie causes others around her to have naughty thoughts, is a romantic relationship really a relationship if it’s built on fake feelings? Is a friendship really a friendship if one person involved can’t be their authentic self?
So up to this point in her life, Sakie has lived a very lonely and solitary life. Until she meets Tetsuo the biology teacher, that is. When Sakie falls in the hallways and Tetsuo helps stablize her, she touches another human being for the first time in a very long time. And luckily for her it’s he who catches her, because he has enough tact and sympathy to not react to the dirty thoughts in his head in front of her. What a great guy eh?
But this encounter also begs the question of why it should be Sakie’s responsibility to dress herself in track clothes and avoid touching others. Yes obviously she should behave appropriately at school and in public, but why are men portrayed as being a slave to their basic instincts? In the world of Demi-chan, why aren’t more men like Tetsuo? (goddamit I keep wanting to write “testicle” instead)
Later on, Tetsuo is working on his thesis some more when Hikari stops by his room. She reads some of his writing, and when he mentions a link between bloodsucking and romance, Hikari lies about being embarrassed and allows Tetsuo to question her about said link. However she’s obviously inexperienced when it comes to the opposite sex and romantic acts, and Tetsuo eventually picks up on her embarrassment and ends the conversation in a safe manner for them both.
The behavioural question he raises as he tries to exit the conversation, however, was very interesting to me. As a vampire Hikari is provided a monthly supply of blood from the government, meaning that she doesn’t actually need to suck anyone’s blood – unless she wants to and the person she’s biting consents, of course. Tetsuo muses aloud that perhaps it’s wrong to even categorize bloodsucking as a sexual behaviour in the first place. Food for thought eh?
Anyways, elsewhere in the school, Sakie and Kyouko get into a long conversation about maturity and romance while in what looks like the library. Kyouko says
that she feels like Sakie is a very mature individual who would (theoretically) have lots of experience with romantic relationships, and then goes on to confess that she’s attracted to Tetsuo. This scene is pretty hilarious as we see from Sakie’s inner thoughts that she too is attracted to Tetsuo, and she’s torn between wanting to keep him to herself and trying to be supportive of a student (even though ick, student-teacher relationship).
Meanwhile we see the snow woman girl Yuki being bullied for being distant from her classmates. Earlier in the episode she had rebuffed a male classmate’s offer to hang out together after school, and some of her female peers didn’t take kindly to her reaction. Yuki gets upset when she hears the two female students talking about her behind her back, and runs off down a hallway; Tetsuo comes across her accidently by walking into the cold air she had been producing as a result of her sadness.
My thoughts: This is definitely my new favourite episode, and Sakie is my favourite character next to Tetsuo. As an anime fan who is a little older, I find Sakie very relatable. Her inner thoughts remind me a lot of Sakura Haruno’s “Inner Sakura” (Naruto series). I feel that Sakie’s also very perceptible, perhaps because she is not close to many people and spends much of her time watching those around her to make sure she’s not affecting them.
It looks like next week is Yuki’s episode. We haven’t seen very much of her so far, so I’m looking forward to learning more about her. I’m really impressed with the pacing of this show – the first few episodes have blended together the introduction of the different varieties of demi very smoothly, and nothing has seemed jarring or out of place. A+ for Demi-chan!