Although not a lot happened in this week’s episode, I would say it was a lot better than the first one. The tempo was pretty good all around, and understandably this episode focused on various characters that have yet to be introduced, and did so in a refreshing way. Best of all, I have quickly become fond of the group of guys she will be working with. The core members of the group seem like fantastic characters, and despite the lack of events this episode, they alone are enough to keep me wanting to see more.
Hayato is an instant favourite of mine. I said it last week, but this episode pretty much just validated my feelings for him. He is so utterly adorable, he is absolutely crushing on Tsumugi and you can tell he just wants to make the most of the time he has with her, and he certainly can’t take his eyes off her! (When he was walking backwards, I was half expecting him to bump into something haha!). When she got separated from the group, he surprised her when he shouted at her for straying behind, but made sure to apologize before they returned to the headquarters. Fortunately for him, it looks like he is gradually making progress as Tsumugi finally agreed to call him by his name by the end of the episode. But he got his work cut out for him, because when Tsumugi straight of rejected Kuina, she said she isn’t interested in boys or marriage!
Akira didn’t do or say much this episode, we learned he is indeed the quiet type who doesn’t get too involved in social gatherings. He took one bite of the food for Tsumugi’s welcoming party and was off. But the funny thing is, I just realized how tall he is! I have no idea why, but for some reason that makes him more charming? I guess it’s just because of the height difference makes everything more adorable.
We were finally introduced to Hisui, also the member of the investigation fraction, he has two eye colored and based off what we saw in last week’s episode, it looks as though he can use magic of a sort. He started saying something about being he too could see cursed tomes, but retracted that statement, making me wonder if maybe he doesn’t necessarily see its auras but simply has another source of power to deal with them (hence the “magic” we saw last week). Did I mention he is precious? I look forward to getting to know him more.
CAN WE JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE HOW THEY ARE (so far) ALL SO NICE?! I hope they stay this way, because I really like them! They are a great set of characters! It makes me want to play the game even more now!
Today we witnessed Tsumugi struggled with feeling useful on her first day on the job. She joined the patrol unit to check in bookstores for the cursed tomes, with no avail. As result she felt like she wasn’t doing her job properly and felt down because of it. It wasn’t until the last store she realized that it isn’t a bad thing to not find a cursed tome, in fact it’s a good thing, especially in stores that are open to the public. The final shop was where she realized how thankful people can be just knowing they aren’t carrying a cursed tome. This shop keeper in particular was terrified, and thought he’d be cursed if he so much as touched it, so he was thankful to her for being able to verify it wasn’t going to possess him.
It was also quite interesting to see Tsumugi adjusting to the change of lifestyle from the sheltered noble lady to a woman going out on patrols now. Due to her up-bring and general traditions, she felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of walking side by side of the opposite sex when they aren’t family or engaged with one another, despite the guys telling her to walk alongside them instead of straying behind. (Not to mention, it’s a matter of safety as well when they are out on patrol to be close to one another).
Right now with the lack of villains present, it’s hard to say who are the fishy ones of the bunch, but the bookstore owner Sasagoi certainly feels like a troublesome character. He is constantly insulting the patrol officers, blaming them for scaring away his customers. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were carrying some, but had them stashed away, or selling them in the blackmarket, especially if by any chance he could see the cursed tomes, or it is told, it’s cursed.
There is also Migiwa Shizuru, one of Hitaki’s favourite authors. I call him the “Gold Fish Guy”, his humming tune was pretty darn good, but there was also eerie too. He is also heck of a flirt, so there’s that. I don’t know how much we can trust him, but for now he is one of the mysterious characters that I can’t get quite a read on. Oh but the hair tie has a logo that looks similar to the one we see on the masked guy’s hat. So I wonder if he is also connected to that group in any way.
Next week it looks like we will finally be getting some fun action. They will be confronting a mysterious group who is found burning the books (most likely cursed tomes), so I wonder if perhaps they may have beaten the squad to the punch when it comes to finding the books. Curious to find out whether they are an opposition or merely another fraction that has a different approach when it comes to dealing with the cursed tomes, but for starters- the guy who seems to be leading it, well the preview already spoiled who he is. The mask really doesn’t hide who he is, his hair is a dead give away! Haha! Either way, I am a lot more optimistic for what to come, so I am looking forward to it!
One general criticism of the source game’s story is plot inconsistency and self-contained routes.
An issue in particular is that the villians are different in each bachelor route.
Ex. In A’s route, X is the villian. But in B’s route Y & Z are the villians, X is a side character etc.
The anime will have quite the job in trying to tie up the differing route stories into 1 coherent narrative. Or they might simply focus on the most common overlapping narrative in the routes.
PS. How well can you read and speak Japanese?
Oooh interesting. I don’t particularly mind the idea of having “self-contained” routes, it makes it less predictable with the change in the plot and storyline. I suppose it depends on how well it’s executed. But given the circumstances, the best option for the anime is to really just stick to one route. Though in the case of Norn9, they did a decent job of weaving three different heroines’ stories together into one, so there are ways to make it work.
😅 I can’t read or speak Japanese, I am litterally a newbie, but this year I am taking my studies a lot more seriously than I had in the past, mainly because I think I figured out why I have such difficulty with learning languages in general, and how to work around it. So it will take me a long time, but persistence, consistency in my studies and motivation is the key!!! Things like this only fuel my motivation even further!
Although I can’t understand it yet, sometimes (if I can afford it) I would buy the game I am interested in so I don’t have to worry about it going out of print at some point, or not ever being localized. But with how poorly the recent localizations are being handled (the quality control has been abysmal), it gives me the drive to study harder.