Midnight’s Impressions
The episode picks up with a slight recap of last episode before driving into the story of Zenichi and how he ended up where he was. Which honestly, I could care less about. He’s just as much of a creep as he seemed in the previous episode. The fact he was contracted by some old dude to bring him slaves for a bunch of money just makes him creepier.
In the end, he loses to the dog and becomes it’s slave. The fact that the dog is shown giving him commands makes me think that the SCM works off of brain waves at some level.
Speaking of the dog, the dog is Eia’s. It apparently ran away some time ago and she has no idea how it got the SCM or who would of put it there. I think Yuuga knows more than he’s letting on when it comes to the dog…also we see him with some texts from his ‘boyfriend’ from episode 1 asking about money he owes. The very same money he’s using to have Eia bail him out should he become a slave.
I’m also thinking this may eventually become a showdown between Ryuuou and Yuuga, and right now, with Ryuuou at 5 slaves and Yuuga at one. The odds aren’t looking so good.
Speaking of Ryuuou. I was way off. I was honestly thinking that Ryuuou was the man in the business suit that was hanging out with Julia. I was fairly sure that Ataru Chūō was just a cover name, or perhaps his real name and Ryuuou was the fake name.
We’ll get back to that. The second half of the episode focuses on Zero Shinagawa. A painfully shy and average person, he has no family, no friends and lives by the same schedule day after day working making bread. A small child approaches him asking him to help avenge his father, who went crazy after losing a duel with a SCM and took out his SCM and went through a mental breakdown.
Warning bell number one, I know this kid. I’ve been interested in him ever since Eia ran into him at the cafe in the previous episode but even more curious is that going back and watching episode one when I was checking the dub out. This kid is in the background of the place that Yuuga and Eia meet.
This was about the point in the episode I started to make a very dangerous and very interesting theory in my head.
The kid brings Zero to duel against Chūō in a trivia game. The two of them against Chūō or, at least that’s how it seems. In fact, it was Zero against this kid and Chūō. Zero loses and becomes their slave, the 6th slave of Ryuuou.
The little kid.
I WAS SO WRONG. I was really sure that it was Chūō that was Ryuuou, at least until the middle of this episode started to change my mind. Knowing what we do about Ryuuou, this takes it to a whole new level of messed up.
This kid is horrible and sadistic. When Zero asks why Ryuuou would lie and manipulate him like that, it’s no more reason then that nobody would miss Zero. A life without family a life without friends. Is it wrong of me to say I think I finally found a second favorite character in this series?
A child with such a horrible and twisted personality. I love it, I couldn’t help but sit and laugh as the episode revealed the truth. I feel like it was so obvious and yet so far outside my grasp. I mentioned that I went back and watched episode one and a few things I noticed included Julia being in that first scene, where they told the guy not to do anything creepy and then he commanded the woman to have sex with him. The other thing I noticed was the kid in the background.
Chūō knew who Yuuga and Eia were, probably through Seiya. Which means Ryuuou knows. This ups the games and the stakes ten times more then they were before and I am fascinated to see where this is going.