Wow. Turns out, when your last name is Vampir, that means that you’re actually a vampire! Maybe one day Melida will awaken her ability and become a beautiful, badass angel warrior.
Really, I don’t think many people give Melida enough credit. The anime so far maybe be a little mediocre, but Melida is a pretty cool character. From the start she’s always been fighting. This episode, she could have panicked and just kept wishing for Kufa to come save her. But seeing how scared Ellie was the whole time, she took matters into her own hands and did all the fighting herself. She made her own makeshift weapon with the knowledge she learned from Kufa and did her best on her own. Like, come on, let’s at least be in awe of that. Most girls in anime wait around and cry but she held her own pretty well. Good job, Melida.
As for the episode, it was fine. The ending with Kufa sure was…something, I’ll get to that later. This episode showed is a bit of the relationship between Melida and Ellie, with just a bit of what kind of home Ellie grew up in. The poor girl is basically a doll that just does what she’s told, and she doesn’t seem brave enough to even voice her opinions. Most likely because no one cares about what she thinks. Ellie has to deal with all the pressures of overtaking Melida and becoming the rightful successor of House Angel (the method the old lady wanted is evil), and she’s put on this pedestal. So much so that she doesn’t really seem to get along with others because of her family trying to make her prove she’s not like them. Of course that’s going to cause a lot of problems, and the other girls are jealous of Ellie’s customized dress for the festival while the rest of them wear the same traditional one of the school. Melida was looking forward to the festival because they could wear matching dresses, as was Ellie, and sadly that made her break down. From what we’ve seen this episode, Ellie was the softer of the pair. Melida seemed to care for Ellie and be brave for her, which is what she did this episode too. Finally the girls had the opportunity to hand out together, but things took a turn for the worse.
Gin kidnaps the two girls and introduces his group and that he’s a manmade half-human/lancanthrope, which will probably be important later. He knows that Melida isn’t a Paladin and wants to use Ellie to make her one, which could probably kill both of them. This whole debacle is getting complicated since Gin’s guild was involved, since Kufa hasn’t really done much with his mission. Looks like his boss is suspicious and sends someone in the end to investigate.
I’m not sure what to make of Kufa’s vampire reveal. Not going to lie, it kind of made me laugh. But I guess it adds something to him. We found out that he lived in a pretty rough environment at the beginning with his conversation with Melida, but it’s even crazier that he’s also half lancanthrope. I sure hope they actually explain how that happens since this anime likes to skip out on stuff like that. Kufa is able to defeat the monster Gin creates and gives him a message to take with him about Melida being legitimate.
I wonder what Kufa really wants. The way he answered Gin about Melida possibly being too strong, he seems to welcome her killing him. Can he not die or something, and he wants her to kill him? I mean, I can see that but I’m just making guesses.
Gin wasn’t exactly very interesting, more on the generic side of villains. It looks like we’ll get to meet another antagonist who might be the main one? Like I said, the episode was fine. But I’m nervous finding out that Assassin’s Pride is having some scheduling issues and the animation director ditched or something? The show isn’t terrible but it could be better, but I’m scared it’ll just explode and turn into poop with all the crap I’m hearing. Sigh…
Source readers say further developments on Gin and Kufa’s pasts will happen in later LN volumes. Not sure if the anime will have time to hint at or address them.
Especially Gin, which affects the worldbuilding re. mana inheritance.
SpoilerThere have been cases where pureblood nobles fail to awaken their mana. Gin was one such victim, the eldest son and supposed heir to the noble William family. His family reacted by abandoning him in the outer Night World and chose his younger sibling as the new heir.
Spoiler: The reason why Mordrew’s so keen on making Melida a paladin
is family status concerns. He fears the scorn the current Angel generation will face for failing expectations to pass down paladin mana to the direct heir and descendant, Melida. He’ll do anything to protect the family’s dignity, even if it means having to kill a relative to protect the main line’s reputation.
Spoiler: Also a bit on lancanthropes:
Lancanthrope is a blanket term to refer to the various races that live outside in the Night World, like werewolves and vampires. One reason the humans can still survive is due to lancanthrope racial disunity; each fights the other for resources and territory in the outside. Were they united in their efforts, the humans wouldn’t stand a chance.