BNA Episode 3

So this was a pretty interesting episode. Not only do we get some major hints and confirmation on what happened to Michiru, but it seems like the same thing had happened to her best friend. Though it was scary to watch her get hustled into a car and taken away without a word. It seems like this is the first step of Michiru and Shirou working together… somewhat. Though it mostly felt like Michiru getting into trouble and Shirou having to rescue her several times through out the episode.

From what I can gather, I feel like the accident that Michiru and her friend seemed to have gotten into may have been the catalyst of them turning into beastmen. We don’t see exactly what they crashed into if not each other, but considering that was the first thing Shirou sees in her life as a human, it’s definitely important. However, seeing all the scent colors as yellow is throwing me off since those were established as beastmen scents. Unless all the people we saw were beastmen… but we’ll see. I can’t help but think they were involved in some sort of car crash that caused them to be exposed to a “beastman virus.” Especially since we also learn that Sylvasta is most likely the one responsible for Michiru’s change.

Also, Shirou’s sniffing abilities are freaking OP as heck.

It was actually really sad to see that Michiru essentially ran away from home so she wouldn’t have to trouble her parents over her condition. Though it does make me wonder how her parents took her transformation. From the looks of it, she was very close to them and didn’t seem like they had abused her for becoming a beastman. Especially since Michiru took the time to write them a letter, specifically telling them where she would be and why she left. If she didn’t have a good relationship with them, she would have just left without a word. However, it is sad that it seems like they didn’t try to go after her.

There seems to be a lot of corruption in Animacity than meets the eye, considering gangs and terrorists seem to be commonplace. I really hope the mayor isn’t evil because way too many of trigger’s series have the person in power as the true antagonist and I hope it doesn’t come to that. Since it would be way overused if it turns out she is the one pulling the ropes. In any case,

Also, why the heck did Shirou send Michiru off to investigate Sylvasta by herself??? She’s not much of a fighter, not to mention just a 15 year. If something were to go wrong, which it did, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself. He should have gone with her or kept her by his side. I don’t know, the whole thing felt a little weird, especially after he saved her, told her to go and stay safe when an explosion rang out. MAKE UP YOUR MIND SHIROU.

Smell was such a big part of this episode and while it shouldn’t have been surprising, the way they went about certain things did catch me off guard. Like how sneaking around beastmen really doesn’t work due their sense of smell. Not a huge plot point but I found it to be an interesting detail that made me go, “oh right, that would happen, wouldn’t it?” The lack of smell was also a big tip off to Shirou that something was wrong with the crime scene at the Sylvasta lab since yes, everything gives off some sort of scent and it’s not natural if something doesn’t have a scent. The fact that the scientist got outed by the fact his hands had a lack of scent just like the area of the explosion was definitely a surprising way to reveal he was the culprit.

But man, Shirou sure is absolutely savage towards parts of pride towards certain animals. First breaking that deer’s antlers in the first episode and now this rhino’s horn. Guess it’s like they don’t deserve that which they refer to as a “pride of a beastman” if they’re doing shady things like this.

We also see more of Michiru’s shapeshifting abilities with extending her ears turning into I assume rabbit ears and then change into some sort of bird (I’m guessing rooster) to yell louder for help. That sort of thing definitely screams “I’m genetically engineered” in some form or another. We didn’t get a complete explanation of what is going on Michiru, but it’s only the third episode and I’m sure it will go more in depth, flash back and all in a later episode.

This episode felt a little weird. Maybe it was the pacing. It wasn’t a boring episode and we were given a lot of information about Michiru’s situation and possibly being introduced to a future antagonist. However, there was just something about the whole layout of the episode that left me… confused. Hopefully certain things will be cleared up with the next few episodes.

Also, are we not going to talk about how Shirou fell SEVERAL STORIES and LIVED?! This guy ain’t normal! Not to mention he just walked off that fall like it wasn’t that big a deal… If this guy isn’t Ginrou, I’m not believing any other explanation.