My gosh… Bones… what are you doing? They keep cutting out scenes while putting things out of order… Making certain bonds that are supposed to be really important hold no weight. Thus this arc is feeling like a rushed mess. So many scenes feels like we missed a scene in between and just rearranging events out of order. At this point it feels like the anime is just a speedrun of this arc as if they want to also cover the next arc as soon as possible… even though the arc after this one isn’t even done yet! This arc was really good in the manga so the fact that they’re just giving us the bare minimum is such a shame. At this rate, I’d just recommend to go read the manga because at least the pacing in that feels better in comparison.
Going back to look at the manga for a comparison… they really did just take out the meat out of Chloe’s background. In the anime, they just TELL us that the Marquis died and then his wife killed herself, but in the manga we actually see the wife confront Chloe about the situation all the while blaming her before attempting to kill her herself if not for Jean-Jaques’ intervention. It just feels like such wasted potential because I do feel like you feel for Chloe so much more in the manga while here it feels more akin to: oh, alright then. They even cut out a lot of dialogue that either tells you more about the character and their motivations. Noe and Jean-Jaques had a little bit more interaction in the manga where it helps to show their budding friendship and why Jean-Jaques wanted to keep Noe out of it.
I don’t want to keep talking about what the anime didn’t do compared to the manga… but with how badly paced it was, it’s hard not to. The build up to the reveal of Jean-Jaques being the beast didn’t feel satisfying. His story also felt extremely choppy due to how this episode was done. The way we find out he’s a vampire was vastly different with how we found out in the manga. Noe was the one to find out in present time when having a moment with Jean-Jaques rather than find out through a flashback. We get a clearer image of what Jean-Jaques has been going through in the manga with and why he felt so attached to Chloe. No one in his life had protected him except for Chloe. Which makes me really annoyed at this episode for taking out a very important line that Jean-Jaques says to Noe. “Because you saved me from Jeanne.” Which was one of the main reasons as to why Jean-Jaques took a liking to Noe while also revealing him to be the beast at the same time. Which then takes Noe a moment to really understand what he meant… which makes me so frustrated because that was such a good moment in the manga. Especially when protecting and being protected is such an important and vital part to Jean-Jaques as a character. Since that was the main reason for him to become the beast in the first place.
The whole part where it shows us people are pinning the blame on Chloe for mysterious deaths just felt like another history lesson where as in the manga it showed Chloe constantly being hunted and blamed for things she didn’t even do. We didn’t even get to see the bond with her family over the generations and why it meant so much for her to be human again. All of this lead up to her breakdown and eventually accepting to become a curse bearer, which was all shown in the manga but was just told in the anime, which definitely lessened the impact. They even took out the part where Chloe actually kills Jean-Jaques’ father in order to save him, demonstrating just how much he meant to her. Chloe is supposed to be the main focus of this arc and instead it feels like we’re just speeding through her story while the episode slows down just for the Vanitas and Noe scene. I feel like I hardly know Chloe in this adaptation even though we got her flashback. Even her unfortunate reunion with Jeanne felt extremely underwhelming despite their bond being very important.
We end off the episode with everyone gathered together again to try and kill the other. Along with Chloe making a power move to instead of destroying Gevaudan like Naenia said she would, she put Naenia in a physical form so she would be able to kill her instead. I know I’m a broken record but… wow… this was so much better in the manga…
This episode feels so incomplete. You can tell that things are missing just how some scenes just cut to another. I understand that sometimes they can’t fit everything into an adaptation, but when it feels like we’re missing vital pieces of information… that’s a problem. I am completely appalled at how they are handling this arc yet I am most likely going to watch this to the end. This arc is such a hefty part of the manga that I can’t believe they are shaving it down to what I am assuming half of this season. This arc definitely deserved a full cour to itself or else it’ll end up… well, coming out like THIS. I feel like Bones has been dropping the ball a bit with its adaptations lately. First with My Hero and now this. I can only hope that they don’t drop the ball when the third season of Mob comes out. But man, at this rate, I feel like they’re aiming for an anime only ending to this cour rather than leaving it up to debate whether it’ll get a second season since the manga isn’t done yet. Don’t do it Bones… DON’T DO IT.
Is this because they don’t have enough budget? Because they don’t have enough budget to make longer episodes so they have to cut a lot of important facts and scenes that’s supposed to give more emotional impact and more thorough explanation about the characters? I’m crying with the pacing here…(TT_TT)
It’s hard to say since there isn’t any official statement of what’s going on. And while I can understand cutting certain things out to save time, the things they cut out were very important to the overall storytelling of the characters and situations which is incredibly frustrating. It’s unfortunate that anime-only’s are only getting a paraphrased version of the story.