Katt: Gotta love how I said that I would for sure blog the final two episodes of this series…and then skipped episode 11. Go me! And I notice that I have a tendency of not blogging the most exciting episodes of this series. Well, since episode 12 is the finale, it’s guaranteed to be interesting!

In these final two episodes, so many the plot twists were squeezed in. I have to wonder whether it would have been better to have cut down on the drama a bit and focus on one major plot point, maybe reaching a solid conclusion? Maybe? Instead, we’re introduced to a few bizarre turns and even bigger questions – and then given the ending line, “And the pledge would remain unbroken for the rest of their story,” essentially laughing in our faces and saying: yeah, they get their happy ending but you don’t get to see all of the crazy stuff that happens before they get there! Assholes. I digress, though… I liked how certain things were handled and was annoyed at other  things, so this final blog post will be used to vent my opinions on different aspects of this final arc and, specifically, final episode.

The role of Mei Ren

Mei Ren, Mei Ren… I still can’t decide what to make of your role in this anime. At first I thought that her addition was pretty neat, but that was when her mysteries were yet unknown to us and to Akira. Once those mysteries were exposed, I kinda lost interest. Because she was nothing more than an anime addition, her story only had the chance to be heard in these last two episodes (actually, only in the last episode, really). It was extremely intriguing, had a lot of potential for both dark and heartwarming value. We only got to see snippets of that potential in her monologues and very brief flashbacks – what a tease!

Her role as Rozenmann’s assassin/Mina’s double’s servant/agent for the Telomere was overwhelming. It felt like they were trying to cram a whole lot of explanations into one little character, and as a result left us with even more questions than they would have if they kept Mei Ren out. Oh, and let’s make her a beast person too, just for good measure. If they had given her more time to develop all of these many, many sides of her, then fine - but no, she got two measly episodes!!

Akira’s last ~hidden memory~

This. Oh my lord, this. WHY? It is just so…was it really necessary? Really? If they were going for the “Akira and Mina lived happily ever after” ending, then it would have been perfectly logical to have ended on the note of Akira saving Mina from the harassment of the Three Clans/her arranged marriage. Instead, they introduce a random twist in which there are two Minas and Akira (and Mei Ren, apparently) is the only person with this knowledge. And in the end, both Minas still exist, leaving this sudden issue completely unresolved. I will only accept this ridiculousness if they intend to make a sequel to this series; if not, this plot twist is superfluous and just plain annoying!

Mina’s dealings with the Three Clans

What I did undeniably love about this last episode was Mina’s attitude throughout the whole ordeal. She remained incredibly composed while watching the spectacle of Akira’s final battle, only faltering towards the end when her hand was shown to be quivering. She still manages to steady herself, watch the conclusion, and then address her bretheren with that cold, powerful vampire leader attitude of hers. My favourite part of this is when, after she walks away with total composure, Mina breaks into an eager run towards the entrance where Akira will be arriving. A big part of Dance in the Vampire Bund is establishing which Mina is the true Mina (and I don’t mean that in the ‘there are two Minas’ way – I’m ignoring that plot twist), and this simple, excited action says it all to me.

The concluding promise

I said it at the beginning, but I’ll say it again for good measure: HELL YES THEY DANCED IN THE VAMPIRE BUND! …Yes, the silly inclusion of the title within the characters’ actions makes me happy. I’m a dork, I know.

In all seriousness, the ending was nice in a cheesy way – which isn’t always bad. It fit the path that they took with this anime adaptation, following it through with a narrator focused on Akira and Mina’s fairy tale-esque romance. The added metaphor of the butterfly loving the flower came back nicely in the closing scene, as well, showing us that Mina isn’t an emotionless flower who can never return the butterly’s feelings; both she and Akira are butterflies, capable of returning each other’s affections and basking in love for their remaining days. Yep, I think that this ending calls for a big awwwww~

Katt sank her teeth into Dance in the Vampire Bund episode 12…8.5/10
Katt found, overall, Dance in the Vampire Bund’s blood tasted…7.5/10 – I think I would have preferred it so much more had I not read the manga previously. The expectations really messed with my enjoyment of the series.

Katt: Waaaaah, it’s over!!! This is so depressing. What ridiculously melodramatic reverse-harem shoujo series will I watch now?! And this finale…ah, I still don’t know what to think of it really. It made me laugh, it made me ‘aww’ – didn’t make me cry, but maybe that was the reaction they were going for when I ended up laughing. And the conclusion was satisfying in its own way, but I guess I was just expecting more from it as a whole. As parts, though, this episode had lots of merits, and as such, I will break it down into parts to fully appreciate it!

The laughs: I love how exaggerated this series is

We were all wondering what Yui was doing in the preview for this episode – well, she basically serves as some sort of narrator whose presence really isn’t needed. I think I could have figured out the timeline just fine without her. But, I’m not bringing Yui up just to criticize him. I am bringing her up for the hilarious fact that she was soooo excited to read Kajika letter: she drops all other mail, carelessly tosses aside her shoes, and runs up to her room…..only to take the time to change out of her school uniform before actually sitting down and reading the letter. Really? REALLY? I mean, I sympathetize with being eager to change out of a school uniform, but if I were that damn excited for a letter I think I would tough it out and just read it while in my school clothes.

You know those cheesy moments where the heros are perplexed, at a loss for what to do on their own, when all of a sudden some guy shows up and basically announces “I have the solution!”? Noei was that guy. He literally climbed up to a balcony (I don’t know how), jumped over it and epically interjects into the conversation with a, “Leave that task up to me!” I think Noei single-handedly brought this series to a new level of ridiculously overdone. Thank you, Sir, for being too cool to just take the door.

Plot twiiiiist! Okay, so it was a purely platonic thing, sort of a parallel to the Rumaty-Quinza bond, but it would have made a pretty memorable final episode if Li-Ren decided to run away with Zao instead of Kajika. Oh, and speaking of running away with Kajika…

IT’S THE BUBBLY, SPARKLY SHOUJO RUN!! This was what I was waiting for the entire episode, and yes, it toootally made me laugh! I was a little disappointed that Kajika wasn’t actuall running, just kinda standing there and sparkling, but the fact that Li-Ren initiated the run and looked completely awkward surrounded by all of those bubbles and sparkles and pink made up for it completely. A moment worth waiting 39 episodes for.

I’ve been making fun of these rich kids faaar too much lately to not mention this moment. To be able to immaturely retort, “Yeah, well, I have a helicopter too!” to someone… rich bastards indeed. At least their wealth has been used for intentional comedical value lately. Also, I love Eugene for being like, “This is my helicopter so I will intrude on your lovefest if I want to!” in the first place.

The <3 for Li-Ren/Kajika

Honestly, what can I really say on this matter? I may not primarily ship Li-Ren/Kajika, but after that initial ridiculous shoujo run, their interaction was very very sweet. For fear that any fangirling of mine won’t do the pairing justice (thanks to my Rumaty and Eugene biases), here are some screenshots that just reek of <3 <3 <3:

I know we’re all thinking it, so let’s just get it out of the way now: awwwwwwwwww.

The conclusion: life’s lookin’ okay in the end

Eugene was making us feel so completely and hopelessly depressed for him, yet he looks to be adjusting just fine to the Li-Ren/Kajika conclusion! Sure, he may not get Kajika as a lover, but he will always be that beloved pet to her (and sugar daddy since she and Li-Ren are now hobos relying on his support). I know that it’s optimistic to think that Eugene is happy with this situation, I know that he’s just wearing a mask again…by getting to stay by Kajika’s side, though, I know that Eugene will at least get to experience some joy in his life, and that’s enough for me.

The Rumaty and Harry bonding–loved it! Harry has known all along that Rumaty was his nephew, though now that Rumaty has come to realize this relationship as well, the possibility of them connecting as family is introduced. Their dynamics are very entertaining, with Harry letting down his composed exterior a bit and Rumaty reverting to that whiny boy as he talks about how he lost Kajika to Li-Ren. My favourite part about it, though? Harry’s remark about introducing Rumaty to some girls, and the resulting joke of a marriage game for Rumaty: I would so watch that sequel!!

The Carl fans might not be satisfied with the fact that his I-will-never-love-another-woman speech seems to have been genuine, but at least we get to see that he does have someone to love. Through the series’ events, Carl has come to realize that his dad loved him all along, and hey – Carl loves his dad too. Now Carl can dedicate some time to bonding with the man who raised him – not as a figure of authority, but as a father. And maybe once he manages to open his heart to his dad,  he’ll be more willing to step out of his comfort zone in other regards and pick up some ladies.

In this ending scene, Machaty’s wise words from the last episode are repeated as a collective moral to the anime, I suppose. Even though they are said in a flashback sense, words that are nothing more than memories in other people’s minds, Najayra hears them. Recall that Najayra had lost the ability to hear the voice of God - so now, upon hearing Machaty’s timeless quote, this most likely means two things: Machaty has died, and in doing so HE IS TOTALLY GOD. True message of this entire series, readers: Machaty. is. God.

But oh wait, we of course needed to have another Li-Ren/Kajika moment at the very last moment of the series. They finally get their time together back on Givori Island (which they own…goddamn it, even as hobos they own an island!), their special place, with a happy ending that seemingly will never be put at risk again. A wonderfully cheesy ending to a wonderfully cheesy series–emphasis on the wonderful!

This is a series that I felt had to be enjoyed with a good balance of seriousness and humour. If you took everything in this series at face value it would be melodramatic to the max as I have conveyed in past posts; however, with the ability to laugh at those things that are overdone, it became really enjoyable to me. Sure, perhaps that was for the wrong reasons…but it’s the entertainment value that counts. The romance was well done for the most part. Even though the end pair was made obvious from the get-go, that didn’t stop me from growing attached to all of the other romance candidates and wishing for their well-being, which is a sign that the original mangaka created some incredible, loveable, memorable characters. This even goes for secondary characters! I’ll fully admit that there were moments where things dragged out too long or were resolved far too quickly, but that didn’t stop the series from being good overall. It might not be a classic, but Hanasakeru Seishounen is a great way to fill a shoujo fix if you want something more in-depth than your typical high school romance. <3

Katt’s love-metre for Hanasakeru Seishounen episode 39 measures…9/10
Katt’s love-metre for Hanasakeru Seishounen overall measures…8/10

Is this farewell, my beloved readers? I’ve been saying it for a while now, but just to reiterate: this is the saddest part about this series ending! I need to pick up more longer series so that I can find more groups of such great readers and commenters to constantly stop by to discuss with me~ But let’s not make this parting too melodramatic– No, let’s do what we do best and talk about this episode! And if we ever cross paths again, we can look forward to a reunion worth of Kajika and Li-Ren’s slow-mo shoujo run, bubbly background and all.

Katt: The countdown to the final Hanasakeru Seishounen episode continues–just two to go! Seriously, what am I going to do with this series over? I mean, I still have other series to blog, but I’m going to miss my regular commenters for this series… *tear* Okay, okay, I’ll save the sentimentality for the finale.

(more…)

Katt: I’m not gonna lie, I was originally thinking that I’d probably skip blogging Hanasakeru Seishounen again this week…but then I watched episode 34 and, yeah, this isn’t one of those episodes that I can get away with skipping. Way too much happens in both the political and romantical (wow, thanks to Ric I am making up words) departments. Where we left of last episode, Carl’s evil–or possibly just misunderstood–sister Isabella had informed Quinza of Kajika’s place in the Raginei royal family, and coincidentally Kajika happens to be left at the hideout with just a couple of guards because Li-Ren and Eugene are off to see Rumaty’s return at the airport. Sound like a perfect recipe for a bad situation to you? It better.

The political: The king has left returned to the building country

Although Rumaty was officially denied entrance to Raginei, he went on ahead and let himself in anyway. They couldn’t really get away with shooing his plane away,  now, could they? And this arrival of his plane in itself feeds the flames of change an awful lot–most notably in the public’s reaction. A whole lot of the general population supports him already. There’s a huge group of people waiting at the airport for his arrival, quite reminiscent of when a big-name band’s plane touches down and all of the fans are there screaming and waving signs…except Rumaty doesn’t really get any “Marry me, Rumaty!!” signs. How sad for him.

On top of the public’s support, people closer to the king are showing signs of shifting their loyalty. It’s the palace military’s authority that ultimately lets Rumaty leave the plane, and the religious figures don’t seem interested in opposing him. Even the palace members who support Somand can’t help but be somewhat swayed when they meet with Rumaty; even though he doesn’t have the title, his attitude just exerts royalty: he is the king. Everyone knows and respects it, which I have to say is pretty entertaining. The moment he gets off of the plane, he just starts spouting orders and everyone complies. You go, Rumaty!

Add to all of this a plan to make a huge public speech– it looks like Raginei will be getting its new king soon!

The villainous: Is this the end of Quinza?!

Considering that it doesn’t take much to make Quinza go a little crazy, news of Kajika being Raginei’s true heir sends him on a killing spree. While Kajika manages to avoid his initial arrival at the hideout, her appointed guards aren’t so fortunate. The scene in which Kajika comes out of her room and finds Quinza has such a horror movie vibe; it made me want to play a video game in which you play as Kajika and have to run around a decrepit manor while being chased by Quinza. And then you have to suck him up with a vacuum!…wait, that’s Luigi’s Mansion.

A-Anyway… While that scene has a horror movie vibe, it quickly shifts to a bad action film as Kajika escapes and a rootstop chase ensues. I don’t know why this scenario cracked me up, but it did. Just…Kajika jumping from roof to roof and looking back to find Quinza still pursuing her? It was entertaining! Though Kajika greatly disappointed me when she thought something along the lines, “Someone, please rescue me!” Ugh. Really now, just waiting for someone to come to your rescue? Kajika should really start carrying a bottle of mace around for self-defense of something, because she is really incapable of helping herself.

When crazy Quinza seems to have Kajika’s death in his reach, he gets shot by none other than Li-Ren and falls from the top of a building. Could it be? Is Quinza defeated, dead, gone?! …No. Somehow, upon seeing the preview for episode 35, he’s not dead. I suppose with five more episodes to go and no other major villain in sight, this is to be expected.

The romance: Yes, my friends, Kajika/Li-Ren has happened 

Let’s backtrack for a minute, though. As Quinza poises his knife to stab Kajika, she doesn’t call out to God or her dad or Eugene, Carl, or Rumaty–no no, she calls out for Li-Ren. And as if that call for help was like illuminating the Bat Signal in the sky, Li-Ren appears and saves the damsel in distress! But I’ve already covered this.

It’s after he saves her that things get interesting. They share a moment–that I found quite awkwardly-translated, admittedly–that is endearing because of Li-Ren’s show of emotion. It’s probably the element of his character that has been built up the most in this series, his emotionlessness. While he breaks from this cold exterior now and then, this is probably the most he’s allowed himself to do so in front of someone else: he trembles from his fear that something could have happened to Kajika, that he could have lost her forever. It merits an ‘awwww’, I have to say.

And then… the kiss. Rumaty got his, so now it is Li-Ren’s turn, and as much as I hate to admit it, this kiss has a much more romantic feel to it. Unlike Rumaty’s spontaneous kiss, this one is the typical, mutual kiss where both characters know that it’s time for it to happen and they both want it to happen. It shows that their minds are in the same place. But with five episodes left, is this really the end of the romance? Can Kajika and Li-Ren live happily ever after, just like that? I doubt it, and hope for more conflict to come.

Katt’s love-metre for Hanasakeru Seishounen episode 34 measures: 9.5/10
Katt’s love-metre expects Hanasakeru Seishounen episode 35 to be: 9/10

Katt: I have both anticipated and dreaded this day… Yes, my dear bloggees: Kemono no Souja Erin has come to an end. I’ve spent a good part of the day checking to see if the sub had been posted yet and am sorely disappointed that I’ve only gotten to watch it now, at midnight! Because of the combination of tiredness and a lil’ bit of alcohol in my system, I can’t be sure that I’ve experienced this finale to its fullest. But I’ll just continue on and pretend that I have, so play along with me, okay?

Honestly, I expected more of this. That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I definitely did! But…I guess I was expected more of an emotional impact? A little more struggle before the ‘happily ever after’ that I knew would come. Instead, things went a bit too smoothly in this series that has stood out for me as never taking the easy route.

The beginning…was not to my liking

The first half of the episode had such a foreign feeling to me. I’m sure it had something to do with the mix of a different style of graphics and new background music–there was an element of comfort in the consistent style and mood of this series that this spontaneous change threw me off in a bad way. I can understand wanting the final episode to stand out as being better than the rest, but I don’t think that it was approached in the right way.

Added to the more superficial level, the plot itself seemed a little weird to me. The approach of the cavalry was built up in the last episode, but I just found their decision to start shooting at Lilan completely, hm–how to put this?–moronic. There might have been a purpose in that (I mean, we obviously weren’t meant to understand where these goons were coming from), but really, they have a huuuge target to aim at and they still manage to hit Erin instead of Lilan. By no means am I saying that I wanted to see Lilan get hit; I am just saying that a little bit of logic behind the miss would have been nice. Even an, ‘oops, my finger slipped’ moment. Thanks to that ridiculousness, I didn’t have much of an emotional response to Erin getting hit. More of an, “Uh…what?” reaction at a moment where I should have been crying out, “Noooo!!”

Erin’s helpless action of removing the mute whistle was one that I should have loved, thanks to my fondness for symbolism in this series; instead, I was left a little confused by it. I couldn’t decide if Erin was doing it as a threat to Lilan, or as a message of freedom…or both? In retrospect I’m pretty sure that the ambiguity was the point. To Erin, it was probably a way of freeing herself from that shackle, but she intended for Lilan to perceive it as a threat so that she would fly away. And then when Lilan did fly away, it was…what? Two whole metres away? Here I was anticipating Lilan dropping Shunan off by Seimiya and then flying off into the wilderness, never to be seen again in the tragic parting of human and wild animal. Instead, it was rather anti-climactic. I was just not hugely keen on this beginning portion of the episode.

As it went on…it definitely got better

When the typical ‘something dramatic is about to happen’ BGM starting playing, I felt in my comfort zone again. The regular feel of this series was back and I was very, very pleased. The entire scene where the tohdas rise and swarm towards Erin, paralleled with Soyon’s demise, did its job in raising anxiety for both Erin’s literal impending death and her emotional instability when she finds herself in her mother’s execution situation.

Though unlike Soyon’s execution, Erin is saved before the tohdas reach her. Without even using the player’s technique as Soyon had resorted to doing to save Erin so many years ago, Lilan flies in rescues Erin of her own will. It took half of the episode to get there, but when Lilan flies down and gently picks Erin up in her mouth, I finally felt strongly moved. One of the most impacting moments for me was seeing how, even though Lilan was using her teeth to hold onto Erin, she was careful not to hold on too tightly or hurt Erin in any way. Remembering the two past events where Lilan has seriously bitten Erin, this scene is really touching. It wasn’t an easy road by any means, but at this instant the strength of Erin and Lilan’s bond has undoubtedly been proven, described by the characters as being like a mother and child.

As lovely as this pleasant moment is, I would have been annoyed if the happy ending had been reached already. After all, there is one more thing needed for this to be a typical Kemono no Souja Erin episode: Damiya ruining a good resolution! While his schemes are usually drawn out over a long period of time, there is hardly any time left here, which sadly makes this speedy scene not too dramatic. Damiya grabs knife, runs at Shunan and Seimiya, and Ial stabs him. And that’s the end of Damiya. After all of that manipulation, him suddenly being killed seemed too simple…though I’ll admited that I wanted to shout a, ”You go, Ial!!” when he actually stabbed Damiya. I was expecting him to just knock the knife out of his hands and seize him again–but no, he went in for the kill! A pleasant surprise, finally putting an end to everyone’s favourite creeper, Damiya.

The epilogue-ish ending…

Because just leaving it at Damiya being killed wouldn’t have been satisfying at all (and that isn’t sarcasm); this is the type of series that needs a ‘what happened to them?’ ending. As it turns out, everyone gets their ideal endings, pretty much. The only person who doesn’t really get any answers is Nugan, but I suppose we can just assume that he was scared straight when Lilan ate up his tohda.

There are a couple of hook-ups, namely the obvious Seimiya and Shunan marriage that we can all hope will be as ideal as it seems. And then it looks like Yuuyan got together with her Kazalm crush in the end, too! Kazalm itself can obviously return to its peaceful ways (and poor Tomura gets to spend his career stuck with a bunch of men), and even Erin’s hometown of Aka village will get the chance to improve with its new veteranarian, Kilik, who I’d expect would bring Erin’s ideals to the village. The spread of Erin’s ideals of freedom for the beasts can be seen in effect with the tohdas swimming freely and the beast-lords being kept by Erin and her family, instead of caged. On the note of Erin and her family…

We get to see Erin’s son, Jesse, who kind of made me giggle with his hilarious face, but…NO IAL?! Okay, this is not cool at all. WHY would they not show us who Erin’s husband/this kid’s father is? We KNOW Ial’s the daddy and YOU know it too–so show us a cute family scene! What’s wrong with you people?! Waaah, the fangirl in me is displeaaased!

…’kay now make the next two novels into a series too, okay? Because even if this final episode wasn’t as great as I expected, I did love it and I love this series as a whole. Undoubtedly one of my favourites, if not my new all-time favourite anime!

Katt’s rating for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 50: 8/10
Katt’s overall <3<3<3 for Kemono no Souja Erin: 10/10 (I WENT THERE!)

Katt: Uh oh. I have something to confess… I think my sudden intrigue in the Erin/Ial pairing from a few episodes back has grown into a genuine love for it. Thanks to that, I’m going to have to use this Erin/Ial-centred episode as an opportunity to do a bit of fangirling. Sorry– I have to, or else I’ll explode from containing my inner fangirl-squeals. It’s a bad way to go. Aside from that, I just have to say: only four episodes left?! I’m getting depressed just thinking about this series ending!

So on to releasing my inner fangirl… Oh, and this means adapting a Minnie style of blogging just for this one time. Once this is out of my system, I promise that I won’t dedicate any more entire posts to Erin/Ial again…maybe…

Wounded and poisoned, Ial gathers up all of the energy that he has left and goes to the beastlords’ stable where he knows Erin will be. He has lost his ‘mother’ figure and has been betrayed by the people who gave him a new life when he was forced to leave his old one–Erin is the only person in the world that he has left. The poor guy!

Thankfully Erin can help: she’s a doctor! Well, a beastlord vet…but I guess that stitches come down to the same procedure for humans and beasts. Except humans have to be stripped to get stitches. I bet Erin doesn’t mind.

If Damiya were watching someone sleep, it would be creepy, but it’s okay because Erin is the one doing it so it just seems sweet. Ial is very vulnerable in his sleep, showing emotional reactions to his dreams that he’d never show if he were conscious.

Erin apparently finds this vulnerablility endearing, so she holds his hand to comfort him in his sleep. Big awwww~ In these two who have lost almost everyone dear to them, they only have each other to find comfort in. If Ial will only accept comfort in his sleep, then so be it! When he wakes up though, the frail part of him still shows when he tears up upon remembering Erin’s words from the last time that they met one-on-one. As someone who has been trained as a shield and not as a human being, Ial really needs Erin to bring back that human part of him.

Pretty much everything that Erin and Ial say to each other is incredibly endearing–albeit very typical. Which is fine by me because 1) romance is really just an aside in this series, and 2) being typical doesn’t stop it from making me go AWWW THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. Case and point: this “I will leave you to protect you!”/”No no, don’t leave scene!”

Kilik is a voyeeeeeur. He walks up, peeks into the stable with the intention of ambushing Ial, but then he sees them together and thinks that they are a damn fine couple and thus leaves them be. Makes perfect sense in my head. (Although I’d like the point out that he stands there for quite a long time, so maybe he was hoping to see a little something more. …yeah, I’m abusing the winking smilie a bit in this entry.)

“I have a favour to ask. Can you play the lyre for me? I want to hear the pure melodies that you create.”

The harp was the thing that brought this two together–what, seven or eight years ago? Back then it was Ial playing for Erin, but now it is her playing that has become a soothing factor for him. And she still has that same old (altered, mind you) harp that he left for her all those years back then.

Mandatory moment of ’awwww, they fell asleep on each other’s shoulers~~’ fangirling. I think I found it cuter when Ial fell asleep on Erin than when she fell asleep on him…is that weird?

But their sweet little moment can’t last, of course, because…..

CREEPER ALERT. Damiya follows the trail of Ial’s blood to the beastlord stables and finds Erin there. When he encounters her, he exposes a big secret about himself. Do you know what that is? It’s that he’s a closet Erin/Ial shipper! That’s why he asks Erin if she likes him (and in my head it’s asked in a, “Ooh, do you liiiike~ that man?” tone). He wants fodder for his canon pairing.

Yeesh, I knew that Erin would hide Ial in with the beastlords, but I didn’t know that she would hide him under Lilan! That is not a place that I would like to be.

Erin and Ial have an exchange of innermost thoughts. Erin admits that her biggest dream is to have the beastlords live free as they are meant to, and that she would willingly sacrifice herself in order to attain that. Unlike Kilik who freaks out when he finds that Erin might have the intention of killing herself, Ial processes it in a composed manner. Even if there is some kind of love developing between these two, Erin’s main passion is life is the freedom of the beastlords and Ial respects that.

And finally, we get the chance to hear Ial’s backstory straight from his mouth. None of these sporadic flashbacks or Damiya-gossip. He runs it all by Erin in the same manner that she did when she told him about where she grew up, her mother’s death, and all of those other secrets of her past that she kept quiet about. I loved the parallel between that past scene and this one.

“When I heard you play the lyre, Ial-san, I felt something warm. It felt like I was with my late mother.”

The jury’s still out on whether this is cute or creepy, though my bias is leaning towards cute. Erin likens the warmth and comfort that she felt hearing Ial’s harp-playing so many years ago to the presence of her mother. It’s kind of like Kilik looking at Erin and seeing his sister in her, and yet giving off hmm-I-might-like-her vibes. I don’t think that it’s meant to be taken as creepy, though, but instead as Erin finding the comfort of family in someone else. And really, when people become a couple or even very close friends, their bond is as close as that of family, right? It’s a wonderful thing that Erin could find that in someone else–and it would do Ial good, too, since he doesn’t have any family to speak of, either.

Ah, the stained solider… Once he’s seen death, been the cause of it, he can never return wholeheartedly to the ‘normal’ world. He clearly needs the affections of a fair maiden to help him settle down into the family life that he’s always dreamed of~

“Your life is like that of the tohdas. As eggs, they’re taken away from the mother. They were just bred to fight. They are such lonely beasts.”

This comparison between Ial and the tohdas is so very Erin that I can’t help but love it. Even though it’s a situation that we’ve seen a squillion times before–the soldier forced to abandon emotion, the woman who wants to break that cold barrier–Erin doesn’t reach into clichés to explain it. She reaches into her own experiences and compares Ial to her experiences in the field she’s passionate about. This is why Erin is my hero.

Mind you, Ial doesn’t seem to get it. I guess he isn’t as up on his tohda-raising knowledge as Erin is. He still sees fighting as the only way to go, the only way to help Erin reach Semiya and crush Damiya’s plans to raise a beastlord army. His words make it seem like he should be coming off as the knight in shining armour, but… 

“I will keep fighting with these hands that you protected. For the late Queen also. I will fight until the end!”
“That’s how you’ve lived your life. For the Majesty Shin-Oh. You’re really a person that cares for your family, but…the silent whistle that binds you is no longer there. Why? Why don’t you want to grab a hold of happiness with this? Your right hand?!”

Erin JUST SAID that he didn’t have to fight anymore. Damnit, Ial, LISTEN! Now you’ve made her use more veterenary metaphors.

At least he realizes that he didn’t say the right words and hugs it out instead of talking anymore. It’s the right course of action to comfort Erin and, more importantly, it gets a big AWWWWWWW and many <3s from me: <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Katt’s rating for Kemono no Souja episode 46: 9.5/10 (-0.5 because of a failure to react to the poison that is still kind of Ial’s body…antitode, please? Also Ial’s failure to notice Erin’s missing fingers. You two still have ways to go together.)
Katt’s anticipation for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 47: 9/10