Things I would never do: have a drink with Damiya and NOT expect it to be drugged.

Katt: As I watch all of the anime I’m dedicated to that have subs released on Sundays, it’s just so obvious which ones I need to give blogging priority to. (‘kay admittedly I’ve only watched this and Hanasakeru Seishounen so far, but shh!) This week, the plot of Kemono no Souja Erin is really coming together quickly. Our villain has been revealed (as if we didn’t know already) and the team of allies to Erin is becoming clear. Oh, and Damiya is a bigger creeper than ever. A-Anyway, I’m going to look at the three main players in this episode and how I expect them to act from here on out.

Our villain: Damiya

In case you didn’t notice, I titled this entry ‘Damiya takes ‘creeper’ to a new level’. Sure, this statement could have been made a long while ago when he showed overall suspicious behaviour, or when it got more specific with his meeting with Kilik, or just last episode when he locked the door when he and Erin were alone together–but the creeper alert really went off this episode when he and Semiya got engaged. Whuuut? I saw this coming when he initiated the marriage conversation with Semiya after the past queen died, though that still doesn’t make it any less creepy. Seriously, dude! You’re such a creeper!

On top of this, Damiya has really messed up ideals. While characters like Shunan are working to found a logical order for the country, Damiya is of the mindset that the world is fine and dandy as is, for this is the pure order of things. …Uh huh–assassinating the queen and attacking your countrymen and marrying a girl like thirty years your junior is totally pure.

…Yeah, Damiya somehow got the shortest section of this entry even though I mentioned him in the title. That just shows how overpowering his creeper vibes are.

Bad-to-good?: Kilik

Kilik has been one of those mystery characters since he was introduced, which is somewhat odd because we’ve seen into his mind quite a lot. There have been tons of fragmented flashbacks of his past and snippets of conversations with Damiya, from which I easily gathered that he was, of course, working for Damiya, but the childhood memories have always kind of eluded me. I’ve always gotten some facts like his sister was killed and he killed his ‘parents’ and something-something anti-Wajaku…now let me try to piece all of this together.

Kilik and his little sister, Taya, were raised by a Wajaku couple–the husband had apparently had some connection to Kilik’s biological father, who was a Ho-Lon aristocrat. While they seemed kind to take the two in, they were really in it to gain status; however, they eventually turned against the two because they were Ho-Lon people, which is where Taya’s death comes in. I’m not sure if we’ll ever really understand why they took such drastic measures to make their point or why they left Kilik alive, but it certainly explains his decision to poison his adoptive parents and dedicate himself to Damiya’s anti-Wajaku cause by becoming his assassin.

When it really comes down to it, though, Kilik is less about fighting the Wajaku and more about fighting whatever threatens purity (which, to him, Taya was the essence of). He sees a lot of Taya’s purity in Erin, as was shown when he imagined seeing Taya flying on Lilan’s back quite a few episodes ago–this is definitely leading him to become more sympathetic to Erin’s cause than to Damiya’s, and by this episode’s end we get the sense that he is ready to officially switch sides, thanks to a little guidance as to what living ‘purely’ is from our constant good guy, Ial.

Loyal boy-toy: Ial

With all of these questionable motives being thrown around, Ial is such a breath of fresh air. He is a good guy through and through, which unfortunately puts him in a difficult place now that Damiya has the ultimate authority (psh, Semiya? Useless). He, along with all of the other surviving Sezans, have basically been fired, though that isn’t stopping him and his buddy from investigating the attack that was made on the late queen. They’ve discovered that Erin’s observation of the lack of tohda brands was true, and all subsequent sleuthing has pointed towards one culprit: Damiya. Dun dun duuun! Good thing Ial’s on team Erin, eh?

As one could guess based on the decision to dismiss all of the past Sezans, Damiya is not exactly trusting of Ial and the others. But mostly just Ial. Damiya brings him into his chambers and, over a glass of wine, exposes pretty much all of his intentions to Ial: those of the aforementioned purity of the country, as well as his intent to use Erin to achieve it. The villain tendancy to expose your plans when you have the upperhand is always kind of odd, though I guess it’s kind of justified in this situation because Damiya has had Kilik poison Ial. As far as we know right now, the poison is still in Ial’s system, but will Kilik’s inevitable change of heart lead to him sharing the antidote with Ial? He’d better!

Katt’s rating for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 45: 8.5/10
Katt’s anticipation for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 46: 9/10

More Erin and Ial? Yes please~