The truth of what’s haunting Fear is revealed and it’s surprisingly intense.
What They Say:
The battle with Peavey Barowoi refreshes unwanted memories within Fear. The unbalanced Fear runs away from home, but with dozens of magical and deadly torture devices at her disposal, she’s still a menace to her friends, as well as to herself!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the first two episodes of the series, we had a somewhat traditional approach to things with a darker edge to it that was certainly appealing when it came to Fear herself. With this installment, and the fight that she had, Fear has made it clear the extent of her real issue as a curse. While she caused the deaths of hundreds in her time, taking human form was something that made it all the more painful. She may not have wanted to cause what happened, but she did, and now that she’s in human form she’s come to understand what guilt is. And that’s weighing heavily on her now as she wonders where her punishment is for all that she did over the years to others. It’s not something that Haruaki can smooth over with her quickly if at all.
And Fear has reached that point that even though she was sent to Haruaki with the hopes of fixing things, nothing can be fixed. And that gets her to simply leave in the middle of the night. And that’s something that Konoha does her best to convince Haruaki may be a good thing since she’s not someone that he can help in her mind. That won’t fit with the typical nature of a male lead of course and Haruaki has to go out in the rain and wind to try and find her. It’s no surprise that Fear is acting out, though even Kirika come across her and realized that something is wrong with her. It’s an awkward conversation that she has with Haruaki over what he wants to do as there’s a certain hesitancy on her part to help him, but it’s easy to hear the concern in his voice which does spur her on.
A good part of the episode is given over to the internal struggle that Fear is going through and it is well done, both in the internal monologue she goes through as well as the general visuals of it as it has a dark look with some neat layouts and a solid sense of direction. There’s a dark look to it that’s definitely appealing and it really shines when it hits the moment when Haruaki finds her because it’s such a brief intense rush of amazing colors. While you know things will be resolved, the fun is in watching how dramatic they manage to make a third episode of a series. Often this comes much closer to the end of a run, or even halfway if it’s decently done, but they’ve hit it early here and made Fear a more interesting character because of it as her flaws and guilt are laid bare.
In Summary:
I fell out of C3 temporarily due to the large number of shows running, but the series is one that’s definitely worth coming back to if just for the visuals alone. This episode ramps up the emotional factor nicely and gives us a look at what makes Fear tick, which is a bit earlier in the series than I expected but it’s well done. Though the way the pair come back together is predictable, it’s not a bad thing as it gets them on the right path again and moving forward. They do need to start fleshing out the main cast itself a bit more and shaping up the storyline a bit as it’s still somewhat undefined at this point. Haruaki in particular needs to be more than just the latest bland male lead that’s serviceable but no more. Beyond that though, it has a lot of potential and definitely has me curious to see where it will go.
Grade: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: Nico Nico
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.