Alice puts more of her plans into motion and does a little kidnapping as well.
What They Say:
Haruaki, Harue and Kirika are kidnapped by Alice, who explains just what the Viviolio Families represent. Someone comes to the rescue… but only saves one of them?!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the threat that Alice represents more known now to the group as they understand she’s engaging in a series of serial murders, that’s forcing them to take a more reactive approach to things, but one with a bit of thought going into it. Part of the problem is the belief that Kuroe may be in part responsible for this because of her broken curse, which may not be broken, so she does her best to try and sideline herself. But there’s just a lot of frustrations that come from this, especially with Fear as she thinks that Kuroe may not have gotten rid of her curses which puts a damper on her own ability to deal with her own curses.
Interestingly, Alice is pretty blunt yet mysterious about what she’s doing as she approaches the group as Haruaki’s house without an issue. She tries to be divisive, but it’s apparent what she’s doing which makes it easy for them to realize it and not fall for it. But it’s something that doesn’t drive wedges specifically, but breaks up the easy camaraderie of the group. Amusingly, Kuroe is the first one to be taken down and left pretty much as a doll that can’t move. It’s a nice little trick that lets Alice take control of Kirika and Haruaki, binding them in her control for the time being in order to get them to work for the Families so that she can draw Fear into it as well, as Fear continues to be her main objective at this point. If Alice can be trusted to be truthful at all, as she hasn’t exactly offered up much that makes her so since her introduction.
Amusingly, as serious as the show gets along the way as Alice reveals herself to Fear and Konoha while having the other three trapped, it does still have some time for a bit of humor. A lot of it comes from the trapped segment where Haruaki gets some choice views of Kirika as she’s bound up and even Kuroe gets in on the commentary in a cute way. But even that falls off quickly when the principal shows up out of the blue and makes his own move, reinforcing what he’d said previously about her not getting involved in all of this. He adds some lightness to the proceedings at first, but it turns very, very dark along the way as he talks about just how badly everything can go when it comes to what Alice has planned for them and the Vivolio Families in general. It adds wonderfully to the atmosphere and puts a lot of attention and pressure on Kirika in a positive way as she’s forced to really decide what she wants to do with her life.
In Summary:
C3 sets the stage for the season finale pretty well here by focusing on Alice to some good effect as we see what she’s up to and how she’s manipulated things since Kuroe returned to town. Kuroe plays well into things here, though I had my hesitations about her at first, largely because she’s levelheaded and just has fun with things. The real winner for this episode though is that of Kirika as she’s put into some tough positions from the get go and this is her last chance to either really change things or embrace who she is at this point. With her history with Haruaki as complicated as it is, especially with Fear in the picture, so seeing this start to be dealt with here in the manner to which the series does best, atmospheric and moody, makes for a whole lot of fun.
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.