The danger from the Student Council may be over, but there are always other enemies out there, some very close to home. And some who may not be as hostile as they wish to be…
What They Say:
Episode 7: “The Silver Coins of Balance”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So, we have a meeting with the Student Council President and Vice President. It appears that Ruka Shihoudou has decided to stop her pursuit of Iwai, preferring to focus her attention on whipping Romio (literally). The truce now in effect, things should not be quite so worrisome at school. Ruka also passes on a letter from Gossip.
Kiri and Iwai hang out with Yamane, who is waiting for her sister Houko to show up. We get to see a…very different side of Houko, who appears to be a rather delicate and cute girl in her persona with her high school friends. Not at all like the Houko we see on a regular basis and in fact it embarrasses the heck out of her when Kiri and Iwai see her like that. Yamane apologizes for the intrusion on her normal life, but Kiri and Iwai have told Yamane about the letter from Gossip and Houko is the one who might know the most about the message in the letter. It turns out that she does, as the letter is an invitation to a party from Gossip. The whole encounter, however, is rather hostile.
Kiri runs after Houko, who leaves as soon as she has explained the letter. We learn that Houko cannot stand how close Kiri and Iwai, Author and Instead, are, since it reminds her of how much she cannot tolerate being around her sister Yamane. Things only get sadder when Iwai calls Houko later that night asking her advice on what to wear to this Gossip party, as Iwai has no one else she can ask for help. Houko now reveals that she remains determined to kill Iwai and cannot, will not, try to be her friend or develop feelings for her. All of this, obviously, is meant to show that Houko is a good person inside and has begun to develop feelings for Iwai.
The situation between Houko and Yamane is so very, very sad. It appears that Houko is really not a bad person, and Yamane is the pitiable victim of a horrible curse. We get an Instead scene with the Byouinzakas, but not a creepy one for a change, thankfully. Instead, it is rather gentle and slightly sad.
The creepiness is reserved for a portion of the second half of the episode, when Kiri goes to get a haircut from Kashiko for the party. This leads Kashiko to recall the first meeting between Kashiko and Kiri. It appears that Kashiko’s mother left Kiri sleeping in a chair in her family salon and Kashiko was sent to wake him up, take his payment, and send him home. What follows, however, is creepiness as Kiri’s hair fetish (Kashiko has beautiful long hair) leads him to grab Kashiko from behind and stroke her lovely hair.
Seriously, why Kashiko never told anyone is mind blowing. But it leads to a nice little scene between the two, where it’s very clear that since then Kashiko has developed feelings for Kiri.
Okay, time for the party. It appears that the Gossip top brass want to ogle the Queen of Hair. The Byouinzaka sisters also appear and the group heads in. What awaits them…we’ll have to see next time.
So, after the rather intense attempt on both Iwai and Kiri’s lives in the previous couple of episodes, we get a respite from the killing, though not the creepiness. It was probably a good idea to do this, take a break from the constant bloodletting and other flow of bodily fluids. We get some character development for Houko Byouinzaka and even a hint of the Professor’s past. Kashiko has a nice scene, though slightly lessened by the creepiness of the flashback. There is a lot of delayed menace and malice as well, of course. We should expect bad things to happen in the future.
A much better outing than last time, where I was rather disappointed by the execution. It may be, as some would maintain, that the show is meant to be seen as camp, and that is what led to my disappointment in the previous arc, as it went overboard to the point of clashing with the atmosphere and mood previously established. But it is hard to see the show purely in that vein when we have episodes such as this one, which seem largely camp and irony free, much more direct and sincere in its presentation. It may be that the show veers between campy excess and sincere directness, but if it does so, it does a poor job of handling the transitions and making them work. It would be more successful if it stuck to one register and kept some consistency if the writing staff cannot handle the transitions well.
In Summary:
Kiri and Iwai have weathered one serious storm, but another may loom on the horizon. A letter from Gossip arrives and the pair need the help of Houko Byouinzaka to decipher it. It turns out to be an invitation from Gossip to a party. They decide to go, though one wonders if it will be a happy occasion, or an excuse to have a party game, one that you might find in an Agatha Christie novel. In other words, an occasion to stage a killing.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard