One of us!  One of us!  One of us!

——

Only seven episodes in, one plot point achieved, and we have filler.  It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I feel like we’ve been sitting stagnant for so long, and unfortunately, this episode leaves me with a bit of a continuity error.  It regards the manga, so if you’d prefer not to be spoiled, please stop reading at the second image.  But first, I’ll go in to what I did like about this episode.

It’s no secret that Chihiro (who has been called “Furuya” up to this point) is one of my favorite male characters this season.  He’s adorable and the kind of secluded nerd that I can identify with.  He’s always been kind of an odd ball, being a five year old absolutely fascinated with zombies.  So although our focus was on Wanko and her feelings for Chihiro, I found myself more focused on how socially awkward Chihiro is, but how he can really come through for you when it really counts.

The thing I enjoyed about Wanko’s end of the spectrum was the age old saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover”.  She took one look at her prince charming turned zombie fetishist and wanted to run for the hills.  However, once she got to know him, she realized just how loyal and kind he could honestly be, which is why she fell in love with him.

My issue with the episode isn’t with the content, but the timing.  Wanko isn’t my favorite character, but this was good character development for her and Chihiro.  But honestly, we’re over half way through the series, and only one major plot point from the manga has been carried out.  I’m fairly certain this will be getting a second season, but even still, I’m unsure why things are moving at a snail’s pace.

And the continuity error I was talking about: it appears that this episode takes place immediately following the last one where Chihiro was injured.  Now that the poison is in his system, the confrontation with Rea’s father should happen immediately, or else it would (reasonably) loose the affect.  Perhaps they intend to have Rea’s bodily fluids come in contact with him again soon, but I don’t remember there being an incident beyond the kiss and the injury.

This also makes me wonder how things will progress from here.  My hunch is that the confrontation will be the finale, but it’s not a terribly long scene from what I remember, certainly not 4-5 episodes worth.  I try not to be too concerned with manga to anime adaptation, but the timing is just so strange I’m left confused.

So unfortunately, the score for this episode isn’t going to be terribly high, largely because it just felt so out of place and such a reverse from the tension at the end of the last episode.  It makes me wonder why they even bothered setting up that tension at all, only to ignore it this week.  We shall see.

GO Rating: 2.5/5