©Nishio Restoration/Kodansha/Anipu
This episode is about two things: reviewing the clues to the mystery so far, and setting up a reunion between Shinobu and the Suicide Master.
In the former case, this is necessary because we have a mix of false and real clues. By reviewing them, we can partially unravel this mystery. As for false clues, no one leaves a dying message in code so complex that it requires a whiteboard to decode. After all, the purpose of such a message is to tell the person who found the body who committed a crime. If you need to hand your code over to a code breaker, you’re screwed. Not to mention that creating complex programming code isn’t something you do when you’re running out of blood. No, this type of messaging is carefully thought out and planned, not by the victims but by the perpetrators.
This brings us to the real clue. First, false leads do exist. Perpetrators may leave them to 1) play games with investigators and 2) insinuate suicide masters. The next clue is that the perpetrator is almost certainly connected to the private Naoetsu High School girls basketball team (since all the victims were members of that team). Of the five missing girls, four were found with nothing more than wreckage. But despite Gein’s best efforts, a fifth man remains at large. Reading between the lines, it all hints that the remaining missing student, Kiseki Souwa, is the perpetrator – a vampire who feeds on her teammates.
But even if we have a good guess about the “who,” the “why” remains unclear. During Kanbaru’s absence, the basketball team had many problems. It’s understandable that people on the team will want to lash out because they’re basically bullying each other and themselves. But why specifically target these four girls? This is the big question that remains.
The rest of the episode focuses on preparing for the Suicide Master’s awakening. The current Shinobu is completely different from the “fairy tale princess” she was when she first met the Suicide Master. At the same time, she is not the legendary vampire kiss– Photograph the heart of Acer Orion under the needles, as she has for centuries. While Shinobu herself is happy with how her life (undead?) turned out—finding the companionship she’d always longed for in Araragi—it’s not that simple.
While those around Araragi accept her and their connection, it’s still a bit embarrassing for a great vampire to have fallen so low. For all rights and purposes, Shinobu will meet her oldest friend and vampire father in The Suicide Master. She clearly wanted the Suicide Master’s approval. It’s a matter of pride. This poorly thought out scam involves Shinobu pretending to be a master rather than a servant and kicking Kanbaru out of the house for the night. We’ll just have to see how their reunion plays out next week and what The Suicide Master will be able to reveal about this ongoing mystery.
grade:
Random thoughts:
• Why did Araragi provoke his wife and ask her to pretend to be a servant to anger her?
• If Hakai hadn’t had anything to do with the supernatural world at all, I might have listed her as a suspect (since she seems to be the one who left passwords at crime scenes).
• It’s nice to know the meaning behind Shinobu laughing with Suicide Master, otherwise I might have thought something sinister was going on.
• The fact that Kanbaru was like, “Oh, you need my house? No problem! Bye!” did make me laugh.
Story Series: OFF & MONSTER Season Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
