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- First of all, something that I couldn't really understand. Right before the first twilight, all the siblings and their companions are gathered inside the chapel with Beatrice, and all of them acknowledge her existence and power. All of them. THAT INCLUDES ROSA. So what the heck happened for her to "forget" about it later? Did the witch erase her memory somehow? Did she just go along with it, happy to get rid of her brothers and sisters and waiting for the ritual to be completed so she had a chance to grab the gold and run? I'm leaning towards the last option, but if that's true, she's one heck of an actress, and that doesn't really match with her insistence until the very end that the culprit was a human. What gives?
- One of the best things of this episode, and something I kind of missed in the first when compared to Higurashi, was the light-heartedness of the first third (leaving Beatrice tricking Shannon aside, of course). It was a different flavour of fluff, but it was funny fluff in any case, and that made the downfall even more poignant. Which is the point of it all, I guess. Special mention to the mini-tea party with Shannon and Beatrice on the beach. For a second I almost thought that Beatrice would turn out to be a nice gal in the end. No such luck.
- One of the key pieces of information given here is the real nature of the "furniture". I had a hunch that they weren't exactly human since the first episode, although I forgot to write it down in my notes back then :smallfrown:. Still, they certainly sound like some kind of constructs. Genji was the first one made by Kinzo, and according to the tips, he had some help from a demon. Shannon and Kanon came later, fully built by Kinzo, and with one important new development: a heart (Shannon's is bigger, which shows). They can surely do some amazing things, those guys. I look forward to seeing Genji going all-out at some point in the future, since he's supposed to be the strongest of the three, and Shannon was already quite awesome. This also kind of explains Genji's extreme loyalty to Kinzo. He's his maker, after all...
- Now, big question: are the other "-on"s also furniture, or just normal kids from the orphanage? And talking about the orphanage, Kanon and Shannon were supposed to have come from there, too. Maybe Kinzo brought them there before creating them until they were "mature" enough to serve him?
- Talking about Shannon, and repeating myself: she's awesome. Even though she was tricked by Beatrice, she took her gift of a chance to love and be loved and made the best of it, never regretting anything. Her way of standing up to the witch and denying her the pleasure of seeing her squirm and struggle against her fate was one of the high points of the chapter. Another was, of course, her awesome display of light and power once she got the replacement mirror from Natsuhi's room (hello Chekhov's Gun). George, by association, racks quite a few awesome points, too.
- Tomitake Flash, Okonogi Foods, 6x9=42, Jessica's song and cosplay, Battler's almost flawless Phoenix Wright impersonation... gah, so many references to laugh at. The song was specially hysterical.
- Beatrice was oh so close to a flawless victory here, and only Battler's last second resurrection (and was that a flying kick to the witch's head?) prevented it. She really went all-out here, starting from showing herself almost from the start and continuing with quite a few locked room murders for Battler (and me!) to chew on for a while. The first was easy, and I even managed to guess the answer before Battler did, but the rest aren't that simple to justify without resorting to magic stuff. Red text looks more like a hindrance than a help at this point, and will probably stay that way until Battler learns to ask the right questions.
- Once again, no serious attempts at solving the riddle, and when they came they were fruitless and carried on only by Battler and Maria. With everyone suspicious of everyone, it's kind of hard to get everyone together and think for a bit, I guess, but I don't think there'll be a way out of this until they at least try. Also, I want clues for the epitaph, darn it. Think a bit for me, you furniture!
- Kanon, you disappointed me. Well, just a little. You're still cool, but making Jessica cry is a no-no. At least you fixed it near the end, even though Beatrice still had a chance to play with you a bit even after you died. Better luck next time, you two, I'm rooting for you.
- Hum, so Rokkenjima was Azukijima which is also a mispronunciation of Akujikishima which is something about evil spirits, there were shipwrecks and weird stuff, and some wandering holy man built the shrine to put them to rest. The latter we knew already, but I'm not sure if I should take the name thing seriously or just shrug it off as another Higurashi reference to the Hinamizawa/Onigafuchi duality. Considering it was Kumasawa who explained it, I'm leaning towards the second. Although I'm 99% sure that that old woman knows much more than she lets out. Her "I can only watch them from the shadows" catch phrase is starting to become a bit attention-grabbing...
- Now I know what those weird girls in the cover are, heh :smallbiggrin:. Monocle-man, Fancy-hat-girl and the two flying bunny girls still haven't made an appearance, though. Next time, I guess? Oh, and all the demon sisters had the One Winged Eagle on their uniforms. Worry increasing. Why whould the Ushiromiya family and Beatrice's personal army share that symbol? Oh, and this may not be too relevant, but the seven also remember the previous iterations, since Satan asked Kanon if he "wanted to be killed by her again". Also, I never thought I would say this, but... Satan is kind of cute :3.
- About Beatrice's true nature, maybe her existence is somewhat similar to the Hogfather in Discworld, in which belief makes things become real, or more real, if you will. It's kinda hard to put into words: maybe there was a "base" Beatrice, probably a witch with decent powers already, but her figure was made bigger and more powerful by the legends that were built by Kinzo and the servants. A "real" Beatrice and a "legendary" Beatrice living in one body/spirit/whatever, or something like that. Eh, it's vague, but it kind of matches with Bernkastel's hint about her not being a single entity, I guess. Most likely it's just another bollocks theory of mine.
- The chapel, a new part of Rokkenjima we hadn't seen until now. What happened there in the past? Why was it built? What's the reason for its "sacredness", and why would Kinzo forbid everyone from entering it, yet sent the servants to clean it every now and then? I don't quite buy the theory about it being a place to hold his wedding with Beatrice, should she ever return, although Kinzo being a hopeless romantic at heart, it could be a possibility. Talking about Kinzo and Beatrice: what happened between those two in the past that led to her death/imprisonment/banishment/whatever? Kinzo's guilt over this seems to be the main (only?) driving force behind his efforts to learn black magic. Also, what the heck was George mumbling about "m", "b", "t", "q", and not being able to count that far with all your fingers when they were in front of it? That was never explained, I think.
- Kinzo's will. Want to read it. Now.
- Did Kinzo allow Rosa into the study so she could take the rifle? Sounds... a bit out of character for him, I guess. Adds more question marks to Rosa's role in this chapter.
- The old evil spirits of the island were afraid of spider webs. Kanon's first clone was afraid of spider webs. One of the goat-faced guys transformed into another Kanon clone a bit later (only to be omgpwnd by Shannon's barrier). So, either the old spirits and the new demons are the same and Beatrice was there since the beginning, or Beatrice found a way to work with them after her summoning.
- More about Kinzo and Beatrice: her tirade just before her face-off with Shannon about how "all love was filthy" and how she was naive to believe in the purity of love gives a bit more light on what could have happened between those two in the past. Still not enough information, though.
- The tea parties brought the most disgusting meal of all times (it almost made me feel sorry for Rosa), Lambdadelta's arrival (so she's the one who trapped Bernkastel in the Higurashi loop... what, is she Takano or something?), and both loli witches giving more or less the same hint: Beatrice's weakness lies in that she likes playing with her food, she goes for overkill and she has too much fun winning in roundabout ways instead of going for the clean, easy and effective kill. That's also a strong point, though, since it makes her hard to read and unpredictable. Bern also saw a gap in her actions in this episode. Maybe it's the Rosa thing? I honestly have no idea. Best of all, she gave us a "Nipa-!" as a parting gift. Thanks Bern, I needed that :smallbiggrin:.
Character wise: big badass points for all the furniture, of course. All the siblings (no exceptions) got degraded to "scum of the earth", with Rosa taking the lead in the rankings, although the rest are not far behind. The kids remain fine, as do Natsuhi (didn't do much here), Hideyoshi (same) and Kyrie (still waiting for her chance to shine). Regarding the other servants, Kumasawa is starting to make me think twice everytime she speaks, and Gouda actually turned out to be a surprisingly nice fellow once he stopped bullying his colleagues, and enjoyed some nice scenes near the end. Kinzo's switches from bawling crybaby to calculating mastermind to very grumpy but still somewhat likeable grandpa keep confusing me. He's probably the character I want to see more of, and not just because I want to read his goddamn will. Beatrice is... well, Beatrice. She's so over the top that I can't help but like her for some reason, even when she's butchering people left and right and feeding their remains to their siblings while constantly berating Ushiromiya Batleeeeeeeeeer!
Overall: still going strong. As you can see I'm not thinking too much in the way of theories, and just noting down random stuff that calls my attention, maybe adding two and two together from time to time. For now I'm just taking everything as it comes, and enjoying the hell out of it. Serious guessing will probably come once I'm done with the question arcs. Maybe this time next week, at this rate...