Demi-chan wa Kataritai – 03
You don’t want to give too much away to the students
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What’s life like for a succubus? Not particularly convenient. |
Change in Perspective
The very image of sexual attraction
This week the show changes main characters, and instead of following Tetsuo as much, we’re spending the episode with Sakie Satou-sensei. Starting early in the episode, we learn how much effort Sakie spends in limiting her contact with others. Getting up at 4 AM, leaving to catch the first train, and then staying late to catch the last train. Living way out in the countryside at the end of a long road in a house all by herself. And all of this to avoid accidental contact, especially with men. Sakie’s very aware of the effect she has on men, and goes to great lengths to not just avoid physical contact, but also to deal with the effect her subconscious has when she’s asleep. All of this is physically draining, leaving her sleep deprived and without much free time.
Don’t admit it, you dummy!
Something that the show really doesn’t go into is whether Sakie has an effect on women. It’s not something that really matters in her everyday life, but she goes to so much effort to avoid men, yet is much more comfortable around women and girls. But even for not avoiding the girls at the school with the same effort, she doesn’t make any casual contact with them, and the ones on the train who get affected in their dreams are all men. I don’t know if Sakie just doesn’t think about affecting girls because she’s not interested in them, or because the idea of female same-sex relationships is still a rather non-mainstream idea. Either way, that’s just something I noticed.
Living on her own can be rough
Non-Naughty Girls Need Love Too
Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction
at least until you’re out of sight
With Sakie going so far as to avoid men, she doesn’t really have the opportunity to have a relationship with anyone, but that doesn’t stop her from thinking about it. We’ve already seen her notice Tetsuo and his attitude toward the other demis in the school, and when he’s the first person to not react to her touch, that has a really big effect on her (even if it was just him playing it cool until he got out of sight). She even commiserates a bit (in her head) with Macchi, who’s got a crush on the same person. I like that Sakie reminds herself that she doesn’t need to get in a competition with Macchi about Tetsuo, since one’s a teacher and one’s a student. And I love Sakie pulling back the curtain on being an adult: it’s not actually much besides trying to project the image of an adult. You want to look good to kids, and cool like a grown-up, even as you’re thinking that you want to do something silly. And Tetsuo looks cool, with the right blend of reliable, relatable, and nice. And he’s got GUNS! One starts to wonder why he hasn’t been snapped up by someone, although he might not have devoted any time or interest to it.
Not gonna say, but it’s certainly true
Yuki doesn’t want to get involved
But she doesn’t want to be hated either
The episode also gives us a little start to a story with Yuki Kusakabe, also known as the Yuki Onna of the school. We’ve seen her be hesitant to hang out with Hikari and Macchi before, so it’s not out of character that she rejects some other boys who ask her to hang out with them. But the other girls in the school, being typical school anime villain girls, have a typical conversation slagging her for being arrogant. Given what the show is about, we know that Yuki’s not trying to be arrogant or act above her station, so I’m sure we’ll find out soon what she’s been worried about since the beginning of the show (and again, if you know, don’t put it in a comment, even in a spoiler).
The only one who hasn’t admitted a crush on Tetsuo is the one that kisses him…
Another great episode, and while I’d love for the show to turn into an overt romance show with Sakie and Tetsuo getting together, I think that’s probably too much to ask. But I think that there will be some point in the near future when Sakie relents on her nervousness around Tetsuo and finally talks to him. I also wonder if there will be some point where she cuts back on her routine to avoid people, maybe not get up so early, or leave so late (but still missing rush hour). I like how even though she dresses in sweats with the plainest haircut possible, other girls say how pretty she could be, and Macchi says that she’s really an example of a mature adult. And they contrast that pretty well with Hikari’s discussion with Tetsuo about how uncomfortable Hikari is about the subject of sucking blood as it relates to having a sexy connotation. But even then her embarrassment doesn’t keep her down for long, as every other time we see her is her normal irrepressible self.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
That’s the incubus’ patch, and if Priapus taught us anything is that their job is hard enough…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Also, this looks cute.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
That’s actually a curious change, because the manga specifically showed the female passenger who was sleeping on the train being affected by Sakie’s dream power as well. I don’t know why the anime creators chose to change it.
Also, the implication was there that the girl who told her she was pretty was being affected by the succubus “aura” so to speak. The conclusion several readers have drawn from this and one or two future conversations is that she can attract anyone who might have even the slightest hint of sexual attraction towards women, and that her drwam power just plain works on anyone, so long as they have a sex drive at all.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
“dream power” is what I meant to say in that last sentence. A typo.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It certainly did seem like Asking-for-help-chan was blushing at her interaction with Sakie (a screenshot I was very tempted to include, because she was cute), but the show seems to have been pretty hard line about Sakie damping down any “area of effect” so to speak when she’s awake and dressed down. To be honest, it could be done either way, but it’s probably a little easier to keep the story straight to have there need to be direct contact for someone to be affected that much.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I also didn’t get to it in the post, but I liked Sakie having her little internal conversation about what ‘real’ love and attraction is. If someone is attracted to her because she lets her succubus powers fly, is it ‘real’? It seems like she’s been told that it isn’t, but her thoughts compare it to if she is attracted to someone else because they turn her on. Would that be real? Certainly it would. I don’t know if she’s all the way at the conclusion that it’s ok to turn it up towards someone she was really attracted to, but it seemed like she’s getting there.
And really is that any different from a “normal” girl dolling up to go out to a bar to see if she can find someone? I don’t think it is, but I think what Sakie’s almost more worried about is the nuisance and collateral damage to her reputation.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well that’s asking about temporary love, limerence, that sort of thing.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I had not heard of limerence before this, just thinking it a rather neurotic form of a crush (which it really is). I don’t know that anything in this show is anywhere near that point, although we’ve certainly seen that in other anime.
I really think the key point in an ethical question is “what is the intent”, at least as far as Sakie’s own feelings are concerned. It’s somewhat certain that if there was some sort of harem situation, as unlikely as that is in the real world, that if Sakie were to win the heart of a suitor, she would be accused of foul play, although in cases like that it usually doesn’t matter what the real reason is, the losers would use whatever excuse to pillory the winner.
But if sexier ‘normal’ girls can use their image to that effect, and not feel guilty about it, why shouldn’t Sakie? Yes, it comes down to intent, but if the intent is to try to sincerely build a connection to someone otherwise unattached, cui bono?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
What is love, baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, know more.
At this point, is this story conflating sex and love, attraction or romance and genuine pair-bonding. These are different things; even if they share overlapping feelings. So, is the show trying to examine that as well. Is Sakie musing on the difference between the two and fearing the side she falls on? By my reckoning the show is confusing the two.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
But now that I think of it, perhaps her powers are tied to her own alignment. If she were bisexual, then maybe the girls will come to the yard in addition to the boys?
OK. Next person to comment has to smooth a song lyric in…
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 46 comments
You’re in luck, because this is explored a little more in the manga later on. And at the rate the anime is going, I’m pretty sure it’ll be in the adaptation.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
I’ve always wondered… what does Sakie look like when she’s not trying to be as plain and unnoticeable as possible…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
The shower scene gives you an idea. But what would she look like if she dolls herself up and dresses to attract?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…pretty much as your imagination can conjure, given the OP?
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
easy answer: she looks hot af
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Yeah, I meant when she’s trying to look appealing. 😛
Ok Overcooled that’s one way to state it XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Given that two girls said that she’d look really good if she gave it some effort, they saw through her dressing down and think that she’d be really attractive. But I wonder if she’s worried if she could really believe others saying that she looks good, without them being overly influenced by her latent abilities. That might be an interesting thing to investigate later: Does Sakie worry about whether she’s really pretty enough? Or not.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Oh man, Sakie keeping it real about adulthood…it really is an act half of the time.
I like that Sakie is very aware about her effect on others, yet there are still some things she doesn’t know. When Tetsuo grabs her hand, she actually had to step back and be like “wait, what just happened???”. She ends up hypothesizing that those with low libido won’t be affected as strongly, but she doesn’t know for sure (and of course, that’s not the case here with Tetsuo). I think it’s interesting that Demi don’t necessarily know everything about their powers/effects on other humans. I’m sure Hikari has a whole world of blood sucking to explore when she gets older…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Just wait the next time Tetsuo gets another interview with Hikari.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Oh noes :O
Is this one of those interviews that should never see the light of day? Is Tetsuo going to lose his job over it?
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
The art for this show kinda looks familiar to me. Maybe similar to Hataraku Maou sama.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
If so it’s only by coincidence. There’s absolutely nothing in common between those two shows. The character designer did the same for Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, so perhaps that. But they really don’t look like any of the other shows he was character designer for (Nanana, Robot Girls Z).
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Ah Nanana damn how did I miss that. Speaking Nanana I wish it got a season 2.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Imagine Sakie in the ToLoveRu universe? I think she would explode LOL
Good stuff and surprisingly odd that Sakie didn’t think it was odd for Machi to be in love with a teacher since shes a student? I know she mentally commented about their obvious differences in age/features.
Vampire had some cute moments~
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Nah I think she’ll realise Rito is a harmless guy with the special ability of being a Rito.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Honestly they should classify Rito’s capability to get into erotic scenarios into either an ability (or superpower) or a curse.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Why? Plot device covers it from start to finish!
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
HAHA ofc! But can Sakie break the fourth wall and blame the Writer in that situation. That is the real question.