Dantalian no Shoka – 02
Normally, reaching for a loli’s chest would only serve to get you arrested
I just learned that Hiroshi Kamiya and Miyuki Sawashiro are going to be in Black Rock Shooter the Game. …Now I’m torn. Do I wait for the English version by Nis and hope that they retain the Japanese voices, or do I buy the Japanese version and attempt to play with my limited knowledge of Japanese…? Sigh. Well, either way, they’re making money off of me. So yeah, on to Ono Daisuke and books.
Just like the last episode, we see shota Hugh and (someone who I assume to be) albino Dalian inside the hole in Dalian’s chest. Albino Dalian gives shota Hugh two books (well, a book and a stone slab) and tells him to leave before the Bibliotheca closes. She looks a little sad, but Hugh says that he’ll be back.
Seriously. The visuals here are stunning.
We get to see the opening for the first time and the music is absolutely beautiful. The animation even features the lyrics in Japanese on the bottom just in case you’re not fluent in Latin or whatever language the song is (I’m pretty sure the song title translates to ‘The unknown tomorrow’ or something similar in Latin anyways).
Afterwards, Dalian and Hugh are in a different house talking to a woman named Estella Lilburn about some job she wanted his grandfather to do. Hugh explains that he took over his grandfather’s line of work (whatever he did) and says that Dalian was interested in seeing the (now deceased) Colonel’s library anyways. During all this, Dalian acts like a massive tsundere.
She even looks like a tsundere.
Estella leads them to the library and asks for Hugh to determine the value of the books (lord that sounds tedious) there. Hugh hears music and Estella explains that her grandfather made music boxes, so the clock incorporates some of his work. She leaves and as Hugh works, he expresses his concern for her having to live in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that Dalian has a problem with Estella because she has bigger boobs then her or something and complains that Hugh likes her because of her hair. Oh Dalian, everyone knows that tsunderes are usually flat. You were screwed from the start.
Estella’s uncle, Mr. Geese (which sounds strange when said in a Japanese accent) comes in and Hugh immediately starts complaining about Estella’s living conditions. However, she is not living in the mountains because she wants to, but instead because of some curse. Everyone who has tried to take her away from the mansion has been murdered including several fiancés and her parents.
So since they can’t find the killer, they decided to do the next best thing: Blame the murders on an inanimate object. Geese says that a hidden cursed book of the Colonel’s is the cause of all the death around there.
Hugh does a bit of research and turns out that the first murders happened 50 years ago, stopped mysteriously, and then started again around Estella. Dalian says that there’s no way for a book to curse someone, but Hugh remains unconvinced. He then sees Estella and Geese outside but Dalian just brushes it off as incest.
Dalian then reinforces her position as the tsundere character by obviously being afraid of the curse, but not wanting to admit it and refusing to leave Hugh’s room. This doesn’t last long however, because the clock music starts playing and they hear the sounds of someone dying.
They rush outside to see Geese being carried by some rock golem thing and Estella just kind of standing there covered in his blood. Hugh tries to get rid of it the same way he solves all of his magic related problems- by shooting at it. However, the bullets are deflected and the golem carries the body off. Hugh asks if Stella is okay, but she’s more concerned about the blood on her clothing and turns around calls out to nowhere for her grandmother to forgive her. Also, Hugh notices that she’s smiling like a yandere, but thinks NOTHING of it.
The next day, Hugh suits up to go look for a way to remove the curse. Dalian tells him that he’s just wasting his time though. She explains that there is no such thing as a cursed book and that while the golem was created by a Phantom Book, it has no will of its own and that the master of the book is telling it to kill people.
Dalian begins to run off to find the Phantom Book, but Hugh stops her and asks her what something she put in his coat is. She doesn’t answer him though and he just follows her to look for the book.
They check the library first and Hugh finds nothing while Dalian sits in a chair reading. When asked about it, she learns that Lilburn’s wife was descended from illegal immigrants who were later banished to another country when it was found that their passports were fake a bunch of mysterious serial murders happened on their property.
Estella then comes in with a random thing of meat asking if they’re hungry. She seems unfazed by her uncle’s death and calmly states that all of the servants who came with her uncle vanished because they thought they wouldn’t be paid with their employer dead.
She then asks that Hugh call her by her first name and asks if he’ll stay with her forever. He still doesn’t call her by her first name though, so she breaks a plate and stabs him. She admits that she killed her uncle because he was going to stop visiting her and then the golem then breaks through the library wall.
Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever…
Hugh has a knife sticking out of his side and sees the employee’s corpses on the ground, but still doesn’t seem to understand that Estella is behind all the murders. Dalian has to explain that Estella was born from a family with natural homicidal tendencies and that her grandfather created the golem to hide evidence like any good family member would do. Also, Hugh survives the stabbing because Dalian put a book inside his jacket pocket. Smart girl!
“It’s only a flesh wound.”
They recycle the scene with Hugh reaching inside Dalian’s chest, but this time he pulls out the two books from the beginning instead of one. He reads the first one to create a barrier so the golem can’t touch him. Dalian tells him to read the second and it creates lighting that strikes the golem, destroying an arm.
While we get some sexy heavy breathing from Ono, the golem gets up again. Dalian explains that in order to stop it, they need to figure out the 72 sacred notes controlling it. Hugh has a flash of inspiration and asks Dalian if the notes need to be written as words. She explains that they don’t and Hugh reads the second book again to destroy the clock tower that her grandfather made.
“Thank god I took hieroglyphics in school, or else we would have been screwed”
Thanks to blowing up the building twice, it begins to collapse and Hugh and Dalian once again decide to leave a building full of dead people. They tell Estella to come with them, but she stays behind so that she can ‘be with everyone’ (forever and ever and ever). Silly yandere. Later, Hugh reads an article in the paper about the serial murders and wonders about the curse. Dalian speculates that they became homicidal because of having strict and unusual upbringings and that the curse was man made. Also, Dalian has put her hair up to make her look more like Estella. Derederedere~
Final Thoughts:
Oh lord, don’t tell me that they’re going to recycle that whole ‘unlocking’ scene every episode. It was hard enough to watch the first time, let alone once a week. Anyways, that was probably the most annoying part of the episode for me aside from Dalian’s bitching and Hugh being oblivious. SHE HAD A FRIGGING YANDERE SMILE, BUT HE IGNORED IT COMPLETELY. Men. Sigh. Dalian was both endearing and annoying this episode. The beginning tsundere was pretty annoying, but some of her comments while she was tsundereing in the middle and end were extremely amusing. She’s either being a bitch or she’s being awesome. There doesn’t seem to be an in between point. I’m wondering about the albino Dalian, but that could just be her inner self. The color scheme between the two seems to be the negatives for each other so I’m thinking that’s it.
Hooray for yanderes! I could totally see who the killer was from a mile away, but it didn’t make this episode any less entertaining. I’m wondering about future episodes though. Is this series going to continue blaming magical books for all of their problems? That might get annoying. The atmosphere was really impressive, like the first episode though and the animation was pretty smooth again too. Really, the only thing I didn’t like were the choices the characters made, but there’s nothing that Gainax can do about that, so I’ll stop complaining. For now.
Preview:
A shot of a green house and more random pictures of somewhere in Europe. An evil plant book? More houses of dead people?
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
The OP has that subtle beauty, and with the animation, is perfect 🙂
The whole story is still a bit mysterious, with Hugh’s past with the Albino Dalian, and there’s the potential since we saw other Dalians in the OP as well so there’s a lot to look forward too, although it’s only 13eps. Maybe it’ll be as good as AnoHana?
It’s been a while since we saw a yandere but honestly, I didn’t expect that, I thought there may have been a secret lover involved but glad to see the show’s proving me wrong with its surprises, whilst Dalian and Hugh are more like Kraft and Holo by the episode 🙂
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I doubt this will be as emotionally compelling as AnoHana, but yeah it would be nice if it was as good. Yeah, I want to know more about the other Dalians too. They were with other people, so maybe other Dantalians?
The yandere was definately a nice turn of events and I can see where you’re coming from with the Kraft and Holo. Holo and Dalian match up pretty well, but I don’t think Hugh’s strategizing is on quite on par with Kraft’s. Though he might prove me wrong in later episodes.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yay Opening! Amazing <3
Man! I could really sit back and listen to Dalian talk all day, she has a odd way of speaking but keeps me interested and yeah she was very tsundere this episode. That Golem wow! Really cool and of course a new book = new spell and side story to go along with it.
Ahahah yes yandere big time in this episode! That girl really really loves you.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Dalian is pretty awesome to listen to when she’s not being a complete tsundere. Though like I said, she has some really awesome lines while doing it so I don’t mind that much. I wonder if they’ll ever re use books or if it will be a summoned book of the week thing. Maybe Hugh’s power level is determined by the ammount of books he knows how to summon, I don’t know.
Ahahaha yanderes. They make life better.
POWUH: 400-499 with 410 comments
Its quite interesting of how they make use different books. This sort of show makes you wanting to know what kind spell they would use each episode.
The Golem’s design was nicely designed. Dalian really needs to cut her explanations short.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
The animations for the books have been really interesting and well done. They’re one of my favourite parts of the episode. The spells have also been interesting too. That barrier looked fantastic.
Personally, I didn’t think that the golem was that special, but thats just me. Yeah, sometimes Dalian’s lines drag on, but I guess thats just part of her character.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
The opening was beautiful. But it features Daisuke Ono, so what did he do in the OP? Hmm….
Oh, and I don’t think we’re gona have that “book of the week” episode. Well, maybe for about, like, 4 to 5 episodes, but that’s it I think. I see from the OP we have lots of characters that needs to be introduced
I don’t understand why people think Dalian is annoying. I don’t find her annoying =/ She’s not as tsundere as Victorique, pretty straightforward at times, and she speaks politely. Maybe that’s what caught me: she’s polite, unlike some blond loli girl who thinks she’s Sherlock Holmes. My definition of annoying is…Victorique…and stupid characters who don’t know how to do shit xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh yeah I saw your tweet about that… I have no clue what he did in the opening.
There does seem to be a lot of characters. You’re probably right. Or at least one of the characters will have a book and cause problems.
I have mixed feeliings about Dalian… The beginning of the episode was terrible, but as the episode went on, I liked her again. I never got around to finishing Gosick (its on my to do list) but from what I saw, Victorique wasn’t that bad… was she? Anyways, Dalian is a pretty useful character so I can’t be annoyed with her for long.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 68 comments
I bet Hugh was just thinking the murderer woman was shocked or something… xD Btw, in the Op (which is a win!) my eyes caught the words “baby, the star shine bright” so I´m wondering does anyone know, is that brand designing the outfits or? >:3 or is it in the ending only? *quessing*
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
yesu, I saw something involved with the name “Alice” written too xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh yeah, isn’t baby a brand that sells lolita outfits? I have no idea.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
The OP is beautiful but I still thought it bordered on pretentious sometimes. It felt like it went on forever too. The ED is better.
I think this episode was a lot better than the first. The story was more solid, cut and dry, and the styalized visuals of the books are also pretty artistic and fun.
I liked Estella, too. She was a good ol’ creepy yandere with her pale skin and vacant stare.
But just when I thought the energy problem this episode was fixed it dropped back down again. It was so close to actually having the characters show emotions, but then seemed to give up and they went back to being bored.
Even as a tsundere Dalian is insufferably blase. It just slays me.
Huey’s sobbing at the end made me laugh so hard.
I’m such a terrible person.POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Sexy heavy breathing was sexy, tho.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I like the ending better as well (both the visuals and the song), but theres just something about the opening that really clicks with me.
Well they certainly spent more time establishing what was going on this episode instead of just throwing Hugh and Dalian into a house full of things trying to kill them.
I swear Estella’s skin got paler as the episode went on. By the end she pretty close to Dalian pale.
Ahaha Dalian is a library. She doesn’t need emotions! …But yeah, Hugh is really composed. I think thats just his character though. Who knows, maybe one of the characters from the opening will show up and be freaked out for them in later episodes.
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
awwwwww, everything seems abit rushed, and alittle cliche, but i just adoreeeee dalian, these european historic anime are beggining to get to me, it’s reminding me of gosick alitttttle
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Still haven’t gotten around to watching Gosick. It’s all downloaded onto my computer though. Yeah, I really enjoy European based anime so these couple seasons have been great. I don’t think that this episode was as rushed as the first one was though at least.
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
[…] “Hooray for yanderes! I could totally see who the killer was from a mile away, but it didn’t make this episode any less entertaining. I’m wondering about future episodes though. Is this series going to continue blaming magical books for all of their problems? That might get annoying.” – Metanorn […]