Karin ep.13-14

March 5, 2006 | 3 Comments

These two episodes are surprisingly good. Not only the episodes are hilarious, they actually show signs of potential conflicts as well. As usual, the focus is placed on the developing romance between the characters. Through this romantic development, however, several sub-plots emerge and they are more than enough to stall the main plot from time to time to prevent it from reaching a conclusion a bit too early. Of all the subplots, I'm mostly interested in the Ren and Fumio one because it presents the most conflict in comparison to the other subplots. The only thing left that the series has not touch upon is the background and explanation of Karin's blood-giving nature. I hope the writers will deal with this part of the story before the end of the series.

Continuing from episode 12, Karin is about to bite Kenta but stops when Kenta yells out her name. Karin immediately regains her self-control and runs to the bushes to unload her blood before falling unconscious. When Karin regains her consciousness and is informed by Kenta about what happened, however, she becomes embarassed and runs away from the guy. She then returns to the restaurant and find out that Fumio has been fired because she's a distraction for the customers. Meanwhile, Maki is seen walking in the middle of the night when she's startled by the presence of Winner. Winner warns her that it's not safe to walk on her own like this because there are vampires. Maki, of course, scoffs at the idea of vampires but is a bit excited when she realises that maybe this is Winner's way of showing that he cares. Unfortunately her hope quickly disappears when Winner claims that he's just worried because she is Karin's friend.

Winner, however, is quickly distracted when the weird device on his hand points upwards to a bunch of flying bats. Winner then goes on a wild goose chase after the bats leaving a disappointed Maki. Unknown to Winner, the bats have been sent by Ren as a misdirection so he can focus his effort on his prey, aka Fumio. Fumio tries to fight but Ren uses his power to make her unconscious. Before he can bite the poor woman, however, Karin appears and asks her brother to stop his action. At the same time, the little bat that Fumio named 'Entree' suddenly appears in front of Kenta, looking as if it wants Kenta to follow its lead. At the same time, Ren is seen threatening Karin to not get in his way and asks her if she has actually fall in love with Kenta. Karin denies this and tells Ren that Kenta has been protecting her secret so it'll be a betrayal for Ren to prey on his mother. Moreoever, Karin believes that if Kenta is happy, her blood increase will stop.

Upon hearing this, however, Ren becomes angrier and asks Karin if she thinks she can make others happy. He asks his sister to look at Fumio and points out that vampires depends on human's blood. He then pushes Karin aside so he can have a go at Fumio. Before he can do this, however, a figure appears and punches Ren. The figure turns out to be Karin and Ren's father. Later on, Kentar finds his mother sleeping on a bench inside a park but Fumio doesn't have any idea why she ends up being there. At the same time, Ren gets chewed out by his family for trying to snack on Fumio. It appears that Anju has tell her parents about Ren so Ren is not happy about this. He, however, is afraid of his parents, who clearly don't want him to bite Kenta's mother. Anju, on the other hand, atrributes Ren's desire to bite Fumio due to his inability to resist the pheromones that Fumio gives off to men. Ren becomes embarassed about this and sulks off to find other women.

Meanwhile, Karin is seen laying on her bed wondering about her feelings for Kenta when all of a sudden her phone rings. She becomes relieved when the caller turns out to be Maki. The call, however, takes a sad turn when Maki suddenly mentions Kenta's name. The next day, Kenta finds out from his manager that Karin hasn't come to work. Much to Kenta's surprised, however, Karin appears to explain what happened yesterday. She tells him that basically since she doesn't know how to bite others to channel her blood increase, she often ends up having nosebleed. But since having nosebleed is painful for her, she often try to prevent the blood from flowing. However, if she does this too often, she often falls unconscious. Upon hearing this Kenta tells Karin that next time she can bite him if she needs to do so. When Karin hears this, she runs to the bathroom and ends up crying because she realises that all of these times she knows that she's in love with Kenta.

Episode 14 continues where 13 left off with Karin crying her eyes out because she's in love with Kenta. She likens the experience to a Cobra falling in love with a Mongoose. Anju and Boogie-kun, who overhear her voice from outside the room wonder if Karin can't find a better euphemism. Karin's dad, on the other hand, becomes panic when he finds out about Karin's state. At the same time, Karin thinks that she can avoid Kenta as much as possible because Summer vacation is coming soon. Unfortunately for her, she forgets that she and Kenta will end up working together at the restaurant that day. Whilst in the restaurant, however, Karin finds out from Maki that they have a homework to do. So she has no choice but to ask her parents to allow Maki to study at her house with her. Upon finding out about this, Karin's mother tell Anju that they should be prepare so that they don't embarassed themselves in front of Karin's friend.

Boogie-kun can't resist making a joke that it is impossible for them to embarass themselves when Karin's presence itself is 98% embarassing. Anju, who cares about her sister of course becomes angry to hear this and punishes Boogie-kun by stuffing him inside a locker full of mice. Unfortunately Carerra and Anju's idea of a proper greeting involves decorating the house with large statues and bowing, Japanese-style when Maki enters the house. Karin, of course, freaks out and immediately drags her friend up to her room. Once inside the room, Maki points out it's strange that she's been friends with Karin ever since elementary school and yet this is the first time she visits Karin's house. As it turns out, Karin's father has been implanting suggestion to all of Karin's friends all of these times. Anyway, Maki quickly finds out that not only Karin hasn't done any of her homeworks, she's also quite slow in understanding the question.

But all of these are quickly forgotten when all of a sudden Karin's mother appears to bring them some tea. The distraction, however, keeps on coming when Anju suddenly appears inside the room. Karin is annoyed about this so she asks Anju not to disturb her when she's studying with Maki. Anju who's jealous of Maki, asks Karin if her sister meant that if she keeps disturbing the two, they'll finish late and it'll be too dangerous for Maki to return home at such hours. The thinly veiled threat, however, is misunderstood by both Maki and Karin who think that Anju is worried about Maki's safety. So the two reveal that Maki is going to stay overnight. Anju becomes even more jealous to hear this to the point that she sends a bat to spy on her sister and Maki while the two take a bath together. After the bath, Karin is surprised to know that her mother has prepared some delicious-looking food. Unfortunately, as she suspected, the food tastes horrible.

After Karin makes some Onigiri for the two, she and Maki are talking about the bouquet of flowers that Winner gave the two. Karin apparently kept hers while Maki threw hers away. When Maki was saying this, however, Karin senses some unhappiness out of her. She, however, forgets about this when Anju suddenly appears inside the room and the three ends up having pillow fight. That night, however, Karin decides to asks Maki if there is something that troubles her. So Maki decides to tell her story pretending that she is another person. Through the story, Maki reveals that even though Winner likes Karin, she still can't hate Karin. Karin is touched to hear the story even though she doesn't realise that the people in Maki's story refers to herself, Maki, and Winner. In the end, however, Maki realises that she should be happy of the fact that she has a good friend. The next day, as the two walk to school, Karin finally realises that the M in Maki's story refers to Maki herself.

Impression:

It's interesting to see Ren acting in a villain-like manner towards Fumio and Karin. I wonder if he will continue his attempt to go after Fumio's blood despite his parents' warning to stay away from the poor woman. And while we're at it, I can't help but wondering about the kind of job that Fumio can do so that she won't be sexually harassed by men. I also like Karin's realisation of her love for Kenta. As predictable as it was, the episode did a good job as to why Karin falls in love with Kenta. Episode 14, on the other hand, is a return to the comedy grounds. It was amusing to see Anju looking like a jealous psycho in response to Maki's arrival in her house. I am not too sure about this recent obsession that Maki has towards Winner though. Having said that, it's good to see the writers finally showing a story where Maki feels jealous towards the attention that Karin receives from Winner. I thought it's about time the writers addressed this particular issue.

© memento 2003