Karin ep.15-16

March 14, 2006 | 10 Comments

These two episodes turned out to be pleasant surprise. Well, episode 15 is actually not that special but it was necessary to facilitate the greatness that is episode 16. It's been a while since I felt any kind of emotion while watching this series but episode 16 brings a really good, tragic drama to this series. Moreover, it forces the viewers to question the relationship between Karin and Kenta. I really hope that these two episodes are signs that the series is going to switch into high gear as it gets closer to the end. From what I've seen so far, when the writers want to, they can actually craft a really good drama. It's unfortunate that most of the time this aspect of the storyline is not visited as often as I'd like it to. I understand that Karin is probably first and foremost a comedy series. However, I think the series' real strength is actually the drama that accompanies the comedy.

Episode 15 begins with the awakening of Karin's grandmother, Elda. After being imprisoned for a long time, grandma treats herself to some blood-letting rampage throughout the city. No one in the Maaka household is happy about this except of course her own son, Henry. Both Carerra and Anju want to send Elda back to her coffin, presumably in a way that will ensure that she will never return to this world again. Ren is afraid that he's going to be molested by his own grandma and therefore choose to run for his life. Last but not least, Karin tries her best to keep the old bag from getting her claws on her school friends, especially Kenta. Meanwhile, Karin's school is having a school festival. This means that Karin gets to paint a Mural with Kenta and daydreams about kissing him. Unfortunately grandma Elda then arrives at school and start to prey on Karin's friends. And when she finds out about Karin and Kenta's relationship, she decides to have her way with him too.

Thanks to Anju's interference, however, Kenta is saved from Elda's flat chest and her sharp fangs. In fact, grandma seems a bit scared of Anju, who can be really scary if she wants to. Later on, however, Elda reveals to Karin that she too once in love with a human called Alfred. Alfred was a nice guy like Kenta and Elda tried her best not to snack on him because she has an affinity for a love that a person has for another. As a result, if she bites a person, that person will lose all of the love he/she has for another person. Unfortunately for Elda, Alfred's father hated vampires and at one point publicly executed 3 vampires by exposing them to the sun. He also locked his son in a room once he found out about Elda and told the poor girl that his son doesn't want to have anything to do with Elda. Elda, however, believed in Alfred's words that humans and vampires can co-exist in peace and decided to wait for him day after day. After a while, however, she lost her faith.

Elda began a rampage throughout the city, sucking the blood of its denizens. Eventually the townfolks become angry of her action and decided to hunt her down. Meanwhile, Alfred managed to free himself free from the confinement and found Elda in the forest. The two reconcile after Elda found out that Alfred was locked by his father inside a room. Unfortunately, they were then cornered inside a burning house by the villagers. Elda asked Alfred to leave without her because she no longer has the power to escape. Alred refused and instead offered his blood to her. He was aware of Elda's problem but believed that his love for her will be strong enough to overcome the effect of her bite. It wasn't. Alfred immediately lost all of her love for Elda upon getting bitten and staked Elda with a pole. Ever since then, Elda no longer believes that humans and vampires can co-exist together. Because of this, she intends on biting Kenta so that Karin won't experience heartache.

Impression:

I find it amazing that the series managed to turn a character which started out as a comedic/villain type into one that is actually interesting and complicated. When Elda first appeared, she was nothing more than a character who looks similar to Karin but with less bazoomas. She was also painted as a minor villain due to her tendency to prey on other humans and her desire to mess up Karin and Kenta's relationship. Halfway through the story, however, it was revealed that she has reasons to do this and this suddenly made her a lot more interesting. Her romance with Alfred was quite heartbreaking. There were several elements that conspired to seperate the two including bigotry and lousy fate. However, Elda did aggravate the situation by biting the townsfolk where Alred used to live. Anyway, it was interesting to see a vampire bite that actually caused a negative effects on its 'victim'. This more than anything else, was the source of her unhappiness.

Unfortunately Elda interpreted her painful experience with a human as something that is applicable to other vampires. This is probably true in some cases, but Karin is not exactly a typical vampire and her bite effect is a positive one. Speaking of Karin, it's interesting to see her switching quickly from having conflicted feeling for Kenta to suddenly having wetdreams about him. Well, I guess it's good in the sense that she doesn't spend her time angsting about him. She still hasn't confessed to him though and therefore I'd like to know how she'll react if another girl tries to put the move on Kenta. Moving on to another character, Anju turned out to be a rather powerful character as far as vampire abilities is concerned. Her desire to protect her sister's interest and happiness is also quite obvious here. And hoo boy, she is rather scary when she is angry. Even Elda was hesitant to mess around once Anju appeared and asked her to stop.

© memento 2003