Karin ep.5

December 1, 2005 | 8 Comments

Okay, I'll have to be a bit shorter with the summary today because I only have a couple more days before JLPT. This week's Mushishi summary will also come a bit late because that's the day when I have to take the exam. Anyway, this episode feels rather short for some reasons and unfortunately the animation is also not as good as the previous episodes. The majority of the scenes take place inside a darkened room and unfortunately the animators use mostly duochrome color scheme here. As a result, the majority of the episode look rather dull. I supposed it's inevitable that sooner or later the animation quality will go down a bit so that the animators will have enough budget to animate the rest of the series.

Continuing from the previous episode, Ren is not happy with the fact that Kenta knows the secret of his sisters and therefore intends on completely erasing Kenta's memory. Before he manages to do so, however, Anju wakes up and manages to stop him. She asks Ren not to erase Kenta's memory and promises to give an explanation later on. Because of this, Ren has no choice but to let this one go. Once Anju fully regains her consciousness at home, she tells her family that she's been observing Kenta ever since the boy first saw Karin's nosebleed. Cut to a scene of Kenta arriving back at his apartment and being greeted by his happy mother. Kenta wonders if his mother manages to get a new job but his mother unfortunately still hasn't got any. Back to Karin's family, Anju tells everyone that she noticed how Kenta never told anyone about Karin's condition and on top of this, he actually cleaned up her mess.

Anju believes that Karin won't be able to avoid Kenta on a day to day basis so she thinks it's better if they draw him to their side. Karin disagress but before she can protest much, Anju tells her that if Karin nosebleed again during daytime, she won't be able to help. This is why she thinks it's better to have Kenta's help in the matter. Karin tries to say that it was Kenta's fault to begin with that she begins to nosebleed but receives no sympathy from her family who basically tells her: to bite him, that Kenta might be Karin's ideal partner, and that he might deal better with the situation if he knows about it. Anju then whispers to Karin about something that causes Karin's face to turn red and run out of the house to find Kenta. Kenta is surprised to see Karin standing behind his apartment backyard but Karin quickly explains that her house is not far from Kenta's apartment.

Back inside Karin's house, Anju tries to persuade her family to trust Kenta because she promises to erase his memory herself if he betrays them. Meanwhile Karin herself gets to experience a minor shock when she realises that the woman that she bite a few days ago is actually Kenta's mother. Before Karin can say anything else, however, Kenta's mother invites Karin to come inside the house thinking that she is Kenta's girlfriend. She even goes out of her way to hide herself in a closet so that Karin and Kenta can have some quiet time together. That night Karin comes home and promises her mother to tell everything tomorrow. But inside her room, she wonders how she can face Kenta tomorrow morning. Her confusion is noticed by her parents who eventually decide to take a look at Kenta themselves. The next day at Julian's, Kenta tells Karin that he wants to talk to her after work.

Unfortunately before he manages to do this, he's already kidnapped by Karin's father. Kenta is horrified to see Karin's parents but braves himself to ask the two if they can return his mother back to the way she was prior to Karin's bite. Karin's parents use the opportunity to explain to Kenta that Karin doesn't actually suck blood but rather give them out. Moreover, Anju points out that the people that Karin bites always end up turning the person into someone that they've always wanted to become. Kenta agrees with the assessment and promises to keep Karin's secret. Especially after Karin's mother threatens to wipe out his memory clean. Later on after Kenta has left the house, Anju asks her parents to be informed of any news about Karin from now on because once Anju turns into an adult vampire, Karin will be left alone in the human world. The next day, Karin promises to make Kenta bento as a thanks for everything but she ends up nosebleeding again when Kenta touches her hand to thank her.

Impression:

Sheesh, they left out many of the manga's sideplots in this version. I am not sure if the writers will eventually include these plots later on but I get the impression that they are trying to stay away from any racy plot. For example, instead of getting a confirmation from his mother that she just got a job at a love hotel, Kenta's mother simply tells him that she hasn't got a job in this episode. But if such topic is considered racy, then why the hell did the animators sex up the opening scenes? The entire thing does not make any sense to me because I don't see how showing fanservice shots is any better than casually talking about love hotel. Anyway, despite all of the cuts that the writers do in this episode, they still only managed to cover 2 chapters from the manga. This is mostly because the animators padded the episode with repeated shots of Karin tearing flowers as she waits for Kenta outside Julian's.

© memento 2003