Subculture Anime Blog

Are you afraid to die?

Summary:

Picking up where we left off, Michiru finds that Shiba has a black ring around his neck, proving that he is a zombie. Shito quickly lets off a gunshot, but Chika blocks it with his hand. As Chika faces him, Shiba reminds Chika of the time they spent together in junior high. Shiba had found that he could go to any high school that he wanted, but ripping the paper to shreds, he expressed that he only wanted to walk free. Chika had jumped off the roof to the structure below, suggesting that he and Shiba go somewhere. After once again experiencing boredom in the future, Shiba killed himself by falling off of a school rooftop. However, he woke to a woman’s voice, telling him that he had become a zombie. Shiba strikes at Chika with a knife that he generates, and reveals a butterfly mark above his chest. Shito prepares to shoot him, but Chika once again tells him not to interfere. However, after Shiba threatens and gets closer to Chika, Shito blasts the knife out of his hand. To his surprise, the knife flies back at Shito, and stabs his arm. Shiba tells them that to master the weapon, he tested it on people.

The condition of being a zombie was to have certain strong emotions such as hope, anger, or hate. In his case, Shiba craved freedom. While he was playing on the internet, the boy with the glasses was chosen. He believed that the butterfly was not needed, because he would become the butterfly. Shiba throws his knife at Michiru next, but Chika quickly deflects it with his sword. Chika exchanges blows with Shiba, but Shiba takes the upper hand. However, before he can finish Chika off, Michiru uses Shito’s gun to fire at him. She tells him that he is wrong, because he is not living in freedom. Shiba backs off to fall off the roof, but Chika catches him. Expressing that Shiba is not truly free, Chika tells him that he will work to remove the black ring from his neck. However, Shiba refuses and lets himself fall. At that moment, a shinigami appears to take him away. Shito expresses that it is all over once that happens. After Michiru runs to call Yuuta to treat their injuries, Chika leans on the back of Shito. In other places, a man in a yellow suit expresses his disappointment in the loss of another sample.

Once everyone arrives home, Michiru notices that Chika doesn’t look well. He tries to convince her otherwise by quickly eating his dinner. Koyomi leaves early because she does not want to miss her shows. Chika asks Michiru if he can stay in her room because he is lonely, but this only causes Michiru to run out in embarrassment. Shito refuses to Chika before he can even ask him, but he finds him in his room anyways after returning from the bath. After Shito wakes him up, Chika asks where zombies would go after they die. Shito replies that he doesn’t know, but mentions that the shinigami take them away. Chika expresses that Shiba has properly died then, and wonders what it is to die. Shito and Chika pick Michiru up at the Zombie Loan the next day, and take her to a funeral. There, she sees one of the clients that she noticed before. Michiru is also surprised when Chika gives him a large amount of money provided by Bekkou. As she pays her respects, Michiru notices that the picture of the deceased is that of the female zombie that appeared earlier. This makes her realize that they are at a funeral for zombies.

Shito expresses that when ever someone dies, there are always people that shed tears for them. The three leave after hearing why the funeral manager did not want to quit his work, and Shito expresses that such things are not needed to be spent on the dead. Shito leaves the two afterwards, leaving the rest to them. After making a delivery to a house, Chika explains that it was for the man with the glasses who claimed to be the butterfly. Even though it caused a lot of trouble for them, Michiru realizes that there are even people such as family who care about people like that. Chika then mentions that even he has family. Although he doesn’t know where his mother has gone, he has a younger sister and a father. However, he cannot return as a zombie even though he cares about his sister. Michiru suggests that it would be fine to take his time to pay off his loan, but Chika denies. Chika explains that the longer they live as zombies, they start to lose human emotions until nothing remains. Chika expresses that he is afraid of death. Elsewhere, Shito wonders when it was that he stopped wondering about what dying was, because he does not feel anything.

Preview: Hot springs episode!!!

Impression:

The pacing was so off in this episode. We started off with a major fight, went back to the silly dormitory scenes, and just as quickly switched to a very dialog driven character development. I really didn’t enjoy the fight scene. The action was not fluid at all, and they took a lot of time out to talk between blows. Despite that, I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The insert song was pretty good, and I loved the messages of death that were presented. It really makes you think about life, and those who have lost it. They gave off enough background story for us to empathize with Chika’s loss, and the funeral scenes strengthened that as well. Michiru also grew a bit when she shot Shiba, claiming that he was mistaken. It bothered me when I saw how lightly she took the situation afterwards though. I can understand her want to treat the injuries quick, but Michiru just seemed like she didn’t care when she ran off.

There was also some growth between Chika and Michiru, when he asked to stay in her room and when he talked to her about his family after the funeral. Shito shows us a new side of himself, as it seems like he is already losing human emotion. That is something that I think is normal, and I don’t think you have to be a zombie to feel that way. With Zombie Loan going into subjects like these, I am getting a lot more interested. Maybe I’m just a sucker fo those vacant city scenes. The next episode seems a lot lighter, taking us to the hot springs. I like to joke that it has been “go to the hot springs or pool week” for anime, but I did not expect Zombie Loan to be following that pattern at all. Who else is interested in seeing Michiru and Yomi next week?