3rd Riddle – “What’s Red, But Isn’t Red?”

When I saw this riddle in the preview from last episode, I actually didn’t really know what to make of it. Of course, while watching this episode it became pretty obvious that the answer (at least the most relevant answer) is blood, which doesn’t actually become red until it’s exposed to oxygen. It’s an appropriate title for this episode because we get to see first blood, for the most part, dictating the direction and path for the rest of the series.

I was actually surprised that Otoya Takechi (CV: Manami Numakura, also Hibiki Ganaha from The iDOLM@STER) was the first person to throw down the challenge. At first, I thought she was just a clumsy girl with a strange affinity for scissors. Remind you of a certain someone from Danganronpa though? As if the parallels weren’t already great. Otoya’s strategy for assassinating Haru is to befriend her before torturing her to death. She draws the comparison with herself and a spider which is apt considering her twisted tendency to slowly kill her victims and using scissors and saws as her fangs.

The scary part is that Haru actually believes Otoya’s approach of kindness to be genuine, and I can’t really blame her. She easily accepted Tokaku’s offer to help her, so there’s no real reason she couldn’t be allowed to believe Otoya either. Just because we all knew she was murderous doesn’t mean Haru would have known because there’s no way she knows whether Tokaku really wants to kill or not either. I guess that’s the only real problem I have so far in terms of exposition and plot. The jump from assassin to protector was too swift for my liking, even if it’ll be expanded upon more in the future I feel like there should have been more reason for Haru to trust Tokaku besides simply “intuition.”

As for the action scenes, things got pretty graphic with Haru tied up half-naked in bondage while Otoya had her way with her. It sounds sexual, and it kind of is for Otoya because it’s mostly just her stabbing a helpless Haru who turns out to be not so helpless when she subdues Otoya with flowers. I also want to point out the facial expressions are pretty great in this series, especially with Otoya this episode. They range from the comedic when she smashes the glasses to the genuinely psychotic. The only mystery we’re left with in the end is what happened to Otoya when she met with Nio. I guess there’s more than meets the eye with our little hostess.

 “It’s that kind of absolute promise. That’s what I want.” ~ Otoya Takechi

B.W.