hontou ni sou omou?

Hansel and Gretel switch Big Bro and Big Sis costumes and roles. OMGWTFLOLITRAP!? The first body count for the episode are some stray dogs (someone call the SPCA! LOL). I’m not familiar with the manga so I am glad that this series is being animated. There has been criticism that the girls are not drawn as beautifully as in the manga (but surely not as bad as in the Suzuka anime?) and that criticism probably valid.

Yet I do enjoy the anime very much due to the atmosphere it conveys through imagery and metaphor backed by great music. In the first season, I had expected merely a brainless babes and guns anime but it dwells, without pompousness or pretentiousness, on some serious themes - the grimness of a dog eat dog world, the fetid corruption of the human soul, how easy and casual violence becomes in the state of nature. The mix of children’s snacks and ammunition is both incongruously grotesque yet chillingly appropriate given the vampire twins’ modus operandi.

Would have even more tickled to see Revy looking at pr0n,
given her fascination at Anego’s work back in Ep Seven.

Couldn’t help but think, “Are they really going to show her boobs!!!?” :D
Yes, yes, I am one of his readers.

With Rock’s help, Balalaika realizes that the twins were speaking Romanian, thus the link to Dracula and Translyvania and on to the horrors of Romanian orphanages. Enlisting Rowan of the Dancing Girls’ help, they find evidence of this link amidst his stash of loli-pr0n. Furthermore, Balalaika shows Chan evidence that the Verrichio Family’s lied about having a legbreaker killed by the twins - the incident was faked.

I loved how Chan was saddened by the twins’ background. He actually took off his sunglasses for the first time. In the macho world of “real men” he is unable to shed tears but the raindrops on his sunglasses was an obvious allusion; I’m just such a sucker for this type of visual metaphors.

The Verrochio family realizes that their cover has been blown but also have bigger problems now that their hired guns are turning on them; the twins contempuously refer to the Italian mafia as a starter dish of macaroni before the main dish (Balalaika). Anego and Chan have agreed on a proposal to start a mob war against the Verrochio family as well as against the killers and Balalaika sets her military killing machine into action.

I also enjoyed how Chan teased Balalaika about the meeting in the container yard, saying that people might think that they are sneaking off for a date while she called him “Babe” at the end of their meeting, a nickname that he hates. In the previous episode, Chan tells Balalaika to feed her pride to the dogs and now she gets her comeback by telling him to stuff his justice talk. On the pragmatic level, it makes sense for the Triad and Hotel Moscow to work together against the common enemy that has sold them out. But on a personal level, I think both Balalaika and Chan recognize that they are gangsters who adhere to a code of honour and thus they can respect each other.

Hotel Moscow’s war council was just sooo cool. I also enjoyed Chan’s sharpness at anticipating things. He warned Chou to mind his head just before a Verrochio family man comes flying out of the window. He manages to warn his men not just once but twice before Hansel and Gretel attack them.

Recalling Hellsing Ultimate, the close-up of his gun was simply marvellous - though its design of a three-clawed Chinese dragon (normal ones have four, the Imperial dragon for use by the emperor only has got five claws) was a tad odd as you also have royal allusions with the words “Heaven’s Emperor” (tiandi - 天帝) on the gun. This could be a pun on another name for the Triads is literally “Heaven and Earth Society” (tiandihui - 天地会). And just like any old skool Hong Kong martial arts movie, Gretel expresses her admiration for Chan’s mad skillz but regrets that they are unable to enjoy their fight at leisure. Man, I have such a strong urge to rewatch all those Chow Yun-Fat movies like God of Gamblers, Hard Boiled, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow etc etc.

Hmmm… Revy and Eda just need to get it on, even though I think Revy and Rock are quite suited to each other. Another fantasy yuri couple like You’re Under Arrest’s Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa and Muteki Kanban Musume’s Miki Onimaru and Megumi Kannazuki.

The hired killers and hunters blast away at what turns out to be, of course, a decoy. They’ve been following too much of the police’s movements - Eda realized out how odd it is that the most involved person, Balalaika, hasn’t even appeared. Eda and Revy confront the twins in the back alleys but the former is momentarily stunned by Gretel’s throwing-money- into-the-air trick. Revy’s solution is just sooo Revy - kill the twins and take their money (taken from Verrochio) AND the reward money. However, reward there will not be as Eda’s gunshot alerts Balalaika to their presence. She coldly orders the outsiders, who are disrupting her carefully laid plans, to be eliminated - and rather irritatingly we have the episode end at the point of last week’s preview.

Next week we see Revy and Gretel, probably onboard the Lagoon Company’s gunboat. Not having read the manga, I’m throwing out a wild guess that the twins will get some sympathy and help because:

Personal listening comprehension notes for this episode:
提案 (ていあん)　proposal

賢い　(かしこい) clever, bright, intelligent, wise