The wheel of Libra lands on Chain this week after Steven had his turn, and she doesn’t disappoint. It’s clear that one of the aims of the early episodes this season is to better flesh out the details on Klaus’ support team (Gilbert is seemingly getting his shot next week), which I think is a good investment of time – especially if (as it appears) this season is going to largely dispense with original material. I’ve no doubt Leo will come into focus more in the second half, but he and Klaus are mostly in the background so far.
If we were already aware that Chain was a werewolf, I’d forgotten about it. Turns out she’s not just that but an invisible one, part of a hit squad of five girls who carry out mostly espionage duties for Libra. Did they botch the assassination of the general conspiring with the blood breeds, satisfied that scaring him would be sufficient – or are all of them really that bad a shot? I suspect it’s the former, and their abilities are clearly better suited for espionage anyway – they seem to have the ability to phase themselves out of existence to the point where they’re undetectable by any conventional tracking system, but if they go too far they run the risk of disappearing altogether.
Meanwhile, Leo does make an appearance as always, and he doesn’t get himself in deadly danger for once. He’s got a date with our old friend Amagranoff Luozontam Ouv Lee Nej, the little mushroom kid from probably the first season’s best episode. Nej is as delightful – and forgetful – as ever, but his appearance brings none of the brutality it did last time. The worst thing that happens is that he keeps standing Leo up because he can’t remember anything, which actually leads to a moment of proactive altruism from Chain (which seems to cut against her nature) – she gives the little guy a notepad to write stuff down (like burger dates with Leo). Nej calling Leonardo his best friend was quite sweet, but there’s room for a little mush in a show like Kekkai Sensen.
The main storyline here is Chain and her four colleagues trying to infiltrate a military base about to launch nuclear missiles coded “BB” – a trap they’e 99% sure they’re walking into, but one which they can’t afford to avoid. It turns out they’ve been betrayed by their former leader Velved (whether the stark similarity between her name and Steven’s landlord Mrs. Veded is coincidental or not, I’m not sure), who’s teams up with the “Sensitivity King” blood breed in order to be able to detect – and throttle – the werewolf quintet. But Chain takes it farther than she ever has in order to avoid the trap – whether she’s more powerful than the other four or simply ballsier is yet another unanswered question, but then Kekkai Sensen has always been big on leaving things open-ended.
Another interesting sidelight is the short bit at the end, which involves Chain’s ‘token” – the thing that ties her to this world (yet again, very vague). The bosses send Steven to barge into Chain’s apartment – which is an unmitigated disaster area of the highest order. Does her reaction imply that she has a crush on Steven – is he her token, or am I reading too much into this or missing the point altogether? If you want clarity I suppose Kekkai Sensen isn’t the show for you, but even by its standards this episode was full of mysteries…
sonicsenryaku
October 28, 2017 at 8:08 pmhmmmm; The show tries to play up the fact that Steven might be Chain’s Token but i think that’s a red herring(I’m sure the crush is legit tho); her token might actually be her filth. Chain was already materializing back to reality before Steven even took a gander at her apartment. For a classy woman like chain, it’s odd that she leaves her apartment as unkempt as she does, which is all the more peculiar when we see her hugging her garbage at the end. Yea im gonna go on a limb and say that the her filth is her token; it would make for an interesting character quirk considering how disciplined she seems when she’s on the job
Clinton Hoffos
October 28, 2017 at 8:40 pm“or are all of them really that bad a shot?” It’s this because it’s funnier.
I believe to be exact Chains Token is fear of Steven seeing her awful apartment and way she lives.
Also I don’t think the 13 Kings are Blood Breeds. Femt King of Depravity, Zeodora King of Hypersensitivity, Aligura Queen of Monomania, Blank King of Despair and the rest we don’t know I believe are just powerful Beyondians who have large influence in the underworld.
I have not read the manga so none of this stuff is spoilers.
sonicsenryaku
October 28, 2017 at 9:46 pmThat’s the other thing constituent that i had alredy considered regarding chain’s token; that the fear of people (more importantly Steven) seeing her apartment would always bring her back
Kurik
October 29, 2017 at 5:05 pmYep…I can get behind that reason as if she is considered dead just the mere fact of getting into her apartment and seeing all that stuff would bring her back to life! Good call.
B
October 28, 2017 at 9:37 pmThe manga hinted a few times that, yes, chain is ij love with stevens
Guardian Enzo
October 28, 2017 at 9:49 pmCan’t believe I’m not getting any props for that pun.
Water Imp
October 29, 2017 at 4:02 amLike the quintet, I’ll take a poor shot in the dark: I always assumed her name was a pun in reference to the nature of her ability. Her movement, which are leaps, are always punctuated/linked by physical landings. In that way, she’s grounded in reality.
Most likely, I’ve wildly whiffed, so I’ll go back to lurking -_-
Guardian Enzo
October 29, 2017 at 5:18 pmNah, stay de-cloaked – more fun that way.
Kurik
October 29, 2017 at 5:01 pmA very strange and odd episode – just as we would expect from this series. I think she has a thing for Steven she blushed when he gave her the time off over the phone. The garbage bit is a weird as he bathroom from last week episode was quite tidy so i guess only her living space is filthy? Not sure what the token is. Could be Steven but doubt it I presume it had to exist before she met him or can it change? so many questions!! aarrgh! Overall a fun episode nonetheless.
Terrestrious
December 13, 2017 at 1:36 amBest episode of the season (so far, I’m quite far behind). And she definitely has a crush on Steven, she was slightly blushing when she got off the phone with him. Always loved that Nej returned, I was kinda worried with the episodic nature of the manga (at least as far as what I’ve read [since they haven’t all been released here yet]) that characters prominent for a story would be exclusive to said story, it was nice to be proven wrong. And it helps that Nej was in fact in the best episode of the series imo, no probably about it for me.