Story-wise things are progressing just fine with Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid, which is great because it’s a really good story. But I must confess, I found that flashback scene quite cruel – giving us a taste of what this show could be like hand-drawn, knowing it was only fleeting? Also, it finally hit me what’s been bugging me with Hanae Natsuki’s performance – he’s really channeling Kamiya Hiroshi. Which is interesting in that Kamiya is about to hit Shinigami Bocchan in a big way (another casting choice I’m not exactly enamored with).
If it weren’t obvious by now, Alice is much more than simply a teaser. She has an agenda and she’s very good at executing it, and the teasing is part of that agenda. So is the scarf she knits for Bocchan – rather simple though it is, the fact that she knitted it is enough to send him into rapture. If he hates the cold and becomes even more of a hermit in winter, she gives him an incentive to break the pattern. Of course, she has a certain connection to snowy days with Bocchan that he may or may remember…
Watching these three (Rob joins in of course) frolic in the snow is charming in the way most of their interactions are. Unfortunately Alice loses the earring her mother gave her, and while she doesn’t tell Bocchan about it he overhears and decides to find it and surprise her. But finding an earring in a foot of snow – much of it fallen after it was lost – is effectively impossible. And Bocchan doesn’t always have as much common sense as he does empathy and affection. This necessitates his saving by someone, and that someone turns out to be Caph (Kuramochi Wakana).
In many ways you could say this event is the start of the real story with this series, and as I’ve been noting its real strength IMO is the supporting cast. Caph’s arrival opens the door to another world – the world of witches, of which she’s one. Caph is, as she notes herself, not the sharpest knife in the drawer (or so her childhood friend keeps telling her). But she’s honest to a fault and easily manipulated, which makes her a natural for Bocchan to try and pump for information about his curse even if he doesn’t plan on torturing her. A nice parfait is enough to get her talking, but unfortunately Caph has no specific information about the curse – or the ability to break it.
Caph also gives Bocchan a little insight into the world of witches – one where they’re the subject of witch hunts by humans. These witch hunts took the lives of both her parents and those of her osananajimi, including her human father (which is an interesting bit of information in itself). Maybe it’s her half-breed status that makes Caph willing to save Bocchan rather than hate him – though she says it was his determination in searching for the earring despite the hopeless nature of the task that caught her attention.
We’re getting to the point now, with the story opening up like a blooming flower, where we’re going to get a better idea of just how Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid intends to proceed with this adaptation. So far it’s been quite faithful in depicting the events of the early chapters, but there are some very difficult choices to be made about just how big a bite of the apple it wants to take. I’m not even sure what I’m rooting for here, but this is one of those no-win scenarios for an adaptation that’s simply far too short. I’m happy to get whatever we get of course, but it’s going to be fascinating to see just what that is.
