It’s quite low key about it, but Shinigmai Bocchan is a series of mysteries.  That, and characters keeping secrets from each other.  You can choose what you wish to believe and what you don’t, but the narrative is very cryptic about all this.  That makes this adaptation’s length that much more problematic – the manga can be as leisurely as it likes about unraveling the knots, but the anime doesn’t have that luxury.  Unless of course it intends to leave everything in one big “read the manga” tangle – which based on the pacing so far seems like exactly what it intends to do.

Setting aside the fact that Alice carries storyboards depicting herself in various suggestive outfits, the first half of this episode is mostly another round of slice of life material.  This seems to be the strategy, and it’s a common one with adaptations of this sort of series – back-load the plot into the B-part.  There’s a bit of exposition here – like the fact that even if Bocchan’s bodily fluids touch someone (get your mind out of the gutter) they won’t be affected by the curse – but mostly it’s those two staples of the series, Alice’s teasing and cats.

The real reason we’re here, though, is the witches’ sabbath.  Bocchan seems to have the correct idea in being a little freaked out about this (Rob is too, to the extend he ever shows it) but everyone else involved is very low-key.  Alice has ulterior motives for attending of course, which would no doubt freak Bocchan out even more if he knew about them.  Zain gives the pair of them robes to mask their human stench and turns a mirror into a portal, and they’re off to a rather Burton-esque land full of Western fairy tale dark magic imagery.

The sabbath itself seems more than anything like an unruly middle school classroom – and the leader of the witches, Daleth (Hikasa Youko) the teacher.  She’s more than a little surprised to see Cain and Zaph present – it’s clear their attendance is an uncommon occurrence.  And everyone is surprised when Caph tells them that the two guests they brought along are their kids (not getting the details of his cover story quite right).  One interesting tidbit that comes out of that is the discrimination Caph faces for being a half-breed – and the degree to which this pisses off Zain.

Daleth, of course, isn’t remotely fooled by Alice and Bocchan’s disguises.  She’s “quite good at remembering faces” she says (ironically) and Alice’s is one she’s seen very recently indeed.   To Alice’s question she pleads ignorance, and when Bocchan joins in she tells the pair of them that she can’t help there either – the witch that cursed him is dead.  And a witch of such power that the curse is certainly unbreakable.  Daleth doesn’t seem malevolent as such (though her burning of Bocchan’s robe is mischievous at the least), but she’s not much help.  And it requires some quick action by Bocchan to rescue Alice once their cover is blown.

It’s a testament to how bleak Bocchan’s situation was that these grim tidings from Daleth actually cheer him up, even spurring him to a rare bout of optimism.  The news may not be good, but at least it’s news – and for him, any news is good news because it gives him a sense of having some control over his life.  It’s the first step on a long and uncertain journey, but at least it’s a step forward – the first he’s been able to take.