Vanitas no Carte certainly can’t be accused of opening its second cour in measured fashion – this was like a cover version of “Don’t ease me in”. There was in fact a recap episode last week, albeit with a very brief preview of what was to come, but for all intents and purposes Bones just hit the ground running at breakneck speed. With the manga ongoing and only 12 eps to play with, perhaps this is indicative of the whole second cour trying to cram as much content in as possible – or perhaps it was just a one-off. In any case it certainly wasn’t boring.
Gévaudan is obviously going to be the setting for a while, and many of the major power players (including one we were just introduced to in the finale of the first cour) converge on it. This subplot is based on a fascinating historical episode which was almost certainly attributable to an unusually aggressive wolf or wolves, but which has nevertheless enthralled occult fans for centuries. There’s talk of a witch in the woods in addition to the beast (which Vanitas presumes is a cursed vampire), and Noe quickly gets himself separated from the others chasing his runaway hat.
I’m going to assume that the party didn’t actually travel back to 1760 (when the original incidents occurred) but were sharing some sort of induced group hallucination. A witch might perhaps be able to do that but I suspect a different explanation will eventually emerge. The Beast appears of course, along with the dragoons who were assigned to kill it at the time. The girl from the train station shows up too – except it’s a guy, Astolfo (played by anime’s current go-to for boys mistaken for girls, Murase Ayumu). He’s a chasseur, and one with a taste for blood (different than a vampire’s), including that of any humans who cross or inconvenience him.
Jeanne is here too, and she has a history with the Beast – who she refers to as “Chloé” (who we saw briefly in Episode 12). She “travels” to 1760 along with the others, though she seems actually to have been there the first time around, and regrets not having killed the Beast at the time. And it’s a good thing she shows up too, because Astolfo is about to end Noe and there’s no indication Noe was prepared to fight back. Vanitas isn’t about killing cursed vamps, though, and he appeals to Jeanne to stay her hand (before stepping in to defend her from Astolfo as well).
The highlight of the episode, certainly, is Vanitas’ effortless manipulation of Astolfo. One assumes from the ease with which this was accomplished that Astolfo isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he’s apparently connected and sociopathic, so he figures to remain an annoyance at the very least. As if all this weren’t chaotic enough Charlatan’s parade shows up to take advantage of the situation, and that really sends Astolfo off his nut. And then just as Vanitas is about to use the book to try and save Chloe (Kugimiya Rie), it’s snatched out of his hands – and we see Chloe herself again, along with someone I don’t recognize from the first cour.
All in all that was a briskly entertaining re-introduction to Vanitas. I enjoyed the overall style here, which struck me as more classic Bones (and even Gainax) than Shaft (which was often the case in S1). I think this is the most perceptible impact we’ve seen animation director Ito Yoshiyuki have on the presentation, and while I could do with a lot less of the chibi intercuts (like 100% less would be good) I hope that influence continues to be felt. Mochizuki Jun series tends to be slow builds, but when they do hit the gas they have serious pickup, and I think we’re going to see some of that reflected in this second season.
