Upon a weak start, success was questioned, yet Silver Link has superbly managed to pull Tasogare Otome through difficult times to achieve what it has now – a supernatural affair of exquisitely rising intensity.
This series’ crafty hands behind it all, Silver Link, have taken Tasogare Otome through lackluster periods, and spectacular sights alike – yet regardless of the emotions they managed to incite at the time, an aspect consistent is that they always did enough to secure our attention from start to finish throughout an episode. Sometimes, an episode left an unsatisfying aftertaste – yet others had us craving intensely for more, and Tasogare Otome has been on quite a spree, a three episode streak in which the ending leaves eager, and the subsequent does not fail to deliver.
Silver Link has impressively been taking advantage of quite a few devices to accomplish this wondrous feat – yet the most prominent of all is how they’ve utilized Kirei. They introduced her and further established her character – till finally, they gave her a very specific role. As one should have noticed by now, the blonde haired energetic girl, Okonogi, is a complete airhead, and Niiya is no more than a flirtatious oppai fondler – yet Silver Link gave Kirie a purpose far greater.
She’s been making all the substantial contributions to the plot – as the blonde jokes around, and the male lead is as incompetent as one would anticipate, Kirei has been constantly doing research in the background. She’s been learning much – and as result of her revelations, the plot would then progress as she either attempted to take action on her own, or revealed her findings to Teichi for him to at least keep the information in mind while he goes about his lewd breast fondling ways.
Now the situation at the start of this episode is a continuation of the previously seen – Teichi encounters Yuuko after the incident in which she shoved him purposefully off a flight of stairs, injuring his leg, and it seems that she’s currently forgotten her memories. Her personality has notably altered – and to this, Niiya is afraid. He’s scared of this Yuuko who isn’t the same as the one he knew.
As is done every episode, he meets with Kirie to exchange words on the developments he faces regarding Yuuko – Kirie seems troubled, earnestly upset by something unspecified, yet is perhaps the fact of Yuuko’s loss of memory. Kirie may have been jealous for various reasons in the past, and she still possibly could be, however it seems clear that she does respect Yuuko quite a bit – and thus she’s not pleased when Niiya surprisingly makes no effort to restore Yuuko’s memories.
That does bother her heavily – yet one can notice that Kirie still has more on her mind. While the blonde gives the series comic relief, and Teichi is essentially always behind in realizations as he’s distracted by Yuuko, it’s apparent that something is developing in the shadows of Tasogare Otome, and Kirie exclusively appears to be the one aware of the occurrence unfolding.
Teichi eventually comes to his senses – he awakens to the apprehension that he loves Yuuko, and with that newly found inspiration, he goes after her, groping her chest with both hands, and successfully curing her ailment of absent memories seemingly as a direct result of this.
Meanwhile, Kirei was accomplishing more productive tasks – studying texts in the paranormal club’s room. There however, she happens to meet yet again her supernatural stalker, “Shadow Yuuko”. Kirie’s run-in with Shadow Yuuko is significant in that it opens a vast reaching realm of speculative possibilities.
For starters, it was assumed Shadow Yuuko had somehow merged with the dolt Yuuko – although it seems that either that was not the case, or Shadow Yuuko has escaped, which could also explain Yuuko’s repaired memories.
However, one should also consider that Shadow Yuuko could be pulling some sort of strings – Kirei brought attention upon a bell Shadow Yuuko appears to carry which rings upon her ghostly manifestation and actions. Yet a subject worthier of time spent questioning, aside from the more genetic, yet highly critical inquiry of “what is Shadow Yuuko’s goal?”, curiosity rages at a finding of Kirei.
Kirei had come across a photo which exhibited Yuuko while she still lived, standing alongside another female – the other bishoujo in the image could have suffered a sad death, and now haunts the highschool as Shadow Yuuko. She may also have been be a friend of Yuuko – or perhaps even, a relative, like a sister.
Whatever the case may be, the plot has gained traction, and it is growing in intricacy with each episode to pass – at first, this series seemed as if it were no more than a flop, yet it’s honestly now one which we look forward to the most with each chapter of animation to be released.
May 28, 2012 @ 1:56 CDT
I only watched last week’s episode yesterday, because I didn’t really expect much of it. By the end my brain was screaming “When did this show become AMAZING?”
Silver Link is on a roll right now, if they can maintain this until the conclusion, I’ll personally proclaim this as being the best show this season
The last picture is just too cool
May 28, 2012 @ 8:15 CDT
Same here – this series somehow pulled a hat trick and all of a sudden became spectacular.