Review: X Anime Ep 3 - Yakusoku [A pledge]
Ep 3 - Yakusoku [A pledge]
After the opening (of which I talked in length in Ep 1) the new episode starts with a flashback/nightmare of Tohru, Kamui’s mother taking fire and Kamui trying to run to her not with his usual grumpy expression but with one of a sad puppy. He’s too late though and as he tries to reach out to her anyway he… wakes up and we can see that Fuma and Sorata are with him and, instead than calling a doctor like they did in the manga, they had tried to take care of him with the first aid kit. Fuma, who evidently is a doctor, reassures Kamui that even if he’s in a lot of pain none of his bones are broken. He must know because in Japanese first aid kit there’s also included an X-ray machine. Doctor Fuma suggests Kamui to rest as a good night of sleep will fix everything, his fever included. I wonder if doctor Fuma also put stitches on Kamui.
Bah, the scene is poorly handled. Kamui is in a lot of pain, feverish and had been blending out till short before but he doesn’t need to be seen by a doctor or carried to an hospital. He just needs sleep because Fuma magically know he has no broken bones and the wound that had kept bleeding isn’t worth worrying about.
Oh, and Sorata is there to cook for Kamui should he feel hungry! Won’t this fix everything?
Anyway Kamui seems to feel horrible and Fuma, being the caring friend he is, leaves him with Sorata, blindly trusting Sorata to be his friend and willing to take good care of Kamui when not much before Sorata saw a wounded Kamui get into the apartment and did nothing to help him. But well, it wasn’t like Fuma was an amazing help either. Before leaving Fuma feels the need to inform Kamui he’s worried about him and so is Kotori (really? She sounded more like she was complaining about Kamui having been rude) so Kamui can feel guilty about worrying them while he’s left in Sorata’s care who, for all Fuma knows, might be a serial killer.
And now we’ve Sorata confirming he knew Kamui was badly hurt as he claims Kamui had 3 ribs broken but that they already healed so yeah, Kamui has amazing healing powers and… and why Sorata didn’t worry for him if he knew Kamui was in such poor conditions in the beginning? And how did he know? Oh, yes, the X-ray machine in the first aid kit. He must have had used it on Kamui twice. That or it’s Sorata who played the role of doctor with Kamui and Fuma was just the nurse.
*sigh* At least in the manga Fuma took Kamui to his home and called a real doctor and he was a lot less trusting of Sorata.
Anyway Kamui plays grumpy again, acting a bit aggressive and forgetting he should be, according to Fuma, in a lot of pain and Sorata explains him who he is and why he’s there. Note that, differently from the manga, there’s no mention done about raising Kekkai. Evidently in the anime they aren’t important. Sorata ends up mentioning that he knows one of Kamui’s blood relative died and Kamui attacks him so Sorata leaves (in the manga he’ll restrain from attacking him because, since he was in Fuma’s house, he could end up involving Fuma and Kotori). Sorata leaves, Kamui removes the bandage on his cheek, revealing the cut under it as he thinks back to his mother burning (yes, it’s another recycled scene but it’s short).
Meanwhile Kanoe receives Yuto’s phone call on her cell phone. It’s Yuto who’s also using her cell phone to call her and tell her he’ll be late. The use of the cell phone is a good change as when CLAMP wrote this scene they weren’t used yet but they will become common in 1999, when this scene is placed. Yuto explains things to her like in the manga and then Kanoe goes to visit Satsuki who tells her that according to Beast, Satsuki’s super computer, that boy is Kamui.
Differently from the manga here Kanoe goes to take care of her job without Satsuki’s prompting. Actually, Satsuki seems so surprised by it, it almost seems she had no idea Kanoe was the governor’s secretary.
We’ve a new original scene in which Satsuki asks Kanoe if she can go upstairs and Kanoe says it’s okay but she’ll grow bored, more bored than if she were to die and Satsuki agrees with her.
New change of scene and new completely original scene. We’re in a library, the school library I assume and Kotori is picking up a book about dyeing clothes when she slams on Kamui, who’s completely healed. Kotori drops her book and Kamui picks it up and read it… which doesn’t quite sit well with him. Wasn’t he try to keep distance? And isn’t it rude? Kotori asks him if his wounds are healed but he doesn’t answer and keeps looking at Kotori’s book so Kotori, blushing, feels the need to explain him what that book is about. Why she’s blushing is a mystery though. Anyway she asks Kamui if he thinks indigo dyeing is pretty and manages to get him answering yes so she rants about it some more and how she wants to learn to do it because in the anime she’s a strong girl and her dream can’t be just being Kamui’s wife. Most of the talk is so boring I wish they had skipped it but well, Kamui talks to her, even if in clipped sentence and there’s an attempt to a romantic music and I think the idea is that we’re supposed to find this as romantic as Kotori trying to protect Kamui with her body in the manga. Honestly I don’t and I find the scene drags too long but let’s move over. Kotori leaves him and Kamui stares at her and she blushes (no idea why as that’s not what strong girls do) and then leaves and yes, it drags too long with lot of still scenes and then Kamui leaves the spot he’s in and ends up sitting next to Arashi. He complains he’s bored of being spied and asks her if it’s a coincidence she’s there or she was worried for his wound (are you trying to hit on her, Kamui?). Arashi claims if she were to say yes he wouldn’t believe her and he agrees and asks her more explanations because to those he would surely believes and threaten her to blow her head off if she keeps silent. Arashi says he can do as he prefers but informs him he can’t fight his fate. They chat about fate then Kamui decides not to blow Arashi’s head off and leave demanding to be given the ShinKen or otherwise he’ll leave Tokyo. Because, of course, it’s not Kyougo the one who has the ShinKen but Arashi’s boss and his threat is really, really terrible especially considering Kamui wanted to get the ShinKen and leave anyway. Then tells Arashi to let him be or he’ll kill her and leaves. All this threatening without acting on it is not impressive, really.
Arashi remembers Hinoto’s words because… we need to lose some more time to lead the episode to its end.
Kotori, blushing all the way because all of sudden she decided she’s not strong girl but cute girl in love, walks back home. As she goes to prepare dinner she meets Kyougo that remarks she’s unusually happy because we’ve now to believe Kotori has fallen in love for Kamui just because he told 2 words to her. Meanwhile Kyougo walks back to the temple and to the ShinKen, talking in his mind to his wife, Saya, telling her the time in which Fuma and Kotori will have to face their fate is getting closer.
Then we’ve a flashback of a terribly worried Saya asking Kyougo to take care of the children, Kyougo apologizes to her, saying it’s all his fault if she has to deal with all this and she tosses herself in his arms, crying and claiming she was so happy she can’t wish for anything else. This basically twists the scene that happened in the manga (and that was shown much, much later), as in the manga Saya was perfectly calm and could care less about her children as she was going to die to protect from that fate her true love, Tohru, Kamui’s mother. Kyougo told her he knew she loved Tohru but that married her because he loved her and she apologizes… before exploding and leaving the ShinKen in her place.
The anime though decided that Saya blowing up was something they didn’t want to show so… had Saya being carried to a hospital because evidently in the anime there’s no rule about the ShinKen needing to be born in the Togakushi shrine. Honestly, I don’t want to know what Kyougo told the doctors when he explained why Saya needed to be operated. They carry in the hospital Fuma and Kotori too, telling them Saya is sick and need to be operated. The door of the room in which they’re operating Saya has a nice window so when Saya blows up because the operation is totally useless Fuma and Kotori, who magically realize something was wrong (maybe people screamed but their voices aren’t heard) can run to it and Kotori can be traumatized by the sight of blood everywhere in the room while Kyougo is holding the ShinKen. The body of Saya has disappeared though, leaving only blood in her place. Oh and the ShinKen. And I’d like to know how they explained this one too to the doctors and the police. And yes, all this is senseless and poorly done merely because they wanted to have Kotori be traumatized so she’ll go catatonic later… which isn’t needed really.
At the end of the flashback Kyougo rants some more about destiny before we’ll switch the scene on Fuma practicing basketball again (and part of it are recycled scenes from the previous episode) when he realizes Kamui is staring at him because we didn’t have enough original scenes yet and because evidently Kamui had decided to involve them after all. So much for his anime resolution. In the manga he’ll try harder. Fuma asks him if he’s better and Kamui confirms this. The Fuma tries to involve him playing basketball and Kamui makes a wonderful shoot that prompts Fuma to ask him to join his basket team. Kamui says he just came to thank him for the day before and Fuma says he only kept the promise he made when Kamui saved Kotori on the tree. Yeah, it took him quite a while before he decided to go to help Kamui but let’s forget this.
Fuma claims that promise will last forever and tosses the ball to Kamui again. Kamui though claims he had forgotten it and so Fuma should do the same while dramatic lighting begins to shine. Kamui tells him that Fuma’s new promise has to never do something as useless (as helping him) ever again. As they stare at each other they’ve a flash of them fighting each other that’s probably inspired by a similar scene taking place in the movie.
Meanwhile we go back to the manga plot with Nataku showing up at Togakushi to steal the ShinKen because evidently no one told him he had to ask permission to Hinoto first. It’s just Kamui who needs to have this sort of problems. Ironically in the manga the door to the shrine closed while here it opens. Nataku informs Kyougo of his name and of the fact he’s one of the Chi no Ryu way easier than in the manga and the two had a poorly drawn fight as Kyougo ran to Nataku, slams against his scarf and ends on the ground. Another dramatic thunder fall and Kotori, Fuma and Kamui sense that something is wrong as Fuma claims it’s coming from his house. What is? No idea. Maybe Kyougo screamed? Nataku gets the ShinKen from Kyougo, who’s lying on the ground.
Fuma rushes back home to his bicycle, Kamui ran to Fuma’s home walking over the roofs because the street is evidently not comfortable enough. Sorata shows up and tells Kamui a strange guy ran out from Togakushi (because Sorata evidently was keeping Togakushi and not Kamui under control but, of course, when Nataku got into action Sorata did nothing) and invites Kamui to try and follow him, showing him Nataku who’s already in the distance.
Meanwhile Fuma finds Kyougo on the ground and Kotori next to him and, as soon as the girl sees him, she tells him to call an ambulance because, differently from the manga, Kyougo didn’t die immediately.
Kamui and Sorata join forces to try and attack Nataku in another original scene we had no need for. Nataku, instead than keeping on escaping, tries to attack Kamui on surprise, not that it works. Kamui attacks him, Nataku escapes and Kamui loses track of him. Sorata joins Kamui who informs him the ShinKen was stolen. Sorata evidently had seen Nataku escaping but not that he was carrying the ShinKen despite how big it is. Sorata says this was foreordained by the Stargazer of Koya-san, which was why he was sent there in a rush (oh, so it wasn’t to protect Kamui but the ShinKen? Such a wonderful work you did, Sorata…). Kamui demands to know why Sorata didn’t warn him to which Sorata remembers him it was Kamui who didn’t want to hear him out and here the episode ends.
Okay the new additions are either boring, useless or bad and I wonder why the anime messes up so horribly when stuffs like wounds, injuries and doctors are involved. I understand how they wanted to cut the Tohru/Saya side as they somehow try to underplay Shonen Ai and Shojo Ai but having Saya trying to give birth to the ShinKen in an hospital is ridicule. Kotori switching from strong girl to blushing girl is abrupt and really, there was no need to keep Kyougo alive except to try and drag on the plot. Honestly, I can see the efforts of the animators to try and create something new but… it doesn’t really work well.