yuuago | VME Rewatch

And continuing with the rewatch. ;) A few scattered thoughts -

- Roberto's book-huffing continues to amuse me. Though in his position I probably would be much the same.

- On first watchthrough, I'd assumed we'd get an actual exorcism, considering the visuals in the OP. But the way the "exorcism" in this ep turned out obviously made me reframe that impression. Now, looking at it while knowing the actual context, I find it interesting with the way it fits in to the other aspects of corruption addressed/alluded to in this episode. I'm still a little surprised this issue was addressed (even if the subject was brought up in a very VME-ish way)

- "Will you do an experiment with me?" - Sounds kind of like a come-on, coming from Hiraga.

- "Hiraga, I finished your homework." Oh Lauren, oh you. And also the first time he showed up, with the question about whether Roberto is the subordinate partner... He just sounds so flat and unimpressed all the time, it's really amusing. He delights me.

Anyway, the discord questions!

- Here's the onscreen debut of the mysterious Lauren! We'll get a lot more about him in a couple of weeks, but what are your impressions of him from this scene, the first time you saw it and now? Were you surprised/disappointed that he wasn't actually a lady? (Any more general thoughts on him are also welcome, if you'd rather not wait for ep 5!)

Well, see my brief response above, heh. Like I mentioned in my commentary on ep 01, I was a little disappointed that he wasn't a gal, and still kind of am, just because you don't see a lot of female hackers/bioterrorists in media. But even so, I love Lauren as he is. Anyway, his dynamic with Hiraga is so delightful! And his reaction to Roberto's comment of "Are you sure that's not Lauren's assistant?" is and will always be hilarious to me.

- This ep has a pretty heavy focus on the darkness and depravity within the church - corruption, sexual abuse... Did that surprise you? Do you have thoughts on how the series deals with these topics? Do you feel like it handles them effectively, do you wish it was more/less critical of the church as an institution, etc...

It definitely came as a surprise that this series would tackle it. Partly because usually when I see anime use Catholic trappings, they don't usually... address it; it's often just for the aesthetic. Also, when the series was recommended to me, most of it was focused on the shippy dynamic between the main characters (rightly so), and the actual details of what exactly they end up investigating and such never came up at all. Which is fine, because it's both a spoiler and not really the main draw for the series. Anyway – VME goes pretty hard on the criticism of this institution compared to what I expected. I appreciate that they approached it at all, and doubly so because they did it from more than one angle (like, financial corruption and also sexual exploitation and also - you get what I mean).

- Does anything in this ep spawn any fic/art/fanwork ideas for you?

Weirdly enough, it gave me a desire for fanwork with Saul. He doesn't show up here, but he is the one who sent Roberto and Hiraga on this mission in the first place, so obviously he had some knowledge of what was up. It would be neat to see more fanwork exploring the angle of taking down corruption from the inside and so on – but this is way beyond my ability as a writer, heh.

- Favourite scene/moment involving our heroes? Favourite scene/moment involving the side characters? Or are those one and the same?

Aside from the bit where they're talking with Lauren, I really enjoy the scene where Hiraga is trying to persuade Roberto to go back to the Vatican, and Roberto is having none of it. The whole conversation about their partnership REALLY worked for me – and not just because they get very, very physically close in it. ;) Roberto is just so passionate and insistent about sticking with Hiraga and working through this mess!

Also, I enjoy McGee's sudden appearance - he's just so weird, and kind of creepy whenever he shows up, and it makes him seem rather villainous. xD

- Oh man, that skeleton jumpscare at the end of the ep. Did it actually get you the first time? Were you worried about Roberto at all?

The jump scare itself didn't get me, but what followed was a bit of a surprise. ALSO... I can't remember what happens after this, so there's this air of vague concern for Roberto. XD I mean, obviously I know he's going to be okay because there's still practically the whole series left, but...!