Indeed, the fact they would consolidate everything around Erika's path makes sense and should be a natural conclusion to anyone who has played the game. I don't think that is happening yet though - we are still well within the "common route" part in terms of storyline (Unless my memory fails me, actual path-specific deviations are possible sometime after Kouhei being coerced in to becoming a member of the student council). While it is inevitable and even required that not everything makes in to anime, what grates on me a bit is how quickly they are shuffling through the interactions while leaving only the "meat" of each scene intact.

While it can indeed be argued they are showing all the essentials and cutting out merely the "fluff", i am not sure the very start of a story is the right place to do so. This is a period where i believe we would benefit more from slightly slower pace and more meat around the bones, to let the characters and mood sink in, rather than one or two extra "essential scenes" squeezed in the episode, making it seem like you are watching the scenery from an express train. Well, i guess what one feels as appropriate "mood" and exposure to characters varies from person to person, so for all i know i might be the odd one out, but all i know is that i feel quite alienated from the happenings of the show *shrug*

As for the loss of mystery - i don't know, i never thought the game had much of a mystery to begin with, and certainly not in the early parts, so that likely isn't it :heh:

One thing I noticed you saying a few times this is due to expanded vision from Erika's point of view, but unless my memory is playing a very big trick on me, i don't think we have had any "Non-Kouhei perspective" events in the anime that weren't in the game as well. I might be wrong though (and can't really check at the moment because of the game refusing to run on Windows 7, damn you Microsoft!), but i believe the game had all these early perspective switches as well.


On a less serious note ...
I take the bet and raise you "Are they real?" :heh:

You made me wonder if my mind was playing tricks on me instead, so I decided to replay the beginning, and it's about half-and-half. I think the game is more ambiguous about everything compared to the anime, which is playing things more "straight". I think it's especially the bits with the student council that are given the short end of the stick. In the anime, there's never any doubt at all about what's going on with Erika, whereas the game plays things a bit more "loosely" and leaves you wondering as it slowly explains things bit by bit. That's what I mean about "mystery", although I suppose it isn't really that mysterious... just that it isn't so "obvious". The anime's re-sequencing of things also impacts this, such as moving Iori's vampire scene up to the end of the first episode to use it as a "hook" (in the game, that hasn't happened yet up to the end of Episode 2 content). The scene at the end of episode 2 with the "blood analysis" didn't happen in the game yet either (it happens later), and there also wasn't the scene in episode 1 where they show Erika talking to her brother about Kouhei before he gets invited into the student council room (though we find out after the fact that Iori already knew).

So yes, although perspective switches did happen in the prologue, the material wasn't presented in quite the same way or in the same sequence. The anime is revealing more things earlier on in the narrative and (I feel) being more "forthright" in the process. Maybe it's just because of how compressed it is.

The biggest reason I can think of for this is because they're worried about not hooking the viewers. They're really banking heavily on the vampire factor to keep people interested, which is why they made sure to end each episode with it (even if it means re-sequencing the events in the game or adding original content).

1. Yes...
2. All the routes are about the same length more or less, and I'd say the True Ending Route is a bit longer than any individual route.

People do crazy things when they're in love.

I believe it was kaya, they're mother, not Erika but as for why i have no clue.

It was said earlier in the thread that she didn't like to suck blood from humans and instead drank blood from blood packets

"servant", or rather kenzoku have lost their sense of taste, that's why Kiriha could eat that plate of spice :heh:. Kenzoku also will go into "shutdown" mode at times, and go into a slumber for a period of time. That's why she missing all those classes.

Ever since episode 10 of the anime i was being suspicious (and worried) about the pacing, wondering how they would fit all the things in only 2 episodes. After episode 11 though ... color me surprised, but i don't think the anime is going for the True End at all - unless i am horribly mistaken, it looks like we will be getting Erika's ending instead.

The lead-up to the events of Erika's end is there, components that would propel the true end in to action are missing, and there is simply no way they can fit the later in to one episode. It is quite impossible to introduce and execute Kouhei's and Sei's little escapades with the stone fragments, all the flashbacks, all the additional info on Tougi family, the confrontation with Kaya, the resolution, the epilogue ... unrealistic for one episode.

From where we are though, Erika's ending can be reached quite reasonably - we will probably get the festival after which Erika disappears, Kouhei confronting Iori for the mansion's location, rushing there, getting injured by Kaya, and being "saved" by Erika. The episode's title, Red Promise, ties in to Erika's ending as well - the promise she demanded of Kouhei, that he would leave her and never appear before her again should she ever use an order on him. Indeed, these events can be fitted in to one episode.


Color me surprised ... i never even considered the possibility of anything but the True End, so it has caught from the blind side, unless i happen to be horribly wrong on this, but i don't see how. I am not complaining though - i always preferred Erika's ending to the True End, so i am all for seeing it animated. Nothing like an unexpected twist in the end, i wonder what the anime watchers will say ... i doubt that is the resolution many would have expected :)