A really good episode.
Got to say I loved the first few lines in the episode. It was a very good contrast with the scene from the first episode. We see Suou as a contractor. She loved taking pictures but now she thinks there's no point in taking pictures. "why did I think of that? There's no reason to take a picture of it" - that's the rational tinking you get as a contractor. You not only lose your emotiones but also the things you enjoeyd doing.
Next interesting thing to note is that they sayed they need to capture Shion -"the one BK 201 is dragging around" and from the previous episode the line "Continue to be mischievous and I might just fall for you prince"(I think this line was a bout Suou not Hei but even if it was the first one still remains) kind of make me wonder what's going on? Didn't they know that Suou isn't Shion in the second episode?
And why are the hiding the reason Hei lost his powers? I guess they're just using Misaki but that's only natural. But the interesting question is why are they doing it? It's not like Hei loves her and he'll come rescue her so they could use her as bait. They don't need informaiton and they don't need a good detective to investigate since well they seem to be good enough and Misaki isn't that good that they'll need her just for that.It's something else but I have no idea what it might be. So there is a lot of room for speculation about this.
The look Kirihara got when she saw Hei's picture and the line about saving her virginity for him were a nice touch though the second one wasn't really necessary.It served some purpuse I guess - it was a provocation of sorts. What was the poit of it? Could be a lot of things.
Skipping a bit Mao seems like a comic relief character. Being chased around by that cat and taking out two police officers was there just to relief tention though there wasn't really any to begin with in those two scenes and be plain funny. Either way those moments were entertaining to watch.
Another finny element was Hei talking with that "man". He was over polite and it was really good since it was such a big difference from his usual self. The moment where Suou and July smiled was really funny as well. Got to love those tiny details even if they're not really relevant to the story.
The Nori character seems like he'll play a big role in Suou's character development. Can't really say much about him but I think he'll be the first character to see Suou as a girl after she became a contracotr.
Getting to see Suou get her first period was also a nice touch of reality. It was an event that aslo showed she's still a normal 13 yeard old girl that has to expirience the same thing every girl does even if everyone treats her as just a contractor. Though when she said "I'm already a woman" you coul tell she just said it like it was nothing. That is a pretty major thing in a girl's life and her reaction didn't really showed any of that. I think that also served to show how people change when they become contractors.
And now for the biggest part of the episode - the Hei Suou interactions. Got to say I really don't like violence against women and especially children (even if most animes with a drak theme are full of pretty much both) so the part s with Hei hitting her were a bit too much. Despite that they were really important and need to be there for several reasons.
First Hei needs to make Suou understand what has happened now she's a contractor and that if she can't kill she'll die. That's really hard to do without beating her if you consider she's a 13 old girl. She needs to lear the brutal relity of the world.
Second he doesn't really have time to teach her in a less violent way. The same things about the harsh reality could be understood without all that but that takes time. You could go with the "you have to see it to believe it" but after what Suou's been through I don't think that this approach will work on her.
Third Hei treats her like a contractor. For him it doesn't really matter what her age is. A contracotr doesn't have an age. They're just contractors- that's all the are and everything else is irrelevant.
And finally Hei doesn't want to be emotionally attached to her. Everyone he loved seems to be dead or missing. He's a drunk hobo for a reason. Strange said it really well - "he's afraid to be hurt again, and abusing her is one way of insuring that there's no feeling of loss when something happens to Suou." It was the same in season one- he tried to play the emotionless role but it didn't work out in the end because he still has his emotions. Now...well know he's drinking all the time. I'm sure that somewhat helps whith him suppressing his feelings and playing the "cruel sadistic I don't care about any of you" role.
Though he actually shows them once in a while - when he stoped Suou from killing Tanya for example. There was no rational reason why no to shoot her especially if you consider he tried to kill her a few minutes earlier. Hei saw Suou crying and I'm sure he knows the pain of killing someone close to you and at that moment he showed he didn't want to see someone do the same thing when there's a choice not to do it. He aslo acted on his emotions when he slapped Suou after she said he could probably kill his friends and familly without feeling anything.
About the preview. The Nori guy will probably play a major role as I said earlier. It looks like there will also be a new contractor that manipulates water and since we haven't seen him/her so far I guess he/she will die. Misaki is getting really close to Hei. That could mean that that blond woman really has some sort of power to know all sort of things that are happening all around the world or more like the twins have that power and she's just using it. maybe they could even predict the future since they said "the end has begun" last episode.
Aslo that scene with Suou and July sleeping in the bathtub was really cute.Really looking forward to it
About the magical girl thing - I don't really mind it. Sure it doesn't go with DtB well but you have to consider that they are actually trying to appeal to more viewrs. After all they want to earn money and since more fanservice always seems to work they added a bit. I'm just glad they didn't go over the top. The first season had those fanservice moments as well but they seemed to fit better. You had that woman who always ended up naked after using her power and you also had Amber's outfit for once. I mean that outfit was pure fanservice.
And if anyone read the whole post - congratulations you're awesome
oh and sorry for the many spelling mistakes that are probably up there. >.<