This was a very special episode of Noblesse for me for two reasons. First of all the show seems to be catering to all my whims and preferences. Which is generally how I prefer things and people to interact with me.
But way more importantly, my dear friend Foovay and her wonderful hubby are symbolically watching this episode along with me. I mean we don’t discuss the show or tell each other about it or anything but I know they are watching the season and that’s enough for me!
I have to say the OP still makes me ridiculously happy and I still don’t know why. There’s just something about that song that is perfect for this show…
As I mentioned last week, I prefer Noblesse when it focuses on the school life stuff and gets a bit silly. And I got a second episode that was mostly set in school and definitely ramped up the silliness.
Not only did the imposing-looking white hair kids also join the same class as our heroes, but they’re kinda dorks. I mean the girl is the quiet mysterious type so she doesn’t say much. But the chopsticks scene with the boy (Regis – great name) was both hilarious and painfully familiar. I’ve been using chopsticks for a very long time but I remember when I first started using them. There’s a learning curve. I’ve been wanting to do a Top 5 anime Characters that can’t use chopsticks list forever and I just got my first entry. Tsubame from Eizouken is also a possibility.
And things just kept on being decidedly unserious. With poor Frankenstein desperately trying to keep it together as a bunch of brats are trashing his house and Raizel is being as unhelpful as possible.
This wasn’t just a bit of a comic interlude in an otherwise dramatic episode. This was the bulk of it. Schoolhouse hijinks and Frankenstein’s growing woes at his expanding household were the bulk of the episode. And both were good light fun. Frankenstein is by far the most down to earth character and he spends the entire time in theatrical exasperation.
Am I a bad person for being entertained by someone’s clear despair? Naaahhh… I always had a feeling that Noblesse was a comedy but it had been a bit more tongue in cheek about it in the OVA and first episode. I figured it was entirely possible that it would take a more dramatic turn. But it seems to be comfortable embracing the wackiness.
The more serious moments were both just fight scenes. One being Han getting called out by a gang of hoodlums out of the blue. And this is becoming more of a running gag as the same situation has now been recreated very closely for two episodes in a row. It would be great if they kept it up and just had random gangs attack Han now and then for no obvious reason and he takes them all out but is otherwise useless in all the important fights. That’s a nice little play on the classic trope.
The second fight between M-21 and Regis seemed to be a bit more serious until it undercut itself by having them bicker at each other like little kids just one scene later. It was really my fault for thinking the show was attempting to build up dramatic conflict. And I say that as a compliment. Noblesse knows what type of show it wants to be. That’s not all that frequent.
And just to make sure there was absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind, the after-credits tag featured one last punchline, at Raizel expense. I am so delighted that Raizel turned out nothing like what I expected. He’s not that present in the show. He’s there but he doesn’t really intervene much. And he’s sort of a cloudcuckoolander. I love those characters. How is Raizel the biggest doofus in the bunch?
I’m having a good time with this series.
Mostly because SEO tells me I need internal links here are the past Noblesse posts I’ve published: