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The Case Study of Vanitas ep.9 – Everything is Math

Irina

I can’t say that I completely understood all this formula talk in this week’s episode of The Case Study of Vanitas but it’s a concept I’ve seen in Japanese fiction before. A few times actually. The one that stands out most to me is the Tales of Vesperia game. Probably because I have spent an unreasonable amount of time completing the game…3 times…

Basically, the idea is that everything in the universe is governed by some formula and if you can just tap into it and rewrite certain things, you can be a god. Because everything is math! I don’t dislike this trope. And Vanitas is avoiding any messy plot holes by just not explaining it to us at all. Smart!

But just because everything is math, doesn’t mean it’s too serious or anything. First thing I noticed was that the name of the episode is “Those Who Hunt Crimson” and I immediately thought of Those Who Hunt Elves. The wording is so distinctive. Truth be told I hardly remember Those Who Hunt Elves. But I know I watched it and liked it. In a silly not really good but fun way. So I was already smiling before the first scene.

And then my first note is: Oh YAY, he IS a doofus! Referring to Roland of course. I’m pretty sure I didn’t need to clarify that but in a show so filled with doofuses, I figured better safe than sorry.

So the episode was, great. I’m useless at reviewing this show, it’s too tailored to my tastes. This week we had a nice dynamic action-filled episode, littered with slapstick humour and a touch of melodramatic backstory that kept getting interrupted by jokes and makes me think I’m supposed to laugh at. Which is good, because I thought it was quite humourous. Vanitas blurting out his though childhood only to have Noé interrupt him about making a face and both of them immediately starting to bicker like an old couple. Great!

I’m less enthusiastic about Moreau. At first, they only mentioned Moreau which is a French name so it fits and a line about modified humans. I thought to myself, ho HO, we have a Dr. Moreau on our hands. And that concept in and of itself is not bad. It’s a pretty interesting choice of fiction to throw into the mix but it can definitely work. We had a werewolf at the beginning… There’s a lot of potential here, in my opinion.

But then, they spelled it out for us by starting to call him dr. Moreau ad explaining the experiments, which is always a bit less charming but I guess the book was not that popular and some people may have missed it. And we even saw a bit of Dr. Moreau himself. That’s what gives me pause. The loud and frantic insane types can get very annoying very quickly and it seems to be the category he falls in. Let’s just say, I’m cautious at this point.

But everything else about the episode was so much fun. I mean evil Noé barely being able to pull it off and giving his self-introduction mid-fight. Great, I tell you! As such, I’m willing to give Moreau the benefit of the doubt. We’ll see how he does next week.

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