Hakushaku To Yousei Ep 2 – Half nakedness!

First and foremost, just so we’re all clear here. I’m neither a pervert nor am I an otaku. Liking the ED of this anime series simply shows I appreciate art. How can anyone not appreciate such a fine piece of exquisiteness all laid out on white linen sheets? After all, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and I’m definitely beholden.

Impzie Summary

Edgar showed an ancient coin inscribed with fairy language. After magnifying the words, Lydia noticed it was English and wondered if Edgar is testing her ability. The words on the coin seemed to hint that the Noble Sword of the Merrow is hidden in one of the Earl’s territories. Lydia stated that an island in Ireland has various legends about mermaids. Since the Irish meaning of Merrow is Mermaid, that might be a location. Edgar and Lydia then had a contract, where Edgar paid Lydia 500 dollars.

Their discussion was interrupted by the captain who was searching for a dangerous man. The captain asked who Lydia was, and Edgar replied that he was escorting her to her father. The captain stated that the suspect took a girl as a hostage. Edgar asked if the suspect was the same as the mass murderer in USA (depicted as a blond with purple eyes). One of the sailors hinted that Edgar might be the suspect, and Edgar said his features must be very common to be similar to the suspect. The captain stopped the sailor immediately and left. After they left, the captain said it was impossible for them to ask the Earl to stick out his tongue to verify his identity because the criminal had a cross branded on his tongue. Moreover, the murderer in USA was said to be dead.

The next day, Nico and Lydia discussed about the cross marked on his tongue. Lydia tried to check him out when he was asleep, but he was merely faking it. Edgar said that if she wanted to kiss him, she could. She muttered “tongue” and Edgar was surprised she liked a French kiss more. At an awkward moment, Lydia asked Raven to help her against Edgar’s advances. Lydia tried to splash hot tea on Edgar, but Raven used his body to block the hot tea. Lydia went over and apologized. Raven said he would have stopped Edgar, but he was surprised a lady did that.

It turned out Raven is 18, while Lydia is 17. Lydia thought that Raven would look very cute if he only smiled. Lydia asked if Raven would not stop Edgar if Edgar killed someone. Raven said he would kill the person himself for Edgar. Lydia said she was ostracized for her green eyes as they resembled those of fairies. Raven added that he was a half devil, and only Edgar accepted him. He said that Lydia cannot detect his powers as a fairy due to the overpowering aura of other fairies. Lydia felt that he was somewhat complaining about his fate.

As they came down the ship, they were waylaid by Huskley. Huskley said Edgar is good at playing this “sir” game. Edgar said he was a lord, not a sir. Huskley said Edgar killed his father, but Edgar retorted that Huskley’s poor marksmanship was the reason why his father got shot. As Edgar was surrounded, Raven easily cleared the thugs. As Edgar and Lydia tried to escape, Lydia fell and she was taken hostage by Huskley. Huskley mocked “John”, and Edgar took a wound meant for Lydia before managing to escape.

They escaped to a shack, and they found out that Edgar was in fact that mass murderer. Nico asked Lydia to feed Edgar some sleeping pills to escape. Entering the shack, Edgar stated he was surprised Lydia was still with him after knowing his identity. He said that he was from a royal family suspected of treason. His father massacred his family before he killed himself. He luckily survived and was then sold to a slaver. After escaping from his slaver, he did everything to survive. The doctor he assaulted in the first episode experimented on human brains, and wanted to purchase Edgar.

Edgar said it is useless for him to regain a title which is marked by treason. Hence, the only way for him is to become Earl of the Blue Knights. When Lydia gave him some tea, he realized Lydia slipped in something else. Edgar said that if Lydia wanted to poison him and escape, he would rather die now. Lydia said it was only sleeping pills, and he said he would die nevertheless if Lydia left him then. When Edgar woke up, he was glad Lydia was still around. However, he could not get rid of his flirtatious habit.

13′s Musings

So in this episode, Edgar revealed a little bit about himself and his past. For someone to have his family massacred, to have his identity stripped off of him, to be turned into a slave and escape it only to be hunted down as a murderer because he was framed, no wonder he was so desperate to assert himself as the real Earl of the Blue Knights. So much so to the extent that he took a fairy doctor with him for help even though he didn’t believe in fairies himself. Of course, this was assuming he told Lydia the truth.

So if he was not the earl, then who was he? Who was John? Did his family really commit treasonous acts? How was he involved with Raven, the awesome half-demon butler? Why was Raven’s loyalty to Edgar/John absolute? Who was that girl in his dream? Where was he getting the money to finance his very expensive charade of being an earl? So many intriguing questions!

As for Raven the butler, he was more awesome than Sebastian in my humble opinion. Yes, I humbly said that so as not to offend Sebastian fanboys and fangirls. He seemed like a mix of Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji and Lin Koujo from Ghost Hunt. His loyalty to Edgar and his half-demon self are fascinating mysteries to me. Oh, and he was so darn hot! Another interesting thing was the glimpse of a man hiding in the alley with a fearsome looking beast who seemed to be spying Edgar and Lydia from afar during their escape from Huskley. According to ANN, the voice I’ve heard and the official HakuSei site, his name was Ulysses. I could spoil you of what I know about him, but I would rather not. I could definitely say he would be so darn hot too!

I found the chemistry between Edgar and Lydia very appealing. Lydia Carlton, for all her naive, child-like personality and clumsy self, did not really fall under the typical damsel-in-distress or dumb category of shoujo heroines. Heck, that girl didn’t blush or bat an eyelid when Edgar took off his shirt in the shack! I, on the other hand, stopped, stared, drooled, had a nosebleed and fainted, which really meant I kya-ed my soul out. She was more like a combination of Shuurei and Jyuusan-hime, leaning more to the latter, from Saiunkoku Monogatari. And as for Lydia’s plan of making Edgar fall asleep and escape, I was appalled! She should have taken advantage of his delectableness at that point, especially when he was so willing to do the same to her during their ride on the train.

Lord Edgar J.C. Ashenbert was a typical male protagonist of the shoujo genre which was quite forgivable. Beneath his dashing, handsome-as-hell, charismatic and angelic façade laid the heart of a manipulative, rakish, deceitful and ruthless scoundrel. However, one would be heartless not to pardon him especially with that tragic past of his. He reminded me so much of Tamaki’s appearance from Ouran High School Host Club and Seiran’s personality from Saiunkoku Monogatari. He was really made of smut just how I liked ‘em!

Hakushaku to Yousei was really the only anime series I was looking forward to watch and follow this fall. The creator of the light novels and the overall production group for the anime adaptation was of high caliber that I was beside myself with anticipation and fascination, something only a few would share the sentiment. Though the anime had a few flaws here and there, I was not disappointed at all. And because I was so captivated by the anime, His Evilness took advantage of it and forced me into blogging.

This is my first time blogging an anime series, something I was supposed to do at another blog, so please don’t be gentle. Though this first entry of mine is very mild, I promise to shock you scandalously on the next one.