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| Introducing Reki the Sniper |
Oh my! There's actually some action in this anime? Considering the fact that scenes with guns were very scarce in the first two episodes, I was surprised at how this episode turned out. First, we get the long-overdue deredere Aria moments. There was too much tsun in the first two episodes. Then, we get the to see a new character that is an awesome sniper. Finally, to wrap things up, drama between Kinji and Aria which seems to be solved the next episode judging from the preview. This episode is a perfect example of what I was expecting when I first decided to watch Hidan no Aria: drama, action and romance.
After the OP, viewers are greeted with the lovely sound of gunfire and clashing weapons. Outside the Assault building, Kinji is still unsure about returning to Assault, even if it's just an elective. Before he enters the building, Riko shows up randomly and offers him a coupon for an arcade that expires today because she won't be using it. After she leaves, he approaches the building where he used to enter frequently. Before even getting a chance to touch the door, his friends open it and start asking him if he is returning to Assault. They even made him second guess his choice of choosing Assault as an elective because of their idiotic remarks. However, once Aria called out to him, his friends quickly disappear. It seems like they are scared of Aria because of her Butei rank. On the outside, a short girl like her wouldn't be a threat to the five of them. As the two walk through the campus, Aria comments on how popular Kinji is. In response, he tells her he rather not be popular if it was with those idiots. Instead of being sad about no one talking to her, Aria attributes her unpopularity to her skills and abilities. Kinji then explains the meaning of "Aria". He says that an "Aria" is a solo vocal piece in an opera. How Aria is always alone makes her name fit her well. I guess names can reflect one's personality. After cracking some random joke that Aria thought was funny (but I didn't), Kinji decides to head to the arcade to use the ticket that Riko gave him. In an attempt to get rid of Aria, he tells her to go home first. However, she continues to follow him. Annoyed by her clingy behavior, Kinji starts walking faster and faster but Aria still won't give up. The two end up running to the arcade. After exchanging the coupon for some tokens, Kinji sees Aria drooling over a claw crane game that is filled with the same stuffed toy. To be honest, I had no idea what those things were supposed to resemble. To make her happy, he gives her some tokens so that she could try winning one of those things. Unfortunately, she uses all of them up and fails. Kinji then uses one token that he saved and wins two at the same time, making Aria extremely happy. Even Kinji was surprised at how happy she was. On the way back, Aria gives Kinji one of the "leapord-lions" as a reward for helping her get them. At that moment, I think Kinji died on the inside from an overload of moe. If Aria showed this side of her more often, she would be an awesome character.
Later that night, Kinji realizes that his watch was five minutes faster than the rest of the clocks in his dorm. Thinking this was something minor, he adjusts his watch to match the time on the clocks (which also saves him). The next day, he reaches where the bus stop outside the dorm five minutes early so he doesn't miss it. Unfortunately, the time on his watch last night was actually correct and the clocks in the dorm were incorrect. Basically, his watch was now five minutes late. As stated above, this seemingly unfortunate situation actually saved him because, on the bus, a passenger receives a phone call saying a bomb has been planted on the bus and that decreasing the speed of the bus would make it explode. Now, many viewers would groan in dismay about this because this situation is almost an exact duplicate of what happened to Kinji in Episode 1. Even one of his Assault friends pointed that out to the bus driver. As tension builds, an empty yellow car drives alongside the bus and suddenly reveals a uzi. The uzi then starts firing at the windows of the bus, shattering them all. Meanwhile, Aria and Kinji rush to the scene, hoping that it's not too late. I would like to note that it was funny to see Aria driving a car because it seems like she won't even be able to reach the gas pedal if she sits in the car. Kinji should have been the one driving to make things more "realistic" (not that this anime is realistic in the first place). Anyways, Aria explains everything she knows about the bus hijacking to Kinji. She tells him that this is the work of the Butei killer and that the bus being targeted is the one Kinji would have been on if he hadn't set his watch five minutes late. It can be said that he made a "correct mistake".
Back on the bus, the Assault students formulate a plan to take down the car with the uzi. Since the bus will be entering the tunnel soon, they figure that the surveillance camera on the car will lag because it will need to correct its exposure. As the bus enters the tunnel, the group gets ready to shoot at the car. Unfortunately, the surveillance camera doesn't seem to need to correct its exposure because right when they show themselves to the car, the uzi starts firing. To make things worse, the uzi begins firing at the side of the bus too, making it hard for the driver to maintain control of the bus. After the barrage of bullets, the bus driver is left injured and unconscious. Because of this, one of the Assault students take over the driving role. Fortunately for the passengers, Aria and Kinji arrive in time to prevent the uzi from causing anymore damage. They quickly dispose of the car too thanks to Aria's skill in using firearms. The two then ditch the car and board the bus. Once inside, they split up and search for the bomb. Eventually, Aria finds the bomb under the bus and Kinji finds the transmitter that the Butei killer used to track their moves on top of the bus. However, Kinji had made himself vulnerable to getting shot. Aria realizes this and saves him from getting shot by the second car with a uzi. However, she gets injured during the process and is unconscious too. Outside the tunnel, a new girl (and an awesome sniper) on a helicopter, takes aim with her sniper rifle and is able to detach the bomb from the moving bus. That was, by far, the best moment of the episode. Mission complete.
When all was said and done, Kinji meets up with the sniper girl (Reki) who he already seemed to be acquainted with. She reveals that Aria is her client and that she had been hired by Aria to help with the mission in case something went wrong. In the room Aria was recovering in, Kinji and Aria have a heated argument about what happened. The result was Kinji saying he will quit being a Butei and Aria saying that Kinji is not the one she was looking for. It may have been a depressing end to the episode but, judging from the episode preview, the two will be together once again in the next episode. Looking forward to more action-packed episodes like this one in the future.
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