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Previously on Weiss Kreuz...
OP1 - "Velvet Underworld": DW, LJ
#1 - Lockvogel: DW, LJ
#2 - Fort Laufen: DW, LJ
#3 - Paradies: DW, LJ
#4 - Verrat: DW, LJ
Spoilers, pics, yadda yadda.
So this episode is actually a continuation of the last one, and there is a previously on Weiss Kreuz flashback type of thing before the title card.

Schicksal - fate
dammit these episode title subtitles need to stop being so damn obvious, you're ruining my German lessons.
This is another episode about Ken, but at least this one is more exciting because it's bringing in one of the subplots that, yes, revolves around the Takatori family. I'll explain a little bit more about the Takatoris in episode eight.
Ken's riding on his motorbike, probably speeding like hell, and he's seeing all the stuff that happened with Kase and Ken, maybe you shouldn't drive in your condition. He easily passes by another motorcyclist, who speeds up and past him. Ken takes this as a challenge and they start racing. Ken flips over a guard rail after trying to avoid a truck and thank god for helmets, right? So the other cyclist comes to make sure he's all right, and holy crap, she's hot:

So she asks if he's pushing it to the limit and he replies that sometimes you just want to.
"Are you hurt?"
"Only thing I hurt is my pride at being being by a girl. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
She picks a flower petal from his hair and then remarks on the gentians, wondering how they can bloom in this season. Ken then explains that there are different types of gentians and that these are the type that bloom in this season. YOU SURE KNOW A LOT ABOUT FLOWERS.
WELL I AM A FLORIST I WOULD HOPE SO.
And what are the odds of landing right in front of your image flower, Ken? Seriously.
So the girl offers him a drink:

Freude - joy, happiness
Ken, you should know by now to not accept drinks from anyone, you might end up in a warehouse that's on fire again. Don't make Aya babysit your ass again.
Especially when their answer is, "It'll make you feel better."
YEAHNO I'M FINE KTHNX.
Yeah except Ken drinks it anyway, because Aya's right, he never learns. He's the dog that pees on the carpet, you hit him with a newspaper, he's good for all of five seconds and then pisses on the carpet again. Except Ken spits the water out because he thinks it tastes disgusting.
"What is that?" he asks, and doesn't sound like Chris Redfield asking what the hell Rebecca Chambers is playing on the piano.
"Freude, it's a health drink. They say it gives you energy and enhances beauty."
Um, no it's not, but I'll tell you guys more later on.
BTW THE WAY, I'M YURIKO, FIGURE I SHOULD INTRODUCE MYSELF AFTER WE SORT OF SWAPPED SPIT ON THE MOUTH OF THIS BOTTLE. MY BIKE IS A FZR :D :D :D I SEE YOU HAVE A GPZ.
And since I am not a biker, I have no idea what any of that shit means, but sure, okay, whatever.
"Yeah. Um. I'm Ken."
God, Ken, could you be any more awkward?
"Where you going?"
"Uhhh idk."
"Then let's ride, Ken."
"Okay."
Wow. Um. Okay.
They end up at a greenhouse, where Ken tells her all about the flowers, because he is a florist. And then it starts storming, and they're in some lodge somewhere, just the two of them. He's staring out the window and flushes when she's in nothing but a robe.
I FEEL GREAT WOO says Yuriko. Then she tells us traveling is nice, but it's great to meet a nice man along the way too. Just hope he's not a creeper, Yuriko. There's always that risk. Ken's still blushing.
"Is it fun being a florist?"
"LOLNO."
Yuriko tells us all about her life, her job, everything. She's going to quit her job and go to Australia with her bike and just ride. 'Cause that's her dream, dammit! Ken's all wistful. "Dream..." Because Ken had a dream, once, and it got shot to hell. Poor Ken. His life sucks.
"This is boring, isn't it?" Yuriko asks.
"WHAT NO HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?" asks Ken.
"Because it is."
"No it's not."
"Liar."
"NO, I SWEAR, IT'S INTERESTING AS ALL HELL." Wow Ken. Calm down. Yuriko laughs at him.
"YOU'RE SO SERIOUS OMG."
"BUT I'M FOR REAL, YO. I never worked for a company. I find it fascinating."
"You've always been a florist?"
"I'M LEAVING NOW BYE."
"YOU CAN'T RIDE IN THIS WEATHER THAT'S SUICIDE HERE SLEEP WITH ME."
"WHAT."
"YEAH STAY WITH ME."
"OKAY BUT I'M SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR."
Ken does. His excuse being he doesn't sleep well on soft beds. What the fuck, Ken. She asks him if he's doing anything tomorrow, he says no, she tells him to run away with her. He says nothing. LOL. He's fallen asleep.
CUT TO THE NEXT DAY where Omi's got a table set up with flowers he's watering, Aya's cleaning the windows, and Yohji...sets a potted plant down seemingly in the middle of the sidewalk. Um. Okay. No one knows where Ken is, and Yohji wonders aloud if he's with a woman. This causes Omi to stop what he's doing and Aya to turn around because suddenly this is interesting as all hell, because Ken? With a woman? What is the world coming to? Even Yohji thinks it's absurd and handwaves the idea away, saying, "Yeah right, no way, not him." Yohji starts laughing and Aya and Omi just look at each other, like WTF.
Meanwhile, Ken and Yuriko are playing tennis, because Ken forgot he had work in the morning. What a slacker. Yuriko misses hitting the ball and falls, so she starts chucking tennis balls at Ken and then starts laughing. Then they start swimming, wherein Ken pulls her into the water with him. She's happy he's lightened up around her, because it seemed like he wanted to die at times.
Wow, Ken. You fail.
She drains the last of her Freude juice and says she'll have to buy more, but she wants to spend another night with Ken. Ken reacts by...jumping into the pool in embarrassment. What the fuck. There is an ominous zooming in on the Freude bottle, which means it's part of some evil scheme. Why else the dramatic zoom in?
Yuriko and Ken are once again riding, this time to her apartment. She asks if he wants to stay for tea, but he says it's late. She kisses him on the cheek and runs up to her apartment entrance and Ken just stands there like a n00b in love. They stare at each other then, and then they run towards each other and presumably make out or something, idk, it's hard to tell from this angle.
KEN EYECATCHER
Now we have a shot of flowers. Omi, Ken, and Yohji seem surprised at Ken's good mood. Sniffing the flowers, watering them... Some girl drinking Freude passes out right in front of the shop, bumping into Ouka in the process. She's got wounds that remind me of leprosy, and the girls explain what's happening. Anyone who drinks Freude ends up with rashes and those rashes turn into oozing sores and it's really, gross. Freude actually reminds me of that beauty potion crap from Godchild, which was actually made up of parasites that eventually ate through your eyes and exploded out of your head. ...Yeah.
Basically you end up looking like this girl here:

Not pleasant.
It starts off as small bruises and rashes. Theeeen apparently they swell up and go POP and eww. Hey, Ken, that's what's gonna happen to your new girlfriend if you don't tell her to stop drinking that Freude shit.
Yohji doesn't believe them, basically saying ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS. The girls go WELL OF COURSE. WHY WOULD WE LIE? We get yet another dramatic pan to the Freude bottle, and then transition to a sunset.
Talk about an awkward transition. If it's not buildings, it's sunsets. Must've been all they could afford as far as transitions go.
Ken and Yuriko are enjoying this sunset and d'aww, I totes ship this, it's one of the, uh, four het ships I have for this fandom (Yohji/Asuka, Ken/Yuriko, Aya/Sakura, Nagi/Tot). Which is saying something, considering I have more slash ships (Crawford/Schuldig, Aya/Yohji, Yohji/Ken, Nagi/Omi, Yohji/Schuldig...)
So Yuriko asks how long they can be like this and Ken remarks, "We can do this forever." Well, except for the part that you can never have a normal life since you're an assassin, but pfff let's just ignore that crap.

WHY CAN'T THEY HAVE A HAPPY ENDING
WHY
/weeps
Yuriko ruins the moment by saying she talked to her Aussie friend from Down Under and he asked her to help out at his bike shop and what not. And Ken's just all BLANK STARE so then Yuriko says, point blank, I WANT TO GO TO AUSTRALIA WITH YOU. And Ken's reaction is just a very cool sounding, "Yuriko." No WTF, no NO WAY, no YES PLZ. Just "Yuriko". And Yuriko's all happy she's going to be realising her dream and her life will all be honky-dory if Ken's there with her. Forever.
Ken weeps.
Okay Ken you know what I might want to marry you, because I gotta love a man who has a sensitive side.
And then he hugs her, basically saying YES I WILL GO WITH YOU and Ken's kind of acting like she asked him to marry her, but that's okay because I can't blame her.
A certain redheaded muse of mine is laughing at me now. Oh? What's this? You like Weiss now to the point where you want to marry one of them because he has a 'sensitive side'? Jayden, you're a big disappointment right now. Verpiss dich, Schuldig. Tch.
Obviously I will always love Schwarz more, so I guess I would be cheating on poor Kenken with Schuldig, but. Aww. Poor Kenken. I'd feel bad.
Oh, wait, Ken fakes us out. He says, "No," and pulls away. "I can't. FORGET I EXISTED." And he drives off, leaving Yuriko to cry.
Okay Ken, forget everything I said about you. I don't want you anymore. I'll take my chance with my red headed psychic assassin, thank you. Sure I'll never be better than Crawford, but meh.
So then cut to Ken driving on his motorbike, angsting about how he's in Weiss, he's a killer, I CAN'T BE HAPPY, NOT EVER. Well at least he's not waxing on about how I DON'T EVER DESERVE TO BE LOVED like Aya does whenever a girl looks at him. Poor Kenken. I want to hug him :<
BUT ENOUGH OF THAT, PERSIA HAS SOME SHIT TO SAY. And he actually says, "Good morning, Weiss." What, Persia, do you want them to call you "Charlie" now?
okay you know what that is very very creepy let's move on
Our targets of the day is some dude who looks a little too happy and another guy with a Hitler 'stache. As per usual, Yohji and Omi and Manx are all on one side, all close together, and Aya's off in the corner brooding alone in his ugly wardrobe. According to Persia, they are experimenting with a certain chemical in their drinks that is extremely addictive and, if it's consumed regularly, it will eat away at the skin and muscles.
Clearly these dudes work with a Dr. Jizabel Disraeli, because this is totes something he'd do, and he even did something similar to it with a beauty product and all I really remember from that chapter was all the sexual subtext between him and Cain and Jizabel wanting Cain's eyes.
Well actually the guy who works over these guys? He and Jizabel are probably old chums or shit.
Once Ken (oh yeah, he's off in the corner too) sees that this drink is the same one Yuriko's drinking, he flips his shit, interrupts Manx, and runs off, with Manx calling after him. And then Aya redeems himself a little in my mind by saying, "What a pain in the butt." LOL.
This team is still dysfunctional as fuck, but they do have their "could be family" moments.
Meanwhile, Yuriko is drowning all her sorrows in Freude and OH NOES she has a bruise on her arm! Ken barges in, even though he (presumably) doesn't have a key and Yuriko (presumably) lives alone. Maybe Omi picked the lock or something. I don't know. Maybe it's just a logic fail. Yuriko is all KEN and why am I suddenly getting Fushigi Yuugi flashbacks? Is it because Ken keeps going YURIKO and Yuriko keeps going KEN? Because I do know that every other word out of Miaka's mouth was "Tamahome" or "Taka" and every other word out of Tamahome/Taka's mouth was "Miaka"...
That said, I'm also having Gundam Wing flashbacks.
"This is poison, don't drink it, you'll die."
WELL SHE'S ALREADY BEEN DRINKING IT, YOU'RE A DAY LATE AND A PENNY SHY.
Also I love how there is this airport call MAGIBA and it's in Narita... Obviously they didn't just want to come out and say NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT but yeah anyway. She's trying to get Ken to come with her again. He's all, "Well..." and she crumples the ticket and tries to drink the "poison" and why am I reminded of Romeo and Juliet now? Ken knocks Freude out of her hands and sees the bruise, and she faints in his arms briefly. She confesses her love and Ken expresses his guilt. She hands him the crumpled ticket and Ken finally takes it, finally deciding to do his own shit for once, dammit. He makes a promise to her, even.
"Must be hard being so popular," says a voice after Ken's all strapped on to his bike. The creeper this time is Yohji. I find him less creepy than Aya, probably because Yohji is doing it 'cause he's worried, not because he doesn't trust him, unlike Aya. Then again Aya is the "new guy" in Weiss so he's that kid who sits alone in the corner because he's new and no one likes him.
"You're not really in love, are you?"
"SHUT UP!" says Ken, and Yohji flinches. "A player like you wouldn't understand!"
Uh, Ken, Yohji understands more than you think. See, there was this woman named Asuka...
"This is my last job," Ken says after gritting his teeth. Yohji blinks a few times, then asks, "How many have you killed?"
Ken ignores him.
Yohji repeats himself.
AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A MAN? "And you can hold her in those arms?" Yohji asks.
"I just want to make her dreams come true."
AND CUT TO A SCENE WITH A PLANE FLYING OVERHEAD and some flashing lights and oooh, shiny. I am not sure what the hell is going on but some sort of...something is being transferred to some...tank or something, and Chipper Guy and Guy With The Hitler 'Stache are all :D Then we transition to a newspaper detailing the mysterious disease killing a whole bunch of people by melting their skin or something. Chipper Guy, who I am going to call President Chipper is reading these headlines and is pleased with himself. Hitler 'Stache is worried, saying the police are opening an investigation. President Chipper tells him to not get his panties in a wad, I got rid of the Shibuya vending machine, we're going to the suburbs where no one will track us. Hitler 'Stache is all OMG YOU'RE AWESOME I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE YOU SOMEDAY.
Somehow I just pictured someone trying to suck up to Crawford by saying that. OH MISTER CRAWFORD, YOU'RE SO AWESOME TEE HEE HEE and then Schuldig promptly turns their brain into mush because the only one who can suck up to Crawford is him, dammit, and Schuldig is oh so good at sucking...
Okay anyway. idk who Mr. Korin is, but that sounds a lot like a certain pharmaceutical company we'll encounter in just a few episodes (except it's "Kourin"). In fact, they could even be connected! Who knows? Certainly not me, because I don't remember much about this episode. Anyway, he's taken real good care of them and blah.
Cue a scene of Ken, Omi, and Aya running. Hitler 'Stache guy is all WELL IT'S GETTING KIND OF RISKY, AFTER I GET PAID I AM LEAVING JAPAN. Omi readies a dart and throws it, but the guy blocks it with a clipboard or something, so Omi throws another one, and the guy deflects it again. Is this guy a precog? How the hell can someone react so fast otherwise? Omi is determined to show this dirtbag who's boss, but Aya takes the honour of slicing him. Guy falls, but not before releasing whatever was being pumped into a containment tank, which is a black liquid of sorts that is probably a type of acid if it eats through skin, tissue, and muscle. The liquid runs red with the guy's blood, and proof that contact with this substance is probably a Bad Idea. Meanwhile Ken is chasing the other guy around when he pulls a gun, which Yohji takes, and Ken finishes him off. Apparently that took a lot out of Ken because he's breathing heavily and OMG KEN YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR BUGNUKS. Which freaks him out because OH NOES I HAVE THE HANDS OF A KILLER HOW CAN I TOUCH YURIKO NOW?
Kenken, you are Catholic. Not a practising one, but hey, you're Catholic. We have these things called 'confessionals', and we go to these people called "priests" and tell them our sins and they give us twenty Hail Marys or some shit. idk how many Hail Marys, Our Fathers, Glory Bes, and rosaries you'd have to do to find repentance, but it's worth a shot. This way your soul will be cleansed and blah blah blah, just make sure Farfarello isn't lurking in the shadows of the church you decide to go to. Otherwise your priest might end up turning to...whatever human flesh looks like after it's bathed in acid. Goo?
CUT TO AN AIRPLANE, which Yuriko boards and she looks disappointed.
Also, this sign board made me happy, because it has Newark on it. I lived near there, and my dad grew up there. Pretty cool, I gotta say. (Newark airport does have a direct-to-Japan flight...to Narita airport, which is what the Magiba airport in Weiss Kreuz is based off of.)
...what. We Jerseyans take great pride in our...Jerseyness. Unless it's the Jersey Shore. We don't want that. No one does.
So the plane takes off and Yuriko is looking in her diary and she sees a flower on one of the pages. This cheers her up because, well, it's from Ken. So he's like, there in spirit and shit. I bet he also wrote a note saying FORGIVE ME PLEASE. And whaddya know, Ken's there to see the plane take off and fly high into the sky.
KEN IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO GO AFTER HER
ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME
IF YOU DON'T GO AFTER HER, YOU ARE GOING TO END UP GOING CRAZY AND GOING TO PRISON.
PRISON, KENKEN. SO YOU CAN COLLECT YOURSELF.
At least you still look like yourself in Gluhen.
do not get me started on the character designs.
He drives off aaaaand oh, what's this? A shot of four girls, one of who looks like the leader since she's in business attire, one's wearing sunglasses,one looks like she watched too much Sailor Moon, and the other looks like a model. (Interesting fact: the seiyuu for Sailor Moon does the woman in sunglasses, strangely enough.)
Leader Girl (who goes by Hell) is all intimidating just standing there and I told you there was someone else behind this. I totes called it. There's also a guy, who looks kind of strange in a mad scientist-y sort of way, and he's all DON'T WORRY, FATHER, THERE'S NOTHING LINKING US TO LAKUETSU (the company making Freude).
Who's this man? Who's his father? Who are these chicks?
This man, the mad scientist guy, is Takatori Masafumi. Get used to hearing the name "Takatori", there are a few of them. So yeah, his father is Takatori Reiji, the guy we saw in episode two. These chicks are named, in the order they appeared, Hell, Neu, Tot, and Schön. They make up Schreient, who I will talk about a little more in depth later on once they are "officially" introduced in episode eight, when they appear alongside my boys.
"The experiment was almost complete," says Masafumi. "I guess we can move into the next stage."
What a freak.
And with that, our episode concludes!
This is one of the few Weiss oriented episodes I love, possibly because Ken is so down to earth in it and fff this is where our little sub-arc comes into play, which eventually ends up becoming part of the main plot in the Eszett arc, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, we're a long ways off from that yet.
What's in store for episode six?
In this next episode, we get to meet Tomoe Sakura, the first girl to last more than one episode (aside from Ouka). Also we deal with that creepy "you wake up in an ice bath and find your kidney stolen" story. And we find out more about Aya's past.
This entry was originally posted at http://sailorvfan10.dreamwidth.org/172930.html. Comment wherever is most convenient.
OP1 - "Velvet Underworld": DW, LJ
#1 - Lockvogel: DW, LJ
#2 - Fort Laufen: DW, LJ
#3 - Paradies: DW, LJ
#4 - Verrat: DW, LJ
Spoilers, pics, yadda yadda.
So this episode is actually a continuation of the last one, and there is a previously on Weiss Kreuz flashback type of thing before the title card.

Schicksal - fate
dammit these episode title subtitles need to stop being so damn obvious, you're ruining my German lessons.
This is another episode about Ken, but at least this one is more exciting because it's bringing in one of the subplots that, yes, revolves around the Takatori family. I'll explain a little bit more about the Takatoris in episode eight.
Ken's riding on his motorbike, probably speeding like hell, and he's seeing all the stuff that happened with Kase and Ken, maybe you shouldn't drive in your condition. He easily passes by another motorcyclist, who speeds up and past him. Ken takes this as a challenge and they start racing. Ken flips over a guard rail after trying to avoid a truck and thank god for helmets, right? So the other cyclist comes to make sure he's all right, and holy crap, she's hot:

So she asks if he's pushing it to the limit and he replies that sometimes you just want to.
"Are you hurt?"
"Only thing I hurt is my pride at being being by a girl. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
She picks a flower petal from his hair and then remarks on the gentians, wondering how they can bloom in this season. Ken then explains that there are different types of gentians and that these are the type that bloom in this season. YOU SURE KNOW A LOT ABOUT FLOWERS.
WELL I AM A FLORIST I WOULD HOPE SO.
And what are the odds of landing right in front of your image flower, Ken? Seriously.
So the girl offers him a drink:

Freude - joy, happiness
Ken, you should know by now to not accept drinks from anyone, you might end up in a warehouse that's on fire again. Don't make Aya babysit your ass again.
Especially when their answer is, "It'll make you feel better."
YEAHNO I'M FINE KTHNX.
Yeah except Ken drinks it anyway, because Aya's right, he never learns. He's the dog that pees on the carpet, you hit him with a newspaper, he's good for all of five seconds and then pisses on the carpet again. Except Ken spits the water out because he thinks it tastes disgusting.
"What is that?" he asks, and doesn't sound like Chris Redfield asking what the hell Rebecca Chambers is playing on the piano.
"Freude, it's a health drink. They say it gives you energy and enhances beauty."
Um, no it's not, but I'll tell you guys more later on.
BTW THE WAY, I'M YURIKO, FIGURE I SHOULD INTRODUCE MYSELF AFTER WE SORT OF SWAPPED SPIT ON THE MOUTH OF THIS BOTTLE. MY BIKE IS A FZR :D :D :D I SEE YOU HAVE A GPZ.
And since I am not a biker, I have no idea what any of that shit means, but sure, okay, whatever.
"Yeah. Um. I'm Ken."
God, Ken, could you be any more awkward?
"Where you going?"
"Uhhh idk."
"Then let's ride, Ken."
"Okay."
Wow. Um. Okay.
They end up at a greenhouse, where Ken tells her all about the flowers, because he is a florist. And then it starts storming, and they're in some lodge somewhere, just the two of them. He's staring out the window and flushes when she's in nothing but a robe.
I FEEL GREAT WOO says Yuriko. Then she tells us traveling is nice, but it's great to meet a nice man along the way too. Just hope he's not a creeper, Yuriko. There's always that risk. Ken's still blushing.
"Is it fun being a florist?"
"LOLNO."
Yuriko tells us all about her life, her job, everything. She's going to quit her job and go to Australia with her bike and just ride. 'Cause that's her dream, dammit! Ken's all wistful. "Dream..." Because Ken had a dream, once, and it got shot to hell. Poor Ken. His life sucks.
"This is boring, isn't it?" Yuriko asks.
"WHAT NO HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT?" asks Ken.
"Because it is."
"No it's not."
"Liar."
"NO, I SWEAR, IT'S INTERESTING AS ALL HELL." Wow Ken. Calm down. Yuriko laughs at him.
"YOU'RE SO SERIOUS OMG."
"BUT I'M FOR REAL, YO. I never worked for a company. I find it fascinating."
"You've always been a florist?"
"I'M LEAVING NOW BYE."
"YOU CAN'T RIDE IN THIS WEATHER THAT'S SUICIDE HERE SLEEP WITH ME."
"WHAT."
"YEAH STAY WITH ME."
"OKAY BUT I'M SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR."
Ken does. His excuse being he doesn't sleep well on soft beds. What the fuck, Ken. She asks him if he's doing anything tomorrow, he says no, she tells him to run away with her. He says nothing. LOL. He's fallen asleep.
CUT TO THE NEXT DAY where Omi's got a table set up with flowers he's watering, Aya's cleaning the windows, and Yohji...sets a potted plant down seemingly in the middle of the sidewalk. Um. Okay. No one knows where Ken is, and Yohji wonders aloud if he's with a woman. This causes Omi to stop what he's doing and Aya to turn around because suddenly this is interesting as all hell, because Ken? With a woman? What is the world coming to? Even Yohji thinks it's absurd and handwaves the idea away, saying, "Yeah right, no way, not him." Yohji starts laughing and Aya and Omi just look at each other, like WTF.
Meanwhile, Ken and Yuriko are playing tennis, because Ken forgot he had work in the morning. What a slacker. Yuriko misses hitting the ball and falls, so she starts chucking tennis balls at Ken and then starts laughing. Then they start swimming, wherein Ken pulls her into the water with him. She's happy he's lightened up around her, because it seemed like he wanted to die at times.
Wow, Ken. You fail.
She drains the last of her Freude juice and says she'll have to buy more, but she wants to spend another night with Ken. Ken reacts by...jumping into the pool in embarrassment. What the fuck. There is an ominous zooming in on the Freude bottle, which means it's part of some evil scheme. Why else the dramatic zoom in?
Yuriko and Ken are once again riding, this time to her apartment. She asks if he wants to stay for tea, but he says it's late. She kisses him on the cheek and runs up to her apartment entrance and Ken just stands there like a n00b in love. They stare at each other then, and then they run towards each other and presumably make out or something, idk, it's hard to tell from this angle.
KEN EYECATCHER
Now we have a shot of flowers. Omi, Ken, and Yohji seem surprised at Ken's good mood. Sniffing the flowers, watering them... Some girl drinking Freude passes out right in front of the shop, bumping into Ouka in the process. She's got wounds that remind me of leprosy, and the girls explain what's happening. Anyone who drinks Freude ends up with rashes and those rashes turn into oozing sores and it's really, gross. Freude actually reminds me of that beauty potion crap from Godchild, which was actually made up of parasites that eventually ate through your eyes and exploded out of your head. ...Yeah.
Basically you end up looking like this girl here:

Not pleasant.
It starts off as small bruises and rashes. Theeeen apparently they swell up and go POP and eww. Hey, Ken, that's what's gonna happen to your new girlfriend if you don't tell her to stop drinking that Freude shit.
Yohji doesn't believe them, basically saying ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS. The girls go WELL OF COURSE. WHY WOULD WE LIE? We get yet another dramatic pan to the Freude bottle, and then transition to a sunset.
Talk about an awkward transition. If it's not buildings, it's sunsets. Must've been all they could afford as far as transitions go.
Ken and Yuriko are enjoying this sunset and d'aww, I totes ship this, it's one of the, uh, four het ships I have for this fandom (Yohji/Asuka, Ken/Yuriko, Aya/Sakura, Nagi/Tot). Which is saying something, considering I have more slash ships (Crawford/Schuldig, Aya/Yohji, Yohji/Ken, Nagi/Omi, Yohji/Schuldig...)
So Yuriko asks how long they can be like this and Ken remarks, "We can do this forever." Well, except for the part that you can never have a normal life since you're an assassin, but pfff let's just ignore that crap.

WHY CAN'T THEY HAVE A HAPPY ENDING
WHY
/weeps
Yuriko ruins the moment by saying she talked to her Aussie friend from Down Under and he asked her to help out at his bike shop and what not. And Ken's just all BLANK STARE so then Yuriko says, point blank, I WANT TO GO TO AUSTRALIA WITH YOU. And Ken's reaction is just a very cool sounding, "Yuriko." No WTF, no NO WAY, no YES PLZ. Just "Yuriko". And Yuriko's all happy she's going to be realising her dream and her life will all be honky-dory if Ken's there with her. Forever.
Ken weeps.
Okay Ken you know what I might want to marry you, because I gotta love a man who has a sensitive side.
And then he hugs her, basically saying YES I WILL GO WITH YOU and Ken's kind of acting like she asked him to marry her, but that's okay because I can't blame her.
A certain redheaded muse of mine is laughing at me now. Oh? What's this? You like Weiss now to the point where you want to marry one of them because he has a 'sensitive side'? Jayden, you're a big disappointment right now. Verpiss dich, Schuldig. Tch.
Obviously I will always love Schwarz more, so I guess I would be cheating on poor Kenken with Schuldig, but. Aww. Poor Kenken. I'd feel bad.
Oh, wait, Ken fakes us out. He says, "No," and pulls away. "I can't. FORGET I EXISTED." And he drives off, leaving Yuriko to cry.
Okay Ken, forget everything I said about you. I don't want you anymore. I'll take my chance with my red headed psychic assassin, thank you. Sure I'll never be better than Crawford, but meh.
So then cut to Ken driving on his motorbike, angsting about how he's in Weiss, he's a killer, I CAN'T BE HAPPY, NOT EVER. Well at least he's not waxing on about how I DON'T EVER DESERVE TO BE LOVED like Aya does whenever a girl looks at him. Poor Kenken. I want to hug him :<
BUT ENOUGH OF THAT, PERSIA HAS SOME SHIT TO SAY. And he actually says, "Good morning, Weiss." What, Persia, do you want them to call you "Charlie" now?
okay you know what that is very very creepy let's move on
Our targets of the day is some dude who looks a little too happy and another guy with a Hitler 'stache. As per usual, Yohji and Omi and Manx are all on one side, all close together, and Aya's off in the corner brooding alone in his ugly wardrobe. According to Persia, they are experimenting with a certain chemical in their drinks that is extremely addictive and, if it's consumed regularly, it will eat away at the skin and muscles.
Clearly these dudes work with a Dr. Jizabel Disraeli, because this is totes something he'd do, and he even did something similar to it with a beauty product and all I really remember from that chapter was all the sexual subtext between him and Cain and Jizabel wanting Cain's eyes.
Well actually the guy who works over these guys? He and Jizabel are probably old chums or shit.
Once Ken (oh yeah, he's off in the corner too) sees that this drink is the same one Yuriko's drinking, he flips his shit, interrupts Manx, and runs off, with Manx calling after him. And then Aya redeems himself a little in my mind by saying, "What a pain in the butt." LOL.
This team is still dysfunctional as fuck, but they do have their "could be family" moments.
Meanwhile, Yuriko is drowning all her sorrows in Freude and OH NOES she has a bruise on her arm! Ken barges in, even though he (presumably) doesn't have a key and Yuriko (presumably) lives alone. Maybe Omi picked the lock or something. I don't know. Maybe it's just a logic fail. Yuriko is all KEN and why am I suddenly getting Fushigi Yuugi flashbacks? Is it because Ken keeps going YURIKO and Yuriko keeps going KEN? Because I do know that every other word out of Miaka's mouth was "Tamahome" or "Taka" and every other word out of Tamahome/Taka's mouth was "Miaka"...
WELL SHE'S ALREADY BEEN DRINKING IT, YOU'RE A DAY LATE AND A PENNY SHY.
Also I love how there is this airport call MAGIBA and it's in Narita... Obviously they didn't just want to come out and say NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT but yeah anyway. She's trying to get Ken to come with her again. He's all, "Well..." and she crumples the ticket and tries to drink the "poison" and why am I reminded of Romeo and Juliet now? Ken knocks Freude out of her hands and sees the bruise, and she faints in his arms briefly. She confesses her love and Ken expresses his guilt. She hands him the crumpled ticket and Ken finally takes it, finally deciding to do his own shit for once, dammit. He makes a promise to her, even.
"Must be hard being so popular," says a voice after Ken's all strapped on to his bike. The creeper this time is Yohji. I find him less creepy than Aya, probably because Yohji is doing it 'cause he's worried, not because he doesn't trust him, unlike Aya. Then again Aya is the "new guy" in Weiss so he's that kid who sits alone in the corner because he's new and no one likes him.
"You're not really in love, are you?"
"SHUT UP!" says Ken, and Yohji flinches. "A player like you wouldn't understand!"
Uh, Ken, Yohji understands more than you think. See, there was this woman named Asuka...
"This is my last job," Ken says after gritting his teeth. Yohji blinks a few times, then asks, "How many have you killed?"
Ken ignores him.
Yohji repeats himself.
"I just want to make her dreams come true."
AND CUT TO A SCENE WITH A PLANE FLYING OVERHEAD and some flashing lights and oooh, shiny. I am not sure what the hell is going on but some sort of...something is being transferred to some...tank or something, and Chipper Guy and Guy With The Hitler 'Stache are all :D Then we transition to a newspaper detailing the mysterious disease killing a whole bunch of people by melting their skin or something. Chipper Guy, who I am going to call President Chipper is reading these headlines and is pleased with himself. Hitler 'Stache is worried, saying the police are opening an investigation. President Chipper tells him to not get his panties in a wad, I got rid of the Shibuya vending machine, we're going to the suburbs where no one will track us. Hitler 'Stache is all OMG YOU'RE AWESOME I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE YOU SOMEDAY.
Somehow I just pictured someone trying to suck up to Crawford by saying that. OH MISTER CRAWFORD, YOU'RE SO AWESOME TEE HEE HEE and then Schuldig promptly turns their brain into mush because the only one who can suck up to Crawford is him, dammit, and Schuldig is oh so good at sucking...
Okay anyway. idk who Mr. Korin is, but that sounds a lot like a certain pharmaceutical company we'll encounter in just a few episodes (except it's "Kourin"). In fact, they could even be connected! Who knows? Certainly not me, because I don't remember much about this episode. Anyway, he's taken real good care of them and blah.
Cue a scene of Ken, Omi, and Aya running. Hitler 'Stache guy is all WELL IT'S GETTING KIND OF RISKY, AFTER I GET PAID I AM LEAVING JAPAN. Omi readies a dart and throws it, but the guy blocks it with a clipboard or something, so Omi throws another one, and the guy deflects it again. Is this guy a precog? How the hell can someone react so fast otherwise? Omi is determined to show this dirtbag who's boss, but Aya takes the honour of slicing him. Guy falls, but not before releasing whatever was being pumped into a containment tank, which is a black liquid of sorts that is probably a type of acid if it eats through skin, tissue, and muscle. The liquid runs red with the guy's blood, and proof that contact with this substance is probably a Bad Idea. Meanwhile Ken is chasing the other guy around when he pulls a gun, which Yohji takes, and Ken finishes him off. Apparently that took a lot out of Ken because he's breathing heavily and OMG KEN YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR BUGNUKS. Which freaks him out because OH NOES I HAVE THE HANDS OF A KILLER HOW CAN I TOUCH YURIKO NOW?
Kenken, you are Catholic. Not a practising one, but hey, you're Catholic. We have these things called 'confessionals', and we go to these people called "priests" and tell them our sins and they give us twenty Hail Marys or some shit. idk how many Hail Marys, Our Fathers, Glory Bes, and rosaries you'd have to do to find repentance, but it's worth a shot. This way your soul will be cleansed and blah blah blah, just make sure Farfarello isn't lurking in the shadows of the church you decide to go to. Otherwise your priest might end up turning to...whatever human flesh looks like after it's bathed in acid. Goo?
CUT TO AN AIRPLANE, which Yuriko boards and she looks disappointed.
Also, this sign board made me happy, because it has Newark on it. I lived near there, and my dad grew up there. Pretty cool, I gotta say. (Newark airport does have a direct-to-Japan flight...to Narita airport, which is what the Magiba airport in Weiss Kreuz is based off of.)
...what. We Jerseyans take great pride in our...Jerseyness. Unless it's the Jersey Shore. We don't want that. No one does.
So the plane takes off and Yuriko is looking in her diary and she sees a flower on one of the pages. This cheers her up because, well, it's from Ken. So he's like, there in spirit and shit. I bet he also wrote a note saying FORGIVE ME PLEASE. And whaddya know, Ken's there to see the plane take off and fly high into the sky.
KEN IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO GO AFTER HER
ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME
IF YOU DON'T GO AFTER HER, YOU ARE GOING TO END UP GOING CRAZY AND GOING TO PRISON.
PRISON, KENKEN. SO YOU CAN COLLECT YOURSELF.
At least you still look like yourself in Gluhen.
do not get me started on the character designs.
He drives off aaaaand oh, what's this? A shot of four girls, one of who looks like the leader since she's in business attire, one's wearing sunglasses,one looks like she watched too much Sailor Moon, and the other looks like a model. (Interesting fact: the seiyuu for Sailor Moon does the woman in sunglasses, strangely enough.)
Leader Girl (who goes by Hell) is all intimidating just standing there and I told you there was someone else behind this. I totes called it. There's also a guy, who looks kind of strange in a mad scientist-y sort of way, and he's all DON'T WORRY, FATHER, THERE'S NOTHING LINKING US TO LAKUETSU (the company making Freude).
Who's this man? Who's his father? Who are these chicks?
This man, the mad scientist guy, is Takatori Masafumi. Get used to hearing the name "Takatori", there are a few of them. So yeah, his father is Takatori Reiji, the guy we saw in episode two. These chicks are named, in the order they appeared, Hell, Neu, Tot, and Schön. They make up Schreient, who I will talk about a little more in depth later on once they are "officially" introduced in episode eight, when they appear alongside my boys.
"The experiment was almost complete," says Masafumi. "I guess we can move into the next stage."
What a freak.
And with that, our episode concludes!
This is one of the few Weiss oriented episodes I love, possibly because Ken is so down to earth in it and fff this is where our little sub-arc comes into play, which eventually ends up becoming part of the main plot in the Eszett arc, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, we're a long ways off from that yet.
What's in store for episode six?
In this next episode, we get to meet Tomoe Sakura, the first girl to last more than one episode (aside from Ouka). Also we deal with that creepy "you wake up in an ice bath and find your kidney stolen" story. And we find out more about Aya's past.
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