Reincarnation no Kaben Ep.03 - Whoa, that's a huge cliffhanger...

Episode 3 of Reincarnation no Kaben delivers a shocking cliffhanger that basically destroys the entire premise I had built in my mind leading up to the previous episode. As you know, Touya was hiding his real power from everyone else to try to steal theirs; he only revealed it to Haito, creating a sort of complicity between the two.

I assumed that wouldn't be revealed until much later, but it turns out Neumann had been suspicious of him from the very beginning and used another member to keep an eye on him. That member managed to witness him using a skill previously possessed by another enemy returner, which effectively blew his cover.

Ceasar in the background fangirling over them was hilarious. I do agree with the sentiment though, they look good.

Haito continues to be the highlight of the series for me. Really like her and having her as main heroine helps the series a lot.

The only possible way out is to kill the character before he can report back to Neumann, but I doubt he can actually do it, as it would effectively place him in the villain category. I am leaning toward him being squashed by some of the enemies instead, but let's see how things evolve.

The antagonists themselves are pretty black and white so far. The main enemy is apparently an old comrade of Neumann. They were all on the same team until he decided his ideal of "survival of the fittest" was better than the "use this power for the good of humanity" philosophy that everyone else followed.

There have been a lot of new characters introduced in this episode, and I honestly can already feel fatigue trying to remember them all. While some have memorable looks and voices that make them immediately recognizable, others are completely generic, and their names completely evade me.

I quite like the design of Yagyuu Juubee Mitsuyoshi and how it parallels Haito's Musashi persona. It helps that she is voiced by Inoue Marina, who is one of the most popular and experienced seiyuu still working in the industry, with her first role dating back to 2007 (yes, that is nearly 20 years).

Neumann has been completely useless so far, like girl you're supposed to be the leader. Do something.

Poor girls, they lasted so little before being eliminated. I wonder if they're dead dead or just fake dead.

Now we are back to the waiting game: will Touya manage to keep his secret hidden for a while longer? What happened to the two girls who were hit at the end of the episode and fell to the ground? Are they gone, or is there a chance for them to survive?