English Dub Review: Gleipnir “Elena”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Shuichi and Clair test out Shuichi’s monster form to prepare themselves for their next encounter with any monsters. Then Clair discusses his keen sense of smell and how they can use it to track down her sister, the only monster they know so far. Upon opening the bag containing her sister’s clothes they’re both shocked at the amount of blood they can sense from her clothes and not just her parents but thousands of people. After that, they plan to stake out her sister’s school going on the basis that a girl her age will still have to attend. They stop by the market to get supplies and after that talk about what Clair is going to do after they find her sister and their respective families.

Afterward, the stakeout doesn’t go as planned as there’s a whiff of her sister’s scent and they were going to head to the mall. The train rolls up and Shuichi immediately picks up on her sister’s scent from the platform. When Clair searches the crowd, she finds and realizes it’s her sister. At the exit, Clair is inside Shuichi’s monster form ready to shoot Elena, and when Shuichi tries to stop her the gun goes off and catches Elena’s attention. Elena’s monster form holds them in place and when she realizes that it was Shuichi she goes back to her human form and apologizes and says to move the conversation to a more private place. During their one-sided conversation, Clair says something which catches Elena’s attention. Elena in her monster then angrily tells the girl inside Shuichi to get out and pulls off Shuichi’s mascot head in her fury.

Our Take:

This episode was unexpected in two ways. For starters, there are moments where Shuichi and Clair talk about their families and other normal stuff like going to the movies and snacks. It doesn’t change anything about their goal to find Elena, but instead, it puts into perspective that they’re just high school students wrapped in a crazy world with monsters. There’s also the affirmation of their reasons for searching for her sister to get more knowledge on Shuichi’s form and to understand why her sister killed their parents. Then there’s them feeling each other’s emotions when Clair’s inside Shuichi and how when they’re about to shoot Elena. It’s expected that Shuichi’s the one to hesitate because of his personality, but Clair crying right as she’s about to pull the trigger was a good touch to show that she isn’t completely heartless towards her sister.

Speaking of monsters, there’s Elena and how she acted like a normal high school girl right up until she heard Clair’s voice inside Shuichi and she turned into her monster form again. From what we’ve heard about her and what we get at the exit was unexpected as I didn’t think she’d act like a flustered high schooler meeting their crush. It’s unsettling with her personality towards Shuichi, who appears not to recognize her until Clair points out that she is her sister. It definitely brings up the question of how Elena knows Shuichi and why she would think that he would kill her even with the fact that she’s the one responsible for his current form.

Overall it was a great episode and with that cliffhanger, we’ll have to see if Shuichi and Clair survive that beheading in his dog mascot form.