Love of Kill

Episode 2

This week's episode of Love of Kill definitely leaned more towards its dark and edgy side while developing the mystery that was only hinted at before. There are clues here and there that something major is about to happen, whether it is Château's company catching on to her relationship, or this new mysterious assassin that seems to have a specific grudge against Ryang-ha.

I am impressed that it manages to do this without making it clear, tonally or context-wise, just what exactly Ryang-ha's deal is. He definitely seems to be looking out for Château and seems genuinely pissed at the end when her life is in danger. I don't think he's strictly doing this out of love; it's implied that they have some kind of history together in one of the episode's final scenes, but I'm curious how much affection he actually holds for her.

I also like how Château seems to be a sort of weakness for Ryang-ha regardless of what his intentions towards her might be. Or at least I hope that's what the episode is establishing, because otherwise it just ended up creating a specific circumstance where this top assassin got incredibly reckless and endangered this woman he's going out of his way to look out for. The apology at the end with the acknowledgment of that carelessness was pretty funny, though.

On the other hand, I do feel a bit bad for Château in the sense that while she is undoubtedly a central character, it feels like she's given even less to say or do than what we saw before. I think she only had like two lines in the entire episode. I'm glad that I can at least tell what she's thinking or feeling in the moment thanks to her design and facial animation, but I really hope that as the series progresses, she becomes more of a character and less of a prop that other people get to move around like a piece on a chessboard. We're getting more of a sense of just how dangerous this underworld is, and I want to actually care about the lives of those that are embroiled in it as the stakes become more prevalent.

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Love of Kill is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.