Let this be a lesson to everyone: don’t get between two sisters. You’ll lose your head.

— In the cold opening, vending machine man refers to humans as “inhabitants of this planet.” Welp, I guess that makes him an alien. Considering how he completely relies on us humans to find his coins, however, I wonder why the wishes he grants have so many hidden drawbacks. Maybe he can’t help it. Maybe people turning into beasts is a side effect of their true nature or something. I’m just saying that it seems counter-intuitive to screw people over when you need their help. Hell, he even claims to like humans. Then again… maybe he does need to screw them over. If people like Hikawa had gotten everything she wanted, she wouldn’t need to look for more coins.

— Man, don’t I know it. Plus, my vacation is about to come to an end. It’s back to work on Wednesday…

— Anyways, Clair tells Shuichi that if they’re going to keep working together, then they need to learn the ins and outs of their fusion. In other words, more sex metaphors. I will say, however, that one can sometimes read too much into the characters’ words and actions. For instance, this probably isn’t a metaphor for doggy-style, but let’s just pretend that it is! It’s more fun that way!

— For whatever reason, Shuichi doesn’t want Clair to be completely naked before she climbs inside him even though she has a perfectly understandable reason to strip down. Oh, I know why! It’s because he’s a typical anime teenager rather than an actual teenager. Good lord, they’re not even having real sex, so why does it matter? Well, it matters a lot to him, so he makes her put on a swimsuit. Let’s just pretend that the mangaka wants kids to wear protection. If you’re gonna do it, don’t do it bareback! Otherwise, you’ll have to take responsibility if things go wrong!

— I just never like it when the main character tries to be all pure and shit in an anime (or manga) that is chockful of male gazes. It just seems… hypocritical.

— This time, Clair has Shuichi try to move even though she’s inside him. As it turns out, he can exert some control, but she’s still the dominant one. She can still override his actions if she really wants to. I wonder if this is due to Clair and Clair alone or if anyone on the inside could do the same.

— I know the actual product is called CalorieMate. They’re basically nutritional bars, and they seem to be the only thing that Clair will eat these days. Maybe this is how a young kogal can stay so thin. But seriously, with both of her parents dead and her sister MIA, did the story ever explain how she’s surviving on her own? Maybe I missed it. Maybe she just has access to a bank account full of money.

— Since Shuichi is a dog, it makes sense that he would have a keen sense of smell. As a result, Clair has him sniff his sister’s uniform in order to track her down. In the process, we get to see a photo of the two sisters, but Elena’s face is conveniently obscured. You would only do this if we’ve already seen here before. Well, she’s obviously not one of the innocent classmates that we met in the first two episodes. As a result, I can only imagine that she’s the girl at the end of last week’s episode. Y’know, the one who made a wish to turn Shuichi into a monster.

— Oh yeah, the uniform reeks. Whew, someone didn’t bathe regularly. Jokes aside, Elena apparently carries a heavy scent of blood on her. What determines someone’s strength when they get turned into a monster? This is why I doubt that the vending machine man is directly responsible for these transformations. I mean, he might be… but it just seems arbitrary if he is. Why make Shuichi stronger than Hikawa? And why make Elena even stronger than both of them?

— Afterwards, Shuichi and Clair decide to do a stakeout at station near Elena’s school. One of Shuichi’s classmates — the one that got the recommendation — spots the couple. As far as I know, she’s just a normal girl, but maybe the story has bigger plans for her in the future. I’m not too keen about it, though. Not only do I not want this show to turn into one long procession of battles, I also don’t want all of the girls to inexplicably fall in love with Shuichi. Let’s not make this into a pseudo-harem. I don’t want some dumb nonsense where multiple girls get to wear Shuichi, but Clair will pretend that she’s the top waifu and the rest are just concubines. Ah shit, we’re probably gonna get that, huh?

— The stakeout initially doesn’t go too well, so the two kids almost make plans to watch a movie together. A softer side of Clair’s personality even peeks through. I wonder if this is her true self. In her photo with her sister, she seems to be the shyer of the two. And in her flashbacks, she certainly didn’t look like the brazen girl that she does now. Maybe her current persona is just a defense mechanism. Well, with Shuichi’s passivity and penchant for anxiousness, someone needs to be able to take charge.

— All of a sudden, Elena does show up. Her smell is unmistakable, and Clair doesn’t hesitate. She wants to shoot her sister to prevent her sister from getting away. Cold, right? But again, it’s probably a defense mechanism. Shuichi feels as though Clair is burying her feelings. When she sheds tears at the last second, he overrides her and probably prevents Elena from being killed. The bullet just narrowly misses. Still, I wonder what it would have meant for the rest of the series if Clair had gotten her way. I thought she wanted to know why her sister killed their parents, but all she sees is red right now.

— At first, Elena transforms into a monster, but unlike Shuichi and Hikawa, she doesn’t seem to have an animal form. She’s just your typical scary Japanese ghost woman with long hair. Nevertheless, her presence alone prevents you from being able to move a limb. But when Elena recognizes Shuichi, she turns back into a normal girl… albeit still with longer hair. Clair is just stunned. After all, Elena isn’t acting much like someone who reeks of death and blood.

— Elena starts apologizing for dragging them into this mess, but she doesn’t initially specify who she’s talking about. As a result, Clair thinks that her sister can tell that she’s hiding within Shuichi. In her anger, she’s about to kill Elena again when her sister finally makes her surprising confession.

— When Clair expresses confusion, Elena goes into a rage. She transforms back into her shadowy form. She proceeds to rip off Shuichi’s head while simultaneously declaring that she’s the only person who is allowed to be inside him. Welp, that’s our cliffhanger.

— So does this kill Shuichi? It can’t, right? No protagonist dies by the third episode of the series. Maybe you can just sew his head back on. Plus, Clair still has a coin, right? I don’t think she knows where to find the vending machine, though…

— More importantly, how well does Elena know Shuichi? Did she simply stalk him from afar or did they use to have a history? The only problem with the latter is that he doesn’t seem to remember anything about Elena. He should recognize her if they’ve ever crossed paths… unless, of course, his memories have somehow been tampered with. Anime loves that shit. And considering how vending machine man can grant wishes, maybe he can also erase memories. Still, if Elena was involved with Shuichi, it’s interesting that Clair appears to have no clue about their relationship at all. Well, people will always have their secrets…

— Let’s assume that Shuichi’s memories were erased. If he gets them back one day, what will this mean for Clair? The girl is willing to die if he dies. If he goes back to the older sister, will the younger sister give up on life again? That’s why I don’t like pseudo-harems or love triangles. They’re just unpleasant. It’s incredibly annoying to see a guy waffle between two different girls for, say, 200-plus chapters. Hell, my friend just made me watch a series where a guy had to pick between five quintuplets. Lame.

— One last thing: maybe this is out there, but I wonder if Shuichi pulled down Clair’s panties in the first episode because he smelled something familiar about her. Ah, it’s just a silly thought. It’s not like sisters smell the same down there. The simple answer is that he’s probably just a closet perv.