Hidan no Aria AA - Episode 9 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Hidan no Aria AA, Episode 9.

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[Seihai]

Excellent episode. Compared to that certain other episode, this really delivered the action well. Not only that, I think the seriousness of the situation was brought over atmospherically right. A lot of the puzzle pieces have come together now and I was genuinely surprised at Akari's actual shooting skill. I thought it was just her imagination that the criminal would have exploded into blood like that but it was apparently a proper precognition of what would have happened if she had actually shot. No kidding, that seems a bit dangerous. lol

Can't wait for next episode. The real deal is finally set in motion.

Also Akari is still oblivious to her imouto's condition and Shino/Urara were fanastically crazy as always.

[Stark700]

So Akari can shoot after all and quite decent too. She just needs more confidence.

[Seihai]

Originally Posted by Stark700

So Akari can shoot after all and quite decent too. She just needs more confidence.

I think it is not only a matter of confidence. When she shoots, she instinctively shoots all the fatal points likely against her own will because of some kind of training which is now edged into her head. It seems to be connected to her trauma as well so I doubt it's as simple as upping her confidence or adjusting her training. Then again either of the two things would be a good start to change her angsty behaviour.

[FlareKnight]

Well took half way through episode 9 for the plot to pick itself up again .

Thank god for the villains about to strike, a limited amount of time for Shino and Takachiho to be yuri stalkers in that case .

And damn....Akari's skills are pretty brutal. As expected she was raised in some kind of assassin environment. Giving her the skills needed to brutally kill her target. But not exactly skills that help her with being a butei. Shooting vitals based on instinct without much control over herself. Maybe with enough time and training she can override that, but it's not going to be something easy to do.

Honestly Akari would probably be better off doing anything else but being a butei. Finding a quiet place to live normally away from guns and weapons. But that may not be an option with Akari and her sister being hunted down by that organization. She may need the skills to defend herself.

Although...yet again Akari is oblivious to something being very wrong with her sister.

[Anh_Minh]

IIRC, it's illegal for Butei to kill regardless of circumstances. It doesn't matter if the perp is pointing a bazooka at you, your family, and your little dog... you must still catch him alive. So, yeah, Akari may be completely unsuited.

I wonder if her sister has assassin skills, too?

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

IIRC, it's illegal for Butei to kill regardless of circumstances. It doesn't matter if the perp is pointing a bazooka at you, your family, and your little dog... you must sill catch him alive. So, yeah, Akari may be completely unsuited.

I wonder if her sister has assassin skills, too?

Though it does make Akari's reasoning for idolizing Aria a bit odd. I mean it either means that S-ranked Butei have been passes in the past for fatally injuring suspects or Akari's research has been really faulty. Aria shouldn't be the exception to never breaking the rules and never failing to take a suspect in alive.

[Seihai]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Though it does make Akari's reasoning for idolizing Aria a bit odd. I mean it either means that S-ranked Butei have been passes in the past for fatally injuring suspects or Akari's research has been really faulty. Aria shouldn't be the exception to never breaking the rules and never failing to take a suspect in alive.

It is indeed odd but I think very understandable in Akari's case. I am fairly sure that she needed a beacon of hope to guide her new life to ultimately come to terms with her past. This is why she likely picked up a rumor about Aria solving cases graciously without harming anyone. At that point I think it didn't matter much whether Aria actually killed people behind her back or not, she simply believed she didn't and thus carved it into her mind as a fact. And so, she decided to become her Amica in hope that she can change herself somehow. Although Akari is still way too naive in that regard because as Aria said, as her Amica she would likely get involved in very dangeorus cases (which was already proven in this episode tbh which is why Aria "evacuated" in Akari's house) and that only increases the chance of situations where you have to kill, or at least where people die anyway.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Though it does make Akari's reasoning for idolizing Aria a bit odd. I mean it either means that S-ranked Butei have been passes in the past for fatally injuring suspects or Akari's research has been really faulty. Aria shouldn't be the exception to never breaking the rules and never failing to take a suspect in alive.

Now that I think of it, it may apply only to Japanese Butei. ISTR other countries have other rules. Your point remains, though.

[Random Wanderer]

I've thought for a while that Akari was deliberately hiding her abilities. I thought it might have been to stay under the radar of whoever was hunting them, but the idea that she's been conditioned to kill, brutally and swiftly, that she has to struggle hard to do anything else... it explains many things. She's been trying to train herself to fight from the ground up in a way that doesn't trigger her assassin reflexes. She needs that desperately, not just for her protection, but possibly for her own sanity. She cannot accept what her conditioning would make her.

So she grasped on to Aria, who was the highest example of what Akari was seeking: someone who could apparently fight and win against any odds, and yet not have to kill. The fact that she was not personally suited to be who Aria was did not matter to her. Nothing mattered. She needed what Aria had, and she would do anything to learn it.

Now, thanks to Nonoka's dream, the layers are being peeled back. It looked like their mother was killed, and this girl with the multi-colored fingernails has tracked them down after that at least once before. I don't know why the two of them are alive now if rainbow-fingers caught them once before.

It certainly seems likely that Nonoka is dying from something that happened back then. Some sort of incredibly slow poison? I don't know. But Akari is still too caught up in her own concerns to notice, and I fear she is rapidly running out of time.

[Kotohono]

Seriously great episode, that scene with Akari hesitating to shoot & the scenes following between Akari & Aria with Akari shooting explained so much...

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

I've thought for a while that Akari was deliberately hiding her abilities. I thought it might have been to stay under the radar of whoever was hunting them, but the idea that she's been conditioned to kill, brutally and swiftly, that she has to struggle hard to do anything else... it explains many things. She's been trying to train herself to fight from the ground up in a way that doesn't trigger her assassin reflexes. She needs that desperately, not just for her protection, but possibly for her own sanity. She cannot accept what her conditioning would make her.

Yea the way she handled weapons in previous episodes really makes a lot of sense now... even with blank rounds during the Quadra match I could see why she'd be afraid to let that trigger...

I mean I expected her past to play into it somehow, but for it to bring her shooting skills like that even without looking at the target in rapid fire... no wonder she has trauma about it...

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

So she grasped on to Aria, who was the highest example of what Akari was seeking: someone who could apparently fight and win against any odds, and yet not have to kill. The fact that she was not personally suited to be who Aria was did not matter to her. Nothing mattered. She needed what Aria had, and she would do anything to learn it.

I can see why for now with abilities like that why... she would grasp onto someone like Aria as an ideal. She needs somethings to help control or overcome that ability.

[Benigmatica]

Would it be better if Akari Mamiya was transferred to an assassination high school instead of Butei High? After all, they can't kill people outright.

Meanwhile, I was wondering why one of Riko's friends decide to kill the Mamiya Clan and burn their village? Is she have any grudges towards them apart from having dangerous skills?

[Seihai]

Originally Posted by Benigmatica

Would it be better if Akari Mamiya was transferred to an assassination high school instead of Butei High? After all, they can't kill people outright.

I doubt something like that even exists, but assuming it does, there's no way it would be better for Akari because it would only make the trauma worse for her.

[chaos_animagic]

Never thought I would say this...

But the daily training Aria is doing... is exactly what that dude did in OPunch...

Daily morning runs, push up and sit ups afterward.


As for Akari... well... to get over killing, you just needs to kill more til you get used to it. (lol, actually works tho, but not fit for this anime, at least for the "good guys")

Akari is more fitting to be the bad girl of this series, but she was introduced as this innocent loli that wants to follow her idol...


And for Assassination schools... some do exist, but ppls just don't know about it, because well... if ppls knows about it, it won't be Assassination now would it?

[Liddo-kun]

Finished watching episode 9:

Wow, things suddenly became intense. Still a few fun moments and jokes, but things got heated up later. Hmm, now I do wonder where Akari really came from, and why she transferred to being a Butei. Hmmm.

[Yye1]

So Akari is actually hiding mad skills