Riddle Story of Devil - Episode 2

After introducing us to a number of weird and wonderful Black Class members in its opening instalment, the rest of this unique class' roster is unveiled as we enter Riddle Story of Devil's second episode with things threatening to get serious.

Compared to those outwardly lunatic girls we met initially, this new batch of supposed students seem far more normal and down-to-earth, even if one of them does insist upon being the representative of everything that she can get her hands on before even taking her seat.  Of course, if these girls appear to be normal that most certainly isn't the case, and once the entire classroom minus Haru and Azuma is invited to a special meeting at midnight that night what we already knew becomes clear - all of these girls are assassins, and Haru is their target.

Although the mission isn't supposed to begin until the ground rules have been laid out at that aforementioned meeting, it seems that one of our female assassins has decided to take the initiative and jump the gun - Azuma shows little interest in Isuke Inukai visiting her and Haru's room for tea, leaving her roommate to it before others nudge her in the direction of considering that this may not be the smartest decision in the world.  Lo and behold, Azuma returns to find Ichinose drugged (revealing a shocking number of scars all over her body), at which point she makes the decision to fend off her rival, stopping just short of killing her as a memory from her pasty disrupts her train of thought.  As it becomes clear that Haru is well aware of the harm that others wish to do to her thanks to her place in a hugely important clan, the more important question is what Azuma's plans are - as this assassination "game" begins, she turns things on her head by swearing to protect rather than kill Haru.

Now that it's set up its rules (although goodness knows why assassinating an unarmed girl needs rules) and Azuma's place in proceedings is cemented, it seems like Riddle Story of Devil is all set to begin in earnest with next week's episode.  With the promise of some decent enough action and no shortage of deranged characters, the potential of the series in terms of sheer entertainment value is evident, so all it needs to do now is execute on it - something it's shown mixed abilities to do thus far, with some clumsy exposition offset by some decent little moments of tension and action.