Riddle Story of Devil - Episode 6

Another weeks mean more assassination attempts targeted at Ichinose, although this time around she never finds herself moving beyond the periphery of events which spiral out of control elsewhere.

At the centre of matters this time around are Hitsugi Kirigaya and Chitaru Namatame, a pair of roommates from the Black Class who have a relationship which almost seems to resemble that of a daughter and mother, with diminutive Kirigaya finding herself constantly looked after as if she were a child.  Of course, given their positions neither of them are angels, although it seems that Chitaru has a rather different target than the other assassins, as she treads a path of vengeance against a killer known as "Angel's Trumpet", who acts by poisoning their victims.

With the build-up to the school festival continue, it doesn't take us long to find out the true face behind Ange's Trumpet, and it isn;'t too surprising to learn that the culprit is Hitsugi, as she takes out Shiena Kenmochi the second she reveals her intent to kill Haru so that Kirigaya herself can step in and claim victory in this chilling game.  Her goal is to use the class production of Romeo & Juliet as a cover to poison Ichinose, but once Azuma discovers her plan it's quickly thwarted, and Namatame's misunderstanding about the individual responsible eventually leads to a climax worthy of Shakespeare's best-known work itself.

This week's episode of Riddle Story of Devil couldn't claim to boast an original plot, nor could it possibly hope to surprise with the way that plot developed (and to be fair it didn't even try to traverse this path, instead foreshadowing everything clearly in advance), yet this was still the most emotionally resonant episode of the series yet - its final scenes were played out very well indeed to provide impact, while turning the plot away from Haru for the most part also left this instalment feeling fresh and significantly different from the show's formula up to this point.  It isn't the kind of thing the series can hope to pull off every week (especially given that offing three characters at a time isn't practical), but it was an enjoyable change of pace and tone in places that was most welcome and has renewed my enthusiasm for the show as a result.