WARNING: The following article contains SPOILERS for Wolf Girl and Black Prince Episode 3. If you don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading. You have been warned.
I think it is safe for me to say that I made the right choice with both anime I chose to write these commentaries on. Not only do we have Denki-Gai, a show that really hits all the right notes of a comedic anime, but we also have Wolf Girl and Black Prince. With the previous two episodes, I found that it had premise that it executed well, but was at risk of screwing up. With this third episode, I no longer have any worries that this series will screw anything up. This series has proven itself to be a very well thought out and well told series and the writers seem to really know what they are doing. Quite simply put, Wolf Girl and Black Prince has gone from a good anime to a great one.
The main plot of this episode is that Sata is absent from school for a few days so Erika decides to bring him his school work and look after him. Right away, it may seem a bit surprising that Erika would decide to do so, seeing as how Sata was rather rude and is not even her real boyfriend. As it turns out, Sata is just as surprised as most of the viewers are and assumes that Erika is trying to get something out of him. He also admits that he simply never liked people doting on him. He gives a rather powerful line about how he always hated women who try to please him just to get on his good side.
He is actually happy with Erika because she was actually genuine in her care for him. She had no ulterior motive and did so out of the kindness of her heart. There are also plenty of signs that Sata actually does care for Erika. Particularly, Erika actually made a line about how she was his dog and that she should look after him because of that. In response to that, Sata said she was hopeless for calling herself a dog. There was also a subplot where Erika realized that she fell in love with Sata and confessed to him. In response, Sata outright said that she does not and that she shouldn’t delude herself.
Erika realizes that he is right and admits that she is glad because she did not want to like him. Now what really surprises me about Sata’s line is that it touches upon a subject that I have not seen many works of fiction deal with; that theme being the difference between love and infatuation. Infatuation is a result of hormones and is what causes the whole butterfly feeling when you first meet someone. It is not actual love because you are basing your idea on what you think a person is, not on what they actually are. Sata has admitted that he disliked the types of people who feel infatuated with him because they do not really know him. At the same time, however, he knows that Erika is familiar with his darker side and therefore could easily be set straight. It is rather surprising that such important advice comes from a character that is kind of a prick. This is not just advice that is needed within the context of the plot; this is something that a lot of people in real life need to know.
All of this tends to actually give Sata more of an older brother type of vibe; the type that is annoying or rude yet also has his mature and wise moments and cares for those younger than him. I no longer see this series as the abusive relationship allegory that was mentioned in my commentary of the first two episodes. Sata’s character is simply too well developed to brush him off as a typical sadistic asshole. Hell, I know people in real life that Sata reminds me of; and they are good people despite being a bit abrasive.
I can easily gather that both Sata and Erika’s character will be taken in interesting directions, yet I legitimately have no way to predict what directions those will be. This really shows how well fleshed out and developed these characters are. The personalities are far from predictable or flat; there are a wide variety of different layers of depth to both Erika and Sata. Both of them not only feel like real people; they feel like the type of people that make for interesting situations in real life.
What else is there for me to say? Wolf Girl and Black Prince has basically set itself up as a superb series. I honestly can’t see it screwing anything else up at this point. Yes, I can be cynical and assume there is a likely chance that the series will mess something up, but I really don’t want to. Even if I did, there would be little reason to. The writers of this series have proved that they know what they are doing based on the quality of their work thus far, and to do something capable of screwing up the entire series would require one to go out of their way to do so.
Wolf Girl and Black Prince is available to watch on Crunchyroll with new episodes coming out on Sundays at 11:30AM EDT/8:30AM PDT. Non-premium users will be able to watch episodes for free one week after it first airs.
