It is a beautiful episode, thanks to the angelic voice of Saori Hayami (早見 沙織), who play the sorrowful siren, Beatrice / Trice, in the series. The soft tunes of her character’s song further highlight her tragic situation and I can’t get it out of my head.
Beatrice is originally a singer who considers singing and performing as the only reason to live. She uses to perform in a local bar and is proud that her performance can always leave everyone with a smile. It appears that a special quality is needed for humans to become Incarnates, so she is “selected” by the government to join the army.
Even though she comes home as a hero after the war, nobody is willing to hear her sing due to fear. Things gets even worse the Northern Union of Patria determines to exterminate all the Incarnates. A bounty is placed on her head, forcing her to hide from the villagers.
When Schaal finds her, she is desperate and will happily have anyone as an audience. Schaal’s innocence is undoubtedly a redemption to Beatrice, who is not able to talk to others for a long time. The scene when Beatrice reveals to Schaal about the thing that Hank disliked is just lovely. It was such a calming moment that it makes the audience temporarily forget about the war and the pain that brought with it.
Things turned pretty ugly just as expected. Beatrice fails to run away from her fate and dies in the hand of the Incarnate Extermination Unit, Coupe de Grace. The delicate presentation of the last scene, where Beatrice sings at the old bar she used to perform, is emotion-stirring. It reminds us of the tragic episode of Behemoth, who never wants to hurt anybody, but to see the ocean. Both of them have to trade their lives to fulfil their lifelong wishes. It is personal. It is moving. They are my favourite episodes in the series so far.
The situation of Beatrice is practically the same as Schaal’s father. I just wonder what is this particular quality that makes them suitable to become Incarnates and how does the government select their candidates? I mean if everybody can be transformed into Incarnates, there is no need to recruit normal citizens to do that, considering that the soldiers are clearly a better choice.
The secret of Incarnates is still unknown at this point, but I guess Cain may hold the information about this and may use it as leverage in the coming war. The fact that Cain is the son of the president of Northern Union of Patria also intrigues me, as well as the entanglement between him and his brother, Claude. These certainly give us something to look forward to in the following episodes.
I am glad that Hank finally appears at the last scene and good to know that he is coming back the next episode. Roy, the hellhound, is behind his back and it looks like we can expect some serious dog fights.
