| Sunflowers and a Vampire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Episode Information | |
| Kanji | ひまわりとバンパイア |
| Rōmanji | Himawari to Banpaia |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode No. | 10 |
| Air date | March 6, 2008 (Japan) |
| Opening | Cosmic Love |
| Ending | Dancing in the Velvet Moon |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous ← Summer Break and a Vampire |
Next New Term and a Vampire → |
Sunflowers and a Vampire (ひまわりとバンパイア, Himawari to Banpaia) is the tenth episode of Season One and the tenth overall episode of Rosario + Vampire. It aired on March 6, 2008 in Japan.
Synopsis[]
Ruby awakens to find herself in a tent with Tsukune and his friends with a tea can held out to her. When asked why she attacked them, Ruby explains about how badly witches have been treated and how developers are planning to destroy the sunflower fields where she and her master live. Seeing how kindly Tsukune and his friends treat each other, Ruby starts to have doubts that drive her to later sneak out that night back to her master. When Tsukune and his friends rush to the sunflower field to search for her, Ruby's denial regarding her master instigates a massive battle and a forbidden spell is used, whose near-irreversibility raises a lot of question of whether or not Ruby will survive.
Long Summary:[]
Part One:[]
Ruby awakens in the Newspaper Club's tent, dazed. She wonders what happened, but remembers the girls attacked her after she injured Tsukune. She tries to attack them, but is stopped when Tsukune holds out a can of tea for her to drink. Ruby tells them that they can't buy her off with a can of tea. Tsukune explains that they only want to hear her story and they learn the past of Witch Hill. Ruby and Her Ladyship have only been attacking humans to protect their home; the plant monsters ate the humans. Mizore then points out that it doesn't matter if you're a monster of a human, a life is a life. Moka then suggests that if all Ruby needs is a home, she should come to Yōkai Academy as it has a lot to offer her, even suggesting she joining the Newspaper Club as well. Kurumu complains about there being two witches now, something Yukari can't resist rubbing in. Mizore offers to "cool their heads", but is turned down because she'd end up freezing them all.
Ruby is shocked by the Newspaper Club's kindness
Ruby is touched by their kindness, and watches them have a good time. This makes her begin questioning what she thought the world was like. When everyone else has fallen asleep, Ruby sneaks out with the unopened can of tea she was given. She thinks about the News Club and what they've taught her, bringing Ruby to tears; she feels that it's too late to change who she is now. Ruby calls a crow to bring her wand (which was lost during the explosion) to her and flies back to her home on Witch Hill. There, she tries to talk to Her Ladyship about what she has just experienced, but is caught is vines, controlled by Her Ladyship. Ruby tells Her Ladyship that she will never betray her as the can is broken while she screams..
"Her Ladyship's brood"
In the meantime, the Newspaper Club has woken up and noticed Ruby has gone missing. Knowing where their new friend could have gone, they race back to Witch Hill, hoping to find Ruby. However, right as the reach the sunflowers, the girls get caught in vines controlled by Ruby. Walking towards the Newspaper Club, Ruby, back to being a vicious homicidal maniac, tells them to leave Witch Hill as she calls out the monster plants that reside beneath the sunflower field. The announced bat appears and states the obvious about the monsters before being swatted into the distance by Ruby's wand. Ruby explains that Her Ladyship grew these monsters to help with wiping out humans. Tsukune tries reasoning with her, but Ruby has turned a deaf ear to his pleas as she orders the plants to devour the Newspaper Club.
Tsukune is saved by Mizore
Kurumu frees herself using her claws, and Yukari through the use of her tarot cards. Both begin fighting the monsters as some head for Tsukune. The screen goes black along with the drop of his flashlight. When the light comes back, it's shown Mizore broke free as well and saved Tsukune by freezing the monster plants solid. All three of the girls tell Tsukune that they will protect him. Tsukune then realizes that Moka has been unable to free herself from the vines and runs after her. Unfortunately, Ruby buries him and Moka in a sea of plant monsters. Kurumu, Yukari and Mizore are horrified and try fighting their way over to help him.
Inner Moka is released
Being constantly battered and moved around in the ocean of monster plants, Tsukune wonders what he can do to help Moka and realizes he can release the Rosario seal, pulling it off from Moka. The energy from Moka's transformation from her Outer to Inner self releases enough power to make mulch out of the sea of plant monsters. Ruby only looks on in shock, realizing that Moka is a powerful S-class Vampire.
Part Two:[]
Inner Moka thanks Tsukune for saving her and begins fighting Ruby, knocking her into a pile of dead monster plants ("I'll take blood over peace"). However, Ruby is not done yet, as she brings the monster plants back to life and merges them into new ones twice as big as before. She also traps Moka and Tsukune in vines and begins slashing away at them with her razor-sharp wings. Ruby goes on about how she is carrying out the wish of Her Ladyship. Tsukune then realizes that Her Ladyship must be in the house on the other side of the hill just as he gets a cut on his face. Moka sees this and frees herself easily, kicking Tsukune free of the vines and knocking him over to Kurumu, Yukari and Mizore.
Tsukune begins running towards the house, buts gets blocked by the monster plants. Kurumu and Yukari team up, clearing the path for him. They both get into an argument as usual, but Kurumu is envious of Yukari not having to lug around 4 extra pounds in front like she does during a fight. Yukari tells her that they have to finish the conversation after the fight. Almost at the house, Tsukune is blocked again, but the plant monster is killed by Mizore's icicles.
The girls see the tide of the fight has gone against them
Arriving at the house, Tsukune finds roots coming out of the house, which he deduces is what is controlling the plant monsters. He tracks the roots to the room of Her Ladyship, with the roots coming from her rocking chair. Tsukune asks Her Ladyship to let Ruby makes her own decisions. However, the old witch remains silent. Sensing something is wrong from the fact she hasn't acknowledged his presence, Tsukune slowly creeps forward. Once close enough to the mirror, Tsukune sees something that causes him to recoil in horror; he grabs a nearby vase and smahes the mirror with it.
Outside, Kurumu, Mizore and Yukari are exhausted from having to repeatedly kill the plant monsters, only to have them come back to life and double in size. Mizore voies exhasperation, wondering how much longer they will have to put up with this insanity. Kurumu tells her that they will have to keep fighting until the plants stop coming back. Yukari then notices something has gone wrong during Moka's fight with Ruby, directing the others' attention to them. Surprisingly, Ruby has Moka tied up upside down. Yukari pleas with Ruby that they've had enough fighting; promising that they will all live hill and never come back. However, Moka tells Yukari to take a good look at Ruby. Ruby is now WAY too far gone from the girl they met earlier; she can't even recognize them. Ruby ties all the girls up in a ball of vines, calling it punishment for trying to defile her home.
Ruby, in shock of seeing Her Ladyship's death
Tsukune arrives and tells Ruby that there is no one left who cares about the plan; Her Ladyship is not there. Ruby denies this by explaining that Her Ladyship is IN the house. But Tsukune yells that she's been dead a long time. Everyone is shocked by how deeply in denial of reality Ruby really is; she's been revering the corpse of her dead mentor, believing her to still be alive. This shocks Ruby, who we see have a flashback to Her Ladyship passing right after deciding not to go through with her plans; Her Ladyship realized that her plans would make her just as bad as the humans she despised. With her last breath, Her Ladyship apologized to Ruby for leaving her alone again; though promising her spirit would watch over her. Ruby was unable to accept the death of Her Ladyship and a false image of her has been haunting Ruby this entire time. Ruby cannot accept the awful truth of reality, wailing in defiance and completely losing what was left of her sanity. An explosion of magical energy surrounds Ruby, as Yukari recognizes the spell; its a witch's desperation move to become more powerful by merging with others creatures. The plant mosnters merge with Ruby, which results in a giant multi-mouthed plant monster with Ruby in the middle one. Yukari realizes that Ruby has gone off the deep end and the only thing they can do to save her is to beat her, asking Tsukune to toss her magic wand to her. Removing the shoe from Kurumu's free foot, Yukari is freed from the vines by Kurumu's foot claws as she frees herself, Mizore and Moka.
Ruby's vines merge with Moka's body and turn her into Ruby's slave.
However, Moka becomes trapped in vines, which proceed to burrow into her body and merge with her. Ruby explains that in her new body can fuse with an infinite amount of other monsters to control them and absorb their powers. Moka struggles to get away but the vines overtake her and fuse her to Ruby, who takes control over Moka's body and uses her vampiric power to attack the others.
Yukari tells Mizore and Kurumu that they have to destroy Ruby's wand to defeat her and free Moka. Yukari manages to temporarily negate Ruby's power by blinding her with magic tarot cards, allowing Moka to regain control of her body. As Moka breaks free, Yukari tells her to destroy Ruby's wand, which will render her helpless and unable to cast magic spells. Yukari pleads with Moka to stop Ruby even though she probably can't revert, tearfully saying that Ruby needs help.Moka agrees to do what she can but says Ruby's better off dead. After stating once again that she'll "take Blood over Peace", she dive-kicks Ruby's wand, shattering it. This causes an explosion; which consumes Ruby, who screams in pain. During the explosion, Ruby has a happy childhood memory of Her Ladyship asking what "her favorite thing is" the memory erases the hatred from Ruby's face before a second, more powerful explosion occurs.
The next day, the News Club feels terrible for not being able to save Ruby. Ms Nekonome arrives just as the bus does. Gin departs from the bus and everyone stares in shock; Ruby is sleeping, cradled in his arms. Gin said he found her floating in the ocean, like something was protecting her from harm. Ruby's sleeping expression is calm and serene.
New Characters:[]
Coming soon.
Adapted From:[]
- This episode is adapted from City of Humans, Can't We All Just Get Along, and Witch's Knoll.
Refer-backs:[]
Coming up.
Trivia[]
- In the Manga, it is Her Ladyship who attacks the group with Hanabake plants. Also, in the Manga Her Ladyship succeeds in fusing with Moka during the fight (as well as fusing with Ruby), while in the Anime Ruby tries to fuse with the girls but fails.
- Ruby's mistake regarding Her Ladyship's orders seems similar to the Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" scheme. Where Norman Bates had "chats" with his mother, when the chair seemed only have a dead woman's withered corpse in it (Norman's Mom's remains?)
- The scene where Ruby is tied up in vines by "Her Ladyship" likely happened in her head.
- Tsukune suggests the trauma of Her Ladyship's passing caused Ruby to develop a second personality that believed itself to be Her Ladyship and was ordering her around.
- Tsukune likely smashed the mirror because Her Ladyship's corpse had decomposed to the point where it was sickening to even look at it.
- This is the first episode to not have the bumper for the show.
Cultural References[]
"Easter eggs"
Unanswered Questions:[]
- Why did Kurumu and Yukari change their undergarments? Kurumu was wearing white in the last episode, and was wearing yellow in this one. Yukari wore pink in the last episode, but wore green in this one.
Memorable Moments:[]
- Witches Knoll goes back to being peaceful.
- As the scene focuses on the sunflowers at the end, a past spoken exchange between Her Ladyship and a younger Ruby is heard, in which Ruby vows to protect Witch Hill forever, and Her Ladyship laughs softly and asks her if she wants to go back to their little home.
Quotes:[]
Coming soon.