DRAMAtical Murder episode 9: Not all Clear

Everyone gets a turn. Time for Clear to be the boyfriend of the week.

SO SLEEPY!!! Once this season of Big Brother is over I hope I can get back into a better sleep schedule. Le sigh. Be awake at hours that have the sun and sleep when the moon is out and stuff. For now though...it is TV watching time. And blogging of course. Up now is DRAMATical Murder episode 9. Spoilers for....well not one murder taking place yet?

What is this?! Sexy times?!

Episode Summary: Aoba and his new friend Noiz are trying to get back to the inn. Aoba has to carry Noiz because the kid is still injured. As they are walking more people from Morphine and their drugged out selves appear. Neither boy is okay enough to fight so things look bad…until Clear jumps off a roof and starts kicking butt because hey that is his Master. Clear does a great job fighting but there are tons of baddies and Aoba ends up getting punched a little. Clear done loses his mind at the thought of Aoba hurt and attacks that specific person in a rage. Aoba has to pull Clear off the man and the man repays Aoba’s kindness by throwing acid in Clear’s face. Aoba panics and somehow gets both guys home to the inn. He throws Clear in the shower and tries to make the kid take off all his clothes but Clear refuses to take off the mask. He claims his Grandfather told him to wear it and never take it off. Clear thinks that there is something wrong with his face and he doesn’t want Master to see a monster. Aoba gets upset at the idea of Clear being hurt and eventually convinces Aoba who is super upset to take off his mask. Once the broken mask is off Aoba sees a cutie Clear and thankfully no burn marks. Clear is happy he has a correct looking face and that Master still likes him. They get all cleaned up and Clear goes to make dinner for his master. He informs Master that he is used to doing chores so if they need to fight Toue by folding laundry and making bento boxes they will win. Aoba seems touched by Clear but really doesn’t have time to enjoy the food as the TV is playing. Playing brainwashing music that causes Aoba great and awful pain. Before he dies on the ground Clear turns off the TV and starts to explain what kind of brainwashing the music was doing. Clear just keeps on talking about how Aoba must be hurt because he has Scrap power that was affecting the brainwashing and that Toue has Scrap power because he experimented on himself and his Grandfather told him all of this. Aoba is like…what the heck who was your Grandfather? Clear then magically has no more answers and offers to sing to Aoba to make his headache better. Aoba forgets all this insanity and allows a maskless Clear to sing the jellyfish song which makes him feel better. Aoba sleeps for a bit while Toue starts talking in his tower about how the trash is here and the Alphas need to go after it. He also asks about the quiet boy who is named Sei but apparently he isn’t doing too well. While Aoba takes a nap Clear asks Ren why he doesn’t call Master Master. Ren basically says Aoba wants to be called Aoba and doesn’t view him as lesser thus Clear should call him Aoba too. Aoba wakes up in the middle of this conversation and asks if Clear would call someone else Master. While Clear would never want another Master he probably would and that makes Aoba sad.

Thanks for your input Quiet Boy.

The duo decide to go find Toue all on their own and leave the inn as Koujaku and Noiz rest. Clear accidentally leads Aoba in the wrong direction but they get back on track rather fast and have a bit of talking/walking time. Soon they are confronted by two security guards that look exactly like Clear and refer to him as brother. Clear tells Aoba to stay back as the kid is really confused. The two (referred to as Alphas) say that Toue is their true master and Clear must be really broken to have forgotten that. They start to fight but Clear is unable to move. One of the Alphas explains that Toue made it so their models couldn’t attack allies or Toue. Theirs were disabled for this fight so they could take out Clear the trash. During the fight the Alphas explain that Clear was born defected and was to be disposed of but apparently the man who was to do the job pitied Clear instead and raised him. As they laugh at Clear he manages to override that command and attack back. The Alphas explain the more Clear does that the more circuits he will break. Aoba gets upset and….walks Clear away as the Alphas don’t follow them. They go to a random building and ride up the elevator. Clear says he didn’t know he was a robot until right now and thinks he thought Aoba was his Master as he and Toue both have that power. Clear is worried that Aoba is mad but Aoba believes that Clear only wanted to protect him. They get to the roof and have a cute moment when the Alphas show up. They make fun of Clear again but Clear has a speech. He wants to be human and he has his own free will and they are the ones playing human by trying to control them. The Alphas make fun of Aoba and Clear promises to protect Aoba…by stabbing himself in the head. Aoba instantly uses Scrap but an okay looking Clear tells him it is okay. Out of Clear’s mind it turns out that Clear broke the command that won’t allow him to hurt the Alphas but now he has broken the part of him that heals himself. He sings at maximum output and destroys the Alphas. He asks Aoba if he used Scrap on him. Clear determines that he has a heart despite being a machine because of Master. His last request is to call Aoba by his first name. He says Aoba and stops working as Aoba cries. Elsewhere Mink and his crew gather their many weapons to fight. THE END…..finally.

I DO NOT FEEL YOUR SADS!

Let the emptiness continue folks. Another drive by friendship that I am sure makes sense in the original source material. Like you play the game and pick a route and one guy gets all the attention and bonding with Aoba. So when things come to a dramatic ending there are feels. Genuine feels and sads. :_: a buildup and romantic declaration, a sudden melting of clothes…something.

Clear will make me feels if it's the last thing he does!

Instead we get this and the last episode. Koujaku didn’t have much build up with his family traumas but I got enough from their interactions that they are close friends. Not enough to make-out or anything but you know. Noiz basically put Aoba in danger and was genuinely a brat so all this I accept this crap came out of nowhere if your were just watching the show. And the same thing happened with Clear. Not that Clear was an asshole, just that there wasn’t enough interactions or build up for things to make sense or tug at my heart strings.

I am here to save the day Aoba!!! I mean Master!!!

Things start off with Aoba trying to help Noiz back to the inn. Despite Toue owning the entire area and brainwashing everyone they make it pretty far. Like oh Aoba and Noiz are Scraping in Noiz’s mind, we will let them have their moment. Noiz looks…not too bad for a person who has never felt pain before. He still wasn’t in any shape to help Aoba when more Morphine attacks them. Everyone in the “amusement park” is brainwashed in some capacity but there must be a group that is specifically Morphine with their hoods and constant bugged out state. Aoba s going to do his best to protect his new best friend forever. But Aoba doesn’t seem to be good at butt kicking so….Is there a reason why Toue doesn’t just drug Aoba to sleep if he wants him alive? What really is the point? Because Aoba might end up dead accidentally at this point.

Good thing you stopped Clear!

Aoba only minorly got his ass kicked (and Noiz wasn’t injured at all) because TADA Clear is here to save the day. This funny dressed Aoba loving guy is kicking butt and not asking names. Where this show loses me (well one point anyway) is it would have made more sense if everyone went to Platinum Jail together. Or some of them anyway if they really wanted to take Toue down. Especially Clear. Especially. He “hears” Aoba so he should have been the first one to rush to the area. Gotta help Aoba!!! I mean Master. I am sure Clear didn’t get an invitation so maybe it makes sense that he couldn’t make it there right away. To me it just seems an easy cop out so each boy has alone time with Aoba. But Clear is here now and kicking ass. It gets turned up a notch when Aoba gets punched a bit. Then Clear has a rage moment. Apologize to my Master now before I beat you into the ground.

XO This is either adorable or sad.

As Aoba calms Clear down the person Clear was beating throws acid or something on the kid. X____X Like damn you people are serious. I don’t know how Aoba got both injured Noiz and acid Clear to the inn but he did and threw Clear into the shower. Good thing people be brainwashed or they would have questioned this insanity. Clear doesn’t want to take off his gas mask and Aoba got upset. It is a good thing Clear dressed the way he did or he would have been hurt. Aoba wanted to make sure but Clear refused. His grandfather told him never to show his face. Clear seems to be a very…simple boy and follows directions to a T.

And then...they didn't kiss. Hurray!

Still Aoba wants Clear to be okay. New best friends of the week. With scenes later in the episode it is a bit dramatic for Clear to say he never saw his face. But Clear deducted he isn’t allowed to show his face because he is an ugly monster. Something has to be wrong with him. He doesn’t want his Master that he has known for 5 minutes to hate him for looking like a monster. It would just upset him so much. Aoba manages to say….hey….I am a your Master. I will never hate you. Remember all our long conversations together? I just want you to be okay. Poor Clear. I mean….he could have asked Aoba to leave so he could check his own face but Aoba might not have believed him. In the end the broken mask is removed and Clear is a cutie. He seems to be very concerned about having the correct facial features which is a bummer. Clear could have made this yaoi anime have some actual boy on boy moments. Like do you like how I look Master? And then Aoba gets all blushy face and says Clear looks fine.

Thanks. We shall make Toue fat and give him diabetes with your sweet cooking. It is a plan to save the world.

After it is determined Clear is okay things gets a little more…domesticated. Clear even says so, that he is domesticated because he did all the chores for Grandfather. He makes Aoba some food which is declared yummy. I am sure that makes Clear happy. He doesn’t look like a monster and Aoba likes his cooking. He will make a great wife for his Master. Koujaku and Noiz are not invited to this meal. Because working together would be silly. I mean the others are injured but still need to eat. But we go to do things for one potential love interest at a time so Aoba gets the dinner. Why didn’t Aoba insist that Clear eat too? Or order something from the stands since Clear was injured too? So many questions.

So...you've been here before?

While Aoba is eating his delicious homemade meal by his wife the TV starts to brainwash him. Violently. Or maybe it was the graphics outside that brainwashed him. Either way Aoba started to shake violently and got a headache from the music he was hearing. It must have been the TV because Clear reacted quickly and turned it off. Clear then shows that he has some knowledge of what is going on as he knew the specifics of the brainwashing music. In fact, much to the surprise of Aoba, Clear is aware that Aoba has Scrap Power. And that Toue does too. Clear tries to continue on by saying it Is because Aoba has this power the brainwashing hurts Aoba instead of taking him over right away. Aoba was like whoa whoa whoa. Back it up there best friend Clear. Who exactly was your Grandfather if he knew all this? Toue has a power and is experimenting on himself? You know I have a power? What is going on here?

Oh did I say that? I meant...have some cookies!

Clear….doesn’t really answer any of these questions. Like oh I don’t know what kind of person my Grandfather was or what he did for a living. Just you know…Grandfather is Grandfather. Oh look you are hurt from the brainwashing, let me sing you a song. Seriously that is how it went down. Instead of asking Clear some follow up questions or demand answers…Aoba is like okay sing me the jellyfish song. Aoba has gone through a lot in the past 48 hours (despite making it sound like Grams told him about Toue months ago) so…maybe he wasn’t thinking straight. Sing me to sleep my dear friend Clear. Sounds better without the gas mask on I might say. Lovely little jellyfish.

So...why are you not equal to a man you just met?

While Aoba took a brief nap Clear (why do I keep wanting to call him Zero?) had a little conversation with Ren. Because Ren exists folks. Oh snap that means more than one possible “boyfriend” was on each path. Wait did Aoba take Ren when he ran after Noiz and the food? Ren get on your game. Anyway Ren and Clear had a talk that didn’t involve any jealously which makes me a sad yaoi panda girl. It more had to do with Clear not understanding why Ren doesn’t call Aoba master. This was probably the first due that Clear was a robot. Since he thinks Ren and himself are on one level and Aoba is on another. Ren has actually spent a lot of time with Aoba and knows the boy. Aoba does seem like the kind of person who sees human value in Allmates where as others like Noiz seem them like cute robots. Aoba doesn’t want it that way and Ren suggests Clear call Aoba by his name. Aoba and his not sleepy self confirms that as well and asks if Clear would call someone else Master. Why not ask why you are called Master? Clear….his newly exposed face…is confused. He can’t imagine having another Master but a person in Aoba’s position would be Master. It’s a position yes. Aoba gets sad about that. Because Clear and Aoba have been friends for so many years and this Master thing makes sense.

You two are going out now? Okay have fun. Bring me back a scone.

With the Master issue not solved it is off to see Toue at his tower that I am sure is not heavily guarded at all. Nope nope, Toue brainwashes everyone and has plans for world domination but can only afford brain washed gang members. But since Toue wants Aoba there maybe Clear and Aoba will have any easy journey there. Alone. Do Koujaku and Noiz even know where Aoba is going? Did they say HEY wait for us to mend? I don’t know. We see Koujaku looking beat up and without strength. He was possessed. Noiz is also resting. Awake but bandaided up. He could have been taking down some firewalls for the pair so who knows. Oh we also saw Toue. He was talking about it being with Aoba and sending Alphas after the trash. Oh and the creepy boy who never speaks and is always around has a name. Sei. And apparently he isn’t doing well. I am sure his story will be explained. In 5 seconds but explained. For now…send out more thugs.

It's almost like Christmas in a brainwash wonderland!

Before the bad thing happened Aoba had some bonding time with his boyfriend of the day. Clear thought he was leading the way to the tower but it was the wrong one. Clear has let his Master down, he must kill himself over the shame. Or you know…just walk the other way since no one is stopping them. They skip around like nothing major is going on and everyone on the island isn’t in danger. Okay Aoba does think to himself about the mission and the people he wants to protect. But the focus was how it was pretty here and too bad it’s such an evil place. Some more talk about Clear being himself and what he means to Aoba or what Aoba means to him. Because at this point we need more interactions to make this feel like a real relationship.

Err...why do you look exactly like Clear....and not happy to see us?

This peaceful moment is interrupted by two crazy dressed people. Well everyone in this show is poorly and crazy dressed so that isn’t saying much. But they are dressed like the person Noiz got all upset about seeing last week. Like they had done him wrong. I don’t see how that is possible since their connection is to Clear. Whatever I guess. These two men are the Alphas Toue sent out and guess what?! They look exactly like Clear. Say what? Aoba is super confused. For a moment I think Aoba thought these were Clear’s brothers. Like everyone in anime looks alive so triplets? I think that train of thought only lasted 5 seconds though. Clear started acting funny and these people (Alphas 1 and 2) were all smirking and making fun of it, the trash. Like oh….they aren’t brothers. They are talking about Master Toue, are dressed like Peacekeepers via The Hunger Games, and are identical. Clear is acting more adult like and protective. What is going on?!

Thanks for that info random baddie.

Because this show is way less gritty and more paint by numbers the Alphas (who really don’t need labeling) explain almost the entire thing to Aoba. Clear fills in the blanks later as apparently he had no memories or realization of who he was until he saw the Alphas. But the story is…Clear is a robot. Probably a security robot. But Clear was defective in some way. It is UNclear if he was broken from the start and never worked as intended. But Toue considered Clear trash and ordered him destroyed. Toue must not screen his employees well because they aren’t cutthroat enough. One worker saw that broken no so broken Clear…and ran away. 5 miles. Completely unfindable. Like Rapunzel. This is why Clear was told to wear a mask, so no one would recognize this security robot. I think it might have made more sense if Gramps would have worn a mask too. So maybe Clear being a robot helped him “hear” Aoba or something. I don’t know. It is UNclear when Clear was taken away and how long Gramps raised Clear.

I would punch him too for wearing clothes that horrible.

Now that Toue is aware of Clear (why that name) it is time to send out his brothers to take out the trash. They are 100% team Toue and while they seem to have personality they don’t seem to possess AI. I might be wrong though. Maybe that is why Clear was considered defective. But they did have personality. Made fun of Clear picking Aoba as a master and pretending to be human when he is just a machine. A broken machine. Now that Clear knows what he is protecting Aoba is super important. No one messes with his Master. But as the fight plays out…something is amidst. These security robots have a fail-safe that doesn’t allow them to harm Toue or any of Toue’s minions. The Alphas explain that Toue removed the fail safe in them but I found that unnecessary as Clear shouldn’t count as an ally. But I guess it has to work that way because while Clear says Aoba is his Master he still registers the Alphas as his allies. That means he freezes before he can hurt them and when he does attempt to override it he takes damage on top of the damage the Alphas are already giving him. Aoba and his super nonhelpful self just watches as Clear tries to protect him and fails. Luckily for them when Aoba does come to his senses and drags clear away the Alphas didn’t follow. Yeah it was that random folks. Like lets give them a minute to say something sappy together and then kill them.

We will be friends forever. Promise.

Aoba manages to get poor broken Clear into a building elevator while they don’t really plan their great escape that well. I think that they had other things on their mind. Clear is falling apart which means Aoba is the sad one while Clear is worried that Master will hate him. Like I promise I didn’t know I was a robot Master please don’t hate me!!! Clear wraps a lot of his self worth up in others and that was before he knew he was a robot. But yeah he is one and he didn’t realize it until he saw his brothers. Master must be Master because him and Toue have the same sort of powers. While Aoba being Platinum Jail is crazy and not full of plans anyway Aoba takes a moment to hug the broken Clear and let him know he isn’t mad at all. Like I care for you too and it will be okay.

I wanted to be human for you Master.

Only it won’t be. They get to the roof and the Alphas are there. Duh. Only now that Aoba and him have had this talk he has more faith in himself. He isn’t playing human. He wants to be human. He has his free will and wants to serve Master because of the kind of person he is and not because of orders. His brothers are the ones that are sorry. They only hurt humans and have nothing to show for it. Aoba is amazing and he is going to protect the man no matter what. The Alphas smirk a bit as Aoba looks on and smiles that Clear is doing something for himself for once. He is going to use that knife and take out the Alphas how brave!

X____________________X WHAT?!

Or….Clear could take the knife and lodge it into his own skull. X___X How horrifying was that to watch?! Clear wanted to get rid of the safety switch and I guess it was in his skull because stab he went. Aoba accidentally used Scrap and went into Clear’s mechanical brain but Clear is okay with what he did, no need for assistance here. So Aoba poofed immediately out of Clear to watch the now falling apart robot sing the jelly fish song. These robots have the ability to use the mind control music too and when turned on themselves it shuts them down. So while Clear is falling apart before our very eyes he is able to take out the Alphas without lifting a finger.

You're a real boy Clear. :(

:( While Clear has saved Aoba he himself is doomed as his self healing whatever were in his brain. None of this stay with me Clear, it was apparent he wasn’t going to make it. :( Poor Aoba. Everyone else got to live after Aoba had their moment with them!! Why does Clear have to die?! He is just a sad little robot boy who wanted to take care of someone and Aoba accepts all of him. And of course there is no yaoi in my yaoi anime as Clear wants to say Aoba’s name as a final act. Ask for a kiss!!!! Aoba….I am sure he will have the guilts now but Clear died protecting his Master of 2 days and was happy. He wanted to be human and maybe caring for Aoba made him close to that? Just WAI so sad. I don’t even care that Minks is gearing up to kick butt. Who cares when Clear is dead you know?!