Random Curiosity

OP2 Sequence

OP2: 「Crystal Energy」 by 栗林みな実 (Kuribayashi Minami)
*picks jaw off ground* This fast paced song is really growing on me, and both the song and the scene of Arika, Nina, and Mashiro sitting in the ruins reminds me of SEED. Of course the highlights of the new OP are all of the spoilerish preview shots we get. That includes Mai, Natsuki, and Nao in uniform, along with Mashiro probably joining Midori’s group and Arika having to fight Nina.

Summary:
Arika is able to defeat all of her foes, and so she and Nina advance to the fight against two Pearls. Meanwhile, across the city black letters arrive to several people. While Arika and Nina are training for the battle, Chie and Tomoe watch on. Chie knows about what that Tomoe has done and tells her to stop. Erstin overhears the two of them talking and runs off in surprise. She tries to tell Nina and Arika about it later, but Nina and Arika are enjoying themselves too much, so she decides not to bring it up. During this time, Nagi asks for Rad and Midori’s cooperation, but they turn him down.
With Miya gone,, Youko is using amniotic fluid to re-crystallize her GEM. In a ceremony sometime after, Nao is chosen to be the next of the Five Pillars. On top of that, Shiho is selected to become the Otome of Florence and Chie will be the subordinate of General Armitage (Haruka). As to be expected, Nao expresses her dissatisfaction to Nina and Arika about being chosen to be a Pillar, but Miss Maria catches her badmouthing Shinso-sama. In class, Erstin watches as Tomoe offers to return a book for Irina to Youko. Tomoe takes the vial of corrosive amniotic fluid from the lab and is about to pour it on an unaware Arika. However, Erstin, who was warned by Youko, pushes Arika out of the way, but Erstin herself ends up suffering burns to the leg.
Although she saw Tomoe do it, Erstin doesn’t implicate her classmate. She recovers fairly quickly thanks to her nanomachines and is out that night with Arika when they hear something. Nina is singing the lullaby and remembering when Sergay first found her – she had pointed a gun at him. She hears two more voices, Arika’s and Erstin’s, join in after she finishes. Erstin comments that it’s strange that the same song would have different lyrics. After she and Arika fool around for a bit, Nina notices that Arika has embroidered a handkerchief for her benefactor, though she made a mistake and stitched in “With Sanks.” The girls bond, and they all promise to become Meister Otome. Sergay later gets a letter with the handkerchief enclosed, which has been fixed to say “With Thanks.”
The day of the graduation battle finally comes. Arika sees Sergay with Nina before the fight, and comments rudely to him that she’s going to become a Meistar Otome for the sake of her benefactor, but then runs off with tears in her eyes. Before the battle actually starts, Mashiro wants to unveil her new castle. However, she soon sees that the design is now what was planned. In fact, John Smith is with one of the recipients of the black letter on a platform at the top of the castle. They activate the center piece, a cannon, and blow a hole through a mountain on the other side of town. At the same time, an armada of Slaves comes flying in over the very shocked spectators.

Alright, I really have to gush now about how good the story is. There are just so many factors at work now – some stuff is finally beginning to come together and others are just starting.

Like I said, great episode with huge developments and tons of juicy story.

And here’s a special treat, video of the new OP: Mirror 1 and Mirror 2.

The first Jigoku Shoujo DVD came out earlier this week, and one of the special features was the PV for the ending song 「かりぬい」 (Karinui) by Noto Mamiko. The full song is quite haunting, even more so than the TV sized version. The PV makes it even creepier because of the Ai doll (those red eyes…). This is definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan of the series.
Thanks to Patrik for the PV.

Summary:
After Wilhelmina defeats all of Orgone’s minions, she remembers a battlefield of the past where the previous Enpatsu Shakugan had bid her farewell. Orgone does not meet his end by Wilhelmina’s hands, but instead by Shiro’s. Or rather, Shiro’s other form: the Niji no Tsubasa (Wings of the Rainbow) Merihim. Inside the building, Tenmoku Ikko consumes Wine and then gets ready to fight Shana. The new Flame Haze’s superior speed and agility allow her to dodge the Misutesu’s attacks, but she gets her hand caught in his armor while trying to grab for the power inside of him. She’s saved when Alastor provides her with the Yogasa, the special black coat. Between Alastor and Tenmoku Ikko himself, we learn that Tenmoku Ikko originally made the Nietono no Shana and became a Misutesu willingly. When he and Shana clash again, Shana stop his sword with her bare hands, and then uses the opportunity to smash his faceplate to end the battle in a spectacular explosion.
As he heads into the building, Merihim notes to Wilhelmina that he’s lived this long so that he can fulfill his oath to the previous Enpatsu Shakugan. Back inside, Shana recovers from the explosion and recovers the Nietono no Shana. But the key left behind by Wine starts to flame up and soon causes the Tendou-kyuu to start to rip apart. But Shana senses Merihim/Shiro coming, so she goes to fight him. Merihim himself remembers the previous Enpatsu Shakugan, after defeating him in a fight, asking him to train her successor. But even with Merihim flashing in bright rainbow colors, Shana is able to defeat him. Before he goes, Merihim smiles at Shana. Waiting outside, Wilhelmina sees Shana emerge from the chamber. Unlike Merihim who wanted to keep his oath, Wilhelmina had wanted to see a new time, a fresh beginning. The island reaches its limit and crashes into the waters below, but Shana and Wilhelmina escape to the beach nearby. Shana doesn’t want to part with the person who raised her, but Wilhelmina assures her that she’ll be ok, especially since she’s with Alastor now. As a parting gift, Wilhelmina pulls out a bag of melon bread. Overcome with emotion, Shana hugs her.
Back in the present, when Yuuji asks Shana why she likes melon bread, Shana thinks about it, but decides not to tell Yuuji. Instead, she happily runs off with Yuuji chasing.

As an added bonus, all the shots of young Shana: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, and Image 5.

Well that was a pretty awesome episode. They gave me exactly what I had asked for last week: more about the past, including the previous Enpatsu Shakugan and who Shiro really is. I don’t believe they actually gave her name this episode and even the credits say “Previous Generation Enpatsu Shakugan no Uchite,” but for the record, it should be Mathilde Saint-Omer. The relationship chart for them should go something like Wilhelmina -> Merihim -> Mathilde -> Alastor?
This episode brings the arc to a close in a very satisfying way, especially since they were playing the piano version of Hishoku no Sora during the beach scene. It’s a pity that song wasn’t on the OST that came out yesterday because it’s the one song I was actually looking for. I also have to say that the more I listen to Aka no Seijaku, the more I like how it starts, probably as much as the last ending song, if not more. Also, the new OP by KOTOKO has finally been given a title, 「being」. According to her official site, the single will be out March 23rd. I have my fingers crossed that we’ll hear it to start next week’s episode, since that would be the start of a new arc (and the introduction of Khamshin).

Summary:
The two strangers in her room, as Hazumu learns, are actually the aliens that created her. The two will be staying with Hazumu for a while in order to observe her. When Hazumu wakes up the next morning, she finds that her parents have already met their guests and are even serving them breakfast. The doorbell rings and Hazumu realizes she’s late for school. She goes out to apologize, but ends up causing a scene because she forgot to put on a bra. At school, Hazumu tells her friends about how Tomari saved her, and Ayuki chimes in that Tomari even got a love letter from a girl. Ayuki then notices Yasuna watching them from across the schoolyard, but she runs away after Hazumu also catches sight of her. Hazumu tells Tomari and Ayuki about the flower bed that’s now missing Yasuna’s plant.
After school, Yasuna is practicing her flute when her classmates come to talk with her. In her vision, Yasuna sees males as black and white blurs. After they leave, Yasuna notices Hazumu watering the plants and the spot of the missing flower. Yasuna ends up turning down her friend’s invitation to go out to karaoke, and even rushes past Hazumu, who was waiting for her. At home, Yasuna receives a phone call from her parents, but turns down their invitation to eat out. Alone, Yasuna crunches on potato chips with a dead look in her eyes.
On the other hand, Hazumu asks Tomari if she hated the person who gave her the love letter. Upon hearing Tomari answer that usually you don’t hate someone like that, Hazumu runs home. She gets a flashlight out of her closet and then goes out on her bicycle. Meanwhile, Yasuna goes to bed holding a newspaper clipping of Hazumu. When she wakes up the next morning, she notices the note her mother left her, but also the wilting plant that Hazumu gave her a while ago. Yasuna starts to cry, but quickly dries her tears. As she opens the blinds, she thinks about how today will be lonely again, but then she sees Hazumu waiting outside. Hazumu, dirty all over from having spent the night digging up another plant for Yasuna, tells Yasuna that she wants to become friends. Both of them apologize for the confession, with Yasuna saying that although she was really happy to hear it, she was scared and lacked courage. But Hazumu doesn’t mind anymore, and because she’s become girl, she just wants to become friends now. Yasuna finally takes the flowers, and Tomari later finds the two happily gathered around the flowerbed at school.

I like how they’re developing the story differently from the manga by fleshing out Yasuna’s character a bit more. They’re still using the plant-that-Yasuna-took-back-to-the-mountain aspect, but for me, it gave a fresh perspective on the plot. Of course they’re still following the general storyline and cobbling together different parts, but I like, for example, how they make use of the fact that Tomari got a love letter from a girl (which is purely for humor in the manga).
From the resignation of being alone to the dead eyes to the newspaper clipping of Hazumu that she went to bed with, I do have to say that the anime’s version of Yasuna disturbs me even more than the manga’s. But she’s a big part of what makes this series so yuri-tastic. And next week is going to be even more about HazumuXYasuna, with maybe even a kiss!

Closing Thought: I’ve had the ending song on repeat for hours nows. The OP’s a good song, but I like the ED’s full version so much more.

Mika Nakashima’s 「CRY NO MORE」 is Blood+’s second ending song. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a big fan of Mika Nakashima’s music, including this song, but I didn’t like this PV. The setting is a quaint, southern, Main Street USA-ish town, complete with Nakashima-san holding a branch of cotton. But what really kills this PV for me is the outfit they gave her for the church scene. It simply looks horrible on her. On a side note, I can’t help but want to call her Nana, especially since she’s still sporting the short hair. Anyway, good song, sub-par PV. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a good 「SEASON’S CALL」 PV…

Summary:
Before entering the bath, Ayumi takes care to put away her secret treasure. As the girls are enjoying their magical instant-onsen, a shadowy figure appears by the door and takes something. The girls assume that it’s a pervert and Ayumi blasts a hole through the wall, but the guy disappears. Ayumi notices that her treasure gone and starts to panic. By the next day, Ayumi has fallen into a state of disarray and is unable to do the household chores. The siblings think that what was stolen must have been something very important, like mementos of her parents. Led by Haruo, the girls pledge to help Ayumi get it back. Their plan is to try to get the criminal to return by plastering images and underwear all over the house. But after the only guy who shows up is scared away by Ayumi, the girls, along with Yuri decide to take a bath.
Haruo is guarding outside when he sees a group of perverts with cameras hiding in the bushes. One of them takes Haruo hostage and threatens him with a taser until Ayumi agrees to take off her towel. Unfortunately for them, she produces a magical cannon that turns them all into frogs. However, none of those guys are the one who stole Ayumi’s panties and treasure. Ayumi decides to give up, which leaves the girls puzzled because they still think that her treasure was a memento from her parents. As it turns out, it was a locket with a photo of Haruo. Ayumi explains that she was taught that if she kept a picture of the boy in her panties for three months, then she’d be successful with that boy. Of course, this gets Maika piping mad and the two are soon back to fighting each other.
Meanwhile, the person who was the real culprit – a girl – is testing chemicals on the stolen pair of panties. After they start to glow, this girl realizes that Ayumi is a witch.

Maika should have learned by now that Ayumi is always up to no good, and this time is no exception. I knew that the locket probably had something to do with Haruo, but I never suspected that Ayumi was planning on keeping it in her panties for three months. But as usual, the episode is a mixture of craziness and fanservice, leaning more to the latter this episode because of all the bath scenes. The middle of the episode did feel like it was dragging on and on (when Haruo’s friends show up with their machine), but I don’t have any other complaints aside from that. Animation stays consistently good, which is more than I can say for a lot of shows these days.
The witch hunter they introduce at the end of this episode (named Nijihara Marin) will be the focus for next week.

Summary:
In Soul Society, Commander Yamamoto assembles the remaining captains and tells them about the efforts being made to find Aizen and the Hougyoku. Ukitake and Kyouraku are talking later about Renji, and Kyouraku mentions that he heard a rumor about that. Meanwhile in the real world, the group is trying to figure out what happened. Ichigo had talked to Tatsuki about Inoue, but she had no idea who Inoue was. They decide to go investigate Inoue’s home again and enter through Ishida’s lock-picking skills. Inside, the find the two cups across from each other on the table from when Inoue was with her brother. Suddenly, Renji’s cell phone rings with a girl calling on the other end. This girl wants to play a game and promises to return Inoue if the guys win.
First, they are told to get to the park within three minutes. After running there, they find a ringing public phone. The girl then tells them to get to the supermarket in three minutes. From the phone there, they are told to go to Urahara’s shop. At Urahara’s shop, they get one last call telling them to show up at Inoue’s home that night at 8PM. With no choice, Ichigo (in shinigami form) and the rest show up at that time. From Inoue’s window, they see a light, so they rush up to investigate. Much to their surprise, Inoue has returned, though she has no memories of what happened this day, only the day before. While sitting around her home, they feel something hit the building. Violent winds kick up and Inoue suddenly starts to choke Sado. As it turns out, Inoue is actually a new face, Kurodo (Cloud?), in disguise. His partners are Nova and Ririn, the latter of which is the girl who’s been calling them. Ichigo and Renji’s attacks are ineffective in hitting their new foes, and so Sado is taken through the gate.

I had hoped that the friend-being-kidnapped storyline was just for one episode, but it seems that Sado is now a victim too. I hope they can make something more of it next week than just taking away Ishida or something. The animation quality is overall going down, but the episode has its share of good shots with the bad ones. The episode feels like its trying to strike a balance between the comedy and the drama like in previous arcs, but the comedy seems to be coming on a bit too strong.
Aside from kidnapping Sado, this episode introduces three of the new characters (who still remind me of Black Cat rejects). Nova (hooded guy) is voiced by Sugita Tomokazu (Rin from SHUFFLE!) while Cloud (guy with hat) is voiced by Tobita Nobuo. But like man others, my favorite out of the three is Ririn, voiced by Kakazu Yumi.
From the preview, looks like next episode has our heroes going to a museum (which I imagine is probably a trap).

Summary:
Hideki and Mako rush to the hospital after Ichiro gets knocked out on the street and is taken there. However, at the hospital, Hideki also get knocked out and gets admitted in. After they fix him up, the hospital charges him an exorbitant fee and them dumps him in the same room as Ichiro. Meanwhile, Mako gets recruited by the director to attract people to the hospital. Hideki and Ichiro then take Mako to the director’s office where they find her singing about making money from everyone’s hospital expenses. But when they’re discovered eavesdropping by the director, Hideki and Ichiro are chased out and Mako is captured. Nabeshin gives them an enema device, and the two return to the hospital armed with daikon. After defeating the director’s army of nurses, they use the enema device to cause the director (and subsequently the hospital) to explode in a cloud of flatulence.

This story is very similar to last week’s pachinko episode in the sense that Mako gets caught up with the wrong crowd, so Hideki, Ichiro, and Pandaikon have to save her. It’s still quite an entertaining episode though, particularly the end parts. The main theme remains my favorite of the songs, though they’re all pretty catchy. The only lacking part is Ichiro’s singing, which isn’t as good as the other two’s, but I did find his Pandaikon song pretty amusing.
If you don’t know what enema means, look it up in the dictionary. For whatever reason, I found the device chanting “oshiri oshiri” (oshiri = ass, butt) in that monotone voice to be hilarious. Potty humor aside, ND Brothers remains my top series this season.
Next week, the police come to investigate…

Summary:
With Yanagi gone, Kiri starts to apologize to Hiroki for not knowing about everything that happened, but Hiroki tells her that it’s not her fault. Hiroki is then called to the director’s office where he’s invited to the scholarship students selection meeting. From her, he also learns that Yanagi is going to be a special lecturer again next year. Hiroki’s not too happy to hear this, especially when the director tells him that it will be good stimulus for him. Hiroki reaffirms that he wants to be a teacher, and tells her that he and Yanagi are going down different paths. Though their meeting ends on a sour note, the director later invites Hiroki out to dinner after she finds him walking home alone. The two mutually apologize over dinner, and Hiroki drives her home after she gets a bit tipsy on wine.
During the conference the next day, the director proposes that they increase the number of scholarship students. This is met with resistance led by the head teacher and the principal, but Hiroki and Kiri start a wave of support that spreads through the room. At the party afterwards, Hiroki catches the director on the phone with her sister, who’s the actual director. She thanks him for earlier, and then goes to have fun with the rest of the group.

After a set of good episodes with Yanagi, this character-focused episode just doesn’t match up. They’re doing pretty well creating tension off of Yanagi even in his absence, but that only seemed to last the first third of the episode and felt more like an epilogue to last week. I rather like the acting director’s character, but ultimately I had hoped that we were past the girl-of-the-week phase. Next episode about Kana and her editor doesn’t look much more promising in terms of plot.
And similarly to everyone else, I thought the eye-catches this episode were really cute and probably the best ones yet.

Summary:
One Sunday, Mamoru goes out with Yuuna and Airi. After thinking about it, Yuuna decides that she wants to go to…the bathroom. While he’s waiting, Mamoru sees a girl’s wallet drop out of her bag, but when he tries to return it, she thinks that he’s trying to scam her by pretending to have picked it up. Then, when Mamoru gets home later and goes to take a bath, he finds the same girl already there. The misunderstanding is cleared up once Mamoru’s mother explains that this is his relative Hattori Yamame. Yamame is distraught that the Mamoru she remembers has turned into the glasses-wearing person he is now.
Yamame remembers when Mamoru comforted her when she was little, but screams after thinking about how he looks now. As she’s considering going home, Burumaru brings her bag to her. She sees the hole in the side and realizes the mistake she made earlier. She’s still ready to go home when she sees several cars pull up and the yakuza boss emerge from them. Unfortunately, an alarm in her bag rings and she gets surrounded by his men. With her kunoichi powers and Burumaru’s help, she defeats them all, but the boss then calls upon a new helper named Chin Panji.
When Yamame doesn’t return, Mamoru’s mother starts to get worried. An injured Burumaru comes home instead, and Mamoru finds a cigar butt amidst the stuff falling out from Burumaru’s ears. He figures out where Yamame’s been taken and pays the yakuza boss another visit. But Chin Panji has a pupil for Mamoru to defeat first: neko-mimi Yamame. When ordered to do so, Yamame starts to take off her clothes, but then injures Mamoru while he’s flabbergasted. Mamoru takes off his hood, and the sight of his face without glasses brings back Yamame’s memories of when they were little and Yamame defended her from a bear.
With Yamame back to normal, Chin Panji has to start fighting himself. He first dons a kangaroo costume, but Mamoru is able to dodge all of the attacks despite the earlier wound. Chin Panji switches to his bear form, and that induces a great amount of fear in Mamoru – it seems that he has nightmares about what happened with the bear back then when he protected Yamame. In the end, it’s Mamoru’s scream that actually defeats the animal man. At home, Yamame apologizes to Mamoru and then takes her leave. The next morning however, Mamoru finds her and Yuuna waiting for him because Yamame has also decided to enter their school.

This episode is just filled with what I’d consider oddball humor, from Chin Panji’s name (chimpanzee, get it?) to the kangaroo and bear to the neko-mimi. Oh and there was also Tsubaki doing the whole candle-sword thing and then the tennis thing. Highlight of the episode is definitely watching Burumaru who shows that not only is he adept with a weapon, he can also carry tons of stuff in his ears (abiding by the Law of Extradimensional Capacitance). Shimuzu Ai gives her usual good performance in the role of Yamame, and I kept thinking that the meowing was perfect for her voice.
Next week is…an idol contest featuring Yuuna? I can’t say I’m exactly looking forward to it based on what the preview shows, but it could be funny…

Summary:
At the inquiry commission, Nanaha is surprised to find them calling the incident an accident. Nanaha knows that what happened was illegal, but it seems that the committee is hiding the truth. When she tries to speak up, she gets silenced because she’s only there as a witness. And because of the Pascal Mage’s actions, the committee is going to look into revoking Nanaha and her crew’s maritime security qualifications. Nanaha eventually gets their attention with the word “Terror” and tells them that the records of the warship have been submitted to the Immigration Department. The leader of the committee seems content for now and stops the current proceedings.
During all this, the rest of the crew are enjoying themselves on the beach. Hyousuke gets some fun time with the girls, which includes a swimming race with Tsubasa. Afterwards, when everyone including Nanaha has returned back to the ship, the crew throws a farewell celebration for Hyousuke, whose job there is done. Hyousuke escapes the party to the deck of the ship, where Nanaha joins him. She sees that he’s still carrying the gyro she gave him, and gets up close and personal just to tell him that she hasn’t forgotten him because he’s her only younger brother. The two are interrupted when the Akoya sisters knock them off the boat. The next day, Hyousuke takes his leave as everyone waves goodbye.

Alright, the preview last week hit all of the excessive fanservice parts in this episode, so there weren’t any surprises in that regard. Nanaha didn’t kiss Hyousuke, but I really didn’t expect her to. Hyousuke does seem to have a bit of a sister complex though, especially with what the preview shows. The show seems to be steering Tsubasa towards little by little him, but the focus for now is still the Hyousuke and Nanaha.
The secret organization of villains that they introduce, RIDLL, isn’t very impressive so far as it’s just a bunch of men (and a mystery woman) sitting around plotting and scheming. As for next week, it looks like Hyousuke makes his way back onto the ship and we’ll be learning about his past with Nanaha. I was ready to drop this series, but after reading the spoiler that say that
Show Spoiler ▼

I’m once again going to watch one more episode. Sooner or later, I should be getting tired of this stuff…

Summary:
On a U.S. aircraft carrier, Solomon meets with the third Chevalier, James, and leaves Diva in his hands. Back in Okinawa, the reporter Okamura brought back a sample of wine and the photographs that he took at the school in Vietnam. He makes the connection between Saya in his photographs with the girl in the photographs his father took over 30 years ago. In his investigation, he first takes the wine to his professor acquaintance to have it analyzed. From there, he goes to the hospital, where he learns about the incident with George and that takes him to the family restaurant. Then, from his colleague, he learns about the entire family of George, Kai, Riku, and most importantly, Saya.
Pursuing that lead, Okamura goes to Saya and Kai’s school, where he talks to and shows Mai and Kaori the pictures. Kaori stands up for Saya and tells Okamura to leave her alone, but Mao decides to listen to what he has to say. During their meeting, Okamura’s cell phone rings with a call from the professor. It seems that his office was ransacked and the wine was stolen. Mao then tells Okamura that Saya and company had come to and left Okinawa the day before. But since no one knows where they went, Okamura’s remaining clue is that the wine’s connection to France. The reason Okamura can’t follow that up is because he’s lacking the funding to go, which Okamura estimates to about five million yen. Mao leaves after hearing that number, and Okamura assumes that it was too much for her. To his surprise, Mao shows up again saying that she’s running away. In her suitcase, she has 50 million yen taken from her father. Mao agrees to sponsor him if he will abide by two conditions. First, she must be allowed to go wherever he does to collect information. And second, Okamura is not allowed to smoke in front of her. Just like Okamura is searching for Saya, Mao is on a quest to find Kai.

Looks like my suspicions from last episode about Mao getting involved were right after all. Not surprisingly, she’s tagging along with Okamura. What I didn’t predict was that they would be headed to France, which is a different destination than Russian-bound Saya and company. I get the sinking feeling that they’re going to split the story and start telling two different perspectives until the groups inevitably meet up. While this may make for a better overall story, I feel like the non-Saya episodes are more on the boring side (like this one). Lewis is the most amusing this week, being the one who stole the wine (which you can see in his hands as he walks by Mao and Okamura in the restaurant). The big question for me is how Lewis gets to Siberia and shows up in the preview with everyone else if he’s still in Okinawa at this point. Also in the preview, who’s the woman Kai is getting all googly-eyed over? As I often say, we’ll just have to wait and see. Next week is back to Saya and company on a train in Siberia, aptly named “Siberian Express.”

Summary:
Saber pledges her sword to Shirou, saying that their fates are now intertwined. After the contract is completed, Saber goes out to fight Lancer. As he watches her fight, Shirou notices that he can’t see Saber’s weapon. Lancer is angry that Saber is concealing her weapon, but she responds by charging him. Because of Saber’s provocations, Lancer uses Gae Bolga to pierce her heart. Saber figures out that Lancer is the Irish hero Chulainn and because of that, Lancer makes his retreat. Shirou runs up to Saber and watches as her wound closes up. The two formally introduce themselves to each other, then Saber goes off and starts to fight Archer. When Archer is injured, Rin has him disappear, but then Saber goes after Rin. Only Shirou’s yell for her to stop prevents her from striking. Shirou recognizes Rin and brings her into his house where she repairs the damage done by Lancer. Rin learns that Shirou knows next to no magic and laments about the fact that he got Saber. She explains the situation about the Masters and the Servants and war for the Holy Grail. She then takes him to go see the manager of the war.
The three arrive at the Kotomine Church, and Saber waits outside while Shirou and Rin go in. Shirou meets Kotomine Kirei, a magician who was Rin’s father’s disciple. Since Shirou knows basically nothing, Kirei starts to explain to him. First, a Master can only stop being a Master if the Holy Grail is obtained. Second, Servants are heroes of old who appear when it’s time to fight. But since Shirou is rather lacking in power, Saber can’t go into her spirit form. Third, the Masters don’t necessarily have to die, and basically whoever has their Servant still alive at the end wins the Holy Grail. Fourth, if a Servant loses their Master, they don’t disappear immediately, and thus can go to contract with another Master who has lost their own Servant already. And since there was wanton slaughter in past wars, there is now a manager for the event – Kirei. Shirou says that he has no reason to fight and no interest in the Holy Grail, but Kirei asks him if he can stand by while the others wreak havoc. After Kirei mentions the fire that only Shirou survived, Shirou decides to fight.
On their way home, Rin, Shirou, and Saber run into a young girl and her Servant: Ilya and Berserker.

Good fighting to start this episode, but the latter half’s explanation of the war and the grail is rather long winded, though probably necessary. I was most interested in the all the Servants are based on past heroes part, with Lancer supposedly being Cú Chulainn. That’ll be something of a mythology lesson every time they identify a servant. As for Kotomine Kirei, he’s really creepy, and the way the eyes are animated in this series (i.e. dead looking eyes) doesn’t help at all. The overall animation quality did go down slightly since there seems to be a lot more low-detail distance shots, but all the close-ups still look fine.
After having all the rules explained to him, Shirou only agrees to fight because of his sense of justice, so that he can protect and avoid another disaster. As Rin notes several times, Shirou isn’t a particularly capable Master, and while he did end up with Saber, he doesn’t seem to be bringing out all of her potential. But Shirou and Rin look like they’re gonna be a team for at least the time being. And with that lengthy explanation is out of the way, we can proceed with the story, where the immediate threat is Ilya and Berserker.

Summary:
Arika’s scream is heard by a nearby Sergay, who comes in time to stop the thugs. When they go after him instead, he pulls out his gun and scares them off. Unfortunately for them, Nao and her striped group are waiting around the corner. After tying them up, Nao sees Sergay comforting a crying Arika. As Arika cleans herself up, Sergay remembers the letter Nagi wrote to him telling him that they need to find the true princess and that it’s ok if Sergay seduces her. Back at school, Miya is packing frantically because she knows that she’s done for. But the Trias, which Nao is now a part of, come knocking on the door. Tomoe, who is thinking about Shizuru and the Sapphire of the Azure Sky, sees Miya being led away by the Trias and calls her worthless trash.
Sergay takes Arika to the top of the building with a view of the city. Looking at the blue star above, Sergay recites some poetry said to be left by the first sailor who reached the star. Thinking about that guiding blue star, Arika is reminded of her sapphire and in turn is reminded of obtaining her love and her dream. On the subject of love, Sergay starts to say something, but Arika stops him. Sergay puts his hand on her cheek and she gets ready to kiss him as he leans down. In the darkness, we can only see their bodies pressed together.
The next morning, Arika energetically wakes up Erstin and Nina. Just as Nina is asking about the night before, Chie shows up in their room looking for Arika. Apparently Miya confessed to what she did during the uniform and the field trip exam incidents. If the girls decide to press charges, then Miya will be referred to a disciplinary committee. Arika doesn’t feel that it’s necessary, but Shiho interjects that if Arika ever wants to realize her dream of becoming an Otome, she needs to get rid of her rivals. To everyone’s surprise, Arika explodes on that comment, but Miss Maria and Natsuki arrive to tell them that Miya is going to withdraw from the school.
Coming from that meeting, the girls are walking together when Arika runs into a pillar. Even she notices that Arika is out of it, Nina leaves to go see her father. After she’s gone, Erstin tries to raise the topic of the night before, but Arika avoids it and makes her escape. She eventually encounters Aoi, who asks her to go see Mashiro. Mashiro eventually tells her what happened, and Arika figures out that Mashiro must like Takumi. When Mashiro talks about not understanding feelings between men and women, Arika starts to cry because she’s reminded of Sergay.
On the previous night, Sergay had come close, but pulled away before he kissed Arika. He rejected her because she was still on her way to becoming an Otome, and he told her that playtime was over. Before they parted, Sergay mentioned that everything about Rena obtaining love and her dream was a mistake and blames Rena for what happened to the King and Queen. In response, Arika slapped him and said that she hated him. After hearing Arika’s story, Mashiro also starts to cry. Meanwhile, Sergay has his subordinate turn away Nina at the door by saying that there was urgent business. He recalls Nagi’s letter and how Nagi had said that the true princess is necessary for their dreams to come true.
Mashiro and Arika eventually calm down, and regain their resolve – Arika in becoming a Meister Otome and Mashiro in becoming a queen who makes everyone happy. The graduation battle ceremony soon arrives, and the chosen one there is guaranteed to be promoted to a Pearl. Mashiro intrudes on the event and yells at Arika not to lose.

I breathed a large sigh of relief when Sergay turned Arika down. I really didn’t want the story to go in that direction. Fortunately, to make sure that she doesn’t try again, Sergay had to make Arika hate him, so he said those negative things about Rena and shot down Arika’s own dreams. Makes me wonder if there wasn’t just a bit of spite in his voice (about Rena). He’s showing lots of signs of conflicted emotions; ultimately, I bet Nagi will be evil, but Sergay won’t be able to follow him.
Also of interest from that rooftop scene is the blue star, which I suspect may have a role now, much like the HiME star in the first series. It’s even more intriguing when you consider that the Sapphire of Azure Sky could be connected to the blue star. The other big developments include Miya withdrawing from school and Arika & Mashiro becoming buddies. Concerning the former, I doubt that this will be the last we see of Miya. I personally hope she shows up again and gets revenge on Tomoe. And as for the latter, the two’s relationship seems to be getting set up so that Arika really can become Mashiro’s Otome and they can continue with the contract they made before.
The preview doesn’t reveal much, which probably means that big things will happen next week. At the very least, I think next episode will be all about the current competition to choose someone to become a Pearl.