Random Curiosity

Three weeks after the original broadcast on TBS, CLANNAD has finally started its widescreen edition run on BS-i.

Unfortunately for us, BS-i is not the most wonderful of stations, and inferior to its big brother BS-J which actually provides proper high definition video with good sound. Simply comparing image quality between the 4:3 TBS version and the 16:9 BS-i version from the same capper, we find that the BS-i version looks like it’s been covered by a shit filter, losing contrast and colour intensity along with sharpness. If 2ch sources are to be believed, both TBS and BS-i use 128kbps bitrate for sound, so no points won there either.

So what are the benefits of waiting three weeks before watching new CLANNAD episodes? The widescreen edition feels more harmonious, with a better balance cinematographically. Clicking the thumbnails above will show you full screencaps where I’ve merged the TBS version on top of the BS-i version and added two red lines to show what has been cut away. The 4:3 version looks much more cramped, with many scenes leaving a character cut in half. Other scenes entirely exclude surrounding people, which gives an illusion of the school being much less crowded than it really is. This is particularly evident in the shot where Nagisa and Tomoya seem alone in the 4:3 version, but the widescreen shows they’re not. In order to keep important bits on the screen, the 4:3 version uses panning – moving its focus area from left to right – as can be seen in this shot of Sunohara’s dorm room.

If both editions were airing simultaneously, it would be easy to recommend watching the show in widescreen, because I’m fairly confident that with a good encoder and a proper source the image quality issue can be minimized. The reason is simply that KyoAni’s exceptionally beautiful art direction comes through so much better when the entire frame is used as was originally planned. However, you don’t actually miss anything vital when watching the 4:3 version, so if you want to keep up-to-date with online discussions about new episodes, there’s no point in waiting. Except perhaps for the DVD release.

Summary:

On the way to school one morning, Yuuji urges Konoe to tell him anything that’s troubling her, but Konoe’s closeness to Yuuji isn’t making Shana very happy. Gym class today consists of cleaning the pool, and Yuuji and Kazumi have the extra task of keeping watch over Konoe because of how she recklessly chases a butterfly around. They all end up getting soaked when Eita tries to get back at Ogata for spraying him with water. During lunchtime, Yuuji catches Konoe staring at the two lunches Kazumi and Shana made for him, so he offers her some of both. Kazumi is okay with this, but Shana is visibly irritated. On the way home, Yuuji, Shana, Kazumi, and Konoe come across a new restaurant that’s opening tomorrow, so Yuuji suggests that they all come then. Konoe wanders off on her own while the other three aren’t looking, so they have to run after her. When Shana lectures her for it, Konoe apologizes and grabs onto Yuuji’s shirt, but this only gets Shana angrier. Konoe then senses something in the air and pulls on Yuuji’s shirt to indicate that she wants to go somewhere. That place turns out to be a park where she is able to attract a bird to her outstretched hand.

Meanwhile, Keisaku is filling Margery in on how there was nothing suspicious about Konoe, and Wilhelmina reports that Outlaw has no information either on the Bal Masqué resuming their activities. Keisaku doesn’t know what Outlaw is, so Wilhelmina explains that it’s an information exchange place for Flame Hazes. Yuuji and Shana are training at this time, though he complains that she’s being more violent than usual. He manages to dodge her attack and starts to activate his own power, but she quickly responds by smacking his hand. Despite this, Alastor notes that Yuuji’s senses are remarkably keen and is keeping secret a power of existence equaling a lord of the crimson realm. He thinks that Yuuji could find a new path different from a Mystes and Torch depending on his growth development from now on – a path that only Yuuji can walk. The following day, the entire group – including Ike, Keisaku, Sato, and Ogata – arrives at the new restaurant that serves huge portions of food. Konoe disappears sometime during Keisaku’s competing with Yuuji in trying to eat an entire bowl of ramen, however the group doesn’t notice her absence until after both guys have finished eating.

Yuuji wants to go look for Konoe, but Shana thinks that it’s not necessary and questions why he feels that he has to. Yuuji replies that it’s because he was put in charge of helping her, though Shana points out that this isn’t school, and she feels that Konoe had already been warned not to move around on her own. When Shana decides to go home, Yuuji chases after her and asks why she’s angry, but Shana claims that she’s not. She thinks he should just leave Konoe alone, though she’s unable to tell him that the reason is because she doesn’t like how Konoe is getting close to him. Shana then runs off, and Yuuji heads in the other direction to look for Konoe. He ends up finding her in the same park as yesterday, and it appears that she had saved a small bird from a stray cat. Seeing her like this reminds Yuuji greatly of Hecate, and he finds himself looking very closely at her. Unbeknownst to them, Kazumi happens to arrive at the park at this very moment and sees the two smiling at each other. The image of them together stays with her for the rest of the night, and Kazumi realizes that she might be jealous. As for Shana, she doesn’t show up for Yuuji’s training session and sends Wilhelmina instead.

The next day, Yuuji walks to school with only Konoe, and Shana and Kazumi are clearly avoiding him. This is most apparent at lunchtime when Kazumi has Ike bring Yuuji the lunch that she made for him, and she instead eats on the rooftop with Shana.

Preview:

Well, with the way she’s tearing Yuuji apart from Kazumi and Shana, I guess Konoe doesn’t really need to be evil. Something like this doesn’t seem like it would have been the goal of sending her here (assuming she is indeed Hecate), though getting close to Yuuji could be. On that note, where exactly does Konoe live? The absence of parents could be as good an indicator as any that she was sent by Bel Peol. Anyway, Shana and Kazumi should just band together against her, but I imagine they probably wouldn’t be able to do so right now without having to go against Yuuji too.

Production-wise, the animation quality took a hit this week. There weren’t any major action scenes here though, so they might be saving up for a later episode. I also think the story isn’t quite going as well as it could be – the pool scene in particular was completely unnecessary, and you could argue that the restaurant scene was too. They felt like they were fluff parts that didn’t contribute much at all to the story. What does intrigue me though is how they keep hinting at Yuuji’s increased powers, and I’m curious to see what he can do in future episodes.

Summary:

After Tomoya finds out from Nagisa that the student council is forbidding her from recruiting using posters because the drama club has technically suspended its activities, he urges her not to give up since there has to be another way. Sunohara sees the two of them together, and he starts thinking that Tomoya got involved with the drama club because he’s going out with Nagisa. Tomoya, however, tells Sunohara that the reason is because Nagisa’s mother makes great bread at their bakery, and becoming friends with Nagisa means that he can eat all he wants of that bread. Sunohara’s main focus remains on Tomoyo though, and the following day he tries to trick her into admitting that her breasts are removable, but this invariably leads to him getting beat up again. Afterwards, he and Tomoya are walking through the halls when they encounter Fuuko who calls Tomoya a strange person. She actually finds Sunohara strange too, but that’s mainly because his hair is unnaturally colored whereas she thinks Tomoya’s existence itself is strange.

The reason Fuuko wants to talk to Tomoya is because her sister is getting married soon to Yuusuke, and she wants Tomoya to go celebrate this at the marriage ceremony in exchange for the star-shaped present she gave him. It seems that her sister was an art teacher at the school until three years ago, and Fuuko has been giving out these presents so that everyone can celebrate her sister’s wedding. After hearing this, Tomoya points out that none of the current students would be acquainted with her sister if she worked here three years ago, and no one would go to a stranger’s wedding. Fuuko nevertheless remains resolute in her goal of getting everyone to celebrate the wedding. Later that day, Sunohara takes Tomoya with him to confront Tomoyo again, and though he manages – after she feels bad for reflexively kicking him – to momentarily catch her off guard by leading her into the men’s bathroom, she promptly responds with another kick that sends him flying out the window. When Tomoya informs her that Sunohara wanted to confirm if she was a girl because he thinks she might be a guy based on her strength, Tomoyo is actually a bit shocked. She had thought that she was able to behave like a normal girl at this school and admits that she is trying to change herself.

At lunchtime, Tomoya is discussing with Nagisa about how to recruit people when Sunohara comes into the room after having overheard their conversation. Sunohara’s first suggestion is to beat up the student council president behind the school since it’s the student council that’s getting in the way, but Nagisa rejects turning to violence. He then proposes that they discuss this with someone else, and the three go to see Ryou who would know about the school regulations since she’s their class representative. Ryou is with her sister though, and to separate them, Tomoya has Sunohara pretend that there’s someone who wants to confess to Ryou. Unfortunately, when they do manage to get just Ryou, she thinks that it’s Nagisa who wants to confess, and so she misconstrues everything Nagisa ends up saying. It all gets cleared up once Nagisa actually asks Ryou to help her establish the drama club, though Kyou – who was eavesdropping – nearly strangles Tomoya and Sunohara for making fun of her sister. Kyou then suggests that Nagisa become friends with her and her sister instead of the guys, but Nagisa doesn’t want to leave them behind since they’ve been helping her up until now.

As for the school regulations, Ryou explains that a club that has suspended activities first needs at least three members and a staff adviser. Kyou thinks that there are enough people if they include Tomoya and Sunohara with Nagisa, but both guys reject the idea. The next day has Sunohara going after Tomoyo again, this time with Tomoya supposedly helping him talk with her, but Tomoya just has Sunohara do some embarrassing things, and Sunohara ends up trying to attack Tomoya anyway. After Tomoyo beats Sunohara up yet again (with Tomoya helping her combo), Tomoya asks if she’s interested in joining the drama club. She tells him that she is, but she doesn’t have time for a club because of the upcoming student council president elections. Tomoya then goes to the library to try to talk to Kotomi about joining the club. She only notices him after he calls her Kotomi-chan, and she doesn’t express a specific interest in theater, so Tomoya leaves her to let her think about it. Nagisa hasn’t had much luck either, and the only other person Tomoya can think of to ask is Fuuko.

However, when they go see her, Fuuko tells them that she’s too busy because she’s working on her star-shaped presents all day long. The strange thing is that Fuuko claims to be at school all day and never goes home, though she isn’t sure why she’s always there. She only remembers that she almost got hit by a car on the way home from the school’s opening ceremony, and she then found herself at school. When Nagisa learns that Fuuko’s family name is Ibuki, she realizes that Fuuko is the younger sister of the art teacher who was around when Nagisa was in her first year. However, Nagisa privately tells Tomoya that she heard that the art teacher’s younger sister was in a traffic accident and has been hospitalized for a long time. Fuuko’s sister had come to Nagisa’s family bakery after visiting the hospital yesterday, and all this reminds Nagisa of the rumor of the ghost of the girl who got into a traffic accident.

Preview:

There was again a lot of humor this week – like Tomoya helping Tomoyo combo or the rooftop confession scene between Ryou and Nagisa – but by the end of the episode, I got the feeling that the show was finally starting to focus the story a little more. Part of it might be that Fuuko’s story is the first one other than Nagisa’s that we’ve delved deeper into, and part of it might be that the mention of Yuusuke being Fuuko’s sister’s fiancé ties his appearance last episode into this story. There was also a lack of a scene from the other world, which has in the past has always left me a little confused. Anyway, Fuuko’s background reminds me a bit of Ayu’s from Kanon, but the fact that Nagisa knows and mentions the accident and hospital stuff so quickly makes me think that there’s a lot more to it than that. If she really is a ghost though, then I guess her unfinished business is getting everyone to celebrate her sister’s marriage, though that by itself lacks an emotional oomph, so I’m expecting something more.

Mizuki is directing most of her time recently in practicing for her grade’s cross country competition. Shizuru explains to her grandmother that Mizuki is aiming for first place, and has confidence in winning.

Mizuki enters the classroom to have her two male classmates remind her that she skipped cleaning duty – she laughs it off and apologizes. During all this, a girl from the other class, Iida Tomoko, interrupts the conversation. She quickly mentions Mizuki’s despicable habit of laughing off problems and responsibilities, and departs from the classroom – Mizuki’s friend, Hisako questions her unfriendly attitude and demeanor.

After school, Mizuki and Hisako spend some time reading manga near the local bookstore. They both share laughs until a woman passes by Mizuki. She feels a jolt of some sort, and believes that she has yet again attracted a wandering youkai. As a result, she waits for Shizuru to return by their home’s gate; Shizuru notices Mizuki outside and reassures her that nothing has happened and she hasn’t lured a spirit. Grandfather isn’t as positive, and asks Mizuki to take her spell tag out – sure enough, it has a tear running down the side. He concludes that the spell tag may not have been enough of a protective measure; sure enough, Shizuru notices a cluster of spirits with black torsos and red mouths laughing at Mizuki. Their grandfather decides that the youkai this time around is not dangerous per se, and has the two girls deal with the spirit without his help.

With Mizuki refusing to wake up the next day, Shizuru enters the bedroom. Mizuki is already awake, but is absolutely exhausted from being unable to sleep – the group of laughing youkai preventing her from sleeping whatsoever the previous night. She continues to endure the bizarre torture during school and for the rest of the day. Back at home, Shizuru notices that the youkai cluster grew in number (she also mentions that how only Mizuki seems to be the only one hearing them).

Iida Tomoko continues with her hostile behavior and swears that she will defeat Mizuki in the cross country competition on the next day. Hisako does her best to provide company, and she expresses her concern for Mizuki’s increasingly irritable self.

On the night before the race, Mizuki and Shizuru talk about the youkai and tries to dispel it. Shizuru suggests Mizuki to try and repel the spirit by laughing, but this fails miserably. Shizuru believes at this point that the youkai attached to Mizuki is a ワラゴマ (waragoma), and muses that Mizuki must be suppressing some part of her emotions for such a spirit to be following her little sister.

The world doesn’t wait, however, and the race starts with a bang the next day at Mizuki’s elementary school. Shizuru has chosen to not attend and watch; instead, she discusses the youkai that has been torturing Mizuki for the past few days. Grandpa believes that Mizuki is not tortured by a waragoma, but something called the ウレイ (urei). He mentions that it can be repelled by forgetting about the urei’s presence and having high spirits, thus drinking alcohol (and more importantly, getting drunk) was a common way of casting them away.

Mizuki steadily makes her way to the front of the pack, but is overtaken by Tomoko. She falters as the urei continue to laugh at her back, but Mizuki finally grows tired of their presence and she muscles through Tomoko. This extra effort puts her in a form of runner’s high – she forgets about the irritable feelings she had and the urei dissolves away. Tomoko admits defeat as Mizuki places first in the race, and the two resolve their awkward relationship to some extent (not without Tomoko saying she’ll be the winner next year, though).

Mizuki returns home with winning first place, and talks about how the urei just seemed to disappear while she ran. She grabs a large bite out of the daifuku Shizuru made, and reflects on how her big sister mentions that laughter can be used to express a wide spectrum of feelings. Mizuki admits to herself though, that she laughs when she feels like it – it comes naturally when she is enjoying herself or finds something funny.

Preview:

The episode itself wasn’t *that* bad, although it definitely felt lacking compared to the ones that preceded it. I can blame the unpleasant guest character Iida Tomoko for this, as well as the actual race, which was in no way the most exciting thing to take place. The OP was inserted near the end of the race, in addition, and I honestly thought it felt like a poor choice for that particular scene (a BGM with taiko drums or traditional instruments would have been far more effective, just like the scene where the woman carrying the urei passes by Mizuki in the bookstore early in the episode). Criticisms aside, I’m beginning to notice a pattern in the episodes – the girl that has the “spotlight,” or the most lines and screen time alternates. I do wonder if we’ll ever have an episode where both girls receive equal attention like in the first one.

Next time: The focus is back on Shizuru again, and her baseball-crazed classmate makes a guest appearance. Spirits that control the weather are universal in almost all myths and legends around the world, and Mokke treats us to one that manipulates rain. I was hoping it would be snow, but we are treated to rain instead…

Summary:

Two years ago, after the shuttle accident, Yuuri had been exploring an island when she came across a wounded Dragon. She had tried to touch it, but its wounds began to glow brightly, and it suddenly disappeared. Back in the present, Jin wakes up on a beach and finds Gio standing on a nearby cliff. Over at the ISDA, Howlingstar is a bit shell-shocked over how he killed the Spirytus since Spirytus was like a little brother to him. Amadeus tries to make him feel better by implying that it wasn’t his fault because a master’s order is absolute from the moment of the Resonance on. As for what really happened with Spirytus, Raina reports that it is under investigation, and he also apologizes to Howlingstar because they had no choice but to do it like that. For now, their job is to find Jin and Gio. Meanwhile, Kiril is in a meeting with Sakaki, Garnet, Yuuri, and a group of men in suits, and he argues that they can’t make public the truth of the D-Project because it would unnecessarily trouble people. Garnet makes it a point to ask what Sakaki thinks about this, and it turns out that he thinks they should make public the D-Project.

Back on the beach, Jin asks Gio who is he to Toa, so Gio explains that he was born to protect her. Gio then shoots the same question back, but Jin realizes that he doesn’t know. Jin then starts to hear some singing and recognizes it as Toa’s. He figures out that it’s coming from the moon, but Gio can’t hear it. A short while later, Machina and Akira are driving along when they come across Gio holding Jin captive in the middle of the road. Gio claims that Jin used him, and Jin calls Gio a traitor, so they take them both in. Gio ends up telling Sakaki that he doesn’t remember anything after hearing Toa calling, and Sakaki orders two soldiers to take Gio to Yuuri. However, part of the way there, Gio turns against his escorts and escapes. The base alarms go off right as Jin is admitting to Akira that he’s trying to see Toa in order to find out what he is to her. Akira and Machina leave the interrogation room to go after Gio, but as they’re running, Akira realizes that Jin and Gio could have prearranged all of this. By the time she runs back to the interrogation room, Jin has escaped too.

Earlier, when Jin had asked Gio to believe him about Toa being on the moon, Gio had decided to do so, but he stipulated that if Toa wasn’t there, then he’d abandon Jin. Before they could go to space, Jin knew that they needed something, and that’s why they had hatched this plan to get into the ISDA. Jin now breaks into the garage where the ISDA’s vehicles are parked, but Akira catches up with him before he can get into one. Pointing a gun at him, she asks why Jin was able to ride Gio if he’s not a master and hasn’t completed a Resonance. Jin, however, doesn’t have any idea what she’s talking about and declares that he’s going to see Toa to find out the truth. Before Akira can shoot him, an elevator that Gio and Machina had been fighting in comes crashing down, and the impact throws Akira onto the ground. Jin uses this chance to climb into the vehicle and drive off, though Akira manages to grab onto the side of it as it goes by. Gio and Machina meanwhile have taken their fight to the wooded area behind the base, and she questions why he doesn’t follow Kazuki even though that’s who his Resonance was with. Gio answers that he’s himself and that he doesn’t take orders from anyone.

The two of them just happen to emerge from the woods right as the vehicle that Jin commandeered drives by, but there is a bend in the road soon after that the vehicle isn’t able to safely make, so it crashes through the fencing. This causes Akira to lose her grip, and Machina is forced to break off her fight to save her master. Gio uses this opportunity to turn into his Dragon form, and by now Jin has suited up and is piloting the pod that was in the back of the vehicle. After Jin attaches the pod to Gio’s neck, Gio heads up towards space, and Akira decides not to have Machina give chase because she believes in Jin’s ability to change the relationship between man and Dragon. As they fly through the upper layers of the atmosphere, Jin remembers what his father said about the Earth being exceptionally beautiful when seen from space. He ends up being quite impressed by what he sees, though his focus remains on the moon. Unaware of what’s going on but still furious at Jin for taking Gio, Kazuki gets into a fight with a group of other guys in a lounge. After they beat him up and leave him in an alley, it’s the female piano player from the lounge who appears in front of Kazuki to offer him a handkerchief.

Preview:

You know, I would have thought that an organization like the ISDA would do a better job screening its people for psychological instabilities before making them into Dragonauts. I don’t see why they’d trust something so valuable like a Dragon to someone like Kazuki who looks like he’s going to lose it any minute now, if he hasn’t already. Of course, he gets a second chance in the form of the woman who’s likely to become his new partner, though her quiet demeanor doesn’t quite match up with Kazuki’s anger. The other thing is that if she’s a dragon as expected, then is her Dragon form what Yuuri briefly encountered on that island two years ago? I guess the question is if she’s one of the three who came down on the day of the shuttle accident.

As for Jin and Gio, I wonder if their search for Toa will be an integral part of the story (aka. last several episodes) or if they’ll quickly find her and move the plot forward. The preview suggests that it’ll be the former, which doesn’t sound too promising, but hopefully it’ll be something more than just that.

Summary:

After Sado defeats Demoura with his El Directo attack, a heavily injured Iceringer curses the humans, but Ishida makes it clear that he’s a Quincy. In fact, he’s kept Iceringer alive because he wants him to tell Aizen that they should fear a Quincy, not a Shinigami. Unfortunately, all this fighting appears to be causing this room to collapse, though Iceringer reveals that it’s actually collapsing because he and Demoura – the guards – were defeated. He tells them that there is no end to the battle and that there will be no victory for them, and as the chunks of the ceiling crush his body, Iceringer explains that they follow Aizen because there is nothing that he fears. Having barely managed to escape via the stairwell before the underground structure completely caved in, Ichigo and company find themselves in a desolate desert landscape. In the distance, however, is a gigantic structure that resembles a palace, and the three conclude that Inoue has to be in there somewhere, so they start heading towards it. After a long period of running however, Sado senses something and stops. A sandstorm of sorts suddenly starts, and the three get blown up into a twister, but Ishida saves them by creating a spirit barrier around them. Unfortunately, the barrier starts cracking, so Sado punches it, and the force of that ejects them from the twister.

The three’s presences have meanwhile been detected by the ten Espada who have gathered for a meeting, and Aizen soon joins them. After serving tea, Aizen presents a hologram of the three intruders and introduces them. He forbids his Espada from underestimating these three, and his talking about how these guys entered Soul Society leads to the Espada figuring out that they’re here to save Inoue. Grimmjow doesn’t want to stick around talking any longer and gets up to go kill the enemy, and although Aizen is pleased that Grimmjow would act on his behalf, he’s not done talking yet and uses his spiritual pressure to get Grimmjow to submit. Aizen then tells the other Espada that there’s no reason to make a fuss about this, so he wants them to return to their areas and wait for the enemy. He finishes by urging them not to be afraid because as long as they stay with him, there are no enemies who can stand against them. Back outside, Ichigo and the others stop for a breather because it doesn’t seem like they’re getting any closer to the palace. Ichigo suggests that it could be a mirage, and although Ishida shoots that idea down, Ichigo doesn’t care to know the explanation behind it.

Ichigo then notices a small lizard-like hollow running around, and this piques his curiosity into what that kind of Hollow eats around here. Ishida explains that Hueco Mundo has a high concentration of spirit particles in the atmosphere, so a small Hollow can be nourished just by breathing. The reason he knows about all this is because the Quincy fight by making use of the spirit particles around them, and he points out that the Arrancar will benefit from this atmosphere too. When Ishida starts going into length about how they’re not only the Arrancar’s enemies but also their food, Ichigo tunes him out and gets ready to start running again. Before he can get very far though, Ichigo senses something coming, and a giant worm-like creature suddenly emerges from the sand behind them. Along with two others Hollows, it appears to be chasing what Ichigo thinks is a human child, so Ichigo goes to save her.

Preview

As feared, the animation quality wasn’t so great for the first half of this episode, but it got a lot better by the second half. The one thing I think is worth pointing out even though it’s not something that takes away from the episode is the slight change they made to Halibel’s uniform. Those of you who read the manga might know that the top part of her uniform only covers the top half of her breasts, but in the anime, the top covers all of it. It was this way in every scene, so I assume this was intentional and not just an animation mistake.
Aside from that, the episode gives a little introduction to the rest of the Espada cast, and I’m glad to hear that Aaroniero has two very different voices. Nnoitra also ended up being just like I had imagined him to be. Nel didn’t really have any lines this time, but she should next week. Those of you who happen to be watching Myself; Yourself and don’t like Aoi’s voice might want to take note that Kaneda Tomoko will be voicing Nel too. Next week will probably also set us up for this upcoming anime original arc involving Rukia.

Summary:

After waking up in the morning to find Hagino still gone, Mari has breakfast and does her laundry with no idea what Hagino is really up to. At that time, Hagino is onboard the Novaal meeting with Master Commander Shivariel and hands over a data disk with the details of the accident. It seems that the Emil Force Drive went out of control, and the accident wiped out the crew, including Onomil. In addition, 804 local people died from the Emil Force waves, and Hagino takes responsibility for all of it. This leads to a furious Azanael pointing a gun at her, and as Shivariel has the guards take Azanael away, she accuses Hagino of killing their 200 compatriots and Onomil. Back at school, Mari finds Michiko working in the library, but Michiko gets really embarrassed when Mari approaches her. As it turns out, Michiko is writing a story, and it all stems from her having made up her own stories as a kid when her parents were busy. Mari is curious about what kinds of stories these are, but Michiko is too embarrassed to let anyone know and makes Mari promise to keep this a secret. She feels that she can only behave freely in her stories and that she’s running away from reality.

The two then go out with Akane, and while they’re walking through town, Mari notices that a lot of the stores are closed. Michiko apologizes and reveals that this place used to be busy, but Akane tells her that it’s not her fault, and the three continue on. They eventually arrive at restaurant with delicious food, and after they finish eating, Mari accidentally reveals Michiko’s story-writing secret. In return, Akane admits that she wants to become a chef, and Mari admires her and Michiko for knowing what they want to do. Their conversation is interrupted when two thugs enter the restaurant to settle something with Akane. Meanwhile, Hagino has returned to her own ship after the meeting with Shivariel, though she does also report about the person who was unaffected by the Emil Force. Shivariel is interested in Mari, so she decides to send a probe after her, and when Hagino finds out, she quickly takes off in a personal craft headed in the same direction. Mari is at that moment involved with a fight with the thugs, and she manages to get kidnapped in the process of trying to save Michiko. They take her to the docks, but it is at that time that the probe appears in the sky above them.

The probe targets Mari and captures her with its tentacle arms, but before it can do anything more to her, someone in a space suit arrives and frees her by shooting at the probe. When this person then protects her from the debris of an exploding car, Mari realizes that it is actually Hagino. After the probe explodes from the damage she inflicted on it, Hagino takes off her suit and faces Mari’s confusion and anger. Saying that she was scared, Mari surprises Hagino by hugging her. By the time Akane and Michiko arrive on the scene, Mari has regained her composure and runs happily with Hagino to rejoin her friends.

 
 
 
I gotta say, I laughed out loud when the giant phallic-shaped, tentacle-equipped robot probe showed up. Similar tentacles had appeared in the beginning of episode two, but it was a lot funnier once I saw the entire thing out in the open. More importantly though, this episode offered a lot more action than we’ve previously seen in this series, and that ended up being a positive for me since it keeps things interesting past just the heavy relationship drama up to now. Hagino saving Mari will probably the uniting event that I had been expecting to happen, though this also means that Hagino will now have to reveal everything about being an alien, and it would seem to put her at odds with the rest of her race. The preview says that another ship will attack the Blue, so we might be in for some ship vs ship action next week.

Summary:

On his way home from kendo practice one day, Shuusuke helps out an elementary school girl who’s getting picked on by some boys, but in the process he drops his student’s handbook. The girl uses the ID inside to track him down at school the next day so that she can return it. In doing so, she introduces herself as Mochida Hinako, and she ends up coming every single afternoon to see him from that point on. One night sometime after that, Sana is getting ready to make some curry when he realizes that he forgot to cook the rice, so he decides to go out to eat instead. When he runs into Hinako at a family restaurant, Sana learns that she’s here alone because her mother is busy with work. She insists that he doesn’t treat her like a kid anymore because she’s already 10 years old, but she gets embarrassed when her children’s set dinner arrives. Sana can’t help but laugh at her, so Hinako tries to explain that she got it for the Yeti-kun toy that comes with it. To help her collect all six, Sana orders the children’s set dinner too and gives her the toy.

On the way home from school the next day, Hinako says that she wants to talk with Sana, so they go to his apartment. Sana starts changing clothes right in front of her, thought he stops when she makes a fuss over it. The thing Hinako wanted to talk about was her feelings for Shuusuke, but when Sana starts laughing, she gets angry and decides to go home. In trying to apologize, Sana accidentally trips over the leg of the table and falls onto her, and it is at this moment that Aoi shows up with some cake. Once the misunderstanding gets cleared up and Sana explains Hinako’s love, Aoi advises that she find out more about Shuusuke first. This leads to Sana asking Shuusuke at school about the type of girl he likes, and after a bit of thinking and staring at his own sister, Shuusuke decides that breast size is most important to him. Because of this, Hinako goes to Aoi for help on how to get bigger breasts, and unable to really explain it herself, Aoi refers Hinako to her mother. Aoi’s mother advises good eating, sleeping, and playing, though she also says that a girl’s chest is full of dreams.

Since that didn’t quite work out, Sana goes back to Shuusuke to ask him about a preference for something other than large breasts, and this time Shuusuke says cooking. Aoi offers to help Hinako learn to cook, however the resulting special curry makes Sana sick. With Shuusuke still treating Hinako as a kid, Aoi decides that Hinako will have to confess her feelings to him. The plan involves Sana inviting Shuusuke to go to the aquarium and meeting Hinako there by coincidence. Because things start off well, Sana leaves Hinako and Shuusuke alone in the aquarium so that they can have a date, but they find him again a short while later. Noticing the sad look now on Hinako’s face, Sana figures out what happened and suggests that they go home. Once they’re alone, Hinako admits that she got rejected, but she claims not to be sad because Shuusuke had treated her as an adult this time. Although Hinako is trying not to cry, Sana hugs her and tells her that even adults cry when they’ve had their hearts broken. Since Sana tells her that it’s okay to do so, Hinako starts bawling to him.

That night, Sana reassures his mother over the phone again that everything is fine. He asks also her about confessing, but he tries to deny having found a girl that he likes.

Preview:

This episode was pretty much all about Hinako’s crush on Shuusuke and how Shuusuke’s ideal woman is big-breasted and can cook (which ironically describes Aoi pretty well). There didn’t appear to be any more hints about Sana’s past – unless you want to count the brief scene of him thinking about confessions – so this was more just a Hinako introduction episode than anything else. Actually, with all the clock imagery in the OP during the Shuusuke/Shuuri and Hinako parts, I had been under the impression that there was some secret time aspect to all this (as opposed to simply emphasizing the age difference), but for now that doesn’t appear to be the case. Anyway, next week will return the focus to Sana and Nanaka with the sakura festival. It’s probably the same one where Sana had given Nanaka the bracelet all those years ago.

It’s the day of the art club field trip to the hillside park – but the weather forecast shows overcast skies with a high chance of rain! Cancel the trip? Stay indoors? Stay dry?

Not if there’s sketching involved! Sora straps up her rain gear and dons her straw hat. Ikimashou!

Seems like nobody else really cares as much as Sora, as the only other person to show up was Kurihara-senpai, who’s always down to get out and get dirty searching for those elusive bugs. She’s definitely a weird one, as she lets a bug crawl all over her face (eeww), but it’s clear she just loves bugs. Kinda like how Sora loves cats. Keep this in mind, as it’s one of the main themes of the episode!

Sensei shows up in her red 4-banger Mazda to pick up the girls. Oddly… well, not really oddly, her car is filled with chicken plushies, highlighted by the plushy yakitori stick (grilled chicken kebob). Anyways, we’ve seen in previous shows (Azumanga, Lucky Star) that the genki teacher always seems to be a cowabunga driver, and our sensei here seems to have the exact same personality… but she’s extremely careful despite her enthused “KORRYYAAAA” foot on the pedal. Seems strangely appropriate for this show.

Elsewhere at home, Asou’s dog is suffering from heat paralysis or humidity exhaustion or something… maybe they just didn’t feed him. As we find out throughout the episode, this dog is a rather weird one, with short bouts of energy followed by extreme fatigue. Once again, it works strangely well for this quirky show about quirks.

Hazuki is off with her cute self in the grocery store (where she formerly had some issues regarding the price of the miso), picking out everything that looks like she could whip up… later deciding whether or not to buy them or not later. Her final purchase? A 98 yen package of bouillon cubes. Oh Hazuki, you’re so thrifty.

Back with our intrepid adventurers, where they have arrived at the park. I’m not sure how to describe this, but you know that clean, brisk smell in the air after a spring shower in the mountains? Somehow, through some magic of animation, this particular scene was able to convey that feeling so perfectly, showing Sora and Kurihara frolicking around the park. There’s a Makino Yui insert song accompanying it, and it’s every bit as good as one of those Round Table feat Nino songs that made Aria so great.

The rest of the episode proceeds pretty much the same way, cutting between Sora and Kurihara’s romp through the park, and Hazuki and Asou’s walk through the shopping district.

A great part about this episode was Sora’s account of how many of the things Kurihara-senpai saw were things that Sora witnessed on a daily basis, but never really paid attention to. By hanging out with this unique girl, Sora was able to see some of the world through Kurihara’s eyes, altogether giving her an even greater appreciation of the beauty of the world around her. It’s a wonderful approach to take in this show, as previous episodes have always seemed to have a different take on Sora’s inner dialogue and perception.

Summary:

After having a dream where Koko takes him behind the storage shed at school and tells him that she wants to make some memories, Yoshiyuki wakes up late and has to rush to meet with Koko so that they can walk to school together. Today is the athletic festival, and with Koko lamenting the limited amount of time she has to spend with him, Yoshiyuki promises that he’ll somehow find time. During the opening ceremonies, Wataru draws Yoshiyuki’s attention to Koko’s bloomers, but the two are caught for whispering and embarrassed in front of everyone by Otome. Once the events get started, Yoshiyuki and friends see Nanaka leading her class in cheering, but much to Yoshiyuki’s dismay, she notices him and calls out to him by his given name, and this once again attracts the ire of all the male students. Yoshiyuki’s first event is the four-legged race with Nanaka and Anzu, and after a little teasing from Anzu, the three get off to a horrible start where they immediately fall flat on their faces. Anzu ends up pushing Yoshiyuki into Koko as they try to get back up, and she keeps him down with his face in Koko’s chest.

Yoshiyuki gets to apologize to Koko later, but he doesn’t get to spend any time with her because Wataru soon drags him off to watch Yume and Minatsu participate in the borrowing competition. While Minatsu is quickly getting frustrated by how she keeps drawing papers asking her to find bananas, the one Yume gets causes her to run to Yoshiyuki and ask him to take off his clothes. It turns out that she needs his gym clothes, though this leads to an embarrassing scene where she takes his underwear too. Things return to normal by lunchtime, and Yoshiyuki finally gets a little quiet time with Koko and the lunch she made for him. Koko is just about to suggest something when the two are interrupted by all their friends, and the girls urge Koko to feed Yoshiyuki. The afternoon brings more athletic events, and this time it’s Suginami who pulls Yoshiyuki away from Koko to show him a contraption he has installed with the net obstacle course. Yoshiyuki pushing the remote control button causes the machine to turn on and vault the girls out from under it into some very compromising positions.

Suginami also tries to help Yoshiyuki in a 100m dash by installing rockets into the starting blocks, and this also ends poorly after Yoshiyuki gets launched into the air and crashes onto the ground. Helping him towards the infirmary, Koko notes how unusual it is for Yoshiyuki to get so chagrined about something like this, so he admits that it was because she was waiting for him, and this makes Koko quite happy. However, she then gets called away to attend to some committee stuff, and she hands him over to Yume. In the infirmary, Yume asks Yoshiyuki about his relationship with Koko, and he angers her by saying that it has nothing to do with her. Later, as the festival draws to a close and everyone is helping clean up, Koko brings Yoshiyuki to the storage shed and tells him that she wants to make some memories, just like she did in his dream. Yoshiyuki thinks that this means one thing, but in actuality, Koko just wants to take a get a picture taken with him. She sets the camera’s timer, and although this doesn’t initially work because they get interrupted again by their friends, Wataru does end up taking a picture of the two of them for them.

Ahh, I knew the whole wanting memory thing was too good to be true. It is, however, another reminder that Yoshiyuki’s dreams end up coming true, and that’s likely an ability granted to him by the sakura tree. Relationship-wise, this episode again draws Yoshiyuki and Koko closer together despite the constant interruptions. I said last week that I couldn’t rule out anyone just yet because of the possibilities that the sakura tree brings, but they’re making a pretty convincing case that Yoshiyuki will stick with Koko all series.

I think the only other girl who even remotely has a chance at this point is Yume, and that’s only because they show her act so angry with him in that special way that makes you think she could have feelings for him. Plus there are all those reminders that they’re brother and sister, and we all know what happened with Junichi and Nemu. For the time being though, I don’t expect that we’ll see anything but YoshiyukiXKoko, probably at least not until they get a kiss.

Skit 1: Lies, Deceit, and Utter Defeat

Writing about this scene totally defeats the purpose of it – but I’ll try anyways. Kana gets her test back – a 65! Not a bad performance. What did her friend get?

…hyakuten. (100 points)

Well, that much is hopeless. What did her eternal rival, Fujioka get? In order to make her position stronger, she puts a diagonal line through the 5, essentially turning it into a lopsided 8, making her new score 68 (lol). Fujioka? 69.

OTL

“That makes us even, I now have one victory and one defeat from you!” Kana screams, referring to their prior “pivot foot” matchup. “This battle isn’t over!” as they agree the loser has to pretend to be a dog in front of the victor. The exchange of Kana’s score, her friend’s 100, Kana’s edited score, and Fujioka’s subsequent victory by mere points continues across the board in every class.

A complete defeat. “Hai, shake hands,” starts Fujioka – only to get a soon-to-be-patented high kick from Kana.

Poor Fuji

Skit 2: Futile perseverance

A quick sketch about Kana’s stubbornness and subsequently disastrous cooking results. Winner, still undefeated in countless matchups: Haruka!

Skit 3: A visit by the enemy

Chiaki arrives home after a long day – only to find Fujioka sitting at the dining room table! Who is THAT, she cringes. That’s him! It’s bancho! (their nickname for him, lol)

The excuse Kana gives for inviting him? They made too much curry the night before and needed someone to finish it off, so there he is. Undoubtedly, Fujioka has idea what’s happening and is just happy to be there. Soon after, Haruka comes back and the four have their dinner of curry rice around the table, and all is well.

After dinner, Haruka and Chiaki are washing the dishes as Haruka makes a comment that Fujioka has the same kind of personality as their dad. Chiaki takes this to heart – she walks up to him at the table, saying “hey, that’s my seat,” but instead of kicking him out, she huddles up right in his lap! The look on her face has her looking like she’s trying hard to take in every little bit of this otousan experience she never had.

Naturally, Chiaki thinks that her two sisters have been turned against her by this monster Fujioka, so she kicks him out -_-

Preview:

Thoughts

lol. Some scenes in this ep had me grasping at my side harder than Kana after drinking a liter of milk. And that look on Chiaki’s face as she was getting cozy with “dad”? Priceless. Somehow, I was reminded of Azumanga and Chiyo’s own “dad,” that crazy pancake cat-like thing, the figment of their imagination but hilarious nonetheless. The score editing? I’m sure many of us have thought of doing it at one time or another, but never had the gall or suspension of morality necessary to be able to pull it off. Kana, not so much.

Which is ultimately what is so astounding to me about this show – it’s genuinely funny without much need for gimmicks or gags. It’s less subtle than Ichigo Mashimaro (and less loli, which I believe to be the main reason IchiMashi never really caught on with the English crowd) and not anywhere near as crazy as Seto no Hanayome, more in-your-face than Lucky Star and more polite than the brashness of Muteki Kanban Musume. And less ecchi (so many chances for pantsu shots and yet, nothing) than Kyou no 5-2.

I’d say Minami-ke has found a nice little unique niche in the pantheon of comedy shows!

Captions up

Hormones make you do the darndest things. Like, I dunno, form baseless teen relationships that don’t ever make sense. Then again, did anything during adolescence ever make sense?

Sorry, I’m writing this as I’m extremely drunk – in case you were wondering, I’m one of those crazy happy drunks… hey, I guess it’ll be just like a normal blog entry!

So we got lil’ miss prissy Hoshino-san, who still doesn’t know that the main guy and Mao-oneesan are childhood friends, so she’s still kinda wavering as to how to ask him about her. After all, him and Mao seem to be hanging out a lot, not to mention Mao is much hotter than her and much better at real life, so how is she to compete with that?

Elsewhere, we got Kazuki’s imouto and her froggy-love friend, and they are getting along splendidly as their ugly-ass frogs get their first kiss on. Could this be a foreshadowing of some future relationship developments between these two girls? Fat chance, but let’s keep the hope alive for now.

So, Nana-chan’s got this great idea – she’s planning a welcome back party for Mao-oneesan! These parties and get-togethers are always a great place to kick start some relationships, so I’m paying close attention. Of course, Mao agrees to come (Nana’s blushing, yearning face is irresistible on many levels), as do our main guy, Kazuki, and Nana’s lesbian frog friend. The cast is assembled!

Cut to a quick scene involving Kazuki and the frigid high-IQ bitch – and uh… that’s about it. She leaves him as quickly as he finds her, looking extremely bored as if he was just something to do to kill time. Naturally, Kazuki gets all emo on us, so we know that’s not the end of this storyline.

Back to our main dude and Hoshino – like every other quiet, good girl moe mode, she’s a volunteer at the library, which seems to be a prime place for our dude to try to mack on her, ie invite her on a date, ie invite her to karaoke. Apparently this is tough to do, since inviting a random girl at the library to karaoke with like 10 other people is a hard thing for adolescents to do these days. Man, back in my day we just walked up to a girl and asked her out, no questions asked. No? Try again tomorrow. Yes? Let the good times roll.

This is where I remember to save this document, in case I do something stupid like close without saving. Wowoooowoooooo

Eventually, our dude is able to invite Hoshino to the karaoke session (well, massive Mao-oneechan intervention involved). Skip directly to the karaoke get-together (nice!) and show a cute scene involving genki Mao-oneechan doing her trademark genki wink. She notices that Hoshino isn’t around and scopes her out in the restroom.

This is about when I really start hoping for some doujins involving Mao and any other random anime character. She’s really hot, and her personality is totally addictive. She’s got that carefree and sexually liberated feel to her, and it’s totally hot.

After some silly karaoke competition (our two lesbian imouto frog buddies sweep the floor), the party disbands. Wouldn’t you know it, Mao bumps into cold-manwhore Kai after she leaves, and the two chat up a generic storm for no apparent reason except to further the relationship.

We close with a silly scene involving our main dude and Hoshino getting deredere over each other. Silly.

Preview

I think I said this last week and I’ll probably say it every week until this show ends: each individual relationship got a little deeper, each individual path became a little more intertwined. Kinda. I swear, though… the two main guys are like the anti-Makoto… you know… they actually wanna get to KNOW girls, and TALK to them and stuff. What kind of twisted reality is this? Mao-oneechan, stay genki and keep winking so I don’t fall asleep!

Captions up

Summary:

In her diary, Chihiro has a message written to her future self explaining how she’ll lose her memory in 13 hours. This was the result of a traffic accident four years ago that also left her without her left eye. The diary details several things Chihiro wants her future self to do: the first is to read over the diary every morning because it serves as her memory, the second is to write down accurately everything that happened the past day, and the third is to avoid contact with others as much as possible. This latter one was because she didn’t want to trouble others, though she does tell her future self to write down everything about anyone she meets. Chihiro lets Renji read this much of her diary, but she stops him from getting any further. She then personally reveals to him that she has her memories from seven in the morning until eight at night, but each hour after that loses her an hour of memory. This means that by seven in the morning, she’s forgotten everything that happened up until six o’clock the previous evening. Renji thinks that this also means that she’s forgotten about meeting him by morning, but Chihiro reveals that thinking back over and over again to important things allows her to remember longer, so she can do it before going to bed and wake up with the important memory still there. However, the problem is that Chihiro feels that her life isn’t worth living since she isn’t able to do anything.

Returning home, Renji has dinner with his mother who asks him about the future aspirations handout, but Renji still doesn’t know what to write on it. His mother then has him bring some food to his neighbor Kuze who happens to have come back recently. Renji wants to talk with Kuze, but it seems that Kuze has a woman over who’s supposedly naked in bed already, so Renji doesn’t get the chance. In the days that follow, Renji thinks about how he can remember his usual life, but Chihiro can’t. He can meet her with the simple feelings of wanting to meet her, but he knows that she has to prepare herself to meet a stranger like him. On one rainy day, he decides not to go to see her and remembers instead how she had told him that she wasn’t afraid of herself disappearing – she was afraid of other people forgetting about her. In thinking about what he could do for her, Renji remembers how she said her dream was to write a story. The following day, he goes to the station to meet with her again, but he finds Yuu there instead because Chihiro is sick. Yuu questions why Renji didn’t come the day before and reveals that Chihiro waited until late night because of their promise to meet again. After Yuu explains that Chihiro sees these promises as something that connects herself of one day to herself of another, Renji realizes he did something terrible.

Meanwhile, Hiro is exhausted the morning after turning in a manuscript to the editorial department and gets ambushed by Miyako on the roof when she covers his eyes from behind him. She’s glad that he’s here because she wouldn’t otherwise be able to get on the roof since she doesn’t have the key. Hiro, however, refuses to give her the key when she asks for it, claiming that it’s a gift from his older sister. Since he’s not working, Miyako drags Hiro out to town because she feels that it’s more interesting than classes. She clarifies thought that it’s not that she hates school – she just hates boredom. The two are later sitting at restaurant when a girl named Hayama Mizuki spots Hiro and comes over to chat, but Hiro accidentally forgets Miyako’s given name as he tries to introduce the girls to each other. Hiding her anger, Miyako orders Hiro to call her by her given name from now on, and when Hiro tries to get Mizuki to back him up on how he’s being threatened, Mizuki actually blames him for calling his girlfriend by her last name. Of course, Hiro points out that Miyako isn’t his girlfriend, but Mizuki wishes that he had one so that she could have Kei to herself. The two of them then notice that Miyako disappeared sometime while they were talking.

That afternoon, Kei gets a message from Chihiro about her cold and how she wants to see Renji. After Kei messages her sister back to say that Chihiro should do what Yuu says and not to make the illness worse, she receives a message from Mizuki. The next morning, Hiro come to watch her practice basketball, and when he yawns, she starts lecturing him about it. The main thing she wants to talk to him about though is skipping class yesterday. Hiro claims that he went home to sleep, but Kei knows that he’s lying because she found out from Mizuki about him being with Miyako. According to Kei, Miyako has a reputation for cutting class and ignoring what teachers say. She starts badmouthing Miyako, but Hiro won’t stand for it. However, he accidentally reveals that they only just over Christmas, and this causes Kei to realize that Hiro broke the promise with her to see Miyako.

 
 
 
After three episodes, I find myself preferring the Miyako/Hiro/Kei triangle much more than the Renji/Chihiro relationship. Although the latter is developing the whole 13-hour memory aspect, it’s just overall not as interesting to watch. Part of it is that I’m not really fond of either Renji’s or Chihiro’s characters, and part of it is that they just spend too much time standing around talking without enough actually happening. Conversely, the Miyako/Hiro/Kei triangle has the two girls already at odds with each other, and it feels like the confrontation scene from the prologue DVD could erupt any episode now. Chihiro and Renji’s relationship doesn’t have that kind of dynamic, but hopefully at least the 13-hour memory thing will come into play soon in a more interesting way. I am, however, looking forward to how they connect all this together since they continue to divide the episode in half.
As a side note, if you’re curious what the background words in the OP say, see this site.

Summary:

Facing off against the Union Flag-type mobile suit, Setsuna knocks away its sword and tries to go in for the kill, but Graham dodges. After batting away the Flag when it grabs the Exia’s shoulders, Setsuna charges with beam saber drawn and slashes Graham’s rifle in half. This leaves Graham no choice but to retreat, and Billy calls him really unpredictable when he returns to their transport plane. Still, Billy doesn’t care that Graham lost a rifle because the Gundam data from the battle is worth losing even an entire Flag suit for, and he thinks that the paint from when the Flag came in contact with the Gundam will allow them to trace it. Graham is actually more concerned with how he thinks the Gundam’s pilot is young based on the feelings riding on its movements. Meanwhile, the JNN agency is scrambling for stories related to Celestial Being and the Gundams, and a woman named Kinue Crossroad is doing her research on Aeolia Schenberg. It seems that Schenberg was a rare master of invention from the late 21st century who was an advocate of the basic theory of the solar energy generation system. He didn’t appear in public, and his existence was only known through that name in the generations after. Despite this information, the question for Kinue still remains why Celestial Being has only started acting now after over 200 years.

At that moment, a man is reporting to the head of the AEU’s intelligence agency about the lack of leads on Schenberg, from his blood relatives to his assets. The head of the agency suspects that the information could have been tampered with given the security of the 21st century, and he asks his subordinate to prepare materials for a Parliament report. Over at the Human Reform League’s orbital elevator, Setsuna arrives late for a meeting with the other three Gundam pilots concerning their next mission, and Tieria leaves for space soon after. They are transporting Tieria’s Gundam back to space using the elevator by disguising it as raw materials for colony development, and this leads to Allelujah worrying a little about their weakness if they didn’t have their Gundams. Setsuna warns him not to talk about secret matters, and the guys leave the terminal once Tieria’s train takes off. Riding alone, Tieria thinks about how he’s finally returning to space and how he hates the Earth. Unbeknownst to them, Sergei is arriving on the planet via the same terminal, and he tells his escort that he wants to stop by Ceylon first because he’s someone who only believes things he sees with his own eyes.

Across the planet at Union’s MSWAD headquarters, Graham and Billy get orders to transfer to the new Gundam investigation unit because of what they had witnessed, and they’re to work with Professor Leif Eifman. Back in Japan, Saji and Louise are in class learning about the ongoing Irish conflict and are assigned a report on Northern Ireland. Once they get out, Saji voices his frustration with how he has to take a history course even though he’s in the engineering department, so Louise points out that he needs to have historical perspectives if he is to work with engineers from across the world. She then starts talking about how her study abroad is going to end in two years, and she wonders if she’s in Saji’s plans for the future. After Saji admits to only having vaguely thought about it and says that she’s vaguely in it, she gets angry with him and stomps off. When he doesn’t immediately try to stop her, she turns around and tells him that he should be chasing after her in times like these. Later that day, Wang Liu Mei meets with a man named Alejandro Corner in a lounge to talk about watching the third mission. Her butler is watching them from the bar, and Alejandro’s subordinate surprises him by asking if he’s peeping.

By now, Sergei has arrived at the Human Reform League’s base on Ceylon and inspects something that is identified as a mobile suit’s optional equipment for bombing made of the latest materials. In investigating the residual traces of the missiles, they learned that 300kg guided ones were used, but there is no country or maker for this kind. This leads Sergei to conclude that it was independently developed. He also learns about the light particles coming from the Gundam and speculates that this is why their radar and sensors didn’t catch it. Around this same time, Graham and Billy are discussing how the Gundam has the output power of six Flag-type suits and how the light allows it to achieve its mobility. Graham thinks that the particles aren’t only for stealth, but also for controlling the mobile suit, and Professor Leif Eifman appears at that exact moment to suggest that it can be used for weapons too. Eifman then comments on how Schenberg is a frightening man for having technology that’s years ahead of them, and he expresses his desire to capture a Gundam. Agreeing with him, Graham asks Eifman to tune his Flag for this purpose and gives him a week.

Both Graham and Sergei then get word that Gundams have struck in two places: at a South African mine and in a South American region called Taribia. Graham wants to go to the Taribia location, but Eifman stops him and notes how much he hates narcotics, so he actually wants to support Gundams if they burn the fields down because he recognizes that they are trying to eliminate a source of strife. Indeed, Allelujah is doing a bombing run on those fields and completes his mission. Sergei meanwhile gets word that the third Gundam is coming to Ceylon again, and he wants to personally confront it because, as he said earlier, he only believes things he sees with his own eyes. He arrives on the scene as the Exia finishes off some Tieren-type suits, and to Setsuna’s surprise, Sergei tosses his gun and wants to fight melee. The Exia manages to cut off the modified-Tieren’s arm, but Sergei responds by immediately whirling around and grabbing the Exia’s head. Setsuna isn’t able to cut through the modified-Tieren’s other arm with just the Exia’s blade, so he’s forced to pull out the beam saber to do the job before the Exia’s head gets crushed. One more slash completely disables to modified-Tieren, and, as the Exia stands over its defeated foe, Setsuna tells his opponent not to touch him.

Up in space, the Gundam Virtue emerges from a container and returns to the Ptolemaios. Once it’s onboard, Sumeragi informs Tieria that their mission ended safely and proposes a celebratory drink, but he respectfully turns her down. Setsuna meanwhile returns to his own apartment and happens to run into his neighbor Saji on his way in. Since Saji introduced himself and revealed that he lived with his sister, Setsuna gives his own name, but he doesn’t stick around any longer than that. Saji then enters his own apartment and finds his sister leaving because of her job. Shortly thereafter, he gets a call from Louise telling him to turn on the news. It seems that the Real IRA terror group announced today that they were completely freezing all terrorist activity. With this, the 400-year-old Northern Ireland conflict is over, a new path to peace will be opened, and Saji is amazed at how the world has changed.

Preview:

Well, things are starting to come together (Setsuna being Saji’s neighbor, Graham and Billy transferring the Gundam investigative unit), but the episode itself still jumps around a bit too much for my tastes. It feels like we’re trying to look at too many sides at once – the Gundam team’s, Billy & Graham’s, Sergei’s, the governments’, Saji’s, etc – and I’m just not a big fan of this approach. That being said, characters like Graham, Sergei, and Saji are still getting a decent amount of development – to the point of overshadowing the Gundam team this episode – so I can’t complain too much. The only places Setsuna got to shine were in battles where he proved that no one can currently stand up to him and the Exia.

Politically, this episode was as involved as the others since we have the Gundams going after sources of conflict that are extensions of things going on right now: African mining (think blood diamonds) and drug-producing countries. I find it hard to believe that just using military might will put an end to things like that, and since the Gundams and Celestial Being don’t exactly look like they can offer an economic solution too, I don’t know how much good they’re actually doing. Perhaps the best proof that Celestial Being’s tactics might be working is the Real IRA announcement, but I almost find it unbelievable that a group like that would just randomly give up without being directly targeted. In any case, next week looks to continue what got started this week with Taribia declaring independence from Union and the Gundams getting involved.

Yoriko’s increasingly flabby arms have been a recent source of anguish for her. She looks right across her desk and playfully craves for Natsumi’s body that never seems to gain weight despite all the food Natsumi consumes. Miyuki offers a theory – that Natsumi’s body simply burns up the calories rapidly. While all this talk on dieting goes on, inspector Tokuno makes an appearance in the Traffic Division of Bokuto Station, and brought along gourmet taiyaki for the group to enjoy. The members of the Traffic Division squeal with delight at this treat and eagerly grab one, including Yoriko whose appetite for fancy food surpasses her concern for weight.

This sumptuous taiyaki is made in the famed 黄金屋 (Koganeya), whose reputation for their delicacy is so widespread that it attracts long lines of customers every day. Not far off from the confectionary store, a rather bulky, muscular man looks at the winding line of people with contempt from above his apartment.

Miyuki and Natsumi get on their police car and go on patrol for the first time in quite a while. Natsumi still remembers the taiyaki from earlier on that day, and the pair decided to improvise with their patrol route to stop by Koganeya. When they do arrive, they are bewildered to see three cars propped up against the brick walls of the neighborhood houses, with a poster with red words attached to each of these cars (Natsumi: “Whoever wrote this has horrible penmanship.” Miyuki: “This is what I suppose people call dangerous art.”). One of the victims is hysterical at the current state of her Porsche (nicknamed “Poru Poru-Chan” of all things). Although parking in the roads of residential areas is illegal, Natsumi reluctantly spares them from the humiliation of receiving parking tickets and instead lifts the cars back to be parallel with the road.

Back at the station, Kachou, like Miyuki, comments on the criminal’s terrible handwriting on the posters that accompanied the cars (e.g., “Do not park illegally!”). Natsumi and Miyuki are assigned with the task to investigate and track down the criminal and his passion for “dangerous art”. While completing the necessary protocols on a possible description of the culprit, Miyuki points out to a snapshot of an apartment located near Koganeya. Miyuki clicks on one of the apartments that has its windows slightly open and enlarges the picture to reveal the heavily-built man staring outside.

With a strong indication of who the person responsible is, NatsuMiyu set off for the neighborhood with Koganeya again. While they look around, Michiyo, the daughter of Koganeya’s owner, approaches them and heartily asks for their help. She also regretfully mentions how no one is interested to succeed in taking over the family business. After some planning, Miyuki decides to have the customers of Koganeya help out in a bid to lure the wrestler-turned law offender (they bribe the customers by repealing their parking tickets for their help).

Seeing as the suspect still hasn’t shown up, NatsuMiya temporarily patrols around in alternate routes. This ends when the sun sets, and the deranged ex-professional wrestler appears and starts rotating and lifting cars around. Yoriko contacts them and the two speed off to face the criminal. Natsumi bursts into the scene and starts a ridiculous battle of brute strength against the wrestler, with an automobile as the medium. Natsumi has the upper hand but not by a lot. The wrestler foolish comments about how the woman he is against is like a gorilla, and this of course infuriates Natsumi as she absolutely crushes the wrestler at his own game.

The wrestler manages to escape during the ensuring ruckus, with Miyuki at his tail. Although she corners him, he leaps into the air as if about to attack the poor policewoman…or not. He remembers an embarrassing defeat back in his professional days as a wrestler, and covers his…well, crotch (-.-;) in midair. He pathetically crashes into the ground and he is brought in for interrogation.

After a confession from the culprit and words of encouragement from Miyuki, we learn that the wrestler (whose stage name is the Condor Tiger) has since then worked for Koganeya as a part time job and for community service. All is well, as Miyuki and Natsumi looks on – until they spot a disguised Kachou lining up for more taiyaki to purchase. The pair sheepishly approach their superior, as Natsumi eagerly asks Kachou to buy them taiyaki as well. Fufufufufu.

Preview:

Nice, clean, classic anime fun. The Condor Tiger was no match for Natsumi after all (looks like Toukairin Shouji is the only human who can surpass her in terms of strength and appetite). Speaking of Shouji, he sure has a number of fans for being an anime-original character. Looks like the fandom prefers him to be with Natsumi over Kachou. :O This episode, additionally, had two insert songs, during a) NatsuMiyu’s first patrol after their return and b) near the end at the Koganeya. Neither songs were credited, which is unfortunate – I would have at least wanted the song title and the artist…

Next time: Snakes continue to be misunderstood creatures in the anime world as they are set loose in Bokuto Station and create a serious frenzy. Or at least this is what the title and dialogue between Aoi and Yoriko imply. We’ll find out soon enough~.