Random Curiosity

Summary:

Having borrowed his new weapon from a secret storeroom when he was leaving the hospital in the real world with Urahara, Ishida calls it the Seele Schneider – the only Quincy weapon with a blade. It turns out that Cirucci already knows about the Quincy, though she refers to them as a pitiful group that was destroyed by the Shinigami. What she doesn’t understand is why he’s working with Ichigo, but Ishida feels no need to answer her. Instead, he attacks her again and strikes her wings, causing the blades to break off. Ishida explains that a high-speed vibration can be destroyed by an even higher speed vibration, and his Seele Schneider is like a chainsaw that has spirit particles moving around at 3 million times per second. In comparison, the vibrations of the spirit particles on Cirucci’s wing-blades clock in at only around 1.1 to 1.3 million times per second – less than half of the Seele Schneider. Realizing that her wings have no more effect on him, Cirucci decides to dump all of the transformed parts of her body, leaving only her headdress and her tail attached.

Cirucci then explains that the Arrancar’s sword release is called resurrección, and it is where their original Hollow abilities are given to their Arrancar body. Returning to their human form requires resealing her sword, but since Cirucci has thrown away her wings, she can’t do that. Her wings and arms consumed too much spiritual force, and since she wasn’t going to use them anymore, she abandoned them. Instead, she’ll now be concentrating that spiritual force onto her tail, and she uses it like a blade to attack Ishida. He’s sent reeling from her first strike, and after a lot of dodging, he finally pushes against it with his Seele Schneider and nearly cuts through it. Realizing that the flat and wide shape won’t work, Cirucci changes the form of her blade to that of a sword because she thinks that if they’re both using swords with the same abilities, whoever has the longer reach will win. Ishida, however, reveals that the Seele Schneider’s high-speed vibrations aren’t for cutting, but rather for loosening the bonds between spirit particles on whatever has been cut so that it’s easier to take the particles away. A Quincy fights by converging the surrounding spirit particles into his weapon, and the strongest embodiment of this is the Seele Schneider. In short, Ishida gathers the spirit particles from Cirucci and uses them in his own weapon against her.

As Cirucci charges him in desperation, Ishida explains that there’s one more thing that she got wrong: the Seele Schneider is not a sword. Quincys only use bows, and Ishida draws the Seele Schneider blade as an arrow and fires it right at Cirucci, cutting through her blade and piercing through her. After Cirucci falls down defeated, Ishida decides not to finish her off because he’s not going to conform to the style that the Arrancar do things. However, shortly after Ishida and Pesche leave the room, the Exequias appear and do just that. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Las Noches, Sado is in the middle of his fight with the Privaron Espada Gantenbainne Mosqueda and is getting beat up left and right. Sado manages to land a few surprise hits, but once Gantenbainne really gets going, he makes Sado into a punching bag. Gantenbainne, however, thinks that Sado is hiding his true strength and wants a fair fight. He then tries to bash Sado’s head in, but from the dust emerges a rejuvenated Sado who apologizes because he wasn’t trying to hide anything. He had merely felt that there was something different about his power after he came here, and he’s finally figured it out. Sado is now sporting what he calls his right arm’s true form, the Brazo Derecha de Gigante.

Preview

These battles with the Privaron Espada have a lot of cool points – mainly whenever the good guys show off some new ability – but my main problem is that they’re also formulaic for that exact reason. Both Ishida and Sado have to pull out a new power to defeat their opponent, and even Ichigo had to bring out his mask to defeat Dordonii. Kubo Tite usually does a good job keeping Bleach fights interesting, but I remember I stopped reading for a period of time at this point in the manga because it was turning into a straight fighting series without much story development. Now that I think about it, that may be one of the reasons the anime producers decided to put the Aaroniero and Rukia stuff between the Privaron fights since that at least had some story implications.

As for the episode itself, it covered chapters 258 and 259 in their entirety with only a few minor dialogue additions. The animation quality was better than I was expecting, especially during this scene and during the Sado fight (though it looks like someone on the staff went a little overboard with this punch to the face). Next week will probably finish the Sado fight and move on to the next part of the story, and we’re getting ever closer to the point of no return, but for now, there appear to be no signs of going to anime originals.

Summary:

On their way into the port of Pattsio, Lawrence wonders if it’s okay for Horo not to hide her face because people might know about her human form. Horo, however, reveals that the villagers keep secret about that in exchange for a good wheat harvest. Still, she doesn’t think that anyone will notice her because they’ve forgotten about her. Once the two enter the city, Horo is thrilled to see all the food in the market – particularly the apples – but Lawrence doesn’t pay her any heed and talks about business until she specifically says that she wants to eat apples. Horo ends up nearly filling their cart with apples from the single coin that Lawrence gives her to spend, but she refuses to let Lawrence have one even though it was his money. After Horo finishes off the apples and the two get a room at an inn, they head to the docks to a trading company so that Lawrence can sell his furs. The trader initially offers Lawrence 132 silver coins for the 70 furs, but Lawrence manages to convince him to bump that offer up to 140 silver coins. He’s ready to accept that amount, however Horo stops him and takes over the negotiations.

Horo first points out that there is a fruit smell to the furs, and she then has the merchant pull on the fur to show how strong it is. She spins stories on both these points, and so the merchant raises the offer to 200 silver coins. Horo gets him to go up even further to 3 silver coins per fur for a total of 210 silver coins. Lawrence is flabbergasted by this and later questions if Horo has been a merchant before, so she reveals that it was due to a smart merchant who was passing through the village a fairly long time ago. As for the fruit smell, Horo admits that it was from all the apples she bought earlier. That night, Lawrence meets with Zeren about the silver coins deal and questions if the story about the silver revaluing is true. Zeren nervously reveals that he heard about it in a mine, but Lawrence decides to accept his reassurances and moves on to talking about Zeren’s share. It turns out that Zeren wants just 10 silver coins on top of 10% of the profits, and Lawrence accepts. Afterwards, in their room, Lawrence tries to teach Horo the difference between the coins of various countries, and though she insists on learning them, she soon falls asleep.

The next morning, after finalizing the deal with Zeren, Lawrence shows Horo a foreign coin that has a high purity of silver and is quite popularly used. It’s the rival of the coin they use, and Lawrence goes over how, when a foreign currency dominates the market, it’s the same as losing a war. As Horo realizes, this means that a country could defeat its rival by raising the purity in its silver, and that’s why Lawrence thinks Zeren might not be lying. The two then pay a visit an acquaintance of Lawrence’s who is in the money exchange business, though this man Weiss is more interested in Horo than anything else. Lawrence gets pissed off at how Horo blushes at Weiss’s advances, but Horo uses it to get Weiss to pass her some coins so that she can listen to the sound of them jingling against each other. She claims not to be able to tell a difference, but when speaking privately with Lawrence afterwards, she reveals that the new coins have a slightly duller sound, making Lawrence realize that the purity actually went down. As Lawrence tries to figure out what to do, he wonders how Zeren profits from this, and Horo laughs at him for being deceived. She points out that Zeren gets 10 silver coins no matter what, and so he can’t lose even if Lawrence doesn’t make any money.

To help Lawrence, Horo tells of how wolves climb trees because it allows them to see the hiding places of their prey. She thus suggests that Lawrence look at this from a new point of view: what if it wasn’t Zeren scheming and someone else had asked him to do this? Lawrence quickly figures out that there is indeed a way to profit by buying silver coins that are declining in value, and he decides to pay a another visit to the trading company.

I wish I had a Horo who could sell things at 50% markup. I’m not too surprised by this though since it fits perfectly with the mystique of her character and how confident she is sometimes of her abilities. Being alive for so long means that she probably has a lot of skills Lawrence doesn’t know about yet. Lawrence, on the other hand, seems a bit naive in his dealings with Zeren. I don’t think the stuff Horo suggested was that hard to figure out, especially since they had already previously talked about someone scheming.

On the whole, I still think that this show has a lot of interesting aspects, but it also hasn’t really grabbed me yet (I feel like I’m using that word a lot these days). That is to say, I don’t find Horo’s character and the entire silver coins plot to be enough to carry the entire show, so I keep wondering if there’s going to be something a bit more compelling (maybe exploring Horo’s past or having the couple encounter some bad situation). As I mentioned last week, I’m not too keen on the Middle Ages economics aspect and it feels like there’s a lack of energy sometimes in this show. Still, there’s nothing better to watch on Tuesdays, so I’ll probably keep up with this.

Summary:

The day after Hiromi told him that Noe saw right through her, Shinichirou still doesn’t quite understand what she meant. At school, he finds a packet of red berries in his shoe locker, and there’s another one in his desk. A third is in the locker where he keeps his books, and when Nobuse picks it up, Shinichirou tries to keep his friend from seeing what’s inside, but he only succeeds in tackling Nobuse. Shinichirou thus has to tell Nobuse about how Noe’s been leaving these for him, and Nobuse suggests that it’s love. After class, Shinichirou wants to complain to Noe about all this, but she runs out of school and meets up with an older looking guy who has a motorcycle. Shinichirou is surprised to see this and finds himself sighing on his way to Aiko’s store. When he gets there, he walks in on Aiko feeding Nobuse like they’re a couple, but Aiko claims that she was just letting Nobuse taste the food she’s making. To show that it was nothing special, she offers to feed Shinichirou a bite too, however she accidentally drops it with her chopsticks after telling him to get closer so that she can reach him. Nobuse ends up eating it straight off the counter, and he declares that he’d eat something Aiko cooked even if it were dropped on the floor.

Shinichirou then tells Nobuse about Noe having a boyfriend already, and he thinks that she merely made him the replacement for Raigomaru. From this, Nobuse figures out that Noe had been trying to feed Shinichirou with all the red berries, and he kids Shinichirou about being a fed chicken. A little later, as Aiko and Shinichirou are headed to the community center together, she asks him about what happened with Hiromi. After he tells her about how Hiromi said that she wanted to be Noe’s friend even though she didn’t really want to, Aiko comments on how she thinks that she understands why Hiromi did that. Aiko initially refuses to tell him the reason, but she eventually explains that people want to get closer to the person they love. When they’re unable to do that, they go with someone who’s already close to that person. As she says this, Aiko comes to a realization, and when Shinichirou tries to ask her about it, she kicks him in the leg and stomps off, saying that any girl who falls in love with a guy like him will have a lot of trouble.

Going by what Aiko stated, Shinichirou reasons that Hiromi was trying to get closer to someone by becoming Noe’s friend. He starts to think that this person is him, and this puts him in a really good mood. At home, he finds his mother giving Hiromi the task of delivering some sake even though it’s already so late. Since his mother insists on getting this done tonight, Shinichirou decides to do it himself, and Hiromi follows him. His father thinks that his mother should have just asked Shinichirou and questions why she asked Hiromi instead. He considers Hiromi to be one of their children now, but Shinichirou’s mother refuses to accept this. Shinichirou and Hiromi meanwhile take the path that passes by the waterfront, and he tells her that she doesn’t need to be try to be so nice with them because she’s not their employee or servant. He then recalls that they’ve gone down this road before back during a festival when they were young, and Hiromi had gotten separated from everyone and had cried. Hiromi claims not to remember, and when Shinichirou tries to turn to the topic to what she meant when she said that Noe saw through her, Hiromi just thanks him and reveals that she was scared of this road.

As it turns out, all those years ago, a young Hiromi had been by herself and had thought that Shinichirou had left her behind. He had jumped out at her from inside a patch of bamboo and had laughed at her, but after seeing her crying and missing a shoe, he felt guilty and decided to go find it. Hiromi, however, stopped him from leaving her side, and they instead walked hand-in-hand towards the festival, with him also taking off a shoe. These are all memories that Hiromi had decided to seal away when she moved in with Shinichirou’s family, but she can still recall the feeling of not wanting to be left behind. Not knowing that Hiromi actually does remember, Shinichirou meanwhile decides that he made progress just by walking with her. When he gets home, he begins drawing a story about himself reaching out to catch her and seeing a red snow falling. The snow turns out to be red berries though, and Shinichirou realizes they taste bad after he tries to eat one. He then notices a white chicken jumping around, and it is at that point that he wakes from his dream after having fallen asleep while drawing at his desk.

At school, Shinichirou is alerted to the fact that there’s a trail of red berries leading out from his classroom. He follows it all the way outside to the tree that Noe likes to climb and tells her that he doesn’t need those berries, but she feels that it’s not for him to decide. Shinichirou then suggests that she shouldn’t be involved with him because she already has a boyfriend, and he walks away angrily, ignoring Noe asking to wait because she can’t get down from the tree. Since Shinichirou tells Noe to get down on her own, Noe unexpectedly does what he says and jumps. When Shinichirou runs back to check on her, she makes him carry her on his back. Noe ends up directing him towards the gymnasium where their boys’ basketball team is currently playing the team from a rival school, and everyone is shocked to see Shinichirou carrying her. That attention doesn’t last long though, because the player of the rival school with the number 4 on his jersey makes an impressive fadeaway shot. Shinichirou recognizes this guy as the same person that Noe had been with before, but he’s surprised to hear her call out to him as her brother.

After the game, Shinichirou tells Nobuse that Noe having a boyfriend or not has nothing to do with him, but Nobuse observes that Shinichirou is relieved. Nobuse also suggests that Shinichirou come up with an explanation for why he was carrying Noe because Hiromi saw them and will misunderstand. Shinichirou tries to think up something, but as he’s walking around school, he accidentally overhears Hiromi talking to her friend about how she actually likes the number 4 boy from the rival school. What makes it even more awkward is that Hiromi runs into Shinichirou shortly after saying this, and she realizes that he might have heard what she said.

Preview

Well, I finally got around to watching this, and I have to say that I regret not doing so earlier. I wrote previously that I likely wouldn’t follow this in favor of blogging Shigofumi instead, but after seeing this episode, I don’t think I can ignore this either. The first episode was okay and the second one was a little better, but this third episode was what really grabbed my attention. There’s just so much stuff going on in the story, whether it’s from Aiko’s angle or about Shinichirou’s mother not accepting Hiromi or about Hiromi appearing to lie (either consciously or to herself) about liking Noe’s brother and the great cliffhanger ending of running into him right afterwards. It’s not clear whether Hiromi realizes that it’s Noe’s brother either (has someone tried drawing a relationship chart yet?). Add to all that a layer of consistently good animation and a really superb soundtrack, and it’s safe to say that true tears is now living up to the potential that I originally thought it had.

The only question now is to figure out how to balance this with Shigofumi on Saturdays since I really want to continue both. I think I’m probably going to have to drop something else to free up time elsewhere…

Summary:

With the disappearance of an agent of the Public Safety branch who was investigating Pinocchio, Hilshire and Triela are sent to Montalcino to look for him. They decide to go check out the agent’s hotel room, but first they have lunch, and Triela wonders why they have been tasked with finding someone. Hilshire thinks that someone could be plotting something, and when Triela comments on how they’re always surrounded by enemies, he tells her not to worry because he’ll never betray her. At the hotel, Hilshire bribes the clerk to get the room key, but they discover that there’s no one in the agent’s room. Hilshire uses some detective skills to find a number that had been written on a notepad, and he heads back downstairs to ask about it while Triela tries to open a suitcase by picking its lock. She’s eventually successful, and the suitcase turns out to be filled with a bunch of clothes, but it also has a copy of The Adventures of Pinocchio. Triela is intrigued enough to sit down and read it, but once she’s done, she tosses the book aside and calls it silly.

The clues lead Hilshire and Triela to Pinocchio’s house, and they set up an observation post nearby. Triela runs into Aurora outside of the house, and she learns from the girl that Pinocchio does indeed live there. Before returning to Hilshire, Triela places a listening device inside of the basket of food that Aurora was bringing for Pinocchio. Aurora then enters Pinocchio’s house via the unlocked front door, and since there appears to be no one home, she wanders around the house looking for Pinocchio. In the living room, she finds a gun on a table and picks it up, but it is at this very moment that Franca finds her. Fearing that Aurora could be an assassin, Franca tries to make her put down the gun, though it is ultimately Franco who comes in and disarms Aurora from behind. Pinocchio identifies her as a girl from this neighborhood, but since she knows his secret, he decides to kill her. Franca, however, refuses to let him and cites how she chooses whom to kill, and with Franco also aiming a gun at him now, Pinocchio backs off.

Having heard the girl in trouble, Hilshire orders Triela to go save her, and Triela arrives right as Franca suggests that their group gets out of town. Unfortunately for Triela, all three of her opponents move in different directions, with Franco keeping her pinned with gunfire while Pinocchio throws knives and charges her. As much as Triela tries, she isn’t able to land a hit on Pinocchio and gets tripped up in return. He knocks her out with a strong uppercut and picks up her gun to finish her off, but Pinocchio then remembers how, in the past, he had killed the girl who saw the aftermath of an assassination he had done. This leads him to spare Triela’s life, though he does keep her gun. Meanwhile, Hilshire confronts Franca, but she distracts him by dropping her gun and uses the split-second opportunity to escape. Franco backs up Franca by throwing a cell phone bomb at Hilshire, and this gives them enough time to reach their car and drive away with Pinocchio.

In the aftermath, Hilshire finds an injured Triela and thinks that she might have a concussion. The local police have reunited Aurora with her mother, and they found the corpse of the missing agent in the wine cellar, but the three Padania members all got away. Seeing Triela depressed over how she wasn’t able to injure Pinocchio at all and let him escape, Hilshire points to the bright side of how they saved the girl and both ended up safe. Triela feels even worse after she notices that Hilshire’s hand is wrapped in a bloody cloth, and what is especially frustrating for her is that Pinocchio defeated her bare-handed even though she’s a cyborg. With something like this happening, she doesn’t see the point anymore of the risk. When Hilshire tries to comfort her, she tells him not to touch her and wants to be left alone for a while. Hilshire then notices a pendant sitting on the ground nearby, and he picks it up. This is something that Triela had knocked off of Pinocchio during the fight, and the loss of it stays on Pinocchio’s mind even after the successful escape. Franca, however, suggests that he forget about it because what’s really important is inside his heart.

Well, it seems that someone on the production team really likes using speed lines to animate action scenes. That type of effect doesn’t look too bad on paper (ie. in the manga), but I didn’t particularly care for it here because it gave the animation a cheap feel (even more than usual), plus it was rather distracting. They used a lot more muted version of it back in the first episode during the car chase, and I’d much prefer that to this. I just hope future action scenes won’t all be like this.

Story-wise, this episode more or less follows chapter 14 and 15 of the manga, but like last week, they added a lot of extra focus on that pendant that Pinocchio was wearing. I assume it’s more buildup to show how close Pinocchio is to Cristiano, and I bet this isn’t the last we’ve seen of it. As for Triela, I think her reaction to the defeat is a good reason why young girls shouldn’t be used as supersoldiers, at least from a practical standpoint. Still, she lived, and she’s not likely to let herself lose a second time. Next week, however, takes the focus off of her and Pinocchio and places it instead on Angelica who we haven’t seen much of this new season. I wonder though how they’re going to stretch a single chapter of the manga into an entire episode.

Summary:

As Kanaru carries Megumi out of the restroom, they are stopped by the group of boys they saw earlier. The boys ask Kanaru if they wanted to play “kagenuki” with them, and soon after the group wind up in a private karaoke room. Kanaru nervously asks the boys which one wanted to do the kagenuki, and they just snicker at her. Megumi is unconscious at this point, lying on the floor when the boys attempt to undress her. Back in the karaoke room, Shin talks to Takurou about the Personas and how he feels as though he has known about it for a long time. Takurou says that he knows about the Personas as well, since a long-nosed man told him about it a couple of years ago. All of the sudden, a blast occurs in the direction of the restroom. Shin and Takurou run and find the room where the girls were kept. Takurou is horrified at what he sees – blood stained walls.

Meanwhile, at home, Jun is visited by Eiko, the coroner. She hugs him, saying that he has grown up in the past ten years and that for a second, she almost thought that he was Yuki. Eiko goes on to make dinner for the two of them and complains that even though they work together every day, Ryou didn’t tell her that the brothers had come home. As they are having dinner, Jun gets a call from Shin telling him that he would be late coming home, and he immediately guesses that Shin is at the police station.

Shin is indeed there, and the kids are being asked questions about kagenuki and how it related to the night’s event. The police tell them that both Kanaru and Megumi were slipped sleeping pills by one of the workers there, but apparently Kanaru is immune to them. The kids are then asked to keep the karaoke situation a secret, as per the Chief’s order. A few moments later, Ryou catches up to Shin and asks him why he was at the scene of the crime. Ryou wants Shin and Jun to immediately leave the city, but this leaves Shin both upset and frustrated. Afterwards, Ryou is on his cell phone explaining to an unknown caller that the Reverse happened again, but this time not to the people on the list, but to a group of young people. Ryou is shocked and didn’t expect that Shin would be apart of this mess – things are getting out of control. He then arrives at his office and receives another call from a person with information asking to meet. Elsewhere in the city, the callers discuss amongst themselves about the event that took place at the karaoke bar. They know that it was a Persona, since no human could have caused that and that it was probably Shin’s Persona that caused it. Tension is caused when Soutarou questions why Yuuji is on the assignment when he has been unsuccessful at capturing the A latent, but Toma explains that the decision has been given by their boss. Annoyed at Yuuji’s stupidity, Soutarou can’t wait to get his hands on Shin, the “special A.”

The next day, the three friends go and visit a fully recovered Megumi at the hospital. Megumi apologizes for causing so much trouble for her friends, causing Kanaru to feel even guiltier about her actions. Later on, when Shin goes home, the detective that questioned him yesterday at the precinct approaches him. The detective asks him about Ryou and informs him that Ryou is hiding a big secret.

That night, Ryou meets with Toma and Yuuji on a snow covered bridge. Ryou and Toma exchange questions about each other’s existence, leading to Toma trying to convince Ryou to join forces with them. When Ryou refuses Toma’s offer, fighting erupts. Toma screams for Yuuji to back him up, but Yuuji just cowers and cries that his Persona has already been destroyed. Meanwhile, as Shin is walking home, he sees Saki (the woman who attacked him before) and Soutarou standing in his pathway. Shin’s Persona awakens in time to deflect the blow from Saki’s Persona, however Soutarou’s Persona then shoots out laser cords and starts to extract Shin’s soul from his body. Like Yumi, Shin looks as though his life is literally being sucked out of him. Shin’s Persona manages to defeat Saki’s Persona and cuts the laser cords that were attached to Shin’s body. Soutarou’s and Saki’s Persona then infuse together and enter into Soutarou. Just as that happens, Soutarou lets out a horrific scream and falls to the ground in extreme pain. As for the other fight, Ryou’s Persona defeats Toma’s, and a red haired girl watches Ryou as he stands before Toma’s dead body. Ryou senses something and turns around – only to see a couple of white feathers in the girl’s place. Meanwhile, Shin runs home wondering what the hell is going on. The conversation with the detective runs through his head because the detective had told him about the “A” list. The detective had said that he wanted Shin to find it and bring it to him for the sake of the kids and their families. Shin tries a couple of times to gain access to Ryou’s computer, and he finally cracks the password on computer to reveal the list.

Preview

Thank goodness the momentum is finally starting to gain speed. Kitties, you were right, this episode was the turn around. Like the previous two episodes, “Marebito” gives the viewers a lot of information, with little time to digest it all, and the character development in this episode is still pretty much as shallow. However, “Marebito” does start to tie together the relationships of all of the characters and their Personas. Once again, there still isn’t any development with Jun’s story, which is very disappointing, but we do get a little taste in the next previews.

As for content, it had more substance this time than the previous two. There was enough information given that I am finally able to piece together the story – somewhat anyway.

I’m not going to talk about graphics because nothing has changed from the previous weeks – it’s still B grade material in my opinion. The big thing however is the story line. Things are coming together for me as they explain about the dangers of the Persona. I still don’t really know what a Persona is, or how it operates – that’s rather frustrating, since we’re already three episodes in. They should have explained that by now. Soutarou appears in this episode, but who is he? What is his significance? And what about Saki? I mean, why do I have to repeat this over and over – get my point?

Finally, the fighting sequence it was great considering the last two episodes. It is still very weak compared to, say, Blood+, but I did find myself glued to my computer screen for two minutes – yes, that’s how long it was! I know a lot of you guys keep telling me that it’ll get better or that it is totally different from the game – remember I don’t know the game. Help me help you, comment on what the difference are, maybe this way I’ll appreciate this more.

Sanada_kikyo

I just noticed that it’s been five whole months since the last time I blogged a PV (not counting the melonpan song). Now is as good a time as any to start up again since the new season brought several good new songs, and my favorite by far is the second ending theme to Gundam 00, Stephanie’s Friends. Like Angela Aki (who remains one of my favorite singers), Stephanie comes from a mixed background with an Armenian-American father and Japanese mother, and she’s got a pretty powerful voice.

Friends is my first exposure to her singing – she also sang the ending themes to the Kissdum anime from last year – and I absolutely loved the song. I’d been waiting to see the PV for it, and it finally turned up on M-ON’s KissXKiss program yesterday. The PV itself doesn’t turn out to be too special since it just involves Stephanie standing in an industrial-style room singing into the microphones hanging around her, but it’s thanks to the PV that I’ve been able to listen to the full version of this song on repeat for the past many hours. If this is any indicator of how her music will be, I look forward to hearing more of it.

Friends is due out on January 30th, 2008.

Note: You may have noticed that I’ve switched from using screencaps to uploading a streaming version of the PV. This is something different I’m trying out because I think that screencaps just can’t capture the feel of a full song.

Summary:

On a train station platform, a boy named Kotake Tooru starts edging towards the train tracks as he plays a game on his cell phone. He never crosses the edge though, and the proximity of the arriving train catches him by surprise. At school, he asks his friends Senkawa Daiki and Nojima Kaname about thinking about jumping in front of a train when on a platform. Kaname immediately replies that he hasn’t thought about something like that, and Daiki wonders if Tooru wants to die. Tooru claims that he doesn’t and is just talking about jumping, but he has a hard time trying to come up with how those two things are different. When he specifically asks Daiki about ever having wanted to die, Daiki pauses for a moment before answering that he hasn’t. Kaname scolds Tooru for talking about weird things since he has no reason to want to die, but when Tooru asks for Daiki’s opinion, Daiki never answers. Instead, he gets called away by a girl, though he smiles at Tooru before he goes. That night, as Tooru is playing a video game, he receives a phone call from Kaname telling him that Daiki has died.

Meanwhile, a group of yakuza are under a bridge beating up man, but they get interrupted by Fumika who has a Shigofumi for the victim. The yakuza guys try to assault her, but she defeats them all, hands over the Shigofumi which consists of only a bloody hand-print, and then walks away, letting the yakuza continue what they were doing because she’s only a delivery person. As for Daiki’s death, it turns out that it was a suicide via jumping off a building, however no one knows why he did it. The principal and the teachers interrogate the students about it the next day, but even Tooru has no idea why, despite supposedly being Daiki’s friend. All this makes him realize that he didn’t really know much about Daiki, so he starts to feel that they weren’t truly friends. Kaname thinks that it’s natural for them not to know what Daiki was really thinking, and he supports his point by telling the story of a girl from his junior high class who suddenly shot her father one day. He hadn’t thought that that girl could do something like that.

Fumika and Kanaka are also talking about why people commit suicide, and Fumika thinks that it’s because people break and do things like suicide, incest, and parricide. According to her, humans are the only living creatures with so many errors. Back at school, Tooru thinks about what Kaname said about not knowing what other people are thinking, but Tooru feels that he wants to know. His train of thought is interrupted though when Daiki’s father suddenly enters their class and takes everyone hostage. Daiki’s father is doing this because he wants to know the reason why his son died. However, the students truly don’t know what that reason is, so Daiki’s father instead inquires about who his son’s closest friend was. Not really paying attention to Daiki’s father, Tooru instead thinks about how Daiki had killed himself less than half a day after saying that he hadn’t thought about dying. Daiki’s father nevertheless picks on Tooru and asks him to name the person was responsible for Daiki’s death, but Tooru responds by saying that even he wants to know.

This conversation is interrupted when Fumika suddenly bursts through the door so that she can deliver a Shigofumi to Tooru from Daiki. The father wants to be the one to read it, but Fumika steps in and points her gun at his head in order to prevent him from interfering. Still, at the father’s request, Tooru ends up reading the letter out loud. In the Shigofumi, Daiki wrote about this not being a big deal – he had merely wondered what would happen if he jumped. He had said before that he didn’t think about wanting to die, but he didn’t want to live either. Thus, there was no reason; Daiki had just wanted to take a path different from usual. After Tooru finishes reading, Daiki’s father expresses his disbelief, but Tooru confirms that this was definitely something Daiki wrote. Before he can say why he knows this though, Tooru suddenly notices the SWAT team outside the classroom. Wasting no time, the SWAT team throws a flashbang grenade and quickly overwhelms Daiki’s father. In the aftermath, Tooru explains that he knew because he was Daiki’s friend. For him, what Daiki did was just like jumping onto the train tracks.

With the hostage situation over, Fumika heads to the school rooftop where she talks about how death can’t save people – they only disappear. When Kanaka asks, Fumika that these words are from a popular writer named Mikawa Kirameki. Kaname then bursts onto the rooftop and calls out to Fumika, referring to her as Mikawa. Earlier, when Fumika had pulled out her gun, Kaname had recognized it as looking similar to the one a girl from his past had carried. Now, after he identifies that he was her classmate, Kaname questions why Fumika shot her father. Meanwhile, in a hospital somewhere, a girl is sleeping next to a book with the name Mikawa Kirameki and a large sigma symbol on the cover.

Preview

Alright, given the themes of suicide (jumping off a building, in front of a train) and talking a school hostage, I can see why the Shigofumi production team felt it necessary to edit the episode for content (like they mentioned on the official website earlier this week). The most evident example of that was the censorship of the gun that Daiki’s father was carrying – it showed up as a large black blob during various parts of the episode. On the whole though, this didn’t bother me too much because of everything else that was going on in the episode. Even the beginning of the episode was pretty intense with the way it looked like Tooru was going to jump off the platform. I thought the jumping-for-no-reason idea was kind of stupid, but I’m willing to bet that there’s more than one person out there who’s done it before, so I don’t think it was unrealistic. If anything, I thought the episode did well in depicting friendships where people don’t know much about each other and in the way the public and media react to such suicides.

The big surprise this episode wasn’t anything related to the suicide though – it was the twist they threw in at the end about Fumika’s past. Even if we assume that Fumika is some representation of the girl in the hospital, then there’s still the question of how she got to be that way and why she quotes the writer who is also called Mikawa. That was the one thing that kept this episode from being entirely standalone. And it’s also what makes me think that the entire series will tie together via Kaname and Kaname’s father (the detective), both of whom are likely to be recurring characters. The former has the connection to Fumika/Mikawa, and the latter’s police work can connect him to all the deaths that result in Shigofumi. Anyway, I really want to find out more about Fumika (damn cliffhanger), but next week appears to be a new story that involves some yuri elements.

Summary:

Long before any combat occurs, military forces dot the desert with a communication network, and Sergei is still a little surprised that the Human Reform League is joining forces with Union and the AEU. All together, they have 832 mobile suits comprising 52 units to combat the Gundams. Saji and Louise meanwhile are unaware of what’s going on and are out shopping. Louise has her eye on an extremely expensive ring, but that price doesn’t stop her from insisting that Saji buy it for her. Back in the Human Reform League, there are now three mobile suits and three trucks headed for the enriched uranium site in the desert. Having not been informed of what’s really going on, Sergei quickly figures out that this was all planned after he gets an order to capture the Gundams. He knows now that, to lure out those Gundams, the government is intentionally neglecting terrorist movements. And just as they had planned, two Gundams – the Dynames and the Kyrios – arrive on the scene to take out the terrorists.

Shortly after the Dynames and the Kyrios finish their job though, they come under a heavy missile attack. A large force of Union Realdos then appear, and the Gundam pilots quickly have their hands full. Lockon is unable to stop a pair of Realdos from attaching themselves to the Dynames before self-destructing, and though this doesn’t damage the Dynames too heavily, it forces Lockon to land. The Gundams are then bombarded from all side by artillery and by bombs dropped from aircraft. Back at Wang Liu-Mei’s home, Christina reports that they’ve passed the scheduled finish time of the first phase. Sumeragi thinks that they should go to plan B2 – the one that has the Exia and the Virtue getting involved too. At the AEU command center, Kathy sends out an AEU mobile suit squad, but she keeps Patrick on standby. When he protests, she promises to make him a man. Elsewhere in the desert, Setsuna and Tieria go to plan B2 by removing their camouflage and taking out the two Union mobile suits that saw them. Tieria then activates the GN Bazooka’s Burst Mode and fires off a massive blast that completely vaporizes a large group of mobile suits and creates a way for the Dynames and the Kyrios to escape. However, the Exia and the Virtue soon find themselves to be the targets of another missile barrage.

It has now been two hours after this all started, and Sumeragi is worried about the shift to plan E5 that involves a certain mobile suit. She’s thinking about Allelujah in particular, and indeed at this moment, he suddenly gets that painful feeling in his head again. The reason for this is Soma who is rapidly approaching in her Tieren Taozi, accompanied by a Human Reform League force. She ignores the Dynames and goes straight for the Kyrios, and, unfortunately, Lockon can’t help because the other mobile suits are keeping him occupied. Having tackled the Kyrios, the Taozi repeatedly fires at it from point-blank range, but Allelujah then changes into Hallelujah and asks for Soma’s name over the broadcast channel. After hearing what it is, Hallelujah aims the blade hidden in the Kyrios’ claw at the Taozi’s head. Soma avoids it just in time, and at Sergei’s urging, she temporarily backs off to let the other Human Reform League forces to keep the Kyrios suppressed under fire. Without Soma around to fight him, Hallelujah decides to leave things to Allelujah and changes back.

As day becomes night and the battle enters its fifteenth hour, the united forces of the world’s superpowers continue to shell the Gundams. Each of the Gundam pilots is now feeling a significant amount of fatigue and mental strain, and it’s at this point that both Patrick and Graham’s Over-Flags get to join the fight. Patrick’s unit in particular is going after the Virtue, but before they show up, the bombardment on the Exia and the Virtue suddenly stops. Setsuna and Tieria use this opportunity to escape, however them heading in different directions allows Patrick’s unit to attack the Virtue without interference from the Exia. Four specially equipped Hellions then surround the Virtue and encase it in a force field. Soma meanwhile has successfully defeated and captured the Kyrios for the Human Reform League. As for the Over-Flags, they are approaching the Dynames’ position when Joshua suddenly breaks from formation to take on the Gundam by himself. Lockon, however, catches Joshua off-guard and destroys Joshua’s Flag in one shot. This leads to Graham personally using his Flag to tackle the Dynames, and as the dust clears, Graham’s Flag grabs the Dynames’ head to show that he’s in control of the fight.

In the end, the only Gundam that successfully escapes is the Exia, but even that is short-lived because it soon gets attacked by a mobile armor. Setsuna recognizes the custom Enact sitting on top of the mobile armor to be that of Ali Al Sarshes, but he can’t react quickly enough to avoid it knocking him into the ground. Ali Al Sarshes then positions the mobile armor over the Exia and unleashes its plasma field, causing Setsuna great pain. Meanwhile, word of what’s going on reaches Marina, and after Shirin describes how outnumbered the Gundams are, Marina thinks back to how Setsuna had come into her room the previous night. At this moment, in the midst of all the pain the plasma field is causing him, Setsuna recalls his past and wonders if he’s going to die in this warped world without becoming anything. Right as Setsuna remembers the Gundam that saved him back then, several red beams pierce through the mobile armor. Ali Al Sarshes is able to pull his Enact out before the armor explodes, and he and Setsuna both see that a new Gundam has appeared.

Preview:

Other than episode ten, I think this might be the most action-heavy episode so far. It wasn’t short on excitement anyway, with the hundreds of enemy units and the Gundams pretty much all getting defeated (even Patrick seemed competent in this battle). The superpowers’ plan relied on the fact that the Gundam pilots would have gotten exhausted after hours upon hours of being bombarded, and it would have worked too, but the tides turn with the appearance of the new Gundam that saved Setsuna. As the end of the episode showed though, I don’t think being saved by a Gundam a second time is going to do anything to help Setsuna’s psyche after he tried so hard to become like that Gundam.

And if it wasn’t evident before, this episode appears to set in stone the conflict pairings: Lockon vs. Graham, Allelujah vs. Soma, Tieria vs. Patrick, and Setsuna vs. Ali Al Sarshes. Actually, I’m not so sure about the Tieria one, but all the others have gotten some development in previous episodes. What remains to be seen is what role in the overall conflict that the three new Gundams and their pilots will play. For now, they look to be on Celestial Being’s side, and at least one of them uses funnels. I point that out because I’ve always thought of those as being way too overpowered, but you could probably say that about Gundams in general (of course, this episode goes a long way in refuting that notion). Anyway, I look forward to seeing next week’s episode and to hearing what voice Kugimiya Rie uses for her new character (even though it’s probably the same one she uses for Shana, Nagi, Louise, etc).

Summary:

Addressing the Syaoran who appeared in front of her, Yuuko questions why Xing Huo sent him. After Syaoran quotes what Xing Huo had said about putting an end to the dream, Yuuko asks for his wish, so Syaoran asks to be sent to where his right eye is. Since Yuuko has already received payment for him in the form of his relationship, freedom, and time, she grants his request. She warns him first that this is all she can do and that everything ahead is beyond her control, but Syaoran remains determined to get his eye back. Yuuko ends up successfully sending Syaoran away, and afterwards, she remembers how the last thing Clow Reed said to her was the ending-the-dream line. Back in the world of Tokyo, the group has returned from the hunt for the giant worm, and Mokona suddenly detects a feather underground. The others try to stop him because only people who have permission can go down there, but Syaoran begs them. Kamui is meanwhile already underground and finds that the water is glowing, so he dives in and discovers an unconscious Sakura absorbing a feather inside the pod that is sitting in the middle of the water. As she does though, the protective barrier around the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building disappears.

Kamui realizes that the power that was in the water went into the pod and disappeared, but he doesn’t understand why a certain person is still asleep. He looks as if he’s going to attack Sakura, but Syaoran suddenly jumps into the water and gets in Kamui’s way. Feeling that Syaoran is interfering, Kamui attacks him. Kamui refers to Syaoran as bait, and after repeatedly cutting Syaoran, Kamui licks his bloody hand and suggests that someone named Subaru will awaken if he drinks all of Syaoran’s blood. This reminds Syaoran of the vampire twins that Seishirou had told him about, and when Kamui realizes that Syaoran knows Seishirou, he vows to kill them both. After seemingly knocking Syaoran out with another deep cut, Kamui puts his hand into the pod and lets Syaoran’s blood seep into it. Unfortunately for him, Syaoran gets back up and starts striking back with a new ferocity because he wants to get all the feathers and doesn’t want anyone touching Sakura. Kamui recognizes that Syaoran has changed, and the two start fighting again.

By now, the others have grown uneasy about what’s going on inside the water, and Fay decides to dive in. To his shock, when he gets down there, he finds Syaoran grabbing a wounded Kamui. However, Kamui frees himself and heals via the blood in the water. Kamui thinks that Syaoran belongs to Fay or to that hunter, but Fay claims that Syaoran is really a good kid. Across dimensions though, both Yuuko and Fei Wong suddenly sense that the seal on Syaoran’s right eye has been broken. As Fei Wong Reed explains, this Syaoran is a clone created from the real Syaoran who is a descendant of Clow Reed, all for the sake of collecting feathers. However, the real Syaoran had given his right eye to the clone and, in doing so, had copied his heart over. Unable to remove the eye without destroying the clone, Fei Wong Reed had decided to send him to Clow country anyway since the clone’s purpose was still to collect feathers. Everything that had happened after that was according to Fei Wong Reed’s plan, but Yuuko got in his way. As for the real Syaoran, his magic had been halved without his left eye, and so he waited until he could break free of the imprisonment tattoo that Fei Wong Reed had put on him.

Fei Wong Reed’s magic was powerful since he was also a descendant of Clow, and Yuuko couldn’t directly interfere against him, so she was waiting for the real Syaoran to awaken. Now that the seal has broken off the clone’s right eye though, Yuuko knows that the heart that Syaoran gave the clone will return to him. Back in Tokyo, Kamui has figured a lot of this out by himself, including how the clone’s heart was given to him by someone. As the magic from the clone’s right eye starts to disappear, Kamui senses someone coming from another world. Fay knows that it’s the other Syaoran, but he feels that the clone’s heart belongs to the clone because it was created by him, Sakura, and the people who loved him. Not wanting the clone to lose his heart, Fay tries to use his own magic on the seal, but the seal nevertheless shatters. The clone then kicks Fay and decides that he needs Fay’s eyes since they are the source of Fay’s magic. Kurogane meanwhile watches as Sakura suddenly disappears from his arms, and he arrives underground in time to see the water disappear and the clone emerge.

The clone is eating one of Fay’s eyes, but before he can eat the other one, Kurogane stops him. The clone responds by kicking Kurogane, however Kurogane doesn’t give up and throws the clone against a wall. Kurogane senses that this isn’t the Syaoran that he knows, but the clone only cares about getting back the feathers and attacks with his newly acquired magic abilities. Realizing what the clone had done, Kurogane is furious because Fay had changed himself for the sake of Syaoran and Sakura. The clone is unresponsive by this, but what does get his attention is the sudden appearance of the real Syaoran. As the two Syaorans stare each other down, Sakura suddenly wakes up after having dreamed about all of the important people in her life, including Syaoran who was the most precious to her. She watches as half of Syaoran’s heart, in the physical form of a yin yang sphere, flies from the clone to the real Syaoran, and the real Syaoran explains that Fay had tried to return it to the clone. However, once the seal was broken, there was no way to return it to the clone, and Fay had known this, yet he tried anyway.

The real Syaoran had been watching all this time through the clone’s right eye, and he tries to make a plea that it wasn’t his own heart that had considered Sakura the most important – it was the clone’s heart. The clone is unmoved by this though, and he attacks the real Syaoran. Watching the two match each other blow for blow, Kurogane calls for Mokona to spit out a sword, but before it can reach Kurogane, the clones uses his magic to grab it. After taking a blast of fire from the Hien, the real Syaoran reveals that back when he gave up half his heart, he had believed that the clone’s own heart would be born and grow. However, if the clone was still without a heart when the seal broke, the real Syaoran had swore to eliminate him. The real Syaoran then forms his own sword and fires off a massive lightning attack. This sends the clone flying backwards, and the real Syaoran uses the chance to finish him off, but he’s stopped by Sakura yelling for him not to kill Syaoran. The clone, however, takes advantage of the situation and stabs the real Syaoran in the leg.

With the real Syaoran now incapacitated, the clone approaches the pod and cuts it open. He also cuts the cocoon next to Sakura and finds the feather inside. After forcefully returning this to Sakura, the clone vows to get back all the feathers. Since there are no more in this world though, the clone feels that there is no need to remain here, and he is ready to leave for the next world. Sakura tries to stop him, but he shakes off her hand and then disappears through a portal created by Fei Wong Reed. Shortly after Sakura faints, someone emerges from the cocoon and holds her in his arms. This person is Subaru, the other vampire, and he apologizes to Sakura for waking her at the most painful time. Kamui is glad that Subaru is awake and wants to leave this world immediately, but Subaru asks his brother to wait. Kurogane meanwhile approaches the real Syaoran and asks about the crest that’s on his clothes. Without hesitation, the real Syaoran reveals that it’s the crest of the person who murdered Kurogane’s mother.

Once again, I really can’t say enough about how good a job Production I.G did on this. The quality was amazing, the action was amazing – even after having seen how good the first episode was, I continue to be impressed. Admittedly, none of the fights stood out quite like they did in the first episode, but a lot of my reaction has to do with how I can still remember the worst parts of Bee Train’s production. Regardless, I’m not exaggerating when I say that this was exciting to watch. This is a really good part of the story, and I’m glad that it’s getting such good production treatment.

Content-wise, this second episode covered approximately eight and a half chapters of the manga, from chapter 116 to halfway through chapter 124, and nothing major appeared to have been changed or cut out. Syaoran even ate Fay’s eye in all its bloody glory (well, it wasn’t that gory a scene, but that’s probably not something that would have made it into a Saturday evening television broadcast). There’s still a decent amount of material left until the end of the Tokyo arc though, and I’m not entirely confident that they can get through it all in the final episode without having to cut some stuff. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if they decided to include everything and just make the last one extra long. Anyway, I can’t wait to see Sakura finally in action, and the 3rd DVD is due out on March 17th, 2008.

Summary:

After Shin’s Persona annihilated his attacker’s Persona, the man is left sitting dazed and confused at what just happened. He mumbles, “It left,” and starts to cry and laugh. He acts as though whatever was haunting him for so long has finally been lifted off his shoulders. Then all of the sudden, a man and woman arrive at the scene. The woman is ordered to take care of Shin. Shin realizes that he is in even more danger and runs. He does not get too far when the woman and her Persona appear in the sky and start to attack him with their laser spears. Shin’s Persona is awakened once more and counter attacks the female before taking Shin by the collar and retreating into the sky. Meanwhile, the man is on the phone saying that they failed to capture Tasaka Yumi’s Persona because she ran into a cop who has innate abilities. The woman comes back and tells the man that Shin got away and that not only does he have the natural abilities, but he also has a special Persona. The man says that they cannot let Shin get away since he has already seen their faces and that later he would take care of the cop that saved Yumi.

The next morning, Ryo and Jun share an awkwardly silent breakfast. Jun is obviously uncomfortable being with his older brother and volunteers to wake Shin up to eat. Finding Shin sleeping on the bare floor, Jun wakes him up. Jun tells him that it’s time to get up for school and asks him if he had another one of his dreams. Shin elaborately tries to gesture with his hands to describe the events from the night before, but when he finishes his story, he is not even sure if what took place was real or just another nightmare. Ryo then puts on shoes to go to work, and as he gets into his car, he tells Shin that he and Jun should hurry and find another city to live in. He drives off, leaving Shin wondering what the hell his older brother is thinking.

At school, Shin spends the morning apparently asleep until Kayano Megumi wakes him up for lunch. He recognizes her from somewhere and asks if they have met before. Megumi nervously laughs at him and diffuses the situation by asking for his email address. Sakakiba Takuro comes to join in on the conversation before Morimoto Kanaru interrupts and tells Takuro that the two third year students appearing at the doorway were here for him. Megumi suspects that they were going to do “kagenuki” (shadow pulling) and warns Takuro that kagenuki shouldn’t be done anymore because of what happened to the other students.

Meanwhile, one of Ryo’s detectives questions him about the mysterious events that have occurred lately. The detective is obviously distraught seeing that four of his colleagues, who were protecting the people on Ryo’s list, were now in the hospital suffering from “Apathy Syndrome.” Ryo, emotionless as usual, tells the detective that he cannot help him and that there is nothing that the detective can do. The detective, unsatisfied with Ryo’s answer, threatens that if his questions remain unanswered, then he will soon break off and have his own agenda. Things take a turn for the worse when Ryo receives an update on Tasaka Yumi – she has regained her consciousness, but will most likely never fully recover because of the shock from having her Persona physically ripped out of her body.

Later on, Ryo and the coroner drive to see the next set of victims that have had their bodies turned inside out. She asks him whether he had any more information regarding the Toyama submarine incident. She knew that all three crewmembers disappeared from under the water, with absolutely no traces of their whereabouts. This surprises Ryo since only a few people were privy to this information, and tells her that he has no information to give. She mentions how these events reminded her of what happened ten years ago. Ryo agrees as memories of a young girl that looks much like Megumi appears to him.

At school, Shin walks in on Takuro hovering over the pair of third year students, both of whom are now passed out on the floor. The boys are taken to the nurse’s office while Takuro explains to Shin that they were just doing kagenuki. Takuro tells him that it’s the latest fad at school and asks Shin if he wants to do it too. Shin agrees and finds out that kagenuki really means to pull your Persona out from your body. After school, Megumi, Takuro, Shin, and Kanaru decide to get together for a night of fun. As they walk past a group of boys that Megumi apparently knows, it dawns on Shin that he had indeed seen Megumi before – she was at the restaurant arguing with the leader of this group of boys back on the first night Shin was here with Jun.

After a night of singing and dancing, Megumi and Kanaru go to the bathroom where Megumi says that she is sleepy. Megumi looks as though she has been drugged and is barely conscious when Kanaru carries her out of the restroom. The girls are stopped by the group of boys they saw earlier. The boys grab Kanaru and cover her screams of help. Megumi is unconscious at this point, lying on the floor when the boys attempt to violate her.

Preview

~Hello kitties! Before we go into the actual blog, I believe some introductions are necessary. I’m rather new to the blogging scene, so please forgive me if you don’t agree with my opinions or writing style – from the bottom of my frozen heart, I mean it when I say that I care. Now I’ve been a part of the subbing community for about three years. I’ve subbed with various groups and have also founded two. I’ve been fond of anime ever since I saw Ninja Scroll back in the early 90’s, but now I really watch anime for the artistic aspects, i.e. Samurai X OVA. For the one or two people that may recognize me from my group, you should know that I love seinen type anime and hate the cutesy type romance crap. So kitties – you know me now, and I know you – let’s move on. ~

Wow, that was a rather long summary, and the only explanation that I can come up with is that there were only two fight sequences – both lasting less than 30 seconds each, but we’ll get to that later. I was not quite sold on Persona Trinity Soul after I watched episode one and I can’t say that episode two did it for me either. The pace of this show was relatively fast, since there was a lot of information thrown in all at once. Before we go into the meat of my thoughts, here’s a little disclaimer: I haven’t played the game before, and I have no idea what a Persona is.

First, let’s start out with character development. So far – NONE. The previous episode did whet my appetite with Jun’s multiple twin personality complexes. The whole talking in Yuki’s voice made up for the lack of a solid story. Saying that, I was quite disappointed in episode two when Jun appeared for all of 1 minute, and that there was no continuation of his “I must talk like Yuki to continue on” story. What’s the point of throwing a dog a bone that turns out to be a piece of crap? Shin makes some new friends, but again, I just got a superficial introduction of them before they are thrown into some type of danger. I could care less about them right now; I want to know more about Shin and the meaning behind their Persona. I understand that there are only 13 episodes, so the pace has to be quick. That makes character development all the more vital within the first few episodes – wouldn’t you agree?

Second, the animation in episode two wasn’t quite as good as episode one. I guess there wasn’t anything that they could CG. The animation in this episode reminds me of a high volume show like Bleach where cost has to be low, rather than that of a 13 episode, highly anticipated, seinen show. I understand that the director Matsumoto Jun has a lot of pressures to make this a smash hit like his predecessor, Blood+, but with a talented team of heavy hitters such as, Muto Yasuyuki (Basilisk and Bible Black) and Tamura Seiki (Grave of the Fireflies), this is just weak.

Finally, did I miss the fighting sequence? Other than the opening sequence of 30 seconds, I swear I didn’t see any more – how is this allowed? Episode two was very heavy on the dialogue, and I found myself losing concentration about half way through. This episode started out very strong, but lost its luster within 10 minutes of the start. I’m not going to lie, I am a Gonzo fan, having subbed two of their shows, but I am quickly starting to see why Gonzo receives so much heat from the anime community. Having said all of that, all is not lost. I am still left with wondering what happens in the next episode and am still left wondering how the whole idea of a Persona works. Let’s just pray that episode three will have less talk and more fight.

Sanada_kikyo

Note from Omni: Please give a warm welcome to Random Curiosity’s newest blogger, Sanada kikyo. She’s signed on to blog all of Persona and hopefully will be contributing here for many seasons to come. If you’re wondering about the first episode, Patrik already blogged that back when it aired, and Sanada kikyo will be taking over for the rest of the series. Regular blogging of Persona will start with episode three this weekend.

Summary:

Knowing that Tomoya has been working hard on the yard, Nagisa, Kyou, and Ryou bringing him a boxed lunch one morning and wonder if he’s been at it all night. Tomoya claims that he goes home at night, but the girls still want to take a day off from school to help. Since Tomoya disapproves of this, Kyou instead yells into the house, asking if Kotomi is sleeping and eating properly, and she wants Kotomi to have fun with them on her birthday. There’s no indication from inside the house, however, that Kotomi heard her. Regardless, Tomoya continues what he’s been doing, and the girls rejoin him that afternoon. They work until it’s dark outside, and Tomoya intends to carry on through the night to finish the yard, so Nagisa volunteers to join him. Tomoya, however, refuses to let her and cites what her father would do if she got sick. Once he’s alone again, Tomoya takes a break and notices the upstairs curtains moving, making him realize that Kotomi was watching. As he then looks up at the star-filled sky, he thinks about what the old man had told him about the hidden world.

The next morning, Tomoya looks over the completed yard and garden. With nothing else to do, he takes out the book that Kotomi gave him and starts reading. Tomoya soon realizes that the story includes the rabbit/dear/you line that Kotomi had been using previously, so this book must be where she got that from. He has a hard time staying awake though, and he soon falls asleep and starts dreaming of his past with Kotomi. Back then, he had gotten lost and wandered into her yard, and that’s how the two had met. In those days, Kotomi’s mother had urged Kotomi to play outside, and she had meant the outside world beyond their yard, but Kotomi had resisted the idea. When Kotomi’s birthday had come around, Tomoya had offered to bring his friends for the party, but as he later found out, his friends didn’t want to go to the birthday party of some girl they didn’t know. This left Tomoya feeling that he was unable to face Kotomi, and it wasn’t until after the sun set that he decided to go to her house after all.

There, Tomoya had found Kotomi crying inside her father’s study with the flames from burning the envelope starting to spread out of control. Tomoya had tries to douse the fire with glasses of water that he repeatedly brought up from downstairs, but this wasn’t nearly enough. It was not until the old man and his colleagues had arrived that the fire got put out, and since Kotomi was crying over how she had burned the thesis, the old man had told her that this hadn’t been it. According to him, what was burned was actually something for her, but Kotomi kept crying. Tomoya remembers that he didn’t see Kotomi again after that, no matter how many times he went to try to see her. All of his time with her seemed like a dream, and so he eventually forgot it all. Tomoya now wakes up to find Kotomi watching over him, and she admits that she had always been waiting for the boy who she had really liked. He had been her only friend – the “you” that the deer/rabbit/you line was referring to. Hearing all this causes Tomoya to start to cry, and he tells Kotomi that he came to get her and that everyone is waiting. After taking his hand, Kotomi then notices how beautiful the sky is.

The next day – Kotomi’s birthday – Kotomi comes back to school, and Tomoya and the girls are waiting for her at the school’s front gate. Since the violin is still being repaired, they can only give Kotomi a slip of paper promising it as a present, but Kotomi is still very happy. She is then approached by her teacher who explains that her guardian is coming here today with something to give her. Seeing Kotomi looking a little down, Tomoya reassures her that the old man isn’t that bad a guy, and Kyou suggests that they have him come to the drama clubroom so that Kotomi can be more relaxed. To Kotomi’s surprise, the old man ends up bringing with him a suitcase that had belonged to her father. It turns out that this suitcase had arrived at the research laboratory the previous night, and after the old man had confirmed that it belonged to her father, he felt that he had to give it to her today. Kotomi thinks that her parents’ thesis might be inside, but instead, she finds a teddy bear along with an envelope. The front of the envelope had “if you find this suitscase please take it to our daughter” written on it in English, and it was signed “K&M.”

As the old man explains, these initials belong to Kotomi’s parents, Ichinose Koutarou and Ichinose Mizue. He theorizes that the suitcase washed ashore somewhere and was found by someone. That person opened it, noticed the letter, entrusted the suitcase to someone else, and the suitcase had been passed from person to person and from country to country until it finally got here. The old man then brings up how Kotomi still doesn’t know what was inside the envelope that she had burned on that night. It wasn’t the thesis that Kotomi thought it was because there never was a duplicate – her father had continued to make revisions to it until the very end, so he never got the chance to make a copy. Instead, that envelope had contained a stuffed animal catalogue. Even now, the old man remembers how her father had happily talked about how this was the first time his daughter had said she wanted something. As for the actual thesis, he directs Kotomi to read the letter inside the envelope that was in the suitcase. The letter is addressed to Kotomi, and she immediately recognizes that it’s in both her father and mother’s handwriting.

The old man thinks that Kotomi’s parents threw everything inside the suitcase away, including the thesis, and replaced them with the teddy bear and the letter. He knows that they tried to describe the way the world came about as beautifully, as purely, and as concisely as possible, and he’s never encountered words as beautiful as they are in the letter before. It made him realize that her parents were wishing for her happiness even until the very end. Picking up the teddy bear and hugging it now, Kotomi directly addresses her parents, saying that she had waited and had cried alone at home for a long time. But then Tomoya came for her, and so she’s very happy right now. Unable to hold back the tears any longer, Kotomi welcomes her parents home. Tomoya meanwhile thinks to himself about how this suitcase traveled all over the world: from desert towns to islands of ice to steep mountains to green lands and from person to person with care. The letter itself starts with Kotomi’s father talking about how the world is beautiful even when filled with sadness and tears. He wanted her to open her eyes, do what she wants to do, become what she wants to become, look for some friends, and not rush growing up. Kotomi’s mother, on the other hand, had written about how they had found the teddy bear inside a gift shop and how this was the biggest one they had seen, but they didn’t have time to send it to her from the airport. Both of them had wished her a happy birthday.

Sometime later, Tomoya and the girls arrive at Kotomi’s house with the repaired violin, but since they’re going to be holding a party for her with all their friends, they decide to give it to her during a presentation ceremony once everyone has gathered. Kotomi had made a lot of sweets for this, causing Tomoya to wonder if she made too much, however Kyou thinks it’s okay because of how many people are coming. This causes Tomoya to worry that there’ll be too many people, but Kotomi feels that it’s fine because she has a big yard.

Preview:

Well, I don’t see how it’s possible to watch this and not want to cry or get choked up. The first half had some pretty scenes to look at and answered a lot of questions, but it didn’t really conjure any emotions. I was starting to think that there wouldn’t be anything that would do so, but then the old man showed up with the suitcase and the teddy bear, and that entire scene ended up being so incredibly sad. I have to commend Key for writing stories that always seem to be so touching and Kyoto Animation for capturing all of that in the anime adaptation.

The only thing I would have done differently is cut down a little on the foreign languages during the suitcase journey scene – it ended up being more distracting than helpful (partly because of some of those accents). I only bring this up because I went from wanting to cry to trying to figure out the languages and then back to wanting to cry. Maybe it was just me, I thought using just a couple of languages spaced out over that scene would have had done just as well since a lot of the impact was from the images and the music.

Anyway, I still loved the episode and the arc (more than Fuuko’s even). It seemed to go by really quickly though, and I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it was because it didn’t feel like the story was entirely focused on Kotomi until around episode 12. There also was a lot of Ryou and Kyou stuff at the beginning, which made me think that the next arc would be about them, but from the next episode preview, that doesn’t necessarily appear to be true. The preview instead seems to be focused on both Sunohara and Nagisa, and looking ahead, episode 16 appears to be about Sunohara’s sister, so I don’t know what direction we’re going now. That doesn’t matter too much though since I’m confident they’ll do a good job with whoever’s story they tell next.

Summary:

With things at school back to normal, Wilhelmina suggests that Yuuji give Pheles some of his power of existence so that she can at least stand and walk on her own. Alastor agrees that this might be necessary for them to get more information out of her, and Wilhelmina points out that this’ll also let them observe the pulse of power flowing between the Reiji Maigo and Pheles, meaning that they might find out something about the Silver. Margery suggests they do it at Keisaku’s house, however Kazumi doesn’t accompany them after Pheles specifically questions why an ordinary human like her is there.. To Kazumi’s surprise, Shana comes to her house late that night to bring her to Keisaku’s place. Kazumi had been feeling down because she didn’t think that she could be at Shana or Yuuji’s side, but with Shana now outside her window, Kazumi makes up her mind to go to where Yuuji is. Seeing Kazumi’s determination, Shana even encourages her by saying that no one can stop Kazumi if she has that, not even Shana herself. Shana then flies Kazumi to Keisaku’s house, and along the way, Shana announces that she’s going to tell Yuuji that she loves him. Respecting each other as rivals, both girls then declare that they won’t lose.

Yuuji doesn’t understand why Shana brought Kazumi, but he doesn’t get much time to think about it because they soon start the process of transferring his power of existence. Everyone is on edge as Pheles gets close to Yuuji, and though she yearns for Johan, she ends the process by pushing Yuuji away once she gets enough power. As for clues about the Reiji Maigo, Margery was only able to tell that there’s a mysterious unrestricted spell pattern around it. Pheles thinks that it might be Sabrac’s doing, but all Margery can say is that the kaikin has mysteriously changed from the original. After Marchosias calls Yuuji too much of a black box, Kazumi stands up for him by saying that he’s still himself. Kazumi admits to not understanding about the Tomogara or the Flame Haze, but she still has the courage to ask Pheles to walk around the festival with her. Instead of thinking about Pheles as a Tomogara, Kazumi sees her as a woman who’s in love, and she feels that loving someone is the same for both humans and Tomogara. In short, she wants Pheles to see how much she cherishes her time with Yuuji.

The next day, Shana joins Kazumi and Pheles at the festival, and Kazumi starts out by buying them all crepes. She thinks that this is Pheles first time at a school festival, but Pheles reveals that she’s been to festivals before with Johan. Margery meanwhile runs into Eita and Ogata, but Eita is apprehensive when he sees her. As he starts to walk off, Margery tells him that he doesn’t have to rush – he has plenty of time to contemplate the weight of the truth he experienced before deciding anything. She feels that what happened yesterday was a test of sorts for him, and he can now figure out his true feelings. As for Yuuji, he gets stuck on the school’s roof with Wilhelmina watching over him, and seeing everyone having a fun time at the festival makes him feel that his own time has stopped. When Yuuji asks Wilhelmina about Johan, she reveals that he was also originally a human. Johan had been found and raised by Pheles, and she had fallen in love with him. Wilhelmina thinks that Pheles came along today because she identified with what Kazumi said about love being the same for humans and Tomogara.

After a day of having fun with Shana and Kazumi, Pheles recalls how Johan had once commented that it was sad for a festival to come to an end. Pheles had told him that human enjoyment always ends, but she had pledged to give him whatever he wanted. What Johan wanted was to be with her forever, and he had been willing to give up being a human if he could do that. He had suggesting playing a prank on time by making lose its way at midnight, and in doing this, he had become a Mystes. Remembering all of this causes Pheles to start crying back in the present, and she reveals that, like Kazumi, there was a time that was precious to her. As the festival officially draws to a close, the entire group meets up on the school rooftop, and Pheles thanks everyone for what they did for her. Specifically, she thanks Shana and Kazumi for giving her time, but her expression turns dark as she says that it’s because of them that the real her was able to prepare to meet Johan. To everyone’s surprise, Pheles then explodes, and Yuuji gets captured inside a spherical force field.

When the real Pheles appears via a twister, Margery realizes that the Pheles they were talking to was just a marker used to call the real her. Wilhelmina knows the ability that Pheles used, but she doesn’t understand why, so the real Pheles explains that there’s not a more convenient situation for her than this. She had been taking advantage of each of them so that she can get back Johan, and since she can’t touch the Reiji Maigo, she plans to have Johan personally come out. As Pheles approaches him though, Yuuji starts screaming, and to everyone’s surprise, an armored hand suddenly appears from a dark hole on his body and stabs through Pheles’ abdomen. At this exact same moment, elsewhere on the school premises, Konoe and her butler’s bracelets start glowing.

Preview:

So here I thought that this would be a nice and quiet episode with some background on Pheles and Johan along with the conclusion of the school festival. And that’s what it was…until the last two minutes when they threw a curve ball with the appearance of the real Pheles. Two curve balls, in fact, because the armored hand surprised me too. I assume that hand is connected to whatever is causing the silver flame rather than to Johan since the armor was silver. Does this mean though that Yuuji has acquired a new defensive ability, or does it mean that whatever is inside of him is now going to come out? If it’s between one of those, the latter’s much more exciting to consider.

Plus, if you consider that Konoe and her butler are going to get involved (as the end of the episode and the preview hint at), then there’s a ton of stuff that’ll potentially be going on all at once – almost like the crazy battle in the beginning of the first episode. I thought the secret about Konoe might last until the end of the series, but according to the preview, it’ll be revealed next week. All of this leads me to think that, if last week and this week are any indication, the second half of this second series will be a lot more exciting than the first half.

Oh and one more thing: the new OP and ED will both be sung by KOTOKO (songs are called BLAZE and Sociometry), and the new OP will supposedly start on episode 17.

Summary:

Twelve years ago, Prince Rajina was placed in charge of the Girouard Military, but he was promptly killed, much to the delight of Prince Asim. Back in the present, Jin and Gio have to battle several Girouard spacecraft on their way to Mars, and Jin vows to get to Toa no matter what. Garnet wants to send the Agathion force against Gio and Machina, but Asim feels that it isn’t necessary. Back on Earth, Kiril is being grilled about the Ostolm incident and all the problems it caused, and he tries to blame the Girouard military for ignoring their request for help, but the Girouard king himself is present at the meeting. Meanwhile, on Mars, Asim tells Toa about how the ISDA intends to attack Thanatos, and this causes her to panic all over again because she knows that there’s no turning back if that’s done. Toa once again pleads for Asim to let her out because the Earth will be destroyed, but he refuses and notes that the idea of a planet disappearing is intriguing. This causes Toa to wonder why he’s okay with it since the Earth is originally his home, so Asim reveals that he doesn’t think that people dying and the destruction of Earth have anything to do with him.

Asim feels that people only think about themselves, and so they’re nothing more than a bunch of stupid creatures. When Toa points out that Asim is a human too, he differentiates himself by saying that he was chosen to stand on top of mankind. Toa, however, feels that all life is equal and that man thinks about more than just himself because she believes that love exists inside peoples’ hearts. Love for her is wanting to protect someone and being willing to sacrifice yourself for that, and love can create an unimaginably large power. When Asim notes the characteristic of lust, Toa says that she believes it’s all part of humanity. This talk of the power of love makes Asim wonder if Toa is referring to Jin, and he goes on to reveal that Jin’s headed there. Toa is initially in disbelief because she doesn’t think that Jin could know where she is, but a transmission from Garnet to Asim confirms Jin and Gio’s arrival. Recalling what Toa had just said about love creating power, Asim wants to see her prince prove it.

A barrage of missiles meets Gio and Machina after they enter Mars’ atmosphere, however both manage to get through it safely, and they destroy the launch sites. Their next obstacle is a deployment of the Agathions, and although the first two prove to be no problem, a larger group soon ambushes them. Akira tells Jin to leave things out there to her, so he pilots Gio into the dome where the main Girouard building sits. After entering on foot, Jin and Gio are caught in a CSS trap that temporarily takes Gio out, but when the two then get attacked by guards, Gio uses sheer will and physical power to expel the CSS canisters out of him. This gives him back the power to take out the guards, but another wave of them appears, so Gio takes Jin to the next level up and has Jin go on ahead. The path leads Jin to a spiral staircase going up a tower, but along the way, he gets attacked again and is knocked down. Gio ends up having to rescue Jin, and the two blow past another group of guards before reaching the door leading towards the throne room. Before they can open it though, the stairwell crumbles and Jin has to grab Gio to save him.

The two eventually arrive at the throne room, and as Jin runs towards Toa’s holding cell, Garnet attacks. Gio manages to block her sword with his hands, however with Garnet now keeping Gio busy, Asim is free to fire some sort of electrical projectile at a defenseless Jin. This knocks Jin down, but he gets back up, so Asim keeps firing at him and eventually grabs Jin’s leg and pulls him towards the throne. Unable to just stand there not doing anything, Toa’s power starts to flare up, and when she yells for Asim to stop hurting Jin, the glass enclosure around her starts to crack. This distracts Asim long enough for Jin to punch him, and Garnet trying to rush to Asim’s side gives Gio the opening to knock her out too. Jin then approaches Toa, and after the glass between them breaks, he says that he came for her, and she thanks him. Across the room, Asim gets back up and claims to be very interested in the power of love that he’s witnessing, so much so that he starts laughing uncontrollably.

Preview

So what I don’t understand is why Gio didn’t just crash into the throne room or simply stay in Dragon form until they found Toa, thus avoiding all the close combat that left him and Jin vulnerable. Still, it did allow them to show that Jin isn’t as wimpy as before and can even do some of his own fighting (even though Gio technically still saved him more times than the other way around). In the end though, I was just happy to see someone knock that smug look off Asim’s face.

Also, the entire power of love thing seemed rather hokey to me, and I really hope they don’t talk about it anymore. I’m not averse to that being the moral of the story, but openly talking about it just kind of ruins it, especially when we have someone like Asim laughing maniacally about it like we do here. Speaking of which, the beginning of the episode made me wonder about Garnet and how she really feels about him. In other words, does she love Asim like a mother does a son, or does she actually have feelings for him that she hopes he eventually reciprocates? If it’s the latter, doesn’t the fact that she’s known him since he was so young make it weird? The preview has a lot of shots of her fighting Gio, so maybe we’ll find out more about her background next week too.

Summary:

Seeing Ishida struggle in the battle with Cirucci Thunderwitch, Pesche panics because he thinks he went on the same path as the weakest person in Ichigo’s group. As he wonders if he should help, Pesche’s attention is drawn to how he can almost see Cirucci’s panties, and he drifts out of his hiding spot to get a better look. She eventually notices what he’s trying to do and throws her chakram weapon at him, causing Ishida to realize that Pesche is there too. Cirucci thinks that Pesche looks like a termite, but he takes offense and describes himself as a stag beetle despite the fact that he’s white colored. Seeing Pesche argue with Ishida about whiteness, Cirucci decides that Pesche is Ishida’s friend and attacks them both. After Pesche reveals that he’s actually looking for Nel, he pushes Ishida aside and tells Ishida to leave the fight to him. Pesche claims to have a special ability, and when Cirucci throws her weapon again, he demonstrates by shooting a slimy goo from his mouth. Surprisingly, the goo getting stuck on the weapon causes it to bounce harmlessly off of Pesche.

Pesche is quite proud of this, but Ishida has to pull him out of the way when Cirucci attacks again. Pesche then proceeds to spit all over the pillars that Cirucci is using, causing her to slip and fall off of one. Even prouder now, Pesche announces that his ability is called “Infinite Slick,” but an angry Cirucci then releases her zanpaktou and transforms into a creature with giant wings made of vibrating blades. Ishida’s arrows aren’t able to pierce through those wings, and since Pesche insists on fighting alongside him, Ishida comes up with a plan and asks for Pesche to use Infinite Slick again. Unfortunately, unlike the name implies, Pesche discovers that he’s run out of it. When Cirucci strikes again, Ishida has to use his Hirenkyaku ability – the Quincy equivalent to the Shinigami’s shunpo – to quickly take himself and Pesche out of the path of danger. Cirucci follows this up by repeatedly firing her wing blades at them, so Ishida tosses Pesche out of the battle in order to allow himself to concentrate. Realizing that he can’t get in any attacks or chances from any range as long as Cirucci has her bladed wings, Ishida feels that he has no choice but to use a special ability.

Pulling out one of the tall cylindrical objects that he has been wearing around his waist, Ishida is suddenly able to cut right through Cirucci’s blades. The tall cylindrical object has become the hilt of a blade made of spirit particles, and though Ishida had wanted to save this for a little later, he’s willing to fight with it now.

Preview

Is it just me, or have a lot of the Ishida episodes looked sub-par? It’s not the worst of Bleach I’ve ever seen, but the two episodes with Cirucci both have stood out because they’re before and after the very well done Rukia vs. Aaroniero episodes. I know they have several animation teams working on episodes so that they can keep up the weekly rate (unlike normal 13/26-episode series where production gets started early), and looking at the credits, it appears that, unlike last week, a lot of the key animation was done for this week by a group of Korean animators (most likely as a money-saving measure). Oh well, I guess that’s what happens when the good episodes spoil you on higher quality.

In any case, this episode covered two chapters of the manga (256 and 257) with relatively few changes/additions. Ishida finally became a jedi got to use his new abilities, but I’m a little discouraged that it’s against an enemy who isn’t more powerful (like an Espada). Pesche meanwhile is good for comedic value, and the more I hear him, the more I like Koyasu Takehito in this kind of voice role. Next week looks to finish this fight and continue the Sado one, and looking further ahead, it appears that Nnoitra will be appearing again in episode 159.

Summary:

As she travels with Lawrence, Horo brags about her ears and tail, though she ends up finding a flea. The two are then caught in a rainstorm and are forced to take refuge at a church where Lawrence claims that Horo is his wife, and she covers her face under the pretense that it’s been burned. Horo goes up to their room first, and by the time Lawrence arrives, she’s already naked and in the process of wringing her wet clothes. As they both dry off, Lawrence wonders if he should thresh the wheat that he has or leave it as it is, so Horo tells him that it won’t rot as long as she’s alive. However, since she might disappear if it gets eaten or burned, Lawrence decides to thresh the wheat later and put the grain in a pouch for her, and Horo also requests that she be able to wear it hanging around her neck. After she teases him about his smell and his facial hair, the two head to the main hall where they meet a rich husband and wife couple. Lawrence ends up describing the details of his merchant work with the husband, and the man invites Lawrence to visit his home sometime.

Afterwards, Lawrence is approached by a different man who introduces himself as Zeren, and he’s interested in both Lawrence and Horo. He wants to see Horo’s face, but she wisely points out how a woman is most beautiful from behind and that he should be careful about his dreams vanishing. This leaves Zeren speechless, and once he regains his composure, he makes a proposal to Lawrence. A little later, Lawrence returns to his room with some potatoes covered in goat cheese, but before he lets Horo eat, he gives her the pouch of wheat grain. Since Horo can supposedly distinguish between lies and truth, Lawrence asks her about what Zeren had said. Zeren had earlier talked about a rumor of a new silver coin with a higher silver content, and he had a scheme to make money by collecting the current coins and exchanging them for the new ones and other currency. He was willing to teach Lawrence about which coins are which if Lawrence gives him a cut of the eventual profits. Horo confirms that this was a lie, but what bothers Lawrence is that he doesn’t know why Zeren lied – what’s important about a lie isn’t the content of the lie but rather why the lie was told.

When Horo asks what he would decide to do if she weren’t here, Lawrence admits that he’d reserve judgment and act like he accepted the lie. That way, he’d profit if it were true, and if it were false, then there’s someone scheming. If he could get at what’s behind it, then he could still make a profit. This leads to Horo wondering what he’s going to do since she is here and is telling him that it’s a lie. This catches Lawrence a little by surprise, so Horo points out that he hasn’t been one to hesitate since the beginning of when she’s known him. The next morning, Lawrence wakes up to find Horo already out of bed, and he’s shocked to see her talking with the priest. It turns out to be a harmless chat, and Horo later comments on how powerful the church has become compared to when she first came. She notes that at the very least, they hadn’t been preaching that one god created this world, and she feels that the world isn’t something someone could create. Seeing that Horo is a little depressed about the changing times, Lawrence pats her on the head and asks if she’s personally changed. When Horo shakes her head no, Lawrence tells her that her home hasn’t changed either.

Lawrence then talks with Zeren about going forward with the deal, but he stipulates that he won’t pay anything in advance. They agree to meet in the southern town of Pattsio, and after watching Zeren leave the church on foot, Lawrence explains to Horo that time is money. He tries to use the peasants that Horo had been with as an example, however she feels that those people weren’t precise with time but rather with the days and the seasons around them. Citing his lack of age and experience, Horo goes on to challenge if Lawrence knows why wolves attack people in the mountains. Since Lawrence doesn’t know, she tells him that it’s to eat human heads to try to gain their power. When she questions if he’s been attacked by wolves before, Lawrence reveals that he has, and those memories cause him to tell Horo to stop talking about it. She feels bad that he got angry, and Lawrence eventually just asks her never to talk about it again. Nevertheless, Horo reveals that wolves only know how to hunt humans because of how humans are subjects of fear. Hearing Horo mention that wolves wonder how to act when humans come to the forest, Lawrence realizes that she went after humans too, but Horo doesn’t want to talk about it. Later that night, as they’re lying in the wagon trying to sleep, Horo quietly comments on how the two of them have lived in different worlds.

How much do you want to bet that Horo’s going to be naked in every episode…. That aside, I’m seeing more and more why she’s such a popular character. She’s usually very playful and fun, yet she has that vulnerable side of her that occasionally appears. Along those lines, the talk about wolves was probably the most interesting part of the episode, and compared to that, the getting-rich-by-playing-the-silver-coin-exchange-system was much less so. Actually, even that wasn’t so bad because it involved some kind of scheme and a suspicious character – it was the earlier bartering talk that really put me to sleep. I’m not too keen on it right now, but I wonder if the Middle Ages economics aspect will play a bigger part in the story later on. For now, I’d rather see more development about Horo’s or Lawrence’s past, particularly in relation to wolves, however the title for next episode (Ookami to Shousai – Wolf and Business Acumen) seems to imply that it’ll be more about the merchant trading side of things.