Random Curiosity

Episode 07

Summary:

Still inside the train station, Natsu gets attacked by Kageyama, but he’s more than able to hold his own. Erza and Gray stop Natsu from doing any significant damage to his opponent because they think that Kageyama is the key to getting out of the station, however, one of Kageyama’s own allies stabs him to prevent that. The group catches a break when Happy remembers that he has the Virgo key from Duke Everlue to give to Lucy, and Virgo’s ability is to dig underground. This gets the group out of the magical barrier, and Natsu immediately has Happy fly him in the direction of Clover. They run into Erigor along the way, and Natsu finds himself facing a very tough opponent. When he gets knocked down into a canyon, Natsu has to call upon a lesson Macao taught him a long time ago about changing the nature of fire, and he’s able to save himself. Erigor has more tricks up his sleeve though, and he surrounds himself with a wind-based armor.

Episode 08

Summary:

Natsu survives Erigor’s attack, and he inadvertently counters Erigor’s winds by powering up in a huge pillar of fire. He knocks Erigor out with two successive attacks, and afterward, Erza and company arrive. Kageyama is with them, and when he sees the flute lying on the ground, he decides to take it and steal the car so that he can carry out Erigor’s plan. He beats Erza and company to the meeting, but he runs into Makarov outside, and he can’t bring himself to play the flute after hearing Makarov talk about humans being naturally weak and needing to band together to be strong. The flute itself then comes alive though and transforms into a giant creature that’s hungry for souls. By now, Erza, Gray, and Natsu have arrived, and they fight together to bring the creature down, with Natsu dealing the final blow.

Preview

These two episode weren’t bad and were filled with action, but I found it a little on the lacking side. The fight against the flute’s giant form was interesting to the extent that it showcased more of Erza and Gray’s abilities, however I never felt that any of them were in any real danger. Similarly, the Erigor battle was decent, but because of the way they split it up between episodes, the lasting impression of him that I came away with was that he could be take out by two quick attacks from Natsu. The Kageyama fight was even worse, and Kageyama went down so fast that I’m not even sure it counted as a battle. All of this is compounded by the fact that they continue to use a lot of stock footage, particularly when Natsu uses an ability, so it’s hard to call the battles impressive.

Having said all that, I’m still enjoying the series as a whole and think that it has a lot of potential. The plot twists so far have been decent, and I was amused by the reappearance of Virgo. We’re at the point now though where the main characters have all been introduced, so hopefully an overarching story will start to develop soon, if it hasn’t already.

「嘘から始まる妄想劇場（ストーリー）」 (Uso Kara Hajimaru Mousou Gekijou (Sutoorii))
“The Wild Theatrical (Story) that Starts with a Lie”

For a place that angels supposedly come from, the Synapse sure seems like a hellish place. All you have are a bunch steak-eating sadists up there who aren’t the least pleased with how Nymph has awakened the Uranus Queen. It looks like Nymph is damaged in some way now too, or at least that’s what the blinking green light on her collar seems to indicate.

So for the enjoyment of her master and to save herself from being more or less scrapped, Nymph returns to the surface in a second attempt to bring back Ikaros. Meanwhile, everyone’s at a barbecue outing and Ikaros tries to become more human-like by telling lies after overhearing how humans tend to do so. She starts off by telling Sohara that she hates her because she’s not cute, nice yet violent, and strangely skinny in some areas. Mikako though is happy about being told that she’s a “good person”, whereas Tomoki is devastated when Ikaros says she doesn’t want to be with him. Completely dejected, both him and Sohara try to drown their sorrow with alcohol, except it’s cola in their case since they’re underage. Nymph approaches Ikaros shortly after and gets her to pretend things are as usual in exchange for not exposing her secret to everyone. She knows she’s far outclassed combat-wise, so she resorts to tricking Ikaros this way and tries to take Tomoki hostage afterward.

However, Tomoki’s more focused on being a peeping tom and inadvertently makes Nymph believe he’s seen through her cloaking ability. She ends up revealing herself and is happy to hear that Tomoki’s been worried about her. Caught up in his kindness, Nymph ends up helping Tomoki try to earn some money by opening up various shops, since he spotted an erotic DVD he wanted to buy but ran out of money after paying for a toy Ikaros broke. He tries everything from a second-hand shop, an okonomiyaki stand with egg oppai (breasts) menu items, and a Tomoki merchandise shop, to a pantsu shop for perverts but fails to make any money. It’s not until he gets frustrated with all the good-looking guys with girlfriends around does Nymph really help him out. She uses her ability to trick girls into thinking Tomoki is hot, thus leading to the Tomoki Host Club and the “Tomoki Tower” display. While the host club is successful, Nymph quickly gets fed up with having to fetch drinks and cancels the effect, leading to a very vigorous crotch stomping.

Regardless, Tomoki thanks Nymph for helping him earn enough money to buy his erotic DVD. The misunderstanding over Ikaros’ words are also cleared up after she talks to Eishirou about it, much to everyone’s relief. Eishirou also tells Tomoki to give up on the whole “peaceful life is the best” business if he wants to change something. At home later, Ikaros tells Tomoki she’s curious how he feels about her after thinking about her own feelings today. He ends up telling her about how he lost all his friends when he was a kid because of his dangerous adventurous ways, which he was reminded of it when her and Nymph left him. Hearing this, Ikaros kisses Tomoki out of the blue and tells him she wants to be with him forever. Tomoki on the other hand doesn’t know what to make of the kiss and starts scolding her.

Wow a kiss! That was totally unexpected, but it was cute when Tomoki was blowing a gasket right after. As such, I really like the ending song this week, “Hatsukoi” (First Love) by Ikaros and Mikako, which is accompanied by a video log of Ikaros’ memories of Tomoki. All the scenes are straight out of previous episodes, but from Ikaros’ point of view. It’s pretty neat, so I definitely recommend checking out the ending this time around. Other than that, I liked how they started showing Nymph in a better light. This is the sort of character turnaround I was hoping to see in her, now that she knows life with Tomoki is much better than the abusive treatment she gets up in the Synapse. She’s still struggling between what she knows is better and loyalty to her master, which should make things interesting in the upcoming episodes.

Comedy-wise, this episode was pretty amusing right from the get-go with Mikako as the new Pretty (and the best one I might add with a butt like this). I love how she was pleased to be considered a good person when she had her yakuza guarding a prime barbecuing spot for them. That was a straight up lie from Ikaros, which she couldn’t even admit to Mikako at the very end. As for Tomoki and Sohara, it was hilarious watching them try to drown their sorrow with cola, the alcohol for minors. All the stupid shops were pretty funny too, especially Tomoki’s junk from earlier episodes, and I love how they wanted us to completely overlook how he was getting money to set up these shops in the first place. I’m sure he could’ve bought that erotic DVD a hundred times over with all that Tomoki merchandise he made. It’s all about nonsensical comedy after all, including getting a fan up your butt and a bird crapping on your face. I’d say the Tomoki Host Club was pretty funny too, but that Tomoki Tower was pushing some serious boundaries. I still couldn’t help but laugh in awe, but I’m easygoing about this kind of stuff. SoraOto definitely has potential to move into some Golden Boy territory at this rate.

* This episdoe felt somewhat like a finale since they left out the opening sequence in favour of more episode time.

ED9 Sequence

ED9: 「初恋」 (Hatsukoi) by イカロス（早見沙織）, 五月田根美香子（高垣彩陽） (Ikaros (Hayami Saori), Satsukitane Mikako (Takagaki Ayahi))
Watch the 9th ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

Preview

「泣き虫少年の誓い」 (Nakimushi Shounen no Chikai)
“The Crybaby Boy’s Vow”

Having lost his mother at the age of seven, and now the person he’s looked up to for the past five years at the age of twelve, can anyone really blame Lag for crying so much? I think some people have lost grasp of the fact this isn’t your standard shounen affair. Now that he’s been left Gauche’s Nocturne #20 Shindan Custom as a memento, come on people, let the boy cry a little.

Whatever happened to all the delicate and sensitive people in the world anyway? Despite not being an overly rigid individual, Lag perseveres in his own way and constantly moves forward in life. To me, that’s a strength of its own. He has my respect regardless of how many tears he sheds along the way. For once, I’m happy about getting to watch someone who’s had a tough life and not pitying him/herself day in day out. I just love his character development and can’t wait to see how it progresses now that he’s taken Gauche’s sentiment to heart and aspires to become a Head Bee himself. A full-fledged Bee at the age of twelve? That sounds like a prodigy to me.

So as expected from last time, things revolved around memories of Gauche contained in the shindan gun he left behind. Detailing everything from the difficult battles he was faced with, the unappreciative recipients of his dangerous work, his resolve to take on lots of work and get to Akatsuki as quickly as he can for Sylvette’s sake, the existence of an anti-government organization named “Reverse” that targets Bees, and his wish to give his priceless Nocturne #20 Shindan Custom to Lag, it’s not surprising that both Lag and Sylvette couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. It actually gave me a chuckle watching Lag bawling his eyes out and telling Sylvette not to cry. It was funny in the sense that is was a big relief to see them lift that emotional burden off their backs by crying it off. They had a good laugh between themselves right after, so the feeling was evidently mutual.

When Largo instated Lag as a Bee at the end said his dreams must have come true, it was touching to hear him speak up about how he inherited Gauche’s dream as his own. “My dream is to deliver people’s precious feelings and to do that, I’ll become a Head Bee!” He may have stepped out of line a bit in doing so, but it only emphasized how heavily his emotions influence his actions. Next week, Lag is rocking it in his new get-up and is seen off by both Aria and Sylvette. I get the feeling I’m going to see what I’ve been waiting for — an emotional response from Aria about Gauche. Lag has a way of touching people’s hearts, so I’m interested in hearing what Aria thinks about him searching for Gauche and bringing him home.

In other Tegami Bachi-related news, HIMEKA was a guest on Mizuki Nana’s “M World” radio show earlier this month, which you can find part one of the full show here. It was entertaining listening to HIMEKA talk to Nana whom she’s a big fan of, plus discuss a bit about Letter Bee since they’re both involved with the series. For her current song of choice, HIMEKA picked Suga Shikao’s “Hajimari no Hi”, the opening theme to the series, showing how she’s still a huge anime fan at heart and actually watches the show. She was a bit embarrassed to admit that Gauche is her favorite character because he’s cool and mysterious, but I think she would’ve won more brownie points with Nana if she said Sylvette. =) Anyway, I’m pretty impressed by how good HIMEKA’s Japanese is now, but I guess being immersed in the language really does help (especially when your job calls for it). Later in the show, they even had her try to voice act in response to a fan letter scenario. It wasn’t great compared to Nana’s version, but was still a pretty good attempt for a non-native speaker with no seiyuu training. (Thanks to pierce for letting me know about the show.)

Music-wise, both the opening and ending singles came out this past week (09-11-25). The arrangement of the full version of “Hatenaki Michi” is just as awesome as I was expecting it to be, whereas “Hajimari no Hi” we’ve already heard a while back thanks to the PV. You can get a preview of the full version of HIMEKA’s song from the radio show here. Interestingly enough, it seems like Japanese fans are purposely trying to prevent making HIMEKA’s music “available” online in order to promote her career through legitimate sales. Now that’s saying something about how much they want to see her succeed in Japan. I bet a lot of people love the fact that she was an anime fan herself first and foremost, as it definitely does add to her appeal and make you want to support her. As such, I’m almost inclined not to post her PV here and be burned at the stake for it. >_>

Addendum:
HIMEKA has posted a sincere and lengthy apology on her website for the live event in Osaka last week, where she blanked out, forget the lyrics to her song (likely “Hatenaki Michi”), and took off from the stage. While this may be somewhat seen as a failure for a music professional, I bet her fans feel sorry for her more than anything else. She’s obviously not completely fluent yet but trying hard to be, so I’m sure most people will understand and continue to support her. I just hope management isn’t giving her a hard time.

Preview

Summary:

Inside of the fortress, Ed and Al are taken to the infirmary, and Ed is warned about the effects of the extreme cold with regard to his normal automail. This is in contrast to Buccaneer’s automail which was made to endure these conditions. The brothers then meet with Olivier Mira Armstrong and tell her the story behind why they’re there, though they decide to leave out the parts about King Bradley and the Homunculus. Olivier doesn’t really want them around, but she is interested in the applications of alkahestry, so she agrees to help them find May Chang. In the meantime, she puts them to work and leaves them with a subordinate named Miles who, when Ed pries, reveals that he’s got some Ishval blood in him. Despite this, Olivier had kept him around because she felt that this was not the kind of place for discrimination. Miles now assigns the brothers to remove dangerous icicles hanging from the ceiling, and while attempting to do so, the brothers run into Falman who’s got the same job. Afterward, he shows them around, taking them to the technology development area where several tanks are being worked on and also to the fortress’s lowest level. While down there, the three of them witness something emerge from the ground: the Homunculus Sloth.

Ed and Al think at first that the Homunculus is after them, but they soon realize that Sloth doesn’t even know who they are. Sloth instead has been digging underground and now isn’t sure of what to do in this unfamiliar place. With bullets not slowing him down at all, Sloth heads up an elevator to the technology development area, and everyone follows him there. News of the intruder reaches Olivier right as she is getting word that Kimblee is in the area and wants her cooperation. She first tries to stop Sloth with a rocket, and when that fails, she jumps into and commands a tank. Even tanks shells have very little effect though, and Sloth counters by punching debris in their general direction. Ed uses alchemy to protect some of the soldiers from being crushed, and he then tries to tell Olivier that Sloth can’t be killed. She in turn questions what Ed knows about all this, but he refuses to tell her anything specific about the Homunculus. What he does say is that he doesn’t want to see the people there get killed, and he guesses that Sloth has the same body structure and composition as a human. This is all Olivier needs to know to prepare a plan involving tank fuel to stop her opponent.

Preview

The first part of the episode was a little on the slow side. I guess it can’t be helped because they’re basically introducing us to a whole new cast of characters – Miles and Olivier in particular here – who I assume are going to be here to stay for a while now that Mustang’s group is all broken up, though it’s worth mentioning that Falman did show up this episode.

The second part had a lot more action thanks to the appearance of Sloth, and thanks in part to that, it seemed to go by very quickly. I didn’t realize until my second viewing of the episode that it was only about half the length of the first part. Now Sloth isn’t quite as interesting as the other Homunculi, but I guess his attitude and slow manner fit the name quite well – Tachiki Fumihiko is a good choice of voice actor for the character too. Conversely, Olivier was a lot of fun to watch as she went from rocket launcher to tank to whatever she’s planning next. It’s just a shame the episode ended at what appeared to be the climax of the battle when I was most excited to see what happens next. I was also expecting Ed and Al to contribute more and thus help gain her trust, but maybe that’s for the conclusion of the battle next week.

Show Spoiler for Bleach Chapter 383 ▼

Summary:

Since Kiyama Harumi is an expert on matters of the brain, Kuroko and Mikoto try to question her on the Level Upper. Saten and Uiharu join them, and Saten decides not to reveal the Level Upper she discovered after Kuroko mentions what’s been happening to the other users. It continues to bother her though, and she leaves the other girls behind to think about what to do. Mikoto follows her, so Saten tries to play it off as nothing, and in the process she drops a charm that her mother gave her. This leads to her reminiscing about her family and reminds her of the weight of the expectations on her since she’s a Level 0. The next day, Saten is still debating what to do with the Level Upper when she overhears some thugs roughing up a guy who is trying to buy a copy of the Level Upper from them. Against her better judgment, Saten steps in to try to stop them, but she’s powerless against the thugs. Fortunately for her, Kuroko happens to come across them and is able to take out two of the guys with relative ease.

The third thug, however, proves to be a much bigger challenge, and Kuroko finds it surprisingly hard to hit him with any of her teleport attacks. She gets injured in the process and has to flee up an abandoned building while trying to figure out a plan. Kuroko eventually realizes that the guy’s power is to distort the light around him, thereby throwing her off. To counter this, she decides to teleport the nearby window panes into the building’s support columns, cutting them in half. This causes the building to crumble, voiding the thug’s advantage and making him fear for his life. Kuroko saves him though and teleports both of them out at the last second. She then gets him to tell her about the Level Upper, so he reveals that it’s just a piece of music. Saten meanwhile has left the scene, and she’s even more conflicted about what to do with the Level Upper now that Kuroko has shown her what someone with an ability is capable of. By chance, she runs into a group of friends, and when they start talking about the rumor of the Level Upper, Saten reveals that she has a copy.

Preview

Despite the lack of Touma for a second week in a row, I actually really liked this episode. It had a nice balance of humor, action, and character development, and there was some great production quality backing it up (the animation, the piano pieces during the Saten scenes). Actually the Touma scene that should have been here wasn’t as important a scene as the one that wasn’t in last week’s episode, so it’s even less of a big deal, though I do worry about his role moving forward in the series.

But my point is that what was in this episode was quite good. Aside from the fairly intense Kuroko battle (my only complaint about the episode was that the thug surrendered a lot more readily than I thought he would), they’ve also really dialed up the emotional conflict inside of Saten, making her into more than just another side/support character. It makes me start to wonder about the possibilities for her character, and since this is around the point I stopped reading the manga, I’m very curious to see if she actually uses the Level Upper and what her ability turns out to be if she does.

「ガールズ・イン・ザ・ウォーター」 (Gaaruzu in za Uootaa)
“Girls in the Water”

For an episode titled “Girls in the Water”, surprisingly only half of it was devoted to swimsuits and such. As some people have already pointed out, the anime is taking its own spin on things and skipping around the manga a fair bit. This week we start with chapter 14 for the first half and jump all the way back to chapter 8 for the second, but they did a pretty good job from a continuity point of view.

While there were some subtle differences, like the inclusion of Kotone and Akari at the pool and Chizuru’s transition scenes, the rest of the material was right out of the manga. Going back six chapters may seem weird at first, but the fairly self-contained chapters don’t actually make it that difficult. Here, things revolved primarily around Kanako, who was taking care of Junpei after he caught a cold at the pool. The anime adaptation took some liberties and changed how Junpei caught the cold, but I didn’t mind since it allowed the episode to progress logistically while focusing on Kanako. They’ve played up the brash side of her character a lot more than the lovestruck one (the tsuntsun over the deredere), so I was happy to see her finally get some time alone with Junpei.

In fact, she even managed to get his hormone juices flowing while helping him with a lost stray cat, and almost kissed him after he passed out too. However, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Kanako when she stopped herself after recalling how Junpei coldly asked why it had to be her visiting him (and not Kaede). I mean she came all this way to take care of him and cooked him congee. When a girl goes out of her way to do that, he can at least show some appreciation before Nyamsus tells him to and gets him to text message her. I may not have clearly stated so before, but I like Kanako because I have a soft spot for tsunderes in general. Other than that, I felt the anime’s way of smoothly bringing up the friendship doll mentioned back in episode two was a nice touch, as Kanako was looking around Junpei’s room for it. She didn’t end up finding it, but I appreciate how they’re trying to tie everything together in some way. I find it’s not something you see a lot of in heavily comedic-focused series.

As I mentioned above, the Kirishima twins weren’t supposed to be at Haruhiko’s pool “study session”, but I love them so I’m glad they were there. They added a bit of comedic flair without upsetting the story one bit, so there was really no downside to this change. Junpei still managed to help a stray cat get out of the facility and Kanako/Nagi still had some good fighting over breast sizes. The fat cat in the latter half Chatora, who complained about having salt & pepper Matsusaka beef taken away from him and being forced to diet, was also pretty amusing. Junpei ended up snapping about how selfish Chatora was being and not realizing that his owner was doing this out of love for him, which Nyamsus will be quick to remind you is much like Junpei himself. Junpei seemed to understand this a bit at the end, but Kanako is still a far second to Kaede in his eyes. Poor Kanako. =(

The preview has some crazy magical girl thing going on with Kotone and Akari as well as some Pocky-kissing action. Surprisingly though, that’s Akari and not Kotone! *gasp*

Omake

Preview

Summary:

Unaware of the fact that their enemies are on the same train, Hei gets caught by Repnin, and Suou gets captured by Tanya. Repnin is interested in Hei and tries to recruit him, but Hei turns him down. Not giving up, Repnin goes into how there’s been a rumor of some Contractors in the past few years who have committed suicide due to the power of a certain Doll. He wants that Doll because he hates Contractors, and he would be grateful to Hei if Hei killed Ilya Sokolov since Sokolov had previously killed Repnin’s niece. Hei, however, turns the tables on Repnin by indicting him for not being able to do anything himself, and he stabs Repnin in the hand with a knife before escaping. Elsewhere on the train, Tanya questions why Suou didn’t kill her during their previous encounter, and Suou attributes it to how Hei stopped her. When Suou claims that she’s glad that she didn’t shoot though since they’re friends, Tanya points to how friends can hate each other, and she recounts how she once hated Suou for being too close with Nika.

Their conversation is interrupted when the injured Repnin radios Tanya to tell her to stop the train and leave with Suou. Tanya does exactly this, but Hei pursues and is able to buy enough time for Suou to escape her captor. Hei then finishes off Repnin. Suou meanwhile tries to take refuge in an outdoor pool, but Tanya eventually finds her. What gets Suou’s attention is how Tanya seems to be momentarily affected by Suou splashing water onto her, however Tanya refocuses on her task and goes after Suou again with her power. Suou responds by bringing out her rifle, but her memories of Tanya combined with how Hei didn’t want her to shoot anymore cause her to hesitate. Much to Suou’s shock, Tanya gets shot anyway, and when Hei, July, and Mao arrive on the scene, they think that Suou was the one who fired. Hei even tells her that it’s okay for her to shoot in order to defend herself, but all of this confuses Suou, and she decides to go a different way than Hei. July follows her, bringing along Mao, and Hei makes no attempt to stop her. Unbeknownst to Suou, Tanya’s actual killer was Shion who had been sniping from a nearby building.

Preview

This was certainly an interesting episode, one that started a bit slowly but ended with quite a bit bang. I’m not shocked to see both Repnin and Tanya dead (especially since, after she killed Nika, it was highly unlikely that Tanya would survive to the end of the series), but what was a surprise was the fact that Shion was the one who killed Tanya, and he might have the same power as Suou. It’s noteworthy to me that Shion is even keeping tabs on Suou since I had assumed that he and his father were preoccupied with whatever they’re planning, but this could mean that they need Suou alive for that very plan.

On that topic, there’s a lot mentioned this episode that’s probably important as plot development, however at this point things are still pretty confusing with all that stuff on the memory of the future and with what Misaki was listening to at the end of the episode (I only realized it was Hourai after looking at the credits). The episode did seem to confirm though that Yin has the ability to turn Contractor’s powers against themselves, and I imagine she’ll use that power several more times before this is all over. Anyway, I’m getting very curious about how they’re going to tie this all together in the handful of episodes they have left, particularly since next week’s episode appears to bring back the private detectives Kiko and Gai who I don’t remember being particularly important to the plot of the first series.

Somehow I managed to survive this hellish week, so things should be back to normal shortly. Like I said in my earlier post, I won’t be making up all the shows that I missed, but I’ll still do DtB, Railgun, and probably Bleach.

「Hochsommer ～恋の熱帯低気圧～」 (Koi no Nettai Teikiatsu)
“Midsummer ~Tropical Cyclone of Love~”

I always suspected that Kaede was some crazy zoumotsu animal spreading, Kampfer-inducing, psychotic Moderator, but I never would’ve imagined that she’s this two-faced. With a squad of white Kampfer seemingly doing her bidding, Natsuru really needs to rethink his harem choice. Shizuku’s not shy about showing everyone how to steal a third kiss in an unrequited love, so she still has my pick.

What starts off as an overnight theme park date between Natsuru and Akane quickly becomes a party when Shizuku and Mikoto join in as well. Naturally, Akane’s annoyed about them crashing her date and ends up ignoring Natsuru, but he doesn’t mind one bit when he finds out Kaede’s here. At the water park, Natsuru gawks at Kaede’s swimsuit and ignores everyone else’s, frustrating the hell out of Akane and Mikoto. He later admits that only seeing Kaede’s swimsuit fall off would do something for him, but his confidence is quickly shaken when Shizuku shows everyone how close she is to him. This makes Kaede happy since she’d rather have him go out with Shizuku than the female Natsuru, who shows up shortly after at Shizuku’s request. As his female self, Natsuru’s embarrassed about being practically naked in a girl’s swimsuit, but Kaede and Akane love every angle of it. When Kaede asks Natsuru to teach her how to swim, talk about his male self comes up and she relentlessly calls him a dull and dense individual, leaving him completely dejected and on the verge of tears. He somehow recovers only to become an object for Akane and Kaede to fight over.

Seeing this, Shizuku drags him away and sends him on an errand to buy stuff, during which he gets attacked by three white Kampfer who introduce themselves as Minagawa Hitomi (Minagawa Junko), Nakao Sayaka (Nakao Eri), and Yamakawa Ryouka (Yamakawa Kotomi). They know of his true identity and claim this is payback for Rika, but also reveal that he’s an important individual and that they’re acting in accordance to the Moderator’s wishes. Natsuru recognizes them all from earlier but discussion falls short when Akane and Shizuku arrive as backup — the latter of which used Natsuru as bait to draw the white Kampfer out. Not enjoying Akane and Natsuru’s arguing nor looking forward to fighting the prez, Hitomi blinds everyone and retreats with Sayaka and Ryouka. Shizuku then decides to leave the talk about the white Kampfer for later and suggests they return to Mikoto, whom she left to “watch over” Kaede.

At the hotel later, Akane’s not pleased about Natsuru telling Kaede that his female self would be coming back for the fireworks tonight, but is quick to offer herself to him if he so desires. The Messengers than unexpectedly come out of the bath together and Natsuru is forced to wring them out to dry before heading over to Mikoto and co.’s room to hangout for a bit. There, Natsuru was hoping to talk about the white Kampfer but can’t because Kaede’s around, so Shizuku takes it upon herself to stir things up by presenting him with a drink she kissed, showing off the present she got from him, and talking about how she’s kissed him when he was sleeping on her lap AND during the culture festival. However, just to make sure everyone knows what it’s about, she goes ahead and demonstrates. Afterward, Kaede takes Natsuru outside in a hypnotized state and drags him off to the fireworks alone.

First off, kudos to HalfDemonInuyasha for pointing out that the new girls in this episode are the same ones who received zoumotsu animals from Kaede during the beauty contest in episode five . Rika was also clearly among them, but she didn’t have any lines in that episode. The rest were simply listed as “spectators” in the credits, but their seiyuu names made me curious enough to compare them to the white Kampfers’ last week. Lo and behold, each of the seiyuus’ family names matched one of the Kampfers’. I found it a bit peculiar how Ueda Kana plays Ueda Rika, but evidently this is no mere coincidence. I guess this is the casting crew’s idea of a joke or something.

Anyway, I haven’t read the later chapters of the manga nor any of the light novels, so I don’t know whether or not Kaede turning out to be a Moderator is anime original material. They’ve hinted at this possibility several times before, but there was no indication whatsoever that she created Kampfers intentionally. Well now it’s pretty apparent that she has been, which means she’s been aware of Natsuru’s secret all along. I find it kind of hard to believe that Kaede’s been acting like she had no idea all this time, but it did add to the whole shocking revelation here. Like I mentioned above, I never would’ve suspected her to be so evil looking, but this sudden turn of events makes me inclined to believe that this is the anime’s way of reaching some sort of conclusion. (If you know otherwise, please feel free to fill me in.) In any case, they didn’t really explain how Kaede was able to hypnotize Natsuru at the end there, but the preview seems to indicate that Shizuku will become a victim of his entranced state. Kaede on the other hand looks like she’s now the antagonist of the series, which should make all her haters out there happy.

As for Shizuku herself, she continues to impress with her unwavering words and bold actions, which are reminiscent of Senjougahara Hitagi like some people suggested. She’s that sexy, strong, take charge type of girl that doesn’t embarrass easily and (oddly) attracts quite a fan base. The interesting thing is, Shizuku outdoes Hitagi’s way of messing with Koyomi by actually seducing Natsuru every opportunity she gets. I guess that’s why we love her right?

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「自主練」 (Jishuuren)
“Voluntary Practice”

I really hope Ume’s not behind all the rumour shenanigans from before, because I really don’t want to end up hating her. Yes, she’s a Hirano Aya character, so there are some inadvertent apprehensions already. However, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt since she doesn’t seem fake to me just yet.

While much of the Sawako’s class has accepted her as the bearer of good fortune if they can make her laugh, Ume’s dealing with her friends’ disbelief that Kazehaya would be interested in a girl like Sawako. In light of this, Ume elegantly suggests that the possibility isn’t completely out of the question and modestly rules herself out. Meanwhile, Sawako’s struggling to get accustomed to calling other people by their first names without any honorifics. After a bit of friendly peer pressuring by Ayane, she attempts to do so with Kazehaya as well but finds it too difficult to do for guys. When homeroom starts, Pin arbitrarily decides to make Kazehaya the class rep for the upcoming sports festival, in which he only wants the athletic people to participate in. Kazehaya notices that this leaves Sawako out, so he suggests that the class practice a bit during lunch.

Unfortunately, lunch period is much too short for Sawako to get any better, but she’s happy about seeing a playful and sporty side of Kazehaya for the first time. Kazehaya notices that she’s watching him and comments about her braided hair, causing Sawako’s heart to race in a way she’s never experienced before. In her constant attempt to not be a nuisance to others, Sawako decides to practice by herself after school but isn’t allowed to borrow a soccer ball for personal use. From the committee meeting classroom, Kazehaya notices her watering the flowers and kicking around a rock later on, so he brings her a ball afterwards. Speechlessly happy, Sawako practices kicking the ball and hopes it can convey her feelings to him, in lieu of a smile she can’t provide. Back in the classroom, Ume’s quietly watching this from afar.

I find that there’s a fine line between going after a guy subtley and sabotaging all the competition. Assuming that Ume’s wasn’t involved with the earlier stuff, I don’t disapprove of her joining the sports committee because Kazehaya did. She seemed geniunely humble about him not having an interest in her when talking to her friends. The only scene put her true intentions in a somewhat questionable light was when she noticed Kazehaya watching Sawako practice kicking a rock instead of paying attention to her, but even then she didn’t give any signs of being conniving. Whether or not that’s supposed to be the ultimate fake out I don’t know, but if they would go that far to deceive me, I’m willing to go along with it for the time being. For now, Ume gets to stay in my good books. Based on the preview though, it looks like she’s going to try and befriend Sawako, so I’m still a bit wary of any potential ulterior motives.

The other big thing this episode is Sawako experiencing what’s probably her first love. She still doesn’t seem to realize this herself, so it’s pretty cute in a very innocent sort of way. While this week didn’t have any real emotional melodrama, I loved the scene at the end where Sawako kicked the ball to Kazehaya. It led in really nicely to Chara’s “Kataomoi” (Unrequited Love) song, which grows on me more and more thanks to this series. That scene was a very sweet way to wrap up the episode, especially with Ume looking on from above. Hopefully she realizes what they have going and doesn’t try too hard to ruin it!

* I’m not exactly brimming with free time right now, but wanted to cover this series in Omni’s abscene since I like it so much.

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「Ripple」
“Ripple”

Sumika you animal! You made Ushio cry! I wish I could take that thought and run with it for the rest of the post, but both her and Ushio don’t even know why it happened. Those poor girls don’t even realize their love is already there at some subconscious level.

Or at least that’s what they have me believing all the way through. After starting with a cold open of the incident, we’re taken back to earlier in the day when Sumika’s classmates are wondering if Tomoe and Miyako are lesbian lovers. Hearing their names, the two of them return and Tomoe is quick to openly discuss same sex relationships in the classroom. This gets on Azusa’s nerves and she gets kissed by Tomoe for speaking up. While Miyako’s oddly ecstatic about her girlfriend going on the offensive, Azusa slaps Tomoe in response and later convinces herself that it didn’t count as a first kiss.

Overhearing her soliloquy, Sumika realizes that Azusa is a fan of Ushio’s brother’s novels but is unaware that the person behind the “Orino Masaka” pen name is actually a guy. Unable to burst her bubble, Sumika ends up going along with the pretense that she’s a hardcore fan of Masaka as well, which lands her in Azusa’s “I want you” books. However, one stumbling mishap later with Ushio strolling by and we’re back to the opening scene with Ushio inexplicably tearing up. Unfortunately for Sumika, she doesn’t have time to make head or tails of what happened and is dragged off to the classroom to help decide what everyone should call Tomoe after finding out she’s two years older. Needless to say, she’s not happy about this waste of time and barks out “Hacchii” in disdain, so then end up going with that.

After school, the party changes location to Sumika’s place for a Girls’ Club meeting/study session that has Kiyori taking part too. Things don’t progress very well due to the awkwardness between Sumika and Ushio, so Tomoe “accidentally” splashes them with the drinks to give them some alone time together. While washing their clothes, Ushio convinces herself that she teared up because Sumika came off as a violent man forcing himself upon a hapless girl, much to the latter’s dismay. Before they make any reasonable sense of things, Kiyori bursts in and interrupts with her own spill, followed by Azusa shortly after with her Orino Masaki fan club newsletter. Azusa’s unexpected arrival makes Ushio uncomfortable about her brother’s secret potentially getting out, but Tomoe is impressed by her passionate writing and wants her to join the club. She refuses and takes off, but is disappointed that her plans to talk all things Orino Masaki with Sumika didn’t work.

Later in the evening when everyone finally leaves, the awkwardness between Sumika and Ushio has subsided, but they still don’t know the reason behind the tears. Ushio does deliver a copy of Asuza’s fan club newsletter to her brother though, before landing an unintentional blow about his lack in popularity.

Well that was a cute episode, with Asuza getting actively involved like I suspected. She got kissed, gave a slap, and fell for Sumika all in one episode. Now that’s some fast-forwarded character development! While it was fun seeing her get some screentime, I found the whole Sumika/Ushio crying part of the episode more entertaining. This was mainly because Sumika was literally beating herself up over what happened and unable to comprehend why Ushio was crying. I was happy to see that she realized that this might mean that Ushio actually likes her and was hurt to see her with another girl, but our poor Ushio isn’t even aware of this herself. I was hoping Ushio figured this out at the end when she was leaving, but all she did was give a cute and flustered “bye bye” to Sumika. They really had me going there and anticipating something big to happen, as I could just FEEL her subconscious emotions about to surface. Sadly, it ended up being a dud. The setup was perfect, but there was no finish this week. However, this should allow the two of them to grow closer together, seeing as they’re both thinking about about an illicit yuri relationship with one another. Sumika now has hope, whereas Ushio is starting to see her as a potential candidate.

To round out the excellent melodrama, I don’t know what we’d do without Kiyori and Miyako. A lot of their involvement is pretty subtle and unassuming, but they always make me chuckle. This includes Miyako cheering on Tomoe for sticking her tongue down Azusa’s throat, and calling Azusa an idiot while speaking into a fan, along with Kiyori trying to get a troubled Ushio’s attention, crying about what Tomoe probably spilled on her, and enjoying herself admist everyone’s uneasiness. Gotta leave it up to the short little girls to bring the fun!

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It’s funny the things you can inadvertently come across on the Internet when you’re trying to blog an episode of anime and looking for some new PVs at the same time. While this is completely unrelated to anime and has no precedence here, I found the song interesting enough to post about it. It’s titled “Koe wo Kikasete” (Let Me Hear Your Voice) and is the opening theme of the currently airing Japanese drama Ohitori-sama. Now if you’re somewhat unfamiliar with Asian music, the unexpected part is that BIGBANG is actually a five-member boyband from Korea. This isn’t the first time Korean artists have ventured into the Japanese market, nor will it be the last, but I’ve been pretty detached from the non-anime-related music scene for the past while. As it turns out, they’re another one of YG Entertainment‘s money-making creations and a pretty popular one too. For a detailed rundown of the group, I’ll refer you to their wiki page.

What I wanted to point out though is that I found this song surprisingly good for a very odd reason. It doesn’t sound very Japanese at all. Neither does their pronunciation of the lyrics, which sounds a bit off to me at times. In short, it sounds like what it is — a Korean-ized Japanese song. But I’ll be damned, it’s really catchy and I’ve been looping it for the past while. I guess I’m not the only one that thinks so either, seeing as it topped out at #4 on the Oricon charts earlier this month. If you’re negatively swayed by the image of Asian boybands (or boybands in general), I suggest not watching the PV right away, simply clicking play, and letting your ears decide. I unintentionally did the same when I stumbled on the video and walked away for a bit, then heard the song playing from afar and thought, “Hmm, this song’s pretty good.” Anyway, you’ll probably notice that their rappers have pretty good English as well, something I find fairly common with Korean artists given how heavily influenced they are by western hip hop and R&B artists.

That said, I’m kind of tempted to go check out the Ohitori-sama drama now. Based on the synopsis, it sounds like something I’d enjoy too. This might not be a good thing from an anime blogging perspective though. I can feel my Jdrama senses tingling. Once you get caught up in the whole drama phase, it’s hard to get out of it for a while! Hmm, what to do…

「逢魔が時 félhomály öv」 (Ouma ga Toki)
“The Witching Hour”

Crazy episodes are crazy. That’s far from being the best way of describing things, but with Misuzu cutting herself, Kakeru drinking her blood, Kusakabe Misao re-emerging, Shiori revealing her true identity, and what looks like our first casualty of the series, I’m a bit shocked by it all. To top it all off, Yuka continues to creep me out. *shudder*

Surprisingly, this is probably the first episode that didn’t involve the Red Night at all, yet it managed to be the biggest head turner. It was one shocking occurrence after another, with some being slightly predictable and some being completely unforeseen. For the most part, it was a recuperation day for all the characters after the previous extended Red Night, where only Avaritia and Superbia remain. As one of the two remaining Black Knights, Superbia takes it upon herself to take care of things. In the normal world, Kakeru confronts Kukuri about the message saying he awakened the demons and is suspicious of her intentions, but simply begs her to leave Yuka out of it. He leaves without giving her a chance to respond, unaware that Kukuri was trying to find the page that says she has no memories of her past.

Meanwhile, Yukiko is dwelling on the fact that she inadvertently injured Kakeru last time, and explains to Takahisa how she’s happy to have friends again even though she swore to never get attached to others anymore. Her memories of having all her loved ones killed before her led her to a life of solitude, but she tells Takahisa that he’s no longer alone either (i.e. Saiko). Elsewhere, Misuzu is still troubled by the whole Red Night/fragment stuff and has set up a barrier around her home as a safety precaution. The main reason for this is her realization that Superbia is the exiled Kusakabe Misao from 70 years ago, who’s likely stayed alive all this time in the time-distorted Red Night. She tells Kakeru of this and explains how she’s powerless to defeat her, so she gets him to drink her blood to obtain the Kusakabe powers. While Kakeru is able to obtain some of Misuzu’s power this way, Yuka oversees this and misunderstands things, leading her messed up mind to lick Misuzu’s wound later on.

At school, Shiori notices a crow that’s spying on her and takes it out, making her realize she can’t avoid getting dragged into things now. Takahisa on the other hand manages to comfort Yukiko in return for earlier by offering to be the new person that gives her encouragement in life, much like Saiko has for him. Back at Misuzu’s place, Kakeru takes care of the troubled Yuka and checks upstairs after hearing a noise. There, he’s briefly attacked by Shiori, who introduces herself as “Ursula of the Bookshelf” 「書架のウルスラ」 from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum before reiterating that Kakeru’s the one who awakened the demons. Back at school, Takahisa invites Yukiko to a yakiniku feast with Saiko, but finds her tied upside-down and impaled in the nurse’s room along with a waiting Superbia.

First off, I love how they transitioned into the ending theme after Shiroi shocked Kakeru with the whole “awakened the demons” line. That abrupt start to the song had way more impact than the way they usually ease into it. Following that up with what happened to Saiko post-credits made it all even crazier. The sight of her lifeless body strung upside-down made me think that this was some grotesque horror anime. As such, that was undoubtedly the biggest shocker of the episode, but it didn’t take away from some of the other less surprising things I’ve been waiting to see.

After episode five glossed over Kukuri’s introduction, I’ve been patiently waiting to hear how she’s connected to Kakeru’s deceased sister. The most obvious assumption is that she is his actual sister given all the indications (name, appearance, Abraxus chain), but the subject wasn’t brought up again in the last two episodes. Seeing as this has been on my mind ever since the opening scene in episode one, I was a bit disappointed to say the least. Well eight episodes later, they finally throw me a bone with Kukuri’s memory loss, which isn’t much but I’ll take anything at this point.

Other than that, there’s Kusakabe Misao as Superbia and Shiori as Ursula. Neither of these are much of a surprise anymore after how obvious they made it last episode, aside from Shiroi’s real name and organization (which the bible she carries gives away anyway). However, the preview does answer my question on who the girl in the ending sequence is. What I’d like to learn more about now is the connection between Lisette and Liselotte, who’s looking very Suigintou-like with that white hair and black dress.

As for Yuka, people have been saying she’s more dorodere (gentle and loving to disturbed and troubled) than yandere (gentle and loving to psychotic and murderous). That definitely seems to be the case for now, but I still find her creepy when it doesn’t take much for a dorodere to cross that fine line and become a full-fledged yandere. This licking Misuzu’s wounds just because Kakeru did business is pretty messed up in my books!

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