Random Curiosity

Boy, the cover story of Rika sure brings me back to when the crew was just Luffy and Coby. Remember her? The girl that made onigiri for Zoro? They seem to be protected by the marines now, and she, not surprisingly, looks older. Nostalgia tripped for several minutes.

After quite a while, Robin and Franky finally make their appearances, and they’ve been busy. I’m surprised there’s actually a poneglyph on Fishman Island, but when you’ve got something as ancient as the “Sun Tree Eve” being the reason Fishman Island can even exist, it makes sense. Franky’s meetup with Tom-san’s younger brother brought to light that having babies as a fishman/merman is like playing the lottery. Add in one more culture difference to remark on the curiosities of human society. Franky simply smiles in silence.

Fights don’t usually come to mind first when I think of One Piece, but we’ve only been getting skirmishes so far, so it’s hard not to get excited as the combatants take their places. The stage doesn’t seem to be set yet for a full on scale battle, as the reasons for the crew to fight still aren’t clear for them as a whole. I’m pretty sure the following fights will end prematurely, but we’ll get some well needed power level testing. Decken should be reserved for Mansopp, but it seems like Luffy’s going to get a taste first. Will Decken get owned? It’s hard to say. And their date was going so well too.

「あきらめちまえよ」 (Akirame Chimae Yo)
“Just Give Up”

Kent gets no pity. None at all.

Before people start calling the series “Rage ni Todoke,” if not already, the path to recovery for our lead couple is well on its way. Okay, maybe a little stalled due to Kent’s uncanny ability to make any situation worse, but the other characters have been making it quite obvious that our mains have effed up. Ryuu’s direct as usual, but the compounding, “you haven’t said enough Sawako” from various sources finally got through to her. Finally.

A lot of people hate Kurumi, but I don’t see how you can now. She’s shown to have respect for, at the very least, Kazehaya’s feelings, and with Sawako thrown into the picture from last season, she’s accepted hers too. As a rival, I’ve been expecting her to do something at this crucial point, but sabotaging isn’t really her way of winning anymore. Even if she were to confess to Kazehaya again now, neither character is shallow enough to just use each other (at least in this story), and it would actually be too negative for the show’s tone. Honestly, I think Kurumi’s a done deal. Perhaps the episode title, “Give Up” was more alluding to her instead. If she is over though, I’m curious to what her character can still provide to the story.

The episode itself was simply following up the tragedy that was “the different likes,” but I’m still continuously impressed how they manage to juggle comedy and drama constantly between scenes, sometimes in mere seconds. From Pin’s hilariously knowledgeable but idiotic teasing to Ayane’s veiny eyes as she seethes with rage at Kent’s poor control in knowing when to shut up, the laughs almost override the frustration. I get this mixed up “I really shouldn’t be laughing so hard because I’m supposed to be angry at the show,” and then a serious moment starts to occur and my smile drops worse than a kid at a clown convention. Messing with my emotions, man.

The backdrop of the school festival was a nice glue to tie all the events together, and it gave the feeling that the drama wasn’t the ONLY focus (even though it is, but that’s great story-telling!). Also, their classmates are incredibly nice people. Like seriously, other countries should have these kinds of school festivals to promote unity in classes. I had watched this documentary on how children are brought up in their elementary schools in American, Chinese, and Japanese cultures, and it seemed the Japanese focused more on connections between peers rather than the student teacher focus. Japanese children taught each other things, older children took care of younger ones, and when there were issues, the children were told to resolve it themselves. It’s not to say all Japanese high schools have extremely friendly people in every classroom, but it may be more prominent.

Getting back on track, the series seems to always trick you into thinking it’s going to fall into another trope, such as dragging out Sawako’s recent lack of assertiveness. But like Sawako’s fall into depression, shattered before it could even span an additional episode, the next title, “To You,” mirroring the show’s own, seems like things will be changing soon once again.

Preview

It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that Naruto and Bee are still going at it with the former’s training, though at least now we get the impression it took a considerable amount of time to master the chakra balance for the Jinchuuriki Imari whenever they do join the battlefield. It may have only been nine chapters, but with the weekly release schedule (barring breaks), that translates to just over two months since we’ve seen Naruto grace the pages of his manga.

So the fifth and final treasure makes its appearance after all, and happens to be named the Amber Purifying Pot (Kouhaku no Jouhei) 「琥珀の浄瓶」 rather than the Jade Flask. Regardless, we have a container of sorts and one that’s even more overpowered than the gourd with all its prerequisites. I would normally say it was anti-climactic how the pot made short work of Kinkaku with the current generation Ino-Shika-Chou as the key players in doing so; however, I’ve admittedly had my fill of the Kin-Gin brothers and was hoping that the fight against them wouldn’t drag out any longer. It’s odd because I figured there would’ve been more excitement from seeing Kinkaku transform into a mini Nine-Tails and start wrecking havoc, which even had me thinking that Naruto would’ve rushed in to help after sensing a demonic chakra conspicuously similar to his own. Still, kudos to Ino and co. for getting some limelight during the war while representing Konoha. I’m just surprised that her mind transfer technique worked on Kinkaku, whom I thought would’ve been surrounded by so much overwhelming chakra that could’ve easily repelled it.

Anyway, the arrival of Kitsuchi’s division and part of Gaara’s seems to suggest that the beach battle will shift into “clean up” mode. At the moment, I’m just wondering if there will be any focus on Asuma and Hizashi before the story shifts to Gaara and all the Kages he’s stalling. I’m a bit torn between seeing more of the sentimental Konoha-related battles and some crazy Kage-level ones, so hopefully the next chapter will kick off both in parallel before giving more focus on one or the other.

Summary:
After the battle, Mayuri attempts to uses the Tenkaiketchu to transfer Karakura Town back to the world of the living, but his squad members beg him to wait until everything is ready. In the fake Karakura Town, Unohana finishes healing the Vizard, including Hiyori, though she says Hiyori will need the will to live to pull through. In Soul Society, Byakuya, Kenpachi and Yachiru return from Hueco Mundo after defeating Yammy. In Karakura Town, Urahara tells Ichigo that his friends had gone home, and Ichigo states that he will explain everything to them later. However he is a bit reserved about his victory over Aizen and questions whether the Hougyoku really rejected Aizen, and whether Aizen possibly gave up his powers willingly. Because Ichigo reached the same level Aizen was on, he could feel his opponent’s emotions through their swords, and he felt only loneliness. Ichigo theorizes that Aizen may have wanted to just be a regular shinigami.

Rukia, Renji, Chad, Inoue, and Ishida find Ichigo, and Inoue begins crying in relief. When Ichigo tries to comfort her however, he suddenly collapses and begins spazzing. Ten days later, he finally wakes up in Rukia’s home, and Rukia tells him that Urahara had explained his situation. Ichigo had begun to revert to his original self and will soon black out again, losing all his shinigami powers, but he does not regret his decisions.

In Soul Society, the Central 46 sentence Aizen to the Muken prison for 18,800 years, but Aizen mocks them. Elsewhere, the captain commander berates the captains for losing their hayori and becomes irate when they don’t seem to care. In the research center, Matsumoto attempts to visit Hinamori, who is still injured, but is not allowed access. She then visits Histugaya, who is frustrated at not being able to protect Hinamori and is training with his bankai in a cave. She reminisces about Gin and how he left nothing behind for her.

Preview

Impressions:
This episode wraps up the whole arrancar arc, and indeed it actually ends the main storyline of the war against Aizen which has been the main focus since the beginning of the series (remember that Aizen planned it all from the time Ichigo gained his powers). Content-wise I don’t have much to say that I haven’t said before in the manga posts. I can’t say I’m satisfied as even though the fates of most of the characters are cleaned up (none of the good guys died), I think many questions and loose ends are purposely left unanswered so that the series can continue on into infinity. It seems that as soon as Aizen was defeated, every other thing was just abruptly cut off in a very faced paced conclusion. It is a little ironic that the only character I really wanted to live, Gin, was killed off even though he wasn’t completely a bad guy.

The most life changing moment here was Ichigo beginning to lose his shinigami powers, though his sacrifice doesn’t seem all that great if he’s just going to get them back. It’s not so bad living normally for a while though as I think Soul Society can handle any problems as they normally do now that Aizen is gone for the moment. I can’t say I’m looking forward to what’s coming next though.

Ichigo can add “tsundere” to his growing harem (I don’t think he had one before) as Riruka eagerly sneezes on him in order to deactivate her dollhouse power. He may want to think twice before going for a girl who soaks him in snot with such a happy face though. Speaking of girl troubles however, the big revelation was hearing Rukia’s voice momentarily through the shinigami badge. I know people have been disappointed about the lack of Rukia after Ichigo lost his shinigami powers and it looks she’s finally going to be involved again. Rukia can still see Ichigo obviously, and she could also use a gigai, so I’m not sure why she hasn’t visited Ichigo in so long (over a year?); it really shouldn’t have been goodbye at all. As for the snippet of her voice, it is possible it’s just a bit of Ichigo’s experience and memories leaking out from the shinigami badge or possibly the badge is acting as some sort of trasmitter, but Ginjou seems to know more than he’s saying. I still constantly doubt that he has revealed his complete intentions.

As for Inoue’s situation, none of my three hopes from last week were realized. I had gotten excited when Inoue turned around and Shigawara got stabbed through the chest, but was disappointed to find out that that was a fake-out as he had simply been knocked out by her “godly beauty”. I got excited again when Inoue suddenly darkened at hearing that he may have been the one who attacked Ishida, but unfortunately Shigawara’s bishounen boss Tsukishima arrives and the chapter cuts off there. Luckily there’s still a chance next week that she will either get killed or kick some ass herself; she seems to have the will to fight those who hurt her friends.

「おい、お前どこ中だよ?」 (Oi, Omae Doko Chuu Da yo?)
“Hey, What Middle School Do You Go To?”

After I remembered how the producers promised that this show would be full of laughs, battles, shocking revelations, and plot twists, I’m glad to say that they’ve managed to pull through and provide everything they promised and then some. For me, the return to a slice of life styled episode signaled the beginning of the humor I’ve missed for the past two weeks. While I thought the battles were flashy, I think this show shines when it doesn’t try too hard to be too serious. Things like Haruna trying to explain the string theory to Tonkotsu ramen being able vanquish Megalos — I always knew that good tasting ramen had some kind of special powers in it! Plus you can’t forget Ayumu’s constant attempts to avoid direct sunlight. Between hiding underneath trucks or wearing a Masou Shoujo outfit, I’d probably pick the former as well.

Like I said back in episode one, I think that it’s so cool how all the Megalos seem to have their own unique personalities. Besides looking hilarious in school uniforms, it’s always fun to watch how even though they’re pretty strong in their own right they still don’t take things too seriously. A overly excited horse with a big mouth is one thing, but a lecherous Jellyfish that mistakenly tries to feel up Ayumu’s manhood was just too much for me. I can’t even fathom how dirty that jellyfish Megalo felt — I mean accidentally touching “that” is one thing, but going in looking for “not that” and finding “that” was just hilarious.

Enter — Yoshida Yuki aka Tomonori, the final girl who will supposedly complete Ayumu’s harem. At first, I had this strange impression that she was some sort of exorcist. Those markings that ranked how tasty a shops ramen was reminded me of charms that exorcists carry. Combine that with her ability to throw straight up tonkotsu ramen at Megalos to vanquish them, and I hope you can see how I was a little disappointed to see that she was just another vampire ninja. On the other hand, I can’t argue with how cute she is. While she’s obligated to act as Ayumu’s wife after that accidental kiss, it was nice to see someone show their affection for him — Yuu aside since she could possibly end up blowing up the universe by saying the word 好き (suki).

Besides permanently warping my view of Santa Clause and making me question just what he has sitting inside his bag, I’m starting to question just what Dai-sensei is teaching her students. Besides her lack of responsibility (Kyoko), I want to know why a female sensei has semi operational x-ray glasses (I guess more like see through shirt glasses). Better yet, why is she entrusting them to Ayumu?

After a bunch of twists and turns, I’m starting to get a little anxious for the next big boss to appear. Ranging from the other zombie that Yuu obliterated to a battle between different vampire ninja factions, I honestly think either of them would be fun to watch — which makes me want next week to come that much faster!

P.S. I love Matsuoka Yuki. I mean, she’s up there next to Kawasumi Ayako. When I heard her doing Yuu’s voice this week.. ohhhh <3.

Preview

「協力と条件」 (Kyouryoku to Jyouken)
“Cooperation and Conditions”

Watching our dynamic duo start working together was fun, but the biggest draw this week had to be all the character character development combined with well timed fast forwards. To think, that just last week our duo were close to never being a duo again.

While Mashiro and Takagi were able to fix their friendship, I was afraid that our current three person group would never be able to work together. Seeing how Mashiro could easily be considered the third wheel, I wasn’t sure who to sympathize with whenever Mashiro would turn down help from Kaya or snap at Takagi. Combined with Takagi’s superhuman power to drop anything (including Kaya) on a moments notice and a head so dense that it might rival a certain IS driver’s, it felt like a pretty caustic environment to make friends in. Which is why I felt so relieved to finally watch our trio pull together for their most recent project. Watching Mashiro act like a stud and Kaya break down in tears of happiness when Mashiro accepted her help gave me a big smile.

With Kaya actively working together with our dynamic duo, everything seemed to flow a little more smoothly. I don’t know if it was just me, but the jokes this week felt more funny than usual. While I was ready to watch Hattori’s master plan to bring our duo back together backfire right in his face, I wasn’t ready for the ingenious way our duo avoided a girl’s love confession. Their timing to just how serious they were about the whole thing really tickled my funny bone. It never fails to amaze me how well they play off just how strange their relationships are.

With Shady Detective TRAP being accepted as an entry into the Golden Future Cup, I’m super excited to hopefully watch our duo finally come out on top. With no Nizuma to worry about and an invigorated Hattori to assist them, I can’t imagine how things can go wrong from here. While I don’t expect Fukuda to do anything crazy, was that Koogy at the end of the preview? I thought he was a musician, not a mangaka!

* I hope I’m not the only one who felt bad for the lady that was passing out something on the street. Even though she was probably only used as a way to measure how fast time was moving, it must take a lot of dedication to stand out there for months on end!

Preview

「若き猛禽」 (Wakaki Moukin)
“Young Bird of Prey”

Once I heard Dr. Radom mention “Pattern TBS” to Arado and how he “probably” won’t get a chance to use it, I was eagerly waiting for Seolla to come around and execute Wild Wurger and Wild Falken’s Twin Bird Strike combination attack. I’ve brought up my anticipation towards seeing it on at least a couple of episodes, so naturally I was a little psyched about the moment finally arriving. It was as if there was a “Twin Bird Strike” chant going on in my head while Seolla was struggling to regain her memories, which turned into a resounding “YES!” as soon as Arado sent the information to Wild Falken’s console. To me, the trademark attacks in Super Robot Wars is one of the biggest appeals of the franchise, as the sequences in the games become increasingly more animated, so getting to see it in an anime is always a treat.

Unfortunately, the attack wasn’t nearly as flashy as I would’ve liked, since it left out the part where Arado grabs the target with Wild Wurger’s Stag Beetle Crusher and Seolla unloads on it at pointblank range screaming “Shooooot!” However, playing Arado’s theme song “Wild Flug” in the background went a long way to making the finishing blow a lot better. The same goes for the build-up towards Arado’s moment to shine, when he was informed that Wild Falken is among the Neo DC forces and launched from Hiryuu Kai with Wurger’s new weapons to the “Ace Attacker Ver. W” theme. I love it whenever this series plays a character’s theme songs, as it reminds me of when a battle sequence starts in the games. Just take Alpha 3′s variation of Twin Bird Strike as an example. The music tend to get me pretty pumped up about the onslaught that follows suit. See below.

Aside from a quick showing by Bullet and Kusuha in their newly-acquired RyuKoOh and Masaki sending out his cats in Cybuster’s High Familiar for the first time in this sequel, it was all about Arado and Seolla taking it to Anthuz and Thurisuz with some brief help from Lamia and Kyousuke (back in his Gespenst Mk.II Type-S for the time being). Quite honestly, I wouldn’t have had it any other way, since I like Seolla’s spunky character and have been looking forward to seeing her finally come to her senses. The end result with the Twin Bird Strike was part of it, but so was Arado’s kickass moment when he caught Thurisuz with his jaws of death and didn’t hesitate to crush him. With Seolla, three of the kids from The School have been freed from Dr. Setme’s brainwashing. Ouka on the other hand looks like a bit of a lost cause.

Somewhat overshadowed by during the attack on the Earth Cradle was Testuya becoming captain of a Space Noah Class battleship, and taking command of Elzam’s Kurogane while Hagane undergoes repairs. That is, until he put on the captain’s hat and came bursting out from underground using Kurogane’s enormous Titanic Drill. That was a pretty epic display and one I’m not even quite sure how it works, when I take into consideration the size of the drill relative to the rest of the ship. It didn’t matter though, as it led to the awesome setup for a showdown between Wodan and Sanger to settle things once and for all. We had Thrudgelmir and Dygenguar in all their glory, ready to clash gigantic swords. How is that not “win”?

Surprisingly, the preview seems to suggest that the next episode will be more about Rai and Elzam exacting revenge on Archibald. I really hope they kill that bastard this time around. I also see SRX firing its Gaun Genocider so the thought of another combination sequence is pretty sweet.

Note: I prepared 12 full-length images for this post. See images 04, 08, 10, 11, 17, 18, 20, 21, 39, 40, 41, 42. There was also a minor update in the OP, which now shows Excellen with the Rein Weiss Ritter.

Preview

「夏至祭に神託はくだされる」 (Geshi-sai ni Shintaku wa Kudasareru)
“A Divine Revelation is Given at the Summer Solstice Festival”

In a village full of blondies with ponytails coupled with having the production of BONES, it felt weird to keep thinking I was seeing the distant cousins of the Elric family. Other than that, the “preparation” development of the mystery intrigues, but it’s certainly going to be lacking compared to the later acts that are sure to follow. Victorique discovers confirmation that the murderer certainly wasn’t her mother, and resolves to find the culprit. The other visitors begin dying for various reasons to make things feel like “chaos,” and Kujou asks if he’ll still be with Victorique in the future. The man knows his priorities, though I’m not sure what that says about the one who only asked about her height.

Assuming these mysteries go with the stereotype of how they’re told, every new character introduced is viable to be the culprit. So we’ve got the old man Sergius (Hori Katsunosuke) running the village, the young man following him around (Ambrose (Atsushi Abe), or Alphonse’s cousin twice removed.), the spunky nun Mildred (Watanabe Akeno) that must have hid all that crazy hair with some kind of magic, and the unintentionally hilarious psychotic maid Harminia (Kuwashima Houko). You’ve got the one guy left from the pool of visitors, but he’s probably going to die soon, so I don’t see him as the one. Well, Mildred, Ambrose, and Harminia were even younger than Cordelia at the time of the murder, so that pretty much just leaves the village elder. A later clue shows that when the clock strikes an hour, it rings, so the old man could have been lying that he checked his gold watch, as there leaves the possibility that he knew the time accurately because he had been in the room himself. He had killed Theodore over a matter of a bag of gold at 12:00 AM, and Cordelia later came after 12, explaining the different times the witnesses had recalled. Why did he kill Theodore over gold? Perhaps because he felt the old village elder was stupid, and he wanted to make the village rich and move on, since he was the next village elder after all. Not really a cold blooded killer, the elder let Cordelia heal and exiled her to retain the image that she was still the culprit. Perhaps he even feels guilty about the whole thing, seeing how he lets her daughter come back into the village. Though if he is killing the other guys, maybe it’s just because he’s pissed that they’re making fun of his village, since hell, he damn sure killed at least one of them.

It goes in line with the sponsorship the village acquired ten years ago, by the name of Brian Roscoe, a descendant of someone who left the village. Roscoe or his descendant could have been the one that came back and left the picture of Cordelia in her house. Maybe it’s even connected to the Marquis, since the picture was of Cordelia in a cell, so it was after her secret was found out. Perhaps it was someone sent in for investigation, I don’t know. Ten years ago doesn’t help since I have no immediate recall of the time-line and would require a search, but there’s no fun in that. My inner Holmes is too lazy to keep going, as any further would just be speculation upon speculation.

The Gray Wolf mythos is touched upon briefly, but it’s not really related to the murder itself. I think the “wolves” are angry at the village because they exiled their “relative” or something. They keep calling it, “The Village of the Gray Wolves,” but they’re really just nearby the surrounding forest that harbors the Gray Wolves. What that is in relation to Cordelia and her secret power “bloodline,” we’ll just have to find out. I’m getting the vibe of a child raised by wolves here, or Cordelia’s just a wolf spiritually turned into human, but there’s just not enough info right now. I think it’s more uncanny that of all the people in the village to have framed, Sergius was stuck with Cordelia, a not so normal girl that now has her wolves terrorizing the village. Choice or coincidence, who knows?

Useless Grevil appears next week and Mildred takes a liking to him (lol). Harminia seems like she’ll be stirring up the pot, though I’m not sure what her reasons are other than mental damage from a misrepresented murder. Maybe she’s had experience with the Gray Wolves and is actually scared of that instead. I could also be wrong about Sergius, but I would be shocked if that wasn’t it. On another note that wouldn’t fit anywhere, Victorique’s shower singing is terribly funny.

Preview

「夏のおわりに ～Long, long shadow～」 (Natsu no Owari ni ~Long, long shadow~)
“End of Summer ~Long, long shadow~”

As I mentioned last time, I feel really bad for Chiba, but she really too selfish for her own good especially demanding that Ariga vote her to be Romeo so that she could be with Nitori. Driving her friends away (if she even considers them that) and isolating oneself is only going to pull her situation downhill. Ariga, the one I consider the most mature out of their group, tries to help her and also sharply points out that the world doesn’t revolve around her and Nitori. The twisted triangle relationship they have becomes even crazier when Ninomiya, Chiba’s friend from church, shows up and he’s obviously jealous of Nitori given his own feelings for Chiba. He ends up being the catalyst for a messy scene at Chiba’s house when he calls out Nitori for being a cross-dresser in front of everyone. Alone in his bathroom he reveals his disgust for Nitori’s transsexualism… then proceeds to cross-dress himself. Similar people gravitate towards each other it seems.

I think only Sarashina and Shirai were unaware of Nitori’s secret though so the impact wasn’t that big. I love Sarashina’s upbeat “What the hell” I’ll-do-what-I-want attitude (e.g. dressing in a guy’s uniform) and it’s pretty obvious she doesn’t think that much of Nitori’s behavior, aside from being excited about finding a new partner in deviancy. It’s good that she still knows when she has stepped overboard and has no ill intent. Sarashima is definitely growing to be one of my favorite characters among the cast. Nitori doesn’t care that much either about the situation with Ninomiya, but Takatsuki and Chiba seemed to be affected the most, which places them as among the two characters closest to Nitori. Takatsuki understands him especially well and remains a close friend even if she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings for her.

They finally finish up the script around the end of summer break, but the roles are selected by random draw. I was half expecting Nitori and Takatsuki to draw the roles they wanted, but interestingly, Chiba gets the role of Romeo and Ariga gets Juliet. Unfortunately this results in Chiba becoming very depressed and she wants to kill all the characters instead… I swear that girl will grow up to be a psychopath. Ariga on the other hand drew the character that matches him perfectly as a guy who wants to be a girl, although Chiba clearly outclasses him in acting ability. Given the friction between the characters, I’m glad seeing both of them agree to do their best, and it looks the cultural festival and play will be shown in the next episode.

Preview

「描かれたあの日の虹」 (Egakareta Ano Hi no Niji)
“The Rainbow Drawn That Day”

The plot finally opens up in a major way with backstory on both Reiji and Katashiro Ryousuke (Miki Shinichirou), and comes with a love triangle that’s oddly familiar to Takuto, Sugata, and Wako’s situation yet noticeably different at the same time. Also, the suspicion that some people had about Reiji actually being Takuto’s father turned out to be true, as his real name is Tsunashi Tokio. The explanation behind his young appearance and ignorance about Takuto being his son is hinted at briefly at the very end, when Ryousuke mentions that he’s lost his heart in Zero Time. That was undoubtedly the biggest revelation this episode, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

I almost don’t know where to start with how much was divulged this time around. We have Ryousuke whose life was decided for him by his parents from his fiancee Sora (Orikasa Fumiko) to his participation in the secret organization attempting to revive the Cybodies (i.e. Kiraboshi), and Tokio who ambitiously wanted to take part in it but couldn’t because his father Ikurou chose not to pass on his mark to him. The three of their paths cross on Southern Cross Island much like our current protagonists, and Sora ends up falling in love with Tokio because she mistakenly believed Ryousuke didn’t care about her. It seemed straightforward but came with the twist that Ryousuke backed off after using his mark’s ability to presumably see the future, and Tokio’s obsession with receiving a mark from one Makiba Shingo (Asanuma Shintarou) led to him forgetting about Sora and the fact that he had gotten her pregnant. She leaves the island and many years later, Takuto returns in her place, leading us to where we are now.

Incidentally, it doesn’t seem like Ryousuke’s ability could foresee everything, as he took out his own left eye after realizing that Tokio could appreciate Sora’s beauty in ways he couldn’t even fathom. Had he known he would abandon her as soon as he found someone who would give him a mark, I doubt he would’ve given up on Sora so readily. What kind of puzzles me is that after Shingo fell into a coma for a yet to be explained reason, Ryousuke voluntarily gave his mark to Tokio, claiming he has no need for its powers, and goes on to support “Miyabi Reiji” in his pursuit of taking the Cybodies out of Zero Time. The mark is one thing, but the support part I can’t quite grasp the justification behind unless he’s doing it in pursuit of knowledge as a researcher. I would’ve figured he’d feel spiteful towards both Tokio and the Cybodies, seeing as those very two things led to Sora being forgotten. I’m rather curious as to what motivates him now, and if he’s truly just following the path in life his parents decided for him.

All of that served as ample build-up towards Takuto’s eventual face-to-face meeting with Tokio, whom I’d imagine he’d recognize without his mask on from pictures that his mother likely had. However, the story actually progressed on several different fronts with a little tension in Vanishing Age between Head and Camel Star, a.k.a. Ginta Ryou (Kimura Ryouhei), and both Needle Star and Window Star taking the risky plunge to revive their Cybodies. Thus far, Camel Star hasn’t really done anything to stand out, but his first phase ability to take control of animals and spy on everyone makes him the only outside person to know what Reiji’s up to and that Keito is the east maiden. There was also emphasis on other nations nuking the island if they actually manage to get the Cybodies out of Zero Time, out of fear of what they’re capable of.

In short, Camel Star’s been sandbagging the dart board so that his Cybody will be around to withstand any potential nukes, whereas Head’s been stalling for time reaching the next phase so that he can receive Shingo’s mark instead of risking the revival process like the daring female duo. Both revelations are particularly interesting, since they imply that those without a working Cybody when Zero Time is unsealed have no chance of surviving. This episode sort of drove that point home with Needle Star stopping Camel Star from going after Wako, because Window Star’s Cybody wasn’t fully repaired yet. From an overall story standpoint, it works well as a plot device since it implies the destruction of the island when the fifth and final phase is achieved.

Judging from the preview, the new thing will be some Over Phase System that the Science Guild cooked up to artificially reach the next phase. Madoka with her love for thrills looks to be up first, and achieves a state where the Star Driver and Cybody become one just like Head explained back in episode seventeen. We also see more of Sakana, whom I figured would be back at some point. Hopefully we’ll see Mizuno/Marino as well before long.

* Let’s see if we can make it through without any Geass or Lockon Stratos comments. Everyone’s already thought it, so you don’t need to say it. Now that I’ve already brought it up, you will look dumb if you do!

Preview

「みそじもえ?」 (Misoji Moe?)
“Sexy Thirty?”

I doubt the handful of questions I have, like just how the timeline of this series works, will ever be answered by the time the series finishes next week. But I’m sure glad that the second to last episode has been one of the better ones. Finally giving Chiba some redemption in my eyes, I would have never expected his ass would be the most fearsome thing I’ve seen this season. Even compared to a certain zombie’s pantsu shots, Chiba wins hands down in the male-pantsu rating system I just devised. Not only did he trump all the girls by working a female Santa suit really well, but to go and wear the frilliest pantsu ever, he is probably more man then most real men are. But then to follow up and make Sugisaki wear pantsu that just rubbed against his manhood? He’s so smooth and cruel at the same time.

After Hitoha, I think Miyashita is my second favorite character. Something about her try so hard even when she fails attitude gets me every single time. I mean, when she gets so focused on trying to befriend Hitoha to the point where she’ll rip off Chiba’s pants without a second thought, I’m not sure if I was laughing at what she just did or why she’s doing it. All I know is that watching the tallest girl get stuck under Yabecchi’s desk to “examine” his lower body had me close to tears.

When Kaieda showed up I expected her to be the direct opposite of Yabecchi. Watching her mentally prepare herself to be strict and stern, I thought it’d be really interesting to watch how class 6-3 deals with a real teacher. Unfortunately, when she ends up actually being more of a pushover than Yabecchi, I lost all hope. With the rest of the episode feeling pretty tame, I found the impromptu ending sequence a hilarious way to end this second to last episode. Something about watching most of class 6-3 slide and bounce right off of Mitsuba while classical music is playing brought a whole new light to the whole gag.

Preview

I’m a little confused as to what a flange is, and the dictionary didn’t really help aside from telling me it’s some sort of frame. Regardless it has the same swastika shape as his old zapakuto’s hilt guard (as the title points out), although much like a sword hilt, it doesn’t have much of an attack aside from pushing back the opponent. It’s a little difficult to discern exactly what it does, but it does seem to be more of a defensive tool than a four bladed scythe. I don’t think he has gotten back his reiatsu though, as the power seems to be bound to the shinigami badge, which apparently has storied all of Ichigo’s experience and memories. In the end he seems to fire off some black circular reiatsu which “feels like Getsuga Tenshou” and finally brings down the five-eyed Mr. Pork. As a full bring power, I assume his shinigami badge would also be able to pull out other forms and abilities, so that is something to look forward to.

For our weekly cliffhanger, some punk Shigawara shows up with intentions of killing Inoue, just as expected. The timing is right around when Ichigo gets his new powers, but I hope it doesn’t fall into the regular pattern with Inoue as the damsel in distress needing Ichigo to be the white knight. Good alternatives include
1) Inoue kill Shigawara
2) Tatsuki pulls out secret abilities and kills Shigawara
3) Shigawara kills Inoue