Briar’s Review:

More fun with Saeki dealing with her problems by talking to her imaginary friend!

AstralRuby’s Review:

Gintaro’s partner messenger fox, Kinjiro, laments about not being able to help the humans who can’t see or hear him. Kinjiro leaves the temple.

Funabashi, Yumi, and Saeki are eating lunch together. Funabashi show them maps of Shinto City and Edo and where the surviving shrines like Saeki’s are. The shrine started off as an altar surrounded by farms. On the other side of the room, Yumi’s “friends” aren’t happy about her hanging out with Funabashi.

On her way back to the shrine, Saeki finds a turtle at the bottom of the stairs. She tries to show her father the turtle, but he can’t see it. Another imaginary friend! Ginataro wakes up the turtle, who then asks for some water. The turtle used to live in the small shrine at the bottom of the mountains. It was forgotten and the lake and shrine were torn down. He’s now homeless. The turtle is regaining sacred energy at the shrine, but he’ll have to leave soon, because he belongs to a different god other than Inari. Saeki asks her dad if he knows where there are turtle herald shrines. He tells her about an altar. She decides to take the turtle there in the morning. The turtle asks where Gintaro’s partner is. Saeki asks Gintaro if he’s lonely without Kinjiro around.

Saeki drags Gintaro with her on the trip to the altar. Gintaro remarks that the castle is still around. Yumi and her boyfriend are arguing about her cat. It peed on his guitar. She spots Saeki. She and Shouhei go with Saeki to the grand shrine where there’s a flea market and a lot of priests.

Gintaro reminds her that the monsters are over a thousand years old. They’re short and elderly lion dogs, Saimaru and Utamaru. Saeki asks them if the turtle can stay at their altar. They don’t see a problem with that. There’s plenty of room. The altar is nearby the lake. The turtle is happy and recovering. The chief priest at the altar has true sight, but he can’t see the heralds because his predecessor is still alive. They talk about how brief human lives and priestly tenures are compared to their lifetimes. Yumi catches up to Saeki and shows off her cat charm necklace.

On the technical end, this episode is fine, but I find it really boring and predictable. There’s a little world building and Gintaro-tormenting, but it was just so blandly done. However, that’s something I’ll get into in the characters section, since I think the fault lies more there than the frame of the plot.

This episode was rather boring to me. I simply didn’t really enjoy it that much. It was a nice episode, but due to the mellow slice of life feel it has, I need to be in the right mood to enjoy it. Maybe it’s just not my thing, because so far it’s only alright.

This week’s episode revolved around finding a spirit turtle a new home since his stream and shrine were demolished due to urbanization. It all started out when Gintaro, the fox spirit, is talking to another shaggier looking fox, Kinjiro. During their conversation, it was clear that Gintaro is less serious about his roll to the humans.

Then we saw the girls at school. The three are officially friends now and eat lunch together. Funabashi is no longer speaking to her mother since the last episode, but she was happy about that. As the three eat, Yumi’s other friends spoke harshly of her before feeling sorry for themselves. Funabashi then showed the girls a map, stating that some things never change, including tradition. This map was forgotten about quickly and wasn’t the point of the episode like I thought it would be.

On her way home, Makoto stumbled across an unconscious turtle. She took it to the shrine and found that her father couldn’t see it, meaning it’s actually a spirit, a herald. When it woke up, it claims this to be the first time it’s spoken to humans and asks for water. Since his shrine is gone, he was searching for a new home. Makoto’s told a story about seeing turtles explode when hit by cars on the road. Not sure why he thought that was a appropriate. Anyway, the turtle needs a lake or something to make a full recovery.

Around this point, Gintaro mentions that he hasn’t seen his partner spirit, Kinjiro, in a long time, but it feels like yesterday. This threw me off a little because he really did see Kinjiro yesterday, unless that was actually a flashback. This is probably more of a statement of how a long time to humans is a short time to the spirits since they live so long. Two Lion-dog spirits at another shrine they take the turtle claim they can barely remember their many priests because they come and go so quickly.

In order to get Gintaro to agree to carry the turtle to another shrine with her, Makoto said it could be a like a date. What? I don’t know, but it seems kind of weird that she keeps teasing him like that. He can’t really say no to her anyway, so be complied and went with her. On the way, they met up with Yumi and her boyfriend who were arguing again and they tagged along with Makoto to the shrine. At the shrine, Makoto met the two very old Lion-dog spirits. They agree to let the turtle stay. Then they all chat for a bit. Here we learn that only the new priest can see the spirits once the previous one dies. Makoto feels bad for them and Gintaro for having to watch so many of their priests die in what feels like a short amount of time to the spirits.

So that’s all that happens. Makoto and Gintaro headed home and joined up with Yumi again. Makoto called the outing a date again. Was she saying it’s a double date? I’m not really finding this cute, so the joke is getting old fast.

The turtle was dull, but it’s a turtle. The elderly lion dogs were the most interesting characters this episode and they sounded like old men who meet in the park every evening to play chess or go or something like that.

Unfortunately, this episode’s carrier is Saeki, who is as bland as oatmeal. With her school friends and the frenemy thing going on between Funabashi and Yumi, she serves as a nice middle ground and straight girl. That’s fine and good. However, without the rest of the Three Amigas, I’d rather watch paint dry than put up with her. She even makes tough-samurai fox Gintaro boring, for all of his pretenses to attitude. I’d love to see him be a little more tough and imposing around her, but then Saeki would have a real conflict to deal with and actually show some spine and personality to win him over. But no, she’s so boring that it infects the entire setting. I was looking forward to seeing Yumi and her boyfriend get involved in Saeki’s imaginary friend adventures, but they get shuffled off into the flea market as soon as they show up. What was the point of bringing them in? So, I’m hoping that something happens to break up the monotony soon.

I’m also aware that I call our leading lady Saeki and AstralRuby calls her Makoto. I’m really not sure which one to go with, so I just go with the one I see the most in the subtitles.

We saw Kinjiro, the other spirit fox, who used to be Gintaro’s partner, but left a long time ago. He seems more serious than Gintaro. Then we met the Lion-dog spirits that sleep all time and are so old their memories are fading. Their mouths don’t move. We also kind of met, Satoru, the future priest to the Lion-dogs. Since the previous priest is still alive, Satoru can’t see the spirits yet. He’s the in the same school as Makoto, and he’s in the opening so he’s going to be important. So far, I don’t want him to be the love interest to Makoto, but I don’t want them to be rivals either. I would also like to point out that Yumi’s cat doesn’t like her boyfriend, which is not a good sign for them as a couple.

The design for the animal heralds still bothers me. They look a little cheap and basic. What was the dog part of the lion dogs? Maltese? The lighting effects added some depth, but they started to crowd out the scene near the end. Beyond that, I was starting to lose focus on the show and stopped paying attention to details.

I feel like we didn’t get as much of the scenery like we had been getting the last couple episodes. There is a lot more noticeable lack of mouth movements among the spirits. I’m not even sure if I recall any music of this episode.

So far, this show is really mellow. Not a lot is happening and it’s fairly average with great highlights on scenery. Even the ending theme is really mellow and simple. The opening theme is fairly similar in this regard with a slightly catchier tune, though it’s nothing that’ll get stuck in my head. It’s nice, just not really my thing.

Kinda boring, but not offensive.

I don’t know, it’s nice, just… Yawn…

Briar’s Review:

Okay, now what? How many times will the panty shot counter go ding?

AstralRuby’s Review:

Recap! Great, more yuri overtones with Mio training with Noelle. THE FUCK???? Noelle molesting Mio’s boobs! Why are we wasting time with this? Did Mio want her boobs molested? Did she say it was okay to start squishing them like silly putty? Okay, I don’t want to watch this anymore.

Takahiro chases the cat again and catches it. The two girls on the wall talk to him. One accuses him of being a pervert and Robogirl (Lisa) tells him that Mio isn’t ready to joust yet. The loud girl talks about how she doesn’t like it when people joust for fun. Wait, Lisa is the transfer student? Wait, is that even important? Really, what weight will that have in a show oriented on excuses to molest women?

Noelle dresses up as a waitress in the pub that Mio works in. Mirielle is Noelle’s little sister. Noelle is taking over for Mio after Mio falls asleep on the bar. So, will that affect the payroll tax reporting?

We get a nice shot of the houses along the river as Takahiro and Mio go for a walk. Mio talks a bunch of emotional determinator nonsense. She’ll do her best and that she loves jousting. Um, yay? I’ve heard this dialogue all before. I almost started skipping over the subtitling, because the lines were so predictable. Vaaaaapid smile on Mio. Then we get a bathtub scene for Mio. What pervy thing will happen now? Nothing, thank god.

Mio has cut her hair with scissors in her bathroom. Because at her skill level, it would just get int he way. She has decided that she wants to win. So, was she intent on losing before? It’s really just more filler dialogue.

Seriously, what is the tech level of this world? Mio is in the armor and waiting for her turn. Ayako pushes Mio into Takahiro. “Not so nervous now, are you?” Then Bertille walks in. That armor is more embarrassing that the loss of skirt. Ass Counter! Ding! Seriously, butt cheeks open to air. The joust begins and Takahiro lays out the strategy against Bertille, noting that she isn’t as fast as Noelle. Mio dodges the strike and knocks Bertille down to win the first match. Really, Bertille’s outfit is HORRIBLE. Takahiro lays out the strategy for the second round. He tells her to take the hit. Mio doesn’t go down from the hit. Takahiro gives her the strategy for the next round. Mio is a simple creature, isn’t she? Good at following instructions and tracking movement. She gets hit in the arm. Takahiro has a little mental crisis.

Final round: Adjusted strategy. Naked overlay shot of Mio and Takahiro. CG abuse time! Circle that camera! Mio wins the joust. Lisa starts to think that Takahiro isn’t an ordinary pervert.

Ass Counter Ding! Doesn’t Bertille chafe against the saddle with her ass hanging out like that? Mio is very happy to win.

The plot did its thing and did the joust, but spent too much time on molestation and ass shots.

Well, something actually happened in this episode that didn’t revolve around getting Takahiro and Mio into countless awkward situations. The one thing I will give this show is that it is easy to follow. Missed something? No problem, here’s some fan-service! Yeah, no thank you. The story is slowed down quite a bit by the fan-service, even if it’s not showing any actual nudity unlike another show this season that we are reviewing. A pinch of fan-service can be appealing and/or humorous, but that’s not the case here. It’s just too much with the innuendoes left and right.

That being said, this episode started out with an innuendo and a girl fondling Mio’s chest. Yeah, because you know, girls do that… apparently. Then we saw Takahiro pick up that cat from the previous episode and talk to same two girls about Mio. They thought the whole situation was pretty useless. Meanwhile, since Mio has been training for the jousting match so much, she fell asleep at work in the café. When asked about it, she declares she loves to joust, even though she’s only practiced and hasn’t competed yet. I don’t think she’s even been in a mock joust match yet.

Bath scene time. For some reason Mio blushed in the bath. Does this girl blush about everything? To keep things rated, there was a light on the water to cover her crotch. Suddenly she decided to cut her own hair really short. This was not shown until she meets up with Takahiro the next day. Her new hairstyle is actually shorter than Takahiro’s. I was expecting to actually see her transformation, since it’s already spoiled in the opening/closing themes. Not just have her show up with short hair as if anime characters change their appearance all time.

Soon after this, Mio proved once again how clumsy she is when a girl pushed her with one hand and Mio went flying out of her seat and into Takahiro. I don’t even know what the point of this was. Time filler? Is this really part of someone’s fantasy? But wait, it’s time to joust when the challenger appears. Bertille shows up is some weird erotic armor with a thong… a thong. She’s is going to be riding a horse while wearing a thong. I have a difficult enough time getting over the short skirts, but I keep thinking, what about chafing? Doesn’t it hurt? Isn’t your butt and thighs going to get sore really fast? Jousting isn’t about who is faster so it’s not like wearing less means there’s less weight for the horse to carry.

As the joust begins, Takahiro explains his strategy to Mio. It pretty much goes exactly to plan. Bertille was going to go for a automatic win and aim for Mio’s feather, which Mio dodges and closes her eyes as she hits Bertille in the torso, winning the round. As planned, Bertille thinks it was a lucky shot. Also as planned, Bertille wins the next round by hitting Mio in the shoulder. Since apparently Mio can track movement well, Takahiro is counting on that to win the match. Apparently this is a skill that is only useful when the plot needs it to be, otherwise she wouldn’t be so clumsy.

During the last round, they become naked glowing figures and Mio wins with another torso hit. Mio immediately throws herself into Takahiro to hug him and despite her armor, he was uninjured.

Mio is simple, Takahiro is the coach and oblivious object of lust, and why is Bertille upset over the horse ripping off her skirt when she wears even less as her armor? I learned nothing about the characters that encouraged me to care about them. I just spent a lot of time facepalming and hoping that Kill la Kill would improve enough that I could give this show the boot and not see another episode. Yeah, I said it. I would rather see Kill la Kill’s ecchiness and bizarre characters than this steaming load of horse-apples. Mio’s voice annoys the crap out of me, I don’t see a purpose to any of the other characters other than to provide ecchi fuel, and Takahiro can get stampeded by the Disciples of Molestia for all I care. The armor here is baffling in the same vein as Kill la Kill, without having the rest of the over the top bizarre atmosphere to compete with it. What could have been an interesting show about women jousters competing against each other is reduced to perverted buffoonery with shiny, brightly colored graphics. My notes had an ASS COUNTER for fuck’s sake!

This characters are really… stupid, as in dumb unintelligent, do they even have a brain type. Maybe someone in this cast isn’t like that, but the main characters are. There have been shows were I liked everyone but the main few characters and somehow, a show can carry itself like that for a while if written well. These character are not like that as far as I can tell. I’m surprised this show is surviving the knockout, but then I remember how bad other have been.

It’s not just the girls that are stupid. Takahiro, the only male to speak of, is dense as well. He’s a good jouster, or so they say, we need to see him in action still. Just, why is everyone in this show so stupid? Even the other characters think what the main character are doing is stupid. What does that tell you? The girls that said this were the tsundare and the cold monotone girl, who I won’t know her type for sure until I see a little more of her.

So even though Bertille had her friends hold up her skirt in front of her to cover herself for the sake of modesty in front of Mio, suddenly a thong was the perfect choice of attire for the joust with everyone watching. Before, her regular underwear was too much to show, but then a thong revealing her entire rear is okay? That’s some messed up logic for the sake of fan-service.

They are all going to need to redeem themselves fast to gain back some points.

Backgrounds had some nice moments and the animation was fine, but the CG abuse was blatant and unnecessary. In fact, it started to get in the way. And that naked overlay of Takahiro on top of Mio? Really? We had to go there? Why don’t you guys just animate them fucking and get it out of your systems, you sexually frustrated degenerates! I do not find their attempts at innuendo cute, endearing, or humorous. No, it’s clubbed over my head every few minutes. Hurr hurr hurr, look, sex! It’s getting very old, very fast. If I wanted to watch sexual acts, I wouldn’t waste my time on these bludgeoned, half-assed attempts at eroticism and actually go find the real thing.

Despite the fan-service, there was decent animation, but it’s mainly average. The commercial break scene is pretty. It has a detailed helmet on a colored scenery. I have a hunch that Mio’s new short hair was to make animation easier if they are going to be jousting a lot.

This would be such a better story if it didn’t waste so much time on the boob grabs and lingering ass shots. They might be able to develop the character a little further from the simple little creatures they are.

At least it kind of had a plot and got somewhere. It’s difficult to watch.

Briar’s Review:

Finally, a show with adventure action.

AstralRuby’s Review:

Kojou takes an eviscerating strike and explodes. Not really, but the light show didn’t help. The “explosion” is reported to be from a lightning strike. Massive power outages.
50 billion yen in damages. Yukina hasn’t reported the incident because it involved other parties and Kojou saved her. The Lion King Organization isn’t on good terms with the police.

Kojou’s Familiars haven’t accepted him yet, so he doesn’t have control over them. Kojou wonders why Yukina hasn’t elimated him yet. She says that he’s not a bad person. He’s a virgin vampire – Never sucked anyone’s blood. Yaze finds them. Kojou introduces her and then shuffles her off with an excuse.

Asagi says hi. She got a call from Manmade something or other and had to build a computer from scratch. The guys in Kojou’s class are perving over Yukina’s picture. Teacher Loli comes by and pulls Kojou out of class. She wants him to bring Yukina with him. Asagi had a thing for Kojou and is now pissed at him for “going out” with Yukina.

Loli shows them photos of victims of the sixth incident. She warns him that he may attacked next, so no cavorting in the middle of the night. Loli gives Yukina the cat doll she dropped. Homunculus girl is Astarte. When Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants is involved, it’s a magical incident of international scale. Kojou won’t be cleared until they catch CDPP and Astarte. They’re the only ones who know who Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants is.

Yukina shows him a list of churches, but Kojou asks about an embassy. A company with headquarters in Lotharingia. Kojou asks Asagi if she can help find it. Lotharingia doesn’t have anything on the island. Kojou asks about any offices of businesses that have closed. They find one. Sheldt Pharmacuticals laboratory and homunculus production facility.

Yukina tells Kojou to lay low because he is an amateur. He doesn’t like that idea. He doesn’t want her to do all of the work. Oh, how “noble”. Yukina’s blushing all over the place here. Puberty has found her. Yukina’s spear breaks the illusionary lock on the door. A lot of tubes with monsters. Kojou doesn’t like this one bit.

Astarte shows up and warns them to leave before the island sinks. Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants wants to find the cornerstone where two dragon veins intersects. Astarte has a familar planted inside of her so it will obey Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants. Astarte has two weeks to live, unless she consumes demons to prolong her life. Kojou’s fangs pop out and he summons the lightning familiar. Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants orders Astarte to attack. Kojou tries to lightning punch and gets bounced. Resonance – Magic nullification. Astarte has it. It was originally an Lion King Organization specialty.

Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants prepares to deliver the killing blow to Yukina, but Kojou takes the hit and his blood splatters everywhere. Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants cuts off Kojou’s head. Kojou goes down and Yukina screams while still holding his head. Ewww…. But you know that he’ll get better.

Jumping to the summary. The battle from the end of the last episode is wrapped up with the enemy escaping when something exploded when Kojou jumped in all powered up. He couldn’t control it. We quickly jump to the next day when there are reports on the news about a lot of property damage. When questioned by Yukina, his observer from the Lion King organization, he told her that he isn’t accepted as a vampire, because he’s a virgin vampire, meaning he hasn’t sucked anyone’s blood. There is a moment when she thought he meant the normal kind of virgin, but it is quickly cleared up and not dwelled on.

At school, Kojou is approached by a blonde girl that I am sure wants to be his girlfriend. She asks him about schoolwork. Then his male classmates started gushing over a photo of the new middle school transfer. Of course it’s Yukina. They ask him to introduce them to her because his sister is in the same class as Yukina. Kojou didn’t want to. Then the gothic Lolita teacher comes in and outs him for going out with the transfer girl the night before. Everyone gets mad at him and the blonde girl rips up his history report out of jealously. In the teacher’s office, Kojou and Yukina are asked to discuss the real event of the previous night, since the teacher is in on all that. Apparently there’s homunculus girls involved in all that. Therefore, it’s decided that to clear Kojou’s same of any charges, they need to catch the ones responsible. First they need to gather info and then they end up at a warehouse. She told him to stay out if, but of course he’s going in too. Can’t just let her do her job. She blushed when he said he’s going in, but allows him since she is supposed to observe him anyway. As they walk into Final Fantasy 7’s power plants of people in tubes tuning into things, a blue-haired girl by the name of Astarte tells them to leave. The villain appears on a balcony or something behind her. Apparently she’s actually a familiar, which only serve vampires, however, the villain found a way around it to make the familiar(s) serve him instead. Kojou got pissed and powered up, which immediately turns into a fail and his attack is ineffective. When Yukina attacks, it is also a fail, because Astarte put up a magic barrier. Right when the villain was going to kill Yukina himself, Kojou jumped in front of her and we see blood spray. Kojou was beheaded and the villain walked away. Yukina screamed and then it’s a cliff hanger.

Overall, this episode was alright. Just need to learn a little more about what they consider vampires and familiars, because they’re different. Because really, isn’t beheading the one way you can kill a vampire? It’s only the third episode so he’ll be fine. Walk it off. Plot points for this plot twist, I don’t like it, but it’s a twist that got me thinking nonetheless.

Really, what is it with anime and sexualizing middle school girls? Obligatory romance shoved in, obligatory love triangle started, but Kojou is still more intelligent than the usual estrogen bait, so there’s that. Combat Deacon Pretentious Pants spends a lot of time yapping and twirling his proverbial moustache, but there’s really not much else to him than he’s a bad guy. Astarte is the Amazo of the this world?

Kojou Akatsuki wears a hood all the time. I wonder if maybe sunlight really does affect him like it should since he’s a vampire. It could just be a fashion statement or because he’s uncomfortable in public. I’d like to know.

We saw Kojou’s classmates. It was weird that the guys were so into a middle school student. Aren’t they seniors? I know there’s a cultural difference, but still.

Astarte is a mindless super girl. Why does anime always use little girls for this? They always seem to speak the same too, maybe they all have the same few voice actors for this? Points lost for the trope.

Yukina is obviously new to everything. She lost it when Kojou was beheaded. I don’t blame her, but at episode 3, she might not be that attached to the guy and her training should’ve involved seeing blood and watching harm come to others. For being a member of some mysterious organization, I expect a little more from her. Not a lot, but a little. However, at the moment I suspect the Lion King sent her because she’s inexperienced and they’re not really worried about Kojou at all.

Not much new to add here. The buckets of blood made me wonder if Kojou was really an exploding ketchup packet.

No change to the score. I still think it looks pretty good.

This is almost the exact same premise as Beyond the Boundary, but this one spends too much time twirling its moustache.

Why is it called the Lion King Organization anyway? Heh, Disney.

Briar’s Review:

Can I hit Hikari yet?

AstralRuby’s Review:

Picking up where we left off, Akari and her father meet with the weird priest. The kids try to eavesdrop, but can’t hear what’s being said. Afterwards, the kids to back to their old junior high school, where saltflake snow is even in the classroom. It was a really small school. They really were the only kids in their class.

Hikari swears that he will find out everything about the guy Akari is dating. Then he tells the girls that they’re stupid and that this is a guy’s only meeting. And the girls put up with this crap and leave without telling him that he’s an asshole!

Inside of the music room, Manaka finds a red-bellied sea slug and goes on for a while about using them to tell fortunes based on the color of the rocks they spit up. Outside of the room, the boys overhear the conversation the girls are having about boys. Then Hikari barges in and tells them that they are going home.

Back at their house, Akari and their father act like they normally do, but he could hear crying at night. Flashback to Hikari’s mother’s funeral. Akari didn’t cry. Oh noes! Akari is growing up! What will Hikari do? Flashback to Akari getting a job on the surface.

Hikari chases after the Akari’s boyfriend all the way to Tsumugu’s house. Hikari runs up to the boyfriend to punch him, but gets netted by Tsumugu’s grandfather. The grandfather asks the boyfriend if he knew about the unusualness of a seaperson and surface dweller falling in love. A child of sea and land won’t have Ena and won’t live underwater. Akari did not tell her boyfriend that she would be banished if she married him. Hikari assaults the boyfriend for a while. Then Hikari gets knocked out by grandfather.

Tsumugu wants to live underwater. Then Hikari notices that Tsumugu’s grandfather has Ena.

Akari was called by boyfriend, who reported the scuffle to her. We also find out that Akari is going to break up with him. She laments that there are few single men in the village.

The kids meet up with Tsumugu and Hikari is civil for once. The teacher will treat the kids to ramen, but it’s getting late. Tsumugu shows them the pool he built for them. Manaka shows the healed knee and babbles about trying to get cursed again. Tsumugu laughs and Hikari assaults him. They start wrestling in the pool.

Hikari visits the fish market in the evening and waits for the boyfriend. He gets attacked by the little girls again.

So, we spent a lot of time on Hikari’s angsting and general hostility. Yay?

Last episode, Hikari’s sister, Akari got caught having a human boyfriend, so she and their father went to talk to their temple-like-place to speak to the spiritual leader. Hikari and Manaka couldn’t hear what they said from outside. They and their other two friends go to their old junior high to talk. There’s only the four desks, indicating that they are the only ones their age and their class was always just them. This leads me to believe that their community is decreasing, that perhaps many have been banished to the human world when they took on a human partner.

Hikari is frustrated about the whole situation and wants to beat up his sister’s boyfriend. When the girls speak against it, he orders them to leave so he can talk to only Kaname, the other boy, privately. The girls went to another class room and find a sea-slug. Chisaki comes straight out and asks if Manaka likes Tsumugu. I think it’s pretty obvious that she does, at least on some level, but Manaka says she’s unsure, and she’s also worried. She’s probably worried because she knows the consequences of becoming romantic with a human, and she knows Hikari doesn’t approve. Hikari and Kaname were outside the door listening, so they heard Manaka’s confession, however, this is the one time Hikari doesn’t fly off the handle and getting all pissed off, instead he pretends he didn’t hear it and walks in casually.

That night, Akari didn’t talk about what happened at the shrine. Hikari is curious, but doesn’t press. However, he could hear her crying that night. It reminded him of their mother’s funeral. This is where we finally get into Akari’s story a little bit. Since their mom died, she’s filled in all their mom’s roles and Hikari feels guilty about that, since she’s been taking care of him so long. He admits that after everything, he was actually a little relieved to find out she had a boyfriend, because it meant she was living her own life too.

The next day, Hikari chased down the boyfriend’s car to confront him, but when he attacked, a net got dropped on him instead from an old man that probably ran the shop they were in front of. The old man instantly knows that Hikari is from the sea. When Hikari gets out of the net, he settles for yelling at the boyfriend. Since the old man is still there and hears everything, he lectures a little that it’s odd of a human and sea-person to get together, not because of the rivalry and fishing grounds stuff, but because of babies. This flusters the children and then Tsumugu appeared. Tsumugu told them that sea-people are born with Ena, the extra skin like layer that allows them to live underwater, but a child born from a one human parent and one sea-person parent are born without the Ena and thus cannot live underwater. The boyfriend didn’t know about any of this and took some punches from Hikari, but the shop owner knocks out Hikari. Hikari wakes up to Tsumugu keeping him from drying out. It appears that the old man has Ena because of an extra shine on his skin.

In the end, Akari said it wouldn’t have worked out with her boyfriend anyway. I think she at least wanted to try it, she might have known how it would end from the beginning. Hikari got over himself a little and started called Tsumugu by his first name, even though he told Manaka not to, so now that Hikari is okay with it, all four of the sea-children start calling him Tsumugu. When they plan to all go get ramen together, Tsumugu shows them the completed watering pool he made for them so they can refresh and stay on land longer. Manaka reveals that she had been lying about the fish on her knee and shows everyone that it’s been gone for a while. Tsumugu just laughs. I actually forgot all about the fish this episode. After a water fight, they are all on good terms now.

When Hikari chased a car at the end of the day, he was attacked by that little girl that doesn’t like him again and then he saw his dad in the store. All that will be continued in the next episode.

Overall, I thought this was a well balanced episode. There was drama, it explained stuff about the world, got happier, some character growth, and then something starts again. That’s fairly solid to me. Easy to follow, even though I’m still stuck on some of the underwater physics.

Go grandpa! Hikari is still an asshole, but is starting to become civil. Which is a good thing, because I really want to dropkick that little jerk into the next ocean.

Tsumugu’s relation to the sea people isn’t surprising. He also has a really monotone voice.

Now, I have a problem with the girls being so passive and accepting of Hikari being a dick to them. They just let him insult them and boss them around. Hikari being an asshole is bad enough, but this just makes it worse.

Hikari proved to be a little chauvinistic this episode. At first I thought he was just protective of Manaka, because she’s the smallest. This time, he ordered the girls to leave when so the men could talk. This might just be him, but it might also he a culture thing. Hikari is usually angry all the time. Is he just pissed about having to go all the way to the surface everyday? Like it just puts him in a bad mood? It would make sense. However, by the end of this episode, he got over a lot fairly quickly, but I didn’t feel like it was too fast or sudden. We still saw him mull things over as he come to new conclusions.

Tsumugu had his first emotions when he laughed at Manaka when she talked about her knee fish. I still think he’s half sea-person. I wonder if this show will take the jealous route with him at all? I hope not. I do hope he finds a way to visit the underwater town. It seems like he’d appreciate that.

Did Akari’s boyfriend have a name? If he did, I didn’t catch it.

Some nice details on lighting and water, but some of the modeling was a little off. The pans over stills at the end weren’t that impressive, either.

I haven’t talked about the opening video yet. It’s very mellow. It certainly isn’t going to be an action civil war type anime at all and I know this because of the opening. It’s about the children learning of their two worlds and becoming friends.

It’s just…how does Akari use a clothes iron underwater?! This really bothers me.

Kinda boring.

It’s kind of a little mermaid story. Kind of. Each character is crushing on someone else. It’s what I call a “love line” instead of a love triangle.

Briar’s Review:

Please, please improve. Please.

AstralRuby’s Review:

We pick up where we left off the last time and Ryuko confronts Satsuki. However, Ryuko has to retreat before she gets her answer. The suit tells her that she’s about to pass out. Satsuki lets her go.

We see the class president as a little girl, entranced by a beautiful outfit. Her father told her that it would be her wedding dress. It’s name is Junketsu. It opens its eyes. In the current time, Satsuki is pissed that someone beat her to wearing a Kamui, or super skank suit.

Again with the Nazi history lesson in class. Ryouko follows the teacher afterwards and loses him. Mako is loud and has a message on her back from the teacher. In a secret meeting place, the teacher makes a remark about it being bad if knowledge of them being close in any way got out. He undergoes a sudden appearance change.

The Goku uniforms are made of Life Fiber and the star rating indicates percentage contained. Kamui are entirely constructed of it. The teacher was working with her father to thwart the Kiryuin clan. He can’t say that it was Satsuki who killed her father. In any case, the teacher is undercover. They have to be careful that the alliance is not discovered.

Elsewhere in a secret lab, the minions are trying to make a 5-star uniform, but it hulks out the wearer. Satsuki breaks into the secret lab and takes Junketsu. Her mother forbade removing the outfit. The family steward tries to stop her. “It’s time for the lady of the house to get changed,” she tells him. She activates Junketsu with her blood and it attaches to her.

Mako’s entire family must be on meth. I’m sure even the mother is going to go nuts. Ryuko is staying at Mako’s house. The family is a bunch of pervs.

Ryuko arrives to school the next day, where Satsuki approaches her. Wait, we’re getting the boss fight now? Transformation sequence! With a lot of boob flopping. Oh god, the suit is hideous. Senketsu warns that Ryuko’s opponent is more powerful than she is. Bare ass… So much bare ass.

Ryuko gets launched a few times, then defeated. Mako gets in the way with her meth vision. She tells Ryuko to get naked. Even without her suit, Ryuko blocks Satsuki’s attack on Mako. Then she goes through the floppy boob transformation sequence.

She’s now rocket powered! The scissor expands to ridiculous length. Ryuko threatens to crush all of Satsuki’s ambitions. Satsuki warns that beginning tomorrow, all clubs will be after Ryuko’s head. Ryuko is forcing Satsuki and all of the students into a fight.

Well, we get some explanation of things. That’s a plus.

What is with this show? Their clothes suck their blood and can talk. Also less clothes means more powerful… apparently.

Satsuki got her own special uniform. It was a wedding dress presented to her by her father. Is nothing else good enough for her and that’s why she wasn’t wearing a power-uniform before? Ryuko had to talk to her creepy almost-pedo teacher again and he told about life fiber, which makes the suits alive and powerful and stuff. He was suddenly shirtless while he explained this. Ryoko’s father had told him to give the sailor suit to her if he died. When the teacher slinks too closer to her while talking and being creepy, she threatens him with harm.

Meanwhile, a lab on campus makes a super-hulk suit, which they had to use tranquilizer guns and some powerful dude to stop it. I thought the guy that defeated not-hulk was going to be this episode’s boss, but it went another route. When Satsuki went to get her special suit, she had to get passed security, which she did easily and strips down right there to change. Apparently she doesn’t wear underwear either. Just like Ryuko, Satsuki got raped by the new suit, but she overpowered it thought sheet willpower. M’kay…

Ryuko had to stay at Mako’s house again, and even uses some of her extra Pjs. When she changed, she shows that she was wearing underwear. She appears to be the only character in this entire show that does sometimes. Her sailor suit got goose bumps, probably because the other suit was activated. The next day, she and Mako got back to school. I don’t understand why she keeps going back so casually when she knows everyone is going to be out to get her. She always seems so surprised when she first walks in and it’s an instant encounter. Why even make this about a school at that rate?

Instead of a mini-boss, Satsuki is the challenger this time. She activates her suit and turns red and then naked for a giggly transformation sequence. What am I watching? Her chest looked like it was only covered by her hair in most shots and her rears isn’t covered at all in most shots. I think it’s a thong, but you can’t see it the little bit of fabric most of the time. Anyway, battle started and she is way more powerful than Ryuko. When Ryuko’s suit deactivates, Mako jumps in to save her. She does this by telling Ryuko to just get naked because she has a great rack. Turns out this was the solution to Ryuko’s problems with her suit. It was all because she was uncomfortable being so scantily clad in front of the school, and she just needed to be comfortable. Apparently this worked instantly and she’s suddenly okay with being naked and she gets her own awkward transformation sequence. Seriously, what am I watching?

Part two of the battle was evenly matched. It blew away many of the clones, I mean students, from the waves of their attacks. Suddenly, the battle kind of stopped and Ryuko declares that she will crush Satsuki’s ambitions to loosen her lips about the other scissor blade. Satsuki took this challenge and told Ryuko to defeat every student that comes after her, just because.

I don’t know why the battle ended. They don’t seem like the types to give up just because they’re getting tired. They’d want a show down to the death and wouldn’t let up until either one absolutely admitted defeat. Normally, when a main character battles a main boss this soon, they are crushed and it shows where they are in skill and how much they need to improve before they can get to the final boss. This show has really dropped the ball on everything that could have made it good.

The teacher is a pervert, along with most of the adults. Everyone is still very one-note. We do get to see a smidgen more about Satsuki, but time that could have been spent explaining her deal and her clan’s conquest was used for floppy boob transformation sequences. The costumes are hideous and fetishtastic.

I have nothing new to say about the characters. Cliché, annoying, and why does no one wear underwear?

We had an interesting range of music in a single encounter. Did we really need the strange flopping boob effect in the transformation sequences? Mako’s meth vision was still jarring, but I’d rather see that than more bare asses.

The editing got kind of jumpy between scenes this episode. Maybe it was just shorter scenes.

That transformation sequence was just… painful.

The ending theme is surprising mellow for the show’s high energy.

Did it improve? Not by much.

Wasn’t expecting to face Satsuki so soon.

Briar’s Review:

Can we shut up about Galileo, already?

AstralRuby’s Review:

There’s a conference on the worldwide air pirate offensive against methane hydrate mining sites. Only one company is left as the reliable energy provider, Adni Moon. That doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

Sylvia has amnesia, who is alive after all. She will continue to work for the company. Great, so the mother will have to fight her daughters, not knowing who they are. This already feels tedious. Hippie dad is on the run. He smashes his phone after sending one message to his daughters.

Aboard the Precocious Goldfish, Hazuki is investigating Adni Moon. Messier is the dark side of the company. Kinda like the Turks to Shinra, huh? Meanwhile, Anna’s getting brushed off by all of the girls. Yeah, I’m surprised they haven’t shoved her overboard. Anna keeps pissing off the middle sister by praising the work of Hozuki. There’s no food in the fridge. Ammo and missiles aplenty, but no food. The middle sister wants to go home. Anna really needs to stop bringing up the family ancestry. It’s starting to get on MY nerves.

Grande Rosso is the AI. She’s Hozuki’s friend. Middle sister throws soap at the eldest for opening the door to the shower. Where is the Precocious Goldfish going? There’s no change of clothes for the girls, either. Hozuki made walkie talkies so they don’t have to use cellphones that can be tracked. Of course she did. Y’know, if I had that kind of productive capacity over the course of three years…

Kazuki doesn’t want to give up her phone. The picture of the boy on it. She also wants the whole descendant thing dropped. I agree. Galileo this and that is getting tiresome. Kazuki doesn’t feel like a descendant when Hozuki is held up as the standard. Hazuki shows her that even though there is no food, there is a set of dishes for five, the whole family. Five beds.

The Precocious Goldfish is hit by the Aza Iron. Missiles away, but it dodges. The Precocious Goldfish is nabbed by the grapple. Roberto Materazzi, heir to Adni Moon, is the pilot.

The Moon sketch was in Hozuki’s bag. Anna finds it. Kazuki wants to give it to Roberto, but Hazuki stops her. It’s their trump card. Hozuki agrees, but Kazuki yells at Hozuki. Hazuki knows that there will be no “thank you” if they had it over. Kazuki runs off to cry. And break dishes.

Black Ganymede, the red-haired asshole’s ship, shows up and claims dibs on the Precocious Goldfish. He shuts down Aza Iron and the Precocious Goldfish gets away. What is this thing with the paper cranes?

Aboard the Precocious Goldfish, Kazuki is still sulking. We also see that Hozuki has a magic goldfish hourglass necklace. Because of course she does. Anna reveals the hydrate theft plot to Hazuki, that it’s being blamed on air pirates, who aren’t happy about it. Great, more Galileo trivia. And now something about music.

Not much really happens. Obvious villains are obvious.

The rest of this episode was really about life on the airship and the sisters. However, it was a weak episode. They just don’t seem like sisters. Not only do they not look alike, but they haven’t shared anything as far as memories, concerns, or goals.

There was a press meeting about what sounded like the only or main energy provider, which is methane hydrate. The mom has most her personal life memories and doesn’t remember her daughters. The hippy dad hides in an alley to send a text to the daughters.

Apparently there’s living quarters on the airship. It is pointed out that there is five of everything on the ship, since it was meant for their family. But there’s no food or clean laundry. When the oldest sister asked the youngest, the one who made the whole ship where food would be, she acted like she didn’t even know what food was. It was also revealed that there is no auto pilot, instead a goldfish operates the ship… because that makes way more sense… not. I’m still confused about what happened to the ship that she was trying to save in the last episode.

Since their cell phones might give away their location, they are asked to get rid of them and use walkie-talkies the youngest sister made. The middle sister didn’t want to give up her phone though because there’s a picture of a boy on it, not that she said that at all. I had to assume that. She has said to herself a lot that she wants to go home. She also doesn’t like the whole descendent of Galileo thing. It might be because she feels normal while being aware that the youngest sister is a super genius. I agree that having to hear about the descendent thing is getting old.

Soon the enemy attacked. They evaded until pirates got there. The girls have a sketch from Galileo that everyone wants and the girls fight over whether to give it up or not. Since it must be a clue to something else, they decided to peruse the rest of the sketches. While the pirates provided a distraction, the girls got away. They said that Galileo studied music when he was growing up. There’s a little bit of music on the sketch. We can assume that the mission is to find the whole score.

I have to remind myself that these are just airships, not spaceship. The technology seems to be varied. I still don’t know who the older woman that joined the sister is. They don’t mention her name much, if at all. I’m having a hard time getting into this show at all.

Hazuki’s trying to hold the mess together while Kazuki is throwing a fit. Hozuki is still the annoying little savant. Anna is annoying with her Galileo repetition. Also, I don’t think that the little savant is proof of descendant of Galileo. Galileo was mostly focused on astronomy, not engineering. It’s like the writers really wanted Da Vinci, but either forgot or wanted a different name because they didn’t want to be a complete ripoff of “The Da Vinci Code”. Seriously, go look this stuff up. The writer’s certainly didn’t.

This is in response to AstralRuby’s Character Score: Wait, the little savant is 14? I thought she was 10! I thought the middle sister was 14! Please don’t tell me that this is a way to get age factor up high enough to be acceptable for perving. That’s not a good sign.

It showed the ages of the sisters. They are 20, 17, and 14. They don’t really feel or look like sisters. I know that their family is distant, but at that rate, they should at least look slightly similar if they indeed have the same parents.

I feel like there’s a lot missing from the bad guys. The dude that is chaing them keeps making paper cranes. It must be his symbol or something. I still don’t know how to feel about the woman that’s traveling with them. Like why is she even there? However, the pirates might be interesting.

Oldest sister mentions law stuff a lot. It’s getting old. She’s a law student, not a lawyer. I don’t think she was made out to be a great law student either. It appeared she was lazy and drunk a lot. It could be that she is a genius too, but about law, but with all they’ve said about the youngest sister, they wouldn’t said that about the older sister if it was the case.

Middle sister pointed out that the engine smells like oil, thanks for pointing out the obvious. There’s also a picture of a boy on her phone, I’m assume it’s either her crush or boyfriend and that he’s the sole reason she really wants to go home. She even nearly threw a tantrum on the ship about wanting to leave.

The animations were still good and nothing about the visuals or sound was really jarring. Not much else to say. I was too busy raging over the Galileo abuse and the annoying little savant to pay close attention.

The opening video is boring. Enough said.

I noticed that on the airship, the computer’s mouse had a wire. What time period was this again? It seems kind of weird that with everything else they have, that there’s still any wired computer mice.

There’s some good fluid ship motions, but ship doesn’t shake much on the inside. I think this is another oversight.

The Japanese letters inside ship to mark beds are there because the youngest sister decided to make it that way, but it still seems a little out of place considering everything else.

This show is quickly turning into an annoying snoozefest.

This was a weak episode. I’m starting to understand what’s going on a little more, but I still don’t care.

Briar’s Review:

Yay, a show that doesn’t annoy me!

AstralRuby’s Review:

We open with a scene of dragons flying around a mountain. Welcome to the Mines of Moria! Depths of Palm. Whatever. It’s been three days since Team Shiroe left town. Griffons can only be rode for four hours a day, but they still covered two weeks of distance.

The Depths of Palm is Moria. Straight up. Moria. It’s full of killer rats! Rat-men. Whatever. They’re low level and can spread plague. They don’t seek trouble, but don’t corner them. They’ll attack. The team takes another route to not waste time or get the plague debuff.

Atasuki scolds Shiroe for being too formal. Naotsugu can’t get over the tasteless food, but the ingredients still taste as they should. So, they eat the ingredients. Weird. The guild checks in on them. Serara is hiding with a nice guy and waiting in Susukino. Serara has maid subclass, and wishes that she took a different subclass. The nice guy she’s mooning over is a catdude. Some guilds are roughing people up as bands of thugs. The catdude mentions that Serara will be a “great wife some day.” Creeeeeepy. He makes tea for her. Shiroe never mentioned the griffons to Marielle. In town, a meeting of guild leaders have gathered in Crescent Moon Alliance hall.

The bridge in Moria is about to collapse. Shiroe falls into the water below. Do they take falling damage? It doens’t matter too much if he does. If he dies there, he’ll end up back in Akihabara.

Shiroe was always a loner, but got fame as a good player. The attention was a pain in the ass. Debauchery Tea Party was different to him. It was just a group running around and finding new things.

He comes around on land at the bottom. Akatsuki jumped in after him and Naotsugu jumped in after her and pulled them out. Their clothes had to dry. Level 90s don’t take as much damage from falling?

Real life for Shiroe is CAD work. He’s a graduate engineering student and the same age as Akatsuki. Again with the kick first and ask later gag. I still find it funny. Akatsuki notices whenever Shiroe is thinking.

Purple mist shows up. The team has switched zones. Blocking the stairs is a giant rat monster with mostly status debuffs. It’s a new addition to the zone. Team Shiroe attack it and Tank/DPS/Control-Support wins again!

They get out of the Mines of Moria, er, Depths of Palm and reach the strait. They’re the first to see the dawn at the cliffs and that is their prize for victory.

Thug gangs aren’t letting anyone leave Susukino. Anyone who hesitates to follow the guilds is sent to the Cathedral. The thug gang goes looking for Serara and the catdude.

The plot of this episode was the underground labyrinth cave level in the game Elder Tale. So our team approached Depths of Palm and it’s been three days since they left and start their mission. At the end of the last episode, they were riding griffons, but they can only ride the for 4 hours a day. It might be very long, but they have already traveled much further than the Tea Party Guild thought so they are impressed with the team. However, the guild doesn’t know about the griffons yet. The team avoids as many encounters with monsters as they can, included the rat-men, which are a low-level demi-human found in the caves. During a break, they found out that some ingredients for food has flavor, like salt, so they are putting that on their regular food so it same some taste.

In another scene, they girl they are going to rescue is cleaning a lot and she wonders why she chose a maid subclass. I’m a little more curious about the cat-man that is helping her out. I think he knows Shiroe somehow, but we haven’t seen it yet. Then there was this blond guy with classes sitting in a chair somewhere. I think he knows of is related to Shiroe somehow but in a different way. Maybe they’re rivals in the game or in real life.

Back to the mission, Shiroe falls into the water when a bridge collapsed. While he his passed out, we see some of his back-story. Basically, he was a loner in real life, and he met people on Elder Tale because people liked him there, but he soon got too much attention, because he was good at the game and every wanted help and tips. Then he has a memory of the guild.

His team saved him and there is a minute when they are shown without some of their bulky layers of clothing as they dried. Here there is more revealed about the characters when they talk. When Naotsugu mentions that Akatsuki looks like a kid, Shiroe remembers a couple kids he saw join a guild and he’s worried about them, since some guilds were not playing nice. Then they faced a Level 68 boss blocking the stairs. They win and get to the other side to see a nice view. It’s the same place as his memory with the guild, but he says it’s different now because the game is different now.

Meanwhile, some guild is bullying players and taking their stuff in the snowy mountains. They are looking for the cat-man and the girl he’s protecting. I don’t remember why they are after them. Our guys are on the way to help out, so it’s not an in-game mission, but a social mission created by the players. I wonder if all the missions in the game are like that now since the expansion, as in all the content and game place is user driven now.

I wasn’t expecting the characters to be above the high school age range. This is a nice change. Akatsuki isn’t a middle school girl! Yay! Also, I get the whole not running with a guild thing and being a loner in game. Used to do that a lot. Now I duo, which is far more fun.

Team Shiroe is enjoyable to follow. They’re not petty little whiners or perverted bastards. Also, no healers in this team. Personally, I’m no fan of the holy trinity of tank/dps/heal so common in MMOs. It’s really boring. Hopefully, this show can illustrate that there’s more than one way to balance a party and it doesn’t need to be around a healer.

On another note, the catdude reminds me of the Baron in a couple of Miyazaki movies, except a bit more offputting. I’m wondering what his deal is.

Shiroe is revealed to be a loner. I could’ve told you that since he doesn’t want to join a guild. We also learned that he did CAD, he’s a graduate student in design engineering. I think he started playing Elder Tale in high school or at the start of college. According to Akatsuki, Shiroe furrows his brow when he’s thinking and possibly worried.

We also learn that Akatsuki is about the same age as Shiroe, much to his and Naotsugu’s surprise since she’s so small. To prevent Naotsugu from making comments, she stills kicks first and then asks Shiroe permission to kick him

Still don’t know a lot about Naotsugu. I don’t think he’s in college, since he mentioned he had a job. Not sure of his true age or how long he’s been playing Elder Tale either. This will probably be revealed as the show continues.

I still hate this theme song. The animations are still good, but couldn’t they have designed the Depths of Palm to be a little more different from the Mines of Moria? Just a little more? Oh, well.

The opening song a little too metal. Could be better. There oh~s are catchy when they go along with the video. The ending theme is all about Akatsuki. I officially don’t really care for the song myself, but it’s average anime music. Could be better. Everything else in the show is decently done to go with the action.

Another episode where I didn’t feel the need to scream. Yay!

Briar’s Review:

Banri the pick-up artist?

AstralRuby’s Review:

Banri gets a message from Kaga and she meets him on the sidewalk. They find 2D-kun and he spazzes out over meeting Kaga. Sato Takaya is his real name. The club trip begins. It’s a 3 day 2 night trip, but I missed which club it was. The people waiting pile into two vans. They fill out the personal information forms on the van. A snowflake necklace on all of the uniformed club members catch Banri’s attention.

The van passes the university seminary house. They pull onto a dirt road and Banri wonders where they’re going. The trip end at an ornate house where cellphones have no service and the snowflake symbol is everywhere. This place is the training ground for a religious organization Banri hadn’t heard of. Uh oh.

They endure five hours of films and lectures from cultists about the universe and souls. Neo-Children? And the cultist have their personal information like addresses. Banri starts looking for a way to get Kaga out. 2D-kun flips his shit and demands to go home. Others follow suit. “That’s what everyone says at first,” one of the cultist says.

Then Banri tells 2D-Kun to pipe down and try to have fun. Then he tells the cultist to let the others go, since they’ll just get in the way and that he was really moved by the film. Then he tells a moving story. The others are allowed to leave.

Crap, Kaga decided to stay. Banri’s expression! Banri tells her that she ruined the reason why he stayed. Kaga says that she knows, but couldn’t leave him behind. Banri gets the key after asking to put their luggage away, then they run for it. Banri grabs the personal info forms and they bail out the window. They run from the cultists through the woods, but they’re still out of service.

Kaga thinks it’s her fault they’re there, because she was the one who replied to the flyer. Banri say it’s also his fault because he wanted her to have friends. Kaga thought Banri would tell her about Yana if she became friends with him. They go on about how Yana will develop possessiveness towards Kaga. Banri notices that Kaga acts different around Yana. Kaga goes on about how she is complete with Yana and lives for him. She admits that she’s stupid about this. Yana lied to her about which school he applied to, but she knew the truth. Smacking Yana with the roses wasn’t what she intended, but she just exploded.

We find out that Banri really did lose his memories. He lost his identity and he left his friends, thinking that they would only want to see the old Tada Banri. Kaga asks if he wants to return to his old self. He replies that sometimes he does, but he doesn’t want to lose his current self either. Linda finds them in the dark.

There wasn’t a lot happening in the plot, as this was a character development episode. We’ll see if what happens with those personal information papers or if he loses them.

The point of this episode was to be wary of college cults. Seriously. I was getting major cult vibes the entire episode before it revealed it to be a crazy organization.

Koko and Banri met up to join the trip. They run into “2D-kun”, the glasses guy Banri met at the Tea Ceremony club’s crazy party, and he immediately likes Koko. Before much else can happen, twp vans pull up and they’re told to get inside. At this point I was worried it was a human-trafficking scheme… Then I saw the matching snowflake necklaces worn by the member of this club and thought it might be a cult. I got worried again when they drove passed the university’s club building and when to a fancy place with no cell service. They also had to fill out paperwork with their names and address. Yep, I smell a cult.

Then they are forced to sit through 5 hours of movies and lectures about… something? Cult stuff, yes. At the welcome dinner, some of the other new “members” snap and demand they be let go. Banri was feeling pretty guilty about getting Koko involved in all this so he starts making up stuff about how he liked the videos and lectures and he talks about this amnesia. He continues by saying that those that want to leave should be able to, but he’s going to stay out of interest. It works and everyone is allowed to leave. However, before she leaves, Koko decides to stay behind, which was exactly the opposite of what he was trying to accomplish. They don’t stay long at all and escaped through the window in the luggage room, but not without the folder with everyone’s paperwork. Good job Banri, don’t want the cult to track you down where to live too easily! But they had to leave their luggage.

After running through the woods in slippers, they take a break and tell each other that is was actually their fault the other got involved. I don’t know who is at fault, but it doesn’t matter. There’s still no cell service so they talk for a bit. She didn’t mind being ignored in college and how he’s the only one that’s talked to her. She just wanted Mitsuo back and would wait for him. Banri tried to encourage her a little by saying that Mitsuo will miss her eventually and even does an impression of him that makes her laugh.

The parallel between them here is that Koko Kaga lost Mitsuo Yana, which was her everything, and Banri lost his memory of everything. They were both lost in the world without anyone. Banri could’ve seen his old friends, but chose not to because of the amnesia. This college self is the only self he’s known and he’s okay with that.

Then they run into what they thought might be more cult believers, but then someone else finds them. It appeared to be someone they knew and then it’s a cliff hanger. Is it the festival club?

Banri is clever and we got to learn more about his predicament and Kaga’s ongoing codependence with Yana. Banri is trying to lift her spirits and get her to be her own person. It’s really nice to see characters that are aware of their flaws in a non-whiny fashion. I was making references in my notes to the main character in my current book series, so I was having fun with this episode.

Banri seems like a pretty chill guy. He’s trying so hard not to take sides on the lover’s quarrel thing and he’s honest. The day after his high school graduation, he fell off a bridge and got amnesia. A year of rehab didn’t help. He was afraid to meet his old friends because they’d be strangers to him. If he had a girlfriend, she might have come to see him anyway so he’s confident he didn’t have one. We has the audience are allowed to think otherwise considering.

Koko Kaga never seemed as crazy as Mitsuo made her out to be when she’s with Banri. She smacked him with roses that she meant to give to him, but that’s not really that violent and kind of justified when looking at their history. It is odd that she followed the guy to the same college, but knowing what I know about college people, it happens and it’s not unusual.

The characters are well designed and act pretty normal, even their extreme personalities.

Animation is still good and the music still hanging out in the background. The characters were emotive without being over the top or relying on emoticons.

No change. Still pretty solid here. It look nice, nothing with a wow factor. I would give it a higher score if they weren’t quite as cutesy, and by this I mean they could’ve be any age based on how the look.

I had fun with this episode and Banri’s antics.

Briar’s Review:

Please don’t turn Kuriyama into an angsty mess.

AstralRuby’s Review:

We start at the end of the previous episode and Kuriyama admits to killing someone. She goes youma hunting again against a tiny little abomination, but can’t deliver the killing blow. A chubby fluffy rat thing kills it and give the rock to her at the other Literary club member’s command.

Miroku Fujima arrives at a fancy building of the Spirit World Warriors and announces that he wants to observe the Hollow Shadow. He’s meeting with Izumi Nase, who talks about youmu. She perceives them only as monsters.

Akihito drops off the 10k yen the killed youmu was worth to Kuriyama, who’s eating instanoodles. The pervy boy sneaks up behind Akihito. The older Spirit World Warrior woman previously encountered is a teacher at the school and warns Kuriyama about the Hollow Shadow. Meanwhile, Akihito is asking pervy boy about the blood clan. He wants to know what Kuriyama is hiding. Akihito torments pervy boy with the thought of putting glasses on his “sacred sister”. He really is called “Pervy Big Brother”! He has a thing for sister-love. Ew.

Literary Club girl and Akihito meet on an abandoned train car. Jeez, suggestive cookie much? Why? And now a shot of her uncrossing her legs. Seriously, what? Iori something or other can directly connect his mind to the net and get info. The youmu are getting more restless and Ayaka makes another barrier. Hollow Shadow can possess Spirit World Warriors if they let down their guard.

Akihito arrives at Kuriyama’s apartment. She accidently killed the Inami girl when Inami was possessed by the Hollow Shadow. The youmu are now everywhere. The edge of the approach Hollow Shadow is visible. Kuriyama heads out and Akihito follows her, despite her protests. Akihito tells her that she should stay home and she knows it.

The Inami family took Kuriyama in despite her cursed blood. Their daughter, named Yui, was her friend. Then Hollow Shadow struck and Kuriyama took off the ring. Yui was killed.

In the present, Kuriyama goes off to face Hollow Shadow. Spirit World Warriors are advised to raise barriers and avoid Hollow Shadow. They also take out a number of attacking youmu while staying indoors or holding barriers. Kuriyama runs to Hollow Shadow and removes her ring. She hears Yui’s bell and a dark-haired girl, Sakura, attacks her. They are overtaken by Hollow Shadow and appear in a city. Pervy Boy is having trouble holding the barrier and fighting the youmu at the same time. Is Akihito is reacting to Hollow Shadow? Kuriyama tries to run from Sakura in a shifting landscape. Now they’re in the school. Sakura’s blade starts to cut through the blood sword, but Akihito knocks Sakura away.

Mirai thinks she is a murderer and is guilty about it. This led me to believe that the person she killed was someone important to her or simply someone she knew. This episode reveals that the person she killed was her childhood friend, but it didn’t much into the details of the circumstances revolved around the incident. Obviously, Mirai didn’t intend to do it. From what was shown, when her friend got engulfed in shadows and dark energy stuff, I can guess it was a youmu attack and that Mirai hesitated too much and either couldn’t save her friend before the youmu took her life, or her friend got caught in the crossfire. Her friend could have been possessed during the incident, but we’ll have to wait for further details.

At the beginning of the episode, Mirai fails at taking down another little Youmu, so Mitsuki sends in her pokemon to defeat it. Why is there a pokemon? I have no idea, but it’s a pokemon as far as I’m concerned. Mitsuki did this because she told Mirai she’d help her out, but Mirai wants none of that. Then we see a meeting between a couple adult-looking people, who are talking about the Hallow Shadow that is approaching. The man seems to be there to be a part of the action or witness what happens. He explained that youmu are born from human’s negative feelings. Not very original, but okay I can roll with this. Still seems like something that should he said in the show’s introduction.

Despite not taking the youmu stone earlier in the episode, Mirai must have taken it in to exchange for money and then gave it to Akihito to deliver to Mirai during lunchtime at school. She claimed she didn’t need it as she made grabby hands for the money. It was funny. Of course, he tried to get her to go to his Literature Club again. She doesn’t want to. At club, the boys Akihito and Hiroomi talk about Mirai’s problems. However, they ended up talking more about Hiroomi’s sister complex for Mitsuki. When Mitsuki comes in, she discreetly gave Akihito a note to meet her on an empty train later. She was eating animal crackers and I’m pretty sure one of them was supposed to be phallic shaped when she bit it in half. Then there was some extra attention of her legs. After a glasses themed fantasy scene with her brother and then this, I think this girl is being over sexualized and I’m not sure why. This doesn’t seem like the kind of show that would have fan service, so it’s really out place. It might be for comic relief, but I’m the wrong audience to appreciate it if that’s the case.

That night the sky turned purple and youmu started showing up everywhere. The Hallow Shadow was approaching. Akihito tried to talk to Mirai but she told him to go home, and he did eventually after she told him the story of what she did to her friend. The scene was full of angst. After seeing some of the other spirit warriors fight, we see Mirai far away from the town. Meanwhile, Akihito was making dinner in a broken microwave. Mirai was getting ready for battle when a girl named Sakura appeared and they started fighting. Mirai obviously knew her. They got transported elsewhere and continued to fight. Then they end up at school and Sakura’s blade chainsaws through Mirai’s blood sword. She almost cut through when Akihito suddenly rushed in and tackled Sakura.

Kuriyama was chasing Akihito, now she’s running away? That doesn’t make much sense. Wah, Kuriyama, wah. You acted in self-defense. I hope this angsting atoner thing ends soon.

WTF is with the glasses fetish? And the suggestive shots of the Literary Club girl? Does this show really need to throw that in the mix? Is that really necessary? At least the pervy boy was acknowledged to be a pervert. I still don’t get what his thing with Akihito is about, though. I kinda don’t want to know.

Where did Sakura come from? Who is she? Is she possessed by the Hollow Shadow? I have no idea..

If Mirai doesn’t start to get over her angst soon, the story is going to slow down, because nothing will get done. Now that we saw her backstory, or at least part of it, she will probably start moving on in the next few episodes with the power of friendship and stuff.

Who in the world this Sakura is needs to be explained right away. I don’t like being confused and having to wait until the next episode for this.

Hiromi keeps sticking his hands in Akihito’s armpits and he has a thing for his sister. I think there’s something wrong with this guy. We got to see him in action against the youmu, which was interesting. I don’t think he that powerful, but a high enough level to hold his own.

The animations are still good and the movement is still fluid. Still solid on image and sound.

The opening and closing themes are kind of depressing. This show has a bit more energy than the opening or ending present.

I noticed the character never change out of their school uniforms. This might be their one cut back in the budget. Overall, the rest of the animation is still quite good since it is detailed and fluid.

Let’s get past the angsting now, shall we?

Every college student, right here.

Briar’s Review:

Tech the tech and reverse the polarity!

AstralRuby’s Review:

Iona reaches the defense barrier gates of Yokosuka port. This is the city where the captain grew up.They pass another set of defensive walls to a bay with an entire company of rifles pointed at them. It really is entire platoons of rifles pointed at them. Seriously, that many guys? Iona is scanned and the dock gates close. Mooring arms clamp onto the I-401 and the water is drained. The sub is brought into the underground dockyard. Iori has Iona open up her belly and show off the supergravity cannon. There’s a mention that they need nanomaterials at Iwo Jima.

The army shows up and displays a lot of force to the rest of the crew while Gunzou and Iona are away. For a dinner invitation? Gunzou goes to the navy cemetery with Iona to visit a grave. There’s a bunch of pretentious BS explaining cemeteries to Iona. Then the army shows up there too for the dinner invitation.

Kita Ryoukan is a political powerhouse and next in line to be prime minister. He asks that Iona be returned to the government. Gunzou declines, citing being in the middle of the mission. Kita thinks that Iona is a danger, being of the Fog, and might eventually turn on them.

Cut to the albino ship model and her genki red friend at tea. The albino goes on about how they are given human form to obtain reason, which leads to ego and foresight. Blah blah tactics.

Meanwhile, Takao is learning about what a captain is. Creepy twin time! They are 400 and 402. 401’s sisters. Takao has cut off her contact with the fleet. She wants a captain to become stronger. The Red Tron ship pops up. Takao announces that she will be at Gunzou’s side. She will go somewhere to wait for him.

Back to the awkward dinner. There’s an attack outside. Iona overrides the dock system. 401 is sent out to face two ships. Kirishima and Haruna. Gunzou orders his crew aboard 401. Blah blah pretentious nonsense. Iona realizes that she exists so that Gunzou lives. Iona goes to intercept the ships.

Not much actually happened. This show is not as smart as it thinks its is.

This is just not my thing… This show nearly puts me to sleep with how boring it is. I must be missing important details when I space or look down or something, because it’s hard to follow what the heck is going and what everyone is trying to accomplish.

The team pulls the sub into a base where there’s a ton of guns pointed at them. When they scan the sub, Iona claims it tickles her because she is the ship. The whole scene to just park the ship took a long time. Suddenly there was a guy with a mask on the crew, not sure where he’s been, or if he’s just been that unimportant until now. To open the submarine, Iona lifted her skirt a little… which was lame and nearly fan-servicey. When they were out of the ship, there was a little girl being chased by the maids and before she was caught, and Iona ran a scan on her. Before this is taken anywhere, the crew is invited to dinner while being attacked or threatened to be attacked. Um, okay?

The Captain Ganzou and Iona went to a cemetery and he explained what the place means to people and she kind of understood. Then they were also attacked and asked to go to dinner. Iona was ready to fight, but Captain said no. I say let her. You don’t point a ton of guns are people for a dinner invite, this is really suspicious. So the crew all showed up to a fancy balcony dinner with some old guy, a prime minister or something. He wanted to make Iona a soldier doll, but of course, Ganzou said no, so back to aiming guns at him. Yes, that’ll go over well. He was so unfazed by it.

Then there’s a white tea party again with the super mech controller girls. This time there’s one that puts all the sugar in her tea and then says it’s too sweet. I am really lost whenever this tea party thing happens. I just don’t get it. I think I missed something, actually I hope I missed something and there’s an explanation for this. One of the girls thinks there is nothing more they need to learn from humans.

Then we jump to the blue-haired mecha controller from the last episode who was fantasizing about getting Ganzou as her captain and doing whatever he wants. She is suddenly approached by the colored Iona clones named 400 and 402. Iona is 401. They talk about the Fog, and I wondered if that was their clan or brand or something. Blue just makes her ship appear and leaves.

When Iona activated her submarine, the computers the soldiers were reading said “I have control”, which was weird. Not sure if that was Iona’s message to them, or an odd translation. Two new mecha girls were shown. Then Iona aims lasers at all the soldiers pointing guns at them so they can be allowed to get back into her sub.

Sou is the name of the Daft Punk boy. The Daft Punk helmet is to prevent allergies? What sort of allergies require that? Is he allergic to air?

Why the hell would ships care about jam or tea??? Seriously, what is with this? They are ships bent on destroying mankind. Why would they be attached to human customs? How can they even taste the tea?

Ew…. WTF is with Takao’s servant fantasy? Really, really weird.

The crew characters just had lines to justify their existence. Iona doesn’t need them. She can do everything by herself. She doesn’t even really need Gunzou. So, why is the crew even there?

Revealed more super mecha controller girls. There’s two more that look exactly like Inoa. I’m confused about this. Are these girls manufactured somewhere or what? If so, how come their just doing their own thing and not working together or for someone else?

Iona’s eyes are too far apart. So is everyone else’s, but it’s more noticeable on her for some reason, probably because she doesn’t move much.

There a lot of 3D models on characters, but then iffy 2D models in the few places that they have to be drawn in. That the characters are all 3D models is really obvious in this episode.

I finally figured out what was wrong with this show. It’s all 3D rendered. That’s why they look and move in an unusual way. I should’ve noticed it wasn’t just the ships and stuff earlier, but once I watched this on my computer screen instead of the TV screen, it all came together. I don’t like it. It’s highly detailed, yes, and I give it points for that, but the movement is its shortcoming. There was a bit more movement in this episode that in the previous ones, but I noticed it was even stiffer than I initially thought. I am disappointed in the quality of the 3D render. Now there’s even clones of Iona… Not to mention the opening theme is gloomy and not fun.

Blah blah blah pretentious bullshit.

It’s not entertaining.

Briar’s Review:

An imposter?!

AstralRuby’s Review:

The tiny axe gave Hazama away to the manager, but he denies it. Later, Goto and Hazama are watching a live show of the Money Rangers and Hazama predicts the choreography. Hazama asks if Goto had a spare gun laying around. Goto figures out where this is going and says no. Some students find Hazama and ask for a picture and if he was Samurai Flamenco. There’s a reward for 1 million yen for the identity of Samurai Flamenco.

The manager, Ishihara, is on the phone with a guy who wants to interview Hazama, thinking him to be Samurai Flamenco. Then she gets a call from the FTV director.Ishihara tells Hazama that he is not to have anything to do with superheroes. Samurai Flamenco is the topic of the Wow Show. He is to be introduced on the show. Konno, the guy who wanted the interview is the one who posted the reward. Both Hazama and Konno are surprised to know that the identity will be revealed. Power goes out for a stage show featuring a fake Samurai Flamenco. It looks a lot like the live show earlier.

Hazama stares dumbly, the imposter is the actor for Red Axe, Kaname Joji. He’s an actor who does his own stunts and action movies. Hazama not too thrilled about this. Joji goes on about teaching the spirit of the samurai and takes credit for the idea. Konno has to pay the million yen to Joji. Joji announces that it will be donated to a youth center for learning. Then Joji gives his “big fan” Hazama a hug.

A live Samurai Flamenco show is announced. Goto thinks this is too soon for a fake. Hazama wants to know why Joji is lying. Goto asks to watch the old Red Axe show. Wrestling with the situation, Hazama doesn’t want to embarrass Joji and wonders if he should let him take the identity. Thanks to ursurping the identity of Samurai Flamenco, Joji is getting a new surge in popularity.

A DVD comes in Joji’s mail with a challenge. “Two Red Axes! Which one is fake?” Hazama confronts Joji and asks if he would stop using his name. Joji refuses because he is stronger and more famous. Hazama unmasks, but Joji doesn’t remember him and claims seniority. Meanwhile, Hazama isn’t at the Wow Show and neither is Joji. Panic at the set.

Joji gut punches Hazama and downs him. Hazama tell “Red Axe” to stop demeaning himself. Joji dubs Hazama the second Samurai Flamenco. He comes clean on the show. He is Red Axe and Samurai Flamenco is his student! Goto puts on the costume to cover for Hazama. He likes posing on the rooftop. MMM figures out that he’s a fake. Joji joins Hazama and Goto for curry, then onto sparring.

Ah yes, the “Who is he really?” plot. This is going to be good.

Hazama’s manager, Sumi, still has the ax from his apartment and this episode starts out with her asking if he is Samurai Flamenco. He said no. In fact, she didn’t believe him and he had to stand his ground and be completely serious.

Hazama and Goto watch a Power Rangers play and talk about it. These guys hang out a lot now. Suddenly, Hazama asks Goto for a gun. Suddenly they’re in sporting goods store when Hazama claimed he was joking, but Goto doesn’t believe him. While looking at shoes, some girls that saw him in the MMM music video approach him and ask for a picture with him. This is normal in Japan. I’m just surprised they were the fan girls that shove their smartphones in his face to get pictures of him. Guess he’s not famous enough for that yet. One of the girls ask if he’s Samurai Flamenco because he said on TV that he watched the youtube of Samurai Flamenco over 200 times. He says no again and the girls accept it. At lunch in a café, they find out that there’s a 1 million yen prize for finding who Samurai Flamenco is. Hazama tells Goto not to turn him in, but we all know Goto totally could and would have already if he was going to.

That night on TV, Samurai Flamenco’s identity is the big story. Some people even think it’s Goto, and the picture of him on screen was him yawning while on duty outside the station he works at. Yep, they think it could be him. Then there’s a game show or variety show meant to reveal Samurai Flamenco. Some guy in a Samurai Flamenco costume showed up and punched out a bunch of fake henchmen and he also got carried away and punched people he shouldn’t have. It’s actually the actor who played the Red Ax, and Hazama is a major fan. Red Ax claims to be a modern day samurai and donates the 1 million yen prize to a youth center or something.

After watching the show, Goto was surprised that there’s already a fake Samurai Flamenco while Hazama laid on the flood and moped. Though he was happy to get the Red Ax’s autograph! He’s such an otaku for this stuff, it’s great. He even doesn’t want to ruin the actor’s image by outing him as a fake. Instead, he sends the Red Ax a message about who is the fake and they meet up. Hazama, of course, asks politely for Red Ax to stop used the Samurai Flamenco name. He said no, so Hazama reveals himself, and find that Red Ax doesn’t remember meeting him earlier that day. They fight and he declared that Hazama is weak, which should be obvious compared to this guy, because the Red Ax has had all sorts of training and we know for a fact that Hazama has not. Hazama uses his words again and declared that the Red Ax is only the Red Ax, not Samurai Flamenco. Somehow, this made Red Ax cry and claims he’s going to help Hazama by training him to be the second Samurai Flamenco. Goto said he’s full of it.

On TV, Red Ax comes out and says he’s not really Samurai Flamenco, but that Samurai Flamenco is his student. Then we see Goto in a Samurai Flamenco costume standing heroically on top of a building so that Hazama could walk into his managers office and throw her off his trail.

After the ending theme, all three of the guys have curry at Hazama’s place and then Red Ax is going to train Hazama.

Joji was over the top in his desperation for relevance, but not dislikable, which is impressive in itself. Hazama’s reaction was fitting and in character. He was no match in a fight, but he could shame Joji into relinquishing the name.

Goto was awesome in this episode, especially when he poses on the roof.

Hazama is very charismatic and not that reckless compared to the Red Ax, believe it or not. The Red Ax is very loud and excitable it seems, and he almost hit Goto with a motorcycle when he jumped off it dramatically. I like Hazama’s Samurai Flamenco better.

Are we going to meet Goto’s girlfriend yet? So far I think it might be one of the girls from MMM, and her month away is because of her busy schedule on tour. It’s either that or someone we haven’t seen at all yet.

The animation and music is still the best of the bunch.

Still pretty good. Nothing new to say about the animation, music, or editing. Red Ax is a little lame, but I know that’s probably the point of his design.

I’m still worried that Hazama will be injured. So far, he’s seemed to come out of everything unscathed.

A cute episode.

“This feels good.” Goto, you’re too awesome.