Summary Key Points:

[spoiler]

• Takagi, Hirano and Takashi attempt to try and convince the people at the house to accept the current situation
• Failing that, Takagi, Hirano and Takashi have a short discussion, in which Takagai and Hirano recommend that Takashi be the leader of their group
• Saeko is given a sword by Takagai’s father
• On the idea of Takashi, Takagai’s father comments that he seems to still have doubts as a leader
• Back in his room, Takashi is indeed having doubts
• Rei comes in, confesses that she sees him in a different light and wants to be with him, even if he falls for another woman
• She also states that she won’t survive without him
• Due to the previous injury, she has to walk about, and meets Saeko in the hallway
• Saeko asks that Rei not call her sempai anymore, since they are now equals
• Rei refuses, saying she doesn’t want to even think about it
• Takashi infroms Takagi’s father that he  and the group plan to find everyone’s parents and bring them back here in 2 days
• Shido arrives with his students and Rei angrily corners him with a gun to his face
• It is shown that Shido actually failed Rei for his father, who wanted to blackmail Rei’s Father
• Rei is given the go ahead to shoot Shido if she wants to, but she decides not to
• Shido is cast out, along with his students.
• Around the world, various countries begin deploying missiles and bombs
• Two workers in a space station comment on how this seems to be Armageddon.

[/spoiler]

Opinions: (B)

That was a decent episode. Not impressive, great or highly entertaining, but it was definitely interesting to say the least. The fanservice was almost non-existent this episode, which was surprising but understandable. We are gearing towards the final episode.

The whole talk between Takagi and Hirano was pretty interesting. I’m pretty convinced that Hirano and Takagi would make a good pair, I just wish Takagi would stop being a Tsundere for Takashi, and move onto Hirano. The comedy alone in this would be priceless XD

The idea of Takashi being a leader is pretty solid, as pretty much everyone in the group agrees. Takashi has kept a level head, stopped squabbles between the group and generally gone for the right course of action through the events that have happened thus far. The part with Rei trying to seduce him but failing cause of her injuries was pretty expected. It seems that its starting to get obvious to her too, that Takashi is more interested in Saeko than her. It becomes more solid when Saeko and Takashi go out alone, but that was shown a bit before this part, so I guess the order is jumbled up. I kind of question the wisdom of the changing up, since while I loved a Saeko centric episode, I really do think that it made sense in the original order. It just seems kind of akward right now.

This episode largely brought the whole Shido/Rei relationship to a close. Rei failed grades because of Shido, who did it in attempt to blackmail her father for his father. I do believe Rei had a right to be angry, as it definitely made her and her father suffer for it. At the same time, given how dark and twisted this series has been known to be so far, it was kind of a light letdown. Definitely not something you’d want to kill someone over. Then again, this is high school, and failing can be a big deal for some kids.

I can’t help but feel or think that Shido isn’t really a bad guy at the end of it all. He’s pathetic, and he tries to manipulate people, but my earlier ideas about him being a pervert or a sex freak don’t seem to fit. It seems like the students are mostly doing it themselves, and being allowed to run wild. Of course, I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of Shido, and I’m guess he’ll definitely pop up later down the road with a cry for vengence.

Since this was the second last episode, we kind of already got an idea for how this series is going to end. It seems like the whole world will be nuked to hell. Now, I haven’t really read the manga, so I’m not sure if this happens in it, but eitherway, it seems like Madhouse is going to go with a “everyone dies via nuking” ending.

I hope it doesn’t end that way… I really would like to see this story continued in animation form. I guess we’ll know for sure come next episode.

Preview:

The last episode, next week! Seems like there’s some to do with an EMP, knocking out most of the electronics in Takagi’s house. Look forward to the grand finale next week!