(Quickie) Summary:

Akira and Keisuke face off. They talk a bit before they start fighting. Keisuke has the slight upper hands thanks to being hopped up on Line. Akira grabs hold of Keisuke’s/Takeru’s knife which slashes his left palm. Keisuke tosses him away but in doing so, gets some of Akira’s blood on his arm – with which he wipes his face. Some of Akira’s blood gets in his mouth and he falls to the ground, convulsing in spasms. Akira screams in horror as Keisuke falls to the ground and stops moving. But after some moments, a soft groan from Keisuke has him checking Keisuke. He’s alive (FUCK! *headdesking*) and Akira quickly takes him into the nearest building (which very conveniently  has a bed there). Keisuke fights Akira through the night – raging, screaming, pleading, begging (for more Line). As the clouds break and the new day dawns, Akira wakes up to find the normal Keisuke (bye bye Kurosuke….*sniffs and waves her hanky* It was good to know you…I was on your side y’ know…). Deciding to take Motomi up on his offer to lead Toshima, Akira and Keisuke are ready to go back.

BUT THEN! Rin shows up, dripping wet cause of the rain and he coldly asks Akira to hand over his face (Jack) tag. Or else, he’ll hafta kill them. He manages to grab Keisuke and holding him hostage, manages to take Akira’s face tag. With Akira’s tag, Rin’s set is complete and he can now challenge Il-Re to a fight in the Castle Colosseum. He runs off with his tags. Keisuke says that he’s worried about Rin and asks Akira to go after him. Akira agrees and runs off after Rin. Arbitro takes Rin’s tags and agrees to let him fight Il-Re.

Yet another nice ED song! And its Itou-san this time around if I’m not mistaken!

Score: C-/A+

Where do I start from my unhappiness…. i’ll start from the non-fangirly stuff. The Keisuke Akira fight? Did not like it. I mean seriously what was that? I expected greatness! I expected  gyaaa *rubs her face in irritation* it was way too fast for me. It just didn’t feel as important as it did in the game! I was sitting with bated breath when I had been playing the game. This time I was just….sitting…didnt really feel that sense of worry. Okay so I kinda did when Keisuke’s face got wiped with the blood but that was mostly cause I started chanting “LICK IT LICK IT LICK IT LICK IT DIE DIE DIE DIE” *sweats and looks away*

Though I loved that we got some narration from Akira. If there’s one aspect that they shoulda covered more in the show, it was Akira’s thoughts. More inner monologues/thoughts from Akira woulda made this show much more better (and woulda made a lot more things clearer, particularly in regards to Keisuke). And ha ha~ I was right on Akira’s history XD He did get trained as a soldier but the war ended before he could be sent to battle so he and the other kids were reassigned to foster homes. But Akira didnt really fit in/get along with his foster parents so he started to live independantly. They never really did properly explain Akira’s history in the game did they? *cant recall at the present moment*

Speaking of thoughts and the need of more. I think it woulda been REAL good if we’d have had Keisuke’s thoughts. Remember that bit from the game when he recalls that thing about having a girlfriend and nearly spending the night with her? I think that was an important narration which really…added more to the whole Keisuke Akira relationship. Its a shame that they missed that out.And I really dont think that trying to mix all these routes together is the right approach. Its turning out like…..its like trying to make a milk shake. You can experiment with it to a certain degree but for god’s sake don’t just chuck EVERY DAMN THING IN YOUR FRIDGE INTO THE BLENDER!

Goodbye Kurosuke *sniffs* It was nice knowing you man. I really liked you too! I had been eagerly anticipating your arrival (and your demise actually). And now we get Keisuke back. *deadpan tone* Whoopie. Back to the soft toned, non aggressive, mild mannered vanilla side of life….*eyes the vanilla ice cream and woefully eyes the Haagen-Daz sitting in its corner polishing his sword* UWUUUUUUU T^T Hey waiter, I didn’t order all this cheese! And even if I had, why would I order it without any crackers or wine huh? XD

And THAT reminds me. Dear A-1, first of all, FUCK YOU! *pelts them with cabbage, tomatoes and spitballs* aoshdasbda NO SHIKI!? NO PRINCESSHOLD?! AFTER THOSE HINTS IN THE OP REGARDING SHIKIAKI?! I WANT TO KILL SOMEONE! In righteous fangirl anger! THE FUCK THE FUCK THE FUCK. *rage dissipates into depression* fuck me sideways man…I knew we werent gonna have any BL but for PETE’S sake, its STILL a shounen-ai and as such, YOU CAN GO A BIT THERE Y’ KNOW! And you know WHAT?! *grabs random guy from A-1 and points at Studio DEEN* THOSE guys did Junjou Romantica AND are gonna do Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, and THAT shoulda NOT ONLY been your benchmark, it shoulda been the target that you ought to have tried to beat! TnC’s story is no where NEAR as deep and amazing as JR (i’m a total JR fan, dont get me wrong! But to me, this dark, thriller style >>>> sweet, romantic comedy). You coulda had a GREAT hit on your hands A-1 and you…well…pretty much blew it.

The animation. GOD. EVERY week there’s one flaw or another, which more often than not makes me lawl but this week, it just pissed me off. SO much jerkiness involved in that fight scene. And those sparks that flew when Keisuke and Akira’s knives were like grinding together? I was like “Wtf? is this the 4th of July or something cause I aint EVER seen THAT many sparks from two KNIVES being pushed against each other!” Bah! *throws her hands up in frustration* Though i did like Keisuke’s dream sequence, that was semi-Nightmare Fuel stuff so thats a thumbs up from me. BUT, tell me I wasnt the only one who jumped in her seat in the bad kinda surprise to see Keisuke just sitting there with his eyes open like that. I went “*jumps* OH JEEZ! *sighs* thats not a good expression to see first thing man!”

Speaking of frustration, was I the only one who was a tad…confused as to why Akira didn’t just punch Keisuke’s lights out when he was struggling with the after effects of drinking Keisuke’s blood? I mean, the guy is obviously in pain so just put him outta his misery AND KNOCK HIM OUT. Let him sleep the effects off. It can’t be that Keisuke kept waking up in pain though……or was it that? O_o And I find it amusingly convenient that the building Akira went into….had a bed there. Or maybe everyone just hangs around in the red light district where there’s lots of old and unused beds? XD . . . crap now im having mental images of a love hotel doubling as a lodging for the Toshima participants *smacks the side of her head* bad brain, BAD!

To the funnier side of the show, let us move on. Akira…in shorts…*laughing herself silly* He looked WAY too old for that outfit I’m SORRY but he just looked SILLY! I saw that and went “…did he stop getting clothes after he hit 10 or something?” Keisuke looked oddly at home in that outfit, go figure~ XD AH YES that reminds me *claps hands* I WANT that guitar ver. of Rose Hip Bullet. Its just so fucking sexy and tragic at the same time! But it reminds me of some classic 80’s song but I can’t put my finger on it….*snapping her fingers* AHA! It kinda reminds me Whitesnake’s “Is this Love”! . . . I dunno why…. Keisuke’s seiyuu – AWESOME evil laughter that you did right before the OP. I kinda wanna make that as my sms alert tone XD But eemm…was I the only one thinking that the whole “AaaaaakiiiiirraaaaaaAAAA!” thing was over done JUST a tiny bit? I mean…it sounds great the first few times but then it just…sounds…redundantly stupid. And SFX FAIL when Rin draws his daggers – why the two times SFX of blades being drawn? Oo

Anyways…I admit to two things with this ep.

1. When Keisuke took in Akira’s blood, I fell down to my knees and went, “YESSSSSSSS!”. And then I got majorly appalled when I realized that Keisuke was alive which led to me literally feeling a fucking cloud of depression form over my head. No Shiki, no princess hold, no Aki-napping, no piercing or handcuffs or water or moonlight talk or ANYTHING. *turns over a table in frustration ala anime style before climbing into her bed and doing her bed caterpillar of depression impression* Screw off A-1, i dont trust you or likes you no mo’ :<

2. When I saw that it was Rin standing in the doorway, I couldnt help a LOUD cheer come out from my lips because I ADORED Rin’s route and I had been very curious how they would incorporate his story into the whole plot. Damn interesting. Though err….*confused look* Rin…you fell off a highway bridge…banging into a lamp post on the way down, to add to that. And yet, yer still dancing around like the gymnast monkey that you are….DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THIS AS LOGIC FAIL? XD Wait I just thought of something…HOW did Rin find them?! Was he searching for them all night after his encounter with Shiki? Even then, the chances of him managing to find them so fast is….slim no?

From the previews we’ll get seeing Nano’s path and maybe some Shiki? And I officially put it down for the record now, I’m sticking through for Shiki. And I’m now pessimistic enough that we’ll be getting one of those happy shiny endings where the main lead ends with no one and nothing really gets resolved on the romantic aspect and everything is pretty much the same way it was when we started. So Akira will be back home, working in the factory with Keisuke. He’ll be keeping contact with Rin and Motomi and will hear bout Shiki and Nano from Motomi. And the last scene will be Akira reminiscing about Toshima as he stares off into the sunset. *stomps off to pour herself a digital drink* I’m off to drown my fucking sorrows in some hard yaoi, anyone wanna join me? I’m like THIS close to just saying “you know what? FUCK this shit what is this i dont even” and just walk out…seriously disappointed I am.