This episode had it’s ups and downs. Kinji temporarily returning to Assault started off well with quite a bit of attention from his classmates and some nice words from Aria. A visit to the arcade lead to some cute moments from Aria. But the next day the Butei Killer struck and created a very Speed moment by putting a bomb on a bus. The incident was resolved thanks to a good shot by Reki, but Aria was injured while protecting Kinji. This lead to a pretty tense moment in the hospital with Aria and Kinji being frustrated with the other.

Opinions:

Well I think this is a tale of two episodes. The first part of the episode with the visit to the arcade actually went pretty well and things ended in a rough way. I think this just shows how the interaction between two leads with different objectives will clash. Aria clearly has a pretty important reason for needing to find a partner that is at least at her level of skill. There is something pressing and I don’t think she’d have pushed Kinji so hard if she wasn’t that desperate. The series hasn’t yet revealed either why Kinji is so desperate to quit being a Butei. I can understand some reasons why he doesn’t like Hysteria Mode, but if that is all it seems pretty shallow when lives are on the line to hold back like that. Right now both of them won’t reveal to the other why they are so determined. Until they can open up it’s going to be hard on them.

In the end though there is nothing wrong with running into a little conflict. Both of them are going to have to get past this if they are going to get anywhere. It’s hard to judge either of them since we don’t yet know why they are acting like this. But considering the type of series this is I’m pretty sure that in the end Aria is going to get her way, though she has paid a price to get there. Considering the time she spent in front of a mirror last episode it’s clear that a scar no matter how small on her forehead is a pretty painful thing. That alone would probably be bad, but the situation it came from probably just raised the tension level. I mean first she had to cover Kinji, because he didn’t listen to her. Sure getting rid of the transmitter was important, but he should have thought ahead about how easy a target it’d make him. Finally the fact that Kinji’s holding back caused her injury probably didn’t help. He may have promised us that he wasn’t going to use Hysteria Mode, but that wasn’t what he said to Aria. He said he’d give his best and whether he likes it or not Hysteria Mode is part of his best. It’s not going to be easy to fix things, but I think the two blowing up a bit at each other will help in the long run.

Have to say that we did get a couple nice moments from the other girls this episode. Reki the sniper made her debut and did an amazing job. From what I hear part of her chant was cut off and that’s too bad for her. Still that was one hell of a shot she made there. A pretty good move by Aria to have her come along for the mission and be there. Can’t deny either the difficulty of making a shot from a moving helicopter at a small spot on a bomb that’s attached to a moving bus. Riko had a small, but I’m sure to many key moment :D. That’s one heck of a spot to carry a ticket.

I do wonder now who on earth they caught before for the Butei Killer’s murders. Must have been a copycat or someone the original used to cover his tracks. Either way it’s clear the real killer is on the move and I wonder what kind of connection Aria has to be so determined to catch him. Well we are bound to get those answers sooner or later.

On a lighter note I did appreciate the trip to the arcade that Kinji and Aria took. It did require Aria to forcefully stick with Kinji and that desire was probably fueled by him calling her tagging along a punishment rather than a reward. They’ve both got some pretty determined personalities when they decide something. Still even Kinji couldn’t deny the cuteness of Aria being all over the leopard-lions. Then she stepped things up with how happy she was for Kinji to win a couple and giving him one of them. Considering how things ended having them share that moment was pretty nice.

Next week should be good as we get some aftermath and apparently some nice Riko moments.

Score:A