Riko makes her return to the series and chaos follows. Her return is tied together with a request for Aria and Kinji to assist in recovering something stolen from her. Riko creates trouble in Kinji’s class and sets off Shirayuki. In the end Kinji and Aria go to meet with Riko to discuss their plans.

Opinions:

Now I know Riko did almost kill a bunch of people on a bus, but damn she is a great character. She really makes it tough to dislike her in any real way. I suppose you can say she never had the intent for anyone to die since she believed that Aria and Kinji would get the job done. Plus she has pretty much confirmed my suspicions that she didn’t kill Kinji’s brother and that takes away Kinji’s main reason to dislike her. Of course it also creates an uncomfortable reveal that his brother likely turned traitor and joined EU. Still unfortunate for Riko that she got something important stolen from her and was kicked out from EU since she didn’t kill or recruit her opponents. Now theoretically this could all be a trick, but I’m giving her some slack for now. This does allow her to join Kinji’s growing harem. She does have the blood of thieves in her system so whether she can stay a butei for the long term is hard to say.

Smooth thinking by Kinji to realize Riko probably got a plea bargain. It would be overly risky for her to try sneaking in after what happened recently. Since Aria’s mother was cleared on the Butei Killer cases based on the ‘killer’ still being at large there isn’t too much need I think for Riko to testify like Aria wants. I wonder what she had to reveal for her plea bargain considering it kept her from serving any jail time and let her rejoin the school without any information coming out about her crimes? I suppose she gave enough information about EU and cleared up some cases that EU was involved with that had remained unsolved. Anyways, Kinji’s best moment in the episode was without a doubt when Aria was looking out the window and standing over Kinji’s face. The guy didn’t even blink. Of course that was for the best since making any fuss would have let Aria figure out that he saw and that would just lead to her freaking out.

Riko really is too much for the other girls to handle though. Aria did a reasonable job throwing insults back and forth, but still Riko’s chest gives her a perceived advantage in Aria’s mind. Also Shirayuki is easy to throw off since all one has to do is bring up Kinji and she’ll lose her calm head. That umbrella weapon was pretty cool and really does prove that you can’t lower your guard against Riko. Kinji….well he can’t handle girls well since he hates his Hysteria Mode. The classroom scene was a lot of fun and she made a smooth escape when the teacher caught on.

Shirayuki seems to be returning the the annoying habits that made me not a fan of her earlier. I can get that she is jealous of the other girls and cares a lot about Kinji. But breaking doors, heaters, and stripping when she gets him alone is pushing the ridiculous. Then she just walked right past ridiculous when she snagged him with a chain and dragged him towards the bed. It can be somewhat comical, but it is also clear why she has no chance with Kinji. He may care about Shirayuki, but her insane actions just scare him off. No shock when he actually escaped via the window and just ran for it.

Aria was pretty possessive in this episode. I suppose Riko brings that out of anyone (see Shirayuki). Even normal Kinji could kind of get the feeling of what really was bothering her about Riko making those advances. It’s not just about teamwork or stealing her partner, it’s taking the guy she likes. Can take this easier since she’s not going to Shirayuki’s level of extremism. She and Riko have plenty of similarities, but definitely not in breast size. One thing I think Aria forgot is that Riko had a disguise of her on to start with. His guard was down and he got close because it was Aria. Still while he is a male lead (and thus a certain degree of denseness is required) what she said partially got through. In the end this guy has some pretty strong and in various ways extreme girls around.

I’m looking forward to where this last arc of the series is going to go. Should have plenty of potential with them diving into danger to recover what Riko lost. Good chance they will run into this Vlad (probably descendant of Vlad the Impaler) guy. Could easily see them running into Kinji’s brother too. Regardless should be entertaining long as they give the fights in this arc the quality they deserve.
Score: A