This week’s episode starts off with the karuta club finishing their first round of matches and heading to a quick 15 minute break before the next round.  As everyone heads out to the hallway to either grab a quick snack or drink, Chihaya stays behind and tries to focus on her technique.  She’s finally gotten the hang of the two and three syllable breathing technique with the cards, but she realizes she still needs to work on her accuracy.  She also goes over the fact that with Kanade and Komano, she’s able to go back up to 7 spaces from the playing field and still be able to reach the last row of cards easily, but with Taichi and Nishida, she’s only able to go back 3 spaces so far.  She proceeds to practice her technique by visualizing the cards on the mat (like Arata did as a child), but instead of practicing alone, she visualizes Shinobu and tries to compete against what she remembers of her speed.  As she’s doing this, the others are watching her in stunned awe.  Komano makes the comment that if Chihaya would use even 1/10 of the concentration and dedication she shows karuta on her studies, she wouldn’t be 5th from the bottom of their entire class.  Speaking of which, Chihaya goes to speak to their adviser about the club going to the last tournament in the division before the qualification tournament for who is going to play against the master and queen.  Their adviser seems happy that they’re all so dedicated, but tells Chihaya that she can’t let her go because she’s on the verge of failing all of her classes and is liable to be held back.  Chihaya doesn’t understand why at first, but when her teacher reminds her that the first day of exams is on Monday, Chihaya starts to panic.  Her teacher smiles and tells her not to worry since she managed to find her a tutor.  As luck would have it, Chihaya’s tutor is none other than Komano.

That afternoon, Chihaya is lamenting the fact that she can’t go to the tournament but Nishida isn’t able to either since he’s on the verge of failing both English and math.  Komano agrees to tutor Nishida as well, but only if they call him Komano-sensei.  Kanade doesn’t seem to have any problems with her classes, but since the tournament is only for A and B class players, she wouldn’t be able to go and compete anyway.  Upon finding out about this, Taichi says that he’s heading to the community club since they won’t be practicing and he really needs to practice if he wants to advance in rank.  Nishida brings up the fact that if you place second in two tournaments in a row, you automatically get to advance to the next rank.  Taichi laughs, saying that it’s a rule of their community to win a game before advancing in rank.  Nishida starts to tell them what happened when his own community club found out he advanced to Class A, but trails off when he remembers how his teacher scolded him for allowing his friends to bring back his super competitive side.  Taichi nods in understanding and heads to the club to practice while Komano faces the difficult task of tutoring Chihaya.

The next day, Chihaya, Komano and Nishida are all in the library studying (more like cramming at this point) but Chihaya can’t stop thinking about the tournament and how Taichi will be all alone all day.  However, under Komano’s constant watch, she’s unable to sneak away to go to the tournament and cheer for Taichi.  Meanwhile, at the tournament, we find that Taichi has won the first two rounds of the tournament and is feeling rather confident about the whole thing.  He runs into Dr. Harada, who is also practicing for the qualification and the two chat for a bit before Dr. Harada brings up the fact that Taichi should have seen someone familiar.  Taichi scans the room and we see that Arata is there competing!  The two stare at each other for a moment, but Arata’s teacher – who turns out to be an old friend/rival of Dr. Harada – runs over and the two older men start chatting happily.  Arata and Taichi start off awkwardly, but eventually Arata gives Taichi his cell phone and email address and asks him to give it to Chihaya if he sees fit.  This catches Taichi off-guard and of course, it’s right before the next round.  Meanwhile, Chihaya has managed to slip away to run to the tournament by saying she needed to go to the restroom.  She sends Komano a text message to apologize, but Komano is furious about this (of course, he doesn’t exactly let on about that).  When she finally arrives at the tournament center, she finds Taichi sitting in the lobby and asks him how he did.  Turns out, he lost in the third round and lost his last chance for advancing a rank before the qualifications, which upsets Chihaya.  However, as soon as Taichi mentions that Arata is there, she seems to be in a trance and goes straight for the playing hall to watch him play.

She enters and sits down to watch Arata’s next match and Taichi follows her.  At first, neither of them say anything, but Chihaya suddenly grabs Taichi’s wrist and shakily says that Arata’s back, just like he promised.  This brings a tear to both of their eyes and Taichi leaves the room, though Chihaya is enthralled with how Arata plays.  The way she describes it, it’s like watching someone move through water.  Each motion is fluid and calculated, without making much noise, if any at all.  As Chihaya is busy watching the match, Taichi is sitting in a room and stares at the phone number Arata gave him to give Chihaya.  Dr. Harada notices Taichi’s frustration and seems worried about him, but doesn’t say anything yet.  After Arata’s match, Taichi and Arata find Chihaya furiously scribbling down notes based on Arata’s movements.  This makes Arata smile and he tells Chihaya that he’s happy to see that even when she’s not playing, she’s fired up.  Of course, Kanade comes out of nowhere (she came to watch the tournament and show Taichi the club’s support) and scolds Chihaya for skipping out on her tutoring with Komano.  As she drags Chihaya off, Taichi and Arata have a small chat.  Taichi hands Arata the phone number back, saying that it’s not fair of him to ask Taichi to decide whether or not Chihaya needed his phone number.  Arata blushes and says that he figured that since he was gone for so long, the two of them were already dating.  When Taichi says they aren’t, Arata almost looks relieved to hear that.  The two say goodbye since Arata needs to head home, though Taichi still seems upset about his loss.  On the train ride home, Kanade continues to scold Chihaya and makes her read their textbook on the way back to the school.  Chihaya paused and notices a poem that’s from karuta and comments on how it almost feels like a love poem; she even goes on to say that she understands how the author felt since she feels the same way whenever she sees Arata.  Kanade is moved, but continues to make Chihaya study on the way back to the school.  After the tournament is over, Taichi heads to the train station with Dr. Harada and their other clubmate.  Dr. Harada offers Taichi the opportunity to advance in rank, even if it’s against the norm for their community club but Taichi declines.  He says it’s because he wants to be able to become a person who can advance even through their frustrations.

Opinions:  Well this was certainly interesting.  I was only half expecting Arata to show up, but I’m glad he did.  It seemed to be a bit of a reality check for Taichi, though I was bummed that he didn’t win the tournament and advance in rank.  I’m kind of surprised that he passed up Dr. Harada’s offer to advance in rank though!  I  had to laugh at Chihaya throughout the episode though; not only was she banned from playing in the tournament, but she had to cram for exams because she’d fail otherwise.  I don’t know why, but I found that extremely amusing.  That aside, seeing her reunion with Arata via karuta was incredibly touching.  Not only did she learn some valuable information from watching him play, but the fact that Arata finally came back to karuta like he promised was a nice touch.  The whole scene where Arata asked Taichi if he was dating Chihaya was cute and it makes me wonder if this means Arata has feelings for Chihaya as more than a friend.  It’s pretty obvious that Chihaya may have romantic feelings for Arata since she feels as if she understands how the poet who wrote the love poem (the one she read on the train) felt while writing it.  With the qualification tournament coming up quickly, it’ll be interesting to see how things will go, especially now that Arata is finally back in the picture.

Score: A/A+

It’s not a bad thing to get to see a different perspective now and then. Though makes you wonder about people who just randomly start telling their life story XD. Just because you get stuck for a while in a well with someone doesn’t mean they care that much about you. Still joking aside it wasn’t bad to find out about Nanase. Can at least call her by name rather than the “evil woman from the Matoba clan.” Sadly not too much Natsume this week since the story wasn’t about him and unfortunately no Reiko either despite being mentioned numerous times in the episode.

The story of Nanase really does show you how different people can turn out. Nanase was born in that Matoba family and given a pretty tough upbringing because of her talent. But even still, she had a conscience and wasn’t just going to seal everything in sight. She had doubts about sealing the small youkai since he accidentally got involved. It does make you wonder what would have happened if she had run into Reiko (besides a smack to the head)? Instead she ran into Mikage who really had an impact on her mindset. Initially I thought he would turn on her and that would be why she became someone who could use youkai so callously. Instead it’s the way he talked to her and the lessons he taught her that helped form her beliefs.

Honestly, the whole karma thing felt like a weak excuse. It’s fine to do anything, because that’s just your karma/duty. Exorcists seal evil youkai because that’s their karma. Mikage sealed youkai because that was his karma. Nanase sealed Mikage because that was her karma. You can see the pattern. Really you can just do anything and then say it was your karma to do it. Now I had no problem with her sealing Mikage because he was literally asking for it. Better to be sealed before he went dark and hurt others. Unfortunately this helped turn Nanase into someone who could do whatever the Matoba asked and just use karma to excuse it. It’s ok to do whatever they want whether it be sacrificing weak youkai or using people. She stopped having doubts and simply followed the rules of her family. Of course the episode showed that she isn’t completely dark since she came to find the stone. I might be too hard on the whole karma thing, but I just didn’t like how the episode used it. Just accepting your role as fate. Mikage never even thought anymore about what he was doing even though it tore his body apart. I can kind of see why Reiko refused to seal him and simply took his name. Who was Mikage to decide what Reiko’s karma is?

One disappointing thing was never getting to see Reiko. We’ve rarely seen her outside the first couple seasons and that trend seems to be continuing here. This episode mentioned her numerous times, but she never appeared. Sure, we can say this episode showed how her very existence shaped events, but I’d still have liked to see her. It is pretty amazing to think how much Reiko changed things, just by going around beating up any youkai who got in her way. Nanase would never have met Mikage otherwise.

In the end I’ll give the episode credit for making me feel sympathy for Nanase. Just a person in the end and it’s not like she started off like she is today. She’s another person who struggled because of the ability to see youkai and even more so because as a Matoba she wasn’t allowed to show sympathy. Just too bad that instead of having a chance to break away from her family the events of this episode firmed her up. Even now there is probably some good in there, but she’s still willing to do terrible things. Makes her a more complex person at the very least.

This wasn’t a bad episode (don’t think Natsume is capable of that), but probably is my least favorite of the season. Didn’t really like them teasing the idea that Reiko would appear. It did add some depth to a character that we didn’t know much about and told another good story of human and youkai interacting. As always it ended in separation, but at least Mikage was freed from the seal in the end. Next week looks like it will be interesting so I’m looking forward to it.
Score: A-

Episode 16

In episode 16, we obtain quite a bit of plot-altering information both about Shu, GHQ and the Voids.  It starts off with Argo and Oogumo in a helicopter getting orders from someone to retrieve Arisa from the school and bring her to the meet-up point.  Turns out, Arisa’s grandfather has struck a deal with an ambassador from Korea that he would give his only granddaughter and heir to him as a bride in exchange for his cooperation in speaking on behalf of Japan in the upcoming UN meetings.  With their mission given to them, they head for the school and Argo is given the task of infiltrating the school and retrieving Arisa.  On his way there, he runs across several students from Shu’s school ganging up on a poor girl from another school and trying to steal the medical supplies that she was able to gather.  Argo eventually steps in and saves the girl’s life, though his own life is only spared by the Undertaker logo on his jacket.  Argo and the girl are taken to the school where he’s presented in front of Shu, who has taken to wearing Gai’s old coat and a scarf (apparently the scarf is a symbol of his authority as well as his right-hand man).  Argo is surprised to see Shu, though he also acknowledges that Shu has changed since the last time he saw him.  Yahiro ushers Shu out of the door, saying that they need to visit the docks and Argo follows them.  As it turns out, Shu has implemented the Void ranking system and those who are Rank F are basically manual labor who are forced to scavenge underwater for medication and other supplies.  As a way to get them to cooperate, Shu has denied them their medication to keep them from developing the virus, so a lot of them are starting to sport the purple crystals that are classic signs of someone developing the cancer.  Argo is disgusted by this turn of events, especially when one of the people manning the oxygen tanks starts to become alarmed because Souta’s machinery malfunctioned and he’s in danger of drowning.  They scramble to find the spare oxygen tank, but Shu orders them to stop because Souta has a spare oxygen tank on his diving suit and it’s up to him to find it and save himself.  The students are terrified to move, but Argo isn’t so he tells Shu to shove it and hooks up the oxygen tank to the machinery, effectively saving Souta’s life.  As expected, this pisses off Shu and he uses a nearby girl’s Void (which is a rather mean looking scythe) and orders Argo to follow his orders.  Argo declines and Shu orders his secret service agents to escort him to the prison and to not let him get in touch with Arisa.

Meanwhile, we see Haruka working on that project of hers and Keido comes out and asks her why she’s doing the work when it puts her son in danger.  Haruka says it’s a way to punish her son and continue the work of her late husband, which makes Keido chuckle.  Even though she says it’s a way to punish Shu, I have a feeling that there’s more to it than that.  We also see the blond guy from the end if the first arc (the one who was attempting the marriage between Keido and Mana) pick up one of the rings that we thought was lost.  We have no idea what he’s planning on doing with it, but I have a bad feeling about it.  Back at the school, Argo is imprisoned in a holding cell and Tsumugi is able to get one of her robots to him so she can fill him on on what’s going on.  Of course, Argo is furious at what he hears and goes to make an effort to break out of the cell and get to Arisa before the school makes it’s mass exodus.  While Argo formulates his escape plan, we see Shu and Inori in a room filled with flowers and it seems as though this is the only place where Shu can be himself anymore.  He expresses his worries to Inori, but his small haven is interrupted when he hears word of Argo escaping.  He sets his secret service into action to capture him again, but something seems to be off about the mood of the school.  It appears that there’s a rumor spreading about Hare’s death and how it had to do with her Void being destroyed, though Yahiro has told everyone that it’s a new genetic/bio-warfare being used by GHQ.  Shu seems to have his doubts about the validity of the new bio-warfare, but he’s grasping onto anything at this point to ignore the obvious.  Argo gets cornered in the theater by Shu, Yahiro and the girl they captured at the beginning of the episode (she joined the secret service as well) and a fight ensues.  Something happens that causes the roof to collapse and Shu tackles the new secret service agent, but she drops her Void and it’s crushed by the scaffolding.  Because her Void is destroyed, the same thing that happened to Hare happens to her and she dies in a matter of seconds.  This stuns Shu and Argo, though Yahiro doesn’t seem phased (also, I feel it necessary to mention that Arisa was able to escape her room and witnessed the whole thing).  Shu turns on Yahiro and demands to know why he kept that information from him, but Yahiro says it was simply because he knew that Shu wouldn’t be likely to use the Voids if he knew the truth.  While their argument is going on, Arisa scrambles to get out of the theater before it’s on lock-down so she can get the word out to the students.  Argo starts fighting with Shu, but Shu simply draws out his Void, which makes him unconscious and he starts to laugh like a deranged man about the fact that he is literally holding Argo’s life in his hands.  Meanwhile, Arisa is in the radio room and attempting to get the PA system up and running so she can warn the students, but Inori suddenly appears behind her and then blood splatters the mirror behind Arisa.  Elsewhere, we see Haruka and Keido standing in front of something that’s glowing as something emerges from it; the only thing we see before the episode ends is a bare chest and a silver necklace with a cross on it.

Episode 17

The next episode starts off with several student who are supposed to be keeping a look out for rebels and GHQ becoming worried about how close the red line is starting to get to the school.  Of course, Shu and Yahiro show up and Shu scolds them for not paying attention to their job and even threatens them with harm via Void if they won’t do their job.  Terrified, the group of students get back to their job, but not without feeling resentment towards Shu.  Back in his student council office, Shu is putting together their strategy for the Exodus and Yahiro asks him if he’s ever going to sleep.  Shu says he won’t be able to, not with the Exodus so close to being executed and that it’s not what Gai would have done.  Yahiro asks whether Gai would have threatened his subordinates to get them to do what he wanted, which irritates Shu but Yahiro continues to point out that resentment is growing amongst the students and that he needs to be careful of what he does and says should he want the plan to go off without a hitch.  Shu says that he doesn’t care what they think because he knows that the students want to be as safe as possible as quickly as possible and that even though the students who resent him are the ones who probably attacked Arisa, there’s no going back now.  Of course, Shu’s comment about Arisa hits a nerve with Inori and she appears to be scared of herself, but that’s nothing compared to Arisa.  She’s curled up in her bed, shaking like a leaf and continually thinking about how Inori pinned her hand to the mirror behind her in the PA room by using the crystals that Mana used to attack people.  It appears that Inori doesn’t have any knowledge of the attack, but she keeps seeing glimpses of it, almost like Mana had possessed her somehow.  While Arisa is terrified of Inori and she’s mumbling about things, her cell phone rings and she almost seems relieved to find out who it is that’s calling her.  Of course, the man guarding her door hears her talking to someone and enters, forcing her to give him the cell phone and/or tell her who she was talking to.  At first, Arisa resists, but then she realizes that it’s futile and she needs to do something to accomplish her plans.  In this case, it’s selling her body for information.  Because of this payment, Nanba tells his friend to go ahead and post the information about the Voids that Shu is trying to hid from them on the school network and everyone almost immediately finds out about it.  Of course, this causes distrust of Shu and his organization as well as unrest amongst the students, but Shu doesn’t seem to notice it since he’s so absorbed in getting the Exodus to happen.

Shu and Inori spend one final time in their safe haven and Inori confesses that she thinks she’s the one who hurt Arisa but she can’t remember what happened.  Yahiro enters the room, having obviously eavesdropped on them, and Shu tries to protect Inori from a trial by her peers by saying that she doesn’t even remember doing it.  Yahiro shouts at Shu, saying that they can’t play favorites and that he’s too attached to Inori.  Shu seems to snap and starts calling Yahiro ‘Sugar’ again and says that they were never really friends to begin with.  He then draws out Inori’s Void and threatens Yahiro with it until the other boy leaves, but there’s obviously going to be something bad going on and soon.  Again, we see Arisa selling her body to Nanba for intelligence and he gives her a list of all of the students and their Voids before asking what she’s planning on doing with it.  She tells him that she’s planning a coup and that she’s going to bring down Shu and his organization if it’s the last thing she does.  That night, the school prepares for the Exodus and everyone seems to have gotten orders from someone about what they’re supposed to be doing, though they also appear to be following Shu’s orders.  For now, anyway.  Everyone gets loaded up and Tsumugi and Ayase are in a broadcasting vehicle, relaying information to the others about whether or not there’s enemies up ahead or not.  They make it to Tokyo Tower before they’re ambushed by the enemies they knew would be there and all of the students begin fighting, though there’s also a lot of casualties.  Shu starts to wonder if he was really just using them as glorified decoys, but tries to push the thought to the back of his mind.  He draws out Inori’s Void and joins the front lines, carving a path to the tower where he is able to disrupt the signal to the red line as well as the Endlaves, which is going to allow them to escape Loop 7.  At first, everyone seems pleased with him, but then three people tell him that his need is over and they’ll take it from there.  Shu is confused and doesn’t notice Souta coming up behind him and pushing him into a crater caused by the explosion of the tower.  Arisa reveals her plans to usurp power from him before realizing that someone is standing behind her.  Instead of fearful, she seems relieved to see the person standing there.  As Inori runs to Shu, she’s suddenly impaled by a sword and we find out that this person who is taking over is Gai!  Somehow he’s been brought back from the dead and he seems pissed.  He approaches Shu and yanks the sword out of Inori (though she’s not dead, so maybe it was her Void?) and slices off Shu’s right arm, releasing the King’s Mark and allowing Gai to gain the power.  Shu collapses, though he still can’t seem to process what happened to him between the shock and the blood loss.  Gai makes the comment that Shu wasn’t meant to be king; only he was and he’s come back to take on that role.

Opinions:  Well…damn.  Shit has hit the fan and I’m really eager to find out what happens next.  I have to admit, I never saw Arisa as the type of person to sell herself for intelligence, but I suppose that desperation will cause all sorts of people to do things that they would never do normally.  I kind of saw the coup coming since Shu was using scare-tactics to keep everyone in line and it had to end sometime.  The fighting scenes were done extremely well as per usual, though I think the big shock of the two episodes was seeing Gai back from the dead (and obviously changed) and what he did to Shu.  I have to wonder if Shu is even going to be able to survive that and what he’s going to do to fight against Gai if he does somehow survive.  It’ll definitely be interesting to see how this all plays out, that’s for sure!

Overall score: A/A+

Well this episode showed how Johan and Pheles really are one heck of a couple. Johan was completely able to stun Yuji and the Serpent of the Ritual. Those two have been in control for quite a long time, but Johan was able to put them down pretty effectively. Suppose there really hasn’t been anyone who can match up to them in terms of words to this point which of course has lead to plenty of disasters. But Johan is confident in his beliefs and is able to cut right to the core of what Yuji is doing and what is motivating him. This was a pretty fun episode just to see the various groups in motion and starting to get a picture of what might be going on, though to be fair a lot of it is still uncertain.

It was pretty crazy when Shana just snapped on Yuji. Got to see some good flashbacks and bringing up an important question from Shana’s side. He put the goals and plans ahead of the girl standing in front of him right then. Yes, the plan in his mind is also for her sake, but to accomplish it he was the one who stepped away in order to start all this. Despite the end result he didn’t believe they could overcome things just by standing together. Instead he felt it was necessary to go along with all this and never really just talking to Shana.

Now it was pretty fun to have some of the trump cards being played by Shana and Yuji. They both came into this battle prepared to do whatever it took to win. Shana showing off some of the rings she had which had some pretty nice abilities. Of course Yuji had his defenses prepared for what might happen. This episode just shows that Shana does have the ability to come up with some good plans even if Yuji is now on the other side. The start of the episode kind of shows why debating about the positives and negatives of Yuji’s plan is meaningless. Tomogara and Flame Haze are at war and that didn’t just start with this situation. From the start it’s been a kill on sight kind of situation so talking to each other about what should and shouldn’t be done is kind of pointless. Sure, for Shana and Yuji it’s a different situation because of their connection, but overall the two sides simply have to fight to decide what will happen.

Still have to wonder what exactly Margery and Khamsin are up to. Margery seems to be wandering beneath trying to accomplish something that requires stealth. Of course have to think it also requires some pretty skilled spells or someone else would be taking on that role while she fought. I’d be surprised if things remained as simple as her accomplishing her job without a fight, but hard to say. Still if the Three Gods and Shana are acting as a decoy her job must be cruical to stopping the creation of Xanadu. With Khamsin I’ve also got to wonder what he’s up to. Someone at his level is leaving the battlefield to protect Kazumi and the others. While I’m sure he doesn’t have a complaint about watching over Kazumi it does seem strange. Of course with the distortions being so important and him being a tuner, it’s possible the focus is stopping what Yuji is doing. If he can tune the city again then it would make things harder on Yuji. But will have to wait and see since whatever Johan and Pheles are up to will make things interesting.

This gave me a good scare

I’ll admit the series got me. I got sucked into the whole thinking that Kazumi wouldn’t make it out of this situation alive. We’ve had all this time thinking Kazumi would either never use that hougu or she’d die. Instead like I kind of hoped it didn’t end up being fatal. Of course I had a weird idea that it would actually turn Kazumi into kind of a Flame Haze, but hadn’t thought too much about it. Instead it gave Kazumi the chance to make a miracle and summon Pheles to the battle. I’m glad she’s going to survive this. Yes, she won’t end up with Yuji, but she is allowed to love. I give Kazumi my full respect for what she did here. It takes crazy guts to take an action that is likely going to kill you, but deciding its worth using your life to accomplish. It’s like what Yuji said way back in the first season, she isn’t throwing away her life, she’s using it. Still thanks a lot for the scare. They kicked up that music right before she used it and I totally believed that was the end. Strange that I never wanted Kazumi to end up with Yuji, but here I really wanted her to survive.

Of course that summoning lead to a great deal of chaos. Like I said, Johan is just a tough guy to deal with when it comes to words. He really went at Yuji and didn’t hold anything back. Not to mention he almost took back the Reiji Maigo, though can’t really blame him since it does belong to him. I suspect or hope the only reason he let it go was because they can make another one. No idea what it takes to make something like that, but if they did it once I’d think it should be possible to do again.

It was just fun to see Yuji get hammered by someone who could match him in words. Johan and Pheles are certainly a couple that doesn’t hold back when it comes to affection for each other. He makes points that Yuji can’t simply disregard. While Yuji is doing all this for Shana, he has made her suffer and sad in the process. I mean we had all that fun with Shana calling Yuji an idiot and certainly when it comes to girls he is. It also seems like Yuji is still holding things back when it comes to this plan from Shana. He’s not betting on their feelings, but on the plan. Yuji is willing to gamble the very future of the worlds, but he can’t gamble with Shana. It’s all for Shana’s sake, but all that Yuji can focus on is the plan that’s supposed to get him to that goal. Shana has made it clear that she believes in the love between them. Because she loves him she won’t use her final trump card and will after this is over convince everyone to not take action against Yuji for it. But Johan claims Yuji is taking love lightly. Yuji is a logical person himself and his ability to plan shows that. He makes these logical judgments and then takes action. Not to say that it’s wrong to be logical, but its an interesting stance. It’s Johan and Pheles that put their love first and act truly selfishly. While our leads are fighting each other and to a differing degree putting goals ahead.

Really Johan and Pheles are just a fun couple. We’re in the middle of a fight and they just throw themselves together in an embrace. Of course I still feel sorry for Carmel. I mean it’s clear how much she cares about those two, but they continue to shut her out. Pheles didn’t tell her what Johan planned or what he wanted her to do. Instead Carmel is just left locked away wondering what they are planning and why they can’t confide in her. Still the look in Pheles’ eyes seems to hint that it hurts her as well to have to do things this way. Not sure what she and Johan are planning, but hopefully Carmel doesn’t get lost in rejection before they are done.

This episode was pretty damn good. We had some major surprises and the return of familiar faces. I’m still not sure what the Flame Haze are planning, but it should be fun to see both sides throwing their plans right at each other.
Score: A+

Summary Key Points:

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Opinions: (A)

We’re approaching the tail end of the arc for sure, but things are continuing to heat up as we move into the conclusion to this arc. This week features the return to action for one of Fairy Tail’s most interesting antagonists, as well as a few other nice side battles and events to tie everything nicely together.

Before we get into the meat of the episode, I’d like to comment on my own issues with the last episode. I really wondered why a defense had been left in place at the camp, even though mostly everyone from Grimoire Heart had been defeated. This episode clearly answered my question, with the return of not only Hikaru, but Yomazu and Kawazu from the battle with Gajeel, from waaay back in episode 102. All in all, while I’m guessing the battles between the Fairy Tail Mages at the camp and the remaining Grimoire Heart were mostly filler, I really enjoyed these little mini battles.The great thing is that they were short enough to pad out the episode a bit, but not too long as to over stay their welcome.

The battle with Hikaru was as funny as the first one, with some little fanservice trickled in for good measure and an awesome combo attack:

Meanwhile, it seems like the Freed and Bickslow versus Yomazu and Kawazu battle is going to continue next episode.

The main event of the episode, was definitely the battle between Laxus and Purehito. Now, I’ve said before that I’ve been fairly excited for the return of Laxus, but given his attitude, it could’ve gone either way. What rocked though? Was how much Laxus had grown and changed as a person. No longer was this the guy who had almost  wiped out Fairy Tail because of his obsession with strength. No, rather, Laxus here was arguing quite the opposite. Being the strongest doesn’t matter, but  standing up to the strong ones does.

It was hard not to be won over by Laxus’s bravado. Not only was his whole “Its okay to get pissed off when your old man gets done in” stuff, but the fact that he over powered Purehito’s paralyzing spell with sheer power was just AMAZING. Added to that, I think that had Laxus wanted to, he would’ve faught and beat down Purehito, but he recognized that there was more at stake than that.

No, an outsider from the Guild could NOT come in and just save them.

This would mean that:

A.) The Fairy Tail name would be tranished and

B.) That they would always end up relying on him or Gildarts.

In order to truly grow Fairy Tail into a strong force, Laxus chose to power up Natsu and have a member of Fairy Tail take down Purehito.

That whole act, the concept, and then taking the brunt of Purehito’s attack head on without any magic power, has instantly sky rocketed Laxus to epicly badass. And yes, Laxus was a villain in an earlier arc, but damn has the guy already grown into one hell of a cool guy with a real sense of how things should go. I am totally okay with him taking over Fairy Tail as the Guild master, and I’d be dissapointed if he doesn’t end up returning to Fairy Tail.

Once again, with Laxus, Hiro Mashima-san has shown that he knows how redeem characters, and really did redeem Laxus in my eyes.  Now, with Laxus’s selfless actions, we have a Thunder-Fire Dragon  Natsu ready to take on Purehito. Despite what everyone else in the ship is worried about, I don’t think Natsu is going to get sick again this time. Given that he already was able to absorb Zancrow’s powers by creating a second magic void in himself earlier, I’m sure Laxus’s power is going to fit in nicely as well.

The one thing I do wonder though, is from this screenshot:

Some kind of Guild Mark?

Now granted, this could be just the Raijin Tribe Mark that’s still left on his body OR… OR! Laxus has already joined another Guild or perhaps.. formed his own? I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this….

Preview:

Next week, we get Electric Fire Dragon Natsu taking on Purehito! See ya next week!

Bonus:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Hikaru in Heaven and Lisanna upside down for you guys! Enjoy!

This week’s episode picks up where we left off last week; Chihaya is torn between watching Kanade and Komano compete or Taichi and Nishida compete for a rank increase at the local tournament.  At this point, she’s enthralled with watching Kanade and Komano play since she’s trying to learn as much as she possibly can from them.  As the episode starts up, we see Taichi and Nishida fighting valiantly for a card and Taichi is able to get the card in time.  As he goes to pick it up, he starts thinking about how he’s sure Chihaya is proud of him, but when he looks up and notices that Chihaya is focused solely on the other match, he’s crushed.  Going back to Kanade and Komano’s match, things are starting to heat up because Kanade has a six card lead and there’s only ten cards left on the playing field.  When the next card is read, Komano is able to take a card from Kanade, narrowing the gap between them in terms of score.  Chihaya notices that he’s becoming rather confident in himself, but because of this, he slips up and sends the wrong card.  Chihaya mentally goes through what happens when Komano is playing a game; he’ll start to catch up but then he makes mistakes and starts to give up.  Just as she says, when Kanade is able to take the next card, Komano starts thinking that he won’t be able to win and that he should just give up.  However, unlike previous matches, he sees Kanade sweating profusely and giving it her all and is determined to play his best.  He then asks for a moment to move his cards and takes a risky move by combining all of his cards on one side of the playing field.

The spectators murmur about this risky move he took, saying that it appears as though he’s going to be gambling on the cards being read on his side of the field.  However, it seems as though his plan is going to work.  Every card that is read in quick succession is on his side of the playing field and he’s able to hit all of them and send them flying.  Unfortunately for Komano, Kanade is able to snag the ‘chihayafuru’ card from him and that leaves only three or four cards left on the field.  The next card that’s read is on Kanade’s side and she manages to snag it before Komano and she wins the match!  Komano seems a bit defeated, but he’s still happy that Kanade was able to win.  After thanking each other for the match, Kanade remains in a bow, as if she were trying to apologize to Komano.  He smiles and congratulates her and the two share a sweet moment together.  Chihaya is beyond thrilled for Kanade but then she realizes that there’s still Taichi and Nishida’s match going on.  Taichi is trying to remember what cards have been read and which are on the field still and the two of them seem incredibly focuses and ready to win.  Chihaya looks over and suddenly regrets not paying attention to their match.  She begs Retro to let her know what happened, but he’s so focuses on the match that he doesn’t even pay attention to her when she shakes him.

As everyone watches the last match being played, I’m surprised at the tension between Taichi and Nishida.  Both of them are so determined to win that it actually made me tense up just watching them!  Each card that is read is a battle and somehow, it comes down to two cards – one on each side of the playing field.  Everyone watching the game is shocked that such an intense game is coming down to pure luck, but Taichi doesn’t seem to think that luck has anything to do with it.  He mentally runs through all of the ‘the’ cards that have and haven’t been read; turns out there’s 16 in total and only half of them have been read so far.  Nishida takes a defensive stance, but Taichi still remains on the attack as the cards are read.  Unfortunately, every card that’s read seems to be a dead card and Retro thinks about how draining it is to tense up for a card and then relax, only to repeat the process.  When he really looks at the two players, he notices that they aren’t relaxing at all; they’re staying tense and focused for when the next card is read!  Taichi continues attacking while Nishida continues to defend his card until the final card is read.  Nishida’s card is read, but he’s able to cover it before Taichi can get it, which allows him to win the match.  They thank each other for the game, but it’s clear that Taichi is upset that he lost the game.

After everyone puts away the cards and changes into their normal clothes, Taichi heads out into the lobby and starts thinking about the game.  If anything, he’s beating himself up about how he could have taken more cards in the first half of the game and if he had managed that, it wouldn’t have come down to two cards in the end of the match.  Nishida sits down next to him and the two chat for a bit and Nishida admits that he enjoys playing against Taichi because he’s the only one who doesn’t call him a stupid nickname.  Of course, Chihaya overhears them and is devastated to find out that Nishida hates his nickname and thinks that she’s a complete airhead. Kanade’s mother gathers them all together and drives them home in the company van.  Everyone is talking about the outcomes of the match and everyone is so proud of Kanade and Komano for advancing a rank (apparently both the winner and runner-up in Class D advance to Class C in tournaments like the one they were just in) and they’re proud of Nishida for advancing to Class A.  Chihaya says that she wants to play another group tournament with them because it was so much fun last time and she missed it.  Kanade seems to get excited about it as well, seeing as they now have two Class C players, one Class B player and two Class A players.  Taichi ends up falling asleep on the way back and everyone teases Chihaya for trying not to call anyone by the nicknames she gave them.  Meanwhile, we see Arata at his teacher’s place and notices the results from the last tournament in Tokyo.  His teacher comments on how everyone in Tokyo is so competitive, but Arata is focused more or less on Taichi’s name.  He finally tells his teacher that he wants to enter the western qualifier, much to his teacher’s excitement.

Opinions:  This was quite the tense episode!  While not a whole lot happened, other than finding out who won the matches, I enjoyed watching it.  Taichi and Nishida’s match was incredibly tense, especially towards the end, and they had me on the edge of my seat throughout the match.  Kanade and Komano’s match was also fun to watch and I was happy to see Kanade win and Komano find the determination he desperately needs in order to keep competing.  I understand Taichi’s frustrations at not winning, but he also shouldn’t be beating himself up about it all the time.  That aside, I’m happy to see that Arata will be competing in the qualifier since that means that he might be facing Nishida or Chihaya in a match.

Score: B+/A+

With that said, this Winter season in particular, has been one of surprising quality, going as far as to even own and pwn the previous Fall Season of 2010. There are a ton of good shows every season that simply don’t get noticed or the spot light because bloggers are either not blogging them, or there’s just too many shows out there.

To change that, we’re going to do these “You Should Be Watching” feature articles, where we recommend one overlooked and superbly awesome series every now and then. So without further ado, lets look at the most recent series that has probably been overlooked by many:

Aquarion EVOL

Aquarion EVOL is a series that really slipped past our radar when we were deciding on what we were going to blog this season. With many of the awesome fall series still going strong (Chihayafuru, Persona 4, Shakugan no Shana III e.t.c) and a slew of new and amazing series (Nisemonogatari, Natsume Yujinchou San) we totally missed out on what I believe is the Mecha anime of the season, and potentially the year!

^ Sousei no Aquarion

Aquarion EVOL is actually a sequel of sorts (Its set 1,200 years after the orignal) to 2005′s Sousei no Aquarion, a Mecha series filled with mythical elements such as reincarnation, Fall Angels and a lot of other cool stuff. 2005 was a looong time ago, nearly 7 years ago. To put things in prespective, its around the time D.Gray-Man started airing. Yeah, THAT long ago. What probably made Sousei no Aquarion so memorable was the fact that it was the last real mecha series of its kinda. And by that I mean that it was the last series that went along the lines of Evangelion and RahXephon. Namely, a series that involved heavy symbolism, relgious, mythical and philosphical elements.

It was after this that we got stuff like Eureka 7, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and their insuing popularity put  the philsopicaly sci-fi mecha series out of popularity. Not only that, but series Like Gundam and Macross both began reinventing themselves to meld into the modern landscape where Mecha series  needed deep love triangles, and teenage high school style romance and slice of life elements.

Its safe to say that both Gunadm OO and Macross Frontier were extremely successful in their attempts. Now here to join them, with Macross Frontier’s very animation studio at the helm, we have a new incarnation of the Aquarion franchise.

Jaw dropping Mecha Action & Love Triangles!

What really makes Aquarion EVOL so darn amazing, is the fact that it really does have something for everyone, given you’re into the mecha genre. Since its Statelight, we get the obligatory love triangle between series main character Amata Sora, and the two girls Zessica Wong and Mikuno. For fans of the old reincarnations and past lives love, there’s  a SECOND love triangle developing between the possible series antagonist Kagura, Amata and Mikuno.

Reincartions & Past lives still play a huge role!

For fans of the previous series, there’s tons of little Easter eggs throughout. A big thing about the previous series was the reincarnations and past lives thing, and the new series seems to be putting a fresh take on it. Amata and Kagura are possibly two reincarnations of Sousei no Aquarion’s Apollo, who himself was a reincarnation of the Angel of Death, Apollonius. There are other characters like Shrade and Cayene, who seem to be the reincarnations of Sirius, and its unknown whether Zessica and Mikono are the reincarnations of Sousei no Aquarion’s Sivia. And all of this is pure speculation on my part, based on having seen the original series and then rewatching it recently.

Added to that, the art direction, animation and action is just simply jaw dropping. If you’ve followed Satelight’s last mecha series, Macross Frontier, you’ll know that these guys are the absolute best at mecha series animation. They simply pull all the stops in Aquarion EVOL though. As of right now, we’re 7 episodes in and there has not even been a remote dip in quality.

Jaw dropping Character Design!

The character designs are breathtakingly unique, interesting and fresh. Everyone from the almost regular looking Amata Sora, to the punkish looking Andy, are enough to sell the series. Added in some breath taking backgrounds that truly bring this new incarnation of this world to life, and man… its just impressive.

Much like in Macross Frontier and Sousei no Aquarion, the music is just as impressive. Sousei no Aquarion was a classic mecha series in the sense that it reused a “theme song” of sorts for important moments, and Aquarion EVOL does that as well. Added to that though, it has some of the most impressive J-Rock/J-Pop songs that made Macross Frontier’s OST and the anime such a musical masterpeice. Its the best of both worlds, and that balancing act is something the series does so well in nearly every aspect.

A new twist on union based Mecha Anime!

The focus on “unions” and the whole girls and boys being seperate but then coming together, is something many series have done. Hell, a series like Vandread and even Geneshaft were BASED on the concept of females and males being apart and then reconnecting. Aquarion even adds that to the mix, and puts a unique high school themed take on it. Solid stuff in the slice of life department right there, with some genre tropes kept in tact.

Its still early to say what will happen with this series, but starting from the series premier (which bundeled episodes 1 and 2) all the way to episode 7, Aquarion EVOL has been consistently delivering each week. If you are or have ever been a fan of Mecha anime, then this is one series you absolutely MUST see.

We here at Anime Evo, heartily recommend it!

Trailer/Promo Vid:

I’ve never really been much of a Sasuke fan so I’m always “Meh” whenever he comes up in the story. However, it looks like Sasuke is finally going to get some action by battling against Itachi. Hey guys, is it just me, or does Sasuke have a brother complex? No, really, I’m not kidding.

Anyway, moving on! Karin gives me mixed feelings. I mean, if a guy tried to kill me, no matter how much I love him, I’d stay the hell away from him and forget about him, but alas, this is a manga so logic doesn’t really apply.

I’m looking forward to Sasuke and Itachi’s fight, hopefully it’ll be something interesting to see. Aw, who am I kidding? It’ll be the same shounen cliched all over again, Sasuke is going to defeat Itachi and then go fight Naruto and shows his Tsundere side.

Comments? Questions? Theories? Hakuna matata?

So anyway, as I was saying, nothing interesting has really happened thus far. We’ve been introduced to two new Shinigami that are now apparently the ones in charge of purging Hollows that may appear in Karakura town. But since this is a shounen manga, obviously the only character that is supposed to stand out as an all-might powerful being is Ichigo, so he was the one that defeated the Hollow that attacked the two new Shinigami stationed in Karakura Town.

I guess we’ll be getting a new final boss for this final arc, with the pretense that Hollows are disappearing without a reason whatsoever. Maybe the Soul Society King is involved in all of this affair? Or maybe it’s that new creepy “Ivan” guy that showed up at the end of this new chapter?

Well, who knows, but let’s patiently wait every week to find out.

Oh and my apologies that I have not been blogging Bleach and Naruto lately, it’s just that I’ve been so busy and exhausted since my College classes started again.

Summary Key Points:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Opinions: (S)

To the detractors who thought Fairy Tail couldn’t hold its own in the action department as far as Shounen series go, this episode gives you a major dose of AMAZINGLY well done action, and makes you think twice about every being negative about this epic series!

I think this episode will remain forever in my memory as the one with the coolest combo group attack in the series yet.

We had Erza, Wendy, Gray, Natsu and Lucy friggin dish out the ownage. That synchronised combo attack was just pure animation awesome, and was well worth whatever percentage of the budget the production team sank into it.

The Unison Raid between Wendy, Lucy and then Natsu hitchhiking a ride was just… Wow! I cannot even begin to state how sore my jaw is after that huge height of a drop. Just amazing, friggin amazing.

What is sad though, and I think at the same time great, is that Fairy Tail offers up its action in bit sized chunks. Unlike say Bleach or Dragon Ball Z, Fairy Tail is more or less about one episode, and sometimes half episode fight scenes, and little more, length wise. I enjoy the fact that Fairy Tail never loses sight of the fact that its essentially a story, not a glorified slug fest, but at the same time, this intense action really leaves me craving more.

Of course, its also because of how brief and quick the fights are that we get to see such glorious choreography in motion. I’m sure that this was done in the manga, but whoever choreographed this fight scene for the anime has just simply out done themselves!

So yes, now that I’ve gotten THAT out of my system, its worth talking about the rest of the episode. There were some interesting little bits of dialogue in between the fight scenes, and also some darn odd leaps of logic that required us viewers to suspend our disbelief.

So firstly, why in Heaven and Hell did Fairy Tail have to split up into two teams? The defence team was more or less unnecessary simply because everyone sans Hades/Purehito was down. The one exception could’ve been Zancrow, but Zeref made quick work of him. Therefore, it would have made a lot more sense for everyone, not just Lucy, Natsu and Wendy, to go and take on Purehito. Given that Purehito had already taken down friggin Makarov, the Guild Master, it was blatant stupidity to not go into the battle with nearly everything you had, and perhaps a bit extra.

Instead, we had Natsu, Lucy, Wendy and the three Exceeds go in, leaving both Freed and Bickslow to guard “the wounded”. This was, perhaps, a major misstep, especially given they themselves say that Hades is the only one left. It can probably be argued that some defense was necessary just in case, but then Freed and his runes would’ve probably been enough. The rest of them should’ve all gone. Especially since Purehito ended up dominating them so intensely near the end of the battle:

As they left to go to fight Hades, however, I think we saw a real turning point in the shipping wars of our main character Natsu. Its all but confirmed now that Natsu x Lucy is pretty much our cannon pairing, regardless of whether its developed or not.

The little chat Lisanna had with Lucy before she left, was pretty much an admission of Lisanna conceding to the fact that Lucy was more important to Natsu than her, regardless of whether she term it as “best friend” or not. All in all, I’d say its up to the characters and plot itself to work in any romantic elements. One criticism I have of Shounen series in general, is that they never tackle elements of romance properly, no matter how integral they are to the plot.

The only one that’s come decently close to it, has been Groove Adventure Rave, and lo and behold, same Mangaka that now makes Fairy Tail. I’m hopeful, that we will get some sort of resolution on the romance front for the series, at some point. For now, I’m happy seeing Natsu x Lucy being kind of acknowledged by the mangaka and Animation staff.

The other two major things, were Zeref and the little clash of ideologies between Makarov and Purehito’s Fairy Tail.

First Zeref, who seems to  have given up playing the emo black haired peace loving victim, and has started fully using his powers. We see him annihilate Zancrow and wow. He also mentions Acnologia, which scares the hell out of old Mest and the magic council soldiers, making them retreat and giving up on any chance of salvation. Whatever Zeref is planning on doing, its clear that he’s not content staying dormant any longer. I found his lamentation about Natsu not having destroyed him before the “times changed and he began to act” very interesting.

If one thing is for sure, its that Zeref and Natsu have a deep relationship, that will eventually pit them against one another. This relationship is probably going to be one of the series big secrets that we’ll learn at some much later point in the story.

The other thing, was what Purehito said about Makarov and the changes he brought to Fairy Tail. Its definitely interesting to see the reaction of the second Fairy Tail Guild master to how his guild has changed after his departure. So apparently Fairy Tail wasn’t as flamboyant and the huge attention grabber it is now in Purehito’s time.

I do agree that Makarov is definitely more like the sun, than Purehito, who’d kind of like an all engulfing darkness that acts in the shadows. Probably why it was pretty better for Fairy Tail that Makarov took over before Purehito went dark side.

Oh! And of course, I almost forgot. Friggin Laxus showed up at the end of the episode!

Was that not the friggin best thing ever? I’m sure there are tons of Laxus haters out there,  but I was personally thrilled to see the Spark man make his flashy return. I so totally look forward to seeing Makarov’s successor kick some serious Purehito butt! Not only that, but it was just epic to see Purehito look at Laxus and immediatly think of a younger Makarov.

The next few episodes should have a major slug-a-thon between the Lightning Emperor and The 2nd Guild master of Fairy Tail!

So yes, amazing episode, best action scene in the entire series, and some awesome twists and character moments. My only regret is how late this review was, not doing justice to the intense excitement that this episode generated in not only me, but probably many Fairy Tail fans in general!

Preview:

Next week, or rather, in about 4 days thanks how late the review was this week, we get the major battle between Laxus and Purehito! See ya all next episode!