This episode consisted of two parts. In the first part, Watanuki’s classmates, which we already met in the movie, are introduced again. Their relationship is just like in the movie, including all of the feisty dialogue between the three of them. Anyway, they don’t really play a big role in the episode, as they leave afterwards to do their own things. Juuko, meanwhile, feels like she wants to eat some very peculiar dishes. Guess who gets to do it.

Then the second part begins. What we have here is a story of a woman, who’s been lying so much, that she’s become used to it and doesn’t even realize she’s doing it. She suffers from a black smoke-like something, which gushes out of her every time she lies. As she lies more and more, her body becomes more and more paralyzed. Yuuko lets her figure out her problem on her own, which results in the girl ending up in the hospital. Watanuki isn’t really happy with Yuuko’s way of acting, so he asks her a couple of questions, at which she gives a satisfying answer, only to be followed with even more insane food-orders. Then, we see a serious side of Yuuko when she monologues about Watanuki’s usefullness.

The great point of this series is without a doubt the incredible dialogue. Whether it’s meant to be serious or comedy, this anime delivers. In the first case, there’s just so much room for debates, and moral questions. In the second case, seeing each of the characters just annoy the hell out of Watanuki and him responding back is just too funny to see. The mystery-department also is interesting to see, but it could have been better. Though I’m guessing that the creators just start off with the small cases, and end with the large ones. I’ll be waiting for those.

Okay! After a bit of waiting, the next bunch of new shows has come in. These three all have a woman with some kind of talent or special trait. Ranging from being able to see through object and being a goddess, to being having great gunning-skills.

Ray The Animation

The fights were interesting in this one, I loved the drama and the questions it induced. This looks like it could become a very good anime. It’s such a pity that I won’t be able to find out whether this is the case or not, because I’m never going to touch this series again. Our main character happens to be a surgeon. I’ll be honest. I can handle blood in anime. No problem. But when surgery is fully displayed, I just can’t take it. I’ve had surgery myself a fair number of times, and I just want to know and see as little of it as possible, in order to not get some weird ideas.

Ah My Goddess, 2nd Season

I have no idea why I decided to pick this up. I hadn’t even seen the original series, so I had no idea what went on in the previous series. Apparently, three goddesses went to live with a guy, and some kind of evil dude wreaked havoc and destroyed a good number of things. Anyway, it was a good variation to see the harem-cast consisting of just three members, instead of the usual five or even more. It’s also good that the two main characters are also meant to be together, and there is some interesting dialogue. Apart from that, however, this show’s just plain boring. Nothing really happens, and I don’t think I’ll keep watching this.

Black Lagoon

This will be something like an alternative version of the Stockholm Syndrom, as our main character pointed out. In case you never heard of it: there once was a bank-robber in Stockholm who robbed a bank and used a girl as a hostage. He got caught and the girl was free again. However, after a couple of months, she ended up marrying this particular bank-robber. It’s for a part the same thing. The girl has turned into a guy who’s just been working for a big company and has to deliver a top-secret cd-rom and the bank-robbers have been turned into modern-age-pirates. Of course, there have been a lot of extra drama and interesting characters added, and I have to say, it works pretty well. It’ll be interesting to see how both parties will develop. The only problem I have with the show is the cliffhanger. It was just so fake. I’m not going to spoil it, but you’ll know what I’m talking about once you see it. The ED was, by the way, one of the best of its kind.

I really like Haseo. Even though he’s shy, he has a strong character. He doesn’t just hear things and obeys them, but he thinks on his own for a chance. Still, my guess is that he’ll end up in the Twillight Brigade. Probably in the next episode. Anyway, today we see the introduction of another pair of interesting characters. They’re both players who abandoned the Twillight Brigade, because they were just used by Ovan. It’ll be very interesting if these characters make some more appearances in the show, as I kindof liked them. After all, a friendly PK-er and a pessimist are always nice to see.

There isn’t really a good side and a bad side yet. There really are lots of differend sides. I hope it stays this way, as it brings potential for so many conflicts.

An element I found interesting is the fact that nothing out of the ordinary has happened yet. In every other .Hack//anime, the first episode would immediately introduce something supernatural which was happening. In //Sign it was Tsukasa being unable to logout. In //Dusk it was the undefeatable monsters appearing (I hope never to refer back to //Dusk again) and //Liminality had (along with //Sign as well) people getting into a coma. //Roots still has nothing, which makes me curious about what will happen in the next couple of episodes.