Like expected, this episode deals with Ai’s past. And holy god, it’s even better than the previous episode made it seem like. We start with the aftermath of the previous episode. (WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS COMING UP)

Ai goes berserk, and manages to hit Hajime and Tsugumi. The dolls try to stop her, but they fail. A huge lightning strike follows, demolishing a nearby tree, and sending Ai on the way to hell. She exits with saying that she doesn’t care about herself again. Hajime and Tsugumi, meanwhile, fall into a spring, and they enter Ai’s past. They get to see a vision of what turned Ai into Jigoku Shoujo.

Could it have been done better? I really don’t think so. Emna Ai really has the most awesome backgrounds ever, along with Ginko and Alice. For starters: Ai was being viewed as a monster back in her childhood-days. These ideas were based on total nonsense, but when an idea slips in, it isn’t possible to get it out of the villagers. Her only friend is Sentarou, and the two of them played together a lot. Sentarou protected Ai as much as he can, though he often loses his temper when she gets called names. Sentarou’s father also is a special person. He’s incredibly weak, so he can’t go and do work on farms. He volunteers to make straw slippers for the villagers in order to repay them. He also encourages Sentarou to play with Ai.

Then, Ai gets the message that she has to be the next victim in the ritual of Sending Seven, in order to appease the mountain god. Sentarou suspects that the villagers chose her on purpose, in order to get rid of her, which might actually come very close to the truth. They however, rely on their stubbornness and authority to ignore these facts. Sentarou gets even agrier when he hears this.

At the day of the Sending Seven, Ai’s parents come to Sentarou and beg him to help her. During the ritual, they hide her inside some kind of temple, and try to make the villagers think that she actually died. An interesting note: when Ai was picked up from her house, the ones who came to take her only thought about themselves, and acted impatiently. This shows that they really wanted her gone.

Anyway, the plan works, and for six years, Sentarou hides Ai in a well disguised place. He heads for her every night, and the two grow up together, and they begin to feel more and more for each other. Until one night, at which the villagers discover him, and the true awesomeness starts.

In these six years, the village has been dying. Harvests have been bad, and everyone’s complaining. When everyone finds out what happened, they immediately blame the cursed Ai for bringing misfortune to the village. Everyone demands the mistake to be corrected, by killing Ai once more. All they use are incredibly selfish arguments. Sentarou tries to do something, but none other than his father is the one who stops him from doing so. Ai gets chased and beaten down by the villagers, including them trying to drown her.

Later, both Ai as her parents have to be burried. They’re blindfolded, and all three of them get hit by a plough. When the villagers think they’re all dead, the bodies get thrown into a pit. Ai, however, remained alive, and she wakes up and sees hears Sentarou. Sentarou, however, is put under such enormous pressure, that he gets forced to be the one to burry her. Ai sees this, an then (while covered in blood by the way, an incredibly sad sight) she gets filled with hatred as the villagers finish filling the hole in which she lies with earth. Talk about horrifying scenes!

Anyway, a couple of years later, Ai arises from the earth, goes berserk and sets the village on fire. Sentarou sees this, and he flees. Tsugumi and Hajime wake up. Tsugumi doesn’t understand why Sentarou acted the way he did. Hajime, however, does. Does this have something to do with his former relationship? Anyway, as Hajime and Tsugumi didn’t get sent to hell, Ai hasn’t been finished either. We end the episode with her opening her eyes again, in a boat leading to hell.

Still, what role does the grandmother have? She hasn’t been shown at all during these flashback scenes. How did the dolls end up in hell in the first place? All questions, waiting to be answered in the last episode. The flashback was just amazing. This also explains what happened in the previous episode a bit better. Ai somehow seemed to have forgotten why she became Jigoku Shoujo in the first place, and thought that Hajime and Tsugumi could help her to understand this, and tell her what happened to Sentarou. The both of them are probably related to Sentarou in some way. The question remains: how?

Some very interesting events happen this episode. We start with where we left off last week: Shiurei’s being tied down and Ryuuki’s about to walk into a trap. Ryuuki, however, noticed this in time, and manages to finish the assaulters off. Seiran, meanwhile, has a dream from the past, at which he was to comfort the young Ryuuki when he was fleeing from his brothers again. Shiurei’s father sees this and smiles, but dashes quickly as he hears footsteps running. Apparently, he doesn’t want to be found out, so he flees.

Ran Shiuei enters the door, and sees Seiran unconcious. He orders his soldiers to search the place, but nothing is found. Ryuuki, meanwhile, finds Shiurei, he unties her, and gives her a big, unexpected hug. She faints afterwards (after all, she does remain poisoned). Ryuuki freaks out. Koyu, meanwhile, gives a little rant about Kourin. Last episode, she wasn’t assaulted at all. She actually attempted to poison herself from doing such things to Shiurei. I’m beginning to like Kourin more and more. Can she get even more awesome?

When the doctors put an examination on both Seiran and Shiurei, it appears that Seiran will be fine. Shiurei’s a different story. There’s no antidote at all, and she’ll be in danger if something isn’t done. Ryuuki freaks out even more when he hears this. The advisor arrives, and the two hold a small conversation. I couldn’t really follow this, but at first, the advisor is reluctant to give out the antidote. After Ryuuki shouts to him, he gives it anyway, and Shiurei is saved. The strange thing is that this guy was smiling thoughout this talk. Why would he want to do that?

Ryuuki leaves and Shiurei’s father enters, and I was getting more and more questions about this advisor-guy. For some reason, he makes Shiurei’s father angry, though not to the point at which hostilities begin. The old man also gives a flashback of a strange man on a horse. Probably the former emperor. Some shots about the time during the fight of the sons of the emperor are also shown, with people barely being able to stay alive. I then realized that Shiurei’s father might be the scary guy mentioned in the fourth episode. He’s some kind of assassin, or something in that direction.

Shiurei, meanwhile, wakes up, and Ryuuki gives her another big hug. We then see Shiurei’s father once more, talking to Shiusui (the older servant of Shiurei), for some reason dressed in the same outfit as he does. She apparently is one of the few people who does know that he’s this scary guy, and the two hold some kind of conversation. Why do I get the feeling that this woman is Shiurei’s mother?

I really have NO friggin idea what’s up with the old guy. Just before, he was making both Ryuuki and Shouka (Shiurei’s father’s name) angry for some reason, and now he walks up to the culprit from last episode, and the two of them talk like they’re best friends. The culprit-old guy is dying from the wound he got from Seiran, and makes his way out of the castle in hope for a miracle. He then runs into the advisor-old guy, surrounded by two sparkles. He might possibly be one of the sages, mentioned in the beginning of the story. Anyway, he lights up, and changes into a twenty-year-old version of himself.

He then professes his LOVE for the other old guy, the other old guy takes his last breath. Apparently, they were really close in the past. I have no idea what that was about, but I want some answers!

We then switch to another very interesting development: Shiurei will be leaving the castle. Ryuuki’s got some sense into him, so she’s not needed anymore. During her departure, the advisor doesn’t show up (what is up with him?) and Ryuuki finally manages to confess to her. She, of course, immediately begins to yell at him.

I’m very curious about where this anime’ll go from now on. Ryuuki surely isn’t going to abandon Shiurei, but she doesn’t have to work at the castle anymore. Not to mention that we’ve only reached episode 6 of 39, so there’s got to be something to fill these following episodes. But what?

Woohoo, the show is getting awesome again. This episode was just full of unexpected and great plot-twists. Characters got a bit more fleshed out, and I still have trouble seeing Keiichi and Rena being so close to each other.

We start with the introduction of another character: the village chief. Okay, he never gets show on the screen, but it seems that he disappeared the day after the Watanagashi. Our fivesome discusses this event, Rena gets all giddly, and Shion (Mion?) looks away when he mentions Oyashiro-sama.

Keiichi still thinks about what happened during the Watanagashi, but then he runs into Rika. This is the first time she really got some scenes which centered around her. The two of them hold a very cryptic conversation. Rika knows what Keiichi did. Then Keiichi realizes that Rika knows what he did. Rika then sees that he realizes that she knows what he did. Keiichi then knows that she knows that he realizes that she knows what he did, and I can continue like this for a while longer. Rika, being the shrine maiden and all, decides to forgive and protect Keiichi. During this conversation, Rika rapidly switches from being scary to serious to cheerful. Overall, very nicely done. She also warns Keiichi in scary-mode about an elder sister, who is angry at her younger sister for committing an evil act. She probably means Mion and Shion with this. Mion appears to be very angry with Shion. (And we’ve seen her getting angry before ;))

Rika also mentiones a very interesting fact: there’ll be no more club meetings for a little while, as she wants to avoid the elder sister for a while. This really gives a different perspective to the arc, but I’ll get back to this later, as there’s an event which plays later in the episode which is connected to this statement of hers.

That evening, Shion calls Keiichi again. He apologizes, and she forgives him. She then begins to break down, as she tells him that it’s her fault that the village chief disappeared. She told him about what happened, and he disappeared afterwards. Keiichi then realizes that he did tell Rika about it. Nice plot twist, very nice plot twist indeed. He calls Rika’s house, but she doesn’t answer. He then contacts Rena, and the two of them run into Mion on their way to Rika’s house. Rena was being dead serious, for the first time ever not literally. I can’t say what’s scarier, when she takes the dead serious litterally, or when she doesn’t. Though, the fact remains that she was awesome at that time.

They arrive at Rika’s house. Apparently, she lives along with Satoko. Both of their parents died, so they have been taking care of themselves ever since. The doors are locked, Mion finds a ladder, Keiichi climbs it while looking for an open window and Rena goes to look somewhere for keys. When Rena’s gone, Mion enters Oyashiro-mode, and tells him that Satoko’s parents fell off the cliff because of Oyashiro, and her brother, the infamous Satoshi also disappeared. She shakes the ladder very brutally, though her mood completely disappears when Rena gets back with a couple of other villagers. I do have problems with this again. At that time, Mion was so badly animated, the scary part was almost gone, even though her face was in emo-mode again.

Still, it does bring up an interesting issue. Why does Oyashiro-Mion want to hide her mood in front of Rena? In the previous arc, the two of them got in emo-mode often at the same time. This probably means that Rena indeed has not been infected with Oyashiro’s curse. This also means that something must’ve happened for her to be infected in the previous arc. What would that have been? Does Keiichi play an unconcious role in this? And how did Mion get infected? And what did the “no blood” mean, which Mion kept repeating?

Another interesting fact I only realized after watching the episode once more: that night (exactly two nights after Watanagashi), there’s a full moon. It simply CAN NOT be a coincidence that there’s a full moon, right at that particular day. It absolutely can’t. It has to have some kind of meaning. Also, why wasn’t there a full moon on the most logical option: the night Watanagashi itself?

Anyway, inside Rika’s and Satoko’s house, Keiichi, Mion and Rena find some wrapped-up dishes and some finished cookings which haven’t been touched. Rena comes with her theories afterwards. But first, she actually COMFORTS Keiichi, who keeps blaming Rika’s disappearance to himself. I was a bit startled to see her so humane, but I absolutely loved that scene.

Anyway, Rena’s theory: Satoko bought some tofu at an old ladies’ that night. Tofu is used as the last ingredient of miso-soup, which was to be found on a large pot on the stove when Rena searched the room. This means that Rika was there, cooking, until right before dinner-time (apparently, dinner-time in Japan is at 19:00, instead of the usual 18:00), Satoko was getting the final tofu, because it appeared that they ran out. Because of the dishes which were wrapped up in the fridge, it becomes clear that something came up, which caused them to skip their dinner. This probably was right before dinner-time as well, otherwise, they wouldn’t have cooked. Rika probably noticed that they were out of soy sauce as well, so she went to some house, in order to borrow some. She then stayed there, for some reason, and when Satoko came home, she contacted her, ordering to come as well. The people at that house probably offered Rika and Satoko some dinner instead, making the dishes that Rika cooked obsolete. Satoko wrapped some of the dishes and went to Rika. Since then, they disappeared. This is quite impressive, though nothing mysterious comes from Rena. She all did this with the help of logic and common sense. I liked her even more after this.

They then run into Oishi, Rena leaves, and we see one of the most awesome scenes in the series. First of all: Oishi knows what Keiichi did on the night of the Watanagashi. Rumour have been spreading the morning afterwards. (who started these rumours, exactly?) Then the good part comes. Remember Shion? She’s been left outside of the spotlights this episode, in contrast to the previous one. It appears that she disappeared as well. Another scene that the creators managed to bring extremely well. It indeed seems like Keiichi didn’t see something that the other three did see. What could it be?

Another interesting fact which gets revealed is that Shion could’t have talked to the village chief, in order to confess her actions. Shion heard about the murders the morning after Watanagashi. At that time, the village chief was visiting a hospital in a far away place, to see a proctologist. On the way back, he was delayed because of a train accident, so he barely arrived in time for the shrine meeting, after which he disappered. Shion couldn’t have talked to him, unless it was after the meeting, which brings up very interesting discussions.

To close things, none other than Shion decides to give Keiichi a call. This is most obviously Mion, trying to imitate Shion, as she only confirms what Keiichi tells her, well acted. She also ends with the emo-laugh, and the episode closes. Well then, at which exact points did Shion pretend to be Mion, and Mion pretend to be Shion? The one with the ladder could’ve been the same Oyashiro-Mion from last arc, though it also could’ve been Shion who was infected with his curse (remember the first episode?). The first Shion, was that Mion again? Or really was that Shion. In any case, it would’ve been a different person than the one from the end of the second episode. You don’t forgive someone for yelling at you with such insults that fast.

This does mean that both Mion and Shion know what happened at the night of the Watanagashi, regardless of which one it was who entered the temple along with Keiichi. And at that time, when Shion disappeared and Mion appeared. Cos already mentioned that that could’ve been the same person. What was the other one doing at that time? And do Mion and Shion know about the switches of the others? And are they working together if they do?

Anyway, back to Rika. When you combine her story with Rena’s theory, it seems that Rika knew that she was going to disappear. Then why would she do it during dinner-time, unless if it was to set her own disappearance in scene? And what does Satoko have to do with this? In any case, Rika hasn’t disappeared entirely, as she still has to stab herself in front of the big sister. This makes us believe that the one in the emo-moods really was Mion after all, unless big sister means something different than age. And what exactly did make her stab herself anyway? She knew that it was going to happen, so she tried to run away. Though, unfortunately, the big sister will eventually find her at the end of the next episode.

Changes with the previous arc:
- Rika actually plays a big role.
- Rena’s not infected with Oyashiro-sama, and actually acts caring towards Keiichi.
- Oishi is much more suspicious.
- Mion (or Shion) is the one who tells Keiichi about Satoshi. Satosho also has no meaning at all in this arc.
- Rika and Satoko disappear/fake their own disappearance.
- Keiichi doesn’t get as paranoid as he did in the previous arc.
- Important: Keiichi actually cares about his friends. Something he didn’t show in the previous arc.
- Rika seems friendlier to Keiichi.
- Rena’s past is NEVER mentioned.
- The link between the main characters and the deaths/disappearances never gets mentioned.
- Keiichi’s parent are at home after the Watanagashi. At least his father is.
- Keiichi does not go to the hospital.
- No bento.

Similarities:
- Phones are widely used once more.
- Mion (if she actually is Mion) gets posessed by Oyashiro-sama.

Another thing, before I’ll stop, is the following: Keiichi’s behavior. As I mentioned before: he actually cares about his friends this time. These feelings were nowhere to be found at the first arc, as he was just struggling to keep alive, and suspecting everyone and everything. Could it be that Keiichi reacts differently during each and every one of different arcs of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni?

And here we have the latecomers of the season, either in terms of air date, or in terms of late fansubs. I’m kindof curious about the series which still have to be subbed. There are about six of them left, but there might be something very interesting among them.

Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle
An example of good shows almost totally ignored by the fansubbers is Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle. The story’s about a very energetic, young girl, who won a living, stone gargoyle by accident. Ever since, the gargoyle has been protecting the little girl’s house, but he’s a bit too enthusiastic in this, trying to burn everyone who comes close. The little girl does not like these events, so the’s often yelling at him, resulting in some awesome scenes. The case introduced in the first episode also was a beauty. it’s about the daughter of a blind man, who comes to understand the blind man’s guard dog. Greatly excecuted. Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle certainly isn’t the best show around, though it will definately be entertaining.

Kamisama Kazoku

When I first heard about this title, I kept hoping for this show to be centered around lots of puns. The main character also looked relatively old, so I kept hoping for him to be the only mature, while his family was something around the lines of the Kami-sama in the Law of Ueki. That really would’ve been awesome. Alas, I was wrong. Totally wrong. Our main character remains a 12-year old brat. His entire family is crazy, but it isn’t centered around puns, it’s centered around perverts. Ugh. What could’ve been an amazingly cool hippy turned into an old pervert who grants his son any wish he wants. His mother and sisters don’t make this a lot better, as they’re the standard harem-cast featured in all of those other anime. Our main character also has someone who loves him, namely an angel sent from the heavens in order to protect him. Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse, this angel (named Tenko) managed to save it, right at the last possible moment of the episode. If this show will revolve around her mental breakdown, I’ll be happy. I also have to say, that the character art, although messy, looks good.

Demonbane

Garbage, garbage, garbage! This SO contains every single fantasy-harem cliche, puts it into one series, and thinks it’ll be succesful. Apparenly, destiny plays a big role in this thing. Our main character is destined to drive the most powerful mecha ever, he’s destined to meet up with a beautiful girl, merge with her, and he is certainly destined to save the world. There’s one thing that cracked me up, though: the beautiful irony of a statement that was made at the end of the episode: “Does a hero become a hero from the moment he’s born? No, a hero is one who follows a path of bloodshed with an iron will.” Oh, the beautiful irony. This show doesn’t even know it sucks. On a side-note: the art looks horrible as well.

Apparently, we never know what happened at the end of the last episode, as we only get to see the aftermath. We start with Sakisaka officially breaking his ties with Tawaraya (the first time in which we see him actually surprised in a negative way).The discussion which follows is very dynamic, good job to the creators.

We then switch to the headquarters of the Twillight Brigade. Shino suggests to actively communicate when something goes wrong. Then we go to the bridge, at which Phyllo and B-Set talking about the rumours of the members of TaN attacking the Twillight Brigade. TaN-members are also showing up more than usual.

Tawaraya suddenly gets a huge blow in the back, as he gets obsolete as soon as he finishes his mission. This suddenly is a huge change when you compare it to the fifth episode. Ender also reveals that she’s into a serious mission, and that there’ll probably some kind of trap to lure Ovan out, though everything will be ruined when he doesn’t show up. The talk between her and Naobi is kept very cryptic, so we don’t get much wiser after the end of this conversation.

Goad also comes with an interesting observation, which most people might’ve figured out by now. I however, didn’t see it. It seems that there are only six virus cores known. One is in the possesion of TaN, and was used by Tawaraya in order to convert Sakisaka. The other one was found by Ovan in episode five. Shino holds the third one. Phyllo gave the fourth one to Ovan. The backgrounds of the fifth and the sixth ones aren’t given yet. Anotehr interesting note is that Phyllo actually is pretty strong, as he easily manages to beat Goad. He reminds me of Bear from .Hack//Sign, in a certain way.

Ovan, meanwhile, will be leaving for a while. It’s got something to do with his job, and he already got scolded by his manager once. He orders Shino to order Sakisaka, Tabby and Haseo to look for the remaining Virus Cores, while she has to wait for his orders. Shino gets worried about this, especially concerning the PK-ing, though she listens to Ovan. It really feels like this show is building up at the moment. Especially Ovan and Shino’s characters weren’t too worthwile in the last couple of episodes. Shino only had one moment to shine in episode three, and Ovan was good in the first episode, but the two of them really toned down a bit. They do, however, show great potential for future episodes, so let’s keep hoping.

In the meantime, Haseo has another supernatural experience. It still doesn’t make any sense at all. Why do these target him only? He goes to tell this to Phyllo, though he backs down in the middle of the conversation. I so loved this moment. As Haseo’s shy, he doesn’t know how to continue a conversation like that, so he chooses the easiest option of just running away. I’m kindof ashamed to say it, but that’s probably the way I would’ve reacted as well.

We then switch to Tabby, Sakisaka and Haseo, who head for the lost grounds while Shino patiently waits for Ovan. They then find the same A-shaped mark from previous episode and the commercial-break-scenes. They then turn to one of the other lost grounds, at which another one of these patterns lies. This one, however, does react to Haseo. It then teleports our heroes into something we have to find out in the next episode.

Nothing awesome in this episode, though it remained enjoyable. It feels like the characters which are going to shine later in the series really are holding too much back right now. I also hope that Haseo’ll have more contact with as much different people as possible. I really liked it when he did this in the past.