Interesting developments. Very interesting developments. The episode itself wasn’t that exiting, though I like the way at which this anime is going. Still, I did love the little details.

Pino finally had a great role again. She’s getting more and more open, she dares to do more things on her own, though she still doesn’t lose her habit to copy others. She also gets scared for the very first time, and she openly turns Real into a “scary woman”. Still, an interesting fact is that she realizes that a proxy is evil, though she doesn’t realize an infected autorave who steals from the Usagi is evil. She still needs a bit of time to understand this.

The most interesting development certainly came from Real and Vincent. Even though it’s nothing special, it’s nicely excecuted. Especially the fact that Real actually tricks Vincent who’s in love with her, and actually KISSES him, in order to not let Vincent see that she was actually planning to shoot him. That’s what I love about Real, she’s a very strong woman, though she’s not an uber-mensch. She has her moments of weakness. In any case, Vincent’s days of immortality are over, and he’ll probably run into another fight at which his memories of Real slow him down, making him almost lose. Ah well, it does explain why he parted with his memories. I believe that he had the same when he was in love with Monad Proxy.

I’m wondering about Iggy, Pino, and the mysterious autorave. It would be awesome if the three of them would wind up together, though the latter will probably infect the former with the Cogito, with the middle one to witness it. I also love the way that Real was so cold towards Iggy, by the way. Including the fact that autoraves can just be turned off. It makes you think how many humanity was put into these machines.

Still, even though many things are going into the right way, I so hope that Ergo Proxy has a few more tricks up his sleave. His transformation sequence begins to get a bit boring right now.

Really. I’ve watched this entire episode with a big smirk on my face, which didn’t fade for even a second. Not neccesarily because the episode was that funny. Okay, it had some hilarious moments, though that isn’t the great thing about this episode. The fact is that this episode was written in such a brilliant way. So many brilliant ideas were put into the scenario. This episode really showed the brilliance of this anime.

The center of the episode was Hyuu. Finally, she’s playing a much bigger part than just ordering Gamigami, Ston and Sanda around, as they are finally able to capture Pietoro. Again, Gamigami uses one of his most awesome inventions to do it: a couple of walking, metal pencils who can join together to form an electric cage. Gamigami also gets some nice revenge, when he demonstrates the shocking effect of the cage by electrifyin Ston. ^^;

In any case, Hyuu continues ordering Gamigami, Ston and Sanda around, treating them like garbage, just so she can be with Pietoro. Even when Pietoro refuses to be her servant and Narcia confronts her with this, she still doesn’t see that she’s doing the wrong thing. I just loved it when she heard Ston and Sanda talk about the fact that they wanted freedom. At that point, she realized that she’s abusing her power.

Pietoro also manages to be one of the very few male main characters who I actually really like. Especially in fantasy shows like this. I guess this is because he’s incredibly kind and innocent. He has his own ideals, and he believes in them with great enthusiasm. He’s so incredibly cute when he acts like this.

Ston, Sanda and Gamigami chasing Kai was one of the best short chases ever. Seeing the former three mess up horribly, getting in each other’s way and seeing the latter make very clever use of this was just incredible to see. Gamigami is actually one of the few characters who just keeps talking in an action scene. As if he was his own commentator at a very exiting football match. In any case, Ston and Sanda really shined during the entire episode. They made very good use of repetition when they had to bring Pietoro’s cage from Hyuu to the dungeon, from the dungeon to Hyuu again, and backwards. I just loved the shiritori. ^^

Overall, this anime’s brilliant, and this episode demonstrated that once more. You hardly see any anime around who are as creative as this one. It may be an old anime, but it’s totally worth it.

Oh, how awesome. This episode just takes the most overused clichés of a midboss-battle, and gives them a totally original twist. I couldn’t help but love it. Makai Senki Disgaea is turning more awesome by the minute as it reaches the ending. The last three episodes will probably resolve the main plot. Hmm, I wonder what those angels are up to…

In any case, I mentioned that the episode took all sorts of overused scenes for mid-boss battles (not our Mid-Boss, by the way), and gives them an extremely original twist. For starters: the main characters get to be spectators this time. This really remains the battle of Gordon and Jennifer, and Flonne makes sure for some awesome fangirling, Etan makes sure that the enemy ship gets destroyed, and Laharl just stands by watching. The characters also realize this, which makes for some pretty funny side-marks. I especially loved Flonne´s fangirling, and Laharl´s and Etna´s reaction to this. She makes sure that the two of them don´t interfere because of this. I also loved that the two of them just ran off at a certain point when the side-villain started to tell about his backstory. ^^;

Then the side-villain telling his backstory. The cheesyness of all of it managed to save it. Most anime try to throw in an extra amount of drama, with a villain who needs thirty minutes to be convinced. But this guy actually has been jealous of Gordon, being called the “Defender of Earth”, and therefore tries to beat some sense into him in an extreme way. Flonne then really gets into her part when she gets to convince the guy to stop his evil plans. After the speach, he’s about to do something. In most of these situations, the number of choices for the villain is limited to two options: 1. Do some evil thing. In this case, shoot Gordon. 2. Join the good guys. This episode managed to introduce a third option: Get blown away by some exploding machinery. A brilliant use of a Deus ex Machina, in my opinion.

Then we get thrown into another cliche: the side-villain is about to be engulfed by flames, and the main character has to choose between leaving the guy and saving the guy. The side-villain actually manages to convince Gordon to go after Jennifer, and leave him to die. Flonne has other opinions, though the Prinnies take her along with Gordon. But then again, this is another cliche, no? That’s what I also believed. Until the guy reappeared, perfectly healthy, only to commit suicide and save the day. I loved that part.

Then the main villain. How many villains manage to gain mind-control over one of the side-characters? I don’t think that amount can be counted, just take a look at Bleach and see the horror. But how many characters manage to achieve this by equipping the victim with a headband, equipped with two round, fluffy antenna’s? And how many anime make the villain call this “Transforming”? (On a side-note: I just loved Laharl and Flonne’s speculations about how the transformed Jennifer would look like ^^;).

The next cliche: the main villain has to convince the controlled character to stop being controlled. Most bad anime try to reach a climax, at which the controlled character’s emotional strength manages to break the controller (again, look at Bleach for a perfect example). Makai Senki Disgaea does not do this. Instead, the main villain attempts to blow it up, with Jennifer along with it, the side-villain shows up, grabs the headband (which was not secured at all, by the way) and jumps off a large height, killing himself.

Then we come to another cliche: the villain losing, and escaping (again see Bleach for references). Still, Makai Senki Disgaea manages to make this worthwile. For starters: he doesn’t get any help from others. Second of all, he uses a method you so would not think off. Disgaea is very good in making perfect use of semi-Deus ex Machina’s. Also, the way this was animated turned into a hilarious sight. The whole process also takes up less than a second. This fact only makes you realize what happened after it actually happened. It may be my personal taste, but I just love scenes like this.

And the last one is the villain trying to move as far away as possible, until a more important villain runs into him, and kills him anyway. Except for the fact that this isn’t a more important villain, it’s Mid-Boss. And the fact that the villain doesn’t die. Mid-Boss just says a few lines, the villain gets impressed, Mid-Boss gets hit by a comet, disappears and the villain escapes. ^^;

Overall, I was wrong with my prediction. Flonne doesn’t break down, she actually gets stronger because of it. I’m getting very curious about the last couple of episodes from this anime. In any case, I just loved her in this episode. She managed to help turning this into a true parody on mid-bosses. ^_^