How cool, an Iggy-episode. It seems that he was infected with cogito after all. This, in combination with both Real, the infected autorave from the previous episode and a little bit of Pino turned this episode yet again into an incredible one.

As predicted, Iggy doesn’t return to Romdeau, but the cogito-virus drives him crazy. He only wants to live for Real, so he’s planning to kill the bastard who drove her away, and keep Real only for himself. In extreme ways. He locks her up inside the same sort of container that the Proxy from the previous episode was put in. (Claustrophobia, anyone?) All of this is inspired by the infected autorave from the previous episode, who, in her turn also gets inspired by Iggy in order to kill the one who took her raison d’être away. The girl then begins to chase Real, Iggy attempts to kill Vincent, which obviously doesn’t go too well. The four persons meet up with each other, the autorave attempts to self-destruct though Iggy sacrifices himself in order to save Real.

In essence, this is just the same formula as good guy turns bad, attempts to kill main character, climax, good guy turned bad gets the idea that it wasn’t such a good plan to leave the other good guys and kills himself in order to protect the other good guys from certain death. But this episode manages to delve so much deeper in the minds of the characters involved, that it makes up for everything. Both the girl autorave as Iggy as Real get so much character development. Everyone’s reasons are so full of details. I just loved it.

Take Real for example, the was so getting used to Iggy being with her that she took his existance for granted, up to the point at which she started ordering around, and stopped caring. When Iggy is away, as in the beginning of the episode, she really didn’t know what to do, and started ordering Pino around. Of course, this really didn’t help, so she sought help in Vincent. Then Iggy confronts her with this. And only then she starts to realize. Combine this with the fact that she’s just been betrayed, she’s locked up inside an extremely tight container and the fact that Iggy’s yelling at her, and it makes for some incredible moments.

It’s also great that Iggy just continued to serve Real, even though he was infected. He just acted normally, despite the cogito-virus. Only when he begins to think about his own raison d’être, and starts noticing how Real doesn’t notice him, it goes wrong. Pino, on the other hand, managed end up just fine. She’s being treated like a normal human, even though she’s an autorave, and just look at how playful she became. The fact remains that Iggy remained just Iggy. You can’t say that the Iggy from the past died, because he kept acting the way he did, even though he was infected. The way Iggy brings this to Real is just amazing.

Also, the dying speach-scene. The one in which one of the characters is about to die, and talks his last words, who’ll probably be some inspiring words, lots of drama and the person dying completely forgiving everyone and apologizing for the bad things he did. Still, Iggy is an autorave, a machine, still infected with the cogito-virus. During that scene, he kept switching from normal-mode to cogito-mode, so in the middle of his speech, he suddenly started screaming at Real, accusing her of being the source of all his suffering, and at the same time apologizing. The effect that this had was extremely interesting to see.

I’m not too sure about the relationship between Real and Vincent. Please, don’t let Real be a tsundere! Only now with Tsuyokiss and Zero no Tukaima, I’m beginning to realize how much I hate tsunderes. Still, I do have to admit that Vincent looked too cute in his attempts to win Real’s heart. He’s got no social skills at all, so he has to try in his own ways.

Pino was once again amazing. It’s great to see that she still has her bunny-suit, and puts that on from time to time. At the end of the episode, we also see that she has learned from the past, and knows what sadness looks like. Still, she hasn’t managed to fully understand it. She also was great when she replied to Real that she’d rather want to know that feeling. Oh, and let’s not forget Vincent looking for firewood, when Pino comes running to him with a couple of mushy mushrooms. ^^;

Overall, this episode was great. Especially the conflict between Iggy and Real, when he bashed her completely into the ground with his arguments. He was right about everything, and Real realizing her own mistakes was amazing to see. This anime’s just turning better and better by the minute. I can’t wait for the next episode.

This episode started up another one of the arcs, after the countless fillers that preceeded. That, or we have a two-episode filler arc here. After all, all of the events that happened were just enough for one more episode. Then again, the Outo-arc also had a few surprises left.

I’m wondering where Tsubasa Chronicle is going. The bad guys seem to have given up on directing the destinations for our heroes. This probably means that they’re preparing for something big, but what could it be. The fourth episode showed hints that they’ve given up the methods they used in the previous episode, so we might be in for a couple of twists in the future. After all, the show even has a third season, so something has to happen.

Anyway, the episode was once again light, but still enjoyable. This time, Sakura, Mokona and Syaoran are separated from Kurogane and Syaoran. Both parties end up with two rivalling parties. One is a group of traveling circus artists, and the other seems to be the owner of a japanese-like temple. Both parties value a god, which has its own statue. One of battle and misfortune and one of the night and the underworld (interesting note: Fye didn’t know what an underworld means). Both parties have leaders, and guess what? Yes, they’re secretly in love with each other. At the end of the episode, both statues lighted up, the sky split open, Sakura fainted and Mokona noticed another feather.

The comedy didn’t come from Fye and Kurogane, this time. They were like spectators to everything. No, the funny moments came from Syaoran, with Sakura helping him a bit. He was just thrown in such embarrassing situations. For example, the group of travelling circus artists he ended up with consists only of women. Men aren’t allowed. First of all, all of the women get all giddly over him (thank god he’s not a pervert or anything) and second of all, he has to crossdress in order to be able to stay. I especially loved the scene at which he first arrived in his girl’s costume. Especially Sakura’s reaction was too cute. ^^;

Anyway, we recieved another couple of subtle hints about the main plot. First of all, Sakura isn’t the only one with amnesia, as Syaoran also seems to be troubled by this. It’s probably the same day when he lost his eye. Something happened, when he was young that poked out his eye and made him lose his memory. When, why, how and where this happened remains a mystery. Korogane also comes from the Japan-Country. The temple he wound up in really made him nostalgic. This only shows how much he wants to be with Tomoyo again. Fye’s world also seems to have a god called Ashura (one of the two gods, the one the circus artists worship). He’s also been more serious than ever in one episode, instead of his usual playful and cheerful mood. This can suggest three things:
1: It’s an error of the creators. He’s supposed to be cheerful, but they kindof forgot.
2: This world is making him nostalgic as well. He just tries to hide this, instead of Kurogane.
3: The last episode still haunts his mind.
4: He’s unconciously beginning to see that it’s no use to conceal his feelings, or he’s getting less and less motivation to do this.
Okay, four things. Who cares? In any case, the episode was enjoyable, but nothing really more. It wasn’t anything outstanding, or something.