Okay, that was a surprisingly dark episode! Especially at this stage of the anime, you wouldn’t expect it. If the creators were to make this into a main storyline, things would turn really awesome, though it seems like this is just a two-episode arc. Still, I really loved this episode. And Randagio comes in action!

As the episode was so serious, the downfall was that I had extra trouble trying to figure out what was being said. Still, I did get the overall picture. We start the episode with Shirayuki, walking to a children’s playground. She then tries to fire a blizzard at a random direction. That, or she tries to establish a connection with Fandavere. This, however, fails. She wonders why.

Ringo, meanwhile, is extremely happy because Summer Holidays started. Summer Holidays mean camp, and it seems that Ringo likes camps very much. Souta will probably go as well, though he’s got some unusual plans to do there. After all, he’s isolated, he has hobbies nobody else has. He really likes doing so, but he’s the only one in that, and he isn’t able to see it.

Souta then gets the feeling he’s being followed, which appears to be Hansel’s servant from the previous episode, spying on him, trying to figure out the location of the barrier. This doesn’t work the first time, though and it loses sight of Souta. Akazukin and Baru, meanwhile, try to wake up a sleeping Ibara. They indeed know how scary she can be when she wakes up. ^^

Shirayuki then returns, and tells them what happened. Something could have happened to Fernando. Shirayuki wonders about Souta’s safety, though he then enters the room. He also tells them about the fact that summer holidays have started, which means that he doesn’t have to go to school. His mother and father will be away, so he either has enough time to spend at home, or he plans to go to the camp. One of these two, no idea which is the right one.

Then, a discussion follows in which Shirayuki and Akazukin explain that they have to go to Fandavere, in order to check up on Fernando. Akazukin then suggests to take Souta along with them. After all, she’ll protect him if something happens. Ringo, however, is not happy with this. After all, she wanted to have fun with Souta and her friends at camp, and now she hears that he’s going to another world. She also really worries about his safety. I guess we can now safely say that she’s in love with him. I have no idea whether this will turn out to be good or not, though this episode definitely turned out in the right way.

Souta, however, plans to go, no matter what Ringo says. The fact does remain, indeed, that Souta’s mother might be there. I nearly forgot about it, but she indeed also has to have some kind of part in the story. Ringo then starts to ignore him. Souta gets a bit worried, and heads home. This gives Hansel the chance to find out the location of the barrier, and he grabs it, with success. He then sends Randagio to get them. Strangely enough, he doesn’t decide to invade Souta’s home. I guess he has to find more about the barrier in order to be able to do that.

In any case, he doesn’t send Gretel, as she has failed too much. Gretel, however, wants to be acknowledged by her brother, so she makes plans of her own. Randagio, meanwhile tries to find some suitable Nightmarians which could do the trick. I like him as a villain. ^^

The next day is the day of graduation, and Souta overslept. Ringo didn’t wake him up, and she continues to ignore him through the ceremony. Afterwards, she stares evilly at him. That night, Souta’s packing his stuff, while he has a call with his father. Surprisingly, he’s lying about his plans for the holidays. That, after he claimed that he doesn’t like lying in the previous episode.

Then the serious part of the episode really begins, when Souta is in his room, along with Akazukin and Shirayuki, who seem to have taken his bed. Akazukin actually talks with a concerned voice for the first time ever. She wonders if it’s really okay with Ringo, though Souta believes that it is. She’ll understand him soon. Akazukin then goes to sleep, while Souta attempts to finish the homework he got for the holidays in one night, so that he can use his full holiday time to go to Fandavere.

In the end, he succeeds, though I doubt that he got any sleep. The next morning, Ringo is working at a festival, serving some kind of stew. Her friends then come by, and notice that her cooking isn’t as good as usual. I guess that it’s because she didn’t make it for Souta. Ringo then makes it again, with the plan of offering some to Souta, and it tastes good again. Souta, meanwhile makes a video for Ringo, in order to apologize, while Shirayuki, Akazukin and Baru try to wake up Ibara.

That night, Ringo finally has time to go to Souta’s house, though it’s already empty. She then sees the tape, and plays it. It was very funny to see Ibara trying to strangle Akazukin and Baru on the background, while Souta was sincerely apologizing. Ringo actually cries when she finds out. It seems that Souta and the others have just left before Ringo arrived, as they’re still in Erude. Ringo then calls Souta, yelling certain things I couldn’t understand at him. Then some nightmarians cut Souta off.

Randagio then comes in action, after insulting Baru for a dog. The catch with this week’s Nightmarians is the fact that they’re like mutated moles, so they soon hide in the ground, digging many holes. In the end, they still proved no match for Ibara and her vines. Randagio then escapes through one of these tunnels. While this was light-hearted, the thing that follows absolutely was not.

Ringo, worried about Souta, rushes over, when Gretel appears, knocking her out and taking her as hostage. The episode ends. The next episode might actually be a very important one, as it’ll show how far the creators are willing to go. We’ve got three options:
- The simplest is that Ringo will be saved in the next episode, and go along with Souta and the others to Fandavere. I’m actually not hoping for this option to be chosen. Not because I dislike Ringo as a character, but the other two options provide so many possibilities.
- The second option is that Ringo will be saved, though she won’t go along with Souta. This means that she’ll get worried about him during her entire time in camp, while Souta has to learn to rely on someone else than Ringo. Either Akazukin, Shirayuki or himself.
- I’m actually hoping for the creators to go with the third way: The Three Musketeers attempt to save Ringo, but they fail, making her a hostage for Hansel. So many awesome things are possible with this. I know, this option will probably not get chosen, but it would be awesome if it was.

Memorable Moment: Akazukin and Baru trying to wake up Ibara.

Remember last time? Well, Mokona still holds the feather when he (she?) transports to yet another world. This time, it’s a technologically advanced one. They land on the middle of a desert road. Mokona’s about to give Sakura her feather, though a huge truck is keen on preventing Sakura and the feather from reuniting. What follows is our heroes, trying to catch up with the truck. In this, they get help from a convenient Rail Bus, who happens to be passing by.

At the end of the episode, they’ve missed some valuable chances in getting the feather, and night has fallen. The country has a law which prevents all cars from driving at night, so everyone’s stuck. The feather lies beyond walking distance. A motor gang then comes their way, with their intentions set on two eloping lovers who happen to be passengers of the same rail bus our heroes are on. The episode ends with Syaoran and Kuro-tan about to knock the brains out of these punks, in order to grab their motorbikes and drive to the feather.

Well then, there are a lot of flaws in this story:
- The convenient Rail Bus who happened to pass by conveniently passed by a bit too convenient.
- Same with the truck.
- Same with the truck which crashed.
- How come the rope Syaoran threw actually connected?
- In fact, why didn’t Syaoran just jump on the truck and climb to the feather? He was running right next to the truck, so he would easily have been able to do it.
- The reason for the girl to pay for our protagonists is a bit weak.
- How did Syaoran know where the truck was going to stop?
- A lot of budget was saved by not paying too much attention at the characters running.

Still, all these points don’t matter. I’ve had a very enjoyable time watching this episode, and that’s what counts. I especially liked the fact that each of the passengers of the bus had his or her own story, and they were actually more than just passengers on a bus. I also liked the fact that this is one of the first realistic chases, which just involves using two vehicles, at very long distances with differences of about an hour between them. I also loved it that this chase wasn’t about the tension. Its purpose instead was to keep the story going, and give enough time to explore the different actors.

The old man also was very entertaining. Especially in the beginning, when he wouldn’t say much. He really is hte perfect conversation partner for Kurogane, and it was so funny to see that at one point, Mokona was sitting next to him. ^_^

Oh, and I’ve also managed to discover something regarding the entire series: after the second season is over, a third season will be aired. This will probably be from april 2007 till september 2007. That also is the last season of Tsubasa Chronicle which will arrive. This means that there will be an ending. And the creators know it. I’m happy to know that the creators have set an ending for themselves. Now they really have enough time to plan out the main story well enough. Until then, I’m planning to enjoy the fillers of Tsubasa Chronicle.

Overall, Tsubasa Chronicle excels in its storytelling, which is exactly what this episode was about. While it’s nowhere near the utter brilliance of last time, this episode did remain very entertaining.

This series also came out, along with the huge wave of new series at the beginning of the spring-2006-season. It’s a fantasy-series, embedded with lots of politics, drama and romance. With its 13 episodes, it’s a short series. Maybe a bit too short.

This series has two point at which it excels with some incredible quality: the story and the graphics. The graphics really are some of the best to be ever seen in anime. The character art really moves away from the standard-designs, in order to create something really unique. Each of the characters looks really beautiful. The hair has some very interesting shapes, and the CG is very nicely integrated with the regular drawings. It also becomes clear that the creators liked to play with lighting effects, which gives a really good atmosphere to the whole package.

The story also is incredibly well thought out. We’ve got a lot of different characters, all playing their own, distinct roles. The story’s got a lot of facets and elements. Characters have good reasons, and the setting is very creative. The story basically is a battle between three people for the position of the queen. As the story progresses, more elements keep getting added to the story, in order to turn it into a masterpiece.

Unfortunately, this anime also has bad points: the pacing and the storytelling. The story may be great, these two factor mess it up a bit. The fact remains that thirteen episodes is too little for this series. It would so have benefitted from six more episodes. Because it had to squish such a story in only 13 episodes, some elements did get lost. The fact also remains that quite a few time is spent on developing a love-triangle, which, in my opinion, only worked annoying. The last few episodes of the anime, however, these problems disappear and the anime is able to conclude in a very nicely paced ending.

Another thing this anime is very good at is creating tension. The music really helps in this. The anime features a very good soundtrack, which really works at times like these. The action scene also remain in the category of the better ones.

Overall, if you’re looking for a fantasy anime with a very good story, I’m certainly recommending this anime. Though this is not an anime you can afford to miss or forget even one second. If you do, the story will immediately make no more sense. Things just aren’t explained that well, and it would also be better to marathon this series, instead of watching one episode at a time. The anime remains great, though prepare for its flaws.

I love fast-paced endings. They’re so much better than the anime which leave only one question to be solved in the final episode. I guess we can now see the fruits of the enormously fast pacing of Good Witch of the West. Okay, it did leave some questions behind, and the ending itself was rather anticlimactic, though overall, I’m satisfied.

First of all, I made a mistake during the previous episode. When Firiel got transported by the wall, she met up with the Bard. Then, when she came back, Cain appeared. What he was doing there forever remains a mystery. In any case, Cain decided to travel with them, and then, at the end of the previous episode, Bard appeared again.

And yes, there was indeed another person besides Lot to play as a traitor: the king himself. I was very surprised that the creators decided to add a couple of funny scenes during the fight of Firiel, Roux and Leandra. Who would’ve thought that a plastic frog would be the solution? It’s something I really appreciated. Leandra also really showed that she received a healthy dose of character development during the series.

The Dragon-problem and Brigeonte’s invasion get a very nice conclusion. Adale gets to be the one to come with the solution: send all of the dragons to Brigeonte’s camp. I liked such a tactic. In the end, Eusis has to defeat every single dragon one by one. Some very nice scenes indeed.

At the second half of the episode, things get more serious, and less creative, unfortunately. It seems that the queen decided to take full responsibility for the things that have happened. It doesn’t exactly make her like a good queen, and both Leandra as Adale as Firiel scold her for this, though it’s Firiel who manages to get through to her. Then, Bard prays to the sage, and the sage makes the Miharu-Star move away. just who is this sage anyway?

Overall, especially the first half of the episode was incredibly fun to watch. So many things get solved at once, and not even at the last possible moment. The fact that the graphics became a bit messier at certain scenes only made this even better. The second half of the episode was satisfying, if you ignore that we never get any information about the sage.

Memorable Moments: Quite a few, Leandra’s actions against the King, Firiel and Roux suddenly appearing from out of nowhere, Roux realizing that the teleportation went wrong, the king revealing his plans, Adale coming up with her plan, Adale’s new haircut, Rouxbow trying to dig himself in Roux’ bag, Leandra’s reaction to this and the king’s reaction to the frog. ^^

Haha! This is where the fun really begins! One of the advantages of the enormous pacing of this show is the fact that it now has time to develop an amazing ending. And so far, things have been moving in an awesome direction. Firiel and Roux have made up, so their whining also has stopped, things are actually explained in the right way, and so many worthwhile events happen. This episode really showed why the previous episodes had to sacrifice their pacing.

We start at the forest at the end of the world. The Mahiru-star is getting closer and closer, and suddenly a portal from the other side of the world opens, releasing a bunch of angry-looking meat-eating dragons. Meanwhile, Eusis asks Igraine what might’ve happened to Lot Christbard, and then it seems that nobody’s able to find him. This means that another person has to take Lot’s place in the dragon-battling. Igraine then volunteers.

The next day, Leandra, still hasn’t figured out that the invasion of Torubato is a trap, so she leads Gulair’s army towards their doom. Back to the dragons, Igraine proves that she’s quite the dragon-slayer as she mainly is responsible of killing off the group of four dragons. Then, however, five others come to replace them. Then, Adale, Vincent and a couple of soldiers come them to the aid, along with Cain, Firiel and Roux and the dragons are scared away. It was a very successful scene, which I really enjoyed. Of course, Eusis would’ve been able to defeat another five dragons, especially with Igraine, but it was a good moment for the creators to make every party meet again. I just loved how everything just happened all at once.

Eusis then asks Cain his name. He then answers, and he also tells that he’s one who’s looking for Hermes. Roux then manages to prevent Eusis from declaring Cain as an enemy, even if the guy is a heathen. Rouxbow, meanwhile, gets introduced to Adale and Vincent. Vincent also wonders how Igraine managed to become a knight, and Firiel indeed notices that her unicorn used to belong to Lot Christbard. Igraine then reveals that Lot has been gone since the previous night.

Roux, meanwhile, explains what he knows about the Mahiru-star’s behaviour. It seems that three passages to the other side of the world have opened. Of course, this is letting in a huge number of meat-eating dragons into the dimension, and it will become a major problem if the dragons just keep coming, and start terrorizing some villages. The Ephemeris won’t be able to close these gates, though if you have it, you will be able to figure out what to do next. Why this is, still remains a mystery.

Cain then proposes to go back to Sellafield. Then Adale enters. She then tells Eusis, Roux, Firiel and the others the things he came to realize during the previous episode: Lot has been paying a lot of visits to the mansion in Shiliz Sandlru. Or the place Roux was tortured. Eusis doesn’t like this. This was the reason for Adale to come to Eusis, because she was worried about him.

What follows is Firiel, Roux and Cain leaving for Shiliz Sandlru, while Adale, Vincent and the others stay behind. Eusis then scolds Adale, as sending a messenger to him would have been faster. Though that wasn’t a really smart move of him. ^^ Adale seems to have borrowed some unicorns from Duke Gilbia’s wife, because of her queen’s touchstone. She also claims that she came here to help him.

That evening, Firiel wonders what Hermes exactly is. After all, Cain is with them, though Duke Riez is also a member. And then FINALLY, we receive some explanation about them. It was indeed time, at the second-last episode. I’ve been waiting for this, and suddenly, the story makes much more sense. Hermes symbolizes the Shadow Kingdom of Gulair. They consider the Snake Rod to be their symbol. Consider the queen as light, and them as the dark.

And suddenly, a picture is shown that explains so MANY things. We see a picture of the queen (if I recall this correctly, this is the first shot we get to see of her. She looks pretty old), with in the background a picture of Hyragurion. This gives us some very high suspicions that Hyragurion actually is the main capital of Gulair. That’s why there are so many parties. That’s why Firiel had to go there. Everything suddenly makes much more sense.

In any case, back to Hermes. Shadows are necessary to maintain harmony. If one of the two becomes too big, disaster is bound to happen. Hermes Trimestigus is the leader of the Hermes. It’s been explained before, but now I finally understand what it really means. The Hermes is currently divided into different factions. Each of these factions has a different leader. Cain and Rou belong to the research faction. I wouldn’t be surprised if Firiel’s father is the leader of that faction. Hermes Trimestigus is probably the leader of the evil faction. Or however it’s called.

I think the major mistakes were the following:
- This explanation should have arrived sooner. The Hermes are a major part of the storyline. You would introduce them at the beginning of the anime, not at the end.
- When Firiel went to Hyragurion, the fact that it’s Gulair’s capital should have been mentioned.

The next morning, they run into Leandra and her army. Firiel uses this opportunity to tell Leandra about the fact that Brigeonte’s trying to deceive her. Leandra decides to believe her. It’s interesting that Firiel mentions that there’s a traitor among the dukes and nobles who’s spreading the lies about Brigeonte’s plans. Why doesn’t she just mention Lot’s name? Because of this, she sends Ravenna to lead the army to Torubato, while she heads to Hyragurion, in order to unmask this guy. Or could it mean that we’ve got another traitorous noble somewhere?

Meanwhile, the weather continues to get worse. Lots of people are praying, in the hope for things to turn out right. Then, Firiel, Roux and Cain arrive in Shiliz Sandlru, where Marie and Madam (sorry, forgot her name) have been waiting for them. Apparently, it was their task to keep an eye on things. It seems the castle is heavily guarded. Firiel then suggests to go inside. To make it even better, she plans to enter it directly.

In order to achieve this, Cain makes use of one of his powerful bombs, in order to scare away the guards. Then, Lot appears. I so like the way that his personality remained the same as it was when he still was acting. Mostly, when you see a bad guy, trying to deceive others as a good guy, you see him or her act very cheerful in front of the good guys, while in fact, he or she’s incredibly serious. Too serious, perhaps. Though Lot appears to have a real laid-back personality.

Lot then bring them to the real Hermes Trismestigus, aka Duke Riez. He’s had to hide his identity, in order to get close to his target. Because of that, he faked his own death. The dead body which was found indeed was just a dead body made to look like him. Duke Riez then tries to toy with Roux again, by making him remember the Snake Rod. It works quite well. Then, Riez reveals that he has paid a visit to Sellafield, in order to destroy Elilin’s grave and pick up the Ephemeris. So it’s now in his possession. Apparently, Lot told him about the location. Riez, however, seems to think that having the Ephimeris, automatically means that he has the Mahiru-Star, while Roux revealed that it can only show you the steps to take next, earlier in the episode.

And then, finally, Firiel totally breaks out of her role as damsel in distress, when she grabs the nearest pointy object she can find, and charges towards Riez, using the things she learned from Igraine. She’s doing quite a good job, though Riez has more experience than she has, resulting in him overpowering her. Riez then tries to enlist Firiel, Roux and Cain for his own purposes.

The saviour of the day gets to be Rouxbow. He charges in from the window, making good use of the Deus ex Machina, and makes Lot drop his sword. In the confusion, Firiel grabs it, and overpowers Riez. Cain, meanwhile, has made sure that Lot won’t move anywhere. Then, Roux reveals the contents of the Ephemeris. It’s an ordinary book, which just reveals the exact movements of the Mahiru Star, and the influence it has. It won’t be able to control the Mahiru-Star just like that.

Duke Riez, then places all his hope on the only plan of his which still stands: Brigeonte’s invasion. Only then, a very surprising guest arrives. A mysterious person who looks just like Cain. This explains his appearances in the previous episodes. The guy speaks in complete mysteries, though he does recognize that the Mahiru Star has reached its limit. The Mahiru-Star, meanwhile has turned entirely red, and then it explodes, creating a huge tidal wave. Then the episode ends.

The next episode, Leandra will probably stop Brigeonte’s invasion, Adale will stop the invasion of the dragons, and Firiel will stop the Mahiru-star. That means that either Leandra or Adale will become queen, unless the Firebird’s Feather has a hidden meaning to it. If that’s the case, Firiel will become queen.

Overall, I loved this episode. The music was awesome, the pacing was perfect this time, and finally things become clear again. I can’t wait for the last episode. Let’s hope it won’t mess up like so many other endings do.