Another Watanuki-centred episode. And a quite touching one as well. I love the theme they used for this episode. The case is like this: Yuuko is away on some mission, leaving Watanuki alone. He then runs into a strange woman, and the two become friends. Very soon, they find out about each other that Watanuki lost his parents while the woman lost her son. It’s easy to figure that both start caring for each other. Every time his school finishes, Watanuki meets up with the woman.

The great thing is that there’s something fishy about this woman. After a while, she starts to give Watanuki a strange cold-like illness. It starts with a few innocent coughs, though very soon he faints while in PE, and the episode ends with him, phoning Yuuko, coughing up blood and collapsing. It must be really hard to believe that someone you care about actually is making you horribly sick. Especially in Watanuki’s case. He’s finally found someone who can understand him, though now it seems that he’ll have to cut ties with her. That was the great thing about this episode.

Watanuki and Himawari also spent a lot of time together during this episode. Without Domeki, for once, as he’s busy preparing for an archery tournament. It’s quite interesting to see. Especially seeing that Watanuki’s silly behaviour greatly entertains Himawari. So far, this is the second two-episode arc in xxxHolic, and I’m wondering what else will happen in order to be able to cover for another episode like this. It’ll definitely be interesting.

Another fine episode. Not as good as the previous two, but enjoyable nonetheless. During this episode, Honoka recovers again, tracks down Leon and defeats him. Kanwei, meanwhile, merges with the desert fairy and Millie learns a bit more about how to support Honoka.

Now that the Leon-arc ended, I wonder what’ll happen afterwards. We still have one character left to be introduced, so I suspect that the next arc will be focusing at this woman. But what will happen afterwards? Also, it doesn’t seem that Kanwei’s story has been fully explored yet, so I think we’ll see a bit more of him in the future. I wonder if we could say the same thing about Gravestone. Also, what role will Paife and Joey be playing in the end?

I really like the battles in The Third. It really tries to explain why characters act the way they do, instead of just some flashy graphics. The battles feel a lot more natural this way, contributing to the awesomeness. It’s something not a lot of anime are attempting.

Ooh, that was so exciting. After seeing this episode, it seems that the creators are planning to go all out for the final episode, while they used the last couple of episodes as preparations. I still have no idea what’s going to happen. Okay, Aaeru and Neviriru will be performing the Emerald Ri Maajon. But what will happen afterwards? Will they meet with Limone and Dominüra or Amuria? And what may have happened with Mamiina’s corpse which was blown out of the air a couple of episodes ago?

In any case, final episodes are always tricky to perform the right way. Many anime have trouble with this, and only a handful managed to do it in the end. I’m hoping that Simoun will be one of those. In any case, it won’t be one of those rushed endings, as it’s had enough time to prepare. Let’s hope that it’ll be able to deliver.

Anyway, about the episode. We start where we left off after the previous episode: Paraietta, Furoe, Aruti, Kaimu, Vyüra, Morinasu and Rödoreamon entering the spring. This is surprisingly painful for Yun, as we see her in agony once the ritual starts. (On a side-note: the background tune they used for this worked perfectly). The results are quite interesting.

Kaimu: Female
Vyüra: Male
Furoe: Male
Paraietta: Female
Aruti: Female
Rödoreamon: Female
Morinasu: Female

Especially Morinasu, Furoe and Paraietta are surprising. Both Furoe and Morinasu were seen, claiming to become the opposite of what they actually became. I think love had a lot to do with this. And Paraietta so seemed the type to become male. Everyone just assumed that she’d choose this. It’s also interesting if you realize that they aren’t priestesses any more. Especially when they saw a little kid, coming up to them and praying in front of them, just like nothing happened.

The second part of the episode basically features getting Aaeru and Neviriru in a Simoun. For some reason, the Plumbum officials are insisting that they go to the spring as soon as possible. In the end, with a bit of help from everyone, they manage to do this. Aaeru and Neviriru say goodbye and the episode ends.