It’s great to see that even though the criminal is known, it doesn’t automatically end the case. Like Sakon said, you need solid proof. And that’s what this episode was about: getting the proof out of the culprit: Oki. Ayatsuri Sakon really knows how to play with human emotions and feelings. Sakon knew that if he mimicked the dead, and made them act the way he thought they would, Oki would suspect that they were onto him, and he would try to move the body as soon as he thought that everyone’s gone. This also played a major part in the first arc.

The reason for murder was a simple one: Oki was simply obsessed with Byakko. He wanted to have the sword, no matter what, and he killed Kyouichi when it appeared that the sword was going to be sold. He killed Akazuki because there had to be a time in which he had to find out that the sword didn’t end up on the black market. Though that reason confuses me a bit. After all, didn’t everyone think that Kyouichi took the blade and kept it as his own? If that’s the case, how would it end up in the black market of all places?

This episode was much like the transition episode between arc 3 and arc 4. It’s mostly meant to introduce Shuurei’s next task, but also to strengthen the position of women in the imperial court, even if it does mean that Ryuuki had to abuse his powers a bit.

In the first arc, Shuurei was assigned as Ryuuki’s temporary wife, in the second arc, she was studying hard in order to become a government official. In the third arc, she had to prove herself as shinshi, by having to endure a number of challenging trials and in the fourth arc, she gets assigned as the co-governor of the Sa-province. As the ring is still gone, and all of the ones found are fake, the Sa-province is in desperate need of a governor. If, after a year of the previous governor’s death, nobody is found, people can create a new ring. Ryuuki wanted to prevent some random guy to rise as the governor, so he assigned Shuurei and Eigetsu as temporary governors. By giving them flower buds, it means that he has absolute trust in them. This would prevent people from creating a new ring, as that would be going against the emperor himself, which they want to prevent. Still, this does mean that Shuurei is going to have a tough time from now on. Same as Eigetsu. There will probably be a number of people who don’t like her there.

Still no Kourin. I think that she’ll be able to meet Shuurei in the next episode. Interesting note: Shuurei still doesn’t know the things Kourin did to her. Also, there seem to be some serious plans about making Shuurei as Kouyuu’s wife. Signs are pointing more and more to the direction where Shuurei and Ryuuki will never really be together. After all, if Shuurei would marry Ryuuki, she’d be a princess, which is not something she’s aiming for. Another interesting fact is that when Kurou mentioned that when Kouyuu marries Shuurei, he’ll be taking over the Kou clan. But what if Shuurei ends up taking over the Kou clan?

I think I now know what Ten meant by the fact that the next episodes will be focusing a lot on Seiran’s background. After all, his history with Ensei has been rather unexplained. I think that that’ll be a major focus in the next arc.

I’ve just been wondering, if Wontaek’s prediction is right, and the fifth book will end around episode 25, then will there be enough time for all of the ten books to be shown?

Seriously, I never, NEVER thought I’d say this about .Hack//Roots, but OMG that was a great episode!

Only now, two episodes before everything ends we finally get to see the fruits of all these episodes in which Haseo just rampaged around the world, without basically anything happening. Everything has just been building up! Only now, when the end is near, the creators suddenly turned five gears higher, and they finally show us some action.

First of all, Ovan comes back. He tells Haseo that Tri-Edge is about to return. If I recall correctly, he was away for so long because of his fight with Ovan. I think he had to recover, according to one of the commenters. When he hears this, Haseo’s face turns into a big evil grin. Afterwards, when he’s in the church, his face actually turns normal again! (Seriously, I could barely recognize him at that time). Then, Tri-Edge appears and he gets data-drained! Talk about surprise!

What’s more, something tells me that Ovan has been wanting this to happen all along. After all, he told him that they’d together fight Tri-Edge, but Ovan just was nowhere to be found. I never thought that he would be the bad guy of this series.

Especially the reaction of those around Haseo was amazing. Not only Yata, Pai and Kuhn, but especially Saburou and Touta’s reaction was great to see. I wonder how Tabby will react.

Of course, I highly doubt that Haseo will disappear forever, as there’s still a .Hack//GU game which follows afterwards, but if the creators manage to keep the same level up for the final two episodes, things could promise to be very interesting. And after so many episodes of building up, it would almost be blasphemy if this series doesn’t end with a bang.