Okay, that was an excellent episode. It’s not centred around a character this time, but it’s meant to explain a few things about the overall story, namely the mirrors we’ve been seeing. I always took them for granted, but now it seems that they’ve got a huge back-story behind them, and are actually vital for Cendrion to carry out her plan.

The setting for this episode is a rather gloomy town. At first, I thought that it was a snow town, but it seems that the village lies next to a volcano, which is constantly dropping its ash on top of the village. That’s why the entire city has a grey colour.

In here, Akazukin and the others meet up with a talking parrot, who takes them to some kind of mansion. There’s a fairytale about this mansion, and Souta is more than eager to hear it. Once upon a time, when the volcano was still inactive, there was a girl, who was in love with a certain boy. Then, the volcano started to erupt, and the boy told the girl that god is angry, and that he’s punishing them. Because of that, he went inside a mirror, telling the girl that he needed to go to the other world. The mansion seemed to be the place where the girl lived.

Ringo, while cleaning up the mansion a bit, suddenly receives tons of phone-messages from her friends. She finds a broken mirror, and realizes that the shards of the mirror are actually able to send the telephone signals through from the human world. When the mirror is reassembled, Souta actually disappears into the mirror. In there, he sees the same girl from the fairytale, speaking to a mirror which displays a bit of the human world.

So the mirrors are actually links between worlds. There also seems to be some kind of dimension between Erde and Fandavale, and that’s where Cendrion has her main base. In there, there’s probably a special mirror, linked to a sealed dimension, and that’s where Cendrion is located. The reason Gretel and Randagio were able to transport so easily from Erde to Fandavale also was because of this dimension. I think this also means that if Souta would have touched the mirror, being held by the girl, he’d be able to travel back to Erde.

Another thing to note is that whenever a Nightmarian gets beaten, a mirror gets destroyed. Could it be that Nightmarians and mirrors are of the same essence? After all, the first episodes seemed to suggest that the mirrors in Cendrion’s base were able to see through the Nightmarian’s eyes.

The question also remains: who was this boy from the fairy-tale? Right now, the only one who fits the criteria is Souta’s father. It’s quite possible that he travelled to the human world, got stuck there or refused to come back, met Souta’s mother and that’s how Souta was born. It does explain why Souta is so special: he’s the only child between a person from Erde and Fandavale. Still, if this were true, Souta’s Father’s hair colour must’ve changed somehow from blond to brown.

These really are some very interesting theories. Thanks to this episode, I’m loving this series more and more. ^_^

Next episode, the City Musicians of Bremen will return. Yay!

Ooh, that was another great episode. But first: a few names, taken from the official website. I knew that learning Hiragana would come in handy some day.

Akizuki Youjirou: he’s the main character of this story. Has a strong sense of justice, and seems to have some kind of mission to stop some kind of mission, planned by the bad guys which involves supernatural beings.

Yuyama Kakunojou: she’s the main female character. She’s a member of the theatre group. When she was young, the guy from the previous episode killed her father, a wealthy merchant and her mother. She then fled along with either her brother or best friend and the old guy. She appears in this anime in two forms: a normal form, and a performing form, in which she wears a wig. I can imagine that more people would have trouble recognizing her.

Ibaragi Soutetsu, otherwise known as “Sensei”. He’s probably the one who founded the theatre group, and he handles the management, writes the scripts, and seems to be a very talented swordsman as well.

Shiranui Kozou (I could have sworn I heard this name before… must be my imagination): he’s probably one of the main actors in the theatre group. It seems that he takes the lead in their missions as well, due to his large amount of charisma.

Ebisu no Zukin: He either was Yuyama’s brother or best friend when they were young. He used to be very protective of her, what ended in him getting buried under a pile of burning woodblocks. His face was ruined, that’s why he always conceals his face. Because of that, his personality turned from protective to rather scary and to-the-point. His parts mainly are the one of the side-characters or villains.

Kakashi no Keishin: he forms the muscles behind the theatre group. He moves the heavy pieces of theatre equipment across and under the stage, and we saw him even work as a temporary personal elevator for Akazuki in the first episode.

Zagashira: he’s the old man who used to be very close to both Emusu and Yuyama. He took care of them when Yuyama’s parents died, and finally he came in contact with Ibaraza, and the three joined his theatre group, looking for revenge.

Benimaru: he’s the young boy who’s with the theatre group. He, along with who is most probably his sister, takes care of the small jobs who have to be done, as getting visitors into the theatre, handing out pamphlets, playing as extras and handling the small pieces of decor.

Kobako: most probably Benimara’s older sister. Quite cheerful, as well as her younger brother.

Nakaiya Juubei: probably the main bad guy for now. He has some kind of affinity with spirits, and some kind of history with Akizuki.

Hario Genba: he’s the guy with the scarred face who was killed in the previous episode. At one time, he lead some kind of army and killed Yuyama’s parents. When Emusu tried to struggle against him, he made a careless mistake and his face ended up being halfly burned. It seems that he either worked for Nakaiya, who became sick of him and sought a way to kill him, or he was working for someone who got in the way of Nakaiya, thus forcing the latter to kill him.

Kawai Tsuginosuke: I had to think for a while before I found out who this guy is. He was the samurai who was sitting right next to Nakaiya Juubei, wasn’t he?

Kotoha: a newly introduced character this episode. Her role will probably come later in the anime, and she seems to be connected to the person below. Looking at her clothing and way of talking would suggest that she works at some kind of brothel, though I could be wrong in this. The end of the episode also shows that she knows the theatre group.

Katsu Awa-no-kami Kaishuu (Katsu Kaishuu): another newly introduced character, he’s got his own troubles, as he needs a bodyguard around him. Because of this, he’ll probably get involved with Akizuki and the others.

Saigou Kichinosuke Takamori (Saigo Takamori): the sniper who was partially responsible for killing off Hariwa Genba. He’s hired by Nakaiya, and during this episode, we see him attempting to kill Yuyama. This means that Nakaiya has some kind of grudge against the theatre group, which hints at some kind of history between the two parties as well.

Sadly, even more characters were introduced this episode, but the creators didn’t find them important enough to give them a place on the website. Thankfully, their names did appear on the screen as they were introduced. At least. For some of them. -_-

Koma no Shouten-sama: a very old person, probably a master in martial arts. That, or he is very knowledgeable. The fact that Akizuki refers to him with “sama” and not “sensei” makes me suspect the latter. I suspect that Akizuki served under him at some point.

The name of Shouten-sama’s assistant/bodyguard shall forever remain a mystery, though. If I had to guess, it’d be Shinza, though that was just a random word Shouten-sama used when he looked at him. Anyway, Shinza seems to be looking over Shouten-sama. It’s clear that he’s an old man, and quite respected as well. This indeed suggests that he hired some kind of help or bodyguard.

Katsu gets a visitor during this episode. His name also is displayed, but in kanji and katakana combined. He seems to be a foreigner, named H. S. Parkes. He comes to deliver Katsu a bodyguard, as apparently, he’s in danger. Whether this is because of Nakaiya or another person, I don’t really know.

The name of this bodyguard is never known, even though his role in this anime will probably be rather large, as he’s quite skilled. His character also seems interesting, with the one eye missing at all.

Then, during one explanation, another person gets shown: Saigoukichi no Suketakamori. He either sent the bodyguard to Katsu, or he forms some kind of threat. (Yes, I’m watching this anime without understanding any word of the dialogue. Nice, isn’t it? ^^;)

A thing I liked in this episode was the way the bodyguard was introduced. Firstly, H. S. Packs appeared on the screen, and only when the bodyguard appeared, the background music took a turn towards a very serious, suspenseful tune. It’s also a nice touch to see the enemy sniper actually practicing his aim at the sea. This would suggest that one of his future missions involves sniping people from a boat. At least, if he somehow manages to escape from the cliff-hanger. Things looked pretty hopeless when he was surrounded by both Akizuki and the theatre group.

Anyhow, it’s great to see that finally people other than myself are starting to blog about this series. I really began to find things strange when I appeared to be the only one to talk about such a high-quality series for more than a week. Ah well, once the first subs start appearing, I’ll believe that this series will be gaining popularity fast. But still, this series doesn’t deserve to be carried in such low-quality raws. It’s very ironic: the show with the best production values of the season gets to be packaged in the lowest quality video files. (^^;)