Very interesting. This episode actually had a light character, instead of the dark characters of the past few. While the past few episodes have been just fighting, fighting, getting stronger and fighting, this episode adds something more: hope. It’s indeed the case that Akazukin will discover that her powers are rather uncontrollable, but that’s just a side-story for this episode.

The main focus is Fernando. He makes use of a special natural phenomena. Those who’ve been paying attention might’ve noticed that Fandavale has more than one moon. This episode, two of these moons (a large one and a big one) formed one line, along with the planet itself. Thus an interesting eclipse follows, which apparently strengthens the power of water-based magic and wind-based magic. Fernando uses this power to come in contact with Souta, while Randagio uses this power to unleash probably his strongest goon yet.

The first half of the episode also was highly atmospherically. It seems that this turned into something like Christmas for the people of Fandavale, as everyone stops for a bit to watch the spectacle. The latter part of the episode also featured a rather emotional scene between Souta and Akazukin. Finally we get a bit of development from her side. :)

Also, we get our first clue about Souta’s mother. She indeed is in Fandavale, and Fernando met her. The question remains, was she kidnapped because she was special on her own, or is she special because she married Souta’s father? I still think that he was the guy from the mirror. The fairy-tale may tell that the story took place 1000 years ago, the girl did talk to someone at the end of the mirror. In Erde. With large buildings you see only in the modern age, and definitely not 1000 years ago.

Next episode will be a great one: we have a Rapunzo-cameo, and Hansel will return again.

Okay that was such an annoying episode. I just loved it. Nothing much happens. The largest part of the episode consists out of Light, finding a way to kill “Maki”, and Watari shows himself. Especially the former part was strange, but great to watch at the same time.

I’ve indeed put “Maki” between quotations, as she indeed used a false name. Light has a huge deal of trouble, trying to figure out her name, without acting suspicious. After all, there’d be no way for him to know that she used a false name, so he can’t mention it. In the end, he makes use of something that’s in every human: longing. The moment Light found out that she’s been working for L, and that she trusts him, he knew that she was longing to see him back. He made use of that, by pretending that he was member of the investigation team, and offered her a place in this. If you asked a normal person, he or she would react sceptical to this, but with “Maki”, it’s her weak point. Light made good use the fact that he wouldn’t have to continue his act as soon as he got her name written down.

The best part of the episode, though, was the ending. Not because Light won at the end, but because of two other things: the soundtrack, and its mystery. I just love the tune that the creators made for this. It fits the atmosphere perfectly. But so many strange things happened in such a short period of time. And before it has even time to sink in, the cliff-hanger sets in. First of all, one of the officers on Kira’s case gets sent to the police office, in order to make sure that one of them always is there, in case someone (like “Maki”) comes with an interesting tip. He just walks right past “Maki”, handing over her ID and nothing happens. Only seconds later after he passed, Light tells her that he’s Kira. Did he hear, or did he not? Talk about close calls. Also, why did Ryuk laugh more hysterical than ever when Maki agreed to hand light her ID? I also loved how Light reveals he’s Kira, two seconds before the Death Note takes control of her. The fear really was in her eyes.

I believe that L’s weakest point is Matsuda. Whenever Light figures out that he’s part of the investigation, L will be dead. He’s just too inexperienced and unprofessional for such a job. I wonder if L already noticed this. Also, only now I realized when this anime’s taking place. The current episode takes place at December 30, 2006. That means that Light should attain his Death Note, right about now. It’s a freaky thought that perhaps tomorrow, the newspapers will be full of strange deaths. Is this some trick by the creators of the anime, or were the same dates used in the manga?

The first four episodes of Asatte no Houkou have been really emotional. Right now, we’ve got ourselves three episodes, which are about the opposite, as they’ve been really peaceful, and because of that really great to watch. The next episode, the emotional scenes will probably return again, as Karada discovered that Shoko and Hiro were once lovers. Right now, she’s boarding a train. Probably because she wants to leave the two of them alone.

Following the usual pattern, this episode again is a Shoko-episode. It’s centred around Hiro’s birthday, which, of course brings back memories. Karada also spends about three quarters of the episode, baking a cake for her brother. Shoko is encouraged by this and helps her out a bit, even though she’s horrible at cooking (and really shows that this episode).

It’s another highly atmospheric episode, in which not much happens. Though for some reason, Asatte no Houkou turns keeps to amaze me. It also made the perfect use of the small bits of comedy, involving the different character’s quirks. ^^

This episode definitely was different from all episodes thus far. There was almost no action, it just involved people talking and preparing for the next episode. It turned out pretty well, in my opinion. This was an excellent episode, though I do suspect that the action junkies will be put off by it.

So many things happened during this episode. The most important of them is probably Soutetsu. He’s left the Kakunojou Troupe in order to take care of a few things. He first goes to Akizuki’s home village, and there he lets the local residents bake strange kinds of vases. Apparently, they have to be just perfect, as he rejects quite a lot of them before he finds the vase he’s looking for. I don’t know how, but apparently this is the way to summon a demon. Shouten-sama and his assistant find this out as well. The question now remains: on whose side is he? This gets even more mysterious when we see him meeting up with Nakaiya Juubei, of all persons.

Meanwhile, the rest of the troupe wonders where the heck he went, and they thing back to the time at which he joined them. This provide a few nice flashbacks. It seems that Yuyama and her two companions ended up in the theatre-business, when they found that they had talent and needed money. At a certain point, Soutetsu started following them, and at one point, he asked to be their scriptwriter. Afterwards, the rest of the troupe came.

Nakaiya Juubei, meanwhile, hasn’t been sitting still himself, as he’s preparing yet another demon. With this, he attempts to brainwash Katsu, who was meeting his superior about his recently destroyed headquarter. He succeeds. Kanna plays an interesting role in this. He thinks he’s helping Nakaiya into breaking in the building and holding Katsu hostage, though it seems that his help wasn’t needed after all.

Also, I loved it when Glover gave the Japanese a handshake, and they didn’t understand what it meant. ^^

You’d wonder about the meaning of the red star. I’m not sure whether something about this has already been said in the anime, but I think it’s a crucial part into summoning the demons to the current world.