This episode focused on three different characters. The amount keeps growing. We haven’t seen any episodes lately which were focusing towards one specific character, and only that character. Of the protagonists, the episode focused on Baru. Of the antagonists, the episode focused on Hansel. Of the guest characters, the episode focused on Rapunzel.

Baru was really meant to be fleshed out a bit in this episode, and the creators do this to actually make him fall in love with Rapunzel. Not only was this outright hilarious, we get more and more clues that he actually has a human form as well. He just refuses to show it. I just loved it when Rapunzel called Baru “Baru-chan”, after which he took out two Nightmarians at once. ^^

Hansel’s case is a bit more serious. He’s finally ready again to move to the battlefield, and on top of that he received a power-up from Cendrion. Still, that didn’t make him strong enough to defeat Akazukin in princess-mode. I’d say they’re about equally as strong now, though it does seem that Cendrion has taken a liking to him. I’m suspecting that she’s going to keep feeding him power-ups like that, until it goes wrong at one time. Randagio’s and Gretel’s role also is becoming interesting. They’re becoming quite useless, now that everyone is growing, while they aren’t. Still, something tells me that they both have their own role to play.

Though most of the episode’s focus went to Rapunzel, and her story. Akazukin, Ibara, and especially Shirayuki and Ringo keep fangirling over her desire to see the prince she loves return. Because of this, Souta rather remains in the background. In any case, Rapunzel does have a great character design. In the end, it appeared that she worked together with Hansel, so that he’d return her prince to her. In the end, it seems that the creators combined the story of the prince, who turned into a frog with the story of Rapunzel. As Souta has read this fairy-tale, he actually knows that with a kiss, the prince will return back to normal.

Overall, this was a very good episode, but after seeing the preview of the next episode, I’m actually looking forward more and more to it, as it’ll continue with the mirror-arc. We see the girl from the mirror return again, and with a bit of luck, we’ll get some more clues about Souta’s father, and what exactly he is. The Hansel and Gretel-arc will also continue, now that Turude has been put out of the picture for a while, being defeated by Akazukin and all. I love it how every episode is so diverse, but still the same.

That was truly excellent. This really has been one of the more awesome episodes of Asatte no Houkou, and that has to say something, with such a high-quality series. It mostly follows Karada, who has run away from home, because she discovered a picture of Hiro and Shoko together. Therefore she figured that she’s a hindrance in their relationship. I also must warn you. The next paragraph contains a spoiler you do not want to find out before watching the episode. If you haven’t seen episode eight of Asatte no Houkou, close this window NOW. Seriously.

The plot twist in the middle of the episode was a beauty. At one point, Karada also thinks back of the time when she was still living with her parents, and this shows us something very interesting. Karada KNEW that Hiro wasn’t her real brother, she just never told him that she knew. The reason she was crying when she saw Hiro for the first time also isn’t because she was extremely scared or sad that her parents died, like Hiro suspects. It’s because she knew she had nobody left, and then suddenly, a person who isn’t related to her in every way arrives and plans to take care of her. This also SO explains why she’s trying to be so independant. There’s this guy, who she isn’t related to in every way who sacrificed everything in order to take care of her. He has no obligation to do so, so she felt like she was a huge bother to him. That’s why she started to do the housework on her own. Brilliance. :)

The actions which take in present time also were a great to see. As Karada is now on her own, she has to find a job and a house, though as she never solicited before, she has no idea how things go, and she’s probably extremely scared of talking to random people. I can indeed imagine how scary it must be, especially when you don’t have any house or telephone, or you have to lie about your date of birth.

In the end, Karada spends the night in a child’s playground. But then the cliffhanger comes. You’d think that Hiro would be able to get Karada back without any problems, though then the opposite appears to be true. Karada may be scared and inexperienced, but when she makes a decision, it really becomes clear that she’s not backing down from that decision easily, instead of running around in circles indecisive.

Also, what about the next episode? The cliff-hanger definitely focused on Karada, and it only made the problem bigger. Still, by the rules of Asatte no Houkou, the next episode will be another Shoko-episode. What will it focus at? Will Shoko get angry at Hiro, at his constant desire to chase after Karada? Will she help him? And what will become of Karada? Will she turn better, or will she turn worse? This definitely was an awesome episode. It’s very rare for me to really like a slice-of-life series, though somehow, Asatte no Houkou is currently leaving a huge impression on me.