I’m really wondering how Nanami Kamimura managed to get hold of the ninth episode so early, as I only managed to see it on Share about two days ago. It’s getting a bit annoying. Ah well, at least the episode was amazing, and that’s what counts. :)

It’s divided in two halves, and the moods of these parts are totally polar opposites. During the first half, the major focus lies on Sasami, who runs into Amitabu again. The song which followed afterwards was SO incredibly CUTE. That song works perfectly for this anime. Then the second half came. Boy, that was dramatic.

I never thought Misao would change even further, but now it seems that she actually grew into an adult-form, after merging with the Amitabu who’s been tied up. Those were some great scenes. It really seems that the climax is about to come, though there still are four episodes left. That means that there’ll probably be a few twists left.

Misao did look quite scary during this episode. That’s probably due to the great use of graphics, especially in this episode. The scene in which the butterflies appeared was quite magnificently done, even though it almost crashed my pc. ^^; This definitely was one of the more touching episodes of this anime. :)

Night Head Genesis is getting more and more interesting now, now that its end is nearing. After the events of the previous episode, all dedicated to the main storyline, this episode continues with a side-plot. Still, that does not mean that this wasn’t a great episode, even though it started a bit awkwardly with an extra-long summary of the previous episode, and a perverted teacher who has visions of his students, doing naughty things with him.

Still, the rest of the episode develops this case into a really interesting one. It seems that the guy is running away from Ark, and he has been trying to contact Futami, though failed in this. One of his students also has psychic powers, which can be incredibly harmful if Ark got their hands on it. Futami, therefore, contacts Naoya and asks him to protect this girl.

However, that is not the only problem this girl has, as she seems to be in love with the teacher. Either that, or she has been raped, we have yet to see the full details. Because of that, her fellow-students started bullying her rather extremely. There’s so much mystery in this case. First of all, Tsuzuki (the teacher) went mad at the airport, but later, Naoya sees some ghost form of his running down a busy street. At the end of the episode, we also see Sakie (the girl) lie in the school-pool, along with the classmates who bullied her, with Sakie as the only one left living. We also actually see that woman from Ark successfully luring Sakie out, and doing some strange things to her. What, who, when, where, which and why, we’ll have to find out later. I can’t wait. :)

Oh, the irony. The beautiful irony. The troupe stayed together for all these years because of their desire to take revenge. Now that Nakaiya Juubei has been killed, the troupe has no more reason to be together, so they’re threatened to split apart. Then, it seems that Juubei wasn’t dead at all, and the troupe just happily picks off where it left. This means that as long as Juubei is alive, the troupe will be together. They’re actually dependant on his existence. Brilliant!

Okay, it had it indeed coming that Juubei still lived somewhere. After all, he did it before, why couldn’t he do it again, no? But the way the creators brought this couldn’t have been better. Soutetsu actually sends them a message about this with the help of Oryou in the form of a new script of a play. In there stands that Juubei still is alive, and we actually see the troupe find out, before we see him in person again. It’s the opposite of what most anime attempt.

Akizuki, meanwhile, was oblivious to this, as he had his own problems. The scene when Okita died was a surprisingly touching one. Great scene, especially combined with the mysterious black cat which keeps wandering around. The last quarter of this episode was definitely great to see, but I have to say that the first three quarters were rather confusing to watch, due to the extensive use of dialogue.

Still, I did manage to pick up that the army that’s been mentioned a few times, actually came to Yokohama to defend it against another army of westerners. The first three quarters of the episode showed a considerable amount of battles, tactics and aftermaths regarding the attack and defence of the city, though somehow it felt like scenes had been left out. Either that, or we saw some unintroduced flashbacks.

I’m surprised about the lack of interest about this series. When the subs first started, a few posts did spawn, though I’ve lately not seen any posts about this series except for the one I made myself. It’s strange, as you would expect this series to be rather appreciated.

Just when I thought that this series couldn’t get any better! That was such a lovely episode, fully centred around Tetsu’s and Karada’s relationship. I’ve seen many reactions on the fifth episode by other people, claiming that that they expected Karada to reveal herself to Tetsu, but I’m SO glad she didn’t, as because of this, episode ten turned into a real masterpiece. :)

Tetsu actually confessed! In front of Karada, who he thinks is just a girl named Satou. This must have hurt Karada a lot, seeing as she tried to run away desperately, only to find out that Tetsu still keeps searching for her. I also nearly cried after Tetsu collapsed in the rain, got carried to bed and had a small conversation, half awake. That was such an emotional part, I couldn’t help but love it. :)

I must praise Asatte no Houkou for being able to deliver an actually good love-relationship. There are so few anime which actually manage to do this. I think that so far, this really is the only one who appeared during the fall-season. Other series with romance elements, like Kanon, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge and others really try to force this relationship onto the viewer (although I do admit that the latter did have some creative moments, like the ping-pong-kissing-scene). Asatte no Houkou really succeeded in making me sympathize with its characters.

As the episode focused on Karada and Tetsu, there wasn’t much of Shoko and Hiro in this episode. They just appeared in one scene, where Shoko packed her bags, and went off, to live on her own. This means that Hiro will be living on his own, if things keep up. I think that he still doesn’t know what to do, after Karada just ran away from him, two episodes ago.

Oh, and Karada was just way too cute in the few flashbacks we saw. ^_^;

One thing about Light and L irks me a bit. They’re great characters, which match each other perfectly, though I’m beginning to fear that the creators went a bit too far into making them as perfect as possible, aside from a few flaws. I can understand that Light has to be rather smart in order to carry off his plans, but making him end up with perfect scores of one of the most prestigious universities in Japan is going a bit too far. Also, making both Light and L tennis champions does the same thing, and it’s not like these things add anything to the story.

Anyway, apart from that, this episode was as fun as usual. This time, it focuses on L’s attempts to unmask Light. It was interesting to see small flaws in both their deductions and Light’s acting. One thing the tennis game was good for is to symbolize the constant dialogue between Light and L. It’s also interesting to see that Light does care about his father. As the episode progresses, Light keeps making small flaws, which raises L’s suspicion of him. Until his father has a heart attack. Because of this, Light’s acting skills suddenly turn up a level, and L’s suspicions of him actually decrease. This’ll be interesting for later.

The new arc, introduced at the end of the episode, seems pretty interesting, as in I’d love to see Light and L’s reaction to the sudden announcement, made by the fake Kira. Furthermore, who made that tape in the first place? It also seems that another climax is going to arrive in about two or three episodes again, in comparison to the last three episodes, which mainly focused on Light and L’s relationships. I’ll be looking forward to it. :)

After the events of the previous episode, Hervé takes a step back again and disappears in order to make way for the most light-hearted episode yet. The girls finally have formed a real team. This does make you wonder about this anime will continue. Kate, Rose and Claire will probably get their moments in which their surroundings turn against them, just like the case was with Rachel, a few episodes ago. But will the girls remain friends, or will they turn against each other at a certain point?

The one who surprised me the most this time was Rachel. It’s only been eight episodes, and she’s already had a huge change of personality. More than any other character probably ever managed. It’s really awkward to see the once angsty and rebellious Rachel in a care-free, friendly and cheerful mood. But that makes her character even better to watch. I also loved it when she picked out the high heels, and started commenting on whether they would make nice weapons in front of her friends. I actually laughed along with her as the scene evolved. ^^

I’m also wondering about Paula’s role in this. What exactly are her motives? Why is she so nice towards Kate? I think it’s got to do something with the reason why she picked out Kate in the first place, though something tells me that there’s something deeper behind this. Claire’s secret weapon also was a very nice touch. If you want to relieve your anger on your phone because it’s been cut, why not take a zombified guy along with it in the process? Something’s also telling me that she’ll be having some problems during the next episode, due to the fact that she quit her job, and can’t find any other. I’m interested in how she’ll develop.