Now this is getting more like it! It turns out that we’re dealing with a 4-or-even-more-episode-arc. This one also turned up the pacing and intensity quite a bit. The question now remains: is the final episode going to do the same?

I think one of my biggest problems with the previous episode was the predictability. During the first two arcs, you had no idea who was behind it, but with this one, it’s clear that the culprit is Ubusuna-sensei, seeing as she’s almost like the epitome of a red herring here. Luckily, this episode decided to focus more on Naru-chan and Mai than on her and Kasai. The only thing new about the two of them was the confirmation that all of the ones who opposed her in the beginning got into some kind of accident. Oh, and Ubusuna-sensei knows a lot about psychics, only confirming my theory about her being the culprit.

Naru-chan is just a psychic, not a diviner. That’s Lin’s job. He’s really trying to look as cool as possible, without appearing too full of himself. I’m still not sure whether he has an eye on Mai or not. He does show up around her a lot when he’s not supposed to, though. :P For example, when Mai’s near the well (great scene, by the way). I’m also wondering whether something’s wrong with him or not, seeing as he’s going to keep up with his appearance until he collapses. That’s what this episode showed. ;)

Ah, so that’s why Masako couldn’t find any spirits: we’re dealing with a curse now, initiated by a person. This person has to have some connection to Kasai, but isn’t interested in individual targets. It also has to be one who knows a lot about spirits and how to call them. Ubusuna-Sensei?

Still, that doesn’t explain Kasai’s strange behaviour. Also, why was there a ghost who kept staring at Naru-chan, without doing anything, right after Mai told Kasai about how Naru-chan was more of an Onmyouji? Still, I actually was a bit disappointed with this episode. Okay, it was good, but it’s nowhere near the quality of episode 5. If this really is a 3-episode arc, then I’m hoping that the conclusion will prove to be worthwhile.

This episode had a lot of explanation as well, about Psychics and Curses. It’s quite interesting, though they were at the place where normally the climaxes would be. I’m really hoping the best of this season lies in its third and conclusive episode. Ah well, the scene where Matsuzaki smacked Bou-san for his comment about her age really made this episode worth watching. ^_^

Ah, finally Ghost Hunt is back, and they did it again, with a very interesting and different case. While in the first case a rather significant amount of walls and glass were broken, and the second case featured a ghost who liked to abduct small children, we now have something which likes to cause a large amount of accidents, brainwashing and other small incidents. All of this is combined with the usual gang, bickering like usual. Ah, gotta love it. ^_^

The first half of the episode featured the basic introduction. We get a bit of background info from Bou-san, it seems that his main profession is a bass player, while he occasionally exorcises spirits and stuff. The setting is a school, in which a number of not-so-pleasant things have been happening:
- There is a desk, everyone who sat at that desk ended up in a train accident where the door closed with their arm still in-between it, causing them to get dragged away.
- One teacher kept getting bothered by a white hand which kept knocking on his window at night.
- One girl started acting strange when she randomly jumped on the desk, ate sand and jumped in an ice-cold pool with her normal clothes on.
- Something has been messing around in the gym storage.
- A strange shadow has appeared.
- One girl’s desk has been possessed by a strange white hand.
- I think you get the picture now.

Then, things start to get interesting when Matsuzaki, John and Masako arrive. First, we have the usual bickering between the characters, and for some reason, Naru avoids any snide remarks regarding Masako, yet again, and started reminding Matsuzaki of her past failures, and that she hasn’t been too useful over the past few episodes. You’d wonder why he’s so scared of her. ^^

Also, it does seem that both Naru-chan and Mai have powers. Mai just doesn’t know it, while Naru doesn’t show it. Naru-chan has already proved to be a good exorcist, and now he’s even a psychic, while Mai keeps having strange dreams which hold some clues to the case. The question remains: did Naru-chan hire her because he knew this, or did he hire her in order to give some random girl this power?

Central to this case seems to be Kasai, a psychic who kindof ruined herself by placing too much attention on herself. She caused quite a commotion between the ones who believed in her powers and the ones who didn’t, and her temper caused this to end up in a rather bad situation for her, in which the entire school with the exception of one teacher shuns her. She’s quite interesting as a character.

Overall, an excellent episode yet again. I like how each of the characters are polar opposites to each other. It makes for good chemistry between them. :D

This will be the first show I’ll be blogging from the Winter-season. I’m still pending about the others. Master of Epic will also probably get blogged, perhaps even Venus Versus Virus, and Deltora Quest and Himawari!! depend on whether I can find enough inspiration to write about their second episodes, which were excellent by the way.

First, before I start, I might want to put up a small disclaimer. I’ve never seen, read or heard anything about the original work. This is the first time I’ll be experiencing the story. Therefore, you won’t hear things like “the book was better at X”, “the anime omitted Y” or “the anime omitted Z”. Feel free to comment about this, though.

Well then, about the episode. I was surprised about how Cosette evolved, only from the first episode, same with Ebonie and Azele (I think their names are spelled that way, not sure though). At the end of the previous episode, Cosette really looked like a helpless girl, now that her mother had left her and she was put in the care of that evil woman. But this episode, she really showed that she can be strong if she wants to. I like how she doesn’t care about the things that are done to her. It’s probably because she’s clinging to the hope that her mother will come back to her some day. Ebonie and Azele also were quite interesting. Where they wanted to play with Cosette in the first episode, this episode makes them resemble to the two evil stepsisters from Cinderella.

Jean Valjean continues to play with Aran in this episode, by playing in on his conscience. He asks him to deliver a bit of cash to the local hospital. I’m not sure what his motives are. He might have done it in order to prevent him from going into the wrong direction, it may have been because he needed a loyal assistant, or it may have been because he could relate to him. I think it’s for a personal reason, though, as he goes all out of the way to hint about his own past to Aran.

It seems that Jean committed a sin at a time (stealing bread, if I recall correctly), after which he fled, and kept running for nineteen(?) years. In the end, he got caught, but the one he stole from forgave him, and gave him two silver chandeliers (that part was a bit vague on me). We aren’t told what happened after that, but I can guess that these chandeliers helped Jean get the position of major he’s currently at.

I also liked how the twosome of Ebonie and Azele also get what they deserve at times. The two of them get some cakes, and pretend that Cosette stole them from them, in order to get even more cakes the next day. If it weren’t for Gavroche (okay, I know I spelled that one wrong), who overheard the two of them, and took the cakes back. ^^ Still, this also means that they are going to take revenge, and they’re going to do something even worse. Should be interesting.

I’m also not sure what to find of Gavroche yet. It may be his lack of development, but of all the main characters, I like him the least. I’d love to see how he and Cosette got acquainted in the first place. Apart from him, I really like this series so far. I’m really hoping that the huge length of this anime won’t ruin it, seeing as there’s lots of potential in this one, which doesn’t deserve to be ruined.

One interesting thing about this series is that, in comparison to other seasons, there aren’t any really bad series yet. All we have is a bunch of mediocre ones, a bunch of good ones, and a number of great ones. It’s nice to see a season without garbage. (*Thinks back to the fall season*)

Nodame Cantabile

This is another one of those anime that was highly anticipated. It didn’t really impress me, though. Okay, it’s a nice series, though it didn’t really grab my attention like shows as Deltora Quest and Master of Epic did. It’s basically a love story between two polar opposites. At certain points, it had some nice comedy, though most of this first episode felt annoying to me. Still, I’m going to watch at least a few more episodes before I dismiss this, seeing as it does have potential.

Venus Versus Virus

Ooh, this one turned out quite interesting. I was expecting another one of these standard shounen-fighting anime, though this anime added quite a few bunch of interesting elements. I really like the main character, especially her alter ego. I’m also glad to see that the fights actually revolve around strategy, and not just on who is the strongest. It could have been better indeed, though for now I’m happy. I’m also quite interested when the yuri-elements in will show up. The two main characters make a good couple. I also loved how Shimire tried to lure out the virus by poking a random tree with a small stick. ^^

Getsumen to Heiki Mina

It’s indeed as I though, this show is full of fanservice. Still, I’m glad that this show has a good sense of humour. That really managed to save it. This show has absolutely nothing new, but it’s fairly well executed. Still, it’s far too early to call this one amazing, and I think this will always remain “just an enjoyable show”. It’s basically a mahou shoujo, featuring a high-school girl who can transform into a bunny-girl with a bunch of carrots sticking out of her ***. I’m also not too happy about how her powers are introduced. While most mahou shoujo have learned from the older ones and give their main character at least a good reason to start working as a mahou shoujo, what Getsumen to Heiki Mina basically does is: Random cute pet: “Yeah, hello, we’ve got a giant monster here, destroying a bunch of things. Here’s a bit of power and a cute suit, now go whack it up.” Mina: “Okay!”