Short Synopsis: Finally: Akazukin’s background!
Good: Better than I ever imagined. This seriously was an awesome episode!
Bad: The beginning had awkward animation, despite this being a major episode.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10

Seriously, that was AWESOME! Ever since I started with rating the episodes, I never had to give an episode such a high rating. And this episode definitely deserves it! This episode definitely was one of the ones where everything comes together. Those who’ve been reading my other entries about this show know that I’ve been heavily speculating about and anticipating both the background of Akazukin and Baru, since nothing really has been said about them, which means that they had to hide something, didn’t they?

That question got answered in this episode. The reason Akazukin never talked about her childhood was because it’s a rather sad one. Her birth village now lies in ruins. It’s not because of Cendrion’s army, however. Her village was raided by the wolves. They killed her parents, her best friend at that time and his mother. The survivors abandoned the village, and moved to a nearby one. At that point, Akazukin also met Baru, if I’m correct. If I had to guess, she then moved to the same place Hameln was staying, after which she went to the school we saw in episode 10 or eleven.

One of the things that made this episode so awesome was the fact that it built up perfectly. It already started when they didn’t even reach the village, when Souta noticed that Akazukin tried to be awfully happy. Randagio, meanwhile, introduces Jedo-sama in quite a funny way. Still, despite the jokes used, the heavy atmosphere kindof stays.

Still, the best thing about the episode was Kain, Akazukin’s childhood friend. (On a side-note: I almost exploded because of the cuteness of small Akazukin. Seriously, when I thought that things couldn’t get any cuter after Chibi-Shirayuki) The two of them were extremely cute when they were young, and it seems that Akazukin keeps saying “Zukkyun” because of him. Still, the thing is that this “Kain” looks an awful lot like Jedo-sama. It’s a fairly standard plot twist. Your former best friend now is a bad guy because of some reason. At least, that’s what I thought.

Boy, was I wrong. I never expected BARU, OF ALL PEOPLE to be Kain! Seriously, that is so AWESOME! It perfectly explains why he stays with her. To make things even better, Jedo-sama seems to be his brother. That’s why nothing was said about his father. He probably separated from his wife, took Jedo with him, and started living with the Lycan. I’m suspecting that his father was a Lycan, while his mother was a normal person. That’s what made the two of them special. Seriously, with this, this series turned even better. Was this the best of Otogi Juushi Akazukin, or are there even more awesome episodes waiting? I can’t wait to find out. :D

Short Synopsis: Cosette finally finds out that her mother has been sending her letters. The only problem: she can’t read.
Good: For now, it seems that this anime realizes its huge length, and makes excellent use of this by developing Cosette into a great character. This episode was no exception.
Bad: Let’s hope that the newly introduced boy doesn’t turn into a bad love interest.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10

It seems that this episode skipped another year, since Shushu seems to have grown up into a large dog. In the end, Cosette got to keep him. ^^ I’m really liking how much the creators are developing her in this anime. This episode, she makes her first steps into learning to read and write from the local priest. I can’t wait till she finds out exactly what her mother wrote to her, since the moment when she was able to read her own name into her mother’s letter alone already was awesome.

Meanwhile, in the city nothing much happened. It feels like the entire episode has been building up for Jean, Javert, Fantine and the old man who appeared during this episode for the first time. We see the latter get into an accident at the end of the episode, with Aran in the neighbourhood. I’m suspecting that his role is to give Aran a bit of development. Javert, meanwhile, shows how devoted he is to upholding the law. I’m also wondering what’ll happen to Fantine, and when exactly it will happen.

Still, despite this episode being as good as usual, I’m worrying about the newly introduced young boy (Toron?). I’m really hoping for him to be more than just a love-triangle-inducing character for Cosette. This often forms a pitfall for most anime, I hope it won’t be the same for this anime as well. Also, you have to love the attempts of the poor voice-actors trying to talk French, or Furenchi, in this case. ^^;

Short Synopsis: An eccentric fashion designer; Warage Black is missing!
Good: The introduction-sketch; The main character gets more screentime than ever (as in, 10 seconds ^^;); I LOVE the smilies.
Bad: This episode wasn’t as good as the previous ones, unfortunately; this show deserves better animation.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10

Aw, too bad. While this episode definitely was funny, it wasn’t as outright hilarious as the past few episodes. Especially Waragecha used a rather overused joke, and too many of the jokes centred around people getting beat up. While it is funny once in a while, you don’t want to repeat this too much.

Still, the episode definitely was memorable. Mostly because of one particularly wrong sketch, in which we saw a Pandemos who dressed himself up as a fashion-designer. He also got angry whenever someone dared to call him a male. He really gave a totally new meaning to the word “trap”. And when you think things couldn’t get even wronger, the episode ends in a very strange, and very, VERY wrong way.

I also loved the end of the introduction, where the male Elmony started to chase the Cognite with a giant club. ^^ The main character also actually spoke more than one sentence. We see more of her with every episode progressing.