Short Synopsis: Second-final episode! Ralph launches his attack!
Good: Awesome episode. The confrontation between Sara and Ralph was well worth the build-up.
Bad: Physically, things didn’t make any sense, but who cares!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10

This is it. The second-last episode. It’s here where anime have to stop joking around, and deliver the things they’ve been building up to, since the final episode rarely is the best episode of the series. In Souko no Strain’s case, this turned out awesome! This definitely is the proof that we’re dealing with a solid series here, which knows what it’s doing throughout the series.

This episode definitely was a roller-coaster ride from start to finish. I feared that Ralph wouldn’t manage to spark my sympathy, but these worries weren’t necessary. He definitely was so much fun to watch when he realized that Emily abandoned him because she saw him kill someone. Still, I’m wondering something. I originally thought that Ralph attacked the ship in the third episode because he wanted the second Emily, but now it seems that her existance was a complete surprise to her. If that’s the case, then why did he attack the ship in the first place?

Another character died as well, the purple-haired woman (I still don’t know her name). Even though she started out as a character who lacked development and fleshing out, I do have to say that her death made some impact. Especially how it got torn to pieces, even though she stopped being any harm to any character. It’s a cruel world we live in. Oh, wait, that saying doesn’t work in this setting…

Also, now that the final episode is only one week away, it’s time to ask the usual question again: how will this one end. Looking at the nature of this show, there’ll probably be a few more deaths. Ralph will die in any case, but who’ll go with him and who’ll stay alive? This episode ended with Ralph and Sara about to face each other in their Strains, which means that we’ll first have a mecha battle between the two of them, which is followed by some kind of twist. Also, don’t forget that Lotti, Lavinia and the others still have a part to play in this.

(Small note: whoa, I actually managed to beat Random Curiosity for this entry in terms of post-time. That’s something I never expected. ^^;)

Short Synopsis: After day fifty (!) of confinement, Light and Misa finally get released.
Good: Misa looked beautiful when she was in the car.
Bad: Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10

Dammit, just when I thought that this anime was so good with surprises it comes with this episode. Why did it have to be so mysterious when it was obvious that Light’s father was acting all along? It would have been way better off focusing on Light’s and Misa’s reaction to this, the people who didn’t know anything. Speaking of the two of them, they acted awfully normal for people who had been locked up for fifty days. Especially Misa. You’d think she’d go at least a bit crazy, but she’s immediately back to her normal self when her blindfolds are taken off. I really would have liked to see how the confinement changed them, but the only changes that came from them were because of the effects of their resignments of the Death Notes.

Still, this episode showed something very interesting regarding the Death Notes. The only thing that the resignation of the Death Note did for Light was lose his memory of everything related to the Death Note, and anything what would make him remember it, but nothing more. That’s why he forgot how he wanted to manipulate Misa, because of her power, but he didn’t forget Misa herself. (On a side-note: what would happen if L showed Light the “L, do you know Shinigami love apples?”-note to him once more). Still, based on this, you’d think his personality would remain the same. Rather bored with society, wanting to do something, not really caring for anything. But interestingly enough, he suddenly turned into a goody two-shoe. This shows how a Death Note is able to influence people. I’m suspecting that Light actually had the same personality before he found the Death Note, though he had lots of doubts about his life-style. When the Death Note arrived, and he saw what he could do with it, his true self suddenly started opening up.

And also about L’s building. What the heck? Why does he need such a high building in order to search for Kira? Why is he willing to spend so much money on the search for Kira, why does he say that he’s determined to catch the real Kira, when he also releases the number one suspect of Kira from confinement? I mean, he could have just left him there for a couple of more months, to see what happens, while continuing the investigation on Kira by himself. If I had to guess, it was to get the police officer’s trust on the case back. I can imagine that the team must’ve been falling apart for the weeks in which he did nothing but observe Misa and Kira. That’s probably why he let them go, but still ordered their 24/7 supervision.

It’ll also be interesting to see how Light will get his Death Note back. I mean, I just know he left some hints behind while he still had his memory, but it’ll be pretty tricky to do this when he’s continuously tied to L.

Also, seeing as this episode marks the end of the Misa-arc, a new arc is about to start. It’s probably going to be the Yotsuba-group-arc. This episode already left a little teaser. A really vague teaser, actually. We seem to be dealing with a powerful company, which is run by eight people. Takahashi Ei’ichi, Higuchi Kyousuke, Ooi Takeshi, Namikawa Reiji, Kida Masahiko, Midou Shingo, Hatori Arayoshi and Shimura Suguru. Apparently, Kira’s murders were incredibly benificial for them, so they conclude that Kira’s one of them. They make lots of theories, but most of them miss the mark.

It’s interesting to compare the Misa-arc to the Naomi-arc. Both had their good and their bad points. During the Misa-Arc, Light really had some great moments, after finding out that there’s a second Kira, for example, and of course his involvement in the great plot twists in the episodes 14 to 16. During the Naomi-arc, I feel that Light’s planning talents were better executed. Not to say that he got dumb in the Misa-arc, but his strategies in this arc just didn’t match up to the great plans he had in order to track and kill Ray Penbar, and not to mention to fix the holes in these plans. The Naomi-arc also had an amazing ending, while the Misa-arc ended rather dull, like we saw in this episode. I also liked how the Naomi-arc was nice and down to earth, in opposition to the huge events in the Misa-arc. That did make sure of some amazing plot twists, though. It’s interesting to note that both arcs were troubled by some moments of convenient timing.

The downfall to having such a high-quality season as the current one is that there are a lot of series worth watching. Still, I’m really noticing now that I’m watching a bit too many series, so I’m going to drop some of the series which didn’t really grab my interest after their first few episodes. Especially now that even more interesting-sounding series such as Giant Robo and Reideen have appeared, and Strange Dawn suddenly got subbed.

- Nodame Cantabile: I can’t see what people find so awesome in this series. Okay, it’s interesting, but I’ve seen nothing special appear. I still have the third episode on my to-watch list, but I just can’t get myself to see it.
- Getsumen to Heiki Mina: Okay, it’s a fun show, but I don’t think 11 episodes are fit for this. It would have been fun as a 2 or 3 episode OVA, though 11 episodes without any substance will probably be too much.
- Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou: I’m sad to drop this, though I don’t think that this will end in such a good series. Okay, it’s got good fighting scenes, it’s first episode was excellent, though episodes 2 and 3 were just plain and boring. It’s probably going to have two or three amazing episodes in the end, but I don’t feel like I want to wait for that.
- Venus Versus Virus: it definitely has potential, but I don’t think that it can go many ways with the personality it chose for its main character. A whining brat remains a whining brat, despite her alternative personality. And episode four was just plain boring, turning this series into a standard shounen-series when it seems that Sumire got her powers by accident. Come on, please. Think of something better.
- Saint October: Not really a bad series, but I feel that it won’t be able to take itself seriously. It’s a pity, it’s got a great concept, and I’d love to watch it when it came with a bit more serious plot, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get much enjoyment out of this series as it is now.

On a better note, I’m surprised at Manabi Straight. It’s actually good enough for me to continue it. Himawari!! meanwhile is also on the border of being dropped, I hope the fifth episode will change my mind. Afro Samurai is just plain garbage, but I’ll finish it anyway since I already saw four episodes. And for some reason I just can’t get enthusiastic about Code Geass.

Short Synopsis: A girl and her father work for a guy who’s running for the national president. This episode proves that politicians don’t always go fair and square.
Good: Kikuri… I guess.
Bad: Just doesn’t live up to the previous episodes, who already weren’t up to par to their predecessors.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10

Yeah, that’s what you get with Jigoku Shoujo. Some episodes are totally amazing, while others are just standard, used to create a pattern. Still, now we’re this far into the series, standard episodes like this one aren’t as good as they used to be. Right now, the creators have to really do their best to impress me, which didn’t work for this episode. Still, I’m glad that they’ve decided to show their lesser ideas right now, so that they can save the best episodes for last.

Kikuri was surprisingly good, by the way. I’m referring to the scene in which she dressed up as a nurse. Normally, her jokes have been rather “innocent”, apart perhaps from when she interfered to send someone to hell, though I don’t think that was a joke of her. Though seeing that she mocks even the doctors and sick people was quite a surprise. Doesn’t she have any boundaries?

Short Synopsis: Finally, Koren is reached. That just leaves the problem of a certain member of the Sa-clan and the hairpin he took.
Good: Lots of diplomacy and preparations by lots of different characters.
Bad: Not many exciting things happened this episode.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10

Lots of things happen this episode, though all they did was build up for future episodes. It’s absolutely necessary for episodes like this one to be shown, though as standalone episodes, they could have been more exciting. A quick rundown:
- Shunki starts moving to Koren, probably because she senses that Kokujun is in danger.
- Kokujun reaches his father and gets arrested.
- Kokujun’s father also seems to be arrested because he retaliated towards his father.
- The bald eagles of the brown province are actually the sons of one of the members of the Wolves of the Wind, Hokuto. He died now, though.
- When Shunki and her two companions travel, they run into Ryuuren who gives them the seal of the Ran-clan.
- Shuurei meanwhile manages to enter Koren due to some quick action from Seiran and Ensei.
- They temporarily move to Shou’s sister’s house while they try to find a way to get the flower bud back.
- In the house, they receive two messages.
- Through the first message, Shuurei requests the help of the local armies in the Sa-province.
- The second message comes from the idiot. He invites him to the ceremony in which he gets appointed to the head of the Sa-clan. One day before the deadline of the governors.
- We finally meet someone who’s oblivious to Shou Taishi’s influence: Eiki. What role will she have in the following episodes?
- Seiran, meanwhile, ordered a rather strong poison from Shou. If I had to guess, he plans to poison Sakujun with it.

I’m wondering what happened to Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Shuuei. There isn’t a trace left of them in this episode. Where have they settled, so that nobody would notice them?