Short Synopsis: The setting for the new arc: a school for the puppet-style Noh. Kaoru has an arranged marriage with the oldest son of master of this school.
Good: Kaoru was surprisingly interesting. I finally realize the good thing about this series.
Bad: Again the usual formula. I hope I’m right with my statement above.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10

Interesting, I know that I’ve been ranting against Ayatsuri Sakon for the past few episodes. But after seeing this episode, I really can’t imagine why I’d do such a thing? Sure, it’s not as good as shows like Simoun or Noein, but it does have a certain charm. Sakon himself also is a unique character. I finally realize why I liked the first couple of episodes so much, while the later bunch of episodes started to get really boring. This really is a show that you need to see once a month. Not once a week, like I tried for a while. It’s a slow show, but it definitely has some really good points. The fact remains, however, that it’s too much of the same. When you put huge breaks between watching the episodes, this effect is weakened significantly, which results into quite an enjoyable episode.

After watching this episode, I also finally realized that this show is like the sister-anime of Ghost Hunt. They both involve Ghosts, they both involve mysteries that have to be solved. The huge amount of similarities is quite astounding. Still, there are a few significant differences. While Ayatsuri Sakon focuses on solving murders, Ghost Hunt focuses on getting rid of ghosts and spirits. Ayatsuri Sakon is deeply rooted in the ancient arts of japanese puppetry, while Ghost Hunt rather offers a modern look at psychic events.

Still, I now realize that Ayatsuri Sakon has one major disadvantage over Ghost Hunt: it doesn’t have an incompetent main character. Heck, Sakon is smart, he does things on his own, and he uses his puppet to talk for him. The first arc also had lots of shock values, and Ayatsuri Sakon actually gives the viewer the opportunity to solve the case himself with a bit of logical thinking. Instead of Ghost Hunt, which comes with rather random points that rather resembles storytelling than solving a mystery.

About this episode, I really liked Kaoru when she fell in love with the guy. I’m really hoping that the Ayatsuri Sakon project will continue releasing once a month, as I’m interested to see how this will turn out.

Short Synopsis: The new case: some ghosts have been hunting a very strange old mansion.
Good: Lots of characters this time. Should provide a nice twist.
Bad: MAI! Stop wandering around and actually start doing things for yourself!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10

The next arc, and finally it looks like we’ve got another major arc which happens outside of a school-building. Right now, it seems that we’re dealing with two ghosts: a man and a woman. From the looks of it, they were heavily tortured before they died. Because of this, their spirits remained, even though they died. Right now, they’ve been kidnapping random people who entered the house. It seems that the mansion is in the possession of the former prime-minister. If not, than he’s at least involved in quite an important way, seeing that he’s the client.

Yasuhara pretends to be Naru-chan this time, since there seem to have been more psychics invited for research, some of which he doesn’t want to get involved with. I wonder who they might bee, as he never mentions them directly. But if I had to guess, it’s the British professor Davis who came over to Japan especially for this, along with his two rather incompetent assistants. Davis is just too perfect, while his assistants are just too stupid.

Lots of character-background also appeared this episode, right out of the blue. Suddenly, we learn the identity of the person who taught Naru-chan all about ghost hunting, Lin appears to be Chinese and Mai doesn’t have any parents left, so she’s living on her own. You’d wonder how she sustained herself before she broke Naru-chan’s camera.

So far, I’m not really expecting anything from this arc. Sure, the huge amount of characters is interesting, but I’m getting really pissed off at Mai now. She really needs to act for herself, and take initiative. Like mentioned before, it’s what made the fifth episode great and the other episodes lacking.

Short Synopsis: Kira’s deaths have been benificial to the Yotsuba-group, and L finally manages to find this out. Meanwhile, the police has had to give up chasing after Kira.
Good: Aizawa
Bad: What is the Yotsuba-group anyway?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10

Ah, yeah. After last week’s climax, we’ve again got a number of quiet episodes of building up, before the show can reach another climax. This episode was dedicated to introduce the suspicions about the Yotsuba-group, and to get rid of Aizawa. The former wasn’t really that exciting, but Aizawa was pretty interesting. I’m wondering whether it’s really goodbye for him now, or that we’ll see him again.

Next on the list to go is probably Matsuda. This episode gave a few very clear hints that he’s absolutely useless, except for getting some coffee. This is probably getting worse, until he breaks and leaves. Or gets involved in some kind of plot twist. ^_^

The fight between Light and L also was pretty amusing, but I’d wish that Light would turn back to his old self. He’s got a really dull character right now. More than that, I want to see Ryuk back, and I want to see how he’ll react to the Yotsuba-group.

Speaking of the devil, what is up with them? Heck, what kind of company are they anyway? What would they be doing so that deaths of criminals actually are beneficial to them. I mean, that shouldn’t be too hard to investigate? Why didn’t we hear any deductions about that? I’m also beginning to suspect that one person in the Yotsuba-group indeed has a death-note for himself. One of these eight has it, but he hasn’t told the others about it. That’s why they assumed one of them to be Kira, because they couldn’t tell the difference between the deaths by Kira and the deaths by the mysterious member.

Soukou no Strain is a science-fiction mecha series. There are two types of mechas in this story. Gambits and Strains. Strains are superior to Gambits in every single way, but suitable pilots are rather rare, since in order to pilot a Strain, you need to possess a unique device called a MIMIC. This has been linked with you since your birth. If the MIMIC breaks, you’ll lose the ability to fly a Strain. The story centres around one of these Strain-pilots: Sara Werec, sister of the famous talent, Ralph Werec.

Soukou no Strain has been a series with its ups and downs, but it definitely turned out as one of the better ones of this kind. The fact, however, does remain that the first episodes introduce a rather significant amount of strange plot-points, or unexplainable events. Some events also are way too coincidental for their own sake, and you’d certainly want to avoid episode 7, which is basically one huge incoherent fanservice-fest.

Still, in comparison to countless mediocre anime, this one manages to rise above them. This is because at the moments when it has to, Soukou no Strain really delivers. It isn’t afraid to kill off a number of characters, and through the course of 13 episodes, it actually manages to develop Sara and her companions into very interesting and likable characters. Some of the dramatic scenes are amazing, and especially the final episodes lack any sort of incoherent storytelling that was plaguing the first number of episodes. Add a few very interesting plot twists along the way, and you’ve got yourselves a great anime.

In terms of OST, this anime definitely delivers. It comes accompanied by a few very strong stringed-instrument-tracks, perfect for the setting. I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the graphics, though. The CG looks nice, but the character designs are not far from horrible. One bright point, though: the final episode fixes this nasty bug, and it finishes the series with some great animation qualities. I just wish I could say the same about the other episodes.

Overall, I’m recommending this if you don’t mind the action. Okay, the show has its flaws, but something says to me that it doesn’t care about these, and that it would rather ignore them so that it has more time to focus on the really important things. After all, it had to stuff quite a large story in only 13 episodes, something which is never an easy task. Still, it succeeded, in my opinion. It’s a great series, I had my initial doubts, though these were removed on the way by some very strong episodes and plot twists.

Short Synopsis: And Soukou no Strain has finished, with the big battle between Sara and Ralph.
Good: Whoa, some actual good animation this time; Suddenly, the entire ED makes sense.
Bad: Like most endings, even though exciting, the ending was predictable.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10

And I’ve finally finished this rather interesting series. I’m glad I watched it, as it had some really good points. But more on that at my actual review of the show. One thing that immediately stroke my eye for this episode was the huge animation quality. Or rather the huge sudden rise in animation quality. It seems that the animators went all out to give this series a great ending. I just wish this show did the same for the rest of the series, but it’s a great addition nonetheless. ^^;

Regarding the actual ending, it was surprisingly focused. Series can go three ways with their endings:
- The main characters and side-characters all finish their own story at the same time. This most often happens when the main characters have different goals than the side-characters. Usually, I tend to like this sort of ending more than the others as it has a degree of unpredictability that the next two don’t have. This usually means the most rushed of the three options.
- The main characters and side-characters all work together to accomplish their final goal. This usually makes for more of the cheesy endings, where everybody suddenly sees the light and does the exact same thing.
- The side-characters take a step back, so that the main characters can focus on their problem. This usually is the most predictable of the three options.

Soukou no Strain went with the third option. While it definitely was predictable, it could have been far worse. Sara is striked by Ralph during her fight at the beginning of the episode, which means that she has to be brought back to the space-ship in order to get her Strain fixed while Ralph floats into space due to another one of his heart attacks (or something that looks like it). Because of that, it allowed for one more quiet moment with Lotti. Surprisingly the argument between Sara and Lotti was completely over, and this scene was entirely used to create a moment of rest before Sara went to confront Ralph. Usually, before the final fight in a similar situation, we have characters going all emo. It’s nice seeing a twist like this. It prepared nicely for the scene that was to follow.

The final fighting scene must have been a great treat for the ones into action. It was pretty intense, though like mentioned before, it also was predictable. Still, I actually enjoyed the ending, mainly due to the atmosphere in the end, and one very clever idea by the creators. It seems that the ED, which I always took for granted actually showed the scene of Sara and Emily, walking on a beach, after having defeated Ralph and landed on earth. I was wondering why nobody showed up, but that explains everything. It’s a nice touch.

Finally, one final nice touch was Ralph’s necklace. It seems that he never actually took it off. (not sure if we saw this on previous episodes, though) I loved it when Sara finally acknowledges Ralph as her brother again. Sayonara Soukou no Strain. You’ve had your ups and downs, but I’m sad to see you go.