Short Synopsis: Higuchi dies, while Light’s plan gets revealed.
Good: With this episode, my faith in Death Note is entirely restored again.
Bad: What? No fingerprint analysis?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10

Holy god, this episode clearly proved the point I’ve been making for episodes: evil Light is awesome. I can’t believe how awesomely evil he was, ever since he got his note back. His plan also was pure brilliance. I can’t believe he believed in this enough to actually risk this. But then again, if your life is at stake you start to behave strangely. I hated the Yotsuba-arc because of the horribly dull good Light, but with this I can finally enjoy Death Note again to its fullest.

And it’s a more ingenious when you start to think about it. It took me a while to figure out that Light first made Ryuk write some fake rules in Light’s Death note. Light then gave up the ownership of the Death Note he got from Misa to Rem, making Rem the owner. Rem then gave this Death Note to Ryuk, making Ryuk the owner. Ryuk then dropped it yet again, so that Light could pick it up. His own Death Note then transferred to Rem, making Rem the owner. Because of this, when the police would find Higuchi’s Death Note, they’d find a list of the people who were killed by Light, instead of Misa’s actions. This would probably make the policemen less wary about the existence of the second note, though it seems that L has seen beyond that.

Light would then use the Death Note, owned by Ryuk, Misa’s original Death Note in order to bring back Misa’s memories. He buried it, gave Ryuk some instructions, and then he later gave up his ownership. My only problem: how come Light’s fingerprints haven’t been found on the Death Note? Or do they actually disappear after a number of days? And how about handwriting analysis?

Still, I loved how Light used Misa in this episode. This just shows the incredible confidence he has in himself. Before, he was a bit wary about using her, but now it seems that she’s doomed to accompany him (otherwise Rem will kill him) he’s probably planning to get her full support, and make full use of her eyes. That was so evil. And of course, seeing Ryuk back was awesome. :)

In terms of Misa’s life-span, it’s interesting to wonder how much she’s got left. If I’m not mistaken, she now has a quarter of the lifespan of an average shinigami. Aren’t those supposed to live very long? Still, judging by Rem’s and Ryuk’s reaction, she doesn’t have much time left. I wonder how much it is actually. It can’t be too short either, otherwise Rem would never have allowed her to make the eye-deal for the first time.

And the spring-season has started! To be honest, only the summer-season of 2006 has started off with a great first batch so far, and the spring-season didn’t really change this. Hitohira was cute, though Keitai Shoujo and Idolmaster Xenoglossia belong in a garbage-can somewhere. But then again, I never had high expectations of these two anyway.

Keitai Shoujo

Short Synopsis: Ordinary schoolboy has a childhood-friend who’s in love with him, he’s in love with her as well.
Good: Finally, a harem that’s short! Only 4 minutes per episode.
Bad: Harem; Childhood friend; Annoying classmate; The usual.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Well, the spring-season started out quite horribly with Ketai Shoujo. But then again, it’s not like I expected something different. And at least it’s an OVA-harem. Those usually have a bit more creativity than the usual TV-Series-harems. _summer, for example, was horrible, but it did feature some interesting direction. Keitai Shoujo on its turn only has 4 minutes per episode, excluding OP and ED, so at least it won’t be able to bore you to tears. But then again, four minutes per episode, with only five episodes in total. There’s no way the creators are going to get some good development out of this. And heck, Keitai Shoujo, the phone who turns into a girl has yet to even appear. Anyway, It’s not like I’m going to continue this one. Dropped.

Idolmaster Xenoglossia

Short Synopsis: Girl auditions to be an idol, gets selected, but doesn’t know that she’s actually going to pilot mechas
Good: Some funny characters, solid animation.
Bad: Cast of stereotypes, useless fanservice-jokes, why are these girls the only ones who can pilot mechas?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Idolmaster Xenoglossia got aired on its website for its first lucky 1000 visitors. Obviously, this had to leak out somewhere, resulting in raws getting posted for everyone to view. After watching this episode, it’s clear that we’ve got ourselves a sunrise-anime here, as it just screams “Mai Otome”. Not that that’s a good thing, though. The main character is your usual clueless girl who will end up piloting a mecha without any prior experience, she’s joined by a rather shy girl and a loudmouthed one. So far, these characters didn’t really catch my interest, though I do admit that the loudmouthed one was funny. I wish I could say the same of the small fanservice-jokes which slip in occasionally. Those who are into solid animation could check this one out, but don’t expect the character-designs to be memorable. Dropped.

Hitohira

Short Synopsis: Extremely shy girl gets recruited for the drama-club
Good: Charming main character, some very interesting side-characters.
Bad: Other side-characters, though, were rather clichéd.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
I’m glad to see that Hitohira actually turned out good. The first episode definitely showed that Mugi is more than just the standard shy girl of a harem whose only goal is to get into the harem lead’s pants. She’s got a really cute personality, especially if she doesn’t know what to say. She’s more versatile than I imagined, which is always a good thing. This series comes accompanied with quite a few interesting side-characters as well. My main problem lies with two characters: the head of the drama-club and the Mugi’s love interest. The first is a bit too nice to her, while the second just screams “harem lead”. While it’s good to see the latter being abused and chased around, and his sense of humour is nice, I just can’t help but fear that his relationship with Mugi will be too forced.

I assume that most of you have already seen the infamous episode 22 by now. I’ve already shortly expressed my opinion about the episode in the shoutbox, but I figured to dedicate a post about it, since it confirmed something that’s been irking me about Code Geass for quite a while now. I adore series full of plot twists, which would naturally mean that I’d enjoy Code Geass as well, but for some reason I just couldn’t get into it. Now I finally know why.

Not just in this episode, but throughout the entire anime did Code Geass have the nasty tendency to feature a bit too perfect of a timing. Events are so arranged that they create the biggest sensation. The plot twists don’t rely on the characters or the plot, but they rely on coincidences, just like your standard soap-opera. Just think of when Lelouch found out about Suzaku’s identity because his mecha was cut just in the right way to reveal his face and not kill the guy or stop him from moving. Or in episode 21, when Lelouch, C.C., Shirley, Suzaku, Kallen, Ougi and Villetta all somehow end up in the same warehouse at the same time. Or Suzaku just catching Kallen when she’s bathing, and I could go on for this for a while longer.

Sure, one coincidence in a series never hurts, and neither do two or three of them. But when a series practically lives off the stuff, something has to be wrong. I’d much rather see a cleverly thought-out plot-twist than the result of what happens when two characters “accidentally” bump into each other. It just feels cheap.

I’m quite surprised that this series is so enormously popular, as it’s not really that good. Because of this series, the cleverly-written anime like Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi get nearly no attention at all. Overall, it’s sad to see that Clamp’s talent got wasted on this one. Ah well, at least the character-designs look nice.

(on a side-note: my favourite part of episode 22 has to be Lelouch’s father laughing at everything that’s happening. I wish he’d get more screen-time, the anime would turn a lot more interesting with this.)