Hah! It’s just as I hoped, now that the ending is coming closer, the arcs are getting better and better! This episode reminded me again why I started blogging this series, and it’s quite possible that the current arc will be able to match up to the first two arcs. One thing’s for sure: this is one of the most touching arcs yet, only rivalled by episode seven. I especially loved the climax.

The case this time centres around a young woman (Hoshie). Sakon, Ukon and Zenkichi (I was surprised seeing him among the main characters, he works perfect as a side-character, in my opinion) run into her, and it seems that her sister (Tsukiko), who used to be a nurse committed suicide after making a mistake that killed her fiancé’s sister. Right now, her “ghost” haunts the local graveyard.

There are lots of juicy details to this mystery. For starters, Tsukiko was a strong person, who according to her sister would never kill herself for such a thing as accidentally killing someone. She endured a lot of hardships in the past, while she had to take care of her sister as well after her parents died. For her to commit suicide was just highly improbable. In fact, I actually believe that it was Tsukiko herself who committed the obligatory “first kill” at the end of the episode.

Hoshie also has her own problems. Remember the fiancé? After the tragedy, he started gambling and accumulated quite a bit of debt. He then kept begging Hoshie for money to pay these off. During the episode, this guy really looked like a miserable fellow, and he also was the first to fall victim to the plans of the killer, possibly killed by his former girlfriend.

I have no idea what happened during the majority of the episode, but I liked it! Lots of things happened, and the climax was one of the most enjoyable climaxes in this series yet, but I definitely missed a few details. Below follows an attempt to understand it.

The townsfolk with funny faces prove themselves useful when the episode starts with a variation on a catapult that they managed to build, launching a barrel high in the air. Another step in the direction to get Sora to the moon (was I the only one who found it funny that Sora excused herself afterwards by looking on her watch? ^^;).

Remember the woman from the third episode? Well, she gets another major role in this one. It seems that she actually runs an important store, and has quite an amount of money, judged by the way she is transported. She first runs into Ginjiro, then into Seikishi. Apparently, they know each other, as she forces the latter in her carriage and offers him some dumplings.

Next, Sora and Ginjiro talk about what happened last episode. If I’m not mistaken, Sora explains why she came to earth: exterminate the blue monsters and then return to the moon. Then, Seikichi and the woman (what was her name again?) notice the two of them talking, and take the wrong conclusions.

Seikichi then spends a lot of the episode looking stupid in front of Sora, whom he thinks has an affair with Ginjiro.

The really incomprehensible part started when the strange notes appeared. Apparently, the woman spread them as part of a plan to get revenge on Ginjiro. Akai seems to be after them as well, and to make things even stranger, we later see every cat in the neighbourhood collect these pieces, bring them to the rich and popular old man, after which he burns them… what?

Anyway, the climax was lots of fun. The bickering between the woman and Ginjiro also was quite touching. The wooden barrel proved to be too much for the gunpowder to handle, so Sora went and got herself a rather large metal bell. When combined with the wooden structure, mentioned above, and it does reach a considerable height without breaking. But then a problem arises: the gunpowder inside the bell makes so much noise when it’s in the air that everyone in Edo can hear it. All kinds of methods are tried to get it down as fast as possible, as its parachute is going way too slow. Shinzo fires a missile, it hits the bell and bounces off again, people scream, Sora cheers and the episode ends. I have no idea what went on, but it was definitely fun to watch. :P

Just as Wellber no Monogatari, Ooedo Rocket is going to build towards its ending in the next month. I really wonder if they’ll be able to get Sora to the moon in the end. Let’s see whether the final parts of these two series manage to become even better than their first parts. June is promising to become especially interesting for these two series, as they don’t have the luxury of thirteen more episodes, and they have to prove what they build up to now.

And May is nearly over again, time again for my usual post. There aren’t any newly announced anime this time, because there wasn’t really anything interesting that caught my attention. I’ll do them together with June.

+ May Anime Rankings +
I still haven’t found a good name for this, as I’m still finding the right format for it. This time, I decided to throw everything just in one category, instead of splitting things up. Only the best ten have gotten some screenshots, as frankly, I got a bit tired of finding screenshots for 40 series each month.
#32: Shining Tears X Wind - I think this is what you’d call a guilty pleasure. I agree with everyone how badly this show is written, but because of my love for RPG-adaptations, I just can’t get myself to drop it.
#31: Kaze no Stigma - Back when it first aired, I remember writing a rather harsh review against it. That maybe wasn’t the best idea, as what followed were more than twenty people who liked the show commented to defend it, and somehow that post became my biggest source of Google hits for more than a month. Because of this, I decided to check it out, though what I found was that the three main characters were all just too annoying. Luckily, in episode six I finally found something that made me want to keep watching: seeing the red-haired girl grow. I really want her to beat up that idiotic male main character somewhere in this series.
#30: Heroic Age - It’s epic, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. I hoped for a complex plot in this one, but it seems that it’ll just feature a fight between Age and some random opponent. Let’s hope the second half comes with a bit more depth.
#29: Koutetsu Sangokushi - You know, the show could indeed use better scriptwriters, and some character designs just look a bit too ridiculous, but I do admit that the death in episode 6 was quite good.
#28: Tokyo Tribe 2 - This series keeps hopping over the line of credibility, but it’s a nice watch.
#27: Lucky Star - So far, I’ve had a few good laughs from Lucky Star, it’s definitely the best Kyoto-Animation series that I’ve seen so far. But it’s definitely not the best series of the season, in my opinion, and the Lucky Channel was a bad idea.
#26: The Skull Man - The protagonists are definitely annoying, but there’s some decent mystery in this series. It also helps that this is just going to have 12 episodes, so there won’t be room for fillers.
#25: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Frankly, after Popolocrois I don’t really care about the now famous death of episode eight anymore. It was way too long and drawn out. And do NOT get me started on how the princess’s BOX just happened to be dropped right next to Simon when he was taking a stroll.
#24: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula - Tj Han possibly worded this best: it’s the most racial and culturally ignorant show out there. The characters are good, but someone please fix those nationalistic aspects of this show. Plus, the show still makes no sense.
#23: Darker than Black - Surprisingly, this turned out good when it started focusing on the main story. But the gore may have been a bit too much.
#22: Reideen - So far, Reideen has had to battle a few nearly impossible enemies, and while I’m not too much of a fan of the Deus ex Machina from episodes 10, the characters are appealing.
#21: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - Okay, the good guys have potential, the bad guy has great promise to become great, now live up to these expectations!
#20: Gintama - Hilarious as always, especially Katsura in episode 28.
#19: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge - At this point, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is drawing near its end, and has to start wrapping up its stories and start the serious drama, in true anime fashion. Surprisingly, it made quite a good start, not forfeiting the humour that made the series great.
#18: Murder Princess - Despite the silliness, the serious parts in the second episode were really touching.
#17: Power Puff Girls Z - Episode 37 was quite possibly the best episode of this series yet. This series is ranked so low on this list because I want more, seeing as it was the only episode released this month.
#16: El Cazador - I’m fearing that El Cazador is about to hit a series of fillers, like it started in episode nine. I’m hoping that it’ll feature some character-development in any of the following episodes.
#15: Ooedo Rocket - So far, Ooedo Rocket has featured some good and some less interesting episodes. While some of the episodes were disappointing, the good ones were awesome. :)
#14: Kekkaishi - Finally, the third protagonist arrives, and I already like him.
#13: Romeo x Juliet - That kiss in episode 7 was actually a great one. This series turned out way better than I thought.
#12: Deltora Quest - Deltora Quest continued with its excellent storytelling, though the releases have been quite slow this month.
#11: Death Note - At the moment, Death Note has really become more consistent. When compared to the first half, there are nearly no bad points, but the good points don’t reach the heights of those in the first half. So far, though, I like it a lot.

#10: Les Miserables

The second arc was really different from the first one, it was much quieter. While I loved it, it just doesn’t match up to the awesomeness of the Thenardier-arc.

#9: Seirei no Moribito

The most complex and hardest anime to understand since Ergo Proxy. Still, I’m having a blast, trying to figure out what’s happening. I’m quite curious about what this series is going to do in its second half.

#8: Claymore

The Teresa-arc was definitely one step above the Raki-arc, and while it was quite amazing, it also reminded me that this is a shounen-series. Luckily, Claymore is rumoured to go down quite a different path when compared to your usual shounen-series. Episode nine already showed hints of this.

#7: Saiunkoku Monogatari

The second season has been excellent so far. Shuurei just continues to grow more and more, but Eigetsu was the one to make the most impact on me.

#6: Toward the Terra

Even though I liked Jomie better, Keith has proved to be quite an interesting protagonist, along with Sam, Swena and Shiroe. The art style still rocks.

#5: Hitohira

Why did I ever think of dropping this series!? It’s awesome, and episodes eight and nine have been amazing!

#4: Dennou Coil

One of the most imaginative series I’ve seen in quite a while. Great art, excellent animation, what more could you want?

#3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily

The focus has mostly been on Emily, but she makes such an adorable character. It’s a huge shame that nearly everyone is ignoring this, as it’s one of the best of the season.

#2: Wellber no Monogatari

Yes, call me crazy, but I greatly enjoyed the past few episodes of Wellber no Monogatari have been increasingly awesome, and I’m warming up to the characters more and more with every episode. Rita, Tina and Galahad are surprisingly likable, the OP is still my favourite for this season, and it’s another perfect example of an underdog who deserves more attention.

#1: Bokura no

Even though it has been toned down, according to the manga-readers, it didn’t prevent me from enjoying this excellent series. Not only are the characters extremely likable, it also makes sure of enough twists and turns to keep the story fresh.

+ Random Notes +
- When C1 released the first episode of Perrine, it seemed like a good idea to start checking out more series of the World Masterpiece Theatre, since Les Miserables has turned out really good so far. So far, the first episode has potential, though the graphics took a bit of time to get used to, as they’re as old-school as they can get. It’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out.
- Another older series I went to check out was one recommended to me by Wyrdwad: Ashita no Nadja. If you’re a shoujo-fan, I definitely recommend you to check it out, as I’ve seen the first 16 episodes, and there were some beautiful episodes among them, not to mention that nearly every character has some sort of charming side. I’ve only got one complaint, it’s fascinating to see how Nadja and the others travel through Europe, but no matter where she goes, she always runs into someone or something important to the plot. It’s a good thing that the results of these encounters are great to watch, though. ^^;
- Does anyone know what happened to the fansubs of Strange Dawn by NiTe? I’m actually craving for some more of that series, I can’t understand why people would neglect such an excellent gem for so long.
- I’m already looking forward to the summer-season, as some sequels to some already awesome anime have been planned (Mononoke and Higurashi). My preview should be up in a couple of days.

+ Top 5 Episodes +
#5: Kaze no Shoujo Emily - 08 - A perfect example of a touching episode, when it starts focusing on Emily’s dead mother.
#4: Power Puff Girls Z - 37 - Okay, I mentioned this before, but I absolutely loved this episode and its parodies. Here’s to hoping more of these kinds of episodes will follow.
#3: Wellber no Monogatari - 08 - The definite proof that this show knows what it’s doing. If you still dislike this show after this episode, then it’s definitely not your cup of tea.
#2: Ooedo Rocket - 05 - Glad to see that the subs are out, and I can already see some people posting about how good it is. Just wait till they see episode five. ^_^
#1: Popolocrois 2003 - 23 - The beginning of one of the rumoured best endings in an anime ever. This episode showed that there is an actual possibility for this to be true.