Toward the Terra continues to push forward one of the most complex plots of the season, and it does such a good job at it. I especially love the current Nazca-arc, and I can only imagine what the second half of the anime has in store for us. For this episode, there is another time-leap: three years. I advice you to pay attention from the beginning, since only two episodes in the episode another person dies, and quite sudden as well.

It’s Yui, the father of the first child born on Nazca. Sam, meanwhile, turns out to be alive, but heavily brainwashed, up to the point of insanity. Mother’s influence turned out to be too much in the end. Swena also saw him again for the first time in years, and it seems that Shiroe is still on his mind. I also loved how much Swena has changed since she was in love with him.

Later, when he arrives on a space-ship, he meets a Myu that didn’t get picked up by Blue. He’s already able to read people’s thoughts, and Keith was really scary when he found out. In the end, though, Keith takes the Myu with him, since his ability is useful, after all.

Back at Nazca, the conflict between the old and the new Myu finally escalates in a fight. The younger ones have nothing to do with Terra, they haven’t been oppressed like the older ones, who want to return to the planet of their dreams.

Overall, this was typically an episode to progress the plot. Along with Seirei no Moribito and Saiunkoku Monogatari, this is the series where I look forward to episode 13 the most, as most story-focused anime try to have a big spectacle at the end of a season, and the story in these anime already is awesome.

First, before I start with the entry, another summary of the new information revealed in this episode. I can’t believe that we’re already at episode seven and there’s still new information coming in. Either that, or I missed a lot of information in the previous episodes.
- Illegals can be found in old buildings.
- The current episode introduces Kirabugs, or stronger versions of metabugs. They seem to emit a bright light.
- Isako is a very good drawer.
- Illegals seem to live longer when they’re in ordinary pets, instead of old buildings.
- Kirabugs seem to be rather mythical. A legendary hacker is supposed to have obtained one once, though it broke and died afterwards. This suggests that the kirabug was a living thing, according to the legend, at least.
- After the kirabug died, it turned into what we now know as Metabugs.

This episode mainly focused on the relationship between Yasako and Isako. The two of them are in the same building, Yasako searches for a lost pet, while Isako tracked another Illegal. In the process, Yasako accidentally set off a trap that Isako set, and gets locked inside a sound-proof chamber, along with Isako who fails to stop her. In this episode, it again appears that Isako loves to feel superior. The chair she sits in just screams that she has total control. In the middle of the episode, she scares Yasako by telling her a fake story about the illegals (which would have been awesome if true, by the way), and she really feels uncomfortable when she’s on her knees to try and fix her error.

I’m also beginning to warm up to Kyoko more and more. Why? Because she really gets portrayed as a little girl. Unlike other anime, the creators do not make any attempt to make her character better to swallow, and the sister-relationship between her and Yasako feels extremely realistic and life-like.

You know, my prediction might actually come true. It’s quite possible that this has been the last of the quiet episodes for a while. Either that, or the next episode is spent on the transition from the first half of the series to the second half. The reason I believe this is because of two very subtle hints that were given near the end of the episode.

Basically, this episode was about a local festival. It mainly focuses on Chaggumu’s relationship with his new friends, though the more important issue is that lots of people are attracted to this festival, and there’s no way of knowing whether some of these people have something to do with Chaggumu. Barsa, of course, forbids Chaggumu to go there, but in the end, Chaggumu remains a kid, and not to mention that he placed a bet with one of the local village kids. This kid insulted both Chaggumu and Mikado, and Chaggumu challenged him to a fight during the festival to make him apologize. If he were to lose, he and his friend would have to eat slugs.

The thing is, that for the first time in the entire anime, Barsa makes a mistake. There’s actually nothing suspicious about a bunch of kids fighting, but when Chaggumu actually wins (by use of his brains, rather than muscles), the guy refuses to apologize and uses his father, who happens to be the strongest fighter in the village to get out of things. Barsa then decides to teach this guy a lesson, and if you pay close attention to the audience after the fight (she obviously wins), e see one ronin-like person who gets surprised at the huge skills of this woman, who just beat the strongest guy in the village with ease. Something tells me that he heard about the woman with incredible skills who protected Chaggumu before he died, and I suspect he’ll go and investigate.

The second hint backed this up even more. Notice the frog and the snake at the end of the episode? Well, if that isn’t symbolic foreshadowing then I don’t know anymore. I’m looking forward to the next episode to see if my theory on this is correct.

Also, it’s great to see some actual fighting-scenes again. While they weren’t as spectacular as episode three, they were full of detail. Chaggumu may not have the largest amount of strength, he fully utilized the strength of his opponent. I also love Chaggumu’s determination. He’s not scared at all to take risks to achieve his goals, and this episode did a god job in fleshing out his character.