Excuse my fanboyism and rude language, but this episode was FUCKING EPIC!!! I never expected the first episode of the finale of this series to nearly surpass the previous highlights of this anime. The week-long break was worth it, because this episode was awesome beyond belief, and had me crying manly tears near the climax. Obviously, spoilers are going to follow.

The first half of the episode is still a bit of building up, focusing at Swena, who is still reporting, Toni, who doesn’t notice that Artella loves him and wants attention, Jomie, preparing to warp to Jupiter along with five battleships he snatched from the humans, Keith, preparing to defend Jupiter with his fleet consisting of Myu-proof weapons and Leticia and Jomie’s parents, being moved to a special ship near Jupiter.

But then, the plot really gets fired off again. You really should see it for yourself, and it’s no use describing it, but it was so incredibly exciting, a new and awesome background-tune got introduced and NO LESS THAN THREE natural-born Myu die, Artella included!!

With only three episodes left, Keith has threatened to use the Myu he has captured as a hostage, to make Jomie cooperate. Now it’s up to Jomie to make the right decision. The finale is promising to become awesome!

“You know, I’m all for giving the animators enough chance to catch up and all, but I’m beginning to get really pissed off when there hasn’t been any Saiunkoku Monogatari or Dennou Coil for FOUR SUCCESSIVE WEEKS! Because yes, this week is yet another recap. This time, told in the perspective of Akira.

Seriously, I’m getting Wolf’s Rain flashbacks here. Thank god the beginning of this episode had at least a bit of new footage.”

At least, that was what I was going to write, until the end of the episode started showing some more new footage. First of all, Fumie discovers that Akira has been spying on her all along. While this was nice and fun, the next scene was what really surprised me: remember the reporter-like guy? He finally shows a bit more of himself when he talks to Haraken.

He really knows a lot about both Illegals and Haraken himself. He also tells him something very interesting: if Haraken continues his research, he’ll end up just like Kanna. The name “Dennou Coil” also has been chosen for a reason, it seems. This seems to be the event, item or phenomena that everything centres around.

We also see a new cyber-pet introduced in this episode: another cat with hands as ears. The question remains: who is her owner? Some heavy hints are pointed to the reporter-like guy, but it can be anyone at this point.

Let’s hope the next episode will be a real one.

OMG! The characters have really grown up significantly now! This brings so many possibilities with it, and Kaze no Shoujo Emily grabs all of them! This was such an awesome episode, since just about every character that appeared in it showed a different side of him or herself. Seriously, never have I seen a sudden introduction of romance work SO well!

The thing with romance is that it can completely ruin characters when handled the wrong way. But with characters as awesome as in this show, it only strengthens them even more!!! To give a short summary:
- Perry still remembers the promise he made to Emily, and he confesses his love to her.
- Emily declines.
- Perry gets angry.
- Emily realizes she likes Teddy
- Ilse gets fed up with Perry’s angry behaviour after being dumped by Emily, and confesses her own love for Perry
- A few days later, during a local dance party, Perry and Ilse officially become a couple. The same would have happened with Emily and Teddy, if Emily didn’t get some sudden inspiration for her new poem. ^^;

Aunt Ruth, the most underdeveloped character of the cast also shined in this episode, when she suddenly managed to prevent Emily and the others from being expelled, due to some false rumours that have been spreading.

The thing also is: there are still four episodes left. I’m dying to know how this anime will choose to finish! This episode was so incredibly cute, it’s actually getting sad that it’s about to finish.

This episode concludes Barsa’s past, and further builds up for the arrival of spring and Rarunga. Barsa’s past continues to surprise me. Jiguro actually killed all of his assailants we saw in the previous episode, and this is the reason why Barsa refuses to kill, because Jiguro felt so bad about it afterwards. Surprisingly, Jiguro never got killed. He died because of a disease, five years ago. Especially that part went against all possible rules of anime up till now.

Afterwards, Chaggumu also decided to learn how to fight with a spear, so that he could protect himself. There’s more to that: this episode went really deep, but I doubt that my summaries will be able show that. Near the end of the episode, we also get our first hint that spring is coming: the egg transports Chaggumu’s mind to the spirit world, just like what happened to Tanda, a few episodes back.

I’m not sure how to explain it, but I really liked this episode. I’m really happy to see that Seirei no Moribito has managed to come together, after all the time it spent building up.

Just like Oseam and Wonderful Days, My Beautiful Girl Mari, or Mari Iyagi is a Korean production. It came to me, recommended by Chris, and while it isn’t as emotionally strong and sad as Oseam, or as beautifully rendered as Wonderful Days, it still remains a nice watch. Mari Iyagi is more about nostalgia, about the final year of elementary school (or whatever school you’re on around the age of eleven. I’m still not sure how this is done in other countries), when the world still seems so simple.

This movie benefits greatly from its realism. This probably is the only anime that focuses on the culture of modern Korea, so it’s an interesting watch when compared to usual anime, who often take place in Japan. The differences are subtle, but they’re there. The characters also are drawn with a priority on realism, and not prettiness, so that we’re left with a bunch of real characters, and not a few future photo-models.

Still, there’s one major problem with Mari Iyagi. This may have been because I was tired when watching it, but it really feels like entire scenes have been lost on the cutting-room floor. Some scenes feel disjointed and confusing, and the fantasy-world where our main character is drawn in may be full of imagination, but it’s never really explained or really developed. Mari, even though her name appears in the title, gets hardly any development for herself. I’m also still not sure whether one minor character died near the ending or not…

Still, there’s one reason to keep watching this: the ending. Mari Iyagi is actually one of the few movies where the ending is part of its highlights. It keeps the same level of realism, where not everything can be resolved in a happy way, and life goes on, and it really feels like the entire movie comes together. Don’t expect any brilliant plot-twists, but it just “feels good”.