Oh god… as it stands now, reviewing Kaiji when it’s finally over is going to be a incredibly difficult. At the moment, I have no idea whether to classify it as just good or excellent. All the commenters on the previous episode made me see this series in a new light, but on the other hand I still remain convinced that the beam-arc was just way too long and drawn-out. I hope that the final episodes will either back up how amazing this series is, or how flawed it is.

The current episode was just amazing, though. This is really what I’ve been hoping for: mind-games without cheating. Tonegawa was absolutely amazing this time, because for once he has to use his head. He’s now going through the same as Kaiji was, back in round one. The creators also switched the viewpoint for this episode: the entire episode was told from the perspective of Tonegawa. We never get to see any of the worries that play into Kaiji’s head.

There’s one thing I do know for sure about this series: I absolutely HATE the cliff-hangers. They work fine if you’re marathoning this thing, but when you watch it on a weekly basis like I’m currently doing, they leave me every episode with a bad taste in my mouth, just because I’m too eager to find out what’s happening next.

I’m really interested to find out where Tonegawa’s thinking-error lies. Obviously, Kaiji can’t die yet; there are still five episodes left. But this also means that the final arc is going to be a relatively small one. The next episode will probably be enough to conclude the E-Card arc and introduce the final one, leaving just four episodes for the real action. If I had to guess (and hope), then Kaiji will be taking on the big boss himself. At the moment, I see Kaiji crazy enough to challenge that guy for something around 20 billion yen. Bleeding ear or no bleeding ear.

Seriously, was there ANY way for this episode not to turn out awesome? This episode finally shows how Tina tries to get revenge on the guy who killed her parents, and it’s nothing short of amazing! The graphics also shined more than ever as well. There was a bit of a problem when characters started whistling (that’s always been tricky to do), but apart from that, I just loved this episode.

It’s indeed like I thought: Rita’s brother did kill back then, but right now he’s still being haunted by those days, and is extremely sorry of what happened. Tina meanwhile has her obvious problems that she’s trying to kill both a prince and the brother of her best friend. What’s interesting is how at the end of the episode, she does shoot him, but her body simply refuses to aim well. It’s a bit of a pity that she was interrupted by Sherry with the message that Sangatras was about to attack, but then again I guess that the creators still need to use Rita’s brother for the upcoming war that will take place in the final three episodes of this series.

One thing that I do hope for in the final episodes is to get some much-needed background for the bad guys. This episode introduced quite a few new people, and not only that, but the king of Greedam also killed off the king of Sangatras. There are three episodes left, so the final episodes are promising to become totally awesome, but I do hope that the creators will be able to get in the development for these people, like they did so well for every other major character.

Oh my god… you’ve got to be kidding me! This really was an awesome episode, even though this was for the wrong kind of reasons. For those who’d still like to remain in the dark about this series: a major spoiler is coming up ahead. This is really one of these plots that can be absolutely bad and still rock due to its great sense of storytelling.

I should have known! I should have known that the creators would be crazy enough to make Seijuu the FREAKING FATHER of Mayuki! I only began to suspect something when this episode showed the child-version of Seijuu. He looked suspiciously much like Mayuki back then. After then another scene was shown of about eight years later, where we see Seijuu and Mayuki’s mother in the same scene, it got me thinking that this series has been awfully silent about Mayuki’s father, and then I realized the kind of director that was behind this series, and he’s been notorious for these kinds of plot-twists.

Still, I really have to say that the build-up for this twists was excellent. The entire episode was just excellent and kept me interested, and I think that the creators too knew that they were dropping subtle hints, and as an addition, it was also really nice to see the added background for Seiran, Chien and Seiju from when they were young. The timing for the revelation was also perfect, just as the atmosphere was getting a tad too cheesy for its own good.

I can understand why the subs for this series have… rather stalled. Still, it would be interesting to see this series fully subbed one day, as it’ll definitely entertain its viewers. :)

I’m not sure what it is - the animation-quality wasn’t really better than usual - but this was the most visually pleasing episode of Il Teatrino yet. Not only that, but it’s also quite possibly the best episode of the entire series so far. It really captured the essence of Gunslinger Girl, more than Madhouse could ever have done with the first season, just because they kept focusing on just the girls, whereas Artland so far has focused just as much on the adults around the girls.

This episode truly showed the difference between the girls’ innocence, and their ruthless brutality. One moment, they’re walking around happily in their new dresses and the other they’re blasting a rain of bullets on a car that’s driven by a bunch of terrorists. What really hit me was that one of these terrorists was an old acquaintance of Jose. In fact, they still kept contact, not knowing about each other’s professions.

I’m also really surprised at how balanced this episode was. So many characters got a bit of development. We have Jose and Jean, who turn out to have a sister. This sister was especially close to Jose, and ended up as a professional harp-player. The reason why she was so close with Jose was because Jean is far more impersonal than I could have imagined. I think that that’s why Jose chose to treat Henrietta so differently, because he had to be nice to his sister who didn’t get any attention from Jean. Jean really scared me when he didn’t even flinch when Rico brutally beat some terrorists.

Speaking of Rico: I can really understand now why her character was forced to change back to her cheery self, when compared to her stoic personality in the Madhouse version. Seeing the usual cheery Rico just mercilessly beat down one of these terrorists makes much more impact from when she was more serious. I’m also glad that Artland chose for a bigger role for Beatrice. According to totoum, she only got one line in the manga, and I’m glad to see that her role for the anime-version has become so much bigger. It shows that the creators aren’t just willing to adapt the anime, but also to improve it. And if the creators can do that, without making it seem like random filler, then that’s the sign of a good adaptation.

Apart from that, there were also a few scenes about Triela, Claes, Marco and Angelica. It also turns out that Marco used to know someone who liked opera (Patricia?).

Seriously, I’m so glad that I gave this series a chance, and looked beyond the bad fight-animation. The plot is just terrific, and this is definitely (apart from Porfy no Nagai Tabi, of course, but there is no series that can beat that behemoth in terms or realism) the best-written series of the shows that premiered in the winter-season.