I understand that the blogger watched this unsubbed and with a poor grasp of japanese so i can understand where he couldnt see somethings but for those who watched the subbed version, if you just payed attention to what you were reading/watching, it wasnt very hard to figure out what was going on. . .

They really presented and answered the questions nicely even about the green haired guy. . .

you guys just need to pay attention, geez.

I believe (but I’m not sure) Tarou said that his sister was inside him. While not explicitly saying “Hey dudes, I figured it out! That green dude in my brain is my sister!”, I think we’re left to assume that that’s how it is.

My feeling about the anime as a whole? Meh… I thought it had a great start. The lapsing of psychology and the paranormal would have proven really great. It’s obvious that the psychological aspects were well researched. Apart from that, though, the anime seemed to become scattered near the middle, and the connection points pretty weakly developed. Also midway through I felt like the show was just tossing in more mysteries and not doing enough to properly lead us to the answer. Sure, it’s fine to discover the answer at the very end, but I just didn’t get enough lead-up.

Some resolutions were anticlimatic. I wanted to find out what the whole kidnapping business was all about, but was disappointed that Tarou and sis were just substitutes. Besides that character development as a whole was present but poorly executed in some cases. For example, Tarou went from telling Masayuki off in one episode, to going to his room having a blast with his virtual reality visor. Masayuki cleared his fear of heights way too abruptly. And what on earth was up with his mother’s sudden cure for her Tetris addiction?

Other things irked me and made me really disappointed and frustrated with the writing.

-Why would Makoto bring a knife if he wanted to ask the truth from his mother? We know he’s badass with the “I don’t mind killing” thing, but that seemed unnecessary.
-What was the motive for Reika’s coworker to modify the biooids? In fact, IIRC, we only hear his name one or two times, so we don’t know anything about him.
-What did Tarou’s sister say when she met him in front of the school gate? Likewaise, what did Reika say to Masayuki in the car?
-What was it about the village that made people be able to have OBEs?
-Why did Dr. Hirata tell Tarou about his patient confidentiality, then start to blab everything to Miyako’s dad?
-Tarou’s spazzing when talking to Miyako near the end seemed overdone and unbelievable (in a bad way). I thought he’d go into convulsions. Also his inability to say her name was inconsistent.

I guess I was expecting something on the level of Higurashi no naku koro ni. While it suffered from a similar problem of not doing enough leading in the beginning (as far as explaining why we had different arcs), there were more “Oh, so that’s it!” moments for me. And the depiction of the plan of what they were going to do with the village was much more chilling.

Maybe I just had really high hopes in the beginning, though.

In the end what I think caused everything in the show is “man playing god”.

The creation of the biooids disturbed the unseen order/balance of the area and that affects the environment and the people.

Somewhere in the series I think someone say theres too many “gods” here maybe the biooids (artifical life) attracted more spirits (natural death) to try keep the balance. Then in the end they cancel/nutralise each other.

The landslide, to Noriko she thinks that is Ogami-sama wrath. Real spirits or a landslide caused by the typhoon weather and loose soil?

Tarou went through all the mystical/sci-fi stuff wanting to meet his sister but in the end realize that she lives inside his memories.

The monks, priests and wanderer have to leave their bodies in order to “guide” the spirits.

Science upsets the supernatural.

Some thoughts:
- Who is that green being in the synapse world? Kei? Tarou’s mom? Miyako? Tarou did confirm that its not his sister.
- The green-haired guy. His main screentime is writing that hopeless being text. To me he would be the main culprit for the whole series as he reprogrammed the biooids to reproduce thus creating life and upsetting the balance.

About the old man in the woods. Always thought he looked a little bit too much like a Tengu. I think al of the “priests” actually were the spiritual gods of old, trying to welcome an newborn ally.

Easily the best series in a long while. Wouldn’t mind a special episode or two.

I’m not as wild about this episode as you are. In a way, I’m just glad that Ghost Hound is over, and over in a way that at least answers questions. I’m not as harsh as wtf in my assessment, but I think all his criticisms apply. For that matter, Noriko the cult leader is still around. The Yakuza/political forces at work to exploit the Oogami cult still exist. I found myself wondering if tying the two group photos together wasn’t a way of suggesting that the problems would be back, perhaps to plague the next generation.

Not everyone could see the spirits. Only one of the Yakuza seemed to be able to see Oogami’s ghost hound. Not all the people in the crowd outside the Oogami temple could see the spirit “dragon”.

@wtf: the bionoid spirits weren’t saving people from anything — they were tangling/combining with the mob of natural spirits. That mob of spirits was just a distraction that Michio and Masayuki used to buy Tarou some time on entering the Oogami temple.

I have a question: when she first appears on screen in this episode, Dr. Otori says something about “fixing the bamboo”. What was she talking about?

also makoto’s ghosthound coming out was pretty nice