Short Synopsis: Jennie tries to execute his plans, and I finally found out what the bugger’s trying to do!
Highlights: Nice fight scenes!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, so this series blew its chances at being a masterpiece due to some uncoordinated build-up, but it still can end the series with a strong finale, if everything goes right. It started the build-up for the finale thankfully at least a bit in time, and right now it needs to deliver an interesting finale in its final two episodes. This requires the creators to take what they’ve been building up to, and push this into an entirely new or further direction, because I’m not convinced whether a character-based or straightforward ending is going to work for this series. The fact remains that the most fleshed out entity in this series is Minamo, and she never played a central role in the final arc.

Ooh, but I finally found out what the eventual plan of Jennie is, thanks to some very appreciated English words that appeared on the screen. It’s really a shame that this series has stopped being subbed, because the finale was just full of elaborate dialogues. In any case, Jennie has been trying to use the plant he and the secretary general have been developing in order to send nano-machines into the atmosphere, in an attempt to control the weather. And I must say that this is a perfect issue about which differences of opinions could arise. On one hand, think of the possibilities when you can fully control the weather. On the other hand, you’ll be disrupting the eco-system of the entire planet this way. It’s the basic environmentalist vs. progression debate, in a very interesting coat, if I had to say so myself. At least the messages in this series are rock-solid, but I wish I could say the same about the storytelling-technical aspects of the series, but ah well. You can’t change what’s already done, so at least I’ll try to enjoy the finale of this series for what it is.

Another interesting thing is the huge amount of parallels with Nijuu Mensou no Musume that are popping up. In its final arc, Chiko is also trying to prevent a scientist from launching a particle beam, and what’s even more coincidental: both in their latest episodes, these attempts have succeeded. Overall though, RD’s attempt at its particle beam is more interesting, because Jennie still is more of a villain than that scientist of Nijuu Mensou no Musume. At least I’ll grant it that. Jennie at least feels part of the show, rather than him being just another villain. In the end, I do admit that his lack of attention wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it was. I think that the reason that this series has disappointed is simply the fact that it went from character-based to story-based, and that progression wasn’t that smooth. This series is about its setting and characters. When the story takes over, it’s going to feel a bit awkward. That finale just arrived to abrupt. What should have been a time when all the character-development came together turned out to be a time where the characters are ignored in favour of the storyline. And that’s just a pity.

Short Synopsis: Raigyo gives Akiyuki a few “tips” on being Xam’d, and Haru tries to close off her past.
Highlights: Haru’s new haircut looks awesome. Nakiami’s… doesn’t. ^^;
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Often in anime, a change of haircut means that the person in question is about to enter a new stage of his or her life, and emerges as a different person. This was very much emphasized on this episode in Haru’s case: she continues to be held behind by her past, and in this episode, she attempts to close her memories off for the time being, and not being influenced by them.

The rest of this episode was a bit of background on Raigyo, showing how he became a Xamdou. It was very interesting to see the different cast members at that time. The girl wasn’t there, the boy was only just born, and Nakiami looked really young. Still, I’m surprised at how long she’s already been at the Zanbani: it’s been more than five years already.

This clearly was a building up episode. My prediction is that the next episode will start the introduction of what’s supposed to be the midway climax of this series. I’m interested at what the creators can do, and especially how Haru’s going to tie in everything. The girl definitely is my favourite character in this series at this point, and I’m really looking forward to see her growth.

Short Synopsis: Nyanko and Natsume get into a fight.
Highlights: The lightest episode so far, but unfortunately also the most disappointing one.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Ah, I don’t know. This episode was supposed to be hilarious, but it just felt off somehow. Basically, there is no case, here, and most of the episode just follows Nyanko as he sulks after having left Natsume, and I laughed at quite a few times, but it’s the whole timing of this episode that bugs me. There are only two episodes left, and then the creators suddenly come with an episode that’s solely meant to flesh out the characters. Why couldn’t they just have done this earlier, or chosen a different story from the manga, considering the very limited amount of time this series has to work with.

There was one little girl that Nyanko met, who ran away from home, but she merely served for him to come back to Natsume. She was cute a bit, but she really needed more airtime than what she got. I’m reminded of the finale of Kekkaishi: there’s supposed to be a huge climax coming, and suddenly the creators start to introduce all sorts of background for the bad guys. I mean, it’s needed, but it shouldn’t appear this late at the series. Such a light episode, I really think that it would have been more appropriate for episode five or six. Not eleven.

Ah well, at least I got some good laughs out of this episode, but this isn’t something I expect from my favourite series this summer-season. Those final two episodes had better be really good to make up for it.

Short Synopsis: There is NO WAY I’m going to spoil this episode in front of the blog aggregators. MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW. READ AT OWN RISK!
Highlights: Why did I ever say that this series was bad at characterization?!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10
That was one AWESOME episode. It really fitted for a finale, it packed a punch, and it wasn’t afraid to go for the worst-case scenario. After the previous episode, I really expected the creators to find some way to revive Amachi. Guess what? She actually didn’t make it! She’d goddanmed died!

Basically, what happened is the following: after Amachi saw the extra set of footage that got saved from the victim’s brains, she went to investigate on the research facility of that woman that came to claim the body. That’s the reason why she was captured and her brains taken away from her. It turns out that the woman had a personal vendetta against Daiku, and that’s why she brought back the brain, in order to lure more Daiku members who’d come rushing in to save her.

Which Aoki does, of course. She captures him, but she didn’t take into account that the rest of Daiku would also chase after Aoki, and after that, her practices of human experimentation are brought down quite quickly, so she kills herself and destroys her brains. Amachi, unfortunately, had already died. Her body stayed away from her brains for too long. The thing is that when Aoki got captured, she actually was still alive! The two of them shared a dream, if I recall correctly.

I’m really impressed by how this series turned out. At first, it may seem like a strange idea to just go with anime-original stories, instead of keeping to the manga, but in this way, the creators were able to plan EXACTLY the sufficient airtime for each character, so that each one of them got enough attention. The result is an absolutely awesome cast in the end, even though there were enough times where I lost faith in this series.

And I’m really curious: what the heck did the creators have planned for the final two episodes? The first one will be another aftermath to the Kainuma-case, but what is the second going to be? Ooh, so many possibilities!