Short Synopsis: A TV-priest uses his Shikabane Powers to impress viewers.
Highlights: Finally it looks like the show’s about to arrive at the real meat of the story.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Well, like Birdy the Mighty Decode, it looks like the whole first season is just meant as one big build-up for the second season. This episode finally introduced the major antagonists: the seven blacked out people from the OP. Half of the episode portrayed them as Shikabane who track other Shikabane down and kill them, the other half portrayed them as ruthless schoolgirl killers. Yeah, they were the ones who killed Makina, and they’re probably the real reason why she’s fighting as Shikabane Hime.

The rest of the episode was pretty quiet, but that makes sense. If the creators want to end the first season with a big climax, then this is the perfect place for a bit of a quiet pace before the final arc. My guess is that there, Ouri is going to get his own Shikabane. Whether he’s going to take over Makina, or his big boobed classmate is going to play that role is still the question.

Speaking of which, they were nice and all but these boob jokes really have to end at some point. It’s not really those jokes themselves that get me, but rather that Ouri’s classmates has been turned into a paper bag by them. He started out as quite an enthusiastic classmate, but nowadays all he’s good for is to oogle over all the pretty girls that surround Ouri. Really, get a life!

Short Synopsis: Dio prepares an army to go against Casshern.
Highlights: Good! Focus on the bad guy!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Well, I should have known. As awesome as this series is, it still has to obey the Golden Rule of Anime: a character is dead, only when you get to see the dead body appears on screen some way. Luna is alive, although I’m not sure how Casshern found out about that one, but I probably missed a vital piece of dialogue in the previous episode.

In any case, this episode wasn’t the best of this series by far, but it nevertheless was an excellent one, and a very important one as well. Too often I see anime whose bad guys are hardly fleshed out at all. There’s hardly any chance to get to know them, and that’s why they very often fall into the pit of stereotypes. That’s why I’m glad that Dio’s development starts relatively early in the series, when this episode gives him a full episode of attention. I’m already beginning to warm up to the guy.

Also, there really is lots of hugging in this series. I think that this has multiple purposes. For one, it’s very cute, but it also symbolizes warmth; a stark contrast to the cold and dead world that the series is set in, and fully connected to the series’ themes, of trying to do something with your life, even though the world is only getting destroyed.

Short Synopsis: Michiko finds love while Hatchin’s shoes get stolen yet again.
Highlights: Very subtle romance.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
You know, usually in travelling series that have more than one main character, the different episodes usually centre either around one of these characters, or multiple characters involve themselves with the same storyline, while the others play cannon fodder and stay in the background. In Michiko to Hatchin however, both Michiko and Hatchin have their own stories for the past few episodes.

This episode too: Michiko developed a crush on a married guy who was planning on committing adultery, and Hatchin yet again got attacked by childpunks who stole her shoes. And even during the episodes that are really focused at one of the two, you can see that the other one isn’t just doing nothing or watching paint dry.

This episode was also about the growing conflict between Michiko and Hatchin. Michiko obviously isn’t suited to raise a child (she slapped her like what, four times just this episode?), while Hatchin has finally someone that she consider as a mother that she doesn’t seem to get that Michiko just isn’t fit for raising her. And yet at the end of this episode, Michiko does show that she cares about her (although ow did she know that Hatchin was about to drown?).

Short Synopsis: Nakiami arrives at Tessik, Haru starts moving again, Akiyuki still really doesn’t do anything, his mother discovers her ex-husband’s little secret and Kagisu is one big bastard.
Highlights: Still surprisingly quiet, and still surprisingly engaging.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
I must say that with the current arc, Bonen no Xamdou has really set itself apart from all other anime. Sure, this isn’t the first time where a middle arc takes a step back in favour of a quiet atmosphere, dedicated to fleshing out the side stories, but I can’t recall having such an arc so well done as this one. This arc not only gets the chance to flesh out a number of the side-plots and set up for the finale, but it also pushes the story more forward and especially it never stops developing the characters.

I also now understand what the title of this series means. When Akiyuki first showed up with that mask, I really didn’t suspect that the creators actually had the guts to just put him into a vegetable state for more than three episodes, and who knows when he’s going to recover? The “Lost Memories”-part of the title seems to suggest that his lost memories will form a central theme and focus in the series, so the chance might be that it’s going to take until episode 26 for that to happen.

If this series is ultimately about Akiyuki’s lost memories, then we can also predict a bit what will happen to Furuichi. He’s been continuously portrayed as Akiyuki’s rival, or antagonist, and both of their “senses” disappeared around the same time, suggesting that they’re meant to show the same process through different roads. Incidentally, both of them threw away their faces, they just did it in different ways. We’re going to have to wait a bit to see what this actually means, but the eye-ball is definitely a huge clue, especially since it started talking and eating in this episode. My suspicion is that this eye-ball is Akiyuki’s Hiruko, who’s managing to free himself from his arm. This episode revealed that those strange wobbly thingies are actually the Hiruko who are unbound to a human being, and who knows: perhaps there are more forms of these creatures?

Also, Haru seems to be coming into action again in the next episode! That sudden laugh of her seems to suggest that she hasn’t just grown stronger, but still, like everything in this series I really doubt that that hysterical laugh was what it looked like. She really does have guts, though, and I wonder what she’s going to do after escaping: saving her sister, searching for Akiyuki or doing something completely different?