Short Synopsis: Ringo and Ouji get separated.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Okay, so either this series got its timeslot shifted to Tuesday somehow, or the Thursday timeslot went into a hiatus and the Tuesday timeslot didn’t. Anyway, about the episode: CasshernXLyuze: you were right. Casshern and Lyuze are indeed the main couple of this series. The final few minutes of this episode were wonderful, as they showed that Lyuze finally accepts that she can’t kill Casshern if he has the potential to get rid of the destruction, and Ringo realizes that she belongs with Ouji. Oh, and the surprise guest at the end of the episode only made things better. :)

Regarding the rest of the episode, Dio and Leda are my two least favourite characters of this series, so it didn’t rank among the highlights of the series for me. I’m not sure why, but they just aren’t as likable as the rest of the cast, and I hope that the second half of the series is going to change that. Right now, all signs point to the direction that Dio isn’t going to stupidly chase after Casshern anymore, and I really want the guy to develop and turn into someone completely different, and with a bit of luck Luna is going to make sure of that. The same goes with Leda.

In any case, the arrival of Luna is definitely going to make the second half of this series incredibly different from the first half. I’m not sure whether this was actually THE Luna, but nevertheless the despair of the early episodes will be turning into hope. Whether Luna is real or not doesn’t matter, but she is going to have a very big placebo effect on humans and robots alike.

Oh, and this episode finally showed the real new ED of the series: the previous episodes merely showed an insert song. While the song still isn’t exactly of my taste, the visuals are still awesome as ever.

Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is best friends with a flying potato with a train fetish…
Chance of me Blogging: 30% (Nice ideas, but…. what?!)
In my previous entry, I remember noting how this season lacked originality. I never thought that this series would listen to me, although it definitely has its own share of problems. Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo is weird. In fact, nothing of this series made any bloody sense whatsoever… the lead character moves from an innocent schoolgirl with an annoying sister to the henchmen of a weird mechanical space eye-ball… The character-designs are also way too moe. Still, I do have to appreciate the huge mount of ideas that was stuffed into this series, even though most of the times this is for the wrong reasons. This series is so incredibly stupid that it actually becomes enjoyable. The bad thing about this series is that it’s Sunrise again: the title is meant to cash in on Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo’s popularity, and the Lelouch-eyeball at the same time tries to squeeze more money out of the Code Geass-franchise.

Hajime no Ippo New Challenge

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a very good boxer.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Have yet to see the first season)
In this season, I’m looking for new and fresh content. I’m not sure where I got that idea, but this clearly was the worst possible season for it: yet another sequel! The only original and imaginative premises I’ve seen so far are from Akikan and Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, which… definitely were in the complete opposite direction of what I was looking for… Nevertheless, laying this aside I pretty much liked this episode. The characters were immediately likable, even though I missed around seventy episodes of the first season. My biggest concern with this series is: what’s its point? The lead character has worked very hard through the first season to become world champion (or similar), so: what’s next? There are so many Madhouse series that are in dire need of a sequel, so why did they pick this one?

Viper’s Creed

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights berserked robots on a motorbike.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (Only if the rest of the season is baaaaad)
Well, so it’s yet again a series that isn’t strong on the originality-department, but nevertheless it does have some good and exciting action-scenes. I didn’t notice anything familiar on the opening credits, but could this perhaps be the next Gonzo-series? It fits their style perfectly anyway: motorbikes, an all-female back-up team, lots of CG and camera-work, rock soundtrack. Still, this doesn’t look like Bad Gonzo; there was a delightful absence of stupidity that plagues these series oh so often. And this series has one big advantage: it doesn’t revolve around teenagers! The lead characters are trained professional adults who have been specifically prepared to fight crime. There were no angsty teenagers whatsoever. If only because of that, I’m going to keep watching this series. This is no Blassreiter, but still pretty entertaining.
Edit: ah, so it’s not Gonzo after all, but AIC Spirits that tries to look like Gonzo. Let’s see how long these guys can keep this series interesting (hint: plot!).