Oh, this series is sure shaping up to be an awesome one. I had a few doubts as this episode started that it wouldn’t live up to the other episodes of this show so far, but as the ending credits rolled I really had to this back: this episode knew exactly what it was doing.

I really like the approach when it comes to the random stories of this series: at first, it shows the people from the Mafia from a sympathetic sight. It shows that even though these guys are thugs and don’t hesitate to kill if they want, they are also human beings with a family… only for them to get killed off mercilessly by Phantom in the end. El Cazador in comparison was much more of a travel series, in which the lead characters move around and meet different people, while the early episodes of Noir were more about why the targets were ordered to be killed in the first place, since the two lead characters were freelance assassins, rather than being employed by one particular mafia-gang like the lead characters of Phantom are. I can’t comment on how Madlax did it since I haven’t seen it yet.

Throughout the largest part of the episode, it felt like the parts were swapped, and the mafia boss instead was the lead character of this episode. Eins and Zwei really were portrayed as the bad guys this time, and that’s something you don’t see very often. And at the same time we also get a pretty good idea of how powerful Inferno actually is: even without Phantom, they have excellent security, and prevent any information about them from being leaked out in order to stay into obscurity.

It’s also interesting how Ein and Zwei are basically mirroring each other at some points. Ein has that strange scientist while Zwei has McCunnen, and with both we see at least some hints that whenever one of them is with them, the other one is waiting for them. Just how they exactly feel about each other still is a mystery, though.

In this episode, we get some more clues as to what exactly happens when a monster from the abyss makes a contract with a human. It’s basically a method for both of them to get out of the Abyss, but it’s not going to last forever: at one point both of them will be dragged back into the Abyss. And at the same time, there was quite a bit of banter between the characters out there. While it’s not quite the funniest banter out there, Oz calling Raven “father” was priceless.

It was mostly a building up episode, but still it made a lot of impact and at the same time this episode also used its time to flesh out the characters quite a bit and increase the trust between the lead characters. It’s of course strange that Oz would simply trust someone he just met (as signified by this episode in which a seemingly innocent flower-selling girl turns out to be possessed by a demon), but then again: there’s nobody else that he can trust, is there? Alice was Oz’s ticket out of the Abyss, and I think that that’s why he’s not suspicious of her, and I think that that’s why he was more shocked at seeing the flower-girl disappear, compared to the thought that he himself would also return to the abyss that way unless a countermeasure is found.

Still, the animation this episode was strange. Throughout most of the episode, it looked as good as ever… apart from that flower-girl whose face looked horribly distorted at times. Usually a bad drawing can just be attributed to either a limited budget or an incompetent chief animation director, but why do only the drawings for that girl look ugly? My guess would be that there was just one guy responsible for drawing her, and he screwed up big time.

I just realized that Akira and Saki have quite a few similarities as the two lead characters of this show. They’re both at the turning point in their lives and both have to deal with the rather annoying consequences of it. Saki has finally finished her education and is about to get ready for a job, while Akira is someone who seems to have cast his old self away and wanted to start anew, or so it seems at least.

In any case, this episode sheds some light into the purpose of the Selecao and the role of the supporter. Quite early, actually. It indeed turns out that the Selecao are in a game to see who can save the nation first. Accepting such a phone is pretty much a guaranteed death, because if you aren’t the fastest, you’re going to get killed off anyway, and I think that that was the intention of number one when he tried to get rid of Akira: he knew that with such a ’special’ personality, if anyone would be able to save he nation, it would be him.

The thing is that up till now, all we’ve seen is extremes: ignoring the mysterious number one who appeared only for a flash, we have one incredibly strange Selecao (Akira), we have someone who tried to save the nation, and failed horribly and so started using his money for his personal gain (Kondou), and we have someone who has no problems with dying and just wants to do what he can with his money. I really doubt that the other Selecao are just as extreme as these guys, and they probably all are somewhere in between the latter two (aside from the Supporter, perhaps). I’m especially intrigued that nobody aside from Kondou has tried to abuse his money for his personal gain.

As I’m watching this series, I realize how little anime deal with actualities. I mean, I of course understand that series usually are planned years ahead, and if they’re based on a manga even more, but still even the events of 9/11 are only mentioned or referenced in a very select amount of series. In most ‘modern’ series, the PCs are still stuck in Windows 95. Cameras still look like the models of 10 years ago. And in a way that’s a shame, because keeping up with actualities is a very good way for anime to remain fresh. And that’s why Eden of the East feels so fresh, in these financially difficult times the theme of how difficult it is to save a country is very up to date. In fact, it’s so up to date that it’s almost scary, since I doubt that this series was only planned and produced within the eight months since the recession started.

If you’re wondering what happened to the synopsis and episode rating at the beginning of each post: I decided to remove it. It was beginning to get tedious again to every time write up some spoiler-free synopsis and the episode ratings didn’t really have lots of meaning: I was too busy labelling those episodes in different categories rather than paying attention to what was really going on. I’ll probably still do these blurbs in my quick first impressions at the beginning of each season, but to do this for every single episode has become quite redundant. If I loved an episode, it’s much easier for me to just write it in the actual post.

In any case, I’m glad that I ended up blogging Basquash!, because this show seriously is only getting better and better. It knows exactly when it needs to be silly and when to be serious. In this episode, we see the first real match of Dan, Sera and Iceman against another mecha-basketball team, and it’s just as I hoped: while a big focus of this series is show is basketball, there’s much more going on than just that. It just keeps the baseball tactics for what they are, and instead focuses on the audience: what moves a crowd and how to make optimal use of it.

This episode again showed how distant Dan and Coco actually are from each other. Because Dan has been busy with Haruka he has been forced to live along with Miyuki and the others, but this hasn’t closed the gap between them at all. You’d think that the two of them need a bit f time on their own, but Dan never bothers to try and understand, and Coco just refuses to give him the opportunity to do so. I don’t think that she specifically hates him for what happened to her legs, but I think it’s a combination between a typical brother-sister relationship and how she’s jealous of him, having legs and still being able to have fun with his friends.

And despite that huge bosom of hers, I’m surprised at how much I like Haruka. She definitely adds some spice to this show with her ambitious plans to promote her shoe designs through basketball, not to mention that this episode shows how she’s a control freak: she likes to be totally in charge, and when things don’t go according to how she wants it, she really gets poisonous.

And at the same time, this show isn’t afraid to remind everyone that this is just supposed to be a fun show. I’ve never heard of a mecha that can be controlled by basketballs out of all things, and you just have to love how that guy on the moon, despite looking like either a mid-boss or the final bad guy, is blowing soap bubbles like it’s the most normal thing to do. ^^;