Phantom already was one of my favourites this series… and with this episode it became even better. Seriously, what an amazing episode. This is EXACTLY why I’m such a big Bee-Train fan.

This really is the episode where the plot takes a complete shirt, and how well it works! We first start out with McCunnen showing Zwei the passport of his pre-mindwipe self, allowing him to remember some vague parts about who he was. He even goes as far as making a phone call to his former family! The reason why she’s doing this is also revealed: Mad Professor betrays Inferno! He has enough confidence in Ein in order to defy such a powerful organization.

Since Ein was a bit of a puppet to the guy, McCunnen tried to make Zwei make his own decisions, in the hope that he’d return to her on his own will. And yet she didn’t take into account how close Ein and Zwei have grown for the past number of episodes, and so Zwei instead decides to run away. So much potential for character-development!

But oh god, the scene that really hit me was the one in which Zwei (or Reiji, as his real name turns out to be) stood next to a badly shot Ein and was forced to take out the bullet that launched itself inside her hip, with only primitive tools and no anaesthetic whatsoever. That really was fantastically executed and SO full of emotions.

Really, this series just continues to amaze me. You’d think that this would be a simple assassin series in which the characters kill a bunch of people as ordered by their organization, and then WHAM: it comes with this episode. With this, it has really set itself apart from Noir, which was much more episodic, and had completely different themes from what Phantom has developed into.

Rating: **** (Fantastic)
Utterly amazing, this episode completely exceeded my expectations.

A bit of a strange episode, which takes us outside of Rollingtown as Dan and the others are looking for an opponent that isn’t scared of Iceman’s ‘destroy’-attacks. The plot takes a step back in this episode in order to focus a bit on the development of the characters and introduce the final bunch of main characters: those three idols we’ve been seeing in the OP. At this point it’s still unknown what kind of purpose they actually have in this series, but that should get a bit clearer after the next episode.

But yeah, if anyone here has a bipolar disorder, it has to be Iceman. This episode explores his past, and as it turns out: he kept getting kicked out of his former teams because he kept abusing his team mates with what was just his version of a passionate pass. Just like with Dan and coco, because he never said anything about it everyone kept thinking he was trying to destroy everyone (and really, who wouldn’t?) It definitely is a very strange sort of background. Still, I’m definitely curious about Sera’s back-story right now. Judging from the OP, it looks a lot more serious.

And that little princess of ours… she keeps moving further and further away from the regular image you’d have of an important princess like her. She’s athletic, doesn’t whine when she’s all alone in the middle of the desert, and she probably is the least spoiled princess I’ve seen in an anime. Though I do wonder what that strange voice was that she heard. This doesn’t really seem like a mystery-series, and yet the creators went that way with a mysterious voice that only one character can hear.

Rating: * (Good)
Not the best of the show, but the development on Iceman was appreciated.

Ah, now that most of the major questions that were asked in the first episodes have been answered, it’s time to start developing the characters, with the biggest issue being Oz’s parents. His situation was already pretty weird when he was still living a normal life, this episode reveals that he can’t even remember his father’s name, and on top of that we still have no idea what happened to them through the past ten years. There’s this on-going question of what exactly eh turned into when he was sent into that abyss and now that his clock started ticking he’s not going to last for a long while anymore.

On top of that, the creators continue to develop the bond between Oz, Raven and Alice. I noticed that whenever Raven leaves Oz, he leaves behind his hat. Not only does this hat look pretty good on Oz, but it also symbolizes how the two are going to stay together from now on, especially since Raven was separated for ten years from him. Raven may really be a bit too keen on protecting Oz because of this: he knew that Oz’s parent’s story is a bit of a taboo with him, though Alice on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind, since she only knows the strong side of Oz.

On a side-note though, one of the biggest reasons why I’ve seen people drop this show is because of the animation, which is something I don’t quite get. Sure, this series definitely doesn’t have the best animation this season, but what makes the animation bad enough to drop an otherwise excellent series? Especially since there’s much worse animation out there this season (Tayutama, anyone?)

Rating: * (Good)
Nice build-up; plus: Break was hilarious.

Whoa, WTF…

Here I thought I had this series figured out, and then it comes with this episode. Looking back, there were indeed a lot of signs foreshadowing that the Selecao system had something supernatural about it, but for someone to be sprouting wings and defy the laws of gravity… I didn’t see that coming. Especially so soon, even though the dog with wings was pretty much an obvious hint for this. This episode seriously added tons of intrigue to the series, and really: I am SO looking forward to that upcoming movie.

That Mr Outisde… I really don’t know what this guy was thinking. It’s of course one thing to pick out individuals that didn’t turn out to be fit for the task of saving the world, but making a mass murderer a Selecao? What the hell was he smoking?! As it turns out, she cuts off the Johnnies of the hopeless men in society because she has some deep-seeded grudge against males for some sort of reason.

And really, the Saki Running scene really has to be the best animated scene of the season so far. Her movement is really life-like, and for once no corners are cut in a running-scene at all. And I must say that the creators have really succeeded making Saki a part of the storyline, and making her important for Akira even though she has nothing to do with the Selecao. The kidnapped guy didn’t even turn out to be Oosugi, it was just one misunderstanding. Though that does beg the question how the guy got Oosugi’s bag and where the real Oosugi ended up. My guess is that his bag got stolen and he had no way to get back home.

It’s also interesting that Number 11 is really planning to defy the system. What seemed like an absolute truth at first may turn out to be rather vague; either that or she really believes Akira to be the supporter and that made her confident enough to just ditch her cell phone. But really: she knows Number one. If she does, then why didn’t she know that he was the supporter? I mean, if she calls him on a regular basis, she must have expected something, no?

I also wonder, the number 20000 just keeps returning, doesn’t it? With your given budget, you can kill 20000 people, Akira chose 20000 NEETs to send to Dubai, Number 11 has cut off 20000 Johnnies by now. I wonder if it’s another sort of foreshadowing, or whether it’s simply a nice coincidence that the creators wanted to insert.

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Some of the best animation this season, and really an episode where things start coming together.