First of all: small Kuniko was AWESOME.

Now that that’s out of the way, its good to see that with a series like this one, which has a huge amount of different characters and parties, if one of them angsts there’s plenty of other stuff to keep the viewer busy with. I know that when a character experiences a huge shock like Kuniko did in the previous episode, she of course needs some time to settle down. Unfortunately it is too easy to just follow this character angsting for an entire episode and be incredibly boring in the process.

Here though, while Kuniko was putting her thoughts together, we got to see a bit of her past, and especially Atlas isn’t waiting for her to catch up as they’re setting plenty of stuff in motion in this episode. The awesome bitch-fight between Momoko and Sayoko also continues. I was surprised to learn that Sayoko isn’t Kuniko’s mother, neither Mikuni. Instead her child seems to be called Midori, who I have no idea who she is. This begs the question… where exactly did Kuniko’s mother go? The only other notable woman in Atlas we’ve seen so far is Ryouko… and that’s just scary.

I’m also wondering why Kunihito had a dagger that strangely resembled the one that Kuniko’s grandmother gave her at the end of this episode. There’s definitely something weird going on with these daggers, but I’m not yet sure what they’re made for, but they seem to be able to receive Atlas’ waves. In this episode, we see Kunihito, Mikuni AND Kuniko being able to catch these messages that were thought to be only receivable by Hiruko. I’m also glad to see that not only did Kuniko pick herself back up and decided to do something, but she also resolved to take up the leadership of the Metal-Age. There you go, here’s one girl who knows what she wants.

Rating: * (Good)
Very nice build-up episode.

Ah, I remember how the last time an anime toyed with large-scaled fantasy wars, we got stuck with Utawarerumono, which in the end never really caught on. Thank god Guin Saga is doing a good job this time. Its individual ingredients aren’t that impressive, but together they form a very capable series indeed. Guin in this episode yet again proves that he is a born leader and that he has the ability to reunite various tribes. As the future king of Nosferas, politics should start getting into play soon as well, and that’s also going to be pretty interesting.

With the giant people, the defeat of the Mongols was of course only going to be a matter of waiting whether they could get there on time. Amnelis really was never meant to lead such a huge army, since all she basically does is charge and retreat. One thing that I do want to see in one of the next arcs is Guin taking on someone who actually has half a braincell. I mean, now that he has the giant people on his side, his opponents really are going to have to use their heads in order to prevent themselves from committing suicide.

One thing I didn’t like in this episode was Suni’s supposed death and resurrection. I’m not exactly sure what that was meant for… she just fell off a cliff and at the end of the episode turned out to be fine. The directing also is a big buggy at times: at one time we see Amnelis about to be attacked by two giants. Astrias slays one of them, and the other just… disappears. It’s true that this show could have been much better had it had solid creators, but it still is a pretty good series.
Rating: * (Good)
Guin pwned this episode as it ends the Mongol invasion-arc.

Amidst all the sadness, episodes like this one really help to brighten up the mood. Anne gets her own room (with Katie Morris included) and meets a guy who plays cello and sells eggs, who’s going to teach her how to read. She’s still such an adorable little child.

The episode starts with the carriage loaded with all of the stuff that they took from their old house, as it heads to Marysville. The snow has stopped and Horace and Edward are fooling around again. When Anne starts talking to Katie Morris again, the two of them start making fun of her. Johanna asks what kind of home they’re going to live in, but Bert says not to expect too much. It’s not a very big home, but there are three bedrooms: one for Johanna and the kids, one for Horace and Edward and one for Anne herself (probably as thanks for offering Bert the job in the first place. Anne obviously get elated when she hears this.

When they arrive at the house, Bert and Johanna immediately start with unloading the carriage, but Anne is too impatient to see her own room (and Horace and Edward are already running around the house like crazy). When Anne sees her room, she is the most happy to find a window. She’s a bit disappointed that there is no lake that she can see, but quickly lets her imagination make up for it. Bert and Johanna then appear, carrying Katie Morris inside her room. Apparently there was no other place for it, so they just let Anne have it (to Anne’s delight, of course).

Anne’s attention also falls to a worn-out mat that’s sitting in a corner, and she reckons that she can make something out of it once she cleans it, so she gets to have that too. A bit later, Bert and Johanna leave (very rare for the two of them to be something together): Bert to his new job and Johanna to do the groceries. when they left, Anne grabs a brush and starts cleaning the mat and gets excited when she finds out that behind the dirt it indeed has a nice colour.

When they’re in the town and split ways, Johanna asks around for the nearest shop to buy salt and eggs. As it turns out, eggs are rather expensive in this town. Only a guy named “eggman” seems to sell them cheaply, though he seems to be a bit of a strange fellow. Bert meanwhile meets his new employer: Jeffrey Parker.

Anne is meanwhile preparing the potatoes as the two of Bert and Johanna get back. Johanna however isn’t pleased to find out that Anne used a brand new brush to clean the mat, and she gets really angry at Anne for basically ruining it right after it was bought. During dinner, Horace notes that there are lots of squirrels in the forest around them. As a punishment for ruining the mat, Johanna sends her out the next day to get some eggs from eggman, who apparently according to one of the stories Bert heard is a magician.

On the way to eggman, Anne’s imagination of course has enough opportunity to form all sorts of crazy theories about the guy. On the way there she also spots a Moose. When she gets to eggman’s house, a cello suddenly starts playing. She then sees a wounded chicken and knocks on the guy’s door, carrying the chicken. The door opens, though Anne is too scared to say something so he closes the door again. She knocks for a second time and then she does get the chance to ask for some eggs, and tell him that one of his chickens has been hurt.

He fies up the chicken, and then asks her to bring him the basket to put the eggs in. He asks her how much, which she misinterprets as him asking for her age, so she happily tells him that she’s six years old before he can say to her that he meant how many eggs she wanted, so eventually she walks out with twelve nice eggs. He then starts playing his cello again and she listens by his window a bit more, to suddenly see that he’s crying a bit.

Anne then falls off and makes some sound that make eggman notice her standing beside her window. When she’s discovered she scaredly starts telling him about all the strange ideas she had about him and his cello. While she fell, she also hurt her leg, so eggman takes her inside in order to treat her. He then introduces her to his cello. It then turns out that eggman is pretty interested in Anne’s imagination, and when she says that she actually isn’t allowed to imagine from Johanna, eggman instead tries to convince her that imagination is very powerful. He then writes down the word “Imagination” on paper, which I guess is pretty appropriate to be the first word Anne learns to read and write.

Anne then comes back to Johanna, and happily tells her how eggman isn’t the evil magician they thought to be, and the episode ends.

I guess that eggman is going to be Anne’s mentor for the future, just like how the new teacher was this for Emily and her friends. It’s good to see that she’s finally learning how to read, and I think that this is either going to be the first step of Johanna to send her to school, or he’s going to teach her until whatever is going to happen that’s going to cause Anne to move out. With such a happy episode as this one, it’s hard to believe the drama that went on in the previous episodes. The only drama in this episode really came from typical children’s antics: accidentally ruining something brand new in one’s enthusiasm, or not knowing when to stop talking. This show really has some awesome nostalgic moments.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Quiet and happy episode was happy and quiet.

Well, so my assumption the last episode was indeed wrong: Kanako was simply one of Arashi and Kaja’s classmates. In this episode, Hajime goes to stalk them inside their house (with a little help from Hideo), after which Yayoi tells him about who the two of them are. I’m not really that much of a fan of the fact that they seemed to be the only cute girls in their entire school, but then again just about every anime suffers from this, and the rest of this episode really was as top-notch as ever.

For as little time that has been devoted to her, I quite like Kanako as a villain. She’s got this evil look on her, she is sure what she wants and makes sure that she gets it. I’m curious to see whether the creators can pull off her defeat well. She has deeply rooted motivations for her actions, so it’s going to be a shame if she’s just going to end up being talked out of her actions.

Speaking of Shinbo, I am getting worried about one thing here. In the next season he’s supposed to come with Bakemonogatari, and while I don’t know and don’t want to know what it’s going to be about, there seems to be a lot of hype around it, and how this can be one of his best series so far. But at the same time he also has a third season of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei slated for the same series, right after a spring-season in which he churned out Natsu no Arashi, which was right after the winter-season in which he had Maria Holic, and don’t forget that Pani Poni Dash OVA that popped up about a month ago. I mean, is it me or doesn’t this just look like overkill? How many series can one guy direct before being completely burnt out? There’s no doubt that Zetsubou-Sensei is going to be rushed as hell, but it’s going to be a shame if Bakemonogatari would also end up suffering from this.

In any case, I’m at least glad that Natsu no Arashi turned out so well. Now if it only can give a nice conclusion I’m really going to be happy.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
This episode again shows that this show rocks when it wants to get serious.