Okay, so this episode was mostly building up and it wasn’t as filled with as many plot twists as the previous ones, but nevertheless it had some great ideas and scenes thrown into it. One in particular was an awesome one. It’s a major spoiler, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet you might want to skip this entry.

Because holy crap: Kuniko is Mikuni’s sister! Momoko’s earring turns out to be something she stole from Nagiko, of all people. That gives that whole subplot a whole new dimension and a lot of things make sense now. But most importantly: Kunihito!?

If my theory indeed is true, then that means that the digmas are not just a bunch of random people chosen, but instead the three of them are siblings, and the grandchildren of the founder of Atlas! That’s what makes them so special! That explains why they all have “Kuni” in their names (which probably was a strange idea from their mother). It also explains why Kuniko and Kunihito got along so well: this series wasn’t trying to turn Kunihito into Kuniko’s love interest; they just got along as siblings would!

This makes me even more curious about that mystery mother, who seems to be at the center of all of this. In fact, I’m getting more and more the suspicion that Ryouko actually is the one who fits this description. As disturbing as it may sound, for the three of them to be the next heirs of Atlas, it must mean that their mother holds a very important place at Atlas for them to be considered so special. That can’t be anyone OTHER THAN Ryouko! Talk about a screwed up family. And speaking of which… who exactly is Kuniko’s father?

If that indeed turns out to be true, then we had a nice family reunion in this episode, in which Nagiko manages to arrange a meeting between Kuniko and Ryouko, about trying stop Daedalus. Apparently, even though it was meant to prevent fires Daedalus can seem to burn, otherwise Ryouko would have pointed that out.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

And here we have the big climax for the Naris Amnelis Marriage. Again, there’s no Guin, Remus, Linda or Istvan whatsoever and instead we’ve got an entire episode of political intrigue. I must say that after watching this arc in Guin Saga, Tytania is looking less and less impressive right now, because Guin Saga has done a much better job at it when it comes to the political intrigue part. If only a second season got announced. But yeah, Guin Saga has the same problem.

I’m really not sure whether Satelight is going to go for a second season of Guin Saga. Looking at their past series, they are the type of studio that milks their franchises as soon as they get popular (like with Macross and especially Shugo Chara shows that they do have the guts to carry a series for a hundred episodes, which is just what this series needs), but the thing is: Guin Saga isn’t popular at all. I have no idea whether or not the Satelight Executives feel something for doing this story justice and animating all of the volumes.

In any case, this episode provided a very interesting conclusion which went totally against my expectations. The Naris that attended the wedding turns out to have been a dummy. So when Astrias comes and kills the dummy off with a poisoned sword, everyone believes that Naris had died, which turns out to have exactly been what Naris intended. And to think that this is going to mean even more character-development for Amnelis, who not only lost her future husband, but also her little brother got killed off by Marius’ boss who didn’t see much money in Marius controlling and influencing him.

What also intrigues me is how there still seems to be a role for Astrias… he didn’t die, but he just got taken away by someone I suspect to be Ardnaris. What kind of use can still be there for him?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Oh for god’s sake!

The start of this episode really spelled out promise: with an episode title of “Love’s Course”, and a start of the episode that showed a lot of Eggman, this seemed like a great episode in which we finally get some in-depth look at his back-story. But that turned out to be pretty much a false hope when HENDERSON butted in again. This episode wasn’t about Eggman’s past love, it was about Henderson FALLING IN LOVE with Eggman. What a let-down!

Henderson has really turned into the Saji Crossroad of this series, and I’m sure that this series would have been much better if it wasn’t for her constant whining and cheesy morals. Sure, the episode around Randolf would have been a tad annoying, but at least he managed to grow into an interesting character after that. Henderson just continues to be downright obnoxious, she continues to overshadow all of the other characters with her cheesy, dull and uninteresting problems and she sticks out in this series like sore thumb. And to think that usually it’s the kids that are annoying! Henderson: you’re a grown adult, for god’s sake! Grow the bloody hell up and move far away from this series!

I really don’t feel like summarizing this episode. The reason why I started doing these summaries was because I loved Porfy no Nagai Tabi, and I wanted other people who had problems understanding the raws to have a few pointers. Porfy really was an incredibly well crafted series, with imaginative and yet realistic situations that Porfy was thrown in. It’s a shame that Konnichiwa Anne couldn’t live up to its standards, but at least the Thomas family made this series worthwhile in its own way. The focus on Henderson starting from the Marysville arc has completely destroyed my fanboyism for this series and I really don’t feel like writing an incredibly long summary about that woman anymore.

There was one point I liked in this episode though: Anne’s hilariously horrible letter in which she pretended to be Henderson. It really looked like the handwriting of a kid who just learned to write letters and you have to give it to the creators: they really did their research in how little kids behave. I just wish that they also did this for teachers. *headdesk*
Rating: — (Lacking)