Well, so this episode was an aftermath to the previous onslaught of plot-twists.

Surprisingly, Wrath lets both Ed, Al and Roy Mustang go, threatening them with killing their loved ones if they dare to take action back. On one hand, it seems a bit stupid to let these dangerous people loose. But yeah, on the other hand if he’d just keep on killing people whenever they’d discover his secrets, people would eventually get suspicious.

Ed, Al and Roy now need to get as many people as possible on their side. They’re going to have to organize a good protection on their loved ones if they’re going to stand a chance against this guy. Roy in this episode makes the first step by recruiting Armstrong, but a whole lot more needs to happen.

The part I liked best about this episode was back at the doctors. It had a strange combination between a breath of fresh air, the elated and then disappointed Lan Fang as she discovered what happened to Lin, the tension between her and Mai Chang and the rather quirky antics of that doctor. It’s another great example of how well this series plays around with emotions.
Rating: * (Good)

Oh my god, No Longer Human just keeps getting better and better. This isn’t just a great adaptation, but also an adaptation that makes optimal use of the fact that it’s adapted in a media that also uses music and graphics. From the perspective of someone who hasn’t read the novel, setting aside some of the scenes that were cut, I think that this really was the best possible adaptation that it could have hoped for.

It’s also amazing how much stuff the creators managed to squeeze just into one episode. It feels like the creators got two episodes’ worth of content in just twenty minutes. This series just hopped from one tense situation to the next, with an eerie silence in between. This episode really was a roller-coaster ride.

The plot of this episode was also far more subtle than I imagined. I originally thought that this episode would see the beginning of a mass murderer, but instead it’s about someone who’s struggling with his own sense of humanity: he still blames himself for having survived that double suicide back then, and because of that he never really allows himself to bond with his new wife and daughter that he found, who were really nice enough to take him in.

While he’s got a great daughter, and a girlfriend who supports him all the way (she even managed to find him a job as a manga author), he instead hangs around in bars, visits prostitutes and gets drunk. Especially after the rumours start floating around that he’s a killer he starts to get out to drink even more. On top of that, his old friend keeps returning to remind him of the past he’s trying to leave behind.

And then comes that saleswoman, who meets him as he lies in the snow after a particular rough night. Here I thought that the entire setting was trying to be as dark and gritty as possible, and then she comes. She refuses to believe the words of a hopelessly drunk guy, and instead fully trusts in his kind nature. That his story about having failed a double suicide was just a story he made up because of his talents as a storyteller as a manga author. While on one hand, she;s obviously wrong, but what counts is that trust she has in him, at a time and place you’d normally suspect people to just turn a blind eye and walk away…

Anyway, long story short: awesome series; watch it. Especially now that subs are actually coming out fairly steadily, against all my expectations.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

This could very well be the best recap episode ever.

So basically, before the second half of this series starts, Aoba looks at Wakaba’s portrait and the episode then commences to recap pretty much the first episode. And oh my god, the nostalgia!

Because we now have gotten to know the characters, despite this being a near-exact copy of that first episode (if my memory doesn’t deceive me), it stands out as ten times better than what I remember it to be, and even then I already was impressed with that episode. It was so awesome to see Wakaba back, along with the younger versions of the cast. And of course, the point at which Wakaba eventually died hit even harder.

This episode was pretty much a filler, but I don’t care. It was awesome.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Yeah, this episode was meant as one big build-up for the thing that happened in its final 30 seconds. You definitely don’t want to read this entry if you have yet to see this episode.

The creators kept hinting, though I failed to notice that entirely. Erin basically gets summoned to the queen as a token of gratitude for using Lilan to save the royal family. Of course, Damya immediately proposes her to start working as the Queen’s bodyguard. They act really surprised when Erin declines, and so Erin tells the Queen (without Damya, and with Ialu) about the tragedy that happened when the queen was only one year old. Like expected, she didn’t know a thing about it, and everyone from her time has taken great care in order to never mention it again. I’m surprised if there are still people alive who remember it, aside from the Wind Tribe.

But yeah, that came as an utter shock to the queen. I’m not sure what exactly did it: that shock at such an old age, or whether the Psi Gamuls finally succeeded in poisoning her, but whatever it is her death came as an utter surprise to me. This of course has huge implications. I already thought that Damya would cause trouble eventually, but what kept him back was his genuine loyalty to the queen. Now that that’s gone, he’s probably going to pick a fight with the Grand Duke, using that attack as an excuse, and in order to win he’s probably going to do whatever it takes in order to get Erin to cooperate.

If there are indeed only 2 novels, then this marks the beginning of the end. There are nine episodes left, and in those, the story is going to have to come to an end, and I’m very curious to how the creators are going to do it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)