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(Shitsui no Hate Ni ~ Kokuchi ~)
"The Limit of Despair ~ Announcement ~"
Coming down to the final stretch, Yakumo is on its final arc. While the amount of information they packed into this episode was staggering, I hope that all of this buildup is leading to a GREAT finale for the series. Three more episodes to go!
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(Magan no Rougoku)
"The Evil Eye's Prison"
Who would've thought that this would turn out to be one of the sleepers of the season? Ever since the second episode, this series has far exceeded my expectations for a high school comedy set in a fictional alternate universe where the Tokugawa shogunate won the Boshin War (unlike in Hakuouki), and now it goes a step above that by mixing in a fair degree of interesting plot to go with all the laughs thus far.
"Booyah! Who's the squid!? Who's the squid!?"
(Teru Teru Bouzu Janai ka? / Sukaranai ka? / Yakyuu Shina ka?)
"Isn't that a Teru Teru Bouzu? / Aren't I Liked? / Won't You Play Baseball?"
Ika may draw like a two year-old with her hands, but it's a completely different story when her tentacles grab hold of a pencil and she churns out masterpiece after masterpiece. Best of all, her drawings were in "squid vision" and gave us an inside look at how she perceived everyone. Eiko and Chizuru's amazement over her artistry combined with their shock from her perception of them as a killer robot and demon respectively resulted in some priceless reactions.
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(Mugen no Usuzakura)
"Light Cherry Blossoms of Dreams"
With Koudou dropping out of the picture earlier than I expected and Kazama intent on settling his score with Hijikata, the possibility of this series ending on a promising note looked rather bleak. In addition, the series has been faithfully adapting the Shinsengumi's historic events up until now, so Hijikata's fate looked like it was more or less guaranteed.
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(Tori no Sorane wa)
"A Bird's Fake Cry"
Either the producers are aware that Sora's going to be the hot thing that boosts DVD/BD sales or there's some serious bust-size discrimination going on with the censoring of her solo bedroom scene. I'm thinking it's the the former due to the taboo nature of a Haru x Sora pairing, but it's a lot more fun when I assume it's the latter and demand that smaller-sized girls receive equal treatment.
Ooooh, thats gotta hurt.
(Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kosupure na Wake ga Nai)
"There's No Way My Sister's This Into Cosplay"
I felt a bit shortchanged by an episode title that clearly suggested a certain younger sister would be doing some cosplaying, but where Kirino didn't dress up as Meruru (or Rinko, lol), Kanako of all people made up for it. Things would have never gotten there if it wasn't thanks to Ayase, whom I'm surprised Kyousuke will still meet up with and help out after that... incident.
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102 (10 to 2)
"10 and 2"
Boy does Bakuman crank it up this week. Managing to fit a whole ton of plot development, crazy girlfriend faces, and a flashback into a single episode. How do they do it?!
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(Gekka ni Yousei wa Mau)
"The Fairy Dances Under the Moonlight"
I was expecting "big" things to happen once the Hagane and Hiryuu Custom crews met up, but even I didn't anticipate the better part of the full twenty minutes dedicated to action upon action upon action of robot battle goodness. Did I mention there was a lot of action this episode?
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HELP! (HELP! Futari wa Enjeru)
"HELP! We are Angels"
I'm not exactly sure what went on for the first 16 minutes or why it happened, but it must have been to make this music video feel more awesome. The "theme" song that's been occasionally played as background music for a while now is used for this MV, so people that liked it can now hear the full song.
Little Lag Riding Hood and the Big Bad Roda. Yikes.
(Beritaburii Shuudouin)
"Veritably Monastery"
Even with Niche momentarily out of the picture, Lag continues to stumble upon some big things on his own. This time it's a Reverse hideout, where Connor just so happens to be smitten by a girl at the monastery selling cookies. I can't really blame him though, seeing as the girl is none other than Roda. It's just too bad she's a Bee's sworn enemy and one that even eclipses Gaichuu.
