It seems that this thinpak box set is going to be released on September 4th. I’m not sure when I’m going to pick this up, but mark my words, I shall in good time.

Well, it seems like people are going to start dropping left and right if this episode is any indication of the future episodes of this arc. Irie goes down and a cop gets shot in cold blood. Things are really starting to shape up here. I’m curious as to whether they’ll explain Irie’s death or not as I’m interested in knowing how he died. He didn’t die from clawing at his neck with his fingernails like Tomitake did and the cop said that there didn’t seem to be any signs of struggling and such, so how did they get him? Then again, I guess it’s possible that the poison just makes you commit suicide and the means are just whatever’s at hand. Rika did end up stabbing herself in “目明し編” after all.

It’s a mystery as to how exactly are Satoko and Rika going to get out of the mess they’re currently in. I doubt that Rika will “transform” into her other self (or whatever the story behind that other person is) although I guess it would be kind of cool to see her kick some ass. After all, why didn’t she just go do that from the get go if she could? One possibility is that the folks outside their house aren’t actually the bad guys. For all we know, it could’ve just been Keiichi that had set off the alarm.

Looking ahead, I really can’t predict the number of episodes that we’re going to get for this arc. I don’t think that the arc’s going to end any time soon, but at the same time, they really can’t waste too much time because then you’re not giving the last two arcs enough screen time. I’m going to guess that it’ll last seven episodes even if seven’s an odd number. I think there’s still quite a bit of information that could be revealed that goes beyond two more episodes. I don’t think anything major’s really going to happen in the next episode but I anticipate that something will start drumming in the sixth episode with a ridiculous cliffhanger and then it’ll get wrapped up in the seventh.