It looks like everyone has started to make precautions against the coming crisis. Takano’s a smart person, so I’m hoping that we’ll actually see an interesting battle of wits in the coming episodes. It’ll be a bit of a drag if she just lost without doing anything really substantial.

And besides, everything is going way too perfectly for our young protagonists. Our writers have crafted an amazingly original story thus far, surely they can’t just suddenly fail us with some lackluster conclusion, right?

While we all know that Takano’s going to lose at the end, what exactly is going to happen to her? We can see her motive behind doing what she’s doing, so will she be spared in some way? Will she get her way, per se, with the help of Irie and other people and reveal to the world that parasites really can control the human mind?

Wow, this episode was pretty awkward what with Hanyuu showing up to class with those horns that didn’t seem to bother anyone whatsoever. I mean, come on, I know this is just a show and all, but she has freaking horns coming out of her head, how can nobody be bothered by this?

It’s good to see Akasaka return to the scene once again to team up with Ooishi. Since he bothered to believe in Rika, I guess he’ll be the one that our protagonists will approach once they’ve gotten their “plan” fleshed out? Speaking of which, the last part of this episode was quite ridiculous. Of course, it can’t compare to the ridiculousness of episode 8’s ending.

Now that the pieces have started to move to change the fate of Hinamizawa, will we also see some differences in Takano’s actions this time around? I guess that’s kind of impossible since we’ve never really seen what she does behind the scenes prior to the Watanagashi festival so there really isn’t anything we can actually compare it to.