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.

I just watched the raw for episode 7 and it seems like things have gone from bad to worse. I still believe that things can go my way though as having Shinichirou end up with Noe seems way too forced in my opinion.

This episode was very good as we were presented with more information about the ongoing storyline which also tied in to the story from some of the other arcs in the beginning. Namely, we find out about the exact details of Satoshi’s “transferral”.

I am also quite thrilled about the return of Rena. She’s definitely my favourite female character of this show just a little short of Shion. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the return of Keiichi, which pretty much means that this will be the last of the “flashback” episodes.

So I take it that Rika is going to have to tell her friends the complete story a second time in the coming episodes? How will they confront Takano? And perhaps most importantly, what kind of role is Hanyuu going to play?

I have to say that I’m really quite pleased with this episode. We got some pretty good character developments as well as advancement of plot. I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Sydonay in the beginning. It really has been a while since we last saw that fellow.

It’s too bad we won’t be seeing much of Tanaka anymore as the series moves forward. I always got a kick out of the scenes that he and Satou are in. I can’t blame him though considering what happened to Ogata during Pheles’ first appearance.

Since Zarovee is going to show up in the next episode, it seems that we really will be seeing more action very soon. On another note, I have a feeling that Yuji’s change in attitude is probably going to be tied in with the Reiji Maigo somehow.

I walked out of the shower just now and the following conversation occurred (I’m paraphrasing of course, these weren’t our exact words, but anyway)…

Cynthia: Did you get a hair cut, Remy?
Me: Uh, no…do I look like I got one?
Sam: No.
Me: I shaved, if that’s what you mean.
Cynthia: Oh! No wonder you look different.

I guess this is what happens when you shave once every two weeks? I would shave more often…if I cared.

Holy mackerel, this episode was practically overloading with plot and character development. The prediction I made about Hiromi being Shinichirou’s half-sister did get unveiled this episode although I am of the opinion that it was either a lie, especially if you consider Hiromi’s final line in this episode, or that it isn’t actually true. Also, something of this calibre just isn’t supposed to pop up in the middle of the show. :P We still have seven more episodes here!

I know Noe didn’t really have much of a role in this episode but I wanted to compliment her voice actress, Ayahi Takagaki, for what a great job she did this episode. In particular, I wanted to bring up the second time she articulated Shinichirou’s name when they were by the steps at school and the final line at the end of the previews, those lines were simply beautiful.

Will true tears be able to keep up with itself? I’m a little concerned about the future episodes given the recent developments. Can they keep pulling off these awesome cliffhangers every episode from now until the end? We can only hope.

I upgraded KOS-MOS‘ equipment today to combat some new threats that have arisen in IRC land recently. 216467 will be of particular interest to committers now that the CQ season has started. I also retrofitted her with some new communications devices to resolve 216644 to help our field operatives find and provide information faster and easier.

While KOS-MOS is capable of many things, she can only do so much! So if you’ve got some spare cycles during the day, please consider dropping by to interact with Eclipse’s IRC community. :)

We had some very interesting developments in this episode in my opinion. As I predicted, they didn’t go into the details regarding Hiromi’s parents at all. But look at that, there are hints about it in this episode’s preview. Will we finally get some answers in episode 6?

We certainly got quite a few misunderstandings that scars different people’s relationship that is typical of these shows in this episode. They usually end up getting resolved properly at the end of the series so I still am hoping for a Shinichiro x Hiromi pairing at the end of the series.

These writers really know how to pull off these cliffhangers with the way this episode ended. I really don’t know what to expect in the next episode. I mean, what’s going to happen to Miyokichi? How is Aiko going to explain herself out of that awkward outburst? It just seems way too out of place, surely she has to be honest with herself this time around.

Things were moving along pretty slowly in this episode although one can’t expect too much given how much has happened in the past couple of episodes. We also got a new opening and ending theme for this episode. They both sound quite good but I’m more partial to the opening myself. I’ve heard some talk about the ending being more suitable as the opening and vice versa although I’m not so sure about that myself.

There was some decent “tragedy” setup work with the hougu that Pheles gave Yoshida in this episode. She hasn’t used the hougu yet in the novels, but I imagine that she will at some point in the future. It just seems a little useless otherwise as it doesn’t really advance the plot. Maybe she’ll die and Yuji and Shana will survive at the end, but given the circumstances, they can’t bring themselves together because of the sacrifice that Yoshida made? This kind of setup gives me a little bit of School Days and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon vibe.

I’m very excited about seeing Yuji train and am hoping to see him do some hard core fighting later in the series. From my research, we should be able to see something around episode 19 or 20. We’ll be in the 14th novel at that point.

If you haven’t checked out Kalafina yet, I’d highly recommend that you do if you’re a fan of Yuki Kajiura’s music. Their first single’s title track, “oblivious”, is the ending theme for the first chapter of 「空の境界」.