This episode started off quite nicely with Irie and Akasaka on the run. Although, I think we can all agree that it’s kind of hard to believe that that Yamainu operative was able to hit Irie’s car’s tire with one shot. I mean, he was using a handgun (which obviously has no scope) on a moving “platform” (the car) and he somehow managed to hit the tire of another moving car. Absolutely ridiculous. Is this the power to change fate at work?

Things got a little weird during the second half of the show after Shion and Kasai got caught. I swear, how many times do they need to mention the fact that fate can be changed or that miracles are real? I love how Rika tried to sic the blame on Hanyuu and subsequently got slapped for it. Things did get better at the end when we saw Akasaka kick some Yamainu ass.

I’m guessing that things will wrap up by the end of the next episode with some kind of an epilogue for the final episode. Whatever their battle plans may be, it surely can’t take two episodes to execute, right?

Well, contrary to what I had in mind, Takano and her men were pretty much getting destroyed in this episode. Everything has proceeded with what our protagonists had foreseen, leaving the Yamainu in complete disarray.

Thankfully, they did leave some room for humour in this episode despite its seriousness. Ooishi’s confrontation with Ootaka was particularly hilarious. With the important role that Ooishi has been playing, I couldn’t help but think how funny it would be if Ooishi was actually a bad person in this arc and how all this goodness is going to be for naught when the tables get turned around. :P

With three episodes to go, we still have a lot of time left for even more interesting developments. Besides Takano’s side, I’m curious as to whether our young heroes are going to be doing anything. Have they just been sitting at Mion’s house this whole time? Are all their screen time going to be cut short since it’s the last arc and all? Also, why isn’t Shion with them? I mean, she showed up in the last episode and all, but is she not going to partake in this charade?

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.

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.

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.

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.