Turns out Kozue wanted to go shopping with Shiratori so she could buy him his own rice bowl. How silly. But since it's Kozue...how sweet! After the purchase a STUPID KID runs into her, turning her into Saki, and ruining the No-DID streak the show had going. Thanks a lot, runt. Fortunately it isn't long before a butterfly turns Saki back into Kozue, saving my ears from destruction. The day ends with Kozue giving away her ticket to Megumi, then Megumi using it on Shiratori to make him call Kozue by her name instead of Ooya(landlady), which results in an extremely cute scene.

If you mute the Saki segments, this episode was (as Tama would put it) lovely~ Speaking of Tamami, I recently finished reading up to volume eight of the manga and I think she's the most interesting, and deepest character in the entire series. I'm really looking forward to seeing her stories from volume five and seven in animated form.

The onsen was wasted. Silk grabs Vivienne's breasts and there's barely any reaction. You blow your top when her clothes get yanked off but you do nothing when she grabs your breasts!? I couldn't enjoy the rest of the episode after that.

A guy that looks like Show Aikawa makes the gang play baseball on his team against some Americans. Hilarious. And I'm not even a fan of baseball or sports anime in general.

(Honestly, the episode could've ended right after Stay Puft Fuu made an appearance and I would've been completely satisfied. But that's beside the point.)

A few minutes into the episode I started to notice a new approach to the directing. It instantly reminded me of Kiyotaka Oohata's direction in Azumanga Daioh (eps 5,10,22) and the Eiken OVA, among others. So I looked in the credits and sure enough, he directed the ep. The panned out angles, quick scene cuts, repetition, good use of silence; it's a very distinguishable style. He also handled the art content, which pretty much guaranteed cute portrayals of the girls and fluid animation.

I'm a fan of Oohata's directing so needless to say, I enjoyed this episode immensely, despite the absence of Hotaru.

We're back to exposition now from 20's craziness. There were quite a few significant things revealed, though nothing was dwelled upon for long. Here's my summary. I only hit on things I thought were important, yet it still ends up being longer than it should be.

A Tomoka episode. Fortunately since she's not very popular they inject a good portion of Kirie service so no one changes the channel...na no da! They sure are leaving Koyomi out in the cold in this season so far. She's barely gotten any airtime.

At this point it's easier to just type "what the hell is going on!?" rather than try to quickly explain what happens in this show.

So, did all this crap with Akao training (to the kickass music from ep 3, Kenji Kawai <3) happen BEFORE Kalis got to Satsuki, or after? At first I was thinking it happened before, but then Mel J showed up and it kept going on and on, so I began to think it was happening after. Before I came to any conclusions however, the episode ended. Then I realized that Aoba didn't show up at all. Then I got mad.

Sayaka Oohara's character returns~ Tenma duwas twice~ Harry MacKenzie makes his debut. He's lame. I don't really like Lala either actually, but she made Tenma duwa so I can deal.

Out with Junko, in with Natsuko! Turns out she's ANTI-Government and someone within the organization wants to meet with Suna. He refuses but Natsuko knocks him out and takes him in anyway. From the looks of things, this will probably be the final story. Bring it on! Just don't kill off Junko!

Lupin Mode Seiji joins the gang, Kouhei is bitten by Alto Sax, and Hikaru gets caught by Vargas on the way to help. Seems Jeda is going to try and turn Seiji bad. I didn't like that when I heard it. The same episode he returns and they already have him feeling like a third wheel and doubting his own abilities. How convenient. It all felt rushed I thought. Though we are nearing the end...

This ep had some really bad non-UG character art. Thankfully the UG art for Silk was much better. And since this whole episode was basically Silk getting teased in UG form, that's all that matters.

Time limit no-tag hide and seek. Winner gets a ticket that you can use (one time) to make anyone in Narutaki-sou do what you want. Shiratori is "it." Kozue wins. She uses the ticket on Shiratori to make him to go shopping with her on Sunday. I seriously doubt you needed a ticket for that, Kozue.

Fun watch as usual. I especially liked Tamami's comments on the physical quality of the ticket and how Megumi's super annoyingness was getting shrugged off by Shiratori. Now why can't he put his foot down when she throws stupid parties in his room?

Mugen and Jin eat some shrooms, fall down a rabbit hole with Fuu, and end up in what feels like another dimension. Here there's a man named Shige who claims he's part of the great Heike (Taira) family lineage (he has a scroll with a family tree on it), and is leading an excavation with a group of men to find the Heike family treasure (the location of it was hidden on the scroll). Shige offers Fuu and the gang 10% of the treasure if they help dig. They agree to help.

After a while of digging, it becomes apparent to Fuu that the men working there are not from the current time period, and are rotting. Jin and Mugen investigate the family tree scroll while Fuu sees Shige in a nearby graveyard conjuring up more workers/zombies. Then it turns into a zombie movie as Fuu is screaming and running from everybody. Mugen joins in on the fun too, but it proves futile. When all hope seems lost, Jin discovers that Shige's name is on the scroll, but it's NOT connected in any way to the Heike lineage. Shige is shocked, then tries to weasel his way out of it with the other men, but they're not having it. As they close in on Shige, a meteor, which has been falling throughout the episode, hits the excavation site and everybody dies. Until the next episode, of course.

Ok...that was extremely weird. Funny, but weird. The ending reminded me of 1985's Return of the Living Dead. Maybe a homage? After the explosion they showed a man and a boy who look exactly like Ogami Itto and Daigoro from the Lone Wolf and Cub series. That one had to be a homage. Then they had the thing at the end of the credits (which was really cool). This was probably a homage to something too.

Also interesting to note is that all the BGM in this episode was performed on a theremin by Yuki Yano. Very eerie stuff. It reminded me of Siren on PS2.

I was really enjoying this up to the part where Natsume mouths off (loudly, I might add) his escape plan to Mikan and Sumire while a guard is standing right in front of them. Why did he not shut them up? And then when Mikan and Sumire make a run for it, the guards just stand there looking surprised! One even had a huge gun which magically disappeared through the wonders of low budget when the escape started. Also, when Natsume threatens to blow the building sky high, Mikan and Sumire are still in there. Reo could have easily yanked his earring off and blasted his alice at Natsume to immobilize him like he did later on, because there's no way Natsume would have blown that place up with both girls still in there. I could go on! But I won't.

To sum up my pointless ranting, I just flat-out didn't like how this was resolved. Everything was too easy. However, I did like Natsume's internal struggles and that Mikan got her first star, which was an excellent scene. And as for Sumire, I can't tell if this experience has changed her character. I'm sure she'll still put down Mikan any time they cross paths, but hopefully it'll be a friendly put down instead of her usual stuck-up put down.

Weeeeee~ Action! Tension! Death! Destruction! This was easily the best episode since four. Sorry Akane, but Mai has you beat on "death" reactions. Here's the overly long bullet summary.

Did they really need to introduce a new character for us to learn more about Lilica? They have enough as it is. Granted he was funny at times, but he just doesn't fit with the rest of the cast. Hopefully he'll be a one-shot like he feared in the next ep preview. And as for his sentai antics...he put forth a good effort, but I have to side with Yukinari on this one: sentai with only one member just doesn't fly.

Looks like they're going to keep on keeping on with this switching timeline stuff, except now EXTEND will be getting the majority of air time. It did in this episode, at least. Extended loli abuse is very important, apparently. Where as Aoba's "big fight" with Kokushou gets a measly three minutes. Come on!

Loved the segments with Eri, but everything else was kind of "meh." I can't believe I just called The Mamiko "meh." Damn you Yakumon!

The gang stumbles onto a conspiracy, which gets Suna a beating, and Junko taken away. Too soon! But regardless, this was a great episode. Women bring out the best in Sunabouzu!

This was basically an extension of episode 18 with large amounts of unexpected but quite welcomed moe. I really like these new bad guys. I thought they would be all business at first, but it should've been obvious they aren't when the Drifters pan hit Alto at the end of the previous ep.

And I'm glad to see Grandpa back in some form. I hope Erofriede is still around...

These girls make a good team. Individually I think I'm starting to like Lark more than Nono now. Nono reminds me too much of a female Goofy. Lark is strangely cute.

As for the episode itself, I enjoyed the first half but wasn't really feeling the space stuff in the second half. I tend to favor land battles over space battles. What's there should please fans of the setting however, as it was all nicely done.

Tama puts Shiratori through her rigorous personal evaluation testing. He passes with flying colors since he's a human welcome mat.

Can't go wrong with nearly an entire episode's worth of Tama. The new character and her fetish also get a big thumbs up from me. I hope she visits Narutaki-sou at some point. I'd love to see an encounter between her and Sayoko.

Vivienne clears up the misunderstanding about camera boy with Silk, then confesses her love for her. Unfortunately Silk isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and the confession goes right over her head. Dammit, Silk!

For a beach episode, this was disappointing. Considering what show it is.

I made a seperate page entry because I really enjoyed it. Spoilers abound, obviously.

Mikan and Sumire attempt to rescue Natsume but they end up getting captured themselves. We learn a lot more about Natsume's past here (though whether or not it's true remains to be determined). We also get to see Sumire's alice, which was cute, but not enough to make me a fan yet. We ALSO learn that Reo is one sleezy mofo.

Unfortunately the animation continues to slump. Personally I think this is the best the show has been story-wise since...ever. Why they aren't putting more work into the visual production for this arc is beyond me.