Sentai triumphs over all.

We finally get a Koyomi episode, but she still doesn't get the airtime she deserves. Poor girl. At least she had a nice little story, that actually ties into the major plot line.

...Typing major plot line in a GIRLS Bravo entry feels very awkward.

This was great for a non-ending. I know there probably won't be a second series, but I hope we at least get some high quality OVAs. It'd be criminal to leave it hanging like this.

What's better than a surprise Kinkel return? A Drifters homage filled epilogue episode! But Drifters material aside, this was an excellent ending. Nearly all loose ends are tied up and Alto gets much love. I can see where all the work sacrificed on last week's episode went.

As for the show as a whole, I'm still conflicted about it. For now I'll just say I enjoyed episodes 1-17, but 18-24 were real hit and miss, with the exception of Alto. My main problem was Jeda. I just couldn't buy into him being a major villain at all. He's a silly lackey at best, and he should have remained as such. A Kinkel return was needed - all there is to it.

As far as life goes on endings go, I thought this was very well done. It's unfortunate we only get a small glimpse of Suna vs Taiko, though. I was hoping for a big one on one, so Taiko could righteously give him the ass kicking he deserves. I'll just have to be content with the fact that it WILL happen sometime down the line.

Not much else to say about the show that hasn't already been said in my previous entries. It was a blast to watch, from beginning to end.

Good beach episode that I once again found more enjoyable than the corresponding ep in the manga. Both could have used more Yo-chan, though.

Too serious for its own good. Though honestly I can't think of a better way it could have ended, besides having Vivi and Silk hook up. Oh wait, there you go.

Overall, I can't say this show left much of an impression on me. It was a mildly fun way to spend 12 minutes before I watched Mahoraba, and that's pretty much the extent of it.

They're really slapping on the drama in this love triangle. While I do like Mikan's interactions with the boys, the love stuff is just dumb. The focus should be on friendship! I was quite glad when Hotaru got the last laugh in 20, which - in addition to Mikan finally getting a letter from her Grandpa - made for an excellent episode.

Typical, straightforward ending. It reminded me of Slayers Next for some reason. Maybe because of the whole Moribito turning gold thing.

Anyway, this didn't turn out to be the show I was hoping for, but it provided me with enough Aoba goodness and cool music (where's the OST?) to not make it a total waste. Merging the two series with such a small episode count was the major problem in my eyes. Had it just been called JINKI and strictly focused on the four volumes of that manga, I think we would have gotten a much better anime.

DVD version. More pics of gore here.

Maharu rampage! Oh, how I've missed you. One episode isn't enough for your greatness, but I'll gladly take what I can get.

I keep forgetting this show is called Mai-HiME and not Natsuki-HiME. Now that they've cruely offed my favorite character, I only have Miyu to care about. Her Anti Materializer better bring back Natsuki! But I'm sure with my luck it'll just bring back Kazu-kun.

I don't care what anyone says, Harima and Tenma need to be together. I hope Karasuma really does fly away on the UFO and Tenma comes to her senses. Or they could just make another season. Yeah, that'd be better.

だめだこりゃ。 I feel the use of a sjis Japanese expression is quite justifiable in this case. This was bad, bad, bad. It was going along fine in the A part, but when it reached the B part after the eyecatch, things just went to hell. Tons of missing frames(covered up poorly with repeated shots of stills or looping), characters talking when their mouths aren't moving, rough draft stills, glitching backgrounds, it's all there. I'm surprised this was even allowed to air.

I can't honestly say I would've enjoyed the episode without all the screw-ups either, though. Jeda the last boss? I mean I like these guys, but I definitely didn't expect any of them to be the final villains. Of course there's still one episode left. Come on Kinkel!

Didn't care much about this in the manga, and the anime is no different. I'm just not a fan of Megumi. However, I will say that I enjoyed the flashback sequence between her and her boyfriend. The music they used there sounded eerily like something out of the Silent Hill series. It was a nice tune.

Beautiful. Not the way I hoped it would end, but not the way I expected it to end either. The only problem I had was that it ended! This is the kind of anime that could go on forever (easily) and I'd never tire of it. Never. I really hate to see it go.

Happy travels, Fuu! See you again on the DVDs.

Last ep's next ep preview was quite misleading this time. Here I thought we'd get almost an entire episode of Mai's dream, but they scrap it in the first four minutes. Then big stuff starts happening one right after another faster than I can blink.

Since fansubs have caught up I think, my friend says I can stop doing overblown summaries for him. Thank god! But I'll still do a not so overblown summary anyway.

I expected more naughtiness from a Fukuyama version of Cat's Eye. At least he was kind enough to include Koyomi.

Aoba arrives! They use the rest of the episode to explain just about everything they conveniently glossed over before. Now all that's left to do is fight, fight, fight.

This Eri/Yakumo misunderstanding should not even be happening! But it sure does make things more interesting, even with only two episodes left.

And was Tenma drawn extra super duper cute in this ep or what? Bakyuuuun!

I smell a Suna vs. Taiko fight coming up, or maybe just Suna vs. Everybody. Yeah, the latter sounds more likely.

Seiji and Jeda make their move and we get a nicely animated battle out of it. Unfortunately, it's a losing battle for the good guys. And with Kouhei still in loliphobe mode, Haduki can't bite him to get powers to help. So instead, she just agrees to be taken back.

With only two episodes left, I guess I can pretty much rule out a Kinkel return now. That's a shame.

Friend A is officially the most annoying character on this show now. That plugged nose voice just drove me up the wall. Tamami should've used her stingers to yank out his vocal chords, or inject him with some kind of poison.

But Friend A aside, I liked this more than the episode of the manga it was based on. The scenes between Shiratori and Kozue where he recalls the past were especially well done, I thought. It's silly that he still hasn't remembered the slightest thing about the past in the manga, considering how long it's been running.

Silk tells camera boy that she's Ultimate Girl so he won't go to America. I don't think he'll believe her! Do you!? Oh my god, it's all so exciting!

It turns out the government assassin Mugen and Jin fight here, Kagetoki Kariya, is linked to the death of Enshirou Mariya, Jin's master. The government, who were using Kariya as their messenger boy, wanted to use students of Mujuushin Kenjutsu (what Enshirou taught) as assassins. Jin was very concerned about this at the time. He didn't want to become a government lackey like Kariya, nor use Mujuushin for assassination. The government saw this as a problem, so they had Kariya order Enshirou to kill Jin. Enshirou tried to kill Jin while he was sleeping, but Jin proved to be the stronger of the two, and killed his master thinking he was just some lowly assassin.

On the flipside, the three guys who I thought were assassins in the previous episode turned out to be three brothers looking for revenge against Mugen. The brother in the wheelchair was attacked by Mugen way back in his Ryuukyuu days with Mukuro. The three have been after Mugen ever since.

Well I'm glad the three guys weren't after Mugen because of the Mito Komon parody I mentioned before, but this still kind of feels tacked on. Had they shown the guys before episode 24, it wouldn't be so glaringly obvious. "Hey, we need somebody after Mugen too; make up some baddies real quick!" I can't complain too much, though; this episode still entertained the hell out of me. The battle scenes with Kariya were excellent, as was the scene where Mugen rescues Fuu from Umenosuke. How much our heroes have come to care for each other is being brought out full force in these final episodes. I can't wait to see how it all ends.