Shinku is reminded of Sugintou and won’t fight Barasuishou. Before Barasuishou can finish Jun and Shinku off, they’re saved by the rabbit who returns them to Jun’s house. Shinku explains to Jun that since the final Rozen Maiden was now awakened, the Alice Game must commence. After Jun and Nori leave for school that day, Suiseiseki gets a bit annoyed at Hinaichigo and tries to scare her by making her think Shinku is mad at her. She succeeds at this, but it turns out Shinku’s not. She orders Hina to get her some tea, but seems a bit unenthusiastic other then that. At the school library, Jun thinks about his conversation with Shinku. Shinku had told him not to tell the others what happened. He goes to look at some books that may give him information on the Rozen Maidens, but is distracted by Tomoe. Jun leaves, but Tomoe notices what he was reading. When Jun gets home, he sees that everyone is worried about Shinku. He goes up to talk to her, but SHinku refuses to tell anyone. The next day, Souseiseki kicks Hina and Suiseiseki out of the room and forcibly opens up Shinku’s box. She tells Shinku that if her problems are related to the Alice Games then she has to talk. Meanwhile, Tomoe meets Jun at the library again and invites him to go to a local doll shop. The man working there asks if Jun is Tomoe’s boyfriend, but she denies it. Then he shows them around. After they leave, the worker goes into the backroom and speaks to a man who resembles Father. When Jun gets home, he gives all the dolls music boxes that he bought for them as presents. Shinku informs him that she told all the others what happened. Shinku puts the music box next to her Kun-kun collection and seems to be back to normal.

I was quite pleased with this episode. Rozen Maiden is a great show to watch on Halloween. Jun and Shinku seemed to be having a bit of a role reverse, which was interesting to see. I’m glad Jun (as well as Souseiseki) were able to help Shinku get back to normal. Still, I wonder if she’ll still be able to fight in the Alice Game. Also, will this generate into something like the HiME battles if the Alice Games have to continue? It’s interesting to hear that Tomoe doesn’t see Jun as more then a friend. I wonder how Jun feels about her. Actually, he probably has a loli-doll fetish and will wind up with Shinku. XD I can’t wait to see what happens next. We’ll finally get to see the 6th Rozen Maiden, Canaria.

Haruka, a Mai-Star shows up to aide Arika in saving the audience of the fight. Because of all that Arika did though, she’s allowed to become an Otome. Nina can stay in the school as well though because she was clearly the winner. Arika is given a uniform as well as some rules. She’s not allowed to have sex with men because the y-chromosomes will destroy the nano-machines in her body. She goes to her room and meets her roommates, Nina and a girl named Erstin. Nina refuses to be friends with Arika. Erstin explains that this is because all students are rivals. Only half the students get to rise to the next level, the Pearl class. Only a handful of these people become real Otomes, Mai-Stars. Meanwhile, Natsuki and Shizuru discuss that Arika and Nina’s rooming arrangement was intentional. Natsuki wants them to be good rivals, just like she was with a certain person who is obviously Mai. At lunch time, Arika meets a few other girls: Irina (red hair, glasses), Lilie (tall w/ dark brown hair) Yayoi (short w/ dark purple hair.) Miya (orange-ish brown-ish hair) and Tomoe (teal hair, class rep.) These girls, as well as Arika and Erstin discuss the money Arika has to pay to be in this school. None of them had to pay, but since Arika has no family aside from her mother that she barely knows, she has no other choice. Mikoto then shows up and causes trouble, so while the other girls leave, Arika goes to get her clothes washed. She puts them in a basket because there’s no room left in the washing machines. That night, Arika and Nina both think about their dreams. Someone walks into the washroom and picks up Arika’s uniform.

My biggest thought at the moment is that I’ll be quite surprised if Arika isn’t the real princess. Anyway, enjoyable episode. I’m getting more attached to this series. Though the previous episodes were fun, my thoughts that this would be terrible compared to HiME have been keeping me from getting into it. I’ve pretty much come to the realization that this is a separate show. When I think of it as something separate, I like it a whole lot better. The concepts of this Otome school are pretty interesting. The majority of the students won’t ever become Otomes, so it’s not a good idea to have friends. Getting too close to someone would make it more difficult if you were chosen but they weren’t or vice versa. Still I hope that Nina will at least try to open up to people other then Sergei a little. All the other students seem to have friends. Next, Mashiro’s really been getting on my nerves. Having her be a stuck-up brat was fun at first, but sometimes she can be flat out obnoxious. I’d like it if her character would develop a bit.

Sven and Rinse fight there way into the place where Eve is being kept. Train happens to be heading there too and causes a great deal of destruction. Sven and Rinse get split up. While Sven and Train are headed one way, Rinse discovers a place where monsters are being created using nano-technology. Sven winds up reaching Eve first. As promised, he gives her some delicious food, at least if you consider gum delicious. ^_^ The two have some cute reactions briefly but are discovered by Train. Eve creates a blade with her arm to defend herself against him. Then the man who’s keeping her (can’t remember his name) and several guards show up. Sven is surrounded by gun man and What’s-his-Name puts some sort of chip on Eve that makes both her arms transform into blades. Now in an insane killing mode, she begins to lash out on Train. Rinse appears from a panel in the floor, surprising everyone. This gives Sven an opportunity to escape. He manages to remove the chip from Eve, but gets stabbed by one of her blades. He seems to be okay though. Eve and Rinse sit with him while he lays on a bench to recover when Train shows up again. He points his gun at Eve, but remembers what Saya told him and leaves, heading back to the rooftop where he met Saya. She happens to be there.

This episode just had me in awe. I’d heard about Eve having powers but didn’t expect them to be so cool. She was totally insane in this mode. The scene where Sven stopped her was very impressive. It emphasizes that he really cares about her, as he didn’t mind putting his life in danger. I’m also curious about a scene towards the very end. There were some people watching the events on a monitor who certainly look suspicious. It also seems that they’ll be important in next week’s episode. I’m now thinking that they’re probably members of Chronos. I’m still anticipating the implied team-up of Sven and Train, as well as more Saya. With much to look forward too, I’ll again have difficulty waiting for the next episode.

Jason of Anime on my Mind has created an anime blog aggregation service called Anime Blog Toshokan. This nifty page links many of the existing blogs through their RSS feeds for easy access to their latest posts. It’s a very convenient thing which I really recommend checking out.

Thanks Jason!

The episode begins with a girl named Junko running into the hospital, screaming something along the lines of “Please save Candy!” Candy is her dying dog, by the way. Unfortunately for her, Candy dies. This leaves her heartbroken. She thinks about all the time she spent with Candy, like the day she got her, when her parents died and Candy was the only one she had left and all the general happiness Candy bought her. The vet’s assistant, Sekimoto-san, learns that the vet was a very corrupt man. He mistreated the animals and ignored Candy’s appointment to go out with his friends. She tells this to Junko, who is now furious. After hearing two girls discussing Jigoku Tsuuchin, she decides to go there. As usual, Ai’s grandma informs her of the request, Ai gives Junko the doll, and the whole boring spiel is explained to Junko. Junko is terrified at the though of burning in hell, so she decides not to pull the string… for now anyway. The next day, Junko and Sekimoto head to the vet’s office to investigate. They of course see that he is a corrupt psycho. Junko pulls the string, the vet gets haunted, Ai shows up and he wakes up on the boat to hell. Same old, same old. Then a hoard of dogs and cats crawl all over him. Junko thinks about Candy and her dead parents. However, she knows that she’s not going to see them again since she’s destined to go to hell.

There’s still no sign of a plot here, but I really liked this episode. Maybe it was because of all the cute animals. Scratch that, it was definitely because of all the cute animals. I definitely understand Junko’s sentiments, but I still don’t think she had to kill the guy. It would’ve saved her from going to hell. When I doctor does something like what this vet did, the appropriate thing to do is to find a good lawyer and sue him for tons of cash. I suppose that would make the show less interesting though, but at least it’s more realistic and sensible. Okay, I should stop complaining because I do like this show. I just hope it gets away from the filler thing soon. It has serious potential to become a great series if it does.

Fate is introduced into Nanoha’s class and is mobbed by questions from other students. Later, Chrono and Amy discuss the book of darkness, which uses powers from the linker cores to fill its pages. The existence of this weird dinosaur creature is mentioned as well. Meanwhile, Signum takes Hayate to the hospital, where it’s learned that her condition is worsening. She’ll have to get harder treatment. After school, Nanoha and Fate discuss their new opponents. Fate is reminded of the way she used to be. Meanwhile, Hayate and Suzuka meets a the library again and Viita and Zafira beat that monter seen earlier, getting more pages for the book of darkness. Later that night, the Space-time Administartion sends out members to surround Viita and Zafira. Chrono is with them and attacks, but is unsuccessful in hurting them. Luckily though, the Raging Heart and Bardiche are fixed. Nanoha and Fate arrive on the scene and with the Raging Heart Excellion and Bardiche Assault, they transform and are ready for battle.

To my utter annoyance, this episode took four days to download, not to mention that it still features the Main Concept logo. I didn’t notice it as much this time though. As for my review, this episode was pretty light but still enjoyable. It was rather cute that Fate spent a large amount of the episode blushing. Viita in the morning was cute too. I can totally relate to her, being that I’m not a morning person at all. Why must school start at 5 AM? Also, I was amused by the scene with Chrono, Amy and the orange juice. Amy’s no longer fangirlish over Chrono, but they still have occasional cute interactions. This is sort of off topic, but I was browsing the animesuki message boards the other day and noticed that there are a lot of people supporting the Chrono/Nanoha or Chrono/Fate pairings. I can see where they get Chrono/Nanoha from, but I just can’t see him with Fate. If anything, Fate seems to like Nanoha. Well, whatever. As I said, that was just kind of random. Getting back to the episode, I think Nanoha and Fate’s new transformation scenes were a bit overblown. I hope they’re not so long in future episodes. Maybe they’ll do them both at once like on the OP. Anyway, I’d love to see their new weapons in action. They just had to end the episode right before the battle. Darned cliffhangers.

Asami accidentally runs into a student named “Erosaki” who’s infamous for being a pervert. It’s believed that he likes to film pornographic videos of girls. Asami starts to get very concerned about this, but at the same time curious when Erosaki asks if he can film her. One rainy day, Asami takes a train but winds up involved in a mugging scene. She’s saved by Erosaki, who accidentally breaks his umbrella. Asami feels a bit guilty for this and also for not thanking him. She soon learns that Erosaki was just his nickname and his name is really Iwasaki. She goes to his house with a new umbrella she bought for him. While there, she learns that he wanted to use her in a film for a school project. He found that she was the most fitting girl for it, though it also turns out that he liked her. Asami freaks out, but his sister then comes into the room. Unsurprisingly, she’s Iwasaki-sensei. Asami goes home and Ichimaru surprises her by bringing her cheesecake. She’s reminded that she only loves him and doesn’t want to give her body to anyone else.

I enjoyed these two episodes just for its cuteness, but the amount of fanservice was a bit ridiculous. One good thing though is that for the first time, Sasuke didn’t annoy the heck out of me. I found it odd at first that there would be two characters named Iwasaki, so I guessed that this boy would have some relation to Iwasaki-sensei. I was right about that, and this was kind of amusing I suppose. I’m excited to see what happens next, though it seems that the normal tensions will be back. This can get a bit repetitive, some I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised again.

Yukari is studying at the library when George shows up. They discuss their goals in life and Yukari is surprised to learn that George doesn’t mind that she talked about herself so much. Later she learns from her brother that George called the house to find out where she was. After school she goes to the altier and accidentally discovers that Arashi and Miwako are involved in a sexual relationship. Isabella apologizes for this and goes to make Yukari some tea, but they’re out of it. Yukari and Miwako go out to get some more and Miwako mentions that she saw Hiroyuki’s picture in Yukari’s book. She was very close friends with both Hiroyuki and Arashi since she was young, but recently neither she nor Arashi have been in contact with Hiroyuki. Yukari notices that this saddens her and decides that she wants to be able to stay in contact with her new acquaintances. She agrees to the modeling job and later they all throw a big party for her. She winds up drinking too much alcohol though and passing out but George takes care of her. Later he takes her bag so Yukari chases after him. In his own odd way, he was getting Yukari’s attention so he could clean off her lipstick and keep this a secret from her parents. He’s unable to get it off though, so he leaves and Yukari heads home.

We now have yet another well done episode. I’d like to read the manga again since it’s been awhile and I’m curious to see how accurate this adaptation is. Nothing seemed out of place to me though, so I guess if there were changes then it was nothing major. I’ve always found Miwako’s back story with Hiroyuki interesting. Since this is only supposed to be 13 episodes, they’ll probably get more into detail about it soon enough so I’ve got that to look forward to. George is already starting to get very creepy. His behavior toward Yukari almost seems stalker-like. The odd thing is that he’s still very gentlemanly in behavior. That actually makes him even more creepy. Yukari seems to be attracted to him though, but she still likes Hiroyuki. It seems like he returns the feelings, considering that he complimented her hair. Time will tell what’s to happen with Yukari’s relationships, or you could just read the manga. I highly recommend it.

Edited 10/26/05

Sven and Elena make it to the location of the captured girl, who’s about to be killed by Train. They’re unable to save her and wind up having to make an escape. Later, Elena takes off her wig, revealing to Sven her true identity. She’s actually a purple heard girl named Rinslet “Rinse” Walker. She also explains that the girl they’re looking for, Eve, is actually a bio-weapon. Meanwhile, Eve is sent on a new killing mission, which she easily performs. Sven meets up with her when he’s out and buys her ice cream. Eve enjoys eating it and feeding the cone to the birds, as Sven demonstrated to her. Sven also promises he that he’ll take her out to try more delicious food someday. Then some people come for her and she willingly goes with them. She thinks about the promise while the car drives away. Sven reports back to Rinse and then heads out after Eve.

Okay, I said I was going to watch this subbed but I’m a wee bit too obsessed with it to wait. In fact, I watched the second episode twice. I’ll probably watch this one once it’s subbed again anyhow. This is pretty easily my favorite show of the season. Aside from the fact that my favorite character, Saya wasn’t in this episode I found myself loving every minute of it. The large amount of Sven screen time in this episode made me happy, though of course having this happen reduced Train’s amount of scenes. I can’t wait until the group gets together so I can watch both Train and Sven. As for the other characters, Eve is very interesting. She seems to be the typical enigmatic mechanical girl, but she differs from them. Rather then being a cute, innocent young girl she’s both a killer weapon and a cute, innocent-acting young girl. I don’t care so much for Rinse at the moment, though she hasn’t gotten much development at all. She was cool on the preview though with her kick-butt martial arts skills so I’ll probably have a different opinion on her next week.

Now that all the shows that I was anticipating have premiered, I’ve decided what I’ll be blogging and what sort of entries they’ll be getting. Here’s the run down.

Black Cat
Status: Definitely blogging. I’ve yet to determine just how much I’ll write about it though.
Type: Sub

Happy Seven
Status: I’ll be watching this one on the side for now on. There’s a reason nobody’s blogging this you know. It’s just cute enough for me to finish. It’s only going to be 13 episodes so why not?
Type: Raw

Jigoku Shojou
Status: Blogging this one. At this moment, the summaries will probably be the longest portion, but I can’t guarantee thta this will be permanant.
Type: Raw

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
Status: Blogging, though not with huge summaries. I’ll probably have a lot of thoughts on it for my review portion since I’m really getting into this.
Type: Raw

Mai Otome
Status: I’ll be blogging this, but since pretty much everybody else is I suppose I won’t give particularly lengthy summaries or anything.
Type: Sub

Paradise Kiss
Status: I’ll more then likely be blogging this. Again, there won’t be huge summaries but I will try to analyze it since I’ve read the entire manga.
Type: Sub

Rozen Maiden Traumend
Status: This will probably get my longest summaries, though they won’t be ridiculous like what I used to do for Air.
Type: Raw

Once the remaining episodes are subbed, I’ll be finishing up Okusama wa Joshikousei too.