The episode begins with another dream, showing that Saber wasn’t the kind of ruler that a lot of her subjects wanted. In present time, Sakura makes a big dinner, which Taiga is happy about. Rin introduces Ilya to the family, claiming she’s a distant relative. Surprisingly, nobody has a problem with this. Soon, everyone watches a story on the news about recent gas leaks. Sakura interrupts by bringing in her desert. Ilya, Taiga and Saber all want it, so Shirou suggests they play janken. Afterwards, possibly tired of being nice to all her rivals, Sakura goes out to silently angst. Shirou, Rin and Saber head to the dojo to discuss the mysterious gas leaks. They think the people at the Ryuudou Temple are responsible. Ilya comes in and while dancing around, gives them her theory that Caster is behind it. She tells them that Caster has summoned Assasin, which is possible even though they’re both Servants. Caster has strong enough magic. Ilya also says that Caster killed her master. Her current master is just a normal human who she’s using as a puppet. Saber is angry that a master would betray a servant. However it’s revelaed that Caster is Medea, who was known in Greek mythology for a betrayal. Issei then shows up. Through Shirou’s brief chat with him, they learn that Souichirou has been living at the Ryuudou temple. Shirou, Rin and Saber decide to spy on Souichirou. Rin attacks his cloak with a finger blast and it turns out to be Caster. Caster tells Shirou and Saber to come out as well and so they do. Caster reveals that she indeed caused the gas leaks and she’s also been stealing souls. Souichirou is content with this. Saber, Rin and Shirou each try to fight Souichirou, who was given power by Caster. They’re each beaten easily. Even when, to Rin’s surprise, Shirou summons Archer’s swords, he still can’t win. Caster’s decided that it’s pointless to keep fighting and is going to go get a sacrifice. To summon the holy grail, she needs a master but obviously doesn’t have a real one. Therefore, sacrificing souls is the only way. Thinking that it’s Ilya Caster is after, Shirou sends Saber ahead. However, Saber finds Sakura unconscious when she gets back. She goes over to help her but Sakura attacks her with a blade. It turns out that she’s possessed by Caster and this is Rule Breaker, Caster’s noble phantasm. Normally it would cancel the contract between Shirou and Saber, but since Sakura’s magic is too weak, it only disables Saber’s ability to make her sword. When Shirou and Rin return, they see Sakura floating away. Caster tells them to go to the temple to get her back.

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. I’ve been waiting to learn more about Sakura and it looks like now they’ll be getting into her story. Evil Sakura is just really cool. Maybe she should’ve been this way from the beginning. I have a thing for possessed characters though. It might be more interesting to see Sakura evil under her own free will, but for now I’ll settle for this. Caster is just plain ugly. Sure, her chibi version looked cute on the preview, but this version of her I don’t like. Maybe she looks better without that stupid costume. Caster does look like she’ll be an interesting villain though. She’s treacherous and a bit psychotic, considering she’s been stealing souls. Other Servants have as well, but that was due to their master’s decisions. Souichirou is quite a nut himself. Apparently he’s Casters puppet, but he likes what she’s doing and seems more than willing to help her. Saber, Rin and Shirou certainly have a lot of trouble on their hands now. I’d like to see how they handle things. The next episode looks very cool from the preview so I hope it doesn’t disappoint.

We start right where we left off, with Hachi out crying. Shouji finds her and takes her back. Shouji confesses that since he’s not even a college student yet, he dosn’t think he can take Hachi with him to Tokyo. He does add that he still wants to sleep with Hachi. Since they haven’t even kissed yet, Hachi doesn’t want to until he tells her he loves her. Not knowing what to do, Shouji thinks of himself as another person, a foreigner named Michael. Hachi doesn’t like that idea, but she plays along. While Shouji still doesn’t know how to say that he loves her, he embraces her and Hachi gets the point, so she does sleep with him. Eventually, Shouji goes off to college and Hachi gets her call, leaving us off at where episode 1 begins and taking us to Oosaki Nana. We see her performing at a convert with her band, the Black Stones. Afterwards, a crazed fan named Misato gives Nana a birthday gift. Nana kisses her as thanks, causing her to faint. Afterwards, Nana hang out with her fellow band members Yasu, Nobu and Ren. They get drunk and it’s bought up that Nana dropped out of school. Later they go home. Nana is currently living with Ren. The two take a bath and discuss the time they first met. Nana also talks about working for her grandmother. She needed the money, because her grandmother wouldn’t just give it to her. Nana was living with her grandmother, because her mother often ran away with men. Her grandmother didn’t want Nana to become like her mother so she wasn’t allowed to wear pink or red so she wouldn’t appeal to guys. When her grandmother died, the first thing Nana did was buy a red dress, which she wore when she met Ren. The two met thanks to Nobu. He told Nana that Ren was abandoned the day he was born. He’s happy about it because it made him famous. He needs fame to be a singer. Nana thinks of him as an idiot, but once she actually sees him she falls in love. This was partially because she was in a bad situation and he just seemed to shine so brightly. In present time, Nana goes to take brith control pills, since she’s sexually active with Ren. He tells her that he actually wants children, but Nana doesn’t, so that’s that. Things are suddenly shaken between them when Ren announces that he’s going to Tokyo.

I didn’t mean to write so much (not that I ever do), but I’m in a terrible mood and I like to write as a way of venting. Still, it’s not as much as some of the other bloggers write, but maybe they’re just crazy… in a good way, that is. I really enjoyed this week’s episode. It was nice to see a bit of both Nana’s back stories in the same week, because it’s interesting to contrast them. Both of them had boyfriends going to Tokyo and that seems to be the reason that both of them went now. I‘m not totally sure if that’s true for Oosaki Nana, but for now it’s a pretty good assumption. Both of them were in very different relationships though. Hachi and Shouji’s can hardly be called a “relationship” though. Up until this week, it was mostly just Hachi wanting to be friends with Shouji. Now that she wants more from him, I can’t help but think that they would’ve been better as just friends, Shouji seems to just want somebody to have sex with and his confession of love seemed to be only in Hachi’s imagination. On the other hand, despite the reason for it starting, Nana and Ren’s relationship seems to be quite deep. They’re already having sex and Ren wants to form a family. Why don’t they just get married and make it easier? I guess the main reason for that is that Nana is most interested and following her career as a singer. That was why she didn’t want kids, so I presume marriage would be too much involvement for her as well. Still, it seems as if she loves him. I can’t wait for the next episode to at least see her reaction to Ren leaving.

It turns out that the tank is actually Buccha, the Night King. Kazu and Onigiri are able to escape by darting into a building. Unfortunately, people are there who beat them up. Buccha pins Kazu to a wall and nearly snaps his neck. The two girls from last week are upset about what happens and call Ikki. Ikki goes to see his two friends in the hospital. They’re badly hurt, but they left for him a note and their Air Treks. Ikki uses parts from them on his Air Trek. Ringo shows Ikki a map of the school, which he’s going to need to do a trick pass against Buccha. He has to play on Buccha’s level since he’s in a higher class, E-Class. Once Ikki and Buccha meet for their match, they plan to race to a statue. Ikki puts his Air-Treks on the line for Buccha’s emblem. It’s time for Ikki’s first Parts War match. Ringo watches them and a man named Spitfire shows up. She asks if he was sent by Simca, but he denies it. They basically give a play-by-play as Ikki and Buccha race. Eventually, Buccha gets ready for one of his ultimate moves. Ikki tries to go high enough to reach him, but winds up falling. However, he’s somehow caught by Kazu and Onigiri in spirit form, since his Air Trek has parts from their’s. Ikki grabs onto a pole and makes it to safety. As it turns out, Spitfire must’ve spoke to Simca, since he thinks to himself that SImca was right about Ikki’s wings. Ikki starts to get the upper hand, since his Air Treks have better traction thanks to their new parts. They approach the statue and Ikki is pleased that Buccha won’t be able to fit through the small gap. However, Buccha can shift his body fat, much to Ikki’s horror.

I’m very glad that they didn’t try to condense this entire story into one episode. It seemed to take up a lot of manga chapters. The adaptation of the Ikki vs. Buccha race has been excellent so far though, except that Ton-chan should not be here yet. I’m also glad that I’ve been reading the manga lately, because it’s increased my enjoyment of the anime immensely. Despite enjoying the content of this episode, I was disappointed by the animation. It looked pretty bad in some places. Ringo in particular seemed to get the short end of the stick as far as animation goes. Spitfire seems like an interesting character. From what I’ve read so far, I myself don’t know too much about him. He’s one of the kings, which it seems we’ll learn more about next week. We’ll also get to see the conclusion to Ikki and Buccha’s race. It’s pretty obvious how things will turn out though, so this wasn’t much of a cliff hanger. Hopefully Simca will show up again, since she wasn’t around this week at all.

A girl called the Seirei no Miko (lets just call her Spirit priestess) has been praying to the oracle for help every day. Meanwhile, Hunter and Ignus are duking it out in a practice swordfight. Lumen seems just as unenthused as me about it, complaining that they do this every day. Soon he’s given a message though of a new mission. Hunter can’t wait to go out and is about to go alone, but Lumen orders for him to take Corona and Ignus. Corona calls out Venus and Ignus calls Flame and they leave. They stop in a field of flowers and Hunter shows signs of attraction in Corona. Ignus informs them that they don’t have the time to sit around now, so they investigate the village, which seems pretty empty. They wind up breaking into a house where they find a terrified girl. She tells them that (obviously) the Insectors were there. The girl takes them to a cave and tells them some things about protecting the flowers. They enter the cave and find some villagers inside. Strangely, Corona and Ignus find some flowers growing in the dark. However, they flower spits something out at them and they become hypnotized. The two attack Hunter, but Shadow has a plan to stop them. He notices some sort of light that keeps reflecting off of Corona’s jewels. Hunter jumps up and makes more light, returning them to normal. When they leave, they find that the girl was really an Insector. After a long henshin scene, they fight begins. Hunter at a point gets upset about all the flowers being destroyed, but Shadow yells at him and they keep fighting. He creates a giant web to trap all of the little bugs. The Insector girl flees. As Hunter and co. leave. Hunter thinks again about Corona in the flowers.

That was fun. It really seems like this series is covering things too quickly. I wish it would take a slightly slower pace, being that it’s such a high episode count. Another character was introduced, who is calling for help for some reason. I wonder why she’s not doing anything herself, since it’s obvious from the preview that she’s a Spider Rider. It seems as if she’s bad though. She’s now in the bad guys base and they don’t seem to be fighting against her. I guess she could be captured or something, but the bad guys don’t seem to be idiots and if she was a Spider Rider, they’d probably want to kill her. Also, in the preview she looks like she’s fighting against Hunter and co. Maybe she’s an enemy Spider Rider. I didn’t think of that possibility before. It’s strange for a priestess to be an enemy though. I find it interesting that Hunter and Corona both have feelings for each other already. In both cases it seems to only be a crush, but still, this is episode 4. As one last thought, it’s so darned obvious that Sparkle and Lumen are siblings. I can’t believe I didn’t figure that out until they said it. They’re both in royalty and they look similar. I’m clueless.

Tousukuru stands up to the invaders, but Nuwangi just taunts her. Aruru gets mad and throws a rock. She also sends her tiger out. It knocks Sasante down, but one of his soldiers hits it out of the way. One guy goes after Aruru with a sword, but Tousukuru jumps in the way. Sasante and his people are surprised by this and leave, though Nuwangi lags behind, watching Eruru. Later, Eruru and Aruru look after Tousukuru. She’s clearly dying, which upsets them. She explains to them that the person Eruru was named after was her older sister. She also tells Hakuoro to take care of the girls. She then dies. Devastated, Eruru and Aruru cry. Hakuoro talks to Oboro about this, who decides to get revenge. He goes to their base, then assaults several guards. The others are too terrified to do anything, so they let him inside. However, he winds up getting captured. At the village, Teoro makes Hakuoro the new village chief, so he prepares everyone for battle. Oboro’s servants inform them of the danger Oboro is in, so they go to rescue him. Meanwhile, Benaui allows Oboro to go free. Hakuoro faces Sasante and uses his tessen to stab him. This reminds him of the destruction caused by Mutikapa and saddens him. Nuwangi runs away from the battle, blaming Hakuoro for their loss and Sasante’s death. Hakuoro tells the villagers that now more people will come to try and kill them. They have no real choice but to fight. Eruru shows up and sings to the exhausted Hakuoro.

That was just great in so many ways. I did not expect Tousukuru’s death. I probably should’ve, since while a major character I don’t believe she’s on the OP. I might be wrong though, because this is taken from memory. I don’t mind her dying, since I still constantly forget her name and have to keep referencing old posts. She was a good character though, so I’m sad in those respects. I’m not sure as to whether Sasante is dead. It looked as if he was on the preview, but after what happened to him, I’d like to believe that this was a flashback or something. Hakuoro’s tessen has proved quite useful so far. Hopefully it won’t become an all powerful weapon that can kill anyone or anything. Oboro was such an idiot this week. I understand why Hakuoro was mad at him. If he keeps doing such reckless things, he could get himself and others killed. I really like him and don’t want to see him die due to his own idiocy. Speaking of Oboro, I wonder why Benaui helped him this week. Last week Benaui beat him up, so I rightfully find that odd. I wonder if he’s all bad. I might’ve said the same about Nuwangi, but he just had to go insane in the end. It looked like he was going to try and help Tousukuru for a minute toward the beginning. Of course he didn’t and that’s because he’s a jerk. I’m definitely awaiting his death. I’d have to say one of my favorite scenes this week was Aruru standing up to Sasante and Nuwangi. Admittedly her tiger cub did most of the work, but it’s great to see that she’s not useless. Eruru on the other hand just may be useless. Characters who don’t actually fight usually get nowhere in a show involving war. It’s not necessary that she fight at the moment, but who knows about later on… save for those who have played the game. ^_^; Darn it, I want spoilers!

Nao rushes to Shuhei, upset about his non-existent injury. The group decides to come up with a new plan. Nao finds a terrorist in a puddle of blood, but notices that he’s somehow still alive. She’s going to take him to the infirmary. Kazuhiko researches Hallarax’s (the terrorist group) weapons and learns that they can nuke the earth. The remaining Aries crew decides to prepare rations and Yu volunteers to help. Shuhei is still suspicious of her and comments that they don’t even know her name, so he dubs her “Rocket Chest Girl.” She’s not pleased with this, but doesn’t want to give them her name. Before they split up, Ryouta asks Shuhei to take care of Nao, because she’s most worried about him. Shuhei comes to see her and Nao flashes back to a time where Shuhei and Ryota helped her save a bird and showed her their secret base. During that time, the terrorist in the infirmary melts into a moving puddle. Shuhei prepares to shoot it, but it disappears. Later, Shuhei finds Yu engaged in studying bugs on the ship. He questions this and calls her by her nickname again, which gets her annoyed enough to reveal that her real name is Yu. Sayaka calls them both into the control room, where Kazuhiko found a distress signal. Sayaka hopes it’s from Aya. Shuhei uses a weird mecha thing to locate the call and it leads him to the butler and Aki. While looking for Aya, they got locked in a room. He takes them back and the butler delivers the bad news that he still hasn’t located Aya. It’s also revealed that Aki is Kazuhiko’s sister and they immediately start bickering. They seem to be enjoying it too. Meanwhile, the terrorists plan to attack again. Karen wants revenge on Shuhei.

Wow, they managed to give some plot this weak. The first three episodes, even the action-packed third one, seemed kind of pointless. This one had a lot of weirdness to it, which went over quite well with me. I’ll probably be wrong, but at the moment I suspect that the Hallarax are aliens. For one, they can melt into hostile liquid like that guy in the infirmary did. Also, they have superior weapons. If my theory that Yu is with them is correct, then that only gives me more reason. She seemed fascinated by the bugs, which isn’t something a normal human would be interested in. Yu was cute in this episode though. It was nice to see her actually do something. Shuhei seems to like teasing her and the results are funny. This series continues to be predictable, as anybody could’ve guessed that Aki was Kazuhiko’s sister. They’ve got the same last name and looked to be around the same age. Next week looks like it will be about their back story. That could be interesting. Please give Yu’s back story next!

Due to some recent spam problems, all comments must be approved by me first, regardless of whether I’ve already approved a comment by you. Sorry for those of you who have followed the rules and didn’t spam. I didn’t want to do this, but it’s a case of a few people ruining things for everyone. Now your comments will just take a bit longer to be posted.

While fighting Berserker, Shirou is able to materialize Saber’s blade. He chops off Berserker’s arm, freeing Rin, but the blade snaps. He can create another one though, so it’s alright. He and Saber team up and with an awesome-looking combo attack finally kill Berserker. The next morning, before being woken up by Saber, Shirou has a dream of Saber’s past again. Saber isn’t too pleased to see Ilya under the covers too. During breakfast, Shirou, Saber and Rin discuss what to do with Ilya now. Rin is still mad at her for killing Archer. Their biggest concern is that she’s still a master. She could just get another servant and attack them again. However, Ilya comes and tells them that she’s always been Berserker’s master and doesn’t want another Servant. She says that if Shirou is defeated she’ll take Saber though. However, Saber doesn’t want to be her Servant, so things are pretty much settled. They also decide to let Ilya live with them, so she happily clings onto Shirou. Later on, Shirou discovers that Ilya and Saber can get along. He also discovers Saber naked once again. This time Saber reacts differently and Shirou has to leave. Shirou goes to talk to Rin about his new materializing ability. Rin thinks that the sheath rather than the sword made King Arthur strong. Later on, Shirou talks to Saber about the dream. He thought that he was seeing Saber’s dream, but Saber replies that it was actually his dream because Servants can’t dream. Meanwhile, Caster, Assassin and a teacher named Kuzuki Souichirou are seen. They’re after Sakura.

Aside from the first part, this wasn’t the most interesting of episodes. I wouldn’t call it bad though. Mostly, this was about the developing relationship between Shirou and Saber. Saber is clearly becoming more feminine. She doesn’t think of herself as being sexless anymore, which was displayed by the bath scene. She was also quite jealous of Ilya. This makes me wonder if she’ll start to get jealous of Rin and Sakura. My favorite part this week was the Shirou/Saber combo attack. I happen to love things like that. It was also interesting to see Shirou create the swords. Very similar to Archer’s power. Next week’s episode should be interesting, as it looks like we’ll finally get to see Caster do something. She’s been pretty boring so far. I watched the new OP again this week and I’m still not too fond of it. I’m hoping that it will grow on me at least a little bit.

Shouji finds Hachi (I guess I’ll call Komatsu Nana that for now, to simplify my life when they’re both on screen) at a concert. Afterwards, he questions Hachi’s obsession with the DJ, but she assures him that he’s not the type of guy she’d like to get involved with. Hachi comments that Shouji sounds like Junko and Shouji feels as if he’s just Junko’s replacement. When the two see Junko and Kyousuke again, they discuss their summer plans. Hachi and Souji both want to go to the sea. When they’re there, Hachi suggest that she rooms with Shouji so that Junko and Kyousuke can have their own room. There are two beds, after all. Shouji isn’t happy about this. He says that for guys, it’s alright to sleep with girls that they’re not involved with. He’ll do what Hachi says for now though. Happily, Hachi sings to him, which annoys Shouji. The next day, Junko reveals that she and Kyousuke are moving to Tokyo. This upsets Hachi, but Junko is set on studying art in Tokyo and won’t change her mind. Hachi wants to go too, especially after learning that Shouji might study in Tokyo. The problem is, her parents won’t pay for a community college. She has to get into a university. Hachi studies hard, but fails to get into any university is Tokyo. While walking with Shouji later, Hachi discusses getting an apartment and a part time job to support herself, but Shouji comments that this still won’t pay for rent. Hachi is upset at Shouji for not being more sympathetic, but Shouji is still annoyed at her for messing with his feelings with her male friend thing. He leaves and Hachi is left crying. Asano finds her. Shouji goes back to Junko and Kyousuke. Junko is angry upon hearing his story. Meanwhile, Hachi spends time with Asano and feels as if maybe he did love her. She even learns that Asaso was his real name. Feeling better, she leaves him, telling him to stop cheating on his wife. Hachi soon gets a call from Kyousuke, saying that Shouji and Junko are searching for her. Shouji really loved her. Hachi realizes that she loved Shouji but was too caught up in her past to focus on that.

I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed this episode. It was a really nice twist to have Asano come back. Last week I thought of him as the villain, but seeing him now, I don’t think he was really so bad. Having Hachi meet him again was good in that she was able to tie up their relationship and move on. I kind of hope things work out for her and Shouji now, but I can’t see that happening. Their relationship in the first episode didn’t seem particularly stable. While Hachi may be in love with him, Shouji didn’t seem to care too much about her. I could be wrong, but that’s just my thought of the moment. It looks like next week the series is going to shift to the other Nana’s backstory. Hachi’s doesn’t really seem complete, so I guess for now they’re leaving it to the viewers to fill in the blanks or read the manga. Maybe they don’t have enough time to fit all the manga material in or something. Well anyway, I’m interested to learn more about the other Nana. Hopefully she’ll have some angst too.

I do not need anything more to watch, but since everyone is so obsessed with it, I decided to watch Haruhi. I’ve finally caught up and I have to say I love it. This series is brilliant and has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. I’m perfectly content with killing my tiny bit of free time by watching yet another anime if it’s this one.