Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Season ep 1 - 4
First off: the opening. Instead of the theme that has been with the show from the beginning, we now get a pop song. I can live with it, but I miss the original theme because it fit the show so perfectly. The animation is amusing: Yumi, Yoshino, and Shimako running around the school via some kind of magical portal. I've dubbed it the Reading Rainbow Opening (don't ask me why).
On to the episodes. I'm glad Kanako's situation finally got sorted out, so her outlook has improved a little now that she's reconciled with her father. I understand her better now. She's no longer the creepy stalker girl she started as.
After that, it's a search for soeurs. Sachiko instructs Yumi that it's time for her to find a petite soeur, and Yoshino is determined to find one after lying to Eriko, telling her she already had one. They decide to hold a tea party at the Rose Mansion, inviting first and second year students so that others may also have a change to find soeurs. Of course, neither Yumi nor Yoshino find someone suitable, but Yoshino runs into a middle-schooler at a kendo competition, Nana Arima, who may become her soeur in the future.
One of the best things about these episodes is that the former Roses show up more than they have since the middle of Season 2. It's fun to see Sei, Youko, and Eriko all together again in the same episode.
07-Ghost ep 2
Wounded and on the run from the military, Teito literally falls into the hands of three bishops named Frau, Castor, and Labrador from a nearby church. This is a lucky break, since Teito now has sanctuary (although I'm sure the baddies aren't going to honor this forever). Teito continues to have dreams and visions, giving him the sense that the church is familiar.
Besides introducing more characters, this episode presents some of the mythology of this world. Verloren, the God of Death, committed a crime and was forced to escape to Earth, plunging humanity into despair. The Chief of Heaven sent the Seven Ghosts to seal Verloren away, but his servants, the Kor, still roam free and try to corrupt humans. How this will come into play in the main storyline is yet unknown.
Lovely Complex ep 19 - 24 (Complete)
I'm glad that Koizumi and Otani continued to act the same toward each other after they became a couple. The banter and bickering is true to their characters, no matter what their official relationship is.
As usual, nothing is ever simple and we get two new characters making trouble this time. First is Otani's neighbor Mimi, who really got on my nerves. I wanted Koizumi to stand up to her and I was happy when Risa finally clocked her. Next is Koizumi's co-worker, Kohori Kazuki. This kid was OK, he just made a few bad decisions that created tension between Koizumi and Otani. At least their break-up only lasted less than a couple of episodes.
It was also nice that the other characters got some time too. I laughed a lot at Nakao's attempt to distance himself from Nabu so she could go off to Hokkaido without worrying about him. When he said he'd decided on a course of action, I didn't expect him to dress up Maity, Suzuki and Haruka and pretend they were his harem.
So, overall a good, well-rounded ending. While this show didn't wow me like Toradora!, it still provided a lot of entertainment and laughs.
Key the Metal Idol ep 11 - 13
The hints that Key might not be a robot after all are piling up as we hear for the first time that she had a mother who was a shrine maiden with miraculous powers. Things come to a head in Ep 13 when Key appears at a Miho concert and her presence destroyed all of Ajo's robots. But things don't look good with D now free, and with a plan to kidnap Sakura to lure Key into a trap.
Clannad ep 5 - 9
These episodes followed the story of Fuko Ibuki, a girl who may or may not have been a ghost, who was determined to pass out hand-carved starfish to everyone in school as invitations to her sister's wedding. I'm really enjoying the comedy in this series (most of it centered around Sunohara), but of course Clannad is about more than just great comedy.
Determined to find out if Fuko really was a ghost or not, Tomoya and Nagisa arranged for her older sister to meet them... And she couldn't see Fuko at all. It was also sad to see people forgetting about Fuko as time went on. The really emotional part came at the wedding, when everyone who had forgotten felt that they had to be there for some reason, and then Fuko was able to say goodbye and wish her sister a happy life. I admit, I cried. And it's like when I saw the end of Haibane Renmei for the first time; every time I think about it I get emotional again. And it's still fairly early in the series... I expect other moments like this will happen.
K-ON! ep 3
This gave me a sense of Lucky Star deja vu when Yui and Ritsu were talking about doing other stuff when they should be studying. Every time Yui forgot to study and goofed off, I felt like slamming my head onto my desk.
Hopefully we'll get to hear some more music in the show soon, since it IS a show about a music club after all. And with an episode titled "Training Camp" coming up next time, I would like to see my wish fulfilled. It's not that this show is bad, it would just be a huge waste to focus on everything EXCEPT music.
Higashi no Eden ep 2
"I have no idea what's going on, but it sure looks pretty," is what I was thinking during most of this episode. Then a cop with the phone similar to Akira's came along, and had three people wasted at the end, one of them an innocent bystander... Now I really want to keep watching the mystery unfold.
A few things have become clearer. The series is set in the not-too-distant-future, probably around 2011 or so (since there is a mention of 9/11 being "ten years ago"). Also, in the year previous to the start of the series, there was an incident of unexplained missile strikes on Toyko, but no one was killed. This was later dubbed Careless Monday. Whether these, and the latest missile strike that occurred at the end of Ep 1, have anything to do with the organization that seems to be lurking in the background is yet to be determined, but it's a safe bet they are connected.
