Negima! Manga Vol 27 (Ch 246) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27 Chapter 246 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 246

Summary/Synopsis: Negi attempts to get up, recalling Ako and Tosaka but begins to vomit blood. Jack tells Negi to give it up since his whole purpose was to just test Negi. While he won't say that Negi has reached "full manhood," he will acknowledge that Negi made him get serious for a short time. Hearing this, Negi gets angry and despite severity of his injuries, he stands up before being counted out. He again remembers his conversation with Ako where he mentioned having doubt about beating Jack for a time until Tosaka's beating set him straight. Ako reminded Negi of his words to her during the Mahora Festival about being the main character of his own story.

Back in the arena, an injured Kotaro joins Negi, asking whether Negi should use Konoka's healing artifact. Negi refuses and asks about Kotaro's injuries. Kotaro says that as soon as he transforms, he'll be fine. As the two take a stance, Jack realizes that even though Negi had surprised him with the Raisoku Shundou technique, Negi has something more. Meanwhile, Negi asks Kotaro for 43-seconds to prepare for his next surprise. He apologizes for using Kotaro, but Kotaro reminds him that being in a supporting role is something he's done before. With that, he attacks and Kagetarou launches a counter-attack to defend. However, Negi has given Kotaro his artifact and remote-activated it so that Asuna's sword shield's Kotaro from the attack, allowing Kotaro to make a full transformation to beast mode -- Garyuu Inugamiryuu Juuka Ougi -- "Kuon Eisou."

With Kagetarou's attack neutralized, Kotaro literally slams and pins Kagetarou to the wall with Asuna's sword. Jack Rakan gets involved, so Kotaro launches a ranged attack to slow Jack down, followed up by charging Jack and slamming him. Kotaro uses long tendrils of fur to grab Jack and slam him to the arena floor and while down there, Kotaro goes up into the air to bombard Jack with another ranged attack. Jack counters it with his fists and grabbing the fur tendril, yanks Kotaro from the sky and punches him. Kotaro is amazed at the punch and how many of them Negi took.

Jack is impressed with what he's seen from Kotaro, but reminds him that removing magical beasts is one of his specialties. With that, Jack activates his pactio card as Kotaro tries to survive for fifteen more seconds. At five seconds, Kotaro gets run through by one of Jack's artifact blades. He hopes Negi can survive the last five seconds and Negi is almost ready with his preparations, saying "Duplex Complexio."

Thoughts/Review: Yay, Kotaro! He'd been sorely missed in the fight thus far and frankly has been underused throughout the entire manga after basically joining Negi's battle harem (without being in the harem you understand). I remember back during the Mahora Festival that Al made a comment on how much tougher the battle would have been should Kotaro had pulled off a transformation. While Kotaro gets defeated here, his full beast mode is proof of just how powerful Kotaro can be. I'm guessing that Kotaro may not have pulled off the form he used in this chapter during the Mahora Festival since he likely has trained himself up to using this form. However, we saw earlier when he transformed his arm into his humanoid beast form that he was pretty powerful.

When I saw the spoilers for this chapter, I wasn't sure I liked Kotaro being able to use Negi's artifact. It seemed to cheapen the use of the artifact because then any old smeg head could use it, right? Ultimaniac reminded me that aspects of an artifact have been sharable (Kaede's cloak to hide the scout team in for instance or Paru making wings for Asuna to fly with). However, using the benefits of an artifact is one thing to me -- actually borrowing someone's artifact and using its full abilities (even though remotely activated) is new (I don't remember it being done before). Since Negi had to activate the artifact and thus give permission for its usage, I suppose that this artifact borrowing is not an unreasonable thing.

As others have pointed out, Ako looked pretty cute in the one flashback. I'd like to see Ako and Negi meet up after the fight. I've changed my mind and think that Negi will actually win this match.

Jack again teases with Negi's mother. That's the one weak point in my Negi=Nagi theory -- does Negi have a mother? If Nagi became Negi, did he become "reborn?" If I can find some time to write that theory article, I will acknowledge this aspect as the weakness in the theory.

Can't wait to see Negi's third ace. ^_^ Hope to have spoilers up Friday or Saturday.

Toradora! Final Thoughts

I was watching Kannagi and enjoying the humor when I noticed that there was a great deal of buzz about a series called Toradora!. People were comparing the two series and trying to figure out which of the two titles were the best of Fall 2008. Some people even mentioned it here, so I thought I'd check it out. The verdict? Comparing it to Kannagi is completely wrong, but as a series, I rather enjoyed it.

The series started rather poorly for me. For starters, people comparing Toradora! to the ultra funny Kannagi made me believe that this would be another wacky comedy affair when in fact it is not. That's not to say there isn't humor because there is and it is funny at times. However, the comedy styles are completely different so there is no comparison of the two on that front.

Further harming the series from the start was the casting of seiyuu KUGIMIYA Rie for the role of Taiga. She's done tsundere characters such as Nagi from Hayate the Combat Butler and Shana from Shakugan no Shana, Rena-chan from Hand Maid May, and the non-tsundere male character of Al from Fullmetal Alchemist. So this felt like just another tsundere role for her and it was a distraction. Fortunately, I quickly got used to her doing the role and soon I forgot about all of the other characters she's played and only focused on Taiga.

The first three episodes made me wonder what the heck people had been watching to gush so much over Toradora!. The pacing seemed off and there also seemed to be small things missing, which I later learned indeed happened (thanks to Hugh for that information). This is a problem that creeps up throughout the run of the series. On the whole, it is not terribly bad, but at times it is very frustrating to have bits of information missing. Since the anime writers are compressing 10 volumes of light novels into 25-episodes of anime, this problem actually gets worse over time. I understand that lots of stuff had to be cut for the anime to complete in 25-episodes. That being the case, why not just do a second series or season? I know that anime adaptations are primarily done for otaku of the source material (be it a game, manga, or novel) and unfortunately, Japanese anime writers feel OK with cutting stuff because they expect the audience to fill in the blanks. Anime isn't written for us gainjin, you know. ^_~

As I said, these gaps don't harm the series in the big picture. Why? Because the story comes off feeling very real to me, complete with unexpected but natural events happening. Taiga's and Ryuuji's friendship feels right and their plans to win over the person of their dreams feels like something a high school kid would do. With Ami's introduction to the cast, the story took many unexpected twists and turns and not just for the heck of it. I enjoyed how Ami and Taiga became friends and how Ami was one of the gang simply because they accepted her for who she is, not just because she's a model. I didn't like how Ami seemed to get the short end of the stick when it came to expressing her feelings for Ryuuji but we can't have everything. It would have been nice for that to have received a better resolution.

Another thing that felt real were the emotions displayed. I know some people have thought people got too angst-filled in the 2nd-half of the anime, but I disagree. What we saw were the masks coming off the core characters and seeing their true selves. That's been a theme since Ami was introduced. The ironic thing is that it wasn't just Ami pretending to be something she was not -- all of the characters were doing this to some degree or other. As such, we have a "harem" where the three girls (who are also friends) falling for the same guy has very realistic feeling instead of the traditional romantic comedy elements. So I appreciated that aspect.

Finally, a thing that doesn't often happen in harem titles is the choice -- which girl with the hero end up with? While I think it is pretty obvious that Taiga and Ryuuji would end up together, valid arguments could be made for Ryuuji ending up with Minori or Ami too. A choice was made though and whether one likes it or not, it is a choice. While a lack of a single choice can be justified in come anime titles, some titles like this one will see the writers just punt on a choice. So I'm glad that was not the case here.

In the end, despite the obvious gaps in story which harms the pacing of the series at times, the realistic story complete with its unexpected moments are what really make this anime title excel. Add to this some excellent seiyuu work as well as some pretty good comedy bits and we have the markings of a real winner. As a result, I can easily give this a 4 out of 5.

Clannad After Story 24 (A Recap I Actually Liked)

クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 24 (finale/end)
Clannad ~After Story~ Ep. 24 Recap

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Tomoya tells Ushio the story of how he and Mama (Nagisa) met in high school, made friends with Kyou, Ryou, Kotomi, Tomoyo, and the others, including "Youhei-ojichan." Tomoya then tells of the formation of the Drama Club and the troubles they encountered to make Nagisa's dream come true, followed by the story that Nagisa wanted to tell, which somehow Tomoya knew. He tells of Nagisa's illness, failure to graduate, her later graduation, their marriage, and the birth of Ushio. Ushio falls asleep but Tomoya reflects on the "dream" that he believes is real where Nagisa died after giving birth to Ushio and that Tomoya abandoned her for five years. After Sanae-san and "Akii" get Tomoya to go on a trip with Ushio, Tomoya resumes his fatherly responsibilities until Ushio in that world gets sick and eventually dies. It is then that Tomoya "wakes up" to find Nagisa giving birth and the current Ushio is healthy and strong. Ushio wakes up and Fuuko-chan still snoozes under the tree as Nagisa calls to them as it is time to go home from the picnic.

Thoughts/Review:

Recap episodes are usually dreadful to me because they are tedious and boring. The little bits of new animation usually aren't worth slugging through all of the rest of the crap, and that goes for shows I really enjoyed such as Vandread and Vandread: Second Stage. That didn't happen with this episode. I didn't find it dreary, tedious, or boring at all. I think having this presented as Tomoya having a father-daughter moment (with Fuuko-chan revealed to also be there at the end) that helps make it work.

It was nice seeing the very brief highlights of Clannad and Clannad After Story. I also liked how Tomoya appears to remember that he repeated time even if he can't explain it. Having Ushio voiced by a real child works wonders as well (as it did during the series). Too bad American companies can't be bothered to do this.

The only annoying thing is an issue I was reminded of as they went through the first episodes -- the initial airing of the series is in 4:3 whereas the later airings and DVD release are wide screen. This is very irritating because clearly, it is a marketing ploy to get otaku to buy the DVD. Ugh. Just air it normally like a lot of other anime titles are.

I'll write final words sometime later.

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 176

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 176

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: After Watanuki and Doumeki finish eating, Doumeki wants some of the cookies that Himawari-chan made. Watanuki goes off on Doumeki but since Himawari-chan wanted them to share the cookies, he agrees to this, telling Doumeki he better appreciate them. Doumeki acknowledges that the cookies were made for Watanuki's sake and he tries one, finding it a bit sweet but good. Watanuki slowly tries one and enjoys it, then states that he hopes the woman he was teaching to cook could find happiness through eating. Doumeki says she will, providing she actually eats the stuff.

As usual, Watanuki stops by the woman's house to drop off food, this time nozawana and umeboshio. The woman sounds annoyed through the intercom about Watanuki's month-long efforts so Watanuki tells her he just wants her to try his food. He leaves it at the gate and he and Doumeki are off. The woman does come out and retrieve the bag, apparently remembering Watanuki telling her during the cooking lessons that he wanted to cook and eat with her so they could learn more about each other.

Thoughts/Review: I really look forward to the story moving on from this boring cooking thing. I suppose it is either this or the manga go on hiatus though since all the action is over on the Tsubasa side.

OK, so Watanuki got to eat a cookie Himawari-chan has made. Has he "learned" anything more about Himawari-chan or does he know all there is to know already? I ask because CLAMP wants us to believe that one can learn alot about another person via their cooking and so logically, Watanuki should learn something, right?

Still, if I were this lady and had a nut job leaving food at my door every day, I'd never eat it. That's just me though.

While I'm thinking of it, why hasn't this lady been named yet by anyone? That is so strange.

I suppose next chapter will have this lady either eat Watanuki's food or destroy Tokyo in a rampage after she becomes 50-feet tall. I'm thinking that second option isn't going to happen, though that would be interesting.

Slayers Evolution-R 10

スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 10
Slayers EVOLUTION-R Ep. 10


SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

While camping for the night, Zelgadiss steals the Hellmaster Jar and escapes. Pokota awakens to discover it is missing, so he, Lina, Amelia, and Ozel fly off to find Zelgadiss leaving Gourry to follow on the ground. Zelgadiss has decided to force Rezo to give him the knowledge of how to restore his body to human form or be cast into the sea. Rezo tells Zelgadiss to go ahead and cast the jar into the sea since he has no knowledge of how to return Zelgadiss to his proper form. Zelgadiss recounts how he, Zolf, Rodimus, Dilgear, and Noonsa all worked for Rezo to help the people. Zelgadiss also recounts how a failed mission caused him to want to get stronger and how Rezo granted that wish by turning Zelgadiss into a chimera.

This is overheard by Lina and company, who've just arrived. Pokota doesn't want to believe the story since he holds Rezo in high esteem. Rezo confirms is all, revealing that one of the methods for restoring Rezo's eyesight was to have 1000 specimen. Rezo found that with the people of Taforashia. All that was needed was a new suitable host body for Rezo's soul to enter and he found that in Posel Korba Taforashia -- Pokota. However, before Rezo brought this plan about, he was killed by Ruby Eye Shabranigdu (by becoming the piece of the mazoku dark lord) and then by Lina.

Since Zelgadiss hasn't destroyed the jar yet, Pokota grabs it, deciding that living the rest of his life in his current form is a good sacrifice if it means that his people can come back to life. As such, he gives Rezo permission to use his human body as a new host and then takes off for Taforashia. The others follow in pursuit (Gourry still on the ground) though Lina feels there's something else still not revealed. This is all observed by Xellos from high above.

Thoughts/Review:

The story Rezo told about his true purpose for creating the Hellmaster Jar and sealing the inhabitants of Taforashia smacks hard of retconning on the surface, especially since the writers can't take the time to explain things (because it would be complicated and lengthy). However, I think I can fill in the gaps. We know Rezo had been experimenting and researching all possible means to restore his eyesight. He created many chimeras as we saw in Slayers and were reminded of in this episode. He even created a clone of himself. So his obsession with curing his blindness is well documented.

Now, let me bridge the gap as best as I can. My understanding is that in the novels, Ruby Eye Shabranigdu is sealed within the souls of humans such as Rezo and not in his eyes as Lina thought. However, that fact has not been established in the anime yet. I think that after Rezo sent Zelgadiss out to find the Philosopher's Stone, Rezo made Taforashia a "Plan B" if you will. By that time, Ruby Eye Shabranigdu had put it within him to find the stone where by Shabranigdu could then unseal himself from Rezo's soul (eyes so far in the anime). Having Rezo transfer his soul into Pokota's human body may have had potentially negative consequences for Shabranigdu. So Rezo leaves Taforashia and then is killed by Lina after he unseals Ruby Eye.

The problem remaining is the soul itself. For Rezo in the jar to actually know that he had been killed by Lina and Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, then that means that the soul transfer didn't happen until after his death. When Lina slew Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, we did hear Rezo speak to Lina briefly. During that time, Rezo's soul could have transferred to the jar already prepared. That's not unreasonable seeing as how "Nama-chan" had her soul transferred to a box some distance away after Xellos broke her transfer jar.

So where does Ozel fit into the picture? I think she is a creation of Rezo's and possibly a "Plan C" if you will. After her creation, she's given instructions on how to release Rezo (at least to some degree) as a safety precaution should something go wrong and his soul remain trapped in the jar.

That out of the way, lets talk Zelgadiss. Again, potential for retcon exists but the writers are pretty cagey. As I remember events in Slayers, all we are shown is a young Zelgadiss practicing with his sword in the woods and desperate to get stronger. I don't remember a reason behind his desire but the implication we are left with is that Zelgadiss was minding his own business and training like mad when Rezo came upon him and granted his wish to be stronger by turning him into the chimera he is today. The further implication is that when they met in at that time, it was the first time, but it is never stated directly from what I recall.

This reminds me of a minor issue I had with Slayers -- why did Zelgadiss work for Rezo if he hated him? It was clear that Rezo didn't trust Zelgadiss after Zelgadiss located the Philosopher's Stone because he put Lina onto the trail of Zelgadiss wanting to resurrect Ruby Eye Shabranigdu when it was Rezo who wanted that done (in the hopes Ruby Eye would cure him in thanks). I was reminded that Zelgadiss couldn't have hated Rezo at first despite being a chimera because in a perverse way, Rezo had done what he promised -- he made Zelgadiss stronger.

In this episode, Zolf, Rodimus, Dilgear, and Noonsa all appear in the form of the flashback, which rocked. I liked how the writers worked in Rezo's helping reputation and I did like how Zelgadiss was with Zolf, Rodimus, Dilgear, and Noonsa before becoming a chimera. Somehow, that made sense to me because it explained how the goodhearted Zolf and Rodimus would team up with the troll-wolf-man Dilgear and the fish-man Noonsa. It also explained why Zelgadiss was friends and comrades with them in the first place. It also helps with the split of the team after Zelgadiss decides to throw his lot in with Lina and Zolf and Rodimus join him while Dilgear and Noonsa follow Rezo until the end.

There is still some room to argue alternate points here and I certainly understand that. If you wish to vocalize them, be my guest in the comments section. ^_^

So while I wasn't expecting much, in the end, this turned out to be a very enjoyable episode simply because we saw more of Zelgadiss's past and some answers to questions. With Xellos observing, I'm sure more fun is to be had. Maybe a return of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu? Nah, they wouldn't do that, would they?

Negima! Chapter 246 SPOILER Images

Negima! 246 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 246 (Images)

Here's what I know many of you have been waiting for -- the original-sized, sneak-peek images for Mahou Sensei Negima! 246 as brought to you buy anonymous Japanese fans (click pic to make bigger, y'all).


Kotaro and Negi are BACK!

Toradora! -- Taiga's New Seifuku

I didn't have time to do a grab with Taiga's new seifuku, but some Japanese fan provided an image instead.

I'll have some final thoughts on Toradora! next week.

Toradora! 25 (finale)

とらドラ！Episode 25
Toradora! Ep. 25 (final episode)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A message from Taiga regarding Ryuuji has Yasuko racing over to her parent's home. However, Ryuuji is fine and this was staged so that Yasuko could make up with her parents. Ryuuji has learned the truth about his father -- his mother had never married and had left Yasuko after she became pregnant. Rather than abort the child, she wanted to protect her baby and now he's all grown up. Ryuuji promises Yasuko that he won't run away any more since that's not the answer and that he'll continue to grow in front of Yasuko, not someplace far away.

That night, Ryuuji finds that his and Taiga's futons are placed together since they are planning to get married. Taiga has Ryuuji put out the lights and they look at the stars together. Ryuuji says that they should get married properly and discuss it with everyone including his grandparents and Taiga's parents. Taiga wants a rehearsal and using a sheet to simulate a veil (looking more like a traditional Shinto wedding hood), she wants Ryuuji to say some vows. He flubs through but Taiga states her belief that vows or not, they'll always be together -- Dragon (Ryuu) and Tiger. She kids him about his eyes, funny breathing, and chapped lips but they kiss anyway. Taiga continues to ask for repeats.

After the three return home with Inko-chan, Ryuuji invites Taiga over for dinner. However, after Taiga takes a cell phone photo of a single star outside her window, she leaves and returns to her mother. The following day at school, Yuri-sensei announces Taiga's withdrawal, causing the class to immediately text Taiga to see what's wrong. In the commotion, Ryuuji leaves, as does Ami, Minori, and Yuusaku. Minori is upset and after she catches Ryuuji, she tells him to brace himself as he slaps her. Yuusaku comes to stop further violence, so Ryuuji explains that this was Taiga's choice and though he's not happy with the choice, he couldn't stop her. Since Taiga believes in him, Ryuuji has no choice but to accept it.

That night, Ryuuji gets a text message from Taiga saying he never said he loved her. He then gets a single dark image with a tiny pinpoint of light. The next day at school, Minori apologized to Ryuuji for the slap. Everyone is talking about the single dark image that Taiga sent everyone but only Minori understands the meaning behind the message and that it is a picture of a star. Minori waxes poetically about the meaning with everyone and Ami comes up, saying she is touched. She teases Minori over the broken star moment from Christmas but says that she thinks Taiga would love a photo reply from everyone. So a search for Taiga's Christmas star begins and Ami and Ryuuji have a talk where Ami explains how she and Taiga truly became friends. Once the star is found, Yuri-sensei takes a photo of the entire class (Ryuuji holding the star) to send to Taiga.

Time moves on and Ryuuji's class graduates. As the class mingles outside, Ryuuji notices a something in the window of their old class and races back in. Finding nothing, he goes to a tall locker in the back and there is Taiga in her school's seifuku. After a brief chat, Ryuuji says he loves Taiga, which catches her off guard. She gets embarrassed because she would have preferred to have been told this with a better setting/mood.

Thoughts/Review:

Again, the series took me places that I didn't expect. After running away together, I thought that Taiga and Ryuuji might get talked out of eloping but I didn't expect Taiga to return to her mother's home to live and complete her senior year. Actually, it seems a weird thing to do since there's only a short amount of time in the school year left (spring being the start-end time in Japan) and she was already a 3rd-year student. May as well graduate at your own school with maybe two months to go. Now, had they all been 2nd-year students, Taiga's departure would have made more sense to me. I suppose this is one of those things where we aren't supposed to worry about the mechanics too much and just accept that this is what happened and move along.

Another surprise in the anime was learning that Ryuuji's father did not in fact die, but had run off with another woman and didn't even marry Yasuko. After that revelation came to light, things made a bit more sense regarding Yasuko and the fact that she hadn't been in touch with her parents for a great many years (likely not having seen them since Ryuuji's birth). I can't help but wonder how much material got cut from the light novels in order for the anime to end as the light novels did. With as rushed as things felt, I imagine there was a fair amount cut but I could always be wrong.

As to Taiga and Ryuuji being a couple, it almost felt weird for me to watch them repeatedly kiss. It didn't feel weird to see them holding hands on the train. Unfortunately, the way things played out kind of killed the ultimate sense of romance for me. Once Taiga returned to her mother for a 2-month stint and things just fast-forwarded to the end, everything just seemed to wilt for me. As such, there was no emotional impact to their reunion because the audience hadn't missed Taiga's presence -- she'd just been there, was gone, and now several weeks later she's back in a new uniform but for the audience, it is only a few minutes max. It is poor pacing due to trying to compress ten volumes of light novel material into 25-anime episodes. For comparison, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid took two volumes of light novel material (plus a little extra stuff to make it properly link with the previous titles) and that became a 13-episode series.

Ami. I still say she got the short end of the stick. Her chat with Ryuuji was nice, but she never vocalized her feelings for Ryuuji which is a disappointment. I would have enjoyed her coming clean along with everything else she said. Oh well.

I did see one little nice touch -- Haruta shoving Noto close to Maya and them both becoming embarrassed by it while Nanako smiles over it. That makes me think that maybe Maya has noticed Noto in a romantic way and Nanako knows this.

I'll write some final thoughts later. I understand that there are two light novel volumes of a spin-off called Toradora! Spin-off. So when someone asked about the possibility of a sequel anime series being created, at the time I thought "no" but I suppose anything is possible.

Minami-ke Okaeri 12

みなみけ おかえり Episode 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

 It is a warm spring day and Chiaki is sleeping with her feet out of the open sliding glass door when the noise from Kana, Uchida, and Maki wakes her up. She's annoyed and wants them to shut up and let her sleep. Kana forces Uchida into the "ring" with Chiaki for a verbal sparing match, but Chiaki wins. Maki is next but Chiaki wins. Kana then takes the "ring" and engages Chiaki. Meanwhile, Haruka arrives with a plate of sakuramochi, so Maki and Uchida grab some. Since Chiaki had said nothing would move her from her spot, Kana refuses to let Chiaki go get some of the snack food, resulting in them wrestling instead of verbally sparing.

Maki comes over to the Minami residence where Kana, "Mako-chan," and Uchida are snoozing. She remembers an incident from junior high school where she woke up and the other girls were laughing at her so she wants to see if there's something funny about her face when she sleeps. After some double entendre confusion, Maki and Uchida sleep while Kana and Mako-chan watch. After a time, Kana takes a permanent marker and writes "hime" (princess) on Uchida's forehead (because Kana had told Uchida that she was no princess) and draws whiskers and stuff on Maki's face. When Haruka and Chiaki come home, they find Mako-chan and Kana rolling on the floor laughing while Maki is depressed, not knowing that Kana wrote on her face. Sometime later, Atsuko comes over and has pictures of Maki from their junior high days where Kana sees that back then, someone drew the exact same design on Maki's face as Kana had.

Kana comes home and picks up Haruka's seifuku, which has just been tossed on the ground. Kana decides that with the school changing to warm weather seifuku in a few days that maybe it is time to reinvent herself. Since Chiaki is doing a bit of repair work on her own seifuku, Kana asks Chiaki to turn one of her long sleave shirts into short sleave. Chiaki does this but accidently cuts the front of Haruka's seifuku skirt. After some fighting with Kana, Chiaki makes a quick repair and hopes for the best until the end of the week. Everything goes fine until the last day of the week when Haruka is talking with Natsuki and Maki notices a loose thread in the front of Haruka's skirt. She pulls the thread, causing Haruka's skirt to open and fall and Natsuki to have a bloody nose.

After Chiaki throws her latest "bakayarou" insult at Kana, Kana has had enough. This leads to a fight where Chiaki decks Kana in the face. Kana decides that before Chiaki becomes a delinquent, Kana must do something about it like show Chiaki more love. So Kana begins to try to be considerate of Chiaki. She tries to engage Chiaki in conversation about Chiaki's school life. At dinner, she offers some of her own uneaten food to Chiaki, causing Chiaki to think that Kana wants to make her fat. However, because they are both being polite in their offers and refusals, Haruka is pleased to see they are getting along. At bath time, Kana wants to wash Chiaki's back, but is refused. Haruka is pleased that Kana is offering to do such a thing but Chiaki thinks that Kana is going to finish her off. When she comes to their room, Kana is in Chiaki's bed with Chiaki's book and is planning to read to her. However, the Kanji is too dificult for Kana and Chiaki goes to Haruka's bedroom, telling Haruka her fears that she's about to be eaten.

Thoughts/Review:

Hmmmm -- not very funny this week either. This episode did remind me that Kana has been a stronger, crafier character this series than in previous ones. Chiaki did get one of her trademark "Fujioka Bear Attacks" in and she decked Kana as well in addition to her "bakayarou" insult, but Kana gives back as well. The first story where Kana wouldn't let Chiaki go get the desert is one such instance of that and there have been plenty of others as well.

Beyond that, there's really not much to say. Things happened and I was entertained, but I never laughed. That's been the weakness of this series -- sometimes there are good laughs and sometimes there are not. This was clearly a "not" situation. However, as I've said before, this 3rd series is still much better than the aweful 2nd series. *shudder*

One thing I will note is that there seemed to be some slightly different charater designs in the third story. They weren't bad, just somewhat different.

Only one more episode to go.