Tenjou Tenge 128

Souichirou tries to kick Sohaku out of his mind once again, and this time Souichirou has help.

I get to sit in the nice chair and you don't.

Summary:
Masataka challenges Souichirou to a fight, but moments later Masataka is trying to save the unconscious Bunshichi from being crushed under the rubble.

Back in the dream world within Souichirou's consciousness, Sohaku decides it's time to retreat now that Souichirou's negative energy has been drained by Maya's Dragon Gate. Souichirou wants Sohaku gone for good and attacks, but Sohaku wards off Souichirou with some giant snakes. Sohaku states that Souichirou can never defeat him since he and Souichirou have combined, but suddenly, Aya, Bob and the rest of Juuken Club crew appear. Aya pulls out Reiki and thrusts the sword at Sohaku. While holding off Reiki with his fan, Sohaku realizes that the Reiki seen in this world is not the real Reiki; rather this Reiki is the collection of energy from Senhime, who also possessed the Dragon Gate, and Senhime's energy was sealed inside the real-world Reiki. Therefore the Reiki in this world also possesses the energy neutralizing ability of the real Reiki and this renders Sohaku's powers useless. Bob, Asshat, Shinichirou and Makiko join Aya in trying to stab Sohaku with Reiki, and Sohaku realizes that it's possible he might really die. Finally, Souichirou returns to his normal appearance and helps the others drive Reiki right through Sohaku.

Wouldn't striking the end of the hilt with your palm be more effective than punching it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regarding the first part of the manga in the real world, I'm fairly sure Masataka was challenging Souichriou to a fight in the very beginning but then suddenly switched to rescuing Bunshichi. I'm reading RAWS plus translations again so it's possible that I got the situation entirely wrong, but what else could Masataka be doing in pages 2 and 3 sitting in that chair and facing Souichirou? As to why Masataka suddenly went to rescue Bunshichi instead, don't ask me. Maybe Masataka thought it would be nice thing to do or something.

Anyways, the main focus of the chapter was in the dream world, and Aya and Reiki finally play a significant role in this final showdown. My summary might be pretty confusing, but this story was pretty straight forward for a Tenjou Tenge chapter. It turns out Senhime's Dragon Gate was sealed inside Reiki, and this is probably what gave Reiki its ability-canceling powers. Anyways, Sohaku seems to be screwed right now, but I doubt he'll go down this easily. This final showdown is not going to end without Masataka and Souichirou going at it in the real world and Aya activating her Dragon Eyes. Maya would probably have to fight too. It's not quite over yet...

Fall 2009 Anime

A new anime season is knocking on the doorsteps. In fact, the fall 2009 season has already begun. Like always, this post is just a list of shows that I'll check out and/or blog for the upcoming season. Doing season previews seem to be all the rage these days for anime blogs, but I am just too lazy or I can't find the time. I'm still sticking with the misleading title though so I get more hits. There are some links to actual season previews at the bottom of this post.

Shows I will blog:

Queen's Blade: Heir to the Throne
I blogged the last season, so I might as well blog this season. My Queen's Blade posts seem to pretty popular in terms of pageviews, although I think most of the traffic comes of Google image search which actually makes a lot of sense. No one is watching Queen's Blade for the plot lol.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun)
The spin-off of To Aru Majutsu no Index, this series promises more Biri-biri and Kuroko in exchange for shoving Touma and Index into the background. Hopefully this will mean less ridiculous hero speeches and pseudo-science expositions, and more action. I peeked at the manga and at least the action seems promising.


Shows I'll check out:

Tatakau Shisho - The Book of Bantorra (aka Armed Librarians)
The art looked nice. That's the only reason I'm picking this show over the other "maybe" shows.


So in total I'll be watching three new shows and blogging two of them. There is also FMA:Brotherhood and Umineko being carried over from the summer season, so my anime schedule will consist of five shows, three of which I'll blog. I might start watching another series, but I doubt it since I have school now and therefore I don't have as much time to watch anime. There are plenty of other things I should be worried about.

Finally, as promised, here are some links to actual fall 2009 previews:
- Ganbatte!
- Hyper Parfait
- Random Curiosity
- Sea Slugs!
- Tenka Seiha
- THAT

Valkyria Chronicles - Final Thoughts

Here is my second end-of-series final-thoughts for the summer 2009 season, and this time it's for Valkyria Chronicles. Unlike my last final thought post for Umi Monogatari, I'm just going to write this in point form to save time. I think I spend more time ordering up my points and writing up transitions than coming up with the points.

Warning: post contains major spoilers to the series.

Yeah lets run in the open in a close formation so that enemy can mow us down with one machinegun burst. Wait, that could never happen hahahaha.

- The military tactics and action in Valkyria Chronicles is hilariously bad, and this is compounded by the fact that Valkyria Chronicles (the game) is supposed to be a "tactical" RPG. Most of the battles involve attacking the enemy's strongest defensive position from one direction, and funny enough that works some of the time depending on who's doing the attacking. It always work for Squad 7, and rarely works for anyone else. Our protagonist Welkin, being slightly smarter than the rest of the soldiers, incorporates two direction attacks some of the time, and that always works. Lack of military tactics aside, what's even worse was the soldiering practices by both the Gallians and the Imperials. The Gallians, particularly those from Squad 7, have a tendency to stand out in the open. Thankfully for them, the Imperials are terrible shots, and thus they only hit the good guys by accident. The good guys also get injured when they accidentally shoot themselves like what happened to one of the Squad 7 members during the final episode. The bad military tactics and action was the defining feature of the show for me. It certainly made the show look bad, but at least it was in a funny way.

This was the idiot who wounded himself: he was hit by a ricochet while wasting bullet shooting at a steam pipe.

- Speaking of combat, the Valkyrur battles were lacking in the animation department (laggy slow-mo flips, I'm pretty sure it wasn't my computer that's lagging), but they were still better and made more sense than the regular military battles.

- Some of the characters in the show felt pointless, particularly that reporter girl and Maximillian's scheming brother, neither of which ended up doing anything that mattered.

- The pompous Gallian general deserved a much more painful death than being blown up by Selveria.

- Alicia was pretty awesome in the earlier parts of the series with her wide range of facial expressions, but she got handed a restraining order in the second half and all the funny faces were gone, and I find that disappointing.

This was the last time anyone thought of Faldio.

- LOL Faldio died at the end and nobody bothered to remember him. Nobody. That was both funny and sad at the same time. Maybe this is his punishment for trying to give Alicia a piece of rubble on several occasions.

- Whatever happened to the Edelweiss near the end of the show? It was introduced in the beginning as Supertank, but you don't even see it towards the end any more. I wanted to see the Edelweiss take on Maximillian's moving fortress so Isara can take part in the final battle in spirit if not in person. They just all forgot about the poor girl (Isara) near the end too. Heartless bastards.

Maximillian cannot withstand Alicia's awesome Valkyrur hotness.

- In the end, Maximillian actually turned out to be a dumber and more a$hole-ish version of Lelouch, which certainly explains the choice for the seiyu. Comparing him to Lelouch would dishonor to Lelouch, since Lelouch at least ruled the world briefly in Code Geass and was quite the lady's man, while Maximillian overloaded when a hot girl (Alicia) hugged him and was foiled time after time by a squad consisting of a dozen volunteers and one tank.

Because we all know kissing is more important than running for your lives.

- The final battle was overall a letdown. It was both cheesy and unimpressive. I wanted see either Alicia coming to Welkin's rescue and blasting the crap out of the moving fortress or have the Edelweiss take on the moving fortress in spirit of Isara. Unfortunately, what we got was Alicia getting kidnapped and Squad 7 coming to the rescue. The culminates into a final battle between Maximillian and Alicia+Welkin in which Alicia hugged Maximillian to death and afterwards Welkin and Alicia was kissing while the moving fortress was blowing up... right underneath their feet! Talk about cheesiness and the lack of a sense of urgency.


In conclusion, Valkyria Chronicles was the worst anime series I was watching in the past 13 weeks, but at least it was (unintentionally) funny some of the time and provided me plenty of material to write this post.

Umi Monogatari - Final Thoughts

Up until now, I usually write a full review for any anime series that I've followed but didn't blog episodically, but I don't really have the time these days because of school. It's hard (and probably fruitless) work covering the series that I've already committed to. I should probably be studying instead of writing this, but alas... Anyways, from now on I'm just going to write down random thoughts for these end-of-series "reviews". So here are my final thoughts on Umi Monogatari, a 12 episode anime based off a line of pachinko machines.

Umi Monogatari is billed as a transforming magical girl series, but it has some characteristics to make itself different from the pack. For one thing, Umi Monogatari is a lot more laid back than any magical girl anime I've seen. It's perhaps a little too laid-back, since the pacing never really picks up towards the end of the show. It's probably because the emphasis on the show wasn't really on magical girl combat; it was on the relationships between the characters and their inner struggles. This becomes more and more evident towards the end of the show as the battle becomes less about magic and more about the emotions of the two magical girls. My interpretation is that the decision is a trade-off between action and character development, and since I was expecting a leisurely series I didn't mind the slow pacing and appreciated the focus on the characters.

This is what Umi Monogatari is really about.

Speaking of character development, Umi Monogatari has an interesting set of characters and relationships. The central relationships are two connected love triangles with the protagonist Kanon in the middle. On one side, there're the sea girls Marin and Urin and the focus is mostly on Marin and Urin's sisterly relationship. On the other side, there Kojima and Oshima and the focus is on Kanon's own insecurities. The setup is effective in developing the characters, particularly Kanon who eventually learns to be more positive and embrace life a little more. Marin also turned out to be more than just an always-happy hugging machine, and she and Kanon make a nice pairing that's polar opposites on the surface but similar on the inside. As for Urin, she was just so damned cute that it didn't matter what she did. One thing Umi Monotgatari is great at is drawing these dastardly cute little girls. Little Marina and little Kanon were very cute as well. They sure know how to draw their lolis.

Other than the aforementioned note on the character designs, the production quality of Umi Monogatari is very good. The underwater scenes with the fish and corals are particularly memorable, and I liked the light palette used for many of the outdoors scenes. The action is not bad either, although mostly it was just Marin flipping and dodging. Kanon and Marin don't really much in terms of move sets.

Overall, I found Umi Monogatari to be an enjoyable watch. It's not the most exciting series, but the show has good production quality and decent character development for a 12 episode series. Oh, and I learned that the power of yuri-hugs conquers all. I think that's the lesson to take away from this show.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note after writing this post:
this took just as long as writing a structured review. Looks like I failed to in my intent to reduce my post-writing time. The next step will probably be doing point form for these end-of-series articles.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood 25

Ed and Ling runs into Envy in Gluttony's stomach while Mustang has a not-so-pleasant meeting with King Bradley.

Putting you hand in front of a wild animal's mouth is usually a bad idea.

Summary:
At night in a back alley in Central, May tells Yoki the story of how she met her panda companion Xiao May. May came from one of the lower class tribes and one day she came upon Xiao May, who is actually a giant panda but has stunted growth. May and Xiao grew up together like siblings and thinking about Xiao makes May cry. Scar seems to moved by the story about May's oppressed tribe and so the group goes to look for the mini panda.

You might not have Athlete's Foot, but what about rust?

In the dark space filled with blood, Ed eventually runs into Ling. The two of them desperately try to find an exit but to no avail, and Ling eventually falls down in fatigue. Ed is unwilling to abandon Ling and carries him to a raised platform and the two of them cook and eat Ed's boots for nourishment. At this moment Envy arrives and when asked by Ed, Envy explains that the space that they're in is indeed Gluttony's stomach. Gluttony was a failed attempt by Father to recreate the Gate of Truth. Everything that's been sucked in gets stuck in this space, and there's no exit. Ed starts wondering who Father is and the topic wanders onto the Ishval War, and Envy proudly admits that he was the one who instigated the conflict. To start the war, Envy morphed into a moderate military official and shot an Ishvalan child in public. Ed is pissed off by Envy's words and attacks the homunculus, but his punch has little effect. Knowing that there's no way out of this place, Envy decides not to hold back anymore and transforms into his true form, a giant grotesque beast, and starts bashing Ed and Ling around.

It's too dark... I can't see the grotesque details!

Congratulations Lt. Hawkeye. You have just been named female soldier of the year!

In Central HQ, the general are discussing which alchemists to use as human sacrifice. Meanwhile, Bradley has a private meeting with Mustang. In order to keep Mustang from doing anything naughty, Bradley orders all of Mustang's subordinates to be redeployed throughout the country, with Riza being reassigned as Bradley's personal assistant.

Apparently Gluttony is ticklish.

Back on the outskirts of Central, both Al and Gluttony are wondering what they should do. Al eventually asks Gluttony to take him to Father, and Gluttony agrees as Al is a human sacrifice. Gluttony then leads Al back towards Central.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Ed, Ling, and Mustang are all in a world of trouble and no obvious solutions exist for their situations. Ed and Ling are stuck with an angry monster in a crappy place with no exit, while Mustang "loses" all of his subordinates. I think this part of the story is lowest point for the good guys. Anyways, I was looking forward to Envy's true form getting animated since the design is pretty sick. Unfortunately, the whole scene is Gluttony's stomach is too dark, and it's hard to make out Envy's entire shape. Bones did do a good job on the skin effects though with the many souls struggling to get to the surface. Envy is quite the evil bastard, and his true form is appropriate to show off the underlying nastiness and ugliness of his personality. Hopefully in the next episode we'll able to see his true form more clearly. Or maybe I just need new glasses. On the mention of Envy, I have to say that the discussion about his weight doesn't make any sense. If Envy keeps the same mass no matter what his form is, then if he was walking around on the streets then the ground would crack if he had the weight of his true form. It's not a very consistent characteristic.

Onto the other parts of the episode, Mustang loses his crew but everyone knows he isn't giving up just like that. I can't really say much about his situation though without spoiling what happens next. As for Scar's group, the flashback on how May met her panda was a nice little bonus. I don't really remember that part from the manga, and the flashbacks explains why May cares so much about her pet and why Scar is willing to let her tag along. Both Scar's group and Al are heading into Central, and since Al has Xiao May, it won't be long before the two groups run into each other.

Spin Aqua Discography

Spin Aqua were a short-lived indies musical project between the model Anna Tsuchiya and the former Oblivion Dust guitarist K.A.Z. The duo performed music together for a year and seven months; releasing music for less than a year
The band debuted with the single Unchained, which was followed up with Spin Aqua’s first concert was held in December at the Tokyo Bay NHK Hall at the Devilock ‘02 concert. This single was followed up five months later with Mermaid and then three months after, the single PAPER MOON.
The band would later slip into hiatus due to Anna Tsuchiya's pregnancy and engagement to fellow model Joshua. In mid-2004 it was announced that Spin Aqua had permanently disbanded.

J-Rock, J-Pop

Albums
1st Album:
[Pisces]
KSCL-608
7.16.2003

Track Listing:
01 Unchained
02 Paper Moon
03 Don't Need It
04 Storm
05 Hane no Namida
06 Mermaid
07 Groove
08 Sunshine
09 A foggy day
10 One Little Song
11 Malibu

192kbps
69mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HYDMCH2P




Singles
1st Single:
[Unchained]
KSCL-472
11.7.2002

Track Listing:
01 Unchained
02 Hippies in the 60's
03 Sugar Candy

192kbps
20mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F5RN4PNM



2nd Single:
[Mermaid]
KSCL-522
3.26.2003

Track Listing:
01 Mermaid
02 DAMN I WISH I WAS YOUR LOVER
03 Groove

192kbps
17mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XVC16KO8



3rd Single:
[Paper Moon]
KSCL-598
6.25.2003

Track Listing:
01 Paper Moon
02 Foggy Day

192kbps
14mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MT4M42BK

Queen's Blade: Heir to the Throne 01 - First Impressions

The Fall 2009 season starts extra early this year, and just like this spring Queen's Blade is the first one out of the gate. The first season of Queen's Blade was of course one of the most terrible and pornographic anime series ever to be shown on network television. It's so notorious that it actually has a sizable following, and my posts for the first season of Queen's Blade are among this blog's most viewed posts. Anyways, Queen's Blade: Heir to the Throne picks up where last season left off with all of the female warriors in Gainos preparing for the tournament. Here's what happened in this season premiere:

Warning: some images not safe for work

I guess direction finding wasn't a part of miko or ninja training.

- There was no OP at all and the ED is just credits and images of the characters flashing by on instrumental music.

- Reina helps Tomoe and Shizuka (both of whom have terrible sense of direction) find a hotel within the city. Tomoe and Shizuka reveal that they think Aldora is behind the unrest in their country and they want some payback.

- Yuumil parts ways with Cattleya and her son Rana.

Given that you are Nowa's teacher, all the embarrassment coming from Nowa's lack of knowledge of the human world is all your fault.

- Allean tries to keep Nowa from embarrassing the both of them since Nowa has little knowledge of human society.

Your wish has been granted.

- Nanael is ordered by the head angel to take part in Queen's Blade because the head angel is concerned about the current queen Aldora. To make things fair (for the non-angels), Nanael is given another flask of holy yogurt and if she spills any she will correspondingly lose some of her heavenly powers. After the briefing, Nanael is cast down from the heavens and falls into the church where Melpha is praying.

- Echidna teases Irma about entering Queen's Blade. The two seem to have a history together.

Tentacle raepage in the first episode? I shudder to think what will happen in the rest of the series.

- Nyx is violated by her tentacle staff.

- Elina and Claudette share a hotel room together. Claudette convinces Elina that the best way to bring Reina back home is to defeat her in combat.

- Count Vance (Reina, Elina and Claudette's father) declares his plan to send another warrior to represent the Vance estate.

Acid milk is delicious.

- The three stooges... I mean Mellona, Airi, and Menace hang out together. Unsatisfied about having to participate in the tournament, Mellona plans to assassinate Aldora and goes off on her own.

- Aldora learns of Nanael's arrival but is not worried. In her chamber of petrified opponents, Aldora starts talking with her shadow. Mellona tries to sneak attack but Aldora is immune to her acidic breast milk. Aldora then petrifies Mellona and adds her to the collection, but that's not before Mellona figures out Aldora and the shadow's true identity.

- Aldora's shadow suggests that Aldora get some help to command the Assassins of the Fang. The shadow already has a candidate in mind and conjures up a fake letter to send off.
- The fake letter is delivered to Risty's room. The letters appears to have come from Risty's orphanage tells how the count evicted all the orphans after Risty had left. Risty is angered and saddened by the letter and makes plans to get some quick cash to save the orphans.

Shizuka doesn't appreciate Reina stealing away Tomoe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This season premiere did a good job touching upon all the notable characters, showing us where they are and what they are doing. The only new character is Nyx, whose screen time was short but quite explicit. The most interesting character in this episode is Aldora, and we got a sneak peek as to who she really is and why she wants to be queen. Aldora seems to be looking for someone, possibly a little sister? She also has that ominous looking shadow companion that appears to be more evil than she is. Aldora and her shadow have some devious plans for Risty, but it's unclear from the letter and the preview what they are really trying to do. As a result from the fight with Aldora, Mellona got petrified again. I wonder how she recovered from her last petrification and also if she is going to escape eventually. It'd be a little sad if the acid-breast-milk bunny monster got killed off in the first episode. Maybe her fellow stooges will come to her rescue.

For a Queen's Blade episode, this premiere wasn't bad. There was a bit of story-building, and at least the episode made the effort to check on all the notable characters. And of course there was plenty of frontal nudity and a tentacle violation scene too to satisfy the series' core audience. The animation is still the same as before, and it's still standard aspect ratio for the broadcast version. My only expectation for this show is for it to be outrageously bad, and hopefully Heir to the Throne will break some new ground on what can be shown on network TV so I have something to make fun of every week. Since I blogged the last season of the show, I might as well blog this season, but I'll probably write the summary in point form like in this post to save time. Here's to another season of Queen's Blade. Let's see how low can it go.

CANAAN 13 (Finale)

The conclusion to Alphard vs. Canaan(?)

Don't look past me. I'm always the center of attention.

Summary:
The timer on the bomb hits zero and Maria's car explodes. Canaan feels Maria's disappearing presence, but rather than falling into despair Canaan suddenly sees things more clearly than before. Alphard doesn't like the change in Canaan's gaze and attacks, but she is quickly disarmed by Canaan. Seeing the situation turn in Canaan's favor, Alphard decides to run for it. A helicopter appears along side the train and peppers the train with bullets, and this allows Alphard to pick her pistol and move to another car. The train enters a tunnel and re-emerges with Alphard on the roof and Canaan in hot pursuit. Alphard wonders why Canaan is chasing her rather than tending to Maria, and Canaan adamantly states that Maria isn't dead. It turns out Canaan is right as in the dying seconds Yunyun ran back to the detached cars and saved Maria from the explosion.

Yunyun is GAR!?

Mid-air display of affection!?

Alphard states that the root of Canaan's strength comes from her guiding light which is Maria, but Canaan states that Maria is not her guiding light but her friend. Alphard laughs off the suggestion and prepares to leave via a ladder from the helicopter, but Canaan refuses to let Alphard leave and jumps on the ladder as well. Alphard and the helicopter's gunner try to shoot Canaan off, but Canaan shoots Alphard's pistol and the gunner, and the helicopter machinegun swings back into the cabin and kills the pilot. Alphard and Canaan are forced to jump back onto the train as the helicopter crashes into a cliff face. The train enters a tunnel and Canaan pins and pistol-whips Alphard, but during the beating Canaan sees weird colors from Alphard and finally figures out Alphard's motivations.

Instead of giving a speech, maybe Canaan should have pulled Alphard up first?

The train re-emerges into the open onto a bridge over a ravine. Alphard gets away from Canaan but she slips and falls off the train, but Canaan grabs her arm in time. While holding on to Alphard, Canaan states that Alphard's heart had died when Siam died, but she is not going to let Alphard die again. Alphard realizes Canaan is right and she wanted to get closer to Siam by creating another person with Canaan's synesthesia. Canaan's pistol slips off the side train roof and Alphard catches it with her free hand. Alphard points the pistol at Canaan and declares that she'll break free from Siam's curse, but instead of shooting Canaan she severs her own left arm with the gun and falls into the ravine.

Alphard can never belong to just one woman, but at least Canaan gets to keep the arm as a souvenir.

Minoru showed up because the episode needed a token male character.

An unknown amount of time later, Maria wakes up in a hospital back in Shanghai and is visited by Minoru. Minoru found Yunyun and Maria lying on a back road and took them to the city for treatment. Yunyun was just suffering from exhaustion so after a good meal she is back to normal and busy with work. Maria wonders where Canaan is and Minoru states that Canaan's cellphone number is no longer in service. Maria wonders if she'll ever be with Canaan again, and Minoru states that Maria and Canaan will always be together in spirit. Somewhere else in the city, Canaan is wandering around and telling herself that she can always feel Maria's gentleness even if they are far apart.

Minoru spends the next day or so wandering around town. Minoru visits the park where he ran into Hakkoo and also Santana's cosplay bar where Minoru breaks down into tears. The day has arrived for Minoru and Maria to return to Japan, and they are driven to the airport by the awesome taxi driver. During the ride, the radio plays the song "Silk Road Buns" by Nene, and Minoru and Maria reflect upon their trip to China. Meanwhile in different parts of China, Yunyun is working at a fruit stand and thinking that she'll meet Maria again; Cummings is still alive and is now a monk; and an one-armed woman is sitting at an airport. Back in Shanghai, Canaan is looking at Maria's plane through the scope of her sniper rifle. Some time later in Japan, Maria and Minoru holds a display showing the photos they took during their adventure in China, and among the display are the mugshots of Canaan and Alphard hung on the wall side by side.

This brings back memories...

...and so does this little fruit/seed, which remind Cummings of his beloved Liang Qi-sama's pellet gun.

Guess who?

In an European city, an older Canaan, sporting Alphard's hairstyle, gets a phone call from Natsume. Natsume has a job for Canaan, and the target is an one-armed woman.

Alphard-style Canaan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's the finale of CANAAN, but it's not really an ending. Canaan, Alphard, Maria, Minoru, Yunyun, Natsume, and even Cummings are still alive, and Alphard is still causing trouble at the end of the show. As I kind of expected, the final episode didn't touch at all on what happened with the Borner's program and Ua virus data other than the fact that Natsume is still alive and giving Canaan odd jobs. I suppose we'll just have to presume that Natsume and the NGO got what they want.

As for the main conflict between Alphard and Canaan, Alphard predictably did all the bad things because her devotion to Siam and her jealousy for Canaan. "Making another magic-eye-powered freak in order to get close to Siam" doesn't really make much sense, but then again jealousy is not rational. Beneath that calm and calculating exterior, deep inside Alphard is actually a bit like Liang Qi as both don't handle jealousy very well. It's still a little strange to see Alphard losing her cool just because Canaan's gaze changed though. I'm disappointed that we still don't know what really happened on that fateful day on the train between Siam, Canaan and Alphard. It's debatable whether Alphard was able to free herself from her past due to the fight with Canaan. She lost her tattooed left arm, but she's still alive and apparently causing trouble, so my guess is maybe not. Canaan seems to be liberated from her past though (after having hallucinations last episode), and this is probably thanks to Maria even though Maria did diddly squat at the end. Canaan stated that Maria is her friend instead of her guiding light, but is there really a distinction from two. The way I see it, Canaan just replaced Siam with Maria, and Alphard seems to agree with my viewpoint. It's curious that Canaan took up Alphard's hairstyle at the end, and I wonder what other aspects of Alphard rubbed off on Canaan.

Moving on to the other characters, Yunyun was pretty awesome yet again. I'm convinced that she has special Borner powers now, since how else did she save Maria from the exploding train in the span of 30 seconds? I'm also glad that Cummings is still alive. The man has moved on from his criminal life, but it's obvious that he'll always remember his beloved Liang Qi-sama. And finally there's Minoru and Maria, neither of which did very much during this finale episode. Well, at least Maria took a decent mugshot of Alphard before she got shot, and Minoru... uh... turned off the TV at Santana's bar to save electricity.

So nothing is really resolved in this so-called finale. No clear-cut winners, no real yuri relationships (only long distance ones?). There's definitely a possibility of sequel, and I'll probably watch the sequel if it ever happens. Overall, CANAAN was a decent show. It has good production quality, fast-paced action, some cool characters, and delicious yuri subtext going for it, but the story is bit too meandering for my tastes. The underlying story of the show isn't actually that complicated, but the show made everything more confusing than it needed to be. The whole setup about the Ua virus never amounted to much and I find that pretty disappointing. In conclusion, I found CANAAN to be an enjoyable watch, but it had the potential to be better.

Bleach 375

Aizen decides it's time to move on.

Noooooooo!!! You can't do this to Shark Girl!!!

Summary:
Starrk is defeated by Kyoraku and falls to ground while having some flashbacks. Love complains about Kyoraku butting into the fight and that Kyoraku has no style, and Kyoraku responds by stating that ass-kicking people like himself has no need for style. Meanwhile, Harribel is getting triple-teamed by Lisa, Hyori, and Hitsugaya. Aizen watches the fight and gets bored, so he steps into the battle and takes out Harribel with a slash. Aizen then tells Kaname and Gin that it's time to go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What the... So Starrk lose just like that and Aizen takes out Harribel!? Boo!!!!! I wanted to see the cat-fight between Harribel and the two female Vizards, and how the hell did the Primera got taken out so easily? This was such a disappointing chapter. If you gonna kill off the remaining Espadas at least let them die with some dignity. What was the point of setting all this up if the fight is just going to get cut short in the middle? Granted, these fights were dragging along a bit too slowly, but I still don't like what happened. It's like Kubo just gave up on the fights and decided to abandon things midways to move to the next part of the story.

Now that the top three Esapada are all out-of-action, is Aizen going to use his magic hypnosis sword to own everyone? I can't really foresee the fake Karakura Town dragging on given how the fights are cut short in this chapter. Might as well let Aizen move on and have the narrative jump back into Hollow-Land so we can check on how Ichigo is doing.

Naruto 465

Sasuke goes after Danzo.

It's cougar time!!!

Summary:
Sasuke slashes the columns with his Susanoo, sending the ceiling crashing onto Raikage and Gaara's groups. The only person Sasuke bothers to save is Karin, and he tells Karin to lead him to Danzo while having little concern for Suigetsu or Jugo. Raikage, Gaara and their bodyguards survive the cave-in and continue their pursuit of Sasuke. Suigetsu and Jugo also survive, but only barely.

Sasuke arrives at the meeting chamber and is confronted by Mifune. While everyone else is distracted, Danzo and his guards make a quick getaway. Ao chases after Danzo, but Sasuke and Karin are stopped from doing so by the Mizukage. The Tsuchikage and his remaining guard state that they are just going to sit an watch, and the Mizukage wants some payback from Sasuke for what Akatsuki had done to the previous Mizukage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm disappointed that Sasuke just used the Susanoo as a getaway tool, but things continue to get more interesting and now Sasuke is facing the Mizukage. Mizukage is looking for some payback for her predecessor, but she also might be planning to use Sasuke to satisfy her cougar desires lol. She probably can't defeat Sasuke, but she might be able to hold him long enough for Gaara and Raikage to catch up. As for the Tsuchikage, I think the old man is being opportunistic. Maybe he's looking for a moment to steal Sasuke's eyes or something.

And finally, there's Danzo making the getaway with Ao on his tail. Ao is probably get himself killed since he's no match for Danzo and his two guards. By killing Ao, you could even say Danzo is doing his job as the Hokage since he is reclaiming a lost Byakugan. I'm not sure why Ao is chasing after Danzo anyways. The summit is pretty much finished anyways, so it's time to leave. It's not like Ao by himself can stop Danzo from causing trouble. Maybe the whole story will end up as a big chase with Sasuke chasing Danzo and everyone else chasing Sasuke.

One Piece 558

Luffy charges into the chaotic battle at Marine HQ.

To knock out giants, use a giant fist.

Summary:
Luffy informs Whitebeard that Ace's execution is being moved up, and Whitebeard wonders what Fleet Admiral Sengoku is up to letting this "secret" out. Luffy charges right into battle but his participation is almost cut short by a beam kick from Kizaru. Ivankov knocks Luffy out of harm's way with a Death Wink, but he is forced to seek shelter when Kuma (probably one of Kizaru's Kuma-bots) attacks with a mouth beam. Ivankov is bewildered by the attack because he is supposedly buddies with Kuma. Nearby, Luffy is plowing through a group of Marines while Hina tries to catch him. Luffy jumps right past Hina, but Moria spots Luffy and calls on his zombie army to capture the young pirate. Seeing Luffy in danger, Ace yells for Luffy to stay away, but Luffy yells out that he can't abandon his brother. Most of the combatants are confused as to how Ace can have a brother, but Admiral Sengoku lets the big secret out and states that Luffy is the son of Dragon. The notable combatants react to varying degrees to the revelation, and Whitebeard tells Marco not to let Luffy die. Meanwhile, Jimbei arrives and takes care of the zombies with a seawater spray, and Luffy knocks out one of the giant vice admirals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fight continues, and as expected Luffy charges right into the thick of things. The biggest development is that the secret about Luffy's heritage is now out in the open, although Garp is probably correct in that Luffy is now notorious enough that it doesn't really matter if the general public knows he is son of Dragon. What matter though is what the Marines, Shichibukai, and Whitebeard are planning to do now that they know the secret. I'm guessing that Whitebeard probably has a history with Dragon (Whitebeard has a history with a lot of people), but it could be a good or bad history. The main concerns for the moment though are rescuing Ace, keeping Luffy alive, and trying to find out what Sengoku is planning. I wonder who will be next one to come after Luffy. Moria was targeting Luffy, but now he is matched up with Jimbei and that should be an interesting fight. Since zombies are weak to saltwater, Moria will have to use shadow powers to fight Jimbei.

fra-foa Discography

fra-foa formed in Sendai—a big city about 300km to the North from Tokyo—in April of 1998. After playing for two years without a contract, they finally signed a recording deal with indie label Toy’s Factory in 2000. They soon released their first single titled “tsuki to sabaku” in May 2000 and their first album “chuu no fuchi” in February 2001.

J-pop, J-rock
members: Mikami Chisako, Takahashi Seiji, Hiratsuka Manabu, Sasaki Koji
status: disbanded

Albums
1st Album:
[Chuu no Fuchi]
TFCC-88171
2.22.2001

Track Listing:
01 Mahiru no Himitsu
02 Plastic Room to Ame no Niwa
03 Yoru to Asa no Sukima ni
04 Higurashi
05 Sumiwataru Sora, Sono Mukou ni Boku ga Mita Mono
06 Kimi wa Warau, Soshite Shizuka ni Nemuru
07 Aojiroi Tsuki
08 Tsuki to Sabaku
09 Chuu no Fuchi

320kbps
119mb
Part 1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=351OMQUU
Part 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TXD7RE03



2nd Album:
[13 Leaves]
TFCC-86115
9.19.2002

Track Listing:
01 edge of life
02 light of sorrow
03 Blind Star
04 Dasanai Tegami
05 Perfect life
06 green day
07 Kienai Yoru ni
08 lily
09 Chiisana Hikari
10 Crystal life
11 Kirameyuku Mono
12 afterglow

128kbps
50mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P8TZ16H6




Singles
1st Single:
[Tsuki to Sabaku]
TFCC-87055
5.24.2000

Track Listing:
01 Tsuki to Sabaku
02 Mikazuki no Kodoku
03 Tsuki to Sabaku (dub mix)

320kbps
40mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YHMUWQSL



2nd Single:
[Aojiroi Tsuki]
TFCC-87065
8.23.2000

Track Listing:
01 Aojiroi Tsuki
02 secret garden

320kbps
25mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TFQQ17AQ



3rd Single:
[Sumiwataru Sora, Sono Mukou ni Boku ga Mita Mono]
TFCC-87074
11.01.2000

Track Listing:
01 Sumiwataru Sora, Sono Mukou ni Boku ga Mita Mono
02 Tsumetai Asa

320kbps
22mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EVWN0VQ4



4th Single:
[Chiisana Hikari]
TFCC-87087
5.16.2001

Track Listing:
01 Chiisana Hikari
02 Odoru Shounen

320kbps
27mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7XIL6MBS



5th Single:
[Kirame yuku Mono]
TFCC-89013
12.12.2001

Track Listing:
01 Kirame yuku Mono
02 Daisy-Chainsaw

320kbps
18mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=75P16PEZ



6th Single:
[Kienai Yoru ni]
TFCC-87055
8.21.2002

Track Listing:
01 Kienai Yoru ni
02 Oblate de Kurunda Mizu Mitai na Kimi ni
03 Cradle Moon

320kbps
28mb
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LGVS1ZR1

Possible Blog Mascot?

With many anime blogs having their own mascots, maybe it's time I got in the game too. The above is my latest artwork, which is a girl-mecha-power-ranger character (the red ranger obviously) armed with dual katanas. I refer to her as Unit R-06, but I haven't thought of a proper human name for her and her human name is Naomi. She encompasses the two things that I like: mecha and hot girls. Armored girls are kick-ass. Of course, Power Rangers are pretty awesome too... in a hilarious kind of way. Anyways, Unit R-06 is possible candidate for my blog mascot, but I haven't really decided yet.

Picture was several pencil sketches CGed in Photoshop. It took more time than I could afford, and is probably the best artwork I have produced thus far. I don't know if I'll ever get around to drawing the other rangers lol.

Deadman Wonderland 24

"Mockingbird" Sakigami Toto visit the Deadmen and the Deadmen are put into a Carnival Corpse with the Forgeries.

The very definition of creepy.

Summary:
After Sakigami Toto enters the room, Senji immediately attacks Toto because Toto is rumored to be the strongest Deadman, but Toto dodges Senji blades and takes a lick of Senji's blood. Toto wants a taste of Ganta too, but he is blocked by Shiro. Toto then politely introduces himself to Ganta and explains that the Forgeries are merely fake Deadmen. News of Toto's return soon reach the other Deadmen, and Chaplin organizes a big party to welcome Toto back. While everyone else is enjoying themselves, Ganta is sitting under tree thinking about the Forgeries and their resemblance to the Red Man. Toto approaches Ganta and after finding out what Ganta is thinking about, Toto states that the Forgeries and the Red Man are only similar in appearance. Toto is then about to reveal the Red Man's identity to Ganta, but the conversation is interrupted when Shiro comes to play with Ganta. Ganta tells Toto that Shiro is his friend, and Toto leaves without telling Ganta who the Red Man really is. After Toto leaves, Shiro asks if Ganta is enjoying himself, and after looking around at his fellow Deadmen Ganta answers yes to the question.

The next day, many of the Deadmen wake up and find a Forgery's mask beside them. On each mask is a message written specifically to piss off each of the Deadmen and the Deadmen are challenged to a Carnival Corpse at a specific location. This is of course all part of Tamaki's plans to test his Forgeries, but the Deadmen are too incensed to care. And so Ganta, Senji, Minatsuki and several other Deadmen arrive at the site of the Carnival Corpse and are met by four Forgeries. Senji dives right in and slices off some of the Forgeries' snake-like appendages, but the Forgeries keep on fighting. Senji is bitten on his left leg, but Minatsuki whips off the infected flesh before it can spread to the rest of Senji's body. One of the Deadmen falls to the Forgeries attacks, and Ganta is frightened by the Forgeries' single-minded desire to kill. Ganta shoots one of the Forgeries and knocks of the mask, and to Ganta's shock the Forgery is Azami. Ganta is so shocked that he is frozen in place, and he fails to spot a snake appendage coming at him from above.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mockingbird" Toto finally joins Ganta's group, but he is still mostly dancing around teasing and being creepy. Toto has a penchant for tasting other people's blood, so maybe his power is absorbing other people's Branch of Sins or something along those lines. We still don't know what he's up to and how much he knows about the whole operation, but he's probably up to no good given the way he looks at Ganta. We all know Shiro is the Red Man/Wretched Egg, and Ganta almost finds this out if not for Shiro's sudden arrival. It's probably still too early in the story for Ganta to finds out this devastating truth.

So now Tamaki has pitted the Deadmen against the Forgeries. I wonder what Tamaki is trying accomplish by doing this. He stated that he didn't care which side won, so perhaps he is just picking which side is better so he can run more experiments on them. It's interesting that all the Forgeries have the same powers, whereas each Deadman has a unique power. The Forgeries seem to be pretty obedient for a first generation product, but those killing instincts seems to be forced and maybe they could go unstable. Ganta is obviously not going to die in this battle, but he might end up killing Azami to survive. If Azami is killed in this battle then it's kind of a waste bringing her back after so long, but since this is Deadman Wonderland, any of the side characters can die at any time.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood 24

Ed and crew battle the enraged Gluttony.

Hot air is yummy, but it's not very filling.

Summary:
Somewhere underground, Envy is belittling Dr. Marcoh for his decision to cooperate to protect his village even though the homunculi's plans involve the destruction of the entire country. Meanwhile, Wrath chats with the hidden Pride somewhere in Central HQ and Wrath states that he knows where Gluttony is.

Long coat... Dual pistols... Riza is like one of those Hong Kong action stars!

At the house on the outskirts of Central, Gluttony is wreaking havoc with his true form. The Elrics and Mustang run into the forest to draw off Gluttony, allowing everyone else to get to the car. Using one of Ed's patented dummies, the Elrics and Mustang manage to lose Gluttony in the forest while they run back to the house. The Elrics and Ling decide to stay to recapture Gluttony, while Knox drives Mustang, Riza, and Ran Fan away. Before leaving, Riza hands Ed a pistol for protection, and Ed reluctantly takes the gun.

Mustang's ego has been completed obliterated.

Calling Ed short can be hazardous to your health.

Now back in the forest, the Elrics and Ling wonder how they are going to deal with the raging Gluttony, but suddenly they notice a large dog behind them. The dog turns out to be Envy who is here to retrieve Gluttony. Lust tells Gluttony that he isn't allowed to eat Mustang or the Elrics, but Ling is fair game. Realizing he and Al can't be touched, Ed separates the battlefield with a wall with him and Al facing Gluttony while Ling faces Envy. Ling manages to kill Envy a few times with his saber and he notices that Envy is heavier than expected. Meanwhile, Gluttony cannot swallow the Elrics, but in self defense he throws Ed and Al through the wall into Ling and Envy's half. As Gluttony lines up Ling with his giant vacuum mouth, Ed jumps into the way to try to knock Ling out of the way and Gluttony grabs onto Ed. The three of them are then swallowed by Gluttony. Al grabs Gluttony and demands the homunculus spit out his brother, but Gluttony states that he can't.

Envy may have the transformation skills, but Ling has the better moves.

This is what happens when playtime gets out of hand.

Back in Central, Mustang is getting worried about the Elrics and Ling not returning, but he realizes he has his own stuff to do. Mustang and Riza head to Central HQ and Mustang meets General Raven, who General Grumman said was a straight-up guy. Mustang is looking to probe the upper echelons of the military to see if he can find any support. General Raven invites Mustang to a meeting and on the way Mustang mentions the rumour that the Fuhrer is a homunculi. Raven laughs it off as a bad dinner joke and invites Mustang into the meeting room. The room is filled with high-ranking military officials, and to Mustang's surprise, King Bradley shows up and asks him to elaborate on the rumour. Mustang now realizes that when Maes Hughes said the military was in trouble, the trouble was actually coming from within the military.

Making fun of the leader behind his back is a bad idea as Mustang is about to find out.

Ed wakes up and finds that he is lying in a large pool of blood littered with rubble and even skeletons.

Stuck in limbo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The plot is starting thicken in FMA:Brotherhood. There was a fair bit of action in this episode, but I wouldn't call it action-heavy since there was a fair bit of humor during the fight between the brother + Ling vs. Gluttony + Envy. The "Ed is short" jokes made a return, and Ed's over-reaction and Envy's nonchalant attitude make for a nice comedic combination. Envy also showed some of true colors in this episode with the human-hating speech and also his heavy footsteps. Too bad his martial arts skills aren't quite a match for Ling's. During the whole sequence with Gluttony, the Elrics and Ling did alright; Riza was quite flashy with her pistol dual-wield in her brief moment of action; and Mustang got owned by everyone and his bad luck doesn't end there.

An notable scene during the sequence was when Riza hands Ed the pistol. I don't remember this part of the manga Ed is against taking lives, so I thought he would refuse. I don't know what he is going to do with that gun now that he is stuck in Gluttony's stomach. Probably light a fire?

Anyways, the episode ends with a double cliff-hanger with Ed, Ling, and Envy in Gluttony's stomach while Mustang is stuck with Wrath and a bunch of unfriendly generals up in Central HQ. Ed and Ling's situation seems pretty bleak, but I feel that Mustang is in more trouble now that all the bad guys have caught on to his little game. Not only does Mustang have to worry about himself, all of his subordinates are also in trouble. I remember I was reading this part of manga and wondering how Mustang and crew are going to get out this jam. Things are looking pretty bad for the good guys.

Sekirei 89

Minato meets Natsuo, while Musubi runs into Benitsubasa.

So 2 + 1 + 2 = 3? I don't remember tagging in for defeated members is allowed.

Summary:
Minato lands near Haihane and Oriha are fighting, and he discovers Natsuo sitting nearby watching the fight. Minato realizes who Natsuo is, but Natsuo states that he is just a regular MBI employee working under the medicine division. While Haihane and Oriha are busy fighting each other, Natsuo tells Minato that rules prohibit Sekirei from killing Ashikabis, but of course there's no guarantee that Ashikiabis won't be accidentally caught in a fight. Natsuo then states that if Ashikabi dies, all of his Sekirei will be shut down.

Meanwhile, Minato's Sekirei have split up looking for Minato. Musubi jumps around and spots a faint figure among the steam. That figure happens to Benitsubasa who has defeated one of Higa's Sekirei, but Benitsubasa discovers that Higa still has two more Sekirei. Benitsubasa realizes something doesn't add up, but her attention is soon turned to the arriving Musubi.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Higa has finally shown his cheating ways, bringing two more Sekirei into the fight than allowed. Higa will probably do anything to win, so I don't think two extra Sekirei is the end of his plans. I wouldn't be surprised if Shiina or Uzume showed up. Higa might try to hold other Ashikabis as hostages too since that's what he is already to Yukari and Uzume's Ashikabi. The Ashikabi death = Sekirei deactivation is interesting, and I wonder if it'll ever happen in the series. This also brings up a question about Miya. Her husband Takehito is dead, but she's still active, so that either means she has not been winged by Takehito or she isn't like the other Sekirei (ex she's #00).

Anyways, Benitsubasa discovers Higa's treachery, but she's probably going to go after Musubi full force, allowing Higa's Sekirei to stab her in the back. Hopefully we'll at least get a good fight between Musubi and Benitsubasa. Even with Higa calling in reinforcements, I can't really see Minato's team losing this fight unless Higa somehow destabilizes MBI's control over the city. There's no way Musubi and Tsukiumi are going to be defeated here. Not so sure about Homura though.

CANAAN 12

Alphard vs. Canaan, showdown on a train.

A little romantic stroll under the full moon.

Summary:
After leaving the Factory, Canaan and company and stay the night at a rundown inn and in the night Maria and Canaan go for a romantic walk. The next day, Minoru discovers that the SUV has died so he tells the girls to take the train.

Canaan's magic eyes allows her to see dead people.

On the train, the girls have a whole car to themselves and are eating sandwiches when the train abruptly stops, and Canaan starts getting flashbacks of that fateful day with Siam and Alphard. The girls look out the window and see that soldiers have stopped the train, and suddenly gun shots ring out from the front cars. Canaan dashes off to the front to investigate, and to her surprise she spots Siam sitting in one of the cars, and soon many other dead characters including Santana, Hakkoo and the Borner bros appear in the car. Siam mentions that it's hard to say who was responsible for their deaths, and Hakkoo starts saying that it's all Canaan's fault. Canaan denies the allegation, and soon Hakkoo and everyone except Siam have been replaced by dead bodies. At this time, the train lurches forward again, but unbeknownst to Canaan all of the other surviving passengers have been taken off the train. Siam tells Canaan to not rely too much on her special eyes as her abilities will sometimes make her see things that aren't real. Canaan states that she can see what's really important, but Siam asks if she saw what was important on that day when he died. Siam then disappears, leaving Canaan in a car full of dead bodies.

Siam to Canaan: You have lost your mojo, or else you wouldn't be talking to me.

Further back in the train, Maria and Yunyun have been joined by Alphard. Alphard tells Maria that her only purpose is to ignite Canaan's true power. Maria understands, and in exchange for serving her role she wants to take a picture of Alphard which Alphard agrees to. Just as Maria pushes the shutter on her camera, Alphard draws her gun and shoots Maria in the waist.

Prepare to pay the price if you want a photo of Alphard-sama.

Bargain-hunters at war. Not a surprise given the coat is 80% off its regular price.

Canaan hear the gunshot and runs back to her car. In the car she sees Siam sitting on one of the benches again, but Canaan remembers Siam's words about seeing what's real and is able to tell that the sitting person is actually Alphard. Alphard states that Maria and Yunyun are trapped in a car in the back and the car is rigged with timed explosives, so if Canaan takes too long then Maria and Yunyun will die. Canaan and Alphard then start fighting in the train car. After a exchange of gunfire, Canaan loses her pistol and ends up fighting with her knife, while Alphard still has her pistol but doesn't shoot Canaan. In order to psych Canaan out, Alphard states if Canaan didn't intervene on that day then Siam wouldn't have died. Canaan starts hallucinating about Maria and ends up getting caught in an armlock.

Alphard's signature submission maneuver: the hair-pull hammerlock.

In the back of the train, Yunyun has discovered that they are trapped in a car with timed explosives. While Yunyun tries to find a way out, Maria comes to the conclusion that she's not good enough for Canaan. As a last resort, Yunyun breaks the window and plans to jump out with Maria, but Maria tells Yunyun to escape by herself and carry out a (silent) request. Yunyun eventually complies to Maria's wishes, and she climbs outside to the front of the car.

I guess one of Yunyun's part-time jobs was being a circus performer.

Stop teasing and kiss her already.

Meanwhile, Canaan breaks out of Alphard's hammerlock but she soon loses her knife and is pinned against the door by Alphard. Canaan tries to use her eyes to see Alphard's killing intent but fails to do so, and Alphard states that her intent is not to kill Canaan; her intent is to kill the despair that is Canaan. Alphard slowly moves her pistol in front of Canaan's face is about to pull the trigger, but suddenly the train shakes as Yunyun separates Maria's car from the rest of the train. Canaan uses the distraction to push away and retrieve her own pistol, and she and Alphard once again end up in a stand off with pistols pointed at each other. There is only 30 seconds left until Maria's car explodes.

30 seconds left until what everyone was looking forward to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I thought we were going to get a flashback to that fateful train ride when Alphard killed Siam, but instead we have what is most likely the final showdown between Canaan and Alphard which is also happening on a train. Alphard has already dealt with Liang Qi and the Factory, so it makes sense that she's moving to her last objective which is to defeat the fully-powered Canaan. Canaan was pretty disappointing yet again just like her last few outings with Alphard, but she was probably handicapped by the train environment. Instead of seeing bullet-time or predicting other people's moves, Canaan's eyes is causing her to hallucinate and daydream in a middle of the most important fight of her life. I guess some people just aren't meant to ride trains.

There was quite a bit of dialogue in this episode about what Siam was looking for and Maria/Canaan's state of mind, but what it really comes down to is Alphard trying to prove to Siam that she's stronger than Canaan. I think that's more or less the central plot of the show, and I feel that all of the other subplots with the Ua virus seem to be irrelevant when I was watching this episode. If it was Alphard's greatest wish to prove Siam wrong, why did she participate in all the intrigue with the Ua virus. In order to make a living? Make herself stronger? I don't really get it. It's like everything in CANAAN is more complicated than it needed to be. I have a feeling that all of the stuff with the Ua Virus and NGO won't come to any definite conclusion, but I'm hoping at least the drama between Canaan, Alphard and Maria will. They should at least give us one coherent flashback of the events that led up to Siam's death.

The episode ends with a cliffhanger with 30 seconds left before Maria is blown to smithereens, and Alphard is still standing. It seems improbable that Canaan will save Maria in time especially now that Yunyun has disconnected the rear cars. Only chance that Maria has that Alphard is using fake bombs like the super-flexible Borner bro, but that's pretty unlikely. I won't be too sad if Maria ends up dead. She's been pretty useless all along, but I suppose that's what you would expect for a maiden-in-distress character. Canaan will always have Yunyun, who was actually quite impressive in this episode climbing out of the locked train car to safety. Looks like having all of those part-time jobs really paid off and Yunyun is stronger than she looks.