Whatever you do, don't go towards the light.
Shoddy list of highlights:
- Having been brought to Aldra's collections room, Tomoe demands to know Aldra's reasons for creating the turmoil in Japan. Aldra answers that she is searching for her little sister and she hired the ninjas because Japan is the one area she didn't have control of. Aldra suggests that Tomoe become her servant and help her search for her sister in Japan so she didn't have to cause anymore trouble. Tomoe is almost convinced, but the memory of Shizuka stops Tomoe from accepting the offer. Instead of attacking Aldra, Tomoe declares her support for Reina to win the tournament and Aldra lets Tomoe leave.
- Nanael flies off during the night, leaving Melpha to wonder where she had gone.
No matter who wins the tournament, the real winner will be Yummil.
- The next day, Yummil is still doing brisk business selling replicas of Reina's sword. Meanwhile, Reina promises Rana that she'll win the tournament and save his parents, and the two share a hug. Reina then takes a bath and thinks about Risty. After taking the bath, Reina examines the "lucky" two-heads coin that Risty gave her, and at this moment the ambassador appears to summon Reina to her match.
It took a while, but eventually Reina starts to mount some offense.
- Reina is summoned to her match against Risty. The match takes place in an arena that has a thin layer of water on the ground. Reina tries to get Risty to recognize her but Risty responds by whacking Reina around with her mace.
- Aldra and her shadow is watching the fight from Aldra's throne, and the two remember how they met each other. While traveling in a forest, Aldra ran off to get some water for her sister, but when she returned her sister was gone. Instead, Aldra finds the shadow being who had lost his body in a fight against Cattleya and her husband Owen. The two then joined forces so that the shadow being had a body again while Aldra gains immortality and a lot of magic powers.
Risty wanted to do this for a long long time.
- Back to the match, Risty sends Reina flying with her mace and as Reina tumbles to a stop she drops her lucky coin. Reina retrieves her coin and gets back up to face the charging Risty. As Risty closes in, Reina shows the coin with her left hand to distract Risty, and then she sends Risty flying with sword in her right hand. The blow appears to have snapped Risty out of Aldra's control for a moment, but Aldra's shadow quickly reasserts control over Risty. As Reina had let her guard down, Risty grabs Reina by the throat and tries to choke her to death. Reina tries to remind Risty that she's fighting for the orphans, but Aldra's control is too strong and Reina is about to fade.
All wrapped up nicely for Christmas.
- As Risty is about to choke Reina out, Aldra is suddenly wrapped up by Melona which allows Reina to escape from Risty's clutches. Risty, now struggling to regain control of herself, grabs her mace and charges at Reina, but Reina blows away Risty with a Dragon Tail that tears off all of Risty's clothing. The dark sky of the arena crumbles and gives way to a clear blue sky, and Reina is officially declared the winner of the match. Reina goes to check on Risty and Risty states that she owes Reina another favor before losing consciousness.
Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!
- Back at the church, Melpha gets a divine voice message from Nanael. Nanael explains that she went back to heaven for some business and wants Melpha to do something for her.
- Back in the throne room, Melona is about to spill the holy milk onto Aldra, but Aldra drives Melona off with shadow spikes and causes Melona to drop the glass of holy milk. Aldra then summons a bunch of bat-like minions to eat away Melona's body. After Melona has been damaged enough, Aldra prepares to deliver the finishing blow but suddenly the holy milk is spilled onto her head. It turns out that Melona had secretly split into two, and the small Melona had retrieved the holy milk and climbed on to the ceiling. Unfortunately for Melona, there wasn't enough holy milk left to kill Aldra's shadow, and the shape-shifting assassin is forced to retreat.
It's definitely not your day when you get pooped on by a bird while sitting indoors.
- After the match, both Reina and Risty have been brought back to Yummil's shop and Risty is resting in bed. As the whole city awaits the final match between Reina and Aldra, Reina visits Claudette who offers her younger sister encouragement and a hug. Reina is then summoned to her match against Aldra.
- The ED now features Airi singing her version of the ending song.
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Another not-so-impressive win for Reina as the series heads toward to final episode. Compared to last episode's fight with Tomoe, Reina's performance did improve a bit. I especially like the bit where Reina distracted Risty with the coin and then used the opportunity to hit Risty with a Dragon Tail. It's not the most honorable way to fight, but it was a pretty effective strategy. I guess Reina did learn a thing or two during all of her fights and is not as simple as I made her out to be. Reina's victory still turned out to be mostly luck though as Melona attacked Aldra just at the right moment. Animation-wise, this week's match wasn't as good as Tomoe vs. Reina or Claudette vs. Risty since neither Risty or Reina have any discernible magic abilities, so there not much in terms of special effects. The water splashes during the fight were also way too high given the shallow depth of the water. Overall it was a decent fight, but not the best the of the series.
The more interesting part of the episode was about Aldra and her shadow. As hinted all along, Aldra became Queen so she can look for her little sister. There was also some interesting info on the shadow being and it explains why Aldra has frozen both Cattleya and Owen. And of course there was the battle between Melona and Aldra, which was actually pretty good for such a short battle. Both Aldra and Melona showed some nice abilities, and Melona was able spill the holy milk on to Aldra. While the milk wasn't about to kill the shadow being, I'm betting that it did some damage... probably just enough so that Reina can somehow pull off the victory in the final match.
The next week is the big finale with Reina vs. Aldra. Nanael seems to have some sort of plan (probably to help Reina), but the preview didn't give anything away. Hopefully this last showdown will turn out to be the best fight of the series.
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