With Djibril now out of the way, Dullindal is probably going to begin the Destiny Plan. As much as I don’t want Lunamaria to die, I think it’s quite likely to happen. Shinn needs to suffer even more. Having him die is not enough. As for Kira and the others, they’re about to set off for space as well now that they’re officially part of Orb. Since Cagalli isn’t going with them, she leaves Akatsuki to Neo. We see that she isn’t wearing Athrun’s ring anymore. I can’t be sure of what her reason for that is. There are easily two explanations, but which one I haven’t the slightest idea. I’m just going to have to wait and see.

This week is another Mayama and Yamada episode with a bit of Takemoto thrown in. Morita’s scenes in this episode was pretty limited, but the scenes in which he did appear in were good. You can always count on Morita for a good laugh. Part of me wants to see Mayama end up with Ayu, but another part of me also wants to see him with Rika. I’m not exactly sure what he thinks of Ayu. Hanamoto-sensei’s comment from a past episode may be correct even if Mayama denied it. From the way things were going it looked like Nomiya was going to try and make a move on Ayu. Although nothing happened in that department I still can’t rule out a possibility that he will try something later on.

Overall this wasn’t a very intense episode. They make up for the lack of intensity by having a decent amount of plot development. So after all this time it looks like Saiga may stop running from Suitengu and go on the offensive now that he has help. The way they portrayed the professor made him look evil. It makes you wonder if he has some other motive or if he’s working for Suitengu. Now that Kagura knows about her condition all thanks to the suspicious professor, it’ll be interesting to see how she will react to it.

This week is a somewhat more serious episode than all the previous ones. Of course an Ichigo Mashimaro episode wouldn’t be complete without its fair share of its trademark humour. A large portion of this episode was spent primarily on Matsuri and Ana so unfortunately it wasn’t as funny as past episodes. Luckily we still got a small dose of Miu humour. I found her crying scene in the anime to have a bigger impact than the manga. Although that part is anything but humourous, I think it was still a nice scene. It’s one of the only times where we see Miu actually be serious.

This week is Rein’s turn in the spotlight. I was actually expecting more scenes with Rein than they showed, but it still turned out nicely. For someone who always seems to be happy, her past was kind of a surprise. They added a nice twist to the end of the episode. It seems Rino’s powers are awakening. It’s a reminder that the series is coming to an end in the near future. To be exact, there’re only 5 more episodes to go. I’m going to be sorry to see this series end. Oh, one last note. The baby in this episode was extremely cute. If you didn’t think that as well then you are nothing more than a cold-hearted bastard. Have a nice day.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this episode. It’s not a bad episode, but I don’t have that much to comment on it. Suzuka refuses to compliment Yamato’s effort during track practice. We also get to meet Miki, a fellow track member. Looking at her reminds me of Satsuki from “Ichigo 100%”. As far as their personality goes, luckily they don’t seem all that similar in that regard. My will to root for Suzuka and Yamato is slowly disappearing from seeing Suzuka’s stubborness and Honoka’s determination. Yamato still sounds annoying from time to time, but it didn’t seem as bad in this episode.

I didn’t think this one was as intense as the previous episodes. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good one. On the contrary, I found this to be fun to watch just like all the other episodes. The tension was pretty high in the second half of the episode. It’s a fairly nice build-up episode. It’s just unfortunate we won’t be getting a new episode for the next two weeks. I was expecting Sousuke to disobey an order for once and refuse to remove himself from his former duties to protect Kaname. I look foward to the next episode in three weeks time.

Although there was really no intensity until the end of the episode, it was still entertaining. The humour wasn’t over-the-top and the amount used was pretty balanced. The art seemed less consistent than what we’ve come to expect from this series, but it was still tolerable. The most noticeable part was in the beginning with Tsunade. Next week’s episode should be good. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Shino fight so it’ll be cool to see what new moves he has up his sleeve.

I thought this week’s episode was better than last week’s. This one was more of what I was expecting from the series. The plot may not be deep or anything, but it’s still highly enjoyable. All the features that make this series well worth watching are in this episode. In terms of character development there’s a bit of it this week. Mainly we learn about Yurie’s parents’ past. Yurie gets a new outfit as well. Whether or not it’s something she’ll keep on wearing later on in the series is anyone’s guess. Although I don’t think it’s a bad outfit I think the other one looked better.

This week is an anime exclusive episode. Normally I’m not a big fan of flashback episodes during high tension situations. I found this one to be one of the few exceptions. We’re treated to a decent amount of Hinamori scenes, as well as learning more about Renji and Kira. We also get to see, I’m assuming, how Hisagi got the three vertical lines on his face. Towards the end of the episode I was hoping to see Aizen to reveal a couple of his abilities as a prelude to upcoming events. Unfortunately we only get to see him do one thing. Was this episode necessary for the story to progress smoothly and fill any unforeseen holes? No. Was this episode a nice addition to the background of some of the characters? Most definately.