This was a pretty big episode. We finally learn the truth behind the clawed-man’s plans. We also get to see Michael’s Sauder in action. It definately lives up to its description of being different. It’s unlike the other yoroi’s we’ve seen up to this point. At one point it looked like Michael may have change his mind about the clawed-man, but he ends up throwing that thought out. It’ll be interesting to see if he will betray the clawed-man towards the end of the series.

This was yet another intense episode. After losing Charles Rei pretty much loses her sanity. We learn why Rei hates Eureka so much. Whether or not it’s a misunderstanding like Holland states has yet to be seen. I guess you can’t really blame Rei for her hatred towards Eureka even if it ends up being just a misunderstanding. Renton’s father’s name was only briefly mentioned, but he seems to have played an important role in the lives of Rei, Charles, and Holland.

This episode was pretty much the first episode where we get to see Tazusa actually make her jumps. Without actual knowledge about skating most of the technical terms they use are Greek to me. Nevertheless it’s still enjoyable because you can easily tell if something is supposed to be impressive or not. As much as I think it’s funny to hear Engrish, Pete should really stop trying to speak English all together. It ruins the high tension atmosphere to suddenly hear Pete’s Engrish. On a lighter note, Tazusa is starting to become curious as to who Pete is.

There’s quite a bit of information to take in this episode. Normally I would like them to give all this information at a slower pace. Considering this is already episode 5 of a 13 episode series, however, I guess they don’t have much of a choice. The biggest surprise was probably the appearance of a masked individual. Then of course we get a possible theory on the identity of Signum, Vita, Shamal, and Zafira. It looks like we’ll get more information on them in the next episode.

Just when things were looking good for George he gets taken away by the military. It looks like Riku will play a bigger part in the series than I had anticipated. He seems to be able to hear the same thing as Saya. How it’ll all play into the series is anyone’s guess at this point. We see that Hagi appears to take orders from Saya. That gives us an idea of what their relationship in the past is like. At the moment things are still pretty confusing because not a whole lot is being explained.

We’re told in the beginning of the episode about Solty’s body. She’s the first and only known person to be 100% mechanical when current progress is only at 60% (Although we meet a 78% person in this episode). Even though it has been confirmed she is an android, there’re still lots of mystery surrounding Solty. We don’t know who made her and for what purpose. There’s a bit more R.U.C activity in this episode. We get to see a bit more indepths at how they work. I’m interested in seeing what kind of relationship Solty will have with R.U.C down the line.

Arika is now officially enrolled in the acamdemy. We got a glimpse of Haruka and Yukino in the previous episode, but this was the first time we get to hear them speak. We learn that Haruka and Shizuru were rivals back in the day. I’m glad they kept the relationships from “Mai-HiME”. Natsuki also mentions her rival without giving us a name. Anyone who has seen “Mai-HiME” would know she’s most likely referring to Tokiha Mai. If you watch the preview for the next episode you can clearly see Mai on one of the posters. That probably means we’ll get to see her in the series sooner or later. It will be fun to see how Natsuki interacts with Mai in comparison to “Mai-HiME”.

I didn’t think this episode had the same level of intensity as the other episodes. I did like the punishment scene though. It would have been a better scene if we got to see the saw actually cut the guy . The impact of these scenes would be greater if they actually put in some blood and gore. Otherwise the punishment doesn’t seem to be such a big deal since we don’t get to see what happens AFTER they get sent to Hell. They could learn a thing or two from “Elfen Lied” and the like.

There wasn’t much development until the end of the episode when we get to see Shana fight another Flamehaze. It was quite entertaining to see Shana become flustered and embarassed considering her personality. From the opening we can already see Shana is going to fall for Yuuji, it’s just a question of when. That should be interesting to say the least. Kazumi must have some important role in the series, but I wonder what it will be.

We get to meet one of Honoka’s friends from middle school in this episode. As it turns out she’s a celebrity. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of her, if at all, in the rest of the series. It was nice to see her point out the problem with the way Yamato is doing things. We also see Suzuka having a bit of trouble not showing any interestin Yamato. Things are going to have to unwind between Honoka and Yamato soon.