It looks like Hayate’s time is running dangerously short. Due to unexpected circumstances Shamal discovers that Nanoha and Fate are Suzuka’s friends. They’re slowly getting closer to figuring everything out, but there really wasn’t a lot of progress in this episode. They did find out the history behind the Book of Darkness so now they’re looking for a way to seal it.

Saya has made up her mind to fight the yokushu to retrieve her past. They also find an odd connection between wine sent to the military and a school in Vietnam. So from the looks of it Saya will be infiltrating the school to help them uncover the truth. We also meet a new character who is responsible for creating the Delta 67. They’re slowly piecing the puzzle together, but it’s still too early to tell what exactly is going on yet.

Talk about a streak of bad luck for Roy. Considering his previous outbursts of rage he took the situation with Rose quite well. Although this was a continuation from last week with Rose in Roy’s apartment, it was just a filler episode. With that said, I still found myself enjoying this episode. Solty’s child-like responses are expected, yet they’re pretty funny too. One particular part comes to mind when Solty tells Rose she won’t help her, “do what thieves do” because “Roy will get me”.

Just like the first series, it looks like there is more to Nagi than meets the eye. Just what he has planned is anyone’s guess at this point in the series. We briefly get to see two familiar faces in this episode as well. First, we see a girl wearing a cloak who appears to be Miu. We also see a silhouette of Mikoto (as in Mikoto from “Mai-HiME” and not the cat from this series). Due to a life-threatening situation Arica is now bound to Mashiro. They find a mysterious organ in the depths of the castle. It seems like Natsuki knows what it is. I look forward to getting the answers to all these mysteries.

So after thinking it over, apparently Honoka plans on confessing to Yamato again. It also seems that Miki may try something now. We have a couple of episodes to go so things should get interesting. Of course that means we have that many more opportunities to see Yamato screw things up. I think it’s kind of weird to have Miki try anything at this point in the story. We don’t really know anything about her. Based on how things played out towards the end of the episode it does look like Miki may pursue Yamato.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have a whole lot to say about this episode. It wasn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just the usual “ARIA” episode where not a whole lot happens but maintains its entertainment value. Alice, Arika, and Aika get some training under Akira while two customers tag along. You get to see a bit of how much is involved in being an undine.

Yuuji is now determined to fight alongside Shana. Since he has to train under Shana from scratch, I do wonder if he’s going to get strong at all. We get a glimpse of who Margery is really after. It’s probably going to play a big part in the story later on in the series. After the last episode you can see Shana treat Yuuji pretty differently now. She’s slowly changing and it’s definately making her more likeable.

I thought this episode was quite unexpected. The twist in this week’s episode was great. It adds a nice flavour to the usual routine of the series. Yukino Satsuki was this week’s guest seiyuu. In my opinion she did a good job with her role. It was also nice to see Ai wear something different for once. Although I have to admit it was kind of odd to see her wearing a baseball cap. I can only hope they will keep giving us more unique episodes like this one.

The Bakuya vs Ichigo fight is in full swing. We finally get to see Ichigo’s bankai. Just like the manga, it looks pretty badass. Being that they need to fill up more “space” than manga, we get a bit of filler her and there in this episode. For instance, the proverb corrections between Orihime and the others were not in the manga. The Hitsugaya and Matsumoto scenes different from what I remember from the manga. Although I could be mistaken on this part. I don’t want to spoil the details of what I remember happening for those of you who do not read the manga. Basically I don’t recall Matsumoto staying with Hitsugaya for this long since I remember her “doing something else” at this point. They may just incorporate it in a later episode though.

Things are heading towards the climax of the series. With only two of the “Original Seven” left the last few episodes should be action-packed. I found Joshua to be quite hilarious when he was talking to Pricilla. He seems to have no common sense whatsoever. This is just a guess, but I’m thinking Wendy will be the key to Van beating Michael. There are 6 more episodes to go, so hopefully they’ll keep the tension up until the end.