This week’s episode consists of two unrelated vignettes. I think this is the first time where we didn’t get to see any of the other main characters besides Akari and Alicia for an entire episode. The first story includes the series’ unique way of incorporating the supernatural so seamlessly. Then the second story shows us a light hiking trip. If any other series had tried to use these stories I think they would have failed miserably. I don’t think there are any other series with uneventful plots that can be so relaxing to watch, yet feel so entertaining at the same time. It would have been nice to see Akari and Alicia wear something different to add a bit more flavour considering they weren’t working.

Although this was a funny episode, I don’t think it was as good as last week’s episode. The two biggeest flaws were the lack of Eri and Itoko scenes. It’s not everyday you get to see Itoko dressed up like that. I had high expectations for the cultural festival. It had a lot of potential to be really funny, but they didn’t make use of every opportunity. One scene that comes to mind is Hanai’s attempt to attract more customers. They could have really added in a lot more humour if they had expanded on it. Regardless, it was still well worth my time to watch this episode. I may not get the funniest episodes all the time with other great comedy series this season, but I can always count on this series to be entertaining.

For the first half of the episode I was just like Vince, confused about what was happening. In the second half, things started to come together and the episode really picked up from there. If we are to believe what was said, then there is a lot more to learn about Vince than I had previously anticipated. This was the first time we get to see Vince changing into Ergo Proxy. He is finally able to maintain Vince’s consciousness as well as recall flashbulb memories of the other Proxy in Romudo. I think there’s a possibility that Pino will play an important role in Vince coming to terms with the truth about his identity based on what was said in the last scene of the episode. “Ergo Proxy” is taking a break next week so it will be another two weeks until the next review for the series.

Elaine didn’t make it afterall. It’s unfortunate that Saya’s blood couldn’t save her. She would have been a welcome addition to the ongoing story. Now that the Sifu know Saya’s blood can’t save them, there’s no reason for them to go after Saya anymore. Even though they aren’t going to work together for the time being, they will probably end up helping Saya and the others at some point. Julia may begin to suspect something is up after hearing Collins mention “Van”. It will be interesting to see how that situation will turn out. In one month Amshel will execute his plans against the “Red Shield”. I can’t tell if that’s soon or quite far down the line. They could rush the time line or they could prolong it. Either way I look forward to it.

This episode answers a lot of the questions regarding Assassin and Caster we’ve had before. We learn who Caster’s master is and also how a servant can be the master of another servant. I was surprised that Kuzuki was so powerful. With those kind of skills it looked like he could even stand up to Berserker. Illya reveals that Caster’s real identity is Medea. Some of you may know her from Greek mythology. It’s good to see that Sakura is back in the story. I was expecting Caster to do something with Sakura based on the end of the previous episode, but I didn’t think it would end up like this at all. The last few episodes have all been good. Hopefully they can keep up with this trend.

As good as the premise appeared to be, the episode itself was only average relative to the previous three episodes. I felt that they had a lot to work with, but they didn’t take advantage of it. I must admit though, seeing Belldandy drunk was entertaining. Why she would get drunk from drinking a soft drink is beyond me though. Maara also makes her return in this episode. After seeing her show up I thought she would play a more prominent role in the episode. At this point I don’t expect to see any sort of continuous plot that spans over a few episodes. Hopefully towards the end of this season we will get an actual ongoing story like the previous season.

The crew failed a mission for the first time in this episode. Although not everything is clear yet, we do get a bit more information that allow us to better understand the state of things. The further into the actual game Kyo goes, the more of the story we’re exposed to. Kyo is told at the end of the episode that this isn’t a game, but reality. Now that he knows the truth it will be interesting to see how things will change for him. I do hope he’ll be told the rest of the backstory now instead of us waiting for him to progress in the game since he now knows he isn’t playing a game afterall. Maybe we’ll learn the truth behind his real identity in the near future as well.

Ikki’s first Parts War match is against Buccha. With the way things were going I thought they would get around to finishing the match in this episode. We got to see most of it already though. Some parts weren’t all that great. One particular scene was when Buccha called out his spinning move and they had the text to go along with it. However, there were good scenes in this episode too. Apparantly Ikki pulled off some moves that are supposed to be impossible for F-class people. It should be entertaining to see Ikki slowly move up to higher classes. We’ll get to see him meet Spitfire, an A-class member, in the next episode. That should be an interesting encounter.

Continuing from right where we left off last week, we see more people who have bracelets on that resemble the Witchblade. Many of you can probably guess what the deal is with these other bracelets. If we’re to draw upon other anime series we can make an educated guess that these other bracelets are recently-made Witchblades based on the research done on the original Witchblade. It seems like a plausible possibility to me, but of course I could be totally wrong. What I am sure of though, is that the story has definately taken an interesting turn. With the way things have played out thus far, these new individuals with the bracelets can either be allies or enemies. For now I’d probably lean more towards enemy, but with a chance of them becoming allies down the line.

With Haseo officially a part of the “Twilight Brigade” I would have assumed the story would pick up the pace. The story does move forward, but not by a lot. Currently it seems like the “Key of the Twilight” is an item created by the game itself rather than by an actual person. For the time being that doesn’t sound like it’s that big of a deal. There’s a possibility that the fact that this item was created by the game may become important later in the series. People familiar with MMORPG’s may get a kick out of seeing Shino power level Haseo. It was a fairly short scene, but it’s interesting to see them incorporate minor activities that exist in current MMORPG’s. At the end of the episode we see Shino enter the scene out of breath to report that Tabby has been PK’ed. If this was the first instance of PK we’ve seen in the series then it may have had a bigger impact. Since we have already seen Haseo get PK’ed and come out just fine without any visible setbacks, it doesn’t seem Tabby’s incident is such a big deal.