I need to stop guessing what the future episodes are going to be about based on the previews. I assumed this episode was going to be focused on Mina. Up to a certain point I guess I wasn’t too far off since the latter part of the episode did revolve around her. From the beginning I thought they were going to get right into Mina’s story, but then all of a sudden they went off on a tangent for more than half of the episode. Mina turned out to be quite a different character than I had anticipated. I definately think Mina is more likeable now that we have a better understanding of her. As we learn more about the characters they’re all becoming more interesting. They practically left Tsukasa out of this episode though, which I found to be a bit unfortunate. Personally I think the series would be a lot better if they focused less on the comedy and start getting into the drama.

Although this episode was unique just like the previous two episodes, I didn’t find it as entertaining. That’s not to say this was a bad episode. It had its merits as well. The main character of this episode, Tae, was one interesting character. Simply put, the way she expressed her love for Kei-chan was one of a kind. At first I thought Tae was just kind of creepy. As the episode progressed though, I could see why she thinks and behaves the way she does. When I watched the preview for this episode, I assumed we would make some sort of progress with the underlying plot of this season. Unfortunately there really was no development on that front in this episode. I guess as long as the one-shot episodes are entertaining the lack of progression isn’t a big issue at this point in the season.

Last week I mentioned I wasn’t so sure about people’s allegiances anymore. I dug up the old NewType magazine to see if it contained more information. It provided the clarification I wanted so now I won’t need to keep wondering about it any longer. This episode was not action-packed like the previous episode, but it was just as enjoyable. We get introduced to a few new characters in this episode. Currently the other characters don’t appear to be major players in the series. We also learn more about a few of the other characters as well; mainly Lelouch and Kallen. The episode revealed to us another limitation of Lelouch’s power. I didn’t expect it would have this kind of restraint. This means Lelouch will have to be even more clever and careful about when he uses his power.

After last week’s fairly disappointing episode, the fate of the series rested on this episode. For the time being it gets a passing grade. If the next episode turns out to be another disappointment then I’ll really have to drop it since it would just be a waste of my time to review it. There’s a fair amount of background information in this episode to make it worthwhile to watch. It’s the first time we get to see Mamoru’s family members. It doesn’t seem like they will play much of a role in the series though. Although I could be wrong about Mamoru’s sister. It would be a waste of talent to not use Shimizu Ai more in the series. We get some insight into Ayako’s family circumstances as well. Whether or not it will play some important part in the story later on remains to be seen. Something that has me wondering is how much of Mamoru’s dream at the beginning of the episode was true. It could be the first hint of some big plot twist to come.

The clock’s ticking and Tokiko is running out of time. Tokiko and Kazuki begin their search for Papillon Mask within the school. I’m not sure why Kazuki has so much trouble figuring out Papillon Mask’s identity. Someone with such distinct features like Papillon Mask should be well-known throughout the school. In any normal school he would probably be identified as “the creepy third year”. This episode provides us with a bit more information about busou renkin. In the midst of a fight we get to see Kazuki learn how to use another ability for his lance. I can’t say it’s one of the cooler-looking abilities I’ve seen in anime, but at least Kazuki’s making some progress. We haven’t found out what Papillon Mask’s motives are, but it will probably be revealed in the next episode.

This episode concludes the first file. We get an explanation for all the occurrences since the first episode. It was a mixture of both expected and unexpected answers. In a way it felt a little anticlimactic after all the build up from the previous episode. Nevertheless, I was still thoroughly entertained. I’m glad this won’t be the last time we’ll get to see people such as Ayako. They need to be given a chance to redeem themselves. After watching three episodes, we still don’t know all that much about the main characters. We have a general idea of what their personalities are like, but these three episodes have been almost void of any background information. The next file appears to be at least 3 episodes long. I like seeing stories spread across multiple episodes. The only bad thing is I have to wait at least a week before I get to see the rest of the story.

It has been a while since I’ve read the manga so I’m starting to notice I have forgotten some things. This is one of the few times I’m glad I don’t remember everything since I’ll be able to enjoy the series a bit more. L has progressed quite a bit in figuring out Kira’s identity since the last episode. Light has so much confidence in himself that he hasn’t shown the slightest sign of hesitance. The more background information we get, the more we can come to appreciate just how impressive both L and Light are. The story is moving along quickly, but not too quickly that we get left behind wondering what’s happening. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the twists to come in this epic cat and mouse game.

It’s too bad Komui doesn’t have a bigger role in the series. His overprotectiveness provides lots of laughs to lighten the mood. Building on top of the information provided in the previous episode, we learn how the organization finds Innocence all over the world. As informative as it was, it’s really only to let us make sense of this episode’s situation. Putting Kanda together with Allen provides us a good opportunity to get a better understanding of Kanda as a character. This is the first time we get to see a level 2 Akuma. The timing was good too because it was getting tiresome seeing nothing but drones for villains. I thought this was a pretty good action-packed episode. If I recall the events in the manga correctly, the next episode should be much better.

Something that surprised me was the drop in consistency of the art in this episode. Although there were only a few scenes that were affected, it was still pretty noticeable. If this becomes more and more common throughout the series then there’s no doubt it will lower the overall enjoyment of the series. As expected, Tsukasa played a much bigger role than in the previous episode. We get a better idea of what her personality is like, but we’re still far from really understanding her. The main question at hand is what Riku is going to do about this “forced” relationship between him and Tsukasa. He hasn’t shown any real interest in her relative to someone like Sayuri, yet he doesn’t appear to be trying hard enough to get Tsukasa to listen. I’m beginning to see some resemblance between him and Manaka from “Ichigo 100%”; both of whom are extremely indecisive. With the focus switching to Mina in the next episode, it may be a while longer before Riku does anything about his situation.

It looks like we’ll actually learn about the past of the other characters to a certain extent in this season. We got a brief glimpse of an unnamed woman whom we can only assume is somehow connected to Ichimoku Ren’s past. Ai is showing us different sides of her we haven’t seen previously. They seem to be trying to provide the character development that was pretty much missing from the first season. I think it’s just a matter of time before we get see an ongoing story once again. It’s almost certain that the mysterious little girl in the kimono will play a big part in it. Currently we still don’t know anything about her. The one shot stories for the first two episodes have been unique, so I actually wouldn’t mind them continuing the series in the same format for now.