Author: psgels

Arusu the Adventure – 03

by psgels, posted in Arusu The Adventure, Mahou Shoujotai


Ah, now I understand. Just like Mahou Shoujotai, the episodes of Arusu the Adventure are directed by different people. Now everything makes sense: the major difference between Mahou Shoujotai and Arusu the Adventure is that there seems to be hardly any communication or cooperation between them. The bad point for this is that there’s now way to get a good continuous storyline out of it. The good point is that now, every director can go for something that he or she finds important. Episode 1 went for humour, while forsaking any storyline. Episode 2 went for flashy graphics and symbolism with rushed storytelling, and for the third episode, the storytelling and direction rocks, but the art style is all over the place.

It’s interesting: when you paste all these good points together, you get what I loved so much about Mahou Shoujotai, and I suspect that the final three episodes will only confirm this. It’s quite interesting how each episode had felt so incredibly different, and yet similar somehow, because of this. While the previous episode felt rushed, this episode knew exactly how to use its time. The two highly ranked witches run into a new kind of sprite that just hatched, though they can’t yet deliver it to the sprites-tower because it’s too young and it couldn’t be used for magical ingredients yet.

The sprite is a very delicate one, and needs careful attention if it needs to grow up, so the two witches decide to take care of it until it’s fully grown. This proved to be a more difficult task than they imagined, as they can’t get it to eat. They then heard of some rumours that Sheila once took care of the same sprite, and with that they get enough pointers to take care of it well. In the process, they get really attached to it.

As it turns out, when Sheila took care of her version of the sprite, it turned into a huge disaster. It turns out that she did transfer it to the sprites’ tower, and after that it became incredibly angry at her when they took away its horn, and went on a rampage. Because of this, Sheila’s superiors ordered her to take the sprite away as soon as it developed its horn.

Overall, this was a lovely episode, and you can really see that the director of this one really liked to experiment with his shots. There were some really creative shots there, and they’d even make the art direction in Hakaba Kitarou and Mononoke look uninspired. Seriously, I’d wish that more other series would adopt such a daring style of direction that’s all over the place. It’s another reason why I fell in love with the original series. Still, I think that the director took a few too many liberties with his messy art-style, as Arusu, Sheila and Eva look a tad too disproportionate at times. I now understand that it takes a while to see the real charm of this OVA, and after the disappointment of the previous episode, I’m hungry for more!

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 76

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari


Now this is what I’ve been hoping for! This episode was terrific in terms of storyline. So many things happened at once, and finally the building-up of the previous half year is paying ff. But still, it’s so sad to see that the budget-problems become more and more apparent. Such a major episode should be paired with terrific animation, like what we saw around the climax of the first half of the second season. Instead, the creators treated us to lots of distance-shots, thick lines and still frames. I really don’t like the trend that MadHouse has been setting to screw up their adaptations as they draw near their end! I mean, they’ve got excellent staff, but I’m getting more and more the feeling that it’s their producers who are incredibly lazy.

Well, putting that aside, another reason why I loved this episode was because it again was quite easy to understand. The ship with Ensei, Suou, Shurei and Ryuuren crashes off a waterfall. As everyone becomes conscious again, Ryuuren goes off to find some springs for water, after which Shun comes to pick up Shuurei, by the orders of his master. His orders were to take just Shuurei away, so Ensei and Suou stay behind and collect supplies for the way back.

As Shuurei and Shun walk up the mountain to the castle, Shuurei asks whether he’s heard about Shiba Jin, though Shun says that she had the wrong person. The two then enter the castle, and Shun brings Shurei to the prison cell where Ryuuki lies. Shuurei is really glad to see that he’s fine, though before she has the time to call out to him, Shusui appears, using the same spell that failed, twenty episodes ago. Shuurei then falls unconscious and gets taken away.

We then switch to Ryuuki, who’s finally woken up. Right next to him stands a Shusui, who claims that she’s possessed by a member of the Hyou-clan, which is why she’s acting so weird. I guess she was an easy target for them, because she already lost herself before. In any case, Shusui begins to taunt Ryuuki at how he’s incompetent at his job, and how he should just give up. After this, Ryuki begins to develop even more. That night on the mountains has really convinced him what an idiot he’s been, and he’s determined to now become a real king.

Then, Ran appears. It indeed seems that he’s been following Ryuuki all along, and after hearingt his confession, he decides to step in and save Ryuuki from Shushui. After this, the Hyou-member orders Shun to take care of Ryuuki, leaving the body afterwards. Shusui then turns into her fighter-mode again and starts chasing after Shuuei. Juusanhime also arrives to stop her, after which quite a funny conversation follows, where Shuuei ends up using a dirty trick to remind Shusui of Shouka. After a few slaps from Shuuei, Shusui returns to normal.

Juusanhime then stays to fight Shun, while Shuuei, Ryuuki and Shusui escape. When they are out of the castle, Shusui goes back in to save Shuurei. Shuuei then brings Ryuuki back to Suou, and goes back along with Ryuren to save Shuurei. Ensei went ahead of them, as he seemed to have the same idea. As Ryuuki wakes up, he wants to go back to save Shuurei, though Suou stops him. After all, he’s the king and everyone just went through the trouble of saving him. After hearing this, he finally understands a new part of his responsibilities.

Meanwhile, back in the castle Shuurei is still unconscious. The member of the Ryou-clan seems to be called Ruka, and it was basically her plan to use Ryuuki to lure the Bara-hime in Shuurei towards her. It’s here where Shouka in scary-mode appears again, and breaks some kind of mirror that’s important for Ruka. Strangely enough, Ruka doesn’t seem to be shocked by this, so at least something must have gone according to her plan. In another part of the Castle, Juusanhime now gets the chance to finally say goodbye to Shiba Jin, as it really seems that he works for the enemy and he’s out to kill Ryuuki. That scene seriously rocked.

There’s one thing I don’t understand, though: what’s the real relationship between Shun and Shusui? Where did they meet each other? Is Shun the reason Shusui gets possessed? Which Shusui went along with Shun to the castle? Did she come on her own accord, or was she already possessed by Ruka back then?

In any case, let’s hope that the final two episodes end the second season with a bang, so that the creators can return in a year or two to finish this story. With such a fan-base, there’s a good chance that it’ll happen some day. But then again, Claymore was even more popular, needed a second season even more badly and there are still no signs of any continuation… which leaves me kind-of worried.

Arusu the Adventure – 02

by psgels, posted in Arusu The Adventure, Mahou Shoujotai


This episode was a more serious story. Unfortunately, it wasn’t some kind of continuous story, and got solved at the end of it. It also felt a bit too rushed. It seems that the creators wanted the same addictive pacing as in the TV-series, but this time, they failed a bit at that. Even the original series had building up, but it was one of the rare series that could push its story forward and build up at the same time, and I missed that a bit here.

Still, even though the storytelling left things to be desired, the story itself was very good nonetheless. It features a witch who had been sealed in the past, because she gained too much power and went berserk, a bunch of decades ago. Ever since, she split off herself into two personalities, a good and a bad one. The bad one wants to be unsealed, and wants Alice to do this for her. She picked Alice because she was just about the only one, along with the children, who didn’t know about this witch.

In the end, Alice does what she’s good at: believing in her own ideals, naive as they may be and unseals the witch, because in the end, both the good and the bad personalities were nice to her. It’s an interesting idea: the “bad” one just wanted to be noticed, while the “good” one tried a bit too hard to prevent the “bad” one from reaching her goal. In the end, they both acted, based on their own morals and values. Oh, and nothing goes wrong in the end, because while she was sealed, the witch had learned to control her great power. While this may be a nice idea it did come from nowhere, actually.

Well, it seems clear now that Arusu the Adventure will never become anything special, but I’m happy enough to see the characters, getting fleshed out some more. It’s clear that all of the major trump cards were played in the series already, but at least this episode reminded me again why I fell in love with the original characters. Every single one of them was forced to seriously look and reflect at his or her own morals and values as the series went on, and there isn’t just one kind of right. This episode featured the same, though the storytelling just wasn’t up to the sky-high standards of the original Mahou Shoujotai.

Ghost Hound – 16

by psgels, posted in Ghost Hound


God, that was intense. I really love how this series has progressed so far, and this is another major episode. Makoto and Tarou finally meet Makoto’s mother, after her new husband introduces them to her. Makoto really was planning to stab her, though it seems that he didn’t realize what kind of mental efforts it would cost to pull off such a stunt, so he runs away. After that, Tarou spends the night at Makoto’s mother’s house, while Makoto himself still didn’t return.

I like how this episode turned Makoto’s mother and her new husband into real characters, and we finally get to know them a bit. Makoto’s mother seems really nice at first sight, and she seems to feel genuinely sorry for abandoning her son right after her original husband committed suicide, but later that night, Tarou sees a whole different side of her, and she seems to be suffering from huge mental problems. Something tells me that they too need to pay the councillor a visit.

Meanwhile, things get just as interesting with Michio and Masayuki. It seems that their attempts to find out the password of Masayuki’s father’s computer failed, and while Michio attempts a few more things, Masayuki falls asleep, and finds out that he too has left the monkey-stage in his out-of-body experiences. He’s also ended up at the research laboratory where his father and the female scientist work.

The next part was a tad hard to understand, but it seems like the female scientist has manipulated Makoto’s father so that he’ll do whatever she wants. He seemed like a little lap dog at times. For some reason, there also seem to be ghosts floating around certain areas of the research centre, ad they start to attack Masayuki at one point, showing him strange signs I didn’t understand. In the end, none other than Michio saves him. I still don’t quite understand what triggered Michio to have out-of-body experiences as well, though if I had to guess then hanging out with Masayuki was probably the reason.

Hakaba Kitarou – 07

by psgels, posted in Hakaba Kitarou


I must say, this series is a master of surprises and twists. It really feels refreshing from the usual anime. If you’re looking for something different then Hakaba Kitarou is definitely recommended, because there are very few series that combine mystery and horror with comedy. 😛

I originally believed that this entire episode would be devoted to getting rid of the water-spirit. Well, turns out it didn’t. The only thing that was really needed for the story of this episode is that Nezumi Otoko captured Kitarou’s father and put him in a jar. The water-spirit story gets wrapped up nicely after only five minutes, it first swallows up Kiterou’s clone, after which a newly introduced character drenches it in gasoline and ignites it.

I think this also means that two recurring characters have now been killed off for good, because we don’t see any signs of bad Kitarou and Mizuki returning. In fact, Kitarou doesn’t even seem to remember that the one who took care of him for years is gone now. All he seems to care about is his father, apparently.

In any case, this newly introduced character turns out to live two doors next to Nezumi Otoko. In between, there lives a “beautiful”(*ahem*) woman who both of them fall in love with. Ever since last episode Nezumi Otoko has been blackmailing Kitarou with his father. Because of this, he ends up delivering a love-letter for both Nezumi Otoko and this character (who turns out to be a werewolf, by the way). Then it turns out that the woman is going to be moving out, and Kitarou throws away the love-letters while Nezumi Otoko and the werewolf know nothing about this.

When they find out, they decide to take revenge for this by putting Kitarou in a coffin and dumping this coffin into sea. At least, that was their plan. Instead, Kitarou’s father escapes and enters Nezumi Otoko’s body to confuse him, while Kitarou escapes. The empty coffin then gets dumped into the sea, and then it’s time for Kitarou to play a prank on them. He uses his connection from the underworld to deliver the coffin back to Nezumi Otoko and the werewolf. When they decide to take a trip to the underworld, to check out what went wrong, they instead are taken into a hallucination into an old train that went out of service decades ago.

This part actually drew an interesting parallel to Mononoke, or the Bake Neko arc, to be exact. There we see the mayor jump out of the train and get devoured by the Mononoke. So when the werewolf jumped out of the train as well, I thought he was gone as well, especially when a loud bump followed. Instead, he just landed on a very unfortunate rock outside and got knocked unconscious.

I really must say that the dialogue for Hakaba Kitarou feels refreshing. The bad guys all have a personality and don’t feel stereotyped, and in the meantime the good guys can be considered the bad guys as well, depending on how you look at it. This is one of the reason why I like experimental anime so much. It just feels delightfully different from usual. One of the others is Mahou Shoujotai, of course. 😛

Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 19

by psgels, posted in Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji


Call me gullible, but I’m not really pleased to find out that my praises for the E-Card arc of a few episodes ago, where I finally hoped to see some complex mind-games between two masterminds, turned out to be one big mistake. How I hoped to see both Tonegawa and Kaiji outsmart each other with complex tactics… well, it now turns out that Tonegawa has been cheating. Sigh. The episode was quite intense, and it wasn’t bad at all, actually, but it’s the whole attitude of this series that bothers me.

I finally think that I know where my problems for this series lie: with those cursed expectations again. A couple of years ago, I watched the first arc of Akagi. I’m still not sure why I didn’t continue it, but I loved the complex tactics that it brought into Mah-jong. Shion no Ou is currently doing a similar thing with complex and character-based tactics. So yes, I was hoping for the same kind of experience, where Kaiji would use his head while gambling, and come up with nice ideas to win money. It was even advertised, how Kaiji would “enter the dangerous world of gambling”.

Instead, we get 26 episodes of bunch of yakuza who like to bully a bunch of defenceless young adults. It’s nice and all, but it’s so different and less interesting (in my opinion, at least) from what I expected from this series. I also see no reason why this couldn’t be cut into just thirteen episodes. That would have been the perfect length for a concept such as this one. Each arc thus far has featured Kaiji enter a challenge full of confidence, dive into the deepest pit of despair imaginable, only to rise up again and survive with one masterful insight. In that way, the Boat-arc has so far been the best arc so far, because at least that one did have a bit more than just the formula I described.

Now I also understand why I’m so bothered with the slow pacing of this series, even though I usually don’t have this problem at all. The arcs are just so formulaic that I find myself thinking “just get on with it”. I mean, the creators really try to keep the episodes interesting, but the fact that Kaiji will rise from his despair and will at least do something that wasn’t part of Tonegawa’s plans are just way too apparent. It doesn’t even matter whether Kaiji wins or loses, because by the nature of this series I’m already expecting that Kaiji will walk away without any money, yet again, and that the creators will find another way to keep Kaiji on their leash so that he can enter the fourth and final arc of this series.

So, how is it that Shion no Ou is currently my absolute favourite series, even though it too is in the middle of a tournament-arc with a similar premise as that of Kaiji? Well, Shion no Ou makes sure that there’s enough going on for me not to care. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like every character there has his or her own goals and morals. In Kaiji, it just feels like they exist to carry Kaiji through the storyline.

Arusu the Adventure – 01

by psgels, posted in Arusu The Adventure, Mahou Shoujotai


Finally! After more than TWO YEARS of waiting, with numerous delays, Arusu the Adventure is finally here. I originally intended to wait for the subs, but I’ve gotten so impatient that I couldn’t wait to check it out. In the end, this OVA consists out of six episodes, all about 20 minutes long. I’ve got all of them on my PC, and I’ll be blogging them whenever I have the time. After watching the first episode, my initial verdict of Arusu the Adventure is simple: it’s awesome, but totally not what I expected from it.

It turns out that there isn’t going to be an overall storyline, and instead this OVA will feature random adventures of Alice, Shiela and Eva. Ah well, the story of the original Mahou Shoujotai may have been one of the best I’ve seen, but that wasn’t the only thing that originally made me fall in love with this series. The art-style was amazing, the character-designs were excellent, the setting was really imaginative. In short, it was outstanding in every single way.

I’m not going to say what happens in this episode. It’s really one of these things that you just need to see for yourself, otherwise it’ll ruin everything. Seriously, I really hope that this gets subbed fast, because I laughed really hard at times. I admit that I didn’t like waiting so long for this OVA to come, but it was SO WORTH THE WAIT. It’s the perfect chance to showcase a few of the ideas that the creators couldn’t use for the original series.

Review Index: OVA Impressions

by psgels, posted in OVA Reviews

Since the summer of 2010, I’ve had a different method of reviewing OVAs. I found that simply reviewing them did not fit together with Movies and TV-series, and the standards were just too different, especially with those OVAs that just released one incomplete episode of which it wasn’t even certain whether or not it would get any more episodes. That’s why I decided to simply review every OVA episode individually with a different rating system than what I usually use.

Alphabetical
.Hack//Quantum – 01 – 8,25/10
.Hack//Quantum – 02 – 8,25/10
Angel Densetsu – 7,25/10
Appleseed XIII – 03 – 8/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 03 – 8,75/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 04 – 8,5/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 05 – 8,75/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 06 – 8,5/10
Bannou Yasai Ninninman – 7,5/10
Black Jack Final – 01 – 9/10
Black Jack Final – 02 – 8,75/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 02 – 8,25/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 03 – 8,5/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 04 – 8,5/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 05 – 8.5/10
Black Rock Shooter – 7,5/10
Buta – 7,5/10
The Epic of Zektbach – 6/10
Goulart Knights – 3,5/10
Gyo
Hen Zemi – 01 – 8/10
Hen Zemi – 02 – 8/10
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira – 01 – 5/10
Hiyokoi – 01 – 6,5/10
Houkago no Pleiades – 7,25/10
Kara no Kyoukai Epilogue – 8,5/10
Kizuna Ichigeki – 7,5/10
Koi Sento – 8/10
Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu – 02 – 7,75/10
Licca-chan – Fushigi na Fushigi na Yunia Monogatari – 8/10
Mars of Destruction – 4/10
Mazinkaiser SKL – 02 – 6/10
Megane na Kanojo – 6,5/10
Mirai Nikki – 7,75/10
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – 02 – 7,75/10
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – 04 – 7.75/10
Nichijou – 7,5/10
Norageki – 8,25/10
Ojii-San no Lamp – 8/10
Roujin Z – 8,25/10
Seikai no Danshou – 8,25
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi – 7,5/10
Tales of Symphonia – 07 – 8,75/10
Tales of Symphonia – 08 – 8,5/10
Tales of Symphonia – 09 – 8.25/10
Tamayura – 01 – 6,75/10
Tamayura – 02 – 8/10
Tamayura – 03 – 7,75/10
Tamayura – 04 – 8/10
Tansuwarashi – 8/10
Toriko – 6/10
Trava – Fist Planet – 7,75/10
Votoms Finder – 7,25/10
Wasuregumono – 8,25/10
xxxHolic Rou – Adayume – 8,75/10
Yondemasuyo! Azazel-san – 8,25/10
Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 01 – 8,75/10
Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 02 – 8,75/10
Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 03 – 9/10

Rating
Black Jack Final – 01 – 9/10
Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 03 – 9/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 03 – 8,75/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 05 – 8,75/10
Black Jack Final – 02 – 8,75/10
Tales of Symphonia – 07 – 8,75/10
xxxHolic Rou – Adayume – 8,75/10
Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 01 – 8,75/10
Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – 8,75/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 04 – 8,5/10
Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc – 06 – 8,5/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 03 – 8,5/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 04 – 8,5/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 05 – 8.5/10
Kara no Kyoukai Epilogue – 8,5/10
Tales of Symphonia – 08 – 8,5/10
.Hack//Quantum – 01 – 8,25/10
.Hack//Quantum – 02 – 8,25/10
Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 02 – 8,25/10
Norageki – 8,25/10
Roujin Z – 8,25/10
Seikai no Danshou – 8,25
Tales of Symphonia – 09 – 8.25/10
Wasuregumono – 8,25/10
Yondemasuyo! Azazel-san – 8,25/10
Appleseed XIII – 03 – 8/10
Hen Zemi – 01 – 8/10
Hen Zemi – 02 – 8/10
Koi Sento – 8/10
Licca-chan – Fushigi na Fushigi na Yunia Monogatari – 8/10
Ojii-San no Lamp – 8/10
Tamayura – 02 – 8/10
Tamayura – 04 – 8/10
Tansuwarashi – 8/10
Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu – 02 – 7,75/10
Mirai Nikki – 7,75/10
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – 02 – 7,75/10
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – 04 – 7.75/10
Tamayura – 03 – 7,75/10
Trava – Fist Planet – 7,75/10
Bannou Yasai Ninninman – 7,5/10
Black Rock Shooter – 7,5/10
Buta – 7,5/10
Kizuna Ichigeki – 7,5/10
Kung Fu Cooking Girls – 7,5/10
Nichijou – 7,5/10
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi – 7,5/10
Angel Densetsu – 7,25/10
Houkago no Pleiades – 7,25/10
Votoms Finder – 7,25/10
Tamayura – 01 – 6,75/10
Hiyokoi – 01 – 6,5/10
Megane na Kanojo – 6,5/10
The Epic of Zektbach – 6/10
Mazinkaiser SKL – 02 – 6/10
Toriko – 6/10
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira – 01 – 5/10
Mars of Destruction – 4/10
Goulart Knights – 3,5/10

For an indication of what the ratings mean:
9+: Fantastic, really well executed, and a roller coaster ride to watch.
8-9: Not good enough to really be a masterpiece, but still really enjoayble and wholeheartedly recommended.
7-8: A p retty decent way to spend a bit of time. Nothing special and often quite flawed (especially the lower score ones), but still quite enjoyable, and it kept me busy.
6-7: Usual some gimmicky OVAs that simply fail to tell a good story, though do one or two things right.
5-6: Poorly executed and a chore to watch.
5-: this is the point where the creators just didn’t care.

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 21

by psgels, posted in Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber


An intermezzo. Wellber no Monogatari spends this one with the much-needed background story of Voljurac. It’s probably the least interesting episode of the second season so far, but then again, the second season was just that good, and a bit of background for a side-character can only work in the series’ advantage for the final episodes. He now feels more than just a random tank.

Basically, Voljurac breaks down, and he needs to be fixed. The only person that Voljurac knows who can do this thing is the guy who created him, or to be exact: the daughter of the guy who created him. Renaldo Vinci, thirty years ago, met with Voljurac when he was still a human. It indeed seems that in the end, he transferred Voljurac’s spirit into a tank he made, after the guy had been shot lethally. Basically, Renaldo once worked for the Kingdom of Wellber, but once his health deteriorated, he quit, though his superiors didn’t like this. Voljurac was sent to kill him, but the two of them became friendly too much, and Voljurac betrayed his superiors. As a thanks, he got shot to death.

This episode also answers a question that I’ve been having ever since Rita went undercover: are there more machines like him? In short: yes. Renaldo may be dead now, but his daughter hasn’t been standing still, and she’s created quite a company, producing all sorts of interesting machines. It would have been more interesting to see some of these machines actually on the street, but this is just a minor detail.

This makes me wonder… there’s one important character left who still misses background, apart from the obvious Rita’s brother, of course. Will Sherry also get an episode for herself? It would be quite interesting, but on the other hand, there are only five episodes left, and I don’t think that the creators can just waste another episode. Or will we perhaps get a third season? That would be quite interesting…

Suteki Tantei Labyrinth – 20

by psgels, posted in Suteki Tantei Labyrinth


This episode featured one of the best fights of this series yet. I mean, what’s not to like about Seiran, driving his van off a cliff, jumping out of it just to get to Mayuki faster. Talk about an entrance. Also Byakko’s new weapons were quite creative. I’ve seen these claws before, but never were they attached to the feet of the wielder. You can say a lot about the director, but he does know how to create a good fight if he wants to. 😛

About the rest of the episode, there was a lot of talking much more than usual, which means that I’ve had more trouble than usual trying to understand it. Apparently, Sanae’s mother plays a quite a big role in this as some kind of neutral party, when both Seiju, Chien and Seiran visit her. Seiju apparently wanted something from her, in her memory. According to Byakko, this is supposed to be the “path that leads to god”. In a flashback, we see how Byakko thinks that Seiran has it.

This episode also continued to develop Byakko and Seiran, probably the ones who suffer the most from the conflict between the three brothers. We see Chien feel pity for what happened to Byakko, though we don’t see the reasons for this yet. Later this episode, she yet again tries to go after Mayuki, though as she’s about to kill Seiren (who randomly appeared with that entrance described above), Seiju yet again stops her from doing so. Seiran in the meantime is getting more and more desperate to get rid of Seiyu, especially now that he knows