Category: The Third

Seriously. This was an amazing episode! I can’t believe that the creators would go this far, at this stage of the anime.

Okay, so Honoka got mortally wounded. That by itself already was amazing. It’s clear that she’ll recover somehow, as we haven’t reached. But why was I so hoping for her to be safe? Why did I keep wanting her not to die. If an anime manages to do this with me, it seriously has done something special.

Okay, a quick summary. The episode starts rather gloomy, when it seems that Millie still keeps her feelings inside of her. Ever since the previous episode, Bogie has been travelling for three days. During those three days, Millie only smiled once. And that’s when she managed to hit a can with the gun she got from Honoka. Then, they reach the sandstorm with the desert fairy in it, as well as Kanwei and Leon. Leon starts shooting at Kanwei, after which Honoka runs up to him and the two end up in a fight. Honoka looks to be winning, though then Leon blasts two small lasers through her body, and she faints. Ikus takes her back to Bogie, and there it seems that even his healing powers aren’t enough. In the end, all hope is left on Kanwei, who also dropped by.

There’s also a bit of info given about the fairy and Leon. The fairy seems to be called Star Seed. She’s the seed of life, which seems to be spread over the entire universe. Within her, all the genetic data of all living beings is stored. She seems to be travelling all kinds of worlds, collecting DNA, in order to transport lives from here to some kind of newborn planet. I think that she uses the DNA from those she saves in the desert as guidelines. Leon seems to be a phantom, made out of liquid metal. Usually, these phantoms have degenerated into pieces of nothing, though nano-machines make them smart. Phantoms also can absorb each other, in order to become smarter and stronger. It seems that Leon’s absorbed quite a few other phantoms.

The highlight of this episode definitely was the reaction of Ikus, Millie and Bogie to Honoka’s wounds. Millie really was too sad when she found out about this. And especially Bogie surprised me. He always is as objective as possible. But when Kanwei starts doing strange things with Honoka, he suddenly starts yelling, telling someone to stop the wolf. Especially if you consider that he’s actually just AI. In any case, this was a wonderful episode. I won’t be surprised if The Third ends up as the best series of the spring season.

Ooh, this really was an excellent episode. I always felt that the Gravestone arc, although it was awesome to see, it lacked something. And now I know what: Millie. Still, right now I’m fearing that the current arc will lack Paife. =P

In any case, during this episode it really becomes clear that Millie is only trying to be strong and independent. When Honoka starts treating her as if she needed help, she gets angry at her. She runs away and almost gets caught by a Hangeki (a huge sand-trap desert monster). If it wasn’t for the desert fairy, the wolf (Kanwei) and Honoka, she would have died back then. That only makes Honoka realize that she didn’t even try to understand Millie. It’s exaggerated, but it delivers some awesome results as well.

The best part of the episode definitely was when Millie forgets about being strong and starts crying, while clinging to Honoka. She was so sad and cute at that moment. (notice her red eyelids when she’s asleep afterwards?) If these scenes keep up, The Third will definitely get an incredible second half. I’m trying not to take The Third’s awesomeness for granted, though (*coughHackRootscough*). Still, The Third already has made a huge impression on me. The creators have to do very strange things in order to screw up and make me hate this series.

The plot seems to go in the direction of the wolf, the fairy and the desert eater. So far, it sounds very interesting. Who was this girl next ot the wolf? Why is it searching for the desert fairy? What is a desert fairy anyway? Why does it act the way it does? Why is the desert eater after it?

Overall, The Third is awesome, and with this episode, the awesomeness only increased.

Ah, so this was the infamous thirteenth episode. And indeed. The character art is horrible. It seems like we’re dealing with totally different persons now. That’s what you get when you let different animation studios handle different episodes. Once, you run into a garbage one, which ruins an episode. Ah well, let’s hope the creators noticed this as well, and decide to cut all ties with it.

In any case, I am SO glad that the fansubs of the Third are finally starting to come out at a fair speed. Thanks a lot to FnT, for bringing us this wonderful series. This episode actually was pretty good, if you ignore the horrible art (which is what I’m going to do right now). Ever since the previous episode, Honoka has been taking random jobs, like working as the bodyguard for a couple of scientists. Under pressure of Joey, she decides to take a vacation. Ikus and Millie will be joining her.

Two new characters appear during this episode. A strange man, who appears to be a desert eater, hunting for a desert fairy and not afraid to kill others. He should prove to be an interesting antagonist for later. The second character is a strange desert wolf, who appears for a few seconds. Why do I know he’s an important character? Because of the new ED. In there, you see a picture with all the important characters, among with the scary guy and the grey wolf stand. Apart from that, we have a strange mecha. I suppose that’s blue breaker. The desert fairy also appears, which suggests that we’ll get to see one of them soon. Gravestone also is visible, but there’s one character I don’t recognize. We see a strange woman, with long, tied up hair, looking at a certain direction. I wonder who that might be.

It was great to see Honoka, busy with her daily life again. Some pretty funny moments also happened during this episode. The desert punks talking, for example. Or when Ikus, Millie and Honoka were talking about skirts. She really is an awesome character if you look at it that way.

I’ve also taken a look at the preview for next week. The art is as good as it’s used to be, and by the looks of it, it’s promising to be an amazing episode. I really can’t wait! Millie really does add an extra bit of awesomeness to The Third. Especially during this episode, it becomes clear that her father’s death has left a huge scar on her.

This episode ends the Gravestone-arc, and what a great ending it is! I really adored this episode.

Honoka, Paife an Ikus all have an encounter with Gravestone. Ikus with Gravestone himself, Paife with a copy of Gravestone and Honoka with a copy of herself. Ikus tried to convince Gravestone to stop, though it seems that he decided not to force him to make decisions. He does tell Gravestone (and us) some details about the great war. It seems that a certain “everyone” died. Ikus would like to explain it to him, though he claims that he doesn’t have the permission nor right to tell him. This suggests that he works for some kind of superior. Ikus also tells Gravestone that he’s met similar cases. There are more people like Gravestone. While he tells this, we see weapons of mass destruction attack planets. It would suggest that Ikus witnessed all these events somehow.

Honoka, meanwhile, has a duel with her copy. Here it really seems that she can’t even draw her katana in order to defend herself. She just can’t cut another human. Her copy then tries to play with her mind, by trying to make her believe that she hates everyone else. In the end, Honoka finally gets her piece of character development when she realizes that all of this is nonsense. In the end, she meets Gravestone in person, and she manages to change his mind. Awesome.

Paife, meanwhile, finally gets the chance of trying out the plan she tried to use against Honoka, but failed. The Gravestone copy seems to be immune for guns and bullets, so she decides to use her fists and ki. Though even that proves to be useless. Her final trick is to use some kind of barrier, with one small opening. Force a huge amount of ki through that opening, and the pressure creates an explosion. This is too much for the copy, and it disappears. This is another reason why the narrator comes in handy. He actually explains the fighting strategies of the different characters. It’s a nice touch.

In the end, it seem that Gravestone was a young boy, who died during the Great War. His father was an important scientist, who tried to save his son by turning him into this. By letting him retain his child-form, he’d never have to fight or be used in the war.

I’ve also seen the preview for the next, infamous episode. Let’s just say I can understand the rumours. The art looks SO different. I’m glad that it’s just for one episode. Let’s hope it’s not too bad. This episode, in any case, was awesome.

Great to see another episode of The Third released. Thanks a lot to FnT for subbing it. This episode was another great one. 🙂

Last episode, we saw the strange huge glowing thing. This time, Honoka, Boogie, Paife and Ikus get trapped inside of it. The thing seems to be Gravestone. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it seems that it’s a young boy with special powers. After the great war, he went to sleep. When Ikus came to this planet, he accidentally woke him up. Right now, Gravestone has been engulfed by hatred, and plans to destroy the earth which is planning to destroy him.

Especially Paife got a healthy dose of character development this time. It seems that she was so interested in Honoka, a few episodes back, that she begged the employer to let her go with her. She’s become really interested in Honoka. Ikus reckons that the two of them are on very good terms, because of all their bickering. After all, they like talking happily about each other’s flaws.

I’m not sure what Gravestone wants with Honoka. He’s been calling her, but why? And why does he send the Honoka-clone after her? Perhaps it’s because she was cast away from The Third? It also seems that she’s still haunted by having killed a human. That should prove to be very interesting. Jouganki and the other Third also have an interesting discussion. It seems that both of them are more interested in Honoka than they’re in Ikus. Just what is Honoka? What’s her secret?

The next episode should promise to be very awesome. But what’s up with the rumours about episode 13 being very bad? I hope they aren’t true.

Aah, I’ve been longing to see more of The Third, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The episode mainly focused at showing yet another side of Paife, though many more things happened at the same time.

First Honoka. She’s getting really unstable now. I really noticed that she’s trying to keep cheerful, in order to hide all her worries. Still, once she’s with her PSP, she really is cheerful. ^^ It also seems that there’s something more to the last episode, in which Honoka cut down the man-turned-monster. She was extremely shocked afterwards. The reason seems to be that she never cut any human before. For some reason, cutting a human feels different from cutting a Desert Ant, Sand Worm, or Blue Breaker. Honoka found out at that moment, and it keeps haunting her, even in her dreams. Still, this gives evidence for two very interesting things. 1. Honoka did kill before, but not with her katana. What happened at that time? Who did she kill? 2. Honoka has been having nightmares like these every night. There must be more things occupying her mind than just Ikus being gone and having killed a human.

Paife seems to be very annoyed when men are around. That becomes clear when Ikus rejoins Honoka. Her personality is totally different from what she was before. She’s more blunt, and not afraid to hide her annoyance of Ikus. In the end, this annoyance leads to a fight between her and Honoka. She’s noticed that Honoka’s feeling uneasy. This also becomes evident when she practices her swordfighting in the evening. That’s why she steps up to her, to try and talk her out of this depression. She thinks that Honoka should know what reality is. She also lets Honoka know that she’s done some horrible things in the past and that Honoka wouldn’t want to be with her if she knew the things she did.

I’m not sure what she tried to accomplishing by fighting Honoka. I think that she wanted to beat some sense into her. In the end, Honoka beat her in both fighting with and without weapons. Ikus, meanwhile, displayed interesting behaviour when he found out about Honoka’s first kill. This does suggest that he was somehow involved with these punks, and apparently, he felt bad about letting Honoka kill a person.

Over in space, preparations are meanwhile taken to activate the Wormhole Drive, or a huge cannon, used in the great war. Just what went on during the great war anyway? It must’ve been pretty bad. In any case, Joganki has found out that Ikus was located near the site of the warped space. It seems that The Third are indeed tracking him. In any case, he then realizes that Honoka has to be with him. Long story short, Honoka will be blasted if she doesn’t move away from the warped space. Ikus knew this, and tried to stop her from going, though he didn’t really try this with enthusiasm.

There are two main reasons why I’m so in love with The Third. The first one is that it doesn’t seem to have any obvious weaknesses. That almost never happens in anime. Even the best ones have one or two small parts that annoy me. The Third has absolutely no flaws at all. It’s building up perfectly. The second one is the characters. Never have I seen characters who are so fleshed out as in The Third. Especially Honoka shines like no other in this department.

Also, someone from within the warped space was calling Honoka. Who could that be? Who wants to contact Honoka from such a place?

The Third really continues the awesome path it set before. It especially managed to deliver during its climaxes, when it really needs to. The rest of the time, it spends building up. While this building up may seem a bit boring when you see it, the effect it gets is awesome.

In short, the woman from the previous episode indeed has an important role in the anime. Her name is Paife, and she’s sent to spy on Honoka by the same company that hired her. For some reason, Paife acts totally different near Honoka than the way she acts normally. I guess she’s probably fascinated by her. That’s shown in the previous episode, when her strange hypnotization technique doesn’t work, and this episode, when Paife really gets astonished by Honoka’s fighting ability.

Interesting points:
– Paife has heard of Ikus. (I’m still calling him Ikus, by the way. I like that more than Iks)
– Ikus has something to do with the warped space. He either caused it, or he tried to prevent it.
– Honoka really has put her mind on Ikus ever since he left. She was very glad when she saw him again.
– The Third are planning to blast the warped space with something called the Wormhole Driver. It’s something that the Great War left them, though they never had to put it to use.
– We still have no idea what the “Great War” is (that, or I simply forgot), though it seems it was pretty significant for the story.
– Honoka’s extremely tolerant to people she trusts. That becomes clear when she sees that Paife’s an ordinary murderer.
– In this world, people are known to transform into monsters. Why this happens and what it’s got to do with the Great War still remains unclear.
– Honoka’s too nice, when the managed to give Joey an opportunity to study further. He was really happy when he found out. ^^
– The music really was amazing in this episode. It really accentuated the climaxes.
– There are a lot of things unclear about the cult, though they seem important to the story in some way. And what were they doing near the warped space?
– What’s Gravestone?
– Honoka was shocked after the mutant guy was killed. NOT after she saw Ikus. That happened afterwards.

Overall, The Third was amazing, it is amazing, and hopefully, it’ll continue to be amazing. So far, all signs point to yes.

Memorable moment: Paife killing off every person Honoka knocked out, while Honoka watches her.

Okay, that’s something I NEVER would have expected! The Third gives us more and more proof that this will probably be the best series of the Spring Season. And that has to say something, when more than 50 shows came out. It’s just such a pity that the fansubs are coming in so slow. Honoka’s almost reaching Alice in terms of awesomeness.

We start the episode with Honoka and Bogie travelling towards Emporium. They hear some trampling, see a lot of sand blow up in the horizon, only to realize that they’re being chased by a rampaging herd of sandworms. Bogie takes off, attempting to get out of the sandworms’ track, accompanied by a very nice background tune. Just when you think that they made it, they get hit by a sandworm, which really beats up the sand-tank. If Honoka wasn’t in her PSP for protection (yes, mechas can be used for other things than just fighting ;)) she would’ve ended up in the hospital.

It seems that Joey is not enough to fix it completely, as he hasn’t grown enough to reach Zanka’s level, so Honoka has to think of something. Still, Joey does what he can. Bogie is meanwhile taken to the hospital, as it seems he also suffered some damage (why the hospital? Does it have a special section for AI?). Meanwhile, Honoka runs into Kevin, who seems to be tracking some kind of cult which is said to have appeared in Emporium.

Honoka runs into these guys later in the episode, in a cafe. She first has hallucinations about Ikus, after which a group of three guys enters. They try to hit on another main character, introduced this episode: Sensei (for now, I’ll just name her Sensei, as I don’t think her name became clear in this episode). She’s one of Millie’s teachers, and a fairly interesting character. She also seems to have some strange power, which she can use to get control over people for a short while. For some reason, this doesn’t work with Honoka. Her third eye probably interfered.

Millie and Honoka also got to meet each other again. Millie’s turning more amazing by the minute as well. Because she loves Honoka, she wants to study to become a mechanic, so the two of them can be together again. She was so adorible when she said that. Though indeed, Honoka and the doctor fear that she might become a bit too attached to Honoka. I’d love to see how her case gets developed. ^_^

This episode also took another turn you wouldn’t expect so soon in the anime. It seems that there is something in the desert, nearby the sandworms’ nest, which can get out of control any minute now, with the possibility to destroy Emporium within ten days. Honoka also gets sent to investigate in the sandworms’ nest, so this should promise for some awesome scenes. The scenes which introduced this also were perfectly built up, I just loved them.

Overall, The Third is awesome, and it doesn’t show any signs of weakening. It’s another one of these series in which I like every single character, and it deserves to be subbed. I really can’t wait to see more of this.

The Third continues to be awesome. Even though there wasn’t a lot of tension in this episode, it was a great one. It focuses on Honoka’s determination to protect something, even if this happens to be an armoured ant.

Honoka and Bogie are alone again. Millie’s been dropped off by her aunt and Ikus temporarily left her, in order to take care of certain things. It seems that it’s got something to do with his mission on earth, but not much is said on this.

We start with Bogie waking Honoka up. I just love the conversations between the two of them. They’ve grown up with each other, and they continue bickering to each other. Honoka also can believe in things with her heart, without having any proof to, while Bogie likes to think as rationally as possible. If you combine these two, you get some awesome results.

In any case, it then seems that an armoured ant (the ones we’ve seen in the first episode) has attached itself to the Sand Tank. The other two are waiting right next to the sand tank. It appears that the one who attached itself to the sand tank is the queen of this colony. Armoured ants always work in groups of three. One of them might sprout wings and becomes a queen. When it does, it flies off, and attempts to start a new colony somewhere else. It’s not known what happens to the other two ants after this. Thanks to the narrator for this info, once more. I really like this guy.

Shaking an ant like that off isn’t such a problem. After all, the sand tank is big and fast, Bogie can probably do it while activating the battle acceleration. The problem is, however, that Honoka’s taken a pity towards this ant. The queen is using the sand tank becuase she believes that it’s a safer place to sprout her wings (during which she’s extremely vulnerable). The other two ants are protecting her. Bogie uses the argument that they’ve got a job in Emporium, and they furthermore have to pay Millie a visit. If they don’t go, they might not have time to visit Millie. Still, Honoka wants the ant to fly, and she wants to protect it.

Things get bad when Honoka sees another group of armoured ants approaching. They probably see that this queen is a threat to their own colony in some way. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even dare to come near the territory of others, as armoured ants are highly territorial creatures. The other two ants, who serve as the bodyguards of the queen, then close in on them. What follows is a bloodbath between these two groups, from which we only get to hear the sound-effects. The awesome background tune turned this into a great scene. What follows is the death of all five of those ants.

Still, more ants seem to approach. It’s likely that whenever an attacking group of ants die, another group of ants charges. Honoka then decides to not stand by any longer, and hold off the ants herself. She has to stop three ants from reaching the queen, until dawn hits. Apparently, the ants aren’t active when the sun shines, so they’ll back off. The only problem is that dawn’s two hours away. Bogie advices her not to, though he gives in at the end. Travelling with Honoka for so long, he really learned a few things about her character.

Honoka then spends two whole hours using suspended animation (the same technique she used in the previous episode) to blow away the group of approaching ants. Yes, the timing was too convenient: right before dawn, suspended animation doesn’t work anymore and then the queen manages to lift off. But that’s not the point of this fight. This fight was meant to show the determination of Honoka, the things she’s willing to do when she sets her mind to something. And that she’s even able to continue fighting after two whole hours. You need a lot of patience and willpower in order to be able to do such a thing. I also liked the fact that she got incredibly calm at the moment when the ants closed in on her and the suspended animation stopped working. She was about to try out something though the queen flying off stopped her from doing this.

One of the things I absolutely loved about this episode is that this anime is one of the first to actually show the lifestyles and habits of the monsters who keep attacking people. You have to remember that they are also just creatures, trying to survive and get a meal. Though this anime even goes further, by explaining how the hierarchy works with the armoured ants, and how their territories work. Even what they’re thinking. This is turning them into living beings, and not just some random dolls who only can attack and have to be defeated.

Suspended animation. First, I thought that this was another part of Honoka’s power, but now. It’s actually Walken’s (the guy who took care of Honoka) speciality. Honoka learned this technique from him. It’s actually tricking the mind of the enemy, in order to make it think that it’s hit. This all was illustrated by a flashback of Honoka when she was young. Apparently, she had a little fight with Walken and Bogie kept bothering her. She then ran into a desert hare, who was about to walk into the trap of one of the carnivorous sand creatures. Even then, she wanted to save the hare. Walken eventually did this by using suspended animation. It’s so great to see that Honoka actually worked extremely hard in order to be so talented with fighting.

Finally: Millie. First of all, I’m wondering whether Honoka’ll have enough time to visit her, after wasting so much time with the armoured ants. Millie looked so enthusiastic the day before Honoka was supposed to come. Still, her aunt did not like this. At all. Every time Millie mentioned Honoka she began looking serious. There’s got to be something about Honoka that’s on her mind. I think that she knows about Honoka’s eye, and that she hasn’t accepted Honoka for what she is. This should prove for some great scenes in the future.

Overall, of all the series which aired in the spring, The Third does by far the best job of introducing itself to its characters and setting. I like this, I really do.

Hmm, not as good as the previous episode, but that can be because the fight that took up most of the episode featured Honoka going berserk. This isn’t always a good idea, as it abandons all kinds of strategy. Still, the aftermath resolved this in a really good way. Millie was awesome again, and we learn a few more things about Bogie, Ikus and Joganki.

The great thing about the fight was that we saw yet another side of Honoka. She really was too angry to concentrate, which didn’t work too well along with her injured wrist. I loved the way she totally wasted the opportunities she had with the PSP. Still, the fight remained boring, unfortunately. It just contained Honoka trying to hit the Blue Breaker for a bit too long of a period. Luckily, Millie managed to resolve this into a good ending in the end. Honoka also really has learned from this experience, so with a bit of luck, she’ll use her head even more, get even stronger, and provide more awesomeness in future episodes.

Ikus also provided a nice twist. It seems that he’s the first recorded species of a sentient alien. So that means, that aside from humans and The Third, there’s a third party somewhere out there. It doesn’t seem to be hostile yet, but it can really take the story at a lot of possible directions. There’s also got to be a reason why he sought Honoka, and why he was sent to Earth in the first place. These aliens also must be quite smart, if the likes of them are able to stay out of The Third’s sight. I’m quite interesting to learn more of them.

Bogie indeed remains a machine, but he does remain an awesome one. His AI is extremely high developed, so that he can even begin to feel emotions. He also reveals that he considers himself as Honoka’s guardian. This might be because she bought him, and they kindof grew to each other, but there also might be another reason for this. It’s, by the way, very nice that the creators made such a good use of a poem. It fits perfectly, and it blends extremely well into the story.

Joganki seems a strange case. In the last episode, Honoka revealed that he wanted her for her power, but this episode it becomes clear that there’s another reason that he wants her. Could the two of them be related somehow? I can really see this guy becoming Honoka’s father. In any case, he does hold her dear in some way, otherwise he wouldn’t worry about her like that, act so friendly around her, and he would use a bit more desperate measures in order to catch her. It also seems that he and the woman share the same rank. This means that they both make important decisions, but they both have to work right next to each other. This also means that they aren’t the leaders of The Third. We have yet to see the guy who is. I can see him becoming a major bad guy in the future.

Overall, a nice episode, but I know that The Third can do much better. It did provide some nice material for future episodes, though.