Spice and Wolf
So… this is what you get if you hand an award-winning novel to an animation-company like Imagin: an authentic atmosphere, interesting characters, and a main female lead who spends nearly the entire episode without any clothes whatsoever and basically ruins the entire series. Still, I do admit that this series turned out better than I originally expected. I can see the potential here in this series, and this episode also took its time in telling the story. At times, I’m just not sure whether the creators’ minds were on storytelling or cheap fanservice, and seeing their reputation (Love Love, Cosmopolitan Prayers, Smash Hit…) there is enough reason to worry about this one to fall into a fanservice-fest.
Noramimi
Ooh, this reminds me so much of Tetsuko no Tabi! Not in terms of story, but in terms of execution. The graphics again are simple and again there’s great chemistry between the characters. Basically, in this series people live together with things called mascots. Noramimi is about a sort-of dating-service company, which basically matches people and mascots so they can live together. It works quite well, but yet again, I don’t see this one getting any chance of being subbed. Still, any series that features a hamster smoking a cigarette deserves to be watched.
Hakaba Kitarou
Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! I can’t believe I was wrong in my entry about Shigofumi! The best first episode of the season definitely belongs to Hakaba Kitarou, and yes, I’m serious about it. Gegege no Kitarou, which aired last year, got dull quite fast, but Hakaba Kitarou turned into a really well-done and freakish horror-series. Whether it can keep up with the same quality for the rest of the series remains another question, but still the fact remains that this episode absolutely ROCKED. If you’re tired of all the moe-shows, you should definitely give this one a chance. I LOVE what noitaminA has been doing for anime for the past few years!!!
You have to love the cliff-hangers of this series. For the past episodes, they’ve always brought some kind of new twist. This episode gives a bit of a humorous side to the twists, which works out quite well, if I say so myself, even if it’s a bit mean. ^^;
This episode was mostly building up as usual again. After the previous episode, Tarou gets a new sort of therapy recommended by the councillor: Thought Field Therapy. I’m not yet sure what that means, but we’ll probably find out in the next episode, because Tarou really needs this after being exposed to the figure of the guy who kidnapped him and all. It now also seems that the councillor took the things that happened to him rather seriously, and is still frightened of the strange time-leap he made, two episodes ago.
Also, one of the questions that was raised in the OP has been answered: remember the Fox-like creature? That’s actually Makoto in Ghost Hound-mode. After seeing Tarou, he tried to move into the same form, and succeeded. In the meantime, the bully-side-story still isn’t over, when the bullies have now decided to make Masayuki into their victim. Luckily, Makoto prevented any real casualties in this episode, but things have to go wrong at one point.
Meanwhile, Masayuki finds out about Tarou’s crush on Miyako. Cute moment, by the way. Miyako seems to be really wary of her father, by the way. He just takes out one beer and she notices and gets annoyed. Could this have to do with her schizophrenic side, that was mentioned a few episodes ago?
Overall, I’m liking the quiet moments of this series more and more. It’s interesting enough for me to just see the different characters interacting, and that’s one of the signs of a good anime for me. Let’s see what this series will have in store for us once it enters its second half. Ghost Hound is an excellent recommendation for this season.]]> 
Those who are watching Ghost Hound for the plot can rejoice, because a lot of stuff happens in this episode. Everything starts with a bunch of teenagers, who are at night exploring the abandoned building-site where Tarou’s kidnapper died. It then seems that the ghost of this guy has come back to haunt them. Basically the same happens as when Makoto ran into it, but this time it also possesses one of the kids.
Rumours like these obviously travel fast, so Makoto, Tarou and Masayuki hear about this quite quickly. They decide to take a look in ghost-form, and there some very interesting things happen: Tarou freaks out (he does come into contact with his kidnapper, after all), and transforms from ghost-monkey to Ghost…. Hound-like being (now I also understand where the title for this series comes from). Masayuki gets to be the one to shoot the black figure down, when he basically turns out to be able to use the moves from his video-games. Quite cool, if you ask me.
In other news, the councillor has started contacting his colleague after what happened last episode, while sounding quite nervously. Masayuki meanwhile finally stands up to the bullies who torment his classmates, only to get beaten himself. Masayuki’s father also suddenly sees ghost-leeches dangerously close near his daughter, who just keeps playing simple video-games. Tarou, meanwhile, gets strange blushes when he’s near Miyako. *hint hint*]]> 
Most plot-based series have clearly defined episodes which either focus on building up or pushing the story forward with many climaxes. I like it when a series combines both into one, just like Ghost Hound is currently doing. The majority of the episode focused on fleshing out the characters a bit more, while the episode ended with quite an intriguing plot-twist.
A few months have passed since the previous episode. The hair of the different characters has grown back, Tarou is doing fine, and his mother is now taking therapy as well. It seems that the councillor is aware that there’s something strange with Tarou, though I’m not sure how much he knows. It’s also revealed that the fourth person on the photo with Makoto’s parents is Miyako’s father. This episode, Makoto goes to ask him a few questions about his parents, but he doesn’t get much farther. Tarou in ghost-form, meanwhile makes contact with Miyako again, and for the first time the two of them talk to each other. Miyako also mentions how she sometimes gets possessed by something strange, which probably happened back in episode four.
Tarou also runs into a strange dog-like spirit, and goes to the “other side” that we saw a few episodes ago for the first time. There, it’s really filled with spirits and similar creatures. We also see Miyako’s father at one point in the forest, discovering traces of a campfire (probably belonging to the old man of a few episodes ago), and didn’t look quite happy.
The episode ends with the councillor (I think he’s called Hirata), who waits for his taxi. A huge flash follows, and suddenly he’s thirty minutes further, and the taxi has arrived. In the sky, he can see a big glowing thingie. How did this happen? Did he himself have trouble with his childhood as well? It’s interesting, at the start of the season, I never imagined that his role in the series would be this big.]]> 
Whoa, things went much, much faster than I expected. And really, the building-up is really paying off now, as this was an excellent episode. With three more episodes left, there are many twists up ahead, as 60 minutes is enough time to throw in some excellent climaxes. It’s hard to imagine that finally, after nearly fifty episodes, Higurashi is nearly getting finished.
This really was an episode for the adults of the story. The children only appear in one scene, but apart from that, it was all about Irie, Tomitake, Oishi and of course Takano. Especially the latter finally crawled out of her shell, and showed us something entirely different from her usual character. I do admit that I’ve often complained at her annoying character, but it was so worth it to see her in despair after finding out that people were once again going against her.
Meanwhile, Tomitake is on the run for Takano and the Yamainu, as it’s obvious that he’s the most likely traitor. Irie tries to remain on Takano’s side, though the latter manages to realize that Irie is against her too, so she puts the guy under surveillance. I hope that Irie does realize that he’s obviously going to be tracked.
There were a few vague parts in this episode, mostly at the police-side. I’m not exactly sure where Ootaka came from, and his “connection” with the Sonozakis. Still, it was good to see this guy getting pwned by Oishi, who refused to let anyone to the autopsy-department of the police office.]]> 
Boy, MRI-scans. That brings back memories, as I’ve had a few of them myself. I’ve never had them on my brains, though. Basically, the entire first half of the episode is something what you’d call “Brain MRI-scans for Dummies”, and it’s basically one big lecture, which I of course couldn’t understand. ^^; It was interesting to see the councillor return, though and he also showed a new side of him, that was way more interested and away from his distant usual self. Something tells me that he’s beginning to suspect that Tarou has out-of-body experiences, and got interested.
For Masayuki, this episode tells us more about his family. His sister is as big of a gaming-addict as he is, and the doctor we saw introduced in the previous episode turns out to be an acquaintance of his father. What also piqued my interest was how he really uses his games as a way to escape from real life.
Tarou, meanwhile, regained consciousness, but a new sort of experience got introduced for him in this episode, where he can basically see inside his own brains. In there is a strange figure, who somehow reminds Tarou of his sister. This was really a moment that showed that even the calm Tarou hasn’t recovered a full 100% from his experiences, as he does shout at the strange figure that he wants to see his sister.
Meanwhile, we learn a bit more about why Makoto reacted so angrily at the picture we saw last episode. It doesn’t seem that he hates the guy, running for mayor, but instead he hates the fact that people blamed his father’s death as a suicide. He figures that his former friends might know a bit more, and this really seems to be the case for the guy who is running in the elections. Of course, he isn’t going to easily talk, but it’s clear that he too has suffered some kind of trauma because of Makoto’s father. Whether this was the suicide itself, or something more complex is for the next episodes to show us.
The episode also ends with quite a few intriguing events: Makoto walks past an abandoned building and sees some kind of hallucination that looks awfully familiar to the death of Tarou’s kidnapper. Afterwards, Masayuki sees a kid getting bullied, and simply runs away. One thing I really like about this series, aside from the large roots in psychology, is how the dramatic scenes don’t feel forced at al. This shows quite some promise for the future.]]>