Ergo Proxy – 11 – Yay for Phylosophy :)

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy



Ergo Proxy = Love. Seriously, my last post about .Hack//Roots really made me think about clever anime, what they are, and what they look like. This episode was so utterly incredible that it gave me such a new insight on this matter. Most people will probably dislike this episode, as it just features Vincent talking to himself for twenty whole minutes. But I totally loved it. So many references were made, so many metaphors were used, and the dialogue was just totally incredible. This episode truly can not be summarized, and I won’t even attempt to do that. So many small things mattered.

First of all, what does define a clever anime? I’d like to think of an anime which really makes me think. And not just a bit, as in a small note which comes to my mind, but an anime who manages to send all kinds of thoughts rambling through my head, like there’s nothing to stop them, something like a fierce mountain river which lasts for kilometres and kilometres. .Hack//Sign was the first example of this. Right now, the only anime I’m watching who accomplishes the same tasks is Ergo Proxy, with Higurashi no Naku Koro no and Mushishi getting very close as a second and third. Higurashi features very carefully written plot and mystery, while Ergo Proxy’s dialogue manages to hit me time and time again and Mushishi’s themes also make you think about the issues they introduce. Apart from these four mentioned, the only other near-clever anime I managed to run into were Fantastic Children, Utena and Fruits Basket, with xxxHolic having very small potential of becoming one. Fantastic Children had its great theme of reincarnation, Utena had its great use of symbols, while Fruits Basket delved deep into the minds of each of the characters.

Each of these anime are extremely well written, and each of them is written in its own way. It’s not just the themes, it’s how the creators make use of it. I’ve also noticed that most of them make good use of phylosophy. Especially Ergo Proxy and .Hack//Sign, and I must admit, I am a sucker for anything phylosophy-related. But still, the fact that phylosophy is used, means that there isn’t just one right answer, and one wrong answer. So many different opinions are possible, and each of them bears some hidden truth.

Anyway, back to the episode, I just loved it. Remember the sentence Raoul said in the previous episode? (I think, therefore I …, leaving the last word open on purpose). This sentence comes back, though slightly altered. It’s not “I think therefore I am”, it’s “I think, therefore YOU are”. Basically, humans are able to create their own world. They do exist, and they make others exist, inside their world. It’s also interesting that Vincent ends up in a bookstore. In there, he finds all kinds of books, and all of them have his name written on their cover. When he looks at the pages, they’re empty. At the beginning of the episode, the books keep increasing. Then Vincent comes at a point at which he begins to recite his own memories, of the things he knows. This makes some of the books disappear. At the end of the episode, Pino ends up at the Usagi again, and even there lies one of these books. Though this time, the books don’t vanish, they only lose their inscription of Vincent on their cover. This probably means that Vincent finally found himself, and accepted the fact that he IS a Proxy. (Interesting note: along with Vincent’s name, this book also featured a butterfly on its cover. This butterfly also vanished along with the name. Would that mean anything?).

Another interesting fact is that there’s the same discussion being held, twice. Once at the beginning of the episode, and once at the ending of the episode. Each of them have different outcomes, showing Vincent what he learned. Vincent lost his way at the beginning of the episode, and decided to go to the bookstore in order to ask for directions. Meanwhile, a fog started coming up, and he lost Pino. He wanted to know all these things at once. At the end of the episode, he finally realizes this. And the bookstore. For some reason, Vincent’s head turned this into a gigantic maze, but for some other reason, the maze formed a perfect circle, with Vincent in the middle. This points at the struggles that Vincent is currently in. Brilliantly found.

This episode certianly played with the minds of the viewers, as we don’t exactly know what happened in Vincent’s head, and what didn’t. For starters: was the bookstore even real, or was this a figment of Vincent’s imagination as well? Everything looked realistic and all, except for the fact that there’s a bookstore in the middle of nowhere. When Pino was walking in the Usagi, you could see one of the books bearing Vincent’s name. Was that because of Vincent’s power as a Proxy? And still, in the end, Vincent did end up getting directions. Is that really something that can form inside your head? What about the fact that at one point, Ergo and the old man were arguing with each other? Can things like these really happen, even inside your head? And if the old man did exist in reality, what part of him was real, and what part wasn’t? After all, he was the only one who didn’t end up with an Ergo Proxy mask. Ergo Proxy uses this opportunity to talk to Vincent, but the two of them indeed seemed to not have the same opinion. In fact, Ergo was just trying to make clear to Vincent that he was is a Proxy, and that the two of them are the same. But does the fact that they share the same body, mean that the two of them are also the same? I mean, Vincent is Vincent, and when Vincent loses control, Vincent blacks out and Ergo appears.

It’s also interesting that Vincent takes a trip along his memories of the past, with each person appearing with an Ergo Proxy-mask (this was, by the way, a scary sight on Pino and other little children). Ergo comes with a nice statement. At the moment, he’s only observing the world, while not being any part of it. Is that what Proxy are able to do? Messengers sent from a higher level? It’s also interesting that near the end of the episode, Real gets to be the one who loses her mask. She disappears afterwards, of course, but then, Ergo sets the mask on fire, while asking Vincent which Proxy he is. I guess he wanted to see how Vincent reacted when the Ergo-mask was to be destroyed. It’s interesting to see Vincent clinging to that mask at such a cornered moment. Afterwards, Vincent becomes surrounded by mirrors, in Ergo-mode, only strenthening this effect.

Okay, I hope that that was understandable… Anyway, overall, this episode was just totally incredible. It SO messes with the viewer’s mind. At least, it did with mine. The Ergo inside Vincent is planning something, but before he does that, he needs Vincent to realize that the two of them are the same. The episode ends with Real catching up with Vincent. You’d wonder how she managed to find him. After all, Vincent was lost. How do you find someone who’s lost? I guess she’s special after all. But in what way?

On a side-note: What is the memory guardian? Could it be the thing that prevents Vincent from remembering what he does as Ergo? And why was the old man against unlocking it?
On a side-note2: I’ve recently managed to get my hands on the Ergo Proxy OST, and it’s amazing. I really recommend it.

.Hack//Roots – 10 – Rant on Roots vs Sign

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots


Okay, we’ve reached episode 10, and still no big thing. As everything stands now, the anime can just end at the thirteenth episode without too much problems. TaN has executed its plans, Ovan is kidnapped, and our protagonists will probably need three whole episodes to sort everything out. My predictions are that the first thirteen episodes will be focusing at the natural, while the last thirteen episodes will be focusing at the supernatural. After all, the virus cores are explained, though the strange thing who appeared at the previous episode, or the strange A-like markings have yet to be explained. Still, TaN probably has got something to do with the latter, as one of the virus cores found itself inside one of the spaces that the A-like markings teleported Haseo to.

Still, some major things happened during this episode, and I didn’t like it. Ovan just went and got himself kidnapped, even though he knew it. In that case, why has he been collecting the virus cores so furiously? His smile from the previous episode’d better have some kind of meaning, as I’m beginning to dislike Ovan more and more. At least his disappearance made sure of one thing: Shino. For the first time since the third episode, she played a great part again. The creators made use of a nice technique, by not showing her eyes when she talks. This way, the viewers have no idea about her expression, and have to guess a bit, giving a very nice overall effect.

Another thing I really liked about this episode is the fight that the members of the Twillight Brigade have at the beginning of the episode, against Ender and her goons. Okay, the latter were just horrible, just like the previous episode. But the former really showed their best sides at that moment. Especially the sarcastical Sakisaka and the overenthusiastic Goad. Lots of things happened at the same time, you just have to give the choreographers credit for this.

Still, now that we’ve reached the tenth episode, I know. .Hack//Roots will never reach the perfection of .Hack//Sign. The biggest reason is the following: .Hack//Sign was smart. Very smart. It covered themes that really made you think. Why do you play the game? Just do the things that you want to do. These ones really are nowhere to be found in .Hack//Roots. The first example does return a bit, though most of the characters just throw this away because it’s too much efford to think about it, and only Phyllo manages to give a satisfying answer. The second one, however, just remains oblivious.

The fact is that this remains an MMORPG. Okay, there are guilds, I can accept that. What I can’t accept is the fact that TaN seems to be covering hundreds of members, actually WORKING for the big guy, Naobi. I mean the game remains for recreational purposes. What the heck does Naobi think ordering everyone around? It isn’t a company or some sort of thing. The fact remains that .Hack//Sign really gave the feeling of an MMORPG. In .Hack//Roots, Phyllo is the only one who manages this. .Hack//Sign made very subtle use of the real world. They showed little snippets of scenes in the real world, though very cryptic and subtle. Especially Tsukasa’s flashbacks were great. What does .Hack//Roots do? Nothing. The only sign that we ever get from our main characters is that Ovan and Shino seem to know each other.

.Hack//Dusk went way too extreme in it, but it had the right ideas about the following subject: quests. .Hack//Sign made perfect use of it, though. .Hack//Roots? Quests? What’s that? .Hack//Roots indeed seems to be forgetting one of the most important aspects of an MMORPG. Okay, they may seem a bit weak, but they’re actually quite fun to do. Roots just doesn’t see this. It also seems that NPC’s also don’t exist in the world anymore. .Hack//Sign was also brilliant in keeping its distance from the administrators. You have to realize that they’re the only party who gets paid to do their job. They don’t have anything to do with the player. I was hoping for .Hack//Roots to follow the same example as .Hack//Sign did, instead of following the horrible example that .Hack//Dusk set. But unfortunately, I was wrong. TaN seems to have something to do with the administrators after all.

The point remains that everyone inside an MMORPG remains equal. Nobody has special powers. Everyone can just level up to lvl 99 as same as everyone else. What they do have, however, is some people who are incredibly active, and set some examples to the rest. Think of Subaru in .Hack//Sign. She attempted to start some kind of independant police force, which would be able to control malicious players. Soon, more and more people started to hear about her, she got support, and before you knew it, she was the most famous player in The World, with everyone recognizing her. What the heck did Naobi do to get such a status? Well, he’s just friends with the admins. Woo. It’s the same for the Twillight Brigade. We never get to see what made them so known around The World. I hope this gets answered in the later episodes, though I seriously doubt that they’ll be able to beat Subaru in this.

Another thing is: why the heck is Naobi so obsessed about getting Ovan’s player data. Dude: it’s a friggin’ GAME. What the heck do you hope to gain with this. Ovan also reveals that the strange voice from .Hack//Sign and the Twillight Bracelet from .Hack//Dusk were actually the Key of the Twillight. Not only takes this away all the mystery in one giant blow, it also gives us some large hints that the guy who appeared in the previous episode will have to be playing for the Key of the Twillight-part. I also don’t like the fact that Naobi, of all guys, was the one who told Ovan about the Key of the Twillight. Remember Sora? He was the one who introduced the term in .Hack//Sign. Still, he was just a PK-er, a fouteen year-old guy who liked to play the game. That has to say something, doesn’t it?

Okay, that concludes my little rants. .Hack//Roots still remains entertaining, though that mostly comes from the first 8 episodes. You really had no idea what was going on, and that was the good part of it. Just showing a couple of guys executing their plans wasn’t just too worthwile to see. It’s the preparation that counts, along with all of the unforeseen circumstances. Though Ovan getting kidnapped was just everything away from unforeseen. Still, I’m still waiting for the big thing to show up and give us some material for the last thirteen episodes.

On a side-note: I just loved Tabby’s fangirling at Goad. ^^;

Poll: Should I Rate Individual Episodes?

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

I suddenly realized something when I took another look at the front page. I haven’t changed the poll at all ever since the end of march. I guess I’m getting lazy. Ah well, now we at least know that Mushishi features awesome music.

Anyway, I decided to replace the poll with something that’ll actually be useful to the site: should I rate individual episodes or not? I’m seeing some sites who actually do this, and I often find myself looking for the rating they gave the episode. I’m wondering if more people experience this.

Bleach – 83 – Well, this is a surprise

by psgels, posted in Bleach



You can say a lot of horrible things about this anime (with which I totally agree, by the way), but you have to admit: this episode really was unique for Bleach standards. The creators decided to let one episode focus around the history of Claude (the big guy who plays with large marbles), and they managed to choose a great setting: a poor, 18th-century farming village. And for once, they just take their time in telling the story. Almost no action at all. Just two bounto living together, and having their own problems. Okay, the animation looked horrible, but this is such a huge improvement. I also just loved the generic design of the young man who was introduced this episode. He was nothing special, he just looked like the son of a farmer who has just reached adulthood.

But then, of course, the ending of the episode completely ruins the good mood when the flashback ends, Ichigo’s about to die and the vice-chief of the 3rd squad arrives just in time to save the day while making the same mistake Naruto did while in his utmost beginner-days. (Ambushes? Who needs ambushes? Ambushes are for sissies!) Not only that, the creators also throw away every chance they could possibly have at a strategic battle, as it’ll be certain that the bounto-woman will drive Inoue and Rukia in a corner, only to be taken out by one of the other three shinigami who were sent to the human world as well. Next week will feature another 1-hour special, and it’s just a hunch, but at the end of that episode I’ll probably be gouching my own eyes out with a spoon. I’m going to pray for the bishie-shinigami (forgot his name) to save the day. And my eyes.

Bleach – 82 – The Garbage Continues

by psgels, posted in Bleach



The episode starts out with a very funny scene, in which Ururu and Jinta bring the newly improved Bounto-sensor. As it was made in a lot of haste, it works far from perfectly, looks totally ridiculous and has the cheesiest password ever. I loved it when Ichigo found out about this, and was forced to say the line. I loved Rukia’s reaction to this even better. Afterwards, we see Jinta in a very embarassing situation when Ururu finds out that he cares about Renji.

In any case, this episode really needed this small moment of comedy, as the rest of the episode was utter garbage again. It mostly focuses on Ichigo’s fight vs the marble-guy. Yawn. The creators put one of Ichigo’s friends from school, who’s dying and will probably not be able to be rescued, as a little twist in order to try and create some emotion. You’d think this will be a good move, until you realize that Bleach is too scared to kill of its characters, and Ichigo has the cheesiest reaction to this. Imagine the following: you see your friend lying in front of you, with the bad guy approaching. What would you do? Right, flee from the bad guy, trying to bring your friend to safety. What does Ichigo do? Right, he fights the bad guy. Not only that, but when he finds out that this doesn’t work, and to make things even better, after a couple of attempts, his mind finally realizes that his friend is dying, and only then he tries to bring this friend to safety (of course, too much beaten up in order to be saved). The creators also use two of the cheesiest Deus ex Machina ever, combined with each other: Ichigo’s about to lose, but his love for hir friend gives him huge power. Later, Ichigo’s about to lose yet again, but his hollow-side takes over and defeats the enemy. For fifteen seconds. I was ready to gouche my eyes out at that moment. Still, I’m surprised the creators even dared to use the hollow at this point. I have to say, that Ichigo looked pretty scary. But the fact that the creators had the guts to use him as such an evil plot device was just utterly abysmal.

I’m curious about Inoue and Rukia. The both of them and the modified soul don’t have any superpowers at all, and they’re up agianst the Bounto-woman. If they don’t get any outside help (like a certain red-haired guy suddenly waking up and playing for hero again), this could be a very interesting fight, which will involve some strategy. At least, I hope so. The enemy isn’t exactly what you’d call totally exciting when she wields a talking sword. -_-

The Third – 06 – Disappointing Fight, Unfortunately

by psgels, posted in The Third



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.

Mushishi – 21 – Mushishi’s Back! Wooo!

by psgels, posted in Mushishi



Finally, Mushishi returns after a two-month absence, and it’s just as I hoped: they saved the best for last. This episode just turned me utterly speechless. It’s just so brilliant, so awesome, and such a beautiful tale. During its full 20 minutes of time, this episode had me entirely captured, without showing any sign of weaknesses AT ALL. It really reminded me again of why Mushishi is so incredibly awesome.

The case this time: a pregnant woman has been the victim of another mushi. This one settles inside the yet-to-be-born baby, and takes control of it once it’s born. It then flees into a dark place – mostly under a house or in an attic – and remains there for a year. From that point, it releases a baby every half a year. Though this child mostly is the mushi, wearing the child’s body and using it in order to spread its seeds.

But still, what do you do when such a thing happens to you? After all, it still remains your child. It can think. It lives just as a normal human being, only it just grows a lot faster than normal children do. The woman in this case indeed chooses to raise the child, and all of its following successors. Then, however, after a couple of years, the child gets sick, and reaches the point at which it’ll die and at the same time release a huge amount of seeds. It was just too sad to see the parents see and accept the truth.

To make things only better, in the beginning, the first child to die may look like a ten-year old boy, but he still behaves like a little kid. Not being able to talk at all. When the second child is about to die, however, the mushi had gained the ability to speak, so this child got this ability as well. This means that killing off your child already was terrible. But what if you’re about to kill another one of your children, and it really BEGS you not to kill it? It really made for an awesome moment and I totally loved it!

It’s also very interesting to see the difference in reaction when you look at the mother and the father. The father is scared by the truth, but after he thinks about it for a long while, he realizes that there’s no other way, and that he’ll take the responsibility of killing off the rest of the children when they get sick, even though it pains his heart. The mother, however, gets mentally broken when she hears that her children, whom they both raised for three whole years, are about to be killed. She indeed loves her offspring so much, that she decides to not let them be killed, and even goes as far as stabbing Ginko with a large kitchen knife (I loved Ginko’s sarcastical reaction to this, by the way). The father understands the mother’s feelings very well. Even more if you consider her history, and he tries indeed to easen her sadness.

The ending. The ending just totally blew me away. A sad ending is just awesome enough, but the way this ended is just incredible. The mushi gained the ability to think, and also the ability to realize that Ginko’s coming to kill it off. In order to protect its seeds, it kills off the children, turns them into liquid, and burns the house, along with its root. The root turns into a very compact, large round seed. Ginko gives this to the mother, telling her that one day, it’ll awaken again. Though they may not live to experience it. He also, however, collects the liquid that once were the children into a glass bottle, and hides this from the two parents! He takes it along with him, and tells the liquid (it can talk!) that he’ll keep it alive. Still, he must’ve had a very good reason in order to hide a thing like this from the father and mother. Okay, I think Ginko’s merchant-side has something to do with it, but still.

Overall, this was just Mushishi at it’s best. Pure brilliance turned into a story. Mushishi easily makes for one of the best series ever.

Aaaack!!!!

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Okay, I sincerely apologize to anyone who came by here and tried to post a comment. It seems that everyone who made a comment on Star Crossed in the past is fine, but for some reason, people entirely new here are somehow blocked. This really explains why I didn’t get visits from any new commenters out there. Thanks A LOT to Ten for pointing this out. O_o

The story is like this: about a month ago, every anime blogger out there suffered from huge waves of comment spam (you know, the ones at which you got automatically generated comments who were praising your blog). Star Crossed was no other. And even though it managed to catch a lot of them, the spammers soon found a way to bypass the spam blocker: don’t include any links in the post, and keep your name cryptic. This way, tons of those little buggers came through, and I had to delete them manually (I swear, once this year is over and I have enough time for it, I’m going to move to something with Akismet). Of course, I became sick of this, so I started to search for a way for them to be automatically detected by the anti-spam-feature of blogsome. I messed with a couple of settings, and the spamming stopped. But now I see that I seemed to have turned off the entire traffic for newcomers, which SO was NOT supposed to happen.

I’m currently looking into some way to undo this. Let’s hope that the comment spammers won’t return after this. Agh, this is one of the reasons I dislike Blogsome. *kicks random item*

=Update=
Okay, I’ve managed to fix the problem. If you still have problems posting a comment, you can use the shoutbox on the right. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to start moving around the end of june.

xxxHolic – 09 – Pipe Fox

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic



A woman who has a bad habit, her little finger has been stiff, and smoke has been coming out of it. Seems familiar, no? Still, xxxHolic manages to turn it into something worthwile once more. The main theme of the episode is “pinky”, as all of the rituals and symbols introduced have got something to do with the little finger. The red strings of destiny, the “Pinky Swear”, the Pipe Fox who imitated a red string of destiny and the amusement park attraction which involved a guillotine which would attempt to cut two lovers’ embraced pinkys, but missed (sorry if this sounds a bit vague).

The woman in this episode does tell lies, though her real bad habit is running after too many men at the same time, fakely promising them eternal happiness and “manipulating the red strings of destiny”, as Yuuko tells us at the end of the episode. It’s good that the episode only focused on three of these men, instead of trying to show too many at the same time, so the show can focus on the three individuals.

Domeki and Watanuki are also getting more interesting as every episode passes. On the surface, Watanuki dislikes Domeki, and Domeki finds Watanuki weird. But still, the two of them end up taking the same route homewards. Domeki doesn’t turn his mind on something else when Watanuki suddenly runs off, and Watanuki isn’t scared to tell Domeki about things that happened. Oh, and the little dance that the Pipe Fox made Watanuki perform in front of Domeki was hilarious.

Despite all of the themes introduced in the series, I have one small problem with these. Or rather annoyance. As this show is takes place in Japan and is focused at a Japanese audience. This means that only Japanese customs are being dealt with. I’d love to see some habits and symbols from other countries pass the spotlights. There definately is enough material for it. But then again, this show has specialized like no other on the area of spirituality, so it’s also nice to see such an in-depth explanation of them.

Another little detail I loved: Mokona actually drinking almost half a bottle of liquor. Who ever said that cute and fluffy animals couldn’t enjoy themselves? ^^ I’m also wondering about the price that the woman was supposed to give Yuuko. And what was the meaning of the ring? These parts were a bit neglected, unfortunately, though I loved the way the climax was executed. Nothing was said at all, but you knew that if the knife was to go down, it would be hitting, and cutting their fingers off. Overall, I liked this episode. It’s not the best xxxHolic had to show, but I had a really good time watching it.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 09 – Great Moments of Comedy

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



Shiurei is just like Haruhi Fujioka!

Okay, maybe ten times more awesome, but still, the two of them do share the same weakness. They both react in a very different way. Haruhi learned to crawl into a closet and wait till it’s over, while Shiurei sought refuge at Seiran.

In any case, a few things which happened at the previous episode became clear. First: Shiurei didn’t come back because Ryuuki wanted her to. In fact, he doesn’t even know she’s in the palace. She just got a good offer for a job as the masked guy from last episode’s assistant. For some reason, Kouyuu finds it a good idea to keep her existance away from Ryuuki. Ensei also serves this guy. I find this a bit strange. After all, Ensei looks like he’s some kind of war hero. Then why wouldn’t he join the royal army?

We start the episode with Shiurei coming back to the masked guy after running one of his errands. His direct assistant praises her, and then the masked guy calls to her. For some reason, he adresses her with “Kou Shuu”. I guess she decided to use a nickname, but doesn’t this seem to obvious? If I remember correctly, women are not allowed to work in the palace, which was the reason Shiurei had to work as Ryuuki’s wife in the first place. But still, the same rule still applies. Could it be that Shiurei was employed as a man, in order to bypass this little problem? But still, Ryuuki remains smart. Why hasn’t he figured it out yet? I mean, one look at her name and she’s discovered, no? *kicks lack of japanese*

In any case, the masked guy seems to be dealing with a lot of books and paperwork, and he gives Shiurei a lot to do, as there are a lot of piles of books and paper which have to be cleaned up. We then switch to Kouyuu and Ran as she walsk by, carrying a pile of books. The two of them talk a bit. I assume that this was about Shiurei, and how it would be troublesome if she was found out. The reason behind this still remains a mystery until I can get my hands on the subbed version of this episode.

That evening, it seemed that Shiurei asked Ran and Kouyuu to join her, Ensei, Seiran and Shouta for dinner at her home. Ensei doesn’t have too many manners, and Shiurei asks Kouyuu to help her continue her studies. Seiran, meanwhile, notices that Ensei keeps wandering off towards some place, which doesn’t seem to be too smart.

The next day, the masked guy gives Shiurei and Ensei another job of delivering some papers. When they’re done, they complain a bit about the ridiculously hot weather, and they wonder why the masked guy wears a different mask at each different occasion. For some reason, Ensei keeps calling Shiurei a princess. Even though he had yet to be introduced at the time Shiurei played for queen.

A bit later, Shiurei carries a couple of books, and she runs into Ryuuki. It takes a while for him to notice her, so she quickly hides. Ryuuki meanwhile decides that he’s seeing things again. When Ryuuki has left, a random guy pops up from out of nowhere, and offers to carry the books for Shiurei. He introduces himself as a very weird guy, and he seems to be getting all exited over the strangest things. When the two of they say goodbye, he tells her his name. He does this while making a bishie-pose. The combination that he’s no bishie at all, along with the fact that he carries a pile of books turns this into a hilarious sight. His name seems to be “Ojii-san”, by the way. I think he was kidding when he said that…

When Shiurei returns to the masked man’s office, he seems to be sleeping on a couch. Then, a small thunderstorm starts. It doesn’t take too long (about a minute), but it takes long enough for Seiran to be worried about Shiurei, and Shiurei to scream on top of the masked guy while the masked guy tries to comfort her. This doesn’t end up well when the thunder ends and Ensei the masked guy’s direct assistant enter the room, which results in a totally hilarious scene.

That evening, Shiurei’s still worried about what happened, while she studies a bit. Ensei then brings her some onigiri. The two of them then talk a bit about something my horrible Japanese couldn’t understand, while Seiran and Shouta listen from another room. Shiurei knows that the two of them are listening as well, because one of the onigiri looks horribly deformed (Shouta’s work ^^).

The next day, Kouyuu talks to Ryuuki a bit, surrounded by piles and piles of books. The latter really is down because of his lack of seeing Shiurei. He has some kind of plan, but the episode’s not long enough to show this. We then see “Ojii-san” talking to the masked guy without his mask, indeed laughing at his own performance a couple of days earlier. The two of them are up to something. probably they plan to do something to Shiurei as well, in order to break Ryuuki. I couldn’t understand what that might’ve been, though.

We never get to see the masked guy’s eyes and forehead, by the way. Every time we see him in screen, the screen stops around his nose. He probably has something that the viewer must not see at this point in the show. Then their discussion turns light again, as Ojii-san forces the masked guy to put up a horribly ugly mask, and wear it for the rest of the next day. This mask has a very interesting facial expression. While his normal masks are just emotionless, this mask has a very sad look, almost as if it was crying. The masked guy doesn’t seem to happy with this. ^^

The next day, a startled Shiurei gets a demonstration on how this guy manages to drink his tea without putting his mask off. Later that day, the masked guy apparently unmasks Ensei. Or he at least says something that startles Shiurei and Ensei. Kouyuu, meanwhile is wondering about something related to Ryuuki. That night, Ensei gets caught by Seiran while trying to sneak out again. The two of them talk a bit as well.