Short Synopsis: There was indeed someone behind the phenomena in the village, but who?
Highlights: Huge pacing, and yet nothing was rushed.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Whoa! Since when was this series this good? It’s still got the same problems as before: some plot-twists are a bit too coincidental and Ran has a few too elements of a Mary Sue, but damn, this episode had me pumped. It was like a roller-coaster ride from start to finish. In one episode, this series manages to reveal all the mysteries behind the village, and develop both the main characters, side characters and villains a bit.
I also really liked the amount of thought that was put into the “emahikusa”-flowers: they bloom whenever someone laughs, and they seem to be something left behind by a curse of the 13th century. The only strange thing was that the ultimate villain was the same teacher again, who had been messing with the villagers’ memories through mind-control, though at the same time, this episode turned her into more than just a bad guy, and showed a human side to her.
What’s also interesting in this episode was the different ways at which Midori and Rui look at death. Midori is very much straight to the point, and Rui seems to hate that part of her. They’re like two polar opposites, hold together by Ran.
I must say, that Telepathy Shoujo has successfully gone where Allison to Lillia failed. It’s obvious that a lot had to be cut out of the original storyline: the past two episodes contained 270 pages of the original novel. And strangely enough, the creators knew exactly what needed to stay and what needed to be cut out, and left to the viewer’s imagination. I can imagine how the whole story in the 13th century also was described in detail, but I’m perfectly fine of just having to guess what happened back then, and the creators captured the essence of this story: Midori kept acting so indifferent to death, but at the same time she would have died if it wasn’t for Ran’s powers and strong emotions when witnessing her death.
At the same time, there are seven volumes of the original children’s novels that still need to be animated through 21 episodes, meaning three episodes for each arc, which should be a perfect number with this pacing. It’ll allow the creators to take their time, and yet continue with this same addictive pacing.
Didn’t expect that teacher to be part of this one, but was still pretty interesting.
A nice thing to have some disputes within the group. They each have their view on things and in this case it clashed. Rui not wanting the girls to lose their humanity by pushing too hard and Midori willing to do what it takes for results. Ran managed to calm the situation, but do wonder when viewpoints will clash again.
Probably the most emotional we’ll get Rui to sound when Midori died for that short time. In this one whatever powers he has didn’t play much of a role aside from halting Midori’s interrogation of that guy. Some pretty rude flowers doing that to Midori just so Ran would give them the death they wanted.
Still they resolved this one and are still in one piece. Should be interesting to see what comes next.