Aah, I knew it. Ballow had to have some kind of background. When he was a child, he accidentally shot his mother with Kurogane, mistaking her for a burglar. Ever since, she lost her awareness of this world, and only is able to lay awake in bed, without any motion (there has to be some kind of term for this, but it can’t come to my mind). His mother was a good painter, so Ballow thought that he could reach his mother’s heart by making very good pictures. Well, he tried that for about eight years, with still no success. After he chases away a couple of burglars with Kurogane, his mother suddenly reacts again by seeing this oversized pea shooter, she apparently remembers the past incident, and she becomes extremely scared. Well, after all this, it was a piece of cake for Margaret to convert him. Overall, I like this story. It’s so much better than the last episode, and it does give a bit of extra dimension to the fight.
Ballow’s background may have been very pleasantly to see, but what really made my day was what happens afterwards: we finally get to see Kami-sama’s background. We finally get to see a serious side of his, explaining why he organized this tournament in the first place. It seems that the position of Kami-sama changes very rapidly (at least, in terms of heavenly-beings), as it has only been 25 years ago that Kami-sama was appointed to his task. Apparently he had some good connections, as he was just ‘chosen’ by the previous Kami-sama. Anyway, he didn’t really like the huge amount of paperwork, so he takes off. I loved the way his assistant misunderstood Kami-sama’s comments on the Hellions.
Kami-sama apparenly was a human before he got promoted, as he goes back to the human world. There he meets up with a very weird girl. I really like her. I couldn’t believe that the creators would’ve been able to put another unique character in, but apparently, they can. This girl tries to get out of a couple of guys harrassing her, all in Ueki-style of course, fails, and then relies on Kami-sama to protect her, resulting in some very hilarious scenes. Then the girl introduces her and we get another horrible cliffhanger.
After this episode, there are just seven episodes left. I’m expecting the next episode will be reserved for preparations and the rest of Kami-sama’s background, so that means that the grande finale will consist of six episodes. In those six episodes, Rihou gets his lessons, the Ballow team still have some kind of role, Margaret will reveal his plans, Kami-sama fights Margaret, and Anon will be featured in his showdown. In other words: it will be one heck of a final. I am so hoping that the girl introduced in this episode will play a huge role, I’m already fan of her.
Ueki= last name?
or kosuke
I have no idea. I used to believe Ueki was indeed his front name, but this really gave me some doubts. The girl has to be Ueki’s mother, in any case. If Ueki’s his last name, then he just took it over from mother-to-son, instead of father-to-son, but if it’s his front name his father probably named him after his mother, which is a weird thing, to name your son after a girl…
In Japan, you usually called someone by their last name. People would only called someone by their first name if they are extremely familiar with them which usually reserved for family, best friends, and significant others.
That’s why in anime calling someone by their first name is a big deal.
Ah, okay. Thanks for the info. ^_^
I’m so used to living in an environment in which the use of the front name is so lenient. I guess I still have to get used to these Japanese customs.