A Product of Wasted Time

Kakumeiki Valvrave 10

2013-06-18T00:50:00.000-04:00

The student nation runs a presidential election.

Valvrave pilot club has become the old boys' club.

Summary:
Takumi shows L-elf some of the info he gathered on the Valvraves. Instead of having a large military, Jior decided to develop a smaller number of weapons with great power as a deterrent, and thus the entire module was secretly dedicated to the developing the Valvraves. The Valvraves' powers are based on subatomic particles known as Runes, and the red Unit 1 is special as it's the only one who can do the seppuku slash and the only one with the girl avatar. Takumi doesn't know all the details because he was assigned to watching the students who are all specially conditioned to be Valvrave pilot candidates.

Haruto is actively trying to expand his harem.

As the module head towards the moon, Rion, who has been the def-acto representative of the student nation, decides to call an election for a president to represent the nation when the module gets to the moon. Student council president Satomi, Raizou and Rion herself all decide to run and campaign, while L-elf serves as election secretary. Meanwhile, Haruto has a vampire episode and almost attacks Takahi in an elevator if not for Saki's timely kick to the stomach. Takahi is still feeling hot and bothered about Haruto thanks to Saki's prior joyride in Haruto's body. Outside, Saki learns from Haruto that the vampire episodes are becoming more frequent, and she promises to be the one to end Haruto's life is he becomes completely out of control. The two then run into Shouko and Marie, and Saki asks if Shouko is running for president. Despite having a lot of support, Shouko tells everyone she is not running.

At the Dorssia fleet, Cain talks to A-drei, Q-vier and X-eins about the next attack on the module. While the meeting is going on, Kreimheld sneaks into Cain's office but finds H-neun there.

Shouko can give a speech about how the sky up and the floor is down and these mindless sheep would still eat it up.

Back at the module, it's almost time for the candidates to give their speech in front of the student body, and Shouko still hasn't entered the election. Haruto goes to talk to Shouko and finds her at the board with the wishing tags in the woods. Haruto finds out that Shouko had heard news that her father is missing and she has been keeping this to herself all this time. In a moment of bravado, Haruto promises that he would rescue Shouko's dad because Shouko is the most important thing to him. This cheers Shouko enough to convince her to run for president. She enters the election at the last possible moment and makes a mockery of the election speech process by suggesting to hold a cultural festival, and all the kids except Satomi's friends eat it up. Back in the woods, Saki had overheard Haruto and Shouko's conversation and tells Haruto he has no future with Shouko because of his tie to Valvrave. On cue, Haruto has a vampire attack. Saki offers to let Haruto bite her, but instead Haruto forces himself on her and the Valvrave avatar gets all excited about the prospect of sex. Haruto wakes up later and finds himself and Saki mostly naked, and Saki calmly tells him that Shouko had won the election.

Sleeping around is not a good habit to have.

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No action this week, but there were some pretty important plot developments and it didn't involve the crowning of the pink Valvrave pilot. Looks like this is the episode where they really start to take this love triangle thing seriously. Haruto more or less (but not quite completely) declares his loyalty and love for Shouko, but then he goes and bangs Saki. The contrast of the interlaced scenes of Shouko winning the election and Haruto jumping onto Saki was quite good and had some impact. Maybe I should start taking the story a little more seriously... we'll see if the show can carry the seriousness on for a couple more episodes. Of course, Haruto wasn't himself when he forced himself on Saki, but the deed is done, and who knows where Saki will run with this. Saki is a bit of a wildcard, but certainly it won't be good for Haruto if anyone else found out about what happened. The Valvrave program is quite the piece of work, and apparently Haruto is only one who suffers the symptoms because he decided to be the red ranger. Other than Saki, queen bee Tahaki is also a bit hot and bothered by Haruto (thanks to Saki no less). Will Haruto go and attack her as well? We'll have to see what the show is trying to do with Tahaki's character.

As mentioned before, we still don't have our pink ranger quite yet, but people mentioned Akira the hacker girl being the front runner. Since Shouko has won the election and became president to the surprise of no one, Akira is the most likely candidate unless the show decide to put a guy in the pink Valvrave.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S 10

2013-06-15T00:34:00.002-04:00

Mikoto fights Shizuri in a one on one battle.

Mikoto likes to play with dolls.

Somebody just got KTFO for talking to much.

Summary:
Mikoto realizes she is low on juice, so she collects the doll bombs that Frenda left behind. Shizuri is waiting for Mikoto in the large open room before the server room. Mikoto has filled the bombs with metal so she can make them fly at will. Mikoto tries to overwhelm Shizuri with many bombs since Shizuri can only shoot four beams at a time, but she has silicon cards to scatter her beams and blows up most of the doll bombs. Mikoto seemingly only has one left and charges at Shizuri. Mikoto detonates the bomb to use as a smokescreen and she actually had one more bomb which she flies close to Shizuri. Shizuri can't generate a shield fast enough but she is able to deflect Mikoto's lightning used to detonate the bomb. However, while taunting Mikoto, Shizuri doesn't pay attention and Mikoto directs the bomb right into the side of Shizuri's head, knocking her out.

Nice dodge, or bad aim?

Wouldn't be in this situation if you took some precautions about Shizuri waking up.

Mikoto destroys the server room, but returns to find that Shizuri has woken up and is a lot more angrier than before. Shizuri chases Mikoto through the complex. Not having enough power to fight head on, Mikoto leads Shizuri to a walkway over a pit and ignites the tape explosives that Frenda had left as fuses. The walkway is cut to pieces and Mikoto clings on to one of edges with her powers while Shizuri falls. Mikoto sends a cable down for Shizuri because she doesn't want Shizuri to die, but Shizuri knocks the cable away and continues shooting at Mikoto while falling. Shizuri survives the fall by slowing herself down with shooting the beams, but she messes up a knee and can't chase Mikoto anymore. Instead, Shizuri becomes interested in why Mikoto wants to destroy the facility, and so she shows up at the other remaining lab and accosts one of the scientist for the information. Shizuri has a good laugh after reading about the Level 6 Shift project and decides not to bother Mikoto anymore.

Unfortunately for Shizuri, flying isn't one of her powers.

Look at who finally showed up.

Meanwhile, Mikoto is too tired to go after the remaining lab and returns to her hotel room to sleep. The next day, Mikoto scouts out the last remaining lab and finds that no one is there. Mikoto breaks in and finds nobody and all the data has been erased. Mikoto hopes that by forcing the scientists to retreat, the project would be halted. While walking around, Mikoto sees Touma in front of a vending machine and decides to go talk to him.

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That's the end of Mikoto's battle with ITEM. The Level 5 showdown between Mikoto and Shizuri was okay, not as impressive as I had hoped. Running on fumes, Mikoto manages to survive by "outsmarting" Shizuri by using Frenda's leftover explosvies, but neither Mikoto and Shizuri were particularly smart during the fight. I thought Mikoto could have knocked Shizuri silly with the bombs if she would just maneuver the bombs all around Shizuri. Instead, Mikoto leaves the bombs in front of Shizuri which allows Shizuri to use her scatter shot to take out the bombs easily. Mikoto also makes another mistake by not tying or restraining Shizuri in some way after knocking her out. Of course, Shizuri might be tough to restraint due to her power. Killing her would be the easiest thing, but that's not Mikoto's style, and thus Mikoto puts herself in another bad situation. Shizuri of course suffers from the classic cliche villain personality of overconfidence and relentless taunting while not paying attention to her surroundings.

The lab destroying part of the Sisters Arc is done and the project staff have retreated to some other undisclosed location. Mikoto hopes that the experiments have been halted, but those of use who watched Index know that it's not the case. Now that a certain spiky haired Level 0 has shown up, the Sisters Arc has come to the part that has been covered in Index. It'll be interesting to see how the Railgun depiction differs from the Index depiction of the events. We'll probably see more of Mikoto and her buddies and not much of Index I suppose.

Kakumeiki Valvrave 09

2013-06-12T20:54:00.004-04:00

L-elf and the students add some more firepower to their nation.

These two are already BFFs.

Finally there is some defense.

L-elf may be an one-man-army and a master strategist, but he is no match for quick hand of Shouko.

Summary:
L-elf takes over as military and security chief and puts the students through boot camp and comes up with defense and security strategies. Under L-elf's directions, the module is headed for the moon which is neutral territory. L-elf and Haruto also bunk together since they are now best buddies, although L-elf had to knock Haruto out when suddenly Haruto went into vampire mode. Everything is going smoothly except that Raizou keeps trying to get into the yellow Valvrave in order to avenge his dead friend, and Raizou is put into solitary confinement for his behavior. Kyuuma is still hit hard by Aina's death, but he focuses his efforts at becoming a better soldier by repeatedly assembling and disassembling a rifle. Haruto and Shouko are worried about Kyuuma and Shouko wants Haruto to go say something, but at the moment the module comes under attack by Dorssia forces.

We have the Blue Ranger.

We also have the Yellow Ranger.

The fleet commanded by Cain attacks with grunt mechs and long range fire from their ship cannons, but thanks to L-elf the module now has shields to block cannon fire and has point defenses to handle the grunt mechs. Haruto and Saki launch and chase Cain's fleet, but that's what the Dorssia forces want. While Haruto and Saki are tied up by Cain's forces, another fleet commanded by Commodore Manninger attacks the module. The module's shields overload from the attack and the whole module loses power. Kyuuma's point defense turret gets blown up and he retreats into Valvrave bay and finds Raizou who has escaped from jail thanks to the power outage. A confrontation with Raizou leads Kyuuma to realize that he wants to pilot a Valvrave and get vengeance, and so he takes the blue Valvrave out. The blue Valvrave's shields prove durable against Dorssia attacks, and its scatter crossbow makes quick work of the grunt mechs. Ideals from Manninger's fleet show up, but Raizou flies out in the yellow Valvrave to back up Kyuuma, and Raizou uses the Valvrave's many arms to tear up one of the Ideals. Manninger decides to fire the siege cannon on his ship even though his forces are still in the way. Kyuuma goes to block the shot, and in the process he sees a vision of Aina. Kyuuma's blue Valvrave successfully deflects the siege cannon shot, and Kyuuma blasts the command bridge of Manninger's ship, killing the commodore. With Manninger dead, Cain orders the retreat.

Back at the module, Raizou and Kyuuma are given hero's welcomes. The only one not happy is Haruto, who takes a swing at L-elf because of course L-elf ignored Dorssia's obvious diversion tactic on purpose sothat Raizou and Kyuuma would become Valvrave pilots by their own volition. Kyuuma calms Haruto down and reveals during his vision that Aina told him that they would not become a couple. The students then start celebrating their victory and Kyuuma is back in a good mood.

This is not part of the deal! All of the other Valvrave pilots should be girls who will become my harem!

Meanwhile, L-elf confronts Takumi in the lower levels of the module with the partial Valvraves in holding tanks. L-elf knows about Takumi's military background, and Takumi reveals that the entire module, all of the students and other inhabitants were gathered for the purpose of developing the Valvraves.

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L-elf takes over the student nation, and now they actually have much needed defense and security. Of course, L-elf isn't a saint, and he was willing to jeopardize to whole module just so that Kyuuma and Raizou would claim their Valvraves. The episode was mainly about the two new Valvraves joining the robot Power Ranger team, which means there is at least plenty of action. It's no surprise that Raizou and Kyuuma took the pilot seats, and both new Valvraves seem to be pretty overpowered as expected. This goes especially for Kyuuma's blue mech which can block and deflect shots from even giant particle cannons. Its scatter bows also make short work of the grunt mechs. Raizou's yellow Valvrave is more offensively oriented and has lots of arms with can shoot lots of bolts. Kyuuma also stopped being down because Aina somehow dumped during the vision after she died, although at least the Aina wasn't naked in the vision like in so many Gundam series.

Now that four out of five Valvraves have been claimed, the burning question is who is going to be the pink ranger? Unless Valvrave decides to be unconventional, the pink Valvrave will go to a girl, and at this point Shouko seems likes the leading candidate. Her "rival" Saki is a Valvrave pilot, so she might become one to even things up? None of the other girl characters have done much to deserve a spot.

Various other issues came up in this episode. Apparently the girl in the Valvrave OS need the pilots to bite people so she can feed. I guess L-elf and the other non pilot students had better watch out. The whole module turns out to be a giant facility made for developing the Valvraves, and Takumi will probably explain in the next episode. However, the Valvraves are developed, the Dorssia commander Cain is interested in the technology and has his own agenda, but his second in command Kriemhild has taken notice and might start doing something about it. Maybe Valvrave is finally going to become serious, but I hope it does stupid stuff from time to time so I have something to make fun of.

One Piece 711

2013-06-12T16:58:00.000-04:00

Robin find herself captured by the dwarfs.

I wonder how Sanji would react if he saw this.

Summary:
Robin wakes up and finds herself stitched to the ground and tiny dwarfs scrounge all over her body to trying to find valuables. Robin caught a dwarf, but then she and Usopp were knocked out by some plants and now they are in the dwarf kingdom of Tontatta underneath the surface of Green Bit. The dwarfs are suspicious of Robin and wants her stuff, but they are quite trusting and untie Robin when Robin says she means no harm. After finding out that her Denden Mushi has been returned to the wild and rendered useless, Robin tries to leave but the dwarfs are unwilling to let her go if she didn't leave them a weapon or her clothes. Since Robin doesn't have a weapon, the dwarfs try to strip Robin but then a dwarf named Flappy tells the other dwarfs that Robin is a companion of Usopp who somehow convinced the dwarfs that he is some hero.

Meanwhile, in Acacia Zoro is running around carrying the dwarf Wicca who had tried to steal Zoro's swords. Wicca twisted his ankle and was caught by Zoro. Wicca begs Zoro to take him to the flower fields because he needs to inform his captain that the Donquixote Family is going to attack Straw Hat's ship. Zoro wants to go back to the ship but he has no sense of direction, so he has to carry Wicca to the flower fields first.

At the coliseum, Rebecca looks out the window and sees Franky and the Toy Soldier leaving the arena. With tears in her eye, Rebecca calls out to Toy Soldier and promises to win the tournament and afterwards she and Toy Soldier can live together, but Toy Soldier doesn't want to linger and tells Franky to keep moving.

Back at Green Bit, Law is waiting for Robin and Usopp to return, but he gets a call from Sanji instead telling him that Doflammingo didn't really quit being a Shichibukai and never had any intention to deal with Law. Sanji tells Law to get off the island, but it's too late as Doflammingo and the Marines led by Fujitora are on their way.

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Law's plan is not going so smoothly, but we all expected this to happen. It sounds like that instead of quitting Shichibukai when threatened by Law, Doflammingo may have went to the Marines for help to deal with Law and Straw Hat, and now Law might be running into Doflammingo and the Marines earlier than he had wanted. Doflammingo is banking on the fact that he can at least get Caesar back to continue his black market operations, and we'll have to see how Law responds. We also have to see how Sanji has gotten this important piece of intel. Meanwhile, Robin, Usopp and Zoro are all dealing with dwarfs, and Franky is still the only person who's on task about destroying the factory. Lots of stuff going on right now and things are about to get messy, but too bad One Piece will be on break once again next issue.

Bleach 541

2013-06-12T15:49:00.001-04:00

Ichigo talks to fake Zangetsu in the inner world.

Yup, another power up for Ichigo.

Summary:
Ichigo is drawn into his inner world to take to fake Zangetsu. Ichigo demands to know what Fake-getsu is up to, and Fake-getsu explains that he is the representation of Quincy power inside of the Ichigo. Fake-getsu only allowed Ichigo to use his hollow powers in times of need because he didn't want Ichigo to become a shinigami. Fake-getsu had planned to kill Ichigo if Ichigo ever became a shinigami, but he saw how awesome Ichigo is and now decides to step back. Fake-getsu draws a sword and fades away, and his voice tells Ichigo that the sword he left behind is the real Zangetsu.

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The translation to all this is that Ichigo is getting another power up, and he didn't have to fight fake-Zangetsu Bach. So apparently all this time (including the time that he beat Aizen), Ichigo hasn't been using the full extent of his shinigami powers. Bleach is indeed all about the power-ups, and Ichigo is getting yet another one, accompanied by brand new sword and look. I have a feeling Ichigo will some more before the series is done. Ichigo's shinigami powers should get a big boost, but I wonder if he'll incorporate his Quincy powers as well. Maybe the Quincy powers will just be for defense and preventing Bach's forces from stealing his bankai?

Naruto 634

2013-06-12T11:07:00.001-04:00

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura attack the Juubi with the help of their beastie summons.

So Naruto's job is to fan Sasuke's flames?

Summary:
Naruto is surprised that he summoned Gamakichi by Gamakichi has gotten bigger and ready to fill the role of his dad. Sakura actually summoned Katsuyu, and she tells Katsuyu to split up and heal the other shinobis. Naruto tells Gamakichi to leap towards Juubi's main body, while Sasuke tells his giant snake to slither through the Juubi clones. The clones try to stop Naruto by throwing spears but Gamakichi parries them away. The clones also erect a wall to stop Sasuke and Sasuke cuts through it with Susanoo. Naruto and Sasuke then combine a Wind Shuriken with a Susanoo arrow into a swirling black arrow that hits the Juubi. Sasuke then commands the black flames to consume the Juubi.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru, Suigetsu and Karin arrive (to check on Tsunade and the Kages?).

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Team 7 continue to show off their moves and Sasuke and Naruto manage to hit the Juubi. Is this the end of the fight? Of course not. Madara is still sitting pretty, and Obito and Kakashi are still battling in eyehole land. I doubt the Juubi will go down so easily either, although at this point it's hard to say who is going to be the final boss. I was confused by the last page, which has Orochimaru commenting on Tsunade. Did his group go check on the living Kages. Tsunade might still be in two pieces, and maybe that explains why Sakura was able to summon Katsuyu and has the mark on her forehead?

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S 09

2013-06-11T00:20:00.000-04:00

Mikoto battles Shizuri Mugino and the members of ITEM, while Shinobu tries to install a program into the Misaka clones.

Wouldn't be a big fight without some explosions.

Summary:
Shizuri Mugino, the 4th strongest Level 5 in Academy City, and Rikou Takitsubo of ITEM appear to take over the fight from Frenda. Mikoto attacks by throwing metal objects and firing lightning, but Shizuri deflects the lightning and obliterates the thrown objects with her Meltdowner power. Mikoto senses that she's at a disadvantage and escapes the room by blowing up a steam pipe, but Rikou can pinpoint Mikoto's location with her AIM Stalker ability.

You are under arrest for trespassing and daydreaming while trespassing.

Meanwhile, Shinobu takes advantage of the lax security at the other lab and finds her way into the command console room. Shinobu starts installing a program that would give the Misaka Clones more human emotions. Shinobu isn't sure if this will make a difference, but she hopes that perhaps the researchers and Accelerator would start seeing the clones as humans and not experimental guinea pigs. Suddenly, Shinobu is apprehended by Saiai from ITEM and two henchmen. Shinobu's program completes installation, but it is blocked from propagating through the Misaka Network by a a certain chibi Misaka clone. Shinobu grabs a pistol from one of Saiai's henchmen and shoots at Saiai, but Saiai blocks the bullet with her level 4 Offense Armor ability. Saiai then knocks out Shinobu and has her henchmen carry Shinobu out of the room.

Mikoto can also play the deflection game.

Back at the other lab, Mikoto is running around the hallways at random, but she is getting worn out from having to constantly dodge Shizuri's beams and Frenda's bombs, thanks to Rikou's ability to locate her. Mikoto is running on fumes, but she figures out that she can sense and deflect Shizuri's beams. Shizuri also figures out who she's up against, and she decides to go an wait for Mikoto to come to her and tells Rikou (who is straining from the taking the pills for her AIM Stalker ability) and Frenda (who is still hurt from the shock) to go meet up with Saiai.

Somebody is trying to beat Telestina for craziest face.

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I'm always happy to see another episode with lots of action. The start with Mikoto jumping around and tossing stuff at Shizuri looked great. The rest of the episode wasn't as exciting because Mikoto was running around and trying not to get fried, but it's still action and action is always appreciated. I wonder why it took so long for ITEM to figure out who they are up against. There probably aren't that many electro-masters with the power to not only fire powerful lightning but to levitate and buck heavy metal pieces at will. In fact, Mikoto is probably the only one. The battle between the 3rd and 4th ranked Level 5s will surely prove to be interesting especially since Mikoto and Shizuri's powers are related and each can counter the other. Mikoto's disadvantage is that she is gassed, but her powers are flexible. At this point, Mikoto will have to use some brains to beat back Shizuri.

As for Shinobu, she made a commendable effort to change the fate of the Misaka Clones, but unfortunately her attempt was doomed to fail from the start as the Misaka Network has security in place. I wonder what will happen to Shinobu now that she has been captured. The people behind the Level 6 Shift project probably aren't too happy with Shinobu's attempt to sabotage the whole thing.

Sekirei 145

2013-06-09T23:44:00.001-04:00

Kaho battles Karasuba while Orihiko remembers how he and Kaho met.

Cute-girl-phobia... a lot of guys have that.

Summary:
Kaho shows off some moves against Karasuba and prompts Karasuba to take her a little more seriously. Benitsubasa jokingly mentioned if she should step in and help, and Karasuba tells Benitsubasa that Kaho is her prey. From the sidelines, Orihiko remembers how he met Kaho. Orihiko is a skilled hacker who was bored with his student life and hacked company networks for fun. He has seen Kaho standing in the street looking for an Ashikabi to take her. Kaho sees Orihiko and wants him to be her Ashikabi, but Orihiko didn't understand and ran off. Back home, Orihiko actually hacked into MBI's network and found out about the Sekirei Plan, but he went a little too far and was found out by MBI. Orihiko gets a call from Minaka who decides to let Orihiko off the hook for hacking due to Orihiko's "talent". The next day, Orihiko spots Kaho in the street again and hides to avoid her. It starts raining, and Kaho doesn't have an umbrella and gets wet.

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We wait over a month for a new chapter, and the series is stalling once again with another flashback. I want to see Kaho fight Karasuba goddamnit!. I suppose we should know a little about Orihiko and Kaho's story since it's likely that Karasuba will send them packing from the competition, but a two chapter flashback for two minor characters seems like stalling to me. I suppose we should all be used to this by now though.

Neon Genesis Evangelion 94-2 to 96 (Final Chapter)

2013-06-09T15:15:00.001-04:00

The NGE manga has finally reached its conclusion after 18 years of sporadic serialization. This post include the contents of chapter 94 part 2, 95 and the last chapter 96. Does the manga have the same ending as the End of Evangelion movie? Keep on reading if you want the spoilers.

Will Shinji choose Rei or Asuka? Will Shinji finally stop being a pussy? Will everyone come back and start singing a song? So many questions, so little time.

Summary:
In the inner world, Rei thanks Shinji for being a part of her life but states that it's time for goodbye. Rei then explodes in front of Shinji

Back in the material world, Lilith/giant Rei loses her wings and spews a stream of LCL from a wound on her neck. As Lilith falls backwards, EVA Unit-01 emerges from her left pupil. Unit 01 rises above Lilith and sprouts massive wings of light and the Black Moon explodes. Unit 01 retrieves the Spear of Longinus as the replica spears from the massed produced EVAs disappear, and Lilith/giant Rei explodes into a shower of LCL. The mass produced EVAs then fall to the Earth in their crucifix position as Unit 01 rises further away from the Earth.

Shinji emerges from the sea and hears the voice of his mother. Yui tells Shinji that life can keep on existing, and people have the choice to return to their human form if they want. Shinji asks what Yui is going to do, and Yui states that she will keep an eye on him from a distance, no matter how many times Shinji dies and is reborn. Shinji emerges from a body of water and sees an image of Yui and Gendo standing on shore beside a tree, and they tell Shinji to keep on living. Shinji then bids goodbye to his parents.

Some time later, Shinji walks through the snow to a train station bound for Tokyo. Shinji is going to Tokyo to take the entrance exam to a high school there, and at the train station, two of Shinji's friends (different from the people before the Third Impact) come by to say goodbye to him. During the train ride, Shinji sees the giant cross shaped stone objects formed from the mass produced EVAs, although the society that Shinji lives in does not know about the EVAs. At the crowded station where Shinji gets off the train, Shinji bumps into Asuka and then Kensuke, neither of whom know who Shinji is. Shinji is amused by the encounters, and decides to head out and live out his own life.

THE END

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That was a pretty interesting ending mainly in that it was different than what End of Evangelion had shown, although there is no difference that was truly shocking. Not surprisingly, the ending doesn't answer all the questions, but it does show in a concrete way that humanity is continuing on after Shinji's rejection of Instrumentality. Rei and Yui aren't coming back, but Shinji, Asuka and most of the human population are reborn. Shinji seems to be the only one who has memories of what really happened, and he may have been the one who decided that everyone else should forget about the EVAs, angels and associated memories. I suppose this is a more encouraging ending than End of Evangelion as the world functions as normal once again and Shinji is in the process of carving out his own future. There is no complete happy ending since Rei might be gone forever, but this is probably as happy of an ending as Evangelion would produce.

Overall, the NGE manga was an interesting read. I mainly read it just to see if it would differ from the anime versions, and I'm satisfied with the ending.

One Piece 710

2013-06-06T00:24:00.000-04:00

The Caesar handover team to the handover site at Green Bit island.

Getting up close to the local wildlife.

Summary:
In the tunnels of the coliseum, Bartolomeo overhears Luffy talking to Bellamy and Bellamy referring to Luffy as Straw Hat.

The Caesar handover team make their way towards the drop site of Green Bit on the steel bridge, but they are under attack by a school a big angry fighting fish. The bridge had collapsed at one point, and a fighting fish is charging onto the bridge but it is speared and netted by a group of unknown people on the other side of the gap that Law and the others can't see. The group eventually make Caesar fly them over to the island, and Law has Caesar's heart in a cube to prevent Caesar from trying to do escape.

The team arrive at the island and find it to be covered in a dense jungle of giant plants and flowers. The island's shores are littered with shipwrecks. The group then discover a Marine ship lodged into some plants and they see that the ship has arrived recently, and so Law sends Usopp and Robin to scout out the island. Robin and Usopp venture into the forest and they find a group of Marines talking to someone hidden in the plants. The Marines refuse to give up their weapons, and whoever was hiding quickly strips the Marines of their weapons and clothing. The being is too fast for Usopp and Robin to follow, but Robin lays a trap with hundred of hands and catches one of the "dwarfs".

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Luffy's identity at the coliseum competition is not much of secret anymore, and now even Bartolomeo knows that Luffy is here. I'm sure that everyone will figure it out when Luffy fights and wins his block. Most of the chapter though focused on the handover team consisting Law, Usopp, Robin and the hostage Caesar. The fights in the coliseum were pretty good, but I suppose the series need to check on the other characters. Caesar seems to be becoming Usopp's comedic buddy in being scared and concerned about everything. In contrast, Law seems to be brooding while Robin is cool as usual. The team managed not to catch the attention of the CP0 agents running about in Dressrosa, but there are Marines and apparently lightning fast dwarfs on the island. I'm not sure if Law wanted the Marines there on Green Bit or not, but having Marines around will certainly make the handover more messy and more fun to read for us.

Bleach 540

2013-06-05T21:08:00.000-04:00

Nimaiya starts forging Ichigo's new zanpukto and reveals some important facts.

Someone has their serious face on.

Summary:
Nimaiya's five helpers show up and the group and Nimaiya start doing some wacky stuff (including one of the helpers pulling out her tooth.. ewww) in order to forge Ichigo's asuchi into a new zanpukto. Nimaiya (now with glasses and has a serious look on his face) tells Ichigo that his inner hollow forging with his shinigami powers has been his zanpukto all along. This means that the being Ichigo knew as old man Zangetsu was actually the younger form of Yhwach (the Quincy King who was formerly known as Juha Bach?)!!!

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The plot twists in Bleach never ceases to amaze. In his own bizarre and random way, Kubo's storytelling is ingenius lolol. I'm impressed if Kubo actually planned ahead that far into the series. Zangetsu is actually Yhwach... who would have thought? Now that they put the pictures together though, Zangetsu and the current Yhwach do look alike. We knew that Ichigo's inner hollow was related to his zanpukto, so the question is what was Yhwach's young version doing pretending to be Ichigo's zanpukto? Maybe Yhwach has spent the whole series setting Ichigo up for something? Time for Nimaiya and his helper to give the answer in another utterly bizarre fashion. Maybe someone will pry off their fingernail this time... that tooth-pulling thing was unexpectedly disturbing.

Naruto 633

2013-06-05T19:54:00.001-04:00

Naruto and friends show off some moves against Juubi's mini-clones.

Time for a little "Walk the Dog" demonstration.

Summary:
Not content on letting Team 7 hog the spotlight, the other ninjas from Konoha get to work showing off some moves. Sai jumps in and tries to attack Juubi's main body but gets shot down and caught by Naruto. Sai points out that the Juubi clones are multiplying and they need to break through to attack the real body, and in response, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke summon a giant toad, slug and snake respectively.

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A chapter just to remind us that Naruto's Konoha friends are still around and are not completely useless. Actually, the Ino-Shika-Cho giant yoyo attack was pretty cool. Still there is not much else happening other than people showing off some moves. The main trio of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura made their summons. It's kind of interesting that Sasuke is still sticking with the snakes and Sakura actually has a giant slug summon. The slug is probably not Katsuyu since Tsunade probably is getting Katsuyu to heal up all the Kages. We still haven't heard from that group. Anyways, maybe Sakura will become the slug sage hahaha. We'll see how well three summons work against the army of Juubi clones. I'd think that with the fox chakra Naruto would summon a lot more toads.

Kakumeiki Valvrave 08

2013-06-04T00:53:00.000-04:00

The Dorssia forces attack the module again and the student decide if they want L-elf's help.

Why are we so goddamned useless? Why?

Summary:
L-elf has a dream of when he was young, he escaped from a prison and was being hunted by soldiers. During his escape, he ran into a princess of the country and held her hostage when the soldiers surrounded him. L-elf wakes up and finds himself strapped to a table by the students. L-elf looks at someone's watch and declares that the student's nation will be destroyed in six hours unless Haruto makes the pact with him. Haruto and the rest of the student then learn of Aina's death. Aina's death puts everyone in a depressed mood. Kyuuma is affected the most and wants to pilot a Valvrave to get revenge, but Takumi stops him because Takumi needs to investigate the robots further.

That was a good nap. I wanted to sleep more but now I have save your sorry behinds.

The Dorssia forces launch another attack and A-drei is in charge. In space, the Dorssia stick with their restraining boomerang strategy and this works well against both Haruto and Saki. A-drei and a team of soldiers also invade the module and they commandeer a few Jior naval ships and starts bombarding the school from the sea. Student council president Satomi and the other students wants to use L-elf to bargain, but L-elf states that the only way to save the module is for Haruto to agree to a pact. Haruto and Saki are getting beat up in space, and so Haruto calls in and agrees to the deal with L-elf in exchange for saving everyone on their side. L-elf agrees and calmly releases himself from the table and starts giving Haruto instructions. L-elf orders Haruto to drag his and Saki's Valvrave to a specific point beside the module and to shoot the module. Haruto complies, and water from the sea in the module starts spilling into space which cool off the Valvraves and peel off the boomerangs. The draining of the sea also causes waves that destabilizes A-drei's naval ships. Haruto then waits for his Valvrave to charge its meter to 666, and L-elf sorties in a fighter to hold off H-neun and X-ein. L-elf ends up crashing his fighter into X-ein's Ideal and gets dumped into space. Haruto finishes charging, and per L-elf's instructions Haruto uses the seppuku slash to destroy one of Dorssia's capital ships.

Car wash in space.

Yay for Team Friendship.

In space, L-elf runs low on oxygen and continues his dream. During the hostage situation, the young princess tells the soldiers to spare L-elf and cuts off some of her hair as to share half of her life with L-elf. L-elf wakes up and finds the Haruto has picked him up with the Valvrave.

Even though the attack failed and a ship was lost, Dorssia commander Cain is quite happy with the developments since he thinks the Valvraves are key to eternal life for his kind.

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Looks like the students finally figured out that being an independent nation is not all fun and games, especially when a hostile larger nation keeps on attacking. Aina died, but I'm not really sure if that did anything significant other than make Kyuuma very eager to become a Valvrave pilot. I'm not surprised that Haruto ends up taking the deal, since it's been apparent that the students are ill prepared for the continuous attacks from the Dorssia forces. Nobody is on guard, and most have little to no combat skills. Most of the student also don't do anything helpful in particular, and the fact that they didn't even bother to look for the naval ships or fighters means that their only option for survival was to deal with L-elf. In typical L-elf fashion, L-elf outsmarts his former comrades and brings victory to the students, although I'm not sure what happened to A-drei's group in the episode. Having L-elf the one-man-army will certainly help, but it's probably not the best idea to give him too much power. L-elf would rather deal with Haruto this episode, while Shouko seems to be getting on the nerves student council president Satomi. Of course, since Satomi doesn't do anything useful, this will probably end up not mattering much.

We get some probably important details in this episode. So the girl in the picture that L-elf has is the Dorssia princess who saved L-elf's life, and the Dorssia commander Cain is some weirdo who wants the Valvrave technology for eternal life and maybe something more. I guess L-elf's goal is to start a revolution in Dorssia for his beloved princess. We'll see how well that goes since most of the students don't seem to be much help. The next logical step (if such a thing exists in this show) is of course to find pilots for the remaining Valvraves, and it looks like the blue one will be debuting next week. Don't know why L-elf would allow only one new Valvrave to be activated, but I suppose the show needs to have one debut per episode to fill up space.

To Love-Ru Darkness 32

2013-06-03T20:45:00.004-04:00

Rin becomes possessed by the bloodthirsty sword Bladix and attacks Rito and friends.

Time for Rito to pay for his sins.

Summary:
Mikan is at her father's place cooking dinner and showing off her maid costume when Zastin gets news that something dangerous had arrived on Earth. Back in Saki's mansion, Momo is teasing Rito about groping Rin when Rin attacks with them with a dark sword. Yami intervenes and the fight spills to the outside where Nana and Mea are. Yami and Mea identify the sword as the cursed sword Bladix, which is an experimental sword with a parasitic intelligence that is powered by blood made long time ago somewhere in the galaxy. Anyone possessed by sword will fight to the death to feed the sword's insatiable thirst for blood. Rin attacks everybody and scatters the group. Nana gets stripped naked by Rin's attacks and is saved by Rito and Yami, but Rito ends up getting hit by Nana because he accidentally groped her.

Back inside the mansion, Saki and Aya wonder why the study is a mess when Zastin shows up out of nowhere. Zastin is looking for Bladix but Saki is too busy fangirling for him. Zastin hears the fighting outside and dashes towards that direction.

Yami and Rin fight evenly. Yami had tried to knock the sword out of Rin's hands but hasn't succeeded, so she decides to use more force and forms a giant gauntlet on her right arm. However, Mea advises against forcefully destroying the sword because Rin's mind may be linked to the sword, and destroying sword might destroy Rin's mind. Rito then requests that Mea use her ability to link him to Rin and he'll free Rin's consciousness from Bladix's possession.

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I thought Rito would finally pay for his flop groping sins by getting cut up by Rin lol. It seems like Bladix is also a perverted blade in addition to being a bloodthirsty one, since the cuts that landed resulted in naughty bits being exposed. It's going to strip the girls before it moves in for the kill haha. Joking aside, this little story directly involves quite of a few of the To Love characters. Rito, Yami, Mea, Nana, Momo, Rin, Aya, Saki and Zastin are on scene. I wonder what sort of the role Zastin, Saki and Aya will play in this mini-arc. It's obvious from the end of the chapter that Rito is trying to get some good will from Rin and by extension Saki and Aya. Rito will probably succeed, but I'm sure he'll wipe it out with some more flop grope. The question is how did a cursed alien blade end up being bought by Saki's father, but that may not be an important detail.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S 08

2013-06-02T01:30:00.000-04:00

Mikoto tries to destroy one of the remaining research facilities and battles the hired protection, while Shinobu infiltrates the other remaining lab.

Ugh, annoying cuteness.

I'm the master of electricity and electromagnetism. These stairs are metal. You blow up the stairs, then I make my own stairs.

Summary:
The Academy City underground group ITEM consisting of Shizuri Mugino, Frenda Seivelun, Rikou Takitsubo and Saiai Kinuhata is hired to protect the remaining two research facilities associated with the Level 6 Shift project. Frenda decides to guard one facility by herself because she wants more of the pay for the job. Mikoto happens to attack the facility that Frenda is guarding, and Frenda has booby-trapped the whole place with plushie bombs and tape fuses lining the walls and the floor. Frenda tries to blow up Mikoto, drop debris on Mikoto and blow the stairs from underneath Mikoto, but Mikoto powers through and forces Frenda to retreat into her final room.

Girls fight by pulling hair, right?

Mikoto needs to sink in the hooks in order to secure the choke.

Inside the room, Frenda tries dropping bombs all around Mikoto, but Mikoto bucks the metal floor to render Frenda's fuses useless. Mikoto gets overzealous and gets stunned by a flashbang. Frenda attacks with missiles from her skirt, but Mikoto dodges because she can see the metal structure of the room via the electromagnetic fields. Mikoto corners Frenda again, but then Frenda releases a bunch of gas into the room saying that the gas is explosive. This stops Mikoto from using electric attacks which allows Frenda to gets some blows in. However, Mikoto gets a second wind after thinking about the Level 6 project and gets Frenda in a rear-naked choke. Frenda manages to shake Mikoto off, but she drops her lighter which lights a fuse and signals to Mikoto that the explosive gas was a lie. With Frenda out of tricks, Mikoto shocks Frenda into submission and tells Frenda to spill all she knows about the people who hired her. Frenda wants to talk, but her tongue is still numb from the shock. At this moment, Shizuri Mugino shoots a ray through a wall to force Mikoto away from Frenda, and Shizuri and Rikou appear from the hole that the ray had created.

Mommy...

Bad girls reinforcements have arrived.

At the other remaining lab, Shinobu is summoned by the researchers for help moving their stuff and data. The researchers want Shinobu to take the blame if something goes wrong with the move, but instead Shinobu uses the opportunity to sneak into the heart of the laboratory.

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Mikoto finally runs into some resistance in her attacks on the facilities and this brings some action back to the series. It was a decent fight as Frenda is a resourceful and tricky combatant, but Mikoto could have ended the fight much earlier if she wasn't so careless and if she really wanted to hurt/kill Frenda. Mikoto isn't too used to fighting cunning opponents and Frenda took advantage for a bit especially during the fake explosive gas segment. However, Mikoto has quite the fighting spirit, and the difference in power between her and Frenda is very large. Frenda has an annoying personality, so I'm glad that Mikoto finally caught her and scared her shitless. Mikoto probably won't be able to brute force her way past the powerful Shizuri Mugino though. It should be a pretty entertaining fight.

On the other side, Shinobu is sneaking into the other research facility, which is probably a good thing since Mikoto is going to be tied up fighting ITEM. Since Shinobu doesn't have Mikoto's powers, she'll have to take a much more covert approach. We'll have to see how she is going to take down the facility though.

Rosario + Vampire II 64

2013-06-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

Moka battles Gyokuro.

Perfect form on that kick.

Summary:
Moka lands her patented roundhouse on Gyokuro, but Gyokuro eats it and regenerates and uses her tentacles to bind Moka. Gyokuro transforms due to her merging with Alucard and tries to finish Moka, but her body suddenly freezes. Touhou Fuhai appears after having deposed of "Issa Shuzen" who was actually the 2nd division leader in disguise. Touhou explains to Gyokuro that the rosary is not used to control Alucard, but it is a link between Moka and Akasha. The reason why Alucard can be "controlled" is because Akasha was absorbed into Alucard, but Gyokuro is fool to think that Akasha would harm Moka. Moka goes to take the rosary off of Gyokuro's neck. Gyokuro points out that the fortress is crashing into the human city in order to buy time, but Touhou already got news from the demon bus driver that the situation is under control. Moka takes back the rosary and returns to her Outer Moka persona, and Gyokuro is eaten by Alucard.

Elsewhere on the flying fortress, Kahlua says her last words to Kokoa. Kahlua tells Kokoa that their mother Gyokuro loved her too, but Gyokuro treated Kokoa badly because of her jealousy towards Akasha. Kahlua asks Kokoa for forgiveness and dies, and Kokoa cries over Kahlua's body.

Tsukune, Ruby, Yukari and Fong-Fong finds Moka and Touhou, and Tsukune and Moka share an emotional embrace. Suddenly, the Masked King appears and takes out Touhou, and he tells Tsukune and Moka that they did exactly according to his plan.

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And the final boss appears. While Gyokuro has met her end, the Masked King makes his appearance. Apparently everything that has went down was according to his plan, and we'll have to see what his final goals are. I'm guessing he'll try to use Moka and maybe even Tsukune to control Alucard? As for Gyokuro, she was too tied up in her jealousy and hate for Akasha and Moka that she lost ther cool. Merging with Alucard ends up being a fatal mistake, and she dies still hating Moka and Akasha. Kahlua also bit the dust as well, which couldn't be helped. Even if she wasn't vengeful like Gyokuro, Kahlua is a killing machine and Kokoa's group had to put a stop to her. One more question emerging from this chapter is that since the "Issa" that was helping Gyokuro is a fake, where is the real Issa Shuzen?

Claymore 139

2013-05-31T18:59:00.000-04:00

The warriors in the Holy City battle Europa.

So many more names to remember.

Summary:
Europa charges into Rabona and starts flailing her tentacles everywhere looking for human guts. The warriors try to fend off the tentacles but some tentacles reach the soldiers hiding inside the city. Above the battle, Dietrich and Galatea have a chat while standing on top of Anastasia's hair strands and they agree to have a drink afterwards. Dietrich heads off to battle, and Galatea heads off to check on Clarice and Miata. Galatea plans to make Miata awaken and then have Clarice and herself keep Miata under control.

Back in the forest, Miria's group sense Miata awakening in the city, but they are still tied up by Cassandra's Dust-Eating attacks. Out on the field, Riful 2 and Priscilla are still smashing each other. Rubel and Dae continue to watch from their perch, and Dae observes that with each attack Riful 2 is absorbing Priscilla's life force and using it to repair herself. Since Priscilla is using to dodging due to her extreme regeneration, Riful 2 is using this fact to keep the fight very close.

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Looks like all of the current generation warriors added together isn't quite enough to hold off Europa, and so Galatea is going to take a page out of the Organization's experiment book and attempt to control an awakened Miata with Clarice's help. Awakening does offer a vast increase in power, but the risk is pretty high too if Galatea and Clarice can't control Miata. Miata is a no. 4 who has a lot of potential, so she is going to be quite the powerful Awakened Being. I found it funny that Dietrich was chatting and doing work in this chapter, but seems like she has a little bit of history with Galatea (that I don't remember).

Not much else new going on in the other fronts. Riful 2 is using Priscilla's regeneration to stay in the fight, and this will probably make Priscilla more concerned about dodging attacks. Priscilla has never had to dodge any attacks since she can regenerate so fast, and we'll see if she can adjust. Meanwhile, Clare and company still haven't solved the Cassandra puzzle yet. There was also only one panel of Clare which was disappointing. It's time for Clare to show off some more new moves and take back the spotlight.

Gantz 381

2013-05-31T18:14:00.002-04:00

Didn't notice this chapter getting released two weeks ago. So in chapter 381, Kurono's Tokyo team friends join the fray against the long hair alien.

Good guys always gang up on the bad guy.

Summary:
Kurono goes for the finishing vertical slash, but the long alien dodges and sends Kurono flying with a back kick. The alien then tries to stomp Kurono into a splatter but the slightly-crazy looking blond guy from the Tokyo Team (don't remember their names, not particularly important) comes and starts punching the alien's legs. The guy and the alien exchange some attacks and the alien cuts the blond guy in the shoulder. The rest of the Tokyo Team except Kato and Yamasaki start attacking the alien with swords and guns. Yamasaki doesn't want Kato to join the fight, but Kato doesn't answer. Kurono checks on the blond guy and the blond guy dies, and Kurono starts crying.

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Looks like Kurono can't win the fight and hog all the glory to himself, but humans don't play fair and the rest of the Tokyo Team join the fight. The rest of the Gantzers probably should have ganged up on the long hair alien anyways when he threatened to crash the ship into Earth. Kato will join the fight, and the Tokyo Team will kill the alien, but the question (as always with Gantz) is that who is going to die in the process? The crazy looking blond guy whose name I do not remember died already. Gantz has too many characters, and it's hard to keep track of the names especially for the not so important characters.

Deadman Wonderland 56

2013-05-29T22:59:00.001-04:00

Ganta and Shiro fight it out in Deadman Wonderland.

Hard to say if this is going to end well or not.

Summary:
Ganta and Shiro jump out of the Ferris Wheel and starts attacking each other with their Branches of Sin, causing widespread damage to the playground. Back on the submarine, Makina and the other continue reading Sorae's journal and they learn about Shiro being a substitute for Ganta. Back in the prison amusement park, Ganta confesses that he loved Shiro, and Shiro tells him that if he likes her then he'll grant her wish. The fight goes from ranged attacks into hand to hand combat, and the whole prison starts to come apart and sink.

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Shiro and Ganta start their final battle and neither holds a large advantage over the other. I'm surprised at how well Ganta is faring since I thought Shiro would be more destructive, but Ganta is hanging in there blow by blow. It's possible that Shiro is not fighting at her hardest because she wants to give Ganta an opportunity to kill her, and also Ganta's Branch of Sin is made specifically to counter hers. At this point, there isn't much else to reveal, and the only thing left is to see the conclusion of this fight. With the story the way it is, Ganta, Shiro, or even both of them might not make it to the end of the series.

Bleach 539

2013-05-29T22:38:00.000-04:00

Ichigo and other shinigami continue their preparations for the next battle against the Quincies.

Listen carefully; I'm going to teach our clan's secret technique of rolling over and begging for a treat.

Summary:
At the 12th Division lab, Agon and some of the officers peek into Mayuri's private quarters with a hidden camera and they see Mayuri and Nemu ~~having sexy time~~ making something disturbing. Meanwhile, Sui-Feng has left her vice captain Omaeda behind to train on her own. Back in the cave, Komamura asks his great-grandfather the giant dog to teach him the secret technique of his clan. Komamura's great-grandfather laughs and plans to do nothing and let the shinigamis and Quincies fight it out. Great-grandpa warns that he will wipe Komamura out if Komamura wants to disturb the peace of the clan, and Komamura is ready for the fight.

Back at the Phoenix Palace, Nimaiya, Ichigo and Ichigo's asuchi fall into a pool, and then Nimaiya tells Ichigo that it's time to say goodbye to Zangetsu.

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Say goodbye to Zangetsu? I'm going to guess that Ichigo will say goodbye to the old Zangetsu and get a new and improved version of Zangetsu once he is done with Nimaiya's palace. Ichigo and everyone else is going through their preparations and trying to get power ups before the Quincies show up again. Mayuri's Frankenstein project might prove interesting, while Komamura had better learn some really good tricks from great grandpa since he is one of the weakest captains. Sui-feng is probably training her Hakuda and speed, and of course Omaeda is pretty useless so he might as well sit at home. I guess we'll have several more chapters of people preparing until the Quincies start their move. I wonder what's happening with Urahara and the people in Hollow-land nowadays?

Naruto 632

2013-05-29T22:03:00.001-04:00

Zombie Hokages, Team 7 and allies attack the Juubi.

One more reason why Naruto should not choose Sakura as his girlfriend. Getting smacked like that will definitely leave a mark.

Summary:
Tobirama, Minato and Sarutobi trap the Juubi is a tough barrier, and Hashirama creates wood clones and plans to open entrances in the barrier for Naruto and allies to enter and assault the Juubi. One of Hashirama's clones challenges Madara, but Madara wants to wait for the real one. Naruto and friends charge into the opening creating by Hashirama. The Juubi splits off small copies of itself to defend the main body. Sakura beats down a few copies but then leaves herself open to attack and had to be saved by Naruto and Sasuke.

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That was a very quick action chapter. The Hokages, Naruto and allies made their move to attack, but that's about it. Madara doesn't seem to be in a hurry to do anything. I guess Madara thinks either the Shinobi Army will handle the Juubi or the Juubi will wipe them out, and all he cares is fighting Hashirama one more time. Sakura shows off her punching power, but then starts getting cocky and needs to saved by Naruto and Sasuke. Way to make Sakura look even more useless, Kishimoto. We'll see if Team 7... or rather Naruto and Sasuke will be able to do anything against the Juubi.

Kakumeiki Valvrave 07

2013-05-26T19:10:00.002-04:00

L-elf executes a hostile takeover of the module while A-drei and the Dorssia military attack once again.

Since security is non-existent, A-drei is able to take a nice, quiet self-guided tour without anyone bothering him.

You can't judge soup by its looks, even if it looks like purple slime.

Summary:
Years in to the future(?), Saki uses her green Valvrave (now with gold accents) to defeat some old guy in a skull shaped mech.

Back to the present, after learning there are five Valvraves in total, the student council wants to take control of the robots but Haruto and friends rebuff the idea. While the students are busy fooling around, A-drei takes a tour of the lower levels of the module while L-elf sneaks around the campus. Saki, Shouko and the girls are cooking soup when L-elf appears and hands Shouko his vision of the country's future. L-elf plans to turn the module into a militaristic country using the Valvraves as deterrent. Shouko rejects L-elf's vision, so L-elf traps all of the students by shutting down all the emergency doorways and declares that he is taking over the country by force. Raizou climbs through the window to get payback on L-elf, and Saki picks up a knife, but L-elf easily defeats them and ties up all the other girls.

The academy is now under new management.

L-elf: I know you guys won't shoot me. I'm just too awesome for you to shoot.

Haruto is in the lower levels flirting with Aina in the lower levels when L-elf's declaration is aired around the module. Haruto goes to his Valvraves but L-elf is already there and points a gun to his head from behind. A-drei shows up and starts shooting and Haruto gets hit several times. L-elf gets behind A-drei through some flashbangs. A-drei states that he is willing to forgive L-elf if L-elf becomes his right hand man, but L-elf refuses and states that Haruto is his right hand man. Haruto gets a pistol and points it at L-elf and denies being L-elf's ally and they have a weird three way standoff until Q-vier flies in the docking bay with a grunt mech and starts shooting up the place. A-drei finally gets Q-vier to stop shooting like a madman, but this gives L-elf the chance to activate the holding spikes and expel A-drei and Q-vier back into space.

The Dorssia forces go to plan B and starts shooting at the module. Kibukawa frees the girls in the kitchen and Saki launches in her green Valvrave IV and kills some grunts, but the Dorssia have a plan and launch magnetic boomerangs that starts immoblizing and overheating Saki's Valvrave. Since there is no one cheering for her, Saki doesn't know what to do and the Dorssian forces are just waiting for her Valvrave to become disabled. Back in the launch bay area, L-elf finds Haruto who is pinned beneath some beams. Since there is no time to remove the beams, L-elf lets Haruto use his body. Haruto launches using L-elf's body and L-elf already left notes in his cockpit in regards to what strategy to use. Haruto confronts H-neun whose Ideal possess the boomerang launcher. Following L-elf's notes, Haruto charges at H-neun to draw him into close combat, but then side steps and destroys the boomerang launcher with a well placed shot with the Valvrave's gun. Without the boomerangs, the Dorssia forces decide to retreat.

Without her millions (and millions) of fans, Saki is once again pretty useless in battle.

There are so many characters that they are starting to kill them off pretty early.

After the battle, Haruto finds a picture of a girl in L-elf's pocket and starts crying uncontrollable. In the launch bay, Kyuuma finds Haruto's body and calls Aina for clean up, but to his shock Aina's lifeless and bloodied body is floating nearby as she was caught in Q-vier's rampage.

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It looked like the series is trying to become serious now, and we have our first death on the student side. Aina was flirting with Haruto a bit, but it looks like it's not going to be a harem show and she gets killed during Q-vier's rampage. We'll have to see how the students react to her death, and maybe this will set up Kyuuma as a Valvrave pilot so he can take revenge on the bloodthirsty Q-vier.

I liked this episode better then the previous episodes because L-elf and the Dorssia military finally exploited the students' glaring lack of security and defense. I don't like L-elf's character and think he is a jerk, but it was fun seeing him enact his hostile takeover of the academy and then show the students that even if they outnumber him, he is an one-man-army and will easily beat their collective asses. L-elf is so formidable that A-drei is willing to forgive L-elf because he didn't want L-elf as an enemy, but of course L-elf has his own ideas. L-elf's ideas for Haruto-land is not unreasonable, but it's probably not good if L-elf runs everything according to his plans since he probably considers everyone except the Valvrave pilots expendable. I don't particularly like Shouko (or any of the characters now for that matter), but I hope Shouko and her quirky charisma will counteract L-elf's militaristic efficiency and bring him down to earth from time to time. Haruto, being pretty useless when it comes to leadership, will probably just stick to piloting his Valvrave to beat back the Dorssia forces.

The students know about the Valvraves, but no new pilots have come forward yet. I'm sure if L-elf gets his way the other robots will see action soon enough. Saki shows once again that she has the tendency to freeze in battle when things don't go her way and she isn't getting the attention of millions of people. Saki seems to be a little less crazy this episode, although her behavior is still sometimes puzzling. I guess they want to keep the awkward equilibrium of the love triangle in place.

Lastly, there is a new ED sequence, and then there is the puzzling scene at the start of the show showing Saki in a gold version of her Valvrave destroying some chump in the future. I don't know what the point of that was if they are not going to give us any hints as to how that relates to the current story.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S 07

2013-05-26T14:42:00.001-04:00

Mikoto starts destroying research facilities involved in the Level 6 Shift project while Kuroko and friends play around.

Don't take out your frustrations on little kids, Kuroko.

Ruiko and her skirt flipping ways...

Summary:
At night, Mikoto attacks the research facilities via their computer networks and takes out 70% of the facilities before the scientists can respond by cutting off network access at the remaining labs. Mikoto then goes to physically destroy some more labs. Mikoto sneaks back into her dorm early in the morning, and she vows to take out the remaining labs even though she is exhausted. Kuroko returns to the room after having went out to buy some treats that Mikoto had wanted, but Mikoto says that she's not hungry and leaves again, and this has Kuroko feeling down. Kuroko ends up sharing the treats with Kazari, Ruiko and Konori at the Judgment office. The group discuss the fires at the labs (caused by Mikoto) and Kuroko decides to go out for patrol to see if she can find out about what's bothering Mikoto. While patrolling, Kuroko spots three kids in an alley looking for the money cards, but the kids are looking for cards with specific numbers because there is a rumor spreading around that cards with certain numbers give good luck or grant a wish. Kuroko confiscates the card as lost property and tells the kids to buzz off. Later in the day, Kuroko talks about the rumor with Ruiko and Kazari. Ruiko and Kazari what Kuroko would do if she had such a wish-granting card, but Kuroko dismisses the notion and refuses to answer.

At the main research lab, the administrator figures out that Mikoto is responsible for the attacks, and he plans to hire some outside help to protect the remaining facilities.

The nose for wealth need to be trained starting at a young age.

Kuroko returns to her dorm and finds Mikoto sleeping and wishes she could help Mikoto. The next morning, Kuroko wakes up and finds Mikoto gone. Kuroko goes on patrol and bumps into one of the kids from yesterday who are looking for a money card. The boy almost gets hit by a car but Kuroko teleports him to safety. Kuroko treats the boy to ice cream and finds out the boy is looking for a lucky card to give to his good friend who is moving away soon. Kuroko is sympathetic to the cause and lets the boy look around in the alleys, and they are joined by Kazari and Ruiko. Kuroko and Kazari are concerned about Judgment's policy on the money cards and are not sure if they should be helping the boy, but Konori shows up and suggests that everyone go to the riverbank and find a four-leaf clover for the boy. While searching for the elusive four-leaf clover, Ruiko finds some butterflies and Kuroko wishes she could be like the pair of butterflies and communicate her thoughts (with Mikoto) without words. Kazari and Ruiko try to give Kuroko some words of encouragement and also tells Kuroko that she can count on their support. Kuroko gets embarrassed and crouches down, and she actually finds a four-leaf clover. Soon afterwards, the boy finds his own four-leaf clover and Kuroko is free to keep the lucky clover to herself.

Kuroko ends up finding a little bit of luck.

Kuroko returns to her dorm just as Mikoto is leaving. Kuroko tells Mikoto good luck, and Mikoto thanks Kuroko before leaving. At night Mikoto destroys three more research labs, leaving only two labs left to take down.

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Mikoto has started destroying the research labs, but she's keep everything to herself and getting worn out due to going out during the night and not sleeping much. Kuroko obviously can see that something is bothering Mikoto, but she doesn't question Mikoto or try to follow her probably out of respect and/or fear of ruining their relationship. Also Kuroko probably has to stay to cover for Mikoto due to the dorm supervisor being around. Kuroko doesn't make much progress in regards to Mikoto, Kuroko and the other girls do find a way to amuse themselves by helping out a boy look for a four-leaf clover, and that was pretty much it for them in this episode.

As for Mikoto, she managed to destroy all but two research facilities involved in the Level 6 Shift project, but the scientists have hired some protection. It looks like there will be plenty of action and fireworks in the next episode or two and I'm looking forward to it. Of course, Mikoto will probably be on her own... until the time comes for a certain Level 0 gets himself involved.

Naruto 631

2013-05-22T20:14:00.002-04:00

The Hokage zombies and Sasuke show up to help against Madara and the Juubi.

WTFBBQ?!

Summary:
Minato arrives at the scene first, followed by the other three Hokages. Minato transforms into the Fox Mode that Naruto has and the four Hokages get to work trying to box in the Juubi with seals while ignoring Madara for the moment. Sasuke and his lackeys then arrive. Naruto and friends question Sasuke's motivations, and Sasuke states that he decided to protect the village and wants to be Hokage much to the surprise of everyone except Naruto. Naruto of course reiterates that he is going to be Hokage, and he and Sasuke are called by the Hokages to help take out the Juubi. Sakura decides to tag along, and Team 7 is together once again.

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This chapter was hilarious. I never though team 7 would reform, but it really happened. I wonder what Sakura is going to do tagging along, since the Juubi and Madara are dangerous enough that there is no need for a damsel in distress. Maybe Sakura will finally have her big moment and do something pivotal, but I'll believe it when it happens. My reaction to Sasuke wanting to be Hokage was the same as the reactions of Naruto's friends. It sounds like a joke, but I guess they need a reason to keep his rivalry with Naruto going now that Sasuke supposedly wants to protect Konoha. And perhaps they want to draw parallels between Sasuke/Naruto and Madara/Hashirama. Sasuke had better plan on killing Naruto and all of his friends if he wants to Hokage, but of course he'll never become Hokage unless Kishimoto really want to throw us for a loop.

Bleach 538

2013-05-22T19:20:00.000-04:00

Ichigo returns to Soul Society and other shinigamis are training.

Well, that was easy.

Summary:
Isshin wonders how Ichigo is going to get back into Soul Society, and right on cue Mera appears and brings Ichigo back to Nimaiya's hut. Nimaiya explains he planned to give Ichigo another chance all along. Ichigo is in the pit surrounded by Asauchi but instead of attacking, all of the Asauchis kneel before Ichigo. Ichigo chooses one whose face turns into Ichigo wearing a hollow mask, and Nimaiya promises to reforge Ichigo's zanpukto personally.

Meanwhile in other parts of Soul Society, shinigamis are busy training. Hitsugaya enrolls himself in a kendo class because he lost his bankai. In some woods, Kensei order Mashiro to attack Hisagi in her Vizard form to help Hisagi develop a bankai. Outside a cave, Iba is lifting boulders for exercise and waiting for Komamura to return from the cave. Inside the cave, Komamura meets a giant sentient dog who is not too happy to see Komamura.

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Lol so after listening to Isshin's story, Ichigo is magically able to tame an Asauchi and have Nimaiya repair his blade? Leave it to Bleach to make an interesting obstacle into something meaningless. I can't say I'm too shocked given how Ichigo always magically pull tricks out of thin air. It looks like Ichigo will continue his journey to visit the Zero Division captains and finally the Soul King. Meanwhile, the other shinigamis aren't sitting around, although the effectiveness of their training methods might be questionable. The giant dog at the end was a bit surprising, but I suppose Komamura must have come from somewhere. Maybe Komamura has some non-shinigami powers and the giant dog will teach him how to bark.