SLAINE
What the hell are you planning Slaine? Not only he's hiding the fact the Princess Asseylum is alive again from Princess Lemrina but also lying to her that Princess Asseylum's condition is getting worse, whoa. Before we discuss that lets see some other important stuff we got to see in this episode.
This episode had follow up on what happened after those two bizarre moments from previous episode. Firstly, Slaine is just a lot powerful now as not only he'll be marrying Princess Asseylum but also he'll have the authority as to who can possess the Aldnoah drive activation powers which means that all other orbital Counts will have no choice but to follow him. But there were some Counts who didn't pledge their loyalty to him as mentioned in this episode which can cause a major twist in the future or they'll be destroyed by Slaine. Now secondly about Princess Asseylum. That cliff hanger in previous episode was really good but if you've read my previous episode's review, I mentioned how they shouldn't make Princess Asseylum just lose all her memory cause come on, that's a very bad idea, but with this episode they kinda did that to an extend but in a predictable way. She remembers everyone like Slaine etc but probably doesn't remember the incidents which took place at the end of the previous season. Well, I don't know what to say about this, yes it is very predicable but it depends on how they execute this as the story progress. Also Slaine doesn't like Princess Asseylum remembering Inaho as he threw those flowers he had got for her before she mentioned about Inaho.
Count Mazuurek is back to his base but is having second thoughts about going against Slaine now that his powers have increased dramatically still I can sense he's going to cause some problems in Slaine's plan in the future. Now coming back to main topic, Slaine. Princess Lemrina definitely has some feelings towards Slaine as shown in this episode but also she's is glad that what she did to her sister by screwing up with that life support system has caused Princess Asseylum condition to get worse as Slaine told her cause now she can finally replace her and not just remain a substitute. But why is Slaine lying to her? is it because he knows that she hate being substitute to Princess Asseylum or is he planning something completely different but either way he's definitely using Lemrina and the moment she finds out that he's been hiding this, she's going to flip. Even Princess Asseylum will flip when she finds out how he and Lemrina have exploited her persona. A really interesting direction in which this series is going with Slaine here not mention how they are developing Slaine's hatred towards Inaho while Inaho pretty much seems to be on the same wavelength with Princess Asseylum. Also how Slaine is not letting Princess Asseylum know anything about what's happening outside is actually foreshadowing about that whole bird in a cage reference shown couple of episodes back.
Overall a great build-up episode, at the end they showed us how various orbital knights are uniting and attacking together something we haven't seen before, pretty much telling us that Slaine's plan is in motion. Thank you for reading this anime review! what do you think about Slaine hiding the the fact that Princess Asseylum is alive from Lemrina, let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.
loneliness & love
Finally some Tsukiyama screen time! that scene where he was like snipping all over that napkin having Kaneki's bloodstains, pretty much showing us the flashback about his 'love story' with Kaneki, that was so very funny. I really love his character, the way we walks in at Anteiku and the classy music being played in the background, it won me over. Hell I hope he gets his own spin-off series like seriously!
Anyway jokes aside, this episodes explains us as to why Kaneki has that centipede-mode. As Tsukiyama mentions and something which is also shown during that flashback fight scene from ghoul isolation chamber, Kaneki has been practicing serious cannibalism to turn himself into a full kakuja and thus using it's powers to protect people at Anteiku etc. And by doing so he's mentally breaking down and going crazy. As I've mentioned in my previous review, this season has pretty much axed his character as even during this scene there were not as many dialogues and inner monologues that the manga had and that's something I really loved about the manga, cause it really helped to understand his complex and tragic character in a better way. Still he had just one deep meaningful dialogue in which he states that it's not he who's eating the ghouls but he's the one who is being eaten and that really makes sense as his cannibalism practice is breaking him down mentally and also eating up all of his sanity.
Moving on, this episode had a many subtle build up on two central themes of this series, loneliness and love. Like at the start of the episode, Kaneki was shown sitting alone and later, how Hinami and Touka were very lonely as they both love Kaneki but they can't express their love as he's not around. So a very deep emotional episode showing us how Hinami and Touka interact and are trying to accept the loneliness especially that scene where Touka meets Kaneki on that bridge. If you pay close attention to that scene, Kaneki holds his chin while saying how that he doesn't want Touka and other to be lonely and pretty much trying to be self righteous, now if you remember what Hide said, whenever he's lying or hiding something he holds his chin and that's exactly the case here. Kaneki's actions completely contradicts to what he said something that even Touka gets as he just cares about himself, like he's fine as long as he's not alone and that smile at the end of this scene pretty much justifies it. So there can be a lot of different meanings that you can take from this episode and this scene in particular.
Sen Takatsuki, that author, visits the CCG's head office in order to get some data regarding ghouls for her new book but at the same time gives out rumors to Shinohara about Anteiku and so we can assume because of what she told them, Shinohara and Suzuya visited the cafe. When Shinohara meets the manager, he's like, do I know you? and I won't spoil anything but if you've been paying close attention to some key scenes throughout this series you would know what that dialogue and scene really meant. Overall, a great episode with lot of set up, pretty much as that calm before the storm vibe to it. The music, I know I've been saying this since the start of the series but damn, it's just beautiful. Thank you for reading this anime review, what do you think about this episode? let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.
A Plot Driven Episode
Damn, that cliffhanger. Like who the hell would attack Anri? Probably someone who knows that she has Saika or one of the gang member shown in the last episode but that gang's leader has that motto of not attacking women so maybe it's not that gang. Anyway, besides that cliffhanger, this episode had so much going on like so many plot build ups were complied in this episode but still, it was executed superbly and was really entertaining and fun to watch as well.
I suppose that little girl who is the grand daughter of Mafia's or Yakuza's CEO (and who was introduced to us in the last episode) is the main plot point of this current arc. Those Mafias hired Celty to search for her as she ran away from her home as well as one of the Mafia's rival company wants to kidnap her, speaking of which, that rival company also hired two people to do so. One of them is that blonde girl who attacked Celty in the previous episode and another one is a guy who just keeps coming up with questions only for that blonde girl to answer them. Besides that, Mikado finds out that lately the Dollars have been causing problems and Izaya calls him to confront about the same, pretty much trying to manipulate him reminding him about what happened last time with Yellow Scarves and also questioning his friendship with Masaomi. It's safe to assume that whenever there's some problem, Izaya is somehow involved in it and even this time, Izaya is surely cooking something up not to mention that he might have some connection to that little girl as to why she tried to kill Shizuo.
I really wonder how Celty's character is going to change now that her secret of being headless is pretty much revealed and exposed to the public. Throughout this series we were shown how Celty doesn't like scaring others and now that everyone will soon find out that she is headless, they will assume she is some kind of a monster or something. Also the blue square is yet to get integrated in all of this as Aoba wants to get rid of Izaya. There's just so much going on besides that as Saika is going out of control, Celty having her own problems, Izaya starting to manipulate others, god knows what Masaomi is doing and now, someone breaks into Anri's house. I'm pretty sure I mentioned all sub plots but again, I might have missed some. So yea, that's pretty much it, overall a very good episode, a very plot driven as well. What do you think about this episode? let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.
Morals
This series just keeps on getting better and better by the episode, definitely a surprise gem of this season. There's just tons of things that you can take and learn from this episode as it pretty much showcases the main theme of this series.
In this episode we get a little more info about the E class and it's just screwed up honestly. The main principle or the head of the school is manipulating this E class system as a demonstration to motivate other honor students to not to become a failure like them as he says that something like this will help them prepare for the real world. I agree about how the outside world is cruel but seriously, this is screwed up cause these honor students as shown in this episode are pretty much preying on these E class students not only to get rid of their stress and feel better but also to show their superiority. So I really like how they are showing this dark side of the human nature.
Also, all these E class students who are being discriminated against have various individual reasons as to why they ended up here like the girl who was introduced in this episode was really good in science but failed in language and arts so this brings up another flaw in this system as though she might as well be among the best students when it came to science but just because she was not good in some other stuff, she was moved to this class. The best part about this series is Koro-sensei as what he's basically doing is building up self confidence among his students and also helping them to move forward. I really love how this series showcases all these morals and mature themes and almost anyone who goes to school or even work can relate to this at some point. Thank you for reading this anime review, what do you think about this episode? let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.
That cliff-hanger
The Princess? WTF? like what the hell just happened? Before I dive into that, I would like to correct something I mentioned in my previous (episode 5) Aldnoah review. I mentioned that Inaho's sister, Yuki saw Inaho & Rayet helping Mazuurek escape and I was wrong. It was Inko and not Yuki who saw them and this episode clearly sheds light on this topic as Inaho is now aware that Inko knows what really happened, so yea, my apologies for mixing up characters there. Alright with that off my chest, lets dive into this episode.
This episode can be divided into two parts, firstly the part in which Inaho pretty much outsmarts a Count using the power of his new eye and the second part consisting of Slaine's duel with Marylcain. I liked how Rayet and Inaho worked together again as a team something this episode focused on which I'll discus in a moment but before that, I'm also digging the intellectual part of Inaho like how he outsmarted that Count as he realized the biggest disadvantage of that Count were his lasers cause they will only travel in straight direction and not curve with Earth's surface unlike those missiles used against him. It also looks like that Princess Lemrina and Slaine are planning something. They both have gone through somewhat same troubles and now that Slaine has power and with Lemrina portraying as the real princess, they are planning something as Lemrina is shown discussing that with Slaine. Though we have no details about it, we pretty much got it's trailer before the ending credits. Now, do you see the irony here? Rayet a martian is working with Inaho and Lemria is working with Slaine who is a Terran.
Moving on, in the second part besides that awesome duel in which Slaine, though had a hard time at the start, still won eventually (something very predictable), there was a big announcement. Princess Lemrina, disguised as Princess Asseylum announced that Slaine will be her husband, whoa. Just think about the possibilities here, Slaine is definitely trying to achieve something going against all odds since he's not martian and now after this marriage, it just puts him in a whole different position as he has all the power he needs. I suppose this was Lemrina's plan but perhaps there's more to it that will be revealed soon. Just when I thought this was enough of a cliff-hanger, they pull out another. Now I don't know whether this was intentional or not from Lemrina's point of view but whatever she did with shutting and turning on that life support system of Princess Asseylum, it somehow worked and the she's awake! The more confusing part is Lemrina's dialogue during this scene as it makes her look like she really tried to kill her instead. All of this was shown after the credits for those who missed it out.
Definitely a massive cliff hanger, I mean what exactly will happen next? The only thing Princess Asseylum will probably remember is that she was shot by Slaine and will probably want to kill him as soon as possible but how will she react when she finds out what Princess Lemrina and Slaine did behind her back? This ending sure points out various directions in which this series might go, I just hope they don't pull something like Princess Asseylum losing all her memory. Also in the previous opening I suppose, Princess Asseylum was shown holding a gun but it wasn't revealed as to who she was pointing it at and I assume that it is foreshadowing to what the princess's decision is going to be towards Slaine. Overall, a good episode with a lot of action and build up not to mention that cliff-hanger. What do you think about Princess Lemrina's move? do you think that she intentionally caused such overhaul in the system which caused Princess Asseylum to wake up or was it unintentional? Let me know in the comments below! Thank you for reading this anime review and have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section.
