May 21st, Newsletter 167

Black Cat
Fate/Stay Night
009-1
Darker than Black
Mai-Otome
Claymore
Lucky Star

Black Cat 6- With Train’s decision to leave Chronos, Number 1 (I forget her name) attacks both him and Creed; Train escapes but is quickly pursued, as Creed himself handles two other Numbers from Chronos. As Trains fights, he is asked why he’s trying to leave, especially when he was so good. But before a clear answer can be given, someone who controls giant bugs and is on Creed’s side interrupts their fights, trying to bring Train to Creed… something else Train refuses, and with a little unintentional help, Train escapes as the bugs pursue… and ends up running into Saya. As they run, they get into a sort of race, and Saya apparently “wins”, and wants Train to buy er a drink at the upcoming festival. As Train talks with Saya, Creed witnesses it, and his psychotic-possessive behavior towards Train (read: Creed has got to be gay for Train, and is probably quite jealous of Saya…) drives him to do something about Saya. So, when the festival comes along, Creed sends a note to Train, and as Train races to where they are, we see Creed slowly kill off Saya with his strange sword, as she tries to protect some children. When Train arrives in Saya’s last moments, Creed thinks he finally has Train on his side… but now Train is extremely pissed off at Creed, and goes in for the attack.

F/S N 16- Through Shirou’s ability to create, he is able to summon a pseudo-Excalibur… and while the first try fails, when he creates a second one, with the help of Saber, Berserker is finally taken down, apparently because Excalibur has now killed him 7 times. In the aftermath of the fight, Shirou is now allowing Ilya to stay with him… and like any good loli, she’s rather attached to Shirou, much to the dismay of Saber. Saber questions why they should let Ilya stay here, as DShirou tells that Ilya is now out of the battle and can’t do any harm. Ilya herself confirms that she will no longer be an enemy, and Rin sees no problem with this. Meanwhile, the witch and Assassin are looking for some sort of magic container; a person who doesn’t necessarily have magic but has to be from a magus family, and it seems that Sakura is their target (one of Shirou’s classmates who used to take care of him before Rin and Saber).

009-1 Bonus Episode- A rather musical episode, which starts off with Mylene waking up (and it soon becomes obvious that it’s someone else’s bed), and learning she has a bomb in her that is set to go off if a guy releases his finger from a trigger. The episode turns out to be a flashback, as Mylene encounters a man who works in a small café where a jazz band regularly plays. She ends up going around and then home with him, as she slowly gets to know him and the little band. However, not all is as it seems, since once again she’s looking for someone who’s passing intelligence between sides; however, she can’t find anything on this guy. So things seem to just pass by peacefully, as she stays with this guy and the band plays. However, when we finally get back to where the episode started, we learn the much uglier truth: that the identity of Mylene has been known since the two met, and the jazz band was just a cover for the group of spies (though they still liked to play music). The info was coded in the music, and we see he other band members burn the music and then blow up the building as they leave. Finally, as the music stops, the bomb goes off… but it’s in the guy’s head and not Mylene’s after all… though she loses yet another person she was growing close to.

DTB 7- An episode that seems to be mostly pointless, as the focus is on a private eye that seems to be far from the best, and a pink-haired girl who is his assistant and an anime lover… a very mismatched pair, and they’re struggling to make ends meet. Things seem to change though, when a woman is willing to pay him to find her missing cat, and due to being a very lovely widow, she’s able to wrap this guy around her finger, as both he and his assistant look for the cat. However, there is actually a small plot hidden in here: a contractor who appears to be able to swap bodies has been causing employees of some corporation to kill themselves, something Hei and the cat of the group are investigating. But there is a plot twist at the end: the widow’s husband actually had a previous wife, and when the detective investigates, not only does he find the house to be filled with trash, but there’s a dead body among the trash.

Mai-Otome 13- This series incarnation of Kazuya and Akane has them a bit like before- they’re in love with each other, but their duties more or less keep them apart. Akane’s dream is to be an Otome Meister, and there’s a king who wishes to make her his Meister. Thus an old story is recalled, where a Meister had to choose between her love and her dream, and when she went into a mystical forest to seek and answer, she never returned. However, in the midst of this, a Slave is summoned and attacks; Shizuru comes along, and ends up getting help from Akane to take it out. After the battle, though, Akane runs off, still unable to make a choice between love and dream. Later, at the ceremony in which Akane would officially become a Meister, just as she is about to swear her loyalty to the king, Kazuya comes in and interrupts the ceremony, declaring his love for her. In the end, Akane finds that her love is just a bit more important to her than her dream, and she runs off with Kazuya.

Claymore 19- The Claymores continue to deal with the welcoming committee of Awakened Beings, and the Awakened are far from pushovers, as the Claymores find themselves struggling… yet there still hasn’t been a fatality among the Claymores. It also seems bruste force doesn’t quite work against these guys, as straight-on attacks have been doing virtually no damage. But, for all the hardships, the Claymores are still able to take down the Awakened Beings. However, one of the Claymores questions why those with no experience ere used in the battle, and the answer is so that now all of the force there can say they’ve fought an awakened being (and survived, at that). Elsewhere, we still have Raki wandering around, and he seems to have come across some ruins, where he meets a young girl, who he saves from falling debris. Then he meets another man within the ruins, saying that it’s very few people who that girl will get attached to like she is to Raki.

Lucky Star 7- This time around… well, we start off with Konata actually acting something like a lady, and of course its due to the influence of an anime she’s been watching. Other things of interest: Miyuki (the pink-haired girl) has to go a day without her glasses, and it’s very fortunate that the others are in the same class as her, since Konata and Tsukasa can’t take very good notes, and she has to rely on Kagami. Also, Tsukasa gets herself a new cell phone, though it appears she doesn’t know how to use one… and as Konata’s dad tries to call her, her own cell phone is in her room. Then Tsukasa loses her phone to the washing machine… and among other topics, the episode finishes with the talk of how there’s been a bunch of junk mail recently, and Konata turns out to have a very strange email address.

Rollcall:
Jeff
Dave
Nick
Tom
Andy
Erin