Newsletter 182, September 23rd

Darker than Black
Glass Fleet
Kaze no Stigma
Tsukikaze Ran
Gunslinger Girl II
Black Cat
Pumpkin Scissors

Darker than Black 24- All the various sides make their moves, as Wei and Hei first go and battle, as those within the Gate work on booting up the system in order to destroy the Gate. A couple of Amber’s allies go in and manage to destroy it… and we learn that they had a backup system this time, an improvement over what happened in South America. Back with Hei, he manages to kill Wei, and then moves on to find Amber… and despite a small setback, he and Yin are able to finally meet up with her.

Glass Fleet 2- After being sdaved by one called Cleo, Michel learns the little problem involved: her “saviors” are really pirates, intending to only take fuel and food. Despite this, Michel demands that the pirates still take the crew with them. Back at the Empire, we see just how ruthless the Emperor is, having the commander of the battle executed. And it also appears that the Emperor has some sort of crush on Michel… back with Cleo and Michel, it turns out that Cleo is the last survivor of the Royal Family, as the crews slowly mix (with the maid and the one who likes her getting to dishes) as they all head for a port in space that Michel doesn’t appear to be too fond of.

Kaze no Stigma 7- Kazuma heads on his way over to where Misao is, only to have Ayano block his way… at least for a temporary time, before they head over to where Misao is. Not only that, but Misao has butchered her whole family. She tries to take out Kazuma, and as usual fails. Not understanding why, her “guardian angel” explains: she was only a tool, used to collect energy so that he could defeat Kazuma… and apparently he has tis to someone from Kazuma’s past. And to make matters worse, he now uses Misao to make a dragon of the energy, which Ayano and Kazuma have a bit of difficulty with, especially since Ayano can’t use the Purifying Flame. At least, not until she buys enough time for Kazuma to tap into his contractor abilities, ands boost her flame up to the needed le vel, which allows Misao to be freed, and the other guy is defeated by the flame as well… and he gets the shock of Kazuma being a contractor. Kazuma now almost gets Misao to pay him back in a certain way… but leave it to Ayano to stop him. In the end, it seems Misao has become a nun, and we learn why Kazuma wanted to save her: she saved him long ago from those who bullied him with fire.

Ran 1- A female samurai (and one martial artist) are approached by three brothers to save their town… and they manage to get the martial artist, Lady Meow. As the samurai (Ran) learns later on, the brothers have good intentions but are going to get themselves killed trying to free the town from something along the lines of a Yakuza, who took over the town and even killed the fiancé of one of the girls in town. However, with intervention from Ran and Lady Meow, the town is freed from the control of the gang.

Gunslinger Girl II 3- Triela and Hillshire are the ones to make the move on Pinocchio and the other terrorists… though first a small hostage situation occurs, as a girl from the town accidentally gets involved… though she is freed. Triela moves in, but finds that these killers are extremely skilled, managing to get away… and she laments the fact that despite her enhancements, she was unable to defeat any of them.

Black Cat 21- Eve and Sven get into a fight after Sven proposes sending her to school, causing Eve to run away… which is a bad move, as this allows the Zero Numbers to meet up with her, and take her captive (and the scientist one implants another mind-control chip on her). When she doesn’t return, Sven and Train search for her… and when they find her, they are surrounded by the Zeros, as well as promptly defeated by Eve, as the Zeros escape with Eve in order to merge her with Adam and unleash the power of Eden.

Pumpkin Scissors 9- Oraldo find himself captivated by a woman who always seems to be in a very depressed mood, so he takes it upon himself to cheer her up, though it doesn’t seem to work. As he learns, she waits for her lover who went off to war… and never returned, undoubtedly killed. With this in mind, he sets out to do some research (especially after he gets roughed up a bit). As the girl once again waits by the bridge, Oraldo meets up with her, and recounts to her the tragic but heroic effort the squad her lover was in put up… and after she breaks down after hearing this story, the next morning, she appears to be happy, with Oraldo saying she finally stopped feeling sorry for herself, and was able to move on (as Section 3 otherwise completely misinterpreted everything…)

Rollcall:
Jeff
Nick
Erin
Tom
Andy
Ryan
Dave