Newsletter 188, November 18th

Kaze no Stigma
Glass Fleet
Gunslinger Girl II
Pumpkin Scissors
Kenichi History’s Mightiest Disciple
Tsukikage Ran
Ghost Stories

Kaze no Stigma 15- Much to Ayano’s annoyance, Kazuma has decided to take Catherine’s side, mostly by being her coach and pointing out her weaknesses. As Ayano complains to her friends about this, Kazuma drops by… to deliver a letter of challenge from Catherine. As Ayano fumes over this, the very next day, Kazuma and Catherine both come in, and Ayano is ready to take her on right there… but Kazuma keeps anything from happening. Catherine also announces that if she wins, she’ll be taking Kazuma back with her to America, which only infuriates Ayano even more… and she later tells her friends that she’ll make Kazuma buy her all sorts of expensive dinners. When the duel happens the next day, Ayano is able to quickly defeat Metatron… but finds that Catherine has a new weapon, little fire sprites called Wisps, and those end up giving her a beating, because her weakness was the same as Catherine’s: only concentrating on one enemy. Once Ayano figures this out, she’s finally able to beat Catherine… and Catherine ends up gracefully admitting defeat (as Ayano’s friends note, Kazuma was indirectly training Ayano). Of course, the catch is that Catherine never said she was going back to America…

Glass Fleet 10- Bargaining is played by both sides, as Michel tries to gain BB’s favor, while Vetti attempts the same. Each offers their own side of the story to her, though Cleo ends up being the winning key, as not only does he put BB’s relationship with Vetti bluntly, he also decides to go along with her terms… and it’s pointed out how BB’s offer could be done. Vetti, on the other hand is less willing to cooperate with BB, and this leads to BB joining Miche’s side, something Vetti says she will regret. As the two sides leave, they also cross paths… but nothing ends up happening. Back in space, Vetti makes good on his threat, and has his ships fire on BB’s territory, as she notes that things have been put into motion.

Gunslinger Girl II 10- Triela is assigned to be bodyguard to a president’s daughter, and finds that despite the rift between their two worlds, Triela is still a girl in some ways, as the two do have one common interest: teddy bears. After each learns a little about the other’s world, we then see a flashback of Hillshire before he took that name… and how he met Triela: he was involved with a scientist who wanted to stop the making of snuff films (movies using violence on children as a form of entertainment), and when they went in for a raid, even though his partner was shot, she was able to save the life of a little girl… and as Triela is being fixed up, she mentions a woman she calls “Mama”, and Hillshire’s own memory is triggered as he recalls that incident himself (the woman died from her injuries as she saved Triela).

Pumpkin Scissors 17- We see a bit into the history of Hans, and how because he didn’t take off his suit, he was the only HTT of his unit that survived. Unfortunately, Meann’s temper is flaring with Hans’s flashbacks, while Randal and Martis follow them down into the sewers. Meanwhile, Alice has her own hands full with the Claymores, since one decides to fight her one-on-one… and the price of using her sword is that it’s also wearing her out quickly, even though she’s keeping the upper hand. Not only that, but it seems that another division of the Claymore unit is down in the sewers. After Randal hears the story of 908’s comrades, he can keep in the shadows no longer, and goes out to confront the HTT. Martis throws out a flash grenade, with provides some cover, as the Blue Light goes on… but the HTT fires away, and we learn that he burns things in order to remember how things were with his comrades. He manages to burn Randal, but it turns out to only be his jacket, as Randal then reveals another weapon of the 901: a pair of large pliers, with he uses to penetrate HTT’s suit… but he leaves him alive. When questioned, he begins by saying he was thinking about if they were comrades… but then the other Claynore division arrives, and shoots the HTT, as Randal watches him die before his eyes, sending him into a state of shock when the others arrive.

Kenichi 10- After two of Kenichi’s classmates are taken hostage, Kenichi decides he has to go and rescue them, even if they aren’t really friends of his. Which means that he has to deal with two of the three from Ragnarok. The large Judo user is up first, and Kenichi only defeats him due to reflexes he’s learned through training. Then the boxer is up, and Kenichi has a much harder time against him, since his punches are so fast. However, he manages to remember one key thing: a boxer’s greatest weakness is that he is weak in the knees, and Kenichi once again gains the upper hand as he attacks the boxer’s knees, and doesn’t finish him off because the bell rings, singling the first round is over… but Kenichi is determined to find out this guy’s story in the next round.

Ran 6- Ran and Meow are mistaken as bandits, since apparently there’s another duo who looks exactly like them who are attacking the villagers. At first, the villagers hope to “appease” the two by treating them like royalty and attending their every need… but things go wrong when the village chief is attacked, and only his granddaughter takes their side, hiding them from the angry mob. Ran decides that things must come to an end, and after finding that the bandits are forced to cross a bridge leading into the village, she and Meow wait for them… when they show up, Ran’s double is exactly that; Meow’s counterpart, not so much a double. However, those two put of more of a fight then former opponents, though Meow manages to take care of the martial artist, while Ran wins by eventually knocking her opponent off the bridge, though he hair tie gets cut in the process. Later on, Ran involves some pesky officials that the ones they’re after are tied up at a tree up ahead.

Ghost Stories 5- In order to prove he’s not a complete loser, the little brother starts training in track… though he continues to suck. That is, until another boy shows up from nowhere, and starts racing him, causing the little brother to actually run faster (and as noted through the episode, the girls say this new guy has a nice ass…). However, the catch is that the boy is also another of the demons, this one taking people’s feet. And it seems the little brother has become his next target. At the sports festival the next day, they learn that his feet will be taken at a certain time, so even though they pleaded with the principal to not cancel it early, they now ask the opposite… but things don’t work out. Not only that, but when they chase the boy down later on, he traps them in the gym storage. Time starts getting close as the little brother gets in line, his doom drawing nearer, even as they finally break out of the warehouse. They’re too late to catch up to the demon, but it seems the actual spirit of the boy gets involved, and manages to stop the demon. On top of that, the little brother wins the race, though he throws the medallion into the air to give to the ghost.

Rollcall:
Jeff
Dave
Tom
Nick
Erin
Andy