This episode introduces Meo, a Thai girl who comes to Alice for help after she receives an urgent phone call from her father. Alice and her NEET crew are pulled into more dangerous circumstances as they come together to help Meo.

Upon my short adventure back to Japan this past month, I made sure to hit up a couple of key places in the Tokyo area. One area was the Square Enix Character Goods Shop Show Case located in Shibuya.

It’s a very organized store, with many Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts goods. Among lines of figurine products and accessories, they also have on display a number of figurines behind glass, and large stuffed animals of iconic characters such as Cactuar and Tonberry.

Kinjiro Sakamachi certainly lives quite an interesting home life. His mother is away, and his sister wakes him up every morning by beating him up. His school life would appear to be fairly normal, save for a seemingly rich classmate named Kanade Suzutsuki, who also has a butler, Subaru Konoe, who follows her around the school everyday.

Pretty and spectacular visuals reel you in and force you to keep watching.

A very intriguing beginning for No.6! I’m rather looking forward to this anime, with an introduction episode like that!

Shiro’s expression is an accurate portrayal of how I’m feeling.

A sad ending, but not in a disappointing way- and yes, I will miss the OP for Deadman Wonderland quite a lot.

An ordinary boy by the name of Fujishima Narumi, has a displaced identity, as his family always moves around, causing him to change schools often. He refers to himself as a “single pixel”, not bothering to make friends at his new high school or bothering to stand out at all.

He accidentally stumbles upon a line of Love Hotels (probably Love Hotel Hill in Shibuya) and witnesses a girl (Miku) jump out of one of the hotel windows, escaping from an older man who attacked her so-called boyfriend (Satoshi). Narumi goes to help her when a small boy wielding a gun, wrongfully suspects him of ill-doing. Luckily the suspicion wears off as the gun-wielding boy’s friends tell him off, helping the girl and her boyfriend up.

They leave shortly after with the injured girl and boyfriend, leaving Narumi with an odd first-impression of Tokyo life.

“The real world is just a crappy game. The ideal world can only be found in a game…

Or so I thought.

But if an ideal can be found within a crappy game, there may be an ideal route in the real world for me to discover…”

 And thus ends the second season of The World God Only Knows.

——

I actually enjoyed the numerous anime series and movies that was referenced throughout this episode. One reference in particular (with the image linked above), The Girl Who Lept Through Time, amused me. Keima in a skirt, it was bound to happen.

They also had a couple of other series referenced, in particular a Gundam scene — classic. 

Similarly, every girl that Keima had to “conquer” in both this season and the first make cameos throughout this episode. I found this to be quite a nice touch, and almost a kind of fun ‘where’s waldo’ kind of game.

New uniforms are shown in this episode — a symbol of the new changes in Keima’s thinking that he developed throughout this episode. This final episode involved Keima finding his “ideal” through an otherwise-bad video game. He plays it knowing full well that it was poorly made, but falls in love with the main character, who ends up being the closest to Keima’s ideal person.

He becomes so engrossed in the game, he becomes pretty much obsessed. Once he finishes the game, though, he reaches sort of an epiphany — the kind that protagonists go through at the end of a series. He realizes that if he can find his ideal in a bad video game, then maybe there’s something worth searching for in the real world, too.

The series ends with this epiphany, which leaves for further character development in Keima, assuming there will be a third season.

As of now, there’s been no announcements of a third season, but they did introduce a number of girls in the ending sequence which we can only assume will be more girls that Keima will have to “conquer.”

Among them were a younger girl (I’d assume Keima would have to play the “big brother”/”prince charming” role) and a girl whose reflection mirrored a split-personality type of character arch-type.

If there were a third season, the hints they’ve left for us is nothing less than taunting. The wait to see if there will be a third season and when it will air is still unknown at this point, as they could always go down the original “Inuyasha” route and announce to the fans to read the manga to know what happens next..!

Overall, I really enjoyed this second season. It kept the same general pace as the first season, so the second wasn’t a let down at all. If anything, it might have been better in some cases, as I liked how they developed some characters throughout multiple episodes instead of having one girl per episode.

GO Rating: 4.5/5

This final episode let us see how much Keima grew and how his character developed. I also enjoyed the references to other series as well as to previous episodes of TWGOK. I am crossing my fingers for a third season — this series is quite enjoyable, and I’ve become attached to many of the characters, too.

Scar Chain is forced to re-think their plan, Ganta deals with being “weak”, Shiro stuffs her face, Genkaku coerces Nagi into working for the Undertakers, and Makina attempts to figure out what promoter Tamaki is up to.

We are nearing the climax of Deadman Wonderland and this jumbled mess of plot and side plot is (seemingly) pulling itself back together for the final episode.

Episode 8 was a slight filler, but it kept the lighthearted feel that I love in this series. Episodes 9-11 revolved around a new arc involving a student teacher! Student x teacher relationship!?

Some interesting character and plot developments in recent episodes of HanaSaku Iroha make me realize that this is not just a story about a single girl, but about everyone else around her, too.

The dramatic still: Owl is cornered by Daida. [via]

The mass Deadmen break out begins. Will they succeed?

——

To review: With Karako facing off against the necro-macro, Ganta and the other Deadmen make it to their location and are waiting on Nagi and Rokuro to get the elevator started. Unfortunately, Nagi is caught up by his backstabbing ex-comrade and the Undertaker Daida Hibana, a second grader with a penchant for being polite then slicing you to bits.

See anything wrong with this image?

As Nagi is quick to discover, the Deadmen have been sold out to the Undertakers. After KO-ing Rokuro and Daida, he manages to start the elevator, though not without passing out and being captured. He sends out one more desperate plea …

Back to Ganta and the other Deadmen- they also quickly find that they’ve been set up and most of them are killed on the spot by Genkaku and his Undertaker cronies, all of whom have anti-Deadmen weapons. Ganta is protected, as he has the microchip with all of the important info on it- until Shiro pops out of a ventilation tube to destroy the microchip via explosion…

Shiro saves Ganta once again.

Overall, I think this episode was balanced in terms of pros and cons: the good is that the storyline is progressing nicely, the bad is that there are too many characters and not enough coverage to make me feel really connected to them or their sacrifices and losses.

On the other hand, Daida played an interesting role in showcasing Undertaker abilities. Arguably, she was the one who made the battle scene intriguing, only because of her twisted nature and fighting technique. I actually feel like a better match up would have been Owl and Genkaku, since there seems to be some history there. But it looks like we’ll possibly be getting that next week, since Owl is now in custody of the Undertakers.

Also, the Shiro side-plot seems to be developing without us even realizing it - and who’s this other kid who looks like her?

GO Rating: 3/5 - An interesting Deadman vs. Undertaker fight, but not enough to get me completely excitedfor any more.

~Kiryn

After Keima is saved from his depression by Takahara, we continue following Chihiro with Keima and Elsie as they try to release the loose soul from her. Seeing as Keima was still hesitant about involving himself with such a normal, “background” character such as Chihiro, he decides to help her on her quest of confessing to her new love — Yuta.

Meet Karako and Nagi, aka. Game Fowl and Owl… [via]

Things are rolling along! After Ganta’s fight with Minatsuki, he is invited to join the Scar Chain resistance … and what’s going on with Shiro, again?

[via]

There are a lot of new series this season, and many of them are worth noting. Some root from a lot of the hype prior to their premieres, while others were surprisingly endearing as the episodes continued to air. Generally, the Spring and Fall seasons provide the best of the best, and personally, I’m under the belief that some of the newest best shows were delivered this season. (Maybe even going as far as best of the year, but that’s for another day after seeing what quarters three and four have to offer.) 

The five of us here will give special attention to our respective favorite from this season, not to be confused with the best of the pack. Do comment on our picks and let your voice be heard; we want to hear from you about our tastes and your own. 

Read below to view our picks.

Steins;Gate episode 3-4 covers quite a bit of ground as the story finally begins to develop.