And unsurprisingly, it drives him insane.

I most certainly did not forget that this came out last week and let it slip under my radar. No, sir.

Thank you, Sterling.

Impressions:

Actually though, this was a little disappointing, and certainly not helped by the random yelling for the interstitial being "Second Season’s Starting!" followed by "Just kidding." Way to twist the knife, SynergySP. The problem with it is that this was at least a three or four episode arc crammed into 23.5 minutes. Minamoto’s mindraped into obeying Phantom Daughter with the ultimate goal of recreating the future scene in order to kill Kaoru. Along the way, she destroys BABEL, captures half of BABEL and PANDRA’s espers, forcing the remainder to team up before an all out assault on the charred remains of BABEL. Rushing it barely even begins to cover the pacing with this one. Hell, the most action time anybody got was BABEL and PANDRA fighting their brain controlled others. Even Nai versus Kyosuke just got lost off-screen somewhere.

Pacing problems aside (and that’s a pretty massive bit of leeway), it was decent, although far too Kaoru-centric for my tastes. Sakaki had the best moment sof the whole thing, shutting Kyosuke up when he started to go into his usual "tsundere for Minamoto" persona at the end as well as now being some kind of expert helicopter-based sniper. The plot was largely forgettable (yet another "Kaoru’s the Queen, gasp, shock, oh no" fest) without any real twist beyond her being unable to resist Minamoto when he makes doe eyes at her. I had hoped Minamoto as the Darkness Knight would do something a little more impressive than upload a computer virus and deliver explosive baked goods too. At least he finally got some heterosexual activity from somebody above 10 years old, even if he was kicking and screaming the entire time.

Brief Summary:

Minamoto arrives back at BABEL, but immediately uploads a virus and bombs the front desk. The Children are called back and can’t believe it. After they leave, it’s discovered that Minamoto’s escaped. He ECMs and gasses the girls. Kaoru wakes up a short time later, and Minamoto tells her that she needs to destroy a tank right away to save the other two. Kaoru blasts it and tosses it around, only to find the two of them inside it, now badly hurt. Minamoto congratulates her and Phantom Daughter appears, saying that Minamoto/The Darkness Knight is her new puppet before teleporting away.

At school, the robot Children are fooling nobody. Phantom Daughter attacks BABEL’s espers at the pool and takes Double Face and Bullet. Minamoto works his magic on Kaoru, but Sakaki interrupts. Nai takes him out, but Kyosuke intervenes and chases them away. As Kyosuke is explaining that this is PANDRA’s problem too now, Mio and Patty teleport in, telling them that they were attacked. Mio yells at Kaoru not to roll over and to be the Queen. Shiho and Aoi also finally wake up and lend their support. Kaoru calls out Phantom Daughter to settle it.

Phantom Daughter attacks BABEL and the espers peel off each other until just Minamoto is on the roof with Kaoru. Thanks to Kyosuke, Minamoto manages to shake off part of the control before he shoots, giving Kaoru an opening to blast him. Phantom Daughter retreats, abandoning her control over all the others. Sakaki rushes to Minamoto’s aid and Kyosuke also helps heal him. Minamoto wakes up and Kaoru promises that she’ll always be his "Children." Hooray, Engrish. Aoi and Shiho are not amused.

Dayum, Shiho.

Non-Impressions:

Shiho should really need a license if she’s going to pack those legs. This wasn’t really much, mostly just recap of some of the opening stories and the parts where the Children ‘got along’ (if you can count the Death Note parody as such. It was only 15 minutes, and about 10 of it was recap, plus some finger puppets, a couple shots of the Children as adults, and then about a minute and a half of preview for the actual OVA coming out in July. It did confirm that it’s going to be an original story with apparently evil Minamoto as well as a few new characters. Mio’s also looking pretty good in her Shana ripoff uniform. I wouldn’t be shocked if they have at least one more of these covering the BABEL and PANDRA groups too. The Great Armada of BABEL didn’t even get a mention. Talk about a pity.

Although now I’m mad because there’s a hole inside. I miss my espers and seeing the Death Note parody and PANDRA’s classroom of terror just reminded me of that. At least it’s only three more months until I get a hit of my tasty tasty psychic cocaine.

This is way better than the DVDs and new comforter I got myself… and whatever inane things my family will be giving me. And it’s not even technically Christmas here yet either!

Now what’ll I do with my Sunday mornings?

Impressions:

No ending expected, and none really achieved, aside from leaving things open for a post-graduation second season. While it certainly would have been great to see the future esper war, this has always really been more presented like a western show, with that kind of stuff just being some distant inevitable threat as the show keeps trucking along at its own pace. Sort of like the Planeteers’ battle against Global Warming Bot. I don’t know… I’m not feeling particularly creative at the moment.

Very little to actually talk about in regards to this episode. The first half was pretty much minor business as usual while the second was essentially one giant montage of a few years later. PANDRA’s antics (and fanservice) probably took the cake there. Both the Mary Patty and Muscle moments were great, and Kyosuke sipping tea while the compound behind him explodes in chaos was a perfect way to leave the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I’m not going to try to read anything into Yuri showing up at the end since she can mindwipe them into believing whatever she wants anyway.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Brief Summary:

PANDRA attacks a ship to free all the espers held hostage there.

Everybody’s summer vacation is interrupted by a level 5 teleporter that needs to be caught, but after Kaoru pins him to a wall, he threatens to kill himself. Minamoto talks him down and and everybody (except that guy) goes home happy.

Skip to graduation in the future. Nobody can hold back tears and Fujiko makes sure to get a shot of Minamoto bawling for the girls. Montage of everybody’s current lives. Naomi’s still being stalked by Tanizaki, Sakaki invokes Oboro’s wrath, no luck at group dating for Double Face, the Hound’s the same as always, Bullet and Tim are doing well, the Comericans watch Caroline’s space mission, PANDRA lounges while Mary Patty fantasizes yaoi couplings, Muscle laments going out into the world to be a normal human, Kyosuke sips tea, and Fujiko lurks on BABEL’s roof.

After the credits, Chisato and Tohno run into a former classmate, Yuri. After they leave, she smiles and says that she’s waiting for Kaoru.

Final Thoughts:

I actually have very little to say that I feel like I haven’t said a billion times over. SynergySP maintained relatively high production throughout this, the characters were fun, the music was great, and there was always Gonzo lurking in the wings to do strange things. There were a couple segments where the show really began to drag and lose its way, but for a 51 episode show, it never really felt like things ever stopped progressing. The ginormous cast probably had a lot to do with that, as new characters have been introduced at the rate of about 2 a month, and very few of them were one and done.

The biggest praise that I can give to this show, however, is that it never forgot what it was; a cartoon. There were no attempts at unwieldy angst and it always remembered that things like Hard Gay, talking squirrels, and a grown men shepherding around three lovestruck little engines of mass destruction were silly jokes. Even after the most serious moments, there was always time for a hug, happy smiles and then a "Minamoto is a lolicon" joke. It’s tried, it’s true, it’s the inevitable banana cream pie in the face of the series.

So long as you’re not looking for a strong overall plot, or a particularly short show, ZKC is great to just sit back and enjoy. You’ll never yell at the characters for being overly stupid or drama queens, and while the plot may not really go anywhere, the show is constantly evolving and changing. It’s hard to even remember what BABEL was like before Fujiko showed up, let alone the Normal People, PANDRA, and Black Phantom. This has really been a joy to watch every week for the past year. It may really just be an X-Men knockoff, but it’s one hell of a damn fine one and the perfect thing to kick off a lazy Sunday morning enjoyably.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I’m a Toys R Us kid.

Impressions:

Well, that was a little underwhelming. The whole big conflict was just Minamoto thinking that he had a good life as a kid, and getting a little pissy at the others for wanting him to give it up. Then a little "believe in us" and that was the end of that. Yuri was also disappointing as all get out. I was a little interested when she started half-disobeying her father because of her interest in Kaoru, but then a half-dead Naomi zapped her and that was the end of that. She doesn’t even seem particularly evil… aside from the whole megalomaniacal father having her implant suicidal kill switches and brain wash other espers thing.

Minamoto and Kyosuke’s exchange on the roof was a little interesting, but it was really nothing we haven’t seen or heard before. Both knows that they can change the future, but they’re not willing to go the extremes necessary. The first half of the episode was still relatively amusing regardless, but it was really just a continuation of PANDRA screwing around at school from last week. Muscle’s always great for a laugh, and Tohno somehow managed to win both Mio and Minamoto. Poor Chisato.

Sorry if the summary’s a little off. I was eating a (very) late dinner as I watched so didn’t take notes like I usual do. Writing from memory sucks.

Sakaki and Fujiko start a psychic dive into Tanizaki.

At school, Mio and Kaoru keep squabbling. Chisato forgot her book, so Tohno, ever the good boyfriend, loans her his and goes to share with Mio. Muscle starts class and Minamoto is stuck with Kaoru, inciting the wrath of the others. Kyosuke lurks.

Inside Tanizaki, Sakaki and Fujiko are attacked by Black Phantom.

PANDRA keeps watch over the school, but Yuri’s sitting tight. The class plays dodgeball, but Kaoru turns the ball over to MInamoto because she’s smitten. He tries to throw the ball at Tohno, but Mio steps in and kicks it right back into Minamoto’s face. Chisato tries to take him to the nurse, but Kaoru interferes and all three start arguing, letting Tohno lead MInamoto away.

The rest of the morning passes as a montage.

At lunch, the girls fawn over Minamoto while Chisato fawns over Tohno. All the other boys in the class fume. Momo suddenly activates and Minamoto is sucked into a vision. His adult version tells him that this isn’t real. This isn’t his class. This isn’t where he belongs. Kyosuke appears in the vision as well, reminding him that this is what he wanted. Minamoto turns back to his adult self to yell at him, but it smiles and says that he knows Minamoto will do what’s right.

Back in reality, Shiho checks up on Minamoto and reassures him that they’ll have him back to normal. He drops his tray and yells at them for not thinking about what he wants.

Minamoto runs to the roof, where Kyosuke is waiting for him.

Inside the psychic dive, Fujiko scans the hands while Sakaki fights them off.

At BABEL, Doubleface has a sparrow that Akira is possessing. He reports to them that the Hound is down and the Children are in danger.

At school, Kaoru is grabbed and pulled into a dark classroom.

Yuri attacks her and looks inside her mind at the things that Kaoru has forgotten. They both see the future, and Yuri wonders aloud about Kaoru.

Shiho and Aoi can’t find Minamoto or Kaoru so run back to the class to find Mio, but the other students have no idea who that is. They realize that PANDRA has withdrawn.

On the roof, Kyosuke tells Minamoto that he loves the Children, especially Kaoru, and gets called a pervert in response. BABEL’s forces arrive below, but PANDRA is waiting to ambush them.

Kyosuke tells Minamoto that he’s seen the future and knows the past and knows that he and Kaoru’s destines are entwined. Minamoto starts to protest, but Kyosuke grabs him and tells him that he’s an obstacle.

Yuri keeps wondering what’s special about the Queen of espers. Her father chastises her and she goes back to concentrating. A badly injured Naomi zaps Yuri by surprise and forces her to teleport away. Naomi begs Kaoru to save the others as she turns to stone.

Kyosuke releases Minamoto, knowing that he’ll take this chance and remain a happy child.

The Children make it to the roof.

PANDRA’s forces have all withdrawn by Kyosuke’s orders. It’s too dangerous for them to stay because Kyosuke’s going to get serious.

Minamoto argues with the Children again. Don’t they like being friends? He won’t be able to be with the like this if they grow up. The girls know that they’ll always be with him. Kaoru repeats what her beliefs from the dream, and then wonders where that thought came from. Minamoto smiles and starts to relent.

Below, Yuri’s hurt and lashes out at Minamoto.

Kaoru continues, asking him to believe in them. Minamoto accepts that and happily uses the Triple Boost. Immediately, the light from their wings flood the area. The attacks in Tanizaki finish and he wakes up, and all the downed members of BABEL recovery. Yuri remarks that the light is beautiful. Minamoto starts to fall, but is caught by an angelic Kaoru and returns to normal.

They return to the roof, but Kyosuke’s not finished yet. He will take care of Minamoto once and for all. Minamoto steps up and pulls out the Esper Killer, offering it to Kyosuke. They both know that they could completely stop that future whenever they wanted, but their convictions and their belief prevents them from crossing that line. Minamoto and the girls leave.

PANDRA pops over and yells at Kyosuke for worrying them. Kyosuke admits that this was his complete loss as they fly off.

BABEL’s forces recover. Naomi tearfully glomps Tanizaki, but he’s so suspicious that he runs off in tears to find his real Naomi.

Minamoto teases the girls a little bit as they walk home together.

Preview:

Epilogue, graduation, and impending statuatory rape trial.

Leave it to Kyosuke to mindwipe an entire elementary school just to dick with Minamoto.

Impressions:

I suppose it was a decent episode, but it felt a little lackluster for being the show’s finale arc. Then again, Syobai has ZKC marked as ending in March, with more episodes in April, so maybe it’s not ending. I have no real clue and don’t feel like looking it up at the moment.

At any rate, the main problem with the episode is that it was completely and unabashedly 100% setup. There’s nothing wrong with setup so long as the payoff is worth it, but it doesn’t really make for much interesting to talk about aside from just blithely restating the premise of the arc and maybe a little speculation. Especially in the later going, they were pretty heavily drawing parallels between Minamoto’s ‘happy’ school life and the one he provided for the girls, so that’ll probably be the main theme for this arc, although with PANDRA teaching the classes and mini-Kyosuke as a classmate, it’s not hard to see how things develop into the all out fight that the episode preiew indicated.

The episode didn’t even really become particularly interesting until the second half, but even then, it felt like they could have done a lot more with mini-Minamoto than just having everybody fawn over him. We didn’t even get a Double Face glomp either, sadly. Thankfully, Aoi wasn’t able to play dress-up with him because the little kid appearance is just a psychic manifestation via Momo. The fantasy scene of him as a cat eared maid was bad enough. He’d never be able to live it down if they actually got him into a dress. I’m not even sure what to think of Shiho and Aoi popping their tops near the start of the episode for that matter, although Minamoto lost about 45 testasterone points by calling a time out to sew their buttons back on.

Brief Summary:

After a mission, Tanizaki is attacked by a member of Black Phantom and his mind totally scrabled. Minamoto and the Children respond to an high level esper gone berserk. After they suppress him, he’s bewildered and doesn’t understand what’s going on. Minamoto finds the same flower with him that was with Tanizaki and starts putting it together. He decides that Black Phantom must be involved, but is attacked by the same girl on his way home. Kyosuke attacks BABEL (and distracts Fujiko by telling her that her make-up isn’t on) and reads Minamoto’s mind. Once he figures out what happened, he leaves Momo with Minamoto as a psychic conduit. When Minamoto comes to, he metamorphs into a child form, indicative of his mind.

Despite being stuck with only his 10 year old memories, Minamoto is still Minamoto and is extremely intelligent and cognizant of the situation. Everybody lavishes attention on him and he tries his best to respond appropriately. He’s totally amazed by the powers of the Children, although gets dragged into their teasing and fantasies anyway. Meanwhile, the Hound tries to track down the suspect.

The next day, Tohno and Chisato show up to pick up the four of them for school. Kyosuke’s manipulated everybody into believing Minamoto to be a student, and members of PANDRA have taken over various positions of the school to keep an eye on them. Kyosuke himself is masquerading as a classmate. The PANDRA members don’t know why though, just that it’s Kyosuke’s orders. On a nearby roof, Black Phantom dispatches the Hound and turns to the school.

Preview:

Dodgeball, bullies, and Black Phantom.

Does Patty look like an adult Punie to anybody else?

Impressions:

They clearly had a large chunk of extra money in the budget this week because the production was even better than normal. Not all that much of it was actually spent on the fights in the episode, but I’m not sure there were too many ways to make them particularly interesting anyway since they were all meant to be extremely one-sided. It was also somewhat funny to hear the Mio and Momo crosstalk through the episode. The same VA should not be talking to themselves that much in one episode, let alone making fun of themselves.

A very good episode all around. Punie Patty seemed probably a bit more powerful than she should have, but I got the distinct impression that she didn’t have a ton of control over how her smoke moved and the explosion did her a lot of good on that front. The attempted neck stabbing also seemed a little gruesome for Sunday morning TV, but I’m not going to complain about a little more grit in the show. I do wonder if Kaoru’s headaches were anything more than just the same thing as episode 2 (if you can remember back that far). Could be a prelude to Black Phantom attacking her mind (although she really doesn’t fit the Bullet/Tim Toy pattern), or just any other mental attack in general.

On the other hand, next week is the adventures of 9 year old Minamoto, so I don’t think the plot will be going anywhere in a hurry.

BABEL infiltrates Hotel Plankton to arrest some illegal weapon smugglers. Minamoto pretends to be room service while Kaoru and Aoi go on the attack. They’re surprised when one of the men is a low level teleporter and detonates grenades in an attempt to take them out.

Kaoru shields them from the blast, but snaps and viciously attacks the man, slamming him into the wall by his throat and pinning him there. Something’s wrong though and she can’t control her powers. She yells at Minamoto to use the limiter to stop her and he does.

Back at BABEL, Sakaki gives her a thorough check. She’s fine, but needs some time off for a little bit. Naomi will be taking her place while she recovers. Kaoru protests, but Minamoto tells her that they’ll be okay without her.

At home, Kaoru keeps thinking about him saying that. Her mother said the same thing when she left Kaoru at BABEL. Mio and Momo teleport in and immediately flip out because they saw Kaoru crying. She tells Kaoru that they need her help, and Kaoru agrees to give them a hand.

Mio teleports her to the wilderness where PANDRA members are waiting for them. They immediately get into an argument over Kaoru’s impertinent attitude. The girl (Kazura) turns her body into strands and binds Kaoru, but she easily breaks free. The guy (Kagari) blasts flames at her, but she blocks those too and dives for a psychic punch.

Kanou easily blocks it, and when Kaoru complains that it’s only because of her limiter, Kanou reaches up and breaks it. Kaoru’s headache immediately comes back, but before anything can happen, she gets a call from Minamoto checking up on her from recovering a sub. After she hangs up, a plane explodes overhead and a woman leaps out. Kanou explains that that’s who they’re here for, a member of Black Phantom, Patty Crew.

Kaoru’s more worried about the plane and anybody that could be hurt and blasts them when they don’t agree with her. Finally, they accept it and teleport up to guide the plane somewhere safe.

Patty lands and gets a message from Black Phantom to be wary of PANDRA.

Kaoru dons a disguise to mask her involvement with PANDRA in this one. Kanou explains the situation in a little more depth, but it basically boils down to Black Phantom bad, PANDRA good morally grey. They know taking Black Phantom on is tough, so they’re wearing specially made boosters from BABEL’s stolen data to provide her backup. Kyosuke SHIKI also sent Momo along. When Kanou says that they need her, Kaoru’s convinced to stay and help.

As they confront Patty, Kaoru hasn’t really got the hang of blending in as a member of PANDRA. Patty calls them idiots, and then transforms herself into a diffuse smoke cloud. Kagari attempts to ignite it, but the blast knocks him out and sends the smoke everywhere, letting Patty form right next to Kazura and grab her. Kanou demands some kind of plan from Kaoru, but when she has no idea how to fight it either, Kanou orders Mio and Momo to protect Kaoru and come up with a plan. Mio teleports Kaoru away, but Patty gives chase.

Momo attempts to provide cover, but her blasts don’t really affect Patty, despite taking off half her face. Patty grabs Momo and smoke starts pouring out of her mouth. She pulls in her battery and goes into protective hibernation mode as Mio and Kaoru teleport away.

Mio and Kaoru get into an argument immediately, but when Mio asks about the things Kaoru wants to protect, Kaoru remembers her parental figures saying that they’ll be okay without her again. She also remembers what her mother said after, that she’ll always love her and this is to let her become stronger so that she can protect what’s important. Kaoru thanks Mio and charges back to the fight.

Kanou attempts to slap Kagari awake with no effect. Kazura’s fight with Patty is also going poorly, but a blast of wind forces Patty into her human form. Kaoru appears with Mio and activates the boosters. The PANDRA espers fly up to Kaoru and she sprouts black wings. Kaoru’s head throbs again, and she thinks to herself that this should only be done with Aoi and Shiho, even as she lets loose her force of absolution blast, destroying Black Phantom’s hold.

She tells Mio to treasure Kyosuke and then passes out. They check her vitals in a panic, but none of them really know what they’re doing anyway. Kyosuke teleports in and tells them not to worry, his Queen will be fine.

On the ground, Patty obeys her final order from Black Phantom. She picks up a stick and holds it to her throat to stab herself. Kyosuke attacks, but Patty’s shielded. Kanou lays down a Psychic Hand of God and KOs Patty.

Back at the homestead, PANDRA puts Kaoru to bed and Kyosuke tells them that this is the first step into making Kaoru one of them, fighting on their side and learning to protect them as well.

Minamoto et al come back home and check up on Kaoru. She’s asleep, but mostly fine. Shortly after, she ambushes Minamoto and demands a present. When none is coming, she attacks, dragging Shio and Aoi out of their bath to be a part of the carnage as well.

Preview:

Minamoto, you ped… wait, what?

Future, present, past, present, future, present! A trip through time indeed.

Impressions:

A rather interesting episode, not so much for the content as the questions it raises about the future that everybody is trying to avoid. We’ve yet to ever see any glimpse of a future where Shiho or Aoi turn to the dark side, and it’s already been hinted (with a little more force than a sledgehammer) that there’s a lot more going on with future Kaoru than her just waging a war against normal humans. This episode just drives that home even further. It still begs the question as to what the catalyst is going to be, although the way they’ve been setting things up, I imagine that Minamoto will ‘betray’ the Children in some way, causing a backlash of all their (well, Kaoru’s) affection for him. I just really hope they don’t use his new possession of the Esper Killer gun to do that. Yes, it’s for specifically killing Kaoru… yes, there might also be other applications for a line of work where you’re life is regularly targetted by some of the most powerful esper terrorists and megalomaniacs in the world. Just maybe.

We also got a bit of Kyosuke’s past, but it was honestly rather boring. Just his superior officer calling espers monsters and trying to kill him. Bullet’s 30 second badly drawn and animated mob scene had more emotional impact than some one dimensional fruitcake rambling about the purities of humanity’s… precious… bodily… fluids.

Brief Summary:

Fujiko shows Minamoto that the Children’s Good/Evil ratio is getting even worse and forces the Esper Killer on him.

In the future, Kaoru sneaks into the apartment, but is waylaid by Shiho and Aoi. She blasts them away, but quickly makes peace and their memories drift back when they hear a music box playing in the wreckage.

New school year for the girls. Minamoto picks them up and gives them some rather plain cake before collapsing for a nap. They get mail from Kyosuke telling them to meet him. He congratulates them on their anniversary together and offers them new limiters as a present. He then takes them to an amusement park to play. It’s totally abandoned, which they realize isn’t normal, but he reminds them that they aren’t normal either. He even has the limiter releaser that he stole previously and lets them run amok with their powers released.

After playing until evening, Shiho wants to get back to Minamoto. Kyosuke offers to take them out to dinner, but Kaoru suggests they go back to the apartment to make dinner for him. Over soup, Kyosuke tells them about his time in the military and when he was nearly executed for being a ‘monster’ by his superior officer. Minamoto blearily stumbles in, but can’t see a thing without his glasses. Aoi teleports Kyosuke outside and Shiho into the bath to drown as a distraction. Minamoto runs into a door.

Kaoru goes outside with Kyosuke, who reveals that he had been using a limiter on himself the entire time. He makes a less than veiled threat against Minamoto as the person that will hurt Kaoru, and she flips out. She warns Kyosuke to never lay a hand on Minamoto and attacks, but Kyosuke effortlessly fends her off and then blasts her. He taunts her for being unable to protect Minamoto. Kaoru gets up and focuses her power and manages to slice through Kyosuke’s shield, making him drop the BABEL releaser. She angrily reminds him again that Minamoto is off-limits.

Back in the apartment, Minamoto tells them that he remembers tomorrow is their anniversary and he got a present. It’s a music box. They happily glomp him and take their picture together. In the future, the three of them fly off together.

The next day, Kyosuke’s come to Minamoto bearing gifts in a designer PANDRA bag which he forces into Minamoto’s arms.

Preview:

PANDRA vs Black Phantom

Far better than the real Death Note.

Impressions:

Oh lord, this was priceless. A magical notebook falls into the general hands of BABEL that can control the future. Of course, the future that’s written isn’t always the one that they picture, so it’s not quite the same as Death Note, but they wasted absolutely no chance to parody it at every turn, from Kyosuke saying "Just as planned" to the girls slipping into the art style, to Sakaki as L. Minamoto was off in his own Full Metal Jacket parody training the whole time. The only real development was Bullet and Tim Toy bonding over their inner otaku fandom thanks to the notebook at the very end, but I was laughing through most of it, so no complaints from me on that front.

I will complain that they used the VA sung version of the OP for the episode. Ouch. Stop assaulting my ears, Hirano. Speaking of that, I’m actually a bit surprised that they didn’t make a single VA joke about Kaoru and Misa both being voiced by her.

Brief Summary:

The girls are in a bad mood because Minamoto’s off in basic training. Meanwhile, Fujiko checks in on how Tim and Bullet are doing in rehab with Hanai. They’re okay, but having issues making friends. Fujiko shrugs it off and leaves. Hanai goes to a patient, who tells her about his magical wish granting notebook, Serendipity. A duplicate of it drops onto Kaoru’s head. Shiho reads the wish-making instructions inside it.

The girls take the notebook to L Sakaki. He’s not sure what to think, so Shiho offers to test it. She uses it to bring Minamoto back early, and to their shock, he walks through the door. They realize that it must be real. Meanwhile, Hanai gets told that Kyosuke visited the old man as well.

Minamoto takes the notebook to his superiors, and demonstrates its powers. Sakaki snatches it and attempts to abuse it, and Minamoto smacks him down. They decide to leave it to Minamoto, who looks into it and sees that a page has been ripped out. It’s in the hands of the girls, who are all plotting in their own ways. Kaoru touches the other two’s spirits and they all write down happy things… except every one of them is a fake and they each use the real ones to knock the other two out of the picture, resulting in a triple KO.

Meanwhile, the old man reveals that there’s another book, buried beneath a nearby tree.

Sakaki stops Minamoto and holds him at gunpoint, demanding the book. He then faints and falls asleep because Minamoto planned ahead. Just as planned… says Kyosuke, and he continues deeper into BABEL. On his way out, the girls pounce on him and try to use the real page to make Minamoto say which one he likes the most. Since he’s not Minamoto, there’s no compulsion. They’re interrupted anyway by reports that Black Phantom is on the loose.

Bullet finds the box hidden under the tree, but Tim steals it from him. Unfortunately, it’s empty and the girls quickly apprehend them. Once back at the hospital, they admit that they just wanted to use it to be a little happier, but they don’t even know how. Minakysouke hands over the notebook to them, but when they come up empty, Kaoru writes a simple wish for them to find friends. An old woman walks in with an anime figure on her keychain. Bullet and Tim fanboy over it and find their friend in each other.

Afterwards, the girls try to make Minakyosuke answer, and he decides to not screw things up for Minamoto. He charms all three, but when Kaoru glomps him, Momo falls out of his shirt, exposing him.

Back at BABEL, Minamoto’s home early because he’s covered in injuries. Thanks, girls.

Preview:

I’m selling these fine illegal growth hormones.

And an absolutely lovely Valentine’s Day.

Impressions:

What a surprisingly good episode. Takeshi was certainly nowhere near strong enough to threaten Kaoru, but I think this is really the first time they’ve actually done a little Uncle Ben story. Great power and great responsibility etc etc. Alright, so… not quite the same thing as "stop scaring the crap out of people, you creep," but Takeshi pretty much immediately went the vigilante route and it entertained me to see Kaoru blast through his attacks like they were nothing. A little overwhelming force is good every now and then. It’s also a somewhat subtle nod to how far the girls have come from behaving pretty much the same way as Takeshi did in the first few episodes.

The little Valentine’s scene at the end was really nicely done too, and I hope is the end of Kaoru moping over Carrie. There wasn’t much of that this episode, but it was there and it really seems a bit out of place since Shiho and Aoi are clearly past it. I’m also wondering if they’re really going to be able to (or even try) to make an ending with any sort of closure here. I certainly wouldn’t mind more episodes, but the original run was definitely slated for 1 year and I haven’t seen any news about an extension as of yet. There are still two months to go, but we’ve got a hell of a lot of plot threads to wrap up here, not to mention that there are recurring characters who haven’t even gotten names yet. Silly nameless PANDRA antagonists.

Oh yeah, and they whipped out some totally new jazzy latinesque horn tune at around 15:00 in that I really dug. The soundtrack for this show has always been excellent, but 10 months in and I’d have thought we’d have heard it all by now. Definitely another pleasant surprise this week.

Brief Summary:

BABEL conducts a relatively routine ESP check on the elementary school and finds one new esper named Takeshi rated somewhere between 4 and 6. Minamoto sends the girls to befriend him (still pretending that they’re level 2s) and figure out what his powers are. While showing them off to him, his father walks in on them and Shiho mind reads that he’s the author of a very anti-esper book. Takeshi’s frustration results in his powers going a little berserk, but he quickly gets them under control and revels in them.

The first thing he does is attack a bully that’s picking on another kid, but he’s so drunk with his power that he terrifies the person he was supposed to be saving as well. The girls arrive to lecture him about it, but he turns on them and attacks. Kaoru easily brushes his attack aside and then reveal themselves to be BABEL’s elite squad. Still arrogant, Takeshi thinks that it’s amusing now and continues the attack, but Kaoru easily flies right through it and gets in his face.

Their conversation is interrupted by a nearby explosion on a bridge. The news reports it as an esper attack, but BABEL quickly deduces that the Normal People are behind it. Kaoru holds up the bridge, but the machinated carnage keeps getting worse. Commenting on it about the dangers of espers is Takeshi’s father. Takeshi’s had enough and uses his power to hold up the bridge so Kaoru can clear up the disaster. The camera shows Takeshi and his father is speechless. Meanwhile, Sakaki and a squadron of BABEL forces attack the Normal People’s base and arrest them.

In the aftermath, Takeshi’s father is forced to confront his son over his powers. The moment’s terse, but he then throws his book aside and stomps on it. He cries out how wrong he was and hugs Takeshi.

Later, his father recants on TV as the girls watch. Minamoto takes Kaoru’s hand and tells her it’s because family is more important, and they’re his precious family now. The girls give him their special home made Valentine Chocolate and group-glomp him. Sakaki, meanwhile, has somehow managed three overlapping dates who are now all pissed.

Preview:

A magical notebook appears.