This episode begins with Keita and his two sisters celebrating at a karaoke parlor, and it just so happens that his sisters have gone to the trouble of making Santa outfits for the occasion.  The reason that the sisters give for the occasion is shake Keita out of his depressed emo mood. After the sisters take a break from singing they try to get Keita to sing.

        After drinking some Oolong tea, Riko asks Keita if the tea tastes strange, then Riko suddenly passes out.  Ako then realizes that this must be the adult Oolong tea, and concludes that Riko must be really bad with alcohol. Ako tells Keita that they might as well just enjoy the tea, and after they’re both nice and toasty Ako tells Keita that she needs to pee. Keita tells her to just hurry up and go, but Ako’s legs won’t work properly. Keita offers to help Ako to the bathroom but she would rather crawl, so she crawls off to the bathroom.

       Just as Ako crawls off to the bathroom Riko finally wakes up and tells K that she also has to go to the bathroom but can’t hold it in. Well, Keita tells her the owners will be mad if she goes inside the room, then Riko and asks Keita if he’ll drink it? Well, Riko settles for asking Keita for an empty plastic bottle. Well, he says it’s impossible so Riko says she’ll just go here, and she says she hasn’t wet her pants since preschool.

     Keita decides it’s better to carry Riko to the bathroom instead of letting her pee her pants, and when Ako sees Keita carrying Riko past her she envies the princess carrying style.

      When Keita finally gets Riko inside the bathroom she plays up her intoxication getting Keita to remove her panties so she can pee, and once they’re off she tells Keita that is thing has gotten big. Keita finally gets her to go and when she’s finished she gets on Keita’s case for staying in the bathroom when he could have left and as punishment she tells him to hurry up and wipe her off.

       Keita starts to get really flustered and confused and she asks him what the problem is since she’s his sister. Riko tells him to remember back to when they were young and he was still pissing his bed and Riko and Ako had to take care of him, so he can return the favor this one time. Keita asks Riko if she’s sure it’s just pee down there and she tells him to hurry up and find out. Just as Keita begins to wipe her off Ako knocks on the door wondering what’s taking so long, breaking Riko’s moment of exaltation.

      As Keita is leaving the bathroom Ako gets a glimpse of the situation and Keita says she has it wrong but one glance at Keita’s pants confirms her worries and Riko says it’s exactly what it looks like.

       Back inside the karaoke booth, Riko’s fallen back asleep with a very nice smile on her face. Well, Keita is bummed out because Ako thinks something happened inside the bathroom so he starts to drinks heavily and Ako apologies to him. Then Keita places Ako on his lap and tells her to share some of her cheerfulness with him by mouth to mouth. After a few seconds thought, Ako thinks it’ll be alright for her to enjoy Keita by herself, and after a few minutes of kissing Keita wants Ako to work on his tongue then he returns the for her.  After a little while, the drunken Keita pulls Ako’s top down and tells her that he’s going to see how excited she gets when doing these things and proceeds to go to work on her twin peaks. He starts off a bit rough, but after a hint from Ako he gets gentle and asks her if it’s OK for a brother and sister to do this?

       Well, Ako tells Keita that she’s a sister Santa for now. Keita eventually works the rest of Ako’s outfit off and is about to go to work on her lower half when she gets a telephone call from the front desk saying that their time is up in five minutes, Ako asks for an extension, but the front desk tells her they’re booked solid so they have to leave, and when Ako looks over to Keita she sees that he’s asleep.

      When Ako returns to Keita’s side she bops him upside the head for falling asleep then she heads to the bathroom to take care of a moisture problem lamenting that if she knew it would have turned out like this she would have brought some spares.

     On their way back from the karaoke bar, Keita tells his sisters that he doesn’t remember a thing but he doesn’t feel stressed out anymore, and he thanks them for their help. As the episode ends, Ako and Riko bicker over what the other sister did with Keita, and Ako is still dealing with her moisture problem. Well, that’s all for this OAV.

       Well, I’ve always liked Kiss x Sis because of its playful execution of the wincest trope. While Keita relationship with Ako and Riko isn’t truly incest because they’re his step-sisters and it’s about as close as you can get without stepping into the creepy territory of Koi Kaze (real incest). In the previous two episodes of Kiss x Sis I’ve ripped on Keita for his lack of a man card, his parents say go for it, his step-sisters say go for it, his male classmates say go for it, even his own body says of it, and what does he do? Nothing. Well, in this episode he finally decides have a little taste of forbidden fruit, but only because he’s drunk, and to make matters worse, he doesn’t remember anything. I almost wish that I could swap Keita with Touya (the scumbag from White Album), Keita would make a better boyfriend for the pure and virginal Yuki, and Touya would have already passed his twin entrance exams and both Ako and Riko would be worring about buying diapers instead of making cosplay outfits. Eventhough I hate weak male leads in harem and love triangle anime, I like both Riko and Ako because those girls know what they want and they actualy go for it. What makes Kiss x Sis frustrating is that Ako and Riko offer Keita the perfect male fanstay of hot willing girls and he doesn’t have the sack to take advantage of a situation that could never exist but you wished it could.

       This episode on Saturday with Sawako cooking a meal for her parents and remembering her experiences with Yano and Yoshida when her mother answers a call from  Sawako’s friends. Yano and Yoshida ask her if she can meet them for further adventures in ramen. When Sawako asks her parents if she can skip out on cooking to meet her friends, and her parents seem so overjoyed at the prospect of Sawako having friends they tell her to go ahead. Sawako’s father wonders if one of her new friends might include a boy?

        When Sawako meets up with Yano and Yoshida they head off to the ramen shop that happens to be owned and operated by Ryuu’s family. After they finish eating they head up to Ryuu’s room where Yano gets a call from her boyfriend, and she tells Sadako that she’ll soon discover the wonderful world of adults. Later, when Ryuu finishes work he joins them, and Sawako asks if Ryuu and Yoshida are lovers? Well, Ryuu just smirks while Yoshida flips out, and after a few minutes Ryuu tells Sadako that they more like brother and sister.

        After hanging for a while, the girls decide that they should call up Kazehaya so Ryuu doesn’t get to enjoy a harem night. Yoshida gets Ryuu to hand over his cell and she tosses it to Sadako saying it’ll be fun to hear Kazehaya’s reaction when he hears a girl calling him from Ryuu’s phone.

         After a bit of indecision on her part, Sawako finally pushes the call button and when he answers the phone Yoshida’s idea has the desired affect, at first he’s confused, and then he’s happy. Sawako tells him that they’re all at Ryuu’s place and having a good time so it’ll be more fun if he stops over, Kazehaya hops on his bike and heads over to Ryuu’s place.

        Before Kazehaya arrives, the four of them look over photos from middle school, and Sawako wishes she could have met the middle school Kazehaya.

         Then Sawako notices a picture of the “French doll” and asks about her, Yano doesn’t say much but you can tell she not pleased by her mention. The girls then shows her picture to Ryuu and asks what he thinks? Not my type. Wow, Yoshida didn’t know he had a type, and then she asks him about Sadako? Casual like, and Sawako tells him she likes him too. Yano and Yoshida asks her about them? Love. Then they ask her about Kazehaya? Well, Sawako manages to stammer out the word, love. As Yoshida is about to really question Sadako about her answer Yano pulls her back a little.

        Well, Kazehaya arrives just as they’re poking fun at him by calling him a pervert or emo. So, when he says he’s not a pervert he notices Sawako looking  at him and they exchange glances and blushes.

       Once Yano notices how Kazehaya is acting with Sadako she calls Sadako over to sit between her and Yoshida, she and Yoshida start hugging Sawako telling Kazehaya how soft and girly Sawako feels. Yano really seems to be enjoying making Kazehaya feel uncomfortable, and it’s all fun and games until Pin who was eating downstairs barges in on the fun.

       Well, it turns out that Kazehaya’s dad was Pin’s little league coach, so he’s known Kazehaya since he was a kid. Well, once all the fun is over, Kazehaya and Sawako walk off together to the girls’ amusement, Pin head off with Yano to her annoyment, and Yoshida and Ryuu are left together where he tells her she didn’t have to go this far to show him that everything is now alright. As Sawako and Kazehaya walk together under the stars she tells him she was glad she came to this school where she met everyone, and he asks if that includes him? Of course. As they walk together Sawako thinks to herself that she’s glad she got a peek at the Kazehaya she never knew and it makes her happy. Well, that’s enough warm and fuzzies for one episode.

        Well, this was a very nice and relaxing episode watching Sawako hanging out with her new friends, and it was a nice no drama change of pace from the previous episodes. Sawako’s parents’ reaction to their finding out she now has friends was priceless, and even though her father seemed overjoyed it was pretty funny watching him wonder if their might be a boy. I really enjoyed watching Sawako discover the simple joys of just hanging out and goofing around with friends. It was really cute watching Yano and Yoshida pull Kazehaya’s chains with their whole Sawako is so soft and girly bit. Yano realised Sawako’s and Kazehaya mutual attraction and her light hearted ribbing reminded me that we did some of the very same things to my friends back in the day.

         Also, Yano’s reaction to Sawako’s mention of the “French doll” was quite susprising because it seems that she had some extra knowledge about her that she chose not to share with Sawako. Oh, it was also very interesting hearing Ryuu tell Yoshida what his type of girl is, and while she thought that he was refering to Sawako he was really saying that his type of girl is her. In future episodes I look forward to meeting Yano’s yet unnamed boyfriend (older guy?), watching Kazehaya’s and Sawako’s relationship progress, and seeing if childhood friends manage to hook up.

       This episode picks up with Rumi and Kana confronting the other group of girls about the theft of the cake design, but this doesn’t lead anywhere. Outside the school, Kana is in tears because her sister Ringo might be upset over the cake theft but Rumi tells her to look at Ichigo and the princes working hard on something.

       Back inside the kitchen, Ichigo tells the princes that she has a even better cake design, but she has no time to explain. So, Ichigo asks the princes to just help her out and she’ll explain as they go along,  the boys are all in. Ichigo says this is a race against time, and everyone helps out, even the sweet spirits. Ichigo thanks everyone for believing her, and Hanabusa says that only Ichigo could have come up with such a strange cake design so it had to have been hers. Once everything is finished, Ichigo asks the spirits for their help and she tells Ringo to hold on.

      Inside Ringo’s classroom we see that she’s very nervous because one of the boys is teasing her about her birthday cake. Back at St. Marie’s we see that the other group is planning a nasty surprise by telling the teacher that group A is OK and they have the school van leave without them. Kana and Rumi both witnessed this nasty bit and Kana runs off to do something. When group A arrives outside the school they see that the bus is missing and there’s no way they’ll make it to the school on time, so Ichigo asks Vanilla if she could use magic to get them to Ringo’s school, but alas, she says it’s impossible.

      A minute later Kana shows up with  a van and we find out that Kana stopped the first van that happened by the school and begged for a ride to Ringo’s school. Well, the man doesn’t know the situation, but felt sorry for Kana because she’s so upset, so he agrees to give them a ride.

       Meanwhile at Ringo’s school, the kids are getting impatient, so the other group presents Ayu’s with her birthday cake. Ringo is starting to get grief from the other kids and she really starting to worry when Ichigo’s group arrives on the scene.  As Ichigo’s group is about to present the cake to Ringo the other girls think that there’s no way they could have made something good in so little time. Well, when Ichigo lifts the lid, Ringo and the whole class is amazed by the creation. The group has created a candy witch house with a little Ringo trapped inside and her class has to rescue her from the witch.

      Once the witch is defeated, Ichigo lifts the house’s lid revealing a little Ringo who has baked a cake for her classmates. Well, in all the excitement over Ringo’s cake, poor Ayu-chan is left sitting alone with her cake. After Ringo thanks her classmates for defeating the witch she asks them if they could move her cake to where Ayu-chan is sitting so they can all play together. When the whole class is sitting together, it looks like Ringo has made friends with Ayu-chan, and the princes comment on how this was Ichigo’s idea from the very beginning.

       As the whole class is devouring the cake, Kana runs over to Ichigo and hugs her saying that this is the first time she’s seen her sister smile since they moved here. Rumi then comes over and tells the girls to quit being so formal now that they’re buddies, and they both agree to stop calling each other by last names and agree to use Kana-chan and Ichigo-chan from now on.

       Later, the princes tell Ichigo that Ringo must really be happy, and a tearful Ichigo tells them that for the first time she’s discovered the joy in bringing happiness to others. Ichigo tells them that she remembers the smile that her grandmother wore as she watched Ichigo enjoy her sweets.

       Later, as the group is walking back to school, Ichigo thanks the sweets spirits and the boys for all their help and rushes off to the kitchen to start the prep work for a group practice session. The boys talk about how Ichigo just experienced the joy of making others happy and they comment on how Ichigo seems to know what other people need. Hanabusa asks Kashino if he’s scared of Ichigo’s nature and rapidly improving skills? No, Kashino says he looks forward to seeing what kind of new sweets Ichigo will create. Well, that’s all the sweets for this episode.

      Well, this was one awesome episode during which Ichigo showcased the best traits of a shoujo heroine. As the old poem goes.

Sugar and spice

And everything nice.

       While Ichigo may be all of that, she’s also has a never up give and work hard attitude. But, I think that Hanabusa might have grasped Ichigo’s best trait, empathy. Ichigo has the ability to use her personal experiences to be able to place herself in the other person’s shoes and understand their emotional distress. Ichigo was able to connect with Andou’s brother’s feelings of being left behind and Ichigo was able to understand the loneliness that Ringo was experiencing at her new school, so this ability of Ichigo enables her to actually fix the situation instead of just feeling sorry for the person. This ability of Ichigo is were she she closely resembles a magic girl. In the magic girl genre, words may lie, and your vision may try to fool you, but the heart is always true and if you follow your heart you can’t go wrong. 

         Also, when are all those jealous girls in shoujo anime and manga gonna realise all that scheming and conniving never wins over the nice boys? Yes, I’m talking to the devious and cruel girls from Kimi ni Todoke, Yumeiro, and all the others of their ilk, NO CAKE FOR YOU.

For a little essay on the diffrences between empathy vs sympathy click here.

        This episode begins with Lag, Niche, and Steak passing the guardian of Bifrost’s test, and they are allowed to cross the bridge. Once on the other side, Niche, Lag and Steak again face another guardian, the twin of Signal (the guardian from the other side) before being allowed to exit. While they were crossing the bridge, Lag accepts Niche as his Dingo causing her to put her pants back on, and Lag also gets wet because he had to rescue Steak from the water.

       On the other side, Lag finds Connor waiting for him and he introduces Niche as his Dingo. Connor takes them by wagon to Yuusari Central, the capital city, Yuusari Central is very lively and vibrant. Lag asks Connor if Gauche’s sister Sylvette lives here, and he says yes but he’s also very quiet whenever Gauche’s name come up.

        When they arrive at the main post office (the Bee hive) Lag’s rush to make a good impression cause quite a stir, and soon Lag meets the sub-master who happens to be Gauche’s friend Aria Link. After Lag is fully dressed he is taken to meet the master (Largo Lloyd), who happens to be none other than the rare anime collector from the last town. When Lag first notices who Lloyd is, he tells him he can’t have his friend and dingo, Niche. Lloyd tells Lag that he intended to use the child of Maka as his own dingo on business trips (OK, I really buy that). Aria sends Lag to wait at an apartment complex to begin his interview.

        Once Lag arrives at the apartment, he’s introduced to Macky Gee (age 17) and his dingo Resia, they’re each given a letter and told that their sole task is to deliver their letters to the proper address, no time limit and they are both told that all 22 of the previous test takers have failed the exam. Each is offered a Shindanjuu gun and amber, Macky chooses the largest gun, but Lag tells Aria that he has his own gun and amber.

       Outside, Macky is very cocky towards Lag and about the task, he decides to take the carriage while Lag chooses to go by foot. As the two head off, we see Aria watching Lag from above and wondering if Lag is the silver haired Albisian child that she heard about?

       When Macky reaches the encounter with the Gaichuu (they were basically told they would encounter one), he and his dingo are worthless, his dingo runs away and he starts crying for help. Finally, Lag, Niche, and Steak arrive on the scene, and after a tough battle they destroy the Gaichuu but Lag is covered with mud and his letter is missing. The entire battle was observed by a Bee (Zazie) who is serving as exam proctor, and who’s job is also to prevent the test takers from being killed.

        When Lag delivers his letter the woman goes all “postal” on Lag because the letter is very soiled unlike the clean letter Macky delivered. As Lag is saying his apologies, Zazie shows up and gives the lady some stamps for the inconvenience and asks to see the other letter. Once Zazie has the letter he has Lag shoot it with his Shindan revealing to everyone that Macky forged the letter to pass the test, Zazie tells Macky to train his heart and try again.

       Later, Zazie tells Lag that he did a great job, and almost got the all time speed record, faster than him, Conner, and Jiggy. He tells Lag that since Gauche is no longer a Bee he’s really the new record holder, Lag stops in his tracks and asks Zazie if Gauche is really no longer a Bee? Well, cliffhanger time, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, I think that we’ve reached the real beginning of Letter Bee with Lag seeming to be well on his way to becoming a full fledged Bee. In the next few episodes it seems that Lag’s got quite a bit of work ahead of him, he’ll have to discover why Gauche gave up his dream of becoming head Bee, and he’ll have to discover who kidnapped his mother, and why. I really don’t trust Largo Lloyd because there has to be more to his interest in the Child of Maka/Niche than his needing a dingo excuse he feed to Lag, and I get the feeling that there’s corruption somewhere in the Letter Bee management. Also, I thought that Niche and her dingo bait stole the show in the fight with the Gaichuu, Steak rocks!

      This episode begins with Sawako having a flashback of elementary school showing us how she got the nickname of Sadako, it came from her friend Shino and it was a slip of the tongue that stuck.

Brick one of the wall

      This continued through middle school where people thought is was fun to talk about Sadako having supernatural power, so this became her perceived nature.

Brick two of the wall

Brick three of the wall

       Sawako goes on to tell us that rumors beget other rumors and by high school everyone assumed she had supernatural powers, and while she says it makes her sad she’s never experienced anything truly painful.

All in all it’s just another brick in her wall.

The wall is now complete

       Then the scene switches to Sawako’s confrontation with the girls who were bad mouthing Yano and Yoshida, and just at that moment Ryuu and Kazehaya find out about the conflict in the bathroom. Then Yano and Yoshida arrive on the scene and they find out about Sadako and the girls, Ryuu tells Kazehaya that it looks like he wants to do something. Yes, but this situation has to settled between the girls or it would be meaningless.

      Sawako tells the girls to take back those rumors, but the lead girl (Yuuka) tosses Sawako to the ground and tells her that she, Sadako, is the one who started the rumors. Sawako tells them she would never say anything like that, but Yuuka says they have a issue with her. She then goes on to say that she thought that Yano and Yoshida were just hanging out with her because she was interesting, but then the issue of Sadako using Yano and Yoshida to get close to Kazehaya comes up. Yuuka tells Sadako to just keep to herself and leave everyone alone like she used to do, and they won’t bother her anymore.

Judgement time approaches

        Sawako tells them No, it’s all a lie, because while everyone avoided her Yano and Yoshida didn’t avoid her, and they weren’t frightened of her. She goes on to tell them that they were kind to her, and they have no idea how much she likes Yano and Yoshida, she even says that she loves them. At that point, Yano and Yoshida have made their way to the bathroom and have overheard the whole conversation, they now intervene on Sadako’s behalf.

Sawako finally decides to tear down her wall

       Yuuka demands to know why Yano and Yoshida are sticking up for Sadako when she started the rumors, and they both say that there’s no way that Sadako could have started those rumors. Yoshida goes on to offer a beat-down to Yuuka if she doesn’t leave now, and it seems that Yuuka and Yoshida seem to have some history dating back to middle school. After some bitching, the other girls leave Yoshida, Yano, and Sadako alone in the bathroom. Sawako begins to cry as she thanks Yano and Yoshida for believing her.

      Outside, as the other girls are leaving the restroom, Kazehaya states that he hates false rumors, and that they were so untrue. Later, Hirano and Endo tell Kazehaya and Ryuu that Sadako stood up for Yano and Yoshida even after she was tossed to the ground. They say that they couldn’t do anything for her but Yano and Yoshida saved her, and this confirms to the rest of the class that Sadako couldn’t have started the rumors.

      Later, back inside the bathroom, Sawako talks with Yano and Yoshida about the rumors and how she felt that they hurt both of them but she wants to be together with them, and she finally says she wants to be their friend. Yano then asks Sadako if she thought they were hurt by the rumors, and being close to her? Yano then goes over and hugs Sadako, she also says that when Sadako was worried about them being hurt she must have also been hurting inside.  When Sawako tries to blow off her being tossed to the ground by claiming she fell down Yano calls her a fool but keeps hugging her. Yoshida then goes on to tell Sadako to not get used to being alone, and they’ve become friends without even realising it.

Standing in the ruins of her wall Sawako finds friendship

      Just as things are getting really emotional between the three girls Pin shows up expecting he had a fight to breakup. When he sees nothing but a “stupid adolescent scene”, he breaks up the mob and tells them move on.

       At the conclusion of the exams, Sawako tells us her ranking fell to 30th while the rest of the students in Sawako’s class rose, and they thank Sadako for her study notes. Sawako begins to feel that everyone is starting to look at her differently.

      As Sawako heads off to eat lunch with Yano and Yoshida, Kazehaya comes to the realisation that he’ll won’t have much alone time with Sawako, he thinks it’s not fair but Sawako flashes him a wonderful smile as she’s leaving, and he really doesn’t want to share her.

       Later, Shino runs up to Sadako and asks her if her dreams of making friends have come true? Yes. Shino then tells Yano and Yoshida that she’s leaving Sadako in their hands as she runs off to join her friends. After Shino leaves, Yano and Yoshida gets Sadako to admit that she used the term “love” to describe her feeling for them, and the walk off together.

      Then we see the group of girls that were harassing Sadako and spreading those rumors talking about Kazehaya  reaction to the whole affair. They wonder how Yuuka, the leader, is taking this since she been infatuated with Kazehaya since middle school. Well, it seems that Yuuka has just walked up in time to hear their talk, and Yuuka starts to cry and runs off with the other girls chasing after her.

        Just then we see another girl (the French Doll) commenting that of course Kazehaya would hate them after such a childish act. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, I thought this was one hell of an episode. Throughout most of Kimi ni Todoke we watched Sawako go through life in a state of emotional disconnection with the greater world around her, while Sawako had managed to function as a student, and a daughter, Sawako was functioning only at a minimal level as a whole person. Sawako had emotionally detached herself from those around her in an attempt to shield herself from harm and hurt, and her detachment took many forms; Sawako wore the mask that she thought those around her wanted to see, Sawako erected her AT-Field that allowed her to deflect the negative perceptions of her, and finally Sawako build a wall that separated her desire for human connection from the possibility that she could be emotionally hurt and hurt others.

       When Sawako finally met Kazehaya, Yano, and Yoshida they chose to not pre-judge her based on her reputation, and a few cracks began to form in her various methods of protection. As Sawako slowly let her guard down she discovered that the life she had been leading was false and hollow, but due to her low self-esteem she felt that she had nothing to offer but pain. Kazehaya’s major role in Sawako’s growing strength is that he made her understand that it’s not her choice to decide what her value is to those around her, and that Sawako decided that her market price was zero before the bidding had even started. In the last episode Kazehaya demanded to know where his choice was in the matter of whether they should still be friends, and where was Yano’s and Yoshida’s choice in the decision of whether they should be friends with her.

       So, when Sawako had her confrontation with Yuuka she was faced with the choice of staying behind her methods of protection and continuing her emotionally stunted life or tearing down the wall and opening herself up to the wider world. After having briefly tasted the warm feelings of connection, and the possibility of love, Sawako chose to throw down the wall surrounding her and open herself up to the world around her and possibility of pain and rejection, but she also gave herself the chance to taste love and friendship, well done Sawako.

       Oh, by the way, for those of you who think that Kazehaya should be doing more, I feel that he’s got his role perfectly right, he can’t intervene for Sawako’s sake, it doesn’t work that way. Guys settle problems in a more physically confrontational manner, we can throw punches one day and have a beer together the next day. An intervention by Kazehaya in this girl on girl matter would have only made it worse on Sawako and the others, they had to settle this matter on their own.

Outside the Wall, by Pink Floyd

All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they’ve given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it’s not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall.

Outside her wall Sawako finds the real world

Screencaps from the Wall are from http://www.thewallanalysis.com/Intro.html

       This episode picks at the point where Choco, Kashino’s sweet spirit  jumps out and tells Ichigo to not get full of herself after a little praise from Kashino. Choco starts digging on Ichigo when Vanilla pops out and starts to get into it with Choco, and Ichigo grabs a bowl and covers up Vanilla and Choco. The princes tell Ichigo it’s OK because only students with a sweet spirit of their own can hear other sweet spirits.

       Later, after class, Ichigo introduces Vanilla to the princes, and Choco and Vanilla soon start fighting again. Then Caramel, Andou’s sweet spirit pops out and tries to stop Vanilla and Choco from fighting, and soon Hanabusa’s spirit, Cafe joins the group. After each boy goes over their dream, they hold a welcoming party for Ichigo and Vanilla featuring treats created from each of their specialities.

      Later, we see three girls spying on Ichigo and the princes. They all comment on what an eyesore Ichigo is, but she’s surrounded by the three princes who seem to be enjoying themselves.

       The next day, students from St. Marie pay a visit to the local kindergarten where they all get mobbed by the kids. At first, Ichigo has to calm down Kashino after some kids piss him off then Kashino has to return the favor when some boys get more personal with Ichigo then she expected. When the students pass out birthday cakes to the little kids Ichigo notices a little girl sitting by herself. Ichigo goes up to Ringo and tries to get her to join her classmates, but it doesn’t work.  Rumi then tells Ichigo that Ringo is Koizumi’s little sister (another student at St. Marie Academy), and that she’s quiet so she  has a hard time making friends. When Ichigo makes another attempt at talking with Ringo some of the boys start teasing both of them. After Ichigo chases the boys off, she finds that Ringo has left the classroom.

       Ichigo then follows Ringo outside where she has a little talk with her, Ichigo finds out that Ringo loves cake that has lots of apples and cream, so Ichigo vows to make her a special cake for her birthday. While Ringo is happy about this she tells Ichigo that she can’t eat it with the others because they tease her about her rosy cheeks, and that Ringo has just joined this school and misses her old school. Ichigo can relate with how it feels to come to a new school where everything can seem depressing and lonely.

      Ichigo tells the princes about her idea, and says she’ll design an exciting cake for Ringo because Ringo’s just like her when she came to St. Marie.

      When Ichigo gets back to her room, she struggles to come up with a idea on how to incorporate apples, cream, and friends into a cake for Ringo. After Ichigo returns from Ringo’s school (field research) she presents the three princes with her cake design, and they agree to attempt the design tonight. The girls who have been complaining about Ichigo decide to attempt something against her.

       After Ichigo and the princes finish the cake they decide to head to the store for some snacks, and Caramel decides to stay behind with the cake. As Caramel is hanging out with the cake the evil girls come inside the room and put down Ichigo’s creation, and they also take pictures of the cake and plan on embarrassing her when she delivers the cake. As Ichigo is walking back from the store with the princes, she thinks to herself that before she only got sweets when her mom treated, and now she making sweets with her friends.

      When the day finally comes to make Ringo’s cake, Ichigo and the princes think that they’ve practiced this so many times that they could do it in their sleep until they notice a group of girls carrying the exact same cake that they’re been working on. When they question the girls about the cake they claim that Ichigo copied the cake from them and say that Ringo will be teased if they bring her the same cake that their group made. Well, Ichigo wonders why they’d do such a thing but she’s also happy that the princes believe her, and they figure the girls must have seen their design at some point.

      Then Caramel pops out and starts crying, saying that she thought that the other girls were just taking a picture of the cake because it was so beautiful. Well, Ichigo thinks it’s unforgivable, and Kashino says they have one hour to come up with a new design. As the clock winds down, the group wonder what they’ll do for a new design in only one hour until Ichigo says she has an idea for a even better design. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this episode was really too sweet by half. After Choco makes her appearance to berate Ichigo we discover that each of the princes also has their very own sweets spirit, and each spirit has some sort of personality trait that matches their partner: Vanilla is a little bit of a slacker like Ichigo, and she loves sweets almost as much as her; Choco seems to be a bit of a tsundere like Kashino; Cafe seems be as well mannered and slightly vain like Hanabusa; Caramel seems to have very deep emotions like Andou. 

      After the princes discover that Ichigo also has a sweets spirit I think that her credentials are now established and she a full member of group A. Also it seems that Ichigo’s relationship with the princes has drawn the ire of some of the other girls, and they decide to strike a mean blow at Ichigo. The funny thing about these types of attacks is that they always backfire on the attackers, while attacking the sweet girl seems to be a good idea the boys always see through the charade and only look down on the attacker, in shoujo, sweet always wins over the boys.

       This episode begins with Nelli reaching the Bifrost bridge only to find the main span missing. She wonders where the bridge is when the guardian (Signal) tells her that he is able to verify the identity of all those wishing to cross bridge by using the smoke from his pipe. She tries to show the crossing pass but he tells her that his pipe can’t confirm that she’s Lag Seeing, so he summons a monster to deal with her.

         Just as the monster is about to get Nelli, Niche and Lag arrive on the scene, and Niche uses her swords to open a passage for Nelli to escape. In the skirmish Nelli and her letter are separated, Lag decides to go after the letter, and as he does so, he ends up firing a Shindan from his hand that strikes Nello’s letter and releases his memories of his relationship with Jiggy. It turns out that Jiggy didn’t want to leave Dead End Town, but Nello urges him forward towards his dreams. Nello tells Jiggy that someday he’ll become a man like Jiggy and protect Nelli, Jiggy gives Nello a fist bump, and tells him to protect Nelli for him. As Nello lays dying, he tells Jiggy that he’s sorry that he can’t protect his sister and he asks Jiggy to protect Nelli.

      Later, Lag tells Nelli that Nello wasn’t mad that Jiggy left, he was sad that he couldn’t become a man and protect his sister. Lag wonders why a Shindan came out of his hand and the traveler walks up and tells him that Shindan are created from the spirit amber, heart shaped into a bullet, and the gun is merely a tool that helps shape the bullet properly. So, since Lag has amber in his body his body became the gun and shot the bullet, and he goes on to speculate that Lag’s Shindan has the power to peer inside the feelings and emotions stored inside a object. Then we get a further memory that points to the fact that Jiggy might have been responsible for the construction of the church so Nelli could have a job providing food and medicine for Nello, and then the church could provide shelter for the children and change the town. Well, Nelli kind of blows this off, but she give Lag his crossing pass back.

      Lag grabs Nelli and tells her that they’ll just find out Jiggy’s true feelings. As Lag heads off with Nelli, the traveler tries to grab Niche, but she see him, and easily avoids his attempt.

       The traveler then talks with the bridge’s guardian (Camus), and the guardian asks Master Lloyd if he’ll be heading back to the main post office? Then we see that Lag has taken Nelli to the church where he tells her he intends to shoot the church with his shindan to find out the truth.

       Well, Lag fires his Shindan at the church but nothing happens, so he fires it again and again until he collapses. Nelli tries to go to Lag but Niche blocks her, and says that if she ever hurts Lag again she’ll kill her. Lag tells Niche, bad, don’t say such things. Well, Lag tells Nelli that Jiggy must have cared for them like Gauche cared for his sister, so Nelli directs him to the church’s bell which was made on the other side of the river.

       Well, Lag’s Shindan reveals that Jiggy did indeed commission the construction of the largest bell in all of Amberground for the church, he wanted it to be a beacon of hope for those who gaze upon it, and some day he wished to stand there with Nello & Nelli. In the end, Nelli refuses to let Lag take the letter saying that she wants to save up and send it on her own. Nelli tells Lag that some day she wants to become like Jiggy, and she also wishes Lag luck in becoming a Bee. Well, this episode ends with Lag heading towards the bridge, and Nelli heading back towards town.

       Well, this was one hell of an episode with us getting to see how Lag and Niche function as a team even though Lag still refuses to acknowledge Niche as his dingo. Also, Lag and Niche got to indirectly meet the Head Bee which was the position that Gauche was striving for. One thing that confuses me is why the Head Bee is after Niche/the child of Maka? It can’t be money, I assume the Head Bee has to make big dollars unless my original theory of there being some sort of corruption existing between the upper Bee management and the Amberground government.  At least it’s proven that some of the Bee’s make a little side money by carrying non-posted items; Connor and his girly mags, and Jiggy and his non-official pickups. Well, I really look forward to see how Master Lloyd’s and Jiggy’s interest in Niche ties into the mystery of Gauche’s and Lag’s mother’s disappearances. Also, this one’s for Ghostlightning, I guessed it right with the Bifrost bridge’s nature being tied to the Norse myth, but I still haven’t got a clue how the Bifrost’s guardian, Camus ties in with the storyline. Letter Bee seems to make use of names very carefully, so I assume that Camus is the Albert Camus of The Myth of Sisyphus fame, so I’m still working on how all this links up.

      This episode begins with Ichigo and the princes working on a chocolate cake project in class. While Ichigo fails at the decorating process, Hanabusa and Andou tell her she’s did the baking well and she’s improved a great deal since her first day, but Kashino continues to pull her strings causing Ichigo to vow that she’ll shut him up.

      Later that night, Ichigo and Vanilla practice making a chocolate roll cake for Ichigo’s upcoming exam, everything comes out great but the chocolate flavor doesn’t seem quite right. Try as they might, Ichigo and Vanilla can’t get the chocolate topping to taste right, Vanilla says she’s sorry because chocolate isn’t her strong suit. Vanilla mentions something about chocolat(?) and then freaks out, after calming Vanilla down Ichigo suggests that they call it a night.

      Early the next morning, As Ichigo is heading back to the kitchen she spies Kashino practicing. Ichigo is quite surprised that Kashino would be practicing at 5am, and Kashino tells Ichigo he’s conditioning his body for the work. So, Kashino asks Ichigo if she gave up already, and Ichigo gets angry because if he knew all along that she was working late nights at least he could acknowledge her efforts, this drives Ichigo back to her spot for more practice.

      As Ichigo begins to work on her chocolate, Kashino chews her out for using too high of a melting temperature on her chocolate and he tells her what temperature not to exceed. While yelling at Ichigo, Kashino gives her good advice on the proper preparation of chocolate. After following Kashino’s advice and using some books he gave her, Ichigo’s next chocolate roll cake turns out good. Ichigo thanks Kashino for his help but he tells her that he’s only helping her so she doesn’t lower the group’s grades, he also chews her out for wasting too many ingredients. Kashino lets Ichigo taste his creation and she loves it, but he won’t let her have another taste telling her she can create it herself.

      When Vanilla finds Ichigo in the kitchen, she sees Ichigo reading a really advanced French chocolate recipe book, and Ichigo tells her that she needs to up the level if she’s going to compete with the devil Kashino. Well, Ichigo works really hard at making her cake, Vanilla falls asleep from exhaustion but Ichigo soldiers on. When Ichigo is getting ready to melt the chocolate she passes out from exhaustion and Kashino catches her before she hits the floor. Ichigo tries to blow off this incident when Kashino notices she’s trying to make a very complicated cake and he tells her it’s impossible. Ichigo says she’ll make it because she’s in group A, and either emotion or exhaustion gets to Ichigo and she begins to cry even though she doesn’t want to cry in front of him.

      Kashino tells Ichigo that when he was a very little kid he used to hang out at his uncle’s chocolate shop and watch him work, and eventually he began to learn from his uncle, so that’s why he’s here now. Kashino calms Ichigo down with some hot chocolate and he tells her not to stress out about it because sooner or later she’ll find her magic. Later, Vanilla notices that Ichigo’s in a better mood, and Ichigo tells Vanilla that she won’t stress about chocolate because it’s supposed to relax you.

      The next day is the big test, Ichigo decides to make the chocolate roll cake after all but Ichigo modifies the recipe to make it both bitter and sweet, like Kashino.

       When the tasting comes, Andou and Hanabusa thinks it’s great, and while Kashino has a small criticism he tells Ichigo that it’s delicious and the best she’s created so far. Just Ichigo’s is basking in Kashino’s praise, a sweet spirit name Chocolat pops out of Kashino’s pocket and tells Ichigo to not get carried away with herself. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, in this episode we get to see how Kashino became motivated in his quest to become a great worker of chocolate, like Hanabusa and Andou, Kashino was motivated by family. Hanabusa was motivated by his mother’s and father’s love of roses, Andou was motivated by his desire to mix his family’s Japanese sweets tradition with cake, and now we see that Kashino was motivated by his uncle’s love of chocolate.

       I really like the love/hate relationship Ichigo has going with Kashino, while he infuriates her, he also drives Ichigo to become a better patissiere. If anything, Kashino just might be a tsundere when it come to Ichigo. Also, I had wondered how long it would take us to finally meet the sweet spirits that I thought belonged to the three princes, well we finally meet Kashino’s sweet spirit, Chocolat. I wonder if we’ll see the other two spirits in the next episode or will we have to wait for a few more episodes? Overall, a nice episode; Kashino you’re such a meanie!

     Well, this episode picks up with Sawako still being confused about how to react to the rumors affecting Yoshida, Yano, and Kazehaya. The next school day brings the start of midterms and the students have to sit alphabetically instead using the seating chart, so Sawako doesn’t get to sit by the group. She sees Yoshida and Yano and thinks they’ve never gotten angry or mad at her. Sawako quietly goes to her seat, and Yano notices that Sadako isn’t her usual self.

      As Sawako is sitting watching Yano and Yoshida, she thinks that it feels like she never had that seat, like everything was a dream, she wanted to help people and not get in their way, and she hasn’t even been able to clear this misunderstanding. Sawako thinks that even if she finds the source of the rumors she just might hurt them again if she gets near them. Hurt, how could I even fix the hurt, Sawako wonders if she should go back to the old way and distance herself from the others? As Sawako thinks about distancing herself from the others, tears begin to flow, and when she thinks of Kazehaya, her inspiration, she really begins to cry.

      No, Sawako tells herself, she’s doesn’t remember how to be alone, the feelings of people being nice to her, and her being nice to people are too strong, she can’t remember how to return to the old days. How did she ever manage or accept being alone,  Sawako’s forgotten everything.

      As Sawako’s walking home from school she finds Kazehaya waiting for her, he tells her he doesn’t understand, don’t you like me, why are you avoiding me? She tells him not to talk with her, but she breaks down in tears and says she can’t say something she doesn’t mean. Kazehaya tells her to calm down and talk with him clearly so he can understand the situation. Well, Sawako spills the beans telling him about the rumors and how she feels she’s ruining Yoshida, Yano, and his reputation.

      He tells her who gives a damn about rumors, where’s his say in the matter, it’s his decision who he hangs around with, he’ll do as he wishes, he’ll talk with who he wants to, and if he cared about rumors he wouldn’t be talking with her now. Sawako now understands that this is what she wanted, to have people who care for her, and to care for people. Once Sawako calms down, Kazehaya talks with her about Yano and Yoshida and the rumors, he tells Sawako to reverse the situation and think about how they would feel if they heard that their association with her was hurting her? Sawako says that she’d still want them to hang out with her. Kazehaya says that Yano and Yoshida most likely feel the same way.  Kazehaya tells her, in the end it’s up to the other person to decide, but he says that if he was Yano or Yoshida he’d feel uncomfortable if she started avoiding them. Yes, Sawako says she was over thinking, she needs to tell them her feelings, she wants to become their friends.

      Later, we see Pin running into Yano in the hall and she’s pissed because she got pulled away from hearing what Sadako had to say, he tells her he doesn’t know what happened but quite blaming other people because you’ll run into more unreasonable situations in the future. In the library, Yano thinks of Sadako and how seriously she took her suggestion.

      Then we see Ryuu having a talk with Yoshida, he asks her if he needs to comfort her? Hell no. He asks her if those rumors are bothering her? She goes on about how she must be stupid, she just doesn’t know, is Sadako really Sadako or a fake Sadako and is she using her? She tells him that people are saying that Sadako is spreading those rumors? How, by talking to herself, and she doesn’t seem that she has anyone to talk to. Well, Yoshida brings up the point that Sadako was talking with someone, and she said they weren’t friends and she is avoiding us. Then Yoshida brings up the “I’m sorry” point and the issue of why she just didn’t say she liked us?

      Well, Ryuu says maybe Sadako doesn’t really like you, or she doesn’t care, or maybe she has other reasons. Ryuu tells her that if it’s really bothering her just ask Sadako, and he’ll comfort her if the answer is she doesn’t care. Later, Yoshida looks over the study book that Sadako made for her, and she becomes even more troubled and uncertain about the issue. Later, that night, Yano and Yoshida meet up and talk about the Sadako issue, and how Sadako hasn’t smiled since the rumors started. Yoshida wonders if Sadako’s so used to being alone if this is normal for her, and that thought makes her sad, that’s why she couldn’t leave her alone. Yano speculates that maybe Sadako became so used to every one’s attitude towards her that she really doesn’t understand emotions, even her own. Yano says that when she saw Sadako smile it made her happy. Yano also says that we thought we knew everything about her but there are many things we don’t understand. Yoshida speculates that they never got a clear answer from her but they also haven’t told her how they feel, and they never got to finish their conversation with her. Yano asks Yoshida that after all this thinking and worrying about Sadako, don’t we already love her? We’re already friends?

      At that moment, Sawako thinks to herself that we don’t know other peoples feelings unless we ask, and they won’t know ours unless we tell them. Sawako resolves to tell them how she feels and ask how they feel, she can be comfortable with this.

      The next school day, Sawako is building up her courage to talk with Yano and Yoshida in a bathroom stall, she’s nervous but doesn’t hate the feeling. Sawako hears some girls talking about the rumors of Yano and Yoshida being her backup,  and she confronts them by says they’re not her backup and both of them are nice people. The group just laughs at her, and one of the girls tells her to shut up(the French doll?, I can’t tell) and backs Sawako against the wall and calls Yano and Yoshida the criminal and the slut. As the group laughs at Sadako, she balls her fist up and …? Well, cliffhanger time, that’s all for this episode.

     Well, this episode had it all; pain, uncertainty, loneliness, melodrama, angst, and tears (including my own). As Sawako’s slowly let her guard down and began to open herself up to others, she tasted the feelings of friendship and love for the first time and discovered she liked these new found but confusing emotions. 

      When we first met Sawako, she basically surrounded herself and protected herself with her masks, the mask of Sadako that others projected on to her which she embraced, and the mask of emotional disconnection with the world around her, the mask of her own creation. Basically, Sawako’s masks were her AT Field, her protection, her curse, her barrier, and Sawako had to discover like Shinji that in order to truly make human and emotional connections you have to let others in on your real feelings and emotions. Sawako comes to this understanding towards the end of the episode when she realises that “you won’t know other people’s feelings unless you ask”. 

       Throughout the majority of NGE, Shinji pouted and disconnected from others because he only viewed the world from a “nobody understands me” point of view and he made no real effort to bother with how others around him felt. Yes, Sawako now understands that communication and feelings have to be a two way street, life’s uncertain but she can live with it. For a brief period Sawako considered trying to recreate her AT Field, but after her exposure to human connection I don’t think that she had the stomach to embrace her seperation again.

      One other point I would like to make is that all the guys in this episode seemed have a calming and thoughtful influence on the girls: Kazehaya helped Sawako understand that she needs to tell Yano and Yoshida how she really feels; Pin helped Yano come to the realization that problems and misunderstandings don’t just fix themselves, you have to do it; and finally Ryuu helped Yoshida realise that just stewing in your own doubts does nothing.

      Oh, this episode just made me a big Yano fan, she really showed me a level of subtle thoughtfulness and sensitivity that you really don’t see that often in supporting characters.

       This episode begins with Lag and Niche making it to Kyrie aka (Dead-End Town) with only one day left to spare before he has to be at his interview, all he has to do is cross the bridge tomorrow.  After asking for directions to an inn, the fact that they have a temporary crossing pass draws the attention of Nelli who was trying to get a Bee to take a letter to another Letter Bee (Jiggy) which he refused to do because of no postage or a proper address. Nelli leads them to the Cold Case hotel, a pretty run down place that charges a lot of money.

       In the lobby, Lag runs into a traveler who has returned from Love Someone Down, he was looking to buy the child of Maka. Well, Lag gets Niche out of his presence and tells her that he’s thinking of sending her back to his home town because it’s dangerous of a girl. Niche gets pissed off, takes off her pants, and walks out on Lag. Later, Lag finds out that Nelli has taken his bag which contains his crossing pass and is on her way to the church.

       When Lag catches up with Nelli he finds that she has his crossing pass and plans on becoming Lag Seeing. Lag tries to take his pass back but Nelli pulls out a knife and slashes his arm, and the sent of his blood draws Niche’s attention. They argue for a while then Nelli calls out the locals, and tells them Lag wants to become a government worker (Letter Bee). Nelli is pissed off because her brother Nello idolized Jiggy who left the town and became a Bee breaking his heart and causing his death.

       As Nelli is ranting about getting her revenge on Jiggy she gets cracked upside her head by another local who wants the pass for themselves. A huge brawl starts over the crossing pass, Niche leaves the hotel to find Lag and the traveller in the lobby notices that Niche is the child of Maka and sends a message to his master (Jiggy) to come pick her up. Niche enters the fray and disables the brawling mob while Lag tells her not to hurt humans. In the end, Nelli still has the pass and runs off towards the gate. Lag starts to go after her but Niche stops him demanding to know if she’s his dingo? Lag doesn’t want to argue right it right now so he tells Niche if he doesn’t get the pass back he can’t become a Bee and Niche can’t become a dingo. So, Niche and Lag give chase to Nelli.

      As Largo Lloyd (the traveler) watches the scene he thinks to himself that Nelli is in danger because the temporary crossing pass won’t be enough to get her through the gate, and he’s also astonished that Lag could tame a child of Maka. As Nelli is running towards the gate we get flashbacks of her brother, he loved and idolized Jiggy and was very sick, Nelli worked on the church and Nello continued writing a letter to Jiggy, but soon Nello became sick and died and Nelli swears revenge on Jiggy for breaking her brother’s heart. Well, that’s all for this episode.

         Well, this episode was pretty good, Lag continues his journey to his interview and they stop at Kyrie (Dead End Town) and Lag’s naive trusting nature causes him problems. I’m not going to comment much on lag’s youth or Nelli’s desire for revenge because I think this episode reveals a very important plot point. Up until now, all the Letter Bees seemed to be diligent government servants just doing their jobs, but we now have reason to suspect that at least one of them (Jiggy Pepper) is corrupt in some way, and where there’s smoke there’s fire. Also the name of the bridge to the capital is very interesting, Bifrost; in Norse mythology the name of the bridge linking our world to the world of the gods is also called Bifrost. The traveler made the comment that Lag’s temporary crossing pass would not be enough to get Nelli across the bridge, and if the nature of the bridge is similar to the Norse bridge she’ll be in trouble. In the Norse myth, Bifrost is guarded by a god called Heimdall who is rumored to have hearing and vision that can reach the ends of the worlds, he never sleeps, and he’s even rumored to be able to tell if people or gods are lying to him, so Nelli might be in real trouble. Overall,  a very a nice and enjoyable episode with Niche’s facial expressions and looks stealing the show.