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Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

Quote from Memento: “The animation in this episode is unusually good considering that there isn’t that much action scenes involved.” OMG I have never disagreed more with Garten in my entire life! The quality of this episode is…not shocking, but pretty bad at least! It suffers from horribly drawn characters at times, constant choppiness and a very lame action scene. The last fight scene with the Akuma felt more like a ridiculous Dragon Ball Z remake, with all the attack-naming and such. It would have been more than fine if they had made it quick; Allen wiping them all out with a cross grave, then succumbing to a final unexpected attack. At least then Allen would look cool! I mean, you people have to see how cool Allen looks in the manga when he’s fighting!! It’s 100x superior to the anime in that aspect. The story itself is rather interesting, and the main idea this episode is Allen and Road’s meeting. Expect a miniboss battle coming, but don’t expect any major results concerning Road since it’s still this early in the series.

Those final scenes are meant to look very dark and grim, though it isn’t nearly as so as it should have been, especially how Miranda is tied to the clock instead of nailed to it via her hands! At least Allen is anyway. Oh yeah, Linali’s gonna fight in that doll dress of hers ~ yay! And I have to mention once again how cute Road is! When she’s got white skin though, and without those cross markings in her forhead. Another thing, Miranda screams too much. I’ve just realised that. It’s kind of nostalgic when she does that at the start of the episode, but thankfully she lightens up somewhat throughout the episode. Another disappointing thing is the lack of Linali and Allen bonding. This arc is meant to be just that! There won’t be another opportunity as good as this for them to communicate and get closer, yet the producers decide to neglect that all. Linali doesn’t even treat Allen’s wounded leg, how sad. The fact that she’s drawn pretty badly all the time is off-putting as well. Linali fans will be disappointed. Anyway though, she IS very adorable in her flashbacks, and they also make Komui look like a charming prince come to save his cute imouto-chan. And as Whispered.Hope mentioned, you take a look at Komui’s Komrin and you just have to wonder when it all went wrong.

Along with Allen’s troubling past, it goes to show how dark this show really is. Everyone is or has been struggling in their own ways, and now they are fighting to save the world, not in a shounen-like way, but far bleaker and more realistic. The Akuma are representations of everyone’s sorrow, since that is exactly how they are created. If this show can pull itself together and present its further works with a much higher quality, it will be able to pull in many more times the number of people liking this show. Oh yeah, this episode covers the 2nd half of chapter 20 through to 22. At this rate they might be able to finish off this arc in the next episode, though I’m pretty sure they’ll drag it out to two in order to comfortably fit in Miranda’s departure. And then a new Exorcist will be introduced! That’s not a good thing for Linali fans though. The only thing I care about though, for now, is how well the next fight is animated. It’s a miniboss so it needs to be good, especially since Allen and Linali will be teaming up!

Plot Outline:

- Linali and Allen head back to Miranda’s home
- They explain to her how she must’ve touched the innocence causing the repeating days
- The history of the clock is explored and it seems it has some special connection with Miranda
- Miranda’s difficult childhood is also explained
- Miranda suddenly goes to bed and an interesting phenomenon occurs
- Time is sucked back into the grandfather clock, restarting at daybreak, with only Linali, Allen and Road as witnesses
- With the source of the problem figured out, Allen decides to help Miranda become happy again, hoping that will cause the clock to cease turning back time (as it was Miranda’s wish for tomorrow to never come)
- Allen and Linali are ambushed by Akuma, defeated and taken to a certain part of the city where Road is, and apparently she has also captured Miranda and the clock
- She explains that she is a human called a Noah, and that she’s an ally of the Akuma and the Earl

Preview:

Next episode – #11
The quality better be better… >=(

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