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Impressions:

Aside from the quality and animation (which reeks) the storyline has actually become quite interesting. The concept of human extinction is quite widely used, but perhaps more the prospect of genocide rather than accidental deaths. Disease is probably one of the worst ways to die, as it is slow and very painful. Biological warfare…only this time the culprit is a scientist’s experiment gone wrong. Of course the population of the earth isn’t going to be wiped out, Naoto and Naoya are going to do something about it (only Eva’s capable of showing mass extinction). If only the prediction of extinction came earlier in the series, instead of stand alone episodes that didn’t really have much to do with the main focus of the story. I wish the anime had made this problem a problem from near the start so that most of the series could be dedicated to coming up with a solution. It would be cool there are more factions involved, and those with more power as well. It’s not grand watching two brothers, a psychic, a scientist and some crazy woman duke it out – it just feels so isolated and lonely. I wonder if the viral problem will fill the entire series, or if it’s just one obstacle the brothers encounter and has no real importance to the bigger picture.

Anyway, with 14 episodes still to go, the animation quality can still go up, and I hope the producers are able to maintain the interesting turns of events. They better throw in lots of surprises as well. As of now, the show feels very shallow. I hope that this can be improved by providing good reasons for a lot of the things that are happening. One, why does Naoto and Naoya have such power? I know it’s because they can manipulate the part of the brain that is usually dormant, but how did they come to obtain such power? I don’t want to hear that they were just born that way; I hate those kinds of explanations. They are too simple and very uninteresting. I also hope that the producers manage to tie everything together and make everything relevant to one another. Shouko, for example, still hasn’t played much of an important role yet. New characters should also be introduced, perhaps with similar powers as Naoto. It would be awesome if we could see a real battle of the minds between Naoto and another person similar to him. So far, it’s just been running around trying to convince people to do stuff, and occasional uses of the brother’s power as self-defence. Finally, Naoya seems to be becoming stronger and I hope that continues.

Ep.9 Screencaps:

Ep.10 Screencaps:

Episode 9:
- Kamiya learns of the extinction of mankind and informs his assistant(?) about this, as well as how Naoto and Naoya are involved
- Hearing this, the woman decides to go and seek out the brothers, and kill them to what she thinks is saving the world
- The woman tracks Naoya down to his hotel and attempts to stab him with a knife as he is downstairs getting a drink
- Naoto finds them in time to stop the woman and wants to go after her, but Naoya convinces him not to
- The next day, Naoto and Naoya go and see Kamiya to discuss their involvement in the destruction of man
- As they interact, Kamiya discovers that Naoya has similar powers to him
- When the to try to predict the future together, the condensed power between them increases so that both can see the future more clearly
- The future that they see is one where disease has wiped out everyone, except a strange little girl who seems to be unaffected
- They also find out the source of the disease; a virus derived from an attempt to cure AIDS from a particular scientist
- Naoto and Naoya go and see this scientist to try and get her to stop her research, as it could result in the world

Episode 10:
- Naoto and Naoya inform the scientist of the prediction about the end of man, but she doesn’t believe them
- Before the scientist can get back to work, she is attacked by the same woman who attacked Naoya
- Once again, Naoto finds them just in time to save the scientist. His display of power convinces the scientist of them somewhat
- Meanwhile, Kamiya is preaching to his followers about his vision of the armageddon
- At night, Naoto has a dream where he is the scientist’s husband and they are living a normal life with Naoya
- Naoto refuses to accept that reality and runs of to find his brother, finally ending the dream
- When he wakes up, he goes outside just as the scientist is about to enter
- The scientist is ready to give up her research, but only if Naoto agrees to live with her (the two has the same dream)
- Naoto rejects her
- Kamiya continues to have visions about a silver snake, golden elephant, black gloves and white powder. He asks Naoto about this but he claims to not know anything about it
- Naoto and Naoya pay the scientist a visit at her laboratory
- After being asked to get some drinks, the scientist’s assistant and admirer spikes the beverages with white powder
- In Kamiya’s vision (and in Naoya’s as they tend to have the same vision) the black gloves point to Naoya as he is the one who has them, and the white powder is the drug in the drink. Therefore, the one most likely to die is Naoya

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