No, it’s not a bad episode by a long stretch. It really isn’t.

It’s just that finally, Madhouse caves in and used the shonen cliche.

The boss transforms into a super powered monster, and the main character, seeing all her friends are down, finally gets very angry and transforms into Super Seiyan 3.

Or the main character remembering why she was fighting in the first place - her first love, and her sadness and grief for the loss of that love allows her to transform.

Didn’t they do that in Sailor Moon when she was fighting Nehelenia?

Or didn’t Goku do that when his bald headed friend got slaughtered?

My, how refreshing!

I can see why people are complaining about the show drifting from the manga. Also I can see why the show will end here, but thankfully the manga will go on.

Clare goes to super seiyan 3 and her powers are probably just below Priscilla’s super Freeza 2. To be fair, I’m told that Clare does transform in the manga, just somewhat earlier (I don’t know the details and I don’t need to know for now, thanks).

But here’s what saved this episode - the loyalty of Jeane. Oh Jeane. She has to be the best character (next to Teresa, of course) in this show, besides the villains.

These days, only the stoic character who will die touches my heart. Jeane knows she won’t make it (why not just power up and heal, dammit!!!), but she tries her best to get there. Why?

Because “she [Clare] saved my life, I’m just repaying her.”

Who the hell cares about that these days? Besides, humans who save your life often have some purpose for it, be it mere self gratification or some other more practical purposes.

Clare saved Jeane because she wanted to. Sure it helps to have another fighter, but Clare did it because she wanted to (how Sailor Moon like that was, anyway!).

Jeane responds by giving up her life to the last to Clare (sob, sob).

Raki, you really suck. You don’t even realize that Jeane isn’t going to make it. You dumb fucker.

In this arc in the anime, Jeane is easily the best character on the Claymore team. With Kotono-san playing her, this grim warrior comes alive. Her performance easily blows everyone else out of water, except Inoue Kikuko-san’s. Her Miria has brilliant moments in episode 20 when she commands over the Claymore force and also tries to pray for everyone even though she knows it’s probably useless.

Episode 20 is the best episode for me for the entire series. But back to this episode.

I’m probably just a really cynical bastard (duh to myself). Watching Clare sitting there wondering why she was even there wasn’t a touching experience, and thankfully the moment was short. But even being a cynic, I can still relate to that. Because like I said before in one of my previous reviews, one of the biggest questions that just about everyone faces is probably this: “What can I do when it just seems that I’m so powerless against it all?” I don’t know, maybe some of you have never come to ask that question because you always knew exactly what to do, or you just went ahead and did whatever. But I’ve often ask that question to myself.

Yet, we fight on, against the power of it all, against the never ending tyranny that is fate, against the oppressions and oppositions that life throws at us. Each of us has his or her own motivation, for one person, vengeance; for another, love and justice; for yet still others, desire for power, fame, and status. Nevertheless, we fight on in this environment branded “humanity”.

I’m cutting this review short (mercifully). This episode is 90% recommended for your daily anime diet.

P.S. Again, to be fair and not completely sell Raki short, he helps and supports Jeane for some time before Jeane decides to use the “super speed” and carry him at the same time. So Raki isn’t a dumb fuck, he’s just finally completely concentrates his mind on Clare and not on himself. Raki is doing his best.

Well, it’s a slow episode. But I guess it’s necessary.

Congratulations on Clare cutting the Lion King into little pieces!

Congratulations on Jeane not dying and decides to follow Clare even though she’s like, a couple of miles away!

Congratulations on a successful Shinjism from Raki! But at least he recovers!

Congratulations on Miria, Helene, and Denve’s recovery! Let’s all go and help Sailor Moon, I mean Clare!

Congratulations on Denve becoming Undine the 2nd and take up 2 swords! Do remember to bulk up!

Congratulations on Priscilla recovering her memory, but still remains psycho enough to blame the dead Teresa!

Congratulations on Clare’s power reminds Priscilla of Teresa’s power!

Congratulations on Clare finally loses her mind and breaks the Iron Law of the Claymores, but hey! It’s the anime and not the manga! 

Remember the LotR references I’ve been pulling? Well, guess what! Maybe these guys (or Yagi sensei) has been reading LotR, and now Clare and Priscilla is going to fight on Mount Doom! I mean just look at all these lava! I wonder if one of them is going to become Gollum and fall into the lava pit?

Well, at least Raki pulls himself out of the depression funk after Jeane’s talk. Congratulations indeed! XD

There’s just something not quite right about this episode, but it’s not that awful, just the animation and everything else seem to have gone a little bit south, so…

87% recommended for your daily anime diet. I could pretty much skip this episode and not miss much. Hence the short and acidic sarcastic review.

P.S. I’m very happy that Jean is alive, but this episode just doesn’t cut it.

The Medicine Seller finds himself in a countryside estate, along with three other suitors whom are vying for the hand of a woman renowned as a master incense creator. Things soon go awry of course as ghostly figures are seen, a hidden treasure is revealed, and a murder comes to light.

I can honestly say this was the creepiest Mononoke story yet. From the stark black and white setting, to the manner of the deaths, and more. Until the last fourth of episode nine, it also portrayed the Medicine Seller as something of a psychopath, devising clever schemes to uncover murderers and then kill them in turn, all with his usual calm, quiet demeanor.

On a side note, the “battle” between the Medicine Seller and the Mononoke was quite more “battle-like” than usual, and I felt the transformation sequence hinted at more depth to his “battle form”. While I’m thoroughly enjoying the exploration of this series’ bizarre setting and the quiet plays that take place, I wouldn’t mind seeing them delve further into the Medicine Seller’s powers and where they came from.

My mind started play the boss music from FF5 or 6 (I think it’s FF3 in US) when the dragon from one of the ISDA dragonauts turned into a monster dragon, and Toa just turned into a dragon.

Jin is trying to escape from the train departing for afterlife, and Toa’s with him, but it turns out that Toa’s one of the Guardian forces and Jin must able to control her to fight off the berserk dragon accompanying one of the pursuers from “Shinra”…

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It’s another charming a little episode from the many episodes of shows made from Kosuke Fujishima’s manga. I’m well aware that his stuff often seems really harmless and to some people, dull and not very exciting. In many ways that’s very true. Looking at the subtitle of this season of You’re Under Arrest - Full Throttle, and looking at what happened in the show so far, everything’s hardly bursting forward. No huge explosions, no bullet rains, no blood, and no death. In fact, I’m well aware a lot of people will probably get turned off by this.

However, blood and death aren’t what makes any work from Fujishima interesting (well, explosions are actually quite frequent in Ah! My Goddess). What make his work and the anime made from his work interesting are the little stuff about his characters - their hair, the facial features, the attitudes, the often harmless and not quite funny characters, the seemingly small and not quite so huge situations, and the “healing” (a Japanese term here) abilities his works and the anime made from his works offers.

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From ANN -

NANA Movies on Canada’s Omni TV
The two NANA movies will air on Canadian multilingual station OMNI TV Ontario…

Ray’s take: Well, those who live in Quebec, oops. XD But hey, there are other ways to watch them, right? So rejoice still, les…bi…I mean, female (and male) fans! I heard Nana is a great manga that even a lot of men in Japan enjoys, but I’ll tell you what, I still enjoy clueless and pure girls like Usagi et el. To me that’s much cuter and sweeter. Nana is too realistic for me. As an example of my preference, I watched all 3 seasons of Marmalade Boy and I love all of them, especially season 2.