The few times where it’s somewhat more entertaining to look at a girl’s face rather than her breasts (REALLY stretching it though…)

First off, I’ve gotta hand it to the teams responsible for the OP and ED sequences;  I actually didn’t realize they show little preview shots of the current episode during the OP (I didn’t find out til later that Episode 1 had the same thing going in that all of those little scenes were in the episode), and it’s pretty cool to have the preview for the next episode merged with the ED (Initial D had a similar thing, but it recaped clips from the episode instead).  With that in mind, the episode was pretty standard RPG fare (Random Encounters FTW!) , and it’s nice to see that the anime hasn’t wasted any time in introducing the remaining 4 characters in Luke’s group, but as the title suggests, there’s a certain problem I have with one of them…

Without the doubt, the cutest scene Luke is in, and an example to the disposal of plushies everywhere.

I thought we were at that point in anime where we really could do without the Pikachu-like sidekick coming in.  I’m already kinda irked that it communicates with other animals the same way Pokemon do with the added addition of sounding like and having the same name as one of said Pokemon (If it looks like a duck…), and the fact that having this high-pitched plush toy being able to talk makes Luke’s reaction a very accurate portrayal of my own (I’d probably do even more horrible and inhumane things to it, but at least they’re catering to people who DO find Mieu annoying).  I know I shouldn’t bitch and moan about the anime for something that was already in the original game, but even then, what were they on?  If they’re going to have a plush-doll character in order to bait the fangirls with it’s cuteness to buy it, the least they could do is make it so I don’t have to understand what the hell it’s saying, and not have it so the only sounds that come from it’s mouth are it’s own damn name:  Boota, Botan, Kirara, hell I never had to fucking understand what Chewbacca was doing when he was “Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!” -ing, and I thought he was awesome, so it IS possible!  *sigh*

 I, too, desire to whisper sweet things in Anise’s ear. ;_;

With that aside, the other 3 are fine.  I really hope I’m not the only one who started thinking perverted thoughts about Ion and was kind of shocked to find out he’s a boy (…and continued to think perverted thoughts anyway o.o); kid’s also apparently got some sort of medical condition, since Jade warned him about using his powers, so maybe that might come into play later (would they really kill off a kid!? O.O).  At least Anise’ cuteness didn’t annoy me the same way Mieu did (Halko Momoi! ^_^), and she definitely gets points for taking Jade’s little whisper to get Luke and Tear arrested with a few cute nods, a “Roger!” and a big smile on her face.  Jade’s cool and all, but for some reason he didn’t make much of an impression on me this episode:  it might be because he always seemed to have a sort of poker-face during most scenes he was in, but perhaps it was because he wasn’t very focused on and wasn’t a loli, so I’ll probably have an actual opinion about him other than the fact that he seems to be a pretty good mage.

Keikaku…Doori????

Luke continues to be a royal pain in the ass this episode, complaining about how they’ll have to walk again once he and Tear discover they’ve been heading the wrong way, and being so thoughtless to take without paying, though coming from one as sheltered as he is not entirely unexpected;  I’d bet that getting rid of the cheagles responsible for the food supply disappearances wasn’t exactly noble, judging from the smug look he had on his face.  We do, however, learn another thing about him that paints him in a more sympathetic light, besides being stuck with Mieu:  Luke keeps diary entries just in case he ever loses his memory again (Maybe this foreshadows him losing his memories later on?), as well as the guilt of killing ligers eggs before they can be born and become a threat.

See OP.

It must suck to be in Tear’s position, having to effectively play babysitter to Luke since he has no regard to society at all (of course, that’s the first step to them developing their inevitable feelings for each other, as supported by Jade’s obligatory “Lover quarrel?” comment).  As fully revealed here, Tear’s surname is Grants, and is the sister of Commandant Van Grants.  What motivates her so much that she would like to kill her own brother…can actually be pretty accurately assumed since it feels a bit cliche, but while she passed it off towards Ion as something concerning her birthplace, there seems to be more to it than that;  Tear called him a “traitorous” during her attempt to fight him, and she’s associated with the Order of Lorelei that he himself stated to be apart of.  Whatever he’s done, Ion doesn’t seem to know anything, since he’s also curious about why Tear attacked him, but maybe Ion doesn’t know anything…

PREVIEW

Pedo-bear sends his secret police to auction the lolis!  (I bid $4000 on Anise…and $3500 on Ion O_O)

Wild delicious loli encountered!  What will you do?
Fight  PKMON
Catch  >Fap

ToA fangirl yaoi-bait Rank 3.

 Go Asch, fight for your right to rank alongside Jade and Guy!

Next episode indicates that Luke and Tear will make it out of their arrest just fine (betting that Ion will vouch for them, plus Jade doesn’t seem like to really see them as a threat or anything), but there are bigger things ahead:  the group’s going to be encountering the 6 God Generals (the people shown towards the end of the OP) , including Asch the Bloody, who I’m excited to see interact with Luke, especially how bad he’ll kick Luke’s ass as he and Tear are seen on the floor while he talks to Jade (I’m also curious in their loli member, since it seems like she’ll be their answer to Anise…among other things…*fap fap fap*).  Guy also looks like he’ll be dropping in as well, and if the OP is any indication, he’s probably a better badass swordsman than Luke, so I’m pretty psyched for his reappearance.

TOA fangirl yaoi-bait Rank 2 (in danger of takeover from Asch the Bloody).

Sidenote:  It’s kinda cool to point that Jade’s using the same spear technique that he’s shown to use in the game’s OP (check it out here if you haven’t seen it already. With that in mind, anybody think their eyes look better in the game?).