Well, this episode turned out so great that I had to just go and blog it. Since I’m going to be doing three shows on Thursday, this might end up being a bit much and some will probably be pushed back to Friday.

But man! My senses for epic destruction and despair are really tingling now! Maybe it’s a character flaw but I really love the type of story where things being with a semblance of peace and normalcy and the characters steadily descend into despair as the world falls apart around them. But in the end they gain more then they lose in terms of their dignity and development as a human being. Simoun is my favorite show of all time, and for those who haven’t seen it (go watch it now!) this is basically the plot – a country begins as the strongest in the world and is completely conquered and subjugated. This isn’t only a theme in anime either – I have a soft spot for the Mayor of Casterbridge, the Name of the Rose and Foucalt’s Pendulum, and my latest fad, a Song of Ice and Fire.

So in this episode things take a decidedly darker tone, as Mani is apparently killed (?) and we learn the darker side of being a magical girl. We also learn that Mani has issues and seems to have ulterior motives for recruiting new magical girls. I doubt that Mani is dead since we haven’t seen a corpse, but who knows. She definitely seemed to lose her magical girl powers as she changed back into her school uniform.

The most disturbing part of this episode however, at least to me, was Kyupei’s reaction (the weasel thing). He didn’t seem to be concerned about Mani at all. He is definitely plotting something. The cutesy art combined with the dark themes is what really makes this show great though. As Higurashi has so aptly demonstrated, it’s just that much more terrifying when the person holding an axe over your head is a cute, smiling girl.