Nodame is so into practicing she forgets to go to Chiaki’s concert.  At her lesson, she’s told by Auclair that the Beethoven’s third movement of Piano Sonata No. 31 lacks the proper emotion, rejection, depression, etc.  However, Auclair calls her “Megumi” instead of “Bebe-chan” so she gets really excited.  However after being stopped by Lucas, she realizes she has forgotten to ask Chiaki for concert tickets to him and Rui’s concert.  No worry, Chiaki’s reserved seven for her.  Nodame asks if she can come pick them up the next day but she’s told that he has to go Rui’s place for work, to see her progress on the solo.  Because of this, she realizes what kind of emotion is needed in the Beethoven piece.  Next evening, Nodame has everyone over for dinner.  However, the pizza everyone pitched in for, she ends up burning it.  Luckily, Nodame’s got some Chiaki cooking so that ends up being served.  She seems really depressed and Tanya suggests her to just go and see Chiaki but she seems like she’s enjoying the mood so no one pushes it any further.  They all go to the concert and Rui’s expectation far exceeds what Nodame was expecting.  She ends up at Chiaki’s place and he realizes that there’s something wrong with Nodame, but he decides to play along.  He asks if she can stay over, and at one point, she suddenly embraces him and asks if he likes her.  The next morning, he’s getting ready to leave for Italy and he’s about to call to Nodame when she shows up right behind her and…. she asks him to marry her.  Not knowing what to do, he passes it off as a joke and leaves.  Later that day, Stresemann sees Nodame sitting on a bench and goes up to her like his usual self and she seems down so he jokingly tells her that if she needs a place to cry, then cry in his arms, to which she obliges.  Meanwhile Chiaki is with Jean and Yuko and his mind is filled with the proposal of that morning.  He realized that she was running away from something but since he didn’t want to believe it, he passed it off as a joke.  He wonders if he should call her.  At the same time, Stresemann is talking to Nodame and asks about the proposal.  Then Stresemann asks Nodame to play for him since he has not heard her play since they were both in Japan.  After hearing her play, Stresmann asks if Nodame wants to do a concerto with him first, instead of with Chiaki.  I can’t believe this is coming to an end as well!

While visiting Akane at the hospital, Kou asks when her surgery is.  She tells him it’s the day of the final game so she’ll have to postpone their date.  Kou tells Akane that he’s a good liar so he will tell Akaishi that she’ll be out in a couple of days.  Akane asks Kou to tell Aoba the truth.  Kou tells Akaishi the lie which he accepts without question.  Kou then asks Aoba to come along to visit Wakaba’s grave with him the next day.  While there, Kou tells Aoba the truth. He prays the surgery to be a success and tells Aoba that Wakaba won’t let her cry again.  Back at practice, Nakanishi tries to keep Kou and Aoba’s “date” a secret to Azuma but he overhears everything.  Aoba tells Azuma that Kou and Akane were planning their date and then jokingly asks him out to a movie.  Azuma then tells her not to ask so lightly since he actually likes Aoba.  Early next morning, the day of the game, Kou asks Aoba to do final check with pitching.  While doing this, Aoba asks if Kou likes Akane.  He tells her that he does, then Aoba asks if he likes Akane more than Wakaba.  He tells her that you can’t compare someone who’s passed away.  She then asks if he likes Akane more than herself, to which Kou asks if he can lie.  While warming up, Kou spots Momiji, to which she gives him a peace sign, and Kou celebrates.  At the hospital, Akane’s surgery is a success so Aoba sends Momiji a text message, instructing her to give Kou a peace sign, all a coincidence.

Ed, Greed, and the two Chimera travel to a village outside of Central and find Hohenheim. After being greeted with a punch to the face, Hohenheim meets Greed and then goes through the process of explaining everything. He offers to let Ed use him as a Philosopher’s Stone, but Ed refuses to use those innocent lives. Hohenheim is glad to hear this and then turns the subject to how Father is planning to use the solar eclipse tomorrow. Ed makes it clear that the only reason he’s joining forces with Hohenheim is because it improves their chances of winning, but Hohenheim doesn’t mind the reason as long as they’re fighting together. As Ed starts to walk off, he tells Hohenheim about Trisha’s last words, and he’s surprised to see his father cry about it. Leaving his father to reminiscence about his mother, Ed has dinner and then buys some red cloth to transmute a new coat because he knows the final battle is coming. He also asks the Chimera about sticking with him, and they explain that their intuition tells them it’s better this way. Greed, on the other hand, refuses to reveal why he’s going with them back to Central. As the group walks along the woods outside of the village, they run into Al, and Al wants Ed to follow him. Realizing what’s going on, Ling takes control of his body momentarily to warn Ed, and it turns out that Pride is possessing Al’s armor.

Around this time, over in the East, Grumman’s men are still searching for King Bradley’s body. Grumman feels that they can’t head towards Central yet, and Miles suspects that Grumman is willing to let Mustang and Olivier do the dirty work so that he can come in afterward as the hero. Back where Ed and company are, Pride reveals that he’s there to get rid of Greed and take custody of Ed. He’s quickly able to grab Greed and tries to make Ed submit by threatening the nearby village, however Ed responds by using his alchemy to knock out all light in the area. This makes it impossible to see, but it also means that Pride cannot use the shadows. Greed suspects that Pride’s real body is inside the forest, so he sends Heinkel after Selim while Darius and Ed try to get away. Unfortunately, they get attacked by Gluttony who had been waiting nearby. Since Gluttony is hampered by the darkness, Darius agrees to try to fight the Homunculus, and while he’s initially successful, he inadvertently knocks Ed out in the process. Ling then convinces Greed to trade places with him and is subsequently able to fight Gluttony effectively. This angers Gluttony enough to cause him to open up his stomach, but before he can use it, someone arrives and slices him up. Ling realizes that this person is none other than his bodyguard Lan Fan, and she now sports a bladed automail arm.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 

Shiranami has Hotaru in a binding jutsu that keeps her restrained in one place. Shiranami says that Hotaru is nothing but a vessel to collect natural chakra energy that will release the jutsu. Naruto and Utakata successfully enter the Tsuchigumo village thanks to help from Sakura, Sai, and Yamato.

Utakata senses the chakra filling the atmosphere and terrain behaving oddly, and together with Naruto, they enter the cave where the anomaly is originating. Utakata and Naruto arrive but is restrained by Shiranami’s binding jutsu. However they are able to get free, meanwhile Team 7 struggles with the bandits and villagers and are unable to advance. Finally Shiranami gathers all the energy and releases the fury jutsu.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 

Akaishi and Aoba visit Akane at the hospital where she tells them that she’s promised a date with Kou after the tournament.  Akaishi asks her about her condition and she tells him that she may require surgery, then tells them that she only told them because she asked.  In the semi-final, Seishuu plays Nishikura, a team that plays from behind, a point for point, then gets in an extra run at the end to win the game.  Senda hits a home run off the game’s first pitch, making coach Maeno feel uncomfortable.  Nishikura gets a run in at the bottom of the inning.  Compensating for his worry about Akane, Akaishi hits the second home run in the second inning, making Maeno comfortable again.  The game goes on without getting any runs in, the coach of Nishikura believing it’s all according to plan, until they realize that they’ve failed to get on base since the second inning.  Seishuu gets six runs in the eighth inning, and the game is called for Seishuu 8 to 1.  Kou goes to visit Akane at the hospital after the game, where he praises Akaishi’s performance, then asks when her surgery is.

I haven’t really been into reviewing lately but that might be due to the Olympic craze that happened in my city.   Anyways back to Kimi Ni Todoke.  Tohru leaves, he tells Ryu to tell Chizuru to show up next time.  Chizuru heads over to Ryu’s place to give him her present, where Ryu tells her that she’s late and that hopefully she’ll get over Tohru for the last time.  She gets angry and throws the present at him and leaves.  The next day Sawako and Ayane still don’t know what to do with the situation.  Kazehaya tells them that just by being there and worrying about her helps Chizuru a lot.  Chizuru shows up and ignores Ryu during class but eventually runs into each other and Chizuru asks what he meant by the night before about her being late.  Ryu eventually tells her that he wanted Chizuru to be rejected to finally get over Tohru.  Chizuru is upset with Ryu because he thinks she only came to visit Tohru.  Sawako and Ayane eventually find her where she breaks down to them and tells them how angry she is at Ryu, not knowing he’s listening and leaves.  Chizuru tells them what makes her angry the most is how she treated Ryu.  The girls go out and enjoy the rest of the day (end of episode 20).  Next day, Chizuru looks refreshed but still ignores Ryu.  When walking home from going to karaoke, the girls talk about what Chizuru would say to Tohru, with Chizuru joking around saying she would confess to him.  Then Tohru actually shows up and steals Chizuru away.  The two walk together and Tohru talks about memories with Chizuru growing up.  At the end of the walk, Chizuru confesses to Tohru and Tohru tells her he likes her back but as a little sister.  Chizuru congratulates Tohru as he leaves after dropping her off at her place.  Tohru is greeted by Ryu where he gives him bread that Chizuru threw at him the day before.  Ryu goes to Chizuru’s place only to be told that she is not home yet.  Ryu goes to the docks where Chizuru was at the time Tohru moved out.  Chizuru realizes it was Ryu that asked Tohru to come visit her and asks Ryu to comfort her, then they embrace.

Despite how all the other Zanpakutou get along with their Shinigami masters, Kazeshini is still trying to pick fights with Hisagi. Hisagi is able to handle him each time, but he refuses to settle this for good until Kazeshini faces him head-on. Kazeshini doesn’t give up though and tries to ambush Hisagi during a Sword Beast battle, forcing Hisagi to protect some innocent bystanders. Hisagi ultimately knocks Kazeshini out of the way however, and while trying to catch up, Kazeshini instead runs into a Sword Beast killing a man. The Sword Beast is no match for Kazeshini, but afterward, the dying man leaves his baby in the Zanpakutou’s care. The child gets in the way of everything Kazeshini tries to do, but he can’t bring himself to abandon it, so he carries it around with him everywhere. He finally finds a shack to put the baby in while it’s sleeping, but before he can attack Hisagi again, the baby’s cries call him back. It turns out that a woman had found the baby in the brief period he was gone, and Kazeshini now protects both her and the child from another Sword Beast. Doing so makes him realize the meaning of protecting someone, and after leaving the baby to the woman, he finally goes to face Hisagi head-on. The two fight, and although the battle is fierce, Hisagi ultimately wins. As he falls, Kazeshini can hear the baby’s cries in the distance and tries to tell it not to cry. Afterward, he asks Hisagi what they’ll fight for now, and Hisagi answers that they’ll fight to protect.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 

(The map on the screen is a tsunami warning for Japan. It’s on during the whole episode, so sorry for the inconvience.) It’s now springtime, and Miles’ forces have arrived in Resembool on their way to the East. While they’re there, Miles smuggles Winry back home in a water tank, and she initially finds her house empty. When she goes up to her room to change however, she finds Ed eating there, and the commotion causes Greed, Heinkel, and Darius to appear. Winry ends up kicking them all out, and after expressing how worried she was about him, she informs Ed that Al is at the train station with Miles. Pinako then returns, and Ed and company explain the situation to them. Ed also needs some auto-mail maintenance, and while she’s doing so, Winry tells him about what’s going on now in Lior and how Hohenheim already went to Central. Ed wants Winry and Pinako to leave the country as a precaution, but Winry feels that he should be trying to stop whatever might happen and makes a plea for Ed to protect the country and get his and his brother’s bodies back.

Ed gets annoyed and leaves, and having overheard the conversation, Greed comments on how wanting money, women, and to protect the world are all forms of greed. Ed, Greed, and the Chimera then leave under the cover of darkness, and Ed tells Winry to bake an apple pie for him for when he comes back. Meanwhile, in Lior, Kimblee’s other two Chimera are reunited with Marcoh and Scar, and they head to Central with a group of Ishbal men who share Scar’s desire to change the country. In the East, Miles and Grumman’s forces join up under the pretense of some joint exercises, but the plan is complicated by how King Bradley is there to observe. Miles also left Al behind at the train station, and Al wakes up sometime later after having been drawn to his body again. Unfortunately, he gets attacked by Gluttony and Pride and is captured.

Over in Central, Mustang pays a visit to the Armstrong estate and observes that the place is big enough to fit a battalion. He also gives Oliver a bouquet of flowers with a note attached revealing Selim’s Homunculus identity. Back at the training exercise grounds, Miles’ men have realized that Al is missing and suspect that something happened. King Bradley’s men meanwhile suspect that this training exercise is a decoy for the Ishbal remnants to commit terrorism in Central and that Grumman is planning on invading Central under the excuse of suppressing that terrorism. This leads King Bradley to decide to return to Central, but the train he’s on gets bombed while crossing a bridge. When news of this reaches Central, the members of the high command panic, and Olivier considers making a move. However, she’s stopped from doing so by the appearance of Father and Sloth, and Father reassures the generals that he’s still there in Central.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 

FUNimation Entertainment has acquired the rights to re-release the Trigun anime series on DVD and Blu-ray after many years of the series being inactive on the home entertainment front. Not much is known beyond the initial announcement from the studio, but the releases will definitely see the light of day.
Thought to be lost forever when Geneon USA shut its doors, FUNimation finally finished what was probably an extensive negotiation process for the classic anime series Trigun, acquiring all the rights for it from holder Flying Dog.
Now that this feather is in their cap, they’re planning a DVD release in the Fall of 2010. No word on just what it’ll be like, but I’d expect a full-series box set, and probably the Trigun Remix version of the series.
So who’s ready for another shot at the man worth $$60 billion?

Naruto, still searching for Shiranami, arrives at Shiranami’s cabin and is captured by the bandits. Hotaru finds that Utakata has left wondering where he’s gone, and stumbles upon a man who claims to be Shiranami. He tells Hotaru his story about wanting to fulfill the clan. Believing Shiranami’s story, Hotaru writes a parting letter addressed to Utakata on a carrier bird to leave Mount Katsuragi. Shiranami, however, felt that this would be troublesome so he releases a jutsu to intervene the carrier and captures Hotaru.

Utakata, who noticed the carrier being attacked from his bubble, saved the bird and found a note left by Hotaru. He goes looking for her, arrives at the cabin and helps Naruto escape and drives the bandits away with his intense chakra. Shiranami and Hotaru arrive at the village and he has taken control of her and the villagers and takes her with him to unseal the Forbidden jutsu. Naruto and Utakata track Shiranami and Hotaru to the village, but are attacked by the villagers and the bandits, who stall them until Team 7 arrives. The Team tell Naruto and Utkakata that they will handle the villagers and bandits, and for them to save Hotaru.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆