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Episode 4: Another New Life
Air date: October 24th 2006
Channel: TV Tokyo
Length: 23 minutes
Summary
Time is drawing short, but finally, Kazuki and Tokiko manage to find the third-year student who is responsible for the creation of the homunculi, and whom they need to capture to save Tokiko: Koushaku Chouno, a nineteen years old, highly intelligent but terminally ill boy, who proves to be not at all what Kazuki and Tokiko had expected.
But before they can get the cure and put an end to Chouno's plans, his last homunculus, Washio, appears and challenges them to a duel. It's clear that Washio won't be as easily defeated as Kawazui or Hanabusa...
New main characters introduced:
none
Guest starring:
Kentarou Itou as Washio
Compared to the manga...
This episode covers chapters 8 to 10, the beginning of the second manga. The little additions and changes are mostly improving things.
If I may be overly critical, I'll say that I would have preferred Tokiko's pullover to be black, or just darker, and Mahiro to wear the same outfit she wore in the manga, instead of the one from episode 1.
Opinion
The clear highlight of the episode was Chouno's first real appearance, face to face with the heroes, complete with butterfly mask and weird behaviour. A great performance by Mitsuaki Madono here.
The fighting was not as smoothly animated as one might have hoped for, but it still served the purpose. There was not much of it anyway, though, so this can kind of be forgiven for now. The focus lay elsewhere after all: On Chouno.
Overall, the episode was a lot of fun to watch, thanks to Chouno and to some nice comedy moments.
(Written by Kaeli on October 26th)