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Episode 8: A Night at the Dorms
Air date: November 22th 2006
Channel: TV Tokyo
Length: 23 minutes
Summary
While Kazuki is going through special training with Captain Bravo - badly needed if he wants to survive fighting LXE, Tokiko is left to rethink her attitude towards the battle against the homunculi, and to guard the kakugane that they retrieved from Kinjou.
LXE want it back, and send the homunculus Jinnai, who attacks at the school's dormitory, hypnotizing the students and ordering them to attack Tokiko. Tokiko finds herself in a terrible situation, which also brings back bad memories.
New main characters introduced:
Hitomi Nabatame as Ouka Hayasaka
Guest starring:
Susumu Chiba as Jinnai
Compared to the manga...
The biggest changes may lie in making Jinnai's hair blonde instead of black, a change that might simply be explained by the need to have him remain visible in the dark forest. For a character who only appears in one episode, such changes are fine.
Apart from this, the chapters 22 to 24 are faithfully covered until the end and Ouka's first appearance. The introduction of Ouka is actually different from in the manga, which probably has no other reason than to save time, and is unlikely to have any consequences for the rest of the story.
Tokiko's flashback is significantly shorter than in the manga, revealing much less details, not even a glimpse on the person responsible for the bloodshed, nor a look at her younger self.
Opinion
This episode focuses on Tokiko, which is a nice change at this point. Even though Kazuki is the protagonist, Tokiko is a very interesting and popular character, and deserves the attention. The flashback was of course too short to give any real insight into Tokiko's mindset. Even more than in the manga, it functions as a mere teaser to the actual revelations later in the story - or so we can suspect.
That aside, the episodes has some funny/crazy moments, thanks to Papillon, Bravo and - in my view - to bananas.
Introducing Ouka right at the end of the episode is a nice little cliffhanger. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her - and her brother, of course - next week.
(Written by Kaeli on November 22th)