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Episode 17: When The Night Ends
Air date: January 24th 2007
Channel: TV Tokyo
Length: ca. 24 minutes
Summary
Even though Gouta wants to leave Kazuki for dead, Tokiko manages to talk him into rescueing the boy. Once Kazuki has regained his senses, he and Tokiko decide to try and find out more about the black kakugane and discover a way to restore Kazuki's humanity.
Gouta, hurt and confused by Tokiko's devotion to Kazuki, leaves them, only to run into his commander, Sekima Hiwatari, and his subordinates. Now, Gouta has to make a decision: betray Tokiko and Kazuki to the Renkin Sendan, or turn against his organization in order to protect Tokiko.
Meanwhile, Ouka learns that Kazuki is to be assassinated, and seeks help from the only person she can think of: Papillon.
New characters:
Shinobu Negoro
Genji Ikusabe
Additional voice cast:
Kenji Hamada as Shinobu Negoro
Tsuyoshi Koyama as Genji Ikusabe
Tomokazu Seki as Sekima Hiwatari
Hitomi Nabatame as Ouka Hayasaka
Wasabi Mizuta as Angel Gozen
Compared to the manga...
This episode covers the chapters 53 to 57. Unlike most previous episodes, there were some major changes that will in all likeliness affect future episodes, too.
That Tokiko and Gouta drag Kazuki out of the water was not shown in the manga, while the anime even added the energy drain and made it a very dramatic scene.
When Bravo meets Hiwatari, there is no trace of Chitose, who was introduced in this scene in the manga, and is entirely missing in this episode. Similarly, when Gouta runs into Hiwatari, only two instead of the five additional characters from the manga show up: Maruyama, Inukai and Busujima are yet to make their appearances in an upcoming episode. Since all of their voice actors have already been announced, they will eventually show up, but their introductions will undoubtedly be different from the ones in the manga.
In the dialogues, some things were missing, too, or so it seemed to me and my limited Japanese.
Opinion
After his short first appearance in the previous episode, Gouta gets properly introduced here, and properly comes across as the nice dork that he is. The other new characters are also promising to be fun, especially Hiwatari. Their appearance, and the new situation that Kazuki and Tokiko find themselves in, makes this a very exciting point in the story.
The obvious changes make me thoughtful, because they mean that the other episodes are going to differ from the manga, too, and with only a limited amount of episodes to go, it is the question how much will be left our or changed, and whether the anime will ever again be as close to the manga as it used to be.
Now... don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily against straying from the manga a little more than previously was the case. If the result is still fun to watch and works on its own, changes are fine with me, especially since there are parts of the manga I don't consider brilliant.
In a way, this makes things more exciting for me, too, since I can no longer be 100% sure of what will happen next. The preview for the next episode suggests this, too.
(Written by Kaeli on January 28)