As I did last year, here is the list of what I thought the top 10 anime OPs of 2009 were. Enjoy!

10. “Aoi Hana” by Kukikodan - Sweet Blue Flowers OP

This is a nice little song to start off the countdown.

9. “Super Driver” by Aya Hirano – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya OP2

While the ED was the good song from the first season, the OP was the good song from the second season of Haruhi.

8. “Kimi ni Todoke” by Tanizawa Tomofumi – Kimi ni Todoke OP

Another nice soft rock song that I think is pretty good and matches the show pretty well.

7. “Kimi Shinitamō Koto Nakare” by May’n – Shangri-la OP

I wasn’t too sure about this OP to start with, but it kind of grew on me after a while

6. “HANAJI” by Yu Kobayashi – Maria Holic OP

Rather ecchi, but how can one not like this OP?

5. “Karma” by KOKIA – Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom OP1

KOKIA once again makes the list, this time for her excellent, if not eerie, OP for Phantom.

4. “Parallel Hearts” by FictionJunction – Pandora Hearts OP

This OP just stuck on me from the very start.  I think it’s pretty good, anyway

3. “Oyasumi Paradox” by Etsuko Yakushimaru – Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū OP

I didn’t watch this show, but I love this OP.

2. “Falling Down” by Oasis – Eden of the East OP

One of the very best OPs of the year, if not for the past few years. And being sung in English (being that it’s sung by Oasis) probably doesn’t hurt either.

1. “kiseki” by NIRGILIS – Birdy the Mighty DECODE 02 OP

However, the #1 OP of the year goes to a show from all the way back in the winter season.  It was a tough choice between #1 and #2, but I thought this one just won out.

As I did last year, here is the list of what I thought the top 10 anime EDs of 2009 were. Enjoy!

10. “Kimi ni, Mune Kyun” by Yu Kobayashi, Asami Sanada and Marina Inoue – Maria Holic ED

This was kind an odd ED, though it probably fit the series in that regard.  It kind of grew on me, though, after a while.

9. “Hajimari no Asa ni Hikari Are” by midori – Shangri-la ED

I’m kind of surprised this landed as low as it did.  I guess it says something about the quality of the EDs this past year.

8. “Transparent” by KOKIA – Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom ED2

Like KOKIA’s OP for the same series, this one is somewhat eerie, and as a result, fits the series well

7. “Zetsubou Restaurant” by Zetsubou Shoujotachi – Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei ED1

This is kind of a funny ED.  I’ve never seen any of these series, though it kinda almost makes me want to

6. “Link” by angela – Asura Cryin’ ED1

Another good song by angela.  Many of the songs for this show were good, and this was the best one, but the only one to make the lists.

5. “Koi no Uta” by Haruka Tomatsu – Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S ED

This is kind of a nice, soft but feel-good-like song, with interesting animation to add to it.

4. “BACCHIKOI!!!” by DEV PARADE – Naurto Shippuden ED8

Yes, I even check out OPs and EDs for shows like Naruto when doing this list.  For once, they had one which was not only good enough to make a list, but high on the list.  This ED is just hilarious to me, even though I’ve never watched the show.

3. “Blue sky, True sky” by Aira Yuhki – Tears to Tiara ED1

This was a tough choice for the #3 spot, but I think this song was, overall, a bit better quality.

2. “Don’t say ”lazy”” by Yoko Hikasa with Aki Toyosaki, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki – K-ON ED

This song was a pretty easy choice for #2.  The show might not have been that great, but it did have some good music.

1. “Hikari to Yami to Toki no Hate” by Ceui – Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai ED

I melt whenever I hear this.  This was a no-brainer as #1 on my list.

It’s the final episode of Phantom, and Ellen and Reiji have to face down one final test: Scythe Master and his Zahlenschwestern.

Four of the six Zahlenschwestern start attacking Reiji and Ellen. Reiji and Ellen soon lure them into an old school building, where Ellen tricks two of them into shooting at a statue, where Reiji takes the opportunity to take out one of them and Ellen the other, leaving four Zahlenschwestern left. Reiji decides that he’ll go after the last two Zahlenschwestern going after them, and tells Ellen to find Scythe Master, since she’s the only person who really knows how he thinks.

Reiji starts his 2-on-1 battle while Ellen finds Scythe Master. However, she tells him that she won’t act on his stage, and drops her gun, knowing that Scythe Master won’t kill her yet since that would be too ordinary and boring. Ellen then engages in a knife fight with the two Zahlenschwestern protecting Scythe Master. However, she mostly runs, which Scythe finds boring, so Ellen throws her knife at Scythe Master. One of the Zahlenschwestern tosses her knife to deflect Ellen’s, and Ellen uses this opportunity to knock her out (and likely killing her). The second Zahlenschwestern throws her knife at Ellen, who catches it, and throws it back, hitting the second Zahlenschwestern in the head, killing her.

Meanwhile, the two remaining girls attack Reiji with a piece of heavy equipment, driving him into the church, where Reiji shoots a chandelier, causing it to fall on one of the girls, leaving only one of the Zahlenschwestern. She’s about to hunt Reiji down when Cal’s watch suddenly starts to play, This distracts the girl long enough for Reiji to shoot her.

Back to where Ellen is, she is about to shoot Scythe Master, but he “surrenders” by throwing away his gun, thus causing him to no longer be an immediate threat to her, which, due to her training, causes her to hesitate in shooting him. Scythe explains that she can only kill when following orders, otherwise she’ll be thrown into despair, and thus can’t kill him. However, Ellen tells him that she no longer needs him, and will live like Reiji wishes for her too, and with that, shoots Scythe Master. Afterward, Ellen cries in Reiji’s arms.

Reiji then goes on a search to find out who Ellen is, and his first step is to research Scythe Master’s past – who ends up being a man named Helmut von Giuseppe, who had a Ph.D in Psychology and Physiology. He learns that Ellen first met Scythe in Hong Kong 5 years prior. He tracks Ellen’s past down to an orphanage there, as a girl from Ulan Bator in Mongolia. The pair travel to Mongolia, but run into a dead end. However, while there, Ellen recognizes the scenery and knows that they’ve found where she’s from.

However, as Ellen looks out towards the sky, a cart passes, we hear a muffed gun shot, and Reiji falls to the ground. Ellen then smiles back, apparently not noticing anything is wrong. At the very end, Ellen is laying in the grass motionless, and the camera pans to a nearby empty bullet casing.

RAAGGGGEEEEE!!!! OK, maybe not so much rage, but maybe some trolling here at the end of the episode, and since the ending was so surprising, I’ll start with that first.

First off, I think there are several questions that arne’t really answered. Some of them have probable answers, but I don’t think any of them are guaranteed.

Question 1: Is Reiji Really Dead?

Given this series, it tends to have a “we don’t know if they’re dead until we see ‘me dead” history. However, the way Reiji fell and the fact that it’s the end of the series suggests that, yeah, Reiji is dead. Again, not guaranteed, but I think it’s a somewhat safe assumption. Having assumed that, then we go to:

Question 2: Who Killed Reiji?

We had Scythe Master telling Ellen that people would continue chasing them, as well as McGuire, who somehow survives this series, gives the impression that Inferno still intends to hunt the pair down.

This leads to the most likely answer: the guy on the passing cart was actually an Inferno assassin, who took out Reiji. However, that brings up the question of why didn’t he take out Ellen as well? Clearly we only hear one shot. Also, why didn’t Ellen react to Reiji crumpling to the ground? (that we see anyway)

That brings up a second possibility: Did Ellen, having now found her dream and where she’s from, kill Reiji because, well, she didn’t need him anymore, or thought that their journey was somehow complete? After all, we don’t actually see who shot Reiji or where he was shot. The fact that she wasn’t facing Reiji, considering Ellen’s skill as an assassin, doesn’t really seem to be much of a barrier for pulling such a thing off.

Question 3: Is Ellen Dead?

At the very end, Ellen is laying on the ground motionless. This could be just her enjoying the view, but could it be that she’s dead now too?

At the very end, we see a glimpse of a bullet casing on the ground. I think the first assumption is that it is the casing from the bullet that killed Reiji. But what if it’s from a bullet that killed Ellen? If it is, then that takes us to the question…

Question 4: If Ellen is Dead, who Killed Her?

If Ellen is dead – something which is by no means certain – I have three theories as to how this happened:

1) The shot fired by the man on the cart killed both of them, probably by going straight through Reiji and hitting Ellen as well. Since the harm to Reiji was probably more severe, he fell first, but Ellen, knowing they had both been shot, just smiles back before falling to the ground herself.

2) Ellen, having found her happiness of where she belonged, committed a murder/suicide with Reiji, shooting Reiji, and then killing herself.

3) Having looked back smiling at Reiji, she sees that he’s dead, and so she shoots herself.

I personally seem to think that Ellen is dead. Just the fact that she’s motionless on the ground, and it doesn’t make sense to kill off Reiji and not Ellen. I’m not sure who killed Reiji, but I’m almost of the mind that it is the murder/suicide route. Ellen finally found who she was, wanted to “stay with Reiji forever” there, and, with this being Ellen, in her mind the best way to do that was to die together with Reiji there. But that’s just my own personal theory.

Also, poor Mio, hoping that Reiji will come back, but alas, it appears he never will now (maybe Ellen offed Reiji too so that he couldn’t go running back to Mio too?)

Now that I’ve talked about the ending, let’s get to the rest of the episode.

The fight scenes were pretty spectacular, but man, the Zahlenschwestern seemed to be taken out pretty easily. I know that Ellen and Reiji are great assassins, and the Zahlenschwestern were more skilled than average, but they just didn’t seem as sharp as Ellen or Reiji.

I think the main explanation for that might be that Ellen and Reiji were basically self-thinkers while the Zahlenschwestern, like how Ellen was originally, are mindless “just follow the orders” type assassins, and thus can’t think creatively. This disadvantage ultimately doomed them.

I figured that Ellen would be the one who killed Scythe Master, and I was right, and Scythe Master’s supreme belief that he could predict how anyone and everyone could act ended up being his undoing.

The one thing I was surprised about was McGuire and Inferno surviving. I thought that Reiji and Ellen would go and take them out, just because they wouldn’t be truly safe until they did that. However, both survived and, perhaps, lead to one or both of their deaths in the end.

In the end, I thought this was a spectacular final episode and was executed pretty well. I’m also glad that we finally found out where Ellen was from, and perhaps we know why she kept around brochures for Mongolia around all the time too – because she subconsciously recognized the scenery.

In the end, I think this is an overall great episode to cap off an overall great series.

It’s Phantom episode 25, and Reiji is able to find Ellen and convince her to allow him to fight Cal in the final showdown.

Mio remains at the abandoned building until Shiga shows up, when she faints. After Mio wakes up back at home, she decides to ask her mother what the truth is behind who she is. She tells Mio that she and Mio’s father are happy living the way they are, because she and Mio are living the life that Mio’s father can only dream about, but can never reach.

Meanwhile, Reiji is trying to find Cal and Ellen, but has no clue where they might be. However, Mio then calls him and tells him that they would fight at a place that both of them knew at 3 am. She then tells Reiji that the smiling face that she knew must mean that he is meant to live there, and that she’ll wait for him until he’s able to return without any worries. In the meantime, Shiga is rounding up Godoh’s men to go take out all three Phantoms while Cal is drinking it up and still being depressed in the restaurant that she first shot up.

3 am nears, and Ellen is waiting in the church when someone enters. However, she’s shocked to see it is Reiji, who knew that the church was the only place that both Ellen and Cal knew. Reiji says that he’ll kill Cal, but Ellen still doesn’t believe him. Reiji begs Ellen to leave, but she tells him that she isn’t anyone without him – just a person with no memories and no past.

Cal soon arrives, destroying her bike before barging into the church, where he finds Reiji, and only Reiji, waiting for her. Shortly after, Shiga literally trucks in men to take out everyone, but Ellen confronts them before they can enter the church. Inside, Cal takes out her watch and tells Reiji that they’ll draw when the song ends.

Of course, being the only other person who has heard the song to it’s completion, Reiji knows exactly when it ends and is able to draw and shoot before Cal. Cal then dies in Reiji’s arms, telling him that she was happy to have met him. Outside, Ellen has eliminated all of Shiga’s men, with only Shiga left alive, when Scythe Master arrives with his Zahlenschwestern.

I wasn’t really expecting Cal, and only Cal, to die (at least so far), so this was a mildly surprising way to finish up with Cal (once again assuming that we have truly finished up with her). Meanwhile, the final episode looks like it will be Reiji mopping up, first against the Zahlenschwestern and, I assume, after that, with the rest of Inferno. I also have a feeling that Ellen will finally learn where she came from, as a sort of “parting gift” from Scythe Master.

Speaking of Ellen, she sure still has it, doesn’t she? How many men did Shiga bring? I’d have to say at least a couple dozen, and Ellen just disposed of them as if they were nothing. And of course now Reiji and Ellen face probably their biggest test: not just one Phantom assassins, but six new ones. Of course, we haven’t seen these in action yet, so we don’t truly know how good they are, but one would think that Scythe Master wouldn’t put them into action unless they were pretty good.

In any case, all will finally be revealed in the next, and final episode.

It’s Phantom episode 24, and Cal finally sets up a confrontation with Ellen, but not before going berserk on Mio.

Reiji asks for more time from Ellen before they execute their plan, since he wants to be the one who deals with Cal. However, the next day, Reiji finds out that Ellen left school early, and knows that she is going after Cal, but is prevented from going after her until after school lets out lest he raise too many suspicions with Sanae. Meanwhile, Ellen leaves a voice mail with Reiji telling him that if she doesn’t meet with him by a certain time, for him to think of her as dead and to escape on his own.

Back at her hideout, Cal has become increasingly sadistic towards Mio, hanging her from the ceiling by her wrists. Mio tells Cal that she isn’t the only person who has had to endure sadness, that Reiji has had to as well. Cal asks her how she would know, and Mio says she can tell because she loves him. This causes Cal to go berserk, with her calling Mio a liar, shooting at her, and telling Mio that she doesn’t know anything, with the pampered life that she’s lived and ultimately rips Mio’s clothes off in her rage.

Meanwhile, Shiga goes to see the Head of the Godoh group, Mio’s father, to report that she’s “gotten into a bit of trouble” and asks that he give permission for the Godoh group to rescue her. However, he tells Shiga to let Inferno take care of it as long as Mio’s life isn’t in danger.

Cal calls up Ellen and arranges for a place and time for them to fight without interruption. Cal then gives Ellen the courtesy of telling Ellen where Mio is. Before their fight, Ellen shows up to leave Mio clothes and to tell her to go home, but also confirming to Mio that she and Reiji are assassins as well.

Mio begs if there is anything she can do, but Ellen tells her that her love for Reiji won’t stop Cal, only she can. However, she also tells Mio that Reiji can’t put on a smiling or crying facade, so if Mio saw Reiji laugh or cry, then it was for real. Ellen then leaves for her confrontation with Cal, telling herself that if he survives, then that’s proof that she existed.

Cal really went off the edge in this episode, basically torturing Mio for no good reason (even before Mio egged her on). However, near the end, Cal remembers back on waiting for Reiji, showing her cry for the first time (that we’ve seen) over Reiji, suggesting that she harbors a mix of love and hate over him. When she leaves to fight Ellen, she seems strangely depressed and hardly her full-of-herself self, as if she’s either expecting or wanting to die (something which has also been suggested a couple of times before, namely with her confrontation with Lizzie, where Cal was almost disappointed that Lizzie didn’t kill her).

Meanwhile, Ellen has gone off on her own to fight Cal, judging, probably correctly, that there is no way that Reiji will be able to kill her, and this time I’m not sure Reiji will get there on time. However, complicating this time is Scythe Master’s six new assassin dolls, the Zahlenschwestern, who he intends to send in to crash their party.

I’m kind of split between what I think will happen. I get the feeling from this episode that neither Cal nor Ellen will live, and that the “ending” will be Reiji with Mio. However, on the other hand, I still don’t think Mio is done, which suggests that a better ending may yet result. I also found it curious as to why Reiji brought the school work over to Mio’s house. It’s like he was doing so hoping that Mio’s mother will do something in reaction to the obvious fact that something has happened to Mio.

It also seems like we’re going to be cutting things somewhat tight if we want to get rid of McGuire and Inferno by the end of the final episode, which is now merely 2 episodes away. I suppose Reiji and company can go do it in a few minutes at the end, since without any Phantoms or anything Inferno would be pretty easy prey for him, but we’ll see I guess.

It’s Phantom episode 23, and Cal decides to go rouge and hold Mio hostage herself to force Reiji’s hand.

Ellen returns and tells Reiji that she’s arranged for them to escape on a ship that will leave midnight five days from then. Meanwhile, Lizzie storms in on Scythe Master, demanding to know where Phantom is since she’s nowhere to be found, and several weapons are missing.. However, he doesn’t know, believing that she was with Lizzie, though he doesn’t seem all that concerned either. Lizzie decides to go after Cal and tells Scythe Master to notify McGuire and Shiga. Meanwhile, Reiji apologizes to Mio about what happened before, implying that Cal was his girlfriend back in the US, and that he didn’t think that she’d come back to see him.

Reiji then sees Mio off, but once Mio gets home, Cal arrives to and demands that Mio get on her bike so that Cal can tell her about “her beloved Reiji’s secret.” Having Cal’s gun pointed at her, Mio feels like she has no choice, and goes on a nice peaceful motorcycle ride with Cal, but finally stops when she runs into Lizzie. Cal tells Lizzie that if anyone touches Reiji or Ellen, that she’ll kill Mio, but Lizzie basically just tells Cal that she’s crazy, puts her gun at her, and tells her to calm down.

Cal pulls out her watch and starts playing it, saying that she’ll shoot when the song finishes. However, Lizzie remembers back on having to kill Claudia and tells Cal that she doesn’t want to shoot her. However, undeterred by any of this, when the song stops, Cal shoots Lizzie and then drives on.

Cal takes Mio to an abandoned building where she tells Mio that Reiji was an assassin back in the US and killed countless people. She also tells Mio that Daisuke isn’t her uncle, like she believed, but is her half-brother. Mio says she doesn’t believe her, but Cal tells her to keep all this in mind when the bloodbath starts.

Cal calls Reiji to tell him that she’s got Mio, and tells him that she’ll kill Mio if he runs away without fighting. Ellen decides that she and Reiji should act independently now, with Reiji doing whatever Cal wants while Ellen finds and kills her. Meanwhile, Shiga goes berserk on Scythe Master for allowing Cal to go rouge and kidnap Mio. However, Scythe Master promises Shiga a “satisfying end” by calling on his gang of assassin girls that he’s kept hidden away.

You gotta admit, she might be crazy, but it was a pretty smart move to run and take Mio hostage to force Reiji into a confrontation with her. Of course, in doing so, she’s got Inferno going after her now (you would think Inferno would boot Scythe Master after he’s 0 for 3 regarding his Phantoms rebelling). I guess I figured that Mio would find out eventually about Reiji. Now the question is what will happen regarding her. I still have a feeling that she’s going to play a role other than helpless hostage.

Meanwhile, once again I’m completely wrong about who dies and when. I thought Lizzie had cleared a way to survive until the end, and then she gets shot in this episode. Now, note: just like in the past, we don’t really see her actually die, so her death should still be taken with a grain of salt. She may still pop up in the end to help get rid of Cal.

Meanwhile, my theory that Cal would “turn good” and go against Inferno seems to have taken a hit this week. She’s just too crazy and deranged, I think, and won’t listen to reason from anyone. This will probably only end with her going down, most likely at the hand of Reiji. Of course, there are still 3 episodes left after this, so I guess she still has time to “go good.”

Scythe Master also looks almost gleeful to be able to break out his group of girl assassins, and he doesn’t seem a bit surprised about what’s happened. I think I said in the last review that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in his plans to off Cal during all of this, knowing that she would be useless to Inferno after killing Reiji.

Ellen is now putting herself back into direct peril by going after Cal alone. I’d think that she and Reiji would have the best chance against Cal if they ganged up on her, especially now that she’s gone Rouge and likely won’t get any backup from Inferno. However, Ellen either believes that she can take down Cal herself, or believes that there is no hope and is just using herself as a shield to give Reiji time to escape.

It’s Phantom episode 22 and Cal and Ellen finally have their first confrontation. Also, with the increasing threat from Inferno, Ellen decides that it’s time top play their trump card.

Cal decides to chat it up with Ellen for a while, telling her that watching as she and Reiji run in fear from her is the only thing that’s kept her alive for the past two years (and showing a healthy disdain for Inferno while she’s at it). However, Ellen isn’t really up for small talk, and switches into her assassin mode and the two draw their guns in each other’s faces equally fast, but don’t shoot. Cal continues to taunt Ellen, but Ellen just calmly reminds Cal that she’s the one who is out to make Reiji suffer because he abandoned her. Reiji then shows up and tells Cal that she has no reason to fight Ellen.

Reiji draws his gun on Cal and insists that she stop, so Cal tells him to shoot her, but that she’ll take Ellen with her. The three seem to be at a stalemate until Lizzie shows up. Lizzie, apparently on the orders of Scythe Master, tells Cal to leave, because, according to Scythe Master, “the entire cast isn’t assembled yet.” After Cal leaves, Lizzie tells Reiji that they better better escape quickly, because she won’t be able to stop Cal again.

Reiji then calls up Shiga and tells him that, as long as nothing happens to Ellen and himself, then nothing will happen to Mio. Reiji tells Shiga to thwart Cal and Inferno long enough to allow him to escape. After the call, Ellen tells Reiji that she’ll go and negotiate with a smuggling freighter up north…alone. Back at HQ, Cal gets word that the operation is off until they can secure Mio. Lizzie and Cal end up chatting, where Cal says a lot about how Reiji was lying about everything, but never really says what he was lying about.

The next day at school, Sanae invites everyone to go out to a movie, but they all end up ditching, leaving Reiji and Mio alone. While out on their date, Reiji notices that several men are keeping watch over them, and thinks that as long as he’s seen with Mio, that Shiga will be pressured to let him escape. After the two go to a movie, Mio and Reiji chat, with Mio telling him that he’s “different” since he seems to cherish even ordinary things.

However, suddenly Cal shows up, and Mio excuses herself, but watches them from behind a tree. Reiji tells Cal that if she wants to kill him, then to go ahead, just as long as she doesn’t hurt Ellen. This just enrages Cal even more, since he abandoned her, but is willing to die for Ellen. Cal then decks him, but says that she’ll only kill him after toying with him some more. Afterward, Cal is increasingly unnerved by Reiji’s behavior, and takes her frustration out on some street thugs.

Well, the fighting wasn’t as intense as I thought it might be (then again, a fight between Phantoms is either going last a long time or be over in a flash), but I guess things are progressing about as I expected. There are two things I’m kind of expecting to happen in the next couple of episodes, however:

First, I think this episode just increasingly shows that we’re building up to some sort of “realization” moment for Cal, that she’s wrong about Reiji. She seems legitimately confused and unnerved at the end of this episode due to how Reiji is behaving. She sees Reiji as some sort of scheming guy who is only looking out for himself, so his willingness to die for someone else flies in the face of how she sees Reiji (and probably reminds her of how he was before he abandoned her). We also have the continuing building up of Reiji “lying” to Cal. I’ve said this probably three episodes in a row now, but I still think that exactly what Cal has been led to believe will be revealed very soon, perhaps next episode.

Second, the show seems to be setting Mio up as something more than meets the eye, I think. She’s being built up as too major a character to merely be Reiji’s hostage or something. I’m not really expecting that she suddenly whip out some glocks and start mowing people down or anything, but she’s going to have a major active roll to play before the end, I think.

Scythe Master also remarked that the “entire cast” hadn’t been assembled yet, which I”m guessing means his group of loli-assassins or whatever, which makes me wonder if he plans on wiping out Cal after she finishes off Reiji, figuring that Cal has no reason to be loyal to him or Inferno after she does. Lizzie also keeps popping up everywhere. She’s lasted longer than I’ve ever expected her to, though now I don’t think I’d be surprised if she were one of the last people standing. The one person we haven’t seen much of if McGuire, though I expect to see him again before the show finished.

If I had to guess, episode 23 and 24, and maybe 25 will be about Cal going after Reiji. Shiga and Co. will probably be wiped out in episode 25 is my guess, with Scythe Master escaping back to America (or McGuire showing up in Japan for some reason), and Reiji and Friends – possibly including Lizzie – go and finishing those two off in the last episode.

I’ve seen better endings, but this ending does seem to give a rather decent feeling of the show here near the end

It’s Phantom episode 21 and Reiji has come to the realization that Cal is alive and is working for Scythe Master. Meanwhile, we finally get to see “Drei” in action.

Reiji sits in the church thinking over the fact that Cal is apparently still alive. Ellen asks him what’s wrong, and he tells her about Cal, and that she is the one who fired the shot the day before.

Meanwhile, Lizzie and Scythe Master are ready to execute an operation against a Chinese mafia which has been spreading in Japan, including taking out the old guy that had been hanging out with Scythe Master before (whom Scythe Master now believes “knows too much”). However, Cal is nowhere to be found, so Lizzie gives the order to send in the other Inferno men to take them out.

All of a sudden, Cal shows up on her bike and makes quick work of everyone in a quite flashy manner, which makes Lizzie angry since it will draw too much attention, and lo and behind, Lizzie and Scythe Master end up getting chided by Shiga over it. However, Scythe Master tells Lizzie that, while Drei is imperfect, she’ll be able to get over her weaknesses by defeating the reigning “Phantom”: Reiji.

The next day at school, one of Mio’s friends gives Ellen a package, saying that someone asked her to give it to her, but Ellen becomes suspicious of it and excuses herself. Soon after, Reiji comes up with a reason to follow her. But can’t find her. In the meantime, Ellen reveals that it was an empty bullet casing in the package.

While Reiji is trying to find Ellen, he comes across Scythe Master. Scythe tells him that he was a much better assassin than Ellen because Ellen was merely brainwashed while he had “true intent.” This gave Scythe an idea, so he researched into using hatred as a motivation, and thus “Drei” was born: Cal, an assassin with no brainwashing or memory elimination. An assassin motivated by pure hatred. Scythe then gives Reiji a not-so-subtle warning that Cal is going to be going after Ellen. Meanwhile, in the church, Ellen is waiting for Cal, so that they may have their confrontation…

It’s hard to say for sure whether Cal is a superior assassin to Ellen or Reiji, but she was sure pretty efficient at eliminating the Chinese mafia members. As Scythe noted, she’s apt to be more flashy about it, but in a way, that just makes her more dangerous because times and places where you think you might be safe (such as with a group of people), you may very well not be with her.

I think it’s obvious that the next episode will be a confrontation between Ellen and Cal, though I somehow don’t think it will be the confrontation since we still have 5 episodes left. Probably what will happen is that Reiji will show up in the middle of their fight, forcing Cal to withdraw for the time being. I would expect Cal to show herself to be the superior assassin during the time that the fight takes place, however.

There is another reason why I don’t think Ellen will die quite yet: I think it would include a great sense of poetic justice if Ellen were the one who killed Scythe Master. If Reiji or Cal did it, it just wouldn’t have the same impact as if Ellen did it.

Scythe Master may also be onto something which might help give a hint as to where this story is going: He thought Ellen was an infernior assassin because he thought that having “true intent” was better than mere brainwashing. However, living away from Scythe for 2 years may give Ellen the opportunity to gain “true intent,” at least when it comes to eliminating Inferno.

Just one final note: we haven’t seen a hint of Claudia anywhere for the past couple of episodes. That seems to support the idea that she is really, really dead. It only took 2 episodes before we started to get hints that Ellen wasn’t really dead before. If we hear nothing from Claudia by the end of the next episode, I would feel pretty safe in concluding that, yes, she’s gone.

It’s episode 20 of…wait, what show am I watching? Where are the assassins? SCHOOL!? Reiji going on dates?! We’re in the Twilight Zone!

Two years have passed since Reiji escaped from the US with Ellen following the explosion in his apartment, and they are now in Japan, living as brother and sister…and going to school. A girl named Sanae in Reiji’s class drags him to the roof, where, of all people, Mio, Daisuke Godoh’s little sister, is waiting for him to ask him out, but before she can say it, Ellen interrupts them.

Ellen tells Reiji to go give Mio his response (that he wasn’t able to give due to Ellen’s interference). Reiji eventually finds her, but tells her that her confession was too sudden and that they should start off by being friends. Despite that, they’re basically going on a date the next day.

The date seems to go well enough, though in the process we find out more about Reiji and Ellen’s cover story, which includes them saying that their parents were killed in an accident when they were younger, so they live by themselves now. However, while they’re chatting, a woman on a motorcycle stops near them, and (unaware to Mio) fires a shot in their direction then leaves. However, Reiji recognizes what happened immediately and goes back into Reiji-assassin mode.

After the date, Reiji finds Ellen praying in a church, and recalls their travels: from Mexico to Peru to Palau to the Philippines and finally to Japan. He alerts Ellen that Inferno has finally found them. Ellen says that they can use Mio as a trump card against the Godohs and Inferno, telling Reiji about her connections to the Godoh group that Mio herself were unaware of.

Ellen and Reiji decide to make an escape plan, but Ellen tells Reiji that once all this is over, they’ll be back so he can be happy again. Sanae and Mio end up running into Reiji on the street the next day, but Reiji rushes off to meet up with Ellen, and Mio remarks how something is different about Reiji now. On his way, however, Reiji runs into the woman on the motorcycle again, who reveals herself to be none other than a grown up Cal.

That was a pretty different, but still pretty good episode I thought. We got to see Reiji and Ellen living pretty normally, and being schoolmates with Mio of all people. Though, while I think the “acting normal” was more natural on Reiji’s part, it was still somewhat acting on Ellen, though even the scenes where Ellen and Reiji are alone, it’s clear that Ellen has opened up quite a bit herself in the past 2 years.

In a way, it’s pretty sad that Ellen would put her friend, Mio, at risk to protect herself from Inferno, but then again, living in their “dream,” as they put it, and living as assassins are pretty much two completely separate state of minds for Ellen and Reiji, and unfortunately they’ve had to switch back to assassin mode with the reappearance of a very grown up Cal.

Obviously Cal appears to be somewhat hostile towards Reiji (evidenced by her warning shot), but what her true feelings and motivations are we don’t know yet, though I figure we’ll find out soon enough.

I find it interesting how Ellen also appears to want to shoulder most of the burden of handling Inferno, since she seems to see Reiji as being more “normal” and still sees herself as being quite sin-tainted, thus, probably, her frequent praying in the church, and I think it’s clear that she’ll do whatever she can to try to ensure Reiji survives, even if it means dying herself.

In any case, it sure doesn’t feel like we only have 6 episodes left, but that’s where we are. I’m wondering where all this will end up: who will live, who will die? Will Inferno be taken down, and if so, by whom? We still have a lot of things to resolve, and I fully expect it to be done in an exciting, surprising, and explosive way, which is the way Phantom seems to like to do things.

P.S.: Screw Mio from K-ON.  I think this Mio is a hell of a lot cuter lol.