Impression:

Raise your hand if you thought that Izayoi was going to end up with Kurousagi? Well, get ready for a new ship to show up in the harbor. We once again see how unhappy Asuka was in her boring life where she was held up in her boarding school. Now, Little Garden has presented out troubled children a great opportunity to stave off their boredom, but that isn’t all. The No Name community has been greatly helped by their efforts, the culture of fear regarding the demon lords is starting to get shaken, and some new friends have been made. Now there is another power shift occurring. The former ally of the No Names, Salamandra, is giving up leadership to the eleven year old heir which is not going over too well with some of the other communities. There is a grand festival being held to celebrate this passing of the torch, but for some reason, Kurousagi didn’t want our troubled children to take part in it. Well, this episode is basically a big set up for things to come. Shirayosha has hinted at possible danger at this festival and some high risk games that will be played. Obviously, you can’t have Izayoi around fun games. However, we didn’t get a lot of actual action in this episode. Watch out for a romance developing between Izayoi and Asuka because they had an oddly intimate moment when running away from Kurousagi. I can’t really keep up with Izayoi. First he is an adrenaline junkie, then he is some kind of evil genius, and now he can talk to girls. I am not about to jump to conclusions regarding possible pairings in this series because I am more interested in the world we have been presented, but you can’t ignore the fact that Izayoi made some very romantic promises to Asuka before Kurousagi broke it up.

I also love Halloween.

Current Opinion of the Show:

I have even higher hopes for this series than I did before because of that fight between Kurousagi and Izayoi. Honestly, it wasn’t a brawl, but the fact that they fought on an even footing means one very important thing: Izayoi is not ridiculously over powered when compared to other power players in this world. Thank you for giving me a sense of relief on this matter. The episode did a great job of setting up some major action in the episodes to come by highlighting some controversial power shifts and even more games. If we have learned anything in the first half of this series, it is that these are no mere games. I am liking the pace of the story and the depth to which we are seeing this overly corrupt world. Obviously, it isn’t all action because we get some romance and comedy thrown in here and there which will help balance out the flow of the story. Mondaiji is definitely the anime that I most look forward to seeing every week and I can’t wait to see what goes wrong during this festival.