God, someone please kill Aono... she's really starting to get on my nerves now.

Aono locks up Yorito at home, looks like she erased his memories but he has nightmares of killing Matsuri. Matsuri is fine, by the way. Looks like she still hasn't fully recovered from the injury though. Mana finds out that Aono is a Yaka, and we finally get irrefutable proof that Goth Loli is a Yaka also - both burn in the sunlight.

Aono has finally decided to finish off Matsuri... will Yorito make it there in time, now that Mana has gotten through to him in his stupor? Well, obviously he will. It feels like the ending is drawing near. Actually, I feel like next week could well be the last episode. Are there more episodes scheduled after next week?

Aono probably or Yorito himself fixed his memories. IMO They were moving quite fast forward.

Catfight :D...Let's start taking bets!!

Heh... I saw people thinking what will Takeshi do against two Yakas, but I always figured it wouldn't be Takeshi vs. Matsuri, Aono, it would be Matsuri vs. Aono. Looks like a lot is happening...

not even 10 secs into the ep and already we get a WTF event...after stabbing matsuri yorito wakes up to find himself in the classroom...he then says in a puzzled voice: "a dream???"

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later that day yorito is talking to mana but has a sudden flashback to a scene what happened last night...he then forgets about what he was talking to mana about and she thinks that he is sick...hes getting his memories messed around so it seems...

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a few seconds later she makes another connection with the "rain" and "towel" last night...so much so it triggers another flashback which causes him to fall over feeling dizzy ~

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mana takes him home...he lies down on the sofa while mana goes to get a towel ~ aono thanks yorito and asks if he is alrite...yorito asks aono about yesterday and she tells him "truthfully" ~ he asks if they met anyone yesterday and aono answers "who?" with a troubled expression

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...yorito cant remember but he knows that he is forgetting something important...aono then tells him to go sleep...and he does O.o just like that...aono then take him to his room while telling a puzzed mana to go home...

they both say oyasumi and aono leaves...

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then that night we see loli tan and matsuri walking...Mayuko tells matsuri not to push it soo far...but she ignores her...Mayuko then takes matsuri to a train cargo...there they rest for the night ~ but before they chat...an oh my god we have it confirmed! Mayuko is a YAKA!! ~ here we see her burning up trying to get to the shade and it was matsuri who saved her just as she was about to pass out...Mayuko asks if its really alrite for matsuri not to go to hospital but she just throws back the same question...matsuri then asks if she is sure that she doesnt want to go back to takashi...and she is sure that she doesnt want to have anything to do with him...

and matsuri still has a promise unfulfilled...

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the next day koyori and mana comes to visit...as they were about to leave aono opens the door...aono tells them that yorito is sick and closes the door...(okey minus points for being mean >___<)

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yorito sits in bed and it totally dull out of his mind...he tells aono that he knows matsuri but aono insists that it way just a weird dream...aono then leaves and starts crying ~ i know this feeling...shes definitly saying "why cant yorito forget about matsuri" in her head...

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the next day...yorito is still off from school and mana tells her friend that he is sick...
mana's other friend then comes in and shows them some "hot news"...mana is shocked...she asks where she managed to take the picture and then she says that it was by coincidence...

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mana then asks for a copy of that picture and then leaves...
she goes to yorito's house and demands to see yorito...aono says that she isnt allowed and when mana tells her that she knows where matsuri is aono tries to slap the door on her...telling her to "leave!"

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mana then tells her to at least tell yorito that matsuri is still around and that its because matsuri is an important person...this pisses aono off and she pushes mana away...causeing her hand to smoke in the sun...OMG! another confirmation! AONO IS ALSO A YAKA!

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mana asks what the hell that was but aono just closes the door...mana is just confused as hell O.o

in the afternoon we see takashi searching...i duno how he found that place but he did...

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then we see in a nightmare (which turned out to be yorito's) matsuri being stabbed...he freaks as aono struggles to hold him...

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he then imagines matsuri turning into stone and crumbling...which causes him to spaz out even more O.o

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and holy crap...yorito in a fit of mindless rage pulls the curtains off which causes aono to burn!! that one badass scream...while yorito is just left mindless...

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aono tells yorito that matsuri isnt here anymore ~ he finally calms down and falls to his ass...aono apologises for causing so much pain...and that he just wants to stay together...

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flashback time!! i presume this is how yorito died...all aono wants now is just to stay by yorito...she puts him to bed and tells him that they will talk later...but when she leaves all yorito says is that "matsuri isnt here..."

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mana then sneaks into the house and find yorito's room a mess...she tries to snap him out of it but hes not responding at all...all he can say is that "matsuri is not here anymore"

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freaked out mana slaps him and shows him the picture...he wakes up at last!!

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moving onto matsuri we see her standing up looking at the moon...yorito the takes mana on a bike ride...to where matsuri is...

matsuri is then seen walking out of the cargo and is attacked by paper planes! (LOLZ!)
no doubt its aono...she is going to kill her! ~ ~

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That scene with Yorito going insane scared the crap out of me.
Wait, we're halfway done with the series already?

Aono vs. Matsuri! FIGHT! Though I imagine Yorito will get there in time to stop it?

Seriously, I never expect Aono to go that far into completely eliminating Matsuri from existence. Rather, Aono's pulling a Teana (going all out) on Matsuri now.

Also, what happened to their house in the past, when it was destroyed? Natural or forced?

Killer Origami?

ORZ

What's she going to do? Paper-cut Matsuri to death? :p

I think alot of things have been proven in this ep. Yorito's forgotten everything of what happened the night before, a.k.a memories got erased. Mayuko turns out to be a Yaka as expected. Aono most definitely has mind control powers and I base this on the scene where Aono convinces Yorito that Matsuri is not around anymore. She is one scary person to be around!

Can't wait till next ep.. looks like Aono and Matsuri are going to beat the crap out of each other.

Great episode... and a freaky one. One of the most disturbing moments was when Yorito was screaming and thrashing around followed with Aono getting burned in the sun. Whew......
So this episode confirms that Mayuko and Aono are Yakas.
Mayuko knows Matsuri is a Yaka and vice-versa.
To my surprise, or maybe not, Mana plays a big role in this episode including helping Yorito home, constantly visiting Yorito's home, and most of all, snapping Yorito out of his trance and showing him the picture of Matsuri (taken by Sae).
Aono can manipulate Yorito's memories. She's probably done this before too.
Aono can control paper/origami.

Next episode-A fight? I hope Yorito doesn't go and interupt until it is over. And Mana? She's with Yorito, so she might see some interesting things...

Either We are looking at a catfight (MROOOW! Hey Kitty!) or this series just turned into Read or Die.

I still feel sympathy for Aono, but I won't mind if she dies. I think Matsuri feels guilty about still being so near Yorito, breaking her promise to Aono. We still don't know the whole past story. But we do know Aono is quite mad (in the sense of crazy). Great voice work by Nakahara Mai. I feel Aono's anguish.

I expect the appearance of Yorito will block the full fight. I'm one of the few who prefers this. I also think bearded guy knows this place as a hideout and may also show up. I wonder whose side he will be on, if any.

This episode may not have told us anything we hadn't figured out already, but the angst in Yorito's room (GJ Okamoto Nobuhiko), and Mana (GJ Honda Youko), and Mayuko (GJ Kaneda Tomoko) made it all work for me.

Ok... *catches his breath* ok... this episode confirms a lot of things:

1. Aono and Mayuko are finally confirmed to be Yakas.
2. Aono is both desperate and very jealous.
3. Aono can and does control and manipulate Yorito's memories.

The scene with the collapsed roof, I think that pretty much confirms how Yorito died. Though as cruel as Aono is, which I do think she is, I do feel bad for her since she lost someone she loved and cared so much about in one night. However, her love for Yorito as well as the pain she has had over losing him has pretty much overtaken her-- both emotionally and mentally. I was right that Aono, no matter how much she tries so hard to control and manipulate Yorito's memories, there is no way she can manipulate what's deep down in his heart: Matsuri. If she has been on Yorito's mind centuries ago, then Matsuri will be on his mind centuries later.

Yorito kept getting flashbacks and wondering if anything happened last and if he met anyone. Aono kept telling him, Matsuri isn't here, isn't real, it was just a weird dream, and so on. At that point, I pretty much knew that Aono has gone too far in getting what she wants: Yorito. This isn't love, this is pretty much having it consume all of Aono now. She wonders how come she can't get make Yorito forget about Matsuri. Aono doesn't realize that it is impossible no matter how much she tries. I wonder how many times she revived Yorito, or if it is only once she did so and how she did it now. I was somewhat right on my fear I mentioned in the Ep.7 thread: Aono would go so far to try to erase Matsuri from his memory. And she did do that, but luckily not the past 3 months I think. However, it does look like it, because he cannot clearly recall Matsuri at first until Mana showed him a picture of it.

We see Mana now suspects something going with Aono, as well as the possibility she now thinks Aono is a Yaka. I thank Mana for checking up on Yorito and going so far to risk herself to see if he's alright. And, in the end, it took only ONE picture to have Yorito snap out of whatever Aono spell/magic she put him under, which I think she did.

More of my sympathy is towards Matsuri and Yorito after what both have gone through, and little on Aono, who is already over the edge by now. Next episode we get to see a rather interesting fight between two Yakas unless Yorito can stop the two. The worst part: Aono is fighting a rather wounded and somewhat weak Matsuri.

I'm cheering for Matsuri in the next episode.

Fortunately, they weren't so asinine to drag-out the "was it a dream" suspense too long. Once Yorito collapsed, a started to feel a little better about where they were going with it.

How Matsuri met Mayuko. Yorito originally died in a house collapse (nominations for lamest way to die and stupidest reason to commit suicide). And Matsuri feels guilty for leaving Yorito. All the rest we've already been able to guess. It was no mystery that Mayuko was a yaka, or that Aono was manipulating Yorito's memory. And then they end with another cliffhanger. Bad move.

I'm a huge R.O.D. fan, and I don't appreciate this cheap bastardization of a Paper Master.

Finally it's official that Yorito's memory is being messed with. I was quite sure of it since the Aono and Yorito on the Hill - scene in episode 7. And Aono really seemed to be serious when she told Yorito that she only wants to spare him from pain. So maybe Matsuri did make him seriously suffer in the past and she knows it will happen again...but she looks just to damn jealous to me, she doesn't even seem to realize the pain she's inflicting might be much worse than what she's trying to protect Yorito from.
Besides, Matsuri probably wasn't at fault for Yorito's death if he died in a collapsing building, no?

the fact that Yorito and Mana are rushing towards the scene, is clear indication that we will see stoppage. But when will this occur?

so yorito didnt die or doesnt seem to have died because of matsuri...aono just took her own life because she doesnt want to be left in a world without yorito but matsuri was being a goodie two shoes and revived the dead aono...

i cant say that aono is crazy/psycho...but rather she is just obsessed with yorito...and this obsession caused her to do crazy things...im sure that its true love but at the same time i also get that true love isnt always right...yorito clearly doesnt see aono in any other way than a big sister...

but even so i didnt think aono would have minded...as long as she is with yorito ~ however when in comes matsuri she finds her relationship with yorito at threat and hence tired to give matsuri a warning...rightly so because aono was here first while matsuri is second...a simple case of "first come first serve" ~ but the inevitable happens as yorito and matsuri is fated to be together...aono is just clearly trying to go against fate...and now we have a death match situation...

While I'm far away from the idea of defending Aono's actions, I'm still waiting a little bit before giving a judgement.

There's still something missing in the puzzle. We have now seen how Aono and Yorito were related in the past, it's not explained if they were actual siblings or just childhood friends.
Also it's not explained why they ended up living in a cave with Matsuri.
Above all, it's not explained their connection with Matsuri. Where does she come from? How did she come to know them? Was Matsuri a Yaka in the first place? If she became one along the way, exactly how and when?

There's a whole lot of background missing, and while Aono's actions, born from apparent pure selfishness and egocentrism, seem to be unforgivable, they could be put under a different light if some other data would be given.

Not to mention, we still know nearly nothing about Takeshi and Mayuko. And I don't think they have a side role in this story, it's actually all the other way around.

After 8 episodes out of 13, I have to charge this as a blame to the anime. We still know too little. Each episode keeps providing past and present events with a 2%-98% ratio. If only the balancement were a bit adjusted, I think it would be much much better for the general result. Perhaps they could have used half of episode 4 for that purpose.

It's arguable and almost certain that they will provide the said background in the future, but I'm starting to fear it might be a bit too late if they don't hurry. The key for appreciate, judge, criticize, hate or eventually love characters, is to fully understand them and their actions.
With not enough background the alchemy bringing to understanding doesn't work, and not even if the background is given too late.

While I've basically always loved Matsuri since the beginning, I'm starting to wonder about some of her last behaviours, especially since the moment when she heard the name of "Aono" back in episode 6. She had a 180° turn, and while we might speculate about it, we don't have certainties. That's the frustrating part.
And while I find it hard not to blame Aono for the insane way she adopts to accomplish her goal, I still want to know all of the details before forming a final idea on the matter. And so on.

-------------------------------------

As for episode 8, a fairly good one, with some good parts (Yorito's mental shock scene, fantastic job from his seiyuu) and other clumsy ones (Yorito's dream about stabbing Matsuri, it seemed to come from a total different character design crew).
I liked the cliffhanger at the ending since it is a nice set up for next week. Though I find it hard to believe that one between Aono and Matsuri is going to die that soon.

More thoughts on this episode to come later.

Damn this episode was so unclear, mostly seems to have only confirmed a few points which were already more or less dead obvious.
And what's with Mana being turned into a side character and all stupid, boo~ boo~

That nightmare scene was soo~ puzzling >_<
Was it just Yorito's nightmare? Was it a spell from Aono?.. what the heck was it?!
I don't think it was a spell, just Yorito's insane mind playing around. It was too awkward to be a spell. And he didn't seem have forgotten about Matsuri so what would be the point.

Right now I'm seeing Mana & Aono as the normal people (considering circumstances) and Yorito representing the people that have problems with their heads. -_O

Seriously there better be some kind of event in Yorito's past, some kind of trauma, I don't care if it brings shame on the other characters (Aono included) Yorito better not end up just thats-the-way-he-is. He is way too psycho~ and simply weird, if they don't explain anything about the way he acts and thinks then he will just become the series plot device.

I don't think Yorito will be the one who actually stops the fight, I think cloth n' glasses will come and defeat both. xP

But I hope we get some serious revelations about Matsuri.
In any case if anything Matsuri will win the fight. Aono's fighting methods are less then lethal as opposed to Matsuri's powers. Also since we know their powers originate somehow from their past, if we take them as hints then Matsuri should be the only one who can muster killer intent.

Since Aono want's Yorito to forget Matsuri the dream obviously wasn't her doing.

Mana is normal, yes. But how in the world does Aono qualify for that term? As far as we know (although we clearly don't know everything) she wants to kill Matsuri out of jealousy and selfishness. I don't think that's very normal... :p

You do realize that Aono has been messing with Yorito's mind for quite some time now? He didn't know about Aono being unable to go out into the sun, was unable to recall past events...him stabbing Matsuri wasn't the first event Aono made him forget. I don't find it very strange that he would get some mental issues after recieving this kind of "treatment" multiple times.

I think you misunderstood what I meant by normal.
If you think she's not normal then how come we have so many words to describe her feelings.

We don't really know that.
Or are you suggesting Yorito is actually some poor bum who had the looks that Aono turned into the old Yorito? Mmm~

I still think that was the first time. Or at least we're missing one big piece of the puzzle.

We already getting a big (??) fight between Matsuri and Aono, and it's only just past halfway in the series. Usually stuff like that doesn't come until the second to last episode in animes. So, there is some surprise we haven't assumed yet that's going to happen next.

It's still not explained how he came to abandon Mayuko, at least to me <.< .

He didn't, she left him. >_>
Can't you see he's looking for her. Not for Matsuri.

If Yorito was some poor bum who just happened to be a look-a-like AND have the same name and obsessions with taking some girl out to see the sky, then that would be one big coincidence. I think this ep provides strong evidence that Yorito's memories are being manipulated and last episode shows evidence that he doesn't hold memories for beyond the past 3 months or so. I'd concur with Aono having mind control and messing with his head.

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That's one important looking flashback at 18:42-18:57. So, we're to assume that Yorito is under that rubble and his apparent death was the reason for her suicide attempt. The relationship does still appear to be siblings imo. The flashback also shows a big age discrepancy there (2-4 years imo). That's too big of a discrepancy for "childhood friends" imo. Girls her age would be looking at older guys imo.

So, she either has a shotacon or a brother complex. I pick brother complex. :D

It's either a shotacon or a brother complex leading to a bad obsession. It still points to brother complex to me. :heh:

Hitsuji no Uta vibes are starting. ;)

I love it to see how people are talking about hating a character we don't even know everything about yet. While I don't like Aono's doings as of now, she definitely has a reason we still don't know. I mean, one of the main points of the story development would need to be finding out what is behind Aono's actions. Until we hear about that, I'd rather refrain from saying whether I love or hate a character.

As for episode 8, thrilling catfight expected for next week.

I don't need to know the reasons behind certain actions to hate the actions. Aono is nothing short of attempting a murder. Unless you are saying that it is ok to murder some one in any other case than self-defense when no other options are available/viable.

I may, or may not understand her reasons (assuming there is something more besides obsession and hate towards Matsuri) once they will be revealed, but that doesn't mean i will suddenly find her actions redeemable in any way imaginable. Murder is murder and mindraping is mindraping, and both are pretty "bad" actions, no matter how you would justify yourself. It doesn't help that i can't see her justification being much different from "I don't want to".

I might be able to feel some sympathy for her situation (as much as i would feel towards any person with mental problems), but it would be a freezing day in hell before i could empathize with her actions. The moment you start using your "reasons" to justify an immoral act, you loose the right to ask for sympathy from me, much less empathy ... at least as far as i am concerned.

For me, understanding why a person does the things he does has nothing to do with my feelings about the matter. And that is why i hate Aono - because i hate the actions she takes.