I’m slowly catching up on reviews of the past couple of seasons.  The summer season has begun and I will definitely be following quite a few series on the season.  This episode does something really smart–  focuses on Akane’s backround.  She learns her Awakusa family name is feared throughout the entire city.  This is another episode that points out the school-life aspect that the first season didn’t dive into as much.  Here is where we’ve got this plain girl trying to make friends and sees that one girl is bullied.  Akane feels she is standing up for what’s right and I really like the foreshadow, the overlay behind being part of her family–  everyone gets along with each other out of fear.  The other girls wanted to pick on her and its great to see that how everything is oddly normal before her friend tells her why those girls had been so kind to her.

It’s like it was building up to her running away from home, tasering Shizuo and making new friends through Izaya.  She’s in quite the complicated situation with her crime syndicate family and it’s about time we’ve got an episode that takes a backseat to all the fast-paced antics.  It doesn’t leave it behind though as Shiki quickly recalls Hollywood from the first arc of this season!

The narration by Akane was a nice touch and at least from what I can tell especially with this episode is that Anri is less depressed than she was in the first season.  She can control he Saika power even more so when she is finally able to protect Akane and Ryuugamine.  Rater than closing out this season the creators have wonderfully placed Ruri back into the story–  her Hollywood identity mentioned by Shinra and the television segment is proof that there is so much story left to tell!  Not to mention how much I can’t wait to se Shizuo’s encounter with Varona.  Love at first sight?

The Samurai Flamenco video was really cool to see here!

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

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