This episode starts off with Hayato being stuck in a police station, and Hayato and Detective Shinjou get into an arguing match. After Hayato leaves the police station, Hayato is greeted by a person by a Kuroshio representative (Kumashiro), which takes Hayato to his uncle’s place. During Hayato’s stay at his uncle’s place, Hayato’s uncle informs him about his daughter Maya. After Hayato and Kiriko leave Hayato’s uncle’s place, the pair have something to eat and discuss the new religion organization Byakureikai, which has gained in popularity, after seeing a news story on TV about Hitomi Tachibana death. After Hayato and Kiriko have a small verbal fight with each other, Hayato decides to look for some leads about the Skull Man, but ends up getting set upon by a group of street thugs. Hayato is rescued by the street gang by a female biker and her friend, and the female biker takes Hayato to the orphanage where he grew up.

At the orphanage Hayato is reunited with Kanzaki Yoshio, how is now a priest. Hatato and Kanzaki discuss the possible link between Kagura Pharmaceuticals and Ootomo Concen, Hayato sees Maya out the window, and Hayato becomes friends with the kids at the orphanage. I thought it was pretty funny seeing Hayato get tricked by one of the orphanage kids, by the old small mouse trap trick in the piece of gum trick.

After Hayato leaves the orphanage/church, Hayato returns home to find Kiriko cooking, like nothing has happened between them. Kiriko decides to allow Hayato to look at the pictures she had developed, and the pair of them conclude upon close inspection of the photos that’s Tachibana Hitomi and Usui Yakihiko are connected to Byuakureikai Ministry.

My thoughts regarding this episode is that I really liked the attention to detail Studio Bones has put into the animation of this episode, as I thought that the newspaper that Hayato was reading when having a bite to eat with Kiriko in this episode was very detailed, complete with photographs. So far I like the interaction between Hayato and Kiriko, as the pairing have a unique chemistry between them. Regarding the plot of this episode, I’m a bit lost so far how some of the characters are connected to the plot of the story, as there’s a bit of information to take in, in this episode.

Overall, this episode was pretty solid, though I like the character designs of this series, as they are in general non-stereotypical. I thought the sequence at the start of this episode featuring the Skull Man was impressive, though really didn’t understand why the scene was there, as it didn’t really add anything to this episode from a plot point of view. I thought that this episode was a bit of a mixed bag, though it seems that plot is moving forward, and will be clearer as I move forward with watching more episodes of this series.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed