This episode of the Skull Man starts off on an interesting note with Kiriko and Hayato going back to the orphanage/church, where Hayato talks to Kanzaki about Sayo. I thought the scene where Kiriko is playing sumo wrestling with the kids of the orphanage was funny, as this scene shows that Kiriko is still part kid, despite her traveling with Hayato. While the kids of the orphanage are fighting for Kiriko’s affections and attention, the orphanage kids discuss the topic of the Phantom Monorail, where the last stop is hell.

I thought that the next scene of where a person is being chased by the Skeleton Man and being killed was really well directed, as the music, and direction really captured the fear of the person running away from Skeleton Man, which was like Terminator like IMO (in my opinion). I thought the brief scene of news headlines passing across the screen with the newspaper rolls in the background working, really captured the atmosphere of the period that this anime is set in. When I saw the big Skull Message sign in this episode, I immediately thought that it’s a message from The Phantom, as the Phantom has a skull symbol.

As section Chief Suzuki died at the hands of the Skeleton Man in this episode, while riding the Phantom Monorail at midnight, I really found Chief Usami to be an interesting character, as it seems at first glance that his the stereotypical mad scientist character, but the way Suzuki interacted with Hayato indicates that his not a ‘dumb’ character, and even manages to give Hayato a screw you smile, when Hayato tried to suck information from him, when asking for a light to lit his cigarette.

I thought that Kiriko’s Byakureiki Report scene where Kiriko presents Hayato with her photo’s that she got of the people going into the Byakureiki building was interesting, as Kiriko seems to have the ability to make any scene interesting, was adding some more intrigue to the Byakureiki religious group. I thought that the scene where Hayato and Kyoichiro talked about the book that Chief Usami may have been reading was interesting, as it talked about words that mean Superhuman Ideal.

I thought that the scene where Hayato decides to take a trip on the Phantom Monorail was interesting, in that the scenes of where Hayato and Kyoichiro try to stop the Skeleton Man from killing was realistic, and the scene showed that this imposter of the real Skeleton Man is not undefeatable.

Overall, I thought that this episode was really solid, with more hints about where the plot may go, was also adding more depth to the relationship of the cast members of The Skull Man.

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