It’s time for the next semester of school to start again, and, after being late due to sleeping in, Akira talks about how quickly the summer seemed to pass by with Fumi on the train. At school, due to her membership in the Literacy Club, Fumi is roped into helping the library dispose of the old books in the library. However, spending so much time in the library is making Fumi remember her time with Yasuko. Kyoko, meanwhile, has started practicing drawing again with Kazusa, where she finds out that Yasuko is leaving to study abroad.

The next day after school, Fumi sees Yasuko on the train platform, but doesn’t say anything, and seems sad that Yasuko gets on the train to go home without saying anything to her. Afterwards, Fumi tells Akira that she thought she was over Yasuko, and says she’s not sure she understands herself, and Akira decides that the best medicine for Fumi’s down mood is to chow down on sweets.

Soon it’s almost Christmas, and Akira decides that everyone should get together for a Christmas Eve party, however, Kyoko is apparently unable to come. However Ko soon calls Akira up and asks her for the favor of asking her for help in picking out a gift for Kyoko, since she’s tired of all the normal ones Ko gives her. But while Akira and Ko are out looking at gifts, Fumi sees them and feels uncomfortable.

Back at her house, Fumi concludes that she doesn’t think Akira and Ko are dating, since she believes Akira would tell her if they were, but thinks that she wouldn’t mind if they did start dating, but she wonders to herself why she hid from them. That night, the girls throw their party and look at old pictures of Fumi and Akira, where the drama trio is shocked to find out that Fumi was the small one when they were younger. Fumi starts flipping through an old sketchbook of hers and finds a leaf taped to one page, and it seems to make her remember something.

Later in the party, Akira gets a text from Kyoko saying thanks for the present, since she found out she picked it due to her grilling Ko about it because it wasn’t something he would normally get. She tells Fumi, who is suddenly relieved that that’s all Akira and Ko were doing. After that the three girls leave, but not before Motegi gives Akira’s brother a note, asking him out.

That night, Fumi and Akira find that they can’t sleep, so they look outside to see that it’s snowed. The two decide to go look at the snowy trees in the party that they parted back in elementary school. Fumi then tells Akira that she’s sad that she never got a chance to go back to see their elementary school, so Akira asks if she wants to go visit it then. However, once there, Fumi teases Akira by deciding to look around the school, despite the fact that Akira finds empty schools at night creepy and scary. Fumi then finds an old passageway in the school and remembers that that’s where she got the flower – a blue flower – that was taped in the sketchbook, and remembered that her “first love” was Akira way back then.

And it is finished (and really seems so since it says “Fin” at the end, suggesting that we’re not going to get a second season or anything).

I kind of have mixed feelings about this episode. I suppose it was a good episode for the type of show this was, and at least started heading towards some conclusions, such as Fumi finally seemingly getting over Chizu, and Kyoko and Ko doing better in their relationship, and Yasuko going overseas for college.

However, in other ways, we never really resolved what the status of Akira and Fumi is. Fumi finally realized the answer to the question that Yasuko asked her when they broke up: “do you remember who your first love was?,” remembering that it was Akira way back in elementary school. However, I sort of felt that this could have been set up better. For example, the flower in the sketchbook could have, perhaps, been discovered earlier in the series instead of halfway through this episode, which made the whole situation feel sort of forced to me.

Also…so Fumi found out who her first love was. I mean, yay for sentimental purposes, I guess, and perhaps a realization by Fumi of who she really likes, but it didn’t really have much impact on the series since it came at the very end (barring a second season).

Despite those complaints, like I noted above, I guess this was overall a nice ending. I keep having to laugh at Motegi crushing on Akira’s brother, though. I can just see Akira’s face if she ever finds the two alone in his room lmao.

I’ll do a full review of this series later, but this seemed like a nice slow paced story which, even though wasn’t necessarily very eventful or fireworks filled, still seemed reasonably entertaining.

The morning at school, Sakura and Tomoyo recall the previous afternoon with Meilin rushing into Shaoran’s condo and booting the two of them out. Shaoran then shows up looking worn out and apprehensive. Mr. Terada then announces that Meilin is transferring into the class, and that she’s Shaoran’s cousin.

However, spotting Sakura trying to chat with Shaoran, Meilin rushes over and proclaims that Shaoran is her fiance. Shaoran attempts to weakly protest, but to no avail. Over lunch, Shaoran tries to convince Meilin to go back to Hong Kong, but she proclaims that she’s going to stay and help Shaoran catch the Clow Cards instead. During gym, the Meilin vs. Sakura battle really heats up as Meilin engages in a one-sided battle against Sakura in gymnastics, and loses anyway.

That evening, Sakura sees news that there have been several attacks on black-belt martial artists by a girl. The reports said that the girl appeared to challenge the black belts and was wearing weird clothes. This made Sakura suspect that it might be a Clow Card.

Sakura, Kero, and Tomoyo go out to find the card, only to run into Meilin. Suddenly the card shows up, which Kero identifies as the Fight card, and challenges Meilin. Meilin appears to hold her own to begin with, but soon Fight gets the advantage, and she’s saved by Shaoran showing up. It’s then revealed that Meilin had Wei use Shaoran’s compass to find the card, revealing that she has no magical powers of her own.

Fight then appears again and continues it’s fight with Meilin, but Fight soon gets the upper hand. Tomoyo remarks that the Fight card seems similar to the Power card from before, causing Sakura to try activating the Power card. She is then able to use it to knock Fight out, allowing her to seal it.

So we get our first big pieces of information about Meilin: she’s Shaoran’s cousin (though we don’t know how distant), declares that Shaoran is her fiance, and, despite being a Li, has absolutely no magical powers of her own, causing Shaoran quite a bit of trouble as she’s determined to help him capture Clow Cards.

We also tend to see a lot of cards coming in similar pairs, whether it’s Float and Fly, Fight and Power, or Shield and Sword. Also, now 20 episodes into the series, Sakura or Shaoran have now captured 21 cards (two episodes where Sakura got 2 cards – episode 1 with Windy and Fly, and episode 4 with Rain and Wood; and one episode where she didn’t catch any cards – episode 16).

Also, sorry for taking so long to post this. This got lost along with everything else in the delay. I’ll try to post episode 21 tomorrow, but I haven’t reviewed it yet so…we’ll see.

Mio remains at the abandoned building until Shiga shows up, when she faints. After Mio wakes up back at home, she decides to ask her mother what the truth is behind who she is. She tells Mio that she and Mio’s father are happy living the way they are, because she and Mio are living the life that Mio’s father can only dream about, but can never reach.

Meanwhile, Reiji is trying to find Cal and Ellen, but has no clue where they might be. However, Mio then calls him and tells him that they would fight at a place that both of them knew at 3 am. She then tells Reiji that the smiling face that she knew must mean that he is meant to live there, and that she’ll wait for him until he’s able to return without any worries. In the meantime, Shiga is rounding up Godoh’s men to go take out all three Phantoms while Cal is drinking it up and still being depressed in the restaurant that she first shot up.

3 am nears, and Ellen is waiting in the church when someone enters. However, she’s shocked to see it is Reiji, who knew that the church was the only place that both Ellen and Cal knew. Reiji says that he’ll kill Cal, but Ellen still doesn’t believe him. Reiji begs Ellen to leave, but she tells him that she isn’t anyone without him – just a person with no memories and no past.

Cal soon arrives, destroying her bike before barging into the church, where he finds Reiji, and only Reiji, waiting for her. Shortly after, Shiga literally trucks in men to take out everyone, but Ellen confronts them before they can enter the church. Inside, Cal takes out her watch and tells Reiji that they’ll draw when the song ends.

Of course, being the only other person who has heard the song to it’s completion, Reiji knows exactly when it ends and is able to draw and shoot before Cal. Cal then dies in Reiji’s arms, telling him that she was happy to have met him. Outside, Ellen has eliminated all of Shiga’s men, with only Shiga left alive, when Scythe Master arrives with his Zahlenschwestern.

I wasn’t really expecting Cal, and only Cal, to die (at least so far), so this was a mildly surprising way to finish up with Cal (once again assuming that we have truly finished up with her). Meanwhile, the final episode looks like it will be Reiji mopping up, first against the Zahlenschwestern and, I assume, after that, with the rest of Inferno. I also have a feeling that Ellen will finally learn where she came from, as a sort of “parting gift” from Scythe Master.

Speaking of Ellen, she sure still has it, doesn’t she? How many men did Shiga bring? I’d have to say at least a couple dozen, and Ellen just disposed of them as if they were nothing. And of course now Reiji and Ellen face probably their biggest test: not just one Phantom assassins, but six new ones. Of course, we haven’t seen these in action yet, so we don’t truly know how good they are, but one would think that Scythe Master wouldn’t put them into action unless they were pretty good.

In any case, all will finally be revealed in the next, and final episode.

Reiji asks for more time from Ellen before they execute their plan, since he wants to be the one who deals with Cal. However, the next day, Reiji finds out that Ellen left school early, and knows that she is going after Cal, but is prevented from going after her until after school lets out lest he raise too many suspicions with Sanae. Meanwhile, Ellen leaves a voice mail with Reiji telling him that if she doesn’t meet with him by a certain time, for him to think of her as dead and to escape on his own.

Back at her hideout, Cal has become increasingly sadistic towards Mio, hanging her from the ceiling by her wrists. Mio tells Cal that she isn’t the only person who has had to endure sadness, that Reiji has had to as well. Cal asks her how she would know, and Mio says she can tell because she loves him. This causes Cal to go berserk, with her calling Mio a liar, shooting at her, and telling Mio that she doesn’t know anything, with the pampered life that she’s lived and ultimately rips Mio’s clothes off in her rage.

Meanwhile, Shiga goes to see the Head of the Godoh group, Mio’s father, to report that she’s “gotten into a bit of trouble” and asks that he give permission for the Godoh group to rescue her. However, he tells Shiga to let Inferno take care of it as long as Mio’s life isn’t in danger.

Cal calls up Ellen and arranges for a place and time for them to fight without interruption. Cal then gives Ellen the courtesy of telling Ellen where Mio is. Before their fight, Ellen shows up to leave Mio clothes and to tell her to go home, but also confirming to Mio that she and Reiji are assassins as well.

Mio begs if there is anything she can do, but Ellen tells her that her love for Reiji won’t stop Cal, only she can. However, she also tells Mio that Reiji can’t put on a smiling or crying facade, so if Mio saw Reiji laugh or cry, then it was for real. Ellen then leaves for her confrontation with Cal, telling herself that if he survives, then that’s proof that she existed.

Cal really went off the edge in this episode, basically torturing Mio for no good reason (even before Mio egged her on). However, near the end, Cal remembers back on waiting for Reiji, showing her cry for the first time (that we’ve seen) over Reiji, suggesting that she harbors a mix of love and hate over him. When she leaves to fight Ellen, she seems strangely depressed and hardly her full-of-herself self, as if she’s either expecting or wanting to die (something which has also been suggested a couple of times before, namely with her confrontation with Lizzie, where Cal was almost disappointed that Lizzie didn’t kill her).

Meanwhile, Ellen has gone off on her own to fight Cal, judging, probably correctly, that there is no way that Reiji will be able to kill her, and this time I’m not sure Reiji will get there on time. However, complicating this time is Scythe Master’s six new assassin dolls, the Zahlenschwestern, who he intends to send in to crash their party.

I’m kind of split between what I think will happen. I get the feeling from this episode that neither Cal nor Ellen will live, and that the “ending” will be Reiji with Mio. However, on the other hand, I still don’t think Mio is done, which suggests that a better ending may yet result. I also found it curious as to why Reiji brought the school work over to Mio’s house. It’s like he was doing so hoping that Mio’s mother will do something in reaction to the obvious fact that something has happened to Mio.

It also seems like we’re going to be cutting things somewhat tight if we want to get rid of McGuire and Inferno by the end of the final episode, which is now merely 2 episodes away. I suppose Reiji and company can go do it in a few minutes at the end, since without any Phantoms or anything Inferno would be pretty easy prey for him, but we’ll see I guess.

Ellen returns and tells Reiji that she’s arranged for them to escape on a ship that will leave midnight five days from then. Meanwhile, Lizzie storms in on Scythe Master, demanding to know where Phantom is since she’s nowhere to be found, and several weapons are missing.. However, he doesn’t know, believing that she was with Lizzie, though he doesn’t seem all that concerned either. Lizzie decides to go after Cal and tells Scythe Master to notify McGuire and Shiga. Meanwhile, Reiji apologizes to Mio about what happened before, implying that Cal was his girlfriend back in the US, and that he didn’t think that she’d come back to see him.

Reiji then sees Mio off, but once Mio gets home, Cal arrives to and demands that Mio get on her bike so that Cal can tell her about “her beloved Reiji’s secret.” Having Cal’s gun pointed at her, Mio feels like she has no choice, and goes on a nice peaceful motorcycle ride with Cal, but finally stops when she runs into Lizzie. Cal tells Lizzie that if anyone touches Reiji or Ellen, that she’ll kill Mio, but Lizzie basically just tells Cal that she’s crazy, puts her gun at her, and tells her to calm down.

Cal pulls out her watch and starts playing it, saying that she’ll shoot when the song finishes. However, Lizzie remembers back on having to kill Claudia and tells Cal that she doesn’t want to shoot her. However, undeterred by any of this, when the song stops, Cal shoots Lizzie and then drives on.

Cal takes Mio to an abandoned building where she tells Mio that Reiji was an assassin back in the US and killed countless people. She also tells Mio that Daisuke isn’t her uncle, like she believed, but is her half-brother. Mio says she doesn’t believe her, but Cal tells her to keep all this in mind when the bloodbath starts.

Cal calls Reiji to tell him that she’s got Mio, and tells him that she’ll kill Mio if he runs away without fighting. Ellen decides that she and Reiji should act independently now, with Reiji doing whatever Cal wants while Ellen finds and kills her. Meanwhile, Shiga goes berserk on Scythe Master for allowing Cal to go rouge and kidnap Mio. However, Scythe Master promises Shiga a “satisfying end” by calling on his gang of assassin girls that he’s kept hidden away.

You gotta admit, she might be crazy, but it was a pretty smart move to run and take Mio hostage to force Reiji into a confrontation with her. Of course, in doing so, she’s got Inferno going after her now (you would think Inferno would boot Scythe Master after he’s 0 for 3 regarding his Phantoms rebelling). I guess I figured that Mio would find out eventually about Reiji. Now the question is what will happen regarding her. I still have a feeling that she’s going to play a role other than helpless hostage.

Meanwhile, once again I’m completely wrong about who dies and when. I thought Lizzie had cleared a way to survive until the end, and then she gets shot in this episode. Now, note: just like in the past, we don’t really see her actually die, so her death should still be taken with a grain of salt. She may still pop up in the end to help get rid of Cal.

Meanwhile, my theory that Cal would “turn good” and go against Inferno seems to have taken a hit this week. She’s just too crazy and deranged, I think, and won’t listen to reason from anyone. This will probably only end with her going down, most likely at the hand of Reiji. Of course, there are still 3 episodes left after this, so I guess she still has time to “go good.”

Scythe Master also looks almost gleeful to be able to break out his group of girl assassins, and he doesn’t seem a bit surprised about what’s happened. I think I said in the last review that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in his plans to off Cal during all of this, knowing that she would be useless to Inferno after killing Reiji.

Ellen is now putting herself back into direct peril by going after Cal alone. I’d think that she and Reiji would have the best chance against Cal if they ganged up on her, especially now that she’s gone Rouge and likely won’t get any backup from Inferno. However, Ellen either believes that she can take down Cal herself, or believes that there is no hope and is just using herself as a shield to give Reiji time to escape.