10. “Aoi Hana” by Kukikodan - Sweet Blue Flowers OP

This is a nice little song to start off the countdown.

9. “Super Driver” by Aya Hirano – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya OP2

While the ED was the good song from the first season, the OP was the good song from the second season of Haruhi.

8. “Kimi ni Todoke” by Tanizawa Tomofumi – Kimi ni Todoke OP

Another nice soft rock song that I think is pretty good and matches the show pretty well.

7. “Kimi Shinitamō Koto Nakare” by May’n – Shangri-la OP

I wasn’t too sure about this OP to start with, but it kind of grew on me after a while

6. “HANAJI” by Yu Kobayashi – Maria Holic OP

Rather ecchi, but how can one not like this OP?

5. “Karma” by KOKIA – Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom OP1

KOKIA once again makes the list, this time for her excellent, if not eerie, OP for Phantom.

4. “Parallel Hearts” by FictionJunction – Pandora Hearts OP

This OP just stuck on me from the very start.  I think it’s pretty good, anyway

3. “Oyasumi Paradox” by Etsuko Yakushimaru – Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū OP

I didn’t watch this show, but I love this OP.

2. “Falling Down” by Oasis – Eden of the East OP

One of the very best OPs of the year, if not for the past few years. And being sung in English (being that it’s sung by Oasis) probably doesn’t hurt either.

1. “kiseki” by NIRGILIS – Birdy the Mighty DECODE 02 OP

However, the #1 OP of the year goes to a show from all the way back in the winter season.  It was a tough choice between #1 and #2, but I thought this one just won out.

10. “Kimi ni, Mune Kyun” by Yu Kobayashi, Asami Sanada and Marina Inoue – Maria Holic ED

This was kind an odd ED, though it probably fit the series in that regard.  It kind of grew on me, though, after a while.

9. “Hajimari no Asa ni Hikari Are” by midori – Shangri-la ED

I’m kind of surprised this landed as low as it did.  I guess it says something about the quality of the EDs this past year.

8. “Transparent” by KOKIA – Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom ED2

Like KOKIA’s OP for the same series, this one is somewhat eerie, and as a result, fits the series well

7. “Zetsubou Restaurant” by Zetsubou Shoujotachi – Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei ED1

This is kind of a funny ED.  I’ve never seen any of these series, though it kinda almost makes me want to

6. “Link” by angela – Asura Cryin’ ED1

Another good song by angela.  Many of the songs for this show were good, and this was the best one, but the only one to make the lists.

5. “Koi no Uta” by Haruka Tomatsu – Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S ED

This is kind of a nice, soft but feel-good-like song, with interesting animation to add to it.

4. “BACCHIKOI!!!” by DEV PARADE – Naurto Shippuden ED8

Yes, I even check out OPs and EDs for shows like Naruto when doing this list.  For once, they had one which was not only good enough to make a list, but high on the list.  This ED is just hilarious to me, even though I’ve never watched the show.

3. “Blue sky, True sky” by Aira Yuhki – Tears to Tiara ED1

This was a tough choice for the #3 spot, but I think this song was, overall, a bit better quality.

2. “Don’t say ”lazy”” by Yoko Hikasa with Aki Toyosaki, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki – K-ON ED

This song was a pretty easy choice for #2.  The show might not have been that great, but it did have some good music.

1. “Hikari to Yami to Toki no Hate” by Ceui – Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai ED

I melt whenever I hear this.  This was a no-brainer as #1 on my list.

Four of the six Zahlenschwestern start attacking Reiji and Ellen. Reiji and Ellen soon lure them into an old school building, where Ellen tricks two of them into shooting at a statue, where Reiji takes the opportunity to take out one of them and Ellen the other, leaving four Zahlenschwestern left. Reiji decides that he’ll go after the last two Zahlenschwestern going after them, and tells Ellen to find Scythe Master, since she’s the only person who really knows how he thinks.

Reiji starts his 2-on-1 battle while Ellen finds Scythe Master. However, she tells him that she won’t act on his stage, and drops her gun, knowing that Scythe Master won’t kill her yet since that would be too ordinary and boring. Ellen then engages in a knife fight with the two Zahlenschwestern protecting Scythe Master. However, she mostly runs, which Scythe finds boring, so Ellen throws her knife at Scythe Master. One of the Zahlenschwestern tosses her knife to deflect Ellen’s, and Ellen uses this opportunity to knock her out (and likely killing her). The second Zahlenschwestern throws her knife at Ellen, who catches it, and throws it back, hitting the second Zahlenschwestern in the head, killing her.

Meanwhile, the two remaining girls attack Reiji with a piece of heavy equipment, driving him into the church, where Reiji shoots a chandelier, causing it to fall on one of the girls, leaving only one of the Zahlenschwestern. She’s about to hunt Reiji down when Cal’s watch suddenly starts to play, This distracts the girl long enough for Reiji to shoot her.

Back to where Ellen is, she is about to shoot Scythe Master, but he “surrenders” by throwing away his gun, thus causing him to no longer be an immediate threat to her, which, due to her training, causes her to hesitate in shooting him. Scythe explains that she can only kill when following orders, otherwise she’ll be thrown into despair, and thus can’t kill him. However, Ellen tells him that she no longer needs him, and will live like Reiji wishes for her too, and with that, shoots Scythe Master. Afterward, Ellen cries in Reiji’s arms.

Reiji then goes on a search to find out who Ellen is, and his first step is to research Scythe Master’s past – who ends up being a man named Helmut von Giuseppe, who had a Ph.D in Psychology and Physiology. He learns that Ellen first met Scythe in Hong Kong 5 years prior. He tracks Ellen’s past down to an orphanage there, as a girl from Ulan Bator in Mongolia. The pair travel to Mongolia, but run into a dead end. However, while there, Ellen recognizes the scenery and knows that they’ve found where she’s from.

However, as Ellen looks out towards the sky, a cart passes, we hear a muffed gun shot, and Reiji falls to the ground. Ellen then smiles back, apparently not noticing anything is wrong. At the very end, Ellen is laying in the grass motionless, and the camera pans to a nearby empty bullet casing.

RAAGGGGEEEEE!!!! OK, maybe not so much rage, but maybe some trolling here at the end of the episode, and since the ending was so surprising, I’ll start with that first.

First off, I think there are several questions that arne’t really answered. Some of them have probable answers, but I don’t think any of them are guaranteed.

Question 1: Is Reiji Really Dead?

Given this series, it tends to have a “we don’t know if they’re dead until we see ‘me dead” history. However, the way Reiji fell and the fact that it’s the end of the series suggests that, yeah, Reiji is dead. Again, not guaranteed, but I think it’s a somewhat safe assumption. Having assumed that, then we go to:

Question 2: Who Killed Reiji?

We had Scythe Master telling Ellen that people would continue chasing them, as well as McGuire, who somehow survives this series, gives the impression that Inferno still intends to hunt the pair down.

This leads to the most likely answer: the guy on the passing cart was actually an Inferno assassin, who took out Reiji. However, that brings up the question of why didn’t he take out Ellen as well? Clearly we only hear one shot. Also, why didn’t Ellen react to Reiji crumpling to the ground? (that we see anyway)

That brings up a second possibility: Did Ellen, having now found her dream and where she’s from, kill Reiji because, well, she didn’t need him anymore, or thought that their journey was somehow complete? After all, we don’t actually see who shot Reiji or where he was shot. The fact that she wasn’t facing Reiji, considering Ellen’s skill as an assassin, doesn’t really seem to be much of a barrier for pulling such a thing off.

Question 3: Is Ellen Dead?

At the very end, Ellen is laying on the ground motionless. This could be just her enjoying the view, but could it be that she’s dead now too?

At the very end, we see a glimpse of a bullet casing on the ground. I think the first assumption is that it is the casing from the bullet that killed Reiji. But what if it’s from a bullet that killed Ellen? If it is, then that takes us to the question…

Question 4: If Ellen is Dead, who Killed Her?

If Ellen is dead – something which is by no means certain – I have three theories as to how this happened:

1) The shot fired by the man on the cart killed both of them, probably by going straight through Reiji and hitting Ellen as well. Since the harm to Reiji was probably more severe, he fell first, but Ellen, knowing they had both been shot, just smiles back before falling to the ground herself.

2) Ellen, having found her happiness of where she belonged, committed a murder/suicide with Reiji, shooting Reiji, and then killing herself.

3) Having looked back smiling at Reiji, she sees that he’s dead, and so she shoots herself.

I personally seem to think that Ellen is dead. Just the fact that she’s motionless on the ground, and it doesn’t make sense to kill off Reiji and not Ellen. I’m not sure who killed Reiji, but I’m almost of the mind that it is the murder/suicide route. Ellen finally found who she was, wanted to “stay with Reiji forever” there, and, with this being Ellen, in her mind the best way to do that was to die together with Reiji there. But that’s just my own personal theory.

Also, poor Mio, hoping that Reiji will come back, but alas, it appears he never will now (maybe Ellen offed Reiji too so that he couldn’t go running back to Mio too?)

Now that I’ve talked about the ending, let’s get to the rest of the episode.

The fight scenes were pretty spectacular, but man, the Zahlenschwestern seemed to be taken out pretty easily. I know that Ellen and Reiji are great assassins, and the Zahlenschwestern were more skilled than average, but they just didn’t seem as sharp as Ellen or Reiji.

I think the main explanation for that might be that Ellen and Reiji were basically self-thinkers while the Zahlenschwestern, like how Ellen was originally, are mindless “just follow the orders” type assassins, and thus can’t think creatively. This disadvantage ultimately doomed them.

I figured that Ellen would be the one who killed Scythe Master, and I was right, and Scythe Master’s supreme belief that he could predict how anyone and everyone could act ended up being his undoing.

The one thing I was surprised about was McGuire and Inferno surviving. I thought that Reiji and Ellen would go and take them out, just because they wouldn’t be truly safe until they did that. However, both survived and, perhaps, lead to one or both of their deaths in the end.

In the end, I thought this was a spectacular final episode and was executed pretty well. I’m also glad that we finally found out where Ellen was from, and perhaps we know why she kept around brochures for Mongolia around all the time too – because she subconsciously recognized the scenery.

In the end, I think this is an overall great episode to cap off an overall great series.

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.