[ Focus 13: For the Snark was a Boojum, you see. ]

Well that was a rather unique episode. At least three-quarters of it was spent following Tarou in his OBE exploration. He goes from checking up on Miyako, to his memories of his sister, to a hospital where dead people live for eternity, to an abstract place where he meets a ghost named Snark and back to his home where he goes into a room he’s normally forbidden to enter. I just love the creativity that is bursting from this series. The places in Tarou’s mind were just awesome and the look gave off dream vibes. Speaking of which, I’m not at all sure who Snark is yet and what the hell a Boojum is either. Snark tells Tarou that his physical body is still alive so he might be someone we already know or a new character all-together. For some reason I was thinking it was Hirata because of the hair on his head but it’s just a wild guess really.

The last quarter of the episode had Tarou, Makoto, Masayuki, and Michio all visit Miyako who is still in bed sleeping like Tarou saw earlier during his travels. He then tells Miyako’s father about what she said when she was possessed and immediately chases them home. That was pretty odd but it does show that he has heard the line before and may know what they mean. Hopefully we get a bit of insight on that whole matter in the next episode or two. The last few moments of the episode caught me completely off guard. I didn’t expect to see Noriko (the woman who attends to Makoto and his grandmother) on the stairs of the shrine. I’m still clueless as to why she was there other than to keep surveillance on Makoto and his whereabouts but he ran away and as the others followed him Michio caught a glimpse of her flashing a pretty evil-looking grin. What does that mean? Is she up to no good regarding Makoto and the Ogami household? Whatever the secret may be things are really getting more exciting and interesting with every passing episode!

[ Focus 12: Homeostasis Synchronization ]

Miyako going god/goddess mode in front of Tarou was pretty surprising. Sure they were talking about possession prior to it but I didn’t expect one to happen right then and there. Still, I find it intriguing how the god identified itself right off the bat. What I don’t quite understand was what it was trying to say and why it chose to use Miyako’s body to go into the river and apparently drown her. Tarou wasn’t too freaked out but I guess that’s only natural given his exposure to such things already. While I’m on the topic of those two, I really find them to be rather cute together and wouldn’t mind seeing them becoming a couple. They’re already on a first name basis and Makoto has helped her out more than enough times when she was in trouble. It’s obvious that he likes her and Miyako, well at least one side of her, appears to like him so everything should work out.

Makoto is really getting used to running around in Ghost Hound form. Hell, even Reika got to see him at the beginning of the episode and now she’s sort of feeling what Hirata did when he first saw that disk of light a couple of episodes back. Speaking of Hirata, what the hell was that thing he saw in the classroom? I was half-expecting him to throw everything up in the air and scream at the sight of it. I think it’ll be interesting to see how he interacts with Miyako in the future now that he’s met her father and has experienced his share of paranormal activity.

[ Focus 11: Syntax Error ]

There were so many things that happened in this episode that I barely know where to start. The execution of this episode was just brilliant. We get quite a few answers but even more questions in return.

Miyako’s father reveals to the guys a story about himself, the mayor, and Makoto’s father and mother, Sanae. Just like Taro, Makoto, and Masayuki they too went to visit the old hospital when they were younger to investigate a so-called cursed room. They manage to find an entrance that’s meant to store bodies of the dead and Makoto’s father climbs through it while Miyako’s father and the mayor, too frightened, flee outside with Sanae. The next time we see Makoto’s father is when he is standing outside and is staring into the sky. I have no clue as to what happened to him but I can only guess that saw something while crawling through that duct. Still though, none of that really answers the question as to why he would commit suicide years later. Could it have been as a result of whatever he experienced while crawling through that duct?

During the dam scene we also go to see Sanae alive and…well, I’m not sure I can say “well” because she didn’t look too happy. Of course, Makoto doesn’t want anything to do with her which I still don’t understand why. Could she have left him after his father died or something? Hopefully more information on their relationship will be revealed soon.

As for Reika, I don’t quite understand what went on. She was performing some experiment with the rat we see in the OP sequence. She then leaves and thus starts the rather odd sequence of events such as being followed by robot (which was looking at her legs…) and a camera (which I could have sworn was looking down her cleavage). There are some other things that happened including the introduction of a new character that was examining the mouse back in her lab. Reika shows up again at the very end of the episode and Masayuki sees her and his father making out in her car. That’s one smooth bastard if you ask me.

[ Focus 10: Affordance/TFT ]

Ghost Hound has really been on a run these past few episodes. Last time we were given a brief fighting sequence and got ot see Tarou turn into his Ghost Hound-form and Masayuki use his “Weapon Select” command on the ghost that was chasing them. This time around we’re shown Makoto in OBE who transformed into his Ghost Hound-form that is the very same one found running in the OP. It looks something like a wolf or fox from what I could tell.

We a little learned more about the world that can be seen while in OBE as well from Miyako’s father though we’re still not giving anything groundbreaking as yet. Speaking of Miyako, her smile is SO CUTE. I know that Tarou must’ve felt like a million bucks (or a billion yen ) when she smiled at him so brightly. Though, her actions really makes me think again of the possibilities of her having a personality disorder or if she just has really frequent mood changes.

The last bit of the episode is rather hilarious though with Masayuki unintentionally scaring the life out of one of the guys from the beginning of the previous episode (the one that didn’t get possessed). I could’ve sworn he was going to leap out of his skin!

[ Focus 09: Existential Ghosts ]

That was quite the awesome episode. The beginning with the teenagers who saw the very same ghost that Makoto did in episode 7 was very interesting because the ghost, who kept on getting run over, actually gave chase to them and seemingly entered into one of the guys. This ghost is, according to Tarou, the very same person who kidnapped him and his sister. Of course, Tarou, Makoto, and Masayuki learn about the incident and decide to investigate it for themselves. Both Tarou and Masayuki really surprised me when they confronted the ghost when it started to attack them. Tarou turned into some, uh, hound-like form but didn’t get to use it since he was still scared of the guy a bit. When the ghost chased after Masayuki he decides to use one of his videogame moves and blast the sucker out of the sky. Now that’s pretty damn cool.

Other things happened as well. Masayuki finally stood up to those bullies in school but got beaten up real good. I guess that’s better than saying nothing lol. Hirata called Reika to discuss his experience in the previous episode and sounded quite shaken. Hopefully we get some more insight into that soon. Then there’s the very end with Masayuki’s father who happens to see some ghost leeches near his daughter/wife(?). That was pretty freaky if you ask me. Lastly, thumbs up to Tarou blushing madly around Miyako. Is that some love I sense in the air?

[ Focus 08: Revolution of Limbic System ]

Much of this episode was told from Hirata’s point of view. This is a first of course and I had wondered where it was going until the end of the episode. Before that though we get to see that Hirata has finally started treating Tarou’s mother. Whether or not we start seeing results of her healing is yet to be seen though since it is in the early stages. Tarou has an OBE yet again and meets a strange ghost that is of an animal that is extinct. Does that mean those other strange ghosts also existed before though? During his OBE he sees Makoto but is unable to talk to him. However, he does meet Miyako who of course can see him. She’s ever the intriguing young lady and I’m wondering if she really does have disassociative identity disorder or not.

The most interesting thing that occurred during this episode though involves Hirata who has a seemingly supernatural experience. He lost 30 minutes of time that didn’t seem to be that long and additionally saw a white disk in the sky. I’m guessing that that sight was supposed to be something akin to a UFo/alien abduction? Well, I guess he can’t rule out supernatural activity anymore after that.