Dari: Yeah, I’m Dari (which is a shortening of my pen/screen name, Draringi), sorry this is late, but I’ve had an essay, plus labs and lab-reports to write over the past week, plus I caught a cold , but enough about me, and onto more important stuff. Asura Cryin’ 2 is here!

Dari: Asura Cryin’ is back, and hopefully better then ever. This Episode takes place a short period of time after the end of season 1, the exact length of time is unknown, but it would appear to be about a week after the event. After watching a short talk about the world coming to the end we enter the new opening, with more ecchi shots, the clearest picture of Nao yet (or at least, judging by the later picture in this ep it’s Nao…), and another great song by Angela.

Dari: After that nice intro, we come across a running Tomo (and a flying Misao), and we have a review of what happened in the last episode of season 1. Tomo bursts into the nurses office, thinking that Kanade has collapsed due to using too much magical power, to find Kanade changing… thus causing another ecchi shot (will they ever end?)

Dari: While Kanade burns (literally) in embarrassment, Ania gets angry and sucks Tomo’s luck, causing him to slam into the cubbourd, get hit on the head by a falling bucket, get wrapped up in what appears to be bandages, and get that roll of bandages roll into Kanade’s fire, setting it alight… and the poor guy was just worried about Kanade (I hope this teaches all you kind people out there what happens when you care about a demon… jk)

Dari: Luckily for Tomo, he is saved by Kanade (who is only wearing her shirt), and there is a close moment between the two, before they are interrupted by the Presidents of the 1st and 3rd Student Councils, with the 1st Student Council President pointing a gun at Tomo’s head. We learn here the reason why the girls were in the nurses office, Ania had tripped and fallen, and Kanade had taken her to the nurses office… so pretty much Tomo was over-reacting when he thought Kanade had collapsed. Rei goes off lecturing Tomo about him being a Handler yet being so close to a Demon, claiming that he is practically already an Asura Cruin’, and that if anything were to happen the 1st Student Council would eliminate him. It is to this claim that Tooru reacts, pointing her sword towards Rei, telling him to stay out of the 3rd Student Council’s business (as the science club is under the 3rd student council’s jurisdiction)

Dari: Just because Tooru saved Tomo from Reishiro doesn’t mean she will let him and the rest of the science club off easy. They are to clean the swimming pool, and being the acting President, Shuri is made to join them. On the way to the pool, Ania encounters a walking Koala doll (yes, I agree, it’s random) which disappears when Ania turns away to talk to Tomo and co. The Cleaning of the pool is mainly done by Tomo and Kanade, as Misao is a ghost, and so can’t do anything, Ania gets off because she’s young (despite the fact the setting Tomo alight was her fault) and Shuri is too lazy (as usual). Kanade is clumsy, loses the hose, and Tomo and her have fun catching the hose. We also learn here that the Ignitor was lost, and that the tracking device Shuri placed on it stopped working.

Dari: While the two love birds in denial have their fun playing with water, Ania notices the koala again, and follows after, climbing over the pool fence to chase it (arn’t those fences meant to be child-proof?). While Shuri is too busy slacking off to notice this; Tomo, Kanade and Misao notice and follow her, alerting Shuri on the way. So when Tooru turns up with drinks, feeling that she might have been hard on them, she finds the pool deserted and barely cleaned at all. so she does the next step in the process, draining the pool.

Dari: By the time the rest of the gang catch up with Ania, she has already lost the koala, and they themselves are lost. It is at this point that it is relieved that there are some ruins (known as the Rakuroa Ruins) of the first world down in the caverns that they’re lost in, from which only one person has returned alive… Naotaka… or so says the koala, appearing behind them, before disappearing into the shadows. at which point Tomo and co. are faced with a giant wall of water… the contents of the pool that Tooru drained…

Dari: Somehow they all survive  the flood of water, but Shuri is separated from the rest of the group. The koala appears and leads the group, towards what they think is the exit. Meanwhile, Shuri wakes up, finding herself in a canal outside,

Dari: Tomo & Co. follow the koala through the caverns, with Ania in total awe of it, while it triggers traps for Tomo to fall into. It is in this section of the episode that I hear Misao say the smartest thing I think I’ve ever heard her say. Instead of being slow and not figuring what is going on, she claims that it’s probably another trap when the koala starts using a computer, while Ania, normally the smart one, remains in awe, thinking the koala can do no wrong.

Dari: The Koala end up leading them into the Rakuroa Ruins (and Tooru is somehow alerted to this), where the koala proceeds to annoy the guardians of the ruins by throwing rocks at them. Fleeing from the guardians, the group comes across a strange orb, which when touched by Misao, starts a flash back to the 1st world.

Dari: The Flashback starts with Tomo running, and apparently in the Track team, not having been conscripted into the science club by Shuri. we see An giving Tomo a towel to dry wipe away the sweat, and him that there is something she wants to tell him after the next training session (we all know it’s a confession of love!) Misao is alive, as there was no disaster concerning flight 901, and is friends with Kanade, and Higuchi teases him about his closeness to the 2 girls.

Dari: We switch over to a lab, where we see Nao and some others talking (though we don’t hear what they’re talking about) and then to a room over looking Nao & Co. where Tomo and Kanade, who are joined by Misao. it is at this point that alarms start ringing and control is lost on the black hole being used in the experiment. the black hole is seen to expand and a hole is ripped in the fabric of space-time, leaving the partially destroyed city we saw at the beginning of this episode.

Dari *Physics Alert*: ok, we saw the black hole grow and destroy part of the city, however theory says that a black hole of the size that would fit in the lab would fizzle and disappear, as was said in defense for the LHC which can be read here (btw, do you guys want me to point out physics denying acts in my future posts?)

Dari: We now have a discussion between Tomo and Ritsu, where we learn that the world has collided with another world, and that something has happened to Misao and that the world will end soon, but there is one way to stop it (how? we have to wait to see). The next scene is in a hospital, and Misao is disappearing, with the same sand like substance flowing from her hand as that came from Kanade’s ear in season one (is Misao a demon in the other world?). She asks Tomo as to whether he will love her to which he says yes and they kiss (about time…). next scene has Misao in the orb that we saw in the ruins, and Tomo saying he’ll do something with ritsu asking if that was his disision, just as we saw at the start of this episode… and we return to the 2nd world with Tomo saying that he will save Misao, and that he will save the world…

Dari: We return to the second world, with Tomo in great pain after taking in those memories, and while Tomo witnessed all that, it would appear that Misao didn’t. The rest of episode involves Shuri, Toory and Yuu coming and saving Tomo & Co. An interesting thing to point out is that Tomo hesitates on summoning Kurogane, with Misao telling him so summon it.

Dari: After they escape, Misao asks him why he didn’t summon Kurogane, to which he replies that he panicked. from this we are able to deduce that Misao is unaware of the price that Burial Dolls must pay.

Dari: It also turns out that while Misao didn’t see the 1st world, Kanade did, and claims that she believes that what they saw were echoes of the past.

Dari: Kanade and Tomo’s rather serious talk is interrupted by a not so serious Ania + Koala pair, with Ania asking if they could keep the koala (despite all that happened, she still loves that koala). No prizes for guessing Tomo’s answer, so Ania and the Koala put on a show about how the koala was scared and all, until Tooru grabs the Koala and asks him what he was doing there, making him reveal his identity to the others… the President of the Science Club… (please note that even Shuri, the acting president, was surprised by this)

Dari: We now enter the closing credits, containing another song by Angela, and some strange shots… such as the one that I’ve added the screen shot of…

Dari: Well, here we are, at the end of the 1st episode of season 2 of Asura Cryin’, I hope that this Season ends up being better then the previous one. My Prediction is that we’ll be seeing a fair bit of the 1st world in this season, and learn more of the truth behind events that have already happened.

Dari: and don’t forget to tell me if you want more physics comments in my next review.

Dari’s opinion of the 1st world and ruins:7/10

Dari’s anticipation for more 1st world flashbacks:8/10