Gakuen Alice 12
Head over to Memento for a more complete summary of this episode by Garten ;)
The transition to that darker tone that I and Garten have been talking about keeps on moving this time, with Natsume's pretty dangerous "work" finally revealed. At school, Mikan is all excited about the upcoming school festival, where each alice group makes their own attractions and such. Mikan gets inpiration for what the 特力系 should do after seeing something about an RPG on a magazine Natsume was reading, but her fellow members have no motivation to do anything because they aren't allowed to do anything for the festival thanks to Jinno-sensei :P But Tsubasa and the rest come up with a plan and finally do get approval. We also hear that a famous graduate of Gakuen Alice, Leo, will be making an appearance at the festival... Mikan and Natsume have a good bit of time just by themselves this time, and Natsume talks to her a bit more than he has before. It must be a requirement for shoujo heroines to try and get guys like Natsume to get a bit softer than they are ;) But after Mikan leaves Natsume to go back to the tokuryoku-kei he collapses and ends up in the school's hospital with Ruka and Hotaru there with him... We last see a guy talking on a phone that hears what's happened to Natsume..
I don't know what Ruka-pyon chasing after Hotaru had to do with anything, though, other than a bit of comic relief. The tone next time should be much more serious, though, and I'll leave it at that. We'll see how they handle it since until last time the tone was pretty bright and cheerful, glossing over the darker things..
After watching this episode, i finally came up with a wonderful prediction...well, i guess, that it would be Ruca and Hotaro. you see, it was just so cute to see Ruca chasing Hotaru by any means just to get back the photos of him wearing a skirt which i remembered was when Ruca help Mikan to escape from the academy to visit his grandpa because her letters were not mailed. it seemed like Hotaru might have liked Ruca and teases him through the photographs she had...Oh, I can't wait to see what would happen next to those two. But of course, i'm also excited about Mikan and Natsume...
"It must be a requirement for shoujo heroines to try and get guys like Natsume to get a bit softer than they are ;)"
No freaking kidding *rolls eyes*.
Syaoran Li from Card Captor Sakura, Akito Hayama from Kodosha, and Kyo Sohma from Fruits Basket, come to mind. They are the type of guys that befall that fate; and later end up falling in love and hooking up with the DENSE/GENKI shoujo heroine who made them look at life in a happier side and dampen their a*hole attitudes.
You know, this just makes Natsume and Mikan more canon.