Otogi Juushi Akazukin 8
Souta, Ringo, Akazukin, Shirayuki, Ibara, and Val-sama slide on the Otogi Road (read: a ridiculously long slide) into Fandavale. However, the road starts disappearing and soon they fall off, but thankfully Shirayuki provides for a somewhat soft landing with some snow. Meanwhile, at the castle, Hamelin sits in a cell... while fighting monsters with his magical horn, he found out that his friend, the captain of the Clover Knights, betrayed him. As it always is when making a deal with evil, that friend met his demise once he was no longer needed. When the castle came under siege, the king of Fandavale ordered Hamelin to stay behind and give a message to the Key of Erde... so he's waiting in his cell for the key to come...
Akazukin, Ibara, and Shirayuki go to investigate the castle, leaving Souta and Ringo behind. Souta goes right for the flowers (^^;;) He finds a backpack filled with... oden cans? And an otonagai (大人買い - buying a large amount of something. Otona because adults have the money to do that. Often used among otaku) worth of them, too... must be Randagio. Sure enough, Randagio comes along looking for his backpack. Souta and Ringo hide inside the backback and get carried away by Randagio.. who should realize that his backpack is too heavy (^^;;)
Inside the castle, Akazukin, Ibara, and Shirayuki hear singing. Whoever it is that's singing seems to have Hamelin.. Akazukin suggests charging in and attacking right from the front -- are you Nanoha? ;) The three that were singing are Arekutooru@Tomokazu Sugita (chicken), Kaane@Chiwa Saitou (dog), and Eseru (donkey). After the usual jusi~! thing, the three attack with sound, but Shirayuki easily blocks it with a barrier. Randagio soon comes along -- seems he's a part of the group as well. They do a little introduction, calling themselves the Bremen attack squad. Shirayuki stops them before they can finish -- too long, it sucks, don't copy us... (^^;;) Arekutooru steps on Randagio's tail, making him send out a shriek that somehow has more of an effect on Akazukin and the others than the previous attack had. Randagio wants Hamelin to tell them where the key, Souta, is.. Souta and Ringo pop out of his backpack and go over to Akazukin (^^;;) Randagio tries playing Hamelin's horn, but no sound comes out. Hamelin takes a flower petal off Souta's shirt and uses it to play a magical melody that puts Randagio and the others to sleep...
Hameline gives Souta the king's message -- I believe in you. That's all, but it's quite something to be trusted by the king like that. Shirayuki's rather impressed and gets a bit snuggly with Souta. Ringo doesn't care for it ;) They leave the castle to set out, but Hamelin's not going to join them. He prefers to go on his own.. and so their journey begins.
Meanwhile, the Bremen squad runs away, living to see another day ;)
Animation still isn't very stable, but this episode was pretty fun so it didn't bother me quite as much. The Bremen guys are too funny -- their singing made me think of the Lobelia girls from Ouran (^^;;) And what are Tomokazu Sugita and Chiwa Saitou doing there? Really nice seiyuu to use for such minor parts. They managed to get away so perhaps we'll see them again sometime, the sooner the better.
Next time, Akazukin and the gang meet a boy named Hans. And I don't know exactly what's going to happen since the dialogue didn't give much of a preview. Hamelin joined Akazukin for the jusiii~! this time (^^;;)
Yay, new Grimm-characters appear! Hamelin, lol