Pretear ep.8-10

February 22, 2004 | 8 Comments

Well, I'm glad to know that this series has finally stop moving in circles, especially in regards to Himeno and Hayate's romance as well as the identity of Saihi. I felt that the second DVD volume wasn't going anywhere much, as far as the plot is concerned. Thankfully, this particular volume seems to throw many revelations to the viewers to make up for it. Although admittedly, one of the revelations is not that much of a surprise since the show already gave quite a lot of hints earlier in the series and because the DVD cover turns out to be such a spoiler.

What's good about this volume is that we find out why Hayate treats Himeno so shabbily in the first couple of episodes. Although I have the suspicion that a couple of people are going to roll their eyes at his reason. It turns out he was afraid that Himeno is going to be attracted to him just like Takako was if he's being too kind to her. Hayate was afraid that if he can't reciprocate the attraction, a similar tragedy may happen. Thankfully that's not going to happen since well, he seems to have fallen in love with Himeno as well.

Unfortunately, the fact that Hayate starts to like her can't cheer Himeno up. As we saw from the last episode, Himeno failed to become a Pretear and therefore had to resign to become a helpless damsel in distress where Hayate ends up protecting her. Thankfully before Saihi manages to kill the two of them, Sasame decides to step forward and take the brunt of Saihi's attack. Sasame is hurt but thankfully, he's not killed by the attack. Himeno then starts blaming herself for the incident and feels that maybe she's as useless as some people have suggested. Because of this, she ends up wandering aimlessly in the city and almost got hit by a truck if her step sister, Mawata, wasn't there to stop her.

Because of the incident, the two step siblings get the chance to know each other better. Mawata asks what Himeno thinks of her and Himeno truthfully tells her that she thinks Mawata is clever, beautiful, and able to do anything but Mawate never seems to smile at all. In reply, Mawata says that she always wonder if Himeno always smile. Himeno says that truthfully, there are times, when she can't smile at all. The two siblings end up in a beach and the two exchange thoughts on the idea that maybe it will be nice to live on alone without anyone else in this world. That way you won't be hurt by anyone and can't hurt anyone.

Much to Mawata's surprise, Himeno agress with her. She says that back then, she may have not agree with it but now, she seems to think that's not such a bad idea. Having said that, Himeno is happy to have had the chance to talk to Mawata. This brings up a light smile on Mawata's face. Himeno then tells Mawata that she'll get them some drinks and on her way, meets Hayate who's been frantically looking for her. Upon seeing him, Himeno breaks down and cries, telling Hayate that she's sorry for not being able to become a Pretear. Hayate, however, reassures her that even if she's not a Pretear, she's still Himeno, nobody can replace her. Uh, I don't think he's talking about being a Pretear anymore here.

Anyway, their romantic encounter is seen by Mawata who thinks that once again she's been abandoned by someone who she thought she had a connection with. However, before Himeno managed to chase her, the skies turn dark and Saihi arrives with presents for Himeno: the unconscious body of the rest of the Leafe Knights. She tells Himeno that all she needs is to drain just a little bit more Leafe to kill the Knights. Hayate tells Himeno to run while trying to deflect Saihi's attack. Unfortunately, that only results in him getting hurt as well. Himeno then asks Takako/Saihi as to why she's hurting Hayate if she used to love him. Saihi replies that it's not like Himeno is going to be any different from her. The Knights are going to use her as Pretear and then they're going to leave her and she'll become Saihi just like Takako did.

Himeno, however, claims that she'll never become Saihi and tells Hayate that she wants to protect everyone again. She wants the power to protect him as well. Somehow this becomes the catalyst that allows her to become a Pretear again and when she merges with Hayate, somehow, their union unleashes many Leafes which resucitate the other unconscious Knights. Puzzled by the latest development, Saihi decides to attack Himeno again who has now turned into Wind Pretear. Himeno, however, managed to injure Saihi and save the Knights from their death. However, when she comes home, we find out that Mawata has locked herself in the room, feeling depressed and alone. She, however, won't be alone for long because the episode ends with Mikage opening the door to Mawata's room while looking eerily happy.

Episode nine starts with the Awayuki family having breakfast together with Mayune and Himeno bickering as usual. However, their light family interaction soon turns into confusion as they see an insect being chased by a dark moving shadow. Himeno quickly realises that the dark shadow is actually one of Saihi's dark power manifestation which has now start to infiltrate her house. Upon seeing this, Himeno tells Hayate that she's going to leave her family because she doesn't want them to get hurt because of her fight with Saihi. Meanwhile, Himeno's father, stepmom, Mayune, Tanaka, and Himeno's weird classmate, Takato Yayoi think that the dark shadow is a ghost and have formed a search party to find it much to Himeno's chagrin.

Elsewhere, Mawata turns even more reclusive although eventually she begs Mikage to stay and talk to her. Unfortunately for Mawata, Mikage seems to encourage her to be alone and away from the rest of the family. Mikage also tells Mawata since no one understands Mawata, she'd be better off to hate all of them. Back to the search party, Himeno's father managed to find the cute pink bird which traveled with the rest of the Leave Knight to the human world. This discovery intriques everyone within the Awayuki residence. At the same time, the Leafe Knights find out that Sasame has regained his health and together they help Himeno to search for Saihi's dark forces within the Awayuki's residence.

In the middle of his search, Sasame bumps into Mikage and realises that she looks a lot like someone that he used to know. He tells Mikage that he wished that he could have helped that person back then. While the two have their conversation, the rest of the Leafe Knights and Himeno arrives. Upon looking at Mikage, however, the rest of the Leafe Knights start to attack her with light projectile, which is immediately deflected by a black magic that surrounds Mikage. Mikage sneers at the Leafe Knights and tells them it took them awfully long to find her and transforms into Saihi. However, before Himeno even managed to process this newfound information, she got more surprise when Sasame ends up helping Saihi to deflect Goh's projectile attack.

Well, what can I say but "I told you so" in regards to Mikage being Saihi. I thought she's too good to be true and now we know that she was simply being nice to Himeno because she was hoping to take her power. But now she has Mawata as her power source, she doesn't need Himeno any longer. What I didn't expect, however, was Sasame's new alliance with Saihi. I never knew that he had some kind of feelings for Takako back when Takako fell in love with Hayate. That explains why he always looks bitter when he sees Hayate and Himeno having one of their romantic moments with one another. It probably angered him to see Hayate rejecting Takako's affection while his feeling for Takako was not noticed by her.

Anyway, back to the story, or in this case episode ten, Sasame finally leaves the rest of the Leafe Knight because he wants to rectify what he couldn't back then, which was protecting Takako. Obviously this puts him in direct confrontation with the rest of the Leafe Knights and Himeno. Meanwhile, Himeno is really going to bid goodbye to her family so that she won't endanger them any further. She even allow herself to fall into a trap that Mayune has set up for her as one last memory to keep of her stepsister. She sadly realises the irony that she actually feels like she belongs to the Awayuki family after all now she's about to leave them. Himeno then moves to the Leafenia where the rest of the Leafe Knights have built a house for her. Yeah, this definitely sounds like that famous fairy tale all right.

Unfortunately for Himeno, her happiness at seeing the new house that the Leafe Knights has built for her is short-lived. Not long after the house is completed, Sasame arrives and destroys the house. Behind him, Saihi arrives and orders Sasame to have a duel with Hayate. However, just as Sasame is about to kill Hayate, Saihi stops him and tells him that it's not fun if they just kill him. Saihi plans on giving Hayate a heartache so that he will wish for death himself. The episode ends with Saihi giving a dark power to Sasame by draining the rest of the Leafenia devoid of life, leaving Himeno and the rest of the Leave Knights devastated at the loss of their friend as well as the Knights' homeland. All in all, this has been one exciting volume where lots of revelations have been set. I can't wait to see how the last volume will fare in comparison to this one.

© memento 2003