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Not sure. I liked the panty stealing monsters episode a lot. lol

Episode 25 probably wins though. gonk heart It's so painfully awesome and sweet.

My favorite episode... well my favorite scene ever is in ep22. That's for sure.
The slap exchange was something
domokun
Kidding. It is my favorite scene but not because Haruka and Shizuru slap each other ^^;;
I like it because of how it builds. There are three characters talking and they all know a certain amount of facts that leads to make them believe that they are the strongest-have the upper hand- at the moment:
- Haruka doesn't know about the existence of HiMEs. Here, she believes she's right and since Shizuru is abandoning her post as president, she is now "above" her technicaly. See were's talking about Haruka here... titles are very important to her ^^;
- Yukino doesn's know Shizuru is a HiME. She believes she's the only one with powers and since she has been peeping on Shizuru, she believes she knows all her secrets. She's confident she has the advantage.
- Shizuru knows exactly whats is going on and though she doesn't say anything yet, she knows that if it comes down to it, to make them leave, she'll fight Yukino and win.
Having those 3 thinking they have the upper hand, Haruka and Yukino are respectively screaming at and blackmailing Shizuru and she's just being a wall to them. She's not trying to stay calm, she simply doesn't care at all. Not even when Haruka slaps her and insults her. Until she insults Natsuki. That she care about. Really ironic that Haruka was just screaming about how selfish she was and all she thinks about is herself. And with the slow music in background... it's so dark, you know something is gonna happen.
And then it happens.
Shizuru looks over at Yukino and goes: "If it's for my dearest one, I will do anything. Do you think like that?" and Yukino in on her guard, really not sure what Shizuru is asking. Surely it reminds her of the fate of the HiMEs, but she doesn't know that Shizuru is a HiME. She looks so defiant, thinking she has the upper hand, but still she looks worried, trying to find the meaning of why Shizuru would be asking her that, trying to stay a step ahead of her. Yukino is very bright, so I can't believe she had no idea what Shizuru was saying. Though from her reaction later, she apparently never thought Shizuru would be a HiME. My guess is that here, Yukino is thinking that Natsuki told Shizuru about the carnival and that Shizuru is trying to keep Yukino away from Natsuki.
The song Kokuyou no Kimi ~Amai Yuuwaku (7th on the 2nd soundtrack) is playing in background.
I don't know if you noticed, but at some point, we hear a church bell rigning in the song. And it's placed just as Shizuru says "If it's for my dearest one, I will do anything." So not only is she stating Yukino's thoughts, making sure to know that she's ready to do anything for Haruka, but she's also speaking for herself. And I believe that it's at that point that she makes her mind to kill Yukino's child. The tolling of the bell represents the grave decision she takes. She's determined to not back down, to protect Natsuki at all costs. To prove that when she says she will do anything, she really means it.
The violins aren't playing at that point either, everything is so calm. Too calm even. It kinda matches with both the pause-hesitation Yukino has and Shizuru's too calm behaviour.
There's a silence in which Shizuru waits for Yukino's answer. From the look she gives her, Shizuru guesses it's a yes; Yukino will fight for Haruka's sake if she has to.
To Shizuru, it's the confirmation that she will be fighting Yukino. The shadow above her eyes as the camera switches back to her only is another sign of the dreadful decision she just took and increase the impact of the bell earlier, that also played as some kind of foreshadow of a death to come. The music starts to picks up again. Drums, like a heartbeat. The moment of tention before declaring war. "Yes, my thoughts exactly." She extends her hand and calls her element.
The music starts strongly again when it apears.
Switch to Yukino's reaction: she's absolutely horrified. She had no idea she was blackmailing another HiME. She had no idea that she was taunting her to a point where she would engage in a fight. Yukino knows her limits and knows she's not of the strongest HiMEs. She starts realising the huge mistake she just did. What a miscalculation.
Natsuki looks on with wide eyes, you know she's gonna interfere.
then we see the whole scene. Everyone is silent.
cut.

It was such a powerful scene. Never in the whole series did the music fit that well. I rewatched it at least 20 times when it was still in raw and I understood what was happening through the tone of their voices, the music and their expressions. It's really one of the bests.

But episode 22 isn't my favorite lol.

If I had to go with a whole ep, being a real sucker for the Shizuru's character (and everything she does that's related to Natsuki)... well it would have to be... hard choice between 25 and 23 but I think it's ep 23. Because when Shizuru broke down, the voice actress made a wonderful job. This episode is a complete 180 on Shizuru's character. Up until then, she had been portrayed as a very cool, laid back, calm, untouchable character. Smiling, admiried, idolised, responsible, too perfect. She's the character that was the most composed and collected, just look at ep21, when she calls her element for the first time, there is such an air of coolness to her... she seem to have planed this from the start. She knows she's gonna win, she's so confident.. A character like her in an anime show, usually stays the cool one, the flawless one, the one everyone looks up to. And yet, in ep23, Shizuru completely loses it. It was so unlikely for her character to collapse like that... and that hard too. I mean, I expected Shiho to go crazy but who saw Shizuru's fall coming? Then you realise you knew nothing of the character. That they really never showed us anything else but the mask she was putting on as the president and the masks she wears for Natsuki not to find out her true feelings. How unstable she really is behind all that. How even if she looked indestructable, she was so easy to break. How low she really could fall...
Compare her to Mai. Mai lost much, much more. But Mai is the good gal, so no matter how low she may think of herself (when she talks to Tate on the bridge and goes "That's who I am, I've been fighting and stealing other people's loved ones."), she still stays strong. And stands back up on her own.
Once Shizuru broke down, she didn't care about standing back up again. She put all her pain aside and decided to go on with her plan: eliminate anything that could hinder Natsuki. Mai went through all those emotions, changing her mind about a lot of things a lot of times. Shizuru just stayed in that clouded state of mind where she didn't cared about a thing. It took all Natsuki had to wake her up, put an end to her madness. And I personally don't think anyone else than Natsuki could have stopped her. By that I mean that if Mai had decided to face her and fight her, she would have lost. Kiyohime is the biggest child out there. Meaning that Shizuru's the most powerful HiME. I think the only reason that Natsuki deemed it better to let Mai face Kokuyou no Kimi was because even if Shizuru was the most powerful, she also was the most unstable.
And they really show us that of Shizuru at that moment, in ep23.
That and Haruka being one my favourite characters, her moment of glory I found awesome. She was one of the only characters that through their pain as they died didn't just go "Ack I'm dying it's sad, it's the end."
It showed how strong she really was. And it showed another side to her too, that she really beleives in the values she's always conveying..

lol.

I love that ep because it shows us we have been decieved all along: Shizuru appeared so reliable and Haruka was only comic relief until here. Shizuru really is so weak and Haruka very strong.

Akane's loverboy died in like.... episode 9 or something. 16 is where they were informed they had to fight each other T__T; but yeah, I agree. Those episodes were the best.

I think the unfortunate thing about the second season is they wouldn't be able to pull that sort of dark turn of events so well; they did too good a job with the first season. Well, that's my thoughts, but I guess we'll have to keep watching being ever-so hopeful.

My favorite episode? What a difficult thought. I know episode 8 is really high up there. At that point I was starting to become somewhat doubtful of the series because 4-7 weren't nearly so breathtaking as the first three, and 8 wasn't shaping up so well. It was looking like just another magical girl anime. Well, after episode 8 I had been whipped back into place. 3nodding

But there are still so many good episodes. Being unable to choose any specific episode from the second half, I guess I'll go with episode 8 for now. That's the one y'all are talking about with Akane and Kazu-kun. wink

I liked episode 15 a lot. It was so touching.

I had to watch the series to the end as non-stop from episode 20 because it was such an addicting episode... x3 So 20 is great too. And I like the cooking episode also. And every episode with Akira&Takumi! heart heart

But if I have to say one favourite, it would be episode 15.

OMG! So I watched the series again (almost totally through) And I REALLY can't pick a favorite episode anymore.
They all sort of blur into awesome after 15.
I THINK, though, that I might like 20 (the one where Takumi dies, I think... I might be wrong.)

It really, really showed a lot of character and strength in the girls. It gave us a bit more of a view as to how the loose bonds they'd formed had gotten so strong over time, maybe without them even realizing it.
(Midori running after Takumi and calling Kuga, who then left her little info meeting without a second thought to find Mai.)
I found myself being very impressed by a few of them at that point. Not even just the HiMEs, but the other characters as well.

I was actually impressed with them in episode 7, too. That's where all of those little camaraderies sort of started to form between them unconsciously.

... again, omg this series is all just so good. <3

xd That was by far one of the funniest episodes of the series.

I still think the little orphan was cute before it turned into a huge tentacle beast.