So with this the much anticipated 2nd season of Ao no Exorcist ends! *whispers* Wait no…. *whispers* there was a climax but we have another episode of dialogue between Yukio and Rin? JOY.

In all honest the battle conclusion with Rin and the Impure King was fantastic. Sadly the actual meat of the series is just in those few episodes dealing with the battle. But we also see that now Rin can control his blue flames which is AWESOME! I was worried for a bit that it was never going to come this season, but it turns out that we did get to see it! And boy did we! It was so awesome to see Rin come through with the clutch and send the impure king away along with the help of the Hindi(?) deity! (Pretty sure it was Hindi, if not, please let me know below!)

In all honesty though this season has been a let down. After waiting almost six years for more Ao no Exorcist, the studio and production committee took a great arc from the series and made it into a boring fluff sandwich of random and drawn-out dialogue along with not much else. We got a cool fight scene along with some backstory on Rin and Yukio’s father, as well as a few other minor events, but that really is about it. The committee and the studio need to really think about how this has affected the brand. Sure certain fans will blindly suck it up, hey I did too at first, but at the same time, season 1 was SO GOOD. Season 2 however, was SO MEH. Let’s see what the finale brings about.

Demi-chan wa Kataritai has been nothing but a joy to watch this season. It’s one of those relaxing series where you learn a little more about the characters episode by episode, until you feel like you really know them. But no episode has been as heartwarming as this week’s.

In episode ten, Takahashi-sensei is approached by the school’s Vice Principal, who criticises him, suggesting that he is “trying too hard” with the demi-human students. This sends Sensei into a spiral of self-doubt about his actions thus far with the demis around him. We as viewers too find ourselves asking the same question - is he doing too much? Or are his actions necessary in order to improve relations between the humans and demi-humans at school?

That’s when forever-bubbly vampire Hikari (and my Best Girl) comes up with the idea of putting together a video from the demis to their beloved teacher. This really had me welling up (although that’s not exactly difficult to achieve), especially when you see how moved Takahashi-sensei is. Then it gets even cuter when Hikari turns up in person to cheer him up. I don’t want this series to end!

Hand Shakers has been...a huge disappointment this season. I can’t say that I cared for much of what was going on. I thought it’d be a battle royale type of anime like Mirai Nikki, but aside from having the weird CG animation in all the odd places (boobs. Just boobs), it failed to live up to the excitement that was Mirai Nikki. Although, it seems that everyone had their own drama. Anyway, I think Handshakers is FINALLY getting interesting for once with the appearance of the girl in the kimono and the mysterious man that knows Makihara, Mr. Shumai lover.

The strange thing about this moment is that all the attention is really focused on the colors and design of the girl’s kimono before the camera fleetingly goes to her face and then I get a brief notion that she must know Koyori due to Koyori’s reaction. However, I guess this mystery man was about to reveal all that he knew about Makihara. We even get to see a brief image of the two of them fighting with Koyori and her look a like. Just what is going on? I think it’s time Hand Shakers actually got interesting, and it’s obvious that they had to do it in the last 2 episodes, like most anime. Whether or not it’ll be interesting is up for debate considering the last few episodes as well as this one. Well, I can only hope that there’s more to Hand Shakers than pretty animation and a decent soundtrack.

We’re one episode away from Seiren’s finale, and now we have the couple I like the most. If you ask me, Hikari Tsuneki is a dream come true, but Kyouko Touno is the girl you would want to end up with. If you are lost and have no idea what I’m talking about, this anime features different love stories about the same cast, always with Shouichi Kamita as the main male character; in this final mini-arc, we see him and his best friend Kyouko —they know each other since they were little kids— struggling with love… or as the title says, playing with fire in the friendzone. Do they like each other? Yes. Do they know this? Well, kind of. And this is what makes this couple one of the ones we want to see together.

These two treat each other as siblings, which is fairly common amongst best friends. The thing is that Kyouko is very shy about her feelings, and Shou-chan doesn’t want to ruin this friendship. This 11th episode is both emotional and funny, especially when Kyouko gives Shouichi handmade underpants as a gift, and not happy with that takes him to the panties store as his brother-advisor. So kinky! In the end, they figure out each other’s advances and maaaybe we can get to see them together, sharing a nice Christmas kiss in the final episode… or will there be a twist? One thing is for sure: we HAVE to see this last chapter.