Yakushiji Ryoko No Kaiki Jikenbo - Episode 10

After a fair few spotty episodes, the ninth instalment of Yakushiji Ryoko No Kaiki Jikenbo finally seemed to put us on solid ground, giving us a decent story with both political intrigue and a rather bizarre cliffhanger, as Ryoko ended up face to face with her sleeping beauty of a younger look-a-like.


With everything seemingly in place for a rip-roaring continuation of this story, episode ten was actually a rather muted affair - While the beginning and climax of the episode was indeed a decent continuation of what had gone before, the middle section was largely a rather empty and pointless wasteland of watching the young spitting image of Ryoko (who was rescued at the start of the episode) cooking and dressing as a maid. I'm sure this was all probably intended to endear us to the character (named Monami by Izumida, he of the atrocious knowledge of French), but it just felt unnecessary, and I can't say it changed my feelings towards the reasonably strong ending to the episode (complete with inevitable giant lizard!) one iota.

Still, despite that weak middle chunk of the episode, we were at least left with some more interesting possibilities as this major story arc continues in the next instalment, while Ryoko still isn't giving anything away about either the origins or importance of 'Monami'. Colour me intrigued...