The last couple of episodes are more emotional because it’s becoming the halfway point of them being at school. Apollon has a real screwed up past, Balder starts trouble again, and the only amusing episode in between these drama filled episodes is episode ten, which is another favorite of mine.  Let’s get to it…starting with Apollon.

                      Episode 9: Apollon

After the events with Balder, the series begins to focus on the usually bright-eyed cheery god, Apollon. We find out he has a very disturbing past, and he actually starts getting possessive of  Yui, but not even close to Balder. Yui begins having dreams that have Apollon and a human woman named Cassandra in it. There is a mythological story of Apollo having a relationship with a woman named Cassandra during the Trojan War. Apollo sided with the Trojans, and fell in love with this woman. The anime actually has it pretty close. Apollo does give Cassandra the gift of prophecy, and because of the future she saw, she killed herself. So after seeing these dreams, Yui goes to class the next day, and Apollon falls asleep in class. Thoth slams his hands on Apollon’s desk, and wakes him up. Apollon than apologizes, explaining he hasn’t slept well.

Thoth kind of shrugs it off as if he doesn’t give a crap and then announces there will be a mid-term exam. Yui screams, standing up, and all the gods look at her. She explained to them that she didn’t expect an exam at the school. They all agree to have a study group, and as they gather around a room to start, Yui announces she is going to the store to get snacks. LOL this raises Hades curiosity and he asks about it, and Yui told him she’d bring back daifuku. Obviously Hades is pleased, but he tries to hide it. Apollon offers to help. As they come back, Apollon mutters about never allowed happiness, and Yui experiences visions of Apollon and Cassandra. When she reaches out to Cassandra, Apollon grabs her hand and brings her back to reality. Apollon clutches onto her, begging her to stay with him forever. She tries to break free, worried about Apollon, and Takeru comes dashing over, grabbing Apollon by the jacket and tells him basically that Yui doesn’t like it and get his hands off. While Loki and Balder are holding onto Yui. Balder explains they came to check on them since they had been gone a while.

The study group goes on with no problems, apart from the fact Dionysus took no notes in class since they started, and Tsukito wrote every little thing down… but he doesn’t understand any of it. Yui glances at Apollon and is worried; and Hades notices as well. That evening, Apollon walks off into the schoolyard, and Yui gets out of bed and sees him doing so. She runs off to follow him, and Apollon is following the spirit of Cassandra.  Yui stops him in the middle of a small lake or pond, and Hades and Dionysus come running up to help her.

They bring Apollon back to the Greeks’ dormitory,  and Dionysus and Hades tell Yui the whole story about Apollon and Cassandra. It clearly upsets Hades and Dionysus to see Apollon suffer like this. Apollon starts screaming in his sleep and Hades and Dionysus hold him down. There is a glass globe that Zeus had called down on the ceiling in the main entrance of the school, which filled up with water each time a god learned about different emotions and human beings, helping them understand better. Now with Apollon, with his unhappiness, it was turning the water black. Yui runs to Zeus to ask for help, and Zeus even explains what is happening to Apollon. He tells Yui if nothing is done, Apollon would basically be destroyed by his own unhappiness. Yui sets off to help him as quickly as she can.

As Yui runs out, the spirit of Cassandra finds her and talks to her, since Yui is human. Cassandra tells her she has tried to talk to Apollon all this time, and he can’t hear her words. Yui asks what can they do to help him and Cassandra asks Yui if she can borrow her strength enough to talk to Apollon. Yui accepts almost instantly, as she figures this would most likely be what Apollon needs to get over what happened.

Apollon had walked outside again, with Dionysus and Hades following him. It’s at the point where we can say Yui’s traits as a human definitely make an impact on all the gods, and they all change for the better. As the three Greeks are standing outside, they watch Yui approach them. Dionysus calls her name, but Hades corrects him, saying it was Cassandra. Yui (Cassandra) at this point approaches Apollon and comforts him, and tells him it wasn’t him that made her kill herself. That she couldn’t deal with the future that she had seen. Apollon slowly accepts it and cries, and Cassandra tells him she could finally tell him. She says farewell to them, and thanks Yui for her help.

Yui and Apollon sit here, and Hades tells how spirits can have grudges against the dead and the living, but not in the case of Cassandra. Apollon’s limiter, which was a ring, breaks off, that controlled his powers as a god. He is the first one of the gods “qualified” to graduate. As the others have to achieve something to break their limiters. The next day, Apollon is in class and he holds out his hand and tells everyone they can do it too. Suddenly they realize they have forgotten something, and they couldn’t remember what it was. Until Tsukito spoke up and said it was the exam. Cue in the screams and looks of horror.

                Episode 10: The Play

This was probably the most hilarious episode in the series. Yeah, there were funny bits in each episode but this was just silly. Of course, being one that laughs at the weirdest thing, this was so amusing to me. Thoth tells Yui and the gods that because they did relatively well on their exams, Zeus has rewarded them by creating a play. Dionysus and Apollon are particularly pleased with it, since they both like drama/ plays…but Apollon is more into it in this instance.

It just goes downhill right after this. They all gather around to choose a play, and Apollon shouts out “Cinderella. The others ask what the play is, and Hades assumes it’s a play about a girl and her ashes, from the term “cinder”. But then Yui says that’s wrong and tells them about the whole play. Apollon opens his mouth and says the prince gets to marry Cinderella at the end. Balder then decides to stand up and declare that he is just as good as Apollon to play the prince. Loki tells them to stop, and he says he’s perfect for the role because he’s pretty much a superstar.  Takeru laughs and insults them, saying why would Cinderella choose someone as weak as them, when she can have a strong, reliable prince like him? Loki gets pissed off, and then they all start fighting. Tsukito finally says he is interested in the role, and Takeru panics.

Hades quietly offers to be the prince in the background and when everyone’s voices basically drown out his voice, he face palms. You can’t help but feel bad for Hades. He isn’t a bad guy, despite being the ruler of the Underworld; and he wants to participate just as much as the others. The arguing gets to be too much, and so Yui calms them down, and suggests another play. Loki, Balder, and Apollon automatically refuse. When asked who will play the prince, Takeru, Loki, Balder and Apollon shout it’s them. Yui decides that they should draw lots, that way it’s fair. When Balder asks Yui if she’s Cinderella, she says no, she’s participating as well, and all the guys go into panic mode. Even Loki.

Yui ends up being Cinderella after all, and Apollon is the prince. It can be said this actually does happen in the Apollon route in the game. So this is another instance where it follows with the game. I haven’t gone through all of Apollon’s route to see if the play is exactly like in the anime, but I will find out soon. Poor Tsukito and Takeru are in dresses as the stepsisters, and Takeru lets his horrified expression be known to everyone. So much so, that Tsukito approaches him and tells him they need to fulfill the mission together.

So the play starts and Dionysus plays Cinderella’s father, and Hades is Apollon’s father. Thoth is the narrator, and Yui makes a comment that he actually wanted to do it. Which is unusual because he doesn’t want to teach them anything; he is forced by Zeus just as much as the others. Dionysus has just the one scene so when it’s finished he just leaves. He gathers wine bottles for after the show, and forgets the glasses. So what happens when he leaves the wine out? Anubis pops out of nowhere, and he takes a sip, and then enjoying the wine, he snatches all the bottles. Anubis isn’t seen a lot in the anime, as he doesn’t actually talk and he pretty much stays around Thoth. Meanwhile, Loki is angry because he is a servant. So he decides to stage a coup d’etat and just starts ruining the play.

First he gives Apollon a Jack-in-the-Box, and Apollon opens it, thinking Cinderella’s shoe is in it, but instead it’s a little Loki doll, and there’s a huge puff of pink smoke. Loki grabs Yui and stands on a chair with her, holding her tightly by his side. It just gets even more chaotic. Dionysus starts chasing after Anubis, who has a blanket over him, so no one can see him. Anubis knocks over Loki and Yui, Apollon rushes over to get her and in the process gets knocked out by Anubis. I could just go through what happened to all the gods, but I’ll let that be a guess to everyone. The bad news is that there was wine all over the floor and when Yui slipped on it, the glass shoe flew into the air, landed on floor and broke. Thoth saved the play instead of it being ruined, by saying the shoe was gone and everyone lived happily after.

The play is a huge success and even Zeus, disguised as a young boy, was watching the play. As they leave the school building, Takeru and Tsukito say they are tired, but enjoyed doing the play. Balder starts talking about food, and then the more emotional parts of the episode come through. Yui starts talking about even after school, people hang out with one another and do things. She is reminded by Apollon, by his quiet “Fairy”, that she won’t see them ever again. She is saddened, and even the gods look really sad, even Thor and Tsukito, the two most stoic characters in the series, look sad. 😦

 

Episode 11/12: Balder and Farewells

I decided to group the last two together since it’s basically a two parter. After episode ten ended, Balder faints and Loki runs to him, screaming his name. He is taken to the infirmary and that’s where he stays. Yui begins thinking back to what Loki told her before, while sitting at a table with the others. They are all concerned for Balder, and Yui sits there silently. She gets up suddenly and tells them she has to see him. Apollon decides to go with her. They find out Loki had planned to kill Balder with a mistletoe sword. I don’t think Thor really wanted to do it, but all along he kind of went with what Loki would say and do.

Thor doesn’t seem like he wants to take part of it.  Apollon dropped the apples he was taking to Balder when he and Yui hear Loki saying that he was going to kill Balder. There is more talk about Balder, but it’s about his birth and how his mother had nature promise not to do any harm to Balder. Thor says that the mistletoe was excluded because it was still young. They eventually get to see Balder and he seems to be fine. But then again, we never knew about his condition before, because he never looked like he had problems.

Yui walks around with Apollon, and is visibly upset. She breaks down in tears, and Apollon comforts her as much as he can. He tells her people have had faith in them for years, and he asks her to have faith in them. Apollon reassures her they will help with Loki and Thor, and save Balder. That’s when the others join them. Takeru reprimands Yui for treating them like strangers, and they all off help as much as they possibly can.

They start planning on what they could possibly do to help, when Thor runs to them and says Loki and Balder are gone. So they all split up and call out for Loki and Balder. Meanwhile Loki is leading Balder up to a cliff, and Balder loves the view. He trips and falls close to the edge and Loki quickly catches him. This makes me wonder if Loki really wanted to kill him. He wouldn’t save him from falling off a cliff if he did want to stab him with a small sword.

Thor ends up finding them, and Balder realizes what Loki is trying to do. Loki  breaks down, not wanting to kill him after all. Thor comforts him, and tells him he isn’t wrong.  Both of their limiters break. Balder decides to take it upon himself to kill himself by jumping off the cliff. Thor and Loki watch in horror and that ends episode eleven.

Episode twelve begins where it ended in eleven. We see Balder sinking into the water, but he doesn’t die. He becomes the god of destruction, much to the horror of both Thor and Loki. Balder releases all this energy, causing the tabletop garden Zeus created to go unstable. So it’s up to the boys to fix it. Thor changes to his god form as well as Loki. I think they don’t realize just how bad it is, because they seem to want to fight this thing on their own. Yui and Apollon notice the huge, blinding light in the sky and so Apollon changes into his god form, and he flies off with Pegasus, Yui riding along with him. Apollon drops Yui off, and he flies up to Thor and Loki to see what is happening and what they can do. Because basically, they can’t reach Balder; he’s protected by a barrier.

Loki tries to get in, but he gets a full blast of the light and he goes tumbling down to the sand. Another bolt of light aims directly at Loki as he’s lying face down on the ground. Tsukito and Takeru rush in and push Loki out of the way as the bolt shoots down. Takeru gets angry that Loki wants to give up and he yells at him, saying they want to save Balder too. It’s this moment that  their limiters break, and they are able to become gods again.

Meanwhile back at the school, it’s starting to collapse, and as soon as Balder started to destroy things, Zeus jumped right on it and tried to control the destruction Balder was causing. Hades and Dionysus save two students from parts of the ceiling that came falling down, Hades getting the brunt of it. Saving the two students caused the limiters to break off of both gods, and they rushed off to help the others.

After the barrier had been broken just a teeny bit by the gods, Apollon took Yui up to where Balder and Loki was. Her sword necklace came in handy after all- that was her limiter from the beginning. And it was the sword that brought her to the world in the first place. I really like the colors of Apollon’s toga…maybe it’s because it’s the color of Greece’s flag.

They were able to save Balder in the end; Loki used Yui’s sword to stab him, but Balder remained alive after the destructive side disappeared. The garden was too badly damaged for them to finish school together, so Apollon has everyone help send Yui home. It’s so sad because in the beginning she didn’t want to be there, and now, experiencing everything with all of them, she was extremely upset. I always cry at the end; that’s because I’m just a big sap who always sobs at sad endings. LOL.

The gods all say goodbye to her, and all are happy that they got to meet her. The last thing you hear is Apollon telling her he loves her, and Yui screams for him. She is brought back to the time she was walking home from school with her friends. Yui finds her eyes are watering. This happened at the beginning of the series, but she thought she had dirt in her eyes. She runs home to look for the sword, desperate to see them again. Unfortunately she doesn’t see it, and she collapses to the floor crying. End credits, but instead of the gods being shown in the end sequence, it shows Yui crying, not enjoying hanging out with her friends.

At the very end, this made me cheer and I thought it was a nice way to end the series. Although I want to see another season come out. But it’s been three years since it came out, so yeah, it’s not happening. But I digress. Yui is walking home and it’s all quiet. Suddenly the wind blows and she looks all around her. Then the voices appear. She hears people calling her name and she rushes up the stairs to her home to be greeted by the gods themselves. Apollon grins, and asks Yui to teach them again. So it can be assumed they stay with her.