Oh, dear – things really hit the fan in episode 10. After the wistful melancholy of episode 10, Asobi ni Ikuyo takes a Seikimatsu-like turn and gives us a non-stop action episode. Things were quite as insanely paced as the latest offering in that series, but still frenetic by this series’ recent standard.

There was a bit of a clever misdirection here, making us think we were getting a Christmas ep (complete with romantic development) and that the Dogisians were typically ineffectual in their attacks. But they showed their canines at last – a clever attack which got their assistroids inside the Catians ship, and a simultaneous attack on the “embassy” using their assistroids disguised as the Catians’. In the end, the Catian ship was taken using some bizarre time-freeze tech that was thought to be beyond the Dogisians talents, and their Captain – visiting Kio’s house for Christmas dinner – was disabled during the attack by an injection of nanobots. But the doggies don’t know what they’re in for – Kio has an armor suit now, and he’s hoppin’ mad…

’tis the season – for cramming plot development into episodes to try and stage grand finales. We’re down to the last 2-3 weeks of the summer cour and series everywhere are picking up the pace, trying to shoehorn every bit of their plot onto the screen they can. There’s obviously lots of heavy lifting still to do here – the Catian ship is headed towards Earth as a kind of giant Silver Streak. Manami is still denying her feelings for Kio, playing matchmaker for Aoi, while Eris appears to have her libido on hold as she waits for her next mating season. But I have no doubt they’ll find a way to wrap things up, more or less – though I don’t expect serious resolution on the harem front. This is the sort of series I could easily see getting a second season sometime in 2011, anyway.

Next week: the return of Uncle Magnum P.I.!