This is my face while watching this episode.
After they learned that Manami is a con artist, the boys are grieving about it. As for Haruto and Rinko, they continue to find Manami who is planning to run away from the Phantom.
The episode bored me for reasons that I find the episode a bit preachy about Manami's past and how she ended up becoming a con artist. I have no problems about them telling how she became a con artist but repeating the same lesson we learned from the previous story arc about moving on to the past and start living to the present? Wow, the writing team is bit lazy about thinking what morals to incorporate in a certain story arc!
About Manami's past, it properly connects on what was foreshadowed in the previous episode except that we have a proper explanation about what happened to the past that caused her to become a con artist. To put it simply, her father was con by a con artist that caused them to lose their house and she decided to become a con artist just for her to earn enough money to buy the same house that her family lost from a con artist. Wow, the writing for this episode went from lazy to full retarded. I am not sure what was running on the writer's mind when s/he wrote the episode but turning Manami into a con artist just because she lost her house from a con artist was a bit silly and dumb to be honest.
Even though the plot for this episode is a bit ridiculous, they were able to make up for it with the fights. The fights are really creative especially when Gnome fought Wizard in those large cement tubes. Also, the way how Wizard used his Rings in this episode was also really great especially how he used his various array of rings from putting out fires and how he used his fighting skills for him to force Gnome to wear the Smell Ring that can greatly affect his sense of smell, one of his strong points as a Phantom that helped him track down Manami's location in a jiffy. In addition, Wizard continues to pull more wresting moves in this episode and I really like it.
The biggest surprise in this episode is the finisher, I mean; he can pull off some combo ring magic?! It's a bit surprising since for most of the time, he used single ring to do his moves but seeing him used the Kick Strike Ring and the Drill Ring, I wonder if we can see some interesting Wizard Ring move combos in later episodes... or this is just a one-shot deal since the enemy is best in hiding underground and they need a finisher that can defeat an enemy that is hiding underground.
The episode ends with the guy that he coned earlier deciding to help Manami buy her house just as long as she pays him properly without coning someone. As for Phoenix, after learning that the Gnome is defeated, he is pissed off and seriously wants to fight Wizard right now. Before ending this review, here are some things that I need to note about. First is that Rinko's detective skills are seriously useful in this episode since after her debut, we only see her guard the current Gate and that's about it. Second is that they hinted bits about Haruto's past, which might be brought up in later episodes.
