Lelouch escapes a dilemma thanks to Rolo, but the world is changing and he has only one path he can take. Official broadcast in Japan is on August 24, 2008. Until then, come back often and browse through the other stuff that I’ve already posted.

At Ranka’s concert in Mihoshi Academy Ranka, Alto and Sheryl meet. While their thoughts and feelings cross each other during the event, the Vajra attack and Ranka’s group becomes caught in a very dangerous and deadly situation. Official broadcast in Japan is on August 21, 2008. Until then, come back often and browse through the other stuff that I’ve already posted.

Despite the FLEIJA detonation in Tokyo that has caused over 10 million deaths and 25 million total casualties, the Emperor of Britannia decides to leave things entirely to Schneizel. On the other side of the conflict, Diethard tries to stop Cornelia from escaping the Ikaruga, but before he can recapture her, a special Britannian diplomatic envoy arrives carrying Schneizel himself. Lelouch is at this moment desperately trying to get his men to find Nunnally, but Toudou ignores him and orders a retreat instead. Rolo eventually brings Lelouch back to his room on the Ikaruga and tries to comfort Lelouch by saying that Lelouch still has him. Although initially calm, Lelouch becomes enraged when he sees the heart-shaped locket on Rolo’s cell phone, and he questions why Rolo has it since he had originally intended to give it to Nunnally. He accuses Rolo of trying to be an replacement for her and goes on to admit that he both despises Rolo and has tried to kill him many times. Lelouch then kicks Rolo out, telling him not to show himself again. Meanwhile, over on the Avalon, Nina is finally realizing that she didn’t understand what kind of damage her weapon would cause. This prompts Lloyd to tell her that she has to decide whether to abandon science to protect her heart or to break her heart and sacrifice herself for science. When Nina wonders what choice Lloyd made, he claims that he was broken from the very beginning.

In a dream world, Ranka is crying because her mother isn’t around, and she stops only when a voice proposes a good method and shows her a compound eye. At Ranka’s bedside is Ai-kun, but—after a reaction occurs in its belly—the creature scampers out of her room, pauses outside to listen to Brera play Aimo on his harmonica, and then disappears. The following day is full of celebration for Ranka’s involvement in the successful long-distance Fold, but Ranka herself is absent from the festivities because she and Brera are out searching for Ai-kun. When they stop for some ice cream, Ranka thanks Brera for helping, and he reiterates that he’s going to protect her. Also out on the town at this time are Mikhail with Kuran, and Ozma with Cathy. The latter pair are on what appears to be a date together, but they’re acting the part because they’re aware that they’re being followed. While all this is going on, Alto meanwhile tries to sneak into the Saotome home, however he finds that Yasaburo is waiting for him. Seeing Sheryl there wearing a kimono reminds Alto of his mother, but he’s brought back to his senses after she questions what he’s doing there.

With the Gefjun Disturbers disabling all fifth-generation and older Nightmares, Lelouch orders the Black Knights to finish off the rest of the defenses before Schneizel’s main unit arrives. Schneizel is already directing the Britannian forces, and he wants the Lancelot to first take out the Gefjun Disturbers. The question, however, is if Suzaku will pilot it. At that moment, Lloyd and Cecile are trying to convince Nina that she can’t pilot the Lancelot, and the issue is finally settled when Suzaku appears in his flight suit and questions if Nina has the resolve to not shoot the FLEIJA. After Suzaku launches, he quickly joins the battle and tries to convince Zero to end hostilities because the Lancelot is now equipped with a heavy tactical-class warhead. Lelouch doesn’t believe him though and orders Jeremiah in the Sutherland Sieg to attack. Suzaku is surprised to see Jeremiah there, and back on the Ikaruga, Rakshata is curious as well about why both Jeremiah and Guilford are on their side. Nina urges Suzaku to fire the FLEIJA after Guilford joins the battle against him, but Suzaku is determined not to use the weapon, and he gets some relief when Gino arrives piloting the Tristan.

In confronting Grace, Sheryl demands to know why she became Ranka’s manager and why Ranka’s song works against the Vajra. Seeing Sheryl question why it’s Ranka and not her, Grace finally comments on how Sheryl is a manufactured idol. Sheryl denies this and insists that she made it this far on her own, but Grace counters by pointing out that Sheryl would still be covered in garbage in a Galaxy slum if Grace hadn’t found her back then. Regardless, she feels that Sheryl Nome is going to die. Sheryl tries not to let that faze her and declares that she won’t lose even if Grace isn’t around. In response, Grace laughs and reminds Sheryl that she had been taken to the hospital soon after she had been found. Grace reveals that Sheryl hadn’t been cured though—the illness merely hasn’t developed in her yet. In short, when Grace was talking about Sheryl Nome dying, she meant both as a singer and literally. She finally suggests that if Sheryl thinks that she’s lying, then Sheryl should go see for herself. Meanwhile, the bridge crew of the Macross Quarter are discussing how the Macross Frontier Senate has passed a super-long-distance Fold bill. Mina thinks that they succeeded in accumulating enough surplus energy for it, but Ram and Cathy doubt this. Cathy explains that the supply of energy to all islands has been dropped instead, meaning that all commercial activity has been suspended and even a part of the transportation system has been stopped. Mina is depressed about this, but Bobby sees it as an opportunity to go to some clearance sales before the Fold.

As the Black Knights begin their attack on the Kagoshima coastline, they are met by the Britannian forces under the command of the Knight of One. Bismarck knows that they only have to protect Area 11 while the other Britannian royalty and Knight of Rounds use the chance to attack the rest of the United Federation of Nations, but the Black Knight strategy is to liberate Japan so that other Britannian Areas will rise up on their own. As the battle progresses, Luciano has no problem shredding his opponents, and with the Black Knight offensive weakening, Bismarck notes that this is too easy for an attack by Zero. Lelouch, however, is not leading the attack. Instead, he’s gone to the Kururugi shrine that he and Nunnally originally arrived at eight years ago. It was here that he met Suzaku, and Suzaku became his first friend. That friend is waiting for him at the top of the steps, but Suzaku treats Lelouch with contempt when Lelouch explains that he came alone—in accordance with their promise—because Suzaku doesn’t believe in the promises that Lelouch makes. In response to this, Lelouch points out that Suzaku came alone as well, so Suzaku reveals that he doesn’t want to lie anymore. He feels horrible about lying to Nunnally, but more importantly, he questions his friendship with Lelouch after how Lelouch has betrayed him and everyone else, including Euphemia.

As he loads his gun and stares at the promotional flier for Ranka’s concert, Ozma recalls the day he had first brought her to their current home. Since she was still traumatized, he had tried making her a pineapple cake, and although she didn’t think it was delicious, she had finally started talking and showing her feelings to him. Back in the present, Mikhail is still worried about Sheryl and asks Kuran to introduce him to someone she knows who is studying pharmaceutical sciences. Kuran starts to get mad at him, but something else suddenly catches Mikhail’s attention: across the street, Luca is getting into a limousine guarded by men in dark suits. At around the same time, Ozma and Cathy are discussing how someone with an implant is involved in all this, and they suspect something is up with the Galaxy and Leon. Ozma is especially concerned about why Ranka needs to be used when they can already fight the Vajra with their current reactive warheads, and he thinks that the keys are in the Vajra and the 117th Research Fleet. As he walks out of the room, he asks Cathy if she still remembers how to make pineapple cake and comments on how he misses it. This leaves Cathy thinking about how she and Ozma once almost had a passionate night together, but it had been cut short by an urgent phone call.

The HTC Touch was the first real competition the iPhone faced, even if it didn’t necessarily set out to be. HTC was surely trying to capitalize on the popularity of Apple’s all-touch device, but Windows Mobile is a more open though much clunkier UI than OS X, and ultimately the devices were really in a different class. Sure, TouchFLO gave a finger-friendly skin to the Touch, but in reality the iPhone was built from the ground-up as a consumer friendly, media-oriented device whereas the Touch was a Windows Mobile business device that happened to lose the keyboard and get some fancy software. Don’t get us wrong, we loved the Touch, but it just wasn’t iPhone material. Now comes the second generation, dubbed the Touch Diamond, and it’s obvious that HTC is ready to take on the iPhone properly this time around. Gone is the gimmicky TouchFLO, replaced by a completely overhauled and practical TouchFLO 3D. Web surfing is handled beautifully by Opera Mobile 9.5 instead of Mobile IE; 7.2Mbit/s HSDPA and Wi-Fi makes the experience that much better. Users can browse photo albums and listen to their music directly from the homescreen. Little things, such as resting the phone on its face to trigger silent mode or the phone waking up when the stylus is removed, reaffirm HTC CFO Cheng Hui-min’s description as “the most important product for HTC this year.”

In the aftermath of the incident at the Sword of Akasha, the Emperor goes missing. Nunnally and her officials are privy to this information, but they worry about what would happen if word of it got out. Miss Romeyer makes it a point to put responsibility for dealing with this on Nunnally since she’s the Governor-General, but Gino sees what she’s doing and calls her out on it. Thinking to himself, Suzaku notes that the absence of the Emperor means that Nunnally’s life isn’t in danger. He then visits Kallen to apologize to her, but she’s really pissed off and beats him up. Once she’s done hitting him, she claims that she’s ready for him to kill her now, and when Suzaku refuses because he’s the one who was wrong, she says that she hates him. Lelouch meanwhile deduces that—based on Britannia’s movements—the Emperor is absent, and though he worries about what the Emperor had said, he’s happy that Nunnally is safe. For the time being, he has to deal with C.C. who thinks she’s a slave girl and Cornelia who questions what he wants by using his Geass power. Lelouch’s answer to Cornelia is simply that he wants to save his little sister. Elsewhere on the Ikaruga, Asahina asks one of the soldiers about the previous operation, but Rolo butts in to say that it’s a secret. Rolo goes on to assert that individual value in the Black Knights is based on how much a person has gained Zero’s trust, and hearing that doesn’t make Asahina very happy.