All right campers, here's the review for the next five scintillating episodes of Betterman! It's getting pretty crazy, so just hold on to your patoose!

Betterman Sixth Night - Echo
Akamatsu checks in on the traitor Heichi, who is almost comatose - all he does is mutter phrases about the number 26. Asami researches the information Kaede came back from Bottom world with, and comes to the conclusion that a "sub-system" had been introduced to the park's computer system, overriding the main controls and setting off the slaughter. She also links the other attacks to this mysterious virus. When she speculates that Cactus helped Heichi sabotage the neuro-noids, Akamatsu gets very upset. The gang goes to the Ajanta caves in India, where they believe Algernon may have first appeared when a research party went missing four years ago after discovering "something" deep within the caves. Asami thinks it may be connected to a legendary beast called Behemoth. When they arrive, the initial camp set up by Mode Warp techs has been destroyed and Keita sees a Lizard thing, but everybody thinks he's nuts. The group hears a low mournful sound and Sakura senses danger when they enter the caves. Keita, Hinoki, Kaede, Yanagi, Asami and Sakura split up to search, but everybody starts to have hallucinations except for Keita. Unfortunately, part of the caves collapse when Akamatsu freaks out and rams his truck carrying the robots into the mountain. In the caverns, the Behemoth, and elephant-like monster - appears. But so does Betterman...

Betterman Seventh Night - Forte
Outside of the collapsed Ajanta Caves, Akamatsu's team is cut off from the rest of the group, but discover an effective bug spray (which turns out to be a fairly important plot point!) Down in the depths, Hinoki reveals to Keita that her parents and brother were part of the research team that was killed there four years ago. Meanwhile, the other members wind up together and figure out that low-frequency sound has caused their visions, even overpowering Sakura and Kaede's abilities. Joined by Keita and Hinoki, they search for an escape. Keita is helped by the lizard he saw earlier when he gets lost (again) - it's actually a girl in a suit! The team finds the neuro-noids, but standing guard is the Behemoth! Fortunately for our gang, Betterman has reappeared as well...

Betterman Eight Night - Poison
Safe at the Akamatsu base, Sakura's trauma has rendered her psychic abilities useless. She goes to the local hospital for care. Asami reveals that the bug spray actually admitted a low-frequency sound that not only drove away the buggies, but also negated the sonic cry of the Behemoth! Later, Keita brings Sakura some goofy flowers, and agrees to wait when she has to go have some tests run. He stumbles into another room, and is confronted by a nurse with daggers instead of fingernails. The lizard girl - Chandy - has followed our group from India and saves Keita again from the nurses' attack. However, more demon nurses appear. While Chandy fights, Keita rescues Sakura from another heinous nursie! They find the hospitals pool is filled with dozens of capsules containing comatose people. Hinoki arrives, but is poisoned by a nurse's nail. This nurse reveals that a monster - Salamander - has provided them with this toxin. Sakura reawakens her psychic ability and alerts Betterman, who arrives just as Salamander attacks!

Betterman Ninth Night - Aqua
Yanagi and Asami agree that Betterman must have some ulterior motive in always saving Keita and Hinoki. They are puzzled by the disappearance of the nurses and their human capsules, but before anything further can be discussed, Yanagi has some sort of break down. Akamatsu gathers everyone to investigate the mysterious loss of several ships. They track and find the vessels, only to discover their crews have vanished. Kaede and Hinoki get into Tyron to search, and they find the missing human capsules in the hold! They are then attacked by dozens of tentacles with killer starfish attached, so Keita ands Sakura get into the Kakusaijin to help them. As more tentacles start attacking everybody and everything, Betterman makes his presence known...

Betterman Tenth Night - Worms
A stranger hands a small bell to Akamatsu's associate Li-chan. Meanwhile, Keita and Akamatsu play with his inventions while techs study the neuro-noids for clues about Algernon (and Betterman.) A "black wave" approaches the harbor HQ of Akamatsu, and when it hits causes a blackout. It's not a wave of water, it seems, but of worms. People-eating worms at that. Surrounded by squigglers it looks like the end for Akamatsu, Keita and Hinoki, but then Li-chan walks in unscathed by the squirmy horde. The bell she was given is made of acorns, whose smell naturally repels worms! It's too small to work on the masses of fish bait, but Akamatsu has a machine that can duplicate smells, in quantity! Now if they can make it through millions of slimy critters, they might just survive...but who's going to save Sakura? (I'll give you three guesses.)

Betterman is presented in a wide-screen aspect ratio, with options for English or Japanese language and English subtitles. The picture quality is excellent, and the sound is also very good (it's Dolby Digital, you know.)

Wow. What a show. We're really getting into the "meat" of the story now. Each of these episodes really packs a lot into it. One of the main reasons one doesn't get completely lost is there seems to be a sequence where Asami talks to herself about her research on Betterman and Algernon, giving us quite a bit of exposition in each show without really dragging down the action. Speaking of which, it was great to see MONSTERS in every episode, and boy do they kick some ass! Wait until you watch that Betterman/Behemoth fight! Even the worms are scary! The creators don't skimp on the characters at all; every story gives us more insight into the main players without showing us the entire hand, as it were. You can tell they took their time to really craft a strong story and good characters, and like a fine wine it just keeps getting better. They make sure there's a reason, even if not revealed right away, behind everything that happens. And did I mention MONSTERS? The animation continues to be superb, and I can't wait until next weekend to watch DVD Volume Three.

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