Disconnecting Love: The Raging Makai Tree

The Makai Tree appears to be near death, so Ail and An escalate their energy theft, only to recoil in alarm when the tree no longer reacts to the power they feed it. Their crisis collides with a visit from Mamoru, who arrives bearing a bouquet meant for Natsumi.

Seijuro shoves Mamoru into the room housing the Makaiju and seals the door behind him. The tree lashes out, but Mamoru is too worn down to defend himself and it seizes him by the throat. Before he can act, Seijuro begins siphoning the tree's energy, and Mamoru collapses into unconsciousness. From outside, Natsumi listens in fear to his screams and notes just how exhausted he looks.

None of these events occur in the manga. The episode retires several fixtures at once: it is the last anime appearance of Haruna Sakurada, the final use of the older Power, Make Up transformations by Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako, and the final instance of a Cardian filling the monster-of-the-day role. Fittingly, the Makai Tree itself destroys that Cardian, the fourth time in the R season a creature falls to someone other than the Guardians. A small touch has Seijuro humming his Cardian-summoning flute melody while fixing drinks and brewing coffee over a Bunsen burner. The DiC dub added a To Be Continued card and relocated Mamoru to a bookstore where Natsumi asks him out.