The Best Episodes Directed By Naoto Hosoda

The Minami sisters, Makoto, Touma, Fujioka, and Takeru go on a hot spring trip for New Years.

Kana decides to help her sister become the Great Bancho once more by making the Kana army, but Chiaki on the other hand couldn't help because she considered her friends useless. In the end of the episode they find out Haruka was just refusing a phone call to become class rep.

Chiaki helps to prepare for a school sports meet. Meanwhile, the sisters learn that Fuyuki is moving and is forced to leave in the middle of the sports meet. Kana learns that Haruka has been selected to study abroad.

Frightened of the prospect of Haruka studying abroad, Kana and Chiaki decide to step up to the plate and exert more of an effort with the cooking and cleaning as well as the other domestic chores in order to put Haruka's mind at ease after sending her off with a smile. It quickly becomes evident that the prospect of having to actually take care of themselves in Haruka's absence is much more than Kana and Chiaki can endure. While being tearfully embraced and exhorted to stay with them, Haruka explains to Kana and Chiaki that she has no intention of studying abroad anyway.

Chiaki lashing out at Uchida, Kana, and Maki due to their boisterous laughter rousing her from a nap on a warm spring day gives way Kana first sending in Uchida and Maki to fight this battle for her before doing her own dirty work only to have it end in a stalemate. The next arc features Makoto and Uchida taking an afternoon nap with Kana when Maki pays the trio a visit with the request that Kana gaze upon her sleeping face while recalling a dysphoric middle school memory, especially after Kana reads Maki and Uchida sleeping as the perfect opportunity to draw on their faces as a prank. The arc thereafter features Haruka and Atsuko looking at pictures from their middle school days. The arc that ensues has Chiaki sewing on a wayward button while Kana detects Haruka's school uniform carelessly strewn about before remarking of the seasonal uniform transition. While modifying a shirt of Kana's, Chiaki accidentally slices Haruka's fuku skirt. Knowing that Haruka will be very angry with them when she detects the damage, Kana and Chiaki attempt some desperate and frenzied repairs to buy time for computing their next move. Unfortunately, things coming unraveled when Maki detects the telltale thread put both Kana and Chiaki in scalding hot water with Haruka. The final arc features Kana blowing up at Chiaki for insulting her once too often before deciding to resolve her fears of Chiaki becoming a delinquent by being a nice older sister. Unfortunately, all Kana accomplishes is to greatly unsettle Chiaki and frighten her into co-sleeping with Haruka.

The Juni Taisen takes place every twelve years. The participating warriors must kill each other until only one remains. Inonoshishi, Warrior of the Boar and the daughter of the last Taisen's winner, ends up fighting her first enemy in an unexpected way.

Warrior of the Dog, Dotsuku, is known for his powerful bite, "Mad Dog's Vise." However, he has a secret skill: the ability to create and secrete a variety of poisons from his body. This gives him an advantage when all of the participants are poisoned!

Warrior of the Chicken, Niwatori, isn't as powerful as the others, but her ability to see with a birds-eye-view has helped her survive many battles. She can also betray without feeling any remorse, until she first meets the Monkey Warrior, Sharyu.

After some hesitation at seeing the innocence of her other self, Yuno lunges at her, but she is stopped by her other self's parents. Meanwhile, the actions of Yuki and Uryu have caused a domino effect that has changed the future of almost every diary holder for the better. When Balks reads about his other self's death in Yuki's diary using his incomplete Watcher Diary, he calls off his partnership with Deus, who decides to cancel the survival game and find another method to determine his successor. Yuki manages to remember Yuno and break free from the illusionary world, in the process releasing his world's Murmur, who had been trapped by her first world self in order to impersonate her. Faced with Yuki's love and her other self's united family, Yuno's resolve to kill them all is lost, and she decides to commit suicide. A horrified Yuki is declared winner of the survival game by his world's Murmur and spirited away through a vortex. 10,000 years on, Yuki is still grieving Yuno's death in his now empty universe, refusing to create anything. At the end of the episode, the final entry in his diary changes from "Yuno died" to "Yuno came to see me", and her voice is heard calling his name.

Warrior of the Monkey, Sharyu, is a powerful fighter able to manipulate the three states of matter, but uses her power to bring peace around the world. She seeks peace at the Juni Taisen as well, until her lone ally asks if people are really worth saving.

Yukiteru Amano is a loner who spends his time writing in his mobile diary and talking to an imaginary friend, Deus Ex Machina. However, one morning, he finds his diary entry for the day has been filled in already. Stranger yet, the events portrayed in the diary start coming true. Deus, who reveals he is an actual God, warns Yukiteru that if he loses his diary, he will die. As Yukiteru starts using the diary to his advantage, he is approached by a stalker named Yuno Gasai who also possesses a Future Diary that foretold his death at the hands of a serial killer, another Future Diary owner. Helping him evade the killer, Yuno helps Yukiteru throw a dart into the killer's phone, killing him. Afterwards, Deus explains the rules of the survival game to Yukiteru and the other diary owners, in which they must try to kill each other in order to win the right to succeed him.

Warrior of the Rabbit, Usagi, is a Necromantist who makes other warriors into his "friends." Warrior of the Ox, Ushii, and Warrior of the Tiger, Tora, end up facing off against two of these "friends," the Tatsumi Brothers.

Warrior of the Tiger, Tora, once met a warrior who seemed to brim with righteousness. She joined the Juni Taisen in order to meet that warrior again, and now, it seems her dream of a duel with him may be granted...

The Warrior of the Ox, Ushii, is seen by other fighters as extremely powerful. The genius combatant uses his systematic killing style to slaughter any enemy he comes across.

Warrior of the Ram, Hitsujii, is a legendary warrior and winner of the 9th Juni Taisen. In this new Taisen, Hitsujii ranks the other warriors by their abilities and plots a scheme using the poison Juseki crystal.

Warrior of the Horse, Uuma, has trained his body to its limits to acquire the ultimate defensive technique, "Stirrup." But his confidence in that ability faltered during his meeting with the Warrior of the Ox.

Warrior of the Dragon, the elder Tatsumi Brother, is an arrogant but cool-headed warrior who acts as commander when working with his brother. Using his "Heaven's Holding" ability to fly, he watches over Snake and waits for his chance to join the battle.

Nezumi, Warrior of the Rat, is an ordinary high school student in his normal life. He used his ability, Hundred Paths of Nezumi-san, to become the Taisen's lone survivor, and in the process learned the wishes of the battle's other participants.

Warrior of the Snake, the younger Tatsumi Brother, is a dangerous individual who would have become a pyromaniac if he hadn't become a warrior. On their way to the Juni Taisen, he remembers the day his brother saved his life.