A romance episode, with the fantastic soundtrack that this series has. That’s quite something different for a change, but boy, was it good. This episode just continued to show the relationship between Mahiro, Yoshino and Aika. The pacing is much slower than I expected after the first episode, but the detail this episode brought in their relationship was really impressive, even without the soundtrack.
The subtle chemistry between the three of them was particularly great: each one of them had something of an edge: the romantic tension between Yoshino and Aika was great in how Aika kept teasing him, the awkwardness between Mahiro and Aika was great, and Yoshino’s mistrust compared to Mahiro’s trust was great too.
And then there is the way in which this series has been building up for the past couple of episodes with a really long background arc, and I must say, that it did this the right way: by making the build-up interesting, and the thing they’re building up for with a lot of potential: at the end of the episode I really couldn’t wait for the story to continue again, and yet I never once got bored during the flashback arc. The third thing that this show needs to do is actually make the build-up worth it. Ah well, that’s up for next week.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Aika contastly reminds me of Rosa Ushiromiya….
Honestly I don’t see what the flashback is necessary. We didn’t learn anything particular new or important.
Flashbacks aren’t only used to dish out exposition or important info … fleshing out the characters is important function of flashbacks even if it’s a small bit of info that might seem trivial .. when you know more about the characters, their past interactions and relations you -supposedly- care more about what happens in present time … which this episode did very well specially with its excellent music and mood.
However the amount of information was insubstancal. For a 13 episode series to waste it’s time presenting us with information we don’t even need is not a good idea. What they should be doing is address the current concerns of the plot. Why is island witch considered death and whats up with those bones? How was Aika murdered? Why is it bad for the good tree to heal? How did the worlds best magician manage to captured? And most important of all, Why are the villains doing this in the first place?
oh shit this is a 13 episode series? i made up a point, then. woops
Where did you read this? I believe that this show will run for 2 cours.
Anidb as usual has no clue as to what number of episodes this would have but MAL and ANN have this listed as 13 and ANN is usually right 🙂
Unfortunately, by far the most misunderstandings about episode counts come from ANN. ANN’s episode count lists the number of episodes they know about, not necessarily the total number.
I can’t believe they still haven’t fixed it because I’ve had to explain this numerous times for five years now.
I wasn’t sure about the episode count but from the vibes here it really feels like the last episode is coming soon. They are already talking about the “final” battle.
Well, if it’s a 13 episode series then i agree with you, but so far everyone i know considered Zetsuen to be a 24 ep series and there is no solid info that proves it is 13 ep only .. and in case it’s a 24 ep series then this episode has excellent pacing and just the right amount of character development.
Sigh…I thought I already post it sometimes ago that Zetsuen is 2 cours, the official sites listed/solicited 7+ BD/DVD’s meaning is 24-26eps or 2 cours. And agreed with Psgels post above that ANN isn’t a credible source in searching about total eps numbers. So yeah, the pacing so far is fine considering they still has many eps left to work out.
@Aidan: There is a battle coming up but it is definitely not the last. Manga wise it occurs in volume 4 and the series is up to volume 7
Zetsuen no Tempest does everything right, or at least as it should. These kinds of stories can become boring/utterly dull and mediocre quite quickly, but Zetsuen execution does very well for itself. Yeah I’m very much looking forward to what’s happening next.
If Zetsuen did everything right, Why did I drop it, Why did i hate all the characters, why did i find the plot the least interesting out of all the animes to air this season, why don’t i like the animation, why dont i like the soundtrack, why do I find it boring?????????? huh? tell me because to say its done everything right is an opinion that shouldn’t be said at all.
why are u even commenting here then 🙂 ?
Because your taste in anime sucks, or becasue you don’t get it XD
Ahm, just joking .. but seriously .. what the heck does THIS mean —> “to say its done everything right is an opinion that shouldn’t be said at all” .. you just stated your own opinion regrading the series then you go ahead and say that TheUltimateReaper shouldn’t say his own opinion just becasue it doesn’t match with yours .. i think your ego could use some diet XD
this is the internet…where everyone else’s opinions are just opinions, but your own are always facts 😀
I could say the simple rude remark that is, “Your taste sucks,” but I’m sure you have your reasons why you dislike it so much. I can already tell I will never be able to agree with or even understand your reasoning, but that’s what opinions are for. There are certain types of anime that I am far more critical of just because I am not into that sort of thing (most historical anime for example). Maybe its the same for you and this anime? You probably already what it is though so I’ll stop here.
This was my favourite episode since the first. I really enjoyed the subtlety of each characters relation to Aika. She’s also probably … my favourite character… if she can be considered a character.
I like that this show is building up to what seems like a climax by episode 8, but that, obviously, is not the case. I take that this means unexpected things will happen to the characters, and change their pre-built disposition not only to each other but individually.
Loved this, looking forward in anticipation of greatness! Lol, actually, my hopes aren’t that high… not yet.
Anyone else bothered by the fact that one of the main male characters has hair-clips in his hair? Is this what we call bishounen?
Yeah, you could say that the hair-clips are a bishounen thing (that and the earring).. the hair-clips are also a memento from Aika as seen in the Aquarium flashback scene where she puts them personally in Yoshino’s hair.
I’m seeing some correlations between Aika and Yuuko from xxxholic. If anything that hairstyle has been bugging me since the beginning… but now there are implications that the future is something particularly important to Aika to which she has inextricable connections to.
I’m going to continue watching this assuming Aika was setting up for something awesome when she was alive. If she doesn’t end up being part of the core of what’s going on with all this backstory she’s getting I’ll be sorely disappointed.
I said right on the first episode that Aika was the most interesting character in the show, and this episode was further proof
Its funny how Mahiro was going wondering why he is attracted to her, and he said “You dont have boobs and youre not sexy”
He is out of his mind, she has this elegance and mystery about her that makes her ridiculously attractive… At that point, who cares about boobs, lol
I would totally watch a shoujo verson of this with her as the main character