A small announcement, in case you will be wondering: the next episode of Shigofumi and Shion no Ou will be delayed for about a day, as I’ll be too busy for anime tomorrow and some share-users decided to upload fake raw-versions again…
In any case, this was definitely the best episode yet, because for once, everything felt right. The current episode yet again comes with a different art-style, as it takes us back to the younger years of Grand Master, and the other two older members of the Witches’ Council. To think that Grand Master used to have a younger sister at one point.
I think I already did this, but I must thank Arusu the Adventure for reminding me why Mahou Shoujotai ended up being my favourite anime ever. Looking back, there is no other series where I can find so much to praise as this with this one. Terrific art-style, great music, engaging characters, perfectly paced, an outstanding storyline, experimental in every single way, an imaginative setting, full of creativity, terrific storytelling, and I could go on and on like this. This is really the series that showed me the amazing things you can do with anime, and what happens if you let go of all boundaries.
I’m still wishing for an anime like this to appear some day. A series that doesn’t care about conventions (just like how Alice tried to go against the witches’ traditions in the original series). I admit that I often get annoying during the seasonal spring-season previews, where people dismiss a show, only because the character-designs aren’t mainstream. More often than not, it’s these series that really end up outstanding.
I guess that that’s why I like what Gonzo is currently doing. They too are trying to go in their own way, even though this isn’t always the right one (Dragonaut), and they often get lazy (Romeo x Juliet). Amidst all the dross, they did manage to pull off Bokura no, a series that also tried out lots of different things, and wasn’t afraid of going away from the mainstream. In fact, the simplistic character-designs still strike me as the best of 2007, and Gonzo managed to combine this with a terrific premise and storyline.
Okay, so basically the post of the fourth episode of Arusu the Adventure turned into some kind of mini-rant. These are of course just my own opinions, and they’re what I find really important in an anime. Sure, there are other ways to become an excellent series (I fell in love with the third, mainly because Honoka is just an amazing character), but this OVA reminded me that outstanding anime are basically created by letting your imagination run free. Of course, this doesn’t work for slice-of-life series, as they usually take place in a normal world without anything mundane happening, but it’s a good guideline nonetheless.
Sheeze! I had no clue the OAV had even begun to be released. ^_^; Its at times like this that I wish I were a lot more advanced in Japanese to be able to understand what they were saying without the need of subtitles, but oh well.
Anyway, thanks for blogging and reminding me of the existence of this latest installment. ^_^