Those who made fun of this series, brushed it off as a trainwreck and dropped it after one or two episodes are probably going to be surprised when I say this, but oh my god: this episode was amazing. What an incredibly solid installment to a series that just keeps getting better and better. I even admit that this series had its chaotic moments and episodes that even made me question whether it was going something. But this episode made up for it all. It’s totally different from anything we’ve seen in this show thus far.
This is exactly why I stopped hyping myself up with season previews. You really saw a lot of people looking forward to this series, but as a result when its first episode aired and it didn’t turn out the best thing since sliced bread a lot of people simply ignored it. While in fact there are a lot of series with mediocre starts that simply need to take a while to get really awesome. That’s why when judging first episodes, I mostly try to look at the potential of a series as a whole, instead of whether its first episode was awesome or not.
I never thought that Karin would turn into such an interesting character, but her development in this episode was really well done. We’ve thus far only seen her as an annoying brat who can make lots of money, but this episode didn’t just show a different side of hers, it also developed her character and made it change significantly when her parents finally give her a message, and it turns out that they’re actually quite fond of her, but they’re only too often away from her. As a result, Karin shut herself in, to the point at which she didn’t even dare to go outside.
A big theme of this episode was bird cages: Karin’s house turns out to be shaped like one, symbolizing the cage in which she locked herself up. Mikuni at the same time is caught up in another bird cage, due to the fact that she can’t stand the sunlight. It’s really ironic: Karin has all the freedom in the world. She probably is the only character in this series who can really do what she wants, and yet she chooses to stay locked up in this closed space without any real-life contacts.
The white-haired boy introduced himself as Karin’s other side, and yet there turns out to be so much more behind it. What was up with the cat? Why did it turn into a leaf? Why did Atlas know about him when he is the same as Karin and what does he have to do with Kuniko, Mikuni and Kunihito? What was the point of having Kunihito inside a life boat for the entire episode?
Oh boy, we’re in for something really awesome if the creators can keep this up. 🙂
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Amazingly solid episode on Karin’s development.
It really feels like the show is about to connect all the dots, what with the lullaby, and not to mention most of their names have “kuni” in it. And did the cat turn into a leaf or a Canary feather? At first I thought the cat almost ate one lol.
Yep, so far so great. Like you said, Karin appeared as an annoying brat at 1st but she turned out to be quite cute in that episode :O. The lullaby was signed quite nicely by her seiyu
[…]The lullaby was SUNG quite nicely by her seiyu
Oops sorry for the “spam”. I didn’t know emoticons shortcuts would break my post :x.
Is it me or Kuniko does really look like Karin with pink hair in that pic: http://shinobs.free.fr/Pics/kuniko_karin.jpg
From spoilers this already shouts epic awesomeness! oh what more of the actual episode?!
I can’t wait to see it *_* I’m so curious on karin’s background *_*
Funny how different impressions of Karin’s parents can be: I got the feeling that they were hugely manipulative. ^_^;;
Seen the episode now . . .AND IT WAS AMAZING INDEED *_*
And oh, am I the only one who sees this as good from season previews and still sees it as good since episode one? o_O not all episodes were amazing of course, but at least not bad enough to give me headaches T_T
Anyway, wait, the cat turned into a leaf? o_O *never noticed*
What was the point of having Kunihito inside a life boat for the entire episode?
=== uuumm . . . because he had survived from the attack? “main characters don’t die” rule? haha!
I freakin’ love the episode but my focus had been on Kunihito . . . Kunihito . . .and oh, Kunihito.
I am sorry for acting like a scary Kunihito fan o_o;;;
cough cough *bullsh-t, we all know this series is ka-ka and attempts at being something bigger than what it is…I mean I have to watch 10 crappy episodes to get to one amazing ep. Sorry buddy can’t do…
The cat did not turn into a leaf. For one thing, the leaf was left behind where Kanaria was standing. More importantly, Karin was holding the leaf while the cat was still around. 😀
To ike@mylifemyhiphop.com: Who is this “we” you talk about? Are you perchance using the royal “we”? 😉
When I saw the first two episodes, this show didn’t appeal at all and I was about to stop watching it, but something made me curious, the unusual setting, the incredibly extravagant characters, now it’s one of my favorite shows this season, and you’re right each episode shows something different but turns out to be better and better, this episode was amazing and I loved this nostalgic athmosphere led by the song which sounded like a ” lullaby”.
It’s good to see, that Shangri-La has some fans here. There are: great mix between fantastic and spiritual themes, interesting characters (villians included), nicely pacing story, good ost. Someone wanted to see another Last Exile, wich is good, but Shangri whent it’s own, unique way. Shangri is original and fresh, that’s what art always needs!
P.S. I just pray creators won’t ruin it in the last episode.)
to Shounen A, within the first sentence of this post “Those who made fun of this series” their is obviously a general consensus that this series has a lot of “haters”. So I decided to use “we” instead of “I”, shoot me.
I see a lot of positive comments regarding this series and I might pick it up If I have some time. I don’t abandon after two or three episodes it’s usually the 6 or 7 episode that does it for me. So we’ll if it gets better from there…
On a side not is it or were there a lot of bad series this season?
The proper pronoun to use in this case is “they”, as in “You know what they say about anime fans.” (with proper conspiratorial tone). :p 😉
ike@mylifemyhiphop.com precisely, one “good” episode half way in means the series is wank and not worth watching at all. Save yourself the time this IS a trainwreck. This has haters for a good reason: so far it has been TERRIBLE.
Karin summed it up perfectly Who cares!
she’s possibly schizo, sociophobic, agoraphobic etc etc. all wrapped up in pop-psychology symbolism. For whatever reason her parents represent themselves as teddybears. What exactly did we learn that is pertinent to the non-existent main story line? F-all apart from Digma’s are special produced individuals, something most of us kind of had an inkling about that already.
This episode was as bad as those preceeding before it, I’m not sure what was the “amazing” bit the blog author was referring to. All I got was the same monotonous nonsensical drivel we’ve got for the last 10 episodes.