Recap. It’s nothing special, though. Unlike Bokura no, this really isn’t a series where a recap works. Basically, it was aimed at young children, to explain the plot and characters a bit to them. Throughout, we see a few shots of the voice-actors for Isako and Fumie, explaining this, sometimes accompanied by a giant Sacchi-balloon, a stuffed Densuke and fake glasses. This one really reminded me that this show is aired on the NHK-channel.
The only reason I’m really making this post is to make a few announcements, for those who are wondering:
– Dennou Coil this week is a recap. I assume the next episode to finally air next week.
– There is still no sign of any new episodes from Saiunkoku Monogatari. I’m afraid it’ll take a few more weeks till it’ll continue.
– There is also no Toward the Terra this week. I assume that it’ll continue next week.]]>
Author: psgels
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 34
I can hardly believe it, but this arc has been getting significantly better with every successive episode. Just imagine what could happen if this continues. ^_^ I won’t do an extensive summary for the episode, since there was hardly any new information we didn’t know before. This was one of these episodes that were completely focused on the characters.
It’s entirely focused at one thing: Satoko’s uncle returning. This time, it’s not only Keiichi who wants to do something, but everyone tries to save Satoko somehow. Because in this arc, everyone trusts each other completely, Keiichi manages to convince Shion to not go out and kill Satoko’s aunt. If this would have been in one of the earlier arcs, she would have never spoken about her thoughts, and gone off to kill Satoko’s aunt, just like Keiichi and Rena did in the past.
Oh, and Rika was awesome. Her mood fluctuates throughout the entire episode. She ended the episode confident, only to have this confidence slapped back at her with the arrival of Satoko’s uncle. She then went to the same despair of the previous arc, only to realize at the end of the episode that she really wanted to save Satoko. Her ideas are quite interesting, by the way. She believes that a tragedy can be avoided if none of the main characters (as in Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion and Satoko) kills anyone. Still, this happened in the previous arc as well, and yet Rika died. But then again, she was as distant as ever from everyone. It really looks like she’s putting her trust in the others for this arc, which might be able to avoid the tragedy. But we need to wait till the Watanagashi to make sure.
One thing that I realized in this episode as well was how much Keiichi has changed, and learned subconsciously. He was an idiot in the first three arcs, and yet he’s the most mature person among the main characters.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 21
Yes! With a new school come new outfits! I’m not sure why this is the only show where I pay so much attention to them. I know most characters in most shows never really change their outfits, but it’s definitely not unique for Emily and the others to wear different garments once in a while. Mai from Ghost Hunt, for example, also had a diverse wardrobe, but I never noticed this until somebody else pointed it out. I think it’s either because Emily’s clothes only change once in a while, or she just looks awesome in them. ^^;
Anyway, it seems that the final six episodes are going to fast-forward through Emily’s youth. In the next episode, it’s already going to be winter. It’s going to be awesome to watch how Emily and the others will change. I loved how this episode made them look subtly older, and Ilse finally realizes that she’s got great talents as an elocutionist, when she recites some of Emily’s poems in front of a bunch of kids.
And Ruth is even worse than Elizabeth! I actually wonder why she agreed to let Emily stay in her house to let her study, as she treats her horribly. Emily can’t even open her window. I wonder whether the next few episodes will develop this more. I continue to admire Perry, by the way. He’s now reached the point where his grades are at the top of his class. It’s nice to see that everyone is now really beginning to work towards their dreams.
I’m actually wondering, are there still people who watch this series? When it started, it was blogged by two others (Impz and Usagijen), but it seems that they dropped this show. For the past few episodes it’s really felt like I’ve been the only one who’s watched this show. Obviously, I don’t care whether I am (I’ve had this before many times), but it does make me curious. This show is just way too good to be just neglected like that.]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 21
Finally: an episode of Seirei no Moribito where we know what to expect: Barsa’s past, and it doesn’t disappoint. Seeing young Barsa again was awesome, and like expected, the amount of detail thrown in was as excellent as the rest of the series.
Barsa grew up in Kanbal, a nation, mostly covered in mountain. Her father worked as some kind of doctor, or something similar. Her mother died early. At one point, Barsa’s father ended up angering the emperor, which resulted in him, sending people in to kill his daughter. Because of this, her father asked Jiguro, a member of the royal guard, to protect her. Much like how Chaggumu’s mother asked Barsa to protect her son. This time, however, Barsa had done no wrong, but she’d end up involved in his father’s punishment if she wasn’t taken away.
Jiguro saved Barsa just in time, and they left her birthplace. That night, they stayed in a cave, though a few days later, the first soldier, out to retrieve Barsa arrived. I’m not sure if Jiguro kiled the guy, but he definitely wounded him, breaking his spear in the process. Because of that, they entered a Yogo-village, and came to the blacksmith we saw in episode eight. He forged the spear we saw Barsa wield in the beginning of the anime.
Then, a while later, we see the couple of Barsa and Jiguro running again, and we see another assailant. This one, however, is a former friend of Jiguro: Takuru. An amazing fight follows, and there we see the flashback, shown in episode three, in which Jiguro kills a former comrade, and cries over his dead body.
Then, when they arrived in a new Yogo-town, Barsa learned the news of her father being killed. Jiguro then told Barsa all about it, why he was forced to take her with him, and what happened to her father. Because of this, Barsa asked him to teach him to fight. Jiguro refused, though. Fighting should be something for men. No matter how hard women trained, they’d never be as good as men (HAH!). After Barsa kept insisting, though, Jiguro changed his mind.
They hung out with a couple of what I assume to be low-class fighters after that, where Barsa got her first training. She turned out to be quite popular amongs the guys, and often she was the centre of attention. At one point, however, she went too far, when she started boasting about Jiguro’s fight against Takuru, after which he punished her, with the same intensity of Barsa in episode 19.
Then, they stayed with Tanda and Toroga-shi for ten years, in which Barsa lived with Jiguro peacefully, while training. Interestingly enough, at that time Torogai-shi had four pets, living on her head. I wonder what happened to the others. Ten years later, though, a group of six warriors found them. Barsa was forced to hide, so that Jiguro would be able to take all of them on. We see the episode end as he runs off in a direction, opposite to hers.
Even though I obviously missed a few details, I loved this episode. I wonder why it was necessary to continue the story in the next episode. Barsa’s background could be solved within five minutes or less by the looks of it. I wonder whether there’s some twist left to happen, or something similar. In any case, I now understand why Barsa is so intent on saving Chaggumu: because of Jiguro, who probably died heroically, trying to save her.]]>
The Boy Who Saw The Wind Review – 44/100
Okay, so this is a movie to avoid unless you’re really, really bored. I was lured in by the attractive character-designs and nice-sounding title, but what I got was a horrible mess. This is just one of those movies which are completely screwed up by the scriptwriters.
For starters, the story plays in a world in which once an ancient civilization lived: the Wind People. Unfortunately, they died out at one point, when they were slaughtered by an evil empire. The main character just happened to be one of those Wind People, without any explanation whatsoever on how the heck he became someone of a race that was supposed to be extinct.
If this was the only flaw, there wouldn’t be much of a problem. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. To sum up a few of the writers’ errors: they didn’t build up well enough, plot elements go unexplained, characters lack background, characters lack reason for their actions, entire scenes seem to be missing, characters act unnatural, there are continuity errors, the main character is a Gary Stu, there are heaps of Deus ex Machina throughout the movie, there’s a lack of realism, the entire setting isn’t developed well enough so it makes no sense, lady luck is in favour of our main character throughout the entire movie, the creators jump to the action way too quickly, and probably some more flaws I can’t remember. This should give you a fair impression of the overall quality.
About the good things: they’re hardly there, but there are a handful standalone moments in the movie that were sort-of amusing, like the kids’ times in jail, or a baker, preparing for battle. The graphics and music also aren’t too bad. Okay, they’re still nothing special, but by the standards of this movie, it’s nothing to complain about.
Overall, this movie is a bad one. It’s another one of those shounen-adventures gone wrong, and if you’re looking for one and a half hour to burn, then you should try a different movie. ^^; I hope the next movie will be a better one.]]>
Baccano! – 05
This episode sort-of ruined the sense of time I had with this series, when suddenly the hunt for Dallas Genoard was moved back to 1931, and Maiza appeared to already be immortal before he could have had any chance to meet Barnes. The previous episodes have done well to answer the necessary questions, only for this episode to ask a whole bunch of new ones. Maiza-san, for example, also shoots into the ceiling after being stabbed by Firo, as a means of welcome to his new family-member, he shoots in the air and suddenly hits Isaac. What the heck was that guy doing there?!
I’m also rather confused about the 1931-business. In the past episodes, we saw Eve visit the information-office in 1932. In this episode, we see the Runorata-family enter the information-office yet again, but in 1931. Miraculously, though Eve had already visited by then.
Jacuzzi also gets new development, but his past is still full of question-marks. First of all Nick was captured by the guys in black suits, who had no way of knowing what he did in the dining room. We also see a scene of what happened earlier that year, when Jacuzzi was hunted down by bounty-hunters/mafia-guys, and then suddenly saved by Nice and their other companion. Where all of them came from is still unknown. Jacuzzi also talks about how he doesn’t want to kill. Did he mean his comrades, or did his comrades prevent him from using some awful power to slaughter his assailants?
Also, the red-eyed figure we see outside the train. We get some heavy hints that it’s the green-capped woman, but we never see it confirmed. In this episode, we see it use its foggy hand to kill two guys in black suits.
Then Szilard, who raised the biggest question of this episode: he sucked up Barnes with his hand! I admit that I missed some of his explanations, though I doubt that he fully explained what happened there. Afterwards, Quates sends Ennis out to look for Firo, who seemed to be searching for her.
Meanwhile on the train, the guys in black suits return, and they take Nathalie Williams with them. Her daughter, Merry, is safe, hiding with Czeslaw. Isaac and Miria are active again, as they set out to rescue Jacuzzi and Nice (that could be interesting). I also wonder: why did the second conductor at the back of the train die? I mean, I know he killed the younger one, but why were his head and arm ripped off afterwards? In fact, why did he feel the need to kill in the first place?
I like what this series is doing, though. It first starts with an unexplainable mess, and it goes on, things get clearer and clearer. And just when you think you know what’s going on, they throw in a heap of more mysteries to confuse you. It’s a nice tactic, but I hope that everything will come together in the end.]]>
Mononoke – 07
After this episode, I’m going to take a small break to wait for the subs to catch up. It was a nice idea to try and watch this raw, but this is just one of these series that I want to fully understand. Unlike series as Toward the Terra or Seirei no Moribito, who have a continuous storyline, Mononoke deals with stories of 2 to 3 episodes, so every detail counts. I managed to understand this episode in the end, but I was too busy figuring out what happened to really enjoy the episode. ^^;
Still, this episode was really good. It seems that the woman didn’t really understand that she killed her entire family. The family she was married to kept abusing her, and her only glimpse outside was through a barred window. She was caught between her love for her mother, who was the one who married her to her new family, and her desire to be free and play. Her mother may have thought that she did a good thing for her child, by educating her well and taking good care of her, but she never let her do what she wanted. That indirectly caused Ochou to go berserk.
Hence the masks. She put up so many different faces in front of everybody, but she never really had the chance to show her actual face. Until, of course, she started killing. The man with the fox-mask is another one of these faces of hers. If I had to guess, then I’d say it’s the form of her ideal husband.
I’m not sure how many of you remember, but Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi also featured an arc about masks. In there, the girl (I forgot her name, sorry) went berserk because she thought her evil masks showed her true face. Interestingly enough, the conclusion of that arc was that every mask was a part of her, and that there is not one true mask. This arc in Mononoke builds further upon that, and they show how things can go wrong, as Ochou didn’t even realize that she’s been putting up different faces.]]>
Gauche the Cellist Review – 81/100
This movie came to me, recommended by Wyrdwad. Its original story comes from the same writer of Night on the Galactic Railroad: Miyazawa Kenji. I’m glad I checked it out, as it’s one of the most unique music-anime I’ve seen. The story is about Gauche, a professional, though not very good cellist. While this premise sounds rather bland, there is one element in the story that totally gives this movie its own style and charm. I refrain from saying what it is, for the sake of spoilers, though. It’s best if you watch this movie without knowing anything.
Because of that element, this movie turned into quite an adorable fable, that neither feels too long nor too short. I also admire the realism, Gauche (or “Goshu”, as his name is in the anime) acts surprisingly likable throughout the movie, as do the other side-characters. The story also isn’t afraid to go into a bit of the technical stuff, while still remaining easy to follow.
Despite its age, Gauche the Cellist remains an enjoyable light watch for every age, apart from the people who need action, perhaps. While the movie didn’t reach any heights, it did what it set out to do, and a very good job as well. The art looks fairly unimpressive, though. But because of that, the characters end up looking like any other average Joes, making the mood of this movie even more down to earth.
The animation is nothing impressive for a movie, but I must note that this is one of the few times where the animators actually bothered to try and synchronize their instruments with the background music. Most anime nowadays don’t even bother, and I remember how Nodame Cantabile’s attempt of using CG for this failed horribly.]]>
Ooedo Rocket – 21
Before I start with the usual episode, I’d like to share the following:
Ooedo rocket – 19
Ooedo rocket – 20
Ooedo rocket – 21
For some reason, no new raws have appeared at all on Tokyo Toshokan, so Kallen requested these. It would be great if someone would host these on a torrent and submit to Tokyo Toshokan, for those who can’t use Megaupload or don’t follow this site. It reminds me of last year, when the same happened to Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club. It’s such a shame that even the raw providers don’t bother with such excellent shows, though it’s great to see that Shinsen Subs are starting to release subs for this series, They’re up to episode eight already.
Anyway, you don’t want to miss any second of this episode, as it’s one of the most hilarious of the entire series. It’s one of these episodes that are completely devoted to comedy and characters-development, while the story takes a step back, and it works perfectly. I finally realize that this is one of the few shows where the building-up scenes are better than the actual climaxes, just because it’s a delight to see al the different characters interact with each other.
Basically, this episode revolves around a play, organized by O-Ise, probably to raise money for the rocket-developments. The entire thing looks completely improvised, and things keep screwing up, but people sure do have fun in the process!! Another interesting thing is that it’s a play, based on Kaguya-hime, but with Seikichi and Sora not in the main roles. Tenhou is the prince (she looks awesome, dressed as Seikichi, by the way), Hiraga Gennai is the farmer who digs Kaguya-hime up, Tenten is the leader of the government officials (combined with a grat accent), with Santa, Shinza and Rokubei as his underlings. Sora plays the voice of Kaguya-hime, and as for Kaguya-hime herself… *grin*
Probably one of the biggest reasons behind the success of this episode was the following: Genzo returns!!!! Finally our hero gets his original form back, and the result turns out awesome. He gets to play the role of Kaguya-hime because of his feminine features as well, and I’m so glad that we finally see him as a normal human again. O-Ise also was brilliant in her role as manager, and not to mention her new costume.
The several interruptions to the play also were hilarious. Both Tetsugyu and Kagiya try to intervene, with hilarious results. Oh, and Shinza falls in love with Genzo in the middle of his acting, and Seikichi blows up the entire stage near the end of the play. ^^;
There also were quite a few subtle jokes in this episode. It again took another jab at modern technology with a new version of the ambulance, and even though people could communicate via earphones, I spotted a tin can, attached to a string at one point. ^^; There’s also a strange cameo from Gurren Lagann, who showed up at random times. I’m not really sure what that one was about. ^^;]]>
Bokura no – 19
And finally there’s another episode without fighting. Heck, the next pilot hasn’t even been announced yet. Okay, we know it’s going to be Jun (I seem to have misunderstood the seventeenth episode, where Koemushi announces the pilot order. It’s not Kanji who’s going to be next, it’s Jun), but still. Anyway, this episode has to be anime-original: it explains Jun’s background, and how Tanaka got pregnant of him.
Kawai turned out to be a good friend of Yun’s father, hence why he’s so friendly with him. He’s the one who tells him the truth, by the way. At the time, though, both of them were involved in shady business. Jun’s father then picked up a high-school girl at one point, whilst being an adult himself. This girl was of course Tanaka.
Things went quick, and they got married and had a baby: Jun. Their happiness didn’t last long, though. I suspect that Jun’s father had gotten in trouble due to the fact that he owed money to the wrong people. As a response, they trashed their house, and made them run away. Jun’s father wanted revenge, though, and he died in the process of doing so. Tanaka was still in danger, however, and so she was forced to separate from Jun, so he was adopted into a new family, whose mother was at the time pregnant of Kana. The mother, however, died when she gave birth. Their father is actually still alive, but I suspect that he’s often gone due to his job. Tanaka, meanwhile, joined the police after her experience. Something tells me that she still felt guilty, which is why she was so eager with the Zearth-case: finally she could be the one to support children. At least, that’s what she first thought.
In the next episode, Yoko should be getting some background info. I also hope that they show Yun and Kana together a bit more, now that they both found out that Tanaka is Jun’s mother. This definitely was one of those building-up episodes, and even though it lacked major plot twists, unlike the previous episodes, it was really good, and I’d love to see what Jun’s going to do when he’s going to fight. He’s definitely changed a lot since the beginning of the series, when he was just a heartless bastard. It started when Kirie started to live with him, and because of that, he’s become closer to the other characters.]]>