While the previous episode was all about the characters, this episode is all about the story, and its beauty lied in the different plot twists that we saw in it. While the episode was less touching than the previous ones, the plot twists were both wacky and shocking enough to make this episode worthwhile.
In chronological order. Kinjiro can’t do anything in the open, due to his position, but he leaves a message on an on-line forum, telling about a secret doorway inside the prison (yes, an on-line forum). Kagaya and the others help him to get there.
We learn that O-Ise wields a strange Yo-yo, Tenhou carries throwing knifes and Tenten uses a construction of strange pens as weapon. If I recall correctly, it was around that time that only Samurai were allowed to wield swords, and I must say that they’ve found creative ways to avoid this rule. In any case, they use this to save Ginjiro from Torii, after he officially abandoned them in favour of Sora.
This is a strange one. The third blue monster of the sky runs into Tetsuju, and the two make friends due to his strange personality and affinity with gunpowder. I seriously have no idea what’s going to happen with the two of them, but I’m really glad to see that Tetsuju will be appearing more frequently. ^_^
Hiraga can walk! He appears to be ore eccentric than I already thought, by letting himself get carried around by his “concubines”. He sure gave both me and Ginjiro quite a scare when he revealed this. He also seems to be an acquaintance of Mizuno. Why this is useful, we’ll learn in the next episode.
Tenhou, Tenten and O-Ise spy around in Akai’s house, and find out that he’s affiliated with the blue monster of the sky, and they recieve clues that he might be the one after the serial killings. While he’s been on fire for the past few episodes, this twist should make it more difficult for him in the next episode.
The episode ends with quite a nasty cliff-hanger. Sora seems to have accepted that she doesn’t belong with Seikichi, but she eventually agrees to escape from prison along with him. Akai then shows up, and then pretends to help the two of them escape, only to aim a freakin’ gun at Seikichi when he doesn’t look! The question is obviously not whether Seikichi will survive or not, due to one of the golden rules of anime, which says that main characters don’t die, unless it’s the final episode, but how he’ll survive. That gun had enough time to be properly aimed at Seikichi, Sora wasn’t near enough to protect him. What I suspect what happened was that Akai probably didn’t aim well enough, and only managed to hit Seikichi’s arm, leg, or any other body-part that isn’t fatal.
I also loved the small parodies with Tenhou and Tenten, sitting in the internet-cafe. It’s nice to see that Madhouse actually put more of a meaning behind its Death Note reference than Lucky Star is currently doing. That line “Shinigami only eat apples” was meant to confuse L, which is exactly what it does in the context in which Ooedo Rocket uses it. ^^;
On a side-note: gg has suddenly released episodes 1 to 4 on Tokyo Toshokan. If you’re not following the raws, then go and check them out, and I’m glad that this series is being handled by such a quality-fansub group.]]>
Author: psgels
Claymore – 18
Heh, and here I thought that this episode would disappoint. I was proven totally wrong when this episode comes and brings no less than twenty-four Claymore in one place, in order to fight the awakened beings in the north. It’s clear that this is just a way for the organization to buy time. They’re quite predictable once you figure them out. First, they sent out the worst possible party to Riful of the West, to show her that she isn’t going to get anything good that easily and now they send out an entire army of Claymore, but with the best four of them missing.
This is understandable, though, It seems that the little incident of Priscilla made a huge impact on them as well, and they now know that they shouldn’t waste their top-Claymore that easily. That does raise an interesting question, though: are Alicia and Beth really as good as their numbers seem to suggest? The two of them may have special powers and all, but because they’re so protected by the organization, they do lack the battle experience in really dangerous situations. I may be wrong, but I think it’s safe to assume that number five, Rafaela, is the real strongest Claymore.
Anyway, about the episode, many interesting new characters were introduced. We see Helen, Deneve and Miria return. Number eight, Flora, seems to have the fastest ability to draw her sword and attack. I assume that she’ll be a major character for this arc, due to the huge amount of screentime she already has. Same goes for number eleven, Undine. Interestingly enough, they all ended up fighting alongside Claire at the end of the episode.
Number 13 seems to be Veronica, though I don’t think she’ll get much of development, unfortunately. I do wish that some more unknown Claymore show their personalities in the next couple of episodes. I also hope for these male awakened beings to get fleshed out a bit more. Right now, only the spider one that Jeane was up against looked interesting and I hope that they turn into more than just random goons. But then again, Claymore has showed that it can make some pretty interesting antagonists. I’m looking forward to the next episode.]]>
Boogiepop Phantom Review – 87/100
It’s hard to find a good way to start this review. I think the best way is to compare this series to a very badly manufactured jigsaw-puzzle. Some pieces are too big, others are too small, pairs of pieces don’t attach to each other when they’re supposed to, and vice versa. There are pieces missing everywhere, and now it’s up to you to make some sense out of it!
This, in essence, is basically Boogiepop’s best and worst point. What we’ve got here is basically a case-based series, in which we some really deep case-studies of some seemingly random people, throughout the twelve episodes of its airtime. The catch is, however, that beneath the surface of this series, there’s an incredibly complex plot going on, that pops up once in a while. Boogiepop Phantom may be a case-based series on first looks, at heart, it’s a fully fledged mystery-series.
The mystery in this series is slightly different from other mystery-series. While most series of the genre choose the easy and straightforward way of “Hey, I’m a mystery-series with an unknown plot; through the course of my episodes, I’m slowly going to reveal my secrets so that you’ll understand everything in the end”, Boogiepop goes “Hey, I’m a mystery-series with an unknown plot; through the course of my episodes, I’m going to keep dropping references that you’ll only understand in four episodes, so that you’ll need to rewatch me at least once in order to understand the vital parts of my plot”.
And that’s the beauty of this series. It’s basically chockfull of references to other episodes, it keeps hopping from one time to another one, and the amount of red herrings it throws at you could satisfy an average fish-factory for at least a week. If you want to understand this series, you’ll have to work for it, as it’s not going to present itself on an open platter so easily. As mystery is my favourite genre, I just couldn’t help but love this. In fact, I’ve only seen one series that carried its mystery even further, and that is Ergo Proxy. It’s series like this one that really show the beauty of the mystery-genre.
Unfortunately, I think that this series went a little too overboard with this. After rewatching the important parts of the series, I think I now finally have an understanding of what’s going on, but there are still plot-holes that seemed to have come from nowhere. I remember seeing at least two characters who came from nowhere, did something important, and then vanished again. Kirima also lacked a reason for her actions (at least, I think she does, it may be a plot-hole I missed).
Still, this series also shines in its cases. Rarely have I seen a series that went so deep into the minds of its characters with a relatively low amount of time spent on them, and the results are great. A few cases really stand out as memorable. If I had to describe my feelings of Boogiepop Phantom with one word, it’d have to be “fascinating”.]]>
Bokura no – 16 – II
Ah, so the previous episode was episode 15,5, while this one is the true sixteenth episode of Bokura no. And yet again, I loved it, as it comes with yet another shocking plot twist at the end. We start the episode with the news that the fact that Zearth is piloted by children has leaked out to the public. The parents of Kanji, Takami and Jun also come together and learn that their children still aren’t saved. Kirie meanwhile decides to fight for his mother, who has gotten out of hospital and finally managed to find a job.
The awesomeness begins when the fight starts, though. Not only do they have to battle an enemy which has been highly experienced, with only two pilots left, Kirie also somehow manages to increase Zearth’s abilities tenfold, killing him or her off easily. He also had some strange ideas for his final moments. He actually knew that Yoko was the one who wasn’t part of the contract, and he told this to the others in his final moments. Because of that, he didn’t die as the centre of attention, but he died on the side-lines.
But still, I knew that Yoko was the one who remained out of the contract! Though it’s because of different reasons. I originally thought that because Takashi forced her to enlist, but I think that that was just an attempt of her to make it look like she ad suspicions from the beginning. She’s actually Koemushi’s accomplice and sister! She was the one who pointed the twelve children towards the cave, and was the one who introduced them to this mess!
I’ve also been wondering whether we see Tanaka and her partner as a pilot in this series. The fact remains that this series is starting to near its end, and there are only four children left: Jun, Takami, Kanji and Aiko. This means that there’ll be five fights left, if I recall correctly (since Kirie beat two enemies, instead of one).
The next episodes should also promise to be awesome, since Aiko is one of the most mentally unstable of all the pilots, apart from Isao. I really wonder how she’ll chose to deal with things, especially now that she knows the truth about Yoko.]]>
El Cazador de la Bruja – 18
Thankfully, this episode restored my faith in El Cazador perfectly, when it not only spends time developing Ellis, but also finally introduces other magical elements, other than Ellis and LA. The fact remains that Ellis is now rapidly starting to become more critical of the things that happen around her. In this episode, she carries it a bit too far, and even starts to mistrust Nadie. Luckily, she didn’t go emo, and the situation was resolved at the end, and Ellis and Nadie have yet again gotten a bit closer together. While it wasn’t as cute as seeing the two of them in the hot springs together, the ending of the episode really was adorable. I was also pleasantly surprised by a couple of new quiet tunes that got introduced in this episode. Even though they’re not really up-beat, they were nice to listen to.
This episode also features the ghost of the writers of those love manga that we saw Ellis reading, a few episodes ago. He’s totally friendly, actually, and not angsty like most ghosts you see in other anime, which was quite refreshing. The interesting thing was that he used the same kind of fire magic that we saw Ellis use, and he actually teleported people to random locations (in this case, LA and Blue-Eyes). I liked the guy, and the air of mystery around him.
Blue-Eyes also decides to make her move and take Ellis away. She fails, due to mr Ghost(see above), but it’ll be interesting to see where she’ll go from now on. She also seems to know something about Ellis’s destination, and it doesn’t seem to be good. I’m also beginning to understand why Ricardo and Lilio keep running into Nadie and Ellis. Something tells me that they’ve got the same destination. While this by no means explains how they met in episode 17, seeing him say “We’ll be going ahead” seems to suggest that they need to be around the same place as where Ellis is going The question remains: why? Is this still for Rozenberg?
By the way, I’m actually glad that El Cazador didn’t end up focusing on action, because let’s face it, the action scenes we’ve seen up till now weren’t really that good. This show is more about its atmosphere and characters. And not only that, but the fact remains that Nadie isn’t the best gunman. She may be strong and accurate, but she does have a tendency to screw up once in a while. If this happens too much, and she kept getting saved, this show would lose its credibility quite fast (see episode 17 for the perfect example for this).The quiet and mysterious approach of this episode worked much, much better.]]>
July Summary
July 2007 Rankings
As you can see, this section’s got a few new features. Someone requested to give out series ratings of the past month, and I decided to give it a try. Rating individual episodes was clearly a bad idea, but I liked the idea of monthly ratings, so I decided to let my rating system loose on these series. It’s working fine so far, I’ll continue till this feature turns out to be a bad idea.
#46 (new): Buzzer Beater – (3,2) – I think it’s safe to label this one as the worst show of the season. Don’t even touch this one with a ten-foot pole. Dropped.
#45 (36): Shining Tears X Wind – (3,7) – Episode 12 had to be THE cheesiest episode I’ve ever seen. Yes, it was that painful.
#44 (new): Moetan – (4,6) – Nice to see that the creators went for a subtle approach for this series. [/sarcasm] Can it get any more blatantly obvious? Dropped
#43 (new): School Days – (4,9) – Ugh… that main character… that horrible, horrible main character! This show had better have an amazing climax to make up for the annoying first four episodes.
#42 (32): Kaze no Stigma – (5,1) – Okay, I give up. I tried watching this show, but it still disappoints me. The characters are just way too annoying to enjoy them. Dropped.
#41 (new): Doujin Work – (5,1) – Basically, this show didn’t stand out to me in any way, so I never bothered to check out its second episode. Dropped.
#40 (28): Devil May Cry – (5,9) – I dropped this series when episode 2 and 3 didn’t feature the great direction of episode 1.
#39 (33): Lucky Star – (6) – I’m glad to see that Lucky Star finally introduced new characters to introduce some (gasp) variation. Still, what they were doing before they were introduced is beyond me. It’s especially strange that it took Kagami no less than 16 episodes to mention that she’s got two elder sisters, and we still have no idea what happened to Konata’s mother. Overall, this month has been better for Lucky Star than the previous one, but it’s still too much moe and Haruhi-references and too little substance.
#38 (26): Romeo x Juliet – (6,2) – It’s sad to see that a potential classic boiled down to the story of a bunch of angsty teenagers. While it still holds the potential to become good in the end, right now, it’s obnoxious.
#37 (34): Heroic Age – (6,3) – It’s annoying that Dianeira’s brothers basically only exist to make Dianeira look better. This series would have been so much better off without them, and you’d wonder how humanity managed to survive with both of them in command. Really, this show is trying too hard to make its protagonists look good.
#36 (new): Sky Girls – (6,4) – I still don’t know what to think about this series. On one hand, it’s a nice story between three girls. On the other hand, it’s blatant lolicon-bait that makes no sense. There is a reason why the real military doesn’t use any child pilots: their bodies are too weak, and they’re mentally too unstable for such a delicate job. One thing I’m also missing in this series is the effects of a nuclear war on humanity Right now, you wouldn’t suspect that the worms were wiped out by nuclear weapons.
#35 (new): Nanatsuiro Drops – (6,5) – Despite the annoying Sumomo, this series turned out to be actually watchable. I don’t like, however, how it shamelessly ripped off Akazukin’s main tune
#34 (new): Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho – (7,1) – When fanservice isn’t involved, this series is entertaining. It’s got characters that go beyond stereotypes, and it’s probably the only fanservice-show that’s actually funny. When fanservice is involved, however… *headdesks*
#33 (24): Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – (7,2) – This show seems to be missing something, but I can’t exactly point out what. Perhaps it’s the excessive amount of angst, or the fact that we just know that Russia is going to be the main final enemy who has to be defeated.
#32 (23): The Skull Man – (7,3) – While everyone already finished this series, I’m waiting for the subs of the final episodes that are not HD .mkv ones. -_-
#31 (21): Tokyo Tribe 2 – (7,4) – Despite the predictability, the ending was definitely fun to watch, especially Skunk and Buppa in their last moments. And I really thought that Skunk was the one who committed the murder in the past, and it was a nice surprise to be proven wrong.
#30 (35): Murder Princess – (7,6) – The fourth episode was definitely better than the third one, and it was an enjoyable watch, despite the cheesiness. I’m just afraid, because I didn’t hear many good things about episode 5.
#29 (new): Potemayo – (7,6) – I am getting a bit worried about this series. Episode 3 and 4 were nowhere near as brilliant as episodes 1 and 2. Please don’t let the creators run out of ideas!
#28 (16): Tetsuko no Tabi – (7,6) – Even though nothing much happens, and I usually dislike otaku in anime, I really like Yokomi and the other characters who travel along with him. I also like how every episode comes with a different cast, and that we don’t just get to see the same group over and over.
#27 (new): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – (7,6) – I really like Higurashi, but the current arc isn’t part of its highlights. Episode 1 was awesomeness, though.
#26 (new): Baccano! – (7,7) – The first episode already surprised with its huge amount of characters. It’s also got a great style, the question now remains: will everything come together in the end?
#25 (???): Shoujo Jang Geum no Yume – (7,8) – Whoa! Where did this come from? Despite the fact that only one episode gets released in half a year, I must thank Ppalgan-anime that they’re willing to fansub this series. It turned into quite an adorable shoujo-series, and another great example of the greatness of neglected series.
#24 (???): Code Geass – (7,9) – The finale was quite good, for Code Geass-standards. There were a couple of minor flaws, but overall it was enjoyable watching this series. I especially liked Orange-kun, despite the lack of explanation where he came from. Still, it’s sad to see that the creators went for the most predictable cliff-hanger in the end.
#23 (new): Mushiuta – (7,9) – While episodes 2 and 3 were rather dull, episode 4 showed great promise. This can turn into a great series, if it does things well from now on.
#22 (11): Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS – (7,9) – The subs have now reached up to episode 15, though nothing much happened, and the series is still building up. There was one mission, but apart from that we mostly saw the cast training, and the introduction of a rather obnoxious yellow-haired girl. Still, I’ve heard great things about the upcoming episodes. It’s just a shame that the character-designs start to look worse, every time I look at them.
#21 (22): Gurren Lagann – (7,9) – Simon couldn’t have chosen a better day to propose to Nia, could he? While this does feel a bit cheap, I like the time-leap so far. Especially Rossiu turned out for the better, and Yoko’s gone now.
#20 (25): Reideen – (8,1) – While I dislike Reideen’s habit of using Deus ex Machina for its climaxes, it is doing a lot of things right. The atmosphere still is great, and especially the storm-arc and the subway-arc were a great watch when the focus turned to the characters.
#19 (14): Kekkaishi – (8,2) – Up till now, I’ve been watching this series raw, but with the sudden introduction of a plot, I gave in. I’ve basically been rewatching the past few episodes this month, while waiting for the subs to catch up with me. This series has a really nice rewatch-value, by the way.
#18 (new): Zombie Loan – (8,3) – I like the atmosphere of this strange combination between a shounen and a shoujo-show. There’s definitely chemistry between the characters, which more than makes up for the lack of fights
#17 (17): Gintama – (8,4) – You have to see episode 34, for it’s brilliant forum-parodies. Episode 33 also was genius, though its conclusion was disappointing.
#16 (new): Shigurui – (8,5) – This is one disturbing show, and definitely not recommended for younger audiences. It’s incredibly detailed, and if you combine that with the gore and atmosphere, you get an incredibly tense result.
#15 (10): El Cazador de la Bruja – (8,5) – It’s great to see that the plot finally starts moving, episode 17 should never have been aired, though.
#14 (13): Claymore – (8,5) – While it does make me worry at times, these worries aren’t necessary at all. The climaxes for Claymore have been truly excellent, and Claymore has turned into a series that just about anyone will be able to enjoy.
#13 (22): Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge – (8,6) – There seems to be some general rule among comedy-series with storylines that the final episode has to suck and disappoint. Therefore, it was great to see that Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge even screwed this rule, and came with a really enjoyable ending, that had me laughing over and over, and still was really touching as an ending.
#12 (new): Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – (8,8) – I think we’ve got ourselves another brilliant comedy-series here. We’re three episodes in, and it still continues to get better and better. It’s just a shame that afk refuses to give information about the obscure references, like gg did for Pani Poni Dash. I’m not sure how many people picked it up, but the name for the female lead, Fuura Kafuka actually comes from a German writer, named Franz Kafka. I’ve read one of his books for school once, and let me say that you can’t get more desperate than that guy. Hence the irony of Fuura’s name, as she probably is the most optimistic character you can think of. ^^; Another thing I really like is how it talks about so many taboos in modern society. I especially loved this for the foreign girl. Here, we all think that Asians are good at studying, and in Japan, people think that it’s the foreigners who are the smart ones. ^^;
#11 (7): Ooedo Rocket – (8,8) – For the past few episodes, the plot has started to get going, and the characters are really turning into multi-dimensional ones, and I found myself really caring about them, due to the time that the first half of the series spent on them, fleshing them out.
#10 (new): Code-E – (8,8)
This show did just about everything right, apart from the character-designs for the male lead. The characters were surprisingly addictive for me, there was some great chemistry between them, and the climaxes are really nice to watch, when the main character’s power gets out of control. While this definitely isn’t for everyone, it’s great to see that Simoun’s director can even make such a slice-of-life series work out greatly. 🙂
#9 (15): Darker than Black – (8,9)
I can hardly believe it, but the past two arcs have been amazingly good. Especially episodes 13 and 14 featured some of the best minor villains I’ve seen in a long, long while, and I’m finally beginning to feel Yoko Kanno’s magic. Now let’s see how this series will close itself off.
#8 (3): Saiunkoku Monogatari – (8,9)
And finally the first major climax of the second season has come, and despite the rather cheap twist of episode 16, the scenes especially involving Eigetsu were real tear-jerkers, and the other characters also turned out to be delights to watch.
#7 (new): Mononoke – (9)
I think it won’t be necessary anymore to declare my love for this series, as the past few series have been really, really good. If you’re a psychological horror-fan, you just have to check out this piece of awesomeness!
#6 (6): Les Miserables – (9)
And finally this series starts getting really awesome! Despite the fact that this series is meant for kids, it doesn’t go out of its way to hide deceit, death threats, prison and abuse, and the past few episodes have been true roller-coaster rides. The only problem is the chronic lack of subs. Seriously, we’re already at episode 30, and the subs have been stuck at episode five for months! An epic like this one doesn’t deserve this much negligence.
#5 (9): Seirei no Moribito – (9,1)
Now that the shadow hunters have returned, this series suddenly has become much better again, and it’s finally time to move out of the quiet mood and get the conclusion of the series started. I seriously wonder how the creators are planning to do that.
#4 (12): Dennou Coil – (9,1)
Dennou Coil has been pure excellence for this month, with an effective combination between gripping drama and hilarious comedy, and it seems that the creativity of the creators still hasn’t run out.
#3 (4): Kaze no Shoujo Emily – (9,3)
Kaze no Shoujo Emily continues to be one of the best slice-of-life series I’ve ever seen, and every episode is one big heart-warming success. Especially when an episode comes and introduces some beautiful background tunes.
#2 (1): Bokura no – (9,3)
Okay, you know you’ve got a success when even a recap episode turns out worthwhile. The climaxes of this series have been incredibly intriguing, and they give a total new dimension to “we’re not alone”.
#1 (5): Toward the Terra – (9,3)
Epic, truly epic. Toward the Terra has really surpassed itself this month, with some of the amazing plots and scenes as the result. Keith is the perfect example of a good villain, due to the time that the previous episodes have spent on fleshing the guy out. If you’re a science-fiction-fan, you absolutely can’t miss out on this one.
Top 5 Episodes
This time, not only did I take into account the quality of the episodes themselves, but the impact they made also played a huge role in my selection.
#5: Bokura no – 15
While the episode started out mundane, the twists at the end were OMG-worthy.
#4: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 27
A perfect aftermath, and while nothing much happened, it was awesome to see some of my favourite characters return, including seeing how they changed.
#3: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 29
One huge turning-point for the series in terms of mood. While only two episodes ago, we saw people reuniting a mother with her daughter, this episode turned into an incredibly dark one.
#2: Dennou Coil – 09
For me, this was the episode that really convinced me of Dennou Coil’s awesomeness, when suddenly it comes with such a grand episode.
#1: Bokura no – 13
The word that can probably best describe this episode is “shocking”.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 30
This episode can be summarized with one word: AWESOMEness.
I’d like to go in a bit more detail, though. It’s strange, but after watching, it does feel that the most logical course of events had taken place, and yet it still surprised me. Especially Thenardier, who again showed that he does have brains, despite his looks, and the fact that Marius screwed up after all his worries.
Basically, Marius was ordered to give Javert a sign when things got out of hand inside. And then he suddenly finds out Thenardier’s name, the one who “saved” his father. Obviously, he’d not want that guy to prison, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to harm his “Ursulle”. I can imagine how hard it must be to think clearly at such a moment. The solution he finds is to warn Thenardier that the police is coming. This plan, however, backfires because Thenardier and his henchmen were just way too loud when they tried to escape, resulting in everyone but Jean and Eponine getting arrested! Even Azelma gets caught!
Jean, meanwhile, decided to play for dumb. He tries to use his huge strength to escape when Thenardier attempts to hit him, though he’s against too many and gets overpowered. By this, Thenardier figures out that Jean himself is on the wrong terms with the police, since he never cried for help at all, in the hope that neighbours would call the police. Since Jean didn’t really bring a large amount of money with him, Thenardier decides to use Cosette. I didn’t fully catch his plan, but it was probably to make Jean send a letter to Cosette, luring her towards Thenardier, so she could get kidnapped. Afterwards, if Jean made any wrong moves afterwards, or Thenardier would end up in jail, he’d order his henchmen to kill Cosette.
He didn’t take into account, however, that Jean would never tell him where Cosette lived. ^^; The nice gentleman-look indeed hides the fact that he used to lead a horrible life before he became major, and that he’s at the point where he cares more about Cosette’s life than his own. He afterwards manages to escape in the confusion, created by Marius, after Thenardier threatened him with a knife.
The question now remains: will the Thenardiers go to jail, and if yes: for how long. I’m not really familiar with the French system of law and order around that age, but I think they’ll get off relatively light due to lack of evidence. It will become awesome if they indeed do have to serve jail for a few years, though. The fact also remains that we’re nowhere near the end of this anime, and something tells me that this already awesome mini-arc was just the beginning.]]>
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 30
With this episode, I’m beginning to understand this arc a bit. It’s one of these cases where the disease isn’t really triggered for anyone, so the turn of events are just what would go on if nobody did anything unpredictable. Meanwhile, the time is filled with random games, and Rika’s despair. Satoko seems to be the only one who acts differently because of it.
Tis episode yet again didn’t give us any new information, it just confirmed things more. Irie indeed is doomed to die. The real villain is indeed controlling the Sonozaki-family from the shadows, and Tomitake indeed clawed himself to death, because of the disease. One interesting thing to note is that Rika said he would be killed, instead of suicide, which makes me suspect that the killer forcibly awakened the diseases in them. Something also tells me that these guys in uniforms were messing with the electricity house as a step to set off the great Hinamizawa-disaster.
Still, I finally know the answer to one of the smaller questions raised in the first season: Remember when Keiichi and Shion felt that they were being watched? It turns out that they were the henchmen of the Sonozaki-family after all. It seems that they’ve been collecting information for the real killer all along. We already know that they’ve received training, so I imagine that you can only spot them if you really pay attention, which is what Satoko has been doing in this episode.
Rika is also way too caught up in her own despair. Keiichi didn’t remember everything without any reason. I think that for the past arcs, she’s been trying to manipulate the wrong things. While she tried to cure the individual victims, she also could have gone after Tomitake, Takano and Irie in order to protect them. Somehow, she didn’t do that.
While typing this entry, I’ve also been wondering something. Why did Irie have the cure for the disease in the third arc, and why did Rena and Mion have it in the first arc? It’s been a long while since we saw these arcs, but I can very well imagine that the culprit killed Irie because he formed too much of a threat. I also finally remembered that Irie didn’t die in every arc: he lived in the first one.]]>
Toward the Terra – 17
I’m going to be a bit more extensive for this review, because it seems that the subs have stopped due to the licensing of this show, and Toward the Terra is just too awesome not to get subbed. It’s such an incredible shame that so few people are talking about this series, because this one definitely is one of the best series that’s currently airing. This episode again was just awesome. It marks the end of the Nazca-arc, and with such an end comes an amazing climax. Let’s just say that things turn into a bloodbath.
We start the episode with where we left off at the previous episode: Soldier Blue, trying to stop the huge planet-destroying beam that gets fired at them. In the previous episode, Keith made clever use to hide behind a gas-planet to avoid detection, which is why he blew right through it. I originally thought that that would be the thing to kill Blue, but things didn’t go that easy. He gets help from Jomie, who rushes to his side, and quite surprisingly, Toni and the other naturally born children! Not only that, but they also grew up a bit!
The attack is deflected, but Keith is still there with his cannon that can be ready to fire again within minutes. Nazca is also done for it, and large cracks appear on the surface. Blue orders Jomie to bring the children, who most of all have fainted due to the strain, into safety, and get everyone else off of Nazca, while he himself goes off to stop Keith and his weapon (which is called “Moby Dick”, by the way. Jomie objects, but Blue reminds him that he is the leader of the Myu, and bringing them to safety takes priority.
Keith, meanwhile, waits for Soldier Blue to come to him. He doesn’t even take Jomie into account, it seems. For him, Blue seems to be the biggest threat. Meanwhile, on Nazca, people are trying to evacuate, but earthquakes really limit the process. There is one problem, though. Rio realizes that a few of the Myu have retreated into a shelter, where they are planning to sit everything out. They were the ones who wished to remain on Nazca, and had no intention to return to Terra. They don’t realize the danger that’s upon them, so they refuse to let Rio in. Among them is Kim, the one who Jomie punched in one of the first episodes.
On a side-note: Whoa, there sure are a lot of Myu there! Up till now, we’ve only seen a relatively small amount of people on the ship, but there really are more than hundred my that were on Nazca and had to be evacuated. With this, things do make a bit more sense. I originally thought that after Toni’s birth, every young Myu sought out to have a baby, but only seven couples actually formed. That’s relatively few, instead of the relatively large amount I originally thought them to be.
While Blue is heading for Keith, Physis holds his headgear, hoping that he’ll return safely like he promised. Jomie, meanwhile, arrives and saves a few ships that can be used to transport the Myu that are till on Nazca to Shangri-la. Rio then tells him about the people in the shelter. Jomie then tells Rio to save himself, while he himself will try to do something about the shelter. Keith, meanwhile, is ready to fire when Blue arrives. He manages to take out some of the surrounding ships of the fleet by making them shoot at themselves. He then penetrates Moby Dick, with the intention to blow up the firing mechanism.
Keith has been waiting for this, and he personally goes out to meet Blue. He leaves the command to one of his subordinates, and moves to the centre of Moby Dick himself. Jomie, meanwhile, failed. He sees a few Myu who were unfortunate, and crushed by the rubble, caused by the massive earthquakes, and when he reaches the shelter, everyone is already dead, and Kim only has the ability to utter a few words to Jomie himself.
While that scene already was amazing, things only get better. We switch to Soldier Blue, who is struggling towards the core of the Moby Dick. He’s exhausted from beating up so many soldiers, when he runs into Keith, who deals him a few deadly blows. Before he dies, though, he manages to accomplish his mission and blow up the firing system, preventing it from firing. With this, though, he gets caught in the explosion. Matsuka manages to save Keith. The rest of the crew decides to detach from the Moby Dick, before it explodes. Jomie meanwhile reaches the Shangri-la, which quickly warps away from the area.
We then turn to the commander of the fleet (the one who we saw in episode six as well), as he comments on the destruction that Keith caused. He may be a soldier, but he doesn’t consider this a battle, but a slaughter (or something similar). When looking at the two nearly destroyed planets, he sees Keith as some kind of monster. It’s interesting, because on first sight, he really looks like some kind of villain.
Strangely enough, despite the awesomeness of these scenes, my favourite moment of the episode was the aftermath. Seeing the old guy eat a tomato, to be strangely enough exact. With this, he finally acknowledges the Myu who died on Nazca. Everyone on the ship is mourning about them and Blue.
The episode ends with Jomie, announcing his new plans. People start to confuse him with Soldier Blue, as he claims that this showed the true colours of Artemesia (which I assume is the general government from the humans). He can’t forgive their system. From now on, not only will they continue to search for Terra, he also plans to go to Artemesia, in order to fix their system, and forcibly obtain Terra’s location.
This episode truly was epic. The most important thing was obviously the loss of so many characters, both important and unimportant. Another interesting issue was raised, which is the huge power of Toni and the other children. At such a young age, their power is already equal to Jomie’s and Blue’s. Now I understand why they’re going to play such a big role in the future.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 17
Yay! Yay! Yay! Finally we get to see Ilse’s background! And boy, does it deliver. This episode was a beautiful tear-jerker, and it more than made up for the lacklustre sixteenth episode. Now all that’s left is Teddy, but I wonder, will there be more? I definitely hope so!
Ilse was another one of these persons, just like Perry, who didn’t like to talk about her own problems. That’s why it took so long for this to be addressed, but now that the anniversary of the day where her mother and father met each other had arrived, it had to be more on her mind than usual. Ilse’s mother died because of an accident, and her father was so shocked by this, that he decided to pretend that she never existed, in order to protect Ilse.
Ilse, however, interpreted this in a totally different way. Because her father never spoke about her, and would react startled and scary when she was mentioned, she began to think that he hated her. Obviously, as a curious child, you’d want to know the truth about your mother. The result was amazing, and I loved the way in which their misunderstandings were solved, after Ilse gets incredibly angry at him for not telling, and runs away, in the middle of a storm. This episode illustrated perfectly what Kaze no Shoujo is about: the friendship between children and their relationship with adults.
In this episode, Emily provides a huge amount of support for Ilse, and we’ve seen Ilse provide the same amount of support for Emily and the others as well. Furthermore, there will always be a gap between adults and children. The adults have experienced things that they don’t want to talk about, while the children can’t understand these things yet. Especially in these days, the adults were afraid of change and rather stubborn, and this can sometimes create conflicts with the playful children. Children, on their turn, often draw the wrong conclusions with their hastened deductions, while adults are way less naive. And that’s what this series is really about, and it does this perfectly.]]>