A Shuga-episode. After episode seven, I thought he’d immediately conclude that Chaggumu is still alive, but in the end, it wasn’t that simple. Chaggumu meanwhile makes a few friends. After an absence of an episode, Shuga returns. We first see him talk with Chaggumu’s mother. She believes that Chaggumu is still alive at that point. Call it a mother’s intuition. A bunch of children meanwhile comes to visit the house Chaggumu and Barsa are staying in, thinking the old guy still lives in it. Chaggumu of course doesn’t know what to say to them, and remains silent. Barsa then arrives and let them in.
People are meanwhile very busy finding out why the drought is still being predicted. Shuga gets rather angry at them, as they seem to act like Chaggumu never had anything to do with it. It does make sense, though. I originally believed that they’d question the reports of Chaggumu’s death, but instead the machine who did the prediction is re-investigated. Because of this, people have forgotten all about Chaggumu. Then why did he have to be sacrificed in the first place for all this?
He then sees Gakai with some servants search his room, and take away his research, or something similar. They intend to deliver it to Saggumu, who requested it, though somehow Shuga doesn’t approve to this. He then forcibly tries to take it back, but fails, knocking over Gakai in the process.
Saggumu then calls him for a visit. He then tells him about how Chaggumu used to love animals, and we saw a flashback of the two of them while they were younger. Chaggumu accidentally knocked a rare bird out of the sky with a rock, and then he begged his brother to somehow save it. If I’m not mistaken, then that same bird resides now in Saggumu’s office. He then returns the papers with Shuga’s research. If I had to guess, then he did this because they’d otherwise be destroyed because of Chaggumu’s death. Shuga, however, refuses to accept them, saying that he doesn’t need them anymore. I’m not sure what was up with that, though.
Chaggumu, meanwhile gets forced by Barsa to make a few friends. Clearly, the two of them really have it easy now, and they’re able to relax a bit. I really wonder how long this will last.
The final part of the episode focuses on Shuga, who probably abandoned looking after the prediction-machine and went out to the country in order to find the true cause of the drought. Eventually, he runs into Tanda, collecting food for probably the night’s dinner. They talk a bit, and eventually Tanda shows him the egg of a praying mantis. I’m not sure how that could lead to him thinking that Chaggumu is still alive, but it does. We’ll have to wait till the next episode till we find out what he does with this.
It’s good to see that this anime has been doing a lot of building up, but I hope that the second half will be a bit more exciting. The past few episodes have been interesting, but the sense of conflict has just disappeared. If I had to guess, then Shuga will continue to investigate on Chaggumu and then he’ll find out that he’s still alive. Starting from that point, Seirei no Moribito could get very interesting. But until then, I’m going to enjoy the quiet moods of the episodes.]]>
Author: psgels
Death Note – 33
I love how this episode had lots of different focuses, instead of just spending all of its twenty minutes on Near. I’m really glad to see that despite its bugs in the middle, the ending is shaping up to be something really good. This episode also introduced lots of questions, which actually can all be resolved in the final four episodes.
Near, while silent in the previous episode, finds out quite a few things in the current one: all of Light’s plans, up to the end of the previous episode. Now all that’s left is for him to catch the him, though Light isn’t sitting still either, as Near was arrogant enough to inform Kira that he knows all about him. Light’s plan was to turn Mikami in yet another decoy. He would walk around with a fake Death Note, while Takada cleans the world of criminals with five pages of the Death Note she received. At the end of the episode, we get a small demonstration of how well this works, when Mikami seemingly kills someone in front one of Near’s henchmen, while he in fact made a phone call to Takada, who really killed him. But then again, it probably won’t take long for Near to figure out about this as well. What’s going to be your next step, Light?
Near also showed something very interesting this episode, apart from his doll fetish: he thinks that L would never use murder in order to solve his cases. He never knew that L was actually about to use human lives as a guinea-pigs for his investigations. Heck, he never knew that L’s very first move on Kira was made possible by the sacrifice of Lind L Taylor.
Another surprising focus of this episode was Misa. I believed that she was just written out of the show when she lost her memories, but she’s actually still important to the plot. I’m not sure how, but her little date with Takada must mean that something is going to happen to her in the future. I was quite surprised by all the things Misa said while drunk, and on second watch I realized this too was all a plan by Light. I first thought that this was meant for Takada to give Misa her memories back, but it was actually to confuse Near, since Takada had one of her bodyguards, whom she knew was one of Near’s henchmen standing right next to her. The question remains: why was this necessary?
Another question: what has Mello been up to?]]>
Ayatsuri Sakon – 21
Hah! It’s just as I hoped, now that the ending is coming closer, the arcs are getting better and better! This episode reminded me again why I started blogging this series, and it’s quite possible that the current arc will be able to match up to the first two arcs. One thing’s for sure: this is one of the most touching arcs yet, only rivalled by episode seven. I especially loved the climax.
The case this time centres around a young woman (Hoshie). Sakon, Ukon and Zenkichi (I was surprised seeing him among the main characters, he works perfect as a side-character, in my opinion) run into her, and it seems that her sister (Tsukiko), who used to be a nurse committed suicide after making a mistake that killed her fiancé’s sister. Right now, her “ghost” haunts the local graveyard.
There are lots of juicy details to this mystery. For starters, Tsukiko was a strong person, who according to her sister would never kill herself for such a thing as accidentally killing someone. She endured a lot of hardships in the past, while she had to take care of her sister as well after her parents died. For her to commit suicide was just highly improbable. In fact, I actually believe that it was Tsukiko herself who committed the obligatory “first kill” at the end of the episode.
Hoshie also has her own problems. Remember the fiancé? After the tragedy, he started gambling and accumulated quite a bit of debt. He then kept begging Hoshie for money to pay these off. During the episode, this guy really looked like a miserable fellow, and he also was the first to fall victim to the plans of the killer, possibly killed by his former girlfriend.]]>
Ooedo Rocket – 09
I have no idea what happened during the majority of the episode, but I liked it! Lots of things happened, and the climax was one of the most enjoyable climaxes in this series yet, but I definitely missed a few details. Below follows an attempt to understand it.
The townsfolk with funny faces prove themselves useful when the episode starts with a variation on a catapult that they managed to build, launching a barrel high in the air. Another step in the direction to get Sora to the moon (was I the only one who found it funny that Sora excused herself afterwards by looking on her watch? ^^;).
Remember the woman from the third episode? Well, she gets another major role in this one. It seems that she actually runs an important store, and has quite an amount of money, judged by the way she is transported. She first runs into Ginjiro, then into Seikishi. Apparently, they know each other, as she forces the latter in her carriage and offers him some dumplings.
Next, Sora and Ginjiro talk about what happened last episode. If I’m not mistaken, Sora explains why she came to earth: exterminate the blue monsters and then return to the moon. Then, Seikichi and the woman (what was her name again?) notice the two of them talking, and take the wrong conclusions.
Seikichi then spends a lot of the episode looking stupid in front of Sora, whom he thinks has an affair with Ginjiro.
The really incomprehensible part started when the strange notes appeared. Apparently, the woman spread them as part of a plan to get revenge on Ginjiro. Akai seems to be after them as well, and to make things even stranger, we later see every cat in the neighbourhood collect these pieces, bring them to the rich and popular old man, after which he burns them… what?
Anyway, the climax was lots of fun. The bickering between the woman and Ginjiro also was quite touching. The wooden barrel proved to be too much for the gunpowder to handle, so Sora went and got herself a rather large metal bell. When combined with the wooden structure, mentioned above, and it does reach a considerable height without breaking. But then a problem arises: the gunpowder inside the bell makes so much noise when it’s in the air that everyone in Edo can hear it. All kinds of methods are tried to get it down as fast as possible, as its parachute is going way too slow. Shinzo fires a missile, it hits the bell and bounces off again, people scream, Sora cheers and the episode ends. I have no idea what went on, but it was definitely fun to watch. 😛
Just as Wellber no Monogatari, Ooedo Rocket is going to build towards its ending in the next month. I really wonder if they’ll be able to get Sora to the moon in the end. Let’s see whether the final parts of these two series manage to become even better than their first parts. June is promising to become especially interesting for these two series, as they don’t have the luxury of thirteen more episodes, and they have to prove what they build up to now.]]>
May Summary
+ May Anime Rankings +
I still haven’t found a good name for this, as I’m still finding the right format for it. This time, I decided to throw everything just in one category, instead of splitting things up. Only the best ten have gotten some screenshots, as frankly, I got a bit tired of finding screenshots for 40 series each month.
#32: Shining Tears X Wind – I think this is what you’d call a guilty pleasure. I agree with everyone how badly this show is written, but because of my love for RPG-adaptations, I just can’t get myself to drop it.
#31: Kaze no Stigma – Back when it first aired, I remember writing a rather harsh review against it. That maybe wasn’t the best idea, as what followed were more than twenty people who liked the show commented to defend it, and somehow that post became my biggest source of Google hits for more than a month. Because of this, I decided to check it out, though what I found was that the three main characters were all just too annoying. Luckily, in episode six I finally found something that made me want to keep watching: seeing the red-haired girl grow. I really want her to beat up that idiotic male main character somewhere in this series.
#30: Heroic Age – It’s epic, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. I hoped for a complex plot in this one, but it seems that it’ll just feature a fight between Age and some random opponent. Let’s hope the second half comes with a bit more depth.
#29: Koutetsu Sangokushi – You know, the show could indeed use better scriptwriters, and some character designs just look a bit too ridiculous, but I do admit that the death in episode 6 was quite good.
#28: Tokyo Tribe 2 – This series keeps hopping over the line of credibility, but it’s a nice watch.
#27: Lucky Star – So far, I’ve had a few good laughs from Lucky Star, it’s definitely the best Kyoto-Animation series that I’ve seen so far. But it’s definitely not the best series of the season, in my opinion, and the Lucky Channel was a bad idea.
#26: The Skull Man – The protagonists are definitely annoying, but there’s some decent mystery in this series. It also helps that this is just going to have 12 episodes, so there won’t be room for fillers.
#25: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Frankly, after Popolocrois I don’t really care about the now famous death of episode eight anymore. It was way too long and drawn out. And do NOT get me started on how the princess’s BOX just happened to be dropped right next to Simon when he was taking a stroll.
#24: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – Tj Han possibly worded this best: it’s the most racial and culturally ignorant show out there. The characters are good, but someone please fix those nationalistic aspects of this show. Plus, the show still makes no sense.
#23: Darker than Black – Surprisingly, this turned out good when it started focusing on the main story. But the gore may have been a bit too much.
#22: Reideen – So far, Reideen has had to battle a few nearly impossible enemies, and while I’m not too much of a fan of the Deus ex Machina from episodes 10, the characters are appealing.
#21: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS – Okay, the good guys have potential, the bad guy has great promise to become great, now live up to these expectations!
#20: Gintama – Hilarious as always, especially Katsura in episode 28.
#19: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge – At this point, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is drawing near its end, and has to start wrapping up its stories and start the serious drama, in true anime fashion. Surprisingly, it made quite a good start, not forfeiting the humour that made the series great.
#18: Murder Princess – Despite the silliness, the serious parts in the second episode were really touching.
#17: Power Puff Girls Z – Episode 37 was quite possibly the best episode of this series yet. This series is ranked so low on this list because I want more, seeing as it was the only episode released this month.
#16: El Cazador – I’m fearing that El Cazador is about to hit a series of fillers, like it started in episode nine. I’m hoping that it’ll feature some character-development in any of the following episodes.
#15: Ooedo Rocket – So far, Ooedo Rocket has featured some good and some less interesting episodes. While some of the episodes were disappointing, the good ones were awesome. 🙂
#14: Kekkaishi – Finally, the third protagonist arrives, and I already like him.
#13: Romeo x Juliet – That kiss in episode 7 was actually a great one. This series turned out way better than I thought.
#12: Deltora Quest – Deltora Quest continued with its excellent storytelling, though the releases have been quite slow this month.
#11: Death Note – At the moment, Death Note has really become more consistent. When compared to the first half, there are nearly no bad points, but the good points don’t reach the heights of those in the first half. So far, though, I like it a lot.
#10: Les Miserables
The second arc was really different from the first one, it was much quieter. While I loved it, it just doesn’t match up to the awesomeness of the Thenardier-arc.
#9: Seirei no Moribito
The most complex and hardest anime to understand since Ergo Proxy. Still, I’m having a blast, trying to figure out what’s happening. I’m quite curious about what this series is going to do in its second half.
#8: Claymore
The Teresa-arc was definitely one step above the Raki-arc, and while it was quite amazing, it also reminded me that this is a shounen-series. Luckily, Claymore is rumoured to go down quite a different path when compared to your usual shounen-series. Episode nine already showed hints of this.
#7: Saiunkoku Monogatari
The second season has been excellent so far. Shuurei just continues to grow more and more, but Eigetsu was the one to make the most impact on me.
#6: Toward the Terra
Even though I liked Jomie better, Keith has proved to be quite an interesting protagonist, along with Sam, Swena and Shiroe. The art style still rocks.
#5: Hitohira
Why did I ever think of dropping this series!? It’s awesome, and episodes eight and nine have been amazing!
#4: Dennou Coil
One of the most imaginative series I’ve seen in quite a while. Great art, excellent animation, what more could you want?
#3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily
The focus has mostly been on Emily, but she makes such an adorable character. It’s a huge shame that nearly everyone is ignoring this, as it’s one of the best of the season.
#2: Wellber no Monogatari
Yes, call me crazy, but I greatly enjoyed the past few episodes of Wellber no Monogatari have been increasingly awesome, and I’m warming up to the characters more and more with every episode. Rita, Tina and Galahad are surprisingly likable, the OP is still my favourite for this season, and it’s another perfect example of an underdog who deserves more attention.
#1: Bokura no
Even though it has been toned down, according to the manga-readers, it didn’t prevent me from enjoying this excellent series. Not only are the characters extremely likable, it also makes sure of enough twists and turns to keep the story fresh.
+ Random Notes +
– When C1 released the first episode of Perrine, it seemed like a good idea to start checking out more series of the World Masterpiece Theatre, since Les Miserables has turned out really good so far. So far, the first episode has potential, though the graphics took a bit of time to get used to, as they’re as old-school as they can get. It’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out.
– Another older series I went to check out was one recommended to me by Wyrdwad: Ashita no Nadja. If you’re a shoujo-fan, I definitely recommend you to check it out, as I’ve seen the first 16 episodes, and there were some beautiful episodes among them, not to mention that nearly every character has some sort of charming side. I’ve only got one complaint, it’s fascinating to see how Nadja and the others travel through Europe, but no matter where she goes, she always runs into someone or something important to the plot. It’s a good thing that the results of these encounters are great to watch, though. ^^;
– Does anyone know what happened to the fansubs of Strange Dawn by NiTe? I’m actually craving for some more of that series, I can’t understand why people would neglect such an excellent gem for so long.
– I’m already looking forward to the summer-season, as some sequels to some already awesome anime have been planned (Mononoke and Higurashi). My preview should be up in a couple of days.
+ Top 5 Episodes +
#5: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 08 – A perfect example of a touching episode, when it starts focusing on Emily’s dead mother.
#4: Power Puff Girls Z – 37 – Okay, I mentioned this before, but I absolutely loved this episode and its parodies. Here’s to hoping more of these kinds of episodes will follow.
#3: Wellber no Monogatari – 08 – The definite proof that this show knows what it’s doing. If you still dislike this show after this episode, then it’s definitely not your cup of tea.
#2: Ooedo Rocket – 05 – Glad to see that the subs are out, and I can already see some people posting about how good it is. Just wait till they see episode five. ^_^
#1: Popolocrois 2003 – 23 – The beginning of one of the rumoured best endings in an anime ever. This episode showed that there is an actual possibility for this to be true.]]>
Claymore – 09
Now this was an intriguing episode! It’s almost a shame that I checked it out so early, since I have to wait another week for the next episode. I now understand how Claymore is rumoured to be so different from your average shounen-series.
I first thought that Claire would be your average Claymore, but she turns out to be the weakest of them al. It does make sense, though. While every other Claymore is infused with the flesh of a Youma, Claire is infused with Teresa: a half-human half-Youma. What intrigues me even more is the fact that she doesn’t act like she’s in last place. She gets into fights with the stronger Claymores, she shows up either too early or too late, and never apologizes. I think this is because she never really lived as a human, and the Youma who used her probably used her since she was young.
Apparently, Claymores usually don’t need to release their powers when they fight. I think that was unique among the stronger Claymores, though now it seems that Claire has the worst time of everyone, trying to get rid of a Youma. But I wonder, if she is infused with Teresa’s flesh, does this means that she excels at sensing Youma as well? If I had to guess, based on the first episode, she doesn’t. Either that, or she doesn’t know it.
Another new piece of information also is that when a Claymore awakens, the Organization doesn’t go after it. That does make me wonder about episode two. What if Claire arrived just a bit too late? Why did Elena take so long transforming, while this happened nearly instantly with Priscilla?]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 09
I think that with this, it’s become clear that we’re dealing with a 12 or 13-episoded series here. While it would be awesome to see what it could do in 26 episodes, the development shown in the past few episodes has gone way too fast for such a series. It’s a pity to see that such an excellent series will be over in one month. Still, something’s telling me that the creators saved the best for last, as yet again, this episode was a great one! 🙂
Last time, we saw Galahad betray Jamill, while this episode breaks up Rita and Tina! It all starts innocently, when Tina pays a visit to the local casino and nearly gambles away her gun, before Rita stops her. From that moment, Rita starts to get doubts on Tina, which can’t be taken away so easily. When Tina then sells some of her stuff to buy a birthday-present for Rita, everything goes wrong.
During Tina’s little screw-up, somebody recognized the two of them, and decided to take advantage of this by disguising her as Tina in thief-form. Rita hears the rumours about this woman, and when Tina comes to her with an expensive-looking birthday-present (which she bought with her own money, by the way, in fact, she sold her old thief-clothes in order to get the money, and these clothes were stolen again by the mysterious woman), Rita thinks she bought it with the stuff she stole. Tina is disappointed by this, since it’s Rita’s birthday, of all things. In the end, the two part ways, and I couldn’t help but love it. 🙂
On other news, Jamill figures out why Galahad betrayed her when she visits Guernia, and the king of Wellber sends a messenger to Rita. I’m not sure what that message is, but we’ll probably find out in a few episodes. I’m quite interested about this series will spend its final episodes. So far, it featured some excellent development, the characters are fleshed out well, now all that’s left is to use this in the finale. Unlike a series like Good Witch of the West, I don’t believe that Wellber no Monogatari has any source material, so it could be perfectly planned out from the beginning.
I also wonder, how did that woman know about Tina? How did she know about the outfit she wears when she goes out stealing? We also still don’t know who killed her parents in the past. What will Galahad’s role be? Will Jamill desert Guernia as well? Will the war actually happen? Lots of interesting questions to make some great potential for a finale!]]>
El Cazador de la Bruja – 09
I think that this can be classified as the first real filler of the series. Nothing is done to change the situations of any of the characters in any way, unless Ricardo really did lose track of Nadie and Ellis. I think we can expect episodes like these for the next month as well, until episode twelve or thirteen comes with the first major climax.
But, in order to make up for this, the creators did present us with a funny episode, and probably the coolest hunter yet. Seriously, though, it’s a shame that he died this episode, as he was hilarious and cool at the same time, I especially loved how he took his own horrible sense of fashion seriously. ^^;
As for the case of the episode, this time the anime starts playing around with raison d’êtres. We’ve got ourselves a girl who lives in an abandoned town, and works at an abandoned mine. How she gets her food is beyond me, but the reason she’s stayed as the only one was because of her father. He was looking for a strange silver relic when he still lived, but he never managed to find it. The girl then saw it as her task to continue this, even though everybody else gave up hope. In true anime-fashion, this relic is found and buried again, under the rubble. She then discards her father’s wishes, and chooses to live her own life: continue working on the mine.
It’s unfortunate, while I watched the episode, I never noticed anything, but as I’ve been writing this entry, I began to notice some considerable flaws in this episode. The scene with Blue-eyes illustrates this best, I think. While it was funny, it also shows how the plot is going nowhere. At least Wellber no Monogatari keeps track of where the main party is, but with El Cazador, the creators just can keep extending this journey as much as they like without it feeling strange.
The hunter, in fact, was the only really good point in this episode, now that I look back. The case itself was mundane, when compared to the others. Nadie was okay, I guess, not good, not bad. My main problem is Ellis, though. Her antics can only remain cute for a limited period of time, unless she changes somehow, which has yet to happen. This episode again, just showed her usual antics and nothing more, and for the first time, these antics began to drag.
The thing is that I’ve got nothing wrong with episodic series. Heck, I love them, but they’ve got one disadvantage: the episodes can either be incredibly good, or incredibly bad, depending on the case they choose. This clearly was a bad one, boring is the better word. Normally, I wouldn’t mind this so much, but the beginning episodes of this series have spoiled me so much when they had so many revelations in each episode, that it’s becoming disappointing to see a filler.
Let’s hope the case for the next episode is going to be a bit better.]]>
Bokura no – 08
This episode once again was amazing, even though I can assume that the manga-fans will dislike it. The greatest parts of the episode were the revelations at the end of the episode. Chizuru’s story was toned down from the things I’ve heard about her. I think this was to be expected, though. Gonzo does remain notorious for not keeping to their original source-material. I’ve yet to see one of their adaptations that wasn’t frowned upon by the fans of the originals.
But, having not read the Bokura no manga, I don’t care. This show rocks!
Chizuru’s downfall may have not been as shocking as Masaru’s, but certain parts of the episode were really touching. I originally thought that the flashback of episode seven happened before the events of episode five, but now it seems that Chizuru found out about her teacher somewhere in-between episodes 5 and 6. She still hates the guy, and in fact she plans to use Zearth to kill the guy. Her sister manages to save the guy, and even then he leaves the show with a bad impression, fleeing away like a little coward while his girlfriend can die any minute now.
Chizuru raises some interesting questions, reminiscent of the end of Jigoku Shoujo. If you’re going to die, why not take someone along with you? The only difference here is that Chizuru has ten people around her, who see her do these things. In the end, though, nobody can find a good reason to stop her from nearly killing her teacher.
The things that happen afterwards, though, are even better, when Yoko convinces Chizuru to fight the enemy. Especially when she told her that everybody’s going to have to do the same thing, which is quite ironic, see below. The then finishes off the enemy, and turns silent, while holding her hands around her belly.
And then the aftermath comes, with a really disturbing revelation. If you look at Zearth’s face, you could see a number of lights on it. When Chizuru died, two of these lights disappeared. In the end, these lights turned out to be the life-energy of the different children. When Chizuru died, the baby she carried also didn’t survive, which caused two of these lights to disappear.
But now the strange thing: there are eleven children left, but Zearth’s face only has nine lights left burning. This means that Kana will be surviving this whole drama, since she never enlisted. That, however, leaves another child who will be spared. One child will remain alive, while witnessing all her friends die in front of her eyes. There’s still the problem of Kokopelli, who seems to have mentioned that there will be fifteen enemies. Now that four of them have died, eleven will be left. This problem, however, can be solved, when it seems that the army is willing to offer sacrifices for the last two enemies. But who could the person who will survive be? After looking at some screenshots of the first episode, I think I know.
It’s Yoko! Remember, every one of the children enlisted properly, though she refused, and Takashi took her hand and forced her to sign up. I have no idea why, but that seemed not enough for her to become a pilot. Hence the irony when she told Chizuru that every one of them will be piloting Zearth and dying afterwards as well: everyone will, apart from herself. That’s why the OP features her, standing right next to a destroyed city! Obviously, this is 100% speculation, but it makes by far the most sense from all of the children.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 21
This episode introduced the third major arc in Les Miserables, and it already shows that the overall mood is going to be very different from the previous one. While the previous arc had a lot of tension, most of it was sortof silent. There weren’t many direct conflicts, and it was basically a big cat and mouse game, while Jean and Cosette got to know each other a bit better. The current arc, however, places Javert out of the picture again, brings back the Thenardiers (yay!), and shows that Marius has quite an interesting background.
Most of the episode was focused on the latter, by the way. Cosette meanwhile says goodbye to one of her major friends she met in the monastery, and starts thinking about her future because of this, while Jean watches. Marius, however, gets really fleshed out in this episode, after being introduced in the previous one. The dialogue on that part was a bit difficult, but this is what I got out of it:
His father was a major officer in Napoleon’s army. His uncle is a high-ranked official in Paris, with whom he currently lives with, along with his aunt. I didn’t see any signs pointing to some kind of mother of his, so I assume she died early. The reason why he lived with his uncle, instead of his father probably is because of his father’s position. It’s perfectly possible for him to have no time at all to take care of his child, so he sent him to his brother to take care of.
Well then, Marius hated his father, simply because he never heard anything about him. No letters, nothing. It turns out that his uncle kept burning the letters that Marius’s father sent (similar to Cosette, now that I think about it). As for the reason why, if I’m not mistaking it’s because his father worked for Napoleon. I can imagine that people would feel bad to be associated with such a person, which is why Marius’s uncle decided to keep him away from his father.
Then, at this episode, Marius’s father dies. Only then does his uncle inform him about his state, and then Marius finds out what his father really thought of him (he’s actually been dying, wanting to see him, pun not intended). An argument follows, and Marius decided to run away from home to… the Thenardiers!? What?
Only now I realize that Thenardier was in the army, and fought in the battle of Waterloo as well. It makes perfect sense now, and the picture they’ve always had hanging above their door shows him, together with Marius’s father in a rather dramatic way. It seems that Marius is planning to meet him, in order to find out the truth about his father, and what he was really like.
The Thenardiers, meanwhile, finally seem to have been defeated by their money-problems, and are forced to move out of their house. It’s great to see them actually back again. The question remains, though: how will the Thenardiers bring Cosette and Marius together? With Jean, this anime has already proved that it’s different from most other anime by not making haste when bringing characters together (unlike other anime, who most of the times wrap up the introduction of a new side-character in the same episode he or she was introduced in). This episode truly was excellent, and to think that the current arc has only just begun.]]>