I don’t understand why people actually claim that the second half of Death Note sucks. This episode was great, and L’s absence didn’t really hurt it. In fact, the Yotsuba-arc was far more annoying than the current one.
The focus of this episode was Light’s family. His sister may not have been physically hurt by the shots, fired at her, it did destroy her mentally. Because of this, Light’s father especially is put in deep thoughts. When Light then comes with the plan of revealing himself as Kira, after having found out Mello’s location, and give the police a second Death Note, so that they can make the eye-deal and kill Mello by only having to look at his face, he just feels obliged to be the one to do it. He really had to find a way to become useful, and this was the perfect way, even though he’d die himself. It’s quite interesting how he turned out.
His death alone wasn’t really spectacular, but everything around it was. Yet again was Light incredibly close to killing off his opponent, but just like Misa got caught before Light could reach her, Light’s father went to depend on his morals, and tried to arrest Mello, instead of killing him. Because of this, Mello could act back and kill the guy. Light wasn’t happy at that point.
On his death-bed, Light also lost his cool for probably the first time in the entire series in front of others. I’m not sure whether this was because he just was angry that he missed an important chance of murdering a threat, or that there was a tiny bit of sentiment in this.
It’s quite interesting, Near is now left with only two assistants, while Mello, or Mihael Keehl is all alone now, now that his former companions are either dead or arrested. I assume, though, that he’ll get them out of jail soon enough. I mean, if he can take over a plane, busting into a prison would be nothing for him. It’ll be interesting for Light now, this quite possibly is the first time that he actually knows a name, but not a face. Apparently, the drawing of the guy isn’t enough for this.
Meanwhile, we’ve still got Near as well. This means that if Light does kill Mihael at one point, he has to do this very carefully, or Near will find out that Light could have been the only one to do this. But then again, it’s quite possible that while he did know that L possessed a death note at one point, he probably never heard that Light was the main suspect of being Kira.
Also, what was up with Shidoh? He really surprised me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved his part in this episode, but I really expected him to have a really dark role in the future episodes, in which he would help Mello get even closer to Light, but in the end, he only had two roles: remove one Death Note from the game-board (this just leaves Ryuk’s original Death Note, still with Ryuk, Rem’s Death Note, now with the police and Misa’s Death Note, who now continuously touches Light in order to prevent him from forgetting everything), and the second role is to inform Mello that Kira has actually messed with the Death Note and added two fake rules. This will probably be used in the future.]]>
Author: psgels
Ooedo Rocket – 05
Seriously. That was AWESOME! The first half probably has to contain the funniest scenes I’ve seen for a while. At times, I nearly fell off my chair from laughter, this episode definitely proved that it was a good idea to keep watching and blogging this, as this episode was just HILARIOUS. Someone really needs to sub this, as it definitely is one of the best series to come this season. 🙂
There were only two things that needed to be added: a new character who looks more ridiculous than all the other characters combined and acts like an oversexed macho, and sake. Seriously, Sora actually gets drunk at one point in the episode, with hilarious results. It all starts when Sekichi and Sora are in the forest, trying to find a place where they can just quietly experiment with fireworks, without destroying nearby objects. Sekichi, though, has been really demotivated after the previous episode. After all, when fireworks explode in the middle of the air, they don’t make the safest forms of travelling.
Sora then mentions Kaguya-hime. I looked things up a bit in Wikipedia, and it seems that Kaguya-hime is a fictional character in a 10th century Japanese folk tale. This particular folk-tale is considered the oldest Japanese narrative. The tale goes as follows: Kaguya-hime is a mysterious girl, discovered inside the stalk of a great bamboo plant by a bamboo-cutter named Taketori-no Okina when she was a tiny baby, and she’s said to have come from the capital of the moon.
Kaguya-hime then grows up in the care of Taketori-no Okina, and she grew into a beautiful girl. Then, five princes went to her to ask for her hand in marriage. Kaguya-hime didn’t want to marry, though, so she thought up impossible tasks for these men, that they had to accomplish in order to be able to marry her. This works, but after a while, even the emperor went to her, and fell in love with her. Kaguya-hime rejected as well, but the two of them did keep in contact. At one time, though, Kaguya-hime had to return to the moon. When that day came, a bright light took her away from the earth, leaving her foster-parents and the emperor in tears.
Ooedo Rocket made a few changes to this story, when Sora claims herself to be Kaguya-hime. Apparently, she never went to the moon and she also wasn’t found in a bamboo-plant, but she just came with a space-ship. Obviously, Sekichi doesn’t believe a word of this. ^^; Then the craziness begins when the strange oversexed macho appears and has the strangest conversation with Sora ever. He then introduces himself as “Hinanawo Tetsuju” (not sure about the first part). What follows is the guy setting up a bar with some strange raccoons that appeared, with Sora and him both enjoying some alcohol. Sora is so funny when she’s drunk. XD
Lots of hilarious scenes later, and it’s time for a bit of plot development when it seems that Tetsuju also makes fireworks. It seems that he did find a way to keep fireworks from exploding, and demonstrates this by sending himself off into the air. I think it’s now up to Sekishi to go into the height, it seems as Tetsuju only managed to disappear out of sight, only to come down in a sort-of frozen state. I wonder how he found out about this, though. I couldn’t really pick that up.
And surprise, surprise, finally a romance between two characters is actually developed properly! A drunk Sora first has to puke and leave the room (hilarious scene, by the way), and Tetsuju uses this moment to convince Sekichi that he won’t be able to send Sora off to the moon. Sekichi never really made any progress, while Tetsuju’s rockets are already able to achieve quite a height. Because of this and Sora’s absence, Sekichi tells his feelings a bit too honest, and while Sora comes in again and hears everything about his confession. He was so cute when he got embarrassed like that. 🙂
Really, I do hope that all the other episodes in Ooedo Rocket are going to be like this one. It was hilarious, though a bit too much on the wrong side at times. ^^;]]>
Claymore – 05
Ah, finally Terese arrives, and things go quite differently from what I expected. We first see a total shift of focus, with no Claire whatsoever. She also gets a child who keeps running after her, just like Claire, so I assumed that it took place at the same time in which Raki appeared. I was quite surprised to see that this actually was Claire herself, in a younger form. This does explain why she took in Raki so easily, it happened to herself in the past as well.
I’m quite surprised at Eclipse, who managed to get the episode out after less than one day. I think I’m going to continue following Claymore in the subbed version now, unless Eclipse pulls a TV-nihon, somewhere in the middle. In any case, the caped guy also looks quite a few years younger, either that or it was a different guy. I’m not sure how their system works, exactly. How do they manage to find the Claymores, time after time? And is there one guy for every Claymore, is there just one of them, or are there a certain number of them, who all work for an amount of Claymore?
In any case, the guy calls Terese the 182nd warrior of the 77th class of Claymores. Whatever that means exactly, I have no idea, but she does appear to be the strongest Claymore who’s running around. In fact, she’s so strong that she never needs to use her Youma-powers in battle. Perhaps that’s why she didn’t turn as cold as Claire, but rather sadistic.
It’s interesting, I thought that Elena was the only Claymore significant in Claire’s past, but it seems that she first ran into Terese, who took her in for a few years. Then, at one point, Helena probably handed Claire over to Elena, and around that time, something happened to cause Claire to become a Claymore herself.
In the current timeline, I wonder where Terese is now. It seems that Claymores turn into youma whenever they use their youma-powers too much, but Terese just never uses them. Because of that, it’s quite possible that she’s still alive. But then again, I don’t really know how long it usually takes for Claymores to transform]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 40
Ah, Saiunkoku Monogatari is finally back! The episode really reminded me of the first half of the first season again, when Shuurei still finds herself very busy in the main capital. The OP-animation has changed, there’s a new ED and I’m back in love with this series! Another thing I noticed: the OP and especially the ED never really focused on the people, back in the Sa-province. This does suggest that the current arc will be focusing on the old characters, instead of the new ones, and I’m SO glad about this. The characters from the first half definitely are more interesting than the new ones.
The most important development in this episode definitely came from Kouyuu. His uncle decides to visit him (Kou Kurou) and finally carries out his plan to get Kouyuu as the head of the Kou-clan if he accepts Shuurei as his wife. Obviously, he’s going to become very interesting in the future, as it’s probably clear now that he’s in love with her.
Shuurei was AWESOME. The episode focuses on Tei Yuushun and Sai Rin, asking to come and visit Shuurei’s house, when Shuurei suddenly realizes that nobody has cleaned there for ages. ^^; The male characters have gone to the “demon’s banquet”, or a place where everyone can drink his sorrows away alongside each other, and they decide to go to Shuurei’s place after that too place. Obviously, Shuurei demonstrates how dangerous she can be when Seiran, Shouka, Shuuei and Kouyuu keep getting in her way, time after time, because they’re all so drunk (or in Shouka’s case, just clumsy). She looked so cute when her efforts weren’t enough, and Tei Yuushun had to see giving a tantrum. ^_^:
Seiran begins to realize more and more that Shuurei actually doesn’t need him. In fact, he actually needs her, and it’s like that for Shouka as well. He goes to the Demon’s Banquet as well, because of this (and almost ends up shooting Ran after drinking a bit ^^;). I can imagine that it’s difficult for him. Shuurei and Shouka have done so much for him, and he can’t even repay her. In fact, he never really saved her, and the only times she actually needed to be saved (when she was kidnapped and when Sakujun kissed her), either Ryuuki was the one to take up this role, or he wasn’t able to do anything at all, even though he stood right before it happening.
Shuuei also attends the Demon’s Banquet, but it seems that he’s been avoiding it for quite a few years. I wonder why, as the previous episodes did show that he quite often visits the red-lights district. He’s quite interesting when he’s drunk, by the way. He’s very silent, and his usual witty remarks are gone.
Still, rule number one: NEVER make Shuurei angry. Never. ^^;]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 05
Heh, I’m beginning to like Wellber no Monogatari more and more with each episode progressing. This episode was surprisingly good, with far less annoying elements than the episodes before. It’s also got a nice sense of humour, which I really appreciate.
The beginning of the episode was the best part, in my opinion, where another couple of bounty-hunters have found Rita and Tina. In order to draw their attention away from the princess, Tina shamelessly hijacks a carriage that happened to be near them, belonging to two lovers. She gets shot down while fleeing, but the princess is safe when the bounty-hunters find out that they’ve been tricked.
This scene definitely showed that this show is also perfectly able to display the more serious scenes, as Tina looked great, when she was shot down. This makes me have high hopes for the future of this series. In the rest of the episode, Tina gets saved by a guy who notices her body lying around. She wakes up again, but she did leave Rita waiting for quite a while.
This part of the episode was definitely meant to give Tina a bit more confidence in Rita. After all, as a princess, Tina figures that Rita will probably go without her, assuming that she died or stopped caring at that point. Rita, however, really isn’t that irresponsible, and she does go out to look for her. Eventually, the two parties reunite.
The rest of the episode then deals with getting rid of Galahad, who seems to have followed the princes up to this point, and knows that she’s heading for Greedam. The guy who rescued Tina (and has fallen in love with her a bit ^^;) and his friends also help a bit. They’re travelling merchants, who travel from city to city with big horse-carriages, which are perfect to hide a large horse and talking tank in. Unfortunately, there is one person who also recognized Rita, and he goes off to tell Galahad that he saw Rita enter a red carriage.
Rita, though, comes with the idea to secretly switch carriages, just in case such a thing happens. The fake carriage then drives away from the other carriages, in order to really draw Galahad’s attention to it to that the others can get away. She really is smarter than she looks, based on this. The plan works, and Galahad is helplessly left, watching Rita and Tina get away.
Galahad, meanwhile, shows that he’s quite impulsive, and that his wishes to find the princess do make him lose sight of the important things. He could have easily gotten past the guards if he was a bit more calm, and then overtaking a mere horse carriage was a piece of cake. I could be wrong on this, but I think his reason to go after Rita isn’t the money, but the fact that she killed his superior. He probably looked up to him a lot, which makes the shock of seeing the guy get killed by his future wife.
I liked this case, by the way. It was nothing special, when compared to the others, but they do show that people still have a lot of hospitality. In some cases, they’re not interested in the money on Rita’s head, and in other cases, they are. This episode also already showed how much Rita has grown, as she was far less commanding than in the previous episode. I like where this is going.]]>
El Cazador de la Bruja – 05
I decided to stop giving these small blurbs of information about each show. I began to notice something, and Cos confirmed this. These things made me really lose sight of what’s important in an anime, and they only made sure that I was way too focused on finding something really unique. The ratings illustrated this. The good points also were pointless (pun not intended, but it does fit well) and I’d usually claim that one part of the episode was good, making it seem that the rest of the episode was just worthless. The short synopsis also can be easily omitted, but the worst parts were the bad points. For each episode, they forced me to look at bad points which usually didn’t matter. Overall, it was a bad idea.
Anyway, about the episode, it was another great one, just like all the others from El Cazador. It starts when a van is blocking Nadie’s and Ellis’s way, being stuck in the mud. Nadie tries to help move it, but that doesn’t work. When Ellis pushes it slightly, though, the van moves easily, suggesting that Ellis has more than just powers to heat things up.
A bit later, near the house of a girl, the car stops again. This time, due to lack of gas. Nadie finds this strange, as she just refilled the tank. The girl we saw, meanwhile, ran home and put on a dress. It seems that she’s been anticipating travellers. When she put on the dress and waits for the two of them to come as well, she’s surprised to see them being pulled in by the same van from before. Nadie then moves the car to the local mechanic, and there indeed seems to be a leak in the fuel-tank.
The driver from the van, meanwhile, appears to sell different kinds of dresses. When Nadie and the mechanic make a small test-drive (?) they see the girl again, but she doesn’t respond. The mechanic notes that Rita (the name of the girl) is rather sick, but it’s nothing to worry about.
We then switch to that evening, were the mechanic managed to finish fixing the car. A while later, Rita comes to Nadie and Ellis, asking them to take her along with them. It seems that she’s been living inside the same town for her entire life, and she really wants to go to the city. I think that this is because she’s sick. She probably didn’t have much to live. Nadie, though, declines. That’s only natural, of course, with all these people after them. Rita, however, takes this the wrong way. And after all, you wouldn’t expect people like Nadie and Ellis to be hunted, do you?
LA meanwhile, managed to catch up with Nadie and Ellis again. I still don’t know what he was doing near the two others, in the last episode though. We then switch to Rozenberg, where he watches a bit of the footage of last week (the hilarious part where Ellis attempted to help Nadie with a pair of forks XD). I had to laugh when Rozenberg didn’t get any of this. Blue-eyes is with him, for once when she can’t figure out what Nadie’s thinking.
That night, Ellis buys a small pouch from the guy in the van (who decided to stay near the place for the night as well), so that she could store the stone in it, in order to prevent mishaps like in the previous episode. But guess what, that night, when everyone’s sleeping, it appears that that guy is one of the hunters, after Ellis. He tries to take her away, with the help of none other than Rita, using Nadie’s car to get away.
Whether it is the work of a bad mechanic or LA, we never know. But the fact remains that the fuel-tank stil leaks, dropping fuel all over the road. When Nadie comes after them, and gunfire ensues, this catches a flame, causing the car to drive off a cliff. Ellis surprisingly leaps through the air, and manages to save Rita as well. The van-driver though, is unconscious.
What follows is an explanation of why Rita did what she did, and I had a little trouble following it. She wants to go to the city, that’s for sure. Because she’s sick, she probably won’t have many chances to do so in her life. Nadie and Ellis, meanwhile, shamelessly steal the guy’s van. That guy, meanwhile wakes up, with somehow tomato-juice on his head when he sees the bounty-hunter. I chuckled when the guy mistook the tomato-juice for blood. Ellis, meanwhile, changes into a different dress.
One thing I’m surprised about is that, unlike Noir, El Cazador gives actual personalities to the hunters, after our main characters. Only few of them are just brainless goons, and they’re not just finished off after one episode. I’m really surprised at the amount of detail put in the storyline as well. I liked how the last scene emphasized on Ellis, changing her clothes. Will Nadie be doing the same at one point? The past cases have been quite unique, and I really like this about El Cazador. Especially the nuns and the dead body were unique.]]>
April Summary
+ Quick ranking of the Spring-season so far +
Okay, so one month after the spring-season started, how are the different shows doing so far? Well, fairly well if I say so myself. There are some really great series in the bunch, and there’s a lot of potential. But will it be able to turn out better than last year’s spring-season? Anyway, here’s a list with a small blurb of my opinion about them. Some of them were dropped after episode 1, while I managed to see more episodes from others.
#38: Overdrive – Deserves to get the title of “worst show of the season” because it was the only anime to have aired and nearly put me to sleep out of boredom.
#37: Saint Beast – Also came close to achieving this.
#36: Hayate the Combat Butler – Just isn’t funny, not to mention that it has too many non-sensical events and annoying characters.
#35: Keitai Shoujo – Two words: just pointless.
#34: Kaze no Stigma – Seriously needs some better scriptwriters.
#33: Kaibutsu Ojou – Boy gets to live in house full of bishoujo, where did I hear this before?
#32: Sola – Is just boring.
#31: Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo – On second thought, this series is bad. Period.
#30: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica – Mediocrity, anyone?
#29: Nagasarete Airantou – Okay, it does have humour, but also one of the most annoying main characters ever.
#28: Idol Master Xenoglossia – I seriously forgot what this anime was about.
#27: Koutetsushin Jeeg – Someone, please tone down the testosterone-level of the scriptwriters.
#26: Blue Dragon – Could become good later on, but I don’t feel like finding out.
#25: Seto no Hanayome – Has its funny moments here and there, but there are definitely better comedies out there.
#24: Koutetsu Sangokushi – I know that I praised this one, but the second and third episode showed some horrible animation and scriptwriting.
#23: Gegege no Kitarou – On second thought, the cases just aren’t interesting enough.
#22: Kamichama Karin – Definitely not the best mahou shoujo out there. Filled with Deus ex Machina.
#21: Lovely Complex – I’ll perhaps watch this at a later time, when my Japanese level is high enough to pick up the hilarity of Kansai-ben.
#20: Ookiku Furikabutte – Perhaps I’ll watch this later when I have more time.
#19: Touka Gettan – Very confusing, will finish once summer holidays start due to busy schedule.
#18: Hitohira – I’ll also finish this one later, when the subs have picked up a bit.
#17: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – The third and fourth episodes weren’t as good as the first two. It also needs a bit of realism, don’t you just love how in this world, bullets never seem to run out?
#16: Darker than Black – I honestly can’t see why this series is praised so much. Sure, it has potential, but the first three episodes only featured lots of blood and gore and a guy who keeps hitting on girls in order to protect them.
#15: Heroic Age – The premise is good, but that’s the problem. The premise is the only thing worthwhile about this series so far.
#14: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Strikers – The first few episode were predictably not that good. I want to see that antagonist arrive!
#13: Lucky Star – Finally an actually watchable show from KyoAni, nice one.
#12: Murder Princess – A nice little show.
#11: Romeo x Juliet – Someone tell me how people can survive a jump in the water from a huge tower without any scratch, and how three specially trained palace guards can’t even defeat a sixteen-year old girl? The romance-elements are good, though.
#10: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – Okay, so the girl is the only one who can translate for the Gigantic, and she picked the boy. That’s good enough for now. What’s not good enough is how a little girl can be the head of the technical department.
#9: Wellber no Monogatari – Sure, it has a lot of bad points, but it’s fun, and the serious scenes definitely have potential.
#8: Engage Planet Kiss Dum – Quite good, I never expected this series to turn out the way it did.
#7: Claymore – So far, a solid start, but I want to see Terese
#6: El Cazador – The individual cases are pretty interesting, there’s lots of symbolism, lots of mystery, the plot doesn’t move awfully slow and Ellis is just too cute at times. What more could you want?
#5: Seirei no Moribito – Incredibly solid and detailed, episode 3 was a treat. Now let’s hope that the awesomeness won’t just limit itself to the climaxes.
#4: Ooedo Rocket – Hilarious and a good story? Definitely the biggest surprise for this season.
#3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – A heart-warming story about so many conflicting interests. But yeah, it’ll never become popular.
#2: Bokura no – The huge cast of unique and different characters makes this anime so worthwhile.
#1: Towards the Terra – When talking about the overall best up till now, then for me it has to be Toward the Terra. With probably the best soundtrack of the season, great-looking character-designs and animation, a great setting and concept and very interesting characters, I really enjoyed this one.
+ Top 10 Anime +
One thing I do have to say is that April was a tad disappointing. Sure, there were good series, but when compared to other months, there were less awesome and memorable series. I don’t blame the newly arrived series, as it’s only natural for them not to live up to their full potential after only one month, but it’s more the older series. The fall-season just was worse than usual, and while Bakumatsu, Ayakashi and Red Garden were very interesting to see, they just didn’t live up to material like Simoun or Noein of previous seasons. Now that it’s ended, this really becomes clear. My favourite month so far in my time of blogging remains July 2006, with so many awesome series hitting their peaks. I’m hoping that the current summer will be able to trump this month.
#10: Seirei no Moribito
Like mentioned above, this definitely is the most solid and detailed anime to air in the spring-season. The fight-scene in episode 3 also was a real treat.
#9: Ooedo Rocket
Definitely the funniest anime to air in the spring-season. I love the mystery, different characters and the style of it all.
#8: Kaze no Shoujo Emily
Characters that complement each other perfectly. The introduction is finished, now I’m hoping for the anime to get really started.
#7: Jigoku Shoujo
Jigoku Shoujo currently holds the record of most posts dedicated to one series, the series to be blogged by me for the longest time (ignoring the sporadic ones like Ayatsuri Sakon and Popolocrois) and one of the first series I started blogging in the first place. Heck, after Mahou Shoujotai, it was one of the more important reasons for me to start blogging. That said, I’m sad to see this one finally go.
#6: Death Note
Death Note has been a strange little fellow over the past month. While it definitely had its annoying moments, other moments were just awesome, in a strange sort of way.
#5: Bokura no
Definitely the best promise of the shows in the spring-season. The characters have already shown to be really interesting. And that with so many of them.
#4: Towards the Terra
Like I mentioned above, when looking at the total package, Toward the Terra is my favourite series of the spring-season.
#3: Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi
You know, in the final arc, Atl sortof sucked and was sortof unnatural, but everything else rocked! We can only wonder what this series would have done with its final 26 episodes.
#2: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette
Especially episode 13 and 14 were really heart-warming. It’s interesting to see that the Thenardiers are gone now, though.
#1: Chevalier
Chevalier has become even better in this month. The past number of episodes has been a real treat, and I just love the final antagonist. I’m so glad that this anime turned out amazingly well.
+ Random Notes +
– Power Puff Girls Z 36 probably was the best episode of the series yet when it comes with its own interpretation of the octi-episode. I also loved the art-style.
– Gintama had probably one of the best recaps ever at episode 25.
– I wonder if The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters will ever be noticed enough to get subbed, and I’m also eagerly awaiting Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo’s subtitled version. I don’t know what it is, but I have more trouble than usual when following raw movies, so I decided to wait for the subbers to do their magic.
– Less than two weeks left for Dennou Coil, and less than two months left for Tales of Symphonia and Tetsuko no Tabi. Yay!
– Share seems to have problems downloading Futago Hime. I don’t know why, but with every single file, it just stops downloading when about half of the episode has been downloaded. I’m not liking this, rawr!
– I think someone needs to tell the raw-providers that Kekkaishi started again. There hasn’t been any new release on Tokyo Toshokan, even though it’s been two weeks since episode 19 aired.
+ Newly Announced Anime +
Goshusho-sama Ninomiya-kun
Summary: “Next up is Goshuusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, which translates vaguely to “My Condolences, Ninomiya-kun.” Mamoru Ninomiya is the victim of his family, which includes two parents and four older sisters, all of whom are vagrants wandering around the globe – leaving poor Mamoru living all alone in a very large house. And what do you do with an empty house? Fill it – with a pair of sisters who find themselves in Mamoru’s debt. Wait a sec, why the condolences?” – (taken from animeonline)
Thoughts:Oh golly, what have we here? Talk about bad premises. It starts out great, though. Parents and their daughters who are wandering around the globe. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on these interesting characters, this anime decides to focus on the loser-son who stays home and gets to live with two beautiful girls. Seriously, when will these generic concepts stop?
Moetan
Summary: “Moetan is a series of English language study aid published by SansaiBooks in Japan. Targeted at otaku, it attempted to teach English words using examples drawn from computer games and anime.” – (taken from Wikipedia)
Thoughts:Just when I thought that an anime-title couldn’t get any more obvious, this one comes around. It’ll be just an excuse to show some cute girls without substance to the otaku.
Rental Magica
Summary: “In the story, Isuki is a high school student who inherits a magicians’ employment agency from his missing father.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts:I admit, it does have potential. If the cases that have to be solved with the rental service are serious and imaginative enough, this could turn out interesting. But why do I feel that this is going to turn into one of those usual moe-series?
Sketchbook ~full colors~
Summary: “Based on a 4-panel manga. Like its 4-koma-into-anime predecessors Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star, Sketchbook appears to follow a group of female high school students. However, this time the central character is the shy Sora Kajiwara, who is unsure of what club to join…until she gets dragged into the wacky art club, of course.”
Thoughts:If I had to guess, then this anime will combine Hidamari Sketch, Hitohira and Lucky Star. The shy girl could be interesting, but school-based anime have never really been my thing.
Druaga no Tou
Summary: “Players take control of Prince Gilgamesh on his quest to rescue his love, Ki, from the vicious Druaga.” – (taken from IGN)
Thoughts:Very interesting, Druaga no Tou, or the tower of Druaga is actually an old game-classic. Gonzo has decided to turn this into an anime, and I really wonder what they’re going to do with this concept, simply because of the lack of story in the original game. Really, how can you turn a game in which you have to travel through mazes in a strange tower to save your girlfriend into a fully fledged anime? Something tells me Gonzo’s going to pull another Romeo x Juliet on this one.
Ride Back
Summary: “After the United Nations dismantling and a large earthquake disaster happening in Tokyo, etc, the counter government motion by japanese students students again becomes active in 2020. One girl entered in the Musashino liberal arts university which is one of the bases base for the student movement. Her name is Ogata Rin. The “Rin” which has the talent of the dance which becomes type rare encounters with the human type bicycle robot ride back entrance first day. That, the opportunity which reforms the world is with, everyone’s one person there was no reason which is known….” – (taken from babelfish and edited a bit, though some sentences were impossible to transform to correct English)
Thoughts:Ride Back is another manga-adaptation from the Ikki-magazine. Quite frankly, I really enjoyed the various adaptations from that magazine, Narutaru was great, Bokura no is promising to become amazing and Tetsuko no Tabi, which is coming in June, is also looking to be quite interesting. Because of that, I’m quite looking forward to this one, though the concept seems a bit generic, featuring a girl piloting a small mecha in a dystopian Japan, 13 years into the future. Ah well, I’ve got hope for this one, we’ll see where this one goes.
Miyori no Mori
Summary: “The series follows Miyori, a girl who daydreams of escaping her tough everyday life. When Miyori enters the woods, she experiences many mysterious phenomena, including the discovery that the woods are also home to spirits and ghosts.” – (taken from Anime News Network
Thoughts:Yes! Yes! Another mystery-series got announced. With mystery being one of my favourite genres, I’ll definitely be anticipating this series.
+ Top 5 Episodes +
Deltora Quest – 07
Now that I think back on it, I keep getting more and more convinced how good that fight against Thaegan was. Short but sweet definitely is fitted for it. This episode definitely was one to remember if you combine it with the backgrounds of the different characters, abducted by the witch.
Seirei no Moribito – 03
Probably one of the most detailed fight-scenes ever. I’ve yet to see anyone to actually dislike this episode, and with good reason.
Jigoku Shoujo – 52
The end of the series I’ve been blogging for the longest period of time, and what an ending it is.
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 39
This has to be one of the most nostalgic episodes I’ve ever seen. This episode was basically enough to release the inner-fanboy within me.
Chevalier – 19
I won’t spoil what happened in here, but it was BEAUTIFUL.]]>
Le Chevalier d'Eon Review – 91/100
Le Chevalier d’Eon tells the brilliant story of the years before the French Revolution, during the reign of Louis XV in a setting with fantasy-elements. It follows d’Eon de Beaumont, a chevalier in service of the king (hence the title), who suddenly discovers the death of his famous sister, whom he admired.
If you’re interested in politics, realism, cross-dressers, historical anime, battle tactics or compassionate characters, then look no further as Chevalier brings a compelling combination of these elements. The storyline is incredibly detailed. Characters act because of complex reasons, and in most of the cases these reasons are explained as well. Through the course of the anime, the countries of France, England and Russia show a bit of their political system they used during the timeline in which the series takes place. And some of the characters get fleshed out incredibly well.
The second half of this series is a pure delight because of this. Starting from episode 15, there isn’t even one bad episode, and each one delivers, with four or five absolutely amazing episodes. Unfortunately, though, the first half is just too slow at times, and it spends perhaps a bit too long on building up. There are a few climaxes, but they weren’t really that special when compared to the second half, and I can imagine that they cost this anime quite an amount of viewers because of it.
The music is good, but forgettable. The graphics however, shine. Not literally, but characters are drawn incredibly detailed, and they’re greatly animated. Battle-scenes also are greatly choreographed as well. But the thing that really made this anime was its cast of characters. I probably won’t be able to forget the charming Durand soon, or the naive Robin, or the knightly Teillagory. Each of them was so worth to watch. It’s a shame you don’t hear so much about this anime, as it’s really the highlight of last year’s summer-season.]]>
Bokura no – 04
Short Synopsis: It’s Masaru’s father, and only now the concept of Bokura no really becomes clear.
Good: Wow… just wow…
Bad: Certain characters didn’t get any lines at all.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Oh boy… I may have misunderstood this part, so correct me if I’m wrong, but in this episode, it becomes clear that whoever pilots Zearth, will definitely die. Seriously, I knew that characters would die quite often, but I never expected it to be an actual RULE to this game. That’s why Kokopeli never appeared again, he wasn’t controlling everything from behind the scenes at all, he just died after he demonstrated how to pilot Zearth! The reason Takashi died also was because of this, and Jun had to take the blame.
This time, it’s Masaru’s turn. And really, his case was so good. His brother (whom I previously mistook for his father) hates his father, but Masaru loves him. It’s a typical case in which a parent favours one of his children above the others. Usually in anime, the focus is on the neglected one, but this time, it’s the total opposite. The reason Masaru has turned so cold was because of his father, who doesn’t seem to have any mercy as well. It seems that the only one he’s nice to is Masaru himself, who in turn loves him as well. Notice the chair he uses in Zearth isn’t his own chair, but his father’s.
During his turn in piloting, he indeed demonstrates that he’s rather merciless, when he doesn’t care what kinds of homes he’ll destroy or people he’ll kill. Because of this, he accidentally kills his own father when he falls down, due to carelessness. He goes berserk after that, which ends up killing the enemy mecha, and himself as well.
This definitely was a Masaru-episode. The others didn’t get much development, aside from knowing that they’re all going to die. Because of this, I’m looking forward to the next episode a LOT. Especially the one who’s going to pilot next time will be interesting, now that he or she knows that fighting means dying.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 17
Short Synopsis: Javell finally finds Jean’s location, resulting in Jean and Cosette, fleeing from Paris.
Good: Javell
Bad: Strange that Javell didn’t take the window at the side of the house into account.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This episode is more among the exciting ones in this series, compared to the heart-warming ones of the previous episodes. It was only a matter of time for Jean’s location to be found, and that time was about half into the episode. I loved duo of Jean vs Javell, during this episode. Javell, instead of using his subordinates to spy on Jean, is so determined to catch the guy that he does this himself. I liked this. A lot.
The escape-scene also was a great one, since Jean doesn’t only have to think about himself, but he’s also carrying a little girl with him. His past turned out actually good for once, as because of the trials he had to endure, he’s able to easily outrun Javert and a couple of trained policemen. Even when he’s carrying Cosette, they still have trouble catching up to him.
Cosette was really more of a side-character this time. We see her having a bit of fun, and finally meeting other children, but this definitely was a Jean and Javert-episode. One thing I liked about the first season, by the way, was that the Thenardiers made sure of a constant source of conflict. This is quite a bit different from the current season, which really has more recognizable conflicts. Still, something tells me it’s building up, just like the first one did. It’ll be very interesting to see where this one goes.]]>