Author: psgels

Ergo Proxy – 21 – Let The Finale Begin

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy


And we’re finally back in Romdeau, in which Ergo Proxy has three episodes in order to conclude its story. So far, strange things have happened, interesting things have happened, twisted things have happened, but these things haven’t been anything amazing yet. Let’s hope that the final two episodes will be able to deliver.

Anyway, we start the episode in the Usagi. It seems that Vincent left first, after he didn’t return after a while, Real went out in order to check up on him. That was Thirty thousand two hundred thirty three Usagis ago. Pino then gets sick of waiting and goes out on her own. It seems crisis struck ever since Raul launched the rocket, and more and more autoraves have been infected with Cogito. It seems that the citizens of Romdeau are fiercely battling against the infected autoraves. For some reason, the autoraves are now referred to as “entourages”.

Back to Real, she’s been wandering around in Romdeau, meeting different people At times, she saw glimpses of Vincent, though he was in Proxy-one-mode at that time. Even after the episode ended we still have no idea why this happened. Anyway, she first meets up with the Autorave Control Department, otherwise known as the department where Vincent started working at the beginning of the series. Next up she meets some kind of government official, who acts a little strange. He just sits behind an empty desk, thinking that it’s full of paperwork, a computer and a keyboard, and he actually moves like he would move if they were actually there. In any case, he mentions the ADW-project.

Next up, she meets with Daedalus. He’s been getting weirder ever since. Meanwhile, Pino is seen, running through the streets and we switch to Vincent. Not as Ergo Proxy, but as Proxy One, mentioned above. He finally arrives at Monad Proxy. He finds the things Donov has done to her horrible, even though he was the one who killed her. He then realizes she has a name tag: Proxy #13. And it indeed seems that every Proxy has its own number. Ergo is #1, Monad is #13. And now that I think of it, remember the late Kazkiz Proxy? He mentioned that each Proxy is some kind of emissary. Ever since that episode, I never saw any traces of those emissaries again. What’s up with them?

In any case, it also seems that every Proxy has a pendant, with its number engraved on it. That explains why last episode’s Proxy had one. Then, the fake Real runs into him. For some reason, she isn’t scared of him at all. Proxy One does show that he still knows Real, when he’s surprised when the girl has the same name as she does. The fake Real then suddenly claims that she also loved Monad Proxy. And she suddenly runs away. I think it was because she was about to lose confidence.

Back to Real and Daedalus. Real apologizes to him that she couldn’t do anything that she set out to do. Strangely enough, Daedalus has really convinced himself that the fake Real has become the real Real, and he sees the real real Real as a traitor. Daedalus then reveals that a mysterious thing called the Eumesis was destroyed. No idea what that might be, but Vincent seems to be behind it. Because of that, the “Aus Der Wickel”-project was started, the human restructuring project. It was bound to fail, and I didn’t really get this explanation. Anyway, the light Raul sent at episode 17 appears to be “Rapture”.

We then switch to Vincent, who plans to invades the city council room. For some reason, the statues refer to him as “The Creator” in a rather cryptic near-monologue. Could it be that Proxy One has created Romdeau in the first place? Anyway, some references to Descartes later, and Proxy One attempts to strangle Donov. Probably in order to get revenge on Monad. Meanwhile, we see Pino arrive at the house where she used to live, hearing someone play piano. Nothing is shown about her afterwards, but when you consider some events that happen at the end of this episode with Pino’s original master, before she got infected with Cogito, things shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.

Anyway, Real has also arrived in the same room, and she sees Vincent, attempting to kill Donov. She tries to shoot her, though she can’t save her grandfather. She’s also very hesitant to shoot him. Vincent then turns to her. Then, Raul comes from out of nowhere and shoots from yet another Proxy-killing pistol. While Vincent is slowly dying, Raul begins to laugh maniacally.

So they did turn him into the main antagonist after all. I wonder what they’re planning to do with the final two episodes. Without a doubt, some huge revelations are about to come. After all, this story has so many unanswered questions left that I won’t even bother to try and list them. But what about Vincent? Surely, the dying process can’t take two whole episodes, or can it? Will he really die, or will he be saved miraculously?

The Third – 17 – An Excellent Episode Once More

by psgels, posted in The Third


Heh, I loved this episode. Even though it’s just the introduction of the next arc, The Third somehow makes these kinds of episodes always very interesting to watch, and this one’s no difference. I like how each arc selects a different number of main characters to focus on. The Gravestone arc featured Honoka, Paife and Ikus, the Desert Fairy Arc featured Honoka, Millie and Ikus, while the current arc will feature Honoka, Paife and Joganki. It’s very interesting, though I think that with this, I found a slight disadvantage of The Third. I’d just love to see some of the minor characters in more detail. For some reason, every single character in The Third is awesome, but some of them nearly don’t get the airtime they deserve. ^^;

Anyway, the case this time focuses at a crisis in The Third. Some thing took over Wormhole Driver, fired it at the surface, took over lots of other weaponry of The Third managed to kidnap Joganki when he came to investigate. The woman, who apparently is named Filla Marique, then chooses to resort to desperate measures: ask help from Honoka. It’s interesting. When the series started, I really saw her as a bad guy, but this show that she’s also just trying to keep the world going. Sometimes, it works in favour of Honoka, other times, it works against her.

In any case, it seems that we have two bad girls this time. Both are kept rather mysterious, so I haven’t been able to determine whether one of them is the woman on the ED. Based on the few flashes we saw of them, I think they’re other people, and if I had to take a guess, then I’d say that the creators are reserving that woman for the final arc. In any case, one of these women (Rona Fauna) keeps Joganki company and hacked into Wormhole Drive, while the other tried to kill Honoka with the automatic soldiers. The strange thing is, though, that Joganki seems to be on their side. Of course, he disagrees with some of the extreme measures Rona took, but judging by most of his reactions, it seems that he actually talked to them as if he had the same goals they have. Still, that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been tied up.

In any case, the different characters and their interactions this episode were awesome. Especially Honoka, Paife and Kevin worked perfectly with each other. Especially the scene in which Honoka mistakes Filla Marique for Joganki (Joganki + drag = ouch!) was very funny. But then again, The Third has always excelled in its rich and versatile characters.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 24 – Many answers, many questions

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni


After two episodes in which the main storyline was rather ignored, Higurashi suddenly returns with an episode full of revelations and explanations. Rina’s now out of the picture, so that Rena can concentrate on other things, and she once again proves her detective skills.

The Watanagashi is over, and Tomitake killed himself again, while Takano’s fate hasn’t been much better. For some reason, Oishi just wants to question Rena about this. Later, Rena takes out some of Takano’s scrapbooks, and reflects back to the time when she acquired them, which really gave another twist to this story. They both were in the library, one of Takano’s favourite places. Takano tells Rena that she’s been investigating the chain of bizarre deaths. She actually predicts that it’ll happen again for the current year. Heh, the irony.

Rena then tells Takano about her own experiences with Oyashiro-sama. Surprisingly, she actually encountered him, when she moved away from the village. It’s supposedly a taboo of Oyashiro-sama, and some bizarre events happened afterwards. This included the conversation between Rena and her mother, we saw in the previous two episodes, and her infamous rampage at school, in which she smashed down all of the windows. Rena claims that a lof of bad things happened, and she did a lot of bad things herself out of desperation. I’d love to get more information about this. In any case, when she started cutting her own wrists with razorblades, Oyashiro appeared in front of her, and told her that the only way for her to survive is to return to Hinamizawa.

In any case, Rena finally looks at the scrapbooks, and they reveal quite an amount of interesting things. Afterwards, she informs Keiichi about this. A quick rundown:
– The legend of Oyashiro-sama is the following: The demons would emerge from the Onigafuchi Marsh and attack the village. But Oyashiro-sama intervened, calmed the demons and gave them human-form, to allow their co-existence within the village.
– This actually is a cover-up story. Onigafuchi-marsh actually is the home of a couple of disease-harbouring parasites. Whenever you get infected by a parasite, you go berserk. There indeed was some kind of disease going on.
– The taboo of Hinamizawa was to never leave the village or let any outsiders in. This is in order to stop the disease from spreading to other areas.
– Oyashiro-sama is some kind of doctor. It somehow attempted to “cure this contagious disease”. Note the “contagious” part of this sentence, and the fact that there’s a certain member among the cast of Higurashi who coincidentally happens to be a doctor.

– In the end, all he could do is make the rules to never let anyone out or into the village.
– A strange one: it seems that the parasites can only survive in Hinamizawa because of the temperature and climate. Why try so hard to prevent it from spreading when it won’t happen anyway?
– In any case, when an infected host tries to leave the area, the parasite produces strong symptoms in order to prevent this.
– Right now, it’s common for people to walk in and out of the area. That’s because Oyashiro-sama’s plan worked. Also, back in those days, whenever a person would go berserk because of a parasite, that person was caught and killed along with the parasite (*coughWatanagashicough*).
– The result was that only the people who could live with each other without any problems would live on.
– The Watanagashi seems to have had the purpose of eating the intestines of the berserked individuals. This creates a vaccine, to increase the resistance of the villagers.
– Currently, there are some fanatical worshippers of Oyashiro-sama who are trying to bring his belief back. Of course, when the fact that a bunch of parasites were behind his creation, it wouldn’t do them too good. That’s why they erase everyone who comes close to knowing the truth.
– An interesting one: the ultimate goal of the worshippers is to release the parasite all over Hinamizawa.
– Remember the guys in the van from episode 1? They now seem to be following Rena.

These answer so many questions. But unfortunately, for every question they answer, they bring up ten new, almost impossible to solve, questions. First, the things that we do know.
– The culprit seems to be one of those fanatical Oyashiro-sama worshippers. He or she is the one to succeed Obaba, and probably is the true leader of Hinamizawa. Because of this, he’s been able to use the same guys we saw in the Fourth arc, when they kidnapped the little boy.
– While a lot of people may have been infected by the parasites, not a lot of people actually went berserk. The most cases we saw involved the disease who was partially awake, as in a lesser state. Think of Keiichi in the third arc and Rena in the third and fifth arc. Only three people actually went berserk and started attacking people. Rena, after she left Hinamizawa. Shion, probably because she lived in a place other than Hinamizawa. And Keiichi, in the first arc. I’m still trying to figure out what caused him to believe that he had to leave the village. If I had to take a guess, it’s when he read about the string of bizarre deaths. Somehow, he unconsciously told himself that it would be better to leave the village, in order to be safe.
– Remember the end of the second arc, in which Keiichi sees Mion, giving him the nail-treatment? That happened after he heard that he was going to move. (*wink wink*)
– The end of the third and fourth arc also are explained. The fact that a bit of volcanic gas was just a cover-up story. In those cases, the plan of the bad guy actually worked, and the entire village went berserk because of the parasite. Keiichi was the only survivor because he was unconscious in a rather isolated place in which the disease nor the berserked villagers didn’t reach him. There has to be a reason why this didn’t happen in the first, second and fifth arc. It might be because both Keiichi and Shion murdered someone important. (Mion?)
– Irie and Takano never were culprits at all. They actually tried to stop the bad guy’s plans. Irie did this by developing a cure for the disease, while Takano tried to find out his identity and the background behind Hinamizawa.
– Tomitake’s death also is explained. He tried to leave the village, was infected by a parasite, the parasite didn’t like this and the disease activated, making him strangle himself.
– Takano probably was killed because she knew too much. Keiichi was being followed by the men in the van because they spotted him while in disease-mode.
– Remember Oishi and Irie disappearing in the third arc? Could that be because they knew too much and had to be annihilated?
– Remember in the third arc and the fifth arc, when Keiichi and Shion had the feeling they’re being watched? *points at guys in van*

Now, the questions,
– What’s up with Takano? Why did she act so suspicious in the Third arc. How come she was alive after her dead body had been found in the second arc?
– Who could the culprit possibly be? It can’t be Takano, as she tried to uncover the plot. It wasn’t anyone from the Sonozaki-family, otherwise it wouldn’t match with the fifth arc. It has to have some connection with Rika, in order to explain the fourth arc, and it must have some sort of connection with the three main houses.
– How did Keiichi catch the disease in the first place? Did he catch it from Rena?
– How come Irie was working together with the bad guy’s henchmen?
– Why did Rena contact Irie in the first arc, while she didn’t do this in any other arcs?
– Something I just realized: since when did Rena know how to perform the Watanagashi? How come Rina’s body has had to endure the Watanagashi? Could it be that she needed some vaccine herself, and decided to use Rina’s body for this?
– In what way did Oyashiro appear in front of Rena?
– Why did Takano have to enter the shrine?
– What’s Rika’s connection in all this?

Oh, and on a side-note, this probably is the third time I’ve seen people cutting their wrists in anime in a short time. The others being Night Head Genesis and Narutaru. Overall, Higurashi tried too hard, without delivering any substance. I think it was too keen on delivering some gore that it ignored other things, so once again, that scene looked a bit fake. Night Head Genesis gave a good attempt, but it was a bit laughable. Narutaru did it in a good way, though. It didn’t really have to show any gore in order to make any impact. The heavy breathing was enough for this.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 18 – Awesomeness

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari


I’m so glad that Shadow managed to finish her translation of episode eighteen. For some reason, I felt that it wouldn’t be a good idea to let my sub-par Japanese loose on Saiunkoku Monogatari 18, and after seeing the episode, it seems I was right. There’s so much going on, not to mention that entire speeches are given, at which you do need to know what they mean.

Anyway, about the episode. It was awesome. I had such a great time watching this. Not only because of the very interesting political affairs which went on, but also because the creators threw in some very nice jokes. I especially loved all the fuzz around Kijin’s mask. XD

Basically, the episode consists out of a debate between the government officials and Ryuuki and Shuurei, trying to get to the court in time and in one piece. We start with the commotion about Reishin. Ryuuki reveals to the officials that he’s the head of the Kou-clan. Sai gets a bit uncomfortable because of this. We then turn to Shuurei, who’s ready to leave for the palace. Seiran then brings Shuurei the make-up kit she got from Kochou.

Back to Ryuuki, he starts accusing Sai of a number of things, including that he was one of the people who was completely against women being permitted to take the national exam. Sai then tries to blame this on Ro, though that backfires when it seems that Ro had no problems with women being permitted, and was rather on friendly terms with Reishin.

We then switch to a rather interesting conversation between Reishin and Ro. It seems that Ro has assigned Eigetsu and Shuurei to tasks such as cleaning the lavatories and polishing shoes in order to build their own confidence, and the confidence of the other officials in the two of them. Most people in the royal court have heard about the tasks they were ordered to do, and they’ve seen them work hard. This shows them that they’re capable of doing much greater things, which will be extremely beneficial in the future. It also seems that Reishin got the same treatment. His murderous look towards Ro at that time was hilarious. ^^

In the end, Reishin manages to “blackmail” Ro into accompanying him to the court. For some reason, he wanted the two of them to go together. Shuurei and Seiran, meanwhile, get hunted by some of Sai’s henchmen, trying to prevent them from attending the inquiry. Though they should know better than to think that this would be able to stop her. ^^

Meanwhile, in the palace, Kijin holds a little speech about the financial businesses regarding Sai. A lot of money went into useless causes. It also seems that Eigetsu’s money, which he sent to his home village and somehow disappeared seems to have turned up in Sai’s pocket. It seems that there were similar cases like this in the past, so Kijin had the carriers being observed in secret. Sai then starts coming up with some desperate attempts in order to defend himself, and he then claims that Kijin might be an impostor, wearing Kijin’s mask in order to not be discovered.

The situation takes a very strange turn when Kijin suggests to take it off and suddenly some officials start begging him not to, with fear of their lives. It seems that Reishin has spread some rumours that his face would cause flying ravens to fall down unconscious. Things get even weirder when Shou Taishi suggests Kijin to take off his mask, while everyone else is looking in another direction. Ryuuki wants to see too, though suddenly he’s forced away by some desperate officials.

Say, is this how all government officials spend their time? ^^;

Back to Shuurei, the number of thugs keeps increasing until she and Seiran eventually get cornered. They get rescued by Ryuushin and the other citizens. They also reveal their reason for ignoring her. Government officials are important people. Whenever they’re seen, talking to ordinary peasants, their reputation drops. And Ryuushin is an exceptionally good fighter for his age. That, or the thugs are just a bunch of whim’s. ^^

They then arrive at the palace, and get a bit of help from Hakumei and Ensei in order to move past the pesky, ignorant guards.

Back to Kijin, the reason he always wears a mask suddenly becomes clear. It’s indeed able to make ravens drop from the sky. Not because it’s so horribly ugly, but because it’s so horribly beautiful. It’s also clear why everyone had to turn away, as Sai immediately gets hypnotized by this, allowing Kijin to get a confession out of him.

At that time, Reishin arrives. He rather abuses his powers in order to finish Sai. It seems that Kouyuu was rather insulted at one time by him, and Reishin hasn’t quite forgiven him for it. To top things, he reveals that the long lost ring of the Sa-clan was hidden under Sai’s wig, of all places. You’d wonder how he found out in the first place. Still, Sai then starts talking about Shuurei, and starts accusing her of all kinds of things. But then, Shuurei arrives, the inquiry begins and Sai can probably kiss his status goodbye. The bastard. ^^;

In any case, I love how Saiunkoku Monogatari manages to effectively blend comedy with such a strong story. The combination of these two elements really works great.

Just one thing. What happened to Kourin?

xxxHolic – 22 – Temptation

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic


Another Watanuki-centred episode. And a quite touching one as well. I love the theme they used for this episode. The case is like this: Yuuko is away on some mission, leaving Watanuki alone. He then runs into a strange woman, and the two become friends. Very soon, they find out about each other that Watanuki lost his parents while the woman lost her son. It’s easy to figure that both start caring for each other. Every time his school finishes, Watanuki meets up with the woman.

The great thing is that there’s something fishy about this woman. After a while, she starts to give Watanuki a strange cold-like illness. It starts with a few innocent coughs, though very soon he faints while in PE, and the episode ends with him, phoning Yuuko, coughing up blood and collapsing. It must be really hard to believe that someone you care about actually is making you horribly sick. Especially in Watanuki’s case. He’s finally found someone who can understand him, though now it seems that he’ll have to cut ties with her. That was the great thing about this episode.

Watanuki and Himawari also spent a lot of time together during this episode. Without Domeki, for once, as he’s busy preparing for an archery tournament. It’s quite interesting to see. Especially seeing that Watanuki’s silly behaviour greatly entertains Himawari. So far, this is the second two-episode arc in xxxHolic, and I’m wondering what else will happen in order to be able to cover for another episode like this. It’ll definitely be interesting.

The Third – 16 – Kanwei and the Desert Fairy

by psgels, posted in The Third


Another fine episode. Not as good as the previous two, but enjoyable nonetheless. During this episode, Honoka recovers again, tracks down Leon and defeats him. Kanwei, meanwhile, merges with the desert fairy and Millie learns a bit more about how to support Honoka.

Now that the Leon-arc ended, I wonder what’ll happen afterwards. We still have one character left to be introduced, so I suspect that the next arc will be focusing at this woman. But what will happen afterwards? Also, it doesn’t seem that Kanwei’s story has been fully explored yet, so I think we’ll see a bit more of him in the future. I wonder if we could say the same thing about Gravestone. Also, what role will Paife and Joey be playing in the end?

I really like the battles in The Third. It really tries to explain why characters act the way they do, instead of just some flashy graphics. The battles feel a lot more natural this way, contributing to the awesomeness. It’s something not a lot of anime are attempting.

Simoun – 25 – One More To Go!

by psgels, posted in Simoun


Ooh, that was so exciting. After seeing this episode, it seems that the creators are planning to go all out for the final episode, while they used the last couple of episodes as preparations. I still have no idea what’s going to happen. Okay, Aaeru and Neviriru will be performing the Emerald Ri Maajon. But what will happen afterwards? Will they meet with Limone and Dominüra or Amuria? And what may have happened with Mamiina’s corpse which was blown out of the air a couple of episodes ago?

In any case, final episodes are always tricky to perform the right way. Many anime have trouble with this, and only a handful managed to do it in the end. I’m hoping that Simoun will be one of those. In any case, it won’t be one of those rushed endings, as it’s had enough time to prepare. Let’s hope that it’ll be able to deliver.

Anyway, about the episode. We start where we left off after the previous episode: Paraietta, Furoe, Aruti, Kaimu, Vyüra, Morinasu and Rödoreamon entering the spring. This is surprisingly painful for Yun, as we see her in agony once the ritual starts. (On a side-note: the background tune they used for this worked perfectly). The results are quite interesting.

Kaimu: Female
Vyüra: Male
Furoe: Male
Paraietta: Female
Aruti: Female
Rödoreamon: Female
Morinasu: Female

Especially Morinasu, Furoe and Paraietta are surprising. Both Furoe and Morinasu were seen, claiming to become the opposite of what they actually became. I think love had a lot to do with this. And Paraietta so seemed the type to become male. Everyone just assumed that she’d choose this. It’s also interesting if you realize that they aren’t priestesses any more. Especially when they saw a little kid, coming up to them and praying in front of them, just like nothing happened.

The second part of the episode basically features getting Aaeru and Neviriru in a Simoun. For some reason, the Plumbum officials are insisting that they go to the spring as soon as possible. In the end, with a bit of help from everyone, they manage to do this. Aaeru and Neviriru say goodbye and the episode ends.

.Hack//Roots – 23 – Surprise, an actually good episode

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots


I can’t believe how incredibly strong the music worked in this episode. Finally .Hack//Roots understands how to use its music again. It played almost constantly through the entire episode, with some very intense and very fitting tunes. Especially at the times at which characters were feeling heavy emotions as well, it worked great. Finally we have another enjoyable episode of .Hack//Roots.

Basically, all of the PK-ers are planning to lure him into a trap and attack him head on, all at once. When they attempt to execute this plan, however, it seems that Haseo’s able to defeat them without any problems. The Meatball Brigade also has its own problems. Or the Paw Brigade, the Paw Squad, or however you may call it. Ah well, it doesn’t matter anyway, as they break up in the end and Tabby’s alone again. Especially the moment of break-up worked great with the music.

Saburou, meanwhile, spent the episode looking at Haseo’s killing fest, preventing some PK-ers to sneak off and buy revival items. She’s interested in Haseo, but what’s her objective? Phyllo, meanwhile, continues to worry about Haseo and has a very amusing interaction with his cat. One of the few signs that there actually is an outside world. He also sends Touta to find out who first got the idea of ganging up against Haseo, and it seems that it’s an overconfident bunch of PK-ers, who hope to kill Haseo after he slayed more than 100 PK-ers. They’ll be famous. Yata and Pai seem to be members of the “Ravens”. It’s probably some weird hacking cult. They’re somehow related to the .hackers, whoever they may be.

Seriously, there are two series, currently about to end and from which I’m so hoping for another sequel in order to wrap things up: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and .Hack//Roots. In both cases, it’s almost impossible to come with a decent finish, as both will end horribly unfinished as it is now.

Binbou Shimai Monogatari Review – 63/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


Binbou Shimai Monogatari is your typical slice-of-life series. Kyou and Asu are two sisters. Their mother died when Asu was born, while their father ran away and left a huge debt. This means that they’ve been living most of their lives together. And that’s basically it. The ten episodes of this anime basically follow these two girls, as they live their daily life.

While it definitely isn’t anything special, I have to give this series credit for being the first slice-of-life show to actually catch my interest. The fact that the girls are alone didn’t only make them independent, it also made them very emotional towards each other. The two girls love each other, but at the same time, they worry about each other way too much, which makes sure for a couple of very cute scenes.

The anime certainly has a few very cute moments. There are some light attempts at comedy which really contribute to these scenes. It’s also one of the few series in which the different eye-catches are very amusing. The character designs look very good, and both sisters look very cute. Still, the fact remains that this is a slice-of-life series. During the majority of the airtime, it’s just boring. It also contains a couple of moments which don’t really make any sense, with the most notable one being an extremely rich girl who insists on buying all kinds of bargains.

Overall, it had its cute moments, but Binbou Shimai Monogatari will never be anything memorable. Only check out this series if you are really, really bored.

Narutaru Review – 88/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews


You hear a lot of things about Narutaru. It’s supposed to be sick, disgusting and disturbing. I decided to check this out for myself, and I actually found that these supposedly “horrific scenes” were pretty awesome. I can really say that I enjoyed this anime. It’s not perfect though, but I’ll get to that later.

The story: while on holiday at her grandparents’, Shiina runs into a strange star-shaped animal, with some very strange powers. When she returns, it becomes clear that there’ve been more children who ran into similar creatures. A majority of these children are alienated from society. When the anime progresses, it becomes clear that some of these children use their creature in order to kill others.

The story starts out very light-hearted, and turns darker as the episodes progress, and so does the level of disturbing material. At episode eight, the first major climax of the anime arrives. Afterwards, the story suddenly takes a huge leap towards a totally different focus. This continues up to the thirteenth episode, which finishes the series with a great ending.

The thing I love about this anime is the huge number of disturbing footage which is shown. And especially the reaction this has on the different characters. Seeing that most of the characters are just young kids, the shock of experiencing those kinds of things becomes huge, and Narutaru does a very fine job in portraying this. Whether the characters get angry, sad, or scared, all of this was portrayed in a really awesome way. I can really say that I had a great time watching this anime. Especially the episodes with lots of pain and suffering were awesome.

Still, the fact remains that Narutaru is an anime which could easily have been expanded to 24 or 26 episodes. It definitely has enough material for this, and it would have made this series a lot better. That’s because right now, the creators had to stuff this series into only 13 episodes. Some anime try this by having a huge pacing. Narutaru tried this by just omitting a lot of scenes. The result is that it introduces lots of questions, but only focuses at a select few of them, ignoring all of the others, leaving them entirely unanswered. For example, we see one of the bad guys preparing for some kind of plan, but then he suddenly entirely disappears from the screen. We never see any trace of him. And there are many more examples like these. Still, the points at which Narutaru did decide to focus on worked out great. ^^

Overall, it’s a very nice anime. If you like disturbing anime, you seriously should consider to check this one out. I had a great time watching this. It’s just that I wish there was more of it.