Author: psgels

Good Witch of the West – Astraea Testament – 12 – Now We’re Getting Somewhere!

by psgels, posted in Good Witch of the West - Astraea Testament



Haha! This is where the fun really begins! One of the advantages of the enormous pacing of this show is the fact that it now has time to develop an amazing ending. And so far, things have been moving in an awesome direction. Firiel and Roux have made up, so their whining also has stopped, things are actually explained in the right way, and so many worthwhile events happen. This episode really showed why the previous episodes had to sacrifice their pacing.

We start at the forest at the end of the world. The Mahiru-star is getting closer and closer, and suddenly a portal from the other side of the world opens, releasing a bunch of angry-looking meat-eating dragons. Meanwhile, Eusis asks Igraine what might’ve happened to Lot Christbard, and then it seems that nobody’s able to find him. This means that another person has to take Lot’s place in the dragon-battling. Igraine then volunteers.

The next day, Leandra, still hasn’t figured out that the invasion of Torubato is a trap, so she leads Gulair’s army towards their doom. Back to the dragons, Igraine proves that she’s quite the dragon-slayer as she mainly is responsible of killing off the group of four dragons. Then, however, five others come to replace them. Then, Adale, Vincent and a couple of soldiers come them to the aid, along with Cain, Firiel and Roux and the dragons are scared away. It was a very successful scene, which I really enjoyed. Of course, Eusis would’ve been able to defeat another five dragons, especially with Igraine, but it was a good moment for the creators to make every party meet again. I just loved how everything just happened all at once.

Eusis then asks Cain his name. He then answers, and he also tells that he’s one who’s looking for Hermes. Roux then manages to prevent Eusis from declaring Cain as an enemy, even if the guy is a heathen. Rouxbow, meanwhile, gets introduced to Adale and Vincent. Vincent also wonders how Igraine managed to become a knight, and Firiel indeed notices that her unicorn used to belong to Lot Christbard. Igraine then reveals that Lot has been gone since the previous night.

Roux, meanwhile, explains what he knows about the Mahiru-star’s behaviour. It seems that three passages to the other side of the world have opened. Of course, this is letting in a huge number of meat-eating dragons into the dimension, and it will become a major problem if the dragons just keep coming, and start terrorizing some villages. The Ephemeris won’t be able to close these gates, though if you have it, you will be able to figure out what to do next. Why this is, still remains a mystery.

Cain then proposes to go back to Sellafield. Then Adale enters. She then tells Eusis, Roux, Firiel and the others the things he came to realize during the previous episode: Lot has been paying a lot of visits to the mansion in Shiliz Sandlru. Or the place Roux was tortured. Eusis doesn’t like this. This was the reason for Adale to come to Eusis, because she was worried about him.

What follows is Firiel, Roux and Cain leaving for Shiliz Sandlru, while Adale, Vincent and the others stay behind. Eusis then scolds Adale, as sending a messenger to him would have been faster. Though that wasn’t a really smart move of him. ^^ Adale seems to have borrowed some unicorns from Duke Gilbia’s wife, because of her queen’s touchstone. She also claims that she came here to help him.

That evening, Firiel wonders what Hermes exactly is. After all, Cain is with them, though Duke Riez is also a member. And then FINALLY, we receive some explanation about them. It was indeed time, at the second-last episode. I’ve been waiting for this, and suddenly, the story makes much more sense. Hermes symbolizes the Shadow Kingdom of Gulair. They consider the Snake Rod to be their symbol. Consider the queen as light, and them as the dark.

And suddenly, a picture is shown that explains so MANY things. We see a picture of the queen (if I recall this correctly, this is the first shot we get to see of her. She looks pretty old), with in the background a picture of Hyragurion. This gives us some very high suspicions that Hyragurion actually is the main capital of Gulair. That’s why there are so many parties. That’s why Firiel had to go there. Everything suddenly makes much more sense.

In any case, back to Hermes. Shadows are necessary to maintain harmony. If one of the two becomes too big, disaster is bound to happen. Hermes Trimestigus is the leader of the Hermes. It’s been explained before, but now I finally understand what it really means. The Hermes is currently divided into different factions. Each of these factions has a different leader. Cain and Rou belong to the research faction. I wouldn’t be surprised if Firiel’s father is the leader of that faction. Hermes Trimestigus is probably the leader of the evil faction. Or however it’s called.

I think the major mistakes were the following:
– This explanation should have arrived sooner. The Hermes are a major part of the storyline. You would introduce them at the beginning of the anime, not at the end.
– When Firiel went to Hyragurion, the fact that it’s Gulair’s capital should have been mentioned.

The next morning, they run into Leandra and her army. Firiel uses this opportunity to tell Leandra about the fact that Brigeonte’s trying to deceive her. Leandra decides to believe her. It’s interesting that Firiel mentions that there’s a traitor among the dukes and nobles who’s spreading the lies about Brigeonte’s plans. Why doesn’t she just mention Lot’s name? Because of this, she sends Ravenna to lead the army to Torubato, while she heads to Hyragurion, in order to unmask this guy. Or could it mean that we’ve got another traitorous noble somewhere?

Meanwhile, the weather continues to get worse. Lots of people are praying, in the hope for things to turn out right. Then, Firiel, Roux and Cain arrive in Shiliz Sandlru, where Marie and Madam (sorry, forgot her name) have been waiting for them. Apparently, it was their task to keep an eye on things. It seems the castle is heavily guarded. Firiel then suggests to go inside. To make it even better, she plans to enter it directly.

In order to achieve this, Cain makes use of one of his powerful bombs, in order to scare away the guards. Then, Lot appears. I so like the way that his personality remained the same as it was when he still was acting. Mostly, when you see a bad guy, trying to deceive others as a good guy, you see him or her act very cheerful in front of the good guys, while in fact, he or she’s incredibly serious. Too serious, perhaps. Though Lot appears to have a real laid-back personality.

Lot then bring them to the real Hermes Trismestigus, aka Duke Riez. He’s had to hide his identity, in order to get close to his target. Because of that, he faked his own death. The dead body which was found indeed was just a dead body made to look like him. Duke Riez then tries to toy with Roux again, by making him remember the Snake Rod. It works quite well. Then, Riez reveals that he has paid a visit to Sellafield, in order to destroy Elilin’s grave and pick up the Ephemeris. So it’s now in his possession. Apparently, Lot told him about the location. Riez, however, seems to think that having the Ephimeris, automatically means that he has the Mahiru-Star, while Roux revealed that it can only show you the steps to take next, earlier in the episode.

And then, finally, Firiel totally breaks out of her role as damsel in distress, when she grabs the nearest pointy object she can find, and charges towards Riez, using the things she learned from Igraine. She’s doing quite a good job, though Riez has more experience than she has, resulting in him overpowering her. Riez then tries to enlist Firiel, Roux and Cain for his own purposes.

The saviour of the day gets to be Rouxbow. He charges in from the window, making good use of the Deus ex Machina, and makes Lot drop his sword. In the confusion, Firiel grabs it, and overpowers Riez. Cain, meanwhile, has made sure that Lot won’t move anywhere. Then, Roux reveals the contents of the Ephemeris. It’s an ordinary book, which just reveals the exact movements of the Mahiru Star, and the influence it has. It won’t be able to control the Mahiru-Star just like that.

Duke Riez, then places all his hope on the only plan of his which still stands: Brigeonte’s invasion. Only then, a very surprising guest arrives. A mysterious person who looks just like Cain. This explains his appearances in the previous episodes. The guy speaks in complete mysteries, though he does recognize that the Mahiru Star has reached its limit. The Mahiru-Star, meanwhile has turned entirely red, and then it explodes, creating a huge tidal wave. Then the episode ends.

The next episode, Leandra will probably stop Brigeonte’s invasion, Adale will stop the invasion of the dragons, and Firiel will stop the Mahiru-star. That means that either Leandra or Adale will become queen, unless the Firebird’s Feather has a hidden meaning to it. If that’s the case, Firiel will become queen.

Overall, I loved this episode. The music was awesome, the pacing was perfect this time, and finally things become clear again. I can’t wait for the last episode. Let’s hope it won’t mess up like so many other endings do.

Popolocrois 2003 – 07 – From Straw to an Estate, or from a Pencil to a Blanket

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois 2003



It’s strange. You would expect the episodes to turn darker as the series progresses, but so far, the episodes have become lighter. The bad guy also hasn’t shown imself in quite a while either. In any case, this is probably the lightest episode of Popolocrois 2003 yet. It was a bit awkward at times, as it mostly centered around Pinon, Luna and Marco having fun at a festival, though the conclusion was surprisingly touching.

The episode is centered around Marco. He and Leona are collecting a few strawberries in order to make some jam. When they get home, Leona realizes that she doesn’t have enough strawberries in order to make her jam, so she sends Marco out on an errand, to go to the city in order to buy some strawberries for her. At the same time, there’s a huge festival going on, which Pinon and Luna are, of course, attending.

Marco then meets up with the two of them, and basically ends up having so much fun that he spends the money, originally meant for the strawberries. The rest of the episode is spent with him, Pinon and Luna trying to earn enough money in order to buy the strawberries, or goldenberries, which seem to be even better than the strawberries. Three attempts are shown.

Attempt # 1: a Donut-Eating Contest. Pinon’s annoying classmates notify the threesome about a donut-eating contest. They’ll be attending themselves as well. As Marco loves to eat, he basically should be able to win the prize money. Still, another kid is the winner. I like the fact that the creators managed to choose the person you’d least expect to win.

Attempt # 2: imitating the Straw Millionare Story. The story goes as follows, we have a poor guy, who finds a piece of straw. He then manages to trade the straw for something better. He then kept doing this until he ended up as a millionare. In our case, it’s a pencil, which gets traded for a pair of sweets, which gets traded for a piece of cloth. I like the way that the creators didn’t make this extend to the obvious, as after they’ve found the cloth, Attempt # 2 gets cut off, in order to make place for Attempt # 3.

Attempt # 3: An egg-racing contest. Basically, you have a start and a finish, and whoever can get from the start to the finish in the shortest time, is the winner. The catch is that each contestant carries an egg, and you’re disqualified if the egg breaks. The grand prize is one gold coin, which is more than enough to buy the goldenberries, and plenty of other nice things. Still, there’s one problem. Pinon, Marco and Luna are basically the only contestants who aren’t big, strong guys. Therefore, they plan to win with the help of smart tricks, teamwork and the Seirei.

Marco first leads them through a shortcut, even though he does get lost a bit. Then, everyone’s supposed to travel by boat to a distant island, though Marco was smart enough to bring them to a shore without a beach. Instead, it has huge cliffs rising up the sea. Pinon then gets the idea of using some discarded wooden boxes and the piece of cloth from before to make a hot air ballon, driven by the two seirei. While this didn’t make sense at all, and this plan obviously wouldn’t work in real life, even with seirei, it does show Pinon’s insight. In any case, these factors make the threesome get the lead, only to end up getting tricked by Punpun and Kotaro who are looking for attention again. Their role is small, though they do make sure that Pinon, Marco and Luna end up last. The nice thing is that their attempts were appreciated by everyone, and they get a special prize for this: a basket full of goldenberries.

Even though these events were amusing to watch, it wasn’t what this episode was about. It’s about the tight bond between Marco and Leona, his mother. It was already known that Marco is very scared of the thought of getting his mother angry. He keeps telling himself that this is because she’ll punish him severely if he makes a mistake, though I think he’s trying to fool himself. During this episode, he tells Pinon and Luna that he likes eating so much because it makes Leona smile, and he likes to see her smile. I think he just tells himself that his mother will get extremely scared when he messes up, because he’s very afraid to make her sad.

Some interesting question also arose, regarding the characters while watching this episode. For example, Luna gets really angry when both Marco and Pinon complain about their parents. I think she’s trying to subtly say that they should be glad that they have parents. What exactly has happened to her own parents, if she says something like that? Did she run away from them, did they disappear, or did they even die? Also, why did Leona decide to live in the forest, instead of the town? She could have lots of reasons for this, most are just apparent. But what was the major factor for her to decide to stay there? And I’m still debating whether Shirokishi is Marco’s real father or not. I would guess that he actually is, as Leona seems to have a picture of him on the wall.

I also liked the good use of symbols, references and storywriting. For example, take the balloon. Marco gets it at the beginning of the episode, and it kindof tags along with the episode. When characters also run aound in high grass, it serves as a good way for the player to tell where they are at that moment, and in the end, it serves as inspiration in order to make the hot air balloon. Still, I think that it didn’t survive the episode. Poor balloon. Or the cloth, they aquired at Attempt # 2. At first, it’s forgotten about again, only until it serves as the balloon-part of the hot-air balloon. And the animals who appear at the beginning of the episode, and even the bushes full of strawberries. The fact that there are a huge number of them, suggests that Marco and Leona have been living very peacefully along with the forest.

Also, I like Narcia how she keeps annoying Pietoro. Pietoro has the habit that he only talks about the good things he did in his past. Narcia cleverly uses this when Pietoro gets annoyed with Pinon, and starts acting as a huge hypocrite. ^^

Still, I’m wondering what that bad guy is up to. He’s probably the seirei of darkness. Then there should be a seirei of light as well… In any case, the fact that he hasn’t shown himself must mean something. I’m also wondering when the water-seirei will arrive. Ah well, we know it will once it starts to rain like crazy.

Overall, a fairly light episode. A bit boring, but the way it ended was very touching. So what if most of the events didn’t make any sense at all? ^^

Memorable moment: Narcia’s sarcastic remarks. 😉

Mushishi – 24 – Fake Fire

by psgels, posted in Mushishi



Mushishi returns with the same outstanding quality of its stories once more. This time has yet another happy ending. I really loved it. The case is like this: we have this village which has its own Mushishi. On one day, they run into a yet to be identified Mushi. It came from a vulcanic rock, and has taken the form of a plant, which can rapidly increase in number. These plants also release a poisonous gas, which appears to kill off the trees.

The Mushishi has tried all sorts of things, but nothing works. Eventually, her last resolve was to burn the entire forest, along with the Mushi. After all, if the plants were to reach the crops of the village, they’d have a very hard time surviving the winter. Ginko’s against this, as not only it burns a lot of innocent trees, but the fact also remains that the Mushi came from a volcanic rock. It would be wrong to give it fire.

In the end, the Mushi appeared to be the premature form of a bunch of Kagebi. It takes refuge in cold places, and survive by sucking the heat out of people who are lured by their warmth. The Mushishi then tells everyone to be extra careful with fire, though you know how humans tend to behave. Most villagers do not immediately see the danger of the Kagebi, and they don’t pay attention to their actions. Only when seven people die and even more suffer from frostbites due to eating food, cooked under Kagebi, the message begins to sink in, and they start to be extra careful.

The Mushishi, however, has another problem. She swallowed one of the Kagebi, and now it’s grown inside of her. Very slowly, it’s sucking away her heat, and makes her cough up leaves, as a means for the Kagebi to reproduce itself. She has already given up hope when Ginko helps her. He lets her drink food, cooked by another Kagebi. This food then causes a frostbite in her stomach, where the Kagebi resides. This makes it unable to suck up heat, so it dies off. At least, that’s what I think that happens.

The way the episode ended was great. We turn to the beginning of the spring, we see a lone Kagebi heading out of the village. I’s looking for colder places, in which to spend the summer. I just loved the symbolism of this scene.

You can wonder, was it right to burn the trees? The fact remains that the plants were the dangerous ones, not the Kagebi. While the Kagebi just took seven lives, just imagine how many people would have died if the plants managed to reach the crops of the village. But still, a lot of animals, plants and trees were killed off during the burning. However, at the end of the episode, you can see the first traces of life appearing again. It’s also part of the symbolism used at the end of the episode. Life goes on. No matter what.

Memorable Moment: The ending.

Bleach – 91 – [Insert Random Comment Here]

by psgels, posted in Bleach



I just wrote a post about this one, only to click the window away due to lack of motivation, spaced-out-ness and that annoying popup of photobucket. In any case, the end is near. At least withing twenty episodes. Ishida was kindof good, while Strawberry was boring. And some other things, but I forgot.

[Update]I’ve decided to stop Blogging Bleach. When I started blogging it, I imagined that I needed some kind of show to bash, but in the end, I’m finding much more joy in blogging about the shows I like. Out of all the shows I’m currently blogging, Bleach is the only one which feels like a chore. I’ll still be watching the series, though I don’t have the motivation at all to keep blogging it. [/Update]

Noein Review – 96/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Noein



Noein is an outstanding anime. Heck, at the moment, Mahou Shoujotai is the only anime I can think off which has made a bigger impact on me. This anime is that incredible. It’s a science-fiction series, but it cleverly stays away from all of the clichés that the other science-fiction shows are so often plagued by.

Noein has so many good qualities, I don’t know where to start. The story, for one, is something very simple, it contains some often used elements, though it’s extremely creative in what it does. So many interesting plot twists happen during the course of the anime. It really always leaves you guessing. The characters are also amazing. Noein features a huge range of characters, and for some reason it manages to fully develop, explore and give the player the chance to know them in only twenty-four episodes. The result is that you can’t help but care about them during the entire course of the anime.

The pacing also is another very interesting issue in Noein. During some episodes, mostly the intermezzo’s, the pacing is slow. Perhaps a bit too slow, but their contents made up for everything. At other times, the pacing is incredible. So many episodes feature events which succeed each other in an extremely rapid pacing. Surprisingly enough, nothing felt rushed at all.

The moment I saw this anime for the first time, I knew I was looking at something special. The first episode really contained something unique, and as the episodes progressed, the scenes began to get more amazing by the minute. Then, around episode ten, the episodes started to become incredibly good. episode 15 continued with the normal awesomeness, only for the last three episodes to whack me down with scenes which actually managed to be even better than the anime has ever been. The way it ended definately belongs in the category of amazing endings. Even though some issues were left unexplained (PHONE!!??).

And I haven’t even started talking about the graphics and music yet! Seriously, both of these departments are outstandingly done. The entire anime is done in a very experimental art style. Characters and animation look extremely messy, but somehow the effect this has is incredible. Especially if you combine this with the OST. It really is one of the best OSTs ever, and the creators really knew exactly when they had to use it. The battle scenes also are a huge joy to watch. This anime features some amazing looking battle choreography. This works especially good with the character art, as it becomes even more messy during these action scenes. Needless to say that the result is awesome.

Okay, so the anime has a few flaws when you look at the detail. Some of the technobabble may work confusing at times. Especially when you don’t know anything about physics. At times, Haruka may look a bit too much like a damsel in distress. And there are more things like these. But believe me, the good parts totally make up for these.

Overall, I seriously recommend you to check Noein out, if you haven’t already. It may be a science-fiction series, but most of the airtime is actually spent in a normal timezone, instead of the futuristic one. The art is awesome, the characters are awesome, and the antagonist is one of the freakiest one of his kind, able to play his role very well. Watching this anime was amazing. Really amazing.

Noein – 24 – Ending, OMG!!!!!!! and Look Below For Information About Aquiring The Subbed Version

by psgels, posted in Noein



Thanks A LOT to Cos, for mentioning the fact that Noein 24 had actually been released for a couple of weeks now. The fact is like this: at July 9th, the French fansub group BFT released the final episode on Tokyo Toshokan. They told in their description that they translated the final episode from Chikyuji’s fansub (who released a French fansub two days earlier) because Shinsen Subs was so slow. Unfortunately, they wrote this in French, so the only ones able to understand these words were french people, who didn’t even need to know this as they already had their final episode subbed. When I saw this at first, I only noticed the word vostfr, which stands for the french fansubs. And I have a suspicion that I’m not the only one who reached the same conclusion. I can understand a bit of french, but most of the time I’m not motivated enough to spend effort in trying to figure out what it says. A huge mistake. Thanks again to Cos, for making me realize this.

Long story short: if you want to see Noein 24 with english subs: download BFT’s version. It is indeed in english.

Anyway, about the episode. It was utterly, utterly INCREDIBLE!! This episode SO belongs into my list of best endings EVER! The entire episode was so incredibly touching, the pacing was extremely exciting and not to mention the fact that the graphical and musical department worked overtime this episode. And both of these departments already were amazing!

Like I said before, I don’t cry a lot during anime, and even if I do, It’s just a bit, not much. But Noein has managed to do the impossible. During the entire final part of the episode, I had to cry. I’m sortof embarrased by this. But that’s how good this episode was, folks.

I would love to do some kind of summary on this episode, but I do feel that I wouldn’t do it justice. So many things happen at once. Everything was just perfectly directed. In the end, Noein proved to be worthy of being one of the best anime ever. It’s too bad the series ended. I would have loved to see more of this. Let us hope that in the future, more anime as Noein will appear, not afraid to experiment with the boundaries animation.

Memorable Moment: The Entire Episode. If I do have to select one of them, it would be Tobi’s last scene.

Some quick first impressions: Binbou Shimai Monogatari, Innocent Venus and Project Blue Chikyuu SOS

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The Summer Season continues once more with a huge load of garbage. Thank goodness Binbou Shimai Monogatari managed to change the flood of bad anime, but I’m really getting impatient now. Much of the gems of this season have yet to either air or get subbed, so I’m hoping for Kemonozume, Flag and quite probably Angelique and Night Head Genesis to arrive quite soon.

Binbou Shimai Monogatari

Binbou Shimai Monogatari is one of the better series we’ve seen this season. Okay, that doesn’t really say much, but the fact remain that this series remains entertaining. It’s indeed a slice-of-life series, about two sisters, who have lost their mother and their father has run away because of huge depts. They now have to live together. Most of the time, I’m not really into slice-of-life series, though this series managed to keep me interested. The fact is that the two girls love each other. A lot. But because of their situations, they doubt a lot, making mistakes and solving them again. It works very inspirational this way. Still, I do have to admit that there are a lot of boring scenes, but the overall picture was good enough for me to keep watching.

Innocent Venus

I’m probably one of the few persons who didn’t like this one. This anime has achieved lots of popularity since it aired, though I’m not able to see the good side of it. Basically, what this anime tries to do is provide the action scenes with as much darkness and tension as possible. It tries to for the picture of a horrible world, in which the main characters have to survive. Unfortunately, it tries too hard. The action scenes are dull, they’re not exciting at all. They only consist of a bunch of mechas killing each other and people shooting innocents in the head, while trying to spill huge gallons of blood with each shot. Like I said before, the main characters have to survive in this world. So far, they’re uberpowerful for some reason, and uberannoying as well. The only good character was the clown-like person. Some elements also don’t make any sense at all. For example, why did the military name the girl “Venus”? Venus is a yellow plannet full of sulphur, or she was a greek goddess (who wasn’t really what you’d call innocent). Huge hurricanes also have gotten the names Hyper Hurricanes, which which sounds more like a bad name for a fighting-move. A map of the current world, after it’s been flooded also gets shown, and it doesn’t make any sense at all. Right now, it seems like tectonic plates have been moving, instead of a bunch of huge hurricanes.

Project Blue Chikyuu SOS

But when you think that Innocent Venus is bad, just wait till you see Project Blue Chikyuu SOS. This anime is just horrible. For starters, the two main characters are a fourteen-year-old brat who holds the position of company president, with the massive amount of 200 billion somethings in assets and a guy who graduated for the MIT at the top of his class. To make things even duller, they’re able to beat any ordinary adult who comes their way, and they even manage to outsmart entire armies. Yeah, right. Well, then, the plot isn’t really what you’d call exciting. Aliens have been preparing for five years, in order to start an invasion. They, of course, conveniently start with just one attack, instead of going all out at once. The plot consists of convenient meetings and events that make as much sense as an igloo in the desert. Seriously, stay away from this anime.

Simoun – 18 – Very Interesting Developments Indeed

by psgels, posted in Simoun



This episode felt like an intermezzo. The atmosphere wasn’t as heavy as it was before, though the episode remained incredibly worthwhile. Some new problems get introduced, older problems get brought back, and Paraietta, Aaeru, Neviriru, Mamiina, Rödoreamon, Yun and Harukonfu get a healthy dose of character development.

Firstly, regarding the plot. We begin the episode with the funeral of Angurasu. It’s being helt in the Arcus Prima. Apparently, I was wrong in my conclusion at the end of the previous episode. The enemy has managed to capture a number of Simoun from the Chor Caputo and Riboru, but it hasn’t discovered their secrets yet. What happened in the previous episode was Angurasu, along with two other priests, sneaking into the ruins, trying to steal one of the Simoun of the Ancients. There isn’t that much info about them, but I do suspect that they formed the base for the normal Simoun. The previous episode was meant to show that the enemy indeed is capable of piloting Simoun.

Later, Neviriru and Aaeru speculate about what happened with Angurasu, Limone, Dominüra and Amuria. They reach an interesting conclusion. The Simoun are able to bend even time and space. Angurasu, at the moment she shot her bombs, went to some kind of special place. That explains why she didn’t die that time. Aaeru’s grandfather also suspected something like this. This episode also suggests that in his Sibylla-years, he seemed to have been quite important, or in any case famous.

He also knew quite a lot about the Simoun, as it seems that he used to tell Aaeru that the Simoun can see what’s ahead, which indeed confirms that they do have the ability to mess with time. He also reveals that the Simoun can bring you to a different world. Aaeru’s grandfather has always yearned for this other world. Aaeru and Neviriru then realize that Limone and Dominüra indeed are alive somewhere. And Amuria as well.

The interesting question, of course, remains: is there just one other world, or are there more? Were Dominüra and Limone sent to the same place as Amuria? And how about Angurasu? Was she also sent towards the other world, or did she just teleport to a random place in the normal world? If she didn’t, and really got sent to the other world, then how did she get back? And why haven’t Dominüra, Limone and Amuria come back? I’m suspecting that Onashia’s playing a significant role in this one. I’m also wondering what the trigger is for being sent off. So far, the things that both Amuria as Limone as Dominüra as Angurasu shared in common was that they felt themselves incredibly close to god, and a loud explosion followed. Aaeru and Neviriru decide to keep the things they found out a secret for each other.

Meanwhile, it seems that yet another nuisance has appeared, in the form of a bunch of highly placed government officials. They’ll be playing the role Harukonfu had in the earlier episodes. Only ten times worse. These people also don’t believe that the Simoun are god’s crafts, which results in quite some snide remarks and arrogantic behavior. Aaeru and Neviriru manage to pwn them at first, when they ask the Simoun for their strongest Ri Maajon, and they display the Dandelion Ri Maajon, otherwise known as the one who only gets performed during ceremonies due to its huge symbolism and history. But fortunately (am I getting sadistic?) these guys don’t give up that fast. They even knock Yun against the wall when she hinders them when they try to take away Angurasu’s body and they order Waporifu to dismantle a Simoun once again.

The Sky Fortress from episode twelve is still an issue, though. Ever since we saw it that episode, it has been unfindable. The officials want to find it. This all gets mentioned during a meeting with the officials, Harukonfu, Anubitufu, Guraghief and the high priests of the Arcus Prima. During the same meeting, the fact that Neviriru is piloting Aaeru gets mentioned. The high priests become a bit startled when they realize something her grandfather seems to have done. Then, the scene ends, suggesting something which happens later in the episode.

Yun, meanwhile encounters the officials carrying Angurasu’d dead body away, and gets pushed away violently, like described before. Later, the Sybilla get information about their upcoming missions. It seems that they’ll be heading back to the Messis, in order to locate the Sky Fort, as the Messis works better for these kinds of missions. Everyone also gets surprised when Mamiina is forced as Neviriru’s pair, while Aaeru and Yun don’t get to participate in the mission at all. The events preceding these scenes, combined with Harukonfu’s reaction suggest that the reason for Aaeru not being able to participate is her grandfather, while Yun can’t participate because of her behaviour against the officials. But is that all there is to it? Especially the way this episode ended made me see this.

The Sybilla head off, and Aaeru and Yun are left behind. (Just wondering: where were the Simoun heading to? Were they heading for the Messis first, in order to search for the Sky Fortress based on it, or are they just on a single mission, planning to return to the Arcus Prima later that day, or the day after? There’s quite a significant difference between these two options) Both Aaeru and Yun rush off, in order to do something. What are they planning? Are they planning the same thing? We’ll have to wait till next week in order to find these ones out.

Neviriru is starting to get more and more friendlier with Aaeru. This episode, she also made the initiative of starting a conversation with her. She also looked quite happy along with Aaeru, when they had to perform her Ri Maaju in the Maaju Pool. I don’t think I can believe her when she claimed not to trust Aaeru, and that she only faced Aaeru in order to be able to face Amuria, and so herself.

Aaeru’s reasons for refusing to choose her gender are also explained a bit more, during a flashback of her and her grandfather. In there, her grandfather uses an analogy of a river. The young Aaeru is able to cross it, though the old grandfather isn’t. He can’t go any further. He then tells Aaeru that in order to grow old, you have to make decisions to get there. That means that if you make one, you will be left out on the other options you’ve chosen not to take. This means that you lose tons of opportunities if you make a decision. (interesting note: what happened to Aaeru’s cheek in the flashback? Was it meant as a symbol, to show that Aaeru liked to run off to dangerous places, or did something specific happen to her?)

Paraietta, meanwhile, begins to get more and more doubts. Seeing Aaeru and Neviriru together doesn’t really make her feel comfortable either. Neither is the fact that they seem like the perfect team. Then there’s also the matter that she believes that she can’t make any good decisions at all. Then, during this episode, she finally loses it. She finally realizes that she has to protect Neviriru forcefully. Not quite the best idea ever, though the results were very entertaining. During the evening, when the two of them are alone, Paraietta grabs her chance, in trying to forcefully win Neviriru over her. Of course, Neviriru doesn’t agree with this.

Mamiina reveals that she enjoyed the time she had on the Messis quite a lot (unlike a certain Furoe ^^). Everyone seemed equal at that time, even eating mouse stew. Mamiina did realize, however, that everyone was different. This became clear after they got back to the Arcus Prima again. Later in the episode, when it seems that she finally gets her chance to pair with Neviriru. She then reveals to Rödoreamon that she still wants to be on the same level as the others, but this time it’s because she truly wants to be friends with everyone.

Rödoreamon also showed that she can be strong. This became clear when Mamiina showed her her weakness. The two are living towards each other more and more.

Waporifu, meanwhile, still has Dominüra’s reaction after seeing the dismantled Simoun on her mind. She seems quite against the fact that she has to dismantle a Simoun yet again. She wonders what to do, and eventually reaches the conclusion to do what she believes in. She didn’t get featured too long during this episode, though I don’t think that that was the last thing we’ve seen of this.

Yun finally begins to show signs of weaknesses and determination. We had to wait for this for a long while, but finally, she’s also beginning to break out of her shell. The first sign we see of this is when she looks at a miniature boat-like item with a very nostalgic look. Though I have no idea what this might be. It could be a cradle as well. For some reason, she also was heavily offended by the fact that Angurasu was carried away, and she attempted to stop the officials. Later in the episode, she also can’t get any sleep at all.

Harukonfu seems to have lost the spark he once had. I think that seeing the peace negotiations end up with the initiators killing themselves wasn’t good for his health. It’s like Mamiina said: he’s become an old man now. He’s not able of acting with the confidence and charisma he once had. Therefore, he loses influence. Still, he was quite sad in which he begged Neviriru not to make his job even more difficult.

I’m also wondering about Kaimu. Obviously, her role still isn’t over, as she’s still in love with Paraietta. As the latter is way too busy with getting angry over Neviriru and Aaeru, she fell in the background a bit. Still, the fact that she looked up hopefully to Paraietta when the two of them were assigned to remain in the same Pair, does suggest that she hasn’t lost any of her feelings yet. Paraietta, however, didn’t notice anything.

I’m also wondering about Aruti. For now, it seems that her only reason to be in the Chor Tempest is Kaimu, but I want to see their relationship get even more developed. For now, they act like strangers, while their case really remains interesting. Furoe has gotten some subtle changes, though she remains the most cheerful members of the Chor Tempest. I think that, because of her personality, that she’s able to handle more than the average member of the Chor Tempest. Morinasu also isn’t seen near Waporifu, this time. It seems that the two have made up, though their relationship has changed (I couldn’t help but wondering: how exactly would you define their relationship? Straight, as Morinasu is a woman, while Waporifu is a man? Yaoi, as Waporifu is a man, and Morinasu’s planning to become a man as well? Yuri, as technically, they’re both women? Or a combination of the three of them?)

Memorable Moment: Seeing Yun act differently from her usual self. I’ve been waiting for that. 🙂

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 17 – Warning: This Episode Will Feature Some Disturbing Material

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni



I have one advice for the people who are planning to watch this: watch it during the afternoon. I watched it late in the evening, and I’ll probably have a hard time sleeping. The disturbing scenes took another turn for the worse during this episode. Honestly, this was the first time in anime ever in which I couldn’t bear to watch some scenes, apart from some horribly bad anime, perhaps.

In any case, I’ve spoiled myself a bit with Wikipedia, about the contents of each of the arcs. The current arc will be the second arc, but now in the perspective of Shion, which should give us the answers to the questions from the second and the third arc. The next arc will show the answers from the first arc, in which we see the same arc, but now in Rena’s perspective. I’m looking forward to that arc. Keiichi and Rena make a good combination. The seventh arc will then solve the fourth arc, and all of the questions involving the main plot as well. As in, the reason why people act weird, Rika’s death and the volcanic gas. There wasn’t any information about the eighth arc, so I’m really wondering what it’ll be about. I also don’t think it’ll appear on the anime. OVA?

In any case, this episode was nice in the fact that it provided some nice and interesting material. The fact remains, though that it focuses on three of my least favourite characters: Shion, Mion and Satoshi. I didn’t feel anything for the characters at all. Also Mion’s torture scene only disgusted me, though I didn’t feel along with the characters. Ironically, the best moment of the episode was in which Rika displayed even more of her foreseeing abilities.

We start the episode with Shion still feeling down from the previous episode. Mion then gives her a call with the message that Satoshi called her, in order to apologize to her. Mion found it better if Shion was the one to listen, so she told him that she’d call him back, and she hung up. Shion then goes to call Satoshi. Both parties apologize to each other. Satoshi claims that he’ll never forgive the people who put he and his sister in the situation they’re in now. This actually is very interesting, as he mentions that these people may be very close to her, though she isn’t one of them. This suggests that there was an external party who assigned Satoko and Satoshi to live with their aunt and uncle. You would expect the Sonozaki-famly to do such a thing, though that means that Mion was directly involved. Unless Satoshi believes that at the time that the Sonozaki-family moved, Mion had nothing to do with that decision. Still, if it isn’t someone from the Sonozaki-family, then who was it?

Satoshi then reveals that he’s quit his job, and that he’s achieved enough money for his goal. I always thought that this money was meant as money to survive for a while, after he fled from Hinamizawa after killing his aunt. Satoshi also reveals that Satoko’s on the verge of losing it. After that, we have another interesting revelation. As it’s the night before the Watanagashi, Satoshi has made his plans, though he needs Satoko out of the way. Therefore, he asks Shion to take care of her during the Watanagashi.

How did Mion know about this during the third arc? This gives us some heavy clues that Keiichi made a call to Shion, instead of Mion, back then. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have known. And so far, Shion hasn’t been crazy enough to tell Mion about it. Unless, of course, this scene was omitted later in the episode. After all, during the Watanagashi, Shion pretends to be Mion, while Mion’s nowhere to be found. Shion could have told her there. That or Mion and Shion like to swap mobile phones.

Anyway, Satoshi asks whether Shion believes in Oyashiro-sama’s curse. Oyashiro-sama is said to curse all those who leave the village and run away. At least, according to Satoshi. Satoshi also reveals that he did have plans to run away from the village, though he gets cut off by his aunt who happens to get home.

We then switch to the evening of the Watanagashi, in which a suspicious Satoshi walks in the forest with a suspiciousbat, walking towards a suspicious abandoned closet with a suspicious look on his face. If I had to summarize this scene in one word, it would be “suspicious”. He then looks at the closet, and drops the bat. Meanwhile, we see Rena, Rika, Satoko and Shion pretending to be Mion at the Watanagashi-festival. It probably is Shion, as the arc remains focused at her, not at Mion.

Then there follows a very nice dialogue between Rika and Satoko. Satoko’s feeling so down that she doesn’t feel like doing anything. Rika tries to cheer on her, though that doesn’t really work. What follows is Rika acting awesome again, by predicting the murder of Satoko’s aunt. Okay, she predicted the end of all of Satoko’s pain. If you look at it one way, this is true. Her aunt gets killed, her uncle moves away and she gets to live with Rika. Another reason for Rika to be happy. ^^ On the other hand, though, the fact that her brother left isn’t exactly happy.

Then we see the scene in which Satoshi’s aunt walks up to a certain suspicious closet. She mentions the fact that Satoshi talked about it, and that it’s quite useable for sale. Then we see the silhouette of someone who looks like Satoshi, with the same voice as Satoshi, bashing Satoshi’s head in with something that looks a lot like a certain baseball bat.

Meanwhile, a member of one of the three main families rushes to another member of the three main families, and tells them that something horrible has happened. He also tells this to Obaba, who isn’t surprised about it. Her reasoning is the fact that if it happened three times, it’ll happen a fourth time. This could suggest that another murder happened, though it can be something else as well.

The police meanwhile has found the body of Satoshi’s aunt. It wasn’t buried or anything, he just left it for anyone to see. I guess that he didn’t have the superb planning skills of Keiichi. The next day, Shion hears from Mion that Satoshi’s uncle was killed. There are no clues of the culprit. Mion also gives the real proof that she does not like Ooishi, at all, when she talks negatively about him, in a normal way. In any case, Shion immediately believes that Satoshi really did kill his aunt.

Shion then, dressed up as Mion once more, runs into Satoshi. Surprisingly, he has yet to run away. His eyes don’t look too healthy. It seems as if he hasn’t slept in ages. Satoshi is looking for something to give Satoko for her birthday. His eye has fallen on a huge stuffed toy. Shion eventually makes him put it on reserve, so that nobody else can buy it, because she finds him so indecisive. Satoshi then thanks Shion, by patting her on the head again. He then looks extremely shocked when he sees Oishi.

Oishi seems hungry for questions as usual, and he attempts to question Shion and Satoshi about their alibis. Shion then shows again that she has an incredibly impulsive personality, as she quickly makes up a couple of lies, and even goes as far as revealing that she really is Shion, instead of Mion. She really can make up lies as good as Keiichi.

Satoshi really begins to look hopeless after her story. He’s really getting spaced out. Oishi then decides to take both of them to the police station for questioning. Mion advices Satoshi to keep talking about the alibi she came up with. Still, Satoshi isn’t angry to Shion for lying to him. Anyway, back at the police station, Mion gets to leave before Satoshi does, due to individual questioning. Seh then sees that the Estate, otherwise known as the guys who freed her in the previous episode, have been waiting for her. Kasai, the guy who did the main talking in the car at the beginning of the previous episode, however, seems to be missing. The estate then takes Shion to the Sonozaki Main house, in which Mion waits for her.

Mion then reveals that Obaba is in an outrage. She’s waiting in the Underground Shrine under the Sonozaki-house. It’s obviously Shion’s first time in here, so she’s surprised by all of the torturing devices which are lying there. In the middle of the room, Obaba is sitting, looking extremely pissed at her. Still, she doesn’t say the reason. She only says that Satoshi has something to do with it, and she marks the Houjou-family as a bunch of people with filthy, traitor’s blood. Probably because of the fact that both Satoko’s parents were in favour of the Dam, because of their jobs. I guess this also solves the Second Watanagashi-murder: Obaba arranged for someone to push the both of them off a cliff. This indeed seems right with the fact that Mion was involved in all of these murders.

Shion then decides to get impulsive again, when she openly mocks the Sonozaki-family and pledges her trust into Satoshi. Obaba then mentions Satoshi’s huge mistake, though she doesn’t mention the fact that he killed his aunt. After Shion’s rant is over, Mion displays how much influence Obaba has had on her, when she’s even willing to torture her own sister, with a straight face. Mion then says to Shion that both Kasai as the owner of the restaurant where she works are in the room next to theirs. As Shion has three people which she’s indebted to in the village, she has to remove three of her fingernails in order to repent for the two of them and Satoshi, otherwise, something’ll happen to them. One interesting thing which Mion mentions is the fact that Satoshi has yet to do anything to them. This seems to clash a bit with Obaba’s opinion.

Let’s ignore the following disgusting scenes, now shall we?

What follows is Kasai and the owner of the restaurant remaining unharmed, though the message Shion gets is to forget about Satoshi Houjou. When she goes to the toy shop, the stuffed animal is gone. Satoshi did manage to buy the stuffed animal after all, after Satoko’s birthday. It makes you wonder about the date, doesn’t it. It basically means that Satoko has had to endure some horrible birthdays, a few days after the Watanagashi, and its murders.

She then runs into Irie, who also finds out that she’s Shion, and not Mion. Oishi then runs into them. He seems to know about what happened in the Underground Shrine. He then takes Shion to the police station again, for another interrogation. Not because of the death of Satoshi’s aunt, but because of the disappearance of Satoshi himself. It seems that he disappeared one day after his aunt was killed. Later, Shion hears from Kasai that the real murderer of Satoshi’s aunt has been caught. It wasn’t Satoshi, it was a psychopath, trying to copycat the bizarre deaths. Then the episode ends.

Okay, this is what I think happened to Satoshi:
– He told his aunt about the closet, and that it was in good condition to be sold.
– He then walked to the closet, carrying the baseball bat and waited for his aunt to come, in order to bash her head in.
– He was planning to do this all along, and part of the plan was to run away afterwards. In the end, he couldn’t do the last part, so he stayed, hoping that nobody would discover him.
– When Mion had to repent for the three persons she was indebted to, she had to *** for each person she was indebted to. She ***-ed the first two on her own will, though she couldn’t do the third ***. Guards had to do it, against her will. (I’m trying not to mention the disturbing stuff with too much detail)
– Because of this, the first two, Kasai and the restaurant owner were let go of, and they remained fine. But because Shion didn’t have the guts to *** the third ***, she didn’t repent for Satoshi.
– Mion then kidnapped Satoshi, in order to perform the Watanagashi on him, put him in a plastic bag and dump him somewhere in a river.
– The Sonozaki-family then found an idiot, who they manipulated into thinking that he was the one who murdered Satoshi’s aunt, in order to cover up for the things Shion did, and make their name look good.

This theory, of course has some flaws:
– Why was Obaba so angry over Satoshi?
– Why was the murder of Satoshi’s aunt not supposed to happen? After all, Rika foresaw it. It had to happen. Still, why didn’t Rika foresee Satoshi’s death? Does performing the Watanagashi on them make them immune for it? Or because it wasn’t decided?
– Why did Satoshi drop his bat?
– How come the bat is perfectly fine in the first and the third arc? You would expect Satoshi to throw it away somewhere, not store it in his locker.
– Why do the creators remain cryptic about this? It could be because of the added mystery, but they also can be trying to divert the attention from something else.

In any case, I still find this theory better than the one in which a psychopath killed Satoshi’s aunt, while Satoshi was doing something bad something elsewhere. Because if it did happen like this:
– Why did Satoshi invite his aunt to look at the closet in the middle of the forest?
– Why did Satoshi head for the closet with a baseball bat in his hand and with an angry look on his face?
– What else happened for the fourth time?
– Why was Satoshi scared when he saw Oishi?

Okay, so the events of what happened during the fourth Watanagashi-murder are clear now, I believe. I think we’ll fast forward to the next Watanagashi for the next episode, or another event worth mentioning. In any case, the first two episodes were dedicated to explaining a bit about the third arc, I think the last two episodes of the arc will explain a few things about the second arc. Mainly who did it, and why she did it.

Memorable moment: Rika in prophet-mode again.