Author: psgels

Mushishi – 21 – Mushishi’s Back! Wooo!

by psgels, posted in Mushishi



Finally, Mushishi returns after a two-month absence, and it’s just as I hoped: they saved the best for last. This episode just turned me utterly speechless. It’s just so brilliant, so awesome, and such a beautiful tale. During its full 20 minutes of time, this episode had me entirely captured, without showing any sign of weaknesses AT ALL. It really reminded me again of why Mushishi is so incredibly awesome.

The case this time: a pregnant woman has been the victim of another mushi. This one settles inside the yet-to-be-born baby, and takes control of it once it’s born. It then flees into a dark place – mostly under a house or in an attic – and remains there for a year. From that point, it releases a baby every half a year. Though this child mostly is the mushi, wearing the child’s body and using it in order to spread its seeds.

But still, what do you do when such a thing happens to you? After all, it still remains your child. It can think. It lives just as a normal human being, only it just grows a lot faster than normal children do. The woman in this case indeed chooses to raise the child, and all of its following successors. Then, however, after a couple of years, the child gets sick, and reaches the point at which it’ll die and at the same time release a huge amount of seeds. It was just too sad to see the parents see and accept the truth.

To make things only better, in the beginning, the first child to die may look like a ten-year old boy, but he still behaves like a little kid. Not being able to talk at all. When the second child is about to die, however, the mushi had gained the ability to speak, so this child got this ability as well. This means that killing off your child already was terrible. But what if you’re about to kill another one of your children, and it really BEGS you not to kill it? It really made for an awesome moment and I totally loved it!

It’s also very interesting to see the difference in reaction when you look at the mother and the father. The father is scared by the truth, but after he thinks about it for a long while, he realizes that there’s no other way, and that he’ll take the responsibility of killing off the rest of the children when they get sick, even though it pains his heart. The mother, however, gets mentally broken when she hears that her children, whom they both raised for three whole years, are about to be killed. She indeed loves her offspring so much, that she decides to not let them be killed, and even goes as far as stabbing Ginko with a large kitchen knife (I loved Ginko’s sarcastical reaction to this, by the way). The father understands the mother’s feelings very well. Even more if you consider her history, and he tries indeed to easen her sadness.

The ending. The ending just totally blew me away. A sad ending is just awesome enough, but the way this ended is just incredible. The mushi gained the ability to think, and also the ability to realize that Ginko’s coming to kill it off. In order to protect its seeds, it kills off the children, turns them into liquid, and burns the house, along with its root. The root turns into a very compact, large round seed. Ginko gives this to the mother, telling her that one day, it’ll awaken again. Though they may not live to experience it. He also, however, collects the liquid that once were the children into a glass bottle, and hides this from the two parents! He takes it along with him, and tells the liquid (it can talk!) that he’ll keep it alive. Still, he must’ve had a very good reason in order to hide a thing like this from the father and mother. Okay, I think Ginko’s merchant-side has something to do with it, but still.

Overall, this was just Mushishi at it’s best. Pure brilliance turned into a story. Mushishi easily makes for one of the best series ever.

Aaaack!!!!

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

Okay, I sincerely apologize to anyone who came by here and tried to post a comment. It seems that everyone who made a comment on Star Crossed in the past is fine, but for some reason, people entirely new here are somehow blocked. This really explains why I didn’t get visits from any new commenters out there. Thanks A LOT to Ten for pointing this out. O_o

The story is like this: about a month ago, every anime blogger out there suffered from huge waves of comment spam (you know, the ones at which you got automatically generated comments who were praising your blog). Star Crossed was no other. And even though it managed to catch a lot of them, the spammers soon found a way to bypass the spam blocker: don’t include any links in the post, and keep your name cryptic. This way, tons of those little buggers came through, and I had to delete them manually (I swear, once this year is over and I have enough time for it, I’m going to move to something with Akismet). Of course, I became sick of this, so I started to search for a way for them to be automatically detected by the anti-spam-feature of blogsome. I messed with a couple of settings, and the spamming stopped. But now I see that I seemed to have turned off the entire traffic for newcomers, which SO was NOT supposed to happen.

I’m currently looking into some way to undo this. Let’s hope that the comment spammers won’t return after this. Agh, this is one of the reasons I dislike Blogsome. *kicks random item*

=Update=
Okay, I’ve managed to fix the problem. If you still have problems posting a comment, you can use the shoutbox on the right. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to start moving around the end of june.

xxxHolic – 09 – Pipe Fox

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic



A woman who has a bad habit, her little finger has been stiff, and smoke has been coming out of it. Seems familiar, no? Still, xxxHolic manages to turn it into something worthwile once more. The main theme of the episode is “pinky”, as all of the rituals and symbols introduced have got something to do with the little finger. The red strings of destiny, the “Pinky Swear”, the Pipe Fox who imitated a red string of destiny and the amusement park attraction which involved a guillotine which would attempt to cut two lovers’ embraced pinkys, but missed (sorry if this sounds a bit vague).

The woman in this episode does tell lies, though her real bad habit is running after too many men at the same time, fakely promising them eternal happiness and “manipulating the red strings of destiny”, as Yuuko tells us at the end of the episode. It’s good that the episode only focused on three of these men, instead of trying to show too many at the same time, so the show can focus on the three individuals.

Domeki and Watanuki are also getting more interesting as every episode passes. On the surface, Watanuki dislikes Domeki, and Domeki finds Watanuki weird. But still, the two of them end up taking the same route homewards. Domeki doesn’t turn his mind on something else when Watanuki suddenly runs off, and Watanuki isn’t scared to tell Domeki about things that happened. Oh, and the little dance that the Pipe Fox made Watanuki perform in front of Domeki was hilarious.

Despite all of the themes introduced in the series, I have one small problem with these. Or rather annoyance. As this show is takes place in Japan and is focused at a Japanese audience. This means that only Japanese customs are being dealt with. I’d love to see some habits and symbols from other countries pass the spotlights. There definately is enough material for it. But then again, this show has specialized like no other on the area of spirituality, so it’s also nice to see such an in-depth explanation of them.

Another little detail I loved: Mokona actually drinking almost half a bottle of liquor. Who ever said that cute and fluffy animals couldn’t enjoy themselves? ^^ I’m also wondering about the price that the woman was supposed to give Yuuko. And what was the meaning of the ring? These parts were a bit neglected, unfortunately, though I loved the way the climax was executed. Nothing was said at all, but you knew that if the knife was to go down, it would be hitting, and cutting their fingers off. Overall, I liked this episode. It’s not the best xxxHolic had to show, but I had a really good time watching it.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 09 – Great Moments of Comedy

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



Shiurei is just like Haruhi Fujioka!

Okay, maybe ten times more awesome, but still, the two of them do share the same weakness. They both react in a very different way. Haruhi learned to crawl into a closet and wait till it’s over, while Shiurei sought refuge at Seiran.

In any case, a few things which happened at the previous episode became clear. First: Shiurei didn’t come back because Ryuuki wanted her to. In fact, he doesn’t even know she’s in the palace. She just got a good offer for a job as the masked guy from last episode’s assistant. For some reason, Kouyuu finds it a good idea to keep her existance away from Ryuuki. Ensei also serves this guy. I find this a bit strange. After all, Ensei looks like he’s some kind of war hero. Then why wouldn’t he join the royal army?

We start the episode with Shiurei coming back to the masked guy after running one of his errands. His direct assistant praises her, and then the masked guy calls to her. For some reason, he adresses her with “Kou Shuu”. I guess she decided to use a nickname, but doesn’t this seem to obvious? If I remember correctly, women are not allowed to work in the palace, which was the reason Shiurei had to work as Ryuuki’s wife in the first place. But still, the same rule still applies. Could it be that Shiurei was employed as a man, in order to bypass this little problem? But still, Ryuuki remains smart. Why hasn’t he figured it out yet? I mean, one look at her name and she’s discovered, no? *kicks lack of japanese*

In any case, the masked guy seems to be dealing with a lot of books and paperwork, and he gives Shiurei a lot to do, as there are a lot of piles of books and paper which have to be cleaned up. We then switch to Kouyuu and Ran as she walsk by, carrying a pile of books. The two of them talk a bit. I assume that this was about Shiurei, and how it would be troublesome if she was found out. The reason behind this still remains a mystery until I can get my hands on the subbed version of this episode.

That evening, it seemed that Shiurei asked Ran and Kouyuu to join her, Ensei, Seiran and Shouta for dinner at her home. Ensei doesn’t have too many manners, and Shiurei asks Kouyuu to help her continue her studies. Seiran, meanwhile, notices that Ensei keeps wandering off towards some place, which doesn’t seem to be too smart.

The next day, the masked guy gives Shiurei and Ensei another job of delivering some papers. When they’re done, they complain a bit about the ridiculously hot weather, and they wonder why the masked guy wears a different mask at each different occasion. For some reason, Ensei keeps calling Shiurei a princess. Even though he had yet to be introduced at the time Shiurei played for queen.

A bit later, Shiurei carries a couple of books, and she runs into Ryuuki. It takes a while for him to notice her, so she quickly hides. Ryuuki meanwhile decides that he’s seeing things again. When Ryuuki has left, a random guy pops up from out of nowhere, and offers to carry the books for Shiurei. He introduces himself as a very weird guy, and he seems to be getting all exited over the strangest things. When the two of they say goodbye, he tells her his name. He does this while making a bishie-pose. The combination that he’s no bishie at all, along with the fact that he carries a pile of books turns this into a hilarious sight. His name seems to be “Ojii-san”, by the way. I think he was kidding when he said that…

When Shiurei returns to the masked man’s office, he seems to be sleeping on a couch. Then, a small thunderstorm starts. It doesn’t take too long (about a minute), but it takes long enough for Seiran to be worried about Shiurei, and Shiurei to scream on top of the masked guy while the masked guy tries to comfort her. This doesn’t end up well when the thunder ends and Ensei the masked guy’s direct assistant enter the room, which results in a totally hilarious scene.

That evening, Shiurei’s still worried about what happened, while she studies a bit. Ensei then brings her some onigiri. The two of them then talk a bit about something my horrible Japanese couldn’t understand, while Seiran and Shouta listen from another room. Shiurei knows that the two of them are listening as well, because one of the onigiri looks horribly deformed (Shouta’s work ^^).

The next day, Kouyuu talks to Ryuuki a bit, surrounded by piles and piles of books. The latter really is down because of his lack of seeing Shiurei. He has some kind of plan, but the episode’s not long enough to show this. We then see “Ojii-san” talking to the masked guy without his mask, indeed laughing at his own performance a couple of days earlier. The two of them are up to something. probably they plan to do something to Shiurei as well, in order to break Ryuuki. I couldn’t understand what that might’ve been, though.

We never get to see the masked guy’s eyes and forehead, by the way. Every time we see him in screen, the screen stops around his nose. He probably has something that the viewer must not see at this point in the show. Then their discussion turns light again, as Ojii-san forces the masked guy to put up a horribly ugly mask, and wear it for the rest of the next day. This mask has a very interesting facial expression. While his normal masks are just emotionless, this mask has a very sad look, almost as if it was crying. The masked guy doesn’t seem to happy with this. ^^

The next day, a startled Shiurei gets a demonstration on how this guy manages to drink his tea without putting his mask off. Later that day, the masked guy apparently unmasks Ensei. Or he at least says something that startles Shiurei and Ensei. Kouyuu, meanwhile is wondering about something related to Ryuuki. That night, Ensei gets caught by Seiran while trying to sneak out again. The two of them talk a bit as well.

.Hack//Roots – 09 – So Many Things Happen at the Same Time

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots


Okay, I was wrong in my prediction. The big thing didn’t happen this episode, it’ll happen next episode. I hope. In any case, we haven’t seen any major plot development which will be able to provide material for 24 episodes. At this moment, you’d almost say that we’re dealing with a 13-episode anime if you didn’t know about the fact that there’ll be 24 of them.

I’ve got some issues with the goons, summoned by Ender. If it wasn’t for them, this episode would’ve been totally and incredibly amazing. Ender summons them in order to try and stop The Twillight Brigade for a bit, as they wait for the last virus cores to arrive. But these goons have been horribly executed. They’re just like a bunch of emotionless zombies, who attack one by one, have no skills at all, and just let our main characters have all kinds of conversations. I mean, they were meant to provide some challenge for the Ovan, but they all look like some bunch of pathetic idiots who don’t have any opinion or emotion and who only manage to be convenient for the plot.

Like I said: apart from this little flaw, the episode was just amazing. This time, not because of Haseo, but because of all of the different characters interacting and fighting each other. Haseo himself was more of a side-character in this episode. It’s shown that Ovan’s the only one he looks up to and respects, and that he really wants to make Ovan content. It’s also very good to see that he isn’t an emotionless fighting machine, as after he defeats Goad, he shows some sympathy.

Ender herself also was great. She’s the one who fights Ovan, and he indeed is stronger than she is. Though it is her task to lure him into some kind of trap on the top level. This brings up some interesting issues, when you take a look at the end of the episode. At that point, the virus cores were activated and the Twillight Brigade gets teleported to the castle up in the air at that field. This means that the trap has still to come, which means that the trap is in this castle, which means that TaN knew about the secrets of the virus cores all along, and may even have access to the secret inside of it.

Naobi indeed plans to do something at the time that the other characters are fighting each other. He’s accessing some strange place, which certainly has got something to do with the castle up in the sky. So if you combine these things together, this means that if this was a simple quest about who gets his hands on the Key of the Twillight first, there still is a step left for both parties to perform. It could be something inside of Ovan. After all, the entire purpose of TaN is capturing Ovan’s character data. This means that both parties have each other’s remaining piece of a duplicate puzzle, and it’s just a matter who can get their missing part first, without sacrificing their own part.

Tabby also had a great, though minor role. As she’s just new, and apparently hasn’t trained as much as Haseo, she indeed has trouble with the zombie-goons. But she still is determined to pay Shino back for her kindness. Shino also showed that she can do more than just talk and heal, as she’s able to hold off the zombie-goons as well without getting injured. Still, the focus didn’t fall too much on the two of them on this episode.

B-Set had a small, yet awesome role in this episode. She first tries to stop Goad from interfering with Ovan, though she fails. For a large part of the remaining episode, she spends her time on the bridge wondering whether to go or not. It’s been on her face for the entire anime that she had her doubts when she left the Twillight Brigade, and these doubts only increase as time goes further. Phyllo then finally manages to convince her to go.

Goad also was amazing. After ignoring B-Set, he set off to get revenge on Ovan, but Ender&co manage to beat him to it. He watches from a distance for a while, but then he decides to turn Haseo into a victim. After a small fight at which Haseo’s barely able to hold Goad back (still, Haseo must’ve trained for a whole damn lot if he’s able to do that with Goad), though Goad flinches when he sees that B-Set has come back. Haseo then manages to get him back on the side of the Twillight Brigade.

Ovan was acting as strange as always, but we really saw him smile at times. When he was fighting Ender, for example. it also seems that he knew that Goad and Sakisaka were to deliver him the last two of the Virus Cores. During his fight against Ender, for some strange reason Ender hides, and he, instead of helping his comerades, he stands in the circle of glowing towers and waits while all of them start glowing for no apparent reason. Ender seems to be really happy with this. In any case, it seems that he’ll play a huge role in the next episode, at which his plans most probably go wrong in some way.

Though the real stars of this episode were Sakisaka and Tawaraya. Sakisaka wants Ovan to acknowledge him as well, so he finally decides to go back to Tawaraya to get the Virus Core. Tawaraya isn’t the same optimist as he was at the beginning of the series, so he gets a bit gloomy when he sees that Tawaraya plans to PK him in order to get back the Virus Core. This plan turns into at total failure when it seems Tawaraya’s incredibly strong. Though he gets really unconfortable when he sees Sakisaka struggle to keep going. After all, what would you do when you were suddenly attacked by something incredibly weak about a thing you don’t even care about? Tawaraya indeed did the same thing I’d do in such a situation, I think. I SO like the direction the two of them are going: Sakisaka begins to open up more and more, while Tawaraya begins to get more and more gloomy by the minute. I’m so curious about how the two of them will be ending up in the end.

Those individual characters may indeed not seem so worthwile. But remember: all of this happened in just 20 minutes. Everything just almost happened at once, turning this into a near-amazing episode. The already amazing music also was used perfectly, and not to mention the amazing graphics. It seems that the mystery-department also got a nice dose, with a bit of help from Naobi and the strange dude who appeared at the beginning of the episode.

Ergo Proxy – 10 – Raoul vs Daedalus, yay!

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy



Ergo Proxy returns, and it returns with another great episode. No Vincent and Pino this time, but the story focuses mostly on two side-characters: Raoul and Daedalus, along with a little bit of Real. (Yes, my way of spelling these names keeps changing. I like Ril and Dedars more than Real and Deadalus, but it seems that we’re dealing with a couple of official names here).

Even though the episode wasn’t as action-packed as the previous one, I still loved it. Especially Deadalus was great. The episode starts with Raoul and Kristeva (his autorave) checking up on him. Ever since that accident from episode seven, Real has been viewed as dead and he’s been labeled as the murderer. He’s been stripped from all his authority and just remains in his apartment doing nothing. Raoul also mentions that he’s finally gotten over Tasha’s death. It’s here where my memory left me a bit. Tasha either is one of the people who was killed while Monad Proxy chased Vincent in the second episode, or she is a yet to be introduced character who now is dead.

Raoul mentions the fact that Daedalus has lost his Raison d’Être, or reason to live. A term which will be showing up more in this episode and probably make a few more comebacks during the rest of the entire anime. Daedalus threw away both Real and Proxy, which were the only things he lived for. Then we get to see the scene we’ve been suspecting ever since Real got killed: Real being alive. It couldn’t have been avoided. I mean, she’s the main characters. Main characters only die at the last episode. Anyway, I’m glad that the creators realize this and just show the scene immediately.

Raoul then pays a visit to the city-council. It seems that Monad Proxy was some kind of important energy source for Romdeau. Now that she’s gone (I’m calling Monad a she because of one of my theories about something that happened later in the episode, look below), the city might face danger. Not only that, but Raoul is also blamed on this by the council. Something that doesn’t make him very happy, as he later punches his reflection in a mirror to pieces (the mirror, I mean). He also brings up a famous quote from Descartes, which fits the scene perfectly (“I think, therefore I am”, though he lets out the last word).

Later, when he leaves the council’s tower in an elevator along with Kristeva, The two of them talk a bit, Kristeva mentions Raoul’s wound as a result of his fight with the mirror, and suddenly, the power falls out, locking the two of them up inside the elevator. Later, when he’s leading a team to discover the meaning behind this power outage, he discovers something interesting. The power outage took 2 minutes and 17 seconds, which is indeed Daedalus’ trademark. Raoul’s been talking about this before, though I never knew what it was. But apparently, they were referring to Daedalus. Before the long power outage, there also a large number of small outages. Most of them took just a few seconds. It seems that Daedalus had been using these outages as testings, and he clearly used the last one as something to get attention. In any case, Raoul decides to go and pay Daedalus a visit.

Daedalus, starts by pulling up an act, but then again Raoul does as well. Raoul wants Daedalus to check up on the wound he got, while Daedalus keeps telling him that he doesn’t examine anymore. Though Daedalus does reveal something interesting: his life indeed was devoted to taking care of Real. This has been suggested before, though it has never been directly comfirmed like this. Though why was Real so important?

In any case, Raoul and Daedalus find themselves a spot to talk, at which they won’t be overheard, and their conversation turns less cryptic by the minute. Still, it remains cryptic. The thing Raoul was after (Daedalus’ research) is gone, hidden somewhere. Raoul then reveals that he knows that Daedalus used Monad in order to hide the existance of Ergo by forcing all of the council’s attention on the former. He also reveals that he knows that Real is alive somewhere. Daedalus wanted to use Real in order to lure out Ergo, but at the last minute, he got his doubts, as this would obviously mean Real not surviving it. Because of this, he seemed to have sent Raoul the cryptical message. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, though I think that Raoul thinks that Daedalus planned to ask him to team up with him.

Still, Daedalus denies. He doesn’t want to partner up with the one who tried to kill him. Then, Raoul reveals another interesting fact. It wasn’t him who sent the autoraves to kill Real, it was the Council. The major is even wiling to kill his own granddaughter who indeed committed a crime, in order to keep up the law of Romdeau. Then things really get interesting when Raoul reveals that he knows that the power outage had another purpose. Daedalus replies that he was trying to resurrect Monad (after all, by causing a power outage, you can use a tremendous amount of energy). Raoul then offers to let Daedalus work for him again, in order to resurrect Monad. Daedalus hasn’t got much of a choice, so he agrees.

When everything is settled, Raoul really is in a good mood. He’s apparently hiding what he’s doing from the council. He also tries to burn some fear into Daedalus by intimidating him. At first sight this works. But then, when Raoul left, Daedalus has a very interesting monologue. He talks to the dead body of Monad as if it was Real. Raoul also has no idea what his real goals are, and Daedalus really gets exited. This is where I got an interesting theory. Real, of course, couldn’t be Monad Proxy. But what if the two are linked somehow? What if she originally was Monad Proxy, but the two split apart at some certain time and space. Remember Senekis? We also saw a weirdly behaving woman, locked up inside that fort. Then the infected autoraves from Kazkiz came, and freed her. Then this woman died at about the same time as Senekis. What if the two of them were linked in the same way that Real and Monad are? In any case, Real is someone special. Otherwise, Daedalus wouldn’t have devoted his life to her and Monad.

Real, meanwhile, has an interesting experience. It doesn’t really contribute to the plot, but it introduces some very interesting phylosophical questions. She ends up in a town, abandoned by people, but with robots seemingly left behing, doing their ordinary work as if there actually were some people around. For what purpose do these machines work? I mean, there aren’t any people left, so it would seem that they are obsolete. She also has a dream about a younger version of herself, who tries to warn her, I guess. Ergo Proxy indeed is cruel. And yes, Real is indeed chasing something extremely dangerous. But still, she believes that Vincent holds the truth. The episode ends with the strangest cliffhanger ever. Something you indeed did not see coming, let alone understand. Real and Iggy leave the humanless city. The robots perform their work as usual, until one of them break from its routine and walks off.

The Third – 05 – Millie

by psgels, posted in The Third



The Third continues its amazingness once more. After the eventfullness of the previous episode, this episode features the aftermaths, mostly focusing about they way Milly reacts to her father’s death and Honoka’s reaction to this, though we also get a bit of info about Honoka’s past, and The Third also get a bit of development. Ikus served as a third party: not directly involved with the storyline, though he starts playing his own part in it. Still, Honoka and Millie were really shining in this episode. I totally loved it.

I’m also surprised that I’m one of the few people who actually likes the narrator. Yes, okay, he may be stating the obvious. Still, I really feel that I have trouble at times to really understand how she feels. Others may be having no problems with this, alas. Another thing is that he can really strengthen a scene at times. For example, when Millie regains her conciousness again. Of course it’s clear that Honoka forgot to put her headband back on. I really think that that scene would have been annoying if the narrator wasn’t there, but somehow, he managed to help and turn that scene into a an awesome one.

The scene starts with Honoka and Ikus seeing the dead body of Zanka (that appeared to be Oyaji’s name), after which we switch towards an important woman of The Third, who seems to recognize Honoka’s eye as “The Blue Space Eye”. The next morning, Millie still hasn’t regained conciousness. Bogie wants to move away, but Honoka believes that Millie deserves to see her father one more time. Honoka and Ikus then search Zanka’s desert tank in order to pick up all of the valuable items that were left in it. It also became clear that Millie’s mother was killed by the Surveillance Force (you know, the ones who kidnapped that guy at the beginning of the fourth episode because he used too much technology).

Then, while the two of them are digging a grave for Zanka, Honoka tells a few things about her own past. She still hasn’t bothered to put her headband back on, by the way. She was indeed born as a The Third, though the color of her eye differs from the red color that The Third have. This means that she was classified as a defective item, and sent towards the earth. The capital of The Third appears to be named Hyperius. Honoka was sent there, and immediately she was sent back again because of her eye. When she was born in the human world, the villagers among her hoped that a being from The Third could actually help to easen up their lives, though this was false hope. Her parents then put her in the care of her “grandfather” (I’m just calling him grandfather for now as Honoka seems to do this as well. He’s not her real grandfather), who was boarding a caravan. In this way, Honoka grew up in this travelling caravan, travelling to all kinds of different places with him.

It also appears that every one of her old friends from the caravan seemed to know about her secret. Only Millie didn’t. Then Bogie contacts Honka with the message that Millie regained conciousness. She really is gloomy at this period. She doesn’t want to talk or socialize, and Honoka really doesn’t know what to do in order to help her.

The Blue Breaker is meanwhile put under a surveillance, about the reason why he abandoned his mission. It seems that one of the officials from The Third (something tells me that this is the same guy from the second episode) ordered him to retreat. The woman, who also sounds important, is not too happy with this. Still, if she’s so important and makes decisions on planetary base, then why are Millie, Honoka and Ikus such a threat to her, to make her view these individual cases like that?

Honoka, by the way, also decided to blow up Zanka’s sand tank. She probably had the same reasons as Roux when he burned the books in Astraea Testament. Millie continues to be gloomy. Honoka plans to bring her to one of her aunts, so that she can take care of her. An interesting development. We all know, of course, that the two are going to remain together, but how will they manage to do this in the end without making it look unrealistic? Honoka’s eye meanwhile manages to discover a rare sight in the desert: a field of flowers. She goes to pick one of them, in an attempt to cheer up Millie. She also reveals to Ikus that she indeed has some kind of power, as she displayed in the third and fourth episode. She gives him a little demonstration.

Back at The Third, meanwhile, the woman from The Third that we saw earlier this episode holds a small talk with Jouganki (the guy who paid Honoka a visit in the second episode), in order to prevent him from intervening again. It seems that he indeed is not after Honoka after all, but after her powers. The woman manages to convince him that there’s no reason in order to let Blue Breaker back away, and he begins to get a bit worried.

Millie, meanwhile woke up, and she broke down. She couldn’t find Honoka in the sand tank, so the act of holding herself strong fades away. What follows is a brilliant scene, of the two making up together. But then, the Blue Breaker arrives again. Somehow, Ikus feels his prescense as well. The episode ends. I really loved this one. Zanka’s death really had a huge impact on our cast. Something you can’t say every anime can just accomplish.

Good Witch of the West – Astraea Testament – 06 – Roux’ Rival

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



Good Witch of the West continues its tale of elegance. And yes, Firiel’s indeed kindof slow. She’s smarter than most characters in anime, though she does get thrown into more exreme situations, that really force her to think on her own, which is an element that most anime’d rather abandon. The overall tone of the episode was kindof light again, as it didn’t focus on Roux that much.

The episode begins with Roux asking Eusis whether he can teach him some swordfighting skills. Eusis laughs, and ends up being attacked by an angry Roux, wielding a chess-board. He then drops by on Firiel and Adele, who are drinking a bit of tea, while the latter makes a couple of comments on her brother. Eusis then explains that he wants Roux to be focusing on the things he’s good, instead of learning how to swordfight. This makes sense, after all. Roux remains a genius, it would be a waste for him to focus on fighting rather than knowledge.

Firiel, indeed, is quite angry at Roux about the chess-board he threw at Eusis. And indeed, what Firiel lacks in common sense, he lacks in social skills. The two of them indeed make a good couple. Roux also believed the whole time that Firiel wanted to go back to the astrological observatory as soon as possible, but then Firiel reminds him that she doesn’t. She’d cause Eusis, Adale and the others unneccessary trouble, so she tells him that returning to the observatory can wait. They first have to head for a place named Hyragurion, for some reason. She promises to go back with him to Sellafield once Hyragurion is visited, and attempts to seal this promise with a kiss. Roux is a bit bewildered, but he agrees, though right before we get to see some action, the two of them are spotted by one of the court ladies.

Firiel then gets scolded for attempting to kiss a male. A person named Lady Margot has something about this, so the court lady from before takes her to this woman, assuming that Lady Margot will be teaching her a bit of proper etiquette. Firiel then arrives in a beautiful rose garden, covered in blue roses. It’s great to see that different anime all have such different views of blue Roses. Utena treats them like they’re nothing special at all, something like “all roses are equal”. Good Witch also doesn’t find these unnatural, but rather elegant. Blood+, however associates the blue roses as something incredibly special, associated with Diva, while Paradise Kiss’s method of aquiring blue roses is simply by painting red roses with blue paint. Anyway, this Lady Margot seems to have something on her mind with Firiel, though we never get to see what that might be. In any case Lady Margot comes from Hyragurion, in which Firiel can’t be that easily forgiven for her naivety.

Eusis, meanwhile, gets another visit from his good friend. It then becomes clear that Euris still loves Firiel, which is supposed to bring a bit of a challenge into Firiel and Roux’s relationship. Still, a lot of rumours have been floating around about the two of them from out of Toras Academy, which will really prove to be a threat to our dear Eusis. Lady Margot meanwhile asks Firiel about her reason to go to Hyragurion, Firiel answers with the fact that she needs power to protect Roux and the doctor, and why she must understand why the two of them are heathens. There’s still no clue why Hyragurion will be the place to find out about these things, though.

The next day, Firiel and the others travel to Hyragurion, and then it seems to be hosting a large-scale ball amongst the nobles. Firiel and Adale are of course guests of honor. Adale gives Firiel a few tips on how to be as beautiful as possible, attracting as many people as possible. When they enter the ballroom, this initially works, until Leandra shows up and calls for all attention. Still, there’s little focus on Leandra during this episode. Anyway, Adale splits up with Firiel, though she forgets one important thing: as this is Firiel’s first appearance in an event like this, she has no idea how to behave. Firiel then ends up standing in a corner, all alone, until Eusis saves her. The two of them dance a bit, catching a lot of attention. Then the guy who tortured Roux in the second episode appears on the screen in an instant, exchanging suspicious looks with a bishop-like dressed old man.

Then Firiel’s naivety gets proven once more as the two of them walk outside for a bit, and the Eusis ends up embracing Firiel. When she wakes up the next morning, however, rumours of how Euris proposed to her are floating around. (^^;) The episode ends. This episode again was very enjoyable. It was probably mostly meant as an intermezzo after the Secret Gardenarc, but still, a lot of things happened. I’m surprised that Good Witch of the West takes its time in telling its story, despite its length of just thirteen episodes. So far, it’s going into a great direction. This episode definately wasn’t the best that Good Witch of the West had to show us, though it was pretty darn solid, providing good material for future episodes.

PopoloCrois Story 1998 – 12 – Continuing the Amazingness

by psgels, posted in Popolocrois Story 1998



Once again, PopoloCrois manages to produce a horribly creative episode. The entire combination of Pietoro, Narcia, Gamigami, Ston, Sanda, Hyuu, Pablo, Hilda, the advisor and a newly introduced character turned this episode into a great intermezzo. Still, it remains an intermezzo, mostly focused on Narcia joining up with Pietoro, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

We start with Narcia trying to find where Pietoro went, though she can’t seem to find him. That’s of course logical, as he left the castle at the previous episode. She gets joined by the advisor and a matter of very good timing in her search of the prince, until they both run towards Pablo, who explains the situation. Pietoro, meanwhile, ended up in some kind of port town. Because he’s travelling incognito, he hears various gossip about Pablo, Gamigami and himself. This, of course, isn’t too good for his overall mood. Then he meets a very excentric old guy, dressed in mexican influences, who keeps staring at his lunch as it if was dropped from the heaven. Pietoro tries to flee from him, but the guy keeps following him, and he keeps staring at such a brilliant way, that Pietoro eventually gives in and shares one of his sandwiches with the guy.

When the guy manages to get yet another sandwich out of Pietoro, he begins to get a bit mad at him, though the guy tells him a valuable lesson. Pietoro won’t become one of the big shots if he frets over something small like a stolen sandwich. This person then claims that he’s a hero. We never get to know whether this is true or not, but it does make Pietoro think about himself. After all, the guy doesn’t act like a hero at all, more like the village idiot, and of course Pietoro sees this too, and asks the guy to prove it. Then the guy begins to question whether Pietoro’s the real prince or not. And of course, Pietoro never really thought about this. He has as many ways to prove that he’s the prince as the guy has to prove that he’s a hero.

Gamigami, meanwhile, decided to lock himself up in his chamber while waiting for his robots to have found Pietoro. Hyuu comes to scold him again for slacking off, and then he uses an extremely ingenious way to send Ston and Sanda out in order to search for him. I won’t tell what, as you have to see this for your self, but it does involve a very big rocket. (^^;) His robots are meanwhile out in order to put up wanted-posters for Pietoro, and Narcia manages to see this. She then decides to help Pietoro in his quest, so the goes to Hilda in order to use her mirror in order to find him. Hilda’s nowhere to be found, so she uses Hilda’s cauldron to make something, what on first sight looks like the potion needed to activate the mirror.

Gamigami, meanwhile, took a little trip into the Popolocrois forest, in order for a bit of mocking, self-pity and a small nap. Narcia is meanwhile horribly messing up the potion, in her opinion at least. Through some miracle, she manages to get the potion working, but it was actually a desperate idea of her in order to prevent Pietoro from getting caught: change every single being in Popolocrois into Pietoro! Not only does this make Narcia look too cute when she finds the flaw in her plan, but Ston and Sanda also mistake Gamigami for Pietoro and take him to Hyuu, and Pietoro himself really has to think about why he is the real Pietoro, and the others impostors.

Hilda then manages to eventually correct Narcia’s mistake and turn everyone back, but not before Ston and Sanda carried Gamigami to his castle and the strange old man (who also got turned into Pietoro) managed to teach Pietoro a few valuable lessons. What follows is a Pietoro who really believes that this man is a hero, and Hyuu recognizing that Gamigami isn’t the real Pietoro. Ston and Sanda, still not knowing that they’re dealing with Gamigami, then attempt to get rid of him through the same method Gamigami used at them at the beginning of the episode, though he manages to change back right in the middle of the process. Ston’s reaction at that time was just absolutely priceless.

Anyway, in the end, Hilda lets Narcia use her mirror in order to find Pietoro’s location, so she manages to find him easily, and the two are together again, and the episode ends. This episode really was another masterpiece. Especially Narcia was too cute, though Ston and Sanda were also really shining as bad guys. Another thing I just love about Popolocrois is that everything just can go wrong. And when it goes wrong, it goes wrong at extremely creative ways. The most memorable examples are, of course Gamigami trying to get his inventions to work, though this episode also showed a great example of Narcia not thinking about some of the problems regarding her plan to change everyone into Pietoro.