Category: Noein

"Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the novel, Lost Horizon, written by British writer James Hilton in 1933. In it, "Shangri-La" is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Himalaya. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. The story of Shangri-La is based on the concept of Shambhala, a mystical city in the Buddhist religion." – Wikipedia.

Noein’s image of Shangri-La tries to explain the mysteries of this utopian place. It’s indeed a perfect world, with no problems what so ever. Although the thoughts behind it are horrifyingly realistic.

Once again, we see that Noein is excellent in creating the physical settings of the anime. This goes for Shangri-La, but even more for La’Cryma and the current timespace. Especially the latter one sticks to your mind. Why? Because the creators make such effective use of the tools given to them. For example, the Aeral Tramway to the mountain lookout. This gives a nice overview of the city, which actually makes sense (instead of the usual copy-and-paste-city-views usually seen in movies) and I’m actually able to recognize some of the places encountered in the anime. The fact that certain locations are just unique and keep on returning only contributes to this fact.

Anyway, about the episode. A LOT got revealed this time. We finally get to see Haruka’s father as he is in the current timepace, including the troubles he suffers from. The researchers come in contact with Toby and Karasu, thus learning a few things. A certain unwanted guest makes an appearance, and some critical information is shown about Shangri-La. Another pleasant-looking surprise is that the Ouroboros may be something much bigger than we originally thought of. It’s always been there, and I took it a bit for granted. But it seems that it’ll get a gret role in the end.

I can’t say that I didn’t love this episode. Therefore I won’t. Everything flowed so brilliantly, the music was awesome as ever, there was just one tiny fight, which was better then most anime can accomplish, and the cliffhanger just makes me thirsty for more. (Now that I think of it… the cliffhanger showed in episode 14 hasn’t been mentioned at all…)

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Why… oh why, do some guys have to look so much like women!?!

Those who’ve been reading my blog and paid close attention during this episode will know what I’m talking about. *feels ashamed*

Anyway, what we have here, is another great episode. We finally get to see what Haruka’s father looks like, at least, in his younger years. We also get some backstory of Haruka’s parents, we get to see a bit of character development from Yuu, and Haruka looked too cute when she was eight.

Anyway, the cliffhanger was again an awesome one. We finally get a bit more information about the grown-up Haruka, and it just makes me even hungrier for more. We also see for 0,3 seconds what the new enemies will be like. It promises to become really interesting.

And also, the old telephone, it was a brilliant idea. I like it.

Oh my god Atori! When I thought the last episode was good, I really didn’t know that this one would be even better!

Even though this is just the aftermath of the previous episode, it suddenly became all clear what kind of huge impact it had. I’m most surprised about Atori. This was something I never would have expected. Tobi (I finally know her name. :P) plays a wonderful part once more, and the chase had me laughing for quite a while. It’s so nice to see that the total group of protagonists as become so large. It offers a great variety, which is what the series really shows in this episode.

Please, Noein. Give me more awesomeness.

This sure was one awesome episode! The Fukurou and Karasu finally have their serious fight, and right in the middle an uninvited guest appears. Afterwards, things happen you SO NOT expect during this stage of the anime. That made it even more awesome to watch. The fights also got a little messier character art, but the smoothness of the camera movement has increased a lot. The purple haired girl (yes, it appeared to be purple, not pink *slaps memory*) also gets some airtime as well.

With all of this happening this episode, I’m really curious what the second half of this brilliant anime will be about.

How amazing the pacing of this show is. Here I was, expecting an action-packed episode, but due to the incredibly fast pacing the action-part only took five minutes. Ah well, not that I’m complaining. 😛

Anyway, this episode, we also get some explanations about how the world in which the story takes place is built up. It apparently has something to do with quantum-particles. I’ve been educated in physics for five years, but I can’t verify what’s been told there. The overall story sounded pretty reliable, but I don’t think anyone with minimum physical knowledge would understand it.

We also learn about some new relatives of a couple of the main characters: Isami’s brother, and Harkua’s father. The former was a real surprise, including the fact that Isami has another sister, and both of his parents died. Overall, he looks like a nice addition to the cast. The latter has found himself a nice place in the story. This was, of course, bound to happen once during the series, and I guess this is the time. Yuu’s father remains a mystery at this point though, so I wonder what the creators have in store for him.

I’m still wondering about the mysterious Noein, who appeared at one point during the series. I’m guessing he’s the key figure of all this. I also think that he’ll eventually play the role of the bad guy.

Wow! I loved all of the conflicts that arose in this episode. The pink-haired girl gets to be more than someone who just obeys others, friends from the future are now treating Haruka and Karasu as enemies and it seems that there’s another party coming into play, but this time from the current timespace’s government. This is promising to be very interesting. The next episode is going to be awesome.

I’m also looking forward to the moment in which Isami and the others realize what happened with their future-selves. It’s promising to be awesome. I’m also wondering whether we get to see the past versions of the pink-haired girl and Atori. It’d be interesting to see what developments they’ve gone through.

Haruka’s getting a bit of a support role this time. It’s also nice to see that Karasu gets discovered fairly quickly by Haruka’s friends. Most anime wait till the end of the series to reveal this kind of information.

This was an interesting episode. The conflict between Yuu and his mom gets fully explored, and it seems like it got solved in the end. Although it was just a side-plot and an excuse to make Haruka discover some of her powers, the creators did a good job into telling this story.

The next episodes will be focused at the main plot again. It was nice to see an intermezzo like this, without any fighting or tension like in the previous episodes. It keeps the anime balanced, I believe.

This was a sort-of intermezzo between two arcs. It mainly focused on the relationship between Yuu and his mother, from which we get to see the outcome in the next episode. It also seems that she actually has some kind of reason to do all this, which involves her own sister (Yuu’s aunt). I’m curious to know what it is. I’m still loving the depressiveness of Yuu.

Oh my god… you just can’t help but feeling sad, shocked and angry along with the characters. Something aweful happened in the past of La’Cryma, which probably involved Haruka sacrificed herself for something inevitable. All of the friends she had in the past are having trouble with seeing Haruka again. This effect is only strengthened if you know that she (having the Dragon Torque, and all) must be sacrificed again, in order to protect La’Cryma.

The visuals are amazing as ever. From the character design, to the special effects and to the huge monsters, everything looks amazing, but I really have to give muchas kudos to the artists for drawing the characters while shocked, sad and angry. You really can’t help but feeling along with them.

It’s just a bit annoying to see this awesome tension being broken when peaceful world comes into picture again. It isn’t as bad with Yuu, as I just love seeing him broken like that (call me sadistic, but the effect works really well), but rather when the others are in the image. I don’t know, but somehow, it doesn’t really fit.

This episode, being the first that mostly took place in La’cryma, had a lot of explanations about this certain timespace. I have to say, I like it. There’s no wonder why the big guy talked about the peacefullness of the other dimension, as La’crima is a place with nothing but suffering. The creators also did a good job at balancing the suffering, so that it doesn’t become too overly done.

I only have to say, that this dimension is based a bit too much on coincidences. It seems that everyone of Haruka’s friends is going to play some big role of some sort. Of course, this offers some great story opportunities, but still. A little more randomness could have been okay. But still, the cliffhanger at the ending of this episode really made me hungry for more.