So, certain things just had to happen. This episode had a huge disadvantage in terms of predictability, and still it turned out great, even though we knew that Ennis was going to retaliate to her creator and Jacuzzi was going to kick the guy in black suit’s butt. Yes, these things happen, but in this final episode, so much more gets wrapped up.
Ladd indeed ends up unconscious, at the side of the railroad, with one arm gone, just like we saw in the first episode. After that, Rail Tracer actually ends up proposing to Chane, explaining how Chane ended up in the water in the first episode: when Rail Tracer didn’t look, she jumped into a river. Nick does the same, while Nice goes to check up on Jacuzzi, who manages to win against the leader of the guys in black suits, like expected. What I didn’t expect is a scene of Jaccuzi, right after Nice had her accident that made her lose her eye. Quite cute. ^_^
What’s even cuter is the reunion of the two lovers, especially when Jaccuzi spots Rail Tracer, thinking it’s an enemy (probably Ladd). Czeslaw also gets a surprisingly large amount of development when basically both Isaac and Miria and Maiza just greet him, without eating the guy. I guess he’s been so afraid of immortals ever since he the horrible things that his companion did to him. It’s interesting: he does remain a child, despite having lived for so long. It’s not something you can recognize in other anime that feature children that somehow are much older than they look. I loved how his story turned out. 🙂
Back in 1930, I just had to be amused when every single person who drank the sake that Isaac and Miria had been passing around returned at the same time. It seems that also a bunch of guys from the Mafia drank it, and the final fight between Firo and Szilard was awesome. I also loved how everyone reacted so happily after discovering being immortal, considering how Maiza had been hiding his secret for years and years, and probably grew scared of it.
And I just had to laugh when I found out what happened to Dallas. The idiot. It’s a bit of an anticlimactic ending, but it fits the guy perfectly, to be trapped in concrete for ages because the Gandors couldn’t find a way to kill him. It may be a bit strange that this story was included in the anime, though. Baccano! is basically the story of the immortals Isaac and Miria (as shown by the aftermath, where we see the two of them as energetic as ever in 2001), and the people they meet. The Dallas-storyline was about the only thing they didn’t have anything to do with, apart from the fact that the Gandors and Eve had met Isaac and Miria at one point.
And to close off this post, those who’ve been reading my blog know that I kept wondering who the guy in shadows was, who was searching for someone in the first episode. My speculations went from Dallas to Czeslaw’s companion, but in the end: it was Rail Tracer. The one he was looking for is simple: Chane. After all, she disappeared after he proposed to her. Of course he’d search for her. I know about the DVD-only episode, but I’ll be closing off Baccano! for now. This really has been an amazing series, and a recommendation for everyone who doesn’t mind a bit of gore here and there.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Action
Gundam 00 – 04
This series has some very strange insert songs… first the ED, which gave me a near-headache the first time I heard it, and now at the end of the episode, there’s yet another very strange song for such a series.
Apart from this, I liked this episode, though. It exactly avoids the mistake that Code Geass made by relying too much on sensation, and goes for a more thought-provoking direction. I like how all kinds of different parties all end up waiting and exploring the true intentions of the Celestial Beings. One country in former South-America tries to be smart by declaring war against the union, in the hope to get support from the Celestial Beings. This plan backfires when the Gundams attack their own forces, even though no shot has actually been fired yet.
The blond guy from the union gets to be the next person to try and defeat Setsuna, though the latter escaped in the ocean. This does provide possibilities: all the guy has to do is attack a Gundam on land, and Setsuna might actually get in trouble against the modified mobile suit. I guess these suits aren’t in mass production because they’re expensive as hell, though I think that the long brown-haired companion and his teacher (I need to learn their names) will figure out how to produce them cheaply at one point.
Meanwhile, in a country in the Middle East (Azadeistan), the princess of the country (Marina Ishmael) and her assistant are observing what is happening as well, after confirming that indeed the fossil fuels have run out, hence another reason why the propulsions of the Gundams are so potentially interesting. The human-reform league meanwhile declared war to the Celestial Beings, and assigned the guy from the previous episode with the scar to capture one of them.
I do have some major issues with this episode, though. Japan remains a xenophobic country, and it shows. Taribia lies around the place that’s currently called Suriname. I know quite a few people from that country, and they aren’t exactly white-skinned. I know anime in general refuses to show people with black skins, but with a setting like this one, it’s way more obvious and painful than with, say, Shugo Chara.
Another thing that surprises me is how desperate people are over the solar power. Four hundred years have passed, and it’s not like solar power is the only power-source left after the fossil fuels run out. I can imagine how the larger countries will be dependant on the towers, but can’t the smaller countries build water-centrals, windmills and nuclear plants? Especially the latter one would have been a great option if the countries are desperate enough.
Also, Setsuna needs some serious development as soon as possible. He’s probably one of the worst members of the cast, simply because he doesn’t seem to have a mind of his own. I also hate the way he talks. I know he’s in for some development, otherwise the student couple wouldn’t need to exist, but I hope the creators hurry with it. I also dislike the pink-haired girl that showed up in this episode, but that’s more because of her character-design.]]>
Baccano! – 12
I already had some sort of vague feeling that the climax for this series would turn out worthwhile, and indeed: the second half of this episode was just awesome. One of the advantages of having so many characters in a series is that you can show many fights at the same time, and as it seems: the creators of Baccano are masters at this. Seriously, if you haven’t given Baccano a try, you really should consider. I can’t think of many other anime that have better writing than this series.
Only few anime realize that if you want to have a great fight, the inclusion of comedy can be a great addition, and Baccano finally made me understand why. The combination of excitement with Isaac and Miria’s quirks was just awesome. Some creativity in the choreography also helps, like how Isaac, Miria and Chezlaw just came flying by, while Jaccuzi was busy trying to fight off the leader of the guys in black suits. ^^;
Rachel also surprised me with some actions I honestly didn’t see coming, even though the reason for her leg to be in bandages hadn’t been explained yet. She basically freed both the Nathalie, Merry, Nick and Nice, and got hurt in the process. Then she tried to save Isaac and Miria, were nearly falling off the train in an attempt to save Czeslaw, who had just about given up hope of trusting someone (it seems that the companion he was with went crazy, making Czeslaw eat him).
Meanwhile, Rail Tracer kicks Ladd’s ass, while suddenly Lua shows up (finally!), and Rail Tracer threatens to kill her, a task that Ladd assigned to himself, though I really think that he feels something for the girl. It’s a strange kind of feeling, considering how he’s insane and all, but he basically tries to save her, but jumps off the train along with her in the process.
Back in 1930, it seems that Isaac and Miria have been sharing the two bottles of “sake” with Firo, Luck, Berga and Keith, as we see them get shot by Dallas around the middle of the episode. Meanwhile, Maiza manages to escape from Szilard by jumping through a window. Szilard follows him and bumps into his own car, driven by none other than Isaac and Miria, who just ran over Dallas and his two companions, who happened to stand there as well. Obviously, Szilard doesn’t like this, but he decides to go after Maiza first, and orders Ennis, who happened to be nearby as well to kill Isaac and Miria.
Surprisingly, there was nothing about Eve this episode. Jaccuzi rocked, though, as he showed himself to be something much more than just the coward of the first few episodes. I also laughed at the passion Nice seems to have for her bombs. The people inside the dining car also surprised me when they took up guns to defend themselves. ^^
There’s one episode left, and I’m pretty interested in how this series is planning to end.]]>
Gundam 00 – 03
For now, I’m happy enough with this series. My biggest fear was that it would go down the same path of Code Geass, though at this point I’ve yet to find any hints that that would be the case. There isn’t one party that’s just pure evil, hundreds of innocent citizens aren’t killed in an attempt to evoke sympathy, the fights are short and sweet and there are no hints that two childhood friends will end up against each other. The director of Full Metal Alchemist and Ooedo Rocket hasn’t disappointed so far.
Right now, this series is just building up. The Celestial Beings first need to build up some kind of success before the real meat of the series can come. I’m also dying to know some of the background behind the different characters. How did they end up where they ended up? How come the Celestial Beings waited 200 years before acting? What I like so far is how all the four Gundam Pilots have different opinions about the war. Not bad, for only three episodes.
Ireland may have gotten a bit more development before the declaration of peace, though. It’s a bit of a pity that the creators only used wars that have been going on for more than hundreds of years, and it would have been more interesting to see the leaders of the terrorists, to make their actions a bit more believable.
This episode also explains why the two students we’ve been seeing occasionally will be important: the guy is Setsuna’s next-door neighbour and the girl is this guy’s girlfriend. The guy furthermore lives with his sister, who is investigating the Celestial Beings. The guy especially will without a doubt be responsible for a large amount of character-development on Setsuna’s side. It’s a bit predictable, but if the creators carry this a bit further, things could become quite interesting.
Then there’s also the old Gundam Models which were left behind. The Celestial Beings must be very confident to just leave clues like that behind, which could give the enemy more advantages in battles.]]>
Baccano! – 11
Hmm, not as good as the previous episodes, but that’s probably because this episode spent most of its time building up for the finales of all the different storylines that have yet to be resolved, apart from Isaac and Miria’s role on the Flying Pussyfoot (after all, Isaac still has to be stabbed in the ear) and surprisingly: Lua.
In 1930, things get heated up when Szilard himself pays a visit to Maiza, right after Firo’s promotion. He kills every mortal in the room, and gets his hand on the box that has just been emptied by our lovely Isaac and Miria. The Gandor-brothers are also at the scene, and they decide to check out what’s going on, and it’s getting clearer and cleared how they became immortals. Firo also finally gets more screen-time when he sees Ennis again, and the two of them get to know each other. That just leaves the question: how did Isaac and Miria become friends with Firo? I guess we’ll see that in the next episode. This episode also convinced me: Szilard is going to die, or sucked up. If I had to guess, then Firo is going to do it. Also, what role is Dallas, who suddenly appeared near the end of the episode at the same scene, going to play?
In 1931, on the Flying Pussyfoot, Rail Tracer does a few things that were quite hard to understand why: he interrupts the fight between Ladd and Chane without killing any of them, and he keeps killing Czeslaw over and over, despite knowing the guy is immortal (how did he know this and Czeslaw’s name in the first place?) I’m not sure why he’s been killing people on the train in the first place. Wasn’t his purpose just to meet with his brothers? I think that the thing to blame for this is my lack of Japanese, instead of bad writing. In fact, I’m sure of it. 😛 Oh, and Jacuzzi manages to seize back control over the dining train, while Nice and Nick are pointlessly questioned by the black-clothed guys.
Then, at 1932, it seems that Gustavo’s boss, the head of the Runorata-family has decided to accompany him, and they actually talk about Dallas in front of Eve. It was a bit of a strange reaction, after all, that was the same guy who was behind the gun-fest of episode one. Still, if I had to guess, then it’s because both families would be happier with Dallas gone.]]>
Gundam 00 – 02
Two months ago, I ran this little poll, asking which show my readers would want me to blog. In the end, Gundam won the poll, hence the reason I’m going to blog this series. Personally, I acknowledge that it’s got potential, but I’m not willing to call it a success yet. I think we need to wait a few more episodes for that.
The thing I like about this series is how the characters acknowledge how the plans of the Celestial Beings are flawed. The reasoning of the Celestial Beings is that by diverting the anger, harboured by both parties in a war towards the Gundams, the problems will be solved. Now the next thing that the creators need to do is actually use this. My prediction is that the first dozen or so episodes will focus on the building-up, where our heroes try to stop various wars. It won’t be very exciting, but after that, things could become very interesting when the Celestial Beings will run into trouble.
In this episode, we already saw that people are investigating the source of the power for the Gundams, and I’ll be darned if they don’t end up finding it at one point. Once the different nations of the world are able to build units of the same strength, the advantage of the Celestial Beings will be gone. Do they have a plan to counter that?
There are a few issues with the setting, though, and I wonder whether we’ll get explanation for that. This episode explained nicely how the fossil fuels have ran out, so people switched to solar-power, but that’s not the only thing that’s about to run out. What about the parts of the Oil that’s used for plastics? What about iron? Why haven’t all the metals ran out? Gundam Wing found a nice answer for this: asteroids. Though in this timeline, it doesn’t look like the humans have ventured that far into space.]]>
Baccano! – 10
Oh my god, this was such a fun episode! THIS is exactly the power of a good mystery-series: and this episode continues to deliver revelation after revelation and everything keeps coming more and more together! I kept wondering how Firo and Isaac would be linked together, and I can’t believe that we were already shown the answer to this. Remember the time when Firo officially became an executive, and the head of the family shot a bullet in the roof: he really nearly hit Isaac back there, who was interested by the other holes in the roof, which seem to suggest that it indeed was a ritual which was performed.
This also is the episode where we see Chane and Chezlaw’s background. I hope I got them right, because there was a lot of talking involved. Chane is indeed Huey’s daughter, and it seems that she’s entirely devoted to him. It’s indeed a different relationship than your usual father-daughter relationship when the father refuses to grow up. Oh, and Chane finally talks! Apparently, she can talk telepatically to Huey. Chezlaw meanwhile planted a bomb in the train: he works for the Runorata-family! Quite ironic how he’s friends with Maiza who is friends with Firo who is friends with the Gandors. 😛
I’m not sure what the objectives of the kid are, though. If I had to guess, then he’s on a mission to stop Vino (or Rail Tracer, as it seems) from getting to New York. I’m still not sure whether the guy is an immortal as well, though if I had to guess, then he’s just a very exceptional mortal, being away from his brothers for a long time and all.
And while writing this entry, I finally realize who the guy was whose silhouette we saw in the first episode, and said how he would keep looking for a certain person, and I finally realize why Chezlaw’s companion in episode seven felt as a deja vu: they’re the same person! I finally know where I saw the guy before, and it seems that he didn’t agree with the path Chezlaw decided to take, which of course is quite reasonable, with killing everyone on the train and all. 😛
It also seems that Jacuzzi and Nice have been dating for ten years now, and it took that long for them to actually kiss. That’s quite awesome, and we also finally know why they boarded the train in the first place: it’s because of the bombs our cute little Chezlaw planted. I wonder where he hid them.
The action-scenes were also some highlights of this episode. Finally we have another anime that realizes that action-scenes should be fun to watch, which was exactly the description of the fight between Chane and Ladd. Seriously, the latter is really crazy! Gustav also was awesome when both he and Eve went to the Gandors for explanation and ran into each other. I especially laughed at how the three Gandor-brothers tried to play innocent by playing a game of cards. It’s in a way so cheesy but at the same time it would be the most logical decision under time-constraints. ^^;
With this episode, there’s only one character left that feels underdeveloped: Lua! Come on, you’ve still got three episodes! Show us that you’re more than just a one-dimensional character!
There’s another thing I’m surprised about, though that’s less positive: hardly anyone talks about this series. In the past few weeks, I’ve only seen two other blogs which are covering this series as well. If this was some kind of obscure series, then I could understand, but this is Baccano! we’re talking about. How can anyone not like this series, apart from the gore, perhaps? I mean, are people really more eager to go for a mediocre series with cute girls in skimpy outfits above a well-written series like this one?]]>
Some quick first impressions: ef – a tale of memories, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Kimikiss Pure Rouge
ef – a tale of memories
The characters are a major flaw in this series: they all belong in random harems and every one of them has a personality that’s been done to death by now: Wimpy male, cold male, optimistic male, fragile female, clumsy and impulsive female, annoying sister female and of course the tsundere-female. Thankfully, the story and especially storytelling make up for this. The director clearly borrows influences from Shinbo (Soultaker, Pani Poni Dash, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei), there are actually multiple couples, and this series has got an excellent narrative structure, probably because Makoto Shinkai had some influence in this series. The different people may have fallen in love a bit too easily, though if you ignore this, the dialogue was pretty nice and works pretty nicely with the Shinbo-influences. While the characters are most definitely clichéd, the storyline isn’t. I’m just a bit disappointed that the excellent music you can hear on the main website didn’t come back in this episode.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
This series probably got the most hate-reactions prior to its release, due to it being part of Sunrise’s plot of milking out franchises. While I admit that milking out the Mai Hime-franchise was a really bad idea, I don’t have the same opinion of Gundam yet, but that may be because the only Gundam-series I’ve seen so far is Gundam Wing. In any case, the first episode was pretty decent. I like the background music, and the story is full of potential. Still, this series made one classic mistake: placing teenagers in the centre of adult struggles. While it’s not as extreme as in other series, it can form a potential hazard for this series. It’s generally lacking in realism in more areas than this: the weightlessness was a nice idea, but if humans stay in weightless space for too long, their bones and bodies will suffer from the lack of pressure. I wish some explanation went to that area. Also, I expected the animation-department to have gotten a rather big budget, but yet all the important characters in their series can be recognized because their hairstyles stand apart when compared to the random generics. Ah well, what this series needs to focus on is not to fall down the same path of Code Geass, which was way too much aimed at fanboys and fangirls in my opinion.
Kimikiss Pure Rouge
I expected nothing of this series with such a title and premise. And fair enough, the very first scene starts with the umpth transfer-student of the season. Imagine my surprise when I actually ended up chuckling as the episode went on, even though it was for the wrong reasons. The plot-twists are so obvious that they become laughable: subtlety is so not this series’s strongest point, but at least it’s not the bore-fest I expected it to be. I wonder how long it will remain funny though, and I’ll probably end up dropping this when I need to lose a few series, simply because the amount of high-school series this season is huge enough already, and I’ve seen so many better series in this season. The character-designs also have a few issues here and there: they look well enough for a hentai-game adaptation, though the eyes of the characters are a bit too far apart. It makes the characters of this series look rather dumb (just take a look at the screenshot).]]>
Baccano! – 09
Oh god, just when you think you understand everything, this episode comes and smacks you in the face with new revelations that were completely different from your assumptions! Here I thought that Dallas was Rail Tracer. Here I thought that the girl in work-uniform was Vino. Here I thought that Chezlaw was subtle in his plans. Boy, was I wrong!
My god, I seriously loved the plot-twists in this episode. I originally thought that the red-haired conductor was slaughtered by Rail Tracer as well, but now that I think about it: there were three conductors: the middle-aged one, the red-haired one and Ladd’s ally who stole a suit of one of the others. Why did I never find it strange that there were only two bodies in the back, if Rail Tracer was the one who killed them? That’s because the Red Haired one IS RAIL TRACER!! He’s one of the Gandor’s younger brothers, who once worked in the circus, explaining his extreme manoeuvrability.
We also finally learn the name of the girl in work-uniform: her name is Rachel, and she works for the newspaper-company. She went on the flying pussyfoot to collect information, though I doubt that things turned out the way she originally had in mind. It seems that the thing Rail Tracer whispered to her was just a small sentence to tease her and scare her away.
Meanwhile, it seems that Dallas has indeed become an immortal, though I think it’s the kind of immortal that is immune to wounds, but not to aging. I think that Quates wanted to do this so that he could absorb the guy when needed, and the guy would probably be too stupid to try something smart. Dallas also manages to get the bottles back, which makes me wonder how Firo and the others turned immortal. If I had to guess, then the Gandors won’t take Dallas’ actions lightly. The next episodes promise to become something very interesting.
And yes, Chezlaw was awesome.]]>
Baccano! – 08
This episode was definitely the funniest episode yet, with even more screen-time for Isaac and Miria than in the second episode. Apart from that, we’re back in the regular timeline, and this episode’s sole purpose was to develop the different couples in this show: Isaac and Miria, Dallas and Eve and Jacuzzi and Nice.
Yes, you read that last part right, because surprise surprise: this happens. Jacuzzi, you’re a true man after all. 😉
Anyway, this episode was also surprisingly focused and surprisingly few characters appear. No Ladd, no guys in black suits, no Gandor, no Quates, no Chezlaw, no Firo and no Maiza. Basically only the storylines involving Isaac and Miria were shown. Seriously, the two of them have been everywhere.
It seems that they’ve even robbed the Genoard-household at one time, tough with this episode, I kindof lost my sense of time with her story. I originally thought that she was kidnapped in 1931, and that the Runoratas were looking for her at the same time that they assaulted the Gandors, but now it seems that this all took place in 1932. The only assumption I can make is that Dallas only later decided to go and cause trouble for the Runoratas. I also now know why Dallas was so pissed when he ran into Isaac and Miria. This may be just a guess, but I think that he ran into Barnes, right after Isaac and Miria robbed his home. This is also why Eve feels so bad. Perhaps that the angry face of her brother when he found out about the robbery was the last thing she saw of him?
I’m having a theory here, by the way: what if Dallas is Rail Tracer? What if the liquid Quates injected went horribly wrong and turned the guy into that horrible form? Anyway, the end of the episode also shows something interesting: the Runorata-family member who keeps eating chocolates lets Eve just escape. Why?
Then there’s Ennis’s storyline, as Isaac and Miria help her move Dallas’s body into her car, which looks suspiciously much like the one that hit them. ^^; It’s really clear now how the three of them became friends.
Jacuzzi and Donnie also meet up with Isaac and Miria on the Flying Pussyfoot, and make sure that the others are safe. He tells them a few things about his background, but I didn’t quite catch those. I think he’s supposed to be extremely dangerous when brandishing a gun, but I’m going to wait for the subs to arrive before confirming this.
So, there are five episodes left now, and they’ve got their work cut out for them. Chane and Chezlaw still need to receive their backgrounds and development, Firo, Luck and Maiza still have to do something to get involved with the story, the story between Szilard and Dallas still needs development, and let’s not forget that Ladd and the mysterious Vino also have their roles to play. And will Huey come into action again, or is he just reason for the guys in black suits to be involved? I’m looking forward to it. :)]]>
