Category: Finished Series: Action

Short Synopsis: Most of the episode is centred around Akizuki getting to Ezo. Kakunojou meanwhile realizes that the Temari Uta actually has some strange lyrics for a children’s song. Good: Excellent episode, period. Bad: Nothing that hasn’t been said before. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 You know, I’ve become a bit tired about complaining about this series and about how hard it is to understand. Heck, it’s excellent, it’s got a deep plot, it’s got great production values, what more could you want? Despite my bickering over the past few episodes, this actually remains one of my favourite series at the moment. I’m looking forward to watching and blogging it every week. So, from now on, I’m going to drop my whining about the difficulty oft he language, and I’m just going to enjoy the final episodes of this excellent series. 🙂 The reason why the troupe didn’t appear during the previous episode was probably because their role has yet to come. Taiyou has left with Soutetsu, while Kakunojou still remains at the hospital. Benimari and Kobako spend their time at the beach, and they suddenly find a number of bullets. It’s interesting, as they behave like these bullets are the coolest things ever. That just shows how you must not let children play with dangerous items. Lots of new characters were introduced in this episode. The most important one was Kuroda Ryousuke. In this episode, Shouten-sama comes to visit Katsu and Saigo, to request help from Ryousuke in order to escort Akizuki to Ezo as fast and safe as possible. The guy, however, seems to have a grudge against either Hijikata or Enomoto, so he prepares some plans of his own: an ambush. Enomoto apparently isn’t interested in politics, as he seems to be absent at the meeting, discussing about what to do with Ryousuke and his ship. In the end, Hijikata volunteers to go to him, in order to check him out. He takes a few ships, and he is invited on board of Ryousuke’s ship. Ryousuke then releases some fireworks from his backs, revealing an entire fleet, out there to annihilate Hijikata. I’m not sure why Kakunojou still remained at the hospital. It’s probably because she’s waiting for Akizuki to return, or she just doesn’t want to get involved with things anymore. In any case, we see her singing the Temari Uta again, when she suddenly realizes that the lyrics are actually quite morbid for a children’s song. For more information about the song: go here. This reminds her of Akizuki again. Hijikata and Ryousuke meanwhile end up with a bloodbath on both parties. Ryousuke’s surprise attack caused quite a few fatalities for Hijikata’s men, but when he’s about to be shot himself, Akizuki comes in action, and actually saves the guy. Ryousuke can’t fire on Akizuki, because he had to promise Shouten to deliver him to Ezo at all costs. It’s interesting, I thought that when Hijikata joined Enomoto, he also made an enemy of Akizuki, but now it seems that the two are still on friendly terms. Anyway, because of this, Hijikata’s troops on their turn deliver quite some damage to Ryousuke’s.]]>

Short Synopsis: Akizuki recovers, while Hijikata and Enomoto conquer Hakodate. Good: Nice battles, I liked how focused the episode was. Bad: The timing of that husband was a bit too convenient. Akizuki acted really predictable. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10 Dammit, no online-summaries have appeared for this episode yet. Ah well, luckily, it wasn’t as hard to understand as usual. We’ve got a pretty focused episode this time, featuring only a select amount of characters. Heck, Soutetsu, the troupe and the Englishmen didn’t even appear, while Kakunojou only appeared for one minute or something. I had one major problem with this episode. It was great as usual, but Akizuki was just way to predictable. Heck, how many anime have we seen up till now where a main character gets mortally wounded, separated from everyone else, saved by a bunch of random people, get involved with some of their problems and then becoming a better character? Probably too many to count. It’s not really bad or anything, but when anime keep and keep using this, things become a bit predictable. Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the kid nearly drowning. Akizuki gets saved by a mother and her daughter. The father left to be a soldier a long time ago. Akizuki obviously doesn’t speak much, and he keeps having visions of an evil (and rather funny) Kakunojou. Then, during a rather nasty storm, the child went playing outside, and fell into the ocean. This scene really was meant for Akizuki to realize one of his major flaws: the fact that he always tries to do everything on his own, and that he keeps blaming himself for things that happened. But seriously, Akizuki is about to leave, and the husband suddenly shows up again? I thought the creators knew better than this. The second focus of the episode featured Hijikata, attacking Hakodate with his army. After the last episode, I said that this episode would probably feature another climax, due to the pattern of this series. It’s surprising to see that this was the first climax in Bakumatsu to not feature Akizuki. Hakodate seems to be a major city in terms of trade with Russia, it even has a European design. I can imagine that it would be heavily guarded, and that it would hold a great strategic value to Enomoto.]]>

Short Synopsis: The aftermath of the huge events of the previous episode. Surprisingly, no Akizuki or Kanna. Instead, the episode is focused at Kakunojou. Good: The Troupe returns! Great atmosphere; the reunion-scenes were excellent. Bad: As expected, Akizuki is alive. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 While Bakumatsu’s story is everything but predictable, the same can’t be said for it’s pacing. Most episodes have been very faithfully following the general pattern of introduction/aftermath – climax – introduction/aftermath – climax – introduction/aftermath – climax – et cetera. It therefore is unexpected that we’re dealing with another aftermath here. Kakunojou collapsed after the end of the previous episode, and she wakes up at the medical area in the ship. While she has been sleeping, Enomoto and his crew managed to reach the northern island of Japan. The winter arrived, which makes sure of a nice change in scenery. (If I’m not mistaken, everyone ended up in a city called Hakodate). Inside Hakodate, Kakunojou gets moved to the local hospital, where she obviously is quite shocked. she was quite touching to see. This episode also featured a small sub-plot, though I couldn’t quite follow that. Still, the definite best part of the episode was seeing the troupe return. Shiranui has been coming on his own, searching for Taiyuu (what was she doing there, by the way?). The others came by request of Soutetsu. He really likes to manipulate people doesn’t he? Same with Kakunojou? She was about to throw her sword away, which is something he couldn’t have happening so he decided to do something about it. His plan still remains a mystery. He’s obviously using everyone around him, even Enomoto. What could he be after? I’m not sure about Hijikata’s role in this episode. We see him go from one place to the other, investigating, but exactly what is unknown. We also saw the introduction of another character, who seems to work right next to him: Tetsunosuke. His exact role isn’t clear, but he seems like a young genius who likes to act impulsive. What can a new character such as his add to the anime at this point?]]>

Short Synopsis: The English launch their attack once more, Akizuki also makes his move. At least, that’s their plan. 😉 Good: Amazing plot twists, awesome climax. 😀 Bad: As usual, Shouten-sama provides some nice background information, but again, I didn’t quite catch that. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 Boy, that was awesome. There definitely were some twists in this that shouldn’t be missed at all, both for the English and for Akizuki. I really wonder what this anime has in store for us for its final episodes. In the first part of the episode, the Lord’s Head shows what kind of power it has towards others when the English try to take him out. Rook tries to kill him, but Enomoto just reflects his attacks, and starts playing with his mind. This makes you suspect that only people like Akizuki can really get rid of the Lord’s Head. The English retreat for now, as things aren’t looking good. We then see a small aftermath, in which Akizuki agrees to let Kakunojou accompany him, and Rook starts to notice the effects of his encounter with Enomoto, as he keeps getting more and more doubts. The rest of the episode focuses on the English’s second attack, though both parties decided to handle things a bit bigger than with the first one. With the English, Kanna also participates in the attack, and they arrive in their own warship. Enomoto, meanwhile, called all his men to deck, while Soutetsu returned to the ship with Hijikata. Akizuki, meanwhile, also heads towards Enomoto, accompanied by Kakunojou. And this is where the goodness begins. First of all, Rook dies! This can do some great things for the rest of his team, especially his sister. He has been so confused by Enomoto that he just rushed in, even though he knew that Enomoto could do the same to him again. This indeed happened, and he got stabbed by Enomoto’s henchmen. With this, the Englishmen have definitely turned interesting, as right now, their mission has started to get personal. I can imagine that at least some of them will want to take revenge of what happened to Rook. The English and Kanna then decide to retreat. Akizuki, meanwhile, has had enough time to sneak up on Enomoto, starting the second part of the climax of the episode. Akizuki’s about to strike, though before he gets the chance, Kakunojou once again gets possessed by her sword. This time, Enomoto makes her cut Akizuki in the leg! Both of them were really great to see after that. ^^ The reasons for Kakunojou’s behaviour also were explained this episode, though as mentioned above, they were a bit vague to me. It has something to do with some kind of fog, though that’s all I could understand of it.]]>

Short Synopsis: Finally, all main actors are in the same area again and the story can go back where it left off. Good: Finally this anime is heating up again; Soutetsu looked SO evil during the climax. Bad: The episode took a while to get going Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 Before I start, two new characters are introduced this episode. they’ve got rather small roles, and I’m not really sure what kind of significant part in this story they’re going to play. They’re called Momata Kai and Souma Kazue. They seem to be working under Hijikata. If I had to guess their roles, they are probably going to play the same ones as the ones who got attacked by Soutetsu in the first episode. They’re going to be insignificant, but present, in order to give the soldiers who’re working under Hijikata a small personality. I’m glad to see that this story is back to its main tracks now. Soutetsu, Kanna, the four English knights, Enomoto and some others who didn’t appear for the past two episodes finally return, while characters like Katsu and the troupe still remain vanished without a trace. Still, for most part, this episode was more of an introduction. It’s focused at a few major events. First of all, Hijikata noticing Soutetsu. It seems that the former rather hates the latter, and after finding out that he’s with Enomoto, this feeling has only become worse. Speaking of Soutetsu, he’s been a complete mistery for this episode yet again. We see him at some kind of meeting which was probably meant to celebrate Hijikata’s return, along with the French commander. We later see Hijikata returning to him, and Soutetsu makes some kind of proposition for him. Hijikata must have something that Soutetsu’s after, since I think he’s trying to provoke him. But what? The second major focus of the episode was the relationship between Akizuki and Kakunojou. Akizuki still remains as thick as ever, and he keeps getting more annoyed at Kakunojou. Probably because Enomoto is close-by. In any case, Kakunojou doesn’t give up so easily, and after being yelled at by Akizuki, she runs to the local inn they’re staying at, grabs her sword and challenges him to a duel. Obviously, she’s disarmed instantly, but I’ll eat my hat if that didn’t make any impact. 😉 Meanwhile, while Kakunojou and Akizuki and Soutetsu and Hijikata are busy with each other, the Englishmen launch an attack at Enomoto’s ship, though they’re forced to retreat when Enomoto appears to be a tad too dangerous when possessed by the lord’s head.]]>

Short Synopsis: During their travels North, Akizuki and Kakunojou run into a new main character: Hijikata. Good: Great atmosphere, as usual. Kakunojou can become very interesting in the future. Bad: Even though Intermezzos contribute greatly to a series, they’ve never been very exiting. Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10 Interesting. We’ve actually been dealing with a 3-episode intermezzo. It basically features the journey from Edo to some other coastal city in Japan, where Enomoto’s ship is waiting. The first episode was meant to bring Akizuki and Kakunojou together, and as a farewell to the rest of the troupe. The second focused on Kakunojou getting her sword and this one, the third, introduces another, and probably the final, character important to the story: Hijikata. Regarding the troupe, it’s interesting. They really were left behind, and they did not follow Akizuki. I finally realize the importance of the fourteenth episode. Akizuki is chasing after the lord’s head, so he’d obviously be following Enomoto. The troupe, however, managed to carry out its revenge, which means that they’ve got no more purpose to fight. The fourteenth episode indeed showed them going separate ways, and taking a step back from the main storyline. Kakunojou, however, had to make an important decision: Akizuki or Troupe? In the end, it seems she wanted to be with him, and she followed him. I wonder if we’ll see the troupe again, and more importantly: when? Regarding Kakunojou’s sword, she can become very interesting. This episode showed that it holds some interesting powers. I’m suspecting that the following episodes will focus on her, trying to master this sword. It’ll be interesting when she finally has it under control. Regarding Hijikata, it seems that he’s an ally of Akizuki. The two of them and Okita were related in the past somehow. We also see him as an army commander at one point, which does suggest that he’s currently in favour of the new government. It’ll be interesting to see what role he has. The rest of the episode gets filled with a side-story, about a young soldier. I didn’t manage to really follow it, though it seems that he wants to visit his hometown, which happens to be on the way of Akizuki and Kakunojou’s destination. It seems his mother lives there, though apart from that I didn’t pick up much. I did see, however, that the guy learned quite a bit from Hijikata, a person he looks up to. Hijikata starts out with continuously keeping his sword ready, turning the boy a bit paranoid. When he also gets to the town he wants to go to, Akizuki once again shows that he can’t leave children alone (he’s been talking more and more recently, has he? ;))]]>