Category: Guin Saga

Well, I didn’t see this one coming. Here I thought that this episode would show us the next ordeals that Guin and the others had to face with the new ship they sailed into, but instead none of them even appear in a single scene this episode. We aren’t even shown what they’re doing, the story simply puts its attention to something completely different. I like it; there aren’t many series that have the guts to ignore all of their main characters like this in favour of the side-characters.

So yeah, this episode is all about the wedding between Ardnaris and Amnelis, and the ones around them. Marius had originally the mission of killing off Amnelis’ younger brother (I’m assuming that he’s the oldest male heir to the throne, or something similar), but gets too attached to him and refuses to do his job, and so instead he creates some story in which he doesn’t need to kill the guy, because of how close they’ve gotten Marius has him under control.

Meanwhile, Amnelis has completely changed ever since she fell in love with Naris, and doesn’t even seem to notice how he’s trying to use her. Speaking of which… what was he doing with that Naris-lookalike at that strange city? Who was that man anyway? I guess that that will become clear once the two get married in the next episode. And yet there seem to be enough people aware of his plans, who seem to be people who want Remus to take the throne, instead of Ardnaris, and seem to be planning to use the guy as their pawn (probably still assuming that he’s the same weakling as ever). It should become very interesting if this guy would actually return to the throne, and try to take over the world. At least, if the anime actually gets to the point of animating those chapters…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

the more this series progresses, the more of a shame it becomes that there are only going to be 26 episodes. Sure, there can always be plans for a second season, but the chance for a second season to just be cancelled is just as big. That at the moment is sortof my problem with the trend that anime has followed for the past few years, to chop up their stories into different seasons. Sure, it’s nice and all for the popular series, but for the less popular series this always becomes a good excuse for the sponsors to drop a show. It happened with Amatsuki, Tytania, Narutaru and so many other awesome series that deserve a sequel so badly.

This show has really become excellent now that the characters have started to develop. What surprised me the most about this episode was how well Remus and Guin are getting along, now that Istvan and Linda have become a couple. The two of them are strangely alike, and Remus proved that he’s much more than your average stereotypical crybaby turned badass. He has ambitions now, but at the same time he’s grown up, he’s level-headed and polite, despite being direct and to the point as well.

This episode yet again showed that weird light that has been messing with the protagonists for a while now. This time, it speaks to Linda, and warns her about the dangers of the island: a hideous monster turns out to live on it. And damn, that was some nice eye candy when Linda made that light split open an entire mountain.

Next up seems to be even more political intrigue, as yet another country is introduced: the country of Agraia. They neither seem to be allies nor enemies, so this could prove to be interesting to see how they end up dealing with Guin.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Haha! To think that some of the best romance of the season (only surpassed by Phantom) comes from not a slice-of-life series, not a full fledged romance show, nor a drama, but instead a series that advertises itself as an epic fantasy series. I did not see that coming, but what makes the romance in this episode stand out is the fact that it’s completely void of any wimpy characters and for once kissing becomes something normal, rather than something sacred that should only happen once or twice.

My biggest surprise here is that Istvan and Linda have become a couple now. I especially loved the look on Remus while they were making out: for once it’s not the look of some siscon (which seems to be really common in just about every anime that has siblings of different sexes and similar ages!), but rather it’s the look of someone who dislikes inefficiency, and would wish that the two of them started to think about things that mattered.

And of course, Guin turns out to be fine, but what interests me is that even he didn’t remember what the heck it was that happened to him: he just… woke up at that island, nothing more. It probably has to do with where he came from, but apart from that I have no clue of what went on.

There was also plenty of eye candy in this episode. The island had some wonderful designs, and the newly introduced characters (are they? or did I forget about their introduction) all look great, with even the unimportant side characters having distinctive designs. The fight scene this episode also rocked, and for once it didn’t look rushed, which also was a plus. I’m really excited about this series right now.

So, how about a second season?
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Lots of romance, plot development and eye candy. Exactly what this show is good at!

Remus… what a change of character. He went from a complete and incompetent imbecile to a smart and composed stoic. His change of character is indeed a bit sudden if you just attribute it to character-development, so I have some real suspicions that that skull-guy has something to do with it. He probably either zapped, possessed, took control, brainwashed or did something else with the guy that made him change so much, probably taking advantage of how useless the guy found himself. I mean, those fancy magic flashes had to be there for some reason, right?

This episode mostly deals with the ship that Guin and the others decided to board: it’s a pirate ship. In a way it makes sense, since any other ship would probably recognize Linda and Remus, or ask too many questions, but in return they did get attacked by the pirates in the middle of the night for bringing a woman on board. But then again, with Istvan’s and Guin’s strength they do have the advantage.

Something really weird happens in the middle of the episode, though. A ship of light appears right from out of bloody nowhere, takes Guin away without any hint of what happened to him (we really don’t see him for the entire rest of the episode). And when you thought that that wasn’t sudden enough: a minute later the ship gets hit by lightning…

So yeah, the pirates were a bunch of stereotypes and acted like a herd of potatoes, but it still was a very enjoyable episode. Istvan too is starting to notice that something really weird is going on with Remus, which could prove to be very interesting for the future of this series. Especially since Remus isn’t stupid anymore, so he might have some tricks up his sleeve to avoid suspicion.

Linda on the other hand is now starting to look like the useless one here, as she keeps getting captured and complaining, but you can still see the strong side of her personality throughout the episode. It’s just that she’s never really been in real danger before the attack of the Mongols, so she’s never learned to defend herself or pay attention to her surroundings. Also, is it me or is Istvan developing a crush on Linda? Perhaps not a romantic one, but she’s definitely on his mind: he wants to be the one to protect her and starts to dislike Guin because he’s the one on her mind right now.
Rating: * (Good)
There seems to be no end to the character-development. Yay!

This arc has really been getting more and more interesting, even though this episode pretty much lacked any sort of battles. This is where the adventure part of this series jumps in, and I do have to say that it may be the part where Guin Saga is best at. In any case with episodes like this you’re not going to get bothered by badly animated fights.

So this episode basically followed the two story-lines around Amnelis and Ardnaris’ wedding, and Guin and his party trying to get back to Parro (at least, that’s what I managed to pick up), and both delivered. This episode marks the point in which Naris finally seduced Amnelis, and whatever his plans are, something tells me that they won’t be pretty for Amnelis.

Remus’ development also it becoming really interesting. From the outside he seems to be turning into your average whiny brat, but having his balls drop and getting into puberty has had some interesting side-effects: suddenly, it is Linda who is the weakest of the two. Suddenly, Linda who seemed so mature in the Nosferas arc has turned into the whiny brat who doesn’t take good notice of her surroundings, and Remus has turned into the mature one; despite his brattiness, he does know when to shut up, and the only one he treated with disrespect was Linda. That is SO typical of siblings when they’re in puberty.

Flawed characters like Remus are either incredibly bad or incredibly good, since they’re so annoying when they’re first introduced, but when they’re developed correctly they can prove to be a very interesting addition to their story. I’m not saying that Guin Saga is definitely going to be one of those series that gets it right, but there’s a reasonable chance that it will.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
The characters are really developing strongly. This show is going to be epic if the creators can keep this up.

For a moment there, I thought that this was going to be a relatively uneventful build-up episode, but boy, was i wrong. This episode may have lacked a bit of fighting, but instead it was all about the characters. And now that a new arc has started, it’s great to see that some of them are getting some quality development. It’s even better to see that the ones with the most development are the ones who were the most useless and incompetent in the Nosferas arc. Yes, I’m talking about Amnelis and Remus.

It’s awesome to see that Remus is finally starting to realize that he’s been bloody useless throughout the entire series, and I love how the creators were specifically using the Nosferas arc to show what a weakling he was. It seems that his character will be much more important in the upcoming arc, and I’m interested to see how his character is going to develop.

Amnelis on the other hand develops in a completely different way, when she falls in love with… Ardnaris, whom she was supposed to be engaged with. I’m not exactly sure how he managed to pull that off by getting on the Mongol’s good side, but he seems to be enjoying it. Amnelis on the other hand is in for some interesting development that really is going to change her majorly. I’m still not sure whether this is going to be for the better or worse, but I’d love to find out.

This episode also introduces the three mystery characters that suddenly popped up in last week’s OP. They turn to be related to Ardnaris, it seems. The bond-haired guy seems to be his brother, while the black-haired couple also seem among his allies.

Rating: ** (Excellent)
Remus and Amnelis’s character-development? Count me in!

I’m still surprised at how little the amount of discussion around this series is. When I search for Guin on Anime Nano, the search results only show about one post every two weeks, aside from my own. I mean, for series as Shangri-La and 07-Ghost you at least have people saying how much they hate those shows, but even those sorts of posts don’t appear. This season really is full of these underdogs, I must say.

In any case, this episode closes off the Nosferas arc and introduces the next one, but I really enjoyed it, as it really pushed the story into a different direction. As it turns out, Guin is going to wait a while before he takes up the throne of Nosferas, because he first wants to find out about his own history. Does that mean that he’s also going to leave Linda and Remus?

Amnelis meanwhile is about to say goodbye to her career as an army commander, as her father is about to marry her off to another guy. To think that she’s only eighteen. That really explains why she screwed up so badly at the front line: a complete lack of experience. Her father probably let her have one chance at commanding an army, before sending her off as a wife.

In the meantime, we also get introduced to a new character: the black-haired guy. I’m still not exactly sure what’s up with him, as he seems to have some complex relationships with the Mongols, but the next couple of episodes will probably shed more light on that. Oh, and I really have to say that the backgrounds looked awesome in this episode. Even better than usual with this series.

Rating: * (Good)
Aftermath and introduction to the respective past and upcoming arc.

Ah, I remember how the last time an anime toyed with large-scaled fantasy wars, we got stuck with Utawarerumono, which in the end never really caught on. Thank god Guin Saga is doing a good job this time. Its individual ingredients aren’t that impressive, but together they form a very capable series indeed. Guin in this episode yet again proves that he is a born leader and that he has the ability to reunite various tribes. As the future king of Nosferas, politics should start getting into play soon as well, and that’s also going to be pretty interesting.

With the giant people, the defeat of the Mongols was of course only going to be a matter of waiting whether they could get there on time. Amnelis really was never meant to lead such a huge army, since all she basically does is charge and retreat. One thing that I do want to see in one of the next arcs is Guin taking on someone who actually has half a braincell. I mean, now that he has the giant people on his side, his opponents really are going to have to use their heads in order to prevent themselves from committing suicide.

One thing I didn’t like in this episode was Suni’s supposed death and resurrection. I’m not exactly sure what that was meant for… she just fell off a cliff and at the end of the episode turned out to be fine. The directing also is a big buggy at times: at one time we see Amnelis about to be attacked by two giants. Astrias slays one of them, and the other just… disappears. It’s true that this show could have been much better had it had solid creators, but it still is a pretty good series.
Rating: * (Good)
Guin pwned this episode as it ends the Mongol invasion-arc.

Aah! This show so badly deserves better animation! Having Satelight as the animation production company is both a bliss and a curse: the graphics sure look imposing. The designs for this series are absolutely beautiful, but the animation is just incredibly messy and full of cut corners and very obviously rushed. What a bloody shame, because this series really deserves to look beautiful.

As for the rest of this episode: Guin Saga yet again showed that it excels at detailing and describing all sorts of different cultures and people. This episode gives a proper introduction to the giant people that Guin went after, and again a lot of imagination went into designing these people. Standalone, they’re a bit stereotypical, but when put in context with the rest of the series they fit so well. With such a huge cast, this series has already shown that it isn’t the best at characterization: for Guin Saga it’s really the bigger picture that makes it stand out.

This episode also shows Istvan’s part of Guin’s plan come to fruition as he successfully manages to kill off one of the major generals from the Mongols. It’s also interesting how he never seemed to take his mission personally, and actually came to like Marius before he killed him off. It’s good to run into a series that doesn’t have the “I can’t kill him! He’s my friend”-mentality.

Rating: * (Good)
Sub-par animation, but that’s not stopping this series from delivering a fantasy-epic.

You know, I didn’t really notice this among underlooked series as Shangri-la, Konnichiwa Anne and Natsu no Arashi, but Guin Saga also is starting to move under the radar this season. I mean, for as far as I know I’m the only one who’s still blogging it, and you hardly see anyone talk about it anymore. It’s a shame, because this series is pretty darn good.

This episode was an intermezzo between two big battles against the mongol army, and the biggest focus is Guin, as he tries to go after his past in a gamble that might give him the key to victory. We finally learn a bit about who the heck he was before his mind-wipe, although it’s still a bunch of vague hints. I especially liked that dream sequence of his. It was totally psychedelic, but it was nice to watch. At the end of the episode, we also encounter someone who looks surprisingly much like Guin himself, or at least in terms of clothing.

In the rest of the episode, the rest of the cast is fleshed out a bit. Remus gets finally a bit of confidence when he succeeds in making an arrow, while Amnelis is shown to be the stuck up princess that she is when she’s wasting precious water in the middle of a desert by washing her hair.

Though I do have some things that I’ve been wondering: why did the ape-men have an armour that perfectly fitted Guin? How did they get him a horse when they don’t use those animals themselves? It remains a bit strange. Also, I’m not really sure why Guin chose this moment to chase after his path. I didn’t exactly pick up what exactly he felt was so important about his past that made him so confident about winning.

Rating: * (Good)
A building-up episode, but it had a very good air of mystery.