You know, I’ve been wondering… This show airs at Saturday, 9:00am, right? I wonder if it’s really the appropriate time to show a series with such disturbing footage, especially in this episode, when human bodies get cut up right on screen. In any case, the major focus of this episode falls on the doctors: curing the patients. If you liked the different doctors, this is the episode you want to look out to, as it’s finally time for them to put the things they learned to practice.
And like expected, most of them are incredibly scared. But who wouldn’t? I mean, they know the techniques to properly cut in the body, but the fact remains that with one wrong move, they could kill somebody. This mentality doesn’t leave their minds soon, and it probably wasn’t the best idea to bring all of them to the first demonstration of a real operation. After all, every doctor is scared, and when you’re among others that are scared too, the fear just increases.
When some of the doctors, however, left the castle, in order catch a breath of fresh air, things went well. Only then they realized that they could be the ones to save lives when people began to beg them to save their loved ones. After that, all things went well. Shuurei, meanwhile, hasn’t been standing still either, and she spends the episode, making sure that there are enough supplies to take care of the patients. I’m surprised that the people at such a time-period knew how important disinfecting is. The early European doctors could really have learned a lot of things from them.
Near the end of the episode, the biggest threat of the disease is gone. The logical next step would be: find the mysterious Senya. It seems that Shuuran and Riou (the young one) want to come with them on this journey. Shuuran is quite the adventurous kid, and I also think that she’s seeing Shuurei as some sort of idol, and I can imagine that she wants to be like the person that saved her mother, and to be with her as much as possible. Her character is going to be really interesting in the future episode, and what the heck is up with Riou? What are his plans.
Well, at least we know that young Riou and old Riou aren’t the same person, as the guy shows himself again. That was quite an amazing scene, by the way, as for some reason he decided to visit Ryuuki, and Ryuuki knew that the guy was coming. Also, his sword emitted a red light when the two of them met. What was up with that?
Kourin remains gone from the episode, though we learn a bit more about the position Eigetsu is in. It seems that his kidnapper is after Yougetsu, and he’s basically waiting for Eigetsu’s time to run out. Meanwhile, he enjoyed himself torturing Eigetsu’s body. Probably because these wounds will remain on Yougetsu once Eigetsu dies. Also, surprisingly enough the guy is also after Shuurei. I can understand that someone would be after Yougetsu, but why Shuurei? This probably has something to do with the reason the cult blamed Shuurei for the disease.
You could say that this episode marked the end of another arc, since the major problem that has been the focus of the past few episodes is as good as resolved. The next arc should focus on the cult, and I am SO looking forward to it, as it’s promising to be more character-centric than the arcs up till now. Bring on the awesomeness!]]>
Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction
Seirei no Moribito – 13
Whoa!
I can’t believe I was right about this episode, as for the first time since episode 3 we see another fighting-scene and holy god… that was awesome. I can’t believe how scary Barsa can be when she’s angry! Fans of the series will definitely rejoice with this episode!
The story that holds this episode together is another complicated one, but I’ll try my best to understand it. Remember the guy from the previous episode, who got surprised when he saw Barsa fighting? Well, he indeed knows her, though he appears to have quite a bad relationship with her. From what I understood, at one point Barsa had the chance to kill him when he suffered from something (starvation?), but she didn’t. I can imagine that this would rather crack his honour, so now he wants revenge. I just know I missed something in this. Mostly because it was at that point where Barsa began to value life, and she began to see that every man was equal. It seems that at that time, the guy already was a big jerk, and she just couldn’t kill such a miserable person. Or something similar.
Before he directly attacks her, he first decides to play with her a bit, and threatens to kill a couple of travellers unless she protects them, thus involving two innocents in his revenge. His henchman then continues to whirl projectiles at both her and the travellers, and it seems that he makes sure that Barsa doesn’t get any sleep for the night, meaning that she lost a bit of concentration. He also poisons the wells that she passes, in order to make her unable to drink. Still, that doesn’t seem to do anything to her, apart from making her even angrier at him, and she ends up cutting him in such a way to make him lose his memory. I can’t believe she really lost her temper against that guy.
The travellers also play a role bigger than just “victims”. They’re a boy, along with his teacher who seem to be heading for some kind of destination. The boy doesn’t seem to like Barsa, and after all, when a strange woman starts following you and suddenly you get assaulted by strange causes, you’d blame that woman. The plan of the assaulter was probably to let his henchman kill the duo, while he kept Barsa busy, though the boy seemed to be strong enough to knock out this henchman. They then become involved even more when the teacher wants to go to Barsa, and they see her strike the guy down.
There were two peculiar things about this fight, by the way:
– At times, Barsa took the shape of a tiger.
– The strike that Barsa dealt clearly caused blood to flow from the guy’s face, and next thing the blood and even the cut are nowhere to be seen.
This suggests that Barsa can do supernatural techniques, just like Torogai. The questions remain: how, why and what? How was she able to do it? Why did she start to learn them? And what exactly can she do with them? Also, what was up with the wall with the strange markings on it?
The question also remains: how far will the travellers become involved with the story? And how will this episode push the plot forward? The guy as now forgotten about Chaggumu, so he can’t tell anyone about it. Will his henchman do something? In any case, I’m really excited about Seirei no Moribito right now, as the plot has finally started to move forward, and something tells me we’re in for an awesome second half!]]>
Sisters of Wellber, Second Season?!
this! I know I joked in my post how a Greedham no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Greedham anime would be quite a possibility,, but I never expected the timing of the announcement to be so perfect. Ah well, that’s one series I’ll be looking forward to. The first season knew how to tell a story and it knew how characters need background in order to become interesting, so I’ll be looking forward to when this series will focus on Tina’s backstory. I just wish for this for this series to get subbed soon, because I can understand that not a lot of people would understand my enthusiasm with only three episodes released. The series really gets going with episode six, so let’s hope that when that episode gets subbed, it’ll get more attention than it is now.]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 13
And so it has ended. I’m not sure what to think of some of the elements. Overall, this was a good ending, but there’s one thing in the episode that… didn’t really make sense, to put it in such a way.
I’m referring to the Bergerac and Jin’s amazing ability to bring down an entire castle. I don’t know… it seemed a bit too much, although it was quite hilarious that they accidentally hit the gunpowder-room in their attacks. ^^; The only explanation for such a bad defence of the city would probably be that Guernia was in full charge. ^^;
Anyway, about the rest of the ending, it wasn’t emotional or shocking like the episodes in the middle part of the series, but nonetheless, it felt ‘good’. It doesn’t try to be overly dramatic for its final episode, and instead it finishes Guernia’s back-story, kills him and saves Rita. Nothing more, and I like how focused this ending was. In the end, the series didn’t suddenly change its style, like lots of anime do, now that I think about it. The ending doesn’t feel weird, and there isn’t any information that we should have known. That’s the thing with original anime, they can be exactly planned, instead of manga-adaptations that aren’t done yet.
Also, what really surprised me was that we never get to see who killed Rita’s parents. I actually feel that this was the right thing to do. Suppose, for example, that she did find the guy. Not only would that cost at least one episode, which would probably have been replacing one of the earlier episode, which means less fleshing out for Rita, Tina and Galahad. Also, this would be incredibly forced. I mean, what is the chance of that same guy still being in Greedam? Perhaps, in the future we can get a continuation: Greedam no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Greedam? That would be quite awesome, as there’s enough of the setting left unexplored to provide a second story, without feeling weird.
Also, after thinking back at it, I really liked Guernia this episode. His development was well worth it. I originally thought that seeing his mother make out with a different guy caused him to go crazy and kill her, but things are a bit more subtle than that. He did hate his mother afterwards, but that’s not why he became his former self. It seems that he just couldn’t forgive his mother, no matter how hard she tried. Her lover was executed, and because of all the strain, and the trust that she lost from her husband, she committed suicide. Galahad at that time was poking the eyes out of a doll that resembled his mother. After that, he’s been enjoying poking the eyes out of every woman that had eyes, similar to her. And Rita was one of them. The twist: he fell in love with her once she stabbed him. ^^;
His death, by the way, was quite nice, and an original one as well. Okay, we’ve seen anime before where we see the bad guy mortally wounded and alone, but Guernia was too cute when he never really reflected on himself, and instead drank a cup of tea in his chair before the ceiling above him collapsed. ^^;
Overall, I really recommend Wellber no Monogatari for a light adventure-series. It, along with Seirei no Moribito caused me to become a fan of Studio IG, and from now on, I’ll be looking forward to their next releases. Wellber no Monogatari really showed that they know what they’re doing, and that a good story needs some good backgrounds and fleshed out characters to work. It’s quite impressive that it found the time in 13 episodes to develop 6 major characters, while the other major support-characters only had the function of narration, contributing to the story without stepping in the spotlights themselves.
Sayonara, Rita, Tina, Galahad and Guernia. It’s been fun.]]>
Toward the Terra – 12
Toward the Terra continues to push forward one of the most complex plots of the season, and it does such a good job at it. I especially love the current Nazca-arc, and I can only imagine what the second half of the anime has in store for us. For this episode, there is another time-leap: three years. I advice you to pay attention from the beginning, since only two episodes in the episode another person dies, and quite sudden as well.
It’s Yui, the father of the first child born on Nazca. Sam, meanwhile, turns out to be alive, but heavily brainwashed, up to the point of insanity. Mother’s influence turned out to be too much in the end. Swena also saw him again for the first time in years, and it seems that Shiroe is still on his mind. I also loved how much Swena has changed since she was in love with him.
Later, when he arrives on a space-ship, he meets a Myu that didn’t get picked up by Blue. He’s already able to read people’s thoughts, and Keith was really scary when he found out. In the end, though, Keith takes the Myu with him, since his ability is useful, after all.
Back at Nazca, the conflict between the old and the new Myu finally escalates in a fight. The younger ones have nothing to do with Terra, they haven’t been oppressed like the older ones, who want to return to the planet of their dreams.
Overall, this was typically an episode to progress the plot. Along with Seirei no Moribito and Saiunkoku Monogatari, this is the series where I look forward to episode 13 the most, as most story-focused anime try to have a big spectacle at the end of a season, and the story in these anime already is awesome.]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 12
You know, my prediction might actually come true. It’s quite possible that this has been the last of the quiet episodes for a while. Either that, or the next episode is spent on the transition from the first half of the series to the second half. The reason I believe this is because of two very subtle hints that were given near the end of the episode.
Basically, this episode was about a local festival. It mainly focuses on Chaggumu’s relationship with his new friends, though the more important issue is that lots of people are attracted to this festival, and there’s no way of knowing whether some of these people have something to do with Chaggumu. Barsa, of course, forbids Chaggumu to go there, but in the end, Chaggumu remains a kid, and not to mention that he placed a bet with one of the local village kids. This kid insulted both Chaggumu and Mikado, and Chaggumu challenged him to a fight during the festival to make him apologize. If he were to lose, he and his friend would have to eat slugs.
The thing is, that for the first time in the entire anime, Barsa makes a mistake. There’s actually nothing suspicious about a bunch of kids fighting, but when Chaggumu actually wins (by use of his brains, rather than muscles), the guy refuses to apologize and uses his father, who happens to be the strongest fighter in the village to get out of things. Barsa then decides to teach this guy a lesson, and if you pay close attention to the audience after the fight (she obviously wins), e see one ronin-like person who gets surprised at the huge skills of this woman, who just beat the strongest guy in the village with ease. Something tells me that he heard about the woman with incredible skills who protected Chaggumu before he died, and I suspect he’ll go and investigate.
The second hint backed this up even more. Notice the frog and the snake at the end of the episode? Well, if that isn’t symbolic foreshadowing then I don’t know anymore. I’m looking forward to the next episode to see if my theory on this is correct.
Also, it’s great to see some actual fighting-scenes again. While they weren’t as spectacular as episode three, they were full of detail. Chaggumu may not have the largest amount of strength, he fully utilized the strength of his opponent. I also love Chaggumu’s determination. He’s not scared at all to take risks to achieve his goals, and this episode did a god job in fleshing out his character.]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 12
And there’s only one episode left! The semi-final episode has two purposes: to give some last-minute fleshing out for the final two important characters who have yet to receive sufficient development: the princes of Wellber and Sangatras, and to put the chess-pieces in the right position for the finale.
Especially the bits of new information on Guernia were really appreciated, as up till now, we haven’t really seen what’s in his mind. This episode, however, revealed the reason why he was interested in Rita in the first place. After all, Rita won’t become queen once her father dies, so it wouldn’t make any sense for Guernia to marry her with the eye on world conquest. The reason he went after her was because she resembles his mother.
This perfectly explains why he tried to kill her, back in episode one if you take his twisted mind in account. He killed his own mother, and I can imagine how he’s planning to do the same thing for Rita. During this episode, he didn’t make any suspicious move on her yet, but I suspect that he first wants to make her his, before making his move.
Rita’s brother (forgot his name, sorry) also turned out to be quite interesting for the plot. It seems that he finally got fed up with how his father never does anything to counter Sangatras’s attack, and when a group of rebels, fighting against the war delivers him some blueprints for the battleship that will be forming the core of Sangatras’s army, he decides to ignore his father and sabotage it. The plan works quite well to stop the war, though it’s less unfortunate for Rita, who had been captured by Guernia earlier, as it seemed to have sped up Guernia’s moves on her.
Overall, Wellber no Monogatari turned into a fine anime. It’s not anything ground-breaking, but it sure does know how to tell a story. The only two screw-ups this anime made was the weird horse-movement and the fact that Rita just walks around a bit too much in the open for someone who’s being hunted (especially considering the talking tank that accompanies her, which indeed was quite rare). Still, those are just minor issues. It’s got some interesting characters with quite a bit of development for a 13-episode series. It wasn’t rushed, and no actions really feel that forced when compared to other 13-episode series of its kind. Overall, it’s a real recommendation if you want something light to watch. If the subs ever finish, that is.
Still, it’s now time again to ask the question: will this anime be able to end well? So far, it has compelling characters, but you really need to do something extra in order to prevent your ending from screwing up. I don’t want to, but I fear that the ending will be just a standard one with nothing added. Guernia is going to die, probably by the hands of Galahad. The only thing that can probably save it is the mysterious killer of Tina’s parents. We still have no clue who the heck he might be, which means that the creators saved this guy for last. Let’s hope that the phrase “saving the best for last” applies for this. Oh, and Rita’s brother seems to be hiding a secret from Rita as well. That can prove to add something too.]]>
Toward the Terra – 11
I just have to say: WHOA!
Toward the Terra continues to surprise me. This time, by killing off none other than Sam! That’s about the opposite I suspected out of their reunion. It’s cruel, but now it seems that Sam’s only role was to involve Keith personally against Jomie, and boy, has he grown up to be scary. I can understand why he now seems to be referred to as a walking war-machine, and it seems that the time of the Myu on Nazca will be short-lived. Towards the Terra is really on its way to become the best series of the spring-season, and only Seirei no Moribito can rival its complex storyline.
It’s interesting to see the difference between the reactions of the older and younger Myu, now that nine months are spent on the planet. The young ones can’t remember the tragedy that befell the older ones, after all. The older Myu kept living a considerable part of their life towards the moment that they could arrive on earth. This was their dream, and it’s got to be hard to give it up. The younger ones are full of new dreams and hopes.
Karina also has her baby in this episode, after which many others will probably follow. That was one great moment. Overall, the episode was as grand as usual, though the animation looked off somehow. It’s clear that a different animation-department than usual handled this episode, which may not have been the best idea. I also caught them misspelling Sam’s name (“Som”!?) at one point. I can imagine Keith looking even scarier with some proper animation.
Speaking of which, the creators should update the OP a bit. If feels out of place now after so many time-leaps. ^^;]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 50
It seems that the creators themselves also realized how similar Shuurei and Shuuran are, that really becomes clear with this episode. I must say, Shuran was awesome! For such a small child to stand up for her sick mother, believing very word that Eigetsu told her must have been a really scary thing for her to do. I sense another female official in her.
The pacing of Saiunkoku Monogatari has really slowed down with the second season, and you can see that the creators are able to give the characters much more development. This episode again is about one thing: getting Shuurei in Kourinjou. With the usual pacing, I’d say that this could also have been done in just one episode, but the extra airtime was much appreciated.
One thing I didn’t like about this episode though was that the feminism had gone a bit too much overboard. Sure, I love how this anime had addressed this issue so far, about women, rising in a male-dominated society, but this episode went too far. Basically, every man is rash and stupid, and wants to see Shuurei killed, while the women are the smart ones to bring their husbands back to senses.
Also, what is Riou planning, exactly? Right now, he seems to be either a friend or brother of Shuuran, but he hasn’t done anything suspicious yet. This episode as well, we only see him suspiciously looking at Ensei and Shuurei trying to pass the walls of the castle and scolding Shuuran after everything was over, because she acted so rash. If he really is the other Riou, then why did he contact Shuuran in the first place, instead of looking for someone actually acquainted with her?
It’s also aggravating: we see nothing of Kourin and Eigetsu this episode! I’m so interested in what happens to the two of them, but it seems that the creators are waiting for episode 13 for the major climax. Still, this episode was another great one. Especially Shuuran is not to be missed.]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 11
Personally, I really liked this episode. It focuses on Tooya and Saya, and especially the two of them get a bit of development. It seems that they’re not siblings after all. Saya seems to be the daughter of a rich family, and through some circumstances that I didn’t manage to pick up got to live together. At the beginning of the episode, we see Tooya being down, since the family took her in again.
The problem is, though, that Saya collapsed afterwards. It’s not really an illness, but it seems that her spirit left her body. The culprit seems to be a ceremonial offering of rice and a bowl of water with a water lily on it (hanazake is what Tanda calls it). It combined with Saya’s worries to make her soul split from her body.
Tanda manages to get her back, though, with a bit of magic of his own. He’s able to leave his body as well through a ritual, and gets Saya back, bringing her and Tooya a bit closer together. I remember that tj han recently wrote an entry about how romance can only be done with pretty characters, but I think that Tooya is making a good start to change this.
Something interesting happened when Tooya and Saya’s story was resolved (which was too cute, by the way), though. Tanda either found himself unable to return, or he was so caught up in being a spirit that he didn’t want to return. I can imagine that that might turn out bad if attempted for too long. Not to mention that Tanda soon finds out that he can travel immense distances by just going through a wall. The animals he sees there are huge. I really wonder how this will be used in the future episodes. Luckily, he realizes this in time and contacts Chaggumu through the egg, and Barsa manages to save him because of this.
In any case, we’re now at episode 11, which means two episodes until episode 13, my predicted turning-point of this series. The next episode will probably be another quiet episode, like the past few have been, and something tells me that the plot will start moving with episode 13.]]>