And Wellber no Monogatari is coming towards its end, with only two episodes left after this. You’d suspect a “calm before the storm”-episode, but instead it decides to develop its side-characters a bit more. This definitely was a Galahad/Jamill-episode and a great one as well!
Finally we get a bit more development between the two, and we finally learn how the two got together. Basically, Jamill was an excellent soldier, while Galahad was close to Guernia, and they often got put in the same missions, in which the combination of the both of them excelled like no other. After a while, they began to feel for each other. It’s nothing special, but it’s so much better than no explanation at all.
This probably was the episode with the slowest pacing of the series. Especially the later half is really focused, and with a good reason: Jamill dies! First she gets stabbed in the eye by Guernia, after he tells her how he killed his mother, who “cheated” on him. She then goes to search for Galahad, who ended up in a peaceful farming cottage. When she finds him, it seems that she’s still on Guernia’s side, as she tries to make him go back. When he refuses, she challenges him to a “shooting duel”. Galahad shoots anyway, since he’s seen her skills, and he’s in now way as fast as she is. Jamill, though, refused to shoot, and so she gets hit by Galahad. Great moment. 🙂
Now then, I do wonder wonder what this anime has in store for us for the final two episodes. So far, the best thing of this series has been the change to an actual serious storyline, but something tells me that the creators planned to save the best for last. So far, we’ve got three elements of the storyline left unsolved: the war, Guernia vs. Galahad and the murderer of Tina’s parents.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction
OMG!
THIS is what I’ve been waiting for! The website lists the date of July 16, while Moonphase talks about autumn, but IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Arusu The Adventure, the OVA-sequel of Mahou Shoujotai has now gotten an official airdate! Okay, I may be the only person who enjoys this news, but I’m really getting pumped now! Studio 4C: show your magic! (yes, I know this probably is one of my most random posts, but I just had to make it ^^;)]]>
Toward the Terra – 10
Woo! Jomie is back! And surprisingly, we skip another six years in time, since the previous episode. The biggest surprise has to be Swena, who turned into a journalist (no sign of her husband yet, did she divorce from him?), looking for the origin of the Myu. Finally I understand why she left, back in episode six, and I must say that it indeed was a better decision for her to leave Keith. After all, now she can act on her own, which will become much more interesting than just one of Keith’s henchmen. I really like what I saw from her in this episode, and she’s showing some great promise for the future! 🙂
Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Sam. For the entire episode, we don’t see both of them. Keith has probably become the most elite of elite, though I do reckon that this wasn’t possible for Sam. Does this mean that Sam has left him, or do the two of them still have contact?
In any case, this episode also explains what the Myu have been doing for the past few years: wander around aimlessly. Jomie at one point suggested trying to contact the planet earth by sending various peace-messages. These messages just didn’t work at all, and when Jomie found out that they caused the death of a Myu (Shiroe), he stopped doing this. Now, ten years later, there still isn’t a sign of Earth. The interesting thing is that Physis seems to have abandoned the idea of going to earth, and predicted a red planet to be their saviour. Near the end of the episode, they reach it.
I’m not sure what it is, but this episode greatly increased my interest for this series. Especially after rewatching it, I realize how good this episode really was. There isn’t really much tension, but many interesting things happen. Seeing that Jomie still has contact with the youngest people on the “Moby Dick” (aka, the children we saw in the first episodes) also was really interesting. They’re still treated as children, even though they grew up, simply because there’s nobody younger than them.
These “children” actually come up with the idea to make children the “natural way”, instead of what has been the custom. It seems strange for him, to only think of such a thing after ten years, but it does make sense. After all, if you’ve grown up, knowing nothing about the subject, it’s not like you’re able to take the initiative on these issues. Near the end of the episode, we also see two of the children confess to each other.
To be honest, during this episode I kept comparing Toward the Terra with Heroic Age, and then I really realized how truly crap the latter is. Both anime feature exiles who struggle to survive, though Heroic Age had to come up with an unbelievably strong Age who keeps on fighting until there is peace, and that’s about all there is to the storyline. Compare that to Toward the Terra and its complex storytelling from three different parties.
Overall, the climax was just great. The next episode will probably focus on the exploration of the new red planet, and I honestly can’t wait. I do wonder, though, when we’ll see Keith getting in contact with the Myu. I originally believed that the previous episode would cause him to question Mother Eliza, but that seems to be not true at all, since he still remains an elite. When I first saw his picture on the OP, I thought that he’d also be some king of Myu, though I was totally wrong on that one, it seems.]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 49
Those horrible bastards! Seriously, they’re taking the rumours about Shuurei being the source of the epidemic way too seriously, shooting her with arrows like that!
Anyway, when I guessed last time that this episode would be awesome, I was wrong. The next episode is going to be awesome, this one merely built up for it. Next time, it seems that Kourin will meet up with Eigetsu, and something tells me that the arrows we saw at the cliff-hanger DID hit someone.
Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t love this episode, the past two episodes have been building up perfectly, after the dialogue-heavy previous arc. It’s interesting that there wasn’t really a main focus or anything. The entire episode just consists out of the different storylines which get developed further, and one new storyline to be introduced: the attempts of the bad guys to kill Shuurei. I didn’t pick up whether they were the ones behind the rumours or not, but the fact remains that we’ve got ourselves a group of warriors, and their leader has decided to kill off Shuurei. This really shows how easily people can be manipulated when stroke by something dangerous and unknown.
The biggest theme of the episode would probably be the villagers being moved in to the capital of the Sa-province. Remember the two kids from the previous episode? Well it seems that they encouraged their fellow villagers to move out, and after a while, they run into a group of soldiers, who offer them protection. It’s interesting how one of these soldiers actually doesn’t agree, and still thinks that the disease is contagious (which it obviously is not).
And god, Eigetsu looked horrible! Like I mentioned above, I’m so looking forward to when Kourin sees him again.]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 10
Remember any anime in which a member of royalty suddenly becomes a commoner? Well, all of them have the obligatory episode in which this royal person ends up in a crowded place, and has to get accustomed to the customs of the normal people, and often ends up doing something completely reckless. This was exactly such an episode. I kept wondering where it went.
While it was a bit disappointing to see nothing of Shuga, the episode itself focuses on Tooya, who finally managed to find Barsa, Tanda and Chaggumu. Barsa then asks him to take Chaggumu and explore the shopping areas of the city a bit, while Barsa would keep an eye on them from afar.
The two of them eventually end up near a group of entertainers who are hosting a local gambling game. Basically, you spin three coins in a round bowl, and try to guess how many coins fall with their shiny side up. Chaggumu manages to see that the entire game is just being manipulated, though initially he doesn’t do anything about it. Only when Tooya takes the initiative, but fails he gets in action and unmasks the guys.
While the plot progression in this episode was ridiculously close to zero, I quite liked the last quarter of it, when Chaggumu unmasked the plan, and people started to cheer on him. We’re only three episodes removed from episode thirteen, a point at which most anime insert some kind of climax to mark their halfway point. I wonder if Seirei no Moribito will be doing the same, or will it really be waiting till a random point until it takes off? Looking at the pacing of the past ten episodes, there really is no way to be able to predict this.]]>
Wellber no Monogatari – 10
This definitely was a cute episode. Basically, Rita and Tina make up again, after Rita finds out about the misunderstanding. It seems that this arc was mostly meant to flesh out the pair of them a bit before the finale starts. A “calm before the storm”, in a way, though that doesn’t mean that everything was light-hearted.
Both Rita and Tina turned out really touching. I have to say that, while the ending was a bit too coincidental, it was nicely found, and unlike any other Deus ex Machina I’ve seen. I really wonder what the creators have in stall for us for the final episodes. It definitely realizes that it needs to build up first, and something really tells me that they’ve been planning something very interesting for the finale of this anime.
About the only thing I felt disappointed over in this episode was that we never get to see the reunion of Tina and her boyfriend. After she wrote such a lovely letter to him, he came all the way to Sangatras just because of this. Apart from that, though, it was a great episode.
Oh, one thing though. Someone please tell the animators a few things about the English language. As if Bokura no’s “Garally” wasn’t bad enough…]]>
Toward the Terra – 09
The climax of the Shiroe-arc! And boy, is it a great one. The OP is actually very misleading, as with this episode, two characters who I thought would be major side-characters were already written out of the show.
There’s actually nothing much to say about this episode. It was incredibly emotional, especially the last part, and it worked out really well. Shiroe meets a tragic end, I first believed that Mother Eliza would let him go, though Keith is actually ordered to shoot him down. This again shows how much of a robot Keith is, when he kills the guy, just because Mother Eliza tells him to. What kind of influence does she have on him? We also see her claim that she’ll be Keith’s past and memories, if he desires them.
There’s definitely much hope for this series if all of its climaxes continue to be of this quality. In the next episode, we should probably see Jomie back for real, while Keith will probably go to the location where Shiroe told him the answer to his past lies.]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 48
This episode was definitely more fast-paced than the previous ones. Lots of things happened, and I really loved it. It basically consisted out of two parts: one focused on Eigetsu and one on Shuurei.
It’s quite surprising, I expected Shuurei to take a long time to get back to the Sa-province, but due to the fact that everyone is racing to reach the Sa-province as fast as possible, they move considerable faster than they did before, when they had to watch out not to get caught. What also surprised me was Seiran: he actually stayed in the capital. Instead, he sent Ensei his sword, and that’s all we hear of him during this episode.
The best part of the Shuure-part was when people started to refuse to let Shuurei pass because of the rumours that she might be the cause of the disease. The bad part is that Shuurei is actually starting to believe this. After all, if Li Senya really is THAT Li Senya, he’d indeed be causing trouble because of her, which means that she indirectly is the cause of so many people dying.
The best part of the episode, though, definitely was the Eigetsu-part. To start, some more parts of his past get revealed: the parts that tie everything together. Yougetsu turns out to be a spirit, who saved Eigetsu when Doushu found him, killed by his own parents. This makes me wonder: is Yougetsu one of the sages who helped the first king? Anyway, Yougetsu’s condition for saving him was that he could only remain alive for twenty more years. When Yougetsu saved Doushu, these years probably not only got divided, but also considerably reduced. Otherwise Eigetsu would have lived till his sixteenth, while he’s around twelve years old right now.
The reason Yougetsu saved Doushu probably also was because of the way Doushu treated him when he appeared. He never even once got angry or surprised with him.
Anyway, in the present time, a lot of things also happen: most notably Eigetsu being kidnapped and tortured (O_o) by a Doushu-lookalike. If I had to guess, then he’s on Riou’s side. As for the reason? Yougetsu? Do they want him? In any case, I definitely do NOT want to miss the next episode, as something tells me that something incredible is going to happen.
Meanwhile, elsewhere Kourin is coming after Eigetsu (another reason why the next episode is promising to be really good), Ryuuren realizes that Eigetsu is in danger (ditto), and we see the introduction of two new side-characters: Shuuran and Riou. Their family was struck by the disease. Shuuran finds her support in Riou, while Riou thinks he abandoned them. Even though it was the first episode I saw them, the discussion the two of them had was already quite touching, and I already like them A LOT. Shuuran already shows that she is really strong.
…
And why the HECK did Riou have the same name as the other Riou!?!]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 09
A Shuga-episode. After episode seven, I thought he’d immediately conclude that Chaggumu is still alive, but in the end, it wasn’t that simple. Chaggumu meanwhile makes a few friends. After an absence of an episode, Shuga returns. We first see him talk with Chaggumu’s mother. She believes that Chaggumu is still alive at that point. Call it a mother’s intuition. A bunch of children meanwhile comes to visit the house Chaggumu and Barsa are staying in, thinking the old guy still lives in it. Chaggumu of course doesn’t know what to say to them, and remains silent. Barsa then arrives and let them in.
People are meanwhile very busy finding out why the drought is still being predicted. Shuga gets rather angry at them, as they seem to act like Chaggumu never had anything to do with it. It does make sense, though. I originally believed that they’d question the reports of Chaggumu’s death, but instead the machine who did the prediction is re-investigated. Because of this, people have forgotten all about Chaggumu. Then why did he have to be sacrificed in the first place for all this?
He then sees Gakai with some servants search his room, and take away his research, or something similar. They intend to deliver it to Saggumu, who requested it, though somehow Shuga doesn’t approve to this. He then forcibly tries to take it back, but fails, knocking over Gakai in the process.
Saggumu then calls him for a visit. He then tells him about how Chaggumu used to love animals, and we saw a flashback of the two of them while they were younger. Chaggumu accidentally knocked a rare bird out of the sky with a rock, and then he begged his brother to somehow save it. If I’m not mistaken, then that same bird resides now in Saggumu’s office. He then returns the papers with Shuga’s research. If I had to guess, then he did this because they’d otherwise be destroyed because of Chaggumu’s death. Shuga, however, refuses to accept them, saying that he doesn’t need them anymore. I’m not sure what was up with that, though.
Chaggumu, meanwhile gets forced by Barsa to make a few friends. Clearly, the two of them really have it easy now, and they’re able to relax a bit. I really wonder how long this will last.
The final part of the episode focuses on Shuga, who probably abandoned looking after the prediction-machine and went out to the country in order to find the true cause of the drought. Eventually, he runs into Tanda, collecting food for probably the night’s dinner. They talk a bit, and eventually Tanda shows him the egg of a praying mantis. I’m not sure how that could lead to him thinking that Chaggumu is still alive, but it does. We’ll have to wait till the next episode till we find out what he does with this.
It’s good to see that this anime has been doing a lot of building up, but I hope that the second half will be a bit more exciting. The past few episodes have been interesting, but the sense of conflict has just disappeared. If I had to guess, then Shuga will continue to investigate on Chaggumu and then he’ll find out that he’s still alive. Starting from that point, Seirei no Moribito could get very interesting. But until then, I’m going to enjoy the quiet moods of the episodes.]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 09
I think that with this, it’s become clear that we’re dealing with a 12 or 13-episoded series here. While it would be awesome to see what it could do in 26 episodes, the development shown in the past few episodes has gone way too fast for such a series. It’s a pity to see that such an excellent series will be over in one month. Still, something’s telling me that the creators saved the best for last, as yet again, this episode was a great one! 🙂
Last time, we saw Galahad betray Jamill, while this episode breaks up Rita and Tina! It all starts innocently, when Tina pays a visit to the local casino and nearly gambles away her gun, before Rita stops her. From that moment, Rita starts to get doubts on Tina, which can’t be taken away so easily. When Tina then sells some of her stuff to buy a birthday-present for Rita, everything goes wrong.
During Tina’s little screw-up, somebody recognized the two of them, and decided to take advantage of this by disguising her as Tina in thief-form. Rita hears the rumours about this woman, and when Tina comes to her with an expensive-looking birthday-present (which she bought with her own money, by the way, in fact, she sold her old thief-clothes in order to get the money, and these clothes were stolen again by the mysterious woman), Rita thinks she bought it with the stuff she stole. Tina is disappointed by this, since it’s Rita’s birthday, of all things. In the end, the two part ways, and I couldn’t help but love it. 🙂
On other news, Jamill figures out why Galahad betrayed her when she visits Guernia, and the king of Wellber sends a messenger to Rita. I’m not sure what that message is, but we’ll probably find out in a few episodes. I’m quite interested about this series will spend its final episodes. So far, it featured some excellent development, the characters are fleshed out well, now all that’s left is to use this in the finale. Unlike a series like Good Witch of the West, I don’t believe that Wellber no Monogatari has any source material, so it could be perfectly planned out from the beginning.
I also wonder, how did that woman know about Tina? How did she know about the outfit she wears when she goes out stealing? We also still don’t know who killed her parents in the past. What will Galahad’s role be? Will Jamill desert Guernia as well? Will the war actually happen? Lots of interesting questions to make some great potential for a finale!]]>