Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

The Third – 15 – OMG Honoka O_o

by psgels, posted in The Third


Seriously. This was an amazing episode! I can’t believe that the creators would go this far, at this stage of the anime.

Okay, so Honoka got mortally wounded. That by itself already was amazing. It’s clear that she’ll recover somehow, as we haven’t reached. But why was I so hoping for her to be safe? Why did I keep wanting her not to die. If an anime manages to do this with me, it seriously has done something special.

Okay, a quick summary. The episode starts rather gloomy, when it seems that Millie still keeps her feelings inside of her. Ever since the previous episode, Bogie has been travelling for three days. During those three days, Millie only smiled once. And that’s when she managed to hit a can with the gun she got from Honoka. Then, they reach the sandstorm with the desert fairy in it, as well as Kanwei and Leon. Leon starts shooting at Kanwei, after which Honoka runs up to him and the two end up in a fight. Honoka looks to be winning, though then Leon blasts two small lasers through her body, and she faints. Ikus takes her back to Bogie, and there it seems that even his healing powers aren’t enough. In the end, all hope is left on Kanwei, who also dropped by.

There’s also a bit of info given about the fairy and Leon. The fairy seems to be called Star Seed. She’s the seed of life, which seems to be spread over the entire universe. Within her, all the genetic data of all living beings is stored. She seems to be travelling all kinds of worlds, collecting DNA, in order to transport lives from here to some kind of newborn planet. I think that she uses the DNA from those she saves in the desert as guidelines. Leon seems to be a phantom, made out of liquid metal. Usually, these phantoms have degenerated into pieces of nothing, though nano-machines make them smart. Phantoms also can absorb each other, in order to become smarter and stronger. It seems that Leon’s absorbed quite a few other phantoms.

The highlight of this episode definitely was the reaction of Ikus, Millie and Bogie to Honoka’s wounds. Millie really was too sad when she found out about this. And especially Bogie surprised me. He always is as objective as possible. But when Kanwei starts doing strange things with Honoka, he suddenly starts yelling, telling someone to stop the wolf. Especially if you consider that he’s actually just AI. In any case, this was a wonderful episode. I won’t be surprised if The Third ends up as the best series of the spring season.

The Third – 14 – And The Art is Back To Normal ^^

by psgels, posted in The Third


Ooh, this really was an excellent episode. I always felt that the Gravestone arc, although it was awesome to see, it lacked something. And now I know what: Millie. Still, right now I’m fearing that the current arc will lack Paife. =P

In any case, during this episode it really becomes clear that Millie is only trying to be strong and independent. When Honoka starts treating her as if she needed help, she gets angry at her. She runs away and almost gets caught by a Hangeki (a huge sand-trap desert monster). If it wasn’t for the desert fairy, the wolf (Kanwei) and Honoka, she would have died back then. That only makes Honoka realize that she didn’t even try to understand Millie. It’s exaggerated, but it delivers some awesome results as well.

The best part of the episode definitely was when Millie forgets about being strong and starts crying, while clinging to Honoka. She was so sad and cute at that moment. (notice her red eyelids when she’s asleep afterwards?) If these scenes keep up, The Third will definitely get an incredible second half. I’m trying not to take The Third’s awesomeness for granted, though (*coughHackRootscough*). Still, The Third already has made a huge impression on me. The creators have to do very strange things in order to screw up and make me hate this series.

The plot seems to go in the direction of the wolf, the fairy and the desert eater. So far, it sounds very interesting. Who was this girl next ot the wolf? Why is it searching for the desert fairy? What is a desert fairy anyway? Why does it act the way it does? Why is the desert eater after it?

Overall, The Third is awesome, and with this episode, the awesomeness only increased.

The Third – 13 – Just Ignore the Horrible Art. ;)

by psgels, posted in The Third


Ah, so this was the infamous thirteenth episode. And indeed. The character art is horrible. It seems like we’re dealing with totally different persons now. That’s what you get when you let different animation studios handle different episodes. Once, you run into a garbage one, which ruins an episode. Ah well, let’s hope the creators noticed this as well, and decide to cut all ties with it.

In any case, I am SO glad that the fansubs of the Third are finally starting to come out at a fair speed. Thanks a lot to FnT, for bringing us this wonderful series. This episode actually was pretty good, if you ignore the horrible art (which is what I’m going to do right now). Ever since the previous episode, Honoka has been taking random jobs, like working as the bodyguard for a couple of scientists. Under pressure of Joey, she decides to take a vacation. Ikus and Millie will be joining her.

Two new characters appear during this episode. A strange man, who appears to be a desert eater, hunting for a desert fairy and not afraid to kill others. He should prove to be an interesting antagonist for later. The second character is a strange desert wolf, who appears for a few seconds. Why do I know he’s an important character? Because of the new ED. In there, you see a picture with all the important characters, among with the scary guy and the grey wolf stand. Apart from that, we have a strange mecha. I suppose that’s blue breaker. The desert fairy also appears, which suggests that we’ll get to see one of them soon. Gravestone also is visible, but there’s one character I don’t recognize. We see a strange woman, with long, tied up hair, looking at a certain direction. I wonder who that might be.

It was great to see Honoka, busy with her daily life again. Some pretty funny moments also happened during this episode. The desert punks talking, for example. Or when Ikus, Millie and Honoka were talking about skirts. She really is an awesome character if you look at it that way.

I’ve also taken a look at the preview for next week. The art is as good as it’s used to be, and by the looks of it, it’s promising to be an amazing episode. I really can’t wait! Millie really does add an extra bit of awesomeness to The Third. Especially during this episode, it becomes clear that her father’s death has left a huge scar on her.

Simoun – 24 – Not as I thought it would go. But awesome nonetheless!

by psgels, posted in Simoun


Okay, that was deep.

This episode went so incredibly deep. It’s so different from the direction I hoped for, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t love it.

The major part of this episode deals with the fact that the Chor Tempest will be disbanded, which means that its members will have to go to the spring, which means that they’ll have to say goodbye to their previous lives. Topics like these always do well, so you’d wonder why so little anime are trying it. In any case, every member, except Aaeru, Neviriru and Yun, will be going to the spring. The way the creators displayed this was awesome. On their last day, they all have just a last bit of fun, before they leave. Kaimu and Aruti also get a bit closer together, and Paraietta was scratching something on the wall near the dormitories. We don’t get to see what exactly it was that she scribbled on it, though.

Aaeru and Neviriru stay on the Arcus Prima, however. Both still are unsure which sex they should choose, and Neviriru keeps bugging Aaeru to do the Emerald Ri Maajon. This eventually ends in Neviriru confessing to Aaeru. I think the two now officially are in love with this. We get to see the results at the next episode. ^^

Yun gets a very surprising role. Remember her during the previous episode? She keeps getting haunted by what she saw. In the end, she decides to leave the Arcus Prima, and accept Onashia, and forgive her for the sins she committed when she didn’t choose a sex, wishing to stay an eternal maiden forever. Onashia then disappears, while Yun takes over her role. The other members of the Chor Tempest find this out in a very interesting way.

Seriously, I never expected that the creators were going for an ending of this kind. You would expect a lot of action, though for the previous two episodes, there hasn’t been any fight scene at all. And due to the fact that peace has been made, I don’t think more action scenes will be coming. At first, I was a bit startled by this, though now I’m beginning to see how incredibly awesome it can become. We still have the problem of Limone and Dominüra. What will their role be in the final two episodes?

.Hack//Roots – 22 – The Meatball Brigade

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots


Seriously. I hope the creators are planning to animate .Hack//GU when this series is done. .Hack//Roots is just one big prelude, after which //GU picks the story up and continues it. It’s like the creators are expecting the viewer to play the game in order to fully enjoy the anime. Well, due to the fact that none of the .Hack games ever made it to Holland, I doubt I’ll be able to get the chance to play it.

The episode is a Meatball Brigade episode. The three goof around for a bit, until Touta gives them a bit of advice. When compared to the latest bunch of episode, I have to say that this one was above average. It had some interesting moments in it. Kuhn also plays a big role in this, when he is the second person to awaken. Wait… does this mean that Haseo didn’t awaken? In any case, there’d better be an extremely good reason to explain why Kuhn was able to awaken.

Kuhn telling his guild-members about his resignation was an interesting scene. I’m also actually interested whether the Meatball Brigade will actually be successful. If they continue to annoy Haseo, and continue to gain members, things could become interesting. But in order to do that, the final episodes had better feature a huge increase in pacing!

The Third – 12 – Awesomeness

by psgels, posted in The Third


This episode ends the Gravestone-arc, and what a great ending it is! I really adored this episode.

Honoka, Paife an Ikus all have an encounter with Gravestone. Ikus with Gravestone himself, Paife with a copy of Gravestone and Honoka with a copy of herself. Ikus tried to convince Gravestone to stop, though it seems that he decided not to force him to make decisions. He does tell Gravestone (and us) some details about the great war. It seems that a certain “everyone” died. Ikus would like to explain it to him, though he claims that he doesn’t have the permission nor right to tell him. This suggests that he works for some kind of superior. Ikus also tells Gravestone that he’s met similar cases. There are more people like Gravestone. While he tells this, we see weapons of mass destruction attack planets. It would suggest that Ikus witnessed all these events somehow.

Honoka, meanwhile, has a duel with her copy. Here it really seems that she can’t even draw her katana in order to defend herself. She just can’t cut another human. Her copy then tries to play with her mind, by trying to make her believe that she hates everyone else. In the end, Honoka finally gets her piece of character development when she realizes that all of this is nonsense. In the end, she meets Gravestone in person, and she manages to change his mind. Awesome.

Paife, meanwhile, finally gets the chance of trying out the plan she tried to use against Honoka, but failed. The Gravestone copy seems to be immune for guns and bullets, so she decides to use her fists and ki. Though even that proves to be useless. Her final trick is to use some kind of barrier, with one small opening. Force a huge amount of ki through that opening, and the pressure creates an explosion. This is too much for the copy, and it disappears. This is another reason why the narrator comes in handy. He actually explains the fighting strategies of the different characters. It’s a nice touch.

In the end, it seem that Gravestone was a young boy, who died during the Great War. His father was an important scientist, who tried to save his son by turning him into this. By letting him retain his child-form, he’d never have to fight or be used in the war.

I’ve also seen the preview for the next, infamous episode. Let’s just say I can understand the rumours. The art looks SO different. I’m glad that it’s just for one episode. Let’s hope it’s not too bad. This episode, in any case, was awesome.

The Third – 11 – Gravestone

by psgels, posted in The Third


Great to see another episode of The Third released. Thanks a lot to FnT for subbing it. This episode was another great one. 🙂

Last episode, we saw the strange huge glowing thing. This time, Honoka, Boogie, Paife and Ikus get trapped inside of it. The thing seems to be Gravestone. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it seems that it’s a young boy with special powers. After the great war, he went to sleep. When Ikus came to this planet, he accidentally woke him up. Right now, Gravestone has been engulfed by hatred, and plans to destroy the earth which is planning to destroy him.

Especially Paife got a healthy dose of character development this time. It seems that she was so interested in Honoka, a few episodes back, that she begged the employer to let her go with her. She’s become really interested in Honoka. Ikus reckons that the two of them are on very good terms, because of all their bickering. After all, they like talking happily about each other’s flaws.

I’m not sure what Gravestone wants with Honoka. He’s been calling her, but why? And why does he send the Honoka-clone after her? Perhaps it’s because she was cast away from The Third? It also seems that she’s still haunted by having killed a human. That should prove to be very interesting. Jouganki and the other Third also have an interesting discussion. It seems that both of them are more interested in Honoka than they’re in Ikus. Just what is Honoka? What’s her secret?

The next episode should promise to be very awesome. But what’s up with the rumours about episode 13 being very bad? I hope they aren’t true.

Simoun – 23 – Let the Finale Begin

by psgels, posted in Simoun


An intermezzo. It’ll probably the intermezzo before the big finale of Simoun. Let us hope it’ll be able to deliver the long-awaited bang.

The important characters this time were Aaeru, Neviriru, Paraietta, Yun, Onashia, The Temple One and a bit of Harukonfu. The Peace treaty has been signed. It’s not a trap. But there is a catch: the Chor Tempest will be disbanded. The Priests from the highlands will be taking over the Sibylla’s duties. This worked exceptionally well to put time pressure on our characters. Especially and surprisingly The Temple One shows this, as she isn’t happy with this decision at all. After all, if the Chor Tempest will be disbanded, it’ll almost be impossible to perform the Emerald Ri Maajon. She freaks out and begs Neviriru and Paraietta, who she happened to run into, to perform it.

Yun has meanwhile left the Arcus Prima, and headed towards the ruins. There, she has a very interesting discussion with Onashia. Onashia once was a member of the Chor Dextra. She could understand Yun, as she lost a lot of former friends herself. Onashia then shows her something very interesting: the result of what happens if you don’t choose your gender. If that’s the case, you’ll end up like her. Your eyes get a weird colour, and your body turns blue and starts shedding away strange sparks, which don’t really look healthy. This also explains how Onashia managed to get such a high position. As she never went to the spring, she remained a holy priest for her entire life. Of course that would give her status.

Aaeru is getting more and more confused. It seems that she really wants to see another world. It seems that she had another reason to become a Sibylla than just not being able to make up her mind. Her grandfather also influenced her, making her wanting to travel to another world. That’s why she joined the Chor Tempest. In any case, later in the episode, we see her getting a bit annoyed and confused with Neviriru. She thinks it’s because Neviriru’s been talking more and more, though I (and Furoe as well) think that she’s still jealous with the possibility of Amuria still existing.

Harukonfu still doesn’t know what he can do. He can’t protect his daughter, he lost his status, he’s nothing. Maybe we can expect some interesting things from him in the latest episodes. Paraietta and Neviriru also finally seem to have understood each other.

It seems that everything is set now for the finale. I’m wondering how it’ll go. It’s got some good ingredients, now all that’s left is how to use them.

.Hack//Roots – 21 – Trainwreck Continued

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots


Don’t you just love episode titles who spoil the climax?

Haseo continues on his rampage, slaying every player possible. He then runs into a player who survived an encounter with Tri-Edge as well, and gets defeated. He’s like a mad bull, charging at everything which even bears the slightest signs of movements.

But yeah, bulls haven’t exactly been known for their outstanding intelligence. Why doesn’t Haseo try to think a bit, and check out the lost grounds? You would suspect some clues who can turn up, instead of committing genocide in the normal fields. Still, I’m curious how Haseo will react now that he’s been defeated. I was hoping that Midori would be able to beat some sense into him, though the last scene suggests that he’ll be turning even more berserk than he already was.

Phyllo, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found during the episode. Tabby founded a guild, along with the purple-haired guy (forgot his name). I liked Pai. It’s indeed clear that her Pai-personality is one big act, as she keeps getting more and more annoyed by Saburou. Saburou herself has gotten more interest in Haseo, which can also be a good sign. I like the two of them, they’re two of the few good character who appeared after the mass character-homicide of episodes 13-15.

Midori also shows promise. I like the way she was introduced. She was introduced because she had an encounter with Tri-Edge, and not the other way around (having an encounter with Tri-Edge because she was introduced). Yata needs some action. All he does is sitting, staring at some blue screens full of techno-babble. We get absolutely no clue why he has to sit there all the time. What does he need. What are all these screens for in the first place?

And what is going on with Haseo in real life? Has he been sitting behind his computer, in emo-mode ever since Shino disappeared? One of the things I loved about .Hack//Sign is that at certain times, it showed small flashes of the real persons behind their computer. I loved the philosophical themes behind //Sing. But ah well, I guess I’m going to have to accept that //Roots will feature none of them at all.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 17 – After a month absence, Shuurei returns. And more awesome than ever. :)

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



I’m SO glad that Saiunkoku Monogatari’s back again. And to top things, it returns with one of the best episodes so far. I really loved it!

Remember when Shuurei was on the verge of being captured by Kochou and her henchmen? The story returns from this point. Kochou orders Shuurei to come inside, as there’s someone who wishes for it. She can’t refuse, as it’s a person whose rank is way higher than Shuurei, Eigetsu and Seiran’s combined. Kochou reminds Seiran of the fact that he can’t do anything with his current status, and that he can’t even protect his loved ones. She gives the subtle hint that if he was an officer with authority like Shuuei, he could have done something. Seiran gets this hint, and leaves.

We then see a scene in which the bad guy for this arc has a small conversation with one of his henchmen. He seems to be the one who ordered Kochou to take in Shuurei, and he indeed seems to have set his mind to kicking Shuurei out of the palace. He also seems to have a grudge against Eigetsu. I’m not sure about the reason yet, but I think Yougetsu made a fool out of him once. He also surprises himself over the fact that Reishin would volunteer to act as Shuurei’s sponsor. It seems that he also wants Reishin to leave.

Next, a discussion between Shouka and his younger brother, Kurou. It begins strange, when Shouka reveals that Kurou was the one who gave Eigetsu food and a place to stay after he ended up sending all of his money back to his village. I always thought that Eigetsu was staying in Shuurei’s house, though now it seems that Kurou has been taking care of him. Kurou also seemed to have asked Eigetsu about Shuurei. Apart from this research, he also seems to have been the one to prevent Shuurei from facing a huge amount of harassment, though it’s not yet clear what. He also tells Shouka that he hates him, and he seems to have been the one to throw Shouka out of a certain home. Shouka, however, remains indifferent about this. Not only that, but he also plans to have Shuurei become Kouyuu’s wife. A messenger then arrives, telling him about Reishin who’s been locked up and Shuurei and Eigetsu are stuck in Kogarou. There’ll also be an inquiry about the two of them the next morning. Kurou figures that the two of them are being held to prevent them from being able to attend, so it would seem that they were afraid to come and have fled, making them guilty. Kurou then gets serious, and plans to make use of his power as a member of the Kou-clan. He doesn’t like it when his clan-members are put in difficult situations.

Back when they were taken in by Kochou, Eigetsu secretly gave Seiran the stamp he got from Ryuuki in the previous episode. During this episode, the purpose of this stamp gets explained. If you give a letter that stamp, it will always arrive with top priority. Seiran used this to notify Ryuuki that Shuurei’s been captured. He discusses this with Shuuei, and they both don’t like it. When Ryuuki also finds out that Reishin has been captured and Kurou, who apparently is the proxy head of the Kou clan also has been sighted, he really begins to see that things aren’t going into the right direction. The reason for that, we see later. Ryuuki gets an idea when Kouyuu notifies him with the letter for the petition. He plans to go to Shuurei, though Kouyuu commands him to come back soon with a very evil voice. ^^

Then we see Seiran, who’s paying a visit to Raien, who seems to be a high-ranked official. Seiran asks for the position, rank and authority to wear a sword to protect what’s important to him. Kochou’s plan seemed to have worked.

Shuurei, meanwhile, is getting a bit depressed inside Kogarou, because Kochou betrayed her. Eigetsu then tells her the reason why he wanted to become a government official. It seems that it’s for the money. Eigetsu’s village had one doctor. At times, this doctor wouldn’t be able to handle all of the patients who came to him. If he had money, he would have. The doctor always had a sad look on his eyes when this happened. Eigetsu doesn’t want him to get that look. Some thugs then come to pick up Eigetsu, in order to play around with him a bit. I love the thugs in Saiunkoku Monogatari. They seem to fit perfect, but are clueless at the same time. This becomes clear when they try to feed Eigetsu some alcohol. Eigetsu gets taken away, along with the alcohol. In any case, they also mention something important. The reason why Eigetsu went berserk was because he refused to marry the daughter of the bad guy.

Next up, a discussion between Kourin and Ensei. Ensei seemed to have grown his beard again (he indeed really hates shaving). It seems that the two of them will be arriving early, and Kourin displays the strength of her character. This scene really made me respect her. It seems that Kourin wanted to meet the one she tried to kill, in order to apologize, and repent for her sins. She’s actually willing to take responsibility for the things she’s done.

Back to Shuurei, one of the thugs decided to have a bit of fun with her (being in a brothel, and all). Then, it seems that the thugs managed to feed Eigetsu some alcohol after all, and Yougetsu appears. That takes care of the annoying thugs.

Kochou then arrives at the place. The thugs then command her to summon the guards, though Kochou turns back on them, using her own guards to knock out the rest of the thugs. In a highly intimidating way. Afterwards, Yougetsu tries to hit on Shuurei, but faints before it gets serious. The remaining thug then scolds Kochou, claiming that she betrayed them, after all of the affection his master showed. Kochou then claims to never have been on his side in the first place, and that the guy should really begin to know his place. She also yells at him for doing things to her precious Shuurei. Shuurei then realizes that Kochou just acted, and that she never betrayed her in the first place. What follows is a touching scene in which Shuurei’s extremely glad that Kochou didn’t turn her back on her. It seems that Kochou told her to stay away from Kogarou was to protect Shuurei. After all, if she was seen in a brothel, she’d be in trouble. Kochou also tells her that she acted the way she did because of a request from Shuuei. It seems that the guy really knew what was going on.

Back to Kurou, Kage (the messenger) and Shouka. Kurou has taken drastic measures when he sends out a message to every member of the Kou-clan living in the capital. Kurou’s really getting angry for having his big brother locked up.

Back to Kogarou, Ryuuki explains Shuurei about the ring of the head of the Sa clan. Originally, Sa Taiho had this, though ever since his death, the ring has been missing. The bad guy is trying to take advantage of it. How exactly isn’t known. It seems that if you have the ring, you automatically have status, or something, but that isn’t really explained. He also tells her about t
he inquiry. Ryuuki thinks it’s a good idea to let Shuurei and Eigetsu stay at Kogarou for the night, so that they can head for the palace next morning. There’ll probably be resistance, though he won’t assign any major guards, as he wants Shuurei to come on her own strength. Seiran gets to be the only one to protect her. Ryuuki then grabs a number of papers, which somehow will become a large piece of evidence of that corruption. I think he means Shuurei’s report on her treatment for the last couple of episodes.

What follows is Seiran leaving to check up on Shouka and Kochou bringing Eigetsu to bed. It seems that they knew that the two of them needed a bit of time along. In this time, Shuurei thanks Ryuuki for not going soft on her. The fact remained that when she worked as the queen, she was never told about anything. She was being protected, though now she isn’t. She likes it that Ryuuki treats her as a normal official. Ryuuki then gets notified of a very angry Kouyuu, who alerts him of the fact that half of all work outside of the castle has come to a halt (Kurou’s work).

Back in the palace, Ryuuki surprises himself over all the petitions that arrived. This just shows the power of the Kou clan. The capital is in a state of major confusion. Senior Secretary Kou has been occupying one of the distant residences all by himself (remind me again… who was that?) and has put himself under self-imposed house-arrest. Shuuei then figures that should be going back to normal in a day, if nobody does something about it. The power of the Kou clan is much larger than what Kuro demonstrated and they’re able to do much worse. So, basically, Kurou is telling them to resolve everything within a day. Then, another interesting fact gets revealed. Ryuuki wonders what the bad guy was thinking by going against Reishin. Shuuei then mentions that Reishin hasn’t revealed the public that he’s the actual head of the Kou-clan. And indeed, when we later see a scene with the bad guy, he’s astonished about Reishin’s power. He never imagined it would be this big. Oh, and they also get a note from Ensei, with the message that he’s likely to arrive the next day, in the evening. Ryuuki then orders them to arrive that noon instead. Probably because he wants them to attend Shuurei’s inquiry.

Back to Shuurei and Kochou, Eigetsu seems to have woken up, and the two of them spend the rest of the night working on their report, to get them done before the inquiry begins.

The next day, we see what Kijin was planning with the papers from the previous episode. I have no idea what kinds of papers they were, but they were valuable to Shuurei’s and Kouyuu’s reports, and he slipped in into their work.

Next episode promises to be a big one. I’m glad Saiunkoku Monogatari returned. ^_^