Saiunkoku Monogatari – 14 – Ryuuki Looks Interesting in Armour



This episode basically was meant to show the harsh treatment Shiurei and Eigetsu had to endure on their first month of work. Ryuuki may have passed the bill which allows women to take the exam, the fact remains that half of the palace hates the two of them now. You can’t change the beliefs of people that easily, and Shiurei, as a woman, really has to show people how awesome she can be. Not an easy task, though she’ll definately be able to manage in the end.

To sum things up:
– When Shiurei and Eigetsu get a letter about their first day at work, the dates are changed.
– People keep talking behind Shiurei’s back, without caring whether she hears it.
– Shiurei gets assigned to clean the lavatory (in the minds of the palace officials, the only useful thing a woman is able to do).
– Eigetsu gets to polish shoes.
– Officials are get too enthusiastic when they see a chance to bump over a bucket of water near Shiurei.
– Eigetsu gets kicked in the face numerous of times.
– Did I already mention the talkings behind Shiurei’s back?
– People treat Shiurei like she’s a patch of dirt.

Though this does show Shiurei’s strength. She’ll live through this, and within no time at all, she will be the one to order around everyone who talked bad about her. Talk about revenge! Those officials will really regret the day they mocked with Shiurei. ^_^

Eigetsu also manages to survive his harsh treatments. We don’t know exactly what’s going on inside his head, though he does try to not pay attention to the officials, and just tries to remain his usual fake-cheery self. Still, there’s one thing about Eigetsu that bugs me. He’s a genius, though I’ve yet to see any genious actions from him. Okay, he’s a thirteen year-old, though he didn’t really strike me as a very smart thirteen year-old. (After all, who sends an enormous amount of money through the postal order?).

In any case, Shiurei will be tested like this for two entire months. The first one and a half months, she’ll have to continue assignments as cleaning the lavatory and cleaning up paperworks, after which she gets half a month the time to write a report about this. Once this is over, the real officials get picked, out of the ones who survived the national exams, based on the things they accomplished over these two months. This arc will probably follow Shiurei as she makes her way towards the end of the two months.

We also got introduced to another minor character this episode: a yellow-haired boy, Haku. He’s the one who came in fourth, after Shiurei, and he didn’t quite take a liking in her. After all, she beat him fair and square, and now she’s busy cleaning lavatories. He doesn’t want to imagine his status when the truth remains that Shiurei’s above him. After all, this would make him below the level of lavatory-cleaning. We should expect some great things from this guy in the near future.

Rijin also played a big role as observer during this episode. He didn’t quite grow, though he made sure of some interesting background commentary about Shiurei. When Shiurei speaks to him for the first time, he gives subtle hints to her that Shuu and Shiurei were different persons. He also advices Shiurei to act more like Shuu, which is in one way a compliment, he approves of her and the things she did the previous summer. I have to admit, when I first saw him, I thought him as a bad guy, though he really has good intentions. He also asks his assistant to subtly show Shiurei a small pile of papers. The assistant gets shocked when he sees these, though I never really found out what these papers meant. So, what were they about?

Ryuuki also was adorible once more. He saw it as his duty to protect Shiurei on her first day, so he dressed up as a soldier. I have to say, he looks surprisingly good in an armour, though his hair looked a bit whacky. (^^;) An interesting fact is that he doesn’t appear in the rest of the episode, and he’s nowhere near Shiurei when she gets to endure these harships. I wonder what his reason was not to interfere. Of course, there are countless of reasons, but I also see him crazy enough to do something about it as well.

The beginning of the episode also shows that a certain ring of the “Sa”-family has been found. Still, it was gone as fast as it appeared. The leader of the group who found the ring was not exactly happy with this. More background about this ring, and what it’s got to do with this arc, is missing, though.

Overall, the more I think about it, the more awesome this episode becomes. This is one of the few shows that doesn’t need to create tension in order to be good. Something that’s very rarely accomplished. Each of the main characters are just so likeable. Oh, and Kouyuu’s sense of direction was too cute once more. ^_^

Memorable Moment: Seeing Kouyuu trying to handle the tasks of the emperor for one day. ^_^

The Third – 08 – Keeps Getting More Interesting



Okay, that’s something I NEVER would have expected! The Third gives us more and more proof that this will probably be the best series of the Spring Season. And that has to say something, when more than 50 shows came out. It’s just such a pity that the fansubs are coming in so slow. Honoka’s almost reaching Alice in terms of awesomeness.

We start the episode with Honoka and Bogie travelling towards Emporium. They hear some trampling, see a lot of sand blow up in the horizon, only to realize that they’re being chased by a rampaging herd of sandworms. Bogie takes off, attempting to get out of the sandworms’ track, accompanied by a very nice background tune. Just when you think that they made it, they get hit by a sandworm, which really beats up the sand-tank. If Honoka wasn’t in her PSP for protection (yes, mechas can be used for other things than just fighting ;)) she would’ve ended up in the hospital.

It seems that Joey is not enough to fix it completely, as he hasn’t grown enough to reach Zanka’s level, so Honoka has to think of something. Still, Joey does what he can. Bogie is meanwhile taken to the hospital, as it seems he also suffered some damage (why the hospital? Does it have a special section for AI?). Meanwhile, Honoka runs into Kevin, who seems to be tracking some kind of cult which is said to have appeared in Emporium.

Honoka runs into these guys later in the episode, in a cafe. She first has hallucinations about Ikus, after which a group of three guys enters. They try to hit on another main character, introduced this episode: Sensei (for now, I’ll just name her Sensei, as I don’t think her name became clear in this episode). She’s one of Millie’s teachers, and a fairly interesting character. She also seems to have some strange power, which she can use to get control over people for a short while. For some reason, this doesn’t work with Honoka. Her third eye probably interfered.

Millie and Honoka also got to meet each other again. Millie’s turning more amazing by the minute as well. Because she loves Honoka, she wants to study to become a mechanic, so the two of them can be together again. She was so adorible when she said that. Though indeed, Honoka and the doctor fear that she might become a bit too attached to Honoka. I’d love to see how her case gets developed. ^_^

This episode also took another turn you wouldn’t expect so soon in the anime. It seems that there is something in the desert, nearby the sandworms’ nest, which can get out of control any minute now, with the possibility to destroy Emporium within ten days. Honoka also gets sent to investigate in the sandworms’ nest, so this should promise for some awesome scenes. The scenes which introduced this also were perfectly built up, I just loved them.

Overall, The Third is awesome, and it doesn’t show any signs of weakening. It’s another one of these series in which I like every single character, and it deserves to be subbed. I really can’t wait to see more of this.

Simoun – 12 – Kaimu and Aruti



This was another incredibly exciting episode. One of the best in Simoun so far. Dominüra gets the strange idea of messing up the pairs, in order to let Kaimu and Aruti work together. As she’s in love with Paraietta and hates Aruti, Kaimu doesn’t really like this.

The major part of the episode really illustrated this. Kaimu kept getting angrier and angrier. Simoun is great in portraying angry characters. The background music also really helps in this. It’s a really sad tune. Especially when Kaimu and Aruti make their first test flight, along with Aaeru and Neviriru, the scenes kept getting more amazing by the minute. It indeed seemed that they were sortof close once before they came to the Arcus Prima, though on the night before Kaimu’s first flight, one of them seduced the other, and well, you can guess the rest.

It isn’t clear who seduced who, but Kaimu clearly blames Aruti for this. Aruti, however, still remains nostalgic. Both of them are at fault this time, and both manage to learn a bit. Kaimu learned that she doesn’t need to get so angry with Aruti (still, I doubt whether these scars are totally gone). Aruti learned to stop living in the past, and stop depending on her sister to make her grow.

Aaeru meanwhile tries to get even closer to Neviriru, though that doesn’t really work. She also looked very cute with her hair loose.
Yun also displays a cute side when it seems that she doesn’t like onions. I’ve also noticed that she’s along with Limone the only one who likes to read books. She’s also the last one to go to sleep in the evening.
Furoe still doesn’t seem to have forgotten what happened at the previous episode. It’s a shame that we don’t get to see the two of them meating again. The soldiers seem to have left the Messis.

Overall, this was an awesome episode. The tension was just perfect. So far, we’ve had an episode dedicated to Neviriru, Paraietta, Limone, Furoe, Kaimu, Aruti, Mamiina and Rödoreamon. That only leaves Morinasu, Aaeru, Dominüra and Yun. I can’t wait for them. 🙂

Memorable moments: Seeing the Sybilla actually fixing the leaks on the Messis. Limone trying to comfort Rödoreamon.

.Hack//Roots – 14 – Rather Dull This Time



After what happened the previous episode, Haseo needs some time to be able to process what happened in the previous episode. He’s not very good in this, as he keeps getting gloomier as the episode progresses. His main support is Phyllo. The latter also goes to the place in which Shino and Ovan met for the first time, after which Tri-Edge ambushes him. For some strange reason, Phyllo is spared. You’d wonder why Tri-Edge took the time to visit him in the first place. In any case, when Haseo found out about this, he went berserk. He ran to the church and kept beating up the chains on the table. I think that he really snapped when he found out that each of Tri-Edge’s attacks have got something to do with Shino.

While that may have been too bad for Haseo, that part of the episode was just boring. Haseo was a bit too gloomy in my opinion. The good stuff came from the former TaN. It seems that Ender and Naobi not only swapped PC’s, they also swapped usernames. Naobi now is known as Yata, and Ender is Pai. A thing that really shocked me is that Ovan appears to be perfectly fine. After his arm exploded in episode twelve, he managed to escape, and now roams around The World. Either data-drained or just perfectly fine. Still, there has to be some kind of reason why he hasn’t contacted Haseo or Tabby yet.

In any case, Yata and Pai are up to something else, after their failure. They are probably busy analyzing what caused Ovan to escape. They’ve also run into some problems when they try to analyze the waterfall-field. It appears to be a dump for save-data. Much like the Net-Slum from .Hack//Sign. In any case, something is providing an error when they try to analyze it. It’s good to see that things aren’t going perfectly for Yata and Pai as well. I’m still wondering whether these hackers will be responsible for the greatest threat in the game.

Pai also talks about something called an SF. No idea what that means, though. Later in the episode, Pai makes contact with a new character, a former TaN-member: Savurou. It seems that the two of them knew each other, though it isn’t clear from where they do. In any case, she managed to swap PC’s as well. (On a side-note: I sortof like Pai’s character design. It’s a lot better than her Ender-version, in any case).

Overall, this episode was kindof boring. Haseo needs to accept that Shino’s gone. Still, TaN brought some nice material.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 13 – Sake, Anyone?



The Eigetsu-arc is probably the best arc of Seiunkoku Monogatari yet. Not nessecarily because of Eigetsu, but all kinds of things are happening at once. The setting also is a very original one, and Shiurei continues to be awesome. Not to mention the original humor that the creators posess. ^^

I had a few troubles with the first arc of the show. After all, Shiurei only managed to get in the castle because of the high status of her father. If she would have been just a commoner, she would never have been able to accomplish that. She did show her strong character, but in the end she did end up as the damsel in distress, only to be saved by Ryuuki. Then the second arc started, and this element was immediately gone. Shiurei now advances because of her own hard work. Starting from the second arc, we really get to see what kind of an amazing person Shiurei is.

We start at Kougarou. Shiurei wonders what Ryuuki’s up to. He answers that he was here to see Eigetsu. Kouchou reveals that Shiuei was indeed the one who left her in the middle of the night and dropped Eigetsu off. Shiuei also is surprised when he sees Eigetsu with such a different personality. We then see a flashback of the previous night, in which Eigetsu beat up a couple of punks with a very evil look on his face. This suggests that the guy must have some kind of dual personality. In any case, Eigetsu doesn’t seem to remember what happened back then.

He also reveals that he lost his official wood token. Later in the episode, the importance of this token gets explained, and why Eigetsu was in such panic when he realized he lost it. Kouyuu and Ryuuki seemed to be shocked when they find out that the Seikintou have been collecting these official wood tokens.

Afterwards, Keichou seems to have arrived in Kougarou. When Shiurei finds out about the fac that he’s joined the Seikintou, she begins to yell at him. ^^; It seems he did it in order to be able to boast about something to the girl he loved. While Shiurei continues to unleash her anger upon him, Seiran reveals that Keichou used to often hit upon her when the two of them small. This even got so far that Keichou ended up in a river in the winter. ^^

Keichou then reveals that the Seigintou will be invading Kougarou that evening. What follows is a very enjoyable scene in which the Seigintou get ambushed by an army of crime-bosses. Kouchou happens to be the leader of the crime-bosses. ^^ Things start very nicely when the leader of the Seigintou gets bombarded with a giant ice-ball (nice haircut, by the way). Shiurei, Keichou, Seigintou and Kouyuu are hiding in a shack somewhere, as all of them can’t really fight. Eigetsu then decides to head out after all, as his token is very important to him. Kouyuu sends Shiurei along with him. Keichou follows them, though Kouyuu doesn’t really care about him.

The leader of the Seigintou meanwhile managed to escape the ambush, and he managed to invade the building of Kougarou. He then runs into Eigetsu, Shiurei and Keichou, searching unconcious bodies for the tags. He then manages to take Shiurei as hostage. Even though the two of them know they aren’t strong at all, they still try to attack the guy. Only to end up on the floor, knocked out in Keichou’s case, and in a barrel full of sake in Eigetsu’s case.

Then the mystery behind Eigetsu’s second personality becomes clear. It seems that whenever he drinks alcohol, he turns into Yougetsu, his total opposite: violent, strong, confident. Kouyuu meanwhile manages to free Shiurei by dropping a huge flower pot on the guy’s head. Shiurei also acts as a perfect hostage, as she just doesn’t want to stay still. the leader of the Seigintou has huge troubles to prevent her from checking whether Eigetsu is allright. Kouyuu managed to finish this in a nice anti-climax.

It seems that the creators were really enthusiastic in giving the leader of the Seigintou a couple of fun haircuts, as the guy now walks around with an afro full of flowers. ^^ Then, Yougetsu woke up, and kicks the guy’s ass. These fighting scenes looked very amazing. Shiurei also manages to find out the purpose of the wooden tags the Seigintou have been stealing. They’re indeed passes which permit a person to take the national exam. For a lot of people, these tags are worth more than their life, and so the Seigintou have found a nice way to blackmail persons.

At the same time, this explains the importance of Eigetsu in this story. Both Shiurei as Eigetsu will be taking the national exam. This means that they both will become government officials at the same time, they’ll be advancing together. Eigetsu will probably also end up living with Shiurei, Seiran and Shouka, so the two of them will be spending a lot of time together.

Eigetsu also seems to be the one youngest person to pass the local exams at the top of his year (therefore, beating Kouyuu). It also seems that his tag was not among the ones the Seigintou have been stealing. Then it appears that Yougetsu was responsible for the disappearing tag. He saw the danger of the ruckus he caused, so he gave his tag to a third party (Keichou’s father. Apparently, the two know each other). He also ordered a bottle of high-quality sake, which would explain Eigetsu’s empty pocket at that time.

Now that everything has been solved, the show still has enough time left to wrap up a couple of things. First of all, Shiurei’s last day. In the previous episode, Kochou promised Shiurei a surprise for her last day at work. It appears to be a make-up kit. (Shiurei looks beautiful with make-up, by the way) Kochou also reveals that both Shouka as Seiran knew about the fact that Shiurei was working at a brothel. They both came to her, begging to take care of Shiurei. It was quite funny that both of them said the exact same thing.

After that, we see Shiurei and Eigetsu heading to the palace, in order to take their national exams. In the palace, they run into a Ryuuren again, as weird as ever. (I loved it when he used his flute to talk ^^) The results are also announced afterwards. Eigetsu really is a genius, despite his shyness, when it seems that he managed to get the best results. Ryuuren managed to come in second and Shiurei third. Eigetsu and Shiurei will be working in the palace afterwards, though I think that Ryuuren will continue roaming around.

One more thing… what kind of “job” did Shiuei have to do at the beginning of the previous episode? He couldn’t have known about Eigetsu, could he? (*wink wink*)

Overall, this arc was great. Saiunkoku Monogatari really gets just better and better. I’d love to see the reactions of the ones who follow the subs. If they already thought that the first arc was awesome, I can’t wait till they find out about the second and the third arc. 🙂

Memorable moments: The leader of the Seigintou getting bombarded by a giant iceball, and Shiurei seeing herself with make-up for the first time.

Simoun – 11 – From Legends to Humans



I LOVE the direction in which tis anime is going. At the beginning of the first episode, the Chor Tempest had an incredibly high status. They were seen as the best of the best, most people probably thought that they were above humans. After the fiasco at the end of the first episode, the Chor Tempest began to collide. Slowly but surely, they lost their status. They weren’t the top Chor anymore. They were inches away from being disbanded. They had to move to a small, second-rate ship. And now, they have to share their ship with about one hundred common soldiers. If this line keeps going down, it’ll have some amazing results for the second half of the series.

She show is patially about the reactions of members of the Chor Tempest to these events. Both the ones who were in the original Chor Tempest (Neviriru, Paraietta, Kaimu, Aruti, Furoe, Rödoreamon) and the new ones (Aaeru, Limone, Morinasu, Yun, Mamiina, Dominüra). The old ones have to say goodbye to their lifestyle of luxury. The new ones have to get used to the fact that they won’t be flying for the best team anymore. It’s great that everyone seems so have a different reaction in this.

This episode was once again a great one. A bunch of soldiers has joined the Messis because of the plans of Dominüra. Now the Sybilla have to live with the soldiers, and the soldiers have to live with the Simoun. Dominüra seems to have taken command over the Messis, to the displeasurement of Neviriru, and decided that the Simoun were to be used as transport carriers, in order to help the soldiers win a town back which has been occupied by the enemy. Once again, it shows that the enemies aren’t just a bunch of pigs, as they have been planning for this to happen all along. Because of this, the Simoun are forced to aid the soldiers.

The character who gets the attention in this episode is Furoe. She’s fallen in love with one of the soldiers. A young man, he probably went to the spring not too long ago. This man will be the first outsider to see what the Sybilla are in reality. At first, he’s freaked out by Furoe and her cheerfulness, though I think they both felt a bit for each other. When Furoe gets scolded for the things she’s doing, she even goes as far as saying that she’ll go to the spring.

The town to be won back is the hometown of this particular man. During the operation, he managed to see the Simoun perform their Ri Maajons, and destroy half of the town, along with the enemies who had the bad luck to be in their range. This was the first time in which we see a citizen of Simulacrum freaked out by the Ri Maajons. He’s the first one to see what kind of killing machines the Simoun he always looked up to are. More people will probably follow him soon. I can’t wait for it. 🙂

There were two Sybilla who weren’t able to kill the enemy soldiers: Furoe and Kaimu. The former was too busy searching for the man she loved. She indeed was one of the Simoun who didn’t take her job too seriously, and doesn’t put flying the Simoun above everything. In Kaimu’s case, she just was scared. She saw the faces of the soldiers, and she wasn’t able to kill them. Much like Neviriru in the first episode.

Another thing I realized during this episode is the use of the background music. It may be more than just a tune to strenghten the overall atmosphere and tension. At the beginning of the mission, Neviriru had forbidden the use of Ri Maajons. This results in hte soldiers fighting the enemy, with the Simoun assisting them with the help of their guns. The background tune which plays is heavily tension-based. It just builds up and up. Then at a certain point (as there are only four Simoun who can actually do something) Aaeru convinces Neviriru to do a Ri Maajon. Right after the Ri Maajon hits, the tune switches to the standard accordeon-music that’s played every time during these scenes. The point is, that there’s no tension in this tune AT ALL. In fact, I think it’s meant to be some kind of symbol, to the devastating power of the Simoun.

I just can’t seem to figure out what’s up with Dominüra. Especially because of the way she talked to Limone. I think that Limone’s the only one who Dominüra treats kindly. It also seems that she was pretty enthusiastic with both the fact that she had to play as carrier and Limone’s steering. You’d think that, as a Simoun Sybilla, she’d want to do a job which doesn’t dirten the name of the Simoun. She’s clearly up to something, but what?

Rödoreamon and Mamiina have become a lot closer since the previous episode. Rödoreamon is still shy (heck, she got really scared when the soldiers arrived) and spoiled, Mamiina is still cold, though you can see that they really have become friends now. Paraietta also was interesting during this episode. It seems that she doesn’t have the perfect qualities of a leader, as she started yelling once the soldiers arrived. Neviriru and Yun were the ones to recover her mistakes.

Overall, if you ignore the little inconsistencies, you have to admit that the soldiers and the Sybilla delivered some effective teamwork. All of the grudges which were displayed at the beginning of the episode were gone at the end of it. I really like the way this is going. The Chor Tempest will be losing their status more and more. The episode was great as well. This show just gets better and better.

Memorable moment: The commander of the soldiers motivating the others by telling them that it’s their war, not the Sybilla’s.

Simoun – 10 – Gloomy



Holy god, this really was a gloomy episode. The atmosphere was so thick, you could almost cut it with a knife. As the Arcus Prima is still in repairs, the Chor Tempest has been transferred to a temporary battleship: the Messis. While the Arcus Prima provided our Sybilla with all kinds of luxuries, the Messis is just an ordinary ship with no luxuries at all. Some members don’t have problems with this (Aaeru, Neviriru, Yun), some members love it (Mamiina) but most of the members are a bit unconfortable with it (Furoe, Kaimu). The latter part really accomplished a great atmosphere in this episode.

Apart from the Messis, this episode had two main focuses. The first was Dominüra, who’s been the one who got them into the Messis. She acts a lot different than when she was in the Arcus Prima. She also begins to get more bossy by the minute. Still, Neviriru trusts her. I don’t know whether this trust is real, or whether Neviriru doesn’t want to cause any unnessecary problems, though.

Another major point of the episode was the relationship between Mamiina and Rodoreamon. Mamiina still acts cold towards Rodoreamon, who still doesn’t have the courage to say something about it. She does make attempts though. She manages to ask Mamiina to talk to her, but again, her shyness stops her from actually saying the right things. In the end, she cuts one of her braids. It seems that Mamiina was always yealous of them. It also seems that there’s an actual story behind Rodoreamon’s braids, as she didn’t wear them just because her parents told her to. In any case, I liked this scene. I almost always like it when a character changes hairstyle. It suggests change.

Apart from that, lots of small things happened during this episode yet again. We finally get a bit more info on the strange windmill that Aaeru keeps carrying along with her. It’s a memento of her grandfather, who also used to be a Sybilla in his (her?) younger days. I’d love to get to know a bit more about the village Aaeru grew up in. I also loved it when I saw that Limone put all kinds of candy in her suitcase. ^^

There also seem to be mice aboard the ship. Furoe, Yun and Limone seem to be quite scared of it, though Neviriru remains neutral and Aaeru’s been used to mice in her village. Still, Limone was able to appreciate a joke Aaeru made about this.

Overall, the great part about this episode was the atmosphere. It’s been mostly meant to introduce the life on the Messis, and develop a few relationships.

Memorable moments:
– The expression on Rodoreamon’s stuffed toy. She really had a strange taste when she was young. ^^
– Rodoreamon cutting her braid off. It had it coming, though it remained awesome.

Simoun – 09 – To what extend is a person willing to believe in god?



Yup, it’s as predicted. The Chor Tempest will go on. This episode was nothing rather special in terms of action and drama, but it did provide a huge load of interesting material for future episodes.

The most important part of this episode was Neviriru, who traveled to the temple in which Onashia rules. (I think this is called “The Centre”, not sure though. And what kindof place is the “Grand Temple”?) In there, she demonstrates her leadership, as she’s able to give a very nice speech, in order to make Onashia not disband the Chor Tempest. She was quite the heretic in this. All the priests around Onashia shivered and outraged when Neviriru compared flying in the Simoun to faring war and doing Ri Maajons to killing people. When she mentions that she doesn’t care about God’s will, people really got ticked off. Onashia, however, has the total opposite opinion. It has yet to be explained why she has. She’s quite the excentric person, and I’d love to get a bit more info on her. So far, we only know that she’s the one who oversees the gender-changing ceremonies at the Shrine, she rules the country of Simulacrum, she has a different opinion when compared to most of the high priests and she has a rather good memory.

Still, this also shows us more insight about the highly placed people in Simulacrum. It reminds me a lot of the medieval christianity. They believe in their god, and because they believe in the god they do, they think themselves more highly than anyone else. It’s a surprise that they haven’t attempted to shove their beliefs down the throat of others, like the cristians liked to do during the colonization-era.

About Dominüra, I was wrong. She’s evil. At least, she works for evil people. But at the same time, she sympathizes with the members of the Chor Tempest. Though I think that she got scolded enough to not care about this anymore, and carry out the assignment of her superiors. The last scene in the episode suggests this, in any case. Her superiors seem to be highly places officials. Oh, and they also let the Plumbum Priests invade the Arcus Prima.

The third and last major point in this episode came from the enemy. It seems that they’ve also been enlisting for suicide pilots. And now, their crafts don’t just shoot back, but they also explode when they hit something. It’s a good thing that these things have no accuracy at all. But this does show that the enemy’s getting more technically advanced by the minute. And more desperate as well. But then again, if you know that all of the soldiers you’re going to send to the battlefield will end up dying, why not turn them into suicide pilot, huh?

Harukonfu also had an interesting role. He’s been extremely shocked about what happened, which made him lose his own determined personality. He still does what his previous ideals told him, though with far less enthusiasm. We can see this when he attempts to apologize to Neviriru. His struggles with his ideals and memory turned this into a really weak attempt.

Rödoreamon is getting more pityful by the minute. The thing is that she’s shy. And when she does say something, she says the wrong thing. I suspect that this will move her away more and more from the others, unless she can get some kind of help froma good friend.

I LOVED how Limone was holding Aaeru’s hand at the end of the episode (when the Chor Tempest was introduced to its new, temporary battleship: The Messis). She’s just so adorable. She acts like a cool and cold girl all the time, though she can do this without too much suffering because she knows that she can rely on Aaeru. I never imagined how great the impact of episode four could have been.

Morinasu again demonstrates that her laid-back personality can work quite strong when it needs to. She’s easily able to comfort Limone. She also has a sharp eye when she’s the first to notice the enemy’s motives.

Aruti wanted the funeral ceremony to be over as soon as possible. Why?

Furoe really doesn’t care about the little details. We can see that in the way she attempted to pack her suitcase. ^^;

Yun has a high sense of duty. She likes to act serious, and she also attempted to protect Mamiina from the others.

Vyüra looks up to Neviriru, that’s for sure. Though she hasn’t got any respect for the other members of the Chor Tempest. I’m not sure about her opinion on Aaeru, however…

Anubitufu is a strong captain. You could really hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he spoke.

I also liked the way that, in the seventh episode, Mamiina was willing to sit in the back of the Simoun and operate the weapons, so that Neviriru would be able to sit in the front and fly the Simoun. It now turns out that she doesn’t care about this at all, when she let Aaeru sit in the front.

Simoun – 08 – Political and Religious Messages



Simoun just continues to get better and better by the minute. These dramatic shots were greatly executed. Especially Aaeru was great. In fact, Simoun’s just awesome in its ability to portray heavy emotions suffered by the characters. Higurashi really can learn from this. I’d love to see a crossing between the two shows. 🙂

In any case, last episode, we left off with the priestesses and the important people from Plumbum arriving for the conference. We start the episode with Anubitufu, who finally introduces himself. He’s the captain of the Arcus Prima, indeed the biggest warship that Simulacrum posesses. This must mean that the Arcus Niger, from the previous episode, is something other than a warship, as these two ships looked like they were the same size. Three Chors are stationed in there, the Chor Tempest, the Chor Kaputo and the Chor Riboru (the current top-Chor, Vyüra’s in this one). Waporifu then reflects about what happened back in the previous episodes.

We then switch towards the pre-conference meeting. Harukonfu wonders why there are so many priestesses. He believes that they only serve as translators for the Plumbum officials, though the priestesses answer that they are needed to watch over the important conference. The Plumbum officials get a bit startled when they find out that the Tempus Patiem-priests (or the Simoun Sybylla) also will attend the conference.

Meanwhile, we switch to the Chor Tempest in their ballroom. The overall atmosphere is kindof gloomy. Rödoreamon tries to make Mamiina feel better, who immediately bites back at her. Yun also doesn’t understand Aaeru’s reason to be a Sybylla (not wanting to go to the spring). Then, the Chor Riboru decides to invade into the ballroom. This ballroom always belonged to the Chor Tempest because of their status, though now that that’s gone, the member from the Chor Riboru just do as they please.

Once they get sent out, Furoe comes running towards them with a message. It’s been decided that only two priestesses will attend the conference, so the third one will stay with the Chor Tempest for the moment. Both parties introduce themselves, Furoe introduces each of the members of the Chor Tempest, and Angurasu (the priestess) repeats the name of each of them. Except Aaeru, who gets a bit pissed about this. Angurasu then tells a bit about the country of Plumbum. It’s supposed to be very cold. Mamiina then reveals that she only became a Sybylla because of the war. When she was young, she wanted to be a Simoun pilot, though this seemed impossible due to the fact that she came from a poor family. Because of this, she kept wanting to pilot one of these more and more. When she finally got the chance to fly and it seemed that she had talent, there was no way back for her. She now hopes to be Neviriru’s pair, so that nobody would ever dare to look down on her ever again.

Later, we switch to the conference. In there, the priestesses give a very obvious hint about what is going on. I would have liked this scene to be a bit more subtle. In any case, we switch back to the main prayer room with Angurasu, Furoe, Aaeru and Kaimu. Angurasu suggests that there probably was another god or belief before Tempus Patiem and Animus (this should probably be handy information for later in the series). Angurasu then is startled by the fact that Aaeru doesn’t consider herself as a priestess. She just wants to stay away from the spring because she can’t choose. Neviriru, meanwhile, is watching all of this.

Then, we switch to Limone and Dominüra. Limone’s studying a bit of the Plumbum language, and she finds Dominüra quite bothersome. What follows is Angurasu taking Kaimu as hostage and heading for the Simoun-dock. Then the good stuff begins. Aruti’s getting angry when she sees that her sister’s a hostage. The characters then realize that this was entirely planned out by the Plumbum officials. Angurasu plans to use Kaimu into setting off together with one of the Simoun. At least, that’s what everyone thinks. The thing she really plans is even greater.

Events really get juicy when she plants a huge bomb near the Simoun. When she’s about to set it off, she mumbles that it isn’t wise not to make decisions. She then sets the bomb off, while yelling Aaeru’s name, as hard as she can. To make things even better, the other Plumbum priests and officials suddenly commit suicide. Then some unexplainable events happen, along with some awesome ones. Apparently, Angurasu planted her bomb very conveniently, so that only the Chor Tempest’s Simoun remain unharmed. In that case, why can’t these Simoun be used by the other Chors?

The good part, however, is that Aaeru heard Angurasu scream out her name. Limone explains that this means “the love for god”, the highest form of love in the Plumbum language. Aaeru’s reaction to this is great to see. It does make sense, though. When Angurasu didn’t want to speak out Aaeru’s name, it was because of the meaning of her name. When she found out that Aaeru doesn’t see herself as a priestess, she got startled, as she assumed that one who’d name herself Aaeru would surely love god more than anything.

Neviriru’s the one to bring Aaeru out of her shock, when she accepts Aaeru as her pair. The episode ends with six simoun heading out of the Arcus Prima.

This anime’s definately got a strong message against terrorism in the world. This is probably one of the first times in which we’ve seen enemies on true suicide missions, in which their only purpose was to fool the enemy, kill themselves and do as much damage in the process as possible. All because they loved their god more than anything. Aaeru, as she doesn’t believe in Tempus Patiem, really has troubles seeing this.

As usual, we had a huge number of different characters, each acting their own way. A small summary for each of them:
Limone: Acts very friendly towards Aaeru, the fourth episode really made Limone respect Aaeru, and she shows this. She’s cold towards Dominüra, though. Then again, she was smiling when she got introduced towards Angurasu.
Rödoreamon: Apparently, she had no idea how selfish she was when she was a kid. She feels sorry for Mamiina. I think she only became a Simoun Sibylla because her family status forced her to.
Aruti: Most of the anime, we’ve seen her as a serious girl, though she changes completely when she tries to talk to Kaimu, her older sister. She’s also enraged when she finds out Angurasu kidnapped Kaimu.
Morinasu: She likes not to worry too much, the previous episodes showed this. Though this does make her strong, in some way. We could see that when she tried to hold back Aruti from trying to rescue Kaimu.
Harukonfu: I wonder how he’ll react after this episode. After all, he firmly believed in the success of the conference, and seeing these people commit suicide can be quite a shock.
Paraietta: She acts like a decent leader. She does the things she needs to do to keep the team from slacking off or behaving badly, though she doesn’t have the charisma of a leader. I guess that that’s Furoe’s part, as she’s the one to introduce Angurasu to the members of the Chor Tempest. It’s also amusing that whenever there’s a scene that features both her as Neviriru, you can always find them close to each other.
Kaimu: When Aruti asked her to come along with her, she declined. Why?
Guraghief: He seemed quite happy to announce that the Chor Tempest would be flying.
Anubitufu: At the end of the episode, I don’t think he would’ve thought to see the Chor Tempest in action.
Yun: She believes in her own ideals. She knows she hates war, and she set to her mind that she would fly the Simoun just like her friends did. She keeps mentioning this whenever she has the chance.
Dominüra: When I first saw her, I really thought she’d be an evil character. But she actually ends up being a very sympathizing one. She just hangs out with the rest of the Chor Tempest, and she really is part of the team now. She still tries to familiarize with Limone, even though her attempts aren’t really working.
Furoe: She may be a whiny brat, but she’s very active in the Chor Tempest. She tries to find out things on her own, she likes to take the initiative and she’s very outspoken.
Mamiina: She’s devastated by the last episode, though this episode showed that she’s mostly an attention-seeking girl. She lived her whole childhood without being recognized, and now she wants to be acknowledged. Naruto tries this by pulling all kinds of pranks, Mamiina tries this by being the best and not being shy to tell everyone about her childhood.
Aaeru: She’s been extremely straightforward since the start of the episode, though during this episode, she breaks. She also was the first to notice that Angurasu was planting a bomb inside the Simoun dock.
Neviriru: I think the last episode got her out of her crisis. She’s been using this episode to check up on Aaeru, and the way she acts. She then realizes that the two of them were very different from each other, except for the fact that they both have trouble to choose.
Angurasu: a pitiful child. She’s been grown up, only living for her god, Animus. For that, she’s even willing to kill herself.

I love the way that each of the characters has her own reasons to be a Sibylla. Neviriru’s reasons are still unknown. Aaeru wants to fly the Simoun because she doesn’t want to go to the spring. Paraietta lives for Neviriru. Furoe’s reasons aren’t known yet. Rödoreamon was forced in because of her family. Rimone wants to make perfect Ri Maajons. Dominüra wants to be accepted in the Chor Tempest, though her reasons for starting in the first place are still unknown. Aruti’s in because of her sister. Kaimu’s reasons are still unknown, same with Morinasu. Mamiina wants to be acknowledged and Yun doesn’t want to betray her friends.

Overall, I don’t think the Chor Tempest will be disbanded. After all, the anime would kindof lose its purpose if this happens. The episode itself was awesome, except for the few convenient coincidences and the obvious hint that was shown at the middle of the episode.

Simoun – 07 – So Many Awesome Characters



Thanks a lot for Hashihime to translate episodes 7-11. Still, .ass-files do have their disadvantages. It’s incedibly hard to find the raw files for these episodes. These aired more than a month ago, so any torrents containing these files is going awfully slow. Episode nine also proved to be interesting, as the only torrent to the only raw which seems to be available displayed an error when I tried it. >.< Anyway, about the episode, I can understand why people are raving about this show. Mamiina was just awesome during this episode. I like the twisted mind that she has. It should prove to be awesome for following episodes. We start with the members of the Chor Tempest running into the members of the Chor Ruboru (the Chor of Aaeru's roommate, Vyüra). It's night, the members of the Chor Tempest are about to start with a special training excercise while Chor Ruboru just came back from patrolling. Of course, both sides try to mock each other. While this was funny in the first place, I just loved Aaeru when she acted like nothing happened and shouted some things back to Vyüra. ^_^ The girls from Chor tempest then board the Shimire (the training crafts) in order to practice. It also seems that Aaeru asked Wapörifu to fix the Simoun that her grandfather flew in (I still have to get used to the fact that grandfathers once were girls as well). I don't exactly know what happened to it, though. I suspect the thing broke after he went to the spring, and he was allowed to take it with him. Though that doesn't make any sense. (On a side-note: chibi-Aaeru looks too cute). In any case, during the training, random conversations are going on. It seems that when Neviriru was still active, it was the Chor Riboru who looked up to them. They also talk about the spring and growing up. It seems that Limone doesn't want to hear about the latter, and someone wants to go to the spring, immediately when she turns nineteen, though I couldn't pick up who that might've been. During the actual training, Morinas is having trouble concentrating, and Rödoraemon's getting worried about this, though Morinas doesn't seem to care. Dominüra places Limone in the lead. Furoe annoys Aruti again and Kaimu gets happy to know that Paraiette didn't desert her (after all, during the previous episode, she put her trust into the pair of Neviriru and Aaeru). Then, another ship like the Arcus Prima (the big ship which forms the main ship, where the sybylla live) approaches them. (On a side-note, thanks a lot to Hashihime for giving a list of all the terms and names used in this anime. I don't think I would've been able to remember all of them if I didn't use this list.) In any case, this ship is called the Arcus Niger. It seems that Guraghief and Anubitufu arranged a meeting with them. Normally, it's stationed at the Western Great Temple area, wherever that might be. Though it seems that its commanders decided that there wasn't a lot of time, so they already met up with them halfway. Probably because of an emergency or some impatient VIPs. Then, a pink Shimire emerges from the Arcus Niger, flying badly on purpose in an attempt to make fun of them. It then appears that the two Sybylla on this Shimire are to be assigned to the Chor Tempest, in order to make it a complete Chor, consisting of six Simoun again. It seems that the Arcus Niger came to announce that the country called Plumbum Reikoku (what's lead got to do with this?) has offered a peace treaty with Simulacrum Kyuukoku (the country the main part of this anime plays in). Both of these countries seem to have similar customs, so they probably wouldn't offend each other. Both of these countries worship a different god. Simulacrum has Tempus Patiem, while Plumbum has Animus. It could be the same being, though neither party would acknowlegde that. Still, Anubitufu didn't look really happy when he hears about this peace treaty. We then switch to the Chor Tempest. Paraietta brings them the news about the peace treaty, while the other members are in some kind of gathering room, full of pillow-like things. Music is on, and some of the members are also dancing. It's reckoned that Plumbum only wants the peace treaty because they want the Helical Motores, found in the ancient ruins and used to fly the Simoun. I then seems that the first peace conversations will be happening in international territory, over the ocean. This means that the Arcus Prima will be heading for Plumbum, as it's somehow been decided that the conference will be helt on the Arcus Prima. Then the two Sybylla who were seen in the Shimire from before appear. You would expect that the new ones are totally incredible in every way, though that isn't the fact. While they may be good Simoun pilots, they're not as overconfident as you see with most rivals who appear. Furoe predicts that she'll say something along the lines as "so, the rumours about the Chor Tempest were true", which is exactly what Mamiina (one of the two) does. ^^; Mamiina then turns her attention to Rödoreamon. It seems that Rödoreamon comes from a very rich family, while Mamiina was the daughter of one of their servants. She then introduces herself, and so does the other girl (Yun). Then some girls come to warn the Chor Tempest that someone's moving in with Neviriru. It seems that her father's got some high rank, and he placed Mamiina as Neviriru's new partner and roommate, against her will. At this point, it seems that he's blinded by ambition, and wants his daughter to look good, no matter what. Neviriru, of course, refuses to let Mamiina be her pair. What follows is a bit of random discussion between some of the members of the Chor Tempest. That's another thing I love about these random conversations. The huge amount of characters, in combination with the fact that each of the characters is interesting in some way, makes each of these conversations unique and very enjoyable to watch. Furoe asks whether Aaeru'll be her new pair, though she still has her eye on Neviriru. Yun also is a strange one. She's willing to go with anyone, but she hates war. The only reason she flies as a Sybylla is that all of her friends went to war and died. She couldn't face herself if she avoided it. The next morning, Aaeru seems to be holding the same strange thing that we've seen her with a couple of times. It's never explained what it was. In any case, she looks down her window, and there she sees Neviriru's window. Neviriru, meanwhile, isn't too happy when Mamiina comes bothering her inside the shower. Mamiina shows that she's determined to become Neviriru's pair, though Neviriru shows that she's determined not to let Mamiina be her pair. Aaeru breaks the tension in this conversation when it appears that she used a rope to come down to Neviriru. For the first time ever, we see Neviriru amused again. Mamiina, however, gets angry. Very angry. We then switch to a conversation between Harukonfu (Neviriru's father) and Guraghief. The Chor Tempest is supposed to perform the Dandelion Ri Maajon during the peace conference, and it requires six Simoun to perform it (hence Mamiina and Yun's sudden arrival). Guraghief wonders whether the new members will be able to do it. Harukonfu exits with the phrase that he won't let his daughter get hurt anymore. It seems that the two of them have been separated for too long, as he has the wrong idea about what a "father" means. Then the good stuff finally begins, as we switch to Aaeru and Mamiina in the Maaju Pool. There, Mamiina turns berserk, while she tries to rip Aaeru's suit off. The two of them struggle for a while before others see them and break them apart. Harukonfu then decides to disband the Chor Tempest as soon as the conference is over. He also plans to send Neviriru to the spring as soon as possible. It was really great to see Mamiina break when she heard this. I wonder what happens during this conference. The episode ends as soon as the priests from Plumbum are brought aboard the Arcus Prima. I've read everywhere that episode eight seems to be totally incredible, so I'm really looking forward to that one. I also love the way that there are so many characters who break so many clichés so easily.