Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Simoun – 06 – Paraiette (These characters have difficult names…)

by psgels, posted in Simoun



A Paraietta episode. Aaeru also keeps trying to bug the hell out of Neviriru. Furthermore, we get some info on Guraghief and Anubitufu.

Though the main focus lies on Paraiette. She’s been with Neviriru ever since she was a child, and of course that creates a certain bond. Amuriya, however, was the one that took Neviriru away from her. Still, Paraietta remained loyal to Neviriru. Now that Neviriru is in crisis, she tries to help her, though it doesn’t really work. This episode mainly served to let her see that Neviriru also felt that she betrayed her. She then manages to convince Neviriru that this wasn’t the fact. The episode ends with Paraietta and Aaeru dueling in the Maaju Pool, Aaeru beating Paraietta and Paraietta acknowledging Aaeru as Neviriru’s partner. Kaimu also played an interesing role. She’s obviously in love with Paraiette, though she knows about her feelings towards Neviriru. She also helps Paraiette see the thing that troubles Neviriru.

So, what were the roles of each of the characters in this episode?
Neviriru: Still in her room, locking herself away.
Aaeru: Mostly trying to get Neviriru to come out of her room. I liked the things she painted on her door.
Paraietta: Realized that Neviriru also was worring about her. Came a bit closer to Kaimu.
Kaimu: Tries to get her feelings through to Paraiette. Works a bit.
Furoe: Keeps acting playful now that they haven’t got any meaningful missions.
Aruti: Stays a bit gloomy and spies on Paraietta and Kaimu. Why?
Rödoreamon and Morinasu: Worry about the state of the Chor Tempest.
Dominüra: Attempts to bring a bit of dicipline back into the Chor Tempest, but she isn’t really enthusiastic in it.
Limone: For some reason still does what she likes to, outside of the missions.
Guraghief and Anubitufu: Seemed to be a pair of Sybylla as well, in their early days.

The Third – 07 – Armoured Ants and their Habits

by psgels, posted in The Third



The Third continues to be awesome. Even though there wasn’t a lot of tension in this episode, it was a great one. It focuses on Honoka’s determination to protect something, even if this happens to be an armoured ant.

Honoka and Bogie are alone again. Millie’s been dropped off by her aunt and Ikus temporarily left her, in order to take care of certain things. It seems that it’s got something to do with his mission on earth, but not much is said on this.

We start with Bogie waking Honoka up. I just love the conversations between the two of them. They’ve grown up with each other, and they continue bickering to each other. Honoka also can believe in things with her heart, without having any proof to, while Bogie likes to think as rationally as possible. If you combine these two, you get some awesome results.

In any case, it then seems that an armoured ant (the ones we’ve seen in the first episode) has attached itself to the Sand Tank. The other two are waiting right next to the sand tank. It appears that the one who attached itself to the sand tank is the queen of this colony. Armoured ants always work in groups of three. One of them might sprout wings and becomes a queen. When it does, it flies off, and attempts to start a new colony somewhere else. It’s not known what happens to the other two ants after this. Thanks to the narrator for this info, once more. I really like this guy.

Shaking an ant like that off isn’t such a problem. After all, the sand tank is big and fast, Bogie can probably do it while activating the battle acceleration. The problem is, however, that Honoka’s taken a pity towards this ant. The queen is using the sand tank becuase she believes that it’s a safer place to sprout her wings (during which she’s extremely vulnerable). The other two ants are protecting her. Bogie uses the argument that they’ve got a job in Emporium, and they furthermore have to pay Millie a visit. If they don’t go, they might not have time to visit Millie. Still, Honoka wants the ant to fly, and she wants to protect it.

Things get bad when Honoka sees another group of armoured ants approaching. They probably see that this queen is a threat to their own colony in some way. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even dare to come near the territory of others, as armoured ants are highly territorial creatures. The other two ants, who serve as the bodyguards of the queen, then close in on them. What follows is a bloodbath between these two groups, from which we only get to hear the sound-effects. The awesome background tune turned this into a great scene. What follows is the death of all five of those ants.

Still, more ants seem to approach. It’s likely that whenever an attacking group of ants die, another group of ants charges. Honoka then decides to not stand by any longer, and hold off the ants herself. She has to stop three ants from reaching the queen, until dawn hits. Apparently, the ants aren’t active when the sun shines, so they’ll back off. The only problem is that dawn’s two hours away. Bogie advices her not to, though he gives in at the end. Travelling with Honoka for so long, he really learned a few things about her character.

Honoka then spends two whole hours using suspended animation (the same technique she used in the previous episode) to blow away the group of approaching ants. Yes, the timing was too convenient: right before dawn, suspended animation doesn’t work anymore and then the queen manages to lift off. But that’s not the point of this fight. This fight was meant to show the determination of Honoka, the things she’s willing to do when she sets her mind to something. And that she’s even able to continue fighting after two whole hours. You need a lot of patience and willpower in order to be able to do such a thing. I also liked the fact that she got incredibly calm at the moment when the ants closed in on her and the suspended animation stopped working. She was about to try out something though the queen flying off stopped her from doing this.

One of the things I absolutely loved about this episode is that this anime is one of the first to actually show the lifestyles and habits of the monsters who keep attacking people. You have to remember that they are also just creatures, trying to survive and get a meal. Though this anime even goes further, by explaining how the hierarchy works with the armoured ants, and how their territories work. Even what they’re thinking. This is turning them into living beings, and not just some random dolls who only can attack and have to be defeated.

Suspended animation. First, I thought that this was another part of Honoka’s power, but now. It’s actually Walken’s (the guy who took care of Honoka) speciality. Honoka learned this technique from him. It’s actually tricking the mind of the enemy, in order to make it think that it’s hit. This all was illustrated by a flashback of Honoka when she was young. Apparently, she had a little fight with Walken and Bogie kept bothering her. She then ran into a desert hare, who was about to walk into the trap of one of the carnivorous sand creatures. Even then, she wanted to save the hare. Walken eventually did this by using suspended animation. It’s so great to see that Honoka actually worked extremely hard in order to be so talented with fighting.

Finally: Millie. First of all, I’m wondering whether Honoka’ll have enough time to visit her, after wasting so much time with the armoured ants. Millie looked so enthusiastic the day before Honoka was supposed to come. Still, her aunt did not like this. At all. Every time Millie mentioned Honoka she began looking serious. There’s got to be something about Honoka that’s on her mind. I think that she knows about Honoka’s eye, and that she hasn’t accepted Honoka for what she is. This should prove for some great scenes in the future.

Overall, of all the series which aired in the spring, The Third does by far the best job of introducing itself to its characters and setting. I like this, I really do.

.Hack//Roots – 13 – What will be happening next?

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



This surely was an interesting episode. But at the same time, I really wonder where this show is going. It’s going to run out of characters if this keeps continuing. Still, if the anime doesn’t fall during the next episode, we could be in for an extremely awesome second half of the show.

This episode featured a perfect buildup once more. It starts out really slow, only to whack the player down with some amazing scenes during the second half.

Ovan’s case keeps getting stranger. Last episode, we see the lock on his arm being broken, and something came out of it. This episode, it appears that he just disappeared into thin air after this, without leaving any trace. Naobi and Ender meanwhile continue to analyze the data he left behind. And their PC’s… I’m sure that I’ve seen those bodies somewhere before. I’m almost certain that they already appeared on the show, but when?

Shino also was just awesome. At the beginning of the episode, she keeps getting closer to Haseo. The two of them exchange phones. These were some very nice scenes. Later, the guy called Tri-Edge gives her a call, and tells her to come to the cathedral, after which she gets data-drained by him. Still, she looked awefully relieved when she got the mesage. Could it be that she thought that Tri-Edge was actually Ovan? But that can’t be, as Tri-Edge already was around before Ovan got captured. The look she also had on her face when she saw Haseo at that time was awesome. And not to mention the fact that we get to see our first scene of the outside world. It took awfully long, but it was worth it.

Also, after the previous episode, I think I knew about Tabby’s feeling a bit, though right now, I realize I was wrong. She actually wanted to be with Shino, though Haseo kept her away from her. She didn’t dare to interfere with the two of them, as she was too afraid to lose them both, so she decided to give them some subtle messages. Well, that plan backfired when Shino got data-drained. The then realized that Haseo went straight after Shino when he heard about where she was going. Something Tabby was not able to.

I’m also wondering what’s up with Tri-Edge. For the first time in the series, he actually does something, which involves travelling through the world, and fixing bugs at certain places. But why did he attack Shino?

So, what’s happened with each of the characters:
Goad: Left, because Ovan was his raison d’être. At least, in the game.
B-Set: Left, because Ovan was the person who made her keep playing.
Tawaraya: Left, account suspended.
Ender: Account suspended, returned in a new PC.
Naobi: Account suspended, returned in a new PC.
Shino: Data-drained.
Ovan: Vanished into thin air.
Tabby: About to leave, because Shino was her raison d’être.
Sakisaka: Left, because the game reminded him too much of the Twillight Brigade.
Phyllo: Stays.
Haseo: Stays.

Overall, .Hack//Roots keeps getting better and better. I’m really curious how the anime will continue after this. The second half will probably be totally awesome.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 12 – Shiurei at her best.

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



I don’t know whether it was the episode, or the fact that Shadow Dreams managed to finish the translation before I got to watch the episode, but the fact remains that I enjoyed this episode. A lot. So many interesting things happen. And so many funny things as well. ^^;

We start out with Shiurei, who recieved the message that she passed her aptitude test. This allows her to take her national exam, which will take place in about a month. A lot of people have been coming to the capital in order to take this test. Or take advantage of the people taking the test.

We then see the introduction of a new main character. In the OP, he looked like some kind of girl, though he actually is a 13-year old boy. Shiuei tells Ryuuki that he’s been notified of a disturbing rumour, though it remains a mystery what this rumour might be. It’ll probably be revealed in the next episode. Interesting note: Shiuei and Kouyuu both have the symbol of Ryuuki, the purple flower, decorated on one of their accesoiries. Which means that they’re yet a step closer in loyalty to Ryuuki.

Shiuei then informs Kouyuu that he needs to take care of some business in the red-lights district. Kouyuu doubts that that’s got anything to do with his job, though. ^^; We then flash to the red-light district, and we see Shiuei and the new main character pass each other. Furthermore, we see three suspicious characters, wearing suspicious blue cloths, smiling very suspiciously. This was a great scene, because it actually reveals quite some things about what’ll happen in the episode. Except for the fact that you, as a viewer, don’t realize it at that time.

We then switch to Shiurei, who managed to find another temporary job after working in the palace. She actually works at one of the best sites at the red-light district. As an administrator, not the other thing. ^^; In any case, she seems to know the people who run it. A boy who works there seems to be a childhood friend, and he starts out nicely by insulting Shiurei, and suggesting that she should find some kind of husband who’ll take care of her.

The owner of the place, Kochuo, scares the guy away. She also seems to know Shiurei ever since she was little. In fact, Shiurei, when she was a little child, had even begged her to let her work in the brothel. That was just so cute. At that time of poverty, Shiurei was so determined to help her father that she was even willing of joining a brothel. Her statement that she had to get home at sunset in order to prepare a meal for Shouka and Seiran only made this better. ^_^; I can understand why Shiurei doesn’t like to remember that. ^^;

Kochou then mentions that she’s got something to show Shiurei on her last day of work (apparently, Shiurei’s been going back to her living of taking lots of different jobs for a small time, just like the beginning of the show). Shiurei hestitates, though when Kochou threatens to tell Shouka and Seiran, she gives in. It’s interesting that she didn’t tell them that she was working at a brothel. Hehe.

We then switch to the new main character, or Eigetsu, as he’s called. A regular brought him to Kochou’s brothel, and paid quite a sum of money in order to let the guy sleep there. Eigetsu, meanwhile has a nightmare about his hometown. For some reason, this is sad, as he cries, while having the dream. Then he wakes up.

Eigetsu has a shy character. He knows what he’s talking about, he’s not an annoying brat who keeps acting impulsive, though he remains a child. Imagine how he reacts, waking up in a brothel. Once he settles down, he tells Shiurei and Kochou that he remembered getting into trouble with some thugs and getting dragged into a restaurand. Apart from that, his memory’s fuzzy. Then he finds out that a large sum of his money has been stolen. Shiurei then offers Eigetsu to stay at her house. After all, her house is quite big, and they already had a bear-like person staying there last year. (Ensei? Bear-like person? XD).

Eigetsu then spends the rest of Shiurei’s shift helping her with some accounting, and he appears to be quite a good calculator. Then Seiran runs into them, with the message that he organized the four of them to eat out for the night. At first, Shiurei’s not happy with this, though when she finds out it’s to celebrate her passing of the aptitude test, she thanks Seiran.

In the restaurant, we get some more background on the world of Saiunkoku Monogatari. In this case, the underworld of the capital. But not before three drunk men joke about the fact that women aren’t fit to take the national exam. This gets built up perfectly, until Shiurei almost explodes with anger. Seiran’s about to do something, but Shouka beats him, destroying the table the men sit on while nobody watches. He acts like nothing happened afterwards. If there ever was a thing such as a brilliant scene, this was it. ^^

In any case, the translation on the info about the underworld is a bit fuzzy, The Seikintou are a new bunch of thugs, who try to place themselves in the underworld. They’re pretty impulsive, and they identify themselves by wearing blue cloths. The crime bosses actually manages the downtown hoodlums, and they protect the peace of the downtown when a lot of people are coming in because of the final exam. Or at least, that’s what the translation says. I think I misunderstood a few things…

In any case, things succeed each other fastly after this is told, as Eigetsu reveals that his money was gathered by all of the village members, and he finds out that all of it has been stolen. Shiurei freaks out, and both of them start stuttering. Eigetsu then runs off and Shiurei follows him.

Eigetsu headed for the Seikintou, and for some reason, they’re accusing him of stealing from them. Eigetsu also seems to be looking for a card or some sort. What follows is Shiurei taking Eigetsu, and an extremely enjoyable chase. I especially loved it when the two of them had been running into a circle, only to end back up at the Seikintou again. Though nothing will probably beat Shiurei’s treatment to one of the thugs, when he approached to her. Shiurei Rocks! ^_^

Then, Seiran arrives and they run into a messenger, who tells them to head for Kochou’s brothel. For some reason, Seiran already knew about this, though he’ll explain his reasons later.

Then, everything which has been happening at the beginning of the episode becomes clear when we see Kouyuu, Ryuuki and Shiuei walking though the red-light district, while Kouyuu gets angry at Shiuei for dropping Eigetsu at the brothel. It seems that Ran was the one who put Eigetsu to sleep and brought him to the brothel for savekeeping. He reveals that it’s actually quite safe in there.

It was just great to see the different way these three reacted. Shiuei has been in the red light district many times before. not only because of his work (after all, everyone seemed to know him, and he was a regular of Kochou’s brothel, after all. Therefore, he acts like it’s nothing at all. Kouyuu, however, gets nervous and angry. Though Ryuuki’s reaction was just priceless. He was just so incredibly fascinated by everything which was happening around him. Like a small child in a candy store. ^_^;;

We then turn to the headquarters of the Seikintou. Their chief was quite pissed that Eigetsu managed to escape, though one of the members saw him, along with Shiurei and Seiran, head for Kougarou (which is apparently the name of Kochou’s brothel). None other than the boy from the beginning of the episode (the childhood friend, Keichou) tells the chief about it. The latter then gets the twisted idea to raid that place, and turn it into their head quarters. Keichou, meanwhile, goes to warn Shiurei about this. You’d wonder about his intentions.

The episode ends with quite an amusing scene, at which Shiurei notices Ryuuki inside Kougarou. She immediately suspects him of having a bit of fun in there, and his reply is the most destructive you can ever imagine. Shiurei wasn’t exactly pleased when she found out about this. ^^;

I’m curious about the crime bosses. Their sillouettes were shown for a couple of seconds, and each of them looks distinct. That means that all of them will be appearing at some time during this anime. I wonder what kind of role they play, as I still have no idea whether they protect the townspeople, or they steal from them.

Next episode, we also get to know the deal with Eigetsu. He’s special in some kind of way, as he appeared to have robbed the Seikintou, he comes from a village which witnessed a disaster, Shiuei finds him important enough to put to sleep and keep safe in a brothel and he’s collecting some kinds of strange cards. He also has great calculating skills, and he’s only 13 years old. So, what’s up with him?

(on a side-note: is it me, or has the backgroung music been getting better and better?)

Simoun – 05 – Getting Familiarized with the Characters

by psgels, posted in Simoun



I finally realized the major flaw of Good Witch of the West: it doesn’t give enough time to let the viewer familiarize himself with the world it created. That’s the cause of all that’s bad in Good Witch, as the viewer doesn’t have the chance to live with the story if he or she hasn’t been introduced in it. That’s the toll that has to be paid when you take a series like that and try to stuff it into thirteen episodes. It would really have been better if that series lasted for two seasons, instead of one.

The fifth episode of Simoun really made me realize this. After all, both series started out with a lot of questions about the world in which the story took place. Simoun’s was even fuzzier than Good Witch of the West’s. Then, however, while Good Witch kept spurting forwards, Simoun grabbed the brakes after the first episode, and has been using episodes 2 to 5 to explain the way the world works, to let the viewer get familiarized with the characters and offer some character development. I really have to say that the system of this anime makes a lot more sense than it did when I started this system.

I also rewatched the first episode, and this also refreshed a lot of my memory. It’s like this, we have several Chors, or groups of Simoun Pilots, otherwise known as Simoun Sybulla. These Chors consist of a number of girls, who work together in order to protect the Imperial Nation (I thought that that was the name of that country, though I’m not sure, sorry). The Simoun don’t attack with bullets or missiles, they attack by drawing patterns in the sky with their Simouns, called Ri Maajons. These then take a few seconds, after which they explode, blowing every enemy away who gets too close. There are a lot of different Ri Maajon, including a huge number which hasn’t been discovered yet. The Ri Maajons range from very easy ones, to very difficult ones, depending on the pattern that has to be flown. There are Ri Maajons who can be performed alone and there are those who need more Simouns in order to perform them. When I saw this in the first episode, I didn’t really like it. Though now that I’ve seen more of it, I realize that this is a brilliant system, and I even want to see more of it.

The Chor Tempest was seen as the most elite of the Chors. It was lead by the most talented Simoun Sibulla ever, Neville. Unfortunately, the first episode changed this, when Neville’s partner was taken by god because of a very powerful Ri Maajon which went wrong, Neville has since then been refusing to patrol, two others were killed and two more went to the spring, deciding which gender they should be. This immediately put a halt to the legend that the Chor Tempest had set.

Anyway, about the episode. It was mostly focused around Limone. She’s a prodigy, and the youngest person ever to be a member of a Chor. At the previous episode, she experienced some pretty horrible things, though the problems didn’t end there. Her case is familiar to Nevilles, though slightly different. In Neville’s case, it was her partner who wanted to become stronger. In Limone’s case, it was Limone herself who wanted to try a Ri Maajon she wasn’t able to do. This resulted an accident, killing her partner, who had warned her that she’d be acting too dangerous. Ever since then, she’s been unconciously holding back while flying in a Simoun.

Then over time, she started to listen more and more to people. She only did things because people told her to do so. During this episode, a new member gets assigned to the Chor Tempest, I believe her name was Dominura. In the first episode, her entire Chor was killed off, leaving her as the sole survivor. She now gets reassigned, in order to bring the Chor Tempest back to the position it once had. She decides to do this by trying to improve the weakest link: Limone (she hasn’t been doing too well, lately, as she’s been holding back). The yellow-haired girl (Furoe) made some nasty remarks about this. Dominura looks quite like an evil character in the beginning, though her actions later in the episode made me doubt about this.

Aaeru’s personality surprised me again this episode. She’s just so incredibly to-the-point. Limone, as she’s getting pressured from all possible sides, asks Aaeru whether she’d mind it if the two of them were separated as a pair. Though Aaeru comes with the true statement that if Limone decided so, that she wouldn’t mind. Everyone has a reason to fly in the Simoun. Aaeru does it because she can’t decide whether to become male or female. Apparently, there’s a law which says that when you reach nineteen, you immediately have to go to the spring, though you’re excluded from this if you’re a Simoun Sybulla. If Limone had no reason at all to fly the Simoun, there’d be no problem is she left.

Anyway, Dominura decides to test Limone by putting her in the pilot’s seat, instead of the navigator’s seat. I’m assuming that ever since that incident in her past, Limone’s been refusing to drive as a pilot. And it shows, as her Simoun really can’t fly straight at all. In any case, there’ve been some rumours about some enemy activity, so two Simouns get sent out to check up on them. It appears to be a large number of enemy land tanks. Dominura’s plan was to use this as an opportunity to get Limone out of her depression, though her plan fails as a blizzard is coming up.

What follows are some very intense, but also very awesome scenes, in which the calm Dominura panics, Limone finds her reason why she wanted to be a Simoun Pilot and she performs, along with Aaeru in another Simoun, one of the more difficult Ri Maajon out there. The one she failed at in the past, which killed her pair. Especially seeing Dominura freak out worked extremely well, as it immediately destroyed the calm, evil image I had of her, which was created by the first half of the episode.

Still, I wonder where this anime is heading. It hasn’t even begun with dealing about all the ethical questions that might be induced. After all, the imperial nation is in a war at the moment, and clearly has the upper hand. The Simoun can instantly kill off entire armies. The Archipelago also really needs the Simoun technology in order to survive and live a better life, though the imperial nation has no intention of giving them the information they need, and keeps sending Simoun to kill off the armies from the Archipelago. What reasons do the characters use to justify this? We’re holy and you’re not, therefore we can use the technology, and you can’t. This gives so much material for the later episodes.

Overall, I liked this episode. It was nice to see Limone struggle like that, and some interesting character background never hurts. Neville still isn’t doing much, though I don’t think that this’ll last for the entire series. The episode wasn’t as good as the previous ones, though I did enjoy it. And the music really is awesome at times.

On a side-note: what exactly are those wire-speaker-thingies that connect the Simoun with each other? Are they just for communication between Simouns, or do they have another purpose?

Simoun – 04 – Another Anime I’ll be Blogging. Damn, my list is getting huge…

by psgels, posted in Simoun



Heck, I may already be blogging too many anime, so why did I get the crazy idea of including another one to my bloglist? Well, because this anime deserves it. To me, this was the surprise of the season, as my predictions of the spring season seemed to be quite accurately. I never saw this one coming, though, and I have to say, it’s pretty awesome.

Okay, so what has happened so far? The story plays in a world with a unique property: all people are born genderless, though with the shapes of a female. When a person has reached the age of nineteen, she can choose to go to a special shrine, at which she can choose to be either a man or a woman, and reach adulthood. In the world, there’s one country which stands for everything that’s holy. They have holy technology in their posession, including the so called Simoun. These are flying vehicles who can have total flight control in the air, and are most probably the most powerful weapons in existance. The only problem is that only genderless persons can control it, and you need two people for it.

The other countries of the world, however, do not have things that easily. Their countries are polluted, and they are barely able to survive, forced to use technologies which poison their air. They see the Simoun as the way to get them out of their miseries, as these are made with some incredible technology. That’s why they aim for a war against the holy country, in order to capture and research one of these Simouns. So far, they’ve got not much luck, as they’re trying to capture some of the deadliest weapons ever. The story follows one of the groups of these Simoun pilots. At the moment, their group is put on standby, as their leader has just lost a number of very important friends, and needs time to process this.

The thing I like about Simoun is that even though it knows that it doesn’t make any sense, it still is able to deliver some quality drama. Both between main characters, but, as this episode showed, also between main characters and guest characters. It also is able to take some overused clichés, then gives this a huge twist, and it manages to turn these into something worthwile. The main character, for example. She’s incredibly impulsive, just like most other main characters. The difference is that she actually knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to take actions to do this. She’s a person with a great insight, though she lacks the respect towards others. At the beginning of the anime, she didn’t take any other person’s feelings into account at all.

These first four episodes, Aaeru (the main character) changed. A lot. The other members of the Chor Tempest (the group of Simoun Pilots) made her see a bit what it’s like to be working with others. Not much, but it’s only the fourth episode.

The themes introduced in each episodes also are a major plus. This episode, for example, shows us how desperate some of the members of the other countries can be, the fact that Aaeru’s willing to make some gruesome acts and the heavy themes that this show will be featuring. Aaeru takes another member of the Chor Tempest, Limone, out for a ride on the Simoun, in order to practice (even though this is forbidden). They then notice what looks like a destroyed Simoun, so they land down in order to check things out. Then it seems that the stranded Simoun was fake, and set up by a single member of another country, desperate in an attempt to conquer a Simoun.

This plan, of course, was a huge waste. The guy (who looks very interesting, by the way. I liked it) knocks Aaeru and Limone out, though when he tries to pilot the Simoun, things go wrong, as he’s not genderless and he doesn’t have a pair. Not to mention that he seems to have troubles breathing, probably because of the polluted environment where he came from. When he finds out about the way the Simoun work, he gives up, deciding to wait for help. The three of them (Aaeru and Limone concious, but tied up) wait for a couple of hours. This gives the guy the time to reveal that in The Archipelago (one of the other countries, seems to be the major enemy), the system at which you can go to a spring and choose your gender doesn’t exist in other countries at all. People just get surgeon, the minute they are born. Aaeru also reveals that all of her older friends have gone to the spring, and became mature. She didn’t, as she couldn’t decide what to become.

It’s also interesting that the creators tried to give the viewer a bit of sympathy for this man, right before Aaeru manages to cut her ties loose, and charges for him, which drives him mental. He runs towards the Simoun, and starts shooting at everything he sees moving. Aaeru and Limone hide a bit, and decide to think of a trick to lure the guy away from the Simoun. In the meantime, he dies, while desperately clenching himself to the controls of the Simoun. This results in the fact that his hands, as they’ve become stiff, won’t come off. Aaeru then even goes as far as cutting the guy’s hands off, in order to remove him. That was one disturbing scene, but greatly executed nonetheless. Limone, as she’s much younger than Aaeru can’t take this, and decides to hide and close her eyes. Aaeru herself has great difficulty doing this, even with tears in her eyes. The result is a blood-stained Simoun. A freaky sight, especially when you see Limone’s reaction to this.

Ah well, one of the major reasons I decided to blog this is the following: this show is unique. And with this, I mean not a tiny bit, but really unique. I haven’t figured out what makes it so unique, but I hope to be able to define this later on. I’ve also seen some hints from the raw watchers that around episode 7 this anime begins to get incredible, so I’m very curious about how this will turn out. 🙂

.Hack//Roots – 12 – Tabby’s Acting

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



Only a small amount of events happen each episode. But that gives the anime a great opportunity of building up to these events, and the events that do happen are just awesome. Apart from that, characters change, relationships change and the whole world is just living its life.

This episode was the second episode of the aftermath-of-Ovan-getting-captured-arc. The major purpose of this arc is to get rid of a number of characters, to break up certain relationships, and to create new ones. So far, Goad has quit the game, TaN has been disbanded. B-Set quits at this episode. Naobi and Ender return in some new forms (interesting note: this means that they’ve returned to beginners, or they must’ve had some kind of backup-account). Sakisaka and Tabby have left the Twillight Brigade. Shino changed her clothing and the only one staying the same is Phyllo.

Ovan’s disappearance really broke up the world. It appears that the only reason Goad and B-Set played the game was because of him. B-Set also thought about things a bit, which resulted in her quitting the game as well. It’s very interesting to see characters just being gone, like that. Phyllo makes a nice comment about this. The fact remains that if today is the same as yesterday, and tomorrow is the same as today, this cycle won’t be continuing forever. That means that the world will change. Even the side-characters can make this happen. That’s also the problem with the anime who refuse to kill off their characters. It just limits the change that can be possible in the world. I’m not saying to the creators to let all kinds of persons go berserk and commit genocide, though the right balance has to be found, in order to make for the best development.

Naobi seems to have secured some kind of place, which even the administrators don’t know, most probably a lost ground, in which he’s keeping Ovan. It seems that Naobi finally gets what he wanted, as Ovan’s left arm seems to have been cracked (pun intended, by the way). Now it’s up to the next episode to determine whether Naobi’s plan was a success, or that he won’t be able to control the thing that came out of Ovan’s arm. We also have to take into account that Ovan knew about what was going to happen, so he had a reason to do this. Still, I never even once saw a smile on his face while getting hacked. Either this means good acting, or it means that things aren’t going as he had hoped to, which makes you wonder how much he can predict.

Tabby begins to get more interesting by the minute. Yay for the fact that she’s not a little brat after all! First, when she talks to Haseo, the two get in a bit of a fight. Haseo, as he’s not good in dealing with other people, doesn’t really know what to say, and eventually Tabby walks away angry. The discussion mainly was about Tabby getting jealous that Haseo was around with Shino all of the time. And that Shino was her reason to enjoy the game. She also comfirms that she indeed doesn’t want to be with Sakisaka because she wants to. This actually means three things:
1: Haseo’s incredibly thick-headed.
2: Tabby actually likes Haseo, but she realize that she’ll never be able to reach his heart.
3: She’s using Sakisaka in order to make him jealous. This doesn’t quite work, because of point one.
4: This means that she’s actually quite an actor, able to lock away her true feelings, and pretend to be someone else.
I like this. For some strange reason, I like this conflict, while most love-triangles like this one actually totally bore me. First of all, we only got our first hint only at the previous episode. Only at the end of that episode there was a moment in which Tabby’s feelings lost to her acting. Apart from that, she’s been concealing her feelings all along. Normal anime would feature some kind of suspicious close-up, in which the character looks to the ground, rather unhappy. I find this kind of buildup better, though. It’s way more integrated with the storyline than just that simple, suspicous close-up. These close-ups are like putting a big sign on the character, saying “Hello, I am in love with the main character but I’m too afraid to confess, what should I do?”. Or something in that direction.

Sakisaka indeed is a pityful character. if the above indeed is true, he’s being used from all kinds of sides. He was right about one thing, though: leaving the guild. We finally get told the exact reason why Goad and B-Set left the Twillight Brigade (after all, being used is kindof a vague description, isn’t it?). It seems that when there was no sign of the virus cores yet, they used to skim through every single inch of certain fields. Or they would stay at a lost ground for a whole day and see what happens. I could so understand that you want to leave the guild who only does things like these. Sakisaka had enough beliefs in Ovan to last till the end, though his attitude quite changed when Ovan was gone, which drove him to the wild theories of Ovan who had actually been working together with TaN and they finally managed to get their hands on the Key of the Twillight, so they ran off with it. Eventually, this resulted in him leaving the Twillight Brigade.

Shino also came as a surprise. Not only because of her new clothing, but also because she mentioned Aura. Apprantly, the rumors of her have scattered around the net. It also seems that Aura ran away for some strange reason. Shin doesn’t plan to. She’s been gloomy for two entire episodes, though as expected, she got stronger out of it. She still wants to wait for Ovan, though she definately changed. It was also surprising that she got crazy enough to disband the Twillight Brigade, though Haseo managed to stop her.

Speaking of Haseo, the fact that he’s not good with dealing with people gets another major role in this episode. One reason for Tabby and Sakisaka to leave the Twillight Brigade was because he, as the only one who still wanted to continue the guild, never was able to stop them, or cheer them up. He didn’t know what to say, which only made Sakisaka’s anger greater. On top of that, his attempts at doing this only worked the opposite way, not to mention his thick-headedness. Only with Shino, he’s able to say a few words, and for some reason, these few words are the right words.

Phyllo has a busy day, it seems, as a lot of people stop by at the bridge (I loved Haseo’s joke about Phyllo’s reasons to be in the game. ^^). An interesting fact is that he was the one who brought the two of Shino and Ovan together. I really like his character, at the moment, although I’m getting annoyed by his voice-actor. He seems to know exactly what’s going on. Overall, the big thing still hasn’t happened yet, as the previous episodes decided to focus on character development, and on shifting the relationship with each of the characters. With a bit of luck, the supernatural thing will happen at the next episode, and decide the second half of the anime. Episode 10 showed a bad day of .Hack//Roots, though it managed to recover itself pretty nicely. I still have no idea what the second half of the series will be about, but it promises to be a lot different from the first half. I can’t wait for it. 🙂

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 11 – Shiurei’s Popular

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



This episode was another intermezzo. In the meanwhile, a few months have passed, and it’s in the middle of the winter. I didn’t understand every part of the episode, but the parts that I did understand were great to see.

Apparently, Shiurei has to wait a bit more before she gets to take the exam, as nothing is shown about this issue. We start with Shiurei chasing one of the children she teaches (Ryuuji). Apparently, he wanted to play, but this goes too far and Shiurei winds up falling in a river. That is not good in such cold weather, and she indeed ends up with a cold in bed.

Seiran then decides to stay near Shiurei’s bed. Shiurei apologizes for being a bother, though Seiran tells her not to worry. We then get to see a flashback from when Shiurei was a very small child, and her mother was still alive. Apparently, she was sick at that time too, and Shiurei being sick reminds him of that time. Small Shiurei looks too cute, by the way.

Then Shouka arrives at home. He’s startled that Shiurei’s sick, and he carries some weird items. A bit later, the two of them try to take care of Shiurei. Do I still have to tell you what happens when Shouka offers to make Shiurei some food ^^;

A flashback later, and Seiran managed to view the battlefield that Shouka left behind. Then Ran and Kouyuu, who apparently heard that Shiurei was sick, pay a visit. They’re startled as well by Shouka’s actions. ^^; Seiran quickly sends Shouka to some other duty.

Seiran, Ran and Kouyuu then talk a bit about some thing I didn’t understand, and the two of them get a bit annoyed. Shiurei gets even more guests when Reishin and Kijin decide to pay a visit, for god knows what reason. Reishin gets a bit startled by his big brother. It really seems that he looks up to him. The two of them also enter through the window. I have no idea why, but it looked funny 😀

The two of them seemed to have brought some medicine. The three of them (Shouka, Kijin and Reishin) pay Shiurei a small visit, and then they run into Seiran, Ran and Kouyuu, who are all quite startled. Especially Kouyuu. Then Ryuuji’s father pays a visit, in order to tell Shouka that Ryuuji’s gone missing. Seiran, Kouyuu and Ran go to look for him. Reishin refuses for some reason, and he gets slapped by Shouka. The interesting thing is that, even though it looked like Shouka gently slapped him, Reishin really looks hurt. Kouyuu, Ran and Seiran notice this, and begin to suspect something.

Shouka and Reishin then are alone and have a very long discussion. What the heck were they talking about? In any case, the guests don’t stop coming when even Ryuuki pays a visit to Shiurei. And he does something stupid again. ^^; He tries to take care of her, though when she asks for water, she won’t drink it. His solution to this made Shiurei quite angry when she found out. Haha. So funny. ^^;

Ryuuji is meanwhile found. He tried to make it up for Shiurei by picking one of her favourite flowers. (Any Fantastic Children-references, anyone?) The parties talk for a bit, Shiurei gets some rest and she does appreciate Ryuuki’s effords. Overall, this anime’s going pretty fast, just skipping from summer to winter like that. That could promise to become something great. Still, I have yet to see any subtle changes in Shiurei, or any of the characters. You never see that in anime, by the way, characters subtly aging. Only when three or more years have past, you can see the difference. The Law of Ueki attempted to do this, but never got farther than just letting Rinko’s hair grow, while keeping all of the other characters the same, and from what I’ve seen from screenshots on other blogs, I believe that Haruhi’s doing the same thing as well. But then again, I’d be surprised if she wasn’t the only one whose hair started growing.

.Hack//Roots – 11 – Finally Some Awesomeness Again :)

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



I think that people already know that I despise poorly executed romances. Especially between main characters. It’s so easy to just make two characters love each other. Though at the same time, it looks horribly fake. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I absolutely love the better executed romances. Firiel and Roux, for example. Yuu and Haruka. And starting from this episode: Haseo and Shino.

I finally realized .Hack//Roots brilliance: at certain points, it realize that characters don’t need to talk in order to make clear what they want to say. It finally realizes the importance of body language. Unfortunately, this does not happen often. Only the third episode managed so far. And the eleventh one! Haha!

Finally .Hack//Roots understands what an MMORPG is about: interacting with other people and fighting monsters. And that’s exactly what it does. The entire episode is an intermezzo, though I just loved it. Especially the fact that characters are actually disappearing, and quitting the game! Goad and the entire TaN-guild will be history! Talk about development!

At the same time, we get more and more hints about what is going to happen at the second half of the show, and thank god it’ll involve some supernatural stuff, instead of conflicts against players who somehow managed to buff themselves to admin-level. I have no idea what exactly it’ll be, but it will involve the Signs and the weird dude who looks like .Hack//Dusk’s main character.

And I haven’t even started talking about Sakisaka and Tabby! I mean, before, I always thought Tabby was a stupid, obnoxious little brat whose only purpose was to create some conflicts between other characters. But now it seems that she actually has a reason to be acting the way she does! I couldn’t imagine it when I first saw the last part of this episode but still, the creators suddenly removed one of the major flaws of the anime.

Still, the other major flaw remains. Even though it’s great to see TaN disbanded, why the heck did it get disbanded? And what happened to Ovan? I mean, the admins must’ve been the ones to disband TaN. Or did Naobi hide Ovan somewhere? And why did Naobi go through the trouble of contacting Phyllo. It’s probably because he knew how fast rumours would travel, which means that he wanted the Twillight Brigade to know about Ovan. And why did Phyllo get so shocked when he heard it?

I’m also having some problems with Ovan disappearing. Of course, it’s great that he’s gone, and I’m hoping for him not to return for a while, but at least show some subtle shots of him in the real world, collapsing. He has, of course, been data-drained. His mind is now trapped in the game, just like Tsukasa, otherwise he’d just log out. In fact, I just wish for any shots from the outside world to be shown right now. I’m curious about the real lives of all of the characters. I’m hoping that these’ll come later in the series, as they were one of the many things that made //Sign so great.

Tawaraya was also great once more. He also used the power of rumours to give the strange markings the name “Sign” (just like how “pwn” managed to get in existance). He managed to leave a nice signature before his departure. I wonder if any of the guys who left will ever get back.

Overall, .Hack//Roots is a strange series. Last week it had me ranting about the lack of quality on the show, but this week totally made up for it with a brilliant episode. I think that .Hack//Roots kindof loses itself in the large climaxes, which makes me a bit worried. Still, I feel that this episode made some very nice moves in order to prevent this.

Saiunkoku Monogatari – 10 – Shiurei can take her exam :)

by psgels, posted in Saiunkoku Monogatari



This episode marks the end of the Ensei arc. He reveals why he came, and takes off at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, my crappy Japanese skills weren’t enough to find out why he came in the first place, but apparently, his task was to deliver something. Ryuuki also managed to produce a law that approves women to take the national exam, which brings Shiurei another step closer to her dreams.

We start with Ryuuki finally finishing the complicated law. After all, such a law, which permits women to enter the palace requires a huge change in culture, so it has to be prepared very carefully. When Ryuuki finally manages to finish it, he gets a big smile on his face. After all, he’ll be able to see Shiurei again. ^^;

We then turn to Shiurei and Ensei, visiting the grave of Shiurei’s mother. It appeared that she was an amazing person in Shiurei’s eyes. It also seems that the day afterwards will be either her birthday, or her death’s anniversary. Shiurei asks for Ensei’s family, though then it appears that they’re all dead. Shiurei also still hasn’t recovered from her death, as she turns emotional for a moment.

We then turn to the next day, to a very interesting conversation between Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Ran. Ryuuki, with his happiest and most childish voice, presents his plan. He let Shouka proofread the plans, just in case. Apparently, it has one major flaw,as Ryuuki screams when he finds out Shouka’s comments. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch what that one might’ve been. Back to Kijin, Kei, Shiurei and Ensei: they get bothered by a couple of lawbreakers who apparently took a wrong turn and ended up in Kijin’s office. Ensei then shows everyone his powers in battle by smashing one of these guys with a chair.

Afterwards, Kijin and Ensei have a small talk, and somehow they say something that ends the both of them up having tea at Shiurei’s. Afterwards, even more unexplainable things happen, as Ryuuki, Kouyuu, Seiran and Ran sneak into the gardens of Shiurei’s house. There, they meet up with Ensei, who had been waiting for them. Then, a bunch of outlaws appears out of nowhere and the five of them then have to knock these guys out. Still, it was very amusing to see them doing this while just continueing their talk. As if these guys didn’t exist at all. ^^

Then, Kijin and Kouyuu have a strange conversation, and Shiurei sees what happened in her back yard. Ryuuki is extremely glad that she’s back. They wonder where Ensei went, though apparently, he took the opportunity to shave himself (I read somewhere that he hated to shave, which only makes this scene more funny). When he gets back, Shiurei needs a bit of time to recognize who he is. Ensei then bows to Ryuuki, and explains who he is. Apparently, he’s some kind of important warrior. He then gives Ryuuki a few items. They don’t say me anything, but they must have some kind of value. In any case, everyone talks a bit (which is not too good when trying to follow a raw) and Shiurei ends up cooking dinner for everyone. Ryuuki then takes this opportunity to ask Shiurei what happened to the ice, flowers, eggs and straw doll that he gave her, and it seems that she managed to find good use for them. ^^

Ryuuki then gives Shiurei a branch of a tree, which makes her remember the first episode. She even cries on this, after which the ignorant Ryuuki feels confident to kiss her again. Do I still have to mention that Shiurei’s not too happy with this? (So funny ^^) Anyway, the next morning, Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Ran say goodbye again, but not before Ryuuki tells her that he managed to introduce a law that allows women to take the national exam (don’t ask me how). Ensei also says goodbye, as it seems that delivering the package to Ryuuki was his only task. He takes off again, to somewhere unknown.

Then Shou Taishi (the old advisor guy) closes the episode, with even more unexplainable stuff. I managed to read somewhere that he is indeed one of the eight sages, which does explain his transformation in the sixth episode. He now does something to a bottle of insence, in order to make its smoke turn into another guy. I’m not surprised if that were to be another of the eight sages. Apparently, he was needed for something.

Ah well, the series has passed its 25%-mark. And so far, I’m very happy with it. Especially the quirky characters turn this into an awesome anime. There’s also so much more to the plot than that what we’ve seen up till now. After all, Shiurei can now take her exam and become a goverment official. What will happen afterwards? We’ve still got twenty-nine episodes to fill.

Some of questions for this episode:
– Why did Ensei have to deliver the package in the first place, why did he stay with Shiurei for so long, and why didn’t he just go straight to Ryuuki when he had the chance?
– What happened to the eight sages after they disappeared? Apparently, some of them died and some of them stayed alive. But is there any reason for that? And why did Shou Taishi need the other sage-dude to come back?
– How exactly did Shiurei’s mother die?
– Why were those outlaws near Shiurei’s house, why did Ryuuki know about it, and why didn’t they send a squad of soldiers to take care of them?
– How did Ensei meet up with Seiran?
– Will Shiurei be able to immediately take the exams, or are there special dates for people to take it?