Category: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette

Oh my god… I knew what was going to happen. The writers kept dropping hints for it. And yet, this episode turned out absolutely incredible. Now this is what I call a death with a perfect build-up, something which many writers can learn a lot from. I again ended up crying at what happened, Les Miserables is a true masterpiece. The first half of the episode was mostly building-up. Anjoras tries to shoot a police-officer as he’s preparing for the next fight, though Jean beats him by shooting his helmet off. The thing also is that the officer was dangerously close to his own age, and could have been one of his comrades if he didn’t choose to enlist to the military. He then gets replaced by an officer who’s much older, and the attack is launched. Jean again manages to save Les Amis by using his strength to close off the barricade, which currently has a hole in it, buying them some time to regroup. Gavroche is still as motivated as others, and for the first time he seems to mention Cosette again, in an attempt to convince Marius to take him seriously. Javert meanwhile gets pissed because Jean is right in front of his nose and can’t do anything about it. Cosette meanwhile makes things even better when she goes out to find Jean and Marius on her own! She first moves to the church, where basically every family member of the ones who are fighting is praying for their safety (I loved this detail, by the way. It just shows even more how the people who are fighting are just ordinary humans. Something that only very few other anime do as well). Jean obviously isn’t there, but Cosette does get information about the only two barricades left. Back at the barricade, the police started their attack again, and Gavroche still can’t get himself a gun. Les Amis are on the frontlines, while everyone else provides them with fresh guns and bullets and Jean takes care of the injured. There is a problem, however: the bullets are running out. This gives Gavroche an idea to finally be helpful: in all the gun-smoke, nobody will be able to see him, so he goes to the bodies of the fallen policemen to collect the bullets they had left. It’s brave, but the guy just has way too much self-confidence. Marius tries to call him back, but Gavroche is way too happy that he’s finally found himself something to do that can protect others. He again remembers Cosette, and starts singing the song Cosette taught him. The policemen then notice him, and start firing, though Gavroche manages to avoid the gunshots until he can throw the bag of bullets he collected to Marius. Then he lets his guard down, and gets shot in the heart! Shushu notices this, leaves the two brothers and tries to get Gavroche away from the battlefield. He succeeds, and then runs into Cosette, who finally sees Gavroche again in the final seconds of his life. Seriously, that was absolutely amazing. I’m so hoping that the creators will continue with another World Masterpiece Series for next year, because the format works just so incredibly well.]]>

Despite the fact that my favourite character is gone now, the quality of this series hasn’t deteriorated at all. This episode was an excellent build-up for the upcoming climax, and it’s promising to become an awesome one. I especially liked how Jean finally got some quality screen-time for himself, now that he finally finds out that he tried to stand in the way of Cosette’s happiness by separating her from Marius. So, what does he decide to do next? Protect Marius at all costs! And Gavroche is really worrying me at the moment. Something is about to happen to the guy, and he’s the exact reason why children shouldn’t be fighting in a war, even though they could: he really sees the entire battle as a game, and he wants to have fun with it, next to the others, who are fighting for their ideals and families. This episode also shows four of the guys who are fighting returning to their families to protect them, rather than helping the guys at the barricade. And Javert! I’m liking the guy more and more. He started out as a rather one-sided villain, but lately he’s been making an impact every time he appeared. I like how he’s smart enough not to struggle back when he was found out, and just stood there quietly while tied up, waiting for his comrads to arrive with the cannon, and I especially loved the ending of the episode, where Jean and Javert met each other face-to-face, with Javert not being able to do anything. The crimes that Jean committed may have been smaller than what people are currently doing with the revolution and all, but I still think that out of all people, Javert wants to catch Jean the most. On a side-note: has anyone heard anything about any plans for another World Masterpiece Production for 2008? If there were plans, they should probably have to be announced within the next month. It would be awesome if Nippon Animation was going to try and continue the tradition it set thirty years ago, because their works are seriously top-notch.]]>

Holy! Flippin’! Heck!!! Christ, I can’t believe the creators really went SO FAR IN THIS EPISODE!! I can’t believe what happened at the beginning of the episode. Obviously, it involves spoilers. DO NOT READ THIS ENTRY IF YOU HAVE NEITHER SEEN THE EPISODE NOR READ THE BOOK!!! This sentence is there to fill space in the blog aggregators. Seriously… oh my god. I never expected the creators to actually kill off my favourite character of the entire series off so cruelly. This episode became utterly incredible because of it, but still… Eponine is really gone now… This was by FAR the best episode of the entire series. And with such an excellent series already, that HAS TO SAY SOMETHING. I absolutely loved how Eponine managed to confess her love in the end at least. Not only was it great that she finally was released of the burden in her heart, but this also made Marius realize what he had done to her. In anime, love triangles are often forced, but the one between Cosette, Eponine and Marius was a mighty fine exception. It really featured perfect build-up and it used this build-up perfectly. I seriously urge everyone to check out this series, and perhaps get some fansubbing group to sub beyond the fifth episode. With this episode, Les Miserables has really turned into one of the best series of the year, and it really shows the power of 52-episoded series. And if that wasn’t enough, the upcoming attractions are looking really interesting too: Gavroche will finally meet Cosette again, and Javert has been unmasked as a spy. (PS: apologies for the delay, but I’ve been really busy for the past days. You might expect more of these delays for the next few months. Still, this episode was SO worth the wait!)]]>

What an incredible episode! It’s been a while since someone died in this series, but boy, at times like this I really get surprised how dark a supposedly children’s show can get. The revolution in Paris has been progressing in awesome way, and it immediately places itself above all other public revolutions in anime I’ve seen, like Romeo x Juliet for example, due to the immense amount of detail that has been put into it. It almost looks like everyone has his own reason for fighting, and even the woman are giving all the support they can give. That’s the power behind this revolution: it doesn’t feel like an army of generics is about to charge for the police: it really feels that an army of individuals is. For the past few episodes, this series has been showing random people who don’t have anything to do with the story otherwise, and basically show how they feel about the war. This episode, one guy even gives up his precious metal candleholder to melt it into bullets. This feels so much better than in other anime, where these generics couldn’t even outwit a sheep. And seriously… something is going to happen to Gavroche! All the foreshadowing of this and the previous episode just has to mean that something major is about to happen to him. In this episode, it becomes clear that he hates being seen as a weakling, and something tells me that this comes from his time with Cosette, where they ended up taking care of each other against Thenardiére’s wrath. After that, he probably didn’t want to depend on anyone else, because he knew very well that Cosette was suffering. Hence why he offers help to the little children and doesn’t even bother to get the food that Cosette passes out for a quick meal. This can also work against him, though: everyone still sees him as a child, hence nobody’s going to give him weapons. Now that Gavroche has been so used to the fact that he could do everything himself, he doesn’t like how nobody gives him a gun to fight. At one point, we even see him desperately reach out for the gun of a fallen police officer, despite his comrade standing right next to him. And really, Mabeuf died like a hero. We didn’t really see much of him, but after losing his precious wife and books, I really think that he wanted to die for himself, and he found a great moment to do so, putting back a red flag, symbolizing the revolution, which had been shot over. Marius also was awesome in the way he gave the courage back to his comrades by scaring away the police.]]>

Haha! It has finally started! For episodes, I’ve felt that the bomb was about to burst and this is the episode where it happens: the revolution has finally started! That’s one of the beauties of this series: you know things are about to happen, you’ll just never know the exact time. In this episode, it was the side-characters who really shined, as they made their first steps into the revolution by building barricades everywhere. Even the elders like Mabru(spelling!?) and the youngsters like Gavroche helped a hand, which was so sweet to see. There’s also a pretty sad story behind Mabru: his wife dies in this episode, and he finally lost all of his books. In response, he doesn’t decide to mourn silently, but join the revolution. Quite a unique behaviour, though I loved it. Gavroche meanwhile leaves his little “brothers” at some kind of mansion, at a safe place. And Javert! He finally catches his first glimpse of Jean after all those years, and at the end of the episode, we also see him disguised as one of the commoners. I’m not sure whether that was in the hope of seeing Jean back again, or a tactical manoeuvre to collect information about the enemy. I’m surprised he didn’t use any of his subordinates for this. Meanwhile, Cosette and Marius keep getting more distanced from each other by the revolution and Eponine’s meddling. I wonder whether the two will be able to meet again, actually. The only thing that’s possibly going to stop Jean from going to England is a lack of boats to take them out of the country. Still, this could be a possibility. with such an unstable Paris at the time, I can imagine that most nobles would try and flee the country to England as well. I’d also love to see Thenardier in this situation. Obviously, he won’t really play a huge role, since there’s nothing in the revolution for him, but it’ll be interesting to see him, trying to save himself amidst the chaos. It would also be awesome if the prison was somehow broken into during the revolution, releasing Azelma and Thenardiére. Seriously, something tells me that the final quarter of this series will be the best of the entire series. I’m so looking forward to it!]]>

Another building-up episode, but it really feels like the bomb is about to burst: a person, hugely popular with the commoners has died, people are in unrest, the police are barely able to keep them quiet, Cosette is about to head off to England and Eponine FINALLY makes her move again. While the thing Eponine did (remove Cosette’s letter in which she explains to Marius where she went) probably won’t have much of an impact (Marius has already accepted the idea that Cosette’s better off in England), something tells me that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Eponine now knows Cosette’s new address, and something tells me that she’ll be using that… will she seek the help of her father? And interestingly enough: she knows that Gavroche is in Paris. I can’t remember when that happened, though. It’s been too long ago, perhaps. Eponine’s confrontation with Cosette was awesome, though. It would have indeed been the best way to get rid of the pity that she’s been having for Cosette, being in love with Marius and all.]]>

This episode was meant to push the plot forward even more, and things are getting more interesting by the minute, with as highlight of course the conversation between Marius and his uncle. With the news that Cosette is about to move to England, he desperately tries to find a way to do something, even if this means pushing his pride away and asking help from his uncle to marry Cosette within one week. The latter refuses, though he regrets it immediately, since Marius has been on his mind ever since he left his uncle. Right now, it looks like Marius will officially never meet the guy again. Thenardier also surprised me: he got kicked out of his own gang. I originally predicted that all hell woud break loose for Cosette after the guy escaped, but I didn’t take into account that his henchmen weren’t so keen on taking revenge as he was. Especially not after their daughter made them almost end up in jail yet again. There’s one thing I didn’t like, though: no Eponne. There wasn’t even a tiny scene about her. But then again, it doesn’t look like she’ll have a big role in the upcoming climax for this arc, as it seems that it’ll focus on Les Amis and Cosette, Marius and Jean. I really wonder what the role of Gavroche will be, though. I’m interested in how he’d react when he found out that a bunch of people are trying to start a revolution. He’d be quite helpful for them, after all.]]>

The highlight of this episode was definitely the beginning, in which we finally see Thenardiére and Azelma again. It was a short scene, but the two of them were awesome to watch now that they found out that Thenardier has abandoned them. I so hope that they’ll be released somewhere in the story, so that they can try to make Azelma’s dream of living together without their father true. That would definitely be AWESOME. Speaking of awesome, Eponine also was excellent in this episode, when she actually SAVED Cosette from being discovered by Thenardier, all because it’d make Marius sad. Jean, however, did notice that people were after his house, and this made him worry about her safety. After all, she’d be an easy target and he can’t be sure that all of Thenardier’s buddies were caught by the police. That’s why he proposes her to go to England at the end of the episode. In other news, there was yet again a strong emphasis on poverty: Paris seems to be struck by a rather nasty disease, which becomes really clear when Jean and Cosette visit a local hospital and Gavroche is getting cuter and cuter with his mother-like attitude against his two brothers(?). I can feel that another major climax is about to come. The tone of this episode was quite a bit darker and more fast-paced than the past couple of episodes, and les Amis are getting into more and more trouble now that Javert keeps arresting their weapon-deliverers.]]>

Now that the characters have received a healthy dose of attention, it’s now finally time to develop the plot and setting some more. Both Thenardier (who has escaped from prison) as les Amis (what are they trying to do, actually? Start a revolution for equal rights? I failed to pick up the exact details for this, unfortunately) have started getting active again, and meanwhile, Javert is still searching for his Jean. Gavroche surprised me when he suddenly rescued his father. The scene could have been build up a bit better, as we see no real signs of him, planning to do anything about what he heard from Montparnasse, but it was definitely interesting to see him do something nice for Thenardier. He’s beginning to become something like a Jean II, with the two kids he’s taken care of. Are they really his own brothers? Were they born once Cosette left, or something? Anyway, there was one theme that was heavily present in this episode: poverty. Cosette sees people getting sick, and living with absolutely no money, Gavroche had no money to begin with, and I assume that les Amis are also acting against poverty. And let’s not forget Eponine, who unfortunately appeared in only one short scene this episode. The next big thing that’s coming is probably Thenardier, finding out about Jean’s and Cosette’s location. He came really close this episode, and out of all possible houses, he picked Jean’s house to go and rob.]]>

This clearly was one of those building-up episodes. Nothing majorly new happens, and instead attention is focused in developing the characters. Marius continues to visit Cosette, both of them are clearly in love, Gavroche provides food and shelter for two street-kids, Javert is still looking for Jean, Montparnasse continues being a total bastard by even trying to involve Gavroche, and Thenardier meanwhile showed his scariest face yet (see screenshots). The highlight of the episode was yet again Eponine. Perhaps I’m rambling a bit too much about her, but she continues to go downhill for this episode as well, and I haven’t found myself this inclined to cheer on someone since Shuurei from Saiunkoku Monogatari in her early days. I think that it’s this episode where Marius finally realizes that Eponine feels something for him, when she openly cries in front of him, after saying her farewell to him. I also wonder whether the two orphan children will remain with Gavroche for the rest of the anime, and whether they’ll play a big role somewhere. I just know that something really bad is about to happen, this episode was way too quiet for some reason. I really fear that all hell will break loose once Thenardier escapes. It can’t be long now, unfortunately.]]>