Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Kemono no Souja Erin – 45

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



whoa. Just when I thought that this show couldn’t pull any more plot twists. This episode yet again pushes the story into a completely different direction. Obviously, if you haven’t seen this episode yet: beware for spoilers because this episode ties up a lot of the mysteries in this series.

Because holy crap, it was Damya all along. This guy really struck me as someone with ambitions, however also with loyalties to the Queen. Turns out, it was all an act: he was the one who ordered the collection of Touda eggs, the attack on the queen, and all of the other things that those masked guys did. On top of that: Kirik is one of them! He was the one who nearly escaped from Ialu a couple of times, and now he’s been sent to keep out an eye for Erin.

This episode also put in some major development for Kirik, and it really paid off. We finally get to fully see what that flashback of his meant: he and his sister were orphans, and were taken in by people who just wanted to kill the two, so he ended up poisoning them. The climax really worked, between him and Ialu.

But yeah, the worst part is going to be Erin: we now know that she’s really been tricked, and that Damya has no good intentions for her whatsoever. Throughout the entire episode, we could only see her sitting in a corner, thinking of the possibility of having the Beast King force disbanded. With only five episodes left, the end is finally getting in sight.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kuchuu Buranko – 06

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko



Whoa, this series has really gotten significantly better in the past couple of episode. It’s hard to imagine that the first few episodes were a bunch of depthless guys, because this episode had a really good main character to play with. There’s something with teenagers making an appearance in otherwise adult shows: in teenaged series they’re often annoying, but this episode had definitely its charms.

A teenager addicted to cell phones. It’s something very typical of teenagers, and the start of this episode had something sadistic, in which both Irabu, as the nurse as his classmates started picking on him. And yet, this episode did a wonderful job of making me feel sorry for this guy. The ending was really well written: there’s no forced climax, but instead it made perfect sense.

The ending would have happened as well if the guy didn’t pay a visit to Irabu, but Irabu’s addition had a very nice effect on the episode, the way in which he, after he realized that his friends weren’t who he thought he were, they simply invited him with all of the other patients. It’s an interesting story about a loner trying to fit in, yet trying way too hard in the process. In fact, his frustrations which seemed to cause his cell phone addiction (what if he got left behind by them?) only caused a distance between them.

And to a surprise, this episode continued to flesh out Irabu and the nurse, surprisingly enough. Especially that nurse is quite unexpected: I really thought that she was going to be a simple plot device. Also, this episode had quite a few of references to other episodes: there were actually quite a few cameos from previous episodes, and I also like the subtle part at which the theme song is played, and the lead character claims to really like the “drama” it’s based on. Yeah, right. 😉
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Konnichiwa Anne – 33

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



This episode really defied my expectations. With the clichés in the previous episode, I was expecting a rather cheesy aftermath, like so many of the other shorter arcs of this series screwed up before. And yet this episode was surprisingly good.

And this mostly comes courtesy of Tessa, who turned out to be a really genuine character throughout this episode. She’s so incredibly innocent and yet none of it is overdone or shallow like with the Randolf or Mildred episodes. I especially liked how she desperately tried to make up with Anne, knowing the things she did.

The point at which the headmistress called the entire class together also really hit home with me. The nostalgia! When I was a kid, we also had these points at which someone did something, yet refused to come clean, and so the teacher put the entire class on these long-winded lectures that at the time never seemed to end.

This actually provides hope for the rest of this series. Tessa now has enough depth and there’s no reason for the creators to develop her even more. The big question that’s going to make or break the finale of this series is of course going to be the rest of Anne’s classmates, with most importantly the bookworm and the tomboy. The rest of the series will be fine. It’s those two that the creators really need to pay attention at in order to prevent falling into past pitfalls. If they can get that duo right, then there’s not much else that can go wrong at this point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 44

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



This episode really shows the power of long and slow-paced series. While Erin indeed lacks the excitement of series with an erratic pacing like the Armed Librarians, at the same time it’s got a story that’s so well built up that it can really take an in-depth look at it. The power of the story of Erin lies in the fact that Erin sees things that everyone else sees, and just keeps taking daring conclusions and actions that nobody else in the setting sees. Thanks to the slow pacing, we’re really given an insight into how this happens.

This series is full of things that are bound to happen: in this episode, Damya finally threatens Erin with the safety of the students and teachers at the academy. It’s something that was bound to happen, the moment Erin started to take care of Lilan. And yet this episode showed her as she comes with a solution that I never even thought of: what if the Grand Duke became king? That would mean that the Beast Kings would lose their function as war machines. We’ve seen people claim before that the country would fall apart when its two half get unbalanced, but I realize that we’re also supposed to take that with a grain of salt: I mean, with Damya at the head, the country is bound for destruction anyways.

The only thing that I dislike about this series is the great amount of flashbacks in this series. This series just keeps recycling the same frames under these flashbacks, when a character is talking, and it’s about to get a bit overused. Ah well, at least it’s not the worst way to save budget. The drawings still look as solid as ever.

I think that at this point, I still consider Seirei no Moribito as superior to Kemono no Souja Erin. While Erin has better developed characters and a longer length, it still beats Erin for me in terms of the awesome production-values and its huge attention to detail in just about everything. Still, I do have to say that Erin is getting closer and closer to the height of SnM.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kuchuu Buranko – 05

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko



Definitely the best episode of Kuchuu Buranko yet. It’s the kind of episode that for me made up for all of the annoying and depth-less parts of this series. It’s one of those episodes that’s awesome to watch in the way that it played around with its lead characters.

I’m not sure whether the rest of the series can do the same, because this episode did also give Irabu an actual life. I mean, that’s something I never saw coming: I thought that he was like the medicine seller. A guy without any past, background or identity, whose only purpose seemed to be solving mysteries. This episode however shows Irabu during a college reunion, and some of his earlier friends, who all went to become doctors or other medical staff. Pretty interesting to see what this guy’s friends were like.

Anyway, the patient in this episode is one of these former friends. He’s a doctor who also knows a thing or two about psychology. He’s got another form of OCD. When I found out about this, I feared that this would be much of the same again, but I was proven wrong: this guy keeps imagining how he’s going to cause trouble. What follows is a crazy episodes as he tries to give in to his urges by actually carrying them out. His stepfather (who seems to be the cause of his frustrations)’s wig was utterly hilarious.

Oh, and the Banto references also rocked. This is what I mean by connecting the characters of the different stories: the lead character is a huge baseball fan, and Banto is his favourite player. Nice touch.

Setting aside the depth, I also kind-of like the realistic portrayal of the characters in this series: all characters featured so far are adults just plucked from society: they’ve got lives, careers and a family. It’s strangely refreshing in anime in which 95% of all characters are either students or warriors (or involved in some other kind of job that involves fighting).
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Konnichiwa Anne – 32

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Ah, thankfully this episode did a great job in portraying the orphanage that Anne ended up in. The owner was very down to earth, and the other orphans weren’t just evil for the sake of evil, but just a bunch of bratty kids, put off by how Anne made a complete enemy out of the entire orphanage as she refused to socialize. The fire was a bit too much,, but at least this explains what happened to Browning’s book.

But yeah, the Anne right now is more and more growing to become the Anne at the start of Anne of Green Gables. I honestly didn’t expect the creators to be able to pull this off. The reason she hated to be called a red head wasn’t because she was occasionally teased about it when she was young. Instead, it was because of the abuse she endured in the orphanage. In her own mind, orphanages had formed such an evil presence that she simply refused to believe that they’re not all that bad.

Her classmates and teacher also sound much more interesting than her class in Marysville. The teacher is a bit incompetent, but you can see that the children respect her. She’s not so obviously and stereotypical as Henderson was. Her classmates are also much more complex than Mildred (who was just bratty because her parents didn’t pay enough attention to her) and Randolf. These kids all had the painful experience of the loss of their parents, and yet they haven’t shut themselves in as much as Anne. Even the bookworm turned out to be the most popular girl, but in a more realistic way than you often see portrayed.

Now, the question obviously remains: is the development of these people going to go right? The next episodes are going to be a huge hit or miss again, because it’s exactly this that this series is worst at. Remember the midwife of a few episodes ago: when she first appeared, she was awesome. Then she got developed, and she turned cheesy. The kids right now are great, but half-hearted development is going to hurt them much more than making them stay the same. Right now, there are seven episodes left. What this series needs to do is make use of this time. Instead of picking out one character every episode to develop, it instead needs to focus on slice of life, and let the characters gradually come to tolerate each other.

I know that the creators can do this for Anne: they have shown this by now. Anne right now is still very elitist: she’s been so much used to look down on other kids that she needs to realize that she’s just the same as everyone else in order to remain in canon with Anne of Green Gables. I have no doubt that the creators can do this, and they need to realize that they can simply do the same thing for the other character. No need for cheese.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 43

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



For everyone who has yet to watch this episode: close this window, don’t look at spoilers, wait for the subs to release and watch this episode. It’s one of those episodes you don’t want to get spoiled about. This line of text is there to prevent these spoilers from showing up at the various blog aggregators.

I’m utterly astonished at this episode. It was such a powerful proverbial kick in the groin that it gives the entire story an entire new direction. Show for kids? Charming story about a young woman and her trusty Beast King? Hah! Think again! This episode more than anything showed the mature and downright brutal nature of this series. I’m completely amazed at how far this episode went, and it’s also the episode of this series that has made the most impact on me.

After the death of the queen, you’d expect a slow-paced battle between Erin, as she tries to keep Lilan out of Damya’s clutches. That was Erin’s plan too, but here Lilan comes, attacks the royal guard, kills one of these people AND BITES OFF THREE OF ERIN’S FINGERS! Holy crap. It’s this series’ way of saying: don’t mess with beasts. They’re dangerous. It completely nullifies Erin’s wishes to be a beast player without the use of a mute whistle: this episode was a really hard lesson for her to never underestimate the power of these things.

Also, what’s going to happen next? I originally thought that the final episodes of this series would focus on the upcoming war, but this episode really changes everything. Erin doesn’t run away like a coward, but she has to bear the responsibility for killing one soldier, and injuring another. Lilan… I have no idea what’s going to happen to her. Common sense dictates that she’s simply going to have to be executed, but is everything really going to end that simple? After all, Erin was the one who proved the theory wrong that only the queen could control the beast kings, he might have some plans for her.

Is there really not going to be some sort of second season?
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Kuchuu Buranko – 04

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko



This time: a baseball player. It’s interesting how every episode of Kuchuu Buranko deals with the media of some sort. This formulaic format limits creativity: unlike Aoi Bungaku the variety isn’t really this series’ strong point. Instead, what it needs to do is make the whole series greater than the sum of its parts. The best example of how this is done right is Jigoku Shoujo. At this point, it’s a bit too early whether Kuchuu Buranko will be the same but there’s an actual good chance that it will pull this off.

What I mean by that is the following: this episode was very similar to the previous one: a writerbaseball player is very popular, however he experiences psychological problems off of it. Parallels are drawn between him and a different writerbaseball player. Irabu meanwhile tries to take up writingplaying catch-ball and he eventually gets cured by realizing that he was wrong in his stereotypical assumptions.

After four episodes, I finally realize that the similarities of the stories isn’t lazy scriptwriting, but instead meant to be that way. This episode wasn’t meant to stand out with its story, but rather with the subtle difference with the previous story. Ignoring the second episode, this series has been about people who are very successful at what they do, but just have a problem as they’re at the height of their popularity. It could be failing to cooperate, or simply forgetting the past. They’re so focused on the right now that they sometimes forget what they already accomplished.

The big difference between this series and Mononoke: Mononoke’s individual series had a lot of depth, but they were straightforward and standalone. Kuchuu Buranko on the other hand isn’t that deep with its individual cases, however they have overlap, they’re not straightforward at all. There are two ways in which you can watch it: just watch an episode brainlessly, and end up with a rather boring series about a bunch of depth-less people, or you could try to look behind the exterior, and try and find connections and hidden meanings. And that’s why I like this series.

Also, is it me or did that kid have a Bake Neko t-shirt?
Rating: * (Good)

Konnichiwa Anne – 31

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



The episodes in this series have really ranged from incredibly bad to incredibly good. This episode was another gem for this anime. A unique episode that really closes off Anne’s development.

Ah, screw Mr Hammond’s death. This guy was too one-dimensional to really have an impact. What counts is what happens after his demise, because Johanna’s problems were nothing compared to Mrs. Hammond. This time, not four but eight children had to be divided, and none of the family members was wealthy enough to support more than two children. And thus comes the cruel ritual in which they each pick a child they like and split up the family.

But the real star of this episode was Anne. Oh my god, the creators may have their issues with cheese, but their portrayal of Anne in this episode was magnificent. The way she was animated, standing at the sidelines while nobody cared about what was going to happen to her. This was the moment Anne was supposed to break, and oh my god, they portrayed that so well.

With this, everything makes sense. Those who followed my entries will often have noticed how often I criticized that Anne had no reason to throw away her past: she was living happily, she was very eager to study and had a lot of friends, and no matter what was thrown at her, she kept looking at the bright side of life.

It’s heart-wrenching to see that this, of all things, was too much for her. All this time, she was able to look on the bright side of life because she had a family. She had to work hard and often only had the people in her imagination to talk to, but I think that she drew satisfaction in that she was needed. Since she’s an orphan, she probably heard some terrible things about orphanages, and in her imagination this only got blown up into terrible proportions. It was only fueled by how Mr. Hammond saved her from being sent to one: before she became friends with him, I believe that that was what kept her supporting the always cold Mrs. Hammond. Sure, she’s probably going to find out that orphanages aren’t as bad as she imagined them to be, but nevertheless: this episode inflicted a nasty wound on her that caused her to block out most of her youth.

I really thought that we’d only get to see this story at episode 38 or something. There’s going to be a significant amount of episodes dedicated to that orphanage, apparently. Again, I can’t say whether or not they’re going to be good or not. With this series at this point, anything can happen. With this episode, we closed off the theme that this series was best at: dysfunctional families. Right now, Anne is going to meet children who are the same as her, yet can the writers handle them? The potential of them delving into their cheesy episodic stories is of course really big…
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 42

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



An entire episode dedicated to the new queen, who just ascended the throne in one of the worst possible times, just when the stability between the two halves of the country is beginning to waver. And what an intense episode it was.

Of course, the sons of the grand duke aren’t stupid enough to give in to the false accusations that Damya throws at them. Not only that, but they also end up making the first move when Shunan even proposes to Seimiya, in an attempt to bring the country back to stability. The thing is, that Seimiya just has too little experience. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but she doesn’t seem educated at all in politics. She lived the good life, protected by everyone else including her mother. Her ideal wedding was one with Shunan, but now that he’s marrying her for country purposes, rather than because of her became a huge shock for her. Even if there wasn’t Damya who would try to take advantage of her, she’d probably end up destroying the country herself.

Damya meanwhile remains an interesting variation to the stereotypical evil right hand man. You can see that he’s already manipulating Seimiya: portraying himself as the kind uncle to her, so that she feels trusted with him. However, you can also see that he genuinely cares for the loss of his mother, and he feels sorry for his niece. Unlike her, however, he knows what his ideals are, and he’s well aware that he has a very good opportunity to realize them.
Rating: ** (Excellent)