When the word “ghost” was first mentioned, I didn’t think that this anime would come up with a good and original one. After all, it’s an often-used plot device in children’s anime, and there aren’t many ways you can go. But my worries were for naught. That silhouette of Elizabeth was just pure brilliance.
It’s very strange to see Elizabeth all friendly, by the way. She actually smiled, and never even got angry at Emily, something she would have done if it were the past. At the start of the episode, I believed that because of this, Emily’s development would be quite complete now, now that the main conflict between her and Elizabeth is gone. And yet, this episode was again focused on her character, when she, Ilse and Perry go and explore an abandoned summer-house right next to the main house of the New Moon, and Emily’s fear of ghosts gets introduced.
Still, we got one piece of new information about Ilse: her father never talks about her mother. He actually seemed like a nice guy, though it seems that Ilse too lost one of her parents. Why would her father not talk about this? There is also this shadow of Teddy, who didn’t come to check out the summer-house. We never actually see this, but he probably got in trouble with his mother again.
Kaze no Shoujo just continues to surprise me with some wonderful episodes. Even though this episode wasn’t as emotional as the previous one, it remained really heart-warming. This is one of these series that really has no boring moment, when compared to most other series, which do have their silent moments when they build up. Kaze no Shoujo, however, is just one huge chunk of atmosphere, which is really one of its major strengths.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 21
This episode introduced the third major arc in Les Miserables, and it already shows that the overall mood is going to be very different from the previous one. While the previous arc had a lot of tension, most of it was sortof silent. There weren’t many direct conflicts, and it was basically a big cat and mouse game, while Jean and Cosette got to know each other a bit better. The current arc, however, places Javert out of the picture again, brings back the Thenardiers (yay!), and shows that Marius has quite an interesting background.
Most of the episode was focused on the latter, by the way. Cosette meanwhile says goodbye to one of her major friends she met in the monastery, and starts thinking about her future because of this, while Jean watches. Marius, however, gets really fleshed out in this episode, after being introduced in the previous one. The dialogue on that part was a bit difficult, but this is what I got out of it:
His father was a major officer in Napoleon’s army. His uncle is a high-ranked official in Paris, with whom he currently lives with, along with his aunt. I didn’t see any signs pointing to some kind of mother of his, so I assume she died early. The reason why he lived with his uncle, instead of his father probably is because of his father’s position. It’s perfectly possible for him to have no time at all to take care of his child, so he sent him to his brother to take care of.
Well then, Marius hated his father, simply because he never heard anything about him. No letters, nothing. It turns out that his uncle kept burning the letters that Marius’s father sent (similar to Cosette, now that I think about it). As for the reason why, if I’m not mistaking it’s because his father worked for Napoleon. I can imagine that people would feel bad to be associated with such a person, which is why Marius’s uncle decided to keep him away from his father.
Then, at this episode, Marius’s father dies. Only then does his uncle inform him about his state, and then Marius finds out what his father really thought of him (he’s actually been dying, wanting to see him, pun not intended). An argument follows, and Marius decided to run away from home to… the Thenardiers!? What?
Only now I realize that Thenardier was in the army, and fought in the battle of Waterloo as well. It makes perfect sense now, and the picture they’ve always had hanging above their door shows him, together with Marius’s father in a rather dramatic way. It seems that Marius is planning to meet him, in order to find out the truth about his father, and what he was really like.
The Thenardiers, meanwhile, finally seem to have been defeated by their money-problems, and are forced to move out of their house. It’s great to see them actually back again. The question remains, though: how will the Thenardiers bring Cosette and Marius together? With Jean, this anime has already proved that it’s different from most other anime by not making haste when bringing characters together (unlike other anime, who most of the times wrap up the introduction of a new side-character in the same episode he or she was introduced in). This episode truly was excellent, and to think that the current arc has only just begun.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 08
Whoa, this was such a lovely episode! Stories about the mothers and fathers of characters have always been excellent, and Kaze no Shoujo Emily makes no exception to this. The current episode was mostly about Emily’s mother, and it couldn’t have been better executed. It’s been a really heart-warming episode. 🙂
But first, the episode starts with Teddy, and probably gives us a few small hints of what’s to come in the future episodes. His mother continues to worry about him, and even comes to pick him up when he’s fishing, along with Emily and Ilse. Especially Ilse is getting more and more worried about this.
Anyway, I believe that Elizabeth has been really lucky to meet someone who has so many differences, but just as much similarity in morals and views. This episode really shows that, when it introduces Juliet, Emily’s mother. It seems that she has had a weak health since she was born, and was frequently forced to rest for long whiles. Elizabeth was really different back then, and she genuinely worried about her sister.
The problem came, though, when she met Emily’s father: Elizabeth didn’t approve of this. I think she didn’t find the guy trustworthy enough, and something tells me that she had been clinging to Juliet for a bit too long, so that she didn’t want to hand her over to someone else. Ever since she left, Elizabeth had closed off her room and didn’t open it for ten years. For these ten years, all went well, and she was able to forget about it a bit. That is, until Emily came to live with her. This forced her to stop running away from her memories with Juliet, as Emily would obviously want to see the room that her mother used to live in.
When she finally opened the door, after all these years, I think that both her and Emily both got healed a bit. They really form the perfect team together, and I nearly cried when Emily saw a picture of her mother on the fireplace. The two of them really look alike! Please, Kaze no Shoujo Emily, give us more awesomeness. :)]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 20
Through the course of the episode, I noted that this probably was the happiest episode for Cosette yet, and then at the end, I understood. This episode answered a lot of questions and cleared up a lot of things: Fauche-le-Vent’s plan of the previous episode, what the past few episodes have been building up to, how Jean would be able to outrun Javert for such a long time and the identity of the mysterious “Marius”, who keeps getting mentioned by the people who read the book.
I finally understand that the past episodes have basically been one huge epilogue to the Thenardier-arc, where Jean has to try and find a quiet life for Cosette to live. Fauche-le-Vent didn’t pull the stunt of the previous episode to give Jean and Cosette the chance to escape, it was to gain the trust of the head nun of the monastery. The walls of the monastery are a perfect barrier against Javert, after all, and if Jean were to escape to some quiet town, he’d have to live in fear of being discovered every day. The problem was, though, that the head nun currently knew about trespassers who entered the grounds, so she’d never allow him to stay.
The head nun then apparently gave permission for Fauche-le-Vent to fake a burial, to help the trespasser escape safely. After this, Jean and Cosette would just get smuggled back in again (something simple, as it’s something Javert certainly wouldn’t suspect), he could make a formal entrance to the monastery, and make sure that Cosette joins the other nuns peacefully, while he himself gets appointed as gardener, along with Fauche-le-Vent.
Also, I think we’ve got ourselves one of the first time-leaps in the middle of a series to actually make sense and be believable. It’s perfectly plausible for Cosette and Jean to have lived five quiet years in the monastery, after Javert gave up on guarding the Monastery. Unlike other *coughJyuohSeicoughBlackCatcough* anime, who seem to feature some outrageous changes in characters. In fact, the only thing that went wrong in this episode is Cosette’s character design. I don’t know what it is, but something went terribly wrong somewhere, considering her character-design as a girl was beautiful.
Also, finally that mysterious Marius appears. In the first four episodes, I got some commenters who wondered if Marius was Eponine’s boyfriend back then, but he actually seems to be some guy of an important family. I’m eager to see that the current arc has finished, and a new one can begin. The Javert-arc definitely had its moments of glory, like when Cosette found out about her mother, or when Javert was about to catch Jean, but it by no means was as fun as the awesomeness of the Thenardier-arc. Still, we’ve got ourselves more than 30 episodes left, so an intermezzo here and there only contributes to the best parts by fleshing out Cosette’s and Jean’s characters.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 07
After the events of the previous episode, this episode was more of an aftermath, in which the things that happened during the climax are resolved. The episode specifically focuses on stopping John to cut down the forest, and for Emily and John to make up again. John is quite the interesting character, and he never really was evil, it seems. He just doesn’t know how to control his anger, especially towards Elizabeth. After the things she said to him in the previous episode, he just had to retort somehow. And the only thing he could think of was cutting down the forest that belonged to him, even though this hurts Emily and Jimmy more than Elizabeth.
In fact, through the course of the episode, John keeps hoping for Emily to return to her. Emily, however, doesn’t know this, and is very busy with thinking up a plan to stop John somehow. It’s interesting how she doesn’t confront him directly, but goes to the local priest instead. This definitely shows how naive she still is, but then again, I wouldn’t suspect anything different from a poetic girl of her age.
Overall, this was more one of those heart-warming episodes than the exciting ones. Still, I found myself really liking it. I’m looking forward to the next episode, by the way, as something tells me that it’ll be the turn for either Perry, Teddy or Ilse to get fleshed out a bit. Kaze no Shoujo Emily definitely is the most underrated series of this season.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 19
Quite an interesting episode this time, it centres on Jean and Cosette, trying to leave the safe but heavily guarded monastery-ground. It was really meant to bring Cosette and Jean even closer together. The plan indeed was to smuggle Jean out of the grounds by transporting him in a coffin, about to be buried, but the problem was Cosette: she didn’t fit in along with him, so she went ahead of him in a bag of apples, carried by the salesman.
It’s quite interesting, the Fantine-arc had Cosette as main character, but the cat-and-mouse arc currently has Jean as the main one. Still, Cosette does remain my favourite character, and this episode definitely proved this yet again, when she found out that she was getting left behind again. The symbolic value of Jean’s return at the end of the episode was huge, since he actually did something her mother didn’t: come back to her. I’m eagerly awaiting Cosette to take up the role of main character again, though I think that Jean also is going to turn out very interesting in the next couple of episodes. 🙂
Seeing Jean’s plan nearly getting screwed up also was quite amusing to see, though. It seems that the merchant also works as a gravedigger (which does explain why he could come up with such a plan, and why he’s allowed on the monastery’s grounds, even though it’s inhabited by nuns), so he planned to actually break up Jean’s coffin when everybody was away, and he was supposed to bury the body alone, or with an ally, or someone he could trust. So, what happens? The merchant screws up with the schedules, and another guy shows up, who actually doesn’t know anything. Letting him know the plans at such a point also wouldn’t be the brightest idea, as the guy will probably freak out when he hears and tell anyone in his innocent fears. Because of this, Jean nearly suffocates before the merchant finds an excuse to send the guy away. ^^; This episode definitely had an unusual focus, especially for an anime, especially the merchant and the things he’s put through you’ll never see in another anime again, and even though it doesn’t beat some of the episodes when Cosette was still with the Thenardiers, I couldn’t help but love it.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 06
Okay, my prediction the episodes would alternate between each of the four main characters was wrong. This was pretty much an Emily-episode as well, but nevertheless, it was a beauty, mostly because of the introduction of another character: John. He lives in a cottage on the grounds of the farm of the new moon, though he seems to have managed to claim it as his own property. Furthermore, he hates Elizabeth; if I had to guess then he’s one of her younger brothers as well, though I’m not sure.
In any case, at first Emily easily becomes friends with him, due to the fact that they both hate Elizabeth. His impression of her also was truly brilliant. It’s not often that in anime, characters do impressions of each other, strangely enough. Still, it works great, especially when the more serious characters are copied. I can really understand why Emily almost couldn’t hide her laugh when she talked to Elizabeth later on.
On a side-note, by the way, the trees already looked great during the summer, but now that the autumn has arrived, they really look beautiful, with their wide ranges of colours.
Anyway, back to John, he may be a nice guy, he also goes too far at times, and he clearly doesn’t know when to stop when he plays a prank, by leaving a note near a basket of apples which says that these were meant to get rid of the mice. When Emily came to his house after having a fit with Elizabeth (which resulted in her, burning her own notebook), she ate these apples without noticing this note only after about a minute. Because of this, she really believed that she was going to die.
While Emily definitely was a bit annoying at this, I can definitely see a little girl getting tricked by this. Especially since Emily is overly poetic, and she already was really angry and lost sight of her emotions when she ate these apples. She’s really become a unique character. Most characters of her age in anime are totally different, and she really shows the difference between Japanese storytelling, where you often see characters act more polite, and western storytelling, where characters are more often to speak their minds.
Still, the best part was when everyone found out that Emily was going to die. Perry got extremely worried, while Elizabeth immediately understood that John played another prank of his. When Elizabeth went to his house and actually told him this, he never really realized that this was his fault, and he never thought of apologizing. All he did was yell at Elizabeth. I believe that with this episode, this anime really showed that it knows what it’s doing. I’m hooked; it’s just too bad that so little people are watching this as well, due to the lack of good subs… the fansubbers seem to have something against shoujo-anime…]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 18
I just realized, the second part of Les Miserables is basically one big cat-and-mouse game between Javert and Jean. I also kept misspelling Javert’s name, sorry about that. In katakana, Javert just sounds too much like Javell. In any case, this time Jean and Cosette find shelter inside a wooden shed, on the ground of the local monastery, after using one of the ropes to climb over the walls from the previous episode. In there, Jean runs into the guy he helped a number of episodes ago, when his carriage collapsed on top of him. I never expected that that scene actually got featured into the OP for a reason.
Also, you have to love Cosette. For such a small girl, it had to be a hugely tiring journey, fleeing from the police, in the middle of the night, running quite a distance and getting carried over a wall, and she still doesn’t complain. In fact, she even helps Jean when he loses control of his hat, right above the head of Javert when she grabs hold of it. And yet, when he’s about to leave her alone, she shows signs of anxiety. Because of her time with the Thenardiers, she learned to withstand the hardest of beatings, but when it comes to loneliness, she’s as helpless as any other child of her age. ^^;
Also, even though the two of them have been able to find shelter for the night, they are going to have to leave soon. Javert has already attempted to inspect the monastery, though the head sister refused them, even though she knew that the person called “Jean Valjean” had trespassed on her terrain. Because of this, she asks the salesman to make them leave as soon as possible. I assume that she’ll alert Javert if they don’t. The salesman then comes with the idea of transporting Cosette and Jean in a coffin. Even the police don’t dare to look inside of these.
That’s only going to make the next episode even more interesting, as it does mean that Jean and Cosette will be completely dependant of the guy who transports them, since they can’t do anything inside one of these coffins. I can see Javert becoming crazy enough to think that they might have actually used the coffins to get away.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 05
Ah, the introductions are finally over, and now this anime can start building upon its characters. This episode was another great one, with unsurprisingly, the focus being aimed at Emily. The next one should focus on Perry, if the show is going to keep building on the same pattern, which will probably introduce his parents and their problems.
The current episode was really meant to flesh out Emily’s talents. We’ve seen her write, we’ve seen her get enthusiastic about it, but this episode shows that she actually has real talent, when she writes an entire two-person play for the school theatre-plays. Roda and her friends, who have been preparing a different story, take this too lightly and fail miserably. This episode also shows that Emily’s teacher doesn’t really fancy her as well.
Two more relationships got quite a bit of development as well. First of all, Ilse, who performs along with Emily in her play. It’s obvious that during the rehearsals, the two of them would get really close together, despite the few arguments that they have when Ilse doesn’t want to read the exact lines Emily wrote. Obviously, as a writer, you would get ticked off when you hear that. ^^;
The second is the relationship between Emily and her aunt. I like how she isn’t really evil. She just has different viewpoints, and her methods are a bit extreme. She just doesn’t approve of Emily writing, as she doesn’t see the use of it. In the end, she also tears up the paper that Emily wrote her play on. While the fact that the play couldn’t be read anymore, a day before the performance, wasn’t really that worrisome (Emily and Ilse knew their lines anyway), she did write it on the back of one of Teddy’s incomplete sketches. That probably was the biggest shock for Emily.
Still, Elisabeth did visit Emily and Ilse when they had to perform their plays. Yet, she never smiled, or showed any sign of appreciation. If I had to guess, then she’s trying to understand Emily in her own way. She’s trying to figure out why Emily continues to write. Perry, meanwhile, gets some nice practice in trying to read while coaching Emily and Ilse in their practices.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 17
Short Synopsis: Javell finally finds Jean’s location, resulting in Jean and Cosette, fleeing from Paris.
Good: Javell
Bad: Strange that Javell didn’t take the window at the side of the house into account.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This episode is more among the exciting ones in this series, compared to the heart-warming ones of the previous episodes. It was only a matter of time for Jean’s location to be found, and that time was about half into the episode. I loved duo of Jean vs Javell, during this episode. Javell, instead of using his subordinates to spy on Jean, is so determined to catch the guy that he does this himself. I liked this. A lot.
The escape-scene also was a great one, since Jean doesn’t only have to think about himself, but he’s also carrying a little girl with him. His past turned out actually good for once, as because of the trials he had to endure, he’s able to easily outrun Javert and a couple of trained policemen. Even when he’s carrying Cosette, they still have trouble catching up to him.
Cosette was really more of a side-character this time. We see her having a bit of fun, and finally meeting other children, but this definitely was a Jean and Javert-episode. One thing I liked about the first season, by the way, was that the Thenardiers made sure of a constant source of conflict. This is quite a bit different from the current season, which really has more recognizable conflicts. Still, something tells me it’s building up, just like the first one did. It’ll be very interesting to see where this one goes.]]>