Short Synopsis: Teddy’s mother is very protective of her child, while Emily and Ilse keep trying to get her to let him play outside. Perry meanwhile, has never really learned to write
Good: Teddy and Perry.
Bad: Emily’s voice actress sounded a bit different in the beginning of the episode.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This episode marks the end of the introduction of this anime, and it ends quite fitting with the positive part of the premise for the future episodes: Emily dreams of writing for her profession, Teddy wants to be an artist, Perry aims to become a politician and Ilse fancies to become an elocutionist (or a public speaker), and all four of them are already quite good at their desired professions.
I expected this episode to be about Teddy, but Perry gets fleshed out as well. During the first half of this episode, he gets his hands on one of Emily’s books, after making fun of her fantasizing. He came from a poor family, so his literate skills aren’t too good. He seems to be able to read, but he’s never learned to writ. That’s why he keeps practicing writing Emily’s name, which she wrote at the last page of the book. Because of this, he’s really getting respect for Emily, who already is able to write so well, and he apologizes to her, which already shows that the guy can take responsibility.
Still, the largest part of the episode was dedicated to Teddy, since it’s the first time we really see him. And I have to say that his case is another beauty. During the entire episode, we see no signs of his father, which suggests that he either disappeared, or died at a certain point of time. Because of that, Teddy is the only thing his mother has left, and she’s become overprotective of him over the years. She blatantly refuses to let him play along with Ilse and Emily, and Teddy catches her crying at night.
Obviously, Emily doesn’t just listen to her quietly, so she starts yelling at the woman for not letting Teddy do what he wants. I think it’s here where Ilse realizes that she wants to do the same thing. Unlike Perry, she decides that it’s better to just ignore Emily, and closes the door right in front of her face, running away from things. Luckily, Teddy isn’t stupid, and he manages to convince his mother to let him go (great scene, by the way).
Emily also got a small bit of airtime, when she attempts to read a book and Elizabeth takes it away from her. This’ll probably be quite a problem for the future, as Elisabeth can’t see why Emily would read for her own entertainment while she could study.
Overall, I love this anime so far. Each single character has his or her own problems, and so many people have different morals and views that they complement each other perfectly. It’s a shame that this series isn’t getting any attention (or heck, fansubs), as it’s definitely one of the best series to have aired this fall. :)]]>
Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 16
Short Synopsis: Cosette and Jean arrive in Paris. There, Cosette recalls memories of her mother.
Good: SUCH a sweet song.
Bad: The episode was a tad slow at times, when compared to the previous ones.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This episode spends again most of its time building up. Paris is reached, and Jean moves into a house, somewhere in the suburbs. Cosette now has her own room, and she’s surprised to see the city in which she spent the first three years of her life again. Obviously, she’d only remember the happy times, and she didn’t care much about the poverty in the city.
This episode was one of the quieter episodes of the series, but that song still made it well worth watching. I suddenly realize why Cosette started singing when she found out that her mother died, as it’s the same song she used to sing when Cosette was still small. I was surprised that she just yelled at Jean when she tried to find the same tree where her mother used to measure her size with.
Javell, meanwhile, went to the commander of the police in Paris, who offered his help in catching Jean, so that Javell could return to Montreul-sur-Mer. I suspect that the landowner who went to spy on Jean’s stuff also is going to have a role in this. If I had to guess, then she’ll report this to the police and Jean’s and Cosette’s hiding place will be discovered.
It’ll also be interesting to see when Jean’s money will run out. No doubt it is a lot, but it’s not an endless amount. I wonder what kind of job he’ll find.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 03
Short Synopsis: And the foursome is complete when Teddy gets introduced at the end of the episode. Emily, meanwhile, gets herself in quite a number of fights.
Good: Characters that are far, far away from stereotypes.
Bad: Some annoying moments.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
One thing I like about Kaze no Shoujo is that Emily really is a unique character. She’s especially different from all shoujo heroines, in the fact that she just keeps involving herself in fights. She’s new at her school, she tries to make friends, but she just can’t keep quiet when the different students try to pull jokes on her. This started the previous episode with Ilse, and this episode shows that first impressions aren’t always right. It’s surprisingly realistic, as I can imagine that especially children have problems with judging people and are often naive.
Ilse turns out to be a very similar girl to Emily, in the fact that she just likes to get into fights, but while Emily doesn’t forget or forgive people, she just doesn’t care that much, and actually acts nice just half an hour later. Obviously, the two of them become friends quickly. ^^;
I suspect that the next episode will be the introduction of Teddy, so that the fifth episode can really set this anime off, and introduce the different stories and backgrounds of the four children. I’ll be waiting for that, as they’re definitely interesting. The past few episodes have already showed that the tension in this anime can become pretty dense, especially in the fight between Emily and Ilse, and when Emily found out that her classmates have been deceiving her. There is no way for the later episodes to just stop getting interesting. :)]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 15
Short Synopsis: A Jean-episode. Will he really be able to give Cosette happiness with Javert after his head?
Good: The second half was as touching as usual.
Bad: The first half was rather quiet.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
This episode was really meant to develop Jean some more. While Javert is searching all the roads leading to Paris, he and Cosette have taken a detour to a small city with a huge church, from which he plan to go to Paris. And this is the point where he starts to have his doubts. He’s got the police after him, so he’ll have to continue to hide for a long while. That’s not exactly the safest assurance of Cosette’s happiness, now is it? The first part of the episode mainly builds up for this.
Then the second, and far more enjoyable half comes, and shows that Jean may be worrying a bit too much, as he loses sight of Cosette when he desperately tries to find a guy from Montreil-sur-Mer, who can take care of her. That results in some very touching scenes, by the way. Cosette was so sad (I loved how she took off her shoes after so much walking). The policeman was also quite interesting, right before he reveal why he’s been following Cosette, I realized it as well. He never realized Jean was a fugitive, so Jean’s worries weren’t necessary. But then again, the possibility of the policeman recognizing him also exists. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how he’s going to solve this.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 02
Short Synopsis: Ah, it seems that Emily will be living together with both Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle (?).
Good: Clashing personalities for the win.
Bad: The music seemed to be a bit too dramatic at times
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Now that I started comparing Seirei no Moribito with Wellber no Monogatari anyway, I also began to notice that Kaze no Shoujo bears some similarities to Les Miserables. Both feature a young girl, losing her parents, they’re both taken in with people whose personality clash hugely, and they’re both HUGELY underrated. Seriously, I can’t believe how little attention this anime is getting. It’s quite good.
I’m not sure though whether Emily can ever equal the brilliance of Les Miserables, bit it’ll be interesting to find out. In any case, Kaze no Shoujo is lighter in terms of storyline than Les Miserables. Still, that doesn’t mean that there were some dark parts in this storyline. I especially loved when Emily and Elisabeth had a conflict with one another, like when Elisabeth planned to cut Emily’s hair, or when she locked her in the room with all the scary paintings. She’s also not a totally evil bitch like Thenardier either, her personality and views just clash hugely with those of Emily.
So far, we’ve yet to see a lot of the cases of the other characters. Perry was present in this episode, though nothing was revealed about his background, other than that he’s often involved in dirty work. The end of the episode also introduced the third character, and so far, I love her. I’m looking forward to the cases of these different characters a lot, as according to Wikipedia, they seemed very interesting. :)]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 14
Short Synopsis: Jean finally tells Cosette about Fantine’s death.
Good: Can this anime truly get any better?
Bad: How are Jean and Cosette going to outrun the police for such a long time? Oh, wait… that’s not really a bad point, is it?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
The Fall-season of last year broke a trend I was beginning to notice: the fact that each season had at least one truly memorable series, starting from Fall 2005, which had Noein and Mushishi. Winter 2006 had Bake Neko, Spring 2006 had Simoun and The Third, and Summer 2006 had Otogi Juushi Akazukin. While the fall-season did feature some really good shows as Asatte no Houkou, Bakumatsu, Jigoku Shoujo and Red Garden, they just weren’t good enough to compare with their predecessors. I feared that this would be the same for the Winter-2007-season, but Les Miserables has proved to be an absolute delight. And that already at this point.
This episode definitely convinced me of this, as it displays the huge strength of Cosette’s character. She’s only a little girl, she gets the news that her mother, her raison d’être, died, and she doesn’t even cry! All she does is sing a small song, and even though we didn’t see any tears, that was such an incredibly sad moment.
Javert also got some more screen-time this episode, as he can’t seem to find any trace of Jean anywhere. Then he learns of the Thenardiers, and they tell him about what Jean did when he visited them. Gavroche also learns of this, returns to his old home and throws a tantrum. I’m not sure if that was the smartest thing to do, but you can’t blame the boy who wants to protect the girl who took care of him ever since he was born. To make things worse, Javert figures that Jean would flee to Paris, so he heads there as well. I couldn’t understand exactly why, though.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 13
Short Synopsis: The moment is finally there: Cosette leaves the Thenardiers.
Good: Cosette was as touching as always.
Bad: How long is Jean planning to keep Fantine’s death a secret?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
That was beautiful! I don’t know what it is, but Cosette and the other characters are incredibly touching. I especially loved how Jean gave Cosette some better gifts than Eponine’s and Azele’s combined. Not only because it was probably the first time Cosette got such a treatment in years, but it also angered Eponine and Azele even more. And something tells me that they’re still going to play some kind of role in this story. Same with Thenardier. For the first time, he actually got angry.
It surprised me that Jean didn’t break the news of Fantine’s death yet. But then again, I bet it’s extremely hard to tell any girl that her mother died, let alone Cosette. Still, the more he puts this off, the more it’s going to hurt when the finds out in the end. And he also has to make up some kind of excuse why they can’t immediately come go to see her. I really wonder when he’s going to tell her, as I’ve got absolutely no idea about this.
And thus ends the first quarter of Les Miserables. I’m actually curious about how the rest of the series will continue. After all, the Thenardiers can’t make Cosette’s life horrible anymore. I suspect that Javert is going to play a big role in the future episodes, as he’s got to find Jean some day, hasn’t he? So far, this series has been beautiful. I’m hoping for the rest of the series to be even better. :)]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 12
Short Synopsis: Finally, after the Fantine- and Jean-episodes, we’ve got ourselves another Cosette-episode. And what’s more, Jean meets Cosette for the first time.
Good: Cosette was SO sad.
Bad: Jean running into Cosette was a bit too coincidental.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Boy, this episode definitely showed that Cosette is the star of this show. The past few episodes have been dedicated mostly to Jean. They were very interesting, but this episode definitely stole my heart when the anime starts focusing on Cosette again. The awesomeness begins when Gavroche is taken away. It’s probably to some labour-school-kind of thing. In any case, Cosette won’t see him again, and she sends Shushu after him, in order to look after him. This means that with the priest also gone, Cosette is all alone now. When I saw the episode-title, I never knew that it would go this far.
Cosette was so sad afterwards. Only now it becomes clear how heavily she relied on Gavroche, when she has to get a bucket of water in the middle of the evening, due to the fact that the original water-supplies for the day mysteriously vanished (courtesy of Eponine). What normally was a routine-task really becomes too much for her at that point. It’s there where Jean coincidentally runs into her. I forgive the lack of reason for this, as it’s an interesting twist. After all, right now the Thenariers won’t be able to fool him anymore about Azele being Cosette. Still, next episode is promising to be a beauty, as not only is Jean going to try and retrieve Cosette from the Thenardiers, she’ll receive probably one of the worst punishments she’s ever had. Definitely looking forward to it.
This episode also raised an interesting issue. Christmas in such clear weather? This means that we’re somewhere in southern France. I never really thought about things like that. Javert also was interesting this episode. This really shows that he’s convinced that Jean is evil, even though he knows about the things he did for the city.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 11
Short Synopsis: The moment is finally there: Fantine dies. Jean, meanwhile, has been arrested by Javert.
Good: Gavroche; Jean.
Bad: Where did Gavroche find these puppets so fast? 😛
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Another Jean-centred episode. When I first read that Fantine would die, I assumed that her illness would gradually increase, until it took her life. What I didn’t expect was that Javert helped this illness a bit, by speaking bad things about Cosette. Cosette probably was her entire raison d’etre, in the most literal way you can imagine. At her state, hearing one bad thing about Cosette was too much for her. It’s ironic. When an ordinary guy steals twice, he gets condemned, but when an important official kills someone, it’s nothing.
The next episode will probably feature Jean, trying to get Cosette away from the Thenardiers. The thirteenth episode will quite possibly close off the first arc of this story. I’m interested in how it’ll continue. The first quarter of the anime has succeeded in my opinion. All that’s left is the rest.
Meanwhile, over at the Thenardier’s, Gavroche gets in trouble because of Cosette. (His puppet-play also was quite interesting ^^;) The thing also is, Cosette will leave in a few episodes. Because of this, Thenardier will lose the person whom she likes to abuse most. She will be looking for someone else for this role afterwards, which will quite probably be Gavroche. I hope that the Thenardiers will still remain important characters after Cosette leaves. I hate them, but they’re definitely interesting characters.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 10
Short Synopsis: Most of the episode centres around Jean Valean, as he’s forced to reveal his secret. Cosette, meanwhile writes a letter to her mother.
Good: Jean was very interesting; How long must Thenardier keep interfering with Fantine and Cosette?!
Bad: It took so long for Cosette to write a letter?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Ah, so that’s why Jean Valjean was so worried. It wasn’t just that Javel thought that he was Jean Valjean, it’s that someone else had been arrested under the name of Jean Valjean. This means that this poor person was about to be judged for the sins that the real Jean Valjean committed. Because of this, Jean’s problems may be over, but the fact remains that he dedicated himself to building an upright life. Heck, he tries to throw away the chandelier that he “got” from the priest, but even that is impossible for him. He just can’t let an innocent person be judged because of the things he did, which is why he reveals his real identity in the end.
The results of this revelation will have to wait till the next episode, when Javert will probably find out. Jean managed to walk away in the end, but there’s no way he’s not going to be judged. I wonder what Aran’s role will be in this. He’s been rather absent after he warned Jean about Fantine. Speaking of Fantine, I’m really hoping for Cosette to get at least a chance of meeting Fantine before she dies. Right now, the happy times at the Thenardiers seem to be completely over, with the things Cosette did to annoy them in the past episodes. She’s especially lost the support of Gavroche, and it seems that even the priest is going to be moving away towards Paris.]]>