Category: Finished Series: Sports

This is very rare for a sports-anime: three huge matches, happening all at the same time, and all of them turned out to be awesome. I’m so glad that this series is back again.

Basically, this episode was all about the rookies versus the veterans: Shion versus Satoru, Saori versus Hani-meijin and Ayumi versus Shion’s foster-father. The episode ended with all the rookies getting pwned. The episode ended in a cliff-hanger, but with this series you never know how much longer a fight will take. Series like Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji should really take an example from Shion no Ou, because the pacing for this series is truly addictive.

I think that Ayumi has lost for real in this episode. I’m not sure whether the match was over at the end of the episode, but there wasn’t much hope left for him anyway. His mind seemed off for some reason. Ah well, at least Shion’s foster-father offered to take him up as a student, so he can learn more. That’s quite cute. 🙂

Oh, and how I love Shion. It was obvious that Satoru would start teasing her, right from the beginning, and Shion here had no intention to let his mind-games get to her. When Satoru leaves the shougi-room for a minute to suppose to give Shion some extra thinking-time, she does the same against him right when he comes back. Still, it’s clear now that the guy didn’t just stop playing shougi after his mother died, but instead continued to play, unbeknownst to his brother, suggesting that the two of them grew apart after that incident (one flashback this episode showed that they were quite close when their mother was still alive). And indeed, he easily surprises Shion by playing innocent, and then striking with a winning move. Still, I feel that the cliff-hanger was used for a reason…

Saori, meanwhile, has her long-desired match against Hani-Meijin. A match she’s doomed to lose, though I suspect that the way it ends will give her great insights for the future. In any case, the next episode promises to be an excellent one.

Okay, scrap what I said after the previous episode. This wasn’t exactly what you’d expect from the semi-final episode of a series. The next episode is going to be awesome, with three exciting matches between Shion and Satoru, Ayumi and Shion’s foster-father and Saori and Hani-Meijin. But can the creators really solve the murder-mystery along with that? At this point, I have no idea whether this series is getting a sequel or not. If would of course be awesome to see more of this series.

Also, with this episode, I finally realize something regarding my own tastes. I’m a sucker for series that don’t just develop their main characters, but also have deep side-characters. That’s probably why I’m into Shion no Ou so much: not only does it have the amazing Shion in the lead, but it also has an excellent cast of side-characters. In other words: the entire cast feels complete. That’s probably also why I liked series like Simoun and Baccano so much.

In any case, this episode shows especially much focus to Hisatani, as he manages to win a difficult match against a strong yet kind opponent. Saori’s role in this is interesting, and is it me, or are the two of them getting closer? In any case, Saori really looked like Hani-Meijin did in the previous episode, when she went on to check up on Hisatani’s match.

And really, I have no idea what’s up with Satoru. In episode nine, we clearly see that the killer has purple hair, and yet he was the one who returned Hisatani’s cell-phone. And yet Shion doesn’t notice anything when she talks to him, and yet she subconsciously recognized the voice of the killer immediately. It’s clear by now that Satoru has a connection to the killer, but I still can’t really put my finger on whether or not they’re the same guys.

I must say that Shion no Ou did really well in capturing the overall feel of the tournament. Sometimes, you end up against someone you know, sometimes you’re against a complete stranger, but all of the new opponents have felt surprisingly real, despite their short introductions and lack of background. I like how basically the main stage for this series is the Shougi-dojo, where basically everyone can run into everyone. It’s hard to explain this, but it feels like everyone gets to know every other character this way. I hope this made sense.

Now one thing I hope for is that the final episode doesn’t screw up. There’s going to be enough tension with the three major shougi-matches, but the question remains whether the murder-subplot will be resolved enough.

Oh, and on a final note: Shion nicely subverted the mute-girl trope in this episode. Usually, a mute girl gets her voice back after having been shown the enormous friendship of the main characters. Shion however, finally utters a few words after hearing the killer again. I like how this makes sense.

Okay, so today wasn’t about Ayumi and Shion’s foster-father, but instead on Shion herself. And it really seems that this series is going to end at episode 12. Let’s hope that the creators aren’t going to rush the ending. This series deserves better.

In any case, this episode was as awesome as usual, and it confirmed yet again that this is my favourite series that came with the Fall-season. Ghost Hound and Mokke are going to have to try really hard with their second halves if they want to beat this series. In any case, this episode was mainly about Shion’s match against the boy-genius, and another example of a psychological battle. It seems that the boy only played Shougi on-line up till now, and the only reason he won against his previous opponent was because he used a strategy that was popular on te net, but not outside of it and his opponent turned out to be a salaryman.

As an added twist, the murderer gets back into action again. It seems he’s well aware of the ongoing tournament, and he actually makes a phone-call to Shion at the end of the episode! The scene where the guy went and stole the mobile-phone might have been a bit forced, though, but it can be explained as soon as we know his intentions. Let’s hope I can pick it up with the next episode without subtitles and all.

In case you were wondering: yes, I do like to save the best for last. The only series that are left for me to catch up to are Shion no Ou and Les Miserables. And I absolutely loved this episode. It was all about the match between Saori and Kaminozo, and I was really surprised at the depth that was given to Kaminozo. I love it when a series doesn’t just develop its main characters.

The guy indeed was a Shougi-master, though through he finally reached the point where his age gets in the way, and there’s also the matter of his deceased wife. It seems that he used the tournament, to confirm that he was still able to play Shougi, though after a three hour-long match he just couldn’t keep up against the still-growing Saori. And to think that Shougi-matches can take over three hours to finish. I was easily pwned within one minute by that Hamshougi.

In any case, I love this series. I don’t how the creators do it, but every single character connects much easier than with a regular series. In the next episode, we’ll get to see Ayumi versus Shion’s foster-father, which promises to become very interesting. We also see an interesting twist: a new character shows up who looks suspiciously much like the murderer. His hair is purple, though, and we see him in some kind of internet-cafe.

Yep, it does seem that Daijin’s right about the length of this series. There is no way that the creators are going to stuff the rest of the tournament in just four episodes. This episode revealed that the tournament is going to be huge, and EVERYONE will be participating in it. There is no way that four episodes will be enough, especially since this episode has also been introducing new opponents for Shion. Also, after playing a few shougi-games myself here (link, thanks to Daijin), I’ve gotten even more respect for the different characters of this series. Really, shougi is hard. It’s really much, much harder than it looks. The pieces can really come from nowhere, there are so many holes that can be created in your defence, and you really need to take care of all of them if you don’t want to fail miserably. The shougi-match between Shion and Saori in the last episode, I really can imagine how one simple move can turn the entire tables for one match. Anyway, now that that’s out, I absolutely loved this episode. The tournament starts here, and it’s well built-up for. Not only the characters we know have entered, but also quite a few unknown ones, and this episode already marks the end of the first matches of the first rounds. Something you rarely see in tournament-series. The tournament is basically divided into three groups, and the participants are randomly divided in these three groups. Here’s the line-up: Group A: Hisatani (Shion’s foster-brother) Shinji (Shion’s foster-father) Ayumi Group B: Hani-Meijin Ayumi’s shougi-teacher Saori Group C: Shion Satoru An interesting line-up, especially as it seems very likely that Hani-Meijin will end up playing against Ayumi’s shougi-teacher. Shion is also the one who’s going to have to go up against Satoru (which he probably arranged behind the scenes). Apart from that, she has to go against newly introduced characters. This episode, she wins from a grown-up adult, who is something like a good amateur. Next episode is some kind of other child prodigy, which could turn interesting. Ayumi has also won his first match, though we don’t get to see the opponent, and I can imagine how all the others won as well. Satoru also seems to have beaten quite a famous shougi-player, suggesting that the guy indeed was really good. And yet, so much more went on in this episode than just that! We first get to see a bit of background between Hani-Meijin and Satoru, of the time when their mother died. They were just playing a few shougi-matches, while the hospital phoned. Satoru begged Hani to continue playing, though Hani wanted to take care of his late mother. After that, Satoru stopped playing. Later, we see how Shion visits Ayumi’s mother. I must say, that out of all anime that feature tournament-arcs that I’ve seen, Shion no Ou is the best. It successfully manages to avoid so many clichés, and I love the way the first rounds have turned out, with enough going on. I also love how many friends have entered in the same tournament. Also, none of the matches drag, and all of them so far have been over within a minute. While this will probably change in the future, I still love how so far, Shion no Ou feels refreshingly different from them. And seriously, I love the scenes where Ayumi and Shion are together more and more. Right now, I’m really sure that it wasn’t a mistake to label Shion no Ou as the best series of the autumn-season so far. No other series has managed to make me care about its characters as this one.]]>

Alongside series such as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Saiunkoku Monogatari and Kaiji, which all have plenty of time to build up, Shion no Ou forms an excellent addition, simply because the time it has to work with is quite limited, so it has to keep up quite a fast pacing to finish in time. Unlike the series above, you just know that every episode will be interesting and push the storyline a considerable amount further. This effect becomes even more apparent when the characters are just so addictive as in this series. I could care less about the Shougi at this point, the characters themselves make this series worthwhile enough to keep watching. This episode probably forms the end of the small intermezzo, where Satoru gets fleshed out even more, and where we see two matches: one between Saori and Shion, and one between Ayumi and Satoru. All of them were interesting, and quite important for the storyline. After the first one, Saori finally starts to consider Shion as a worthy opponent, instead of a cute girl who happens to be good at shougi, after Shion makes quite a few smart moves in a quick match. Satoru on the other hand, loses to Ayumi on purpose, in order to test the guy/girl out. His motivations are still quite fuzzy at the moment, but I think that we’ll find these out quite soon. I’m also quite surprised at how often the reporter-guy passes by. The guy gets featured in the OP, but is he something more than just a bystander, or will he too play some kind of more important role in the future? In the later part of the episode, we also see Shion and Ayumi, going to a local fast-food-restaurant, and the two of them were SO cute at the time. I’m really surprised at how the usually stoic Ayumi talked in such a gentle way to Shion. One thing that I’ve been wondering: how come the police couldn’t find anything through fingerprint analysis? The murderer basically placed the king of shougi on the board after he killed Shion’s parents. He wasn’t wearing gloves, as Shion recognized how the fingers of the guy were pretty… so why hasn’t fingerprint analysis pointed out the victim? Or could this be because the murderer has never been in contact with the police before?]]>

Now that the first half of the series is nearly over, it’s time for an intermezzo. Shion no Ou spends it giving Shion and the ones around her a bit more background in the form of a friend who died eight years ago, develop Ayumi’s case even more and introduce the final half of the series. Next episode, we’ll see the match between Shion and Saori. The friend who died was basically a good comrade of both Shion’s foster-parents, Shion herself (who seems to be quite close with them, even before she lost her parents) and Hani-meji as well. His name seems to be Kyotarou, and he was the one who taught Shion shougi when she got interested when she saw a shougi-board. I also love how this little piece of background brought Shion and her foster-family even closer together. Kyotarou seems to have caught a deadly sickness afterwards, and his condition went worse quite quickly, and if I understood things correctly, he wanted to play Hani-meji (who already was a terrific shougi-player back then) one final time, and died before he could finish the match. Meanwhile, we know what happened to Ayumi’s father: he’s an incredible idiot who just leaves his ex-wife to die, while stealing money from his son and beating him viciously. While it is a bit stereotypical, I guess it does feel in place in this series. It would be awesome if said father would receive a small bit of development himself in one of the final episodes, but I have no idea what to expect from the second half of this series. Well, apart from one thing, perhaps. This is just one big hunch, but the yellow-haired guy, who finally gets a proper introduction in this episode as Hani-meji’s brother, is on the top of my list of “people most likely to have killed Shion’s parents”. Remember, we know that the silhouette of the guy must be one with short hair. In this episode, Shion also claims that the killer had clean and pretty hands, and the guy seems to fit these requirements as well. But most importantly, there has to be a reason why both he and Shion have a necklace with the exact same gem on it.]]>

I’m not sure whether it is because all three series have an excellent soundtrack, but by now I’ve managed to pin down my three favourite series for this season: Kaiji, Ghost Hound and Shion no Ou. Especially the latter two have been getting more solid with every episode, and I’m always looking forward to when a new episode airs. This episode of Shion no Ou showcases the final match of the tournament between Ayumi and Saori, and yet again I was captivated by the match, despite not understanding 50% of the moves that were made. Yet, I did notice how I’ve been getting better and better at following the matches as the series went on. Surprisingly, Ayumi loses, despite his determination to win the prize money for his mother. And finally we get to see his teacher again, who scolds the guy because he was starting to play shougi for the enjoyment, instead of the money, but does give him a decent sum of money. Saori also gets quite a bit of development in this episode. I liked how she too was trying to adapt her own style. Something also tells me that Hanimeji knows fully well that Ayumi is actually male, due to a very obvious hint he gave away. I’m curious how this anime will develop further, now that the first major tournament is over. I didn’t quite get whether Ayumi received enough money from his teacher or not, and we’ve also yet to see the yellow-haired dude in action.]]>

This episode was quite an interesting experience. After watching it, I really have to say that Shion no Ou is going to be one of the best series this season, especially the 12-episoded ones, even though it was quite hard to understand this episode. It’s basically one huge Shougi-match, and for the first time in the series we actually see some strategy, and we’re allowed to see how the game develops. Even though the only I know about Shougi is the things I remembered from wikipedia (the difference between the king, bishop and rooks and pawns), and I did get a vague idea of how the game developed, and how Shion again got defeated by Ayumi, but still providing a huge challenge for him. I like how the match just took up one episode, and that’s a benefit for the short length of this series: often board-game anime like this tend to drag on for ages but Shion no Ou can’t waste such time because it’s only got twelve episodes. One thing I also loved about this game was the huge role that was given to the spectators, and how they were commenting on the game. Hanimeji (that was his name, right?) was especially interesting, due to his realistic and expert-view of the game. Obviously, everyone wants Shion to win, but things don’t always go that easy. And I love Shion even more after this episode. While this isn’t the first time where you see a character pass out after an intense game, the way this series presents it is refreshingly detailed. Shion was basically both sick and she had her period, and the only thing that kept her awake was her desire to win over Ayumi (yeah… the anime explains this better).]]>

Hey, this episode was really good! I’m beginning to understand what Kiseki gurl meant with Shion’s strong character, as she’s really one of the most likable characters to appear this season, along with Kaiji. The episode started off a little buggy, though. So much publicity for just Shougi seems a bit unrealistic. It could be that Shougi is the most popular “sports” of the city, and the city is relatively small, though, but the horde of reporters still may have been a bit too much. Shion then ends up fainting, the day before her rematch with Ayumi, after thinking back to the murder-event again. While it was nice enough to watch, it wasn’t anything special yet, but I was actually surprised how afterwards, the police managed to track down the creepy stalker, and Shion kept pushing herself to make it to the match once she woke up. Basically, Shion’s a heavily traumatized girl with a huge mental will to keep going. If the scriptwriters continue to develop this through the next nine episodes, we might have ourselves a very special anime here. The episode also ends with the match between Shion and Ayumi, and Shion was basically crying as she started playing. Still, something tells me that she’s not going to give up at all in the next episode. Also regarding the creepy stalker, in the end he just was a creepy stalker and doesn’t seem to be the guy who killed Shion’s parents. The question remains, though: why did the guy decide to stalk Shion, and if he didn’t kill her parents, who did? I’m also wondering whether I should change the title to “Sion no Ou”. If you look carefully at the sign on S(h)ion’s bedroom, it reads “Sion”, instead of “Shion”. Still, for now I’m going to blame it on bad katakana and romanji, since there’s no difference between “si” and “shi” in Japanese, and there never has been a universal form of romanji anyway. (On a side-note: there’ve been quite a few anime this season where children have been traumatized because of the murder of their loved ones, haven’t there? Shion with her parents, Mari from Blue Drop with all 800 inhabitants of the island and Tarou from Ghost Hound with his sister, and I probably missed a few. It’s interesting how all these series give their own meaning to the incidents, and the characters who suffer from the traumas).]]>