Category: 07-Ghost

Short Synopsis: The old guy goes after Teito as Mikage faces the decision between Teito and his family.
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Good)
So, this is where the shounen-ai elements pop up, with Mikage and Teito wanting to see each other that badly, up to the point where Mikage chooses protecting Teito over his family. But really, the relationship between the two of them isn’t that bad, and it doesn’t get in the way of what’s really important in this show at all.

It overall was still a pretty good episode, especially with all of the stuff surrounding the old guy, who turns out to be a ghoul. The fight against him was really well written: it had impact, and at the same time there were lots of things going on. I’m interested to see what role the Ghouls will have in the rest of the series: with such a considerable amount of time devoted to them, there has to be some link between them and Ayanami.

And that mermaid… I’m not exactly sure what to think of her since her introduction was pretty strange. All we know is that she has two different forms (probably one under water and one for out of water), she likes Teito but hates Frau. That probably is a subtle hint for at least something, but I can’t exactly put my finger onto what.

Short Synopsis: Teito tries to sneak out in order to save Mikage.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
I’m still surprised at actually how good this series turned out to be. From the outside it really looks like yet another overly angsty bishie-filled Vampire Knight, but at the same time this show has consistently delivered so far. The characters have impact, the setting looks intriguing and the story is very properly paced. Heck, this episode was mainly just meant for building up, and yet I loved it.

This episode also convinced me of something completely different: this show has a weird sense of humour. The scene with the fishy eyeballs was simply mental. I mean, who ever found the idea to make these things tasty? The antics of the three sisters also were simply hilarious. What the heck was up with that Christmas tree?!

On a more serious note, it’s good to see that Teito hasn’t forgotten about Mikage. Although I foresee a dull training arc in the future, it’s good to see him growing that way, and I was also surprised at the brutality of Ayanami’s torture: he’s now willing to involve Mikage’s sister in order to squeeze the information out of him, and it really contrasts with how much of an easy life Teito is leading, protected by all the ghosts and all.

This episode also showed that Ayanami isn’t exactly your average evil overlord, as he too has superiors he has to obey and also doesn’t seem to know why exactly Teito is special. My guess would be that he killed Teito’s father simply because he was ordered to. I’m also intrigued as to why he has so many henchmen, especially since all of them have distinctive character-designs.

Short Synopsis: Teito ends up at a strange church.
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Good)
I may be a bit late in noticing this, but this season features a lot of shows with excellent soundtracks, doesn’t it? We have Pandora Hearts, Phantom, Shin Mazinger, Full Metal Alchemist, Cross Game, Shangri-La, Guin Saga, 07-Ghost, Eden of the East, and I probably missed a few, all of them with some rocking background tracks.

In any case, I’ve decided to blog this show because it looks surprisingly solid despite the at first sight rather childish character-designs and voice actors (but then again, this is just typical of Studio Deen). I’m not that worried about the shounen-ai undertones getting in the way, simply becaues I HAVE SEEN SHINING TEARS X WIND. There is NO way that this show is going to be even as remotely disturbing as one particular scene from that show. Besides, so what if some of the characters are possibly gay? This episode showed that this series avoids the big pitfall of nearly every single shounen-ai series: the complete absence of straight people, and that’s enough for me. This show has shown so far that there are enough straight people.

In any case, this episode mostly was building up, and introduced the rest of the main cast apart from Teito and Ayanami, and we learn why this show is called “07-Ghost”: Teito gets saved by some priests from a nearby church who happen to run into him, and this church turns out to be a famous sacred place in which people come to get healed. It seems to have been founded by seven ghosts, hence the name 07-Ghost. Makes sense.

I’m interested to see what the creators can do with this series, and I like the mystery in it so far. There are some hints that Ayanami didn’t simply kill Teito’s father because he’s evil, and I’m curious to find out the reason behind it. At the same time, if the creators plan to go for 25 episodes, I wonder what they plan to fill the rest of the time with.

The staff behind this series isn’t the most solid, but it’ll suffice. Natsuko Takahashi is doing the series composition, and the great thing about her is that she’s got a huge amount of experience in this field. Since the source material is already looking excellent, she can use this experience in order to keep the series on track. The director meanwhile has worked on mostly uninteresting shoujo series like Hatenkou Yuugi, but he did direct Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, so there is potential in this guy, especially if he can stick to the manga like he’s supposed to.