Category: Otogi Juushi Akazukin

And with this, we start the second half of Otogi Juushi Akazukin. And how better to start it than with an upgrade on our main heroine: Princess Mode. Seriously, she looks sickeningly cute in it. Even more than she already was. This was quite a funny episode, despite its seriousness. This mainly was due to our three musketeers, who couldn’t decide which one of them would be getting this upgrade (I loved how Ibara tried to say something in between the bickering Akazukin and Shirayuki) and therefore had to be calmed with a huge bucket of water and Harmeru, who turned out quite interesting in this episode, even though he had such a minor role.

This was mainly due to the small details. Am I the only one, or was he a bit too eager to save Ringo at the beginning of the episode? I think someone’s falling in love. ^^; Later in the episode, we also see him get annoyed at Kyupi, who decided to use his headgear as some kind of strange chair. I just hope that Akazukin’s transformation sequence will be shortened in the future episodes. It was just a bit too long.

The next episode will be comparable to this one, as another very strong enemy will appear, and Akazukin will probably end up testing the limits of Princess Mode. Which makes you wonder: does that mean that she’s a real princess? Also, what use will Gretel be in the future episodes? And Randagio? With Akazukin now that strong, they’d have to come up with some pretty creative strategies to be of any use in battle. Or will they have a special role in the future episodes?

Finally an Akazukin/Baru episode! And an excellent one as well. As expected, this episode is the entire opposite of the previous one when Souta ends up in the Lycan main capital. Not much of Turude, but Jedo-sama really played a big role.

But the best part of the episode was Baru, getting injured. The effects this has on Akazukin is great, as finally we get to see another side of her. I loved it how she stays playful, until Baru collapses. Only then she sees what her playfulness caused, and her mood changes completely. She rushes off to find the medicine, but by doing this, Souta runs off on his own again, unprotected.

Baru also played a huge role in this, as he’s related to the lycan in some kind of way. Remember that he is a wolf himself. Does this mean that he’s some kind of special lycan? If he is, does he have a human form as well? He had a small conversation with Jedo-sama this episode, but I couldn’t understand too much of it. *kicks lack Japanese* Didn’t Jedo call Baru Gin-Roh? I also wonder how Jedo-sama’s story will continue. He’s not exactly one of the bad guys, but you also can’t really call him a good guy. Baru currently hates him, but this episode showed that he isn’t really too keen on helping Cendrion.

I’m also wondering… what happened to Hansel and Gretel? What happened to them after Gretel took the unconscious Hansel away from the Forest of Okashi? We saw Gretel at the previous episode, in a rather comical way, though we never saw Hansel again after that. After that infamous episode, Turude suddenly appeared and the story took a whole different turn, focusing on different aspects of the story of Otogi Juushi Akazukin. I like this trick. It makes you look forward to seeing these characters appear again.

The next episode will be a strange one, and it’ll be focused on Akazukin yet again. Finally she gets some real development. She gets some power up, and Turude seems to be coming in action as well (never knew she was a girl). And Akazukin also is a princess. I wonder what kind of princess. Oh, and she looks really cute in her new outfit. ^_^

Okay. That was AWESOME!

I can’t believe how incredibly cute this episode turned out. It was just one huge chunk of randomness. Basically, what happens is that the City Musicians of Bremen appear again and use their music-magic to create a huge pumpkin monster who feeds on musical energy. What follows is almost an entire episode, filled with songs, songs and even more songs. The way this turned out was so incredibly awesome. Best episode thus far!

And Hameln was just brilliant! He also arrives in an attempt to slay the huge pumpkin monster, until it appears that he’s got a huge pumpkin-phobia. XD This was because when they were young, Akazukin kept chasing him with a large pumpkin on her head. The way he eventually took care of the monster was just hilarious. XD

Though on a more serious note, I’ve complained before about Akazukin. Even though she’s supposed to be the main character of this show, she isn’t really fleshed out. We know nothing of her background, and she didn’t have a real episode dedicated to her. But now we finally saw a scene of her past. It seems that she lived together with Hameln, and that the two were on rather “friendly” terms. ^_^

Overall, I just can’t stop mentioning how awesome this episode was. Both the three musketeers as the four City Musicians of Bremen as Hameln played their parts perfectly. And both Akazukin, Shirayuki and Ibara were SO cute in their own songs! *fanboys*

Next episode will probably be the entire opposite: both Jedo-sama as Turude will be returning. Exciting!

Okay, that was an excellent episode. It’s not centred around a character this time, but it’s meant to explain a few things about the overall story, namely the mirrors we’ve been seeing. I always took them for granted, but now it seems that they’ve got a huge back-story behind them, and are actually vital for Cendrion to carry out her plan.

The setting for this episode is a rather gloomy town. At first, I thought that it was a snow town, but it seems that the village lies next to a volcano, which is constantly dropping its ash on top of the village. That’s why the entire city has a grey colour.

In here, Akazukin and the others meet up with a talking parrot, who takes them to some kind of mansion. There’s a fairytale about this mansion, and Souta is more than eager to hear it. Once upon a time, when the volcano was still inactive, there was a girl, who was in love with a certain boy. Then, the volcano started to erupt, and the boy told the girl that god is angry, and that he’s punishing them. Because of that, he went inside a mirror, telling the girl that he needed to go to the other world. The mansion seemed to be the place where the girl lived.

Ringo, while cleaning up the mansion a bit, suddenly receives tons of phone-messages from her friends. She finds a broken mirror, and realizes that the shards of the mirror are actually able to send the telephone signals through from the human world. When the mirror is reassembled, Souta actually disappears into the mirror. In there, he sees the same girl from the fairytale, speaking to a mirror which displays a bit of the human world.

So the mirrors are actually links between worlds. There also seems to be some kind of dimension between Erde and Fandavale, and that’s where Cendrion has her main base. In there, there’s probably a special mirror, linked to a sealed dimension, and that’s where Cendrion is located. The reason Gretel and Randagio were able to transport so easily from Erde to Fandavale also was because of this dimension. I think this also means that if Souta would have touched the mirror, being held by the girl, he’d be able to travel back to Erde.

Another thing to note is that whenever a Nightmarian gets beaten, a mirror gets destroyed. Could it be that Nightmarians and mirrors are of the same essence? After all, the first episodes seemed to suggest that the mirrors in Cendrion’s base were able to see through the Nightmarian’s eyes.

The question also remains: who was this boy from the fairy-tale? Right now, the only one who fits the criteria is Souta’s father. It’s quite possible that he travelled to the human world, got stuck there or refused to come back, met Souta’s mother and that’s how Souta was born. It does explain why Souta is so special: he’s the only child between a person from Erde and Fandavale. Still, if this were true, Souta’s Father’s hair colour must’ve changed somehow from blond to brown.

These really are some very interesting theories. Thanks to this episode, I’m loving this series more and more. ^_^

Next episode, the City Musicians of Bremen will return. Yay!

First of all, Raikan isn’t a person, it’s a group of people led by “Eternal King Jedo-Sama”, the one who killed the monster from the wine cellar. Apparently, he has a certain history with Baru, and I think he’ll turn out to be a major bad guy in the later parts of the series. Something I missed while watching episode 12. ^^

Anyway, about the episode, it’s got a healthy dose of background of Ibara. After all, Shirayuki teleported the group to her home country. Ibara indeed is the princess of her country (you’d wonder about the country Shirayuki is the princess of), so Souta and the others are welcomed with lots of hospitality. Surprisingly, Souta also gets a bit of development himself and I’m still waiting for that Akazukin-episode. Oh, and Ibara actually smiled for the first time ever. ^^

Souta doesn’t really know what happened to his mother. He just has dreams in which she’s kidnapped or in danger. It seems that she just vanished into thin air at one moment. Even photographs didn’t show her anymore. Ibara tells a cute story about her own clover. When she was young, she often used to play and talk with it, though one time, she fell asleep and her powers went out of control and caused a ruckus, ripping one of the clover’s leaves off.

Next episode seems to be a normal one again, when Akazukin and the others reach a snow town. I’m not sure on who it’ll focus, probably Ringo. But it also seems that we finally get to see some signs of Erude again.

Okay. His name is Turude. Then who is Raikan?

In any case, like expected, especially the beginning of this episode was pretty intense, when Turude comes and changes everyone but Ringo in wooden dolls. Ringo manages to escape with Hameln’s help. Souta and the others, meanwhile find themselves in a labyrinth of doors and places they’ve visited. In the end, they escape this by choosing the right door. I have to wait for the subs for their strategy on this, as I didn’t fully understand it.

Still, that doesn’t solve the problem of Turude, targetting them. In the end, even Akazukin, Shirayuki and Ibara’s power combined can’t do anything. They escape in the end when Shirayuki teleports them to a random place. In this case: Ibara’s hometown. The next episode promises to be awesome, with lots of background of Ibara. I can’t wait. ^^

Meanwhile, if I understood things correctly, Hansel and Gretel didn’t return to Cendrion. If that’s the case, then where did they go? It’s obvious that Hansel was still sleeping during this episode, but what will they be doing in the next episodes? They’re not going to reach Akazukin and the others, as they’re currently at Ibara’s hometown.

This was such a cute episode. And a great one as well. It’s a great one this time, and it really reveals some very interesting things about her past with Hansel. She loves her brother because when they were even smaller than they are now, they used to be very close to each other. Hansel was very kind to his little sister. Then, they ran into the house, made of sweets (was I the only one to love the reference in this one?) and met Cendrion, who then brainwashed Hansel.

This episode, Akazukin and the others are in the same forest as back then. Of course it’s nostalgic to both Hansel and Gretel when they found out. Gretel then finds out that Cendrion has been controlling Hansel, as she quickly drives this nostalgic feeling out of him. She then goes to the sugar-house again, and waits for Akazukin and the others, in order to ask for help. Ringo, however, doesn’t trust her, so she leaves, along with the others. Gretel, however, keeps following them, in a very sad way. I can’t believe how cute she was at that time. ^_^

In any case, Souta decides to trust her. Quite a touching scene follows between the two of them, though just when you think that Gretel has agreed to join him, things move differently as she reports to her brother. She tries to convince him that Akazukin and the others can help the two of them, but he’s only interested in Souta. In the end, Gretel tells him the location of Erde’s key. The next morning, Hansel appears in front of him.

I can’t believe how evil Hansel looked at that time. He just ruthlessly charges, and fires a spell which kills almost the entire forest. Gretel’s reaction to this also was awesome. In the end, Akazukin, Shirayuki and Ibara manage to take him out by combining their powers. I’m not sure how they managed to do this, seems like I failed to understand a few sentences. Anyway, Gretel then chooses Hansel over Souta, threatens the latter with her sword and escapes along with the unconscious former. I quite like her case. Especially because she loves her brother, who’s been brainwashed.

We also met up with a new character: a very old, talking tree. I like him. He behaves just like a very cheerful old man. He also saw Hansel and Gretel when they were still young, and he actually protected Souta and Ringo from Hansel’s poison rain. At the end of the episode, he also provides a nice message, regarding the destroyed forest. Things will just recover. Give it a few years, and the forest will be back again. Ibara also presents him with a magical seed.

Randagio also was as cute as ever. He was needed at the beginning of the episode, in order to tell Hansel and Gretel about Souta’s location. Afterwards, he rushes off to find them, though the creators found a very nice way of keeping him out of the main events of this episode. ^_^

Anyway, I think that this episode marked the end of another part of this anime. The next part will probably be even darker, as during the next episode, Raikan will be coming into action. Be sure not to miss it.

(On a side-note: did anybody else notice that when Ibara was sleeping, she had Kyupi wrapped up in her vines?)

Finally we have the Akazukin-episode, though she didn’t get any character development like Shirayuki, Ibara and Ringo did when they got their own episode. This episode was rather meant to show what would happen to Ibara and Shirayuki if Akazukin was absent from the three musketeers. Well, they’d get their ass kicked. ^^;

Basically, what happens is Akazukin getting sick due to the poisonous spores of another Nightmarian. Then it seems that Souta and the others ended up in another village with its own legend: Salamandra-sama. There’s a huge statue of a dragon at one place in the village. The villagers believe that it’s actually a good spirit who protects the village from all sorts of harm. In order to show their appraisal to Salamandra-sama, the villagers have come up with a very strange ritual, they perform in front the statue. Even if there’s a bloodthirsty monster right next to it.

Gretel then gets to be the one to track the group down, with the same basketball Hansel used in episode 6. She comes in, breaks the statue and remodels the rubbish in order to turn it into a giant seahorse, who charges after Shirayuki, Ibara and Baru. The interesting part in this episode was the way the villagers reacted. Taking into account that the spirit they believed for so long suddenly turned into a giant seahorse, destroying everything on its path, it’s no wonder that they’d get angry.

In the end, the Souta and Akazukin (who managed to wake up in the end) are able to concince that Salamandra still is a good being. Gretel then gets defeated, with a little help from Salamandra-sama himself. It’s quite ironic. While it was clear that Akazukin beat the Nightmarian at the beginning of the episode, the glory gets put to Salamandra-sama, while when Salamandra-sama destroys the giant seahorse, Shirayuki and Ibara thought that Akazukin had become so good that she was able to shoot huge fireballs in the form of dragons. ^^

It’s also strange that Gretel was the only bad guy who appeared in this episode. The villains from the previous episode are nowhere to be found, even Randagio and Cendrion were absent. Ah well, it does add some versatility. It’s great to see a villain again who’s been absent for a couple of episodes.

Also, never let Akazukin, Ibara and Ringo sleep at one place. ^_^;;;

This episode’s main purpose was to introduce a number of new characters. The problem is that their relationships are quite complex. If you combine this with my lack of Japanese, things become quite hard to understand. This episode also was pretty dark, with themes you wouldn’t expect in a children’s anime. The bad guys are no longer the only ones who get slain. Something I never saw coming.

Anyway, a quick rundown of the new characters.

First, we have a strange villager, carrying an accordion. We see him at the beginning of the episode, where he discovers some strange eyes, glowing out an abandoned building. Later in the episode, he warns Souta not to go inside that building, as a monster is wandering around in its wine cellar. I’m not sure whether he’s an important character, or just appeared during this episode. At first looks, he just was a random villager who ran into the monster in the wine cellar, but then again, why did he carry an accordion? And why did he have to act so mysterious (as in, randomly disappearing without a trace)?

Second, a new bad guy. The one with only a single eye. We see him for the first time when he talks to Randagio. He seems to be his superior, or something. His name is spoken, but it’s even harder to figure out how to spell it than with the Bremen City Musicians. I’ll go with Rarudo for now, even though it’s a rather strange name. In any case, he looks quite scary.

Third, another bad guy. He appears along with Rarudo. It seems that his name is Jedo, though for some reason, he wants Randagio to call him “Eternal King Jedo-Sama”. The conversation that he and Rarudo have with Randagio could also mean that Eternal King Jedo-Sama is another major bad guy, who wasn’t present at that time. Otherwise, the guy would be speaking about himself in third person.

The fourth is a character who only appears this episode, seeing as he disappears afterwards. He’s a monster who lives in the wine cellar at the abandoned house, mentioned above. He’s able to take the form of a human, and when Souta meets him, he learns that he isn’t a monster after all. It’s just that he’s become lonely after everyone labelled him as a monster and stayed away from him.

The fifth is the strangest of the bunch. I’m not really sure what he’s up to. He seems to have come to town to slay the monster in the cellar, but he acts nice towards Souta when he finally did so. When Baru found out that the two of them have met, he suddenly got extremely serious. For some reason, the monster names Jedo’s name as well when he’s about to get killed.

I’m not sure who belongs to which party, but it’s great to see that this is not just a fight between good and evil. We have Souta’s side, we have the side of the Bremen City Musicians, we have Cendrillion’s side and now Jedo’s side has also appeared. And why does Randagio seem to have connections with each of the last three of them?

In any case, Randagio was pretty funny during this episode, when he tried to get his hands on the key yet another time. The Nightmarians he summoned were quite creative as well. Instead of summoning one huge creature, he summons a bunch of flees. ^^ Quite annoying if you have no idea how to deal with them. During the end of the episode, he also has a very funny discussion with Cendrillion. She tries to say something to him, but because he’s forced to keep such a large distance from her mirror, he can’t hear what she says. ^^ I love it when he gives the more serious characters a funny side.

Oh, and Raikan, that was the person who was with Cendrillion in episode 10, wasn’t it? *kicks memory*

Ah, okay. Akazukin and the others weren’t heading for Cendrillion’s castle, they were heading for the magic school, in the hope that their teachers might be able to find out her location. This episode was a Ringo-episode, though almost every character played some kind of role in it. Except for Akazukin, perhaps. She remained in the background as usual, doing the things she’s supposed to do. I’m dying for an Akazukin episode.

In any case, Ringo has a problem. She can’t do anything. This becomes clear when she gets lost and almost gets killed by a wandering Nightmarian. She then asks Ibara, of all people, to teach her a bit of magic, so that she isn’t totally helpless. In the end, she doesn’t get very far.

Shirayuki, Akazukin, Baru and Souta, meanwhile have somehow ended up in the local school play (a festival is going on inside the school). Souta plays the prince, while Shirayuki, Akazukin and Baru (yes, you read that right: BARU) play as princesses. Randagio and Gretel also decided to invade the school festival, and then they notice this strange play. They decide to just play along with them. Well, in the end, this ends up in chaos in which Gretel hypnotizes Souta and takes him away.

Next, they’re on a roof, along with Ringo and Harmeru. Harmeru makes Gretel drop Souta, and Ringo jumps after him, thinking that she can fly. Of course, she can’t. Shirayuki get to be the one to save them with her magic, though Ringo believes that it was her own magic that did it.

If Ringo wants to learn magic, why doesn’t she start with the basics? Why doesn’t she try to start from the beginning? And why didn’t Ibara advice her to do so? I’m suspecting that there’ll be a moment in which she’ll actually learn some (seeing the length of this series). For some reason, she’s really reminding me of Eva from Mahou Shoujotai at this point.

There was also a lot of cosplaying in this episode. With a small exception of a certain wolf, every character looked so cute in their outfits. Especially Akazukin. ^^ Apart from that, there was lots of cute stuff in this episode. Shirayuki and Ringo’s fight over Souta, for example. And Randagio’s evil plans and seeing them fail.