Kaiba – 03


Oh for Christ’s sake! This episode took freaking ages to show up on Share, and even longer to download. I really wonder: how popular is Kaiba in Japan anyways? I remember how even Kaze no Shoujo Emily didn’t run into these problems, and that series probably was one of the least viewed anime around at that time…

Still, this series is pure gold, and I love every single bit of it. I’m an absolute sucker for good series that show how random people deal with its concepts, and Kaiba combines it plot with these random stories in an excellent way. What I especially like his how Kaiba meets the random people, he watches them, but he never interferes with them. He just tries to understand them, and that’s all. The stories of these people would have ended in the same way if Kaiba was never there, and that’s REALLY rare in this genre. It’s a great way of symbolizing the whimsical nature of memory in this series.

I’ve probably said this before, but PLEASE let there be more series like this one in the future. 12 episodes is just criminally short for a series with such a terrific concept. This episode shows a girl who sells her body in order to feed her family. Her memory then gets sent into space, in the hope of someday reaching a new body. Kaiba then steals her body, and ironically enough gets a free ride from the guard, who was sadistic to everyone only an episode ago.

This episode masterfully explores first this case from the perspective of the girl, and once she’s dead it’s the perspective from her stepmother, who was probably the one who suggested the girl to sell her body. The mother first was happy that the girl went, but very soon afterwards, she was full of guilt about what she did.

Kaiba definitely is my top-recommendation for the spring-season. It’s got everything: great graphics, an excellent concept, a fitting soundtrack, terrific characterization, it’s thought-provoking, short enough for a quick watch, and I can go on and on with this list.

Kaiba – 02


Make no mistake: the drawings of Kaiba may be very simple but it’s also the show with the most mature themes of the spring-season. It’s only been two episodes, and we’ve already been treated to nudity, sex, adultery, murder, privacy violations, you name it. At the same time, it has also turned into my favourite series this season, along with Himitsu. The thing I love most about the current spring-season is that it features a few series with the most amazing ideas. This is really what anime should be in my opinion: a medium to explore creative ideas. Not to magically give a cute girlfriend to a geeky guy. (Yes, I’m talking to YOU, To Love-ru!).

This episode showed indeed what the OP suggested: the main character changes bodies throughout the series. In this episode, he changes into the body of a giant plushie, while the woman from the previous episode uses his old body as a sex-object. The main character basically spends the rest of the episode, trying to not get caught as a stowaway on the ship (and he’s not the only one, it seems), and wait until the ship arrivees at its destination. We also get another hint about the female lead, as she seems to be some kind of criminal in that place. Is she the same girl as in the locket that Kaiba (the main character) carries? They sure look similar, apart from some colour-changes, perhaps.

This episode also shows him alongside a companion. Was that the same one-eyed bird we saw in the previous episode? It would make sense if the bird threw its memory-chip inside the ship, so that it could continue to follow Kaiba’s progress. I think it’s clear that Kaiba is a special case, since the body he was in when he woke up is quite a rare one.

Another thing I love about this series is how it explores the lives of different ordinary people. This is one of these series where even the smallest side-characters have themselves a personality. This episode was mainly about one of the stowaways and her boyfriend, as he turns out to have been playing around with many women (among which one huge-breasted one).

The guard also intrigues me. The guy is sadistic towards everyone, and not just the main characters, like in most other anime. I’m interested whether he’ll appear in the rest of this series, because I like the guy so far. He’s really been one of the more interesting evil characters.

Some quick first impressions: Toshokan Sensou, Junjo Romantica and Kaiba

Toshokan Sensou

With Noitamina, I just knew that this series would be worthwhile. Toshokan Sensou has proven to have the best soundtrack this season, and with Production IG, the art looks terrific. This series also smartly spent its first episode fleshing out its main characters, instead of focusing on a story-heavy start. So instead the characters already feel dynamic for when the story starts kicking in. This series has a limited time to work with, and yet it’s got quite a large premise, so this will probably be one of the most fast-paced series to come out of the Noitamina-timeslot.

Junjo Romantica

Okay, so this was a really weird combination between hilarious and disturbing. This series does have a sense of humour, and there’s some good chemistry between the characters. The only problem is that the chemistry between them might be a bit too good, because the characters wasted no time to get it on with each other. What surprises me, by the way, is that this series has the best OP song this season, strangely enough. The song is standard J-rock, but it works surprisingly well. It’ll be interesting to keep watching this series, if only to laugh at the hot passion that will erupt from it.

Kaiba

Oh my god, I can’t believe how well this series turned out! Even with the fantastic line-up that this season already has, Kaiba has delivered the best first episode of them all! This is EXACTLY the reason why I love experimental anime. Anime should be used as a medium to showcase creative ideas, not to just copy everyone else. On top of that, the mystery in this series is downright excellent. Since 2007 was so disappointing in terms of mystery, my inner-fanboy is loving all the different mystery-series that this season has offered so far! I really urge everyone to check out this series, because it’s without a doubt the most unique anime to come out this year, even taking Hakaba Kitarou in consideration. Don’t be discouraged by the childish-looking character-designs. This series is exactly the reason why simple character-designs don’t mean that the series will be for children.