This episode was… just amazing. I’ve been hoping so much that this arc would finally be able to trump the second arc of this series, but I can’t believe that the creators actually did it! This episode was quite possibly the best episode of the entire series, something which is what every series should aspire. The true villain of this arc had a really deep backstory, and this was combined with excellent writing to an ending that just couldn’t have been any better. I’m SO glad that this series turned out in an awesome way in the end.
While some arcs of this series focused at “who did it?”, this was already clear in this one: Ayano Shinozaki. The “how did it happen?” also wasn’t important: this was explained in just one minute. This really was an arc about the “why?”. Ayano is the sister of Sakon’s father. They, however, used to be members of a rivalling puppetry-school of the Tachibanas. This ended when the Tachibana-family spread bad rumours about Ayano’s family. Her father committed suicide because of his worries, while her mother went insane. Ayano and her brother then went different ways, while they both tried to end up, back with the Tachibanas, in order to take revenge.
Then Sakon’s father married, and had Sakon. Seven years later, though he committed suicide as well. It’s still not clear why, but I can imagine how he was terrified because of all the mistakes he made. Considering his family and their genes, it’s possible. In any case, because of this, Ayano decided to one day kill Sakon. His sudden promotion to successor of the Tachibana-school probably was the final straw for this. As for the reason why she didn’t just try to kill Saemon, the one who was really responsible for her parents’ deaths, with a lot of help from the media, I’m surprised that she didn’t have a clear answer for this. But I think that that’s exactly what makes a good antagonist: reasons that can’t be explained in one or two lines, but still make sense somehow.
So yes, I cried during this episode. It’s sad to see this series finally go. I’ve been blogging it for nearly two years now (to be exact, I started blogging this at November 30, 2005), and there has been no other show that I blogged for a longer time than this one, even Popolocrois. It’s obvious that it’s been a really fun time, despite the lesser parts of this series.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 03
As if the end of the previous episode didn’t look hopeless enough, Kaiji, Furuhata and Andou get into even more trouble when the latter runs off on his own and throws away the last paper-card and one of the precious stars. It was interesting how the guy tried to talk himself out of things by using a fake story about wanting to bring back the total amount of stars to five, when it was clear that he was going to abandon the team if he won three stars. It’s been a while since an anime featured an in-depth look into betrayal (probably the first season of Higurashi was the last one), which is why I like this series so much: it really delves deep into human nature.
You can also really see that in the match that this episode focuses on, when Kaiji manages to gather two stars with only four paper-cards. The opponent was someone who has been praying on the weak. It’s a nice, but very fragile strategy: he’s screwed when he runs into an opponent that knows what he’s doing. Because he only goes after down-hearted people, he doesn’t expect much of a strategy. Because of this, he only has a counter for the most basic strategies, and doesn’t think about the whole picture, which is why he lost.
Still, something tells me that the real fun hasn’t even begun. At the moment, Kaiji has five stars, and he still needs to buy four more of them if he wants the entire group to survive. After all the matches are played, the people with more than three stars will turn into ruthless hyenas, and try to make as much money as possible. Even with 14 million yen, it’s going to be hard, and how on earth is Kaiji going to pay off such a debt if he actually does manage to pull it off?]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 21
Whoa… I expected a quiet episode to introduce the final arc of this series, and then it comes with this! The amount of development that Isako gets is astonishing, and while the production-values may have dropped a bit, this was one episode not to be missed. It all starts when the building for the school that Yasako and the others go to gets demolished, so all the students move to the other major school, in the middle of the city.
This is especially disadvantageous for Isako, as the guys from a few episodes back attend this school too, and quite easily they manage to turn the entire school against her. Things go much deeper than just that, though. Remember the orange cat? Its master is behind everything, and it ends up erasing 4423-s room in the hospital! It seems that Isako was just used, and 4423 never had a chance to live in the first place! That room in the hospital was just an old cyberspace!
Apparently, there was something that happened in the last episode that made Isako lose her importance, so the decision was made to terminate her. My best guess would be that Nekome was behind everything, as he refuses to answer Isako’s calls. I don’t however think that he’s alone in this (after all, he’d never know which children beared a grudge against Isako), and there’s quite a large possibility that Takeru is his ally.
Then there’s also the question of why Nekome is doing everything. What are his true goals? And why did he approach Haraken in episode fourteen?]]>
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji – 02
For me, Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji has turned out into the best series of the season so far. There are other good series this season, but they all have their weakness: Mokke could have had better writing, the characters in Blue Drop are a tad too adolescent, Shugo Chara is too cheesy at times and Labyrinth has a few too many maids and strangely clothed females for its setting.
Kaiji, however, is perfect so far, and it’s looking really interesting. I’m seriously going to check out Akagi as soon as the series is over. I may have said it before, but I really like anime where the main characters aren’t the only ones who are special, and this is really emphasized here in this series: every single person in the game is in a worst situation possible. Everyone is a loser who somehow ended up with debt. This really is a survival of the fittest.
And the thing I love about Kaiji is how he learns of his mistakes. There are indeed a few people who look at the game in a smart way, and try to trick others into believing them, and Kaiji is one of these victims. The plan is quite simple:
– Find someone who is stupid enough to be tricked, and Kaiji fitted that role perfectly. After all, after everyone requested one million, and he was the first one to request the maximum of ten million, Kaiji was the first one to follow him. That shows that he quickly goes along with others, and that incidentally fits Kaiji’s personality perfectly. It also helps if you make this guy think that he’s smart.
– Then you just need to explain how the plan works: just keep cancelling each other out, and nobody loses any of the stars you need to win.
– Go along with the plan for nine rounds, until both parties have just three cards left out of the original twelve. Then claim your victory when the victim thinks that everything is going according to plan by placing down the paper-card instead of the rock-one. Repeat this, and you’ve got five stars, while the other has just one.
The beautiful thing is that if Kaiji used his brains, he wouldn’t have fallen for it, and it really seems like he’s got a plan to get out of everything: working actually together. The nasty thing about the rock-paper-scissors game is that it’s easy to win, but it’s just as easy to lose, and because of this, people will underestimate the potential of it. Because of this, the yakuza ends up with quite a few stupid slaves who won’t be smart enough to betray them.
I really wonder how he’s going to pull it off, though. Basically, he has three people, one with relatively many stars, one with relatively many cards, and one with relatively much money. Together, there are four stars, five cards and 14 million yen. How the heck is he going to get to nine stars, 0 cards and 19,6 million yen?]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 20
This was a truly amazing episode, probably one of the best ones of the series yet. Finally Yasako has the time to really shine. It all starts when Mega-baa and Tamako manage to save Yasako and the others, after which both Tamako and Yasako learn that Haraken ran off with Kanna’s glasses. After that, we get an interesting fact about Tamako: four years ago, she nearly went to the other side herself, if it wasn’t for Mega-baa. I like how that one explains why she works at the cyber-agency at the age of only seventeen. It seems that this is the Denou Coil that Nekome warned Haraken about in episode 14 (at least, I think it is; correct me if I’m wrong): being taken to the other side by the humanoid illegals.
When they arrive at the place where Haraken went to, he already has been “Dennou Coiled”, and it seems that Isako also went after him. Yasako then lets herself get captured by the humanoid illegals, and gets taken to the other side herself in an attempt to get Kanna back. What follows was a magnificent scene, where Haraken finally meets with the remains of Kanna, and Yasako confesses to him, before bringing his body back with some code from Isako.
And so this concludes another arc of this series, and it indeed looks like the final six episodes will centre on 4423, and Takeru will also probably return. I somehow feel that 4423 is more than just another child, taken to the other side. After all, Isako is basically trying to do something even more dangerous than what Haraken’s been doing: getting an actual Dennou Coiled person back to the normal world. I also hope Daiichi will return; I miss the guy.]]>
Dennou Coil – 19
Sorry for the delay, I was a bit too busy yesterday for the huge amount of shows that came out. But this episode was SO worth it. I know I had my doubts about this series at one point, but right now everything is starting to come together perfectly, and I can’t believe how exciting this episode turned out to be when it almost entirely focuses on Fumie and Yasako, trying to get Kyoko’s body back.
One of the comments from previous week also made me see something interesting: Kyoko is about the same age as when Yasako encountered the humanoid illegal. And I really think that Yasako would have been taken away if it wasn’t for 4423’s efforts. There also seems to be more than one humanoid illegal, though there is a good chance that wao is right, and Yasako’s grandfather is among them. In fact, there could be a chance that all these humanoid illegals were once humans who were taken to the others side. They kept utteing “kyoudai” (sibling) when thy approached Kyoko. That still doesn’t explain why they were looking for 4423 back then, though.
I think Imago plays a key here. If I recall correctly, we’ve seen that Haraken, Yasako and Isako posses it: all of them have lost someone close to them because of the humanoid illegals (assuming that it was really Kanna whom we saw in the previous episode). I wouldn’t be surprised if Mega-baa also turned out to have Imago, because she just knew a tad too much for just an ordinary granny who happens to be good with the cyber-world.
Oh, and Haraken is really going into the wrong direction. Apparently, he’s had an extra pair of glasses hidden somewhere, which he used to back access to the cyber-world, and he’s now really determined to go to the other side. That really can’t be good….
Oh, and one final thing… I’m not sure (my memory could be wrong on this), but didn’t Yasako receive Densuke from either her grandfather or Mega-baa? If she did, then that can’t be a coincidence, especially considering the way Densuke went out and saved Kyoko on his own.]]>
Some quick first impressions: Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji, Dragonaut the Resonance and Goshushou-sama Ninomiya-kun
Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji
The first episodes of the series I’ve seen thus far in this season haven’t been exactly intelligent, the closest would probably be Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, but both series don’t really have a plot that requires you to think. Because of this, I was pleasantly surprised by this series, when the young adult Kaiji gets mixed up in a huge plot of the Yakuza. Even though I didn’t understand the rules perfectly, this series does have some definite potential, and even though we’ve yet to see the characters actually gamble, this episode felt very tense. I also really like the character-designs: they may look unorthodox, but they fit the series perfectly, along with a pretty nice soundtrack. I’m going to hope that this series gets subbed soon, as following this series raw with my skills of Japanese is probably going to be impossible.
Dragonaut The Resonance
Oh boy, this series sure has its work cut out. There were so many annoyances in this episode, it’s going to take a lot of effort to make everything believable again. Our main character is in a spacecraft which just took off from the surface, it gets hit by a blazing fireball, explodes but it doesn’t even burn one bit. The main character just flies out of the blast without any scratches whatsoever. Also, where did the fireballs come from? The guy also has a best friend at that point, who actually witnessed the crime but we never see the guy again for the rest of the episode. Furthermore, every single female with a huge bosom (and believe me, there are quite a few of them) has the need to show it off to everyone in a quite revealing outfit. The creators also seemed to have introduced monsters and people who can survive an exploding truck, thrown on top of them without even getting one scratch. I dislike these kinds of things. Sure, they can be explained and all, but if an exploding truck can’t hurt them, the only thing that probably will is overblown and overpowered energy-waves. It’s hard to really come up with a good strategy for these. The plot has potential, but if this series wants to succeed, it needs to put a LOT of work into its setting to fill up the plot-holes.
Goshushou-sama Ninomiya-kun
Ooh… the pain… the horrible, horrible pain! If you thought Myself; Yourself was bad: it’s NOTHING when compared to this… “thing”. Not only is the entire plot basically one huge excuse for fanservice, the main character is loved by all females AND males in his school, he ends up in all kinds of fanservicy-situations with a girl who despite being awfully shy and afraid of men dresses like a girl from the red-light district. I think we’ve found our worst series of the season with this one. At least, I hope so, because I don’t want to watch anything that’s even worse than this piece of garbage…]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 18
Okay, I know I had my doubts about the past few episodes. I know that they somehow didn’t feel right, and I know that I felt a bit disappointed by them.
With this episode, I take all of that back. Seriously, it was an amazing one, and the exact reason why I’m such a fan of mystery-series. It’s not the revelations that make them great, it’s how the storyline uses the questions as effectively as possible.
This episode basically has three major storylines. The first one is Haraken’s. In exchange for the access-code for the Sacchis, Isako has to show him how to get to the cyber-world, though Haraken gets carried away, and when he sees a giant keyhole like in the pictures, he just enters it without thinking. A girl looking like Kanna is in there, though Yasako manages to get him back before it’s too late. His cyber-body and real body may have separated a bit, he manages to fix it. Later, Tamako punishes him for giving the Sacchi-access-code, and takes away his glasses.
The second storyline that gets developed is Isako’s. The person she was in contact with turns out to be Nekome, of all people. It seems that he joined Tamako in order to provide coverage for her, and make Isako be able to do what she wants. I wonder what’s in it for him, though. Why is he so interested in getting 4423 back? Or is he just using Isako to get valuable information? We also see him confirm that it’s going to take a while longer to get the guy back, and I’d almost think that he’s manipulating her.
But the thing I really loved was the third storyline: Kyoko gets taken to “the other side”! I have no idea why, but right after Isako tried to open a gate to the cyber-world, whit fog started appearing, and now that same illegal that we saw gobbling up 4423 took Kyoko’s cyber-body away. It’s not sure whether she’ll be away for good (we’ll see that in the next episode), but this has so much potential.
I also wonder… why Kyoko of all people? Why now, of all times? (perhaps Isako’s opening of the gate made the Illegals from there able to enter the human world?) I remember that Wao once said that there was a possibility that the humanoid illegal was Yasako’s grandfather, and it’s starting to look more likely. After all, I can imagine the guy to be longing to see his granddaughter. I can imagine that both Kanna and 4423 were taken away because they got too close to this illegal for their own good.
The question also remains: if Kanna’s and 4423’s spirit really are with the humanoid illegal, how come they haven’t attempted to escape? Do they still have the same personalities? And if they were somehow able to return, would they be completely all-right?]]>
Bokura no Review – 95/100
Bokura no, is the second series to finish of what I’d like to call the “big three” of the spring-season, along with Toward the Terra and Kaze no Shoujo Emily. For me, these three series stood out like no other for the past two seasons, and they just kept delivering quality over and over again. While Toward the Terra had its character-development, fast pacing and production-values, Bokura no shines not only through its well-written storyline, memorable characters and a rock-solid concept.
As soon as I read the concept, I knew we had something very special here. Revealing it entirely would be too much of a spoiler for the early episodes, but basically, this comes from the same mangaka as Narutaru. This time, however, a bunch of children are given the control not over monsters, but over a huge mecha. Bokura no shows what really happens when children get such a heavy burden placed upon themselves.
But don’t expect this to be a continuous angst-fest like Narutaru. The beauty of Bokura no is that the children involved aren’t special in any way. They’re just random and could in fact be your neighbour if you live in Japan. Each of these children is so incredibly different, and one of the many delightful elements of this series: every two or three episodes, the entire mood of the series changes for something completely different, while remaining logical and realistic. Sure, some children freak out, but that’s only one or two of them. Each of the children has his or her own problems and wishes, and that’s what makes this anime so brilliant. I could go more into detail, but I refuse for the sake of spoilers.
Then there’s the plot. Manga-readers should be aware that halfway through the anime, the director decided to go into a totally different direction when compared to the manga. Whether it improved or not, I can’t say, since I haven’t read it. But I can say that it has some definite competition with the storyline the director came up with. The pacing is very fast yet nothing feels rushed, and yet there’s a different and shocking plot twist nearly every episode.
Perhaps one of the few lesser points is that some episodes decide to focus on politics, instead of what this anime is really about: the children. But even this contributes to an overall mood of believability of the series. A giant robot has just appeared. Of course the military is going to react, and yet I see so many anime where mechas can just walk over the street without anyone noticing it. Also, when buildings get destroyed, they really get destroyed, and don’t magically disappear from the screen without any traces left. This really shows the impact that those giant robots can have on the societies.
If I had to mention a bad point… well, some plot-twists are a bit too coincidental, but that describes nearly 90% of all other anime as well. According to the manga-readers, the first half of the series also left out a few parts of developments for the different characters, but that’s probably in order to make it to air on tv, since the manga has a reputation to be rather gruesome at times. Still, I prefer this down-to-earth style of storytelling.
The character-designs are also perfect. Well, that’s what I think at least. The beauty of them is their simplicity: this really shows that the characters are just normal people, dragged into the story, instead of busty schoolgirls with hair in every colour of the rainbow and overly large pupils. Gonzo has been animating them, and it shows: when the animation is at its best, the characters look beautiful, despite their simplistic designs. One of the few elements of this series that isn’t outstanding is the music. It’s just good, but there are enough series with a better soundtrack.
Overall, while it isn’t the most popular anime out there, I absolutely loved this series. It’s delightfully different and unique, and quite possibly one of the most thought-provoking series of the year. While a few of the characters could have used a bit more development here and there, the rest of the series totally made up for it.]]>
Bokura no – 24
What a magnificent and absolutely incredible ending!! Okay, others may disagree, but there’s a very good chance that Bokura no has the best ending of the year for me. Obviously spoilers are going to follow this post, so this bit of text is there to fill up space for the blog-aggregators, in particular Animeblogger Antenna. So, this should be enough.
Let me start with saying one thing: NONE OF THE CHILDREN WAS REVIVED!!!! THE DEAD REALLY REMAINED DEAD HERE!!! The thing the director said in his blog, about reviving the children was all just one huge bluff!!!!
Sure, there were a few things that lacked, but in turn, they all have their own charms. In the end, we never get to know who’s behind everything, but I actually think that was a good thing to do. It’s like the previous episode said: Bokura no is about the children. Not some interdimensional space-complot. I also absolutely loved how the grown-up Kana ran into Daiichi’s siblings, the ones that he left behind. It may have been too much of a coincidence, but it was such a beautiful choice for an ending, to give the three of them a last bit of development.
And the battle! Seriously, it was one of the best fights of the series. Not because it’s the longest, but because it was so delightfully different. Usually, when the final episode of the anime ends, it’s standard fare where two titans duke it out, though Bokura no adds so many fine details that make it awesome to watch. First of all, the development that Jun has gotten turned him into an amazing and sympathic character. And most importantly: I loved how he actually fought alone. I loved how he talked to himself while fighting, despite nobody being in the cockpit. You don’t often see shy persons relax while they’re alone, do you?
Seriously, Bokura no couldn’t have ended better. If there was anything that was needed to make this show even more amazing it was this episode! It’s so sad to see one of the best shows of the year gone, but it’s definitely been an awesome ride.]]>