Seriously, I can’t believe I cried at the end of the episode. I was ready to call this episode a failure, when it spent more time on Ushiro’s uncle than on Kirie himself, and then it comes with such an incredibly mean plot twist! I’m still not sure whether it was incredibly cheap or incredibly brilliant, but I’m really edging towards the latter.
Seeing the enemy commit suicide shows even more that there are real people inside of it. They’ve got the same worries as everyone else. This was a pilot who was even worse off than Kirie himself. I don’t know what his reasons were, and the sad thing is that we’ll never know them. He could have hated himself, perhaps he was suicidal, perhaps he got into a fight earlier, who knows.
I also love Kirie now, after this episode, now that it seems that he still has time left for development, especially considering that he doesn’t have the intention to fight, and the fact that he lives with Jun, now that his mother lies in the hospital. I’m anxious to see how this problem will be solved.
Still, what was up with Jun’s uncle? I’m not sure why Tanaka invited the guy.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 10
The building up of the first number of episodes has finally started to pay off. Until episode eight, this was just a show with a large amount of imagination and some interesting fights, but starting with episode 9, I started to really care about the different characters. This episode provided a great aftermath for that action-packed episode, with also lots of new information regarding the characters revealed.
Isako really was scary in this episode when she easily took care of the Sacchi, and yet we see a total different side of hers when we suddenly learn that she’s got a big-brother-complex. We also see her visit her grandfather who is in the hospital, and it seems that she dislikes her grandmother, whom we briefly saw visiting him (at least, I think that woman was her grandmother). We should be seeing this brother quite soon now. In fact, something tells me that it’s that suspicious guy we saw at the end of the episode.
Another interesting plot development comes from Daichi, when he and Denpa leave Isako. It’s quite surprising, but it does make sense. The look on his face when Isako enrolled him really showed that he’s very impulsive, and doesn’t think the things he does through. In this episode, he became scared of Isako, so he left. It was quite cute to see Denpa follow him.
I also wonder what was up with Akira’s pet, who kept following Isako wherever she went, especially since we never see Akira actually controlling it. I’d like to know how he reacts, when she finds out that Isako has a cute side as well.
We also see the identity of the mysterious Yonyon nii-san revealed. It was indeed the voice who talks to Yasako in the strange dream she had. It turned out that he helped her when she was young, at the same site as Yasako’s dream, when she lost Densuke. She then was so impressed that she promptly proposed to marry him in the future. I suspect, though, that she never saw him again after that, but this episode showed that the guy still has a huge impact on her, when at one point she wonders whether that guy may be Haraken. Of course he’s not, as he looked much older than Yasako at that time, but the question remains: what kind of relation does he have to Haraken? Since Yonyon is definitely related to both Yasako and Haraken. (By the way, a girl with a big-brother complex, a girl with a mysterious figure in her past who made a big impression on her but whose face she can’t remember? Am I the only one getting Utena-vibes out of this?).
The only thing I didn’t manage to follow was the scene between Yasako and Haraken, concerning Kanna’s diary. It seems that the password for Kanna’s diary finally is found, and Yasako accidentally reads it before she can give it back to Haraken. When Haraken reads it, he somehow gets obsessed to find something, but I couldn’t quite understand what that was, and why he’d do that. He looked quite pitiful, though.]]>
Bokura no – 14
And so, Bokura no has stopped being a case-based series, and it’s currently on its way to develop its storyline. While the main theme of the first half of the series focused on children, saying goodbye to their lives, this episode showed that the main theme of the second half will be: saving the children. Personally, I really like this, and it’s definitely one of the most realistic directions that could have been chosen Out of all the series to have come out in the spring-season, I have to say that Bokura no is the most realistic one.
One thing, though, is that it’s going to be much more difficult to follow this series due to the complex dialogue that was used by the adults. The children’s language is pretty easy to figure out, though these adults use lots of big words.
The question that remains now, though, is whether the director will pull a Mai-Hime ending or not. At least the children won’t be saved with the help of magic, and I’d actually love to see the final children saved, but if the director really wants to save every child, it’s going to need a lot of development. At least this episode made a good start. ^^
Also, is there a reason why Tanaka never really started to investigate about Ushiro’s mother? At least, that’s what I understood from this episode. Kana keeps impatiently asking Takana how progress is going, but Takana lies to her every time. Did she perhaps find out something she didn’t want Kana to know?
One thing I loved, by the way, was how Kanji manages to keep the entire group together, and yet he’s incredibly cold towards his mother, due to the fact that she’s continuously busy with her job of researching Zearth. It’s interesting how his mother has still feelings for him, and something tells me that she can’t see that Kanji needs more attention.
Kirie’s role was very surprising. Even though he’s the next pilot, we don’t really get to know him, and his most important role was as a victim. He had the most priority to be saved. I really can’t wait to see him as a pilot, because I feel that almost everyone has the most pity for him.
And I’m really in love with the new ED. Unlike the OP and the previous ED, it needs a bit of time to get used to, but it closes off an episode perfectly The overall background music also is as good as ever, and even though the art isn’t as flashy as with the other anime, I love the realistic look.
And finally, can someone PLEASE tell me what that cliff-hanger in the end meant? I can understand a bit of Japanese, but my kanji is horrible. -_-]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 09
Whoa, this episode is not to be missed! It starts out like random filler, but ends up to be the perfect example to demonstrate all good qualities of Dennou Coil. It’s got hilarious moments, the mystery is excellent, a huge amount of characters play some kind of role, and some major revelations are made.
Everything is revolving around the match, which was agreed at the end of the previous episode. It ends up being a combination between a sleeping-party and a kid’s playground. The set-up is like this: wait till dark, and then divide in two parties, who will fight against each other. These parties then split in two groups: the attackers and the victims. Basically, the attackers launch different kinds of attacks at the victims, and the victims try not to get hit. Yuuko and her drunk teacher (who stayed over as well, to keep an eye on the children, but ate a bit too many whiskey bonbons) are the victims for Fumie’s party, and Akira and Gachagiri (please tell me if I got their names wrong) play the victims of Daichi’s party.
But first: ghost stories! Both Daichi and Haraken tell supposed rumours about Michiko-san (I loved the artificial lightning that was used to create the mood ^^;). Daichi’s is obviously fake, but I can’t help but wonder whether some parts about Haraken’s story may be true. Obviously, the black faces were made up, but there could be some truth to Michiko, being once a student of the same school. She found herself in an empty school-building, even though it was already morning. She then tried to take off her glasses, only to realize that she wasn’t wearing them, and then realized that she had become part of the cyber-world herself.
Like I said above, lots of characters had some kind of important role, and lots of characters got a bit of development. The reaction of Daichi and Fumie to Haraken’s story was priceless, and it again shows how similar they are. We also get to see Daichi’s father during this episode, and I must say that I’m not surprised at all that the two of them are related.
For Yasako, this episode can be seen as her “Hazing”, since she had to protect both herself and her teacher from Daichi’s assaults. Because of that, this episode can be seen as the end of the introduction for Dennou Coil. She did pretty well, actually, after having been drilled by Fumie for this task.
Akira also was too cute when Daichi found out about him, being a double-spy. After all, they can all imagine the idea of being abused by a woman too well. ^^: Denpa also tells Haraken why he is friends with Daichi in the first place. It seems that he once was bullied, and then saved by Daichi. Denpa seems to be more sensitive to the cyber-world, by the way. It’s a bit annoying that his name means “radio wave” in Japanese. Only now I realize that Daichi wasn’t talking about the radio waves inside the cyber-world, he just talked about the guy named Denpa!
Still, the funniest moment of the episode definitely was when Haraken’s aunt secretly sneaked a Sacchi inside the school with the help of a meta tag, after which it ran off on its own and zapped some of Daichi’s friends. That must have been a huge wtf-moment for the two of them. xD
Now, regarding the plot. Remember the red meta-bug that Haraken got after the previous episode? At the beginning of the episode, he finds out that it makes a sound, so he lets Denpa translate it for him. The sound turns out to say: 4-4-2-3, which can also mean Yonyon Nii-San, or brother Yonyon (Anime News Network strangely lists 4423 as one of the characters with a voice-actor, hence why).
Isako spends the episode tracking the illegal that’s been hiding in the school, explaining the fog that came out of the classroom in the previous episode. There is something different about this one, though. It already formed a keyhole on its own, without the help of Isako. A strange glowing fairy-like thing came out of it, and started to run around the school. Haraken notices it, and strangely, it reminds him of Kanna, so he follows it. It then brings him to some strange kind of room, with a phone in it. He dials 4-4-2-3, and somehow Kanna’s voice comes out! Things get even weirder when Isako arrives, traps the fairy, calls it Michiko, and absorbs it!]]>
Bokura no – 13
Oh. My. God.
That was more shocking than I ever imagined. This episode introduces the second half of Bokura no, and holy god…. that was awesome, disturbing, touching, exciting and I couldn’t help but love it. Bokura no already was my favourite show of the spring-season, and here it comes and turns even better!!
I knew that the other robots were piloted by other children as well, but actually seeing these people, who were about to be killed by our group of kids made a huge impact on me. Fighting against other robots and planets is easy, but once you know who’s inside them, things go a whole lot different.
Apparently, judging by the fact that this episode featured a new ED, Bokura no will be 24-episodes long, and that with only five pilots left (seven, if you count the adults). I really wonder about the surprises that the second half of this show will bring us, and the next episode is promising to be awesome as well, since it’ll be focusing on Yosuki, whose case I’m really looking forward to. Also, what was up with the guys that tried to kidnap the females? They looked a bit different from your usual drunk guys assaulters.
Oh, and Maki! Her ending was so sweet, even though her case was relatively simple. In the end, she died, right after seeing her new brother.]]>
Dennou Coil – 08
This episode had lots of different focuses. It’s the time of the year for the summer-festival to come, and let’s just say that a few couples get developed: Yasako and Haraken, and Fumie and Daichi. We especially get a lot of Daichi this time. Oh, and Isako looks quite strange in a yukata.
Anyway, the usual list of new information (new for me, at least):
– According to a legend, if you wear your glasses at night, a child can enter its own dreams.
– Yuuko has the strange dream again, where the boy’s voice advices her to run away, after which she’s attacked by a giant illegal.
– Haraken’s aunt seems to be interested in Yasako and Isako for some reason.
– There’s a white mist in the teacher’s office as well.
– Yasako’s dad is Haraken’s aunt’s boss, instead of the other way around like I first thought. He also was the one who designed Sacchi, and gave it its name and made it say “boku sacchi”.
– Ken keeps contact with Kanna’s mother. She fully supports his research. In this episode, she gives him Kanna’s glasses. She wants to know what happened to Kanna on the day she died as well.
– Daichi has had a crush on Fumie a long time ago. He wanted to ask her out to the sumer festival since a long time ago, but every time he was too scared to do it.
– Either Haraken or Kanna had a dog, called Kuro. This dog went lost, and in this episode, Haraken finds out that it turned into an illegal. It gets blown up by a Kyuu-chan, though.
– Kanna seems to have had a few hidden files behind a password, and Kanna needs some sort of key to access them.
– Kyoko hates Daichi.
The most important focus of the episode, though, was Daichi. He had been too scared to ask Fumie out to the festival, but now Isako orders him to duel her to obtain her glasses. Why? Because she wants Michiko-san’s power. Why Isako would want Fumie’s glasses for that, I have no idea, it must probably have something to do with the data she stole. In any case, the plan is for Daichi to challenge her during the festival, but he ends up having fun with her. Isako was quite evil when she forced him to actually fight.
We also finally get to know what Isako has been after: Michiko-san. What is she, actually? And why does Fumie play a role in it? I also wonder why it took Yasako so long to mention that her father wwas the one who developed the Sacchi.]]>
Death Note Review – 84/100
Death Note: Yagami Light finds himself a notebook, dropped by a Shinigami: the Death Note. If you write down the name of a person in this Death Note, he’ll die, no matter what. With this new Death Note, Light begins to create a perfect world, killing off all criminals. Then, a detective who goes by the name of “L” gets assigned to catch him.
Let me first state that Death Note is unique amongst shounen-anime. There are nearly no fights, and nearly the entire anime consists out of people planning and plotting to outsmart each other. Through the course of the anime, Light makes optimal use of the Death Note, and he comes up with a number of really smart and careful plans.
Because of this, the main good points of Death Note, especially in the beginning, are its surprises. Some plot twists are ingeniously incorporated in the storyline, and they make sure for maximum shock-value. This makes sure for a number of really intense episodes, even with the lack of fighting or other forms of physical action.
The graphics and music only contribute to this. The art that is used in Death Note is unique, and incredibly detailed. The animators made some really creative “action”-scenes, which you won’t be seeing in any other anime, and they really makes sure that these scenes are as creepy as they can get. The music consists out of a number of very addictive choir-songs, which fit the mood perfectly.
Still, despite the awesome climaxes, this series didn’t make it in the 90/100-range for a reason, as it’s got quite a few humps and bumps along the way. The most obvious one is the middle part of the series. Death Note has an excellent beginning, and an awesome ending, but the Yotsuba-arc in the middle was so bad that it made me almost lose my faith in the series. The climaxes stop being interesting, and the creators turn the series in some kind of joke of itself. Luckily, the anime picks up again with episode 24, and delivers an awesome climax, but the thorn remains. The beginning is also filled with a couple of nasty coincidences, for example Light’s father being the police-officer who is in charge of catching Light.
There are also a number of rather annoying characters in this anime. I’m referring to the ones that mainly exist for comic relief like Misa and Matsuda. They usually have no purpose at all, and they whine too much to really become interesting. The characters that are introduced later in the series also need a lot of episodes to get enough development to stop getting annoying. There are also quite an amount of people that lack a bit of background. To give one example, we learn just as much about Aizawa’s (a minor character) background as L’s (a major character) background, and believe me, that isn’t much. There’s also a time-leap somewhere in the middle of the series that just lacks proper development as well, with the result that it makes no sense in lots of areas.
Still, despite this, there are a lot of good characters with enough background to become interesting. Light himself is a fascinating person, and it’s interesting to see how he develops and eventually declines. Some temporary and side-characters also turned out really touching, and L, despite his lack of background is well developed and turns into a really enjoyable character.
Overall, it’s not the best anime out there, but it’s definitely worth a watch. It has awesome climaxes, but the fairly low rating comes from the fact that it just has too many areas that could have been improved.]]>
Death Note – 37
And so we’ve come to the end of Death Note. I’m going to post a bit of random sentences in order to avoid some major spoilers from showing up in the blog-aggregators, in order to avoid me spoiling people. I can’t imagine that there’d be souls alive that weren’t spoiled somehow about how this anime would end by the manga-fans, but you’ll never know. Okay, this should be enough.
So, Light dies. I have to say, that even though I knew what was going to happen, I really enjoyed this episode. The ending was quite good, especially for a shounen-show. The only thing it lacked was an aftermath. I would have loved to see how the survivors went on with their lives. But ah well, you can’t have everything.
My favourite moment of the episode was Matsuda, I did NOT expect the guy to shoot Light, who tried to kill Near in a final desperate attempt. Seeing the once so confident Light finally cornered with no way out was also really nice to see, overall it made sure for a great episode. In the end, Near did notice Mikami’s strange behaviour, we just didn’t get to see it. It feels a bit cheap, though, but the reaction of the characters definitely made up for it. That’s why Mello was so down when he kidnapped Takada, he was doing it in order to get killed, and make Mikami do an unnecessary move.
I must praise Death Note for being the ONLY shounen-anime whose main character declines, instead of grows. Every other shounen-anime features a main character who keeps getting new powers in order to be able to handle stronger opponents, but Light is different. As the anime progresses, he gets more careless and more careless.
I just wish Ryuk had a bigger role in the second half of the anime. But then again, his role was more of an observer and to introduce the elements of Death Note. He’d indeed become a bit obsolete when everything is known and clear about it. Overall, it’s been a nice anime, with a number of bumps here and there, but also with a number of awesome moments.]]>
Bokura no – 12
A light case this time, and it’s also the first episode of Bokura no to incorporate humour in its storytelling, it worked well, but I don’t think Bokura no needs it. It’s good enough without the humour, unlike other anime, as it distracts a bit from the things that are really important. The creators make use of the current case to develop the storyline a bit more, and they make sure to do it thoroughly, since she gets two episodes for this.
The biggest revelation probably came near the end of the episode: there indeed is a war between planets going on, and similar machines like Zearth are fighting each other. Zearth is just a bit stronger than the others. This does ask a huge number of questions:
– Where did the technology come from?
– How many planets are fighting each other?
– Is Zearth actually destroying the planets of the robots it destroys?
– Is every planet against Zearth, or are they destroying each other as well?
Also, I must congratulate this anime for coming up with the most original alien civilization I’ve seen in a long while: one that’s actually on about the same technical levels as the earth, with a few subtle differences. There really is some kind of party that’s been handing out robots to different planets, and Kokopeli and Koemushi work for them. What purpose do they have?
In any case, I’m glad to see that the creators keep eliminating the least-interesting characters. Let’s take a look at the ones who still are alive:
Kanji
Yosuki
Jun
Takami
Aiko
Yoko
Kana
Takana
Seki
Where Kana and Yoko will remain alive. At least, I assume this. The amount of development that Jun is getting suggests that his character is special somehow. Is this because he, in fact, is the child that’ll live, or are the creators building up for his story that needs more development than the others?
In any case, I’m looking forward to the stories of these children, and I’m especially curious to when we’ll see Aiko (due to the fact that she often gets emotional), Yosuki (I’d love to see his case), Jun (after this episode, I’ve become really curious about him, see a bunch of paragraphs below), and Takana (what will she do when she finds out she can’t protect the children anymore, and what kind of effect will this have on the children?).
Maki’s case this time was cute, but it was rather overshadowed by the developments we saw about Jun and the story. Still, it’s by no means bad. Her problem is that she barely misses the birth of her new brother, and her story is about how she can support her mother, and accept her rather strange father who constantly watches anime and buys mecha-figurines. I wonder how much the next episode will focus on her story, since she’s not dead yet, and she’ll probably die until the end of the next episode. Obviously, a lot of development will be spent on the plot, but it’ll be interesting if the creators bring another twist to Maki’s mother.
There’s also this matter that somehow Zearth’s name has been leaked out. It’s interesting to see how far Zearth’s influence goes, and it’s obvious that companies would try to exploit it somehow. The fact remains, though, that Zearth was not publicly known. I assume some guy in the military accidentally let it slip, but what if the information that Zearth is piloted by children becomes known to the public?
And holy god, Jun. I really want to know more about him. He doesn’t go to school, he slacks off all day and he lets Kana do all the housework, and in this episode he even went as far as kicking her in everyone’s presence. Now I see how special it was for him to come out in episode three, since he never comes out anyway. Still, I love Kana’s bed. I do wonder how she put that together, since it obviously can’t be Jun’s work, and you don’t see such a thing in the stores.
It’s interesting to see such a shift of focus when compared to the first eight episodes, by the way. While these episodes were dark, the current ones are light. If there is a pattern, we should see another change of focus after episode sixteen, where I’ll assume that the story will be providing some more darker elements.
The thing I liked about Maki’s case was, by the way, that it shows that we’re dealing with normal children here. To compare, Narutaru only had one normal child, with the rest of the cast being composed of outcasts. Narutaru had an excuse to make these characters outcasts, and thus providing some dark story-elements. Bokurano’s kids are not all outcasts, they’re just random children on a summer-camp, which means that you can’t just go and give each of them a twisted background. That’s why I really like the subtle ones we’ve been seeing for the past few episodes. Was this the same in the manga?
PS. Another reason why I liked this episode so much: for some reason, it’s giving me a huge amount of inspiration to write about. This is the perfect example of an entry that I really enjoyed writing. 🙂
PSS. (See, I keep adding things ^^;) After thinking a bit more about this episode, I realize that my opinion of Bokura no is similar to that of The Third. It isn’t really as emotional as other series, but somehow I’m drawn to it way more than with other series. Now THAT is a sign of a good show! For The Third, it was Honoka who created this effect, but I can’t put my finger yet on what it so intriguing about Bokura no, though. ]]>
Dennou Coil – 07
First, before I start with the entry, another summary of the new information revealed in this episode. I can’t believe that we’re already at episode seven and there’s still new information coming in. Either that, or I missed a lot of information in the previous episodes.
– Illegals can be found in old buildings.
– The current episode introduces Kirabugs, or stronger versions of metabugs. They seem to emit a bright light.
– Isako is a very good drawer.
– Illegals seem to live longer when they’re in ordinary pets, instead of old buildings.
– Kirabugs seem to be rather mythical. A legendary hacker is supposed to have obtained one once, though it broke and died afterwards. This suggests that the kirabug was a living thing, according to the legend, at least.
– After the kirabug died, it turned into what we now know as Metabugs.
This episode mainly focused on the relationship between Yasako and Isako. The two of them are in the same building, Yasako searches for a lost pet, while Isako tracked another Illegal. In the process, Yasako accidentally set off a trap that Isako set, and gets locked inside a sound-proof chamber, along with Isako who fails to stop her. In this episode, it again appears that Isako loves to feel superior. The chair she sits in just screams that she has total control. In the middle of the episode, she scares Yasako by telling her a fake story about the illegals (which would have been awesome if true, by the way), and she really feels uncomfortable when she’s on her knees to try and fix her error.
I’m also beginning to warm up to Kyoko more and more. Why? Because she really gets portrayed as a little girl. Unlike other anime, the creators do not make any attempt to make her character better to swallow, and the sister-relationship between her and Yasako feels extremely realistic and life-like.]]>