Short Synopsis: If there ever was a “calm before the storm”-episode, it’d be this one. This episodes showcases the final interactions Kate, Rose, Rachel and Claire have with their surroundings.
Good: Even though no major events happened, this was a heart-warming episode. Red Garden just continues to deliver.
Bad: Ooh, let’s hope it won’t have a screwed-up ending. *crosses fingers*
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
I’m going to be quick with this review, as I can hardly wait to see the next episode. Like mentioned above, this episode showed the last interactions the girls have with their friends. It’s slow, it’s quiet, but it works perfectly. Every scene just has some kind of deeper meaning. I just loved Rachel, as she was in the cafetaria, all alone, drinking coffee. I just loved Claire, as she sees her father in a car next to her, and has trouble speaking. I just loved Rose, as she covers her siblings with a blanket. I just loved Kate, who was given some make-up by Paula. And I can continue for a while, weren’t for the fact that I’ve got episode 22 waiting on my hard-disk.
There was no tension at all. Except perhaps with the only scene Hervé appeared in, in which he watched his sister, and the ending of the episode, but the huge number of hidden meanings in the different scenes made this episode just as enjoyable as the previous ones.
Also, a total irrelevant, but nevertheless interesting fact: JC’s real name is Jeremy Charles Ferhlan.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense
Red Garden – 20
Short Synopsis: Okay, so Kate doesn’t die. Instead, others do. Quite shocking at this point of the anime.
Good: Kate just continues to be an amazing character; The Deaths were awesome.
Bad: So, the series is going to end at episode 22, while the final two episodes will be released on DVD? I don’t think I can wait that long!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Oh god, that was an amazing episode! First of all, Kate was awesome when she was in the building. I haven’t seen many characters which acted so genuinely at those points as she did. And can you blame her? I mean, she has been abducted, she wakes up, half-drowsy and then she suddenly sees Lise, whom she thought to have died long ago.
Claire and Rose meanwhile continue their own stories with their fathers a bit. Especially Claire was heart-warming when she found out that the reason her father was in Europe while Randy committed suicide was because of Randy himself. Her father finally has the courage to speak his mind to Claire, and this has some great results.
And then the deaths! Emilio, Hervé’s uncle and the main researcher just die like that. Especially Hervé’s uncle was something I SO didn’t expect at this point. Hervé then makes use of the confusion in order to make himself the head of the Doral. Lise, meanwhile, hit the limit, and transformed into the beasts we’ve been seeing.
The final explanation of the story is also given at the end of the episode. Doral once stole one of the cursed tomes from the animus. This caused the leaders of the animus to be frozen in time, unable to move, only speak. They’ll be able to die when the stolen cursed tome is obtained.]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 49
Short Synopsis: Takuma returns yet again. This time, even more people in his surroundings die or disappear.
Good: And this is what happens when Jigoku Shoujo starts building upon a past case: awesomeness.
Bad: The spider needs more development!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Haha, that was awesome! I knew that as Jigoku Shoujo drew to its ending, the greater cases would appear, and this one definitely is something to remember. It’s very interesting to see Takuma return yet again. And yet again he’s blamed for everything while he’s one of the few characters who actually never sent anyone to hell himself. He also continues his with his father’s ideals: if you do bad things to people, you’ll only be hurt back. And well, that happens quite a few times this episode. A guy insults another guy and gets sent to hell, that guy tries to put the blame on Takuma and he gets sent to hell as well.
And Yes! I finally have a small idea about Kikuri’s plans! What if she’s actually trying to get sent to hell herself? At this episode, I finally realized that she’s been trying to get hated all along. Takuma hates her probably the most of all people. Right now, she’s planning to do something with the detective’s sister, which will probably have an even more negative effect on him. Remember, Takuma has yet to send anyone to hell, and there is a certain hell-boy that has been sent to a certain place. What if he needs Kikuri in order to escape yet again? I really can’t wait for the next episode!
Overall, when you compare Kikuri and Takuma to Hajime and Tsugumi, I’d have to say that I like Hajime and Tsugumi better. At least, at this point. It’s probably because of the two got more attention than Takuma and Kikuri. But the latter two have yet to feature their ending. The ending for Hajime and Tsugumi was decent. Not bad, but not special either. The ending for Takuma and Kikuri, however, seems full of potential. I’m not trying to expect too much, but the unique character of Kikuri and her entire opposite Takuma are proving to become very interesting.]]>
Death Note – 22
Short Synopsis: Ah, of course. Misa didn’t reveal exactly how she convinced Higuchi that she was the second Kira. Because of this, L was able to come up with a plan to capture the guy and reveal his method of killing.
Good: Ah, Finally the Yotsuba-arc stops playing around and this series turns interesting again.
Bad: L’s obsession with sweets is turning more ridiculous with every episode; Good Light still remains annoying.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Ah, I’ve been waiting for this. Death Note has been getting worse with every episode progressing, I almost gave up on this. Luckily this episode fixes a lot of things when it stops with the out-of-place comedy and finally brings some kind of climax. The second half of the episode was awesome, due to the high stress it puts on Higuchi. Not only that, if the plan actually works, L will actually be able to figure out the secret behind the Death Note.
The first half was decent, though. It featured a bit out-of-place animation at times, and quite frankly I’m beginning to get a bit sick of L’s obsession with sweets. He isn’t Blossom, you know? The way Watari brought in sweets like a butler as if he’s got nothing else to do really was ridiculous. I liked when this was still rather subtle, like the first time the police officers met with L, and he put an unusually large amount of sugar lumps in his coffee.
Still, I’m glad to say that the other members of the Yotsuba-arc finally turned a bit interesting, when three of them showed that they’d actually wish to get rid of Kira as well. Misa had a small role, so her usual annoying blabbering also was pretty much absent from this episode. Overall, it’s a very good episode, and I’m really hoping that this episode marked the end of Death Note, trying to make fun of itself. Still, that climax was definitely worth watching.
One final note about Light: he made a mistake this time. This just shows how much the Death Note changed him. After all, when he made the call, his life wasn’t really in danger. The guy basically doesn’t have to fear for his life at this point. That very much was a different case when he still was Kira, when he came up with some crazy plans, in order not to get caught. It’s the basics of human nature, when something very important is at stake (especially your life), you start to unconsciously perform better. At least, if you manage to keep your head cool ;)]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 48
Short Synopsis: It’s time for the final number of cases. This is actually the first to feature the same main character as a previous episode: Takuma.
Good: Very nice twist. Episode 40 may have been disappointing, seeing it continued in this episode was great!
Bad: A bit too much based on coincidence.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I believe that this episode introduced the beginning of the end. Kikuri has been more annoying than ever, and if I had to guess, then the next episode will be featuring the final case, after which episodes 24, 25 and 26 close off the series, explaining what the heck Kikuri actually is, and why she’s so annoying. Still, could this really make a good ending for Jigoku Shoujo? Or am I smelling a third season? 😛
In any case, it was great to see Takuma, who had to live alone for three months, with the experience of seeing his mother get killed, his father get stabbed, and being the centre of all gossip. All around, people talk about how he killed his mother and nearly his father, and how it’s strange for him to get released. It’s not strange, therefore, for him to get ignored by everyone. Still, he proved to be quite a strong boy, ignoring everything that has been thrown at him, waiting for his father to get out of his coma.
The girl meeting up with Takuma may have been a bit too coincidental, but it had some great results. Her original house was taken away because of the destruction of a station, which in the end was cancelled. It seems that she lost her parents afterwards somewhere, not sure how, though. In any case, she’s planning to leave her hometown to somewhere else. For that, she needs money, which she blackmails off the one who initiated the building of the station.
Then it seems that Takuma’s father really was right when he said that if you do bad things, they only come back at you. It’s the same for the girl, Seri, as she’s now got the angry wife of the guy who she blackmailed with a doll in her hand after her. Poor Takuma, first his mother dies, then his father gets put in a coma, then he makes his neighbour disappear, and now, the only girl that acted normally towards him gets sent to hell as well. I wish there were more cases like this in Jigoku Shoujo. It’s actually pretty interesting.]]>
Red Garden – 19
Short Synopsis: This episode develops lots of relationships: the one between Kate and Paula, Rose and her father, Claire and her brother and Rachel and Luke.
Good: Kate.
Bad: No bad points this time.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Whoa! The next paragraph will be a major spoiler for the next episode, so if you haven’t seen it yet, close this window NOW, if you don’t want to be spoiled. I accidentally noticed Impz talking about it in IRC, and I just have to confirm whether it’s true or not.
I was lurking a bit in #animeblogger, and then I noticed Impz mentioning that the creators of Red Garden aren’t afraid to kill off a major character for the progression of the story. Afterwards, I tried to forget it, but OMG, are the creators really planning to kill of Kate!? Seriously, she could have been considered the main character of this show. Of all the four girls, she got involved with the main storyline the fastest, and it was her that Hervé started dating. And now she’s just going to die like that? Okay, I don’t know if it’s really true, but the ending of the episode sent some really big hints. O_o
Regarding deaths, Neil also died! To make things even sadder, this makes his only reason in this anime to be killing off Kate. To make things even more complicated, the head-officer died so that Neil could die, so that Kate could die. It’s like a domino-effect! Are the creators going to keep this up until they kill off every single character of the cast? It would be disturbing, but seeing that there are still 7 episodes left, I’m feeling that lots of characters are going to die in the next couple of episodes. O_o
Also, regarding the main part of the episode, that one was meant to develop the different girls even more than they already were. And guess what, the predictions I made in the first half of the series for both Rachel and Kate were way off. Luke comes back, and even after dating Amanda he still loves Rachel. It’s not Luke who dumps Rachel, it’s Rachel who dumps Luke. Paula also was never in trouble because of Rachel’s bad attendance. She was in trouble because she kept worrying about Kate. She knew everything, and she even loved her (at least I had that part correct). The scene between Paula and Kate was too sad, by the way.
Claire was just adorable. She’s become rather spaced-out, after the previous episode. On top of that, she finds out that her father has actually been helping her brother. Rose, meanwhile, develops a cold during the episode. Fairly predictable, but right now, she’s getting even closer to her father.]]>
Death Note – 21
Short Synopsis: A Misa-episode. See what happens when the other idiot acts on her own.
Good: Finally the plot moves along a bit faster. And finally Misa gets a bit useful again.
Bad: Still, Misa remains annoying. Just as Light and the non-Kira members of the Yotsuba-group.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Finally we see Rem again. The mystery of the third Death Note also has been solved with this. Instead of a third Death God descending down to earth, we have Rem, who went to the Yotsuba-group. In there, she told the current holder of the Death Note about Misa being the second Kira, though this person appeared to be a complete bastard with the same intentions of Kira-Light: kill Misa after using her. This time, however, she can’t blackmail him for some strange reason. Most probably, this reason is Light.
In the end, everything is one big scheme, thought out by Light. Right now, he’s fooling L completely. He sent Rem to the Yotsuba-group, and right now he’s just waiting for the right opportuned moment in which he’ll regain his memory, and probably kill L at the same time. I wish that moment would hurry up.
Misa also made one annoyingly huge mistake when she showed the conversation of her with Higuchi: taking L lightly. From the outside, wouldn’t it have been strange for Misa to just know and pick out the right Kira? After all, if she would have chosen the wrong Kira, he would have reported it to the others. Also, how is she going to cover up for the death of that important CEO-guy? I mean, L can check this right away, and from this point, it’ll be easy to figure out the rest.
On a side-note, I like how Mochi finally got a personality this episode. He’s always been staying in the shadows, but now that Misa needs another manager, it looks like he’s finally getting some scenes of his own. Actually, in comparison to Matsuda, I kindof like him. He’s not as air-headed as Matsuda, he isn’t really good at acting, but still he wants to do his best. The result was pretty funny. ^^;]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 47
Short Synopsis: Hone Onna’s background! A woman, meanwhile curses a man because he refuses to be responsible for the baby he gave her.
Good: Finally we have a bit of a good explanation of what happened to her; nice twists.
Bad: Right during the climax, the sound of my computer decided to call it quits. Me no like.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
First, before I start with the episode, I finally realized something. You can play nice games with the scene where the candle is added: some candles have the same description on them. Try to find as much look-alikes as possible!
Anyway, with this episode, the background of the three dolls finally is complete. Hone Onna has quite an interesting background. We already knew that she was in a brothel and that she ended up dead in a river somehow, but now we finally find out how this happened. Things can basically be summarized by Wrex’s statement: all men are bastards. First one sells her off to the brothel, then when that guy has finally decided to free Hone Onna from the brothel, another one comes and kills both of them. In fact, he used a former friend of Hone Onna, whom he later dumped, after impregnating her. That girl committed suicide afterwards.
Right now in the present time, the spirit of this girl keeps sticking to people with similar experiences, so it’d be only a matter of time till Ai would run into her, and Hone Onna would meet her spirit again. During this episode, this happens. It seems that she still bears a grudge against her.
Out of the backstories of the three dolls, I’d have to say that I like Wanyuudo’s most (apart from the fanservice, perhaps). That’s probably because he had the biggest influence on Ai’s method of working, since he was the first one she recruited. It’s interesting, Wanyuudo had a standard backstory, but a large influence on Ai, while Ichimoku Ren and Hone Onna had interesting backgrounds, but they didn’t really have a large influence on Ai and how she works.
This episode also had quite some nice production-values. Some camera-movements were looking very interesting, and especially the punishment-scene looked better than usual.
So, with five episodes left, and Hone Onna, Ichimoku Ren and Wanyuudo have had their background show. What’s up next? Kikuri will probably make her move in the next episode, but will that be everything? I’m hoping for Hell-boy to return!]]>
Death Note – 20
Short Synopsis: New OP! New ED! Oh, and L and Light have a few differences of opinion.
Good: The OP; The OP; The ED; Have I already mentioned the OP?
Bad: As much as I like L’s antics, I’d wish Light would turn back to normal and the plot would take a more serious turn.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Oh my god, that was one awesome OP. I may have mentioned it a few times, but I’m a huge metal fan. One of the things that’s always been bothering me a bit about anime is how it never features any metal. The only thing that even comes a bit near to metal was the J-rock, but real metal has never really appeared. Probably the closest up till now was the OP for Naruto Shippuuden. But Death Note’s new OP finally answered my prayers and delivered one AWESOME ROCKING song. I love it! 😀
On a more serious note, I’d just wish that Light would turn back to his normal self. Not only do I miss Ryuk, but his new personality is just way too boring. Heck, he’s now probably the dullest character of the entire Death Note cast. Except Misa, perhaps. The Yotsuba-arc definitely has been the most comedy-focused arc up till now, but there has to be a limit. I mean, one episode of wackiness is good (see the one with the chips-bag-opening-action), but the past few episodes all seemed to have been aimed at comedy. It’s fun, I know, but that’s not where Death Note excels in. Was the manga also as wacky at this point, or is it something the creators of the anime thought of?
Also, regarding the Yotsuba’s, there are still six people left who could have possession of the Death Note. I’m not sure if this is one of those shows in which the creators drop hints about who might be it or not, but I didn’t see any yet. For now, I think it’s the brown-haired ones. He was the most cautious of all when they were in meeting, which seems to suggest that he has the most fears of being caught, which in turn suggests that he has a Death Note. At least, the chance of this is bigger than with the others.
Also, one final note. I don’t often complain about animation, but when a show used to feature excellent animation, and now tries to get away with this episode, even I start to notice it.]]>
Red Garden – 18
Short Synopsis: This is more of a standard aftermath, in which Kate, Rose, Claire and Rachel try to accept that they’re going to lose their memories. Oh, and someone dies.
Good: Really quiet for a Red-Garden episode, but still a great atmosphere.
Bad: Don’t you think Hervé would double-check whether he was being followed or not?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
This really was a quiet episode. If I had to guess, it was meant as an aftermath of the previous episode, and a preparation of the final episodes. It’s interesting, there are so many episodes left, and the plot has already progressed this much. At this point, I really can’t think of how the creators are planning to fill these, which means that we’ll be treated to some nice plot-twists in the future.
The majority of the episode focused on Rachel, Kate, Claire and especially Rose, talking a bit of courage into each other. It also seems that Lula is an animus as well, which means that she’ll lose her memory too when everything’s over. I’m suspecting that the headmistress and her companions share the same fate. So what about Paula? Also, I’ve been wondering, where did the “borrowed lives” originally come from? In any case, even though nothing much happened, the animus definitely made the episode worthwhile.
Hervé and Emilio, meanwhile kidnapped Lise, in order to send her back in to the sea. I originally thought that Emilio acted on his own, but it seems that Hervé got through to him in the end. He plans to send Lise back to where everything began. Apparently, he met her at the peer, near the beach. Still, that doesn’t explain why Lise starts to walk into the ocean at one point. Something tells me that something happened between the two of them that we have yet to see. In any case, the two of them apparently forgot to either clear their own trails, or that the place Hervé chose was the most predictable one to abandon her.
The policeman also has quite an interesting role in this. By pure chance, he sees a car with Hervé and Emilio in it, with Lise on the backseat. He’s been searching for a clue like this all along, and he rushes after her. What he didn’t expect was that Hervé’s uncle arrived as well, killing him. I guess that that will place his assistant in an interesting position. I wonder how much influence this guy will have in the end, as he’s probably going to continue the investigation his boss started.]]>