Short Synopsis: See what happens when two people try to be alike and together at all costs.
Good: Nice ending; The music gets better and better; Nice symbolism.
Bad: A truck is a popular plot device; The usual formula again.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
When I first heard Ren talk about Wanyuudo, I thought that he was taking a small break after the rather strange previous episode which made him be away for a couple of days. Though then it appeared that one client just had been holding him for a very long while, without releasing the string. In fact, she was blackmailing her victim with it. To make things even more complicated, the two of them once were friends, who did everything together dressed alike.
It’s interesting, we have a fairly standard case, but the episode was a really enjoyable one. Especially the history of the two was very nice. This is what happens when you get obsessed over a friendship. Ai and Kikuri nicely symbolized the case as well. Seeing Yurie witness Marie with a boy (aka Ren) also was a very interesting. Especially seeing that even though she gets blackmailed and abused like hell (pun intended), she actually doesn’t mind this at all. She just hopes to get back to the good old days.
The ending is debatable. The truck definitely was overused, but I like how things turned out in the end with Marie sending herself and her best friend to hell, just so that they could meet up with each other. It makes you wonder, though. What kind of place is hell exactly? This show never really shed light on this.
The question also remains: how will this show end? We’ve got the history of Hone Onna still to come, with possibly another episode dedicated to Ichimoku Ren, but what is to happen next? It would be great to see Hell-boy return, but what kind of conclusion will that give to the series? And what about the spider? And Ai’s grandmother?]]>
Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense
Red Garden – 17
Short Synopsis: In the end, Hervé spoke the truth. It’s now up to Kate to tell the others about it.
Good: Kate; Claire; Rose; Rachel; Amanda; Hervé; Anna; Lise; Emilio; Yes, about everyone who did anything significant in this episode.
Bad: I expected a bit of Lula, but she was nowhere to be found.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Seriously, I expected an aftermath after the eventfulness of the previous episode, but I never expected it to be such an awesome one. Most aftermaths are quiet, but this one was probably even better than its previous episode. So many characters were involved in so many awesome ways.
In the end, it’s true. Kate and the others will lose their memories after everything is over. She now has to tell everyone about this. It’s almost freaky how different everyone reacted. More on that below. Kate also has to cope with her sister, now that Emilio has dumped her and disappeared.
The news is quite a shock for Claire, but as usual, she manages to control her feelings. Still, she was so sad through the episode. First she tells Kate that she’d rather have that they won’t have secrets for each other anymore, but when they have to tell the news to Rose, she suddenly understands how difficult it is to tell someone some sad news. When they saw that Rose grew so much, and that she finally was able to see her father again, who is working hard for his family, they just couldn’t bring her the news that her memories would just disappear. They expected the same with Rachel, based on episodes 4-6, so they didn’t even bother to try and tell her.
Rose indeed has grown so much. Just compare her with Rachel, who’s currently in the midst of losing all her friends. When the anime started, I could never have imagined Rose actually comforting Rachel like the way she did now. Still, in the end she’s grown so much because of her memories of her family and friends. She breaks when she hears that she’ll lose her memory in the end. She actually starts yelling at Kate.
And OMG Rachel. She actually doesn’t care whether she loses her memory or not. In this episode, we see her officially break up with her friends. After this, she obviously has nothing left. And surprise, Sam, the rather goofy guy who always remained in the shadows gets worried about her, and tries to comfort her. She obviously doesn’t realize this, but I wonder how Sam will act in the future.
Also, Rachel gave some interesting information about Amanda. When Rachel still was alive, she was probably the most popular of her group, and Amanda always seemed to look up to her, and she always wanted to be like her. She now finally managed to win over Rachel, it seems.
Hervé, meanwhile, has been locked up. He’s probably going to escape any episode now, but it’s now clear that he’s cut his ties with his former “allies”, who are now all worried because Lise remembered Hervé. Because of that, they ignore Anna, who’s starting to cough up blood because of her sudden separation with Hervé and Mireille.
And boy, Emilio made sure for an awesome cliff-hanger in the end. He’s obviously not going to directly help Hervé anymore, due to the fact that he’s lost his girlfriend, but it does seem that he’s begun acting on his own. How? By kidnapping Lise. This can become really interesting. Especially if the latter happens to run into Claire, Rose, Rachel or Kate. ^_^
And finally, I must praise the ED. It’s a great way to succeed the already exciting cliff-hangers.]]>
Death Note – 19
Short Synopsis: A Matsuda-episode. See what happens when the idiot starts to act on his own.
Good: The beginning of the episode was great. L was too funny at times.
Bad: It’s a miracle Matsuda stayed alive through all this.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
The creators found a nice way to develop the Yotsuba-arc further this episode. Earlier I mentioned that Matsuda is the most unprofessional of Kira’s group, and this time, we see what his stupidity brings him to. Heck, he even gets his own special hair-colour, differentiating from the usual red and blue. The episode would have sucked, if it wasn’t for L’s reaction to everything. He surely managed to turn this entertaining with his constant annoyance at the poor Matsuda. I loved how he had to act as a mere ambulance worker in the end. ^^
While certain parts of the episode smelled a bit too much like “filler”, certain parts were pretty interesting regarding the main plot. First of all, it showed that the security in the main office of the Yotsuba-group is garbage. The fact that Matsuda could sneak in and go to the secret meeting has to say something. You’d think that the members of the Yotsuba group would be extra careful, now that they’re playing with things that can get them in jail for the rest of their lives, but surprisingly, they don’t. Matsuda now also has been stripped from his role as Misa’s manager. As it would be troublesome if people recognized him on the street, it looks like he’s going to be promoted to full-time coffee-bringer.
The climax of the episode definitely was interesting, while Light’s father yet again showed how easy it is to get into the Yotsuba-building when he manages to bring a giant mattress inside of it, in order to save Matsuda. Actually, I’m suspecting that they went to another building when Misa and her friends arrived. Matsuda, however, surprised me with his athletic ability. The two thieves also were interesting in their acting. Overall, a funny episode. I liked how this episode tried to give an actual comedic note to the scenes. Still, Misa remains annoying. I’m suspecting that the Yotsuba-arc will be more of a comedic arc, since it now became clear that it’s being managed by a bunch of idiots. ^^;]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 45
Short Synopsis: One of the strangest episodes yet. Wanyuudo’s past gets revealed when Ai gets summoned to the place where she first met him.
Good: I liked the narrative style a lot. The two cases at the same time were confusing, but very enjoyable.
Bad: This episode had more freaking fanservice than a hot-spring episode of a harem-anime, and that has to say something!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Whoa, the fanservice, the huge amounts of fanservice. That’s definitely something you don’t expect from a series like this. Almost half of the episode was in a hot spring. While I can understand the small amounts of fanservice that have been featured in the show before, this definitely was way too much.
Still, ignoring the fanservice, we have an excellent episode. It’s one of the first in which two stories are told at the same time. One where Ai meets Wanyuudo, near a local hot-spring resort which just opened, and one where Ai returns after 400 years, to carry out yet another grudge. The interesting thing is that these cases are very much related. The first case is about the owner of the hot springs. He refuses to let a girl marry his son, just because he wants him to marry the daughter of another hot-spring owner. The girl becomes so angry about this, since she already carries the son’s baby, and because of this she sends the father to hell.
At that time, Ai still worked alone. She used a shrine, for her victims in order to contact her. The straw doll also was just an ordinary straw doll, instead of one of her companions in disguise. You’d wonder why Wanyuudo started to take over it’s role, though. She also used to walk to her victims, since she didn’t have the transportation facility that is called Wanyuudo yet. It does make you wonder, though. At one time, she’s able to just appear wherever she’d like, and at other times, she just has to walk.
In any case, during this particular case, she heard a rumour of a Youkai which has been bothering travellers. I assume that she looked for people to help her, and then she finally found what she searched for in Wanyuudo, so she recruited him. Later, she found Ichimoku Ren, in sword-form, like we saw in one of the previous episodes. I’m suspecting that the next episode will be dedicated to how Ai ran into Hone Onna. I think that she also has a small story to share with us.
In the second case, the descendant of the girl who was rejected starts blackmailing the owner, the descendant of the boy she was in love with, because she found out that the owner artificially maintains the hot springs, as it dried up long ago. Things are too late, however, and this gets leaked out before the girl can get sent to hell. It’s interesting to see that Ai and Wanyuudo were the first and the last customers in the hot springs.
Another interesting thing to note is that at one point, Ai decided to make her victims vanish. In the case 400 years ago, she left the body, boiled and all. That was quite the shock. I wonder what made her decide to do this.]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 44
Short Synopsis: A woman who once divorced from her husband has no other choice than to live with him, after being unable to move most of her body. Their daughter gets negatively involved in this.
Good: Whoa, even though it was the usual formula, the antagonist this time totally made up for it! The father also was amazing. This also was one of the few episodes at which I didn’t need Memento in order to fully understand it. 🙂
Bad: The episode was amazing, but the usual formula did remain.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
This definitely was one of the best episodes of Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori yet! I can’t believe how touching the antagonist became! We first get the illusion that she’s an incredibly old hag. The main character’s mother has never been enthusiastic about her, and she kept giving her the cold shoulder when she was young. Then at one point, her mother divorced of her husband, abandoning him and their daughter. Then, years later, she comes back. Most of her muscles are unable to move and the girl and her father now have to take care of her. The only problem is that her mother turned into an incredible bitch. She only yells and complains. Especially to her daughter. This was one of the few times where I actually wanted to see a person to go to hell.
But then the history of the mother became clear. Boy, did that change my view of her. The girl isn’t her own daughter. At one point, it seemed that she could never produce a baby, so her father looked for another woman to have a child with. This worked, and the mother only had to watch this happen. It’s no wonder that she’d hate her child this way! Not only that, but none other than her father was responsible for her ending up in that state.
By this point, her father also gets an even more amazing role, when he has to choose between his daughter and his wife. He clearly knows that his ex-wife bring great trouble to his daughter. She can’t even spend proper time with her boyfriend. I can SO imagine that it must have been a VERY difficult decision to send his ex-wife to hell, for the happiness of his daughter. That really was beautiful!
Seriously, I do hope that the last couple of episodes of Jigoku will be just as good as this one. It’s great to see that the creators managed to make a very interesting case out of a usual formula.]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 43
Short Synopsis: Ichimoku Ren is the last of the dolls to show his past. The case, meanwhile, involves the daughter of someone who had already been in contact with Jigoku Shoujo before.
Good: Finally a great episode again! The changes that people make over 12 years were great to see.
Bad: Can we now finally have some kind of main plot?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Finally, I’ve been waiting for another episode to bring a twist to the episodes of Jigoku Shoujo. The past few episodes have been rather disappointing. Episode sixteen showed some good signs again, and with this episode, this show is back on track again. I really like when Jigoku Shoujo deals with past cases, as it really gives some insights about how the characters changed. I would have loved to have seen the case of the mother, earlier in the series, but I guess that 12 years is too early for the start of the anime.
It’s interesting to see how the woman has changed into a workaholic over the years. Because of this, her grandmother probably got enough chances to manipulate her to make her think that her mother is a bad person. It seems that she’s the real reason of tis story. She just couldn’t forget her son’s death, and she had to blame someone for it. I think she’s actually seeing her granddaughter as a substitution for her son.
The mother, meanwhile is too sad. First her husbands abuses her, then she has to send him to hell to protect herself and her daughter. Because of that, she has to work hard to sustain her family. Her mother-in-law meanwhile tries to take her daughter away from her. Her daughter meanwhile thinks of sending her own mother to hell because of this. In order to protect her daughter from going to hell, she decides to take the initiative.
We also see Ichimoku Ren’s history this time. His history also is the bloodiest of all. While Wanyuudo got in an accident, and Hone Onna got murdered as prostitute, he actually was a sword, which had been used by lots of people to kill, cheat, steal and other nasty stuff. That’s probably why he’s the most silent of the three dolls, even though he has the youngest body.]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 42
Short Synopsis: The main character this time is very kind-hearted and trusting. Because of this, people start to use her. Hone Onna’s background gets revealed.
Good: Thankfully, a lot better than the previous few episodes. Hone Onna’s history and compassion was a great touch.
Bad: If it wasn’t for Memento, I wouldn’t have understood it.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Ah, finally we have an actually good episode again. The first half was decent, though I really liked the way the plot went in the second half. Hone Onna’s compassion with the main character, who was just too nice and ignorant helped a lot. She seemed to work in a brothel when she was still alive, killed by her boss and thrown into the river. This in comparison to Wanyuudo, who got into an accident, rather than having a rather dreadful life. You’d wonder about Ichimoku Ren. His clothes are more modern, so I assume that Ai actually recruited him only ten or twenty years ago.
Anyway, I also liked how the main character actually died. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does, things often go a bit predictable. It’s a nice twist, but I’m still waiting for some kind of thing that will send this series to its climax, like Hajime and Tsugumi did with the first season. It could be, of course, that this thing already appeared, but a bit more subtle this time, in the form of Kikuri. But what can she really add to this series that can trump Hajime and Tsugumi at this point?]]>
Ayatsuri Sakon – 18
Short Synopsis: The setting for the new arc: a school for the puppet-style Noh. Kaoru has an arranged marriage with the oldest son of master of this school.
Good: Kaoru was surprisingly interesting. I finally realize the good thing about this series.
Bad: Again the usual formula. I hope I’m right with my statement above.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Interesting, I know that I’ve been ranting against Ayatsuri Sakon for the past few episodes. But after seeing this episode, I really can’t imagine why I’d do such a thing? Sure, it’s not as good as shows like Simoun or Noein, but it does have a certain charm. Sakon himself also is a unique character. I finally realize why I liked the first couple of episodes so much, while the later bunch of episodes started to get really boring. This really is a show that you need to see once a month. Not once a week, like I tried for a while. It’s a slow show, but it definitely has some really good points. The fact remains, however, that it’s too much of the same. When you put huge breaks between watching the episodes, this effect is weakened significantly, which results into quite an enjoyable episode.
After watching this episode, I also finally realized that this show is like the sister-anime of Ghost Hunt. They both involve Ghosts, they both involve mysteries that have to be solved. The huge amount of similarities is quite astounding. Still, there are a few significant differences. While Ayatsuri Sakon focuses on solving murders, Ghost Hunt focuses on getting rid of ghosts and spirits. Ayatsuri Sakon is deeply rooted in the ancient arts of japanese puppetry, while Ghost Hunt rather offers a modern look at psychic events.
Still, I now realize that Ayatsuri Sakon has one major disadvantage over Ghost Hunt: it doesn’t have an incompetent main character. Heck, Sakon is smart, he does things on his own, and he uses his puppet to talk for him. The first arc also had lots of shock values, and Ayatsuri Sakon actually gives the viewer the opportunity to solve the case himself with a bit of logical thinking. Instead of Ghost Hunt, which comes with rather random points that rather resembles storytelling than solving a mystery.
About this episode, I really liked Kaoru when she fell in love with the guy. I’m really hoping that the Ayatsuri Sakon project will continue releasing once a month, as I’m interested to see how this will turn out.]]>
Death Note – 18
Short Synopsis: Kira’s deaths have been benificial to the Yotsuba-group, and L finally manages to find this out. Meanwhile, the police has had to give up chasing after Kira.
Good: Aizawa
Bad: What is the Yotsuba-group anyway?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Ah, yeah. After last week’s climax, we’ve again got a number of quiet episodes of building up, before the show can reach another climax. This episode was dedicated to introduce the suspicions about the Yotsuba-group, and to get rid of Aizawa. The former wasn’t really that exciting, but Aizawa was pretty interesting. I’m wondering whether it’s really goodbye for him now, or that we’ll see him again.
Next on the list to go is probably Matsuda. This episode gave a few very clear hints that he’s absolutely useless, except for getting some coffee. This is probably getting worse, until he breaks and leaves. Or gets involved in some kind of plot twist. ^_^
The fight between Light and L also was pretty amusing, but I’d wish that Light would turn back to his old self. He’s got a really dull character right now. More than that, I want to see Ryuk back, and I want to see how he’ll react to the Yotsuba-group.
Speaking of the devil, what is up with them? Heck, what kind of company are they anyway? What would they be doing so that deaths of criminals actually are beneficial to them. I mean, that shouldn’t be too hard to investigate? Why didn’t we hear any deductions about that? I’m also beginning to suspect that one person in the Yotsuba-group indeed has a death-note for himself. One of these eight has it, but he hasn’t told the others about it. That’s why they assumed one of them to be Kira, because they couldn’t tell the difference between the deaths by Kira and the deaths by the mysterious member.]]>
Red Garden – 16
Short Synopsis: Randy is just barely alive, Claire yells at her father, Rose finds her father, Luke breaks up with Rachel, Hervé finally reveals the goals of the endless fighting, Lula finally does something for herself, Hervé nearly kills Kate, he finds out that the headmistress is the leader of his enemies and somebody actually dies.
Good: Finally Lula actually does something; the climax of the episode was grand; Claire’s fight with her father.
Bad: Why does Rachel keep quiet about her reason to be with Nick?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10
Finally this anime is getting steamed. The past two episodes have been amazingly good. We finally see some results of the building-up of the first season. It already starts out great when Claire has a fight with her father.
Red Garden is unique in the way it portrays two characters yelling at each other. It’s interesting, most anime go from a close-up of one character to a close-up of the other character, with usually an increase of tension. The character says something and the camera switches back to the first one. Red Garden, however, has people talking right through each other’s speeches. Because of this, there’s no room for a small break between two statements. Because it doesn’t focus on just one character yelling, the scene just doesn’t give room to relax a bit. It’s a great way to turn up the intensity of that scene. Especially when such a scene takes so long.
The middle of the episode was filled with a number of random scenes, dedicated to develop the characters a bit more. Kate’s sister gets on another date with Emilio, Claire didn’t regret the things she said about her father, Luke finally has had enough about Rachel, and his patience finally ran out, because she just doesn’t dare to tell what’s on her mind. That’s why he breaks up on her. Jessica becomes quite interesting when she actually starts to worry about Kate, based on the things she overheard Paula say. It’s interesting, I rather disliked her previously, but with this, she also shows actual signs of character development. Hervé meanwhile gives Kate a suspicious call. Anna’s condition is getting worse, while Rose finally managed to track down his father. It seems that he left his family because he got caught in some heavy debts. He didn’t want to trouble his family, so he left. He isn’t planning to return, as his troubles still aren’t over. But then he finds out that Rose’s mother has been hospitalized. It’ll be interesting to see what he does in the next episode. The police officer is getting closer to the bottom of the mystery when he actually gets a clear suspicion that the missing girls have been reincarnated from death. Hervé meanwhile calls Emilio to inform him that he’s going to see Kate. Lula, the headmistress and the others meanwhile hurry to Kate. It seems that they found out about his plan…
Phew. That’s another thing I like about Red Garden: so many things happen in one episode. And everyone is just different. Everyone has their own problems and twists.
The climax was the best thing of the entire episode. First of all, Hervé tells Kate the truth. Kate and the others have been fighting in order to recover one of the Cursed Tomes. Whichever side collects both of them, wins. If Hervé’s side wins, Kate and the others will die. If Lula’s side wins, Kate will lose her memories. The question remains whether he told the truth or not, but I’m suspecting that he actually did. At least, I’m hoping so. Things will turn out very interesting if that indeed is the truth. 🙂
But then things get even more interesting when Kate and the others take a step back, to show a fight between Emilio and Hervé and Lula and the rest of the school staff. In the end, this comes down to a fight between Lula and Hervé. He’s about to finish her off, though JC jumps before her, losing his life. And surprise: they’re actually siblings! And finally Lula shows a bit more of herself!
The next episode will obviously be an aftermath, but it’s interesting to wonder how this series will continue. I think that JC’s death marked the end of the first half of Red Garden, and that now the second half is about to begin.]]>