Short Synopsis: Hone Onna seems to have normal human friends. One among them is a cute little idiot named Tetsuro.
Good: Great direction, a real pitiful case this time.
Bad: The toilet with teeth could have been better
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Oh, my. That was very interesting. We have a Hone Onna episode this time. It seems that a year ago, she met a guy in the train who wanted to recruit her for a movie he was making. The guy is named Tetsuro, and he’s quite the idiot. He keeps running after women and he acts like a little kid at times, and most importantly, he never learned to take responsibility. He keeps relying on his wife, girlfriends and Hone Onna for everything by using his cute puppy-dog eyes.
I don’t believe he really has any evil intentions at all. He’s just an ignorant fool, without any realization of the things he does. I guess that that was the reason the women stayed with him. Still, in the end, this ignorance sent him to hell, when he accidentally messed up the car of a guy who’s probably been having a hard time, making this the final straw. Especially when Tetsuro splashed him with hot coffee afterwards. I wish we could have seen more of this guy, but I guess it would have hurt the episode. Right now, the mystery surrounding Tetsuro, and how he could ever be related to Jigoku Shoujo was very interesting.
The strange thing is, that I really liked Tetsuro as a character, despite him being a huge idiot. He indeed was too cute to stay angry at. That’s what made his being-sent-to-hell scene also so great. Especially since Hone Onna had to say goodbye to a dear friend of her. Actually, three dear friends of her, since she decided to cut ties with his wife and girlfriend as well. I just wish the creators chose something better than a giant toilet with teeth to begin with.
Also, why was Ai blushing at the beginning of the episode? I’m also glad to see that Kirika is getting better with every episode progressing. She was actually funny this time, when she appeared in a frog raincoat, flying away with a green umbrella in front of Tetsuro.
Wanyuudo has been getting surprisingly little attention, by the way. There was one episode in which he stood in the centre, the one with the punk guy. Apart from that, it’s either been Ichimoku Ren and Hone Onna. Also, will Ai also get a few episodes in which the case relates to her?
In any case, I have to say that the second season is well on its way on becoming better than the first one. It’s only been episode ten, and we’ve already been treated to some wonderful cases. I was beginning to worry a bit after the first six episodes, but the quality suddenly made a huge leap in the right direction with the seventh episode.]]>
Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense
Jigoku Shoujo – 35
Short Synopsis: Something is seriously wrong between a sister and her brother.
Good: Awesome antagonist this time, extremely creative. The confession-scene was great.
Bad: The usual formula, unfortunately.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5
Holy god… during the first scene of the episode, we get the impression that this story is about a girl with a big-brother-complex. Well, it appears to be tad different from this.
Okay, get this. We have this girl, who has a brother. This brother:
– Likes to cook for her.
– Works as a model.
– Buys fancy dresses…
– …only to wear them HIMSELF and dress up like a girl.
– Is in love with his sister.
– Seduces all of his sister’s new boyfriends away from her, IN GIRL-MODE.
– Suddenly tries to hit on her.
Okay, individually, these things aren’t that bad. Okay, some may be a bit annoying, but it’s NOTHING like when you actually start combining all of them. This is one crazy guy, and I can imagine why his sister would hate him. It’s interesting, since she’s yet another girl who’s using Jigoku Shoujo to run away from her problems. I wonder what would have happened if she never got into contact with Jigoku Shoujo in the first place. How would she have solved the problem then? If I had to guess, she’d use her own strength to stop him somehow, but would that be before or after he went too far?
Still, I loved the ending in this one. It showed that this girl is well aware that she sent her brother to hell, seeing as she’s really missing him. It had to be a difficult decision for her. It seems that in the end, she chose for the easy way out.]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 34
Short Synopsis: A fake website for Jigoku Shoujo has appeared on the web. But why?
Good: Gotta love the plot twist.
Bad: This really needs to get subbed. Why isn’t it getting subbed?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Why did I ever lose faith in this series!? It’s awesome. That’s what this episode definitely showed. I think that one of the best things of this show is its repetition, even though most people seem to be turned off by it. Because it’s so repetitive, it builds up a certain pattern for each episode. When it starts playing with this pattern, the show turns really interesting. That definitely became clear with this episode.
It already starts out well when it doesn’t really feature a clear main character. We have our antagonist, Baba Shouko. But there’s no real protagonist. We switch a bit around between different characters, we have a student who’s being bullied by her, a teacher who’s seeing her students suffer, a student who gets blamed and expelled for creating the fake Jigoku Shoujo website, Hone Onna and, of course, Jigoku Shoujo. Each one of them gets about an equal amount of development.
But then the real goodness begins when the teacher invites the expelled student to send Baba Shouko to hell with the real Jigoku Website. It seems that the teacher had called upon Jigoku Shoujo herself in the past, when she was still a high school girl, seeing as she hated Baba Shouko herself at that time. Still, she chickened out. Now that she ended up in the same school as her, she actually tries to USE one of her students to send Baba Shouko to hell. Brilliant.
Especially taken into account what happens next. Baba Shouko herself appeared, and reveals that she actually doesn’t have any evil attentions at all. She’s just your usual strict teacher who wants to make her students good members of society. I like that kind of teacher, seeing as kids these days are getting ruder and ruder by the minute. She kindof reminds me of Ro from Saiunkoku Monogatari. But yeah, at the time, the children probably won’t acknowledge this. And some cases will never come to understand it, see the teacher as an example.
The question also remains: did Baba Shouko cause all of this, and more importantly, is she guilty? It’s true that she was the reason that Kuriyama-sensei turned out the way she did, but Kuriyama herself also is to blame, because she never saw the real meaning behind Baba’s behaviour. Still, can you really blame someone for not understanding something quick enough? Still, the fact remains that Kuriyama tried to use one of her students, while Kuriyama actually sent someone to hell. That’s another thing I love about this show. There’s almost no character who behaves ethically correct all the time. The previous episode was an extreme example of this as well.
Also, you have to love the attempts to stay out of the copyrights by turning “Google” into “Deegle”. It’s actually quite a cute name. ^^; I’m also glad that Kirika is improving. I mean, she still is the annoying brat, but she was actually quite funny in this episode, and she actually listened to Ai. I’m really beginning to wonder why she’s in this show in the first place. I mean, she has to have a reason, doesn’t she?]]>
Jigoku Shoujo – 33
Short Synopsis: The mother of a son who died can’t recover from the shock, and drags her entire family into it.
Good: The ending.. oh my GAWD!
Bad: The little girl still is kindof annoying.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Today’s experiment: can I watch Jigoku Shoujo raw. Conclusion: yes, I can. I missed some details, but it isn’t any worse than with other series. I just got a bit too fed up with the huge period of downtime from the subs. Normally, I can wait, but lately I actually caught myself losing interest in this show due to lack of updates, and we can’t have that, can we? That’s another advantage of being able to understand raws. ^^
This episode also really reminded me again why I love this series. It really manages to portray people on the brink of insanity. This episode definitely was one of the better ones, since all the important characters had enough development for once. Both the mother, the daughter, the son and the father got a nice amount of development, causing them to dive into insanity.
Seriously, we’ve got ourselves a messed-up family this time. We first have this son who’s being bothered by his overly protective mother, and because of that, he decides to send her to hell. It’s freaky, though awfully realistic. I can imagine pubescent males who hate their mother, and what happens if you give them a very easy and clean way to kill her? But if that wasn’t good enough, his mother keeps clinging to him, even after his death. This breaks up the entire family.
The father probably is the most normal person in the family, seeing as he keeps getting bothered by his wife, though he’s too afraid to say something. Because of that, he starts drinking more and more. Though I liked the daughter most. Mostly because of what happened at the end of the episode. She actually killed off her entire family, and we see her smile in front of an empty breakfast table! Even her father! That girl really is crazy. I love it how Jigoku Shoujo actually focuses on anti-heroes at times.
It’s great, I’m back in love again with this series. ^^]]>
Death Note – 14
Ah, this episode reminded me again why I love this show. It’s different from most series. Sometimes, I’m in for the story, others have me drooling for the characters, and yet others capture me with its tension. But not Death Note. For me, Death Note is all about its plot twists. These plot twist are so brilliant, and unlike most other shows, you absolutely won’t see them coming. That’s what I love about this show. Good for me that this episode had a LOT of juicy plot twists. đ
Twist one: Light can’t kill Misa, otherwise he’ll die. This is going to be quite a problem. ^^ We see him theorize about how he’ll use her and kill her afterwards, with a big smirk on his face, and then Rem comes and ruins his entire plan. This is going to be quite a bitch for him to solve, seeing as the only way to kill Rem is to endanger Misa. Unfortunately, Rem will only suspect Light when that happens, so he’ll get killed.
Twist two: “Light-kun is my first friend.” That was so brilliant and cheesy at the same time! And to make matters worse, I don’t even know whether L was serious or not. You would expect L to be tricky, sly and clever, though this confession was awfully genuine. Light’s response also was so incredibly cheesy, though. I wouldn’t suspect that if that really was an act of L, he’d start to suspect something after that. XD
Twist three: Light manages to get Rem to kill L. When I saw it for the first time, that was such a brilliant moment. Easily one of the best plot twist of the entire anime. But as I’ve been writing this entry, I started to think how L could get out of this one. After all, there wouldn’t be much of a challenge left to this anime if he didn’t, would it? And I think I finally realized how he’ll get out of Light’s plan. I’m suspecting that L doesn’t have a name to begin with. Seeing that he considers Light as his very first friend, he’s always been lonely. There’d be a good chance that something happened with his parents, and he never even got a name. It’s not likely, but apart from that, I can’t see how he’ll be able to stop a friggin shinigami who’s after his head.]]>
Red Garden – 13
Ooh, a new OP. At least, an enhanced op. The still frames from the original OP now have a bit of movement added to them. Makes for an interesting effect, I like it. Anyway, about the episode, I’m beginning to love this show more and more.
Especially HervĂ©. I love this guy. Especially when he he’s near Lise, he really is too mean against her. ^^ It may be a bit mean, but I loved how he told her that he was meeting Kate, in that extra-mean voice. It’s been quite an eventful episode for him. First the date with Kate and at the end of the episode, … collapsed. He’s quite pitiful, seeing as it now seems that the two girls aren’t really necessary anymore for the survival of his family, so doctor Bender starts ignoring the two of them more and more. It really gives HervĂ© a good reason to hate Lise.
Apart from HervĂ©, the episode focused mostly on Kate. Rose also made some interesting development, and we learn something interesting about Lula and her companion. It seems that they’ve got connections with the school’s headmistress. That might explain how they learned about Rachel and the others in the first place, and something tells me that a lot of their victims come from the same school.
Meanwhile, the inevitable happened: someone told Rose about how useless she is. She finally gets inside a situation in which she has no option of running away or hiding behind others, and she gets too scared. While Kate, Rachel and Claire grew while they fought, there actually was no real need to have Rose around. Because of that, she didn’t really have a reason to grow as well. Though things got a bit tougher with two monsters appearing at the same time. Still, I like Rose. Instead of sulking on what Rachel said, she actually immediately goes to train herself.
Kate, meanwhile, found out something interesting: how to use their special powers. Great scene, great scene. Still, her problems at school are becoming worse and worse, now that a note has been sent to her parents. I’m looking forward to the moment in which she finds out about HervĂ©, by the way. :)]]>
Death Note – 13
I began to get a bit afraid that after Death Note’s lisencing, the subs would stop appearing as well. Being Dutch and all, I couldn’t care less whether or not some random American company acquired the licence. Luckily, there are people who feel the same, with one fansub appearing just a few hours ago, as well as a softsub. For more info on the softsub, go visit Wakaranai.
Anyway, about the episode, it started off a bit buggy. It may have been because of the quality of the softsubs, though it also was more of the same. It also felt a bit rushed. But when Misa actually found out Kira’s identity and went to his house, things really went from decent to amazing. Especially because I was so anxious to see how Light would react after the things Misa told him. Especially since he kept asking her cold questions.
Misa herself also was extremely touching to see. She definitely had some good reasons to go after Kira. It also quite surprised me. I knew she wanted to meet him, though I never realized that she was that dedicated to him. You also have to love Light’s smirk at the end of the episode. It’ll be interesting to see how the two of them will do after this episode.]]>
Night Head Genesis Review – 86/100
Night Head Genesis is an excellent arc-based mystery-series. It focuses on paranormally gifted people, with as main characters to seemingly special ones: Naoto and Naoya. When they were children, they were been locked up inside a research laboratory. The researchers may have had good intentions, it still doesn’t feel good to be locked up, especially as a child, so Naoto and Naoya came to hate that place. So then, fifteen years later, they finally get a chance to escape. After that, they get involved with numerous psychic incidents.
This anime has some great points, but at the same time, it gets held back by a few potentially bad points, but first, let me say that it’s got an awesome soundtrack. Night Head Genesis comes accompanied by a highly atmospheric OST, which really contributes to the overall mood. Ranging from the OP to a couple of very sad but simple tunes, the background music is totally amazing.
Now that that’s out of the way, in order to be able to watch and enjoy Night Head Genesis, you must be aware that Naoto and Naoya are quite close as siblings. Especially the first half is filled with “Naoto!” “Naoya!” “Naoto?” “Naoya”. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing (I didn’t mind this myself), I’ve seen a lot of people who became too annoyed with this to continue the series. It’s a shame, as it turns bloody awesome in the end.
Well then, this anime is divided into three parts. The first part takes up the first 12 episodes, Naoto and Naoya get involved with a few rather heavily subjected cases, with themes such as suicide and child abuse. This part starts out amazing, though it gets a bit worse with each episode progressing, and especially the last few episodes in this part aren’t really that enjoyable to see. Then the second part starts, and the good stuff really begins when the cases start to involve both Naoto and Naoya’s history and background, and they start to reference back to previously dealt with cases.
But the really good part starts with the third part, which starts at around episode 18. In there, the show works towards its final goal, which gets accompanied by some amazing scenes. A few annoying moments here and there, a few unexplained moments there, but overall, these episodes were greatly developed and very enjoyable. This also is one of the few series with an actual good and interesting ending.
Overall, Night Head Genesis has been an amazing series, though be aware that it has quite a few moments which can and will get on your nerves. If you can sit through that, you’ll be rewarded with a great mystery-series.]]>
Night Head Genesis – 24
You know what? I’m surprised to say it, but that actually was a great ending. It’s strange, as I expected this series to fall into the pit of predictability, like so many other series did before it, but no. This actually is the second series, after The Third, that introduces a whole new arc in its semi-final episode, and actually pull off a great ending. Why did these shows avoid the thing that strikes almost every series?
I think a major point is the building up, as strange as it may seem. Usually, a show has one big climax, where the final bunch of episode work towards. Side-characters are sacrificed in order to focus to the main character, tension builds up, and things are starting to look really bad. And that’s where the problem lies. It’s so hard to make something new and fresh out of that, when these three things have already been decided. You really need a series of the calibre of Noein or Utena to really make something worthwhile out of it. Most shows, obviously, don’t have that calibre.
The thing that made Night Head Genesis so fresh was that this ending focused on some newly introduced characters, instead of the usual main characters. Naoto and Naoya are just there, doing their thing to save the world, nothing more. By making the stakes in this episode higher than ever, but focusing on something other than Naoto and Naoya, the creators did make sure that this was an appropriate ending for this anime.
The fact remains that usual endings are just way too limited. Most of them exist to show how much certain characters have grown (Good Witch of the West, for example, or Makai Senki Disgaea). Others show one major character, usually a protagonist, who has some serious issues and threatens to do something stupid (Ouran High School Host Club, NHK ni Youkoso, Magikano). The thing is that this character has to be brought back to senses, in one moment, when the climax is at its highest. That’s obviously not an example of good character development. These things take time. And there is of course the ending where the great evil has to be defeated. The problem here is obvious: the great evil has to be defeated, otherwise the ending won’t be conclusive. It becomes way too predictable. These endings have to rely on how well developed and emotional their characters work. Like I said. That’s difficult.
I loved how this episode didn’t make the worst possible scenario come true. Naoto did his thing, he made sure that the earthquake wouldn’t trigger other earthquakes, and he did this in advance. When the earthquake comes, okay, things rumble a bit, though the tension isn’t as high as when something unexpected happened which would trigger even more earthquakes, but it’s so much more realistic and enjoyable. And not to mention that the creators found another way to provide a nice twist in the ending. Not by having a main character fight for his life, but by actually killing off one of the newly introduced side-characters. Even though he’s been introduced on such short terms, his dying words were great.
And god damn, Shoko. Only now I realize that the creators really “killed off” one of my favourite characters. She really isn’t coming back. That is SO sad for her. While this ending doesn’t beat the endings of Noein, Utena or The Third, this one definitely goes into the file of “succeeded endings”. I’m glad to see that this anime avoided the pitfall that strikes almost every other anime. I’m glad to have seen this series, even though it doesn’t enjoy much popularity.]]>
Red Garden – 12
Interesting. This episode is almost entirely focused on the love-relationships of Rachel, Claire and Kate. In Rachel’s case, things get worse, in Claire’s case, things get better, and in Kate’s case, things get introduced. It wasn’t as good as the previous episode, though that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it.
One thing I love about this series is how you can’t say “now, X’s problems have reached their climax, now it’s Y’s turn to take a similar path”. No, every character has her own problems, and these continue throughout the series. It isn’t like, Character A has had problems with love relationship, now it’s Character B to experience something similar, unlike some other series *coughKanoncough*.
Anyway, I absolutely loved HervĂ© during this episode. The irony of it all starts when Rachel starts falling in love with him, and reckons that he has gentle eyes. This probably comes from the care for his little sister, and now he unconsciously keeps using that expression everywhere. It’s probably why his father doesn’t take him too seriously. Still, you can say a lot about this anime, but the fact does remain that it’s got a greatly developed antagonist. I also loved how sadistic he acted towards Lise. Now that he’s back in his element again, he says some pretty cruel stuff to her, and continues to drop overly obvious hints to her. I really like this guy now. ^_^
Another clue gets revealed about Rose’s father, by the way. The guy did disappear, but whatever he’s doing, he does send money to his family on a monthly basis. If I had to guess, he’s either involved with HervĂ© in some way, or he did something horrible, and can’t face his family because of that. Lulu and her companion also were hilarious when they spied on Kate and HervĂ©. With this discussion, the two of them definitely stepped away from the usual antagonists with their evil plans, and became a bunch of humans.
I’m actually interested in episode 13. Most anime pack out greatly for the end of the first season. If Red Garden is the same, then we may expect some heavily emotional scenes. The ED also surprised me a bit, though I quite like it. It’s just as strange as the previous one, though it’s much more interesting than the EDs I usually see.
Also, credits for this anime for featuring a date which didn’t annoy the hell out of me. :)]]>