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Now this is a movie! Most of you probably figured out by now that I’m on a movie spree, but most of the movies tend to be lots of style and not a lot of substance. While these are perfectly fine to watch, I’d rather watch a movie that’s good in every aspect. Unfortunately, these are quite hard to find, though Metropolis definitely belongs in that category. For those of you who don’t know about Osamu Tezuka, this link should give you a fairly good impression of why people call him the “God of Manga”. Without him, anime wouldn’t be what it is today, and even now remakes of his works are still being made, and his stories prove to be very good to age. First Hi no Tori baffled me, and now it’s the turn for Metropolis. Due to the fact that this movie really received a great budget, it has been really detailed, up to the point where it can be seen as on par with Ghibli-movies. The sceneries we see throughout the movie are filled with life and people, who actually react to the things around them. On frequent occasions, you can find different things happening at once. Characters who stand in the background discussing things, for example. When compared to usual anime, where characters don’t move unless they really have to, it felt really refreshing. Not only does this movie spend a great amount of effort on its details, they’re also used really well in combination with its story and characters. Both of them are really given the time to develop throughout the movie, and if you combine this with the details, you get some pretty interesting character-development, which comes together perfectly in the climaxes, later in the movie. Especially the ending must be one of the most brilliant ideas for an ending in a anime-movie ever; you’ll either absolutely love it, or you’ll absolutely hate it. ^_^;; (you’ll understand when you see it). Like Hi no Tori, Metropolis also is quite thought-provoking. Even though the themes introduced are nothing I haven’t seen before (they may have been new when the story was first published, I’m not sure about that one), where the setting is a city, fully controlled by the government, where Robots take over most of the dirtier tasks, the movie uses its characters to ask enough interesting questions about morality. It’s hard to point out any flaws in this one as well. The characters all fit well into the movie, and each of them has a good enough reason to be involved in the events. The main character and especially his father really start out like normal people, and yet it seems perfectly logical why they became the main characters. Each of the important characters is fleshed out well, and the story flows from one event to the other in quite a logical way. I guess the biggest flaw is that this remains a movie. I still like Hi no Tori better than this one, simply because it had 13 episodes. Metropolis used its time well, though there’s only so much you can do in an hour and a half. Because of this, the ending did turn into a collection of clichés, despite the brilliant part.]]>

Short Synopsis: Inside Tanda’s house, Barsa recovers, while the old woman we saw in the OP makes her appearance. Good: As detailed as ever. Bad: Just doesn’t live up to the previous episode, but what did you expect? ^^; Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 After the huge events of the previous episode, this one takes a step back in the pacing, to make sure for Barsa to recover properly, while it also takes its time to introduce a couple of new characters. We finally see the king himself (at least, I think that’s him), and the first prince of the country as well. They weren’t what I expected them to be, and they didn’t really look that evil. If I had to guess, then the major antagonist will be the long-bearded priest. Another new character is Torogaishi (at least, I think that’s her name. Please correct me if I’m wrong). She seems to be some kind of witch or magic user, who somehow ended up on the bad side of Seidoushi, as the warriors who come to kill her at the beginning of the episode demonstrate. She’s quite skilled; notice how she started collecting sand to make some kind of fake body once she noticed their presence. The dialogue was as difficult as usual, but I did pick up that she’s involved herself into finding the egg of the water spirit, and knows quite a lot about it. Chaggumu, meanwhile, finally has the time to relax a bit, and just like Rita, he has to get accustomed to the habits of the common people. I do wonder what’ll be happening next to him. If I had to guess, then the following episodes will try to remove the egg from his body and turn him into a normal boy. Like Rita, he’ll also end up cutting his hair (see the OP and ED).]]>

That was truly excellent. This really has been one of the more awesome episodes of Asatte no Houkou, and that has to say something, with such a high-quality series. It mostly follows Karada, who has run away from home, because she discovered a picture of Hiro and Shoko together. Therefore she figured that she’s a hindrance in their relationship. I also must warn you. The next paragraph contains a spoiler you do not want to find out before watching the episode. If you haven’t seen episode eight of Asatte no Houkou, close this window NOW. Seriously.

The plot twist in the middle of the episode was a beauty. At one point, Karada also thinks back of the time when she was still living with her parents, and this shows us something very interesting. Karada KNEW that Hiro wasn’t her real brother, she just never told him that she knew. The reason she was crying when she saw Hiro for the first time also isn’t because she was extremely scared or sad that her parents died, like Hiro suspects. It’s because she knew she had nobody left, and then suddenly, a person who isn’t related to her in every way arrives and plans to take care of her. This also SO explains why she’s trying to be so independant. There’s this guy, who she isn’t related to in every way who sacrificed everything in order to take care of her. He has no obligation to do so, so she felt like she was a huge bother to him. That’s why she started to do the housework on her own. Brilliance. 🙂

The actions which take in present time also were a great to see. As Karada is now on her own, she has to find a job and a house, though as she never solicited before, she has no idea how things go, and she’s probably extremely scared of talking to random people. I can indeed imagine how scary it must be, especially when you don’t have any house or telephone, or you have to lie about your date of birth.

In the end, Karada spends the night in a child’s playground. But then the cliffhanger comes. You’d think that Hiro would be able to get Karada back without any problems, though then the opposite appears to be true. Karada may be scared and inexperienced, but when she makes a decision, it really becomes clear that she’s not backing down from that decision easily, instead of running around in circles indecisive.

Also, what about the next episode? The cliff-hanger definitely focused on Karada, and it only made the problem bigger. Still, by the rules of Asatte no Houkou, the next episode will be another Shoko-episode. What will it focus at? Will Shoko get angry at Hiro, at his constant desire to chase after Karada? Will she help him? And what will become of Karada? Will she turn better, or will she turn worse? This definitely was an awesome episode. It’s very rare for me to really like a slice-of-life series, though somehow, Asatte no Houkou is currently leaving a huge impression on me.