I can’t believe that this series has been going on for six episodes now and it’s still completely rock-solid. Where most series are struggling to remain interesting while they build up their story and characters, this series does that like it’s nothing. It uses its dialogue and direction brilliantly in order to flesh out its huge cast, while at the same time Sasuke more than makes sure that this show remains enjoyable from start to finish.
I just love this series’ wit. It’s either really subtle, or hilariously overblown. This episode was especially good at getting Sasuke to comine his love for beautiful things with his duty as a messenger. His facial expressions in the second half were priceless again. The first half meanwhile, mostly build-up was interesting because of how detailed and authentic everything felt.
Having said that though… women have a very strange role in this show (sex). I mean, it’s bizarre: we have tons and tons of fanservice series airing, and they almost never touch upon sex. And here this season comes with two shows that hardly have any fanservice whatsoever, and yet these don’t pretend that sex doesn’t exist (the other is Azazel-san, by the way; even the Hen Zemi series is surprisingly shy around the matter). I mean, I’m not against fanservice; I’m against cheaply used fanservice. When it’s functional nude like in this series I’ve got no problems with it. I do want to say that I want some more variety in this, though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
“women have a very strange role in this show (sex)”
Where I came from that isn’t a strange role at all ^^
Sorry if I’ve missed this, but are you watching this series raw? Huzzah seems to have stopped subbing, and iirc the only other subs are in Russian…
Mushyzulezz: yeah, I watch this one raw. Or at least, I try to.
I envy you, Psgels, because you understand Japanese and can watch raw episodes, as we have to wait for fansubbers to pick up our favourite series and hope they don’t drop them. I know how hard Japanese is, as I attempted to learn it a few years ago, but it seemed impossible, it was just too complicated, so I just gave up. Now I don’t even remember the basics. Anyway, I hope that Huzzah will continue to sub this show, so we can all enjoy it.
I just realized we don’t have he newest episodes subbed. Damn!
Huzzah just released a subbed version of this episode.
Another interesting episode. Comedy aside, it focusses on Sasuke’s ambition, and the lengths (including great danger) he is willing to go in order to rise in status. I continue to be fascinated by the historical setting.
Posting another comment as revenge for being called Mushyzulezz.
What do you think the producers meant by putting New Year on January the 1st? Does that January mean specifically the Julian January (since it just happens that the Gregorian Calendar was invented on February of that year :P), or just a general first month of whatever calendar the Japanese were using at the time?
I find that Hyouge Mono is very good at developing multiple lines simultaneously. While this episode definitely focused on Furuta’s ambition, Senno definitely did some strange things with his talk to Fujitaka. Was he testing whether Fujitaka would be with or against him? Was he implying that Fujitaka should join him? Or was he merely cautioning Fujitaka not to rebel against Oda?
Whatever it was, I find myself wondering at even this matter, not to mention the various other threads floating around. Hyouge Mono truly is blessed, having 39 episodes to tell its story.