So in the end I’m not going to blog Winter Sonata, for the following reasons:
– The release schedule that’s even more uncertain than Aoi Bungaku. Besides, I don’t know a word of Korean.
– The producer: only three episodes are finished at the moment because the lead actor was changed at the last moment. It’s the task of a producer to prevent these kinds of screw-ups!
– I’m already blogging enough angst this season (glares at White Album, and based on the rumours Winter Sonata seems to be even more annoying, if that’s possible).
I also decided not to blog 11Eyes: it really only has those tense moments that are good. The chemistry between the lead couple is just… generic to say the least (in the kind of “I’ll protect you and your bosom!”). And since the rest of this season didn’t have anything else that was promising, I figured that I might as well blog the final 11 episodes of Kemono no Souja, to make up for how I ignored it when it first aired.
Overall, this really is a lesser season. I wouldn’t say that it’s the worst Autumn Season ever, that award goes to Autumn 2007, in which there only were like, 6 shows that left a good impression on me, while this season does have more interesting series. The problem with this season also isn’t the moe overload. Previous summer had that too, and that turned out to be a really enjoyable season. It’s also no problem that this is the first season since ages that doesn’t have any mecha in it. In fact, it’s actually quite refreshing.
I think the problem with this season is quantity: when you look at the amount of series that aren’t sequels, we’re back to the amount of 2005 or perhaps even worse. To add to that, while Autumn 2005 did feature a lot of 26-episode series, right now we have like, what? only four series that are going to be more than 13 episodes (Kobato, Armed Librarians, Kiruminzoo and probably Kimi ni Todoke as well, but even that isn’t certain). It’s really such a shame. Let me tell you, if the Sacred Blacksmith would have had 26 episodes instead of 13, I probably would have blogged that one instead. But what can it really do in just 13 episodes?
And that is what I think is the biggest problem with anime: a majority of the series are just too short. And don’t give me that talk of “yeah, but second seasons can be announced”. That’s what I thought with Amatsuki as well and I’m still waiting for that much, much needed sequel. That’s why the past spring was so good: finally we had a good amount of series that even went beyond 26 episodes: these series really took a risk and gave their series the time needed.
And the same Kemono no Souja: I actually remember that a lot of people were scared away by the scheduled 50 episodes, but thinking back, those were pretty crappy reasons to drop this show. I think that Naruto and Bleach really made this long length infamous, and the currently airing Inu Yasha also prevents people like me, who don’t like the genre it’s in to give it a chance out of the fear of committing time to something that was ultimately not worth it, however I’m now starting to see that at least these series give their franchises enough time to play out. Kemono no Souja Erin has 50 episodes, and it still doesn’t look like enough.
Anyway, I’m not going to talk about this episode because it was a recap, but I do want to use these posts as a means of making up to this great series. I originally dropped it for a very clear reasons: the creators. At the time this series aired I really wasn’t happy with Trans Arts: they had this very nasty trend of picking out very interesting premises, only to screw them up:
– Sisters of Wellber? Great premise for a fantasy-series, but THE CHEESE.
– Library Wars? Sounded very nice, but it lacked complete direction and wanted to do way too much in too little time.
– And Chocolate Underground was entirely crap.
So yeah, as interesting as Erin sounded, I believed that they would screw this one up as well, and so when I detected a bit of cheese I dropped it. That was a bit of a stupid decision. This series built itself up very slowly, but in the end it was definitely worth it. This series reminds me of other lengthy shoujo-series as Glass Mask and Kaleido Star, which just focus on one aspect, but really take their time in exploring their subject matter to the fullest.
Edit: oh, silly me. I never noticed that I downloaded the wrong episode.
The “real” episode 40 was indeed much more like it, and did such an excellent job portraying the aftermath of last episode’s shocking climax. The start of this episode was really hectic, in which many things happened at the same time: Erin’s shock at what happened, taking care of the wounded, the queen who collapsed, the fact that Erin pretty much worked herself into trouble by commanding a Beast King right in front of a small army, including Damya.
And yeah, we now know where the Touda eggs which were previously stolen went to. I don’t think that that organization whose name I forgot has that many Touda, but you can clearly see that they’re trying to spark a war between the Queen and the Grand Duke. During these tense times, all Damya has to do is to bite back, and the country is pretty much doomed.
I also must praise how well the relationship between Erin and Ialu has been built up throughout the series. Now this is romance that really takes its time, instead of going down the cheesy part. Very nice.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Good choice! Kemono no Souja Erin is so underrated due to its nature.
Hmm, I have episode 1-30 of Erin – maybe I should finally start watching it 😀
Currently I am only watching
Letter Bee
Inuyasha (only 26 episodes so it´s okay and I want to see the ending animated)
maybe DtB2 (only If blogs say it´s not crap)
FMA (last season)
Umineko (last season)
Not really much ._.
Hi ,I think you are mistake this is not episodo 40 ,this is 30 maybe ,in # 40 the story still going ,will see some small develop with Erin and iaru ,please check your torrent ,since the same happen to me ,and need to re download .
Ah, there you go. It’s indeed possible that Horriblesubs marked their torrents wrong. The recap indeed never seemed to mention the grown-up Erin. I should have known something was up. ^^;
i have my problems with this genre,but i am glad to see that this year we got two good fantasy anime,this one and Guin Saga,two anime that i definitely plan to watch.
If by any chance you(or anyone else) can recommend me other good fantasy anime that would be great.I love the type of fantasy anime like Seirei no Moribito,Juuni Kokki but i don’t like the Tales of… series or anything more RPG oriented .//hack and so on.
did you drop Winter Sonata in it’s entirety , or are just not blogging it ?
Glad you’re blogging Erin now, I just caught up with the show and am so in love with it, but I agree with mishi, episode 40 definitely had some development (especially after episode 39, holy guacamole….) and Erin is 18 now but still looks 14 in that screenshot.
Ah and I believe that Letter Bee is scheduled to be a 26 episode anime as well. There is almost enough for 26 episodes and since there has been mention that there will be a little filer 13 episodes doesn’t sound right.
thestation: I’m just not going to blog it for now. Whether I’m going to watch it or not depends on whether or not there are going to be any subs.
Pax: have you checked out Saiunkoku Monogatari? It’s not exactly fantasy, but it does focus on politics of a fantasy-ish country, much alike Seirei no Moribito and especially 12 Kingdoms.
It is about time you started to blog this awesome series. What ever took you so long? I am looking forward to your post on the REAL episode 40 which was awesome as usual and muddies the waters again.
I believe that the lead actor has certain power over the anime so he wanted to change things, I don’t think he is leaving but he is making changes to production
I’d like to second the recommendation of Saiunkoku Monogatari. However, the end of the second season will likely leave you wanting a third.
Glad to see this finally being blogged.
I’m still rooting for her & Tomura-Sempai 😉
One thing that bothers me is that Iaru looks exactly the same as when Erin was 13. I also enjoy how Kikiru turns out to be a pretty good guy, even though he’s probably one of the antagonists.
Love this anime…it was written by the same person who wrote Seirei no Moribito (another anime I love). Anyway, before I saw PSGELS’ post on this anime as #2 for August summary review, I watched 2 episodes and I didn’t like it. The art quality wasn’t as beautiful as Seirei no Moribito. It wasn’t until I saw PSGELS ranked it as #2 that I went back and gave it a 2nd chance.
Yes, now I love it. The story starts picking up in episode 7 where the first big drama of Erin’s life happens. Her life is completely turned upside down. After that, the whole story becomes awesome.
It’s already episode 40 and I feel that 50 episodes will not be enough. Maybe it will be if it closes off completely with a good ending…cross my fingers. I love Erin’s character…she’s a joy to watch growing up. I also love the relationship between Erin and Ialu.
Waiting anxiously for the next episode!!! ^_^
I agree, a lot of series this season unfortunately are too short.
Kemono no Souja Erin can be pushed to even more than 50 episodes and it’ll be even better. So good.
I’m watching Kemono no Souja Erin right now. . .
Thanks for the recommend.
I’m happy to see someone finally blogging this show; it went unloved in the blog sphere for to long. I’ve yet to find an anime based on a novel that was bad ,and plus it’s written by the same woman who wrote Seirei no Moribito.
I also think 50 episodes might not be long enough. They’ve spent all 40 episodes building Erin so 10 seems kinda short to finish it, but also the show is only based off of the first 2 novels of a 4 novel set. So who knows what that’s gonna mean for the ending. (fingers crossed it goes on like Saiunkoku Monogatari)
thanks for the Saiunkoku Monogatari recommendation,i did watch around 13-14 episodes some time ago,till the episode Shuurei is allowed to take the exam,i might just continue it,i definitely remember it was quite good.
Glad you finally gonna blog this 🙂 But I’m still quite sad to know that the anime will only cover up to volume 2 of the novels since the anime so far seems so solid 🙁 Hope it will get a second season or at least OVAs to tell the rest of the story since I can’t read the novels..
I stopped by episode 4. The art is nice, but the song is just too plain and dull. The moral is pretty shallow. I expected this to be a complex series, but now it all appealed to me as a kid’s show. The majority of the characters were stereotypes, so I couldn’t stand it in the end, including Erin.
I do like the part, maybe, until her mother died 😀
Yay for the real review! And I think the group you were referring to were the Psi Gamuls, although many of the fans suspect that this group isn’t the real Psi Gamul (for one thing these people seem to be Holon instead of the Grand Duke’s people) and are only trying to frame them/instigate the fight. A little worried that there are only 10 episodes left but I can’t wait to see where this goes!
I wouldn’t be too worried about the “only covers 2 volumes of the novel” rumors, as the novel only HAS 2 volumes – at least in its first edition.
From what I’ve seen, the 4 volume edition which has only been released recently features the same contents. And from the chapter titles one can tell the anime has already reached the final parts of the novel. There won’t be anything left out.
I just started watching this series. I love it. Thanks for the heads up. 🙂
I’ve found a summary of the final 2 volumes of the novel and it lifted my fears of the ending we might get to the anime.
I was gonna say more but it might of been a spoiler so if you just have to know like me here is the link I found.
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=49710