Master of Epic – 05

Short Synopsis: Angelica falls in love with a male Elmony; Chuu is being cute again; Deep in a dungeon, two brave*cough* adventurers struggle for their lives. Good: Hilarious, probably the funniest episode I’ve seen this year; even more characters are returning; the two adventurers were SO INCREDIBLY CUTE; Actually good animation! Bad: Some Gonzo-advertising managed to slip in at the video-file I watched (from Saiyaman). Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem, but please chose some better series than Garasu no Kantai and Witchblade. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10 First of all, I finally found out a few more names of the characters in this show. Very handy, especially in this show, which has the nasty tendency to recycle most of its characters into other ones with different hair-colours and outfits (but what else did you expect? This IS an mmorpg-based anime, after all ^^). A quick rundown: – Angelica: she’s the blonde Newtar in a pink school uniform. It seems to be quite a popular costume. ^^; Anyway, I’m glad to see her return. It’s better to see recurring characters than new ones at this point. – Karen seems to be the Warage Green clone with Warage Pink uniform. I’m not sure why she keeps following Angelica, though. They’re probably two very good friends. – Fuu-chan is the monster that keeps accompanying Karen. I’m not sure if this Fuu-chan is the same monster that’s accompanying Chuu when she’s in Warage Pink-mode. – The Pandemos in traveller’s clothes we always see with Chuu appears to be named Pukotsu. – The white-haired Cognite seems to be called Phillipe, though that’s his chibi-form. I’m not sure whether Philippe also plays the role of the other white-haired Cognites we’ve seen. – Philippe’s Newtar companion gets called by Syozo (I bet that’s spelled differently). On a whole different note, I loved this episode! First of all, it finally has a bit of decent animation. People move fluently, there are lots of close-ups and we see a few high-quality drawings, and some actual CG is used with the submarines to simulate the particles in the “ocean”. It definitely makes the characters look a lot better. I also appreciated that the unimportant bystanders actually had some original character designs this time, instead of being recycled versions of main characters. I knew this anime could do well if it tried. The first sketch: Angelica and Karen return, like mentioned above. In this episode, she finds a new obsession: making clothes for the boy she has a crush on. She yet again gets a bit carried away, scaring this boy in the process, when she manages to create a huge pile of different clothes for the two of them to wear. I really liked Karen’s role in this, as the bystander who watches and tells the story a bit. And who eventually gets chased because Fuu-chan ate Angelique’s wallet. ^^; The second sketch: yet another adult in the real life acting funny. I think I finally know the meaning behind these scenes. They’re supposed to be real-life events, with a mmorpg-element added to them. This time, a shop. I loved it how the shop-menu was opened when the guy tried to buy something. ^^ The third sketch: Pukotsu and Chuu again. This time, his backpack is broken, and Chuu managed to find a new one for him. Obviously, it’s an extremely cute elephant rucksack, not fitting his character AT ALL. It would be funny if he’d be wearing the same backpack in the next episode as well. ^^: The fourth sketch is about two male Elmony. I’m really not sure whether we’ve seen these two figures yet, seeing as their particular character design gets recycled in many, many other characters. The only difference is the outfit, hair colour and the colour of their cheeks. In any case, in this time, we see a red-haired Elmony do all kinds of cool stuff and blow up enemies, and there’s a green-haired one who wants to either copy him, or hit him with the same method that the red-haired one uses. Obviously, he fails. ^^ The fifth and last sketch is the funniest of the episode. And the cutest. We return to Philippe and Syoso in chibi-form. They’re inside a scary dungeon, trying to get to the centre. Obviously, they fail in a horribly cute way. They first have to beat the dangers of travelling underwater, which is followed by a highly amusing talk under water. This really makes for the funniest accent. XD Next up, they reach the lair of the boss of the dungeon, who’s been sealed in a very eerie place and who gives off some very strange voices. Obviously, Philippe and Syozo ignore him and go for some more challenging enemies: the ordinary bats. They’re quite fearsome, as they weren’t even hurt by Syozo’s Miner Burst, lv1! This calls for Philippe to put on his super invincible armour! It gives him unfathomable strength, but it has one major disadvantage: he’s unable to move. XD I’m not sure whether someone who has never played an mmorpg would get some of the jokes, but for the people who do have played their share of them, this anime is pure gold. It’s so full of the most hilarious parodies. A definite recommend.]]>