Blade of the Immortal – 09

by psgels, posted in Blade of the Immortal



Short Synopsis: The re-match between Manji and Makie.
Highlights: The huge psychological warfare that went on during the battle.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
With episodes like this, where one fight basically takes up the entire episode, I just can’t help but wonder why it felt so awesome here, and yet when series as Soul Eater stretch a fight-scene, with their far-superior animation, it feels like a chore to get through (for me, at least). I think the big difference is that the talking in Blade of the Immortal has a very important meaning to the fight, and this episode also shows that the psychological aspect is very important, while Soul Eater instead try to increase their length with an explanation that’s just good for a bit of background, and never adds anything to the characterization.

In any case, this episode was probably the best one of the series so far, mostly thanks to Makie and her fascinating character, who’s standing between her own values and her love with Kagehisa. This episode really showed me why she’s this series’ strongest warrior: not only is she very proficient with her weapon, but she also makes optimal use of the environment she’s in, compared to Manji, who’s just good at hacking and slashing his victims until they go down, and uses his persistence as his main weapon.

I also really like what Rin did, at the end of the episode. She’s very mature for her age: she realized that for her revenge, she killed many people, she acknowledges it, and yet she stands firm to her decision to avenge her parents and go through with the decision she made. This episode showed that she had a lot of doubts when confronted with it, but I really like that she was able to use this as another look at the spectrum, and went on to help Manji.

Fancy Lala Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Next-up in the category of underrated gems: Fancy Lala, a charming mahou shoujo from the late nineties. It’s understandable why not many people are interested in it: the premise advertises a girl who coincidentally meets up with two miniature dinosaurs, who give her the power to grow up and become an idol so that she can meet up with the guy she admires. It’s not exactly a premise that screams “Watch me!!”, and you really need to watch this series in order to understand its strengths. Fancy Lala is a definite recommendation for those who like slice-of-life dramas; it feels like a cross between Kamichu and Full Moon wo Sagashite, grabbing the best from both.

And really, this isn’t necessarily a series about idols; the premise would also have worked with construction-workers (although the end-result would probably end up a lot more GAR that way). In contrast to a series like Full Moon wo Sagashite, where the growing up was just a tool to get to the idol-part of the premise, Fancy Lala uses being an idol just as a tool to get to the growing up-part. The essence of this series is that it’s a look at adult problems through the eyes of a child, and there is so much potential for such a premise.

Basically, all of the good things in this series can be traced back to one thing: the awesome character of Miho. I gave the characters a rating of 10 for a good reason: she is an incredibly strong lead character for a girl of only ten years old. She’s able to carry both the weight of being an idol and the weight of the series and yet she remains an innocent child. We get to know her through and through, and it’s because of her that the major theme of adult problems works out so well.

The creators also make use of a lot of subtle drama, where nothing important is said, but you can see from the characters’ expressions that a lot is going on inside their mind. It’s because of this that this series never vetures into the world of cheese and melodrama, an oh so common pitfall of shoujo-series (and any other genre for that matter, I guess). This is such a genuine series, and you can feel that the characters are feeling down because of the problems they face, instead of acting down because of the creators’ wishes. Miho’s voice-actress also does a very admirable job: children in this series really do sound like children, rather than squeaky 30-year old voice-actresses.

And also let me say this specifically: Fancy Lala has the downright best ending of any mahou shoujo I’ve ever seen, and perhaps it’s also got my favourite ending of any shoujo-series for that matter. It’s a true example where realism works so much better than cheesy Deus ex Machina because creators are too afraid to kill off characters in the fear to upset said characters’ fans. Fancy Lala’s final two episodes are something that should happen in nearly every single mahou shoujo-series, and yet none I’ve seen so far even dared to address its topics.

But yeah, this really is a series about Miho. Apart from that, it doesn’t have much else to sell, as shown by the premise: the reason why Miho got her magical powers is just pure coincidence, we never get any concrete explanation of where those dinosaurs came from. In addition to growing up, Miho also somehow becomes incredibly proficient in singing, posing and acting, without any practice whatsoever. These things are going to make it a bit difficult to care about the characters in the beginning, though at least the series makes up for it with quite an accurate portrayal of the local idol-scene once it gets going.

Obviously, if you’re not into slice of life, you’re not going to like this series, but nonetheless it’s an incredibly genuine shoujo series with some adult themes. It’s got a wonderful lead character. And sure, the animation looks a bit outdated for those of you who are only used to series from the last four years, but nonetheless the character-art is very expressive, and tries to convey even the smallest of emotions, and it looks great in my opinion. Simply said: Miho Rocks.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 10/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 8/10

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – 30

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00



Short Synopsis: Celestial Beings visit Kataron in an attempt to team up.
Highlights: Well, let’s hope Saji has learned his lesson now…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Overall, I liked this episode quite a bit as it continued to push the plot forward, although I do have a large complaint about the way it ended. It just reminded me too much of Code Geass, in which the creators just too often tried to evoke sympathy by creating an as large bloodbath as possible. The big problem is that the lead characters that were so morally unambiguous in the first season turned into the clichéd “heroes of justice”.

In the first season, there were some evil parties, but no party was pure good. Everyone was in it for his or her own ideals and agendas, and especially the split world into three equally powerful parties made up for a lot of interesting politics, where the viewer got the chance to side for a lot of differently possible parties. Unfortunately, they’ve now merged together into one big glob of a country where only the characters from the first season seem to feel any sympathy.

It’s not a complete disaster, but this series really NEEDS to do something to prevent A-LAWS from turning into your stereotyped evil empire that needs to be defeated. The top-decision makers are the biggest problem, I think. They just aren’t fleshed out as well as the people fro the first season. It’s a shame, we’ve got a series with some wonderful characters across the scale of good and evil, and now they have to take orders from pure evil people.

Gundam Wing had the same in its middle part, and it managed to pull through when said organization fell apart. That’s what I hope that this series is going to do as well: just let the evil empire do its stuff for a while, and then around the episode 13-mark make it fall apart with a big bang. I mentioned this before, but the most important thing that this series needs to do is to give each of its characters an identity: a unique role that’s going to create a lot of different parties one could side with.

Strangely enough, I was more annoyed with Louise than with Saji in this episode. Saji’s behaviour felt natural: we already know that he’s struggling between every different party, and he’s not exactly someone who can keep a secret. However, it seems that Louise didn’t enter the army to grow, but rather to take revenge on the Gundams for her hand.

Speaking of stereotypes… what was up with Ali al Sarshes? Has he spent four years getting more and more insane or something? I would have preferred a less direct scene.

Jigoku Shoujo – 57

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo



Short Synopsis: A teacher is bugged by an overprotective guardian.
Highlights: You have to love the messages of this series.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh, how I love this series, although for a completely different reason when compared to the other seasons. The first season had some really nice stories in its repertoire about people who were pushed to the limits. The second season then started to move to lighter reasons to want to send someone to hell, and here the third season comes and it instead focuses on the darker side of being a teenager. Anime has a real tendency to overglorify teenagers, and I believe that this series has a very strong message against that, with the “Kids these days”-themes.

This episode already started to deviate from the usual formula. What we have here is a teacher, where one of her students has an incredibly overprotective aunt, who makes a fuzz over the slightest thing that happens to her niece, and makes whatever effort she can to make in order to make the teacher’s life miserable. In the end, it turns out that that student had been setting up her aunt against the teacher, just for fun. She figured that her teacher was a grown-up, so she’d just be fine, even though she had to deal with her aunt.

It’s strange. When you look at the themes, it almost seems like this series has been written by a bunch of old guys who downright hate everything about teenagers, and yet they make some very good points. Teenagers these days do cause a lot of unnecessary trouble for others and don’t even seem to understand what they did wrong, and even though the teacher’s method was a bit extreme, it was the perfect one to teach her a lesson she won’t soon forget.

Another point this series is trying to make is about the ease at which people are willing to send others to hell. It’s not just a sign of that people are losing faith in these “fictional” places as heaven or hell, but also at how they fail to look at the distant future (a very recent topic, with the economy, and huge amounts of people who failed to pay their mortgage). It’s a conservative series, and yet it’s also the series that’s got the most actual topics. It’s the first anime I’ve seen that included the Vista-cursor, it’s got IPods, as compared to most other series, which are still stuck in Windows 98.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran – 19

by psgels, posted in Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: It’s back to one-episode arcs as this episode shows the local school-festival.
Highlights: Finally! Character-development!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Those of you who’ve been following my posts about this series (all three of you) may remember how for the past episodes, I’ve been whining about the lack of character-development. Well, I didn’t think that the creators were actually going to listen to me. Sure, the episode was a bit cheesy here and there, but there’s no way that I’m going to complain about this excellent episode. It ranks both amongst the best and most hilarious episodes of the series so far, and right now it tossed my fears about this series losing steam in its final quarter into the trash bin.

I’m really glad that the creators decided to use the extra time of this series on character-development, rather than providing even more random stories (after all, that’s what the regular arcs are for). I can now also see the point that the creators wanted to make with Midori’s bad youth. In this episode, she fully realizes how differently she grew up from Ran (the background on Ran’s parents was also really appreciated), but the creators also pretty much set this series apart nearly every other mahou shoujo-series, by making Ran’s parents find out about Ran’s and Midori’s powers.

One thing that I also find strange is that a school-festival episode is definitely nothing new, and yet that never stood in the hilarity of this episode. I mean, it feels like 75% of every series that’s set into a school somehow has a school-festival that looks suspiciously like the other, but I guess that the fun comes from the different ways in which the featured classmates decide to solve their problems, and the different tasks that are handed to each other, making them still a bit unique, when compared to for example pool- and hot-spring-episodes, where there aren’t many different situations you can put your characters in…

Ran and Midori’s class couldn’t decide between a cafe and a haunted house, so they decided to go for a haunted cafe (which later turned into a haunted Kansai-ben cafe, due to an inside-joke from Midori). Especially Midori’s Medusa-outfit was awesome. It’s also interesting how her character-designs change, depending on her mood: when we first met her, she had evil eyes, she then went to a neutral/sarcastic look, and in this episode, her eyes switched shape to allow for a better dramatic effect. I only have to wonder where the animators were at that point. It’s such a shame that the budget didn’t work in the series’ favour at that time, and especially the part in the middle of the episode sounded like it was rushed at the last minute.

So, while I usually like to blog less light-hearted series, with complex plots or intense storylines, it’s also fun to once in a while blog such a light-hearted series, especially if it knows what it is and doesn’t get dull in its second half (which is kind-of why I don’t blog a lot of them. It’s one thing to blog a bad series with a complex plot, but I can imagine that it’s going to be exceptionally painful to blog a bad comedy-series, where you’ll run out of things to rant about after only two episodes). I’m not going to say that after this episode, I’m glad to have blogged this series. I did the same with Macross Frontier, also around this point in the series, and it went downhill pretty much instantly afterwards, so instead I’m just going to enjoy the final quarter of this charming series. ^^;

Tytania – 04

by psgels, posted in Tytania



Short Synopsis: Alses continues his manhunt for Fan Hulic
Highlights: Talk about a complete change of mood.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Okay, so this is something I didn’t really see coming. This episode, instead of focusing on the usual politics instead tried to lighten the mood by focusing on first romance and then comedy. I’m not too much of a fan of Lira yet. I can understand how she would be desperate to keep Van Hulic as her ally, but nonetheless she annoyed me half of the time.

Miranda, however, rocks. She’s the perfect example that women too can be GAR, and the soldier she captured (who seems to be an old acquaintance of her who joined the army) works really well with her in terms of banter. I never thought that I would praise this series for being funny, but there you have it, the second half of this episode was really fun to watch. ^^;

Meanwhile at the Tytania-department, it becomes clear that Alses and Salisch aren’t exactly on one line, and even though Salisch has a higher position, his mother seems to be more attached to Alses. Lydia is still far removed from the plot, and the rest of the family also doesn’t seem to do much in this episode. I think that the introduction is going to take a while longer, since the next episode is probably going to focus on Fan, getting accustomed to the rebels’ hideout. Still, it’s good that the creators are taking their time and not keeping to the same mood, but it indeed takes a bit of patience to sit through it. ^^;

October Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Okay, so since this list already is huge for this month, I decided to omit the OVAs in this list, along with series that have already finished and belong to the previous season, like Chi’s Sweet Home and Wagaya no Oinarisama, in an attempt to keep this list a bit overviewable (although I do want to say that RD’s ending was probably my favourite ending of 2008). Overall, Fall 2008 is without a doubt the season with the biggest amount of solid titles of 2008 for me. There are lots of series that are already amazing, and just about as much series with enough potential to become amazing later on. It’s especially a season with lots of horror and comedy.

#43 (new) – Bihada Ichizoku – (1,5/10) – Okay, so the first episode was so laughably bad that I’m pretty sure that it’s going to end up as the show with the worst first episode of 2008 and 2007. If you ever want to know how not to write a story, watch this. Else: AVOID.
#42 (30) – Rosario to Vampire – (3/10) – Dropped.
#41 (new) – Kurogane no Linebarrels – (4,5/10) – I really don’t want to sit through another Romeo x Juliet or Dragonaut. Kurogane no Linebarrels shows every sign of a bad Gonzo series. Dropped.
#40 (new) – Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka – (5/10) – What is it with these harem-series and their impossible hairstyles? I mean, it’s not even pretty. Dropped.
#39 (new) – Kemeko Deluxe – (6/10) – The problem with this series is that it tries to be random for the sake of being random. There’s hardly a joke that really feels inspired. Dropped.
#38 (new) – Tentai Senshi Sunred – (6/10) – The second episode was horribly dull, which indeed confirmed my fears about this series having no future at all. Dropped.
#37 (new) – Macademi Wasshoi – (6,25/10) – This series just isn’t funny enough, especially compared to the other comedies this season. Dropped.
#36 (new) – Kuroshitsuji – (6,25/10) – The fun in this series quickly ended, the characters turned into stereotypes and the individual stories so far have been simply boring. Dropped.
#35 (new) – Toradora – (6,75/10) – I’ve sat through one season of Shana, and that was more than enough. Dropped.
#34 (new) – Yozakura Quartet – (6,75/10) – The most interesting part of this series were the two minutes of back-story at the beginning of the first episode. That’s got to be a bad thing, right? Dropped.
#33 (new) – Inazuma 11 – (7/10) – So, this is one for the kids out there. I admit it’s better than your average series of the genre, but I see no reason why anyone over 12 years old would get excited over it. Dropped.
#32 (new) – To Aru Majutsu no Index – (7/10) – It’s a shame that this series had to air during a busy season like this. Otherwise, I would have wanted to give this one a chance, to see whether it’ll turn better over time, but right now there’s much better stuff airing. Dropped.
#31 (19) – Shugo Chara – (7/10) – You know, I could have enjoyed this series if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s just so damned long. Right now, the time needed to put into this series just isn’t worth the reward in the end. Dropped. Again.
#30 (new) – Hokuto no Ken Raoh Gaiden – (7,25/10) – It’s a manly series and all, but I just don’t see any potential in this one. Dropped.
#29 (24) – Vampire Knight – (7,25/10) – I sat through the first season, but I don’t think I have the will nor the patience to do the same with thirteen more episodes. Dropped.
#28 (23) – Noramimi – (7,5/10) – Noramimi is a decent enough show to watch one episode of, but after that there really isn’t much of a reason to continue watching it, especially in such a large season as this one. Dropped.
#27 (17) – Soul Eater – (7,5/10) – Well, I finally decided to drop this thing completely. The thing is that it would have fitted much better as a series with just 39 episodes. Right now, this series is just trying to stretch its airtime with pointless exposition that goes on for episodes at a time. That’s not what a fun-filled action-series is supposed to be.
#26 (new) – Stitch! – (7,5/10) – I originally wanted to keep watching this series, but this season is just too busy for that. It’s a nice children’s series, though. Dropped.
#25 (new) – Kyou no Go Ni – (7,5/10) – If the season wasn’t so busy already, I would have watched this, but this seasons has just too many comedies already. Dropped.
#24 (new) – Kannagi – (7,75/10) – For now, I’m going to continue with this series. Some of the jokes work and the characters are adorable if they really try. However, the animation is incredibly inconsistent: it ranges from incredibly good to incredibly bad. This series also tries too hard to become a harem, it would have been just fine to show the daily antics between the male and female lead. There’s enough material for that to fill up 12 episodes.
#23 (13) – Junjo Romantica – (7,75/10) – So far, nothing special yet, but then again the “hot passion” has yet to erupt. I’m not sure about the exact potential of the love-jealous brother yet, but with a bit of luck Usagi’s past will shed more light into that.
#22 (new) – Tales of the Abyss – (7,75/10) – So far, I’m not sure about the magic-system of this series, and why little girls that are barely ten years old seem to be masters in them. Luke and Tear do have a lot of potential, though, and I expect this series to show to get fired off as soon as its second half starts.
#21 (11) – Clannad – (8/10) – Clannad shines when it takes itself seriously. It falls when it doesn’t, and apart from the first episode, this formula hasn’t changed much in the second season: the comedy just wasn’t interesting, but the serious moments really made up for it.
#20 (new) – Ga-Rei Zero – (8/10) – The big problem with Ga-Rei Zero is that out of all the interesting characters they could have chosen, the producers decided to focus on the least interesting one. The girl is a whiny brat, and really brings down the awesome set-up of the first two episodes. I’m hoping right now that she’s going to develop properly, and doesn’t make this one of those series where the best episode is the first one.
#19 (new) – Chaos;Head – (8/10) – So far, the potential’s definitely there. The only really bad part is the stereotypical sister, but I do see her role in this series. It’s an interesting paranoid mystery-series.
#18 (new) – Shikabane Hime – (8/10) – Shikabane Hime has been pretty solid so far. It’s not the best of the season, but the potential’s definitely there. What stood out the most was the nice characterization and interesting fight-sequences.
#17 (11) – Telepathy Shoujo Ran – (8,25/10) – Much of the same, which is a good thing for this series. I do hope that the final parts of this series will at least include some character-development, because this series has been awfully dry on that part. A real shame with such enjoyable characters.
#16 (new) – Tytania – (8,25/10) – Okay, so it’s been mostly (if not all) building up this month, but you can already see that this is going to be a very interesting political thriller once all the pieces have been set right.
#15 (new) – Michiko e Hatchin – (8,25/10) – One of the few new series that’s not some sort of adaptation of something, and it shows. Detailed characterization, an incredibly original setting, and nice production-values to back it up. For now, it’s still a bit one-sided and it’s nothing amazing yet, but I can already see the characters grow into something memorable.
#14 (new) – Kurozuka – (8,25/10) – Kurozuka is basically one big horror-feast for the senses, with a pretty intriguing story to boot. The OP is also my number one for this season.
#13 (new) – Hyakko – (8,25/10) – I’m really surprised, from afar the characters look like a lot of stereotype, and yet the series has been consistently hilarious so far. This one can actually keep being funny through its entire run, provided that the creators aren’t going to stuff in some dramatic climax at the end.
#12 (11) – ef – a tale of melodies – (8,5/10) – Hmm, I think that this series was a bit too keen on getting to the meat of the series, but on the other hand it’s probably going to take six more episodes before we get to see the point that the creators are trying to make. Nevertheless, it’s a very solid series so far, and definitely an example of how a good visual-novel adaptation should be done.
#11 (3) – Bonen no Xamdou – (8,5/10) – It seems that this series is on a short break to let the Japanese broadcast version catch up to the English one, apparently. It should be back around half November, I think.

#10 (9) – Mobile Suit Gundam 00(8,5/10)

This series really can go anywhere from this point, but at least the second season stared off really nicely. Now let’s hope that the creators can keep up this pace.

#9 (25) – Nodame Cantabile – (8,5/10)

So far, it’s a hilarious start of the second season, but the question is of course whether the drama that’s going to pop up in the rest of the series is going to live up to the first season, and whether eleven episodes are enough for that.

#8 (new) – One Outs – (8,5/10)

I think Usagijen says it all. I’m really surprised that One Outs turned into the most underrated series of the season, considering Akagi and Kaiji’s fanbase. One Outs is intense, intelligent and exciting, and even though I don’t understand everything while watching raws, something tells me that I’m going to enjoy this series a lot more than I did with Kaiji, especially since I don’t have to write about it on a weekly basis.

#7 (5) – Porfy no Nagai Tabi – (8,75/10)

Woo! It’s finally time to get to the real meat of this series. This month, Porfy has still shown travel-arcs, but the storyline suddenly got much darker as Porfy arrived into France. I’m really curious to see whether this series can surpass the amazing Earthquake-arc.

#6 (2) – Gintama – (8,75/10)

Ehrem… I was eating some very spicy crisps during episode 87… Yeah… That was it….

#5 (10) – Blade of the Immortal – (8,75/10)

An excellent month for Blade of the Immortal, especially the growth of the characters is getting more interesting with every episode.

#4 (new) – Casshern Sins – (8,75/10)

Without a doubt the series with the best art-direction that’s currently airing. Everything about this series looks just amazing. The characters started out a bit dodgy, but I’ve found that the script is surprisingly intelligent and well written.

#3 (new) – Skip Beat – (8,75/10)

Skip Beat so far has been an hilarious shoujo-series, that also continues to develop its lead character, rather than keep with a bunch of bloody stereotypes.

#2 (9) – Jigoku Shoujo – (8,75/10)

This show’s crack! Really, the difference with the first seasons has been huge so far, and yet the third season is incredibly entertaining.

#1 (new) – Mouryou no Hako – (9/10)

Definitely my number one pick of the shows that started airing in the Autumn-Season. It’s got such a complex and mysterious story, the visual direction is awesome and there is so much expressivity in the characters.

Casshern Sins – 05

by psgels, posted in Casshern Sins



Short Synopsis: Lyuze and Ringo return.
Highlights: How come Ringo and Casshern went to exactly the same place?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
This episode returns us to the main storyline, when first Lyuze finally decides to show up and kill Casshern (she’s been following him everywhere, it seems). Even though Casshern still doesn’t remember what he did, he knows that he committed a horrible sin. As it turns out, Lyuze’s sister was the first he killed, and infected with that robot-breaking-down disease.

At the moment, Casshern is some sort of combination between human, robot and immortal being; there are so many facets to this guy: he doesn’t need any food, yet he can shed tears, he’s incredibly powerful, he can heal any sort of wound, and yet he suffers from memory loss and he’s got an alter ego that appears once he’s angry. I suppose that this alter-ego here is the key to everything. My guess is that Luna did something before she was killed, which tried to suppress Casshern’s violent personality, though only succeeded in this partially.

I was a bit disappointed when Casshern suddenly was able to save Ringo from out of nowhere, though. Has it been clearly mentioned that the two had the same destination, which I missed somewhere? Otherwise, it’s a pretty jarring coincidence on an otherwise excellent series. I already really like this series, but it’s just too early for my suspense of disbelief to just ignore these sorts of things. The point the creators tried to make with it was clear, though: up till now, Casshern’s violent side only disappeared when said side calmed down, but this time Ringo was able to call the guy out of it.

It’s very strange; this series is really well-written: the single dialogues are really detailed, and bring out the best of the different characters, and then there are a few things in the set-up that just don’t sit right. This episode too portrayed the ugly robots as much more evil than the human-like robots. It feels as if this series has a crappy guy behind the series composition, and yet the most amazing scriptwriters and art directors. Especially considering the former, this does make sense when you look at the staff-list, since the guy behind the series composition also did those of Claymore, Yume Tsukai and Shakugan no Shana. The chief animation-director also did the same for Mushishi, which could explain the amazing visuals, but I still have no bloody clue where that amazing dialogue comes from. Could it really be, that after directing countless of Dragonball Z-movies, the director suddenly saw the big bright light at the end of the tunnel or something?

Shikabane Hime – 05

by psgels, posted in Shikabane Hime



Short Synopsis: A bunch of teenagers jack a car and are attacked by a Shikabane.
Highlights: TRANSFER STUDENT! TRANSFER STUDENT! TRANSFER STUDENT!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10 (Lacking)
Ack, this series was doing so well, and then that transfer-student popped up. This is all just a pet peeves of me, and I don’t care whether it makes sense or not. It’s not even the fact that she’s a transfer-student, but I personally HATE the scene where suddenly a girl whose prettiness somehow outshines every other girl in school introduces herself to the class, how every single male APART from the lead character makes loud comments on how hot she is, and out of everyone out there, she chooses the male lead as a friend, making every other guy jealous at him. I don’t care how the anime tries to explain it; I don’t bloody care whether it’s important to the story. I’ve just seen the same friggin’ scene way too many times, with hardly any variation. The fun is really gone at this point.

Seriously, anime makes it look like every single good-looking Japanese is continuously travelling the country or something.

In any case, the rest of the episode thankfully proved to be interesting enough to stop this episode from being unimpressive and disappointing. The first is obviously the car-Shikabane, which kidnaps unsuspecting teenagers that are looking for an exciting ride. I mean, you just have to think of it. ^^; The whole action-scene within that car maybe lacked a bit of horror, but nonetheless it was very fun to watch.

At the same time, the creators continue to very slowly give more and more depth to the characters. I mean, the big twist in this episode was no surprise for anyone who read the premise of the series, but it’s like I mentioned before: this series really takes its time, and that’s a good thing so far. At the same time we also see the new bad guy, who is the only one of his… organization (or whatever it’s going to be called) not faded out in the OP.

And really, I don’t hate the new characters or anything. They’ve got potential, but the way in which they were introduced was just… ugh…

Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 43

by psgels, posted in Porfy no Nagai Tabi



Short Synopsis: The reunion with Mina doesn’t become so certain anymore and Major SPOILER ahead.
Highlights: It’s finally time for the creators to use everything they’ve built up for…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Holy crap, I knew it! My suspicions became sure at the beginning of this episode: the creators have been systematically removing everything that ties Porfy and Mina to Simitra, up to the point where there were just two things left: Apollo and Apollo’s medallion that Porfy made. Yeah.

The episode starts with Porfy, arriving at a local farm, and he asks the farmer whether he can give him some water. The farmer’s wife then returns a bit later with a rumour about a small girl who travels with her fortunetelling mother in the next town. It sounds too good to e true, but Porfy goes to check it out anyway, as the farmer gives him a few apples, and he and his wife feel pity with the guy.

Meanwhile, we see Mina again. She’s inside a train, and at that point she asks Isabella to tell her fortune. The first card that she opens unfortunately happens to be the death-card (foreshadowing, anyone?). Isabella then comments on how Mina has changed a bit. She’s indeed become more open when compared to when we last saw her.

Porfy meanwhile arrives at the town from which the rumour came, and indeed the villagers seem to recognize the description Porfy gives them. Meanwhile, Isabella’s father has troubles with his back (foreshadowing, anyone?), and they decide to travel on foot because the train won’t show up. Porfy meanwhile finds the inn the rumoured Mina is staying in, though they just checked out. He manages to find them, just before they hit a bus, but like suspected, they are some completely different people.

However, they do seem to know Isabella and the others, and in fact they met them once. Especially the girl was able to accurately describe Mina. They’ve got no idea where they are now, but nevertheless, there’s a good chance that they’re going to be heading to Paris. So, Porfy plans to head North, with the assurance that Mina’s doing fine (foreshadowing… anyone?).

At the local inn, Mina enjoys Isabella’s performance, and then suddenly she breaks down due to some vision she had or something similar (foreshadowing, anyone?). A bit later, we see that Porfy’s lost in some remote forest, with a hunter nearby (if that isn’t foreshadowing, then I don’t know anymore…). Porfy runs into said hunter, who asks what he’s doing there. It turns out that Porfy’s on some private property of that hunter, and even though Porfy tries to apologize and tell him that he’s lost, the hunter doesn’t believe him, and thinks that he’s the guy who has been stealing from his lands. He then sees Apollo and shoots him.

Meanwhile, something strange happens with Mina, and she somehow seems to feel Apollo’s death, and this time, she breaks down completely. She even calls out Porfy, for the first time since they separated. We switch back to Porfy, as he has just created a grave for Apollo. We never see him cry about it, nor do we know whether he did or not. And the episode ends.

I must say that even though there were so many signs of foreshadowing, Apollo’s death still made a lot of impact there. I think that this episode also introduced the final arc of this series. There first was the Greece-arc, which was slice of life, then the Earthquake-arc came, which was downright sad, the Slow Travel-arc then came, in which the stories took up three or four episodes, then the Fast Travel-arc, which was instead episodic, and now the Final Arc comes, which focuses on both Porfy and Mina, travelling to Paris, and it’s probably going to go back even more to the Earthquake-arc, but with an even more depressing mood. The question is of course going to be: does the final arc have what it takes to surpass the amazing Earthquake-arc?

With this episode, we also know for sure: SOMETHING is going to have to happen to Isabella’s father. There’s no other way to interpret his aching back. I also predict that whatever it is that will happen to him, it’s going to trigger Carlos’ time-bomb. What surprised me was how mellow Carlos was in this episode. There wasn’t even a bad word that came out of him.

There’s also something I’ve been wondering for episodes right now, because I’m also watching Perrine Monogatari at this point. Porfy grew up in Greece, so he’s not used to bad weather. Now that he’s in France, and it’s starting to become Winter, then won’t the guy catch a cold at one point? It’s strange, because there have been no signs foreshadowing this yet, and at the same time with nine episodes left, there still is enough airtime left for that to happen.

I’m also wondering: Mina’s death card was about Apollo… but did the creators mean more by that? The creators have been systematically killing everything from Simitra so far. Will they also give Porfy and Mina the same treatment. Like mentioned above: their reunion suddenly doesn’t become so certain anymore.