Horror-fans will love this one. Pet Shop of Horrors is about the owner of a pet shop in Chinatown, New York, whose name is Count D and sells all kinds of ordinary, exotic and even mythical animals to his clients. It’s basically a case-based series: the four episodes all focus on a different client of his, where their pets have a massive impact on their lives.
And it’s these cases that really make this anime shine. They’re all surprisingly deep and thought-provoking. As each case starts to unfold, you’ll be thinking something along the lines of “why the heck did Count D sell such a dangerous animal?”. Then the climax comes with a twist, and everything suddenly makes sense. Not only that, but each of these cases makes you look at death from a very different perspective than usual.
While the cases are deep, I wish I could say the same of Count D; he’s pretty much the weakness of this OVA. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an interesting character, and he’s got definite potential, but he just isn’t fleshed out or developed properly at all. We never know how the guy gets his pets, we never know why he’s selling pets when the danger of being arrested is so high. In fact, I’m surprised that nobody found the fact that he forbids all his customers to show their pets to others strange. In episode four, he also does something that basically isn’t explained anywhere. We also never find out why all his pets look like humans.
Still, if you’re looking for case-studies or horror, this is a nice recommendation. Pet Shop of Horrors uses the traditional Japanese style of creating a creepy atmosphere through storytelling, and it does so pretty well. The soundtrack, while not amazing, is sufficient in helping to achieve this effect. Just be aware that the fourth episode isn’t the best of the cases, so it might disappoint a bit. It was by no means bad, though.]]>
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 36
This episode is clearly one of those building-up episodes. There wasn’t really a sign of mystery, but instead it focused on the political roots of the story, in order to save Satoko. Basically, Keiichi gets the support from the village council, the Sonozaki-family and eventually the city council. Pretty straightforward, but things are about to get interesting: the Watanagashi is only one or two days away, Satoko is about to be saved and she’s also about to reach the point beyond recovery.
I liked some of the details in this episode, by the way. Most of all, it seems that there isn’t a grudge against the Houjous after all; it seems that everyone thinks that someone might have a grudge left, which is what keeps these rumours alive. We also finally see Mion and Shion’s parents do something, other than just sit next to their grandmother. Oh, and it seems that there actually were a few worlds in which Keiichi didn’t transfer. It would be interesting to see them.
Apart from that, there’s not much to say about this episode. I do, however, keep wondering why nobody finds it strange that Rika sometimes switches to a voice of a middle-aged woman…]]>
Pale Cocoon Review – 69/100
Pale Cocoon: a twenty-minute long OVA, famous for its graphics. The setting is the year 2218, and it’s another one of those post-apocalyptical stories. The earth has been destroyed somehow, and people have been forced to move underground, and gradually forgot the past of a blue and green earth. Now, finally after an unknown amount of years, images and records from the past have been dug up and recovered, and our main character has been fascinated by them.
The graphics are indeed the reason why you should watch this, as they, combined with the storytelling manage to create a subtle atmosphere. It’s just unfortunate that this OVA could have achieved this even better if it extended its length to thirty minutes, because right now, it just forgets to flesh out its characters and setting well enough. We only see a tiny bit of the characters, but we never know how they spend their lives outside of their jobs. One particular character only appears through a voice, and we never see anything about him, despite the fact that he appears relatively often. We also never know what caused humanity to go underground in the first place, and why the surface became so uninhabitable.
Because of this, the climax unfortunately was ruined. The writers tried to be mysterious and pretentious, but because of that and the lack of development on both story and characters, the climax is just way too confusing and contradicting. I had no idea what went on, and that wasn’t a good sign.
The backgrounds may be beautifully rendered, but in the end, Pale Cocoon turned out to be lacking, even for an artistic anime. If you’re looking for something artistic, you could give it a try, but there are quite a few similar and better movies and OVAs out there. For example, even Kai Doh Maru, who also had a really confusing plot turned out more worthwhile than this one, simply because it did spend enough time fleshing out its characters. Wonderful Days also turned into a better watch, and its graphics were rendered even better; despite its storyline was mundane, at least it was coherent.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 36
The highlight of this episode was definitely the beginning, in which we finally see Thenardiére and Azelma again. It was a short scene, but the two of them were awesome to watch now that they found out that Thenardier has abandoned them. I so hope that they’ll be released somewhere in the story, so that they can try to make Azelma’s dream of living together without their father true. That would definitely be AWESOME.
Speaking of awesome, Eponine also was excellent in this episode, when she actually SAVED Cosette from being discovered by Thenardier, all because it’d make Marius sad. Jean, however, did notice that people were after his house, and this made him worry about her safety. After all, she’d be an easy target and he can’t be sure that all of Thenardier’s buddies were caught by the police. That’s why he proposes her to go to England at the end of the episode.
In other news, there was yet again a strong emphasis on poverty: Paris seems to be struck by a rather nasty disease, which becomes really clear when Jean and Cosette visit a local hospital and Gavroche is getting cuter and cuter with his mother-like attitude against his two brothers(?).
I can feel that another major climax is about to come. The tone of this episode was quite a bit darker and more fast-paced than the past couple of episodes, and les Amis are getting into more and more trouble now that Javert keeps arresting their weapon-deliverers.]]>
Toward the Terra – 22
Oh my god. Just when you thought this anime couldn’t get any better it surpasses itself! This episode was utterly, utterly incredible. Obviously, spoilers are going to follow. Do not read this entry if you have yet to see this episode.
This episode really blew me away, and it also convinced me that Toward the Terra is going to make it into my top-10 favourite anime ever. It’s just that good.
This episode was all about Keith, Tony and Matsuka. It starts with a small recap, after which we switch Keith and the commanders of the human fleet. Matsuka notices that something is wrong with Keith, but can’t quite put his finger to what it might be. He then retreats to his chamber, with Matsuka following him after being warned not to get used by Keith too much by the sub-commander.
Matsuka asks why Keith let him live, despite his belief that every Myu is a monster. Keith merely replies that he did this to fight monsters with monsters. When Matsuka asks what’s going to happen to him once the Myu are defeated, Keith merely answers that he’ll dispose of him as well.
Tony, meanwhile, has become infuriated with Keith’s new plan of using fellow Myu as a hostage near Jupiter, so he goes out on his own to stop Keith. Jomie meanwhile decides to head straight toward Terra, though he plans to save one ship and the three remaining Myu in order to save the space-station containing the Myu.
Matsuka meanwhile finds out why Keith is acting weird when he accidentally touches him: SAM DIED! God dammit! That’s why he gave Keith his toy: he probably knew that he didn’t have much time anymore. Keith immediately orders him to leave, which leaves him unprotected for Tony, whom Matsuka notices too late to come in action.
Tony introduces himself and tries to strangle Keith, as a revenge for his comrades who died. He makes sure to do it slowly, which turned out to be a grave mistake, as it allowed Keith to actually call out for Matsuka, and Matsuka to go berserk. This power allows him to become of equal level as Tony, so he decides to not waste time anymore and kill Keith while he still has the chance. Matsuka, however acts as a human shield for Keith, dying in his place. Tony retreats, suffering because he just killed one of his own kind.
Seriously, that was incredible. I’m amazed at the ease at which the past few episodes have made me cry. Also take a note when Keith was unconscious and struggling for his life: both Sam and Shiroe flash before his eyes, but he can’t reach both of them: both have failed to save him. And then Matsuka appears, and easily manages to grabs his hand and pull him back. It’s awesome to see that Matsuka has finally received his moment of recognition; he died like a true hero.]]>
Reideen Review – 77/100
Reideen is another tough anime to review: it’s done a lot of things right, but it had an equal amount of flaws. It’s a nice watch, but there are so many things that could have been improved on it.
The story is like this: Saiga Junki becomes a pilot of a giant robot called Reideen, and he basically has to take care of enemy giant robots that are sent by enemy aliens. While this indeed couldn’t be cheesier, luckily a few details make this not a total waste of time. The enemies are smart too, and don’t let themselves get destroyed that easily, unlike countless other giant robot-shows. The military also quite early becomes involved with Reideen, and soon Junki is going to have to deal with people who try to exploit him.
The things that really made Reideen watchable, though, were the atmosphere it creates and the characters. A tense soundtrack and some great budged make up for the cheesiness of the fights, and combined with the storytelling, they become quite interesting to watch. The characters, while they aren’t top-notch, work great with this and through the course of the anime, they’re fleshed out pretty nicely. I liked, for example, how Junki never explicitly tells us why he just doesn’t hand Reideen over to others, but the way he acts throughout the episodes gives enough hints about what the reasons might be.
But yeah, the anime could have been so much better if the writers spent a bit more time on the concept. The interesting fights are often ruined by Deus ex Machina-endings, the aliens receive no development at all, we never know where they came from and the final episode is another one of those bad and lazy endings that ruins the entire continuity the anime has been building up to. Blood+, another Production IG anime suffered from the same problem.
Like I mentioned above though: it’s a nice watch despite being perfect. If you like mecha-shows with a bit of cheese, you should enjoy Reideen as well, but I can imagine that people who dislike slow plot-development will hate this one.]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 15
Rejoice: Dennou Coil is back! Apparently, the break and recaps weren’t meant to give the animators some time off, or to catch up or something similar; the timeslot for Dennou Coil was just occupied with baseball. Sorry about that.
Anyway, with this episode, the story gets fired off again, with a very high emphasis on mystery. Being a mystery-fan, I like this a lot, and It’ll be interesting to see whether the mystery is going to develop as well as in other great mystery-series as Higurashi, Night Head Genesis and Ergo Proxy. So far, it’s making a great start.
Basically, in this episode Yasako gets lost. After being chased by a bunch of children, mistaking her for Isako (apparently, Daiichi and the others aren’t the other she mercilessly used), she gets saved by a young boy of about her age: Takeru. He uses the same drawings on the ground that we’ve seen Isako use. He claims that this was drawn there before he came, though I don’t really believe that (see below).
Anyway, it seems that Yasako was quite close to her neighbourhood without actually noticing it, so Takeru decides to give her a bit of a tour through the area. Then after a while, Yasako starts to have deja vus, where she’s almost certain that she’s close to the place where she got lost when she was small, right before meeting Yonyon nii-san. The two of them search a bit, but Yasako’s memory is just too fuzzy to remember. She however, remembers that something big happened.
There’s one place that looks like the stairs we’ve been seeing in a few episodes, though there are a few differences. Takeru then suggests that it might have been a cyber-place on an old place in the town, with the white fog and all. If that’s the case, and the place was really a shrine, there is a possibility that the place is still there somewhere.
Takeru then explains about a phenomenon called “Imago”. It’s a psychic ability to find old buildings and spaces with your glasses. A person with Imago is supposed to be guided by strange voices, but it’s supposed to be just an urban legend. I suspect though, that Yasako has it, because she has heard these whispering voices once before.
Yasako then wonders why Kyuu-chans are erasing so many old buildings, and Takeru replies it’s because illegals caused a child to get killed (aka: Kanna). Then, Yasako hears the voices again, and they lead her to the place where she was lost when she was young. She then begins to recall her memory. She ran into a small shrine, and something was hiding inside of it. It turns out that this was a human-like illegal that was searching for Yonyon nii-san.
Furthermore, we then switch to the part of her memory when she was with Yonyon nii-san, probably fifteen minutes later. Yonyon nii-san was then swallowed up by that very same illegal. He urged Yasako to leave before this happened. Unfortunately, the Kyuu-chans erase the fog that was causing the whispers, so Yasako isn’t able to remember more.
After this, Takeru talks about a few more “urban legends” about these “cyber areas”. I suspect that these are the same as the one we saw Densuke escape in in episode 1, but these ones are accessible to humans as well, it seems. Supposedly, you can’t stay within them for too long, otherwise your cyber-body and real body will disconnect and you’ll lose your soul (I hope I understood this part well). There’s another urban legend that says that you must never, under any circumstances take of your glasses in such an area, otherwise you’ll never be able to return.
The two of them then say goodbye. When Yasako arrives at home, her mother tells her that she got a phone-call from her teacher. Apparently, a classmate of her called “Mayumi” is going to transfer to Hokkaido, but to be honest, I completely forgot who she is. Wasn’t she the third girl-member of the biology-club? The one we saw in episode 8 and 9?
Anyway, the episode closes with Takeru, making a suspicious phone-call with what sounds like his employer. He tells him or her about Yasako, and how she’s got Imago, the same as with Kanna.
This episode finally confirmed that the real and the Cyber-world aren’t two entirely separated things, and that people have been known to have an unconscious effect on the cyber-world (Imago; I’m actually starting to believe that it was this Imago that caused Kanna’s navigation-system to screw up, not the Illegals) and that there have been cases where people were just “taken” into the cyber-world, leaving no traces in the real world apart from memories.
Isako’s brother is either Yonyon nii-san, or he suffered this fate of being in a cyber-area and he either stayed for too long or he took off his glasses. Apparently, the power of Michiko-san is useful in getting him out of there. In any case, Yonyon nii-san is still out there somewhere, as we heard him talk with Haraken in episode 9. If Yonyon nii-san and Isako’s brother are indeed the same person, it’s quite ironic, as Isako was actually quite close in being able to talk to him. I wonder why she hasn’t discovered this yet. I also wonder, is there a link between Yonyon nii-san and Imago? Are the whispering voices actually his, and if tat’s the case, did Kanna meet the guy somewhere in her past as well?
The question also remains: what is Takeru’s role going to be? That’s about the only bad thing about this anime: kids who are barely twelve years old already are expert hackers, and instead of playing games, they’re already involved with shady businesses. I’d rather see some more development regarding this plot-hole. Is it usual for kids around that age to have a part-time job like that, or are Isako and Takeru exceptions?
And to close off this post: what surprised me as well was to see Yasako being surprised by a life dog, not a cyber one. It really seems that pets in this age have become less and less common for people to have, with the arrival of cyber-pets who are much easier to maintain. Still, there remain people who didn’t buy them, and stuck with the real ones for different reasons.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 23
Yay! Yay! Yay! The Teddy-episode! Interestingly enough, this episode turned into a tragic love-story when it doesn’t focus about his problem with his parents, unlike the others, but about his relationship with Emily. In the last episode, we already saw hints that they liked each other, and they continue to get closer together throughout this episode as well…
…until Teddy is offered a scholarship in Paris!
I absolutely LOVED the amount of realism in this episode. The entire series has been building up to living towards your dreams, and for the past couple of episodes, it really looked like everything went perfect. And now this episode comes with a slap in the face: people are going to have to say goodbye. To make matters even better, it seems that both Ilse and Perry will be able to reach their dreams, though things are different for Emily: she didn’t really reach anything, and plans to actually go back to the New Moon after school ends! Her sole salvation was that she’d be going back along with Teddy, though now that he’s going away too, she’s probably going to feel really lonely.
The thing also is: Teddy is really gone now. There are three episodes left, and we won’t see him in it. This makes me much more curious as to how the creators are planning to finish this. Kaze no Shoujo Emily is without a doubt my most favourite ignored series ever since Mahou Shoujotai, and somehow I just know that the final episodes are going to become awesome, now that there’s no way for Emily to remain with her former friends in the end.
I also loved how, against all clichés, Emily didn’t reach the train Teddy was on in the end. He didn’t even notice her as she was standing next to the train. I think that’s a first for such a scene.
I’ve probably said this before, but my definite favourite series for the spring-seasons are Bokura no, Toward the Terra and Kaze no Shoujo Emily, and all three of them are definite recommendations, not to mention that the finales of all three of them are promising to look awesome!]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 23
Finally, after twenty-two-and-a-half episodes, the climax of Seirei no Moribito has finally started! Finally, spring has come, and finally Rarunga shows itself. In the next episode, we’ll finally learn whether Seirei no Moribito’s unique style of storytelling can be considered a success or not.
Most of the episode was pretty easy to understand, but there was one twist involving Dakai that I had trouble with. It seems that Shuga’s discoveries of a number of episodes ago were wrong, but I couldn’t quite catch what was so wrong about it, and why it was so incredibly urgent.
Anyway, about the rest of the episode, it was definitely centred on Chaggumu. During the winter, he definitely grew up, his hair got a bit longer, and at the start of the spring, Torogai-shi returns and gives him a new outfit. This definitely symbolizes how he’s matured a little, and prepared himself mentally for the arrival of Rarunga. This is also the first time I’ve seen Torogai-shi talk so friendly to anyone, symbolizing that everyone is with him, and willing to protect him. In any case, the new Chaggumu looks awesome, and you just have to love it when he grabs both Barsa and Tanda’s hand. ^_^
Then the second half of the episode comes when the royal guard returns. It seems that they too decided to wait till spring, but they’re not inclined to do nothing about Rarunga’s arrival. They also come with a bunch of interesting plot-twists:
– Rarunga can’t stand fire, which is why all the guards are equipped with fire-weapons.
– (I hope I understood this one right)Rarunga is the father of the egg inside Chaggumu.
Chaggumu then walks on a lake, due to the eggs power. It’s at this point when Rarunga appears, he indeed is a water-seirei, and seems to attack with crab-like feet. It’s also here where the egg starts to get a mind of its own, and starts to take over Chagumu’s behaviour. First, we’re given the impression that it’s waiting quietly for Rarunga to come, but then it does start to defend itself by forming the barrier we saw in episode 1. It then runs away.
Yet again, I’ve got no idea how the creators are planning to end this. There are only three episodes left, among which the last one will probably be an aftermath. This means that this story will be resolved within two episodes, and I can hardly wait for it!]]>
Ooedo Rocket – 23
While the previous episode was the big climax for Shunpei and Onui, this episode was all about Ginjiro and O-Ise. It started out serious, so I began to worry whether this episode would deliver or not, though these worries weren’t necessary at all. The more it progressed, the better this episode became. 🙂
Ginjiro indeed has decided to stay away from Seikichi, because he still feels that he won’t forgive his betrayal. Instead, he’s been wandering around aimlessly and perhaps unconsciously returned to the place where he used to fight in the war (see episode three for this). It seems that after the war, it was haunting him so much that he attacked random children and nearly committed suicide. The thing that saved him: Seikichi’s fireworks. That quite nicely explains why he stuck with everyone for a couple of years.
He then runs into his former commander, who has turned blind in an accident. He puts up an act of taking care of parentless children, though Ginjiro quickly notices that he’s involved in some shady businesses, so he leaves.
Most of the episode, though, resolves around Kinshiro, who sends O-Ise and Tenhou (and Tetsuju as well) to check out some strange rumours, considering this former commander. I suspect that O-Ise got interested when she heard his name, and I suspect that this is also somehow good for the production of the rocket, though I didn’t exactly catch why. If I had to guess, then a bunch of rebels seem to have stolen the gunpowder that was meant for the rocket.
The highlight of the episode was the fight at the end, though. Battles in Ooedo Rocket have always been excellent, and this is no exception. It’s great to see the couple of Ginjiro and O-Ise together again, and it’s nice to see that Ginjiro gets saved by fireworks yet again, when he’s forced to battle the blind guy in total dark This time, though, the fireworks came not from Seikichi, but from Tetsuju, though. ^^;
In the next episode, we should see the climax really starting, according to the preview. I’m having high hopes for that episode, at least. It would be awesome if the creators put lots of comedy in it, and didn’t just focus on drama, though it’ll definitely be interesting to see how the wooden rocket fares into space, and how the Akai-problem will be solved. Seriously, that guy is up to something; I just know it!]]>