It seems that the creators themselves also realized how similar Shuurei and Shuuran are, that really becomes clear with this episode. I must say, Shuran was awesome! For such a small child to stand up for her sick mother, believing very word that Eigetsu told her must have been a really scary thing for her to do. I sense another female official in her.
The pacing of Saiunkoku Monogatari has really slowed down with the second season, and you can see that the creators are able to give the characters much more development. This episode again is about one thing: getting Shuurei in Kourinjou. With the usual pacing, I’d say that this could also have been done in just one episode, but the extra airtime was much appreciated.
One thing I didn’t like about this episode though was that the feminism had gone a bit too much overboard. Sure, I love how this anime had addressed this issue so far, about women, rising in a male-dominated society, but this episode went too far. Basically, every man is rash and stupid, and wants to see Shuurei killed, while the women are the smart ones to bring their husbands back to senses.
Also, what is Riou planning, exactly? Right now, he seems to be either a friend or brother of Shuuran, but he hasn’t done anything suspicious yet. This episode as well, we only see him suspiciously looking at Ensei and Shuurei trying to pass the walls of the castle and scolding Shuuran after everything was over, because she acted so rash. If he really is the other Riou, then why did he contact Shuuran in the first place, instead of looking for someone actually acquainted with her?
It’s also aggravating: we see nothing of Kourin and Eigetsu this episode! I’m so interested in what happens to the two of them, but it seems that the creators are waiting for episode 13 for the major climax. Still, this episode was another great one. Especially Shuuran is not to be missed.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 11
Fans of Kaze no Shoujo Emily will rejoice with this episode: it’s all about Perry this time. Finally he gets a fair amount of development, and I must say that the result was awesome. This series just continues to surprise me with its characters, as they turn more likable with every episode progressing. It’s an incredible shame that not even ONE episode has been subbed yet.
In any case, Perry has troubles with his family as well, just like Emily and Teddy. We already knew that he’s from a poor family, but with this episode, it becomes clear that he lives together with his grandmother, which suggests that his parents both died. The reason he works on the New Moon farm is to get enough money for the both of them to survive. The problem though is that Perry’s grandmother doesn’t approve of him going to school and studying.
That, however, changes with this episode, when Perry gets even more motivation to study than he already had. It starts when Emily gives him a book about Abraham Lincoln, who immediately becomes Perry’s hero and source of determination. He wants to be like Lincoln, no matter what. Then it seems that the new teacher decides to host a speech contest: talk about your dreams to a considerable audience. With this, Emily and Ilse immediately think of entering Perry as well.
Perry really was amazing in this episode. Even though he only recently learned to read and write and despite his financial situation, he continues to work hard at both his job in the farm and his speech. His determination for his goals was great to watch. All goes well, until his grandmother becomes sick because she went out in a storm when she worried about Perry. Because of this, he spent the Speech contest taking care of her, so Emily won in the end. In the end, though, his grandmother allows him to go to school as well, after which Perry makes an interesting confession about planning to propose to Emily once his dreams have been reached. ^^;
I’m more excited about this show than ever, now that it has started to seriously develop its side-characters. I really can’t wait till Ilse and Teddy also get their own episode, and it’ll be great to see Teddy develop. I also wonder if Lola will be getting any serious role in the future. We now know that she comes from an important family, and her little screw-up was quite funny, but I’d love to see her character developed as well.]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 11
Personally, I really liked this episode. It focuses on Tooya and Saya, and especially the two of them get a bit of development. It seems that they’re not siblings after all. Saya seems to be the daughter of a rich family, and through some circumstances that I didn’t manage to pick up got to live together. At the beginning of the episode, we see Tooya being down, since the family took her in again.
The problem is, though, that Saya collapsed afterwards. It’s not really an illness, but it seems that her spirit left her body. The culprit seems to be a ceremonial offering of rice and a bowl of water with a water lily on it (hanazake is what Tanda calls it). It combined with Saya’s worries to make her soul split from her body.
Tanda manages to get her back, though, with a bit of magic of his own. He’s able to leave his body as well through a ritual, and gets Saya back, bringing her and Tooya a bit closer together. I remember that tj han recently wrote an entry about how romance can only be done with pretty characters, but I think that Tooya is making a good start to change this.
Something interesting happened when Tooya and Saya’s story was resolved (which was too cute, by the way), though. Tanda either found himself unable to return, or he was so caught up in being a spirit that he didn’t want to return. I can imagine that that might turn out bad if attempted for too long. Not to mention that Tanda soon finds out that he can travel immense distances by just going through a wall. The animals he sees there are huge. I really wonder how this will be used in the future episodes. Luckily, he realizes this in time and contacts Chaggumu through the egg, and Barsa manages to save him because of this.
In any case, we’re now at episode 11, which means two episodes until episode 13, my predicted turning-point of this series. The next episode will probably be another quiet episode, like the past few have been, and something tells me that the plot will start moving with episode 13.]]>
Ooedo Rocket – 11
The scenes involving Genzo were truly epic! During the previous episode, I never even wondered why he suddenly became a bird, but now everything becomes clear. Remember the machines that turn people to cats? Well, there are other machines as well. xD I laughed so hard when I finally realized this. Genzo probably is one of the most pitiful characters in the current spring-season. A neglected character in a neglected anime, how much worse can it get? ^^;
Anyway, it seems that Ooedo Rocket isn’t going to be 13 episodes long after all, and we’re in for at least 24 of them. This episode shows this as well when it again continues to develop its characters. This time, the focus lies on Seikichi’s relationship with Sora, and Ginjiro who realizes that he wants to protect Sora. Oh, and Tetsuju returns!
It first looks like we’re dealing with another love-triangle, but I don’t think that Ginjiro is after Sora in that way. He just wants to protect her because he knows her secret. Seikichi, however, thinks that Ginjiro is acting way too suspicious, and during this episode Sora shows him that she does have interest in him when she saves him after Kagiya blows up his boat (long story, let’s just say that Tetsuju had something to do with it ^^;).
The rocket-development also progresses in this episode when Seikichi manages to find a new ingredient for his fuel: poo, as disgusting as it sounds. It works quite well, actually. In this episode, we get to see him do a test-run and the firepower greatly increased. Unfortunately though, Tetsuju was still able to catch up to them. Seikichi indeed needs these extra thirteen episodes if he wants to have a chance to send Sora to the moon.
Overall, I loved the episodes. Episodes 6-8 had a few lesser moments, so I began to fear, but it seems that these fears were unnecessary.]]>
Claymore – 11
This probably is the episode of Claymore with the least amount of fighting. Heck, most of it was just talking, which is very nice for a change. It’s another very important episode, you wouldn’t want to miss it. The four Claymores were indeed sent to take care of the male Awakened Being because they’re problem children, and half-Awakened, and the four of them have become allies against the organization. A relative lot of time was spent on this, probably in order to really show the bond between Helen, Deneve, Miria and Claire.
We also see something interesting in Miria’s flashback. We see the part where she half-Awakened (Deneve was there too), and then we see what is probably Claymore Number four, Ophelia, who keeps encouraging Miria to awaken. She looks quite scarily, but I think that she is the biggest reason. For Miria to turn against the organization, and while she never mention it, Miria keeps dropping hints that she hates that woman.
We also see the identity of Claymore 3: Galatea. It’s the Claymore who spied on the fight in the previous episode, and her ability seems to be quite similar to Claire’s: sensing Yoki, especially from very far away. Number 1 seems to be Alicia, Number 2 is Beth and number 5 is Rafaela (wasn’t she the Number 5 in episode 5 as well, before Priscilla took her place?).
So far, Claymore is good stuff, but there’s one thing that worries me: the fact that the manga hasn’t finished yet. Is there any sign of the manga finishing soon? The series may be true to it right now and all, but I fear what would happen if this series would get stuck in fillers.]]>
Death Note – 35
I must say… that was an amazing episode! I didn’t think Death Note would be able to surpass itself, but holy god, it did! I never expected this to happen to Mello and Takada at all. The people who say that the second half sucks really need to see this episode.
Mello, who started out as an annoying brat totally received my respect after this episode. He also shows that he’s only human, he knows that Near is about to get Kira, and he himself hasn’t been getting anywhere with Misa, so he decides to go for one final attempt to defeat Near, and he makes mistakes which cost him his life. He never knew that Takada possessed a few pages of the Death Note, and he had to pay for this. All the bad things I’ve said about him, I take them back after this episode.
And Light finally demonstrates how cruel he can be. If Takada gets discovered, it’ll mean that Near finds out about her, holding the Death Note and his plan will be gone, so he makes use of the fact that she was abducted by Mello to make her commit suicide. The question remains: will Near buy it? I think, though, that he’s become so focused on his plan that he won’t be able to notice this.
While I originally believed that this would turn into a “calm before the storm”-episode, it turned out magnificently. I doubt whether the next two episodes will be able to beat it, though we’ll see. This isn’t the first time that Death Note surprised me. I’m glad to see that after a bodgy middle part, Death Note managed to redeem itself completely, and I can’t wait to see the next episode!]]>
Earth Girl Arjuna Review – 72/100
The world is in trouble. Everywhere in the world, Raaja start to appear along with the pollution, caused by humans and something needs to be done. This is the message that Earth Girl Arjuna tries to bring. It features a high-school girl who receives the power of the earth in order to protect it. Unfortunately, though, she remains a high-school girl, and so she also has her own problems.
And that’s where the problem with this anime lies. The two major focuses of this anime, the endangered environment and Juna’s personal problems don’t really mix together. They’re constantly trying to get the centre of attention, not to mention that the love triangle, that takes up quite a bit of airtime just gets nowhere because of this. The individual parts are good, yes, but this anime really had an identity crisis throughout its run of 13 episodes.
There’s also this matter of the rather disappointing ending, shamelessly ripped off from Nausicaa. If you’re looking for an anime about human pollution, Nausicaa definitely is a better choice, as Earth Girl Arjuna comes with a bunch of theories that just don’t make any sense at all. Also, we never really get to know why Juna got her powers in the first place. The closest reason we get is “there was no other choice”. It’s also a bit too coincidental that the “big boss” is caused by none other than Juna’s boyfriend’s father.
Still, Earth Girl Arjuna isn’t all that bad. One thing it did right was character-development. The cast of characters gets well developed and explored throughout the anime, and I overall had a good time watching. It’s just that now that I started writing this review, I’m beginning to notice more and more flaws and plotholes. You’ll probably enjoy this if you don’t get too much bothered by these.
The graphics look quite interesting, Juna’s designs are done with quite some creativity, and the entire anime sparkles with imaginative choreography. The music also is quite unique. It’s not really memorable, but I can see myself going after the soundtrack, as there are quite a number of interesting tunes worth listening to.
Overall, Earth Girl Arjuna is not a bad anime; it just has a lot of flaws. Let me just warn you to skip the final episode, though, as it’s the worst episode in the entire series, and the perfect example of a bad and rushed ending.]]>
Hitohira Review – 88/100
Hitohira is going to be a rather difficult anime to review, since most of its major merits are rather spoilerific, but I’ll give it a try. Basically, it’s one of these rare high-school dramas done right. It features Mugi, an extremely shy girl who even has trouble speaking up at times, who gets recruited for the local drama-club. Why? Because her voice can be incredibly hard when she’s not holding back.
When I first read this description, I indeed was sceptical. After all, many anime have come up with similar concepts, and failed horribly. Hitohira, though, proved to know exactly what it was doing. There are no stereotypes, no excessive fanservice, no harem, and no artificial student council. Nearly all of the clichés that we usually see in these school-based shows are gone. Instead, this anime delivers characters that go well beyond the stereotypes. They’re rich and versatile, and each of them gets a great dose of development through the course of only twelve episodes, ending with an actually good ending.
Hitohira turned out to be surprisingly genuine, but it does take two or three episodes to get going and show its full potential. Nono’s case is beautiful, and I loved how this anime didn’t try to keep its characters together. Life goes on is a major theme of especially the later episodes and it’s done beautifully. I won’t say anything more than that that the major climax was amazing, and it was a definite highlight of the spring-season. Just go and check it out for yourself.
The character-designs are done beautifully and unique, making the visuals a real treat. The animation itself usually remains minimal, though you won’t see any distorted faces or strangely drawn bodies. The background music doesn’t stand out, but it still contributes to the scenes perfectly.
I really hope for this series to get subbed soon, as it deserves to be watched. This series really is one of the spring-season shows that went right. The only flaw that I managed to spot was that especially in the beginning, the drama was a tad too forced, though as the show went on this became less and less apparent. It’s a great choice for anyone who isn’t bored too fast.]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 11
And Wellber no Monogatari is coming towards its end, with only two episodes left after this. You’d suspect a “calm before the storm”-episode, but instead it decides to develop its side-characters a bit more. This definitely was a Galahad/Jamill-episode and a great one as well!
Finally we get a bit more development between the two, and we finally learn how the two got together. Basically, Jamill was an excellent soldier, while Galahad was close to Guernia, and they often got put in the same missions, in which the combination of the both of them excelled like no other. After a while, they began to feel for each other. It’s nothing special, but it’s so much better than no explanation at all.
This probably was the episode with the slowest pacing of the series. Especially the later half is really focused, and with a good reason: Jamill dies! First she gets stabbed in the eye by Guernia, after he tells her how he killed his mother, who “cheated” on him. She then goes to search for Galahad, who ended up in a peaceful farming cottage. When she finds him, it seems that she’s still on Guernia’s side, as she tries to make him go back. When he refuses, she challenges him to a “shooting duel”. Galahad shoots anyway, since he’s seen her skills, and he’s in now way as fast as she is. Jamill, though, refused to shoot, and so she gets hit by Galahad. Great moment. 🙂
Now then, I do wonder wonder what this anime has in store for us for the final two episodes. So far, the best thing of this series has been the change to an actual serious storyline, but something tells me that the creators planned to save the best for last. So far, we’ve got three elements of the storyline left unsolved: the war, Guernia vs. Galahad and the murderer of Tina’s parents.]]>
OMG!
THIS is what I’ve been waiting for! The website lists the date of July 16, while Moonphase talks about autumn, but IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Arusu The Adventure, the OVA-sequel of Mahou Shoujotai has now gotten an official airdate! Okay, I may be the only person who enjoys this news, but I’m really getting pumped now! Studio 4C: show your magic! (yes, I know this probably is one of my most random posts, but I just had to make it ^^;)]]>