Awesome, it seems that my worries after the previous episode were completely unnecessary. This episode featured lots of plot progression, new information, character-development and a great case. And not to forget the awesome background tune that returned! I had just one problem with this episode: PLEASE MAKE THE TACO-SONG STOP!!! Seriously, I’m fearing that I can’t get it out of my head if it continues for much longer.
The case this time features a guy who works at a taco-shop, along with his wife/girlfriend (Margarita). The guy, however, spent a part of his life as a serial-killer. At that time, he became acquaintances with a guy named Markes, who was about to be sent to prison. Margarita was with him, back then. For some reason, when he got out a year later, he begged the guy to kill her. He couldn’t kill her, and fell in love with her instead. Or something like that. You wouldn’t suspect that El Cazador has such a difficult dialogue to understand.
Anyway, Ellis was awesome this time. She really takes lead of the episode at times, for example when she starts wearing the waitress-costume. A large part of the episode also focuses on her, learning to smile at the appropriate times (with some hilarious results). During the climax, when Markes comes to take his revenge she also makes sure that Margarita is out of danger, and knocks the guy out by smacking a bunch of maracas on his head.
That last part was actually quite interesting. You wouldn’t say it, but Ellis definitely knows how to fight. I mean, maracas can be hard and all, but to knock out a grown male with them, and breaking them in the process does require a lot of strength. Because of this, I really do wonder what the second half of this anime has in store for us. Seriously, this series keeps dropping hints that something special is going to happen in the future. Either that, or I’m turning paranoid.
I’m also glad to see that L.A. finally escapes from Rozenberg. We don’t see him for the rest of the episode, but the souvenirs he left suggest that his sanity took a turn for the worse. Something tells me that this was exactly what Rozenberg wanted, so that he’d awaken “Ellis’ true powers”.
I also loved Blue-Eyes. While she was a bit silly in the previous two episodes, it was a perfect build-up for what happened at the end of this episode. She finally got her hands on the document, explaining everything about project Leviathan. It seems to be a project that was started a long time ago. If it succeeds, it might even have consequences on te entire earth. What kind of consequences, we’ll never know, as she then reaches a page with “You look much better without your glasses” scribbled on it. Seriously, how did Rozenberg know, and why did he want her to actually read it? Heck, why did he want her to know that he knows that she read it?
Ricardo also once again proves how dangerous he can be. He seems to have a bad history with Markes, so he brutally kills the guy after the climax, when nobody’s looking. The strange thing is that he just let Lilio come with him. I’m not sure whether she saw him actually kill, but that is not something you should do near a little girl. We also see hints that Lilio isn’t his real daughter. Why did he decide to take care of her? Heck, what happened to her voice?
I’m glad to see that this episode restored my faith in this series. It also was great to hear the music back, seriously, it should have been played more frequently. But then again, the track has become so awesome because it has only been played so little.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 22
Quite an important episode, as lots of things happen that will be important for the rest of the anime. To give a small summary, Gavroche moves to Paris, Marius couldn’t find the Thenardiers and moves in with a friend, Javert still is obsessed with catching Jean, Fauche-le-Vent dies and Jean and Cosette move out of the monastery, after having lived there for six years.
It was great to see Gavroche and Shushu back, by the way. Now that thugs are looking for the Thenardiers he needs to be careful, as they’re probably going to see him as the payments for accumulated dept. If you live in a city, it’ll become really hard to track someone down, and I suspect that he secretly wants to see Cosette again. I wonder what his role will be in the next couple of episodes, and where did the Thenardiers flee to, by the way?
It also seems that Marius won’t be forgiving his uncle anytime soon. He even wouldn’t accept any money that his aunt offered. It’ll be interesting once he meets Cosette: he’ll be looking for the people she fears most in this world. What’s also apparent in this episode is how he has to get used to having a limited amount of money. He probably lived his entire life in the luxury that his uncle provided to him, and he really looks awkward when all he has for dinner is a plate of cheap soup and a bit of bread.]]>
Summer Season Preview
+ Not Really Looking Forward To +
Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi
Summary: “Meet Louise, a budding magician. The students at the Tristein Academy call her “Zero Louise”, due to her current record of zero successes with magic. In fact, her magic tends to go spectacularly wrong. Now, as an important test of her aptitude for magic, she must summon a familiar to be her servant. At this critical moment, she summons up all her magic and wishes for a familiar that is “devoted, beautiful and powerful”, and gets… Hiraga Saito, an ordinary Japanese boy. It’s difficult to say who is more surprised and dismayed, but the rules don’t allow for second attempts. Louise is stuck with her strange familiar, and he with her.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: I remember hating the first episode of the original series, back when it aired. It was just oh so similar to your standard harem, where the main character would be surrounded by a bunch of pretty stereotypes. When I later read that at some point, he gets his own personal maid to play with, I knew that this wouldn’t be a series I’d like.
Moetan
Summary: “Moetan originally was a game, aimed at otaku to help them study english.”
Thoughts: This concept can only be saved when this anime starts to heavily parody the English language. Otaku-based shows have been rather notorious with me for the lack of an interesting storyline and a preferred focus on cute girls, rather than substance. The director did Getsumen to Heiki Mina and Hayate the Combat-Butler, two series which got stale really fast. The guy behind the screenplay and series composition also wrote the manga “To-Love-Ru”, which features a boy who finds a naked magical alien girl in his bathtub, also convinces me that this’ll most likely become a trainwreck.
Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho: Tou
Summary: “In the night of Tokyo, mysterious deaths involving the ‘Reborn Dead’ occur. Mysterious transfer student, Tatsuma Hiyuu, and delinquent student, Kyouichi Houraiji, fight these undead every night. They, along with the rest of their group, soon realize that a greater threat, that involves even more powerful demons, is near.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: I remember dropping this series, back when it aired, because it was too boring. I might pick it up again, I might not.
Buzzer Beater
Summary: “Hideyoshi is a homeless boy living in New York in the near future, who survives by hustling other kids in basketball games. But now he’s been drafted into a pro team-a pro team with a very unique goal. There once was a time when humans dominated the game of basketball. But times have changed, and now the physically superior alien players have taken over the game, and there are barely any human players next. But Hideyoshi’s team-the first all-human team to compete in the Space League-intends to change all that, and bring the championship back home to Earth.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Okay, I don’t really get this. I already wasn’t excited by the fact that this is a sports-anime, but this appears to be a remake of a series that aired back in 2005. Why the heck would ANYONE want to remake a show that aired such a short period of time ago? The story also sounds everything but exciting.
Nanatsuiro Drops
Summary: “Tsuwabuki Masaharu, or Haru as is friends like to call him, is your normal middle school student. Now in his second year, his friends push him to speak with his classmates whom he have yet to speak to, but this was still a difficult thing for Haru due to his clumsy nature. One afternoon, his life met with a 180° during a strange encounter in the hallways of Hoshigaoka School. During that fateful encounter, he accidentally drinks a magical potion which transforms him into a stuffed animal sheep during the night! Through later events, Haru learns that in order to return to his original self, he needs to collect “star droplets” that fall from the sky. However, being that his innards are now made of cotton, he will need the help of a “special person,” little did he know that special person was someone from his class. Living a double life between his day self and his sheep form “Yuki-chan”, page one of his story, her story, and the story of Nanatsuiro Drops begins~” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Ah, what have we here? Another harem. This time, the main character is a goat and he needs to get intimate with a girl from his class in order to change back. The main character himself is a perfectly ordinary boy who is a little clumsy. Yup, sounds just like all those other harems out there. There’s just one thing that intrigues me: the guy behind the series composition worked on several of the later World Masterpiece Theatre-series, as well as Kaze no Shoujo Emily. Will he be able to save this series alone? I doubt it, though.
+ Shows with Small Potential +
Doujin Work
Summary: “Doujinwork is a story about the main character’s exposure and adventure into the world of doujinshi. We follow Osana Najimi, a high schooler tempted into becoming a doujin artist after seeing how much her friend can make at a convention. A sucker at drawing, Najimi soon learns that the road inside the doujin world is not paved with roses as she expected, but, as she attends more conventions and meets more people, manages to find a group of very interesting friends.” – (taken from Cardcaptor’s Blog)
Thoughts: Probably another romantic comedy. With all series of this genre, I have to see it work first before I’ll start to see any potential in it, as most series who attempt this are just a bunch of trainwrecks.
Wangan Midnight
Summary: “When high school student Akio Asakura loses a high speed race to Tatsuya Shima, he goes to a junkyard to find parts for his car – only to discover a blue first-generation Datsun Fairlady Z (S30), which he buys. Akio later discovers that not only is the Z tuned to 620 bhp, it’s had a dark history of unfortunate accidents with its previous owners. Behind the wheel of the Devil Z, Akio now poses a threat to Shima and his “Blackbird” Porsche 911 Turbo.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: A long-running manga is finally getting animated. If I recall correctly, it’ll feature high-speed highway-races. It should prove to be a decent action-series, but I doubt that the story and characters will receive a lot of attention.
Code Geass Episode 24 and 25
Summary: Episodes 24 and 25 have been extended to a special, to air in the summer-season.
Thoughts: Now that I managed to finish watching the first series, I’m too far in to just drop it, but I do hope that these episodes will fix the many mistakes that the original series made. Something, however, tells me that it’s going to try to be as spectacular and drawn-out as possible, almost like a soap-opera.
Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho
Summary: “Kaname Okimura, a student of Prefectoral Umineko Shougyou High (”Umisho” for short), joined the school’s swimming club in order to learn how to swim, but the club is filled with weirdoes, let alone teach him swimming. Then, a sunny, happy-go-lucky girl named Amuro Ninagawa who was transferred from Okinawa joined the club. Her extraordinary underwater speed and unorthodox swimming style (plus her personal habit of nude swimming — a powerful magnet to teenage boys) surprised every club member, especially Okimura, because she reminds him a mermaid-like creature he saw only once in his early childhood.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Wow, I first believed that this would definitely become the worst show of the season, but the people behind the screenplay actually do show some potential. They both were involved in Himawari!, one of them was behind the script of Tsukikage Ran, some episodes of Fruits Basket, while the other did the script of Deltora Quest and a few episodes of Popolocrois. While I usually loathe romantic comedies like these, this does have potential to become rather funny. Now let’s hope that the manga itself doesn’t limit them.
Potemayo
Summary: ?
Thoughts: I still don’t know what to think of this series. It looks like a comedy where five children get to take care of two rather eccentric chibi-witches, but the question remain whether it’ll actually become funny enough to not get boring.
School Days
Summary: “The story is about a love triangle between the male protagonist Makoto, and the two heroines Kotonoha and Sekai. Makoto develops a love interest in Kotonoha, a girl in the same year but different class. Although they both take the same train to school, she is unaware of his existence. His classmate, Sekai, manages to put the two together despite holding strong feelings towards Makoto.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: You know, the concept of a horribly bloody ending is nice and all, but do you really think the people behind Amaenaideyo and Yumeria will be able to pull this off well? Right now, it looks like this is just going to be your usual romantic comedy-harem with an unorthodox ending. I first have to see this before I’ll start believing that something good might come out of this.
+ Interesting-Looking Series +
Zombie-Loan
Summary: “When a human is marked to die, a faint gray line that is invisible to most appears around their neck. As time passes, that ring becomes darker and darker, until it is eventually black, and that person dies. Kita Michiru has an unusual gift, she posses “Shinigami eyes,” which allow her to see these rings. When Michiru notices that two of the boys in her Class, Akatsuki Chika and Tachibana Shito not only have rings, but that they’re jet black, they reveal to her that the were supposed to die in a tragic accident six months ago. With the help of the Zombie Loan loan office, they were given a second chance at life, should they be able to pay for their debt by doing the work of Shinigami and killing malicious zombies. They petition Michiru to assist them in their efforts, and she finds her everyday life changing dramatically.”
Thoughts: While the concept is garbage, I admit that I like the director, he’s currently directing Hitohira, he did Rumic Theater in the past (a series I recently finished and really liked) and the storyboard of none other than Gintama. Unfortunately, the series-composition is done by the same guy who did Good Witch of the West, and probably was the one responsible for its rushed story. Let’s hope he’ll be able to learn something from the director.
Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files
Summary: “Caught up in an illegal mission to steal military secrets, Armored Trooper Chirico Cuvie is on the run from his own army. Left to die by his traitorous commanders, Chirico makes his way to Uoodo City – a hive of criminals and refugees – where he`ll need all of his battlefield-honed skills to survive. Driven by the image of a mysterious woman whose destiny is linked to his own, Chirico begins a quest that will shake the foundations of the entire galaxy! (U.S. Manga Corps)” – (taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: The interesting thing about this anime is not only the fact that nobody seems to talk about it, it’s also the director who can send it into a really interesting direction: Ryousuke Takahashi. He’s worked on many series in the past, but most importantly: he directed Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Flag and Hi no Tori. This means that we can expect an extremely solid and realistic piece of work here.
Mushiuta
Summary: “In near future in Japan, there appear grotesque monsters called “Mushi”, who parasitize people and give them supernatural powers. “Mushitsuki”, the hosts of “Mushi”, are frightened, hated, and abandoned from the society. The story features a high school student Kusuriya Daisuke, who encounters a girl on his way to school on the first day he transfers. Somehow, he and the girl, Anmoto Shiika, stand near the railroad crossing and feel attracted to each other. As if they are seeking for something missing in themselves, their relation gets close rapidly. However, Shiika is a fugitive from GARDEN, a secret asylum of “Mushitsuki”. Tokkan, or Special Environment Preservation Agency, which is responsible for finding “Mushitsuki” in order to put them into the asylum orders Kakko, their top agent and strongest “Mushitsuki” to hut down Shiika. However, there are people who fight against “Tokkan”. The resistance, Mushibane, is looking for “Mushitsuki” whose existence is deleted from the society. The female leader, Lady Bird, orders the member to save Shiika before Tokkan finds her. The fights between “Mushitsuki” and “Mushibane” over Shiika, breaking normal life, their super natural powers sparkle. During the fights beyond one’s imagination, young people are losing their lives miserably. However, the Mushitsuki have the destiny they cannot escape from. The mushi eats the host’s dream in exchange for of giving him supernatural power. When, the mushi eat up host’s dreams, he will die.” – (taken from AnimeNfo and corrected some obnoxious spelling and grammar-errors)
Thoughts: I’m no big fan of the boy and girl who get together, teenage romance is so easy to screw up. The rest of the premise, though, does show promise for a tragic story, but I’m a bit disappointed that the “Mushi” turned into huge monsters instead of the buzzing creatures that I originally thought they were. I’m also intrigued by the person behind the series composition: Reiko Yoshida. He or she (?) really has a huge amount of experience, and worked on lots of excellent series in the past, like Saiunkoku Monogatari, Popolocrois, Ghost Hunt and Deltora Quest. But the character-designs are done by the same guy who did them for Bakuretsu Tenchi? I fear.
+ Definitely Looking Forward To +
Shigurui
Summary: “Based on a seinen manga by Yamaguchi Takayuki, serialised in Champion RED. We are in the sixth year of the Kan’ei era (1629), at the beginning of the Edo period. The story takes place inside the castle of Suruga. The first duel of a tournament which, in contravention of all existing laws, allows the use of real swords, brings together for the last time two mighty swordsmen whose intertwined past is as beautiful and gruesome as the wounds upon their bodies… An exceptional manga artist decides to tackle the forbidden work by the last giant figure in samurai literature, only to give birth to a colossal period drama filled with unspeakable tragedy and cruelty!” – (taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Even though it sounds rather bloody, I’m actually really excited about this. Apparently, the manga isn’t afraid at all to show mature themes, which might turn out pretty interesting if handled well.
Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei
Summary: “Sayonara Zetsubousensei is a episodic manga that plays around with japanese terms/parodies/popular culture and anime culture kinda like the author’s previous work Katte ni Kaizou. The protaganist is Itoshiki糸色 Nozumu 望but when you combine the kanji for itoshiki and nozumu, it becames zetsubou (despair) 絶望 hence the title of the work. The supporting cast is made up of dysfunctional students(each having his/her own unique character) from his class and he is not teaching at an all-girls high school.” – (taken from Meikuuzanshouken)
Thoughts: That main character sounds like a very interesting character, and while I’m not too fond of the all-girls high school he ends up in, I can see myself enjoying seeing him getting tortured by his students, and worry about his situation at the same time. The director did series as Pani Poni Dash and Le Portrait de Petit Cosette, so he should know how to handle the despair of Nozomu.
Tetsuko no Tabi
Summary: “This is a slightly odd sort of manga: basically the “story” is that a manga artist is asked by her boss to accompany him and a travel-writer on various train trips around Japan and draw a manga about it. The kicker though, is that it’s completely non-fiction — the creator really did go on all these trips, and the manga simply records what happened, with no embellishment. There’s a little disclaimer at the front that says “This is non-fiction, so I apologize for the lack of drama,” and indeed, it mostly is just about them riding trains from place to place, waiting on platforms, etc.; there’s none of the silly artificial melodrama that sometimes accompanies info-manga. Despite the disclaimer, however, it’s really very entertaining.”
Thoughts: The character-designs that can be found on the official site made me probably even more enthusiastic than I already was about this anime. I’d love to see whether such a concept will actually work, and by the looks of the characters, they might actually pull it off.
+ Top-5 Looking Forward To +
Code-E
Summary: “The story of Code E deals with a new female highschool transfer student who has the strange ability to disrupt electronic equipment.” – (taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Why am I so excited about this series? Well, it’s all about the people working on it. The director, Toshiyuki Kato previously did epics as Full Moon wa Sagashite, he did a few episodes of Simoun (episode 16 included, an episode I just can’t stop praising for its awesomeness), and he also did Ginga Densetsu Weed, which had some truly remarkable death-scenes. Junji Nishimura is one of the people behind the screenplay for Code-E, and he was the one who directed Simoun, and did a whole bunch of episodes for that series as well. Another guy who will do the screenplay is Toshifumi Kawase, or the guy behind the script of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and The Law of Ueki. With people like these behind it, how can this possibly go wrong?
Tales of Symphonia
Summary: “The story follows Lloyd, who among others accompanies a chosen girl, who will bring salvation to the a fictional fantasy-world. At least, that’s what he originally thinks. As the story unfolds, the problems the world is currently currently suffering from will really become clear. It’s a story to save people who can’t live anywhere without being shunned and looked down upon.”
Thoughts: When I started this blog, there were two major anime that played a big factor in it. The first is obviously Mahou Shoujotai, and the second series was Tales of Phantasia. Now that a sequel of the game it’s based on is getting animated, is there any way for me not to blog it? 🙂 I’m just a bit worried about the official site, though, since all important characters have been removed from the main-page apart from Lloyd and Cosette. I don’t hope that the creators will make their love-relationship the biggest focus of the story, since the parts that focused on racism and the protection of loved ones were much, much more interesting.
Baccano!
Summary: “Baccano is Italian for noise, but Narita translates it as “stupid commotion.” Each of the stories in the series involves several unrelated plots intersecting and crossing each other as events spiral farther and farther out of control. Immortal alchemists, mafia operated speakeasies, and many other elements of pulp fiction mashed together for a world straight out of the movies.” – (taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: I already knew that this anime was going to be produced, and I quite liked the art. But when I read the premise above, I fell in love with it. A collection of stories, unrelated to each other, crossing each other, playing in the 1930s, with trains and immortal alchemists? Directed by the people behind Jigoku Shoujo? Sign me up!!
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai
Summary: The anime consists out of a number of arcs. In each arc, certain characters will live the same time-line, but their actions and focus is totally different. The first season featured the first six arc, now the second season will feature the last three arcs, including one that is completely original, and serves as a bridge between the first and second season.
Thoughts: Even though the first season may have had its bumps, its good parts were really good, and I adored its huge degree of mystery. I’m so glad that the second season is finally getting near.
Mononoke
Summary: “The spin-off of Bake Neko, the third part of Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror”
Thoughts: Bake Neko already was pure awesomeness, and now we get it in 12-episode format. I seriously can’t WAIT for it to air!]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 09
When the word “ghost” was first mentioned, I didn’t think that this anime would come up with a good and original one. After all, it’s an often-used plot device in children’s anime, and there aren’t many ways you can go. But my worries were for naught. That silhouette of Elizabeth was just pure brilliance.
It’s very strange to see Elizabeth all friendly, by the way. She actually smiled, and never even got angry at Emily, something she would have done if it were the past. At the start of the episode, I believed that because of this, Emily’s development would be quite complete now, now that the main conflict between her and Elizabeth is gone. And yet, this episode was again focused on her character, when she, Ilse and Perry go and explore an abandoned summer-house right next to the main house of the New Moon, and Emily’s fear of ghosts gets introduced.
Still, we got one piece of new information about Ilse: her father never talks about her mother. He actually seemed like a nice guy, though it seems that Ilse too lost one of her parents. Why would her father not talk about this? There is also this shadow of Teddy, who didn’t come to check out the summer-house. We never actually see this, but he probably got in trouble with his mother again.
Kaze no Shoujo just continues to surprise me with some wonderful episodes. Even though this episode wasn’t as emotional as the previous one, it remained really heart-warming. This is one of these series that really has no boring moment, when compared to most other series, which do have their silent moments when they build up. Kaze no Shoujo, however, is just one huge chunk of atmosphere, which is really one of its major strengths.]]>
Toward the Terra – 09
The climax of the Shiroe-arc! And boy, is it a great one. The OP is actually very misleading, as with this episode, two characters who I thought would be major side-characters were already written out of the show.
There’s actually nothing much to say about this episode. It was incredibly emotional, especially the last part, and it worked out really well. Shiroe meets a tragic end, I first believed that Mother Eliza would let him go, though Keith is actually ordered to shoot him down. This again shows how much of a robot Keith is, when he kills the guy, just because Mother Eliza tells him to. What kind of influence does she have on him? We also see her claim that she’ll be Keith’s past and memories, if he desires them.
There’s definitely much hope for this series if all of its climaxes continue to be of this quality. In the next episode, we should probably see Jomie back for real, while Keith will probably go to the location where Shiroe told him the answer to his past lies.]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 04
Episode four continues to introduce new things, most importantly a few new side-characters and Dennou-style warfare. The newly introduced characters are basically classmates of Yasako and Fumie. We’ve got the henchmen of Daichi, who consist out of a few geeks and one wimpy boy who follows them everywhere, but basically is too scared to do anything. There’s also this girl that lunches along with the two of Yasako and Fumie.
We also get our first clues on Yasako’s past as well. She tries to befriend Isako, but the latter declines. When Yasako keeps asking, Isako reveals that she knows that caused some kind of trouble in her old school. What she actually caused is either never said, or I didn’t pick this up. But the fact remains that this can become very interesting for the future. I could have sworn that Yasako also said that she likes to be friends with everyone, perhaps she acts like this because of her past experience. She also seemed troubled when “Michiko-san” was mentioned.
Most of the episode focuses on Daiichi&co trying to attack Isako, Isako getting back at them, and Fumie taking advantage of the situation to launch a surprise attack on Isako. The boys use another new kind of weapon to attack: teleportation holes, by lack of better names. The shoot cyber-bullets in them and these teleportation holes then shoot these bullets to wherever they’re pointing at. In this case: Isako. The latter, though, proves to be way too skilled for Daichi to handle.
By the way, you have to love the visuals. Certain scenes in particular looked really beautiful, despite the simple character-designs. While Daichi and his friends tried to attack Isako, Fumie meanwhile hasn’t been standing still herself, and once the former have been knocked out, it’s Fumie’s turn to take action, and she actually provides a challenge to Isako, collecting a small piece of information. I’m not sure what kind of information that was, but neither has Fumie, since Fumie, since it turned out unreadable.
Yasako, however, notices one word which rather startles her: Michiko. Who is Michiko-san, and could she be related to the boy that called out Yasako, a few episodes ago? She’s in an interesting position in this anime, by the way. I mean, she’s surrounded by people who are extremely good with the cyber-world, and compared to them, she knows nearly nothing about this, yet she is the main character. Will she get some special role in the future?
This episode also showed how dangerous the virtual world can actually be. It seems that if you overload the glasses, you get hurt yourself as well. Is this some kind of weak point in the whole cyber-world? It’s kind-of freaky that these “toys” can actually become dangerous when used in the wrong hands.
Ah well, this episode was mostly meant to show some stunning visuals and flesh out the characters a bit. It’ll be interesting to see how the characters will react to each other after this episode, and there’s also this matter of why Isako came to the school in the first place. Is the case just as simple as “parent moved”, or is there something in the school she’s looking for?]]>
Rumiko Takahashi's Rumic Theater Review – 89/100
Before I start with the usual review, I first have to say that this is the 100th review I’ve written for my site!
Okay, I’m finally back with my reviews of the interesting-looking 12/13-episode series. For the past few months, I’ve either been too busy, the series I downloaded turned out to suck (Gun Frontier), or the bittorrent files got stuck in the middle due to lack of seeders. Bittorent really isn’t the best way to get your hands on the rare series out there. Luckily, after a bit of searching, I found out that Vision-Anime still had this series on IRC-bots. Anyway, onto the review.
Rumiko Takahashi is a great writer, in my opinion. She just has one huge bad point: she doesn’t know when to stop. The first season of Ranma 1/2 was just classic, though I quickly lost interest with the second season, and to think that the entire series was seven seasons long! Inu Yasha also spawns lots of people bashing it, though based on the things I’ve heard, it would have been a great 26-episode series, and I can imagine something similar being the case with Urusai Yatsura. So what about her short stories? Well, they rock. 🙂
Mermaid Forest already showed this once, but the stories in Rumic Theater also were really entertaining. While not as good as Mermaid Forest, it’s a real recommendation to any slice-of-life fan.
Rumic Theater really fits perfectly along with three other series I’ve seen recently: Human Crossing, Seraphim Call and Sentimental Journey. If you liked any of these four, you’ll like the other three as well. Yet again we have a random story about a random person for every episode, unrelated to each other apart from a few references here and there. While Sentimental Journey showed how twelve girls deal with their past crushes, Human Crossing shows the problems and the worries of various adults and Seraphim Call centres around eleven rather unique girls in a futuristic setting, Rumic Theater features thirteen ordinary people or families, with extraordinary things happening to them.
These people really couldn’t be more normal, they actually could be your neighbour if you lived in Japan. If you’d ever like to see how normal families live, and what their problems are, Rumic Theatre is the perfect show for this, as it really takes a step away from all the usual stereotypes you see in anime that deal with modern Japan. The extraordinary things can be anything. Some of these events can happen to anyone, like being invited to a school reunion, after 25 years of absence. Others deal with supernatural elements, like a salaryman who keeps getting bothered by the ghost of his deceased wife, while some of them could happen in real life, but are just really improbable, like a housewife, having to take care of a penguin.
Enough blabbering about the contents. How does it deliver? Well, to be honest, Rumic Theatre has the best entertainment value out of all four series mentioned above. For starters it doesn’t really have any clear bad points, unlike Human Crossing, which had the nasty tendency to end its episodes forced and unnatural, or Seraphim Call, which was really inconsistent and a bit too unpredictable, or Sentimental Journey, which had a few boring cases.
And Rumic Theatre still manages to come up with thirteen individual, well developed and varied cases. Two or three episodes were really sad ones, while others really cracked me up at times, others were heart-warming and plain sweet, and all of them had some kind of hidden message. Each of the episodes, the better and lesser ones, were some great character studies, accompanied by a nice atmosphere.
Another interesting thing was that actually quite a few cases centre on a misunderstanding. While this was sort-of annoying in Sentimental Journey, they didn’t really mind me with Rumic Theatre, and some of these cases actually were brilliant, even though you knew beforehand that the main character’s view was completely wrong. Out of the four series mentioned above, it really felt the most natural, the stories fit the episode-format perfectly, and rarely was there a rushed episode.
In terms of graphics something needs to be said, though. Don’t expect any beautiful girls with bright hair and crisp and detailed character-designs. The character-designs are done in a typical Rumiko Takahashi-style, but they do look rather outdated. They by no means look bad, though if you need detailed and mainstream character-designs in your anime, you probably will get annoyed with Rumic Theater.
Overall, even though I’ve seen four series with almost the same premise, I still can’t get enough of them. If you want thought-provoking cases, then go and check out Sentimental Journey. If you want a thick atmosphere, go for Human Crossing. For lots of creativity Sentimental Journey is best, and if you want a bit of everything and a good dose of humour here and there, Rumic Theatre is the best. A few highlights were:
Sentimental Journey: Episode 6 and 10
Human Crossing: Episode 4 and 13
Seraphim Call: Episode 2 and 7
Rumic Theatre: Episode 6 and 12
Each of them are well worth watching. ^_^]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 48
This episode was definitely more fast-paced than the previous ones. Lots of things happened, and I really loved it. It basically consisted out of two parts: one focused on Eigetsu and one on Shuurei.
It’s quite surprising, I expected Shuurei to take a long time to get back to the Sa-province, but due to the fact that everyone is racing to reach the Sa-province as fast as possible, they move considerable faster than they did before, when they had to watch out not to get caught. What also surprised me was Seiran: he actually stayed in the capital. Instead, he sent Ensei his sword, and that’s all we hear of him during this episode.
The best part of the Shuure-part was when people started to refuse to let Shuurei pass because of the rumours that she might be the cause of the disease. The bad part is that Shuurei is actually starting to believe this. After all, if Li Senya really is THAT Li Senya, he’d indeed be causing trouble because of her, which means that she indirectly is the cause of so many people dying.
The best part of the episode, though, definitely was the Eigetsu-part. To start, some more parts of his past get revealed: the parts that tie everything together. Yougetsu turns out to be a spirit, who saved Eigetsu when Doushu found him, killed by his own parents. This makes me wonder: is Yougetsu one of the sages who helped the first king? Anyway, Yougetsu’s condition for saving him was that he could only remain alive for twenty more years. When Yougetsu saved Doushu, these years probably not only got divided, but also considerably reduced. Otherwise Eigetsu would have lived till his sixteenth, while he’s around twelve years old right now.
The reason Yougetsu saved Doushu probably also was because of the way Doushu treated him when he appeared. He never even once got angry or surprised with him.
Anyway, in the present time, a lot of things also happen: most notably Eigetsu being kidnapped and tortured (O_o) by a Doushu-lookalike. If I had to guess, then he’s on Riou’s side. As for the reason? Yougetsu? Do they want him? In any case, I definitely do NOT want to miss the next episode, as something tells me that something incredible is going to happen.
Meanwhile, elsewhere Kourin is coming after Eigetsu (another reason why the next episode is promising to be really good), Ryuuren realizes that Eigetsu is in danger (ditto), and we see the introduction of two new side-characters: Shuuran and Riou. Their family was struck by the disease. Shuuran finds her support in Riou, while Riou thinks he abandoned them. Even though it was the first episode I saw them, the discussion the two of them had was already quite touching, and I already like them A LOT. Shuuran already shows that she is really strong.
…
And why the HECK did Riou have the same name as the other Riou!?!]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 09
A Shuga-episode. After episode seven, I thought he’d immediately conclude that Chaggumu is still alive, but in the end, it wasn’t that simple. Chaggumu meanwhile makes a few friends. After an absence of an episode, Shuga returns. We first see him talk with Chaggumu’s mother. She believes that Chaggumu is still alive at that point. Call it a mother’s intuition. A bunch of children meanwhile comes to visit the house Chaggumu and Barsa are staying in, thinking the old guy still lives in it. Chaggumu of course doesn’t know what to say to them, and remains silent. Barsa then arrives and let them in.
People are meanwhile very busy finding out why the drought is still being predicted. Shuga gets rather angry at them, as they seem to act like Chaggumu never had anything to do with it. It does make sense, though. I originally believed that they’d question the reports of Chaggumu’s death, but instead the machine who did the prediction is re-investigated. Because of this, people have forgotten all about Chaggumu. Then why did he have to be sacrificed in the first place for all this?
He then sees Gakai with some servants search his room, and take away his research, or something similar. They intend to deliver it to Saggumu, who requested it, though somehow Shuga doesn’t approve to this. He then forcibly tries to take it back, but fails, knocking over Gakai in the process.
Saggumu then calls him for a visit. He then tells him about how Chaggumu used to love animals, and we saw a flashback of the two of them while they were younger. Chaggumu accidentally knocked a rare bird out of the sky with a rock, and then he begged his brother to somehow save it. If I’m not mistaken, then that same bird resides now in Saggumu’s office. He then returns the papers with Shuga’s research. If I had to guess, then he did this because they’d otherwise be destroyed because of Chaggumu’s death. Shuga, however, refuses to accept them, saying that he doesn’t need them anymore. I’m not sure what was up with that, though.
Chaggumu, meanwhile gets forced by Barsa to make a few friends. Clearly, the two of them really have it easy now, and they’re able to relax a bit. I really wonder how long this will last.
The final part of the episode focuses on Shuga, who probably abandoned looking after the prediction-machine and went out to the country in order to find the true cause of the drought. Eventually, he runs into Tanda, collecting food for probably the night’s dinner. They talk a bit, and eventually Tanda shows him the egg of a praying mantis. I’m not sure how that could lead to him thinking that Chaggumu is still alive, but it does. We’ll have to wait till the next episode till we find out what he does with this.
It’s good to see that this anime has been doing a lot of building up, but I hope that the second half will be a bit more exciting. The past few episodes have been interesting, but the sense of conflict has just disappeared. If I had to guess, then Shuga will continue to investigate on Chaggumu and then he’ll find out that he’s still alive. Starting from that point, Seirei no Moribito could get very interesting. But until then, I’m going to enjoy the quiet moods of the episodes.]]>
Death Note – 33
I love how this episode had lots of different focuses, instead of just spending all of its twenty minutes on Near. I’m really glad to see that despite its bugs in the middle, the ending is shaping up to be something really good. This episode also introduced lots of questions, which actually can all be resolved in the final four episodes.
Near, while silent in the previous episode, finds out quite a few things in the current one: all of Light’s plans, up to the end of the previous episode. Now all that’s left is for him to catch the him, though Light isn’t sitting still either, as Near was arrogant enough to inform Kira that he knows all about him. Light’s plan was to turn Mikami in yet another decoy. He would walk around with a fake Death Note, while Takada cleans the world of criminals with five pages of the Death Note she received. At the end of the episode, we get a small demonstration of how well this works, when Mikami seemingly kills someone in front one of Near’s henchmen, while he in fact made a phone call to Takada, who really killed him. But then again, it probably won’t take long for Near to figure out about this as well. What’s going to be your next step, Light?
Near also showed something very interesting this episode, apart from his doll fetish: he thinks that L would never use murder in order to solve his cases. He never knew that L was actually about to use human lives as a guinea-pigs for his investigations. Heck, he never knew that L’s very first move on Kira was made possible by the sacrifice of Lind L Taylor.
Another surprising focus of this episode was Misa. I believed that she was just written out of the show when she lost her memories, but she’s actually still important to the plot. I’m not sure how, but her little date with Takada must mean that something is going to happen to her in the future. I was quite surprised by all the things Misa said while drunk, and on second watch I realized this too was all a plan by Light. I first thought that this was meant for Takada to give Misa her memories back, but it was actually to confuse Near, since Takada had one of her bodyguards, whom she knew was one of Near’s henchmen standing right next to her. The question remains: why was this necessary?
Another question: what has Mello been up to?]]>