Short Synopsis: The English launch their attack once more, Akizuki also makes his move. At least, that’s their plan. 😉
Good: Amazing plot twists, awesome climax. 😀
Bad: As usual, Shouten-sama provides some nice background information, but again, I didn’t quite catch that.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Boy, that was awesome. There definitely were some twists in this that shouldn’t be missed at all, both for the English and for Akizuki. I really wonder what this anime has in store for us for its final episodes. In the first part of the episode, the Lord’s Head shows what kind of power it has towards others when the English try to take him out. Rook tries to kill him, but Enomoto just reflects his attacks, and starts playing with his mind. This makes you suspect that only people like Akizuki can really get rid of the Lord’s Head. The English retreat for now, as things aren’t looking good.
We then see a small aftermath, in which Akizuki agrees to let Kakunojou accompany him, and Rook starts to notice the effects of his encounter with Enomoto, as he keeps getting more and more doubts. The rest of the episode focuses on the English’s second attack, though both parties decided to handle things a bit bigger than with the first one. With the English, Kanna also participates in the attack, and they arrive in their own warship. Enomoto, meanwhile, called all his men to deck, while Soutetsu returned to the ship with Hijikata. Akizuki, meanwhile, also heads towards Enomoto, accompanied by Kakunojou.
And this is where the goodness begins. First of all, Rook dies! This can do some great things for the rest of his team, especially his sister. He has been so confused by Enomoto that he just rushed in, even though he knew that Enomoto could do the same to him again. This indeed happened, and he got stabbed by Enomoto’s henchmen. With this, the Englishmen have definitely turned interesting, as right now, their mission has started to get personal. I can imagine that at least some of them will want to take revenge of what happened to Rook.
The English and Kanna then decide to retreat. Akizuki, meanwhile, has had enough time to sneak up on Enomoto, starting the second part of the climax of the episode. Akizuki’s about to strike, though before he gets the chance, Kakunojou once again gets possessed by her sword. This time, Enomoto makes her cut Akizuki in the leg! Both of them were really great to see after that. ^^
The reasons for Kakunojou’s behaviour also were explained this episode, though as mentioned above, they were a bit vague to me. It has something to do with some kind of fog, though that’s all I could understand of it.]]>
Cat Soup
Cat Soup is most definitely one of the strangest movies I’ve seen in a long while. Heck, if you thought that Mind Game and Dead Leaves were absurd, just wait till you see this one. At least these two had some kind of sensible story. In Cat Soup, however, the thread that keeps everything together only appears when the movie is nearly finished.
Really, this movie jumps from one strange setting to the other. It’s about a little cat and his big sister, who’s sick, and they travel for some kind of strange reason. They end up in places like a huge circus, during their journey, Father Time messes up, which makes the time stand still, and think of more of these kinds of adventures. I might warn you that some of these cases are very disturbing. More often than not do people get cut into pieces, boiled inside a huge steel pot, and more of these rather gross events.
The thing I really liked about this anime is its huge amount of symbolism. A lot of cruel things happen, and I could be wrong in this, but they all seemed to try and bring some kind of message. I’m not yet sure what message, though. I’d say that it comes closest to people, and how they cling to their lives.
Overall, if you’re into absurd movies, you should give Cat Soup a try. I didn’t give this one a rating, as there is NO friggin WAY to give a good indication of how good or how bad this movie is. It’s different for everyone, and even I’m still not sure what to think of it. When compared to other absurd movies like Mind Game and Dead Leaves, though, it has one major disadvantage: it doesn’t drag. The entire movie manages to stay interesting.]]>
Afro Samurai Review – 47/100
Afro Samurai is the perfect example of why you should never let an American company handle an anime. I should have known when I started to watch this. They’ll start to see this as some kind of Hollywood Action-movie, instead of an engrossing tale about likable characters. This anime makes the same mistakes as your typical big-budgeted Hollywood action movie: it thinks that action and pretty graphics instantly make it good. Obviously, just that won’t get you far.
Okay, as a defence, this anime does give our main character a bit of a history and background. It’s just too bad that not too soon, these start to delve into the absurd when the other villains of this show start to use this background, turning something that could have been interesting into a one-sided boring piece of garbage. Any attempts to draw sympathy out of the viewer fails, seeing that the creators seemed to thing that the more horrible your childhood was, the more you can sympathise with your character. Fleshed-out characters don’t even come to their minds for a second.
The second episode could be considered the best of the show. Why? Because an actual human gets placed in the role of antagonist. Apart from that, all Afro Samurai has to face are androids, robots and people who manage to heal themselves without any proper reason. All of this, only to make sure that these opponents don’t just die after one hit from a sword, and keep fighting Afro-samurai, who seems to have a limitless amount of stamina. The creators really couldn’t find an interesting antagonist at all, and instead of that, they keep resurrecting old characters who have already died once, just because they ran out of creativity.
The premise, if you can speak of that, revolves around two headbands. A number one and number two-headband. The one who possesses the number one can live as a god. The number two is the only one who can challenge the number one. Afro Samurai is the son of a former number one, who got killed. Because of this, he wants revenge. It’s a good premise, if the focus is put in the right place. Unfortunately, it’s an American company we’re dealing with here. The only two words of that premise that really return in the anime are “challenge” and “revenge”. We never see how the number-one lives. For as far as we know, he just keeps sitting on his lazy ass doing nothing. He also seems to be the only one who gets the god-like powers, strangely enough.
Oh, and yes, Samuel L. Jackson does the voice of the main character in this OVA, but really, don’t expect too much of it. All he does is moan and groan a bit. If this guy really is one of the best actors America has to offer, then I’m glad I don’t live there. This definitely is a good example of a good premise, ruined by Hollywood-influence. I fell in love with anime not just because of the pretty graphics. The things that also drew me to it is the focus, the stories, characters and themes. All of these, I fail to see in Afro Samurai.]]>
Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 31
Short Synopsis: Akazukin needs a bit of time after last episode’s revelation.
Good: Near-perfect closure of the Jedo-arc; The more I think about it, the better it gets.
Bad: After this, I DEMAND a Randagio-episode.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Whoa… he’s gone now. Jedo-sama really is gone now. With this, the episode closed up the storyline between Akazukin, Baru and Jedo-sama. Jedo-sama’s death was another one of those deaths which made a great impact on me. Not at the moment he died, that actually was pretty standard, though I’m only beginning to miss him now that I’m typing this. That’s definitely a sign of a good anime. The final touches are also put to Akazukin’s and Baru’s past, Jedo-sama’s reasons are explained. It’s a great way to close a chapter in this story.
Now then, this means that there are still eight episodes left. Eight episodes left to free Shirayuki’s country, to find out what happened to Souta’s mother, to find the role of Souta’s father, to free Fernando, to see Gretel retaliate to her brother, and to defeat Cendrion. She’s taken a small step back during the past two episodes, so that the show could focus on Jedo. Now that he’s gone, she’ll be coming in action again.
And yes, I am SO rooting for a Randagio-episode. I refuse to believe that this little cat doesn’t have any background at all. I also refused to believe that the city musicians of Bremen won’t appear anymore. Turude also could use a bit more background. Do you suppose she’s going to get it?]]>
Soukou no Strain – 12
Short Synopsis: Second-final episode! Ralph launches his attack!
Good: Awesome episode. The confrontation between Sara and Ralph was well worth the build-up.
Bad: Physically, things didn’t make any sense, but who cares!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10
This is it. The second-last episode. It’s here where anime have to stop joking around, and deliver the things they’ve been building up to, since the final episode rarely is the best episode of the series. In Souko no Strain’s case, this turned out awesome! This definitely is the proof that we’re dealing with a solid series here, which knows what it’s doing throughout the series.
This episode definitely was a roller-coaster ride from start to finish. I feared that Ralph wouldn’t manage to spark my sympathy, but these worries weren’t necessary. He definitely was so much fun to watch when he realized that Emily abandoned him because she saw him kill someone. Still, I’m wondering something. I originally thought that Ralph attacked the ship in the third episode because he wanted the second Emily, but now it seems that her existance was a complete surprise to her. If that’s the case, then why did he attack the ship in the first place?
Another character died as well, the purple-haired woman (I still don’t know her name). Even though she started out as a character who lacked development and fleshing out, I do have to say that her death made some impact. Especially how it got torn to pieces, even though she stopped being any harm to any character. It’s a cruel world we live in. Oh, wait, that saying doesn’t work in this setting…
Also, now that the final episode is only one week away, it’s time to ask the usual question again: how will this one end. Looking at the nature of this show, there’ll probably be a few more deaths. Ralph will die in any case, but who’ll go with him and who’ll stay alive? This episode ended with Ralph and Sara about to face each other in their Strains, which means that we’ll first have a mecha battle between the two of them, which is followed by some kind of twist. Also, don’t forget that Lotti, Lavinia and the others still have a part to play in this.
(Small note: whoa, I actually managed to beat Random Curiosity for this entry in terms of post-time. That’s something I never expected. ^^;)]]>
Death Note – 17
Short Synopsis: After day fifty (!) of confinement, Light and Misa finally get released.
Good: Misa looked beautiful when she was in the car.
Bad: Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Dammit, just when I thought that this anime was so good with surprises it comes with this episode. Why did it have to be so mysterious when it was obvious that Light’s father was acting all along? It would have been way better off focusing on Light’s and Misa’s reaction to this, the people who didn’t know anything. Speaking of the two of them, they acted awfully normal for people who had been locked up for fifty days. Especially Misa. You’d think she’d go at least a bit crazy, but she’s immediately back to her normal self when her blindfolds are taken off. I really would have liked to see how the confinement changed them, but the only changes that came from them were because of the effects of their resignments of the Death Notes.
Still, this episode showed something very interesting regarding the Death Notes. The only thing that the resignation of the Death Note did for Light was lose his memory of everything related to the Death Note, and anything what would make him remember it, but nothing more. That’s why he forgot how he wanted to manipulate Misa, because of her power, but he didn’t forget Misa herself. (On a side-note: what would happen if L showed Light the “L, do you know Shinigami love apples?”-note to him once more). Still, based on this, you’d think his personality would remain the same. Rather bored with society, wanting to do something, not really caring for anything. But interestingly enough, he suddenly turned into a goody two-shoe. This shows how a Death Note is able to influence people. I’m suspecting that Light actually had the same personality before he found the Death Note, though he had lots of doubts about his life-style. When the Death Note arrived, and he saw what he could do with it, his true self suddenly started opening up.
And also about L’s building. What the heck? Why does he need such a high building in order to search for Kira? Why is he willing to spend so much money on the search for Kira, why does he say that he’s determined to catch the real Kira, when he also releases the number one suspect of Kira from confinement? I mean, he could have just left him there for a couple of more months, to see what happens, while continuing the investigation on Kira by himself. If I had to guess, it was to get the police officer’s trust on the case back. I can imagine that the team must’ve been falling apart for the weeks in which he did nothing but observe Misa and Kira. That’s probably why he let them go, but still ordered their 24/7 supervision.
It’ll also be interesting to see how Light will get his Death Note back. I mean, I just know he left some hints behind while he still had his memory, but it’ll be pretty tricky to do this when he’s continuously tied to L.
Also, seeing as this episode marks the end of the Misa-arc, a new arc is about to start. It’s probably going to be the Yotsuba-group-arc. This episode already left a little teaser. A really vague teaser, actually. We seem to be dealing with a powerful company, which is run by eight people. Takahashi Ei’ichi, Higuchi Kyousuke, Ooi Takeshi, Namikawa Reiji, Kida Masahiko, Midou Shingo, Hatori Arayoshi and Shimura Suguru. Apparently, Kira’s murders were incredibly benificial for them, so they conclude that Kira’s one of them. They make lots of theories, but most of them miss the mark.
It’s interesting to compare the Misa-arc to the Naomi-arc. Both had their good and their bad points. During the Misa-Arc, Light really had some great moments, after finding out that there’s a second Kira, for example, and of course his involvement in the great plot twists in the episodes 14 to 16. During the Naomi-arc, I feel that Light’s planning talents were better executed. Not to say that he got dumb in the Misa-arc, but his strategies in this arc just didn’t match up to the great plans he had in order to track and kill Ray Penbar, and not to mention to fix the holes in these plans. The Naomi-arc also had an amazing ending, while the Misa-arc ended rather dull, like we saw in this episode. I also liked how the Naomi-arc was nice and down to earth, in opposition to the huge events in the Misa-arc. That did make sure of some amazing plot twists, though. It’s interesting to note that both arcs were troubled by some moments of convenient timing.]]>
Dropping some more series
Jigoku Shoujo – 41
Short Synopsis: A girl and her father work for a guy who’s running for the national president. This episode proves that politicians don’t always go fair and square.
Good: Kikuri… I guess.
Bad: Just doesn’t live up to the previous episodes, who already weren’t up to par to their predecessors.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10
Yeah, that’s what you get with Jigoku Shoujo. Some episodes are totally amazing, while others are just standard, used to create a pattern. Still, now we’re this far into the series, standard episodes like this one aren’t as good as they used to be. Right now, the creators have to really do their best to impress me, which didn’t work for this episode. Still, I’m glad that they’ve decided to show their lesser ideas right now, so that they can save the best episodes for last.
Kikuri was surprisingly good, by the way. I’m referring to the scene in which she dressed up as a nurse. Normally, her jokes have been rather “innocent”, apart perhaps from when she interfered to send someone to hell, though I don’t think that was a joke of her. Though seeing that she mocks even the doctors and sick people was quite a surprise. Doesn’t she have any boundaries?]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 30
Short Synopsis: Finally, Koren is reached. That just leaves the problem of a certain member of the Sa-clan and the hairpin he took.
Good: Lots of diplomacy and preparations by lots of different characters.
Bad: Not many exciting things happened this episode.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Lots of things happen this episode, though all they did was build up for future episodes. It’s absolutely necessary for episodes like this one to be shown, though as standalone episodes, they could have been more exciting. A quick rundown:
– Shunki starts moving to Koren, probably because she senses that Kokujun is in danger.
– Kokujun reaches his father and gets arrested.
– Kokujun’s father also seems to be arrested because he retaliated towards his father.
– The bald eagles of the brown province are actually the sons of one of the members of the Wolves of the Wind, Hokuto. He died now, though.
– When Shunki and her two companions travel, they run into Ryuuren who gives them the seal of the Ran-clan.
– Shuurei meanwhile manages to enter Koren due to some quick action from Seiran and Ensei.
– They temporarily move to Shou’s sister’s house while they try to find a way to get the flower bud back.
– In the house, they receive two messages.
– Through the first message, Shuurei requests the help of the local armies in the Sa-province.
– The second message comes from the idiot. He invites him to the ceremony in which he gets appointed to the head of the Sa-clan. One day before the deadline of the governors.
– We finally meet someone who’s oblivious to Shou Taishi’s influence: Eiki. What role will she have in the following episodes?
– Seiran, meanwhile, ordered a rather strong poison from Shou. If I had to guess, he plans to poison Sakujun with it.
I’m wondering what happened to Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Shuuei. There isn’t a trace left of them in this episode. Where have they settled, so that nobody would notice them?]]>
Ghost Hunt – 15
Short Synopsis: Not only are there lots of spirits in the school, they also devour each other. Creepy.
Good: Great tension! New ED! Lots of potential!
Bad: Why doesn’t Mai tell anyone about how Sakauchi was fond of ghosts and occult?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Now that’s more like it! The pacing is much higher than in the third arc, which makes for some very nice scenes. In contrast with the fourth arc, which was comedic and the fifth arc, which was more touching, we’re really back to the usual arcs with Ghost Hunt, as they continue to develop Mai’s strange ability. You’d wonder why Naru-chan hired her. Because she looked cute, or because he knew that she had special powers.
Regarding the bad points, it’s very strange that she doesn’t tell Naru, as the fact that Sakauchi was a huge fan of ghost stories and stuff is actually the key to the events which happened. We see Naru-chan wonder how so many spirits managed to gather from just amateurs. It’s because Takeuchi wasn’t an amateur. He probably had some experience in calling spirits, and he used Kokkuri-san to strengthen the effects of his summons. He probably wanted to call a really nasty spirit for the teachers to cope with, but something went wrong and he ended up committing suicide. After that happened, he went to the spirit world, and saw the spirits he called forth. Because of this, he just couldn’t resist to stay at the school, and wait to see what happens. Then the biggest spirit came, which had been devouring the other ones, and it ate him just like a midnight snack.
The ending of the episode was pretty nice, but there’s something I noticed. It’s always the same people who end up fainting. Masako holds the number 1-title. Mai also knows how to collapse quite well, and Naru-chan also went down a few times. Bou-san, John, Lin, and Matsuzaki, however, have never had this.]]>