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.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 05
Short Synopsis: Lots of things grow this episode: Eponine’s hatred towards Cosette, Zephine’s suspicions of Cosette’s mother and Javell’s suspicions of Jean.
Good: This anime really remains consistently good so far. Even though this episode mostly built up, I loved it.
Bad: It’s been one month and still no subs?! What the hell?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I’m actually suspecting that Javell has known Jean’s identity all along. He just needs to get enough evidence for him, as you don’t suddenly arrest the major of a town without any proof for it. It seems that he was the main guard for Valjean, probably also one of the main reasons that got him locked up. Right now, he keeps dropping hints towards Jean, hoping for him to turn himself in, while he collects information about the guy. Jean, meanwhile, shows this episode how his character changed incredibly from his younger version. He’s become really dedicated not to let others follow the same path he did.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the entire factory knows that Fantine (that was her name, right?) has a daughter somewhere. I reckon that she won’t be able to work in the factory anymore, but will that be everything? There’s probably something else about to happen.
Oh, and Eponine was wonderful this time. With this, she really became a person, instead of a 1-dimensional stereotype. Toron(?) may not have been very interesting in the previous episode, he makes sure of some interesting events when he starts ignoring Eponine for Cosette. It’s strange, normally I don’t like love triangles due to them being overused as hell and their predictability, though I’m actually beginning to like this.
This definitely is another one of those anime who doesn’t deserve to get this neglected. I’m hoping for the subs to arrive soon, so that more people can get to see this little gem.]]>
Red Garden – 14
Short Synopsis: Rose’s training pays off; Hervé reveals more things to Kate; Interesting plot twist from Paula; Claire’s car breaks
Good: Hervé was brilliant as usual, I also loved Paula.
Bad: It’s already episode 14, and still no awesome episodes. When will they come?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
A large focus of this episode was training, and increasing your strength. Rose finally starts to become more than just a strange bystander when she too manages to leap into the air, and Kate even manages to master this power. Claire, meanwhile, works out during her job and Rachel also seems to be training, as her muscles have been getting into good shape lately.
While this episode was mostly about Rose, my favourite moments had to do with Kate. First of all, she finds out that Hervé lied to her when she drives past the restaurant he mentioned, which seems to be down for maintenance. Because of this, Hervé is forced to either tell another lie, or tell the truth, with certain parts omitted, of course. He chooses for the second, putting Kate in a very interesting situation. Right now, she still is fine during the fights. But I can’t wait to find out how she’ll react when she finds out that the people she’s been fighting are actually Hervé’s comrades.
And Paula, dammit. Lula has connections to the headmistress of Kate’s high school. The headmistress is Paula’s aunt, who seems to have told Paula about what happened to Kate, and told her to look after her. And suddenly lots of things fall into place. The question then still remains, why only Kate? Is she special because she’s in Grace?]]>
Strange Dawn – 01
Short Synopsis: Two normal schoolgirls find themselves in a strange fantasy world. The twist: they don’t get any new powers to fight with.
Good: Extremely likable characters; A great twist to a concept which has been used in many, many anime.
Bad: Even though it’s not a real bad point, the chibi-characters may be a turn-off for most people.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, I’ve fallen in love with another concept. Now that Ayatsuri Sakon’s novelty is wearing off, and the subs for Popolocrois have been stalled for ages I’ve been looking for another old anime to blog about. I’m really hoping that the subbers continue releasing this project till the end, as I’ve been searching for this series for ages, and it deserves to be watched. That’s another reason I decided to blog this: the hope that more people will try to give this wonderful concept a chance.
The concept behind this anime is simple, but brilliant. Two schoolgirls are transported to another world for reason X. In normal situations, they’d meet up, act a bit bewildered, get in danger, and get ahold of some strange amounts of powers with which they save the world. Not this time, though. They ended up in a world full of small people, who are just as scared of them, as they are scared. Finally, two people are labelled as the “great protectors” for a good reason. After all, if you’d saw two giants in the middle of a war, you’d see them as special, wouldn’t you? ^^
The two main characters are also extremely interesting. One of them is just lazy and easily annoyed. The other is a goodie-two-shoe. She always abides by the rules, tries to please everyone, but in the end, she’s extremely annoying. Together, they form a great team. Eri obviously wants to help, since she doesn’t understand anything, though Yuki has no intention to help. This holds Eri back as well, as she doesn’t want to upset Yuki. When the enemy-soldiers attack in the end, however, and the two princesses of the tribe which took them in are in danger, Eri manages to scare them away by yelling, screaming and running to their place, Yuki follows her in this. I loved how Eri laughed when everything was over. You don’t expect that from a shy and reserved person at all.
Despite the chibi-characters, this is one serious show. It’s got comedy, but that takes a step back for what’s really important in this anime: the tribe’s struggles with their enemies, and the relationship with Eri and Yuki. The fights actually involve strategy, and this isn’t such a kiddie-show in which nobody gets hurt either. In fact, Yuki already got hit by an arrow in the first episode. She managed to use the element of surprise this time to scare the enemy away, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the enemy coming up with strategies to defeat the two of them. It shouldn’t be too hard, as they can be easily defeated if you send enough men at them, and keep hitting them. I wonder what the two of them will do against it.
For more information about this series and its subbers, you can go here (it also offers direct downloads, if you can’t use bittorrent for some reason):
http://z10.invisionfree.com/Church_of_Berserk/index.php?showforum=49
One final note: the background music has a great feel to this. It makes use of highly atmospheric tunes, which fit the style and story perfectly.]]>