Star Crossed Anime

Ghost Hunt – 06 – So Naru-chan does have powers

December 23, 2006 by psgels, posted in Ghost Hunt

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So far, we’re at episode six. Two three-episode arcs have passed, and with each of these arcs, the best episode was the middle one, while for each, the third one offered a nice conclusion. Still, the second arc has been sooo much better than the first arc. While it doesn’t manage to top the fifth episode, the sixth episode was another great one. 🙂

This episode managed to give me the chills yet again. Even though we know what’s going on, the tension remains. It’s interesting that everyone has suddenly started to call Naru-chan Naru-chan, even though it’s a name made up by Mai. I guess they found that it was such a fitting name, that they kept using it. The strange thing is that Naru-chan doesn’t even seem to mind. ^^;

Ayako also had an interesting role this time. While the other exorcists are very serious when they’re doing their job, when she actually gets to attempt and exorcise an actual ghost, she gets scared. This suggests that she never really got to work against a real ghost, and therefore lacks experience. I’m also wondering what the relationship between Naru-chan and Masako is. I mean, we already knew that Naru-chan had a lot of respect for her, though now we also see that this is vice versa. Did something happen between the two of them that we don’t know yet?

(This was another example as to why I should write about an episode as soon as possible, and not stall it for a few hours. I kindof lost my motivation and original thoughts now)

Red Garden – 10 – Become strong if you don’t want to die

December 23, 2006 by psgels, posted in Red Garden

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So far, Red Garden hasn’t been one of the best shows to air during the fall season. Still, I’m really looking forward to its second half, as something’s telling me that this series has yet to display its trump cards. Seeing Lula get an actual personality also increased my opinion of this show for the better. I really liked how this episode ended as well.

I’m also wondering whether Lise’s memories have really disappeared. After all, she did want to meet Hervé. Even though the guy killed her, she does long back to her boyfriend. And who were the people the police were investigating, by the way? We’ve yet to see them, have we?

Lula indeed has a point. What if they’ll end up fighting on their own, or against multiple enemies? And Emilio, who might he be. He’s supposed to be Kate’s sister’s new boyfriend, but does he have any connections to the main story? Claire meanwhile starts relieving her anger to Ewan, while Rose starts toying with the idea of tracking down her father. It’s interesting, it seems that at one point, he just randomly disappeared. I’m wondering, though. How does she make enough money? Does her family get money from the government?

Red Garden – 09 – The More You Know, The More Dangerous It Gets

December 23, 2006 by psgels, posted in Red Garden

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The major events of this episode followed Claire as she was trying to solve her money-problems, Lula who showed a different side of her to Kate and Lise, actually coming back to life in her new body. Especially the latter two were very nice to see. You’d wonder whether Lula really was telling the truth when she said that she didn’t involve herself emotionally with her work, though the way she talked to Kate really made me doubt this.

It seems that Herve’s father needed Lisa’s body in a desperate attempt to ensure the survival of his kind. That’s why she was kidnapped in the first episode. Still, I don’t get certain parts of this explanation. For some reason, every woman in that family will suffer from the curse which turns them into these monsters. But does that also count for people who have been married to the family? I would assume so. And weren’t there more groups of girls like Rachel, Kate and the others? Why did they need Lise, out of all people?

Still, I’m wondering what’ll happen to Lise in the future. Has she been properly restored to life, or did something go wrong? Claire, meanwhile, seems to have gotten a bit of character development this episode, in which she desperately needed money in order to remain in her apartment. In the end, she asks her brother, whom she hates. I’m also wondering what’ll happen to him in the future. He seemed quite confident, but if his business fails, he might be the one coming to Claire, begging for money.

Meanwhile, we learn that JC doesn’t eat very much, Rachel meets up with one of her teachers and the two have some coffee, and that Rose’s mother is hospitalized, which would explain why she has to take care of her siblings so much. What happened to her father?

Soukou no Strain – 09 – Big Brother

December 23, 2006 by psgels, posted in Soukou no Strain

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Great aftermath. Really great aftermath, though it wasn’t as good as episode eight. But then again, this episode didn’t really feature any new revelations, it was just about the reaction of the different characters after what happened during the previous episode, specifically focusing on Lotti and Sara.

This episode was basically taking all its time to build up to its climax. Lotti has found out that Sara Cruz is actually Sara Werec, brother of the infamous Ralph Werec who killed her brother, and more recently, Carris. This episode showed yet again how similar the two of them are. Both of them had a big-brother complex, both of them had to say goodbye to him, both of them lost him, and both of them decided to take revenge and ended up in the top-tier of their class.

The best moment of the episode definitely came when Sara said that despite her love for her brother, she’d kill him no matter what. Especially when you compare this to Lotti, who knows the pain of experiencing your brother getting killed. I’m suspecting she never saw that anyone would ever kill her own brother.

Taiyou no Mokushiroku/A Spirit of the Sun – 01 – Why isn’t this getting more attention?

December 22, 2006 by psgels, posted in A Spirit of the Sun

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Holy god… it took a long time for this two-episode OVA to get subbed, but it was SO worth it. Why the heck has nobody talked about this yet!? Taiyou no Mokushiroku, or A Spirit of the Sun in English is made of pure win. I’m seriously recommending this to everyone who enjoys a good, serious story.

I first wanted to just include this in my quick first impressions, though this anime deserves to be blogged. It consists out of two episodes, both take up one hour and fifteen minutes. The first episode can roughly be divided into two parts. The first part, which is also the longest, shows what happens to Japan if it were to be hit by a large chain of massive earthquakes. Seriously, that was intense. It offered a great view of how angry mother earth can be when she’s really serious. In about fifty minutes, we see the once thriving Japan being thrown into chaos, with its major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto being entirely destroyed. We follow one young boy, the grandson of one of the ministers of Japan at that time. His home gets destroyed and he ends up with a a guy who’s heading for Tokyo with emergency supplies. Then, after a while, he almost ends up drowned, and disappears. Japan, meanwhile, has split in two, and is basically playing in the hands of both China and the United States.

Though if that part wasn’t good enough, the second part of the first episode shows the aftermath. It shows how the Japanese ended up after this catastrophe, fifteen years after it happened. Though the special thing is, that it doesn’t take place in Japan. For this part, we switch to Taiwan, were our main character ended up. When he nearly drowned, he was picked up by a childless family, who decided to adopt him as Xian, their son. What follows is a fascinating view of the Taiwanese, who had to deal with a huge number of Japanese Refugees who came to their country. Now, fifteen years later, the relations between the Taiwanese and Japanese aren’t too good. The Japanese are extremely xenophobic, while the Taiwanese keep blaming all of their misery on the Japanese. When combined, it doesn’t make for a good combination. Xian and his newly found friend are one of the few exceptions to this. I really love this new friend of his. He’s basically one bulky, muscular guy, though at one point, he actually starts crying when he hears Xian’s story. That was so awesome.

Seriously, if the second OVA is going to be just as good as the first one, this anime is going to be magnificent. Don’t get turned off by the unusual character art, what we have here is an awesome anime about what would happen if a once thriving nation gets thrown into despair by natural disasters, and how it attempts to recover itself afterwards. Seriously, this anime NEEDS more attention than it’s getting right now!

Death Note – 11 – “It’s Not Like Kira”

December 22, 2006 by psgels, posted in Death Note

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And with this, Kira finally is about to face an opponent with another Death Note. Still, I think I’m liking his human opponents more. It’ll be interesting to see how normal humans face against someone equipped with the Death Note. And furthermore, this doesn’t seem like a challenging antagonist as well. Okay, she has the Death Note, she has made the eye-deal, though she’s also incredibly naive, from the things that we saw of her. I’d have loved to see a bit more mystery behind her, though the end of the episode basically blew all secrets about her, after all the time the first part of the episode spent introducing her. Also, if you just look at the OP, you’ll see a rather spoilery scene about what will probably happen between the two Kira’s in the following episodes.

Light had a surprisingly small role in this episode, though I really liked him. He does remain an interesting character, and this episode only proved this even more. He’ll also be put in a rather interesting situation, basically hunting himself and his impersonator. The next couple of episodes can really turn out either incredibly good or incredibly bad. It all depends on whether Misa can still be interesting and provide a few twists.

Also, I’m wondering whether the lyrics in the OP show any meaning. I especially mean the last part, where Light says that he hopes to show a certain “you” a perfect world. Could Light be doing all this for a certain person? Up till now, we don’t really know anything of Light’s friends, or the people he hangs out with, let alone his history. Like I said before, I’d love to see some of Light’s and L’s histories. ^^

Black Heaven Review – 80/100

December 21, 2006 by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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Ah, how refreshing. Finally we have a modern-day series which doesn’t focus on a teenager, or even a person in his or her twenties or thirties. What we have here is a man in his forties in the middle of his mid-life crisis. A nice twist when compared to all the geeky schoolboys and the busty schoolgirls who seem to run after them. Though that’s not all. This is not an ordinary salary-man, he’s an ex-rock-star, longing back to his days of glory. Add in a love-affair, a bunch of quirky side-characters and a number of space-ships, and you’ve got yourself a great concept for an anime.

Yes, you read that last part right. This anime has a rather peculiar premise. Evil aliens are on a mission to conquer the section of outer space in which the earth resides, and the only thing which can stop them is “The Ultimate Weapon”, which can only be triggered by the main character’s “groove” when he’s playing the guitar. For a seven-year-old anime, it really had some fresh ideas. And, of course, seeing a bunch of middle-aged guys in business-suits play in a rockband was just extremely cool to see. Who said that all salarymen were boring? ^^

This anime gets accompanied by a really good combination of comedy, action and drama-scenes. The drama is very heavy at times, though the comedy-parts make sure that the show doesn’t drown in its own mood. This makes sure that you can really feel along with the characters during the climaxes, and get cracked up during the funny parts.

Still, despite these good points there are three major bad points in this anime. The first and most obvious one is the ED. Black Heaven comes with a great soundtrack. Seeing as our main character used to play in a heavy-metal band, the anime goes accompanied by several heavy-metal-songs, each of them lays a huge focus on the electric guitar, making this the perfect soundtrack for this show. The OP also consists of a rocking tune, combined with interesting video-material which makes you wonder whether the guys who did the OP for Sci-Fi Harry had any say in it. But then the ED comes, and somehow, the creators managed to slip a cheesy j-pop song in. God… the horror. Even for j-pop, it was an abomination, which made me rush to the stop-button as soon as every episode finished. Naturally this rather ruined the cliff-hangers.

The second bad point is the romance. Good romances, and especially love-triangles are very hard to do right, and unsurprisingly, Black Heaven isn’t one of these anime which provided a nice twist to this. It starts out good, however, with a rather comical note. See, the case is this. The main character has been married with his wife for a nice couple of years now, when he meets up with his newly transferred busty blonde secretary who actually happens to be one of the commanding aliens on the space-fleet which was assigned to defend earth, and the two fall in love with each other. His relationship with his wife is interesting. His relationship with his “secretary” isn’t. It’s just stale, poorly developed, boring and full of clichés.

The third bad point is a small one, though it did annoy me at times. I’ve watched a fair amount of anime up till now, but never, and I mean NEVER have I ran into one who realizes that there isn’t any SOUND in space.

Overall, this is an anime with its good points and bad points. though I really have to say that the good points majorly overweight the bad points. Especially if you’re a fan of heavy-metal it’s worth to check this out, simply because you’ll get to see how a ex-rockstar spends his life, what he thinks, and how he longs back. Though even if you’re not really into that genre of music, it’s worth to check this out. It’s got a great set of characters, it’s fun to watch, there’s a nice pacing so you won’t get bored and there’s a rather creepy final antagonist.

Soukou no Strain – 08 – Dating Sims.. urgh…

December 21, 2006 by psgels, posted in Soukou no Strain

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Hahaha! Never, EVER did I have such a hate/love relationship as with this episode. This episode really contained some of the most amazing scenes this series has yet to offer. Yet, unfortunately, other parts of the episode made me want to poke my eyes out out of agony.

Let’s start with the bad part, seeing as it covers about the first eighteen minutes of this episode. While the previous episode was just like an ecchi comedy, this part got turned into a dating-sim. Seriously, those who’ve been reading more of my blog know that I really hate this genre, and this was no different. We got to see Carris, making an idiot out of himself while Sara turned deredere more and more with every scene progressing. And, of course, the kiss which got interrupted at the last possible moment by a random phone call couldn’t be missing. There were some interesting parts, fortunately. All of the scenes in which Sara and Carris weren’t present were pretty interesting to see. Especially when Lotti was involved.

But then the last two minutes of the episode arrived. Seriously. In only two minutes, my opinion of this show changed from annoying to decent to good, and at the last thirty seconds to awesome! Seriously, it’s almost like the creators heard wishes to kill off the obnoxiously annoying Carris! Not only is it great to have him gone now, his death caused some great reactions to the people around him. When you combine this with the fact that Sara ran into Ralph again, again unable to kill him and that Lotti saw all of this from a distance and starts yelling at her afterwards, this really was one of the best episode endings I’ve seen in a while.

Another great part in this episode was when Emily actually starts talking back to Sara. It was in my opinion, the major turning point in this episode from bad to good. Seeing someone who has been unable to talk or even move show her feelings was surprisingly touching to see. I’m now really looking forward to the next episode, as it’s promising to be an actual great one. Not only will Sara find out that Carris suffered the same fate as Cedric, but her cover of Sara Cruz has also been blown now that her real identity as Sara Werec has been revealed. And let’s not forget that we won’t be bothered the most annoying character in this show anymore. 🙂

Back

December 21, 2006 by psgels, posted in Special Articles

So, my exams are finally over. Thank goodness they’ll stay away till at least March. All that’s left now is to catch up with all of the series I missed. I’m saving the best ones for my christmas update (aka december 24th), though. And unfortunately, I think I’m going to drop two more shows.

Sorry Kanon, but if episode ten was the best you could afford, I’m gravely disappoined in you. Never once did you manage to touch my heart. If the rest of this series will be filled with even more like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to survive. Please cut out the overblown and forced scenes and show us some action. And no, saying “Au” or “Uguu” doesn’t help either. They’ll never be able to beat ~Goth, Goth, Loli, Loli~ anyway.

And also La Corda d’Oro will be dropped. Dating sims stay one of the worst genres of anime, even though this time, the males and females were switched.

Oh, and on a small note, there will be a chance that I randomly disappear again during either this week or next week. We’re going to move in a few days (as in real life) and me disappearing simply means that I’m having trouble setting my internet connection up right. ^^;

Temporary Hiatus

December 11, 2006 by psgels, posted in Special Articles

The end of the year is coming near, and so are my exams again, unfortunately (next week, to be exact). There are some particularly nasty ones among them, so I’m unfortunately forced to cease my blogging activites for a while, in order to properly prepare for them (seeing as blogging does take up a bit too much time to prevent me from concentrating on them). I may be able to make one or two posts, though don’t expect too much. I’ll be back in about 1,5 weeks.