Ghost Hunt – 05 – OMG!

by psgels, posted in Ghost Hunt

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Whoa… seriously! This is a message to everyone with a younger sister: KEEP ALL DOLLS AWAY FROM HER! BURN THEM!!!

Seriously, I can’t believe how good this episode was. Never have I seen such a high-quality tv-series about ghost stories. There is so much mystery going on around Millie, especially considering that every child who entered the house ended up dying. Judging by the climax, it’s the work of the mother of the first victim. Her child probably died due to a natural reason, and she was broken because of it. She couldn’t live any more without thinking of her died child, and when she died herself, she remained as spirit, killing off all children who entered the house, hoping them to be her long lost child.

Also, this episode finally showed that exorcisms do work. At least, with the Monk and the Priest. I’m still wondering about Ayako, who has to do some interesting jobs in the meantime. ^^; Still, it’s an interesting approach, contrasting with the first arc, in which it became questionable whether their powers really worked or not.

Though seriously, there were so many good moments in this episode, it’d be almost impossible to list them all. I especially loved the professional approach to all of this, contrasting to other ghost stories, in which it’s usually a bunch of kids, chasing after a spirit without any proper plan or structure. This time, everyone has a task, there’s a clear leader, things go much smoother, and because of this, the creators can be more creative with the concept. Not to mention that the different characters get more interesting by the minute. My favourite character so far is the Monk. 🙂

Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 24 – Things Are Not That Simple. ;)

by psgels, posted in Otogi Juushi Akazukin

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Ah, it indeed was too easy. Souta never met up with his mother during this episode. He only met up with a disguised Cendrion, in order to find his weakness. It’s interesting to see that she’s now actually starting to act for herself, and we also learn that she does have the ability to escape the mirror she’s locked up in. That explains how she managed to recruit Hansel and Gretel in the candy house.

The most interesting part of this episode definitely was Akazukin. For some reason, she sympathizes the most with Souta of everyone. For some reason, she can understand the fact of growing up without the presence of a mother, even though she doesn’t like it. When Souta also leaves the group, in order to return to Erde with who he thinks is his mother, we also see her being more serious than she’s ever been. Even when Baru ended up wounded. This suggests that Akazukin lost her parents at early age as well. This series has been keeping the pasts of both Akazukin and Shirayuki rather secret. All we know is that Akazukin grew up together with Hameln and that Shirayuki is from some kind of prestigious family. I’m really looking forward to the episodes in which their pasts get revealed. 🙂

There’s also this matter of Cendrion, somehow knowing what Souta’s mother looks like. This means that she has seen her before, which does suggest that she was the one who kidnapped Souta’s mother in the first place. Well then, there are two possible reasons for her to do this.
– She kidnapped the mother of Erde’s key, years after she’d start to chase after him, in order to make use of his weak point as a really, really well planned move. Not a really plausible theory.
– The second reason assumes that Souta’s father indeed was Maren’s loved one who ran away with Souta’s mother, and it was simply an act of revenge. Still, that doesn’t explain the fact that somehow, 30 years on Erde are equal to 1000 years in Fandavale.

I’m actually secretly hoping for our group to get separated somehow, like this episode suggested. There have been a few moments in this anime, which almost suggested that the group would be split in two, but every time, this was just barely avoided. It may be me, being paranoid, though it does seem like a hit towards the future developments in this anime.

Another thing I’m wondering is how Shirayuki will behave in the future episodes, after what Cendrion told her during this episode. Sure, it wasn’t Souta’s real mother, but I’m sure that these thoughts are still inside of her. After all, she was pretty down afterwards.

I don’t know what it is, but I’m really liking the story for Otogi Juushi Akazukin. 🙂

Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran Review – 78/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

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Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran really felt refreshing when I watched its first episode. I’ve been watching so many serious samurai-anime, full of realism, death, poverty and suffering that it was very nice to actually see a light-hearted samurai-series. This show doesn’t care whether it’s true to history or not, great for a bit of variety.

The overall story is nothing special. All the events tie around two travellers who keep running into each other, and get attached to each other. They’ve got interesting characters, though. Ran is a nice twist to the silent samurai due to her love for sake and Meow (yes, there’s a character named Meow in this show. You’ll understand when you see her) is actually an interesting variation of the annoying impulsive brat. Each episode tells the story of either one of them getting involved with some kind of local problem, and dragging (almost literally) the other along with her into it.

Especially in the beginning, these stories are rather basic, though it’s clear that that’s not the thing the creators decided to focus on. There are two elements this anime relies on: the comedy and the fights, both succeeded very well, in my opinion. Especially the earlier episodes cracked me up when Ran kept annoying Meow, and vice versa. The battles also are surprisingly well done, for a show of this nature. There isn’t much tension, but the choreography has been done brilliantly. These fights really reminded me of Jubei-Chan 2, though less extreme, perhaps.

The weak point, though, lies in the middle part of this anime. The anime consists out of 13 episodes, and with episodes five till eight, the novelty of the concept begins to wear off. Where the first four episodes managed to crack me up lots of times, these only made me chuckle once or twice, and the fact that the stories all look like each other (as in, Meow and Ran arrive, they run into people, they overhear bad guys, Ran slashes bad guys, Meow and Ran leave) begins to get more annoying by the minute. The fact that Ran is almost invincible and wins every fight with ease doesn’t do much good either.

Thankfully, the final five episodes manage to recover from this when Meow runs into a childhood friend. Starting from this point, the stories get more complex, and actually touching. Ran actually gets beaten by a likable enemy, and we see an old friend of her return as well. These five episodes actually managed to make me care about its characters. This series is one of the few comedy-anime which successfully managed to insert drama and serious scenes into its final episodes. Something which definitely deserves credit.

Overall, it’s been a nice watch, even though it was nothing amazing. It’s a good series for a quick watch, and it does belong in the category of successful comedies. I’m also still wondering why other shounen-series won’t look at the fights of this anime for inspiration, instead of continuing with their slow, uninspired fighting scenes.

Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club – 22 – Asatte no Houkou-Influences. ^^;

by psgels, posted in Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club

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I’m really wondering how Nanami Kamimura managed to get hold of the ninth episode so early, as I only managed to see it on Share about two days ago. It’s getting a bit annoying. Ah well, at least the episode was amazing, and that’s what counts. 🙂

It’s divided in two halves, and the moods of these parts are totally polar opposites. During the first half, the major focus lies on Sasami, who runs into Amitabu again. The song which followed afterwards was SO incredibly CUTE. That song works perfectly for this anime. Then the second half came. Boy, that was dramatic.

I never thought Misao would change even further, but now it seems that she actually grew into an adult-form, after merging with the Amitabu who’s been tied up. Those were some great scenes. It really seems that the climax is about to come, though there still are four episodes left. That means that there’ll probably be a few twists left.

Misao did look quite scary during this episode. That’s probably due to the great use of graphics, especially in this episode. The scene in which the butterflies appeared was quite magnificently done, even though it almost crashed my pc. ^^; This definitely was one of the more touching episodes of this anime. 🙂

Night Head Genesis – 19 – A Pool Full of Drowned Schoolgirls. Nice, isn’t it?

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis

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Night Head Genesis is getting more and more interesting now, now that its end is nearing. After the events of the previous episode, all dedicated to the main storyline, this episode continues with a side-plot. Still, that does not mean that this wasn’t a great episode, even though it started a bit awkwardly with an extra-long summary of the previous episode, and a perverted teacher who has visions of his students, doing naughty things with him.

Still, the rest of the episode develops this case into a really interesting one. It seems that the guy is running away from Ark, and he has been trying to contact Futami, though failed in this. One of his students also has psychic powers, which can be incredibly harmful if Ark got their hands on it. Futami, therefore, contacts Naoya and asks him to protect this girl.

However, that is not the only problem this girl has, as she seems to be in love with the teacher. Either that, or she has been raped, we have yet to see the full details. Because of that, her fellow-students started bullying her rather extremely. There’s so much mystery in this case. First of all, Tsuzuki (the teacher) went mad at the airport, but later, Naoya sees some ghost form of his running down a busy street. At the end of the episode, we also see Sakie (the girl) lie in the school-pool, along with the classmates who bullied her, with Sakie as the only one left living. We also actually see that woman from Ark successfully luring Sakie out, and doing some strange things to her. What, who, when, where, which and why, we’ll have to find out later. I can’t wait. 🙂

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto – 10 – Soutetsu and his Mystery Again. :)

by psgels, posted in Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

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Oh, the irony. The beautiful irony. The troupe stayed together for all these years because of their desire to take revenge. Now that Nakaiya Juubei has been killed, the troupe has no more reason to be together, so they’re threatened to split apart. Then, it seems that Juubei wasn’t dead at all, and the troupe just happily picks off where it left. This means that as long as Juubei is alive, the troupe will be together. They’re actually dependant on his existence. Brilliant!

Okay, it had it indeed coming that Juubei still lived somewhere. After all, he did it before, why couldn’t he do it again, no? But the way the creators brought this couldn’t have been better. Soutetsu actually sends them a message about this with the help of Oryou in the form of a new script of a play. In there stands that Juubei still is alive, and we actually see the troupe find out, before we see him in person again. It’s the opposite of what most anime attempt.

Akizuki, meanwhile, was oblivious to this, as he had his own problems. The scene when Okita died was a surprisingly touching one. Great scene, especially combined with the mysterious black cat which keeps wandering around. The last quarter of this episode was definitely great to see, but I have to say that the first three quarters were rather confusing to watch, due to the extensive use of dialogue.

Still, I did manage to pick up that the army that’s been mentioned a few times, actually came to Yokohama to defend it against another army of westerners. The first three quarters of the episode showed a considerable amount of battles, tactics and aftermaths regarding the attack and defence of the city, though somehow it felt like scenes had been left out. Either that, or we saw some unintroduced flashbacks.

I’m surprised about the lack of interest about this series. When the subs first started, a few posts did spawn, though I’ve lately not seen any posts about this series except for the one I made myself. It’s strange, as you would expect this series to be rather appreciated.

Asatte no Houkou – 10 – Awesomeness

by psgels, posted in Asatte no Houkou


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Just when I thought that this series couldn’t get any better! That was such a lovely episode, fully centred around Tetsu’s and Karada’s relationship. I’ve seen many reactions on the fifth episode by other people, claiming that that they expected Karada to reveal herself to Tetsu, but I’m SO glad she didn’t, as because of this, episode ten turned into a real masterpiece. 🙂

Tetsu actually confessed! In front of Karada, who he thinks is just a girl named Satou. This must have hurt Karada a lot, seeing as she tried to run away desperately, only to find out that Tetsu still keeps searching for her. I also nearly cried after Tetsu collapsed in the rain, got carried to bed and had a small conversation, half awake. That was such an emotional part, I couldn’t help but love it. 🙂

I must praise Asatte no Houkou for being able to deliver an actually good love-relationship. There are so few anime which actually manage to do this. I think that so far, this really is the only one who appeared during the fall-season. Other series with romance elements, like Kanon, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge and others really try to force this relationship onto the viewer (although I do admit that the latter did have some creative moments, like the ping-pong-kissing-scene). Asatte no Houkou really succeeded in making me sympathize with its characters.

As the episode focused on Karada and Tetsu, there wasn’t much of Shoko and Hiro in this episode. They just appeared in one scene, where Shoko packed her bags, and went off, to live on her own. This means that Hiro will be living on his own, if things keep up. I think that he still doesn’t know what to do, after Karada just ran away from him, two episodes ago.

Oh, and Karada was just way too cute in the few flashbacks we saw. ^_^;

Death Note – 10 – “L, do you know love apples? Shinigami”

by psgels, posted in Death Note

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One thing about Light and L irks me a bit. They’re great characters, which match each other perfectly, though I’m beginning to fear that the creators went a bit too far into making them as perfect as possible, aside from a few flaws. I can understand that Light has to be rather smart in order to carry off his plans, but making him end up with perfect scores of one of the most prestigious universities in Japan is going a bit too far. Also, making both Light and L tennis champions does the same thing, and it’s not like these things add anything to the story.

Anyway, apart from that, this episode was as fun as usual. This time, it focuses on L’s attempts to unmask Light. It was interesting to see small flaws in both their deductions and Light’s acting. One thing the tennis game was good for is to symbolize the constant dialogue between Light and L. It’s also interesting to see that Light does care about his father. As the episode progresses, Light keeps making small flaws, which raises L’s suspicion of him. Until his father has a heart attack. Because of this, Light’s acting skills suddenly turn up a level, and L’s suspicions of him actually decrease. This’ll be interesting for later.

The new arc, introduced at the end of the episode, seems pretty interesting, as in I’d love to see Light and L’s reaction to the sudden announcement, made by the fake Kira. Furthermore, who made that tape in the first place? It also seems that another climax is going to arrive in about two or three episodes again, in comparison to the last three episodes, which mainly focused on Light and L’s relationships. I’ll be looking forward to it. 🙂

Red Garden – 08 – A Light Mood

by psgels, posted in Red Garden

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After the events of the previous episode, Hervé takes a step back again and disappears in order to make way for the most light-hearted episode yet. The girls finally have formed a real team. This does make you wonder about this anime will continue. Kate, Rose and Claire will probably get their moments in which their surroundings turn against them, just like the case was with Rachel, a few episodes ago. But will the girls remain friends, or will they turn against each other at a certain point?

The one who surprised me the most this time was Rachel. It’s only been eight episodes, and she’s already had a huge change of personality. More than any other character probably ever managed. It’s really awkward to see the once angsty and rebellious Rachel in a care-free, friendly and cheerful mood. But that makes her character even better to watch. I also loved it when she picked out the high heels, and started commenting on whether they would make nice weapons in front of her friends. I actually laughed along with her as the scene evolved. ^^

I’m also wondering about Paula’s role in this. What exactly are her motives? Why is she so nice towards Kate? I think it’s got to do something with the reason why she picked out Kate in the first place, though something tells me that there’s something deeper behind this. Claire’s secret weapon also was a very nice touch. If you want to relieve your anger on your phone because it’s been cut, why not take a zombified guy along with it in the process? Something’s also telling me that she’ll be having some problems during the next episode, due to the fact that she quit her job, and can’t find any other. I’m interested in how she’ll develop.

Jigoku Shoujo – 32 – A bike, a cell-phone and a bowling-ball

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo

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Hah! The best episode in the second season so far, for the first time in these six episodes, the creators really managed to make me sympathize with this case. They managed to put down an touching case about a rather overweight boy with health problems, which forces him to attend classes in the school hospital. Because of this, his mother acts overprotective, his father yells at him, he gets bullied in the middle of the class, people laugh at him, and because of this, he rather lost his will to live. Then he ran into one girl, who didn’t laugh at him. Ever since, he’s been stalking her.

I liked how at first, the guy appears to be some kind of stalking idiot, who’s been obsessed over a girl for no reason. But as the episode progresses, we get to know him more and more. After a while, it really becomes clear that he doesn’t have any friends, and has given up on socializing with others. Then the arrival of this girl came as a real godsent.

Though the real good part of the episode came when he finds out that the girl is in danger. His only solution is to ask Ai, though she refuses. This means that if he wants to save the girl, he has to act on his own. In the end, he’s too scared, and the girl gets raped. Only the day after, he finds out that because he didn’t interfere, the girl sent the bad guy to hell herself, and he’s finally decides to start acting on his own. Great twist, loved it. Awesome episode.

I also liked the small girl during this episode, even though she mostly served as comic relief by calling Hone Onna and Wanyuudo Grandma and Baldie. It’s good for them to have a bit of comic relief, as it does develop them, in a away.