Eikyuu Kazoku/Eternal Family Review – 91/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Apart from the amazing Mahou Shoujotai, Studio 4C has produced much more material. The Animatrix, for example. And Eikyuu Kazoku. I just saw it, and it only proves the awesomeness of Studio 4C. This movie just is so incredibly nuts, it actually scares me.

Okay, the concept: take several people, mostly dumped by society, brainwash them and make them think they’re each other’s family. Broadcast their actions on TV, and make money. The members of the family range from a sadistic baby equipped with scissors (and who isn’t afraid to use them) to a daughter who gets obsessive over fire and from a silent girl who uses her puppet to speak for her to a son who likes to play with machine guns. There are also two pets, a chicken and a dog, who only become the victims of the sadistic ideas of each of the family members. They especially don’t like the baby. At the halfmark of the movie, the family actually escapes, and splits up. And even then the fun doesn’t stop.

Eikyuu Kazoku consists out of a large number of small clips, all pasted after each other to form 30 minutes. Because these clips are incredibly small, the pacing in this series is enormous. So many things succeed each other in such a fast pacing. But then again, when there is a quiet moment, you really notice it. That’s one of the few bad parts of this anime.

Another major good part of this anime is that the creators can’t seem to run out of their incredible amount of creativity. So many original elements have been put in this series. The characters remain quirky throughout the entire movie, and new situations just kept amazing me. Also, despite its length, each character also got a healthy dose of character development.

The character art looks different from most anime. I can understand what people mean by the special style of Studio 4C. It reminded me of Mahou Shoujotai, which is always a good thing. The characters indeed look really interesting. The way they’re drawn really makes them unique. The animation also is very interesting, not to mention the choreography of the different action scenes.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this movie. It really confirmed that Studio 4C is my favourite anime studio. It had me laughing at so many times. Especially the characters were something else. If you manage to locate this movie, I certainly recommend you to watch it. It will be a very interesting watch.

Some quick first impressions: Kemono no Zume, Hanoka and Shoujo Yang Geum no Yume

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Aah, finally we get another good batch. It’s good to see that this season does actually have some good series. All of these anime feature something different from normal anime. One is co-produced with Koreans, another is entirely made with flash, while yet another has a very messy art style.

Kemono no Zume

Ah, this is what I’ve been waiting for. A monster hunter falls in love with a monster and vice versa. Quite an interesting premise, and I’m happy to say that the first episode left me with a good feeling. Our main character isn’t invincible after all, as he seems to have an indigestion problem when facing monsters, and our female protagonist/antagonist was actually introduced in quite a funny way. In fact, this anime succesfully managed to produce some very funny moments, while the serious moments were kept sortof light, though full of content. The art style is indeed something which immediately catches the eye. It’s incredibly messy, especially the animation. Still, in the end, it works. It really contributes to the overall style of the anime.

Hanoka

This anime is completely created in flash. While others may find it ugly, I kindof appreciate the fact that people are experimenting with different art styles. And indeed, this anime looks quite unique. With also five minutes per episode, in which 90 seconds of this are occupied by the OP, leaving only 3,5 minutes left, you also can’t say that this anime bores you. But that doesn’t nessecarily mean that it’s good. In this case, however, it does have potential. It’s an anime about a war, which is being fought. Our main characters has special powers, though she’s held captive, only to serve in the war. She was quite sad, and these emotions did surprisingly well. I have no idea what the rest of this anime will be about, though. It can go anywhere, from incredibly bad to incredibly good.

Shoujo Yang Geum no Yume

Okay, why did this show take so ridiculously long to get subbed? It’s quite good. In case you’ve never heard about this series, it aired during the spring season. Now, a massive five months later, it has its first episode subbed. It’s about a very energetic girl, who loves cooking. Her late mother inspired her for this, before she died. She used to say that seeing Yang Geum (our main character) eat her dinner would make her really happy. Yang Geum is now aiming for about the same thing. Meanwhile, a lot of interesting things are going on in the background. It seems that the prince of the country is rather inexperienced, and goes hunting with only one guard. Assasins take advantage of this and actually attack, while Yang Geum and her cousin happen to be near. They actually manage to scare away these assasins in a very creative way, and they also manage to see their faces, which immediately gives this story a good start. Our main characters also are very likable. They’ve got interesting personalities. Another interesting point is that this is one of the first, if not first Japanese-Korean co-productions, hence the Korean names. Overall, if there ever was an unpopular show which deserves way more attention, it’s this one.

Simoun – 21 – Some answers

by psgels, posted in Simoun



A story-driven episode for once, instead of the character-driven ones. I actually like the latter more. that’s really the department in which Simoun shines like no other. Still, that doesn’t mean that this episode wasn’t good. ^^

The most important part of the episode definitely is Onashia explaining the Emerald Ri Maajon. It’s used to travel from one time to another. We also see Dominüra and Limone back. This also gives us suspicions that Amuria is still alive as well, though in yet another time. I’m not sure whether Limone and Dominüra have landed in the future, or in the past. I personally think that they ended up in the past, as the village is filled with ancient Simoun. Still, they’re all overgrown with vines.

In any case, there was a civilization in the past which was much more advanced than the current ones. It’s interesting that Onashia speaks of “civilization” as singular, instead of plural. It’s said that the Simoun came from those days. In the end, countless wars eradicated the civilization, along with the true purpose of the Simoun. At one time, the Simoun just became useless.

Then, from the sky, it seems that a Simoun from another world, or time in this case. It was being driven by children, sent from god. These girls introduced themselves as Simoun Sibylla. Then, they informed everyone of the Emerald Ri Maajon. The Chor Dextra, which was led by Aaeru’s grandfather, by the way, was created just for the completion of the Emerald Ri Maajon. Dominüra is the only living member of it.

Dominüra also reveals something interesting in her thoughts: the reason she freaked out so horribly in episode 14, when seeing the Simoun. Well, it seems that she was one of these children, sent from god, who originally came from the other world. It seems that she forgot this, and seeing the dismantled Simoun forced her to remember again. This is indeed extremely sad, as she was the one who started the entire war for the control of the Simoun.

However, this brings up so many questions. How old is Dominüra anyway? If Aaeru’s grandfather used to pilot a Simoun, then it must mean that that Dominüra arrived in her Simoun quite some years ago. Still, she looks extremely young. I have a theory, though. Nothing has ever been said about what happens to those who refuse to go to the spring for their entire life, right? The fact that nobody speaks about it must mean that every single person went to the shrine, no exceptions. What if Dominüra is this exception? What if she just didn’t go to the spring, which made her body refuse to age for years and years to follow?

Dominüra also starts singing in front of the people who live in the time they arrived in. I think that that’s one of their rituals, they do every day, in order to give these people hope. I have no idea what started it, though I think that the villagers managed to convince them. They’re indeed living very peaceful. Interesting note: the Simoun appear to make a buzzing sound when they’re inactive.

I also noticed that Limone’s hair grew. This really reminded me of a strange pattern I noticed a while ago and which all anime seem to follow. Most anime don’t even know about hair growth. Half a year passes, and each character still has the same length of hair. Nothing grows. There have been a number of anime, though, which do feature characters who grow their hair. The strange thing, however, is that every single one of these anime has only one of these characters. No more. Simoun has Limone. All of the other characters seem to be spending a lot of time at the barber. The Law of Ueki has Rinko and I’ve heard that Haruhi Suzumiya also had this. It’s a pity that so little characters have this, as I like spotting the differences in character design that way. (That’s why I also like characters who like to change hairstyles)

In any case, the fact that this was a story-driven episode doesn’t mean that we didn’t have any character-development. This time, it came from Yun, Limone, Dominüra, Onashia and a bit of Aaeru and Paraietta.

Notice how Paraietta was very determined when the Chor Tempest was scolded for going out unauthorized (eheh, so what? Aaeru used to do this lots of times. :P). Also, notice how Aaeru gets uncomfortable when Neviriru suddenly gets hope of Amuria being alive? I wonder what kind of reasons she has for this. Does she think that she’ll lose an important pair, or an important friend to Amuria?

Both Limone and Dominüra have changed. Limone has told herself never to say “I dunno” anymore. That’s why she tries to find a suitable answer for each question asked to her. Dominüra, on her turn, has become extremely relaxed, cheerful and optimistic. We also see a surprisingly weak side of Onashia. For some reason, she became extremely exhausted on the journey back to the ruins. When she arrived, however, this weakness was gone. She also shredded off some strange, sparkling substance when she walked.

The most interesting one, though was Yun. She goes along with Aaeru and Neviriru in their mission to escort Onashia back to the ruins, as she wants to ask Onashia about her fallen comrades. Onashia told Yun the previous episode that she could hear Mamiina’s voice, so Yun was hoping that this would be the same for her former friends. She wonders whether their souls have been set free. Yun gets a response she doesn’t like. The one who desires to be set free his Yun herself. Not only does this suggest that her comrades have yet to be set free, but it also means that Yun has indeed been keeping all of her feelings inside of her. Onashia reveals that Yun wants to escape to a place far away. She’s been fooling herself all along.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 20 – OMG Rika!

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni



I was fearing that this episode would be rather dull, and indeed, everything I predicted happens. We’ve got Shion phoning Keiichi. Then she holds a long, though pointless interrogation with the village elder after which she indeed threatens Rika. During this episode, not a lot of things happened, and the things that did happen were very stretched. When you combine this with the fact that I practically predicted everything which would happen, and the interrogation with the village chief was not only pointless, but featured Shion in her usual emo-mode about Satoshi, and it indeed makes the episode rather dull.

Except for one point!

Rika was amazing during this episode! She really is my favourite character of this anime, and with a good reason. First of all, when Shion threatens her, she claims that entering the shrine doesn’t necessarily mean death. People are kept away from it because of the torture-devices. That’s a different reaction than you’d expect when you take the council members of the previous episode into account. Rika also claims that she can hear Oyashiro-sama’s voice in her head.

Then the awesome thing: Shion never phoned Rika in the first place. Shion decided to use Rika as a means of finding out whether she really was connected to Oyashiro-sama. Rika then noticed that Shion was under influence of the disease. That’s why she came to the Sonozaki-residence. She pretended that she needed some soya, though in fact, she attempted to cure her with the syringe, in the same way Mion and Rena did in the first arc, and Irie in the third arc.

As this method has never worked, it also doesn’t here. Shion then injects the liquid in Rika, and she doesn’t look too good afterwards. She then grabs a knife, when she hears that Shion plans to torture her. Then, she decides to kill herself, to prevent her from being tortured and interrogated. Even though we saw that scene before at the second arc, it still remained so sad for her.

This indeed proves the theory that the syringe is meant to cure the paranoid actions of certain persons. Whether this is a disease or normal paranoia, it still remains unclear, though it isn’t as simple that there’s just a demon inside Shion’s body, as you need more than just a syringe in order to remove a demon. I think Rika was suffering from the nasty side-effects of this medicine. I can imagine that the feeling it gives isn’t pretty. She then begins to have the same delusions as the disease, though I think that that’s supposed to be temporarily. It’s long enough, though to make her conclude that she knows something that nobody else should know, and if Shion just tortures her before she kills her, she’d better put herself out of her misery immediately.

I think that Takano is our major suspect here, like Cos mentioned. She was supposed to be dead, even before the Watanagashi started, so she’s definitely hiding something. Irie, seems to be the one who has developed the antidote. Mion, Rena and Rika seem to have discovered this, and secretly told him that they’d help him.

I’m also wondering why the creators decided to make this episode so incredibly slow. It means that the next episode will have incredibly high pacing. After all, so many things still have to happen. Shion has to torture Mion, kill Satoko, go emo when Keiichi’s on the ladder, phone Keiichi, explain to Keiichi and Rena, take Keiichi to the underground prison, throw a rock on Keiichi, attempt to torture Keiichi, shock Keiichi, flee and kill herself. Still, I’m interested, as each of the arc’s endings revealed some kind of major plot twist. That also has to happen.

Overall, Rika was awesome, but apart from her, this episode was rather dull. Especially Shion and her endless whining about Satoshi.

The Animatrix – Detective’s Story

by psgels, posted in The Animatrix



Yet another style: a film noir. Like any proper film noir, everything’s in black and white. The art style is the most realistic one yet. It isn’t as overly pointy as in Matriculated, or as overexaggerated as in World Record. And certainly not as messy as in Kid’s Story. Everything also seems to have gotten a noise filter.

The story is about a detective who accepts a case to look for Trinity. He gathers a bit of information, and then realizes that there’ve been more detectives on the same case. One killed himself, one went missing and one went crazy. The latter keeps claiming that Trinity isn’t real. The detective then continues to search through chatrooms and cafes, frequented by hackers. At one point, he finds a certain Red Queen, who happens to be Trinity.

Trinity sends the message to him that in order to meet her, he’ll have to jump the first of six brooks. This appears to be a train. Inside the train, he sees Trinity. She reckons that he might be able to make it. The entire assignment seems to have been a test for him, to see whether he would make it. She then puts some kind of machine on him, and extracts something out of his eye. It’s the same thing they tried to poison Neo with in the movie, I think.

Then a couple of men in suits appear, and chase after them. However, the detective himself begins to change into one of these men. Trinity then shoots him. Then the two of them talk a bit, and Trinity escapes.

To be honest, I didn’t really like this one. It felt like a bit too fast, and the references were all lost on me. First of six brooks? He talks about a certain Alice who jumps the second brook to get her into the woods. Alice jumps the first brook and then she boards a train. Who the heck is this Alice, why does she jump brooks, why are a number of streets highlighted on the map? How does he know which train to catch? In fact… what is a brook anyway?

I think that this film was a bit too short for its own good. I think it would be better if it borrowed some time from Matriculated. In the end, the case is interesting, though the other three films were thought-provoking. This one, however, wasn’t. I don’t seem to have any inspiration because of it.

Ayatsuri Sakon – 09 – Curiosity killed the Cat. Or in this case a guy with a ladder and a bit of cheese.

by psgels, posted in Ayatsuri Sakon



Okay, let’s review. What exactly happened?
– Fukami is busy with police interrogations, so he tells Sakon that he’ll speak with him later.
– The next day, Fukami finally gives Ukon back to Sakon. It seems that he really liked Ukon’s design, so he decided to work on it on his own at the final minute. Therefore, Ukon was kept safe for the flames.
– Sakon equips Ukon, and turns back to normal.
– Keiko lost her husband and daughter to a fire ten years ago.
– Ririsu died in the fire as well.
– Ririsu gets blamed for the murder, as a fireman reckons that it was he who snapped off the hose of the gas cooker.
– Ririsu hated Hayami.
– Ukon reckons that the hose was too firm for a cat to remove.
– Keiko behaves entirely different, and warns Sakon not to get involved.
– After Keiko brought Hayase to his building, nobody was there. Afterwards, the doors were locked.
– Inside the gas cooker, there’s a bit of cheese left.
– The windows of the building were very high so a cat couldn’t have climbed in on its own. They’re too small and equipped with bars to prevent humans from sneaking in.
– On the ground in front of the window, marks of a ladder or a chair are visible.
– Sakon reckons that the following must’ve happened: the culprit stuffed the open end with cheese, Ririsu’s favourite food. Then, when Hayase was asleep, Ririsu smelled the cheese, toyed with it and ate it, allowing the gas to escape. The murderer did this in order to make things look like an accident.
– Aoki seems to have lost his daughter in a fire as well. He also seems very friendly with Sayoko.
– Kishikawa is seen, burning Hayase’s paperwork.
– Kishikawa is seen talking to Yoshida. They both suspect each other.
– Hayase suggests to Keiko to leave the place. Keiko declines, as leaving would make other people think they’re weird.
– Hayase tells Aoki that he plans to quit. He also tells him that Aoki’s the only person he told it to.
– Hayase is packing. A person in diciple-clothes walks in, Hayase looks happy.
– Keiko enters Hayase’s room, sees his body hanging on a rope and screams.
– Sakon spots a note. “To resolve this wicked deed, requires this fateful body to become a wretched wisp of smoke.”
– Kishikawa reckons that this must mean that Hayase actually was the one who killed Hayami.

Okay, there are two possibilities:
– There’s one killer. This killer killed both Hayami and Hayase, though the killer used Hayase to make it look like the murder on Hayami was meant in order for him to repent. This, however, would make no sense at all, as the killer would still be the major suspect for the murder on Hayase.
– Hayase did kill Hayami. There’s someone who didn’t like this and went to the extreme measures to kill Hayase because of it.

There are two possible people who could have entered Hayase’s room:
– Aoki. Hayase smiles when he first sees him. However, Aoki is seen in a tuxedo when the murder is discovered.
– Kishikawa. Aoki is seen in a tuxedo when the murder is discovered, while the intruder wore brown pants. However, Hayase smiles when he first sees him, and the two hate each other.

If Aoki was the one, he quickly changed clothes afterwards. If Kishikawa was the one, the two of them were plotting something sinister. The fact that one of these two entered his room right before the murder also isn’t 100% guarantee that the murder happened afterwards. Something else could have happened, after which the person left and another person arrived and killed the guy. Also, why did a glass and a bottle lie on the floor at the scene of the crime?

I don’t think Keiko was the murderer. More like an important side-character. If you just murdered the guy you love, you won’t be telling other people to go away. Not only would this make sure that they’d do the exact opposite, though as a murderer, you’d be more like, scared instead of certain and cocky like she was. She’s got her own problems, definitely. And her warning to Sakon definitely had something to do with these problems.

If Aoki was the murderer, Sayoko probably involves the reason why he did it. I don’t think Kishikawa was the one, otherwise, he’d not be this confident. I do suspect that Fukumi knew what was going on. The fact remains that he’s very enthusiastic about Ukon. He knew that the storehouse would be in flames, which would mean that Ukon would also be destroyed if Hayami would work on him. His inner puppet-love eventually got the best of him, and he decided to save Ukon.

xxxHolic – 19 – Best. Snowball Fight. Ever.

by psgels, posted in xxxHolic



God… this episode was incredibly creative. And incredibly fun as well. Yuuko invites Watanuki, Domeki, Himawari, the Rain Sprite, the Vestal Sprite and Mokona to a playground in order for them to have a snowball fight. Though it’s not a normal snowball fight. Each of the contestants has to create some kind of snowman. These snowmen then get miraculously animated and have to battle against each other. Some of these fights were extremely interesting to see. The ultimate prize is a Pandora’s box, which gives the one who opens it anything he desires.

First of all, everyone’s snowman is unique in some kind of way. And some were freaky as well. Very freaky, if you consider that they’re just snowmen. But that made things just better. These are the snowmen everyone managed to produce:
– Watanuki: a small bunny, made of snow. Cute, though a bit powerless.
– Domeki: a steel can, with a snowball on top of it and arms and legs attached to its sides. It looked kindof creepy. And strange.
– Himawari: the standard base for a normal snowman, turned upside down, and given the ears and arms which makes it look like some strange kind of teddy-bear.
– the Rain Sprite: two ice statues of Fuujin and Raijin, the storm and thunder gods who have made more appearances in different anime. Surprisingly life-like, but what else do you expect from a rain-sprite? ^^
– the Vestal Sprite: a large, chibi Pegasus.
– Mokona: a huge white Mokona. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE.
– Yuuko: some kind of sci-fi jedi-robot-thingy, which shoots snowballs, prepared by Maru and Moro.

Fight one: Watanuki vs Domeki
Domeki tests out the system, makes his snowman walk, make a snowball and throw this at Watanuki’s bunny. The bunny seems a goner, though it digs itself in right before it gets hit, preventing his own demise.
Winner: tie.

Fight two: Mokona vs Watanuki
Mokona’s huge monster starts chasing Watanuki, with surprising speed as well. Mokona then breaks the control of the monster and then it loses control. It trips over a slide and falls apart. It also takes out Domeki’s snowman in its fall.
Winner: Watanuki. Loser: Mokona. Unlucky bystander: Domeki.

Fight three: Watanuki vs Vestal Sprite’s henchmen
The Vestal Sprite’s henchmen see the Vestal Sprite crying, because she’s glad that Watanuki’s bunny managed to survive. They, however, misinterpret this and think that Watanuki purposely made her cry. They start attacking him, though the Vestal Sprite tells them to stop. In the end, she sacrifices her Pegasus in order to protect him.
Winner: Watanuki. Loser: Vestal Sprite’s henchmen. Unlucky bystander: Vestal Sprite

Fight four: Watanuki vs bunny
Watanuki gets hit by a snowball, thrown by his own bunny. He begins to chase it.
Winner: tie.

Fight five: Yuuko vs Rain Sprite
The episode takes a very strange turn when these behemoths duke it out. Especially when Fuujin and Raijin suddenly start out creating tornadoes, rain and lightning in order to launch it at Yuuko’s robot. If there ever was a king of snowball fights, this has to be it.
Winner: Yuuko. Loser: Rain Sprite.

Fight six: Yuuko vs Himawari
Himawari’s snowball possesses the strange ability to absorb all of the snowballs Yuuko’s snowman shoots at it. In the end, it pops right before all of the snowballs run out (Maru and Moro got bored and stopped providing the snowballs).
Winner: Yuuko. Loser: Himawari

Fight seven: Watanuki vs Yuuko
Yuuko isn’t happy when she finds out that she’s run out of ammo. Watanuki’s bunny isn’t doing much either. Then she realizes that she’s been standing on the hose transporting the snowballs for a while. One snowball is left over. However, right at the moment that the snow was supposed to arrive, her snowman looked into the hose, attempting to find out the problem. He then gets shot because of his own stupidity.
Winner: Watanuki. Loser: Yuuko.

So far, fight two remains my favourite, though all of the others also were great to see. Yuuko, however, asks Watanuki, right before he opens Pandora’s Box, what they’re having for dinner. The box then contains the things he planned for the next dinner. The rest of the episode is made of everyone having food, while Watanuki has to work as a slave. He doesn’t quite like that.

On a more serious note, I’ve noticed quite some changes in both Watanuki, Yuuko and Mokona during this episode. Both Yuuko and Mokona were much more demanding of Watanuki than they were usually. They just kept ordering and ordering him. Even though they normally do this as well, it’s never been this extreme.

I’m not sure whether it is because of this in particular, or rather the whole picture, but Watanuki was rather blunt this episode. He insulted people more than he usually does. He was more keen on not participating in the snowball fight. He acted like a sore loser when he won from Yuuko and he actually insulted Himawari. He really sounded like a jerk in this episode. This most definitely is because of Yuuko’s influence on him. He just can’t seem to understand to have fun.

Yuuko also was a bit different this episode. She actually was a bit competitive, and wanted to win no matter what. When she lost, she really didn’t like the fact that she did. Only then, she came with plan B, and started acting. Maru and Moro also were interesting. They actually defied their master’s order, at one point, they didn’t want to shovel snow all the time. Could it be a design flaw of Yuuko, or is it something that they wanted to on their own accord?

On a more unserious note, Yuuko really has some kind of prophetic ability. Or she uses a special kind of paper which can change its text at will. Watanuki also was very funny when he found this piece of paper in his locker, thinking that a girl wrote a love-letter for him. Mokona also was very cute when Watanuki insulted him for a “pet thing”.

Ergo Proxy – 17 – Piano

by psgels, posted in Ergo Proxy



Finally, we have a normal episode of Ergo Proxy again. It’s mostly focused around Raul, while Real, Vincent and Pino meanwhile run into a very interesting city.

First Raul. As Director-General of the Citizen Security Bureau, he has a lot of privileges. And he’s one of the few who can get access to information not meant for normal citizens. Because of this, he’s able to tell the difference between truth and lies. Real was another example of this. Now he as well, has given up on Romdeau.

We also see him having a little discussion with Daedalus. Daedalus seems to blame Raul for Vincent escaping. After all, if Vincent hadn’t been chased out, he would just be leading a normal life. Raul gets angry about this, with a good reason. After all, it was Monad who caused this. Not Raul. Daedalus also isn’t getting worried about whether or not Real betrayed him. He reckons that as long as Real is alive, she won’t betray him, and he can be himself.

Right after Raul put down his trust in the city council, he’s labelled as traitor and his once faithful assistant Krysteva gets put in charge to hunt him down. Krysteva thinks that he’s planning to escape, so the heads for the same place we saw in episode 2, where Vincent landed. In the meantime, she orders to erase all of Raul’s data from the city-databank. This takes about ten minutes. Before that time, Raul can still use his privileges. When she arrives, however, he appears to be in a total different place: his house. In the end, his goal was to get his data erased (on a side-note: does anyone find it ironic that his ID ends with the numbers 666?).

Daedalus, meanwhile, calls himself calm. One of his autoraves also refers to him as the prince of Romdeau. We also see Daedalus talking to a picture of Real, pretending it’s the real thing. And what happened to Monad? Raul, meanwhile is in his apartment, playing piano. The ending of the episode was quite confusing, and I didn’t manage to really understand this at all. For some reason, a hug rocket gets fired. Raul, meanwhile, has visions of Vincent. He reckons that Vincent was the cause for everything (it was quite shocking to see Pino in normal clothes. I nearly forgot that she used to belong to a rich family). Vincent, Real and Pino, meanwhile have almost arrived at Moscow, when they see the same rocket head for their destination. I suppose that that thing is going to blow up the city, though I’m not sure.

Next, Real, Vincent and Pino. They’ve made another pitstop, and they’re making quite some progress. One day, they managed to travel 140 miles, which makes a journey of 2000 miles take about two weeks. Shorter than I expected. In any case, when Vincent and Real decide to leave again, it seems that Pino is gone. She seems to have wandered off somewhere. Vincent also tells Real that if he ever stopped being himself, that he wants her to kill him with her own hands.

Searching for Pino takes a while, in the end, the two of them find a cave, and head in. It consists of some long tunnels. At one point, they find a number of dead bodies, belonging to misshapen humans. When they walk deeper in the cave, they hear sounds coming from a piano. Pino seems to be playing it. She’s accompanied by a live version of these creatures found earlier. It’s quite shy, and doesn’t look healthy.

After a bit of investigation, the main nest of these creatures is found. All they do is walk around, and sitting miserably. Real then discovers that there’s a small amount of poisonous gas inside the caves, so she decides to head out, before the problem becomes worse. Pino is also taken along, against her will. Apparently, the road is very long, as she becomes bored fast, and Vincent has to carry her. She’s very much like a little girl at this point.

Then, they pass the dead bodies of these creatures again. It then seems that the creature Pino was with has followed them, and now collapsed. Then Real realizes what’s going on. When the environment of the Earth changed, they were just normal humans, who dug the tunnels in order to protect themselves. The tunnels, however, then began filling with poisonous gas. This turned their bodies to their disfigured current state. In the meantime, however, it also made them dependant of the poison, up to the point that they won’t be able to live in a normal atmosphere.

Real meanwhile discovers some primitive wall drawings, and a rather cute scene occurs. The creature who collapsed stands up again, and gets carried away by his mother. Pino says goodbye to him. The wall drawings show a family with a pregnant mother, father and child, and Real realizes something again. We never know what it was, though.

Overall, I’m not sure what will happen to Raul afterwards. Will he be caught, or does he manage to escape? And I really need to rewatch the first two episodes at one time. Is it me, or did Pino use to be Raul’s autorave? In any case, the music was great again. It was a very nice episode. Nothing special, but I really enjoyed watching it. Every single time, Real, Vincent and Pino run into something unique in their journey to Moscow.

.Hack//Roots – 19 – Sigh

by psgels, posted in .Hack//Roots



I’m really getting worried about where .Hack//Roots is going to. The previous episode showed Haseo’s new form. Well, I guess that that’s gotta mean that this episode would have featued a lot of plot progression. What do we get? A friggin’ filler!

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing against fillers. But seriously, this was just horribly timed. Because of this, the creators had to find a way to keep Haseo busy for an entire episode. Their plan: don’t make him move for the entire episode. He just stands there, doing nothing. Well, if that isn’t anticlimactic, I don’t know anymore.

The episode basically features Tawaraya who’s come back, two newly introduced characters (a couple of merchants) and the two newbies from episode sixteen having some problems with the merchant-side of The World. It ends with them witnessing a couple of real-money traders being caught by the administrators. Why the heck are the creators only introducing these aspect now, at this stage of the anime? Such trivial aspects would have been better to be explained at the beginning of the anime. Including the fact that TaN was a guild that would buy every single item from other players, and sell them again. It’s nice to see these kinds of information this late in the show.

.Hack//Sign chose to handle subjects like these a bit more subtle. They had just one major crime, and they kept using this as an example. Subaru and her knights were fighting to counter PK-ers throughout the entire anime. .Hack//Roots starts with PK-ing as well, then it moved to hackers and now suddenly real money traders come out of nowhere. A bit more introduction abut this would have been better. The anime had lots of chances for this.

The interesting part of the anime mainly focused around Yata and Pai. Yata displays that he still has influence on the system administrators. Tawaraya also reveals that both Yata and Pai weren’t banned. They just chose to close their Ender and Naobi-accounts along with TaN. That’s why Yata still has his contacts with the administrators. But I wonder. Why do the administrators just let Yata do what he wants, even though he’s a hacker, he kidnapped Ovan, data-drained him and caused him to explode?

Speaking of the devil… what the heck happened to Ovan? There hasn’t been a shot of him for two whole episodes, despite the fact that he’s an important character. I think he also just stood motionless for an entire episode, just like Haseo.

In any case, I don’t think I like the new Tawaraya, or Touta. He’s just your overall, powerful nice-guy. Tawaraya was much more interesting.

Overall, .Hack//Roots is beginning to turn into a horrible mess. That isn’t good at this point of the show. At the next episode, we’ll probably get a bit more clues about what this show will do, in order to create a climax.

Night Head Genesis – 04 – Ark?

by psgels, posted in Night Head Genesis



The first half of the episode was not very special. It just featured a very long recap of the previous episode, and basically the same thing in the next-episode preview of the previous episode. Naoya still wasn’t doing well, though it wasn’t as disturbing as in the previous episode. He sees the future of the girl, and Shouko explains that he’s having visions of the future. Then, at the beginning of the second half of the episode, we basically see the same vision Naoya had, though this time, in real-tie. Naota and Naoya meanwhile rush to the hotel, in order to save them.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the end of the episode wasn’t awesome. The victim gets dropped off a billboard at a high building, though Naota manages to save her with his power. That’s another thing he can do, apart from destroying things. This takes a huge toll of his brains, though. By seeing this, the woman gets more paranoid by the minute. She’s defeating “them”, though they keep coming back. Then she realizes that both Naota and Naoya aren’t one of “them”. Upon realizing this, her body relaxes. As she stands on a billboard, it makes her lose her balance, and she falls. Naota tries to save her, but he actually fails. She then falls, and dies.

Jiro breaks by seeing this. He claims that she was always running. She was always running from a certain “Ark”, but they kept coming after her. Naoya meanwhile is incredibly happy that the girl managed to get saved. Guards arrive, and the two brothers flee. Back in their car, Naoya is still happy. Naota, meanwhile wonders what “Ark” might be.

Shouko also still remains shrouded in mysteries. Especially her reasons for acting the way she does. What’s her original mission? Did she help Naoya because she conveniently found out that Naoya was tracking a couple of mass-murderers and wanted to safe the final girl as well, or did she plan for this to happen from the beginning?

In the end, Jiro’s reaction after seeing Reiko die was awesome. He’s always been a shy, uncertain guy. Now that his raison d’être is gone, I wonder what he’ll be doing afterwards. The fact that we also saw Reiko fall, and hit the ground was quite shocking as well. Most times when such a thing happens, you don’t see the character hitting the ground. All you see is some kind of high place, along with a big sound. Seeing a character actually hit the ground really proved to be a pleasant surprise.