Oh, I love the plot of this series. I know that I’ve ranted often about the level of cheese, but the way in which the plot is laid out here just keeps getting better and better. It’s bold, creative and incredibly intense.
And as much as I’ve maid fun of Psycho Guard in the past, I do have to admit that just seeing that big smile of his is already a huge rush of adrenaline. At first I really feared that this guy would be a terrible villain in how over the top he was portrayed, but damn. His insanity especially in this episode was a sight to behold, especially since he actually knew what he was doing here: despite how he turned out to be a drug addict, he chose the sure-fire way to get these guys back to the jail, instead of just rushing in and yelling like a complete imbecile.
And damn, Heitai actually got released here. At first I thought that the creators would be like most series, in the way that they try too hard to keep the main cast together, however this is a very interesting twist. Episodes like this show that this isn’t just about life in jail, but rather a look into violent youth, and the world they grew up in ten years after the second world war. Heitai can now actually put a closure to his youth and grow up to be a respectable adult. He always was the most stable member of the cast, and I think that especially after An-chan left so often, it was he who took up the leadership of the group, and guided everyone through.
But there of course are also countless of other characters who developed already. Take Joe, and how miserable he was at the beginning of the series. Cabbage also feels to have become less of a loser, wile Baremoto was about to develop when we saw him for the last time, but we need to see a bit more of him for this to actually solidify.
I’m not exactly sure of the pacing here, but this is what I managed to find out about the manga: volume 1 covers up to the chapter “in flames”. Let’s assume that it covers until episode four, in which the prison caught fire. With the same pacing over 22 volumes, a simple calculation shows that at the same pacing this show would need 88 episodes to tell its story. Unfortunately, that ain’t gonna work; it’s nowhere near popular enough for that. My guess is now really: what are the creators planning? Do they plan to pull an Itazura na Kiss, in the way that they’re hell-bent on getting to the end of this story, or will they just animate this thing and stop when they run out of episodes.
As it’s almost certain that this show will go for either 24 or 26 episodes at this point, I hope that it’s going to be the former. The creators will need to do some skillful cutting in order to condense a huge amount of material into just two seasons, but this fast pacing may actually give an interesting dimension to this series. There’s no way that there’s going to be a second season for this thing, so I really hope that we can get to the really interesting part of this story: the part in which everyone grows up.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Seriously, the act of condensing a series so that it can fit into a pre-determined amount of episodes is the main drawback that is killing my enjoyment with a lot of works. Japan, STOP DOING IT!
Don’t make fun of maids, they’re sexy.
Out of curiosity, would you feel your time was wasted by watching the show if the series didn’t make it to them growing up?
Although I’m with you, I want to see it as well.
sad subs so far behind not even crappy quality flv web rips from funi 🙁
Hate to break this to you but Rainbow is only going to last 13 episodes. Enjoy the last 3.
Tuskus: wait, what? Where did you read this?
Janette: well, it just wouldn’t be as good as it would have been if the growing up was included.
But seriously, 13 episodes? Where did that source come from?
I’ve read in an german anime magazine, that Rainbow has 26 episodes, and they got the information from the tokyo anime fair. So there are various informations out there and we have to wait. Since anidb hasn’t declared the number of epoisode, there can’t be a 100% serious information about it – which normally conducts, that the series is longer than expected. We’ll see.
If I recall correctly, they’re heading towards the end of volume 5 already (maximum 2 episodes can probably finish off the rest of the volume with this pacing… but if it’s really 13 or 26 episodes, this arc might take up to episode 13). Thus, it’ll take lesser episodes to animate the entire story than calculated ^^
I hope that they’ll show them out of the reform school and meeting at the tree… if not I’ll somehow feel cheated lol.