Random Curiosity

Short Summary:
In the absence of her parents, Isawa Tae takes care of her three young siblings at home and is the head of the student council at school. Kenji and Nanami sign up with her to do some volunteer work that involves painting the school and cleaning up around town. Their final stop is the beach that’s littered with trash. Kenji finds Tae working alone, and goes over to help her. The two talk about how Kenji always has so many girls around him and Tae is always alone. She gives Kenji some candy as thanks, and he responds by saying how great Tae is for working so hard by herself. Tae flashbacks to when she was younger and her siblings were being petted on the head by their father. But instead of doing the same to her, her father only gave her the candy. In the present, seeing Tae about to cry from her memories, Kenji starts to pet her on the head and praise her. Tae looks really happy and asks him to continue doing it.

I really don’t have much to say about this episode. The animation is greatly improved over last week, though there are still a number of lower quality distance shots. Most of the close-up shots, especially during the flashback-to-when-they-were-young parts, are exceptionally animated. As for the plot, it’s about the same as the last few weeks in the sense that nothing really happens, but better because I actually enjoyed watching most of it (the petting Tae’s head scene in particular for cuteness factor). I’m still rather inclined to drop this series at this point, but I’m holding out for the Sakura Hiromi episode, whenever that is. Next week is about Suzuka, Kenji’s little sister.

Short Summary:
On the way to school on the first day of his teaching training, Hiroki sees a girl feeding a cat, but she’s quite hostile when he talks to her. He sees her again later in the teacher’s work room and a fellow teacher identifies her as Fujinami Tomoko, a girl with a weak body who misses a lot of school. After an incident during class when Tomoko tore up her painting because a snide remark by a classmate, Hiroki tries to talk with her several times, but she always closes herself off and skips school. He starts to doubt that she’s really sickly, until she actually starts having a coughing fit and needs to be taken to the nurse’s office. Knowing tha the has to repair her heart, Hiroki finally connects with her when he sits by her while she’s standing off to the side during gym class. He starts to draw people in the class in a sketchbook, and convinces Tomoko to do the same. The two of them eventually attract the attention of the entire gym class, who all gather around to see Tomoko’s drawings.

Hiroki get a lot of development this episode. The two big things are, first, that he’s one step closer to being made a teacher since he’s now officially in training, and, second, that he actually does some drawing this episode. There’s a lot of talk this episode about Hiroki becoming a teacher and about him drawing, all mostly from Kiri. He ends up combining the two and opening a Tomoko’s heart by using drawing as a tool. Like with Hagino, I’m glad that these girl-of-the-week episodes are giving Hiroki himself some development. Ultimately, Hiroki and Elis both have problems to overcome (Hiroki & drawing and Elis & red/death of her parents), and this episode seems to bring Hiroki a bit closer to that.
As for the actual girl-of-the-week, Fujinami Tomoko, I don’t really like or dislike her character. I find all of these stories a bit wasted because it feels like, in the end, none of the girls except for Elis and Kiri will have a big impact on Hiroki in terms of the main plot. In other words, yes, the Tomoko situation made Hiroki’s character grow this week, but I doubt she’ll come into play again later as anything but a support character. The clear competition for Hiroki is between Elis and Kiri. And speaking of which, next week is a Kiri episode!

Closing Thought: With all the harem and h-game adapted series that I’m watching, the order of how much I like them at the moment is: 1. SHUFFLE! 2. DCSS 3. Suzuka tied with Canvas2 4. Lamune.

Summary:
Sui is a young girl who lives alone after her family has more or less abandoned her because she has a condition where light hurts her eyes, so she lives in darkness. Sui tells her only friend Biki that she thinks her eyes are filled with Mushi. She explains that people have two eyelids, and only when you close both, putting you in total darkness, can you see where the Mushi live. Biki can’t seem to achieve this darkness, so Sui tells him what she sees: a river of light that’s made up of Mushi. However, there is a one-eyed man on the other side of this river telling her not to get any closer. When Biki returns home, his mother warns about contracting Sui’s disease. Then one night, when Biki is reading in bed, he feels a pain in his eyes. By the next morning, he can’t stand light either. His mother visits Sui to tell her that Biki won’t be visiting anymore. When she returns home, she finds Ginko watching over a sleeping Biki. Ginko tells her that he already treated the early stages of the infection in Biki with medicine. When Biki wakes up, Ginko tells him that the Mushi that affected him breed in darkness. After the sun sets, Ginko visits Sui’s home, but is surprised to see her eyes smoking behind the blindfold. He knows that Sui’s eyes are now dead from having gotten too close to the river of light, but he wants to try something, so he tells her to open her eyes with her second eyelids closed. The moonlight lures out a flood of liquid Mushi, but Ginko manages to grab one in particular and kills it. He then gives one of his own glass eyes to Sui, injecting it with the liquid Mushi so that it can work like a real eye. When Biki asks about the river of light, Ginko and the narrator explain that man once could use their second eyelids to close out all light. In the darkness, the river of light is filled with creatures that are the source of life. Days later, Biki notices that Sui has adjusted very well to her new eye and is now able to live a normal life. He thinks that she won’t see the strange light anymore, but wonders if Ginko lost his left eye the same way Sui lost hers.

I really didn’t think they would show the eye episode second. Mushishi has a very episodic plot, so you can move the stories around however you like, but I thought they would keep with the order of the manga. Either way, the eye story somewhat freaked me out when I first saw it, partly because Sui without eyes reminds me of a Hollow (from Bleach). And the liquid Mushi coming out of her is just a tad creepy. Maybe I’m just a little too squeamish about this kinda thing.
We learn a little more about the mysterious Ginko this week. It appears that the reason that his hair is always down covering his left eye is because that eye is fake. Sometime in the past, he must have also gotten too close to the river of light. Now, he guards that river to prevent it from happening again. What I don’t understand is why Ginko uses a fake eye if he can just inject them with the liquid Mushi to make it into an almost-real eye. It’s not quite the same as having nothing there at all and thus being a reminder of past mistakes.
Next week will move us back “on track” with the manga, covering the second chapter involving a boy and his horns.

Summary:
Miharu spreads the word to the girls that she saw Yoshino Sakura walking around town. They tell Junichi, who is also quite surprised to hear the news. He tries to keep it a secret from Nemu, but Aisia leaks the name. When Junichi visits Nemu in her room, she looks sad at first, but she turns around and says that they should go look for Sakura-chan. Junichi and the girls set out, with Aisia still trying to figure out who Sakura is. She gets fed up when no one answers her and goes back home. The group follows Utamaru around town, thinking that Utamaru will lead them to Sakura. Unfortunately, all Utamaru seems to care about is eating and being under the air conditioning. Tired and hot, the group leaves Utamaru and continues the search. By chance, they encounter her! Or not…it turns out that the girl is just Akishima-sensei’s little sister. Since it was all just a misunderstanding, the group gives up. On the way home, Junichi and Nemu see Utamaru hopping madly up the road. Nemu follows with Junichi in tow, and the two find what Utamaru is looking for: Yoshino Sakura. Nemu runs up and hugs her, welcoming Sakura back. At home, after introducing Sakura to Aisia, Nemu and Sakura take a bath together and get reacquainted. Sakura confesses to being hesitant about coming back after all the trouble she caused last time, but Nemu says that she really wanted to see Sakura, and even thanks Sakura for saving her life two years ago. After dinner, Junichi and Sakura joke about how much she and her breasts have grown, causing Sakura to rub her chest on him. Aisia and Junichi walk Sakura back to her own house, and Aisia finally realizes who Sakura is once she see connects the house to the name.

Well it appears all the rumors were true: Sakura is back! (Or as Matthew is sure to say, さくらｷﾀ━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━!!!)
Granted, the story does once again take us on a wild goose chase before showing the real Sakura. I really thought that Akishima’s sister was Sakura until she opened her mouth and the wrong voice came out. But they wouldn’t lead us on without eventually producing the real thing. Ironically, it’s Utamaru (who had earlier also led them on a chase) that tips Junichi and Nemu off on where to find her.
I liked this episode for several reasons: the animation is good, they played an insert song for Sakura’s return (sung by Tamura Yukari herself), there was a good bit of humor that actually made me laugh, and for once the message wasn’t “Nemu always wins.” Which I guess means that Sakura actually showing up is just icing on the cake.
The reunion scene and most of the episode focuses not about Junichi being reunited with Sakura, but instead about Nemu being reunited with Sakura. Nemu, who potentially had the most remaining conflict with Sakura, brushes it all aside and welcomes her home in open arms. The result of this, and the entire episode, is that we have reassembled the entire cast from last season, and they’re all more or less happy together. The continuing storyline from here has to involve Aisia and magic, and probably each girl’s feelings for Junichi with Sakura and Nemu being the big ones. Next week’s title 「さくらの言葉」 (Sakura’s words) suggests that the episode will probably involve Aisia trying to learn as much as she can from Sakura.

Closing Thought: Utamaru running out of steam and the urgent music tapering off was unexpected and rather funny.

Summary:
After arriving at the hospital with the Saya and the injured George, Kai feels so frustrated that he rushes out. Saya, of course, blames herself for what happened. From her conversation with David, we learn that Julia is on the medical staff of Red Shield. After Riku comes to the hospital, he and Saya set out to look for Kai. At that time, Kai is tracking down one of Forest’s friends, Reimi, at a bar. She goes out after getting a call from him, so Kai follows her. Saya, who is in the same neighborhood, starts to see a red haze and is able to hear everyone’s conversations. When the voices stop, she looks at the moon and hears some strange cries. Riku, Saya, and Kai’s friends arrive at the same bar where Kai just was, and find Mao also looking for him. She helps them search by taking Saya and Riku in her car. At that time, Kai has followed Reimi to a warehouse. He pulls out a gun, getting ready to enter, but he hears a scream from within. Inside, he finds Forest sucking Reimi dry. Forest sees him and lunges after dropping Reimi. Kai’s gunfire alerts Saya, who gets out of Mao’s car and starts running, eventually encountering Hagi in an alley. She asks for his help in saving Kai because she doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. Hagi slits his mangled hand again, and this time Saya willingly drinks from it. Riku, who was chasing Saya, enters the alley in time to see her with blood on her lips. Hagi then takes her towards the warehouse, jumping from roof to roof. They arrive there just in time to save Kai, who is out of bullets. Hagi tackles the vampire and holds him off while Saya cuts herself to get the blood flowing into her sword. When Forest charges her, she swings and cuts off his arm, causing him to crystallize. With the battle over, Saya breaks down crying. As dawn approaches and the Red Shield guy is packing up the bodies, Kai tells Riku that he was still so powerless. David asks Hagi if he obeys Saya, but then gets a phone-call from Julia saying that George has been taken away by the US military.

Plenty of new information this week:
-Julia is part of Red Shield.
-Kai can handle a gun, but that’s useless against the Chiropterans.
-Riku can also hear the voices that Saya can.
-Saya now knows Hagi’s name.
-David now knows who Hagi is.
-Red Shield and the US military aren’t working together.

It’s great to see that George is still alive, though he gets no lines this episode. Instead, he gets taken by the US Military. I find it funny that animes often tend to villanize the US/military, and this is no exception. Anyway, there seems to be three factions now: Hagi, Saya, and her family & friends, Red Shield, and the US military. Hagi will probably continue helping Saya, while David and the Red Shield will continue to fight the Chiropterans. As for the military, I just hope that them kidnapping George doesn’t somehow lead to him becoming a vampire too. I’d hate to see him die, especially by Saya’s hands, though I guess it would make for good plot. As for Kai and Riku, the former seems to be bent on finding a way to be useful, to protect Saya, and the latter seems to have a latent ability to hear voices, similar to what we saw in Saya.
Next episode looks to have David going up against the military to get back George, and Kai wanting to go with him. It’s called 「暗い森の向こうへ」 (Beyond the Dark Forest), which I think is a rather fitting title since Forest is the name of the guy who turned into the vampire.

Summary:
After being kidnapped, Tsukushi finds herself dressed up expensively in the Domyoji home. Tsukasa thinks that by prettying her up and giving her expensive things, she’d be happy, but Tsukushi is furious instead. She storms out, wandering from room to room looking for her clothes and sees a picture of a beautiful woman in one of them. By the front entrance, she encounters Tsukasa’s mother, who has her kicked out (in her own clothes). The next day at school, Tsukushi finds a message plastered over the dining hall window saying that she has had not one, but five abortions. She goes out to her secret stairwell spot and yells that she’s still a virgin. Rui happens to be nearby and teases her lightly about it, but doesn’t say much more. Her friend Sakurako visits her at work, and apologizes for ignoring her at school. After the two make up, Sakurako spots Rui sitting nearby staring at several walls of advertisements with Toudou Shizuka as the model. When Tsukasa approaches Rui and starts talking to him, he leans in as if going for a kiss. However, it turns out that he’s just wiping something off her face. Incredibly flustered, Tsukasa bids him farewell and quickly runs off with Sakurako.
The next day, Tsukasa is happy to see that she doesn’t have another F4 notice in her locker. The problem is, Sakurako finds one in hers. She’s pelted with flour and abused until Tsukushi arrives to stop them. Using a broom, she bats away a bottle that someone throws at her, except that it spills its contents onto Tsukasa’s shoes. Tsukasa then wants her to lick it off his shoes, and, after much consideration, it looks like she’s actually going to do it. But Rui steps in once again to save her. Tsukushi’s mind is filled with thoughts of him for the rest of the day. When she arrives at school the next day, Tsukushi is surprised when everyone greets her. She finds the three bitchy girls all of the sudden apologizing and wanting to be her friend. They invite her to Toudou Shizuka’s welcome-back party, which they claim is casual dress. So Tsukushi arrives dressed semi-casually, only to find that the party is full formal-wear; she stands out like a sore thumb. The three girls claim that they were only joking when they said it was casual. Despite that, a man actually approaches her and says that she looks really cute and pretty. The girls show up just in time to scare him off by saying that Tsukushi has had five abortions. While they make fun of her, Rui and Shizuka arrive arm in arm. The girls tell Tsukushi that the two of them are lovers and that she has no chance. While telling her to go home, they dump their drinks on her. Tsukasa is sitting nearby and starts to move over to intervene, but Rui gets there first and hands her a handkerchief. Shizuka then sprays some champagne on the girls, making them fall into the nearby pool. Shizuka takes Tsukushi and dresses her up. She asks if perhaps Rui likes Tsukushi, but Tsukushi replies that it’s not possible. After Tsukushi is presented to the crowd like a princess, Rui comments on how cute she looks. Tsukasa starts getting angry about how happy Tsukushi is to be dressed up here, but not at his house. He gets snaps at Shizuka, so Rui comes to defend her. Tsukasa punches Rui, then tries to walk over to continue the fight, but Tsukushi pushes him aside. Everyone gasps because the two land in an awkward position: with Tsukasa on top of Tsukushi, kissing her.

I congratulate you if you’re still reading this; I realize that I wrote a rather lengthy summary. -_-;;
It suffices to say that this episode is quite good. There are a couple of side storylines being developed concurrently with the main plot, including the ones of Rui & Shizuka and Tsukasa and his sister; the former is the centerpiece of a large part of the episode, while the latter is briefly hinted at in the beginning. But we still mainly focus on Tsukushi and her troubles at school. Like last week, they follow the general manga storyline, but with heavy changes. The kidnapping, the girls pretending to be her friends, and the party parts of volume one all happen, but they throw in the Shizuka elements which are later in volume two. The accidental kiss doesn’t quite happen like it does at the end of the second volume, but the kiss itself is there. So again like last week, there’s nothing really wrong with it all because it follows the main timeline.
Those three girls (Yuriko, Erika, and Minako) annoy me so much. Their voices just grate on my nerves, and they’re so mean to Tsukushi. But I guess that’s all part of their characters. As for Tsukasa, he acts like a jealous little schoolboy the entire episode, but it’s clear that he’s developing feelings for Tsukushi, whether he shows it or not. The accidental kiss between Tsukasa and Tsukushi seems a bit implausible with the way they fell, but it makes for a more interesting story. Tsukushi, however, likes Rui who likes Shizuka, who doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. Next episode, we’ll get to see Tsukasa’s sister, who is played by the lovely Matsushima Nanako (famous for several roles including Fuyutsuki-sensei in the GTO drama). I look forward to it!

Closing Thought: Come to think of it, the most recent appearance of Matsushima Nanako I remember is in a drink commercial from a few months back. But then again, I don’t watch many dramas.
Closing Thought #2: Wow, I didn’t know they were making Grave of the Fireflies into a TV special. Too bad the story is too depressing to watch…

Summary:
George gets Yukari’s telephone number and promises to call her sometime soon. Yukari thus becomes fixated on her telephone, and, in the meantime, decides to reunite Miwako and Tokumori under the pretense of having tea. She panics when George passes her and Tokumori walking down the street together and tries to call out to him, but he doesn’t respond. The two arrive at the cafe, and Miwako is very surprised to see Tokumori. Yukari leaves the two of them alone and goes to the studio, wondering if Arashi and Hiroyuki fought over Miwako in the past. She runs into George, and, when he walks past her, she asks why he’s ignoring her. George claims it’s jealousy, so Yukari tries to explain that Tokumori is just a classmate. George pulls Yukari in and almost kisses her, but his cell phone rings. He leaves after answering it, promising to continue this later. Back at the cafe, Hiroyuki and Miwako’s conversation is relatively short, climaxing after Tokumori says that he’s gotten over what happened two years ago – when Miwako told him that she doesn’t want to see him again. After Yukari gets out of school that night, she sees Miwako waiting for her. Yukari notices that something is wrong and asks Miwako about it. Miwako admits that she didn’t want to talk about Tokumori because she thought that Yukari also liked him, which Yukari denies. They go to a restaurant where Miwako pulls out some magic medicine which Yukari identifies as candy. After telling Yukari that Arashi and Tokumori gave that to her, Miwako confesses that she’s stuck between loving both of them, but ended up choosing Arashi. Yukari tells Miwako that since she chose Arashi, and since she’s happy with him now, she should keep Arashi as her most important person. Miwako is happy to hear that and returns to Arashi’s place that night. The next day, Yukari gets fed up with waiting for George to call and calls him herself. George wants to meet with her, so Yukari goes to the studio to find him waiting. George gives her one last option out, but Yukari refuses to take it, so George kisses her. George’s phone starts to ring again, and he picks it up only after Yukari mentions it.

Well this episode is certainly disappointing. There was a bit of speculation last week on how this series would finish all five volumes if it moved at a two-to-three-chapters-per-episode pace. This episode certainly answers that question by covering a little over five chapters. That’s great news for them for getting through all five volumes in the 12 episodes….BUT the amount of stuff they cut out is starting to take away from the story. For instance, I don’t feel like the anime has nearly as many moments talking about how Yukari loves Tokumori (in the beginning) as the manga does. This is a critical contrast when she is falling in love with George. Another example would be when Yukari arrives at school the day after consoling Miwako. Her conversation with Tokumori ends with him realizing that Miwako told her everything. The manga continues on with Yukari asking Tokumori if he knows that Miwako still loves him very much, though he avoids answering.
The other major complaint I have with this episode is where it chooses to end. I think they could have gotten a much more dramatic ending, akin to last week, if they had stopped at the end of chapter 10, with the kiss. Instead, the scene extends into the beginning of chapter 11 with George picking up his phone. To me, this ruined the mood of the first kiss scene.
The animation and direction style is about the same as last week. There are plenty of close-ups, distance shots, and random scenery, but not much in between. Not sure whether it’s intentionally directed that way or whether its due to cutting corners (or both), but I’m still having problems with this “style.” And as usual, there is no preview, so who knows how far they’ll go in episode four.

Short Summary:
During the chaos ensuing from Rado’s attack, Arika finds herself lifting a ship to prevent it from falling on the people below. Her nanomachines start to crumble away under pressure, but she’s saved when Meister Haruka arrives to help. After the incident is over, Natsuki tells Arika that she’ll be allowed to enter the school and Nina will be allowed to stay, much to Mashiro’s chagrin. Arika gets outfitted with a uniform and is told two important things. First, an Otome is not allowed to come in contact with the opposite sex. Yohko explains that the nanomachines respond poorly to the Y chromosome. And second, an Otome and her master are connected in life through their GEMs. If the Otome gets hurt, the master does too. If the master dies, so does the Otome. Later, Arika is introduced to the class and shown to her room. She tries to make friends with Nina and Erstin Ho, but Nina is quite cold with her. Over dinner, Arika frets to Erstin and Irina Woods about school fees because she has no family to help out with them. The girls in the dining hall are surprised with her situation, but Tomoe Marguerite arrives in time to stop the questioning. They notice that Mikoto (the cat) is eating Arika’s meal, so Arika starts yelling at her and Mikoto runs away, getting Arika’s apron dirty in the process. Arika takes her clothes to the laundry room, but since the machines are all being used, she puts her apron in a basket above them. Meanwhile, under the moon, Nina remembers the time she looked at her father’s picture book again. Sergay saw her looking at Rena’s picture and told her that she is the person of his dreams. As Nina thinks about her father, Juliet Nao approaches her from behind, and we learn that the two of them are from the same place. Back in her room, Arika feels her GEM and remembers everything that’s happened the past few days. As she falls asleep, someone takes her stained clothes from the laundry room.

This episode is decent, but not as good as last week. I had hoped for the conclusion of Shizuru’s fight and Arika/Haruka saving the people to go longer than the two minutes at the beginning of the episode that it got. Instead, the episode focuses a lot more on introductions to characters and set-up, including the two vital pieces of information mentioned in the summary above. The Otome-not-allowed-to-come-in-contact-with-males already has several ramifications from Rena to Akane. The second part about the master and the Otome being connected is probably going to end up being similar to the most important person bit from the original series.
Anyway, it’s good to see Haruka and Yukino again. Haruka is feisty as usual, but a lot more butch, while Yukino looks like her normal self. As cool as Haruka’s entrance is, it still doesn’t quite beat Shizuru from episode one. We also get introduced to a lot of Arika’s Otome classmates. Like Mentar said, there’s a ton of characters now, and we still haven’t seen the return of everyone from the original series (and you can be sure most of them will show up at some point).
Speaking of which, time for a fanboy moment, courtesy of the preview: OMG!. That probably doesn’t mean anything quite just yet, but it hints at Mai coming back at some point (which I guess a lot of us had already taken as granted). At any rate, next week looks like more fun for Arika getting used to her new school.

Short Summary:
Rin and company arrive at Makai world and are taken to Primula by Eustoma and Forbesii. Rin and Kaede call out her name over and over again after seeing her, but she doesn’t seem to be responding. However, Rin’s resolve prevents him from quitting and he pleads for Primula to return. Primula starts to stir, and call out Rin’s name. At the same time, she starts to overload and the energy waves throw Rin and Kaede back. Forbesii is ready to blast her to protect everyone else, but Rin stops him. Primula dreams of Lycoris, but then hears Rin calling out to her. She wakes up, but things in the room start to explode. In a flash of light, everything stops. Rin looks up to see Nerine encasing Primula with her own power, and everyone makes one more plea to Primula. Her capsule breaks, and she is reunited with Rin. Primula identifies Nerine as Lycoris, but the yellow light soon disappears and Nerine faints. Back with her family, Primula is allowed to return ot the human world. As everyone celebrates at home, Nerine and Primula watch the stars and think of Lycoris. The next day, Rin returns Asa’s hair ribbon, thanking her for helping him whenever he was in trouble and wanting her to get better soon. Asa’s coughing gets worse when Rin is out of the room, so Nerine offers to use her magic, but Asa refuses it. Nerine concludes that Asa must really like Rin. After leaving Asa’s house, Nerine admits to Rin that it was Lycoris who Rin met eight years ago. Those original feelings for Rin are Lycoris’, which has caused Nerine a lot of confusion about her own feelings. But now, Nerine is sure that she is also in love, and walks over to give Rin a kiss on the cheek after he promises to listen to her own song one day.

This is hands down one of the best episodes so far, if not the best one. The journey to the Makai world isn’t shown, but the episode starts out with no OP and several shots of the world itself (complete with dragons and swamps). For a moment, it felt like I was watching a different series. From there, the plot just takes off, from Rin and company saving Primula to returning home to seeing Asa to Nerine’s confessions. The high quality production aspects don’t falter, and you get the feeling that a lot went into this episode. It feels almost reminiscent the pull-out-all-the-stops normally done for final episodes.
Nerine and Primula’s stories are concluded for now, in, what I must say, a very satisfying way. By the time Nerine kissed Rin on the cheek to finish the episode, I had a smile on my face from watching it all. Asa gets some more development as we see her dislike of magic and her still sick condition (though I hesitate to say it’s worsening). Seems like they’ll continue to develop Asa’s story as we watch the other girls’ stories. Next week is about the other story that they’ve been developing – Sia’s. Simply titled 「キキョウ」(Kikyou), it seems to hint that we’ll see Sia’s other inner self.

Closing Thought: They take advantage of R-15 this week to show several breasts shots of Primula, which I’ve capped above because it related to the story.

Short Summary:
Continuing where we left off last time, Alastor and Shana begin to suspect that Yuuji’s Hougu might be keeping him alive. It starts to rain, so Yuuji invites Shana inside. While Shana changes, Yuuji stays in the closet, but he hits his hand and comes tumbling out of the closet, resulting in an eyeful. He wakes up the next morning to find Shana in bed with him when she had started the night on the roof in the rain. At school, the gym teacher is running the class to death when a girl named Yoshida Kazumi falls to the ground exhausted. Shana takes the opportunity to kick the teacher a couple of times, and Yuuji rallies the class against the teacher, so he lets them off, earning Shana and Yuuji plenty of praise from their classmates. Meanwhile, Margery starts using her powers after opening Marchosias (the book). Shana feels the waves and runs to the source, where she ends up having to fight Margery in werewolf form. Shana gets a couple of good hits in, but Margery’s regeneration and werewolf powers overwhelm her, knocking Shana off the roof and into the water below.

Alright, let’s be honest. How many of you actually listened to the dialogue when Shana was taking off her clothes?
It’s amazing what a lot of fanservice and action can do for a show. Those two shounen staples finally come to make an episode that I enjoy. The animation is pretty good too; nothing negative that’s glaringly apparent that I noticed. Add to all this the fact that Yuuji actually stands up against the teacher in an almost teasingly strong way, and I’m ready to name this episode the best one yet.
Now that I think about it, Margery looks more of a werebear than a werewolf. Regardless, her powers include instant regeneration, the ability to fire energy projectiles from the air and from her mouth, and the ability to multiply. It doesn’t seem to really be a transformation though, because you see Margery’s actual face part-way through the fight. Maybe Marchosias turns into the outer parts of the werebear, and Margery is inside controlling it?
Anyway, like I said, I really like this episode. The Shana vs. Margery battle seems more or less over, and Margery looks to have moved on to Friagne by next week. I cross my fingers for another episode like this one or anything as long as they keep the jargon count low and keep Yuuji from being a passive and/or wimpy figure. Oh, and more Shana please…

Quickie Summary:
On a rainy day, Yamato is without an umbrella wanting to go home. Suzuka lends him hers, which causes Miki to ask if Suzuka likes Yamato. Suzuka denies it, so Miki lets it go. The next day, Yamato and Honoka meet up with one of Honoka’s friends, the famous Shirakawa Nana. Yamato is a bit awestruck, and the attention Nana attracts makes them decide to go to karaoke. Suzuka and Miki happen to be at the same place. Suzuka catches Nana and Yamato together, and assumes that he’s cheating on Honoka. After everything is cleared up, all five have some fun together, but Nana notices Honoka being uncomfortable with the prospect of Suzuka and Yamato singing a song together. Yamato notices too, and backs out of it. After everyone goes home, Nana asks Yamato about his relationship with Honoka, noting the incident during karaoke, and asking if he even knows her birthday. He doesn’t, and so she drills the date into his head: September 16th.

The episode didn’t look too bad from the previews and from about the first half of it, but then the quality really drops. Parts of the karaoke scene simply made me grimace. And the odd thing is, they boosted the animation again whenever they show Yamato’s face (with the shadowing) during the final scene and lowered it again elsewhere. For me, this was the big downside of today’s episode.
I’m a fan of Nana’s character, so this episode is pretty enjoyable for me. Nana is really a good friend to Honoka and knocks some sense into Yamato about their relationship. Of course, it’s Suzuka who’s the wedge in the relationship between Honoka and Yamato. She’s sending some pretty heavy signals that she has feelings for him, but he knows that Honoka is his girlfriend. The next set of episodes should be pretty good for developing the Suzuka/Yamato/Honoka triangle. As long as the animation team doesn’t completely butcher it that is…

Short Summary:
Misaki Sumire is from an artistic family, so she has some big shoes to fill with her high school choir singing. Elis, who is initially a little hostile against MIsaki for having such an affluent and artistic background, eventually becomes friends with her. Misaki has been skipping choir practice because of fears of messing up during a performance like she did the year before. Elis identifies that the small turtle token that Misaki keeps with her for luck may only be reminding her of her failure, so Elis takes it before Misaki’s choir competition. Misaki ends up performing wonderfully during the competition, to the delight of her family, her peers, and herself.

I first watched this episode a few days ago and came off with a bleh impression on it. With pending exams and no time to blog, I left this entry blank. I got a chance to watch the episode again today (subbed), but my feelings about it didn’t change. I know nothing about the first Canvas, but I hear that Sumire’s sister was a character there, so maybe the people who have played the game or know that character can relate to Sumire a bit a more. But for me, this episode is mostly just fluff.
The episode came off feeling like it lacked focus. The Elis-in-the-artclub stuff may have tied in with the plot, but it feels like they could have involved Elis just as easily in some other way. That being said, those scenes did offer a break in the monotony of the boring story. Elis decides to remain in the art club, but the dissent from other girls is still present. That’s got to come into play again sometime later.
The animation this week is decent, but very inconsistent. Without naming specifics, each character just looks a little off from how they looked the past few episodes. Judging from the preview, next week seems to be back to the normal quality. A hopefully the plot will be too.

Closing Thought: What is it with Ave Maria being used in animes?

Short Summary:
Kanno Junko is devastated by the loss of her dog Candy who has been the only remnant of her original family since her parents died. She struggles to move on until the veterinarian’s assistant Sekimoto calls her up. She tells Junko what really happened that day: the doctor got a call from his friends and let her dog die so that he could go have fun. While in a furious state, Junko overhears some girls talking about the Jigoku Tsushin. After she inputs the name, Enma Ai appears before her and gives the normal speech. Junko is ready to pull the string immediately, but Ai’s warning about Junko’s own soul being tormented stops her. The next morning, Junko gets the idea that maybe she could expose the doctor. She asks Sekimoto about evidence, but the two are unable to find anything while rummaging through the doctor’s files. Instead, they are caught snooping by none other than the doctor himself, who challenges them to find evidence, then displays his cruel feelings towards the dogs. After being kicked out, Junko pulls the string. During the drive home, the doctor gets into an accident and wakes up behind bars in a hospital, being treated the same way he treated the dogs. On the boat to hell with Ai, he gets surrounded by a swarm of dogs calling out to him.

I really thought this episode would be boring and the plot would be fairly stupid. That turned out (fortunately) not to be the case. The plot is predictable, but I enjoyed watching it anyway. They follow a similar formula of story advancement that they have been doing, but I find it most intriguing that Junko would have continued on with her life if Sekimoto hadn’t said anything. She probably wouldn’t have been happy for a while, but she would have eventually gotten over it. Sekimoto may have cleared her own conscience, but it leads to Junko sacrificing her soul in the afterlife. On top of that, Junko tries to find an alternative to using Ai’s powers even though it ultimately failed. I hope that future episodes show more characters trying to find a solution without pulling the string, and eventually feature a character that succeeds in solving their own problems without needing Enma Ai and company.
A combination of those two elements, along with generally better animation, contributes to why this is a good episode for me. Next week features another pair of girls (yay!), though it doesn’t seem like we’ll see someone not pulling the string quite just yet, if ever.

Summary:
As Byakuya and Ichigo face off, Byakuya asks Ichigo why he wants to save Rukia, but Ichigo counters with why Byakuya doesn’t want to save her. Byakuya decides that he’s just going to have to kill Ichigo and execute Rukia himself. Renji, carrying Rukia, tells her that he and Ichigo got strong to protect her, and that she should depend on them and stop blaming herself. In the main group, Soi Fong is taking out Ukitake’s officers, but when Ukitake moves to help, Commander Yamamoto steps in his way. Captain Kyouraku grabs Ukitake and jumps off the cliff, saying that someone else is there to save Ukitake’s third seats. Sure enough, none other than Yoruichi tackles Soi Fong off the cliff. Somewhere inside the city, Ukitake and Kyouraku decide that they have run far enough and are ready to face the commander. Nanao, who followed them, is completely paralyzed by Yamamoto’s gaze, so her captain quickly takes her to safety before returning to the fight. The commander is quite disappointed that his most promising and strongest disciples decided to turn against him. He takes off his outer garbs, revealing a stunning physique undernearth, and then releases his zanpaktou which turns into a fiery sword.

I’m glad this episode decides to consolidate some of the parallel storylines because otherwise it would have been jumping around all over the place. This episode focuses on the Yamamoto vs. Ukitake/Kyouraku aspects for the second half, while the first does do a lot of that changing point of view. Nothing really to complain about since it’s a welcome change for greater story coherence.
And since they changed stuff around, certain parts of the manga aren’t included: they cover chapters 153 to 155, minus the Soi Fong vs. Yoruichi parts of chapter 154. I guess that’s less than normal, but they make up for it by showing a lot of Yamamoto’s buff body (which feels really unnecessary, but maybe that’s just me).
The three battles developing now are the commander vs. the two captains, Yoruichi vs. Soi Fong, and Ichigo vs. Byakuya. If they go at their current pace, next week will cover the rest of the first fight, and should cover all of the second fight. That leaves Ichigo vs. Byakuya for episode 57 and on.

Closing Thought: I hope the Karakura Super Heroes bit at the end becomes standard (much like the character introductions were). Today’s little bit covered the other half of chapter 88.5 – the fighting half.

Short Summary:
Our heroes arrive on a desolate planet where a local woman tells of a temple in the sky. Their god spoke and said that he would grant one wish to whoever could reach inside the shrine, but all attempts so far have been thwarted by black foot soldiers who are apparently defending the place. Mokona senses a feather, so Syaoran and company set out, fighting the black guards, which Syaoran identifies as the same ones who attacked Clow Country before their journey began. Syaoran and Sakura are eventually separated from Fye and Kurogane, who volunteer to be left behind to fight their opponents. The two enter the main chamber, where Syaoran lets Sakura have the wish while he battles one last enemy. Sakura wishes for the lives of all the people who died trying to get to the shrine. They are all revived, and Sakura still gets her feather back. Having accomplished their mission, the four (plus Mokona) depart again to the next step on their long journey.

This episode has its ups and downs, but ends on a fairly good note. The plot isn’t terribly original, but it’s executed well and that’s what really counts. The quality of the fight scenes went up a notch, though the animation towards the end is a bit iffy. This is a completely unique story to the anime, since the producers probably didn’t want to start the next arc and then leave it hanging for half a year. The only thing that carries over from the manga is the letter that Yuuko sends.
Halfway through the episode, as soon as they got separated, I thought that they were going to end it on a small cliffhanger. Instead of Syaoran and Sakura being reunited with Fye and Kurogane before they leave, I thought that they would keep them separate and just let Mokona transport them all to the next world. Then they could skip the bunny world and arrive straight at Sharano country, where the group is separated anyway. But alas, that’s not now it happened (for better or worse).
But like I said, I’m pretty happy with the ending as it is. We have hints of darker things to come with the Syaoran-like figure in the tube inside of Fei Wong Reed’s lair. There are plenty of unanswered questions, and our heroes continue on their journey to find Sakura’s feathers. I found the Mokona preview spot to be a nice touch – a good way to close it all out.

Final Thoughts: Like its last episode, Tsubasa Chronicle is a series with plenty of ups and downs. It was highly anticipated when it debuted in April, but the first few episodes disappointed a lot of people. However, it starts to hit the right notes once it gets to the Outo arc late in the teens and that continues fairly strongly through the end of the first 26 episodes. And the saga isn’t done yet: from Sharano to Piffle, there’s many more countries to explore and lots of characters to meet. Look forward to the return of Tsubasa Chronicle next April!