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「孤独な誇り egyedülálló büszkeség」 (Kodoku na Hokori)
“Solitary Pride”
Not only does she have Tachibana Dousetsu’s legendary Raikiri, Misuzu also has four other katanas from renowned Japanese swordsmiths. And here I thought The Sacred Blacksmith was for katana fanatics.
From left to right, we have Kogarasu Maru Amakuni, Kashagiri Hiromitsu, Kannagiri Nagamitsu, Tachibana Dousetsu Raikiri, and Doujigiri Yasutsuna. Aside from Raikiri which Dousetsu made infamous by supposedly cutting through lightning with, the rest of the katanas are suffixed with their respective creator’s name. While I’m far from being the most knowledgeable person in the history of katanas, I’m sure many people have come across some of these names in Japanese video games. This includes (but is not limited to) the Final Fantasy series, Castlevania: SotN, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and even here in 11eyes. The tachi Doujigiri Yasutsuna is actually a national treasure of Japan and can be seen in a museum today. In any case, I just thought it was kind of cool how they went out of their way to introduce all the swords specifically.
Back to the world of 11eyes, the Kusakabe family’s tradition of battling to the death over ownership of these five treasured swords explains how Misuzu came into possession of them. In her last challenge, she defeated and killed her own father — the head of Kusakabe family — for Yasutsuna. Despite going through the legitimate means, Misuzu is targeted by the main family for doing so and upsetting the balance of power by obtaining all five swords. Most of all though, they want her dead for being a teenage girl that resembles a previous, powerful, female onmyouji (priest/sorcerer), Kusakabe Misao, who committed a taboo by combining Buddhist arts with Western ones (i.e. black magic). Incidentally, Misuzu also knows some of these forbidden techniques and uses one to conceal her five swords until she needs them.
The core of the “eye-opening” story this episode revolves around the above, along with the notion that Lisette may be the Misao that was exiled from the family 70 years ago. In addition, the Black Knights hinted that they were previously human, making me wonder if they are fallen Kusakabe onmyouji or ones that turned to forbidden arts as well. This would help explain why Lisette is with them all this time (if she really is Misao) and the dreams Kakeru has of a supposed past life where he finds himself in castle rife with bodies. Evidently, the mysterious power of his right-eye was key to things then, despite its actual purpose being fairly unclear at this point.
At the beginning of the episode, I found it a bit agitating to see Kakeru immediately accept everything that’s happening to be his fault. He then quickly went on to ask Misuzu to teach him how to fight in hopes of activating his dormant power for Yuka’s sake. That type of protagonist attitude helps move the story along quickly, but it doesn’t seem the least bit sensible to me. The request for training is fine, but pitting all the blame on himself already is pretty dumb when he doesn’t even know what’s going on. Later on in the fight against the Black Knights, he’s also adamant about helping out even though he’s still powerless to do so. While I can understand his desire to protect and not be protected, that hot-headed personality always seems to get to me because of the stupidity that usually comes along with it.
Even with the help of their new ally Yukiko, I was a bit surprised to see one of the Black Knights go down already. But as a twelve episode series (confirmed here), the pacing makes sense in retrospect. In very video game-like fashion, one of the crystal towers went down when Gula (Gluttony) did, making it seem like escaping the Red Night requires beating all the Black Knight “bosses”. As linear as that may sound, I expect there to be some twists along the way seeing as this is based on a visual novel. Speaking of the visual novel, I decided to look up its opening for comparison purposes.
11eyes visual novel OP 「Lunatic Tears…」 by Ayane ▼
From what I gather, the anime is pretty faithful to the original character designs, but I noticed that the Black Knights were rendered in 3D at one part. The song is “Lunatic Tears…” by Ayane, whose single for the anime opening “Arrival of Tears” was released yesterday. I’m still trying to get a hold of the PV that came with the limited edition version and will probably post about it when I do. I really like the full version of the song, but still wish they didn’t auto-tune Ayane’s voice so much. I find she sounds better without all the digital processing crap on top.
Preview
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first. aw i am lame i know
has RC decided what to blog yet? (it’s a shame bantorra isn’t involved. xP)
nice compare. the ed from the game is also pretty good.
this is a really promissing series, i said that about a bunch of other animes here, but i am confident about this one
so when is Tajima Takahisa going to be more involved in the episode is he just going to a few second sence eating something or just walking around
Looks like Kakeru is going to become the master of raikiri by the hints of the opening.
https://randomc.net/image/11eyes/11eyes%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
I couldn’t imagine in reality a techer as hot at this one xD
Thanks, anime god.
if there’s a teacher like that, she would be fire for dressing like that. She would never be taken seriously
After 3 episodes I still think the school uniform looks stupid, I just can’t seem to get my head round it. That H-game character designer must really have had a strong maid fetish to dress up students like that. 😛
As for episode itself imho it is a mixed bag. The first half was angsty, slow, and fairly boring. In fact I discovered that my attention kept wandering off and I had to rewind and rewatch some segments. However once the red night starts it is much better, but then again it is difficult to make watching pretty redheads with big flaming swords fighting monsters boring. 😀
I was assuming that Misao was Show Spoiler ▼
Of course I could be wrong.
@Ninja Penguin,
it is not the H-game char designer who has strong maid fetish, but the otakus for whom the game is specifically made 🙂
Well, the good thing is that he accepts and moved on to finding a way to fight. The bad thing is like you said, he accepts it too easily. However, what other choice does he really have?
Desho?:
I can’t speak for Omni, but I’m planning to continue with all the shows I’ve been covering so far. If things get hectic later on, I’ll likely drop the ones that aren’t too popular reader-wise (but continue watching them). It’s just better time spent if I don’t have that much to begin with.
However, I did decide to stop coverage on Seitokai no Ichizon even though I’m still watching it. I find that I don’t have too much to say about that show each episode without sounding like I’m saying the same things every time. I’m still watching The Sacred Blacksmith as well, but coverage is left up to Omni should he choose to do it.
Silver:
I agree that his acceptance is a good thing. My main qualm is why he’s so quick to blame himself for it. A random note in the library is all he really has to go on right now.
@Desho?
Based on the posts with the shows’ title tags, here’s the fall lineup so far:
Sunday: Natsu no Arashi ~Akinai-chuu~, Sora no Otoshimono
Monday: Fairy Tail, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza
Tuesday: Kobato, Kimi ni Todoke, 11eyes
Wednesday: Sasameki Koto
Thursday: DtB: Ryuusei no Gemini, Kämpfer, Nyan Koi
Friday: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Saturday: InuYasha -Kanketsu-hen-, Letter Bee
So um yeah… It’s looking like what pierce just listed.
However, you can expect me to pounce on any show that has something noteworthy to talk about, much like I did with Phantom and Pandora Hearts out of the blue.
what the hell?
https://randomc.net/image/11eyes/11eyes%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
Only 12 eps? The shows recently aren’t being given enough time to do anything extraordinary like develop the characters or the plot. As for Kakeru being so quick to accept that it’s his fault…
A. How does he know that? A letter saying he’s woken up demons somehow instantly tells him this is all his fault?
B. These are a bunch of pretty generic characters. I watch it mostly for his sister.
I really do wish that Random Curiosity could’ve blogged Pandora Hearts and Phantom till the end. Bee Train finally pulls out a good show out of their ass, and not that many people saw it):
Unfortunately, that was during a time I had no plans on blogging again. I only slowly got back into things with Hayate no Gotoku. :\
Is Yuka a Yoshida Kazumi clone?
The series feels like it got potential but 12 episodes is just too short. The episode was not that bad but for some reason, it feels a little rushed though.
Great post, a million thanks for the episode coverage. Hope the site can continue the posting for this anime.
@divine Though, I’m still glad that your back in to blogging again:)
The opening for 11 eyes is great, but its just that for some reason I expected more from 11 eyes, like more drama and better action put into it, rather than some lame comedy scenes, and some predictable scenes.
So once again, we get an overly effeminate emo male – who will somehow gain the attention of all the girls.
–Delete–
I think I figured something else out about the audio for this show. It’s like they lowered the voices so you have to turn the volume up so when the sound effects play they sound better or something.
“While I can understand his desire to protect and not be protected, that hot-headed personality always seems to get to me because of the stupidity that usually comes along with it.”
Shiro from Fate Stay Night was 100x worse – especially if you choose the Fate route.
The Unlimited Blade Works route was full of Shiro’s …stupidity? denial of reality? I don’t know how to express it.
Haven’t gone down Heaven’s feel yet.