But no, Dango Daikazoku isn’t the ED anymore. ;_;

The new season’s here, but like any season where things don’t look too familiar, it can be hard (at least to me) to stop nitpicking at things and choose something that you can find worth watching. That usually works out with people, while in my case, I’m still trying to wash my previous failures (Rosario + Vampire, Vampire Knight, and They are my Noble Masters). And since I haven’t watched Gundam 00, the only thing I can watch while understanding the continuity AND having the pleasure of enjoying it (R + V Capu2 and VK Guilty!? FFFFFFFFFf…) would be Clannad. So the only other thing to go with would be…

Tales of the Abyss

An anime adaptation of the PS2 game and part of Namco’s “Tales of…” series, Tales of the Abyss is set in the land of Auldrant, amidst a conflict between Kingdom of Kimlasca and the Malkuth Empire. The story follows Luke fon Fabre, son of the Duke Fabre of the Kimlasca Kingdom. 7 years ago, Luke was kidnapped by the Malkuth Empire and returned to his mansion suffering a case of amnesia. Accordingly, the fon Fabre’s have chosen to lock him into the mansion grounds, telling him that he will be allowed to explore the outside world once he is of age. When practicing swordsmanship with his teacher, Commandant Van Grants, a mysterious brown headed girl breaks into the mansion accusing of “Vandesdelca” of being a traitor. When Luke defends Van from the girl’s attack, a light erupts from the clashed weapons and mysteriously transports the two far away from the mansion…

I myself haven’t actually played Tales of the Abyss, and the only Tales game I was familiar with was Tales of Symphonia, which I’ve seen played a few times; I think that somewhat gives me an advantage in being surprised on the story developments, since I don’t have any expectations on what part of the game should’ve been animated and what shouldn’t (unfortunately, I’ve been spoiled a good number of plot twists, so I have a few ideas on what’ll happen). As such, the story looks promising so far, Luke and Tear finding a carriage back to the capital seemed to happen kinda fast, but then again one must take into account that in the game, this could’ve easily taken 30 minutes after tutorials for battle and the like, plus the episode ends about a minute afterwards with a cliffhanger of an attack.

It is a bit troubling, though, to try and digest all these terms that are thrown at you during the prologue of the episode, and it doesn’t get any better when they throw a somewhat straightforward, but still a bit confusing prophecy after the OP. The only thing I heard regarding the Fonons (Fonim is the actual Japanese term, but I’ll stick with Fonon for now) is about the 7th one which isn’t even explained that much (i.e. I don’t know what it is), and seeing as how important this knowledge becomes during the Luke and Tear fight, I found myself scratching my head on what they were talking about; a quick trip to wikipedia explains that the 6 Fonons are the elements of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Shadow, and that Sound is the 7th one. I guess the first five seconds were supposedley the explanation, but I think it’s still unfair for me to have to look up the information to find out about what it is at all. After this, things involing Yulia Jue, the Score, and the Order of Lorelei became bit clearer to understand, but I’m still wondering if I actually got all my information right. I’m thinking the game explains it better, though, since they have the time, and maybe it’s not really their fault, but I don’t think an extra few seconds or so of explanation would kill them; I still don’t even know what the hell a “Hyper Resonance” is supposed to indicate.

Luke certainly shows how much of a royal ass he is: he goes around flaunting how he shouldn’t be limited to only the mansion grounds, only to be relieved that riding a carriage won’t “dirty our shoes” when lost in the forest, regarding the fee for riding as cheap and not realizing how hard it was for Tear to give up her necklace in order to ride it. His voice (Suzuki Chihiro) is equally a bit on the nerves, but I wouldn’t call it bad acting so much as decent characterization. The guy has his noble points, regarding Guy as his friend, but at this point I think we’ll be seeing a bit more of his spoiled brat image before he undoubtedley goes hero after some big revelation: my guess is when he cuts his hair.

Tear, on the other hand, is a bit of a strange one, but in a good way: I’m actually a bit surprised that she doesn’t dislike Luke for getting in the way of her battle with Van (since her surname wasn’t revealed as of yet, I’m going to back off on her issues with him) , instead showing a bit of annoyance when he shows disregard for her fee for the carriage and thanking him when they survive the random encounter in the forest. Though it’s not entirely clear to me, I think she is a Seventh Fonon, judging from her spells being cast through singing (who are sung by her seiyuu Yukana, by the way ^_^).

Strangely enough, her first spell that put people to sleep was the same type of glow that Luke had by himself during his chronic headaches, if you can call it that. Tear explained after the fight that Luke is a Seventh Fonist, so maybe this is one of the real reasons why Luke was limited to life within the mansion? Does the “Hyper Resonance” only happen to those who are 7th Fonons? Please note that the same type of glowing affect happens in the OP when Luke is fighting.

As for everything else: the animation is pretty well done, as expected from Sunrise, despite a few gripes here and there, especially during far away shots (as expected from Sunrise). The cast is put together pretty well, but they are reprising roles from the game, so not much can be said: it’s nice to hear Yukana once again, with some calmness in her voice akin to C.C. but overall more emotional, especially during the fight scenes. It’s a bit weird to have Neya Michiko, who plays Natalia, talking in a higher pitch than the roles I’m used to her playing (Agnes in Zero no Tsukaima, Adianne in Gurren Lagann), I’m hoping she’ll be able to toughen up her voice when Natalia starts fighting with a bow. As for future characters, Koyasu Takehito (Shuusuke in Myself; Yourself, Zastin in to-LOVE-ru) is set to appear as Jade, the man with glasses in the OP, while Halko Momoi is set to appear as Anise, the little girl who expands her doll to fight. Meanwhile, the man Luke is shown fighting in the OP, Asch the Bloody, is to be played by Suzuki Chihiro as well, which may hint to their relationship, as the two both have green eyes and red hair, with Asch’s being a few shades darker.

Overall, the series has a nice start and I’m looking forward to the future adventures of Luke and Tear…and hopefully understanding what they’re doing along the way.

OP Song: “Karma” by BUMP OF CHICKEN

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Clannad ~After Story~
Picking up where Clannad left off, the new season is supposed to animate the After Story arc from the Visual Novel and focus on the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa and the hardships they face together…

“S-quiz?” ^_^

…Like a baseball game with the neighboring shopping district team. Okay, well to avoid the series becoming an immediate BAAAAAAW-fest, there always must be a transition to that, which seems to me like a way of emphasizing the “I’d be happy if things stayed the way they are, but they’re not going to” thing. Regardless, it’s nice to start with something light-hearted as a reintroduction to the characters, especially since they managed to pretty much get every major and supporting character together into one episode, with the exception of Ibuki Fuko (although she didn’t have her personal space in OP like the other 4 girls did, a character with her hairstyle in a red shirt is shown in the montage of other characters afterwards), Miyazawa Yukine (library girl), and Tomoya’s father.

My Children!

And of course, the comedic aspect of the series returns as well, most notably (and famously) the constant Sunohara abuse, as well as Akio’s nonsensical but GAR antics. In addition to this would be Yoshino Yusuke’s “A gift without shape called Memory” speech, which seemed to me to be to most memorable scene from the episode (maybe the fact that he semi-recites it twice helped ^^;); we never really got too much of Yusuke’s character since he didn’t play too big of a role in the previous season (though you can point out a similar type of speech during his first appearance involving the fat cat), but that should all change seeing as how he’ll most likely be spending more time with Tomoya.

I’m also interested in what roles Tomoyo and Kotomi will be playing. From what I hear, it seems that once the After Story starts, they both disappear from it, even though Kyou and Ryou are still there. In the Toei Clannad movie, Tomoyo was with Sunohara trying to cheer Tomoya up while Kotomi only has a brief scene and no other role, but like anything liberties are taken, so I’m intrigued on how KyoAni intends to handle the characters here; the ED shows Tomoyo’s brother walking with her amongst the cast, so this may be a hint on what may be covered, while Kotomi might just leave since I have my suspicions on what she has in her hand during the OP. Kyou, on the other hand, is shown among a bunch of children in uniforms (whose hats remind me of a certain young girl who should be appearing halfway through this show ;_;), so it’s safe to bet that she’ll get an episode that involves her interest in becoming a teacher.

And the Illusionary World…judging from the little light ball at the end of the episode, it looks like they’ll be simultaneously playing these events side by side with memorable events similar to the baseball game, and thus cover both worlds at once whereas it was under my impression that the Illusionary World’s events in the VN are done chronologically only i.e. after the real world’s events (I apologize if that sounds weird, it’s hard for me to explain it clearer than this >_<). This is actually a relief to me because back when the After Story was first announced, I had heard that it would only run for 13 episodes, and was convinced that the only way they’d be able to cover that much material would be to hasten the tragic events at break neck speeds right from the get go. 24 should be enough, depending on how things progress, though there’s still a lingering doubt in my head since I’m still wondering what they’ll do about the ending; despite all that, I’m very excited for this season, and am looking forward to having something to watch on Friday’s again.

OP Song: “Toki wo Kimazu Uta” by Lia

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So there you have it! The two shows I’ll be covering this season! While I’m now heading Clannad, Shirukii will occasionally drop in and edit to put in his two cents, so all of you Shirukii-lovers out there won’t be at a total loss. ^^; See ya then!

-Jay

Shirukii’s Edit

Holy crap it’s been a month since I touched this thing, hope I’m not too rusty. I’m not going to go through the rigmarole of explaining why I’m too busy to post, just know that I haven’t forgotten about you guys <3 Which is why I hired slaves co-bloggers to keep the site alive in my absence.

As Jay said, he’ll be taking care of Clannad After for the most part, I’ll just be dropping in with these edits when I have some spare time.

First impressions? I didn’t like the first episode, it felt too much like the first Clannad season, that is, a lighthearted harem-esque love story/school comedy. Clannad After is being hailed as the BAAAAWfest that Clannad never really was, and after sitting through so much harem comedy, I’m a little more than anxious for the drama to get rolling.However! I understood why it was done. A sudden transition from lighthearted love comedy to full scale romance drama bawfest would have been quite the shift in mentality for the viewer, and the experience would probably have come off seeming fragmented. Furthermore, any new viewers who happened to stumble upon the series without having watched it’s predecessor would feel alienated as deep plot elements whizzed by their heads without explanation. So a transitional period between the two emotional extremes and a quick reintroduction of all the characters so that new viewers who might be interested are given the chance and incentive to take a step back and watch the first season was definitely in order. But personally, anxious to leave Clannad’s harem roots in the dust, I didn’t like it.

However, I must say that I do approve the return of Kyou’s thighs.

~ Shirukii ~