An actual fight!!

Really sorry for the late post guys, school’s been picking up and I’ve been left behind ;_; But alas, you’re not here for my life story, you’re here for some Shana goodness… which unfortunately has been lacking lately. Epi 07 and 08 are being combined since 07 was such a waste of an episode. Oh well, at least all this useless stuff is finally over.

Summary:

07: Ike plans a trip for himself, Yoshida, Yuuji, Shana, Konoe, Satou, Ogata, and Tanaka at an amusement park. Much uselessness ensues. Throughout the day, Ike tries to impress Yoshida with his superior organizational and preparational skills, but fails horribly. Honestly, there’s nothing much to summarize because nothing happens. They go to shops that are closed, Ike lines up for a rollercoaster he doesn’t want to go on, Yoshida waits in line with him as they get some time alone, Ike becomes pathetic, they run through a maze together, they ride a ferris wheel together, Ike throws up. That just about sums it up.

Continuing straight over to episode 08, stuff actually starts to happen. But not really. Now instead of wasting time and not advancing the story, we flashback to times long past and neglect to truly advance the story. We’re beginning to see Margery’s past when she was living in NY, and the people she encountered there.

Sporting a nice dress and letting her hair down and untied, Margery battles some sort of Tomogara that can control the advancement of civilizations. During her battle, Metamorphosis appears and defends the Tomogara, as he apparently was contracted to do so. After being beaten heavily by the duo, Margery collects herself, when she meets the Hauler of Prevailing Ghouls, Yuri Chvojka. He’s a new flame haze that seems to have no sense of how a flame haze should act. However useless, he works as an Outlaw, which seems to be a not so useless position.

Over at Eastedge, Margery arrives at a bar and delivers a message, the reason for her coming to NY. The message is about Revolution, a group of Tomogara that need to be fought off. Margery is given the job, as well as the duty to train little Yuri. However, due to the simple fact that Yuri just doesn’t have what it takes to be a flame haze, Margery gives up on the idea of training him and goes to battle without him. Having an idea of where the Tomogara they fought earlier is, Margery heads to the Empire State Building and forms a fuzetsu to start their fight.

Back over at the current time, and not Margery’s past, we have Yuuji training against Wilhelmina and he has quite some progress. He’s able to use his power of existence to go head to head with large rinne [namely the one that Marian and Friagne used against him at the beginning of the series], and his usefulness is starting to show. Shana sees the promise in Yuuji and wants to teach him unrestricted spells next, including the coveted fuzetsu.

Thoughts:

Episode 07 was another waste of an episode. Much like the previous recent episodes, I struggled to get through the entire thing without quitting halfway through. At least now it isn’t about Shana and Yoshida being stupid about their feelings towards Yuuji. Now it’s… Ike being stupid about his feelings towards Yoshida. On second thought, I’m not too sure that’s much of an improvement, given there’s really no benefit of furthering the relationship between the two. Ike is and will probably always be a minor character, and his relationship with Yoshida will never interfere with how she feels for Yuuji. Even if the unlikely event happened and they DID get together, what would happen next? There needs to be a love triangle somewhere, so with Yoshida gone, who will fill in the gap? Konoe? Unlikely. If she’s Hecate, then “Konoe” as a role that Hecate plays will disappear. If she’s not Hecate but still part of Balle Masque, then there’s no way she’ll stick around for long. Finally, if she’s not Hecate and is completely unrelated to Balle Masque, then she’d quickly be relegated to a minor character and we’d never hear of her again. Unless she’s like Ike and comes back next season to try to steal Yuuji away, but now things are getting wayyy too unlikely.

I don’t even know why we’re wasting time on Ike anyways. The past few episodes were centered around Konoe’s introduction and the impact it had on the love triangle. Having finally gotten over it, now we’ve changed gears to Ike and Yoshida, which basically completely ignores all the “development” we’ve suffered through. Is this the reward to Yoshida for getting through all that jealousy stuff? It just makes the flow of the story seem so random and meaningless. If say, they jumped from getting over the jealousy to a fight with a Tomogara, you would be able to see the fruits of their labor, as they would probably be cooperative with each other and further bonding would develop. However, instead we have a story that has no relevance to the plot and is seriously useless. Why do you do this to us? ;__; On this note, episode 08 isn’t providing a wealth of help either on that issue. Again, the story is stagnant and doesn’t deal with the previous jealousy arc. Instead we watch a story of Margery’s past, which by no means is a bad thing, but there could’ve been a better flow of events.

Now changing from complaining about the uselessness of the episode, I’ll talk of how useless Ike is. I’ll give him slack for telling off Yuuji when Yuuji was being stupid with his three ladies, but this episode I had a huge urge to slap him across the face. Hard. His need for everything to go JUST AS PLANNED and his bawwing when things weren’t perfect were less than desired. And his little victory that eventually ends up being messed up at the last moment? He deserves that. But that just makes the episode more useless, seeing how absolutely nothing really advanced.

But I think I’m complaining too much about this episode, so I’ll move on.

Episode 8 was a very welcome change. We get a rare glimpse into Margery’s past in her younger days back over at NY. Her experiences with Yuri will probably be the reason why she’s so against having Satou and Tanaka follow her. I suspect Yuri’s lack of a real fighting spirit will lead to his eventual demise, and Margery will take the blame upon herself. Not wanting to lose another person like that, Margery’ll refuse to train Satou. I guess that’s fair enough. Margery probably has seen plenty of deaths in her time, and a life of a flame haze must be lonely. She probably adopts the reasoning that she will outlive any mere human, so she shouldn’t get too involved with them. Kind of a sad story, really.

I hope to see more of Margery’s other past. Since I haven’t watched the first season in such a long time, I forget what exactly the reason for her fighting was. Her hunting for the silver… wolf, was it? I just hope they go back and eventually explain that one fully though. Originally, I suspected that the silver wolf [or whatever it was] was actually Metamorphosis in a wolf’s form, but seeing how the NY fight was the first time they ever faced off, I figure that’s unlikely now. If it turns out to be someone like Hecate, then that would really blow my mind, but I think that’s the least likely yet.

Yuuji’s recent developments really boosted up his usefulness. In the previous season, all he could do was be a huge talking target with an anti-flame hougu as his only means of defense. Now, not only has he been trained in battle, he can defend himself with physical reinforcement as well as launch powerful physical attacks. With the promise of unrestricted spells in the future and his huge capacity for power of existence, he’ll really become a Mistes to be feared. I really look forward to future battles with Yuuji, since he’ll be able to do something now. Too much uselessness, needs more people who can actually fight!

But am I the only one who thinks giving a mere Torch who wishes to remain human the powers of summoning a fuzetsu is a bad idea? Just think of how Yuuji will abuse that power. He’ll be able to ace any test at school by just fuzetsuing and whipping out his textbooks while everybody else is frozen. Or maybe he’ll just waltz into a bank and waltz out a million dollars richer.

Or maybe he’s just not evil like that.

…maybe.

//Soda

You should be able to solve this

Rejoice! All this little drama regarding the love polygon should finally be over. The girls have finally accepted the fact that Yuuji is just spending some time with Konoe, and that they’re all finally taking steps forward. Finally.

Summary:

Class starts with an announcement from the teacher that there’s a pop quiz the next day that will test every subject. Ogata and Ike organize the entire group to study at Satou’s, after having Yuuji ask Shana and Yoshida. They all agree, and gather to study.

Before all the girls and Ike arrive, Satou, Tanaka and Yuuji try to convince Margery to leave Satou’s house as to not cause unnecessary trouble. Too drunk for words, she refuses. Thankfully she does, because she proves quite useful later on.

Ike’s ladies

Everyone settles down and starts studying. Yoshida, being the smart one she is, decides she’ll skip the studying and instead cook for the rest of her friends. They all eat dinner after a bit of studying, and while washing the dishes, Ogata and Yoshida bump into a drunk Margery =0 Oh the drama, the development =0 Ogata questions Margery’s relationship with Tanaka, since Ogata obviously feels threatened. Margery says that there’s nothing special going on, it’s just that the guys admire her. And while she’s at it, Margery throws in a few love tips which Yoshida also listens to intently.

Meanwhile Konoe and Shana go out to look for Ogata and Yoshida, since they’ve been missing for a long time. They come across the still unwashed dishes, and attempt their own jab at doing a proper job. Konoe, being the princess she is, and Shana, being the inexperienced flame haze she is, completely fail at the task and end up blowing up water everywhere. This also relieves the tension between everybody, and things go back to normal. Yoshida tells Shana the wisdom Margery imparted on her, and they both finally get over their jealousy of Konoe =0

Thoughts:

THANK YOU MARGERY, I THINK I MIGHT LOVE YOU. It doesn’t rival any Noto role, but still, you got the girls out of their love polygon funk and we can finally put an end to that drama. I’m glad it’s finally over, it was made of DO NOT WANT and kill me now.

Margery, once again, gives some advice to Ogata. The first time should’ve been during the onsen OVA, although I’ll admit I forget what exactly she said since it’s been so long. But Margery’s proving to be a character that isn’t just sitting along in the sidelines getting drunk. Or maybe she still is, but at least she got us over this part. I couldn’t be happier. Her little love wisdom thing also confirms the fact that she’s essentially a big sister to Satou and Tanaka. And no, the guys aren’t into siscon >_>

Shana and Yoshida should hopefully be fully back to normal starting from next epi, or at least they won’t be nearly as annoying as before. However, judging by the episode preview of 07, it doesn’t look like there will be any real progress regarding Konoe’s origins, so she’ll remain and cause trouble for the ladies for a little longer.

On that note, I have to constantly remind myself that Konoe isn’t a lifeless doll. Her quietness and need for everything to be done for her is typical of a doll, yet when she went to look for Ogata and Yoshida, I was reminded acutely that she was a normal human by most standards. It’s nice of her to be concerned, and it makes me wonder if Hecate is capable of feeling something like that, should they prove to be separate entities [which I think they are].

Unfortunately, looking at the next episode’s preview, it would appear that we’re not quite out of the woods yet. Now it’s Ike’s turn to toil with his relationship with Yoshida, which should also affect the previously established love polygon.

…So when can we get back to swords, fire, and killing? I’m not a shounen addict, but seriously, I’m not watching this series for the intricate webbings of a high school drama. That’s like watching School Days for the romance. Now certainly you can have SOME drama in Shana, but looking at the stats here, it’s clearly unbalanced. We have 6 episodes so far, the first one of which being a recap episode, which basically sets us down to 5 episodes. Of those, the past 4 episodes were devoted to the love polygon, and the only fighting we got was between the girls and Yuuji. Ok ok FINE, you can count in training if you REALLY want to, but that hardly changes anything. And the fight with the flame haze that controlled fire rings? He literally died less than 2 minutes after his first attack. Additionally, 50 seconds of that “fight” was spent on him helplessly crawling over to Konoe, attempting to eat her power of existence. The only reason the fight lasted so long was because of Shana’s wanting to test out her theory. So looking at it, we have: recap, fight, love polygon, love polygon, love polygon, love polygon. And the next episode is Ike’s little drama.

Shana is not pleased

So are we going to advance the story with some killing or what?

//Soda

Noodle time in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

Much like last time, there’s a lot of tension between the girls and Yuuji because of the amount of attention he’s giving to Konoe. In fact, the entire episode was devoted to the relationships between each of the characters. Personally, I don’t like seeing the girls get all “confused” about Yuuji. Save it for LiveJournal or something, ladies.

Summary:

We start off with a training session between Yuuji and Wilhelmina. Yuuji surprisingly is able to dodge and fend off an attack by Wilhelmina, which goes to show his progress. He’s slowly becoming more and more able to control his power of existence and manipulate it to benefit him better, like physical reinforcement of his body.

After Wilhelmina gets back home, she cooks up some cup noodles and calls it dinner. Shana, still fighting with her emotions regarding Yuuji, skips dinner for a bath. She’s noticeably irritated and snaps at Wilhelmina after she lectures Shana about leaving her clothes in a mess.

Morning of the next day, Yuuji goes over to Konoe’s place to pick her up, but since she’s running a little late, Yuuji is invited inside to wait. The princess finally is ready, and they go off to school. On the way, the bump into Shana, who just angrily runs off.

Once at school, their homeroom teacher asks for Yoshida and Ogata to switch roles in taking care of Konoe with Yuuji. Yoshida actually agrees with it and gives up her place with Yuuji. Ike finally gets tired of Yuuji’s actions, so he outright tells him to stop tending to Konoe so much. But alas, Yuuji has no idea what Ike is talking about.

At the end of the school day, Ogata ditches Tanaka to go with Yuuji and Konoe as her new role requires of her, while Yoshida and Shana angrily/jealously watch them leave. After Konoe is dropped off, Ogata and Yuuji walk off alone until Tanaka shows up to pick up his girl. They split from Yuuji, and cue in a moment of slight awkwardness between them.

Shana comes home to a homecooked meal from Wilhelmina, a rare sight and a huge shift from instant noodles/meron pan. It doesn’t have the best taste in the world, but Shana is thankful for the effort, and finally takes her first steps to going back to her normal self.

Thoughts:

I didn’t really like this episode all that much. Too much drama, not enough swords and killing.

Shana keeps avoiding Yuuji, keeping everything stagnant. I’m happy Wilhelmina is getting her out of this phase, but it’s still taking too long. Too many scenes of Shana watching Yuuji and Konoe, then bawwwing and wondering why she’s feeling mad/irritated when she doesn’t want to. You’d think it would be kind of obvious to her by now. Too much tsun tsun. Too annoying =/

And Yoshida is absolutely no relief either. She’s the exact same as Shana. “I’m feeling bad, is this jealousy?” x 1000. I get the point, can we please move on? ;___;

Although I sound rather bitter, those two are the only people I’m really complaining about. Everything else was fine.

More development on Konoe’s origins. Seeing how her butler has the same bracelet as Konoe and that both are on their right wrists, it certainly implies something significant about it. I’d suspect it’s related to some sort of illusionary magic. It certainly isn’t out of the question, seeing how in previous episodes, an entire dream world was created that was hard to discern from reality. Balle Masque probably chose an abandoned mansion and included that in the illusionary magic so that it would look full of life once again. I won’t be surprised if/when Konoe disappears, there will be a scene of Yuuji standing infront of Konoe’s former mansion, now old, worn down, and empty.

On that note, Yuuji’s recent developments in his abilities are certainly promising. I’d like to see him get useful sometime soon on the battlefield, instead of forcing Shana to always kick him to safety. Can’t be much fun that way anyways =/

Ike’s even doing something now. Despite being Yuuji’s rival, he still has the decency to tell Yuuji to shape up and back off from Konoe. By doing that, he kind of gave up his chance to strike and get close to Yoshida. Of course, that’s assuming Yuuji actually listens to Ike. At least we know that not all guys in the series are completely brainless.

And Ogata. Yuuji really doesn’t know when to quit, dragging Ogata into his mix of ladies. Tanaka sure can’t be too happy about that one, but at least it’s nice to see he’s actually getting somewhere with Ogata. Side characters: not completely neglected. Hurrahs!

I wonder about the significance of the empty rooms in Konoe’s mansion. Am I missing something blatantly obvious? Yuuji pays a good amount of attention to it, so I figure I’m being blind to something. Perhaps if there’s really nothing special about it, the purpose of it will be to serve as a contrast to the empty mansion that appears, should everything really be just illusionary magic. Another thing that I don’t see the significance of yet is the black car that keeps driving around. I don’t think it’s because the animators just wanted to throw in a random black car into the scenes to make it seem more realistic. There seems to be something about that black car. But then again, what use do Tomogara/Flame Haze have for cars? I mean, they can fly around and all that, so maybe I’m just being paranoid.

In any case, I’m happy the arc is progressing so we can finally get it over with. With Shana’s imminent return to normal, things are looking up. However, judging by the episode preview of 06, it looks like there’ll be one more episode at least until things can finally blow over. Hurry up ;__;

//Soda

As a change in pace, I’ll be stealing this Shana post instead of the usual Shirukii. Sorry Shirukii lovers, but it looks like you’ll have to find your fix in another post =p

This episode was all about Yuuji’s increase in his harem by adding in Konoe, and the destructive effects it has on his other ladies. He’s no Makoto, but he’s getting there.

Summary

Now that Shana and Yuuji think that Konoe is a normal human, they let down their defenses and get closer to her. They pick her up everyday to walk her to school, they eat lunch with her, and they’re always together. It’s fairly obvious by Konoe’s insistence on staying close with Yuuji and her constant shirt tug on him that there’s some sort of attraction going on there. And it’s absolutely no wonder that the increased time that Yuuji spends with Konoe starts to bother Shana, and that she’s starting to show more of that tsun tsun. Do not want?

But what can Shana do? Nothing more than just attempt to pretend like nothing’s wrong while being pissed off inside… which is exactly what she does when PE class starts and the students are all forced to clean the pool. The rather mundane activity picks up in excitement when Ogata sparks a waterfight and much fun ensues, but Shana sits off to the side without participating, feeling sorry for herself.

Lunch hits, and things start to take a turn for the worse. Seeing Yuuji’s two bentou from Shana and Yoshida, little Konoe wants to try some too. Sakai stupidly offers his lunches to Konoe, despite the protest of Ogata and the silent protest from Shana. This only serves to piss off Shana more, and starts to stir up feelings of jealousy in even Yoshida. Even Ike notices how big of an idiot Yuuji is. orz

After school, Yuuji and his three ladies walk around town. Konoe walks off by herself without realizing it, and Shana blows up on her for her inconsiderate actions. Yuuji, being typical Yuuji, takes the side of Konoe and manages to piss off Shana even more. It really starts to show when training begins, and Shana gets serious on the poor guy. However, Alastor comments on Yuuji’s improvements, and tells him he has promise in the future. Maybe we’ll see Yuuji actually useful someday =0 Meanwhile, Wilhelmina and Margery Daw come to their own conclusions that Konoe is probably a normal human, and not Hecate.

The next day, Yuuji, the three girls, Ike, Ogata, Satou, and Tanaka all go to a new Supersize Heaven restaurant. They all get HUUUGE servings of food, and demonstrate their superhuman abilities of cleaning off plates. Little Konoe curls up like a cat and sleeps =3

But it doesn’t last long. After everybody finishes their meals, they realize that Konoe has run off again without informing anybody. Everybody’s concerned about her, all except Shana. Being jealous that Konoe is always on Yuuji’s mind, she tries to convince him to simply forget about Konoe and to leave her alone. It doesn’t really work, and Shana runs off home alone, confused at what her true thoughts are, and why she’s feeling this way. But as she’s walking home, she looks behind her, only to come to the realization that Yuuji isn’t following her.

Meanwhile, Yuuji’s off looking for Konoe, and finds her at a park. She was out there saving a baby bird from a stray cat =3 He realizes just how similar she is to Hecate, and while his eyes are locked upon hers, Yoshida walks in and observes the scene before her.

At the end of the day, Yuuji’s at home, wondering where Shana is. Wilhelmina appears, informing him that Shana won’t come back, and that Wilhelmina will take over Yuuji’s training. Cutting to Yoshida, we see her preparing her bentou for Yuuji’s lunch tomorrow, but thoughts of jealousy appear in her mind.

When tomorrow morning hits, Yuuji is walking to school alone with Konoe. He sees Yoshida, who offers an awkward greeting. Shana appears behind them and coldly says hello, leaving no time to talk. During lunchtime, Ike gives Yuuji the bentou that Yoshida made, telling him that she had a meeting to attend and couldn’t join them for lunch. Up on the rooftop of the school, we see Yoshida and Shana eating their lunches together, alone, as neither want to see Yuuji at the moment.

Thoughts

NOTO!!!!!!! Yeah I’ll say it, I’m a huge Noto Mamiko fan, so all this Konoe/Hecate screentime makes me happy =D I’m still really jealous of anybody who got to see Noto at Otakon. I’d kill for that. Yes, I’d even kill you. So don’t brag to me that you met her, because I’ll go cry in a dark corner alone ;_______;

But Konoe’s soft and naive nature makes her an awesome character. There are limits to retarded moe, but I think she’s still within acceptable limits. She just needs to adjust from her ojou lifestyle, is all. And her insistence on sitting beside Yuuji, her constant shirt tugs on Yuuji, her curled up sleeping… do want!

In a way, she reminds me of other Noto characters, which is never a minus. Her ability to deal with animals reminds me of Tsukamoto Yakumo of Sukuran. Konoe’s saving of the baby bird is somewhat relatable to Yakumo’s saving of Iori, even though I highly doubt the baby bird will become a recurring character. Or that Konoe’s friendliness with animals is relatable to Yakumo’s, which you could see in how much Pyotr the giraffe liked Yakumo. Meanwhile, Konoe’s interactions with food reminds me of Ichinose Kotomi of Clannad. However, instead of Kotomi’s offering of food to Tomoya, we have Yuuji offering his food to Konoe. Except that… well, it’s not really Yuuji’s food. But alas, I digress.

So indeed, seeing Konoe advance her relationship with Yuuji is really nice, but it’s actually a mixed reaction. Her presence is causing Shana and Yoshida quite some trouble, and seeing them in full out jealous mode is rather tiring. There can only be so many fights over Yuuji, and it feels like it’s nearing that quota.

Shana is more tsun tsun and is only causing Yuuji more trouble. What I find somewhat strange is the fact that she was fairly okay with a rivalry with Yoshida, but once Konoe is thrown into the equation, she totally loses it. Perhaps she realizes just how compromised her position is, now that a Noto has stepped up to the plate? But she just seems so overreactive and extreme in her thought process, evidenced by how she decides to stop training with Yuuji and to not go over to his place anymore. And of course her constant insistence to leave Konoe alone. Konoe must think Shana absolutely hates her with the fiery passion of a thousand suns or something, because that’s certainly what it sounds like.

I will say, however, that I found it rather surprising that after Shana stormed off from Supersize Heaven, she turned around only to not see Yuuji there. That must’ve really been a blow against her, as it seems most natural that Yuuji will always follow her. But I think even more surprising than that was that she continued to walk home alone even after realizing Yuuji’s not following her, and that she didn’t turn around to find him. She chooses to not do anything and to instead stay jealous and confused, which then only leads her to worsen her relationship with Yuuji.

Yoshida, on a similar boat as Shana, also surprises me with her jealousy. I didn’t expect her to give in to jealousy as easily as Shana did, seeing how she was always fighting a losing battle with Yuuji. Yuuji and Shana are always together, they’re fighting battles against other Flame Haze and Guze no Tomogara, while Yoshida is on the sidelines and can only really interact with Yuuji at school, a huge disadvantage. However, Yoshida finally breaks and even she reduces her contact with Yuuji, lying about being busy during lunchtime so she can avoid him. She didn’t have much of a fighting chance before, so Konoe shouldn’t affect her THAT much. And it’s a large contrast to her actions before. Yoshida at the beginning promised that she too would pick up Konoe from her house to help familiarize her with the area and to make her feel more welcome. And during PE class, Yoshida also saved Konoe from falling into an empty pool. The shift in her actions really show Yoshida’s shift in feelings from one of friendliness to one of rivalry and jealousy.

I guess that just goes to show how similar Shana and Yoshida are with regards to Yuuji, which can also explain why they were fine with being rivals before. But now that Konoe is in the fight too, everything’s thrown off balance, I guess.

I personally don’t really like all this drama that’s being stirred up because of Konoe. It’s too childish and destructive. I’ll admit though, if this is a carefully crafted plan by Bal Masque to split up the Reiji Maigo from its protective Flame Haze, it certainly is working like a charm. Not only that, but with a connection between Hecate and Yuuji now existing, it will only make it harder for Yuuji to fight off Hecate when Bal Masque’s next plan is in motion. Even if Konoe turns out to be a normal human and not Hecate, Yuuji is still seeing the high resemblance between them, which means he’ll no doubt associate Hecate with the lovable Konoe. It’s a shame he’ll ultimately choose Shana in the end and not Hecate =(

//Soda

Well after a really long time, I finally got around to watching Mushi-shi, and it was more than worth it. The stories, the characters, almost everything was executed with such precision and elegance. It really was a series I loved watching unfold.

Mushi-shi follows the stories of Ginko as he wanders around different towns and cities, working. His profession? He’s a [surprise!] Mushi-shi. And what does he do? He deals with [surprise!] Mushi. Mushi are basically existences that are quite different from our own, and can be said to be primitive forms of life. However, that does not mean they aren’t complex in nature, which essentially creates the need for the Mushi-shi.

As stated before, the series basically follows Ginko as he deals with multiple cases involving different Mushi. The series is entirely episodic, and each single episode deals with a different area with different characters with a different Mushi to deal with. Factor in the fact that there are 26 episodes, and you end up with 26 distinctly different stories that are connected by one single character’s wanderings.

Now normally, for most types of series, I’d prefer a consistent storyline that flows from one episode to the next, as opposed to Mushi-shi’s episodic nature. That way, there’s enough time to develop each character involved in each story, and there’s enough time to give background information and truly make the story come to life with elaborated expression. When a series is forced to contain each story within a single episode, it runs the risk of losing all of that. Instead, we’re left with a rushed story with rushed characters that seem to really add nothing to the story. And when you add nothing to a story for 26 episodes, it understandably gets tiring. Another potential problem is the repetitiveness of creating “new” situations in every episode. Similarities between stories may come about, and the entire watching experience may just feel like watching the same episode again and again. Jigoku Shoujo, a series that was mostly episodic, had some problems with underdeveloped characters in its many stories, and its many stories had some problems with the very similar situations shared between them.

Mushi-shi, however, was a series that managed to pull it off. Every episode had engaging characters with a unique story. Quite honestly, it blew me away. Each episode had a completely new set of characters [less Ginko], yet they still managed to paint each character with life. Despite the lack of screen time, these characters had backstories that tugged at the heart, and had to deal with issues plaguing their present, just so they can hope to secure the future. It wasn’t difficult to sympathize with characters and identify with them as they struggle with whatever life was throwing at them.

And my oh my, did life ever throw things at them. Shifting my discussion from the human characters, I move to the non-human characters, the Mushi. The Mushi are the primary source of each of the problems featured in each episode. So, being the Mushi-shi he is, Ginko sets out to attempt to solve the issue by the end of the episode. However, it’s not a simple matter of “oh noes, the mushi are releasing a poison into the air, and we need to do something before they start harming the village. How do I killed mushi?”. It’s more of a “oh noes, the mushi are releasing a poison into the air, and we need to do something before the start harming the village. So THIS is how I killed mush—WHOAMG WHAT IS THAT?!?!”, except better.

But don’t misunderstand, this isn’t a series about a man saving the world, one Mushi at a time. It’s not a shounen series where the male lead goes out, kicks some massively impossibly strong butt, then comes back home [a la Namek]. The goal isn’t to rid the world of troublesome Mushi, but attempt to deal with the many issues and problems that arise when Mushi appear. It’s about the situations the Mushi cause. It’s the side effects of the existence of Mushi. From these side effects, we get to deal with other issues. Issues that are more… human, so to speak. For example, I’ll speak a little bit about my favourite episode of the series [and thus, my favourite story]. The episode was centered around death and rebirth, the ability to live eternally by reincarnation. The Mushi are just used as a plot device to allow for the creation of such a situation so that the main issue [in this case, death and rebirth] can be addressed and dealt with. And it works beautifully. The characters are placed in a story where reincarnation is a very real and immediate event, and the events that unfold from that is what we, as viewers, explore.

…Which is the appeal of Mushi-shi. The existence of Mushi allows for the creation of any story without limit. While “normal” anime series are constrained by their settings and direction [for example, a normal highschool romance will have trouble expressing the issues of, say, time travel and the hardships of waiting for a loved one to come back from the future], Mushi-shi can do any subject it wishes. What’s more is that due to its episodic nature, it can change topics instantly. One episode can be about death and rebirth, while the very next episode can be about living your life as a bringer of death and suffering [note: yes, it actually does that]. Mushi-shi is an incredibly flexible series, and it’s not afraid to take full advantage of it.

I will admit that I felt the series had some faults, however small. Although being episodic allowed it to have such great flexibility, I still felt that some episodes suffered. Timeskips were often used to bring closure to the many stories, and it really disrupted the flow of continuous events in the episode. We would watch an entire episode, and in the last five minutes, it will suddenly state that six months have passed [instantaneously to the viewers] and that Ginko has visited the town in question once again. The closure was indeed needed, but the sudden jumps in time were a little detracting.

Music and animation are never big points that I take into consideration, as I don’t really pay attention to them. The OP I listened to about… two times. And I don’t think I ever made it through the ED fully. I don’t care much for either, so I simply moved on. Animation was fine, nothing hideously ugly or anything. Something that I DID notice, however, was that there just seemed to be a lack of unique character designs. I don’t know, maybe I’m just crazy, but every new episode, I would see the same character designs [excluding Ginko of course, since he’s an actual recurring character], and I’d be saying “hey, it’s that guy again!”… when it really was a new character. I’m probably just crazy though.

Overall, there’s not much that I can really truly complain about. Mushi-shi is a very well done series, and I enjoyed it immensely. Each episode, standalone with independent characters encountering vastly different situations in their fight through life, captured my interest and never let go. A series that definitely ranks in one of my favourites, and I’d highly suggest it to others.

Recommendation: Watch it. NAO.

//Soda

As a followup to Planetes, I decided to watch Rescue Wings. I thought that perhaps they would be similar in many ways, and that I’d similarly share an overall positive review of it. However, this wasn’t the case, as Rescue Wings fails to save itself from its scattered stories and lack of focus.

Rescue Wings is about the Komatsu Rescue Squadron, a team of helicopter pilots and medics that are called upon in emergency situations. Of course, their services are only reserved for special situations that require aerial support, like a mountaintop retrieval of a mountaineer in need of immediate medical attention. If I had to name a main character, I guess I would choose Uchida Kazuhiro. My reluctance to do so will be addressed a little later on.

Uchida Kazuhiro is a brand new recruit in the squad, a complete rookie. He originally wanted to be a fighter jet pilot, but he failed at attaining his goal and was instead directed to be part of the rescue team. So begins his journey of acceptance of his new job, as well as coping with the new challenges that lie before him.

As he starts the job, he is still disappointed about his unwanted position. He attempts to simply accept it, but cannot. After taking a complete emotional beating from his new job, he falls into depression and loses his motivation to continue on. Cue in Megumi, the only reason I watched this show.

You and I both

No seriously. Being a rabid Noto Mamiko fanboy, I picked up this series just because I knew she was in it. In any case, Megumi and Uchida start going out, and she starts helping him through the rough times.

Sounds like a decent start to a series that will feature a lot of drama, if you ask me. Unfortunately, Rescue Wings didn’t feature a lot of drama. It featured a whole lotta SOMETHING, but it wasn’t drama, and it certainly wasn’t focus. The problem with Rescue Wings is that it tried to do too much at the same time, and eventually accomplished nothing.

As I said before, I think the beginning of the series showed a lot of promise. A man must battle with himself as he copes to a new and difficult job that pushes him to the limit. To aid him in his battle, he has a new girlfriend [who’s an old friend], but with the difficulties of a long distance relationship as well as the demanding nature of his job, can he possibly hold everything together? He must battle uphill and against all odds to conquer not just his new life, but also himself.

It’s a real shame this never actually happened.

Sure, Uchida struggled with his job. He eventually came to accept it as well. Heck, he even began to improve in his work. The only problem is that it seemed like the series didn’t even care about his story. As the series progressed, less and less airtime was being given to Uchida, and more and more time was spent on the backstory to events that required the services of the rescue squad. For example, an entire episode was devoted to a group of mountaineers and the events they experienced before the Rescue Squadron was able to intervine. By itself, concentrating on the backstories instead of the main character isn’t strictly a bad thing. Other anime series that followed that kind of outline would be Shinigami no Ballad and Jigoku Shoujo, where the main characters took a backseat to the new scenarios presented in each episode. The only difference is that Rescue Wings presents itself as a series with a central plot. A nonexistent one, apparently. Uchida’s journey of acceptance and self realization simply fades into the background, and instead we are bombarded with irrelevant stories of situations in need of rescue.

And if Uchida’s story becomes neglected, then Megumi’s must be as well. Surprise surprise, indeed it was neglected. I don’t understand why they decided to start going out, and I don’t understand why they stayed together. Megumi surprisingly got a significant amount of screen time, but most of this was her daily activities at her workplace, miles away from Uchida. Despite dating, the two rarely are able to spend time together, and rarely even talk. Due to this, I watched the entire series completely expecting their relationship to fall apart or at least hit rocky times. Here’s some spoilers for you: no such thing ever happened. They keep together the entire time without any hint of any problems. How it stays this way is nothing short of a miracle. Or perhaps it’s simply an introduced part of a story, only to be forgotten and unaddressed soon after. It just doesn’t make sense. If you’re going to completely ignore the relationship between Uchida and Megumi, why not just completely ignore Megumi as well? Why is she still a prominent character in the story and yet her relationship with another main character is completely ignored? Do all or none, don’t go halfway and hope for something good. It’s just not gonna happen.

If you want to make an anime series about the difficulties of becoming a new helicopter rescue pilot, then by all means, go ahead. If you want to make a series about a shaky relationship that ironically needs to be rescued from death, then go for it. If you want a series that follows the extravagant stories of those in dangerous situations in need of saving, then I support that too. Heck, if you wanted all three previously mentioned aspects in the same series, I would say that it sounds like a solid plan, and that I wish you the best of luck. But if you want to do all that, then don’t do a half-assed job on each aspect, and don’t try to do it in just 13 episodes. I beg of you.

I picked up Rescue Wings purely for Noto’s voice, but I certainly hoped for something more. Something more like Planetes would’ve been nice. Rescue Wings suffered from the lack of time to develop each aspect it introduced, which ultimately left it as an unfocused jumbled mess of a story where nothing truly happens.

Recommendation: Unless you’re a rabid Noto Mamiko fanboy that instantly foams in the mouth at the mere mention of her name, just pass on this series. And if you ARE a rabid Noto Mamiko fanboy that instantly foams in the mouth at the mere mention of her name, then seek professional help. Seriously, you freak me out.

…

…

…*foams*

//Soda

Yuu kopi? Ai kopi!

Plain and simple, the series “Planetes” [aka ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ], is a garbage story. That is, a story about garbage. Okay okay, “space debris”, to be exact. Basically, it follows the everyday lives of a team of people who clean space debris for a living. However, the plot is neither plain nor simple, and it cannot be so easily summed into a single sentence. But if I had to come up with one word to describe it, I would use “enjoyable”.

The story starts off with Tanaka Ai joining the Debris Section, a team devoted to the collection of space debris for safety concerns. Now an anime series that is only about the collection of debris would have a rather… questionable entertainment value, but Planetes isn’t simply focused on that one aspect. Instead, it branches off and focuses on character development and the journey that each person faces. Each character is full of life and has a deep story attached to who they are. For some characters, we see them battle their past that they need to break free from. For others, they need to fight for the future, to create a place they can finally call home. We’re all along for the ride as they continue their fight through life.

We also get to see how the world would be like in the near future. As technology develops and humanity grows, the need for space development and colonization will become a primary concern. Planetes explore this by showing precisely what’ll happen in such a world. The politics of space is a recurring theme that emphasizes the difference in power between countries that have, and countries that have not. Additionally, the series also touches on life in space and what it takes to survive. It’s an environment completely different from Earth, and is one that is quite unforgiving, as many different characters find out the hard way.

After having several smaller story arcs in the beginning of the series, the ending arc begins to focus on a single story to conclude everything. Unfortunately, I felt that this was about the time when the series started going downhill. Although the series would feel incomplete without a long conclusion arc, I still felt that it neglected key aspects that needed addressing. Most notable would be the relationship between Tanaka and Hachimaki, or lack thereof [I apologize for the slight spoiler, but it’ll become fairly obvious by the first episode]. It just felt like the story focused too highly on just one issue, and threw away everything else. It was as if the ending was independent of everything else

However, I will admit that not all things were thrown away. Unlike many other anime series, Planetes went back and in one way or another, addressed the previous arcs dealt with earlier in the series. We were shown the aftermath of those arcs, even after their original conclusion. It was nice to see, as it gives closure and shows that the previous stories weren’t randomly thrown in just to waste our time.

The animation was fine, no glaring defects that would bother me, but such is the norm. It’s obvious by the animation style that it’s a more serious anime, as they cut all the cutesy stuff like chibi animations and all that. But perhaps I shouldn’t say “serious anime”, as they do have their comedic moments. Rather, it’s more of a series aimed for the older audiences. I don’t think the younger generations will be able to really appreciate some of the subject matter, as they would never have needed to give it any thought. Death, politics, and the intricacies of space aren’t really always on the minds of today’s youth, so I’d expect.

Overall, I would say Planetes started off rather well, but began to falter at the end due to the sudden change in direction. Although I voiced plenty of negative comments, I won’t deny that I felt the series was overall enjoyable and positive. My main gripe would be the ending arc’s separation and isolation from the rest of the series, and if that could be improved on, then my review of the series would no doubt go up drastically. It wasn’t a BAD ending, I just think it could’ve been improved somewhat.

Recommendation: I didn’t feel like it was a masterpiece, but it certainly wasn’t a disaster. If you’re in the mood for something a bit more serious that makes you think, Planetes can do just that.

Edit: I liked Planetes =0

Edit #2: Since my comment turned out so long, check out comment #5 for my followup on the review.

//Soda

My hotel room, no otakuism yet.

An occasional post from the guy doing the background work of AniAri, I remind you that I’m actually alive =0 For most of this summer, I’ll be spending my time at Hong Kong, as I am now. Which pretty much means I won’t be able to see any ongoing/new anime series or anything like that ;_; I’m anime deprived right now, but I’m surviving. And in the past few days, I’ve spent my time in Korea, and it was quite the experience. I’ll share some of the more otaku parts of my adventure with you. Oh, and I apologize in advance, all my pictures were taken with my camera phone…

Tsukamoto Tenma in the background, but I want my Yakumo!!

One of the things I got to see at Korea was a store with a huge section of it devoted to anime figurines. I don’t know about elsewhere, but where I live in Canada, it’s rare to find such a store. Whole lotta Gundam models, as to be expected, but I wasn’t that interested in them. I didn’t think that the employees appreciated this otaku taking pictures, so I only snapped a few, semi-discreetly. Smooth, real smooth.

I took this picture really far away, since it was really close to the cashier counter. Sorry for the QUALITY =S

As I make my way to the back of the store, I see this display, having many F/SN characters. There’s Rin, Lancer, and Garcher, but none other than Seiba takes the spotlight. There’s Swimsuit Seiba, Meido Seiba, Armoured Seiba, and Casual Seiba. Bunnygirl Haruhi is giving us the thumbs up, while Swimsuit Mizuho is showing off her stuff. Disappointingly, THIS Mizuho isn’t a trap =(

A collection of junk

A little further down, we see some Junk hanging out at the back. She might not be a complete Rozen Maiden, but she certainly is big! If you look closely, you’ll see that she completely towers over little Desu in the background. No Boku, but at least there’s that… uhh, strange dancing guy back there. And a Swimsuit Naru, if I’m not mistaken.

Wall to wall, full of figurines

Here we hit some more F/SN, but zomg. I didn’t notice it when I was at the store, but looking at the picture now… is that.. SADER!?!? The very top right of the picture, I’m almost certain that’s Sader. I don’t know about her packaging, but that certainly looks like her pose. Can anybody confirm or deny? To come across such a rare gem, I truly am blessed. I can die a fulfilled life =D

Mi-Mi-Mikuru Beamu!

A few Haruhi related figurines. Beside the Beaming Mikuru is a figurine with HOT plastered on it. Pfft, that’s no Shana! And I kept an eye out for Shirukii’s beloved Alter Fate, but alas, I did not see. That figurine continues to elude him, and I would’ve considered buying it and bringing it back to Canada for him had it been there =0 But so concludes my walk around the store. As I said before, it was bigger, but I didn’t take that many pictures. Perhaps I’m getting excited over nothing, and this is nothing special for the rest of you, but I never get to see figurine stores, so it was a nice experience for me. Otakuism++

About stealing lolicon

While shopping, I saw this little sign inside the store that was discouraging shoplifting. I thought it was interesting, so I took a picture of it, then spent over nine thousand hours in mspaint to make an edit. It’s interesting how lolicon shares so many things with stealing. And I love reason number 7, that even small things count. Oh don’t worry, we lolicons know that all too well =p

That’s my sister in the background, and I think siscon is VERY wrong.

On the way back to the hotel, I bought some Korean alcohol. This is some plum wine or something weird like that. It was… interesting. I bought other Korean drinks, they were equally.. interesting. All the drinks were 14-20% alcohol, cept for the cooler I never got to drink =( And you know, you can just pop into any convenience store and pick up said 20% alcohol? It’s pretty awesome.

What, you never saw a sink before?

Now THIS was an interesting thing. Oh sure, it’s a sink, I’ve seen plenty of those. But how many sinks have you seen that had a JOYSTICK to control the water? Yes, that little joystick to the right of the sink controls the water temperature and pressure. If THAT’S not awesomely nerdy, I don’t know what is. In addition to that, I saw quite a few busses with Ragnarok 2 advertisements on it, and I watched a Starcraft tournament on tv. Sadly, there was a lack of zerg rushes and kekeke-ing.

And finally, to close up, a nighttime scene of the beach. Korea was pretty fun, but now I’m back to experiencing HK. 1.5 more months until I return back to Canada, and 1.5 more months until I can get back to watching anime once again. Think I can hold out? I guess we’ll see x.X

//Soda

And yes, that IS a Yaranaika guy at the front, complete with zip-down action. I lol’d. But as for Haruhi herself, I THINK I see her way in the background, but I’m not even sure. I guess she had to make way for the other characters. But hey, I have no complaints if it means there’s some Yaranaika action!

//Soda

It’s Imouto-san’s birthday today. This calls for massive celebration and rejoicing.

That is all.

//Soda

PS: Yes, I’m a big Yakumo fanboy <3 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO time to party hard! But I don't plan to do the thing where you put cake infront of your computer monitor and take a picture of it, with, of course, Yakumo on the screen.

..But the only reason I'm not doing that is the distinct lack of cake over here =( And I have a feeling I'd be opening a huge massive can of worms with the fanboys if I talked of how Yakumo > Eri >> the rest of the girls, so I think I’ll just refrain from saying anything.

Oh wait.