I find it slightly disturbing that for someone who denied his pedo status so readily didn’t say anything when Murasaki decided to lay one on him. It’s entirely possible that the kiss was platonic, like a sister kissing her brother, but then why on the lips? And that still doesn’t explain why Shinkurou didn’t even question it. *cough*pedophile*cough*

Having been discovered by the Kuhouins, Benika moves Shinkurou and Murasaki along with Yayoi to a random hotel where she has a little talk with Shinkurou. He begins to question his ability to carry out this job, to protect Murasaki. Having seen the type of people he is up against, he believes himself to be too weak for the task.

Additionally, going on what Ginko told him, Shinkurou asks Benika if Murasaki really is a child of the Kuhouins, as she doesn’t show up on any existing family tree. Benika explains the plutocratic system of the Kuhouin family, how the Inner Sanctuary is where Kuhouin women give birth to subsequent generations, impregnated by their brothers to keep the family blood line pure. Basically, the Kuhouins inbreed. The existence of the women of the Inner Sanctuary are completely erased so that their secret remain hidden. The men of the Kuhouin family marry to outsiders, powerful families looking to establish ties with the Kuhouins, and the inbred child is raised by her outside mother. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Shinkurou, remembering his promise to Murasaki, to protect her against any harm, reaffirms his will, based largely on the fact that Murasaki herself wants to be free. He asks Benika for permission to take Murasaki back to Samidare for one last night to properly bid farewell to Tamaki and Yamie. A stupid move by all logic, given that the Kuhouins know of the place, but Shinkurou believes, as he always has, that experiences like this are too important to pass up and are worth the risk.

Yayoi takes up her old spot outside the apartment for one last night as Shinkurou and Murasaki have yakiniku with Tamaki and Yamie, along with some high class meat, before saying their goodbyes, Yamie getting a striking feeling that something is odd about their suddenly welcoming mood.

Murasaki and Shinkurou pack in preparation to leave the next day, Murasaki talking about her mother while doing so, reminiscing about how she died confined in the Inner Sanctuary and not wanting to share the same fate. Shinkurou shares his past as well, recalling how he lost his parents and how it was the turning point after which he decided to turn his body into a monstrosity in order to gain power and along with it, the ability to protect those important to him. Two lonely souls who, in the presence of each other, comfort each other’s solitude.

Meanwhile, Benika has sneaks into the Kuhouin household to confront Renjou, giving him one last chance to walk away from the situation at hand. Despite the fact that Murasaki is not the same person she was when she left the Inner Sanctuary, having experienced the outside world, his answer remains unchanged, as reflected by his permission of Ryuuji’s actions. And so the two bet on their respective horses, Ryuuji vs Shinkurou.

Ryuuji’s extraction team shows up at Samidare soon after, lead by a yet unnamed crazy bitch who plows effortlessly through Yayoi, the lesser cronies working their way upstairs, easily subduing Tamaki and Yamie. Shinkurou puts up a bit of a fight, but once crazy bitch comes on stage, it’s all over. Ryuuji approaches Murasaki, who is clearly afraid of her brother and the influence of the Kuhouin family in general. Despite her vow to live together with Shinkurou, to be free and see the world, when confronted by her past, she cowers and gives in. In a particularly evil move, Ryuuji makes Murasaki move on her own will, forcing her to recite her duty as a Kuhouin woman and walk herself back to the Inner Sanctuary, on threat of Shinkurou’s death.

And so Shinkurou lays beaten and powerless as the child he swore to protect from harm’s way is forced from her newfound freedom back into the birdcage that is the Inner Sanctuary…

Thoughts

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

Holy crap, I nearly put a hole in my monitor when Ryuuji gave that line, 10/10, would raeg again. The guy is a bastard, making Murasaki recite her duty as a Kuhouin on her own “will” with Shinkurou watching on. But the worst part of it is, I don’t even think the guy is doing it out of sadism, he seems like he truly believes in the system of the Kuhouin family, or at the very least doesn’t see anything wrong with it. It’s one thing to be a bad guy, fully aware of the malice of your actions, but it’s completely different being undeniably evil while earnestly believing that you’re not doing anything wrong. Ryuuji surely sees the evil in his methods, but it seems to me that he believes his overall goal is just.

Shinkurou was no less raeg inducing as Ryuuji. After his long speech reaffirming his will to protect Murasaki at all costs, he sure didn’t put up much of a fight. Going back to Samidare was a stupid move concerning Murasaki’s well being, but fair enough, the guy was confident in his will to stay by Murasaki and proper farewells are something that shouldn’t be ignored. However, not only did they not really say their goodbyes to Tamaki and Yamie, when trouble came knocking, Shinkurou was pretty quick to lay down and play dead. Sure he was up against an opponent far out of his league, but he didn’t even give it his all, he didn’t use his bone blade thing!

I love the psycho bitch though, she was so over the top evil that you couldn’t help but respect her. She waltzed easily past Yayoi, second only to Benika in terms of fighting abilities displayed in the series, going as far as to kick her while she was down. She then mercilessly laid the beat down on Shinkurou, keeping him conscious to witness Murasaki get taken away, but quick to subdue any retaliation and hope of rescue. All the while sporting that insane smile. I bet she doesn’t even get paid! She probably just volunteers her services so she gets to beat the crap out of people.

Anyways, next episode looks like a buffer before the inevitable rescue arc. So Shinkurou will go through the motions, initial depression -> feigned acceptance and a pitiful attempt to move on -> lamentation -> realization of Murasaki’s importance and the building of a stronger will.

PARTY @ MY HOUSE

~ Shirukii ~

I see a pedo!

This was a weird episode of Kurenai, it placed a lot of focus on Tamaki, who has thus far been nothing but a comedic relief side character. Kure-nai has come off as more slice of life than anything else thus far, which would account for the time spent on delving into Tamaki’s character. However, at the episode we’re given an indication that Kure-nai will be getting back to its main plot elements soon, making Tamaki’s character exposition seem like a grand waste of time.

I was actually going to skip doing this entry since I was feeling lazy, thank Vadigor for giving me the motivation to do it.

Lounging around watching TV, Tamaki brings up the topic of what makes good women and good men, asking Murasaki and Yamie if she qualifies as a good woman. Murasaki thinks she is, after all Tamaki gave them a heater, but that’s more characteristic of a good person in general, Tamaki wants to know if she’s the type of woman worthy of love. The conversation eventually wanders to the topic of where to find a good man, Murasaki without hesitation pointing towards Shinkurou as fitting the bill, while Tamaki agrees that he possesses many of the qualities of a good man, his lolicon complex for Murasaki is a problem. The conversation is cut short when Tamaki has to head to uni, a rare sight for them to see from the slacker, apparently she has to meet with someone today, inviting Murasaki to tag along for the experience.

The only problem is Shinkurou, who doesn’t like Murasaki going out during the day, but Yamie has that covered, and vouches for Murasaki’s whereabouts when he calls, saying that she’s next door being lectured about the joys of being a woman.

Taking in the sights of uni and its differences from Shinkurou’s high school, Tamaki crosses paths with a woman who she is apparently at odds with when it comes to men, Tamaki somehow always ending up stealing boyfriends away from her. After provoking her a bit, Tamaki takes a shoe whack to the head from her nemesis, icing it down with some cold water afterwards while venting to Murasaki about the pains of being beautiful, analyzing the couples around them and the inherent flaws in their relationships.

And yet, Tamaki seems to have some problems herself, as her boyfriend, Satoshi, the person who she had plans to meet with shows up. Slightly discouraged by the fact that Tamaki brought a kid along with her, he goes ahead with what he needs to say anyways. The confrontation escalates into quite the scene as it becomes clear that Satoshi wants to break up with Tamaki, who begs him not to do this today. Offering to talk at first, soon the conversation degenerates into Tamaki berating Satoshi as a wuss while he tries to make her understand that she’s just too much for him to handle. Tamaki eventually gets the point, right around the time she’s about to give Satoshi a punch to the face, and lets him go.

Afterwards, Tamaki takes Murasaki to a juice bar where she collapses on the table in depression while the seven year old does her best to cheer her up. Deluding herself with the “there’s plenty of fish in the sea” argument, Tamaki briefly lifts her spirits, only to have them shot back down when she spots Satoshi being clung onto by another women. She then goes on a rant about men who are fooled by women who act overly familiar with them, cling on to them, and are quick to show off their usefulness, rather than the strong independent types.

Exemplifying the description, the scene cuts over to Yuuno giving Shinkurou a pair of hand warmers, guilting him into using it not only at home, but in public at school as well. A light bulb flicks in Murasaki’s head, making the connection between Tamaki’s description and the relationship between Yuuno and Shinkurou, she bolts off to see him right away, Tamaki hot on her tail. As they’re exiting the cafe, a man recognizes Murasaki as a Kuhouin child and tails them back to the apartment.

Without any contextual explanation, Murasaki starts ranting to Shinkurou about how he needs to break up with Yuuno, whose loose and useful nature is nothing but a farce, and that she’s a far better woman than her, good enough to make him a lolicon.

A much deeper issue has been set into motion though, word of Murasaki’s whereabouts quickly making it back to the Kuhoin mansion. There, Renjou gives us a brief flashback explaining the circumstances behind Murasaki’s conception and the social aspects behind the ostracizing of her mother, Souju. In her dying moments, Souju revealed to Murasaki that she was her mother and asked Benika to one day free her from the fate which has befallen all Kuhouin women to date.

Renjou had the option of helping Benika to defy the Kuhouins for the sake of Murasaki, but chose not to, and now he vows to bring her back to the inner sanctuary, rectifying the mistakes of his past and present.

Thoughts

Again, a really weird episode in that the first half was made seemingly insignificant when overshadowed by the latter half. But whatever, I guess we’ll just have to go along with it for now.

Seeing Tamaki in action gave me a conflicting image of her. On one hand, I find her to be a hypocrite, stealing men from other women, using them as she sees fit and tossing them out when she’s done with them. Rinse, lather, repeat. From the way she was counting off the couples and pointing out where the fatal flaws in their relationships were so nonchalantly, it’s apparent that she thinks very lowly of most men. Yet when she gets a taste of her own medicine, she breaks down and is quick to cry foul play.

However, at the same time, it’s in her nature to have a dominating presence as a woman, she is strong and independent and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s also nothing wrong with wanting to be protected by her man, despite the aforementioned qualities. It may be hard to find a man who can cope with her independence and strength who can also rise to the occasion and take charge when the time calls, but not delusional of Tamaki to want it. And wow, the way the guy just shriveled up on the verge of tears when she spoke up, and his whining in general, I’m not surprised she railed on him as she did.

Whether Tamaki’s difficulty with men stems from her being too violent and controlling in relationships or whether it’s a product of Japan’s men having been hit by the pussification ray is the information I’d need to decide whether Tamaki’s behavior is justified or not. I doubt such information will be given to us, so her standing in my books will forever remain an ambiguity.

So Shinkurou’s loose guarding of Murasaki has finally caught up and she’s been spotted by one of the Kuhouin’s affiliates. This will undoubtedly kick the plot, which has been more or less absent thus far, into action. I’m still a little confused as to the circumstances which surround Murasaki. Her mother seems to be an outcast, but would that necessarily mean Murasaki would be subjected to the same treatment, and is Renjou moving in an effort to free Murasaki from that cycle, or shove her back into it?

Anyways, judging from the preview, Kure-nai won’t go full on plot whoring just yet, with scenes showing the Murasaki and co. visiting a temple. While I did enjoy full filler episodes like last week’s surprise musical, I can’t help but question the handling of the pacing. We’re halfway through the series and we STILL haven’t been given a lot more than “Hey Shinkurou, here’s a loli, make sure no one kills her”. When you strip out the back story, that’s pretty much all we’ve got so far.

Trying to rapidly develop Kure-nai’s plot to the point where I would call it deep and deserving of classification past slice of life would be difficult as things stand, progress too fast and the shift will come off as jarring, go too slow and plot holes will cover the series in its wake. And so the plot continues to meander about with no real direction, all under the guise of a cute not pedo slice of life.

However! Despite all that, I’m still loving the show, I’m just in the dark as to the point of it all.

You’ve got it all wrong Murasaki! I’m not a lolicon…

~ Shirukii ~

Judging from the comment density on my Kure-nai posts and the fact that not a single person even noticed when I skipped blogging it for a week, this is my least read series. Which I find rather strange as it’s a really damn good show.

Case and point, this episode made me laugh more than any single anime episode in recent history. The sheer WTF and combined hilarity of the impromptu musical was pure brilliance.

The city is holding a festival soon and the budget is so low that they’re canvasing neighborhoods in the hopes of finding volunteer performers. Shinkurou is asked to put on a play with the other members of the building, the man so desperate that even standing on stage and merely reading the script would be acceptable. Shinkurou denies the invitation at first, saying that the women of Samidare Apartment are a cruel bunch, rarely exhibiting traits one could call womanly. However, when Tamaki and Yamie catch wind of it, hearing it’s to be acted out as a musical as well, they jump at the idea.

So the preparations begin, Shinkurou telling Ginko at school the next day, presumably so she doesn’t schedule any jobs for him between now and the Marutomi Park Festival, as well as inviting her to come watch. Later, Shinkurou along with Murasaku, Tamaki and Yamie, go through the script dividing the parts, Yamie flexing her ego by taking the lead role, while Shinkurou is worried about casting Murasaki in a public play. He calls Benika for permission, and even though Yayoi is against the idea, Benika agrees, thinking it’ll be a good memory for Murasaki.

A much bigger issue comes up as practice actually begins, after noting that the harmonics of the group are terrible, they go through their parts one by one to find that Yamie is a terrible singer, despite claiming to have been in a choir as a child. Shinkurou takes her outside to give her some personal training, only to find out that she merely knew the choir and wasn’t actually a part of it. Desperate for a replacement, Shinkurou calls up Yuuno to see if she’s free to help, but her performance is at best on par with Yamie’s.

Shinkurou kicks everyone out to give Yuuno some one on one training, leaving everyone to go practice on their own. Yamie swallows her pride and approaches Yayoi, who has been watching the debacle from a distance, asking for her help. Meanwhile, Murasaki and Tamaki eavesdrop on Shinkurou and Yuuno’s private training session, which ends up as little more than Yuuno fawning over him.

A stroke of genius then hits Shinkurou, asking Yuuno to sing a duet with him, in an attempt to synchronize her pitch with his. The improvement is immediate, Yuuno having complete control over her range within minutes. Then, everyone in the apartment busts out into a two-and-a-half minute impromptu musical.

Afterwards, the group performs the play in front of the festival committee, only to overshoot the ending and continue the story, incorporating their ad lib performance from before. It’s at this point that Benika and Ginko arrive on scene to deliver some hilariously bad news. There is no play planned for the Marutomi Park Festival, the only act being put on their is a comedy troupe performance, the whole thing was a ruse set up by Benika so everyone could let loose and have some fun. Despite hearing that, the women of Samidare Apartment long to continue their play, leaving only Shinkurou with the feeling of wasted time.

Thoughts

Well, obviously there’s not much to be said about this episode in terms of plot, it was filler in every sense of the word, despite being more entertaining than the main story. It makes me wonder exactly where we’re going with Kure-nai, the entire series is only 13 episodes and we’re nearing the halfway point. I don’t want them to ruin the slice-of-life-esque feel that they’ve built up, but at the same time I would like to walk away from this with some sort of story. And it’s clear that the foundation for something beyond what we have now exists, I just hope that Kure-nai doesn’t trip over itself trying to decide between the two.

I guess I can’t get away with my usual methods of ignoring musical elements in anime this time, since that’s all there was. The song was great, very fitting of the situation in that it wasn’t trying to be epic in stature. It wasn’t an insert song by any means, the vocal parts were very clearly those of the seiyuu themselves, and that made it all the better, as you could hear the latent singing talent, but never once did they ever break character. I was especially impressed with Murasaki, who managed to display a capable vocal performance while still having the clear presence of an innocent loli.

On a whole, the scene was ridiculously funny and unexpected. If I had only one complaint, it would be that the animation was so jerky in the midst of it all, but that’s part of Kure-nai’s style, so I can’t dock it much for that.

Benika’s reasoning behind the whole scheme was to get everyone to loosen up a bit, and it certainly proved effective. Even Yayoi got so caught up in the performance that she missed one of Benika’s calls, this coming from a usually punctual person rooted in habit and principle. By the end of it, only Shinkurou seemed the slightest bit irked that it was all a sham.

Next episode doesn’t look very plot heavy either, titled “Women” and showcasing Tamaki taking Murasaki out for some fun, Shinkurou working on his relationship with Yuuno and Yamie probably going on off on one of her monologue tangents.

Consolation shot of Yuuno’s ass kicking abilities, for those disappointed for its lack of coverage

~ Shirukii ~

I am the bone of my sword…

Whoo, finally we get some back story to all this randomness. This episode used some flashback exposition to show how exactly Shinkurou became connected with Benika, Yuuno and Ginko. Also, the mystery behind Shinkurou’s breakdowns into writhing agony while clutching his arm is partially explained, seems like he has the anime equivalent of adamantium for bone.

Picking up from the Yayoi -> Murasaki -> Shinkurou stalking trail we had going at the end of the previous episode, Shinkurou arrives at the location of his next job with Murasaki right behind him, managing to slip into the building, Yayoi not so fortunate. Shinkurou approaches the boss of the gang about his proposed dispute mediation, he presents evidence that he is trying to attain the land rights to a kindergarten school and sell it for profit. In return for disposing of the evidence, Shinkurou asks that he cease all ties with the school.

Suddenly, one of the boss’s lackeys knocks on the door and walks in with Murasaki, putting Shinkurou in an awkward position. While trying to calm down Murasaki, he keeps going with his negotiation, but the upper hand he had seconds ago is most apparently gone. The boss shoos Shinkurou away, saying he agrees to the deal, Murasaki calls him on the obvious lie, but there’s not much Shinkurou can do about it, so he apologizes and leaves.

As the elevator door opens Shinkurou is attacked by another one of the boss’s subordinates, at first Shinkurou avoids fighting and tells Murasaki to run, but when she’s held at knifepoint, Shinkurou’s violent side takes over and he starts laying the beat down on everyone in sight. And for the first time, he uses the power he’s been trying to suppress in all his other fights, a protruding bone from his shoulder forming itself into a spike which he uses to both attack and defend, strong enough to deflect bullets. Hearing the gunshots, Yayoi arrives on scene to shield Murasaki while Shinkurou goes wild.

Benika shows up in the aftermath of the shootout to drive Murasaki and Shinkurou home, Yayoi lecturing him about the danger he put Murasaki into as a result of his reckless actions. After dropping them home, Yayoi argues with Benika that Shinkurou isn’t fit for this job, but Benika maintains that she chose her on her instincts, instincts that have led her through this business until now.

The next morning, Murasaki assures Shinkurou she’s not hurt and goes as far as to apologize for getting in his way the day before, she tells him to take it easy while she tends to breakfast.

At school, Shinkurou reports to Ginko that the job is done and that the kindergarten school is most likely safe for now. Ginko accidentally bumps into Shinkurou’s arm causing him to wince in pain, correctly guessing afterwards that he must have gotten into a fight. What’s more, Yuuno doesn’t even need a sign to see that Shinkurou got hurt, she somehow picks up on it and tells him she’ll bring by medicine her grandfather made for inexperienced users of “the horn”, and advises him not to take any jobs in the future that rely on such a power.

Meanwhile, Murasaki has spent the whole day cleaning the room to make it up for the previous day. Shinkurou comes home to find the futons airing out and when he makes it to the room, finds Murasaki has tidied things up quite a bit. But she points out that there’s still something that’s dirty, pointing straight at Shinkurou himself. The two find themselves in the bath house again, this time Murasaki managing to get through half of the hair washing process before she blinds herself, and trying her best to stay in the hot bath for as long as Shinkurou does.

When they get home, Murasaki asks to hear about Shinkurou’s past, combining with Benika getting the same request from Yayoi sends us into flashback mode. When he was a child, Shinkurou lost his parents in an airport bombing and hostage situation. While being held, the hostage takers decided to pick on him, holding him at gunpoint threatening to kill him while a young Ginko pleaded they stop. He was rather apathetic about living at that point, given that he had just lost his parents, when suddenly, Benika and her mediation team stormed into the room and took out all the hostage takers in mere seconds. From then on, he began to follow Benika, he was taken under the care of Yuuno for a while and spent eight years learning Houzuki-ryuu, giving him the strength to do what he does today.

Continuing with stories from the past, Benika goes on to tell Yayoi about the request Murasaki’s mother made to her, to one day get Murasaki out of the Inner Sanctuary. Benika knows that acting as her bodyguard is a lot of responsibility and perhaps even a bit overwhelming, but in the end he will benefit from the experience. Yayoi accepts her decision, but can’t help but continue worrying, so she heads back to resume her post sitting outside his apartment.

Thoughts

First off, I want to comment on the balance of Kure-nai. I’ve seen scattered complaints saying that watching Kurenai is like “going through 15 minutes of Lucky Star for 5 minutes of Darker than Black” and suggests the ratio be reversed. First of all, I’m sure there’s a law against comparing series of this caliber to Lucky Star, so don’t. Secondly, I don’t think the current slice of life : action balance should be reversed, but perhaps a 50:50 split would be more appropriate.

Of course, I stand by my words in saying that even if Kure-nai was nothing but the day to day lives of Murasaki and Shinkurou, I’d still watch it. Murasaki is one of the most endearing loli characters ever, her often naive innocence and well intentioned outbursts amidst a society she knows very little about is incredibly entertaining to watch. Also, the way she’s portrayed is something I find myself perplexed over, while it’s undeniable that there’s some measure of “fanservice” regarding Murasaki, it’s not really having the effect you would think. Despite seeing her naked quite a bit and the inclusion of an unmistakably tsun tsun element in her personality, I don’t find myself drawn to her as I am other lolis. While in many other cases it’s a poor attempt at justifying loli urges, this time it really is cute, not pedo.

Aside from Murasaki, my favourite character continues to be Ginko for pretty much no apparent reason. There’s just something about her I like, I can’t put it into words. Perhaps it’s because it’s like looking into a mirror, her stoic, recluse shut-in, emotionally distant and inability to express her true feelings ringing a little too close to home.

The mystery behind Shinkurou and Yuuno’s relationship is also revealed this episode, it’s no wonder they’re close, they lived together. It also explains the whole deal behind Yuuno knowing the Murasaki family, no doubt that the Houziki school of martial arts has some standing within their inner circle.

All that makes me wonder about Shikurou’s bone/horn thing though. Is it something that one is born with, or is it possible you can train your body to drag it out. In either case, it might be that Yuuno can use it too, which would be awesome, I’d love to see her kick some ass at some point.

Speaking of kicking ass, we catch a glimpse of Benika’s former combat glory, one hell of a roundhouse kick. Nothing compared to Spinzaku and his 720 degree aerial ending in a roundhouse kick and spanning about 5 meters in horizontal length, but there aren’t many that can boast that much hax. I hope we get to see more Benika action as the series progresses.

Actually, on that note, I just want to see more fights that involve more than Shinkurou with a dead pan look wailing on a bunch of weakling subordinates.

And…having just watched the preview, looks like my wish is going to be granted, as it features a scene with Yuuno and Shinkurou going at it in a dojo. Ten bucks on Yuuno.

Man, I haven’t touched my DS in ages. I should load up Tsukihime on it for plot with porn on the go!

~ Shirukii ~

Loli haet water

More of the same from Kure-nai this week, that is, Murasaki learning the ways of the real world and causing quite a bit of chaos along the way. Even though they’ve done this for three episodes already, I don’t find myself tiring of it, I could probably watch an entire 13 episodes of Murasaki’s antics. However, having said that, I think this might be the last purely “slice of life” episode we’re going to get, the end of the episode suggesting we’re about to head into the deep end of the story line.

Murasaki and Tamaki are lounging around watching daytime dramas and lamenting the lack of good men in the world, Tamaki enlightening Murasaki of how all men will melt a woman’s hand if you just throw them some praise. Murasaki thinks that that kind of man is stupid, but doesn’t realize the irony in her statement, how close she is to such a man.

Meanwhile, at school, Shinkurou is having lunch with Yuuno, venting about how troublesome it can be to be someone’s bodyguard, furthermore, lying and telling her that Murasaki is an old geezer instead of a loli. Suddenly, he gets an e-mail from Ginko, followed by a call, asking him to come see her asap. Abandoning Yuuno before he gets a chance to finish the lunch she made him, he goes to see Ginko, who immediately points out his indecency for hanging around a person like Yuuno. Ginko hasn’t found any new information about the Kuhouins, but does have a job for Shinkurou.

Elsewhere, Murasaki and Tamaki have arrived at Shinkurou’s school, according to Tamaki, in search of a good man. The two get separated pretty quickly and Murasaki ends up wandering the school alone, visiting various sports clubs while searching for Shinkurou. She eventually finds herself in the school’s science room where she sees one of those mannequins used for studying internal anatomy. Thinking it’s a real person and scared that he has half his “skin” torn off, Murasaki calls Shinkurou and asks him what she should do. Shinkurou misunderstands the situation and thinks that she might have wandered into Tamaki’s room, and tells Murasaki not to touch anything.

As her journey around the school continues, Murasaki bumps into Yuuno, who instantly recognizes the Kuhouin family name, but Murasaki doesn’t recognize her’s, Houzuki. Elsewhere, Shinkurou overhears a bunch of guys talking about a little girl wandering about, one with a haughty attitude and an exaggerated manner of speech. Combined with seeing the mannequin Murasaki described earlier, Shinkurou calls her to confirm his suspicions, and indeed, she is the girl everyone’s talking about wandering around school.

At the same time, Murasaki is beginning to become suspicious of Yuuno, who knows of her family, yet shows no distinct ties. The three of them run around the school trying to find each other, and soon enough, their paths intersect leading to one awkward conversation in which Shinkurou’s lie about who he was acting as a bodyguard for is exposed and Murasaki is forced to accept that Yuuno wasn’t lying about being his acquaintance.

Afterwards, on the train ride home, Murasaki stirs up even more trouble. Seeing a bunch of punk high schoolers forcing an old lady out of her seat, she confronts them and asks them if they have no shame, demanding they give up their seats. As one of them gets worked up and is about to attack Murasaki, Shinkurou interrupts, but unexpectedly, does nothing but bow his head in apology. Even after being hit and spat on, he smiles and continues to apologize on Murasaki’s behalf.

When they get off the train, Murasaki explodes at Shinkurou, asking why he didn’t fight, even though he could have overpowered the high schoolers easily, it’s all for naught if he doesn’t act. Shinkurou tries to explain to her that there are places you can fight and places where you can’t, even though it might be the right thing to do, society doesn’t work that way. Murasaki still can’t accept it though, and begs him never to do that again, never to put on that fake smile, the same smile that her mother had while in the Kuhouin household, the smile she died with. But their display wasn’t for nothing, the old lady who was forced out of her seat approaches them and offers her thanks for standing up for her, praising the morals of Murasaki, despite her being so young.

Later that night, Shinkurou takes a call from Ginko about the job she offered him that day. Before setting out, he checks on Murasaki, who pretends to be asleep even though she had overheard his call and is wide awake. Wondering why he’s leaving her alone at night, Murasaki follows Shinkurou, all under the watch of Yayoi, who calls Benika for advice on how to proceed. Benika tells her to keep an eye on them, but not to interfere unless absolutely necessary. And so begins a trail of stalking with Shinkurou at the lead, Murasaki close behind and Yayoi bringing up the rear.

Thoughts

What kind of manners do they teach in the Kuhouin household, no matter how sheltered one may be, it’s a basic rule of etiquette that it’s rude to point at people, something which Murasaki tends to do a lot. I would have thought at least basic social rules like that would have been taught, imagine the repercussions if she were to do the same thing to a guest at the Kuhouin household. And despite being scolded by Shinkurou for it last episode, she still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that random people are not her servants.

But alas, Murasaki’s ignorance of the world of commoners is part of her charm, so I suppose it’s counterproductive to poke at it.

Perhaps more interesting this week was Ginko and Yuuno, both on seemingly good terms with Shinkurou (read: they want in his pants) yet have nothing but apathy for each other, or at least on Ginko’s side.

Looks like Ginko and Shinkurou are childhood friends of sorts, talking about a time when Shinkurou vowed to open a ramen shop with her. Perhaps they once had a relationship that went beyond the borders of friendship? Though…judging at how dense Shinkurou comes off as, I doubt it. Ginko annoys me a little, with her constant ragging about how indecent Yuuno is, not realizing that insulting her behind her back doesn’t make her any better. It’s clear she hates her because she comes on to Shinkurou, but she needs to man up and say it to her face.

However, Yuuno does have an air of sluttyness about her. Though, realistically she probably fulfills the untouchable school idol role, judging from Shinkurou’s friends calling him a lucky bastard for having been handed the opportunity to hit it.

On the plot side of things, she’s the only one outside the Benika/Ginko loop who knows of the Kuhouin name. Which strikes me as odd actually, you’d think that a family who holds themselves in such high esteem and is the acclaimed as a center of power would be well known even among commoners. But I digress, seems like the Houzuki’s have some tie to the Kuhouins, Yuuno surprised that Murasaki didn’t recognize her name.

These exchanges may seem innocent, but Shinkurou is being pretty stupid about all this. Exposing Murasaki to more people puts her in needless danger, spreading information about being her bodyguard and consequently giving away her location will probably come back to bite him.

Next episode looks like it’ll be a bit more serious, Murasaki is on Shinkurou’s tail as he goes on one of his jobs so she’ll no doubt see the horrors of him fighting and the completely different person he becomes while doing so. Initially it’ll probably shock and scare her, but she’ll come to understand it soon enough, and probably realize exactly what he meant at the train station when he said there’s a time and place for fighting.

Interesting to see how Yayoi hangs around outside Shinkurou’s apartment though, seems like Benika doesn’t have full trust in his skills just yet.

lol @ Yayoi was playing cell phone games to pass the time

~ Shirukii ~

The hellish experience of final exams has reached its halfway point and from here on in they’re spread far enough that I don’t have to put blogging on hold to study, so it’s time to play catch up on the stuff I missed.

Additionally, narrowly beating out Vampire Knight (seriously?!) in the poll, Soul Eater will be the fourth show I will cover this spring. Not a bad choice I suppose, for the record, I voted Itazura na Kiss.

Soul Eater 02

Despite its extremely generic feel, I’m liking Soul Eater quite a bit, perhaps it’s the fact that it doesn’t even try to take itself seriously and offers a nice mix of in your face action and fanservice. The second episode introduces Black Star and Tsubaki, another team of meister and weapon of the Shinigami Technical School for Weapon Meisters, trying to create a Death Scythe fit for Shinigami-sama.

Even more eccentric than the Maka-Soul pair, Black Star proclaims himself as a stealthy assassin, but his egotistical rock star attitude makes him anything but. Because of this, his numerous attempts to defeat Al Capone and his subordinates, effectively gaining the 99 demon souls required in one fell swoop, has been met with nothing but failure.

Shinigami-sama then tells Black Star something interesting, Al Capone plans to hunt a witch named Angela and acquire her powers. With the possibility of all 99 demon souls and 1 witch soul needed for Tsubaki to become a death scythe all lumped up in one place, Black Star races to the scene. However, when he gets there, all that’s left is the graveyard of souls of Al Capone and his gang, defeated by Angela’s bodyguard Mifune. The two fight and despite Black Star goofing around at the outset, he eventually gets serious and manages to land a crushing blow on Mifune. But imagine his surprise when Angela, who turns out to be a weakling toddler of a witch shows up begging him to leave Mifune alone. Echoing Mifune’s words on killing children and how hard it makes it to sleep at night, Black Star passes up the free upg to Death Scythe and spares the two, even giving the souls of the Al Capone gang to Shinigami-sama since they weren’t his kills anyways.

Thoughts

The animation in Soul Eater took a bit of a dip compared to its debut episode, but for a series that will run for a planned 51 episodes, that’s to be expected, and even then it was far from what you would call bad. The fight between Mifune and Black Star lacked that fluidity we saw in the opener in Maka’s fight against Jack the Ripper, but it was still an interesting fight, even if it did pull the whole “SPEED LINES, AAAAARGH!” thing.

Also, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when focus was shifted from Maka and Soul onto the new pair, and from the looks of things, another team will be introduced next week. I love the Maka-Soul pair, I think the dynamic between them is great and with Blair added into the mix, they’re fun to watch. But that being said, I’m sure somewhere along the 51 episode run, that would run dry, so it was relieving to see that there’ll be at least two other story lines running in parallel.

On that note, I’m hearing a lot of criticism against Maka’s seiyuu, many saying she lacks the experience to properly convey the emotion necessary for her character. While I can see where they’re coming from, indeed some of Maka’s lines weren’t the greatest, not every single line needs to be delivered with over dramatic expressiveness, some of the more monotonous lines that she delivered I found quite fitting. It’s also a refreshing break from hearing the same old casts recycled, I’m a huge fan of Noto, Kugimiya Rie, Teh Rie, Kawasumi Ayako, Hocchan, etc. but you do tend to tire a bit after hearing them so many times.

I hope Soul Eater keeps the feel it has now and continues to deliver the mindless fun, I’d hate to see this end up train wrecking, especially since I’ve already boarded it.

Kure-nai 02

Kure-nai still has me in the dark, besides Murasaki being dropped off at Shintaro’s house and Benika telling him to protect her, we’re still not given much info as to what this series will be about, so not much can be said summary wise.

But that doesn’t stop it from being an enjoyable show, far from it, Murasaki is a riot to watch, seeing her struggle to adapt to a commoner life, having to step down from the pedestal she’s been standing on all her life thus far.

The only slight hints towards a plot that were revealed this episode was a bit more of Shintaro’s traumatic past, seems like his parents died right before his eyes, rather gruesomely too. We also see him at work as a “dispute mediator”, which amounts to nothing more than “we’ll beat the crap out of whoever you pay us to”. It was a bit disturbing seeing him pound away at that guy’s face with absolutely no emotion showing. Incorporated into all that is a fantasy element, Shintaro’s body clearly not being that of a normal human.

If I had to guess, Kure-nai will probably continue in its current direction of Shintaro teaching Murasaki how life outside the bubble of the Kuhouin family is like, revealing small plot elements here and there, only to have Murasaki abruptly snatched away and brought back to the Inner Sanctuary. Rescue arc, etc etc, you know how it goes. Given Kure-nai is only slated for 13 episodes, I think it’s likely it’ll follow that well beaten path.

Macross Frontier 02

Oh God it’s like she’s staring into my soul

From where we left off first episode, the Macross Frontier colony is being attacked by biomechanical weapons called Vajra and Alto, an amateur pilot is caught in the midst of it. Having watched Gilliam, a member of the civilian military organization SMS die in front of his eyes, he hops into his VF-25 variable fighter and tries to fend off the Vajra in an attempt to protect Ranka, a girl he met earlier that day, both heading to the Sheryl concert.

Ranka’s brother Ozma then shows up, also a member of the SMS, a fact not known to Ranka, and covers Alto while he tries to escape with Ranka. With the help of some cover fire from the SMS, the two make it to safety and the Vajra retreat, seemingly in response to Ranka’s voice, which is a product of her being 1/4 Zentran (not that I have any idea what that means).

In the aftermath of the attack Alto runs away from Ranka as the adrenaline runs out and he realizes what he’s just been through. The following day Ranka asks Ozma, who she believes to be a human resource worker, to track Alto down. Luckily he doesn’t have to search too far, Alto ends up at the same hospital as Ranka, both going for a checkup after encountering the Vajra, in addition, the military tries to recruit Alto after seeing his piloting skills. Ozma eavesdroppes and snatches him away before that happens though, using the VF-25 Alto totaled as leverage.

Afterwards, he takes him to SMS’s headquarters where everyone gathers around, wanting to hear how Gilliam died, first hand from Alto, who was there in his final moments. But before he has a chance to tell the tale, the Vajra spring back into action and another code Victor sortie order is issued. Alto asks to be of help, wanting to pilot one of their valkyries, but Ozma just shoves him aside and has him tossed out for saying something so irresponsible.

Meanwhile, Sheryl is in a panic, seems like she lost something during the concert and suspects Alto might have it. Outside, she meets Ranka, who doesn’t recognize her idol despite her crappy disguise. The two wander around and its only when Sheryl joins in when Ranka starts singing one of her songs is her cover blown, Ranka’s shock goes up threefold when at that exact moment the SMS launch to continue the fight against the Vajra and Alto runs in to her and Sheryl.

Thoughts

I have this feeling that I’m missing out on a lot of subtle references and throwbacks to previous Macross series as I go through Macross F. Let alone the obvious things like not knowing what a Zentran is (I’m guessing a race renowned for their majestic voices, or something like that) I bet I’m missing a ton of other less glaringly apparent things. I do plan on going through the rest of Macross when finals are completely over and done with though, so hopefully that won’t be a problem for long.

Aside from that, Macross F is definitely one of my favourites of the season thus far, the story isn’t anything ground breakingly different, but it’s interesting enough that I’m slowly being drawn in by it. The animation and character designs are holding up great so far, God knows where the budget is coming from, but that scene where Ranka and Alto were on the verge of flying out of the colony’s dome was great. The miscellaneous fight scenes are fairly well done too, hopefully they’ve budgeted it so it stays like this throughout its duration.

Also, Ranka > *. To hell with Sheryl!

Bonus: Mnemosyne 03

On the off chance that there are readers out there viewing this in a particularly strict work environment, I’ll throw this in spoiler tags, since it could be NSFW.

Show ▼

OH GOD KUGIMIYA RIE MOANING. FAP FAP FAP.

I love Mnemosyne, the story is a complete throw away, the entire series is just an excuse for the nudity and lesbian sex scenes involving Kugimiya Rie and Mamiko Noto. And you know what? It works.

It is going downhill a bit though, subsequent episodes after the first proving not to be as good. Rin doesn’t even try anymore, she can barely go two minutes on screen without dying, that scene where she just ran into the line of gunfire was pretty sad. But hey, when dying slows you down no more than tripping and spraining an ankle would your normal person, why not?

I’m a little saddened by the time skip though. Where are my PCs running 40 MHz CPUs and 128 MB of RAM. WHERE ARE THE PAGERS?! ;_;

Anyways, I guess that’ll do for today. Normal episodic blogging will resume…whenever the next episode of whatever I’m blogging comes out. Until then, time to get some much needed sleep.

Aside: Oh yeah, I guess I should remind you that nominations for the Anime Blog Awards are nearing a close, April 22nd, I think, is the last day. See this post for details.

~ Shirukii ~

The spring anime season is well under way, my blogging, however, is not, haha. I guess this is the downside of heading into new seasons blindly, on one hand there are no expectations when viewing newly released series, but on the other, it leaves me with little idea of what to write about. But I suppose that’s what first impression posts are for, so here are some more.

Blassreiter

What a weird opener. The first half of the episode concentrated on the racing career of Gerd Frentzen, a championship motorcycle racer who stands pretty much uncontested at the top of the pack. However, a terrible accident leaves him paraplegic, robbing from him not only the ability to race, but the respect of his former teammates and his girlfriend, as his “Hero of the circuit” image vanished.

But of course, this is anime we’re talking about, so it was no regular accident we’re talking about. It was caused by monsters which come into existence due to the spread of demonic blood, turning the infected into violent killing machines. Just as Gerd thought his life was over, he is offered a drug by a random passerby, with the promise that it will make his body stronger than it was before, however, it carries with it the risk of death. The drug restores Gerd’s body, with a neat added side effect, it turns him into one of the aforementioned demon monsters, however, with the ability to control his powers. So as any self righteous anime character would do, he uses his newfound powers to fight against the monsters that almost ruined his life.

I’m a little disappointed that the series veered away from the whole racing aspect so fast, the first half of the episode with the racing and Gerd’s fall from glory reminded me of Days of Thunder, I hate Nascar but i loved that movie. I think they could have managed a full 24 episodes on Gerd’s return to glory and rivalries on the racing circuit. But alas, I guess we’ll have to make do with the whole demon thing, which isn’t the most original of plots, but seems like it could be an interesting watch.

Animation is pretty good, character designs are nice and it looks like we can expect lots of pretty CG.

To Love-Ru

Did Japan just unanimously agree that the new method for censoring boobs in anime would be using convenient rays of light/lens flare? It was rage inducing in KimiAru and it’s rage inducing here, I dare say it’s worse than the black blood epidemic that plagued many a series in the time of School Days.

Anyways, I digress, To Love-Ru is like DearS, ie. alien with large breasts invades the house of some random Japanese guy. However, unlike DearS, To Love-Ru doesn’t have redemption melon pan (as in the bread, not breasts). There’s no semblance of a real plot nor indication that we’ll get character development over the course of the season. About the only thing that To Love-Ru will accomplish in its run is giving Kanokon a run for its money as the most fanservicey anime of the season.

Animation sucks, but I guess you can’t expect more from a series like this. Character designs are passable, but there’s something about Rito’s design that annoys me.

Itazura na Kiss

Itazura no Kiss is awesome. No, lolikit, you weren’t the only one who loved Bokura ga Ita, and I’m not just bandwagoning here, I have proof of my existing love for it.

Itazura na Kiss follows the high school love life of Aihara Kotoko. She’s had a crush on Naoki Irie, the student representative of their year and all around genius pretty boy. However, the system in their school emplys a class ranking of sorts, Class A being full of prodigies and Class F on the other extreme of the spectrum, housing the less academically inclined students, it’s known by all as the “leftover class”. I don’t think I need to tell you where our two protagonists fall with respect to each other.

Regardless, Kotoko decides to confess her love to Irie, only to have him reply with “I don’t like stupid girls”. Kotoko’s image of Irie as the posterboy of perfection crumbles around her, and if that wasn’t bad enough, her living conditions follow suit, her newly built Japanese style house leveled by an earthquake. The gears of fate lock in place and Kotoko conveniently finds herself residing at Irie’s house, their parents being good friends. But to Kotoko, who not only got rejected by Irie, but lashed out at him for his cold hearted nature, the situation couldn’t be any worse.

I love shoujo. Despite the sometimes generic plotlines and its heavy reliance on coincidence and events of circumstance, it’s approach to romance drama is arguably superior to the male oriented harem counterpart. Whereas in harem you’ll have several girls fall inexplicably in love with a single male lead, forcing the guy to angst for a good 24 episodes over who to pick, shoujo pairs two seemingly incompatible candidates for love and flushes out their characters to the point where romance between them becomes justified. Which of the two is the better approach is subject to debate, but in terms of plot substance and entertainment value, both comedic and dramatic, I prefer the latter.

Animation is pretty fail, but that’s ok, shoujo doesn’t really need good animation to back it up. As long as the story delivers and we don’t descend too far into QUALITY, it can be overlooked.

Bonus trivia: Irie’s voice actor is none other than Hirakawa Daisuke, who some of you may recognize as Itou Makoto from School Days. Just in case you needed a reason to hate him :3

Kure-nai

Kure-nai is made of win and loli. Aside from that, I really don’t know what’s going on.

From what I got from the first episode, the Kuhouin family is based on a strict economic heirarchy where the rich rule and the poor serve the rich, it also seems very misogynistic. Hoping to save the next generation from the cycle, Kuhouin Murasaki is kidnapped from the household and placed under the protection of Kurenai Shintaro, who does odd jobs on contract to the organization that kidnapped Murasaki. Or…that could be completely wrong and the whole thing might just be some elaborate ransom plot, there wasn’t enough information given to form a coherent plot just yet. It’s pretty much “Here Shintaro, have a loli, make sure no one kills her, kthx”

But that’s alright, the loli makes the show. Murasaki is hilarious, she has an air of arrogance around her from having been raised in a pampered “oujo-sama” lifestyle, so she thinks she’s a know it all. But once cast into the outside world, her lack of common sense becomes painfully apparent and quickly leads her to build a sort of reliance on Shintaro. We’re also given hints about her tragic past, one of those deals where she was conceived by her father’s mistress, something like that, I’m sure it’ll be expanded on down the road.

My only real complain so far is that they made Murasaki almost TOO loli. I know, I didn’t think it was possible either. I love my loli as much as the next anime fan, but I tend to draw the line somewhere around CCS Sakura or “NINE YEARS OLD!” Feito/Nanoha.

But that being said, the character designs in general are pretty good, I love the attention they put into hair detail. Overall animation is nice as well, weird, but nice. If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s like the illigitemate love child of Shion no Ou and Ghost Hound.

There are a few more shows yet to air, but I think with this I have a good idea of what I’ll be blogging this season. I’ll be announcing my tentative schedule on Friday, but nothing is set in stone yet. If there are any series that you’re particularly interested in or think would make good blogging fodder, feel free to leave a recommendation.

~ Shirukii ~