Minnie: Here’s the sad thing. Last time, White Album didn’t get finished by HSA because of one incompetent writer. This time, White Album Season 2 was going to get the same treatment from the same writer again. Thankfully, I have already learned my lesson once. If I want something done, I’ll do it myself. Since I’m watching this anime anyways, I’ll just write a quick blog entry on the finale of White Album. Sure, it’s not one of the best endings out there and sure, it’s terribly rushed, but… it completes the series. And I’ll try to talk about it.

I’ll be lying if I say I loved this series and anticipated it every week. But I’ll also be lying if I say I didn’t watch it the same day it came out. White Album is one of those anime series that you might not like too much or call a masterpiece, but at the same time, you have to admit that it’s a bit addicting to watch once you get into it. White Album’s job every episode seems to be to add drama to an already drama-filled show. In other words, it’s an anime soap opera and I must admit, a pretty good one at that.

There are obviously a lot of flaws. That’s why not a lot of people are blogging/watching it eh? One of its hugest flaws is that it’s very hard to get into at first. Everything feels so boring and static with the first couple of episodes. The BGM has excellent music, but it feels almost inappropriate for the show and it’s so loud at times. The most annoying thing about White Album is that rarely anything is explained. Characters do or say things… almost randomly at times. You have to watch more attentively to catch why. White Album is definitely not a surface level watching anime (Sorry Koala). This is its biggest strength but also its biggest weakness. I like to say that White Album is too sophisticated/intelligent for its own good, but then, I’ll just be mocking everyone who didn’t watch/understand it as idiots. The conclusion? It’s an acquired taste, methinks.

Okay. Enough about White Album as a whole. Let’s pick on the ending. I say for the most part, it’s a solid ending. The last episode  explains why Touya is the way he is and it does it quite well, but it also leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. For one thing, I’ve been watching this anime to see Touya get his retribution in some way. He gets none. Instead, he is supposed to receive a lot of sympathy for one messed up event in his childhood that make him the way he is. I would love it if everyone can dismiss all my faults thanks to my messed up childhood (Thank you tyrant mommy), but no, the real world doesn’t work that way. White Album is not the real world though. Touya gets his happy ending and all is well. Why does it feel so… cop out though?

Anyways, I like to say that White Album is a waste of time, but at the same time, I learn a lot from it. In general, White Album just confuses me on how I should feel about it and I believe that is enough reason to at least check it out if you haven’t already. Wow. Sorry for the horrible review.

Minnie’s Overall Rating for Episode: 7/10

Minnie’s Overall Rating for Series: 6.75/10

Garrick: Yep. I missed one. Sorry, guys. But, I’m here (albeit late) with episode 13. And well… I must say, there isn’t much that happened in it but an apparently required swimsuit episode.

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Katt: I’m not gonna lie, I was originally thinking that I’d probably skip blogging Hanasakeru Seishounen again this week…but then I watched episode 34 and, yeah, this isn’t one of those episodes that I can get away with skipping. Way too much happens in both the political and romantical (wow, thanks to Ric I am making up words) departments. Where we left of last episode, Carl’s evil–or possibly just misunderstood–sister Isabella had informed Quinza of Kajika’s place in the Raginei royal family, and coincidentally Kajika happens to be left at the hideout with just a couple of guards because Li-Ren and Eugene are off to see Rumaty’s return at the airport. Sound like a perfect recipe for a bad situation to you? It better.

The political: The king has left returned to the building country

Although Rumaty was officially denied entrance to Raginei, he went on ahead and let himself in anyway. They couldn’t really get away with shooing his plane away,  now, could they? And this arrival of his plane in itself feeds the flames of change an awful lot–most notably in the public’s reaction. A whole lot of the general population supports him already. There’s a huge group of people waiting at the airport for his arrival, quite reminiscent of when a big-name band’s plane touches down and all of the fans are there screaming and waving signs…except Rumaty doesn’t really get any “Marry me, Rumaty!!” signs. How sad for him.

On top of the public’s support, people closer to the king are showing signs of shifting their loyalty. It’s the palace military’s authority that ultimately lets Rumaty leave the plane, and the religious figures don’t seem interested in opposing him. Even the palace members who support Somand can’t help but be somewhat swayed when they meet with Rumaty; even though he doesn’t have the title, his attitude just exerts royalty: he is the king. Everyone knows and respects it, which I have to say is pretty entertaining. The moment he gets off of the plane, he just starts spouting orders and everyone complies. You go, Rumaty!

Add to all of this a plan to make a huge public speech– it looks like Raginei will be getting its new king soon!

The villainous: Is this the end of Quinza?!

Considering that it doesn’t take much to make Quinza go a little crazy, news of Kajika being Raginei’s true heir sends him on a killing spree. While Kajika manages to avoid his initial arrival at the hideout, her appointed guards aren’t so fortunate. The scene in which Kajika comes out of her room and finds Quinza has such a horror movie vibe; it made me want to play a video game in which you play as Kajika and have to run around a decrepit manor while being chased by Quinza. And then you have to suck him up with a vacuum!…wait, that’s Luigi’s Mansion.

A-Anyway… While that scene has a horror movie vibe, it quickly shifts to a bad action film as Kajika escapes and a rootstop chase ensues. I don’t know why this scenario cracked me up, but it did. Just…Kajika jumping from roof to roof and looking back to find Quinza still pursuing her? It was entertaining! Though Kajika greatly disappointed me when she thought something along the lines, “Someone, please rescue me!” Ugh. Really now, just waiting for someone to come to your rescue? Kajika should really start carrying a bottle of mace around for self-defense of something, because she is really incapable of helping herself.

When crazy Quinza seems to have Kajika’s death in his reach, he gets shot by none other than Li-Ren and falls from the top of a building. Could it be? Is Quinza defeated, dead, gone?! …No. Somehow, upon seeing the preview for episode 35, he’s not dead. I suppose with five more episodes to go and no other major villain in sight, this is to be expected.

The romance: Yes, my friends, Kajika/Li-Ren has happened 

Let’s backtrack for a minute, though. As Quinza poises his knife to stab Kajika, she doesn’t call out to God or her dad or Eugene, Carl, or Rumaty–no no, she calls out for Li-Ren. And as if that call for help was like illuminating the Bat Signal in the sky, Li-Ren appears and saves the damsel in distress! But I’ve already covered this.

It’s after he saves her that things get interesting. They share a moment–that I found quite awkwardly-translated, admittedly–that is endearing because of Li-Ren’s show of emotion. It’s probably the element of his character that has been built up the most in this series, his emotionlessness. While he breaks from this cold exterior now and then, this is probably the most he’s allowed himself to do so in front of someone else: he trembles from his fear that something could have happened to Kajika, that he could have lost her forever. It merits an ‘awwww’, I have to say.

And then… the kiss. Rumaty got his, so now it is Li-Ren’s turn, and as much as I hate to admit it, this kiss has a much more romantic feel to it. Unlike Rumaty’s spontaneous kiss, this one is the typical, mutual kiss where both characters know that it’s time for it to happen and they both want it to happen. It shows that their minds are in the same place. But with five episodes left, is this really the end of the romance? Can Kajika and Li-Ren live happily ever after, just like that? I doubt it, and hope for more conflict to come.

Katt’s love-metre for Hanasakeru Seishounen episode 34 measures: 9.5/10
Katt’s love-metre expects Hanasakeru Seishounen episode 35 to be: 9/10

Minnie: Yup. I am behind in all my blogging thanks to the holiday season. And yup, this is one of my favorite anime, but I still manage to fall behind in it. And lastly, yup, this is a catch up post so any new post will take even more time and the pile will keep stacking up. However, I am actually pretty proud of my blogging speed compared to the rest of my blogmates so I have nothing to really complain about. Anyways, enough about me and my problems and onto the post itself! Hurray for more Sawako!

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Katt: I have both anticipated and dreaded this day… Yes, my dear bloggees: Kemono no Souja Erin has come to an end. I’ve spent a good part of the day checking to see if the sub had been posted yet and am sorely disappointed that I’ve only gotten to watch it now, at midnight! Because of the combination of tiredness and a lil’ bit of alcohol in my system, I can’t be sure that I’ve experienced this finale to its fullest. But I’ll just continue on and pretend that I have, so play along with me, okay?

Honestly, I expected more of this. That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I definitely did! But…I guess I was expected more of an emotional impact? A little more struggle before the ‘happily ever after’ that I knew would come. Instead, things went a bit too smoothly in this series that has stood out for me as never taking the easy route.

The beginning…was not to my liking

The first half of the episode had such a foreign feeling to me. I’m sure it had something to do with the mix of a different style of graphics and new background music–there was an element of comfort in the consistent style and mood of this series that this spontaneous change threw me off in a bad way. I can understand wanting the final episode to stand out as being better than the rest, but I don’t think that it was approached in the right way.

Added to the more superficial level, the plot itself seemed a little weird to me. The approach of the cavalry was built up in the last episode, but I just found their decision to start shooting at Lilan completely, hm–how to put this?–moronic. There might have been a purpose in that (I mean, we obviously weren’t meant to understand where these goons were coming from), but really, they have a huuuge target to aim at and they still manage to hit Erin instead of Lilan. By no means am I saying that I wanted to see Lilan get hit; I am just saying that a little bit of logic behind the miss would have been nice. Even an, ‘oops, my finger slipped’ moment. Thanks to that ridiculousness, I didn’t have much of an emotional response to Erin getting hit. More of an, “Uh…what?” reaction at a moment where I should have been crying out, “Noooo!!”

Erin’s helpless action of removing the mute whistle was one that I should have loved, thanks to my fondness for symbolism in this series; instead, I was left a little confused by it. I couldn’t decide if Erin was doing it as a threat to Lilan, or as a message of freedom…or both? In retrospect I’m pretty sure that the ambiguity was the point. To Erin, it was probably a way of freeing herself from that shackle, but she intended for Lilan to perceive it as a threat so that she would fly away. And then when Lilan did fly away, it was…what? Two whole metres away? Here I was anticipating Lilan dropping Shunan off by Seimiya and then flying off into the wilderness, never to be seen again in the tragic parting of human and wild animal. Instead, it was rather anti-climactic. I was just not hugely keen on this beginning portion of the episode.

As it went on…it definitely got better

When the typical ‘something dramatic is about to happen’ BGM starting playing, I felt in my comfort zone again. The regular feel of this series was back and I was very, very pleased. The entire scene where the tohdas rise and swarm towards Erin, paralleled with Soyon’s demise, did its job in raising anxiety for both Erin’s literal impending death and her emotional instability when she finds herself in her mother’s execution situation.

Though unlike Soyon’s execution, Erin is saved before the tohdas reach her. Without even using the player’s technique as Soyon had resorted to doing to save Erin so many years ago, Lilan flies in rescues Erin of her own will. It took half of the episode to get there, but when Lilan flies down and gently picks Erin up in her mouth, I finally felt strongly moved. One of the most impacting moments for me was seeing how, even though Lilan was using her teeth to hold onto Erin, she was careful not to hold on too tightly or hurt Erin in any way. Remembering the two past events where Lilan has seriously bitten Erin, this scene is really touching. It wasn’t an easy road by any means, but at this instant the strength of Erin and Lilan’s bond has undoubtedly been proven, described by the characters as being like a mother and child.

As lovely as this pleasant moment is, I would have been annoyed if the happy ending had been reached already. After all, there is one more thing needed for this to be a typical Kemono no Souja Erin episode: Damiya ruining a good resolution! While his schemes are usually drawn out over a long period of time, there is hardly any time left here, which sadly makes this speedy scene not too dramatic. Damiya grabs knife, runs at Shunan and Seimiya, and Ial stabs him. And that’s the end of Damiya. After all of that manipulation, him suddenly being killed seemed too simple…though I’ll admited that I wanted to shout a, ”You go, Ial!!” when he actually stabbed Damiya. I was expecting him to just knock the knife out of his hands and seize him again–but no, he went in for the kill! A pleasant surprise, finally putting an end to everyone’s favourite creeper, Damiya.

The epilogue-ish ending…

Because just leaving it at Damiya being killed wouldn’t have been satisfying at all (and that isn’t sarcasm); this is the type of series that needs a ‘what happened to them?’ ending. As it turns out, everyone gets their ideal endings, pretty much. The only person who doesn’t really get any answers is Nugan, but I suppose we can just assume that he was scared straight when Lilan ate up his tohda.

There are a couple of hook-ups, namely the obvious Seimiya and Shunan marriage that we can all hope will be as ideal as it seems. And then it looks like Yuuyan got together with her Kazalm crush in the end, too! Kazalm itself can obviously return to its peaceful ways (and poor Tomura gets to spend his career stuck with a bunch of men), and even Erin’s hometown of Aka village will get the chance to improve with its new veteranarian, Kilik, who I’d expect would bring Erin’s ideals to the village. The spread of Erin’s ideals of freedom for the beasts can be seen in effect with the tohdas swimming freely and the beast-lords being kept by Erin and her family, instead of caged. On the note of Erin and her family…

We get to see Erin’s son, Jesse, who kind of made me giggle with his hilarious face, but…NO IAL?! Okay, this is not cool at all. WHY would they not show us who Erin’s husband/this kid’s father is? We KNOW Ial’s the daddy and YOU know it too–so show us a cute family scene! What’s wrong with you people?! Waaah, the fangirl in me is displeaaased!

…’kay now make the next two novels into a series too, okay? Because even if this final episode wasn’t as great as I expected, I did love it and I love this series as a whole. Undoubtedly one of my favourites, if not my new all-time favourite anime!

Katt’s rating for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 50: 8/10
Katt’s overall <3<3<3 for Kemono no Souja Erin: 10/10 (I WENT THERE!)

Minnie: I know this post is terribly late thanks to my absense during the holiday season, but since I love Skip Beat enough and I believe this chapter is important enough, I will blog it. As for the past couple of days, I didn’t really go on a blogging break or anything. I was simply too busy from the holiday season and various other stuff to blog. Hopefully, most of you guys reading this know how I feel and how busy it can be during this time of year. Thankfully, I am back and ready to blog this and a couple of other episodes I left behind…

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Minnie: This post is even more late than usual despite me not having school! Wow. I wonder why? Is it because I went Christmas shopping and other Christmas adventures at the last minute? Unlike yesterday, today is freezing cold. I have to wear a long-sleeved shirt AND a sweather. This is tough for the Minnie. But anyways, I’m going back to school so early… I don’t even think I have enough time to enjoy the holiday season. Oh well! Alas, that is over with aned let’s see what’s up with this episode with Sawako and friends~

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Charging forth into the finale!

Miken: I’m almost definitely sure anyone reading this at this point has already finished the series or is just plain looking to be spoiled, so I’m going to forgo the usual summaries and just leave it to commentary for each episode. I know that this is a lazy move (then again, half the time my commentary becomes summary), but I’m writing 6 papers right now and I need to take as many shortcuts as I can get. The general rule is that I wrote after watching each successive episode — one at a time, though we might watch a few at a time and then comment on them in batches. Either way, let’s wrap up this series…At least until Chiru is hopefully announced~!

Ep20: Zugzwang

Greed Has Never Been this Cute Before!

Miken: Best part of this episode was the “only my railgun” commercial gg left in there between breaks. The episode was broken up between Maria being cute with Sakutaro and staying strong in her mother’s long vacation absence and Ange re-re-reaffirming that her life has been utter crap since the Rokkenjima incident. Oh yeah, and the Stakes going crazy over Sakutaro. Still, Ange and Mammon’s blooming “frienship” was quite nice since the Stakes have gotten something like…only a few seconds of screentime before this. Uhhh…other comments? Well, I do like Maria’s witch costume, it looks so cute on her~ Then again everything she wears is so dang cute! <3

Miken’s Episode Rating: 6.7/10

Ep21: Prophylaxis

Miken: (Flashback) Ange went and did it…She made the Stakes more likable as characters than herself. The denying of magic, and therefore the Stakes’ existence once they decide not to cross the moral event horizon for her really is a kick the dog moment, especially when she ends up shattering Mammon. While the stakes have killed pretty heartlessly before, they know that Beato herself is resolve to kill whereas Ange’s just using them to clear up her problems without dirtying her own hands. Sure, Ange does have a good reason to want to kill those horrible classmates of hers, but using her “mere delusions” to kill others when she herself is not ready to… While she does make up for some this later by believing in magic once more, it really doesn’t redeem her much. Though bringing back Sakutaro? I’ll give her points on that.

As for the Maria portion of the episode…I wonder why the hell the Child Services lady didn’t outright call the cops the moment she was kicked out by a very angry Rosa. Hell, Maria crying should have been audible even outside the house. Even if that would be too late for Sakutaro, something should have happened, right? And yet years later, she’s still in Rosa’s “care”. Rosa destroying Sakutaro completely crossed the line — she herself is ruining her own image, leaving Maria to care for herself while she goes on vacation and all. Thus, Maria finds solace in the company of Sakutaro, making it pretty obvious why she’d drag him around even without seeing all the magic about him. You also can’t really blame Maria for taking up darker magic after that either…

Miken’s Episode Rating: 7.4/10

Ep22: Problem Child

Miken: Back to island this episode (finally!) — Kinzo proves that he’s completely gone nutters and calls for the suspension of the use of the epitaph to find his successor and nearly calls off the whole heir selection process. It takes an interruption by Nanjo to make him decide to use his grandkids this time around. Honestly, the introduction of Siesta 00 and Gaap really don’t seem necessary. Though I suppose this is in order not to confuse the viewers with the Stakes currently accompanying Ange? As usual for the first bloodbath, 6 people die.

Then there’s Maria, Beato and Rosa in the Meta-World. With how Rosa’s been portrayed in recent episodes, I really can’t blame Maria for wanting to tear her to bits. The little girl’s got obvious mental issues because she doesn’t want to accept that her previously kind mother is this “witch” despite not doing anything to deserve such a mean mother.  Actually, seeing Rosa being torn apart over and over again was oddly refreshing~ I could feel my rage rising with Maria’s as Rosa continued to lie and then start to blame her for everything wrong in her life. Even with this entire venting-out of epic proportions, Maria still isn’t fully satisfied. Even if she’s had her vengeance against Rosa, you still have to feel for her, since not only does she still lack Sakutaro, but she also lacks the acknowledgment as a daughter from Rosa.

Oh yeah, now there’s a test being set up for the kiddies to take. I suppose it’ll be harder than any SAT College Entrance Exam they’ll ever take.

Miken’s Episode Rating: 8.3/10

Ep23: Breakthrough

Miken: Oh goodness, the silliness of Nanjo and Kurosawa’s respective children. I know they’re suppose to resemble their parents, but goodness do they look weird. I also sort of like this splitting up of the grandchildren for the “test”. Kinzo’s playing it much smarter than letting it become an all-out verbal brawl as he did with his immediate children. Still, since he’s got the support of the witches on the island (Bern and Lambda don’t count since they do almost nothing 99% of the time), the conclusion’s pretty much forgone…As in, even if they do manage to show a respectable amount of resolve, this will end in total and utter bloodshed. The essence of the questions also make this conclusion pretty obvious. Additionally, I was slightly confused and very interested in what Ronove said about Genji sorta being his true form in this world or something akin to a vessel. Hopefully, that get explained later. As for Jessica’s and George’s answers.

- Jessica: It’s nice to see her split her decision as a girl and as the successor — she knows what she wants, but she also knows what’s needed of her and she’s not about to let things slide without landing a punch first. As head, she would probably make for a pragmatic but more amiable leader…until she brings out those steel knuckles at the very least.
- George: Easily chooses to kill everyone else, though this can pretty much be explained by the effects of Shannon’s deal with Beato pre-series. Of course, there’s his decision to kill Gaap first and keep his “assets” (aka family) alive. Should he become head, I could see him making enemies out of everyone that gawks at Shannon’s boobs…Errr I mean everyone who stands in his way. However, George’s sudden power-up by actually knowing martial arts that he didn’t use all those times before felt like an ass-pull.

Also determination = magic? If that was so, then magic would’ve happened tons of times before. -_-;;

Miken’s Episode Rating: 8.6/10

Ep24: Adjourn

Miken: It was really amusing seeing Virgilia lose her temper at the start of the episode when she learned that Gap used her Goat Butlers and therefore left the cell unguarded, leading to a jailbreak. It just sounds so…out of character for her. Then again, with these witches, there really is no telling what their character’s nature really is. It’s also nice to see Jessica and George gaining some bit of ground against their opponents, though they end up right where we expected them…dead. Though having them both teleport and kill one another was a nice twist.

Battler and Kyrie sort of mending their relationship was touching too, since she apologized for being rough on him for being Asumu’s son and he went past his first-name basis deal once and called her his mother.

Later, Beatrice calls Battler out on some forgotten sin from six years ago as his test. Seeing as I just marathoned Pandora Hearts, it gives a nice connection of “why the hell am I being punished again?” between both series. Battler’s situation is further exacerbated by the fact that he has no idea what she’s talking about and she’s freaking pissed off. Then we break to the Meta World and Battler asks if this is a sin between the two of them, since Beatrice actually looks genuinely upset. Though apparently this isn’t the case…Which rules out all my guesses. Back to Rokkenjima, Battler still can’t come up with anything. Thus, Beatrice exits the game and relinquishes her attachments, saying so to the Meta Battler as well. This also means that the game is in permanent deadlock until Battler figures out what the hell his sin was…

And somehow, Battler is not Asumu’s son after all? I know that Rudolph’s a womanizer, but where’d Battler’s mother go between him courting Asumu and Kyrie? Beato also uses his inability to respond to strip him of his qualifications to be her opponent.

Beato genuinely crying can’t be good either…

Miken’s Episode Rating: 8.8/10

Ep25: Forced Move

Miken: Kasumi Sumadera’s life was seriously f*cked up by her sister’s decision to go off with Rudolph, huh? I can’t blame Kyrie though, since her journey to even get with Rudolph wasn’t exactly lined with roses. I kind of have to agree with Ange here too — Kasumi was left unprepared for the slightest prospect that her sister wouldn’t take up the position as head of the family. If she says she had to endure harsh lessons since her sister’s marriage with Rudolph, then wouldn’t Kyrie have also endured harsh lessons daily since pretty much her birth? I mean, even Ange went through similar “training” with the mess that is Eva and she isn’t even half as spiteful as Kasumi.

Ange’s little monologue on the cycle of anger was interesting too — it almost makes sense if you flip the chessboard -shot-. Eva took her pain out on Rosa who took her pain out on Maria who in turn unconsciously used it to make her magic stronger. It’s nice to see her starting to see Eva as more of a (very faulty) human too…

Though it seems like Evatrice — I mean the black witch, has been manipulating Kasumi’s hatred. That makes much more sense. It’s still so aggravating to see her tear apart all of Maria’s magic like that and make fun of her…Though it does make all of Maria’s “Uuuuuu”ing make sense. Apparently, that was her spell to have Rosa always get along with her. Though that didn’t work too well, did it? Baaaaaw, poor Maria. D:

Good job to Ange for putting an end to Kasumi and the black witch~ Glad to see the Seven Stakes getting more action too! Between her denying of magic back at the academy and now, she’s developed the resolve to use magic. She’s lived up to the title of Ange-Beatrice. By the end, Ange has emotionally reconciled with Eva and even takes the fact that the black witch resembles her aunt as an insult. Though Eva coming back in spite was a bit sad, though her affiliation with the black witch pretty much meant that she still held a grudge and wasn’t just going to take Ange shopping.

Miken’s Episode Rating: 7.2/10

Ep26: Sacrifice

Miken: Ange going to the Golden Land to show up Beato by resurrecting Sakutaro and forcing her to rejoin the game was awesome~ Though the whole two sides of the coin of magic needing love and sadness does seem kind of corny, it works well in showing just how different and more p0werful Ange is. Her use of the blue truth to point out the obvious loophole in Beato’s exclusion of Battler from the game works perfectly, since Battler is still Kinzo’s grandson, since Asumu married into the family anyways. Ange bringing Battler out of his funk by remind him that blood isn’t as important as bonds was touching too, as was her finally telling him who she is and the reason why he has to win this game and get home…though it comes at a high price.

Finally getting to see the Blue Truth in full action is nice too — and seeing Battler consider Rosa as an accomplice in the 2nd round and Eva in the 3rd also means that he’s now opening suspicion to those of the Ushiromiya household, not just blindly denying witches, also opening up numerous explanations that he could not use before.  He also builds up a huge wall of truths concerning Kinzo being dead from the start and there being the mysterious 18th person. With the who Kinzo issue dealt with, he takes on Beatrice’s existence with the 18th person theory with good results, though it’s frustrating that he lets the win slip away by digging deeper into another secret she’s holding. But even with Beato denying the 18th person by stating in red that there are only 17, he still manages to take her head on with his wit, explaining who could’ve done what during each murder, leaving no one out of suspicion.

In the end, Beato reveals her motive as just plain wanting to die and her final riddle to Battler is to find out just who she is. Only then can she die. It makes sense — as the Endless witch, living endlessly while killing endlessly would make someone want to die at least eventually. Also, Bern and Lambda finally do something by declaring that Beato cannot win…though that doesn’t exactly mean Battler will absolutely win, right?

Miken’s Episode Rating: 8.5/10

Final Impressions

Miken: Over the course of this series, the characters either stuck to me or bored me out of my mind. I really liked Battler, Beato, Ronove, Eva (non-witch) and Maria while I generally overlooked the others and became flat out bored with George and Shannon repeating their deal pretty much every cycle. While a number of characters have yet to be fleshed out, what we do know of the characters with the most focus is interesting to say the very least. For an obvious example, there’s Maria, who despite being very creepy, becomes a more sympathetic character after her backstory in the last arc. Even an almost undeveloped character like Ronove sticks out well with his character quirks of being not 100% subservient despite being quite loyal to Beato — I also like that he’s pretty clever and unlike the Stakes/Siestas who pretty much exist to be ordered around. On the flip side, though, I do think that while Ange and her journey in the final arc was interesting to a point, her presence and the countless flashbacks took control of the arc and took away screentime from what I really wanted to see: Everyone running for their lives on Rokkenjima. Still, I did come to enjoy her character by the end.

As for the plot, though I cannot say for certain, since the answer arcs are not presented, it  is a very workable mystery/horror-ish story. The third arc stood out very well in terms of plot and gore and the series ends with enough open ends to warrant Chiru being adapted. I’m dying to know just what Battler’s sin is, since it seems like the topic was dropped. It was stated that it was 6 years ago specifically, so it can’t be the not being Asumu’s son problem, right? Still, the last quarter of the series did take a nose dive in terms of my enjoyment — a good number of the episodes centered around Ange and her search to find the truth and understand magic. While i do suppose this is necessary to make her death at the end emotional, it really doesn’t pay off and ends up just dragging the series. There’s also more questions as to Beato’s background, while some was revealed in the 3rd arc, it’s still questionable and only reaching so far back…it doesn’t answer Beato’s own question about herself.

Overall, this was one of the more interesting series of this year — while it doesn’t reach its full potential and is a tad strange at times, it manages to be generally entertaining. I would probably recommend this series to friends, though I’d be cautious as to the person’s tastes…Well, I hope I’ll still be able to blog once Chiru comes around~ (hopefully)

Miken’s Final Series Rating: 8.3/10

Dari: Merry Christmas, everyone, or if you’re not Christian, Merry X-Mas… or should I say Merry Commercialmas… no… must stop my self… *Stops himself from ranting about the commercialism of Christmas*

Dari: Ok, here I am, writing the last Under-hyped anime in the Winter Countdown, and also the oldest, with the 1st release of it coming out  in June 1990 (it‘s actually a few months older then me…), while the next oldest anime in this list, Princess Tutu, Came out 12 years later in August, 2002 (though Ric would have gotten 2nd oldest Anime if he had gone with the OVA of Black jack, that came out in 1993, instead of the 2004 TV series), but enough of this competitiveness, and onto the Anime.

Dari: The Anime I’ll be talking/ranting about is Cyber City Oedo 888, or Cyber City for short. It’s three Episodes; “Time Bomb“, “The Decoy“, and “The Vampire”; were released from the 21st of June, 1990, to the 4th of October, 1991 (or at least according to MAL it was), and was Directed by Kawajiri Yoshiaki, who also directed Ninja Scroll and Vampire D: Bloodlust, along with some other anime.

Dari: This was actually the 1st anime that I bought, though at the time it wasn’t even on my to-watch list, I happened across it when I was in Labrador city three years ago, where I saw it in a store (I can’t remember which one) for $5 , so I bought it, and the end result is that I’m telling you about it.

Plot:

It is the year  2808, crime is so bad that the Cyber Police decide to offer some Criminals the chance to reduce their sentence by working as Cyber Police Officers. The Three Criminals given this offer are Sengoku, Benten, and Goggles, who each have sentences in the hundreds of years (that’s what happens when there is no maximum sentence and you abolish the death sentence). As you can expect, the Police are not going to trust these criminals to do police work, so explosive collars are attached to their necks (just like Battle Royale… except Cyber City is older then BR… anyone that can tell me the origin of the exploding collar gets my thanks). If attempt to remove the collar, or if they do not complete their mission on time, generally 24 hours, it will explode. Each episode has them working on a different case, and the story doesn’t develop much from episode to episode… in other words, it is very episodic…

Art:

Well, what can I say, it was made back in 1990, you can’t expect art like in some of the modern anime greats, like the Kara no Kyoukai movies (no, I will never shut up about KnK, I wasn’t sure if it qualified as under-hyped though, seeing as how popular Type-moon is and all, that‘s why I went with Cyber City) but it does the job, and could be worse. The style is typical of 90’s Cyberpunk, and I guess it grows on you if you watch enough cyberpunk.

Comedy:

Ok, the three episodes are not pure blood fests, and there is some comidiec relief, mainly coming from the robotic aid to the 3 main characters, who takes everything they say literally.

Screen-shot with comments:

(I did try to resist, but couldn’t…)

ah yes, nothing cures a hangover like an explosion in the neck area.

it’s A.D. 2808, and they’re still driving cars…

I’ve actually noticed a slight obsession with Australia in anime, and other modes of Japanese fiction as well…

How do you outsmart a zombie hooked up to a supercomputer in the year 2808? walk in a straight line.

the guy’s been dead for about 15 years, but he still bleeds…

… that’s going to hurt…

Also contains Decapitation.

and metal claws through throats.

and Vampires are still around…

Big cyber cat that shoots Lasers from it’s mouth… so cute, I want one.

Post Epilogue

Well, That’s all that I have to talk about Cyber City, I hope this post has kindled some interest in the OVA, and I swear I did try to minimize the number of screen-shots so it didn’t become about 90 % screen shot. Till next Time, farewell.

Katt: One episode left? ONE?! What a depressing thought… But I’ll suck it up and blog this and the next (last!) episode to the best of my abilities. I know I haven’t blogged it for the past couple of weeks, but I figured I could be forgiven because I had to write up that ‘underhyped anime’ post and, of course, chose Kemono no Souja Erin for my entry~ The series is reaching its climax as sunrise approaches and the tohda army is waiting to advance. Will Seimiya raise the blue flag? Will Erin fly above the scene with Lilan? Will Damiya get in the way?

The resolves of the good: Seimiya and Erin make their choices

When Shunan begins leading the tohda army towards Seimiya, Erin is giving the order to fly Lilan. Up until now she has remained silent whenever Damiya spoke of this inevitability, which he obviously took as her reluctant submission; however, now that the time has come when she can’t stay quiet any longer, Erin brings out the suicide knife. I don’t necessarily agree with her decision to kill herself rather than give in to Damiya. I think that there are other ways that she could have gone about it, but this choice suits Erin, especially since she made that shift when she became more like her mother, giving into the world that enforces unfair rules. She became very self-sacrificing, and suicide would be the literal self-sacrifice.

Though of course she can’t just go and kill herself with another episode left (not to mention two other novels), and as it turns out it is Nukku and Mokku who distract her long enough that one of Damiya’s fake Sezans gets the knife away from Erin. I am really curious: how did this go in the novel?? Since Nukku and Mokku aren’t characters in it, this scene obviously must have been dealt with differently.

This whole scene leads up to Seimiya finally manning up and doing what she wants: to raise the blue flag and marry Shunan, to join the two sides of the country together and aim for prosperity. Rejoice, Seimiya has finally developed common sense and a happy ending it on its way! But…

The bad hinder a happy ending: Damiya and Nugan interupt

…happy endings never come to easily in this series. While Damiya had seemed helpless once Ial restrained him and Erin raised the flag, it was really  just a farce. He had a plan all along, most likely anticipating that Seimiya would cave in and defy him. That creepy, devious bastard!

And he isn’t the only devious one around, too. I don’t know how this fact managed to go over my head, but it was the rival brother Nugan who has apparently been leading Damiya’s secret tohda army. When the brothers had their falling out episode, I admittedly wasn’t all that invested in it. I suppose that explains why I haven’t considered Nugan’s role in all of this, even after he returned at random last episode. My bad–he was actually there as Damiya’s back-up in case it was needed. And, go figure, it was needed and Erin is forced to witness bloodshed once again, only this time on a much larger scale. The wars that have been mentioned so much finally become a reality and people of different lives see it: the queen finally perceives this reality, Erin sees what becomes of the tohdas raised in her childhood village… It’s a massacre, and Shunan’s army is losing. The Grand Duke meets his end on the battlefield, and in one notable moment has his corpse trampled on in the panic. The insignificance of the Wajaku to Damiya has never been made clearer and it’s horrifying.

Now, Erin’s only choice is to take Lilan to the skies to save those who are remaining. While she wants Lilan to leave a free life, she can’t ignore all of the people who are being sacrificed for that…

Next episode has the conclusion of Erin’s decision to attack, and it looks like the final farewell between Erin and Lilan. Get the tissues ready, because I foresee a major tearjerker!

Katt’s rating for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 49 is…9/10
Katt’s anticipation for Kemono no Souja Erin episode 50…∞/10