Well, here is my summary of the month June. Every time I do a post like these, it gets a bit more structure. At least, I hope. I’ve tried out a couple of new ideas, and kept a number of the old ideas. But damn… ranking series can get hard at times. Especialy when there are so many awesome ones.

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Last season, the pacing was slow. You’d expect the show to continue this slow pacing in the first season, but instead, it suddenly speeds up. So many things happened during this episode. And even the main plot plays a huge role in this. I haven’t read the manga, though I doubt that things were the same at the manga-arc. Hopeless also noted that Fei Wong did not have a great role int he manga at this point, though right here, his role gets bigger and bigger.

Okay, so what happened during this episode regarding the main plot? First of all: Sakura kissing Syaoran on his glass eye. The two of them were just so cute at that moment! The thing I do like about Tsubasa Chronicle is that the relationship between the two of them gets tighter during every manga arc.

Second of all, it appears that Syaoran indeed is special in some kind of way. We probably won’t hear in what way he is until the second half of the third season has passed, but it indeed has something to do with the fake Syaoran with his eye concealed. This fake Syaoran can control the real Syaoran’s movements, it seems. It seems that the two of them are like mirrors. The anime seems to be giving some very obvious hints towards this.

Third of all, we also learn that Yuuko contacted Ashura, and then she informed her about Syaoran and Sakura. This explains her hospitality. It was her who then offered Yuuko the elixir of eternal life, which gave Yuuko the opportunity to make Mokona do a forced transfer. For some reason, this also caused Fei Wong’s control of the worlds which are to be visited to stop. For some reason, Yuuko really wants to stop him.

Fourth of all, we finally learns some of Fei Wong’s intentions. There is this thing, buried in the ruins of the Clow-Country. That’s what they’re after. For some reason, Syaoran and Sakura have to work for this. The last episode of the first season showed that they don’t want them to find all of the feathers at once. Still, I don’t think that we’ll ever find the reasons for this. Unless the creators decide to end this anime after the third season.

In any case, Fei Wong realized that the Dimensional Witch is the culprit behind the fact that he can’t direct the worlds that Syaoran & co visit, so he’s taken preparations to defeat her. (Interesting note: will this come back in xxxHolic? I suspect not, but it’d be awesome if it were). What follows is his statement that Yuuko is the only woman who managed to use the magic that Clow Reed accepted. Clow Reed appears to be Fei Wong’s lineage. Does that make Fei Wong and Sakura family? This statement was a bit fuzzy, though I think this means that Fei Wong, his minions and Yuuko are the only ones who can travel dimensions. Though then Fei Wong claims that he’ll be the one to grab the power to cross dimensions. But why does he want to do that when he already has the power to do so? (Interesting note: this is the first time we see his assistant smiling).

About the arc: it didn’t make any sense. Why the heck have Ashura and Yasha been fighting, and why did they both show up without an army? Ah well, in any case, it seems that in the past, the two of them were dueling in the castle, and Ashura gave Yasha a scar on his eye. Later, the Yasha appeared in front of Ashura, outside of the castle. Then she realizes that something has happened to Yasha. They end up kissing, and a feather flies by. My theory is that this feather then attached itself to Yasha, in order to keep him alive. At the end of the episode, Ashura kisses Yasha once more, the feather separates and he disappears. Still, it was just a wound on his eye. That’s nothing you’d die from…

Some other unanswered questions about this arc:
- Where are Kurogane and Fye?
- When Mokona pointed out the strongest power source, she pointed towards the castle. Yasha wasn’t there at that time, while he posessed the feather. What could there be stronger than one of Sakura’s feathers?
- Why was Yasha’s statue crying, while Ashura’s wasn’t?

I kept telling myself not to get involved with this drama, though I have to say the following. As you all know, DrmsChr0 started a whole fad of bashing Jason. I have to admit, when I first read it, I felt very inclined to agree with him. But then I started to think. And I thought back about the post I made back in May, when I got kicked off blogsuki.

Basically (correct me if I’m wrong), all people are saying is that Jason sucks because his opinions are horrible, and he doesn’t contribute to the community. I have to admit, my opinion is the total opposite from his. He also isn’t involved in the Anime Nano-community, and doesn’t comment too often. Still, he runs his own forums, and I have had one comment on my blog made by him. Still, I certainly know more people are active when it comes to posting.

Does this make him suck? Of course not. People are forgetting one thing: it’s his site. He can do what he wants with it. The fact is, he isn’t looking for customers. He just wants to show his opinions. What does he get back? Opinions like “you suck”. Honestly, if you don’t want to read his articles, then why do you?

I see people noting that all of the anime bloggers out there are part of a community. Because they are, they have to comment a lot, and be active. This would indeed be true, if we were dealing with some forum. This is not the case, however. I can’t see why people who start a blog are automatically required to comment on other blogs and act like active parts of the community. That’s not the reason to start an anime blog, in my opinion. You should be able to choose this for yourself.

Jyuu Oh Sei really is a series with its ups and downs. Overall, it remains an enjoyable series. I’m glad I watched it. Though it remains flawed. The story is about a young boy, who lives in a sci-fi-like world along with his twin brother. His parents then are killed and he, along with his brother, gets sent towards a planet full of outlaws. Not only that, but the climate is extremely harsh, and full of human-eating plants. He now has to survive, to be able to get out of this planet, and find out who sent him to Chimera and more importantly: who killed his parents.

The plot progression develops in quite an interesting way. The show starts out great, but as it progresses, you keep seeing more and more flaws in the world system that the creators built. Then, as the series progresses even more, the anime changes focus from story to characters. At first, this seems dull. And it is indeed, but then the events start to slightly improve until that arc ends with a very enjoyable climax. The last two episodes then handle the conclusion, and solve all of the questions that were formed during the first episodes of the season. All of this gets closed by a very satisfying ending. Some people hated it, though I really like endings like these. Especially the combination of characters who remained alive was great and original.

Still, the governmential system in Jyuu Oh Sei is so full of questions. It doesn’t make any sense at all. This is supposed to be a world, in which people have to struggle to survive. How come people are living in such huge communities? How are they able to live and gather food? Nothing is explained on that. Then the series also decides to skip four entire years at that point. In order to show the main character, growing up from 11 to 15 years old. First of all, the way he acts is way too old for a fifteen years old. You can only see this by the fact that he keeps making impulsive decisions. Second of all: when we switch back to him, nothing really happened. It’s like he’s been sitting in a chair for the last four years. That doesn’t make any sense at all. Around the later episodes, we also have a character who keeps killing people for some kind of reason. This reason never really is explained.

The fact is, that Jyuu Oh Sei is short. In one case, it’s good, as the storytelling was quite well done. The creators really planned the episodes in, without trying to create rushed scenes, and they succeeded. Though they had to make a sacrifice for this, namely the unanswered plotholes mentioned in the above paragraph.

The music and graphics are nothing really special, though the battle choreography looked quite interesting. Especially during the early episodes you really could see that the creators spent some time into this.

Overall, it’s a short series with only eleven episodes, and I don’t regret watching it, despite the bad moments. Jyuu Oh Sei is nothing special, though if you need something to watch, and don’t have any idea what you want to, I’d certainly recomment to at least check this anime out.