I’m going to blog this arc a bit more systematic than I did with the previous ones. After all, this show deserves some kind of character analysis. This is an interesting arc, in which Sakon actually is without Ukon. To make things even better, Ukon’s actually missing, with a possibility of being in the fire. Of course, we know he isn’t really gone, as it would make for a bit of a crappy second half of the series, but still.

Sakon still remains the main character in this anime, but, like I said, this time, it’s with a few twists: he’s without Ukon, and he has personal interest in the murder. The first is the most interesting, as Sakon’s suddenly lost all of the confidence and level-headedness he used to have in the previous two arcs. He’s turned unsure, he doesn’t know when to speak and when to keep silent, he’s become inpatient, and you can actually read emotions off his face. Something he was quite cleverly hiding in the previous two arcs. This also is shown when Hayami’s building caught fire. If this would have been a normal case, he would have attempted to calm everyone, ask the elder about Ukon and then start to search for him. But because the bond between the two is too big, all he can do is sit in a corner in foetus-pose.

Ukon either was hidden in Hayami’s building, in a place the fire couldn’t reach, or he’s somewhere in the main building. The fact remains that nobody talked about his location, even when Sakon asked. This means that something must have happened, and that there are more things going on than the ones we got to see during this episode. I’m also starting to thing that the guy really has a soul, despite being a puppet. When Sakon was performing with him, at the beginning of the episode, he moved very slowly, almost unnatural, though then he actually felt pain when some of his parts weren’t connected smoothly. Then he fell out of his role and became the old Ukon again, acting very natural. It’s no wonder that Sakon has been considering him as a very good friend. I’m so much reminded of the persocon-dilemma.

Sayoko plays the role the woman played in the first arc, and the police officer played in the second arc: supporting character. (Another reason I’m doing these character analysises, it gives me a good overview of the different characters, and their names. The previous arcs learned me that the names of the different characters are impossible to remember, unless you write them down somehow) It’s interesting to see how the relationship between Sakon and the supporting character keep changing with every arc. In the first arc, he protected the woman. In the second arc, he helped the police officer with her investigations. In the third arc, Sayoko helps Sakon, and actually tries to comfort him. She’s quite a strong girl, having lost her parents at a young age and all that. So far, I like her character, though we know that she’ll be surviving in the end. Ah well. You can’t have everything.

Hayami is the first victim. He dies because someone let all of the gas escape from a small camping-cooking-thingy (how did you call those again?). All Hayami had to do is light a lighter, attempting to smoke a cigaret, and the building catches fire. I don’t think he would’ve survived that treatment. Hayami is a master in puppet-making, though he thinks too high of himself. Add that to the fact that he likes getting drunk, and that this he starts insulting people very easily when drunk, and you can come to the conclusion that he’s made lots of enemies. One of these enemies probably let the chamber get filled with gas. He also was the one who fixed Ukon up, so Sakon immediately believes that Ukon was in the building as well, as it set aflame.

Main suspect #1 is Kishikawa. He also makes puppets, but he’s far from as skilled as Hayami. Hayami, in his turn, likes to brag in front of Kishikawa about his achievements, and Kishikawa himself has a very short temper. Naturally, Kishikawa’s come to hate Hayami because of this. One explanation for the murder could be that Kishikawa couldn’t take the pressure anymore, let his anger go out of control and thought of a way to kill the guy, which in the end succeeded. Still, I don’t think that that’s what happened. If he were to kill because of that reason, if he really let his anger get out of control, he would rather grab a pointy object and stab the guy to death. Also, when he realized that Hayami was dead, he didn’t give the reaction you would expect from a killer. It was rather an event which conveniently removed a major pest from his life.

Main suspect #2 is Yoshida. He’s in love with a woman named Keiko. Keiko, however, seems to be in love with Hayami, and thinks Yoshida as some kind of freak. Hence the dilemma. He’s so much in love with her that he’s become obsessed with her. He could have thought that if Hayami would be dead, he would be able to win Keiko over him. obsessed people are able to do strange things. He also had a suspicious smile on his face when he saw Keiko’s reaction when she found out about Hayami’s death. Still, I don’t think he did it. Simply because it’s too damn obvious. I know that the creators aren’t that stupid to drop the most important clue right at the beginning of the arc. He does play a role, though. But he’s not the one who did it.

Keiko’s reasons for loving Hayami remain unknown. She seems like the servant of the puppet-makers, so she would have a lot of contact with both Hayami and Yoshida, so perhaps something in the past happened to make the two of them being attracted to each other. In any case, she was devastated when she saw Hayami killed. Yoshida and Kishikawa didn’t really help to comfort her.

Aoki is the guy who has his head wrapped up in bandages. Either he has a strange sense of fashon, or he got in a nasty accident a while ago. In any case, we don’t see too much of him, though he does get to be the host for the guests who arrive at their house, and he seems to have a strong sense of honor, when he tried to prevent Kishikawa from getting out of control in front of a guest at all cost. Overall, he seems like a nice guy, which makes me think that he actually was the one who did it. I hope that Ayatsuri Sakon isn’t beginning to get formulaic.

I’m suspecting that the old guy is Fukami, though it’s never directly said. In any case, he’s an old master of puppet craftsmanship, and he’s the head of the mansion. He seems like a nice old guy, but the fact that he never said anything about Ukon’s location disturbs me. When Sakon arrived, wouldn’t the first thing be to hand him the puppet, instead of having a small chat. Even after Sakon asks what happened to him?

Ririsu, while I doubt that she has anything to do with the murder, you can’t be too careful these days. She’s a cat Sayoko picked up from somewhere, and she seems to like to run away towards adventures. I’m suspecting that she proved quite the support for Sayoko regarding her parents.

Overall, it was a nice first episode. This arc definitely seems intriguing. Especially Sayoko comforting Sakon at the end of the episode was too cute.

Thank goodness the overall quality of this batch is better than the previous ones, with major thanks to Night Head Genesis for this. It’s great to see that for each bad show, there also is a good show during this season.

Night Head Genesis

Despite the cheesy title, this definitely is one of the better series to air this season, aside from Otogi Juushi Akazukin perhaps. Especially the first episode is beautiful. Two young brothers, both paranormally gifted, are shunned by everyone throughout their entire life. One of them can make things blow up when he’s angry, while the other can read people’s minds if he touches them. When the oldest one was about ten years old and the youngest five years old, they got separated from their parents, as they became too dangerous. Especially the reaction of the oldest brother when he found out about this was just too sad to see. Another MAJOR plus of this anime is the terrific music it features. The tunes are extremely simple, but I think it’s because they’re so simple that they work perfectly. I’m really recommending this show.

FLAG

This show already is extremely popular, after only its first episode got subbed. I think, however, it’s still a bit too early to label this show as good or bad, as the first episode was just one big introduction to the anime. The background story got explained, the characters introduced, but nothing really happened. I think that that’s up for the second episode. In any case, this anime tries to be as realistic and believable as possible. The story features around a small country, in the middle of civil war. A young photographer makes a picture which later turns into the symbol of peace. When the peace negotiations are threatened to get interrupted by extremists, this photographer gets sent back to this country, in order to report for a local army, which plans to fight the ones who oppose the peace. I’m not sure whether it was a good idea for the creators to include mechas for this army, when the anime clearly focuses at photography. Still, a lot of thought was put in the design of this mecha. For once, things actually made a bit sense, as the creators tried to show how the mecha works from the inside. It’s better than the usual techno babble we see in most mecha-shows.

Mamotte Lollipop

Okay. This is just stupid. Not necessarily in a bad way, but unfortunately not in a good way either. It’s definitely the shoujo-series, from beginning to end. The story’s like this: our main character’s dreamguy is someone who protects her from anything bad coming her way. What does she get? Not one, but *gasp* two pretty bishounen who protect her from anything bad coming her way. All because she swallowed a magical pearl they need in order to succeed for their magical exams. If we ignore the very unorthodox final exam the magical world features, the anime’s decent. Some funny jokes are made, some of the characters are interesting, but overall, it doesn’t really add anything new. It seems that the entire show will be focused around these two guys, protecting the girl. I’m not planning to follow this one, as I doubt that I can endure more of the same for twelve more episodes. Still, the flying car was hilarious.