When I saw the first episode of this series, I immediately dismissed it. Every direction pointed to a standard shounen series. Pubescent male, check. Female love interest, check. Sudden huge unexplained outburst of power coming from main character, check. At that time, I saw absolutely no reason to continue this show.

Boy, was I wrong. Thank god I got curious when I saw Maya’s entries about the series, and managed to catch up with the series. I’m so glad I did that. Yes, it remains a shounen series. But one heck of an incredibly well developed shounen series. The romance between the main character (Renton) and main female character (Eureka), which I initially gave no chance of success, turned out to be so well developed and fleshed out. This really is a must see for anyone with a bit of patience.

Basically, the series consists out of four part. The first part is the most boring and misleading. It’s mostly meant to introduce the cast of characters, and covers about ten episodes. The second part suddenly starts introducing a huge lot of mentally disturbing scenes. Boy, that was a huge surprise. By the end of this part (episode 28) I really was hooked to this anime. The creators made perfect use of the fact that Renton was just an idiotic boy. He just keeps causing troubles to his surroundings, and Eureka as well, because of his naivety.

Then, starting from episode 29, the third part begins, and all of the disturbing scenes just stop, and the series enters a season-long intermezzo. It’s mostly meant in order to develop the different characters and flesh them out a bit, with the emphasis on Renton and Eureka, though it may be a pain to get through. Then, at episode 40 the series picks up pace again, and at episode 44, the fourth part of the anime begins, attempting to finish the anime. The fourth part turns amazing again. It fully utilizes the basis that the third part set, and delivers six episodes of pure awesomeness. These episodes were so incredibly sad at times. Unfortunately, the creators had set their mind on an epic ending, which threw this anime into the pit of predictability again, unfortunately.

The second and fourth part make this anime incredibly worthwhile, in their own way. The second part focuses on conflicts, while the fourth part focuses on trust and faith. Emotions skyrocket during the many climaxes and confrontations. Unfortunately, the fact remains that the first and third arc are rather essential for this anime, even though they remain boring. At times, Renton also acts like an annoying brat for comic relief, that wasn’t really exciting to see.

The story of this anime, indeed, is one huge adventure. But what else can you expect with a fifty-episode anime? The story focuses around an interesting world, created by the creators of this anime. The plot is very complex and multi-layered, and this anime does a fine job introducing the different elements. Still, there are a few unanswered plotholes left at the end of the episode. Our main character’s sudden outburst of power never really gets a decent explanation.

Overall, this anime has great characters. During the right parts, they really shine like no other. If you’ve got enough time for a 50-episode series, I’m definitely recommending this.

Hehe, I had to laugh when I saw the fansubbers agitation about the insert songs. They’re a great addition, but I can imagine that it must be a hell to typeset each and single one of them. ^^

About the episode, it’s strange. The way it started suggested a very basic plot about a bad guy who took over a world. Still, even though that was the case, the way this arc was resolved was totally worth the watch. I think we have Chun Yang to thank for that, after her great performance in front of the residents of Kiishima’s world. The way this arc resolved was very light-hearted, but very inspirational as well.

Also, Fay used magic again. At least, I think he did. When Sakura walks on the water, about to transport to the other world. Fay walks on the water, right beside Sakura. That’s normally not possible unless you use magic, isn’t it? ^^

Hmm, the bad guys get more evil by the minute. I so do hope that the following episodes will show a bit of their background and history. I’m not really into those bad guys who are just evil because they’re evil. This time, the bad guys send Asano-kun after Naoto and Naoya. His powers look a lot like the ones we saw Sonezaki use on Kariya and Tadano. That means that they’ve either got similar powers, or it was actually Asano-kun who manipulated everything, while Sonezaki just took care of the talking and diplomatic matters. If that is the case, then you’d wonder about his powers.

Three cases get highlighted again this episode: the guy who attempted to kill Miki, Kariya again and the boy who caused a bunch of suicides. Asano-kun uses the latter to try and either take Naoto and Naoya out, or to awaken or study their mysterious powers. During this stage, strange characters appear, bearing the same tattoos like the guy who attempted to kill Miki. What appears to be the case? Naoto and Naoya created these people themselves. Their negative thoughts, hidden in the backs of their heads started their existence.

Naoya also received a memo from Mikuriya. It contains a prophecy Kamiya once had. Naoto’s power seems to be too strong. For a minute, I thought I read Naoya, but it really seems to be Naoto. It’s strange, as it did seem that he managed to control his powers. “Schism, two bodies, beasts seek out to eat his flesh, separation will lead to terror and death. I cannot see past the darkness, but this Upheaval will be white.” Seriously, I have no idea what this means, but the mystery-parts in this anime really are awesome. I think the beasts are Asano-kun, Sonezaki and their bosses, with the flesh being a metaphor for his powers. Separation leads to terror and death seems to suggest that the two brothers have to stay together. But I think that there’s more than just that.

The role of Mikuriya, the research centre and the barrier also gets questioned during this episode. Right now, it seemed that the centre was evil, though Mikuriya decided that it was impossible to chase the brothers, so they formed a truce. But during this episode, Naoto actually wonders whether the barrier wasn’t meant to protect the two of them. That’s why it was so bad that the elder died. Not because Naoto and Naoya could get to others, but because others could get to them.

And also, was the name “Purple Chain” just a random coincidence, or was more behind it?

Chung Yang… boy that’s a time ago. I like that this anime actually goes back to worlds it already visited. It’s interesting to see what happened afterwards. Okay, it would have been better if the time span was a bit bigger, but I’m already happy with this.

I don’t get what people have against the Tsubasa Chronicle fillers. Okay, it’s got nothing to do with the main story, but each of the fillers has been a very pleasant watch, with your occasional amazing ones.

This episode tells the story of what happened after Ryoshi disappeared. Remember Kiishimu? The woman that Ryoshi had captured? Well, it seems that she has her own country, and ever since Syaoran and the others left, her subordinates have been attacking the villagers in Chun Yang’s town. Still, there’s definitely more behind this. The villagers are all making plans to fight, though Chun Yang is against it. I’d love to see what exactly Kiishimu’s intentions are.

First of all, Raikan isn’t a person, it’s a group of people led by “Eternal King Jedo-Sama”, the one who killed the monster from the wine cellar. Apparently, he has a certain history with Baru, and I think he’ll turn out to be a major bad guy in the later parts of the series. Something I missed while watching episode 12. ^^

Anyway, about the episode, it’s got a healthy dose of background of Ibara. After all, Shirayuki teleported the group to her home country. Ibara indeed is the princess of her country (you’d wonder about the country Shirayuki is the princess of), so Souta and the others are welcomed with lots of hospitality. Surprisingly, Souta also gets a bit of development himself and I’m still waiting for that Akazukin-episode. Oh, and Ibara actually smiled for the first time ever. ^^

Souta doesn’t really know what happened to his mother. He just has dreams in which she’s kidnapped or in danger. It seems that she just vanished into thin air at one moment. Even photographs didn’t show her anymore. Ibara tells a cute story about her own clover. When she was young, she often used to play and talk with it, though one time, she fell asleep and her powers went out of control and caused a ruckus, ripping one of the clover’s leaves off.

Next episode seems to be a normal one again, when Akazukin and the others reach a snow town. I’m not sure on who it’ll focus, probably Ringo. But it also seems that we finally get to see some signs of Erude again.