Ugh… this is annoying. Almost all of the good shows I’m watching come out on Friday and Saturday, while the other days are really quiet. So, yeah. Expect me to be really prolific on some days while rather absent on other days. ^^;

Anyway, I could be wrong, but I think we’ve struck another manga-arc. And it’s a very unusual as well, as there’s a huge amount of feathers at stake. It does make sense, though. Such a large amount of feathers will probably be enough to fill a huge gap in Sakura’s memories. And if the arc takes up four or five episodes, it’s also a nice way for Sakura to start the third season with nearly all of her feathers recovered. I’m really looking out for the third season, as it will mean the conclusion of this series, and it seems that things have yet to get serious.

I’m just a bit worried about Chaos. It seems that he met Sakura when she was young. As things stand now, he’s going to become a love-rival for Syaoran. I’m so hoping that the creators will either refrain from this, or develop this relationship in an extremely good way, as there’s nothing which can ruin a relationship as much as a suddenly-introduced love rival, who never made a chance of acquiring his loved one in the first place.

Yuuko also came with an interesting message for White Day. In return for eating Watanuki’s cake for Valentine’s day, she returns some advice for both Syaoran as Fay as Kurogane. Everything in this world has a beginning and an end. A good deed will lead to a good outcome. A bad outcome will await a bad deed. Why did Kurogane and Fay look so suspicious after hearing this? This will definitely be an important message for in the future. After all, it’s got to have the same value as a nice cake.

Okay. That was AWESOME!

I can’t believe how incredibly cute this episode turned out. It was just one huge chunk of randomness. Basically, what happens is that the City Musicians of Bremen appear again and use their music-magic to create a huge pumpkin monster who feeds on musical energy. What follows is almost an entire episode, filled with songs, songs and even more songs. The way this turned out was so incredibly awesome. Best episode thus far!

And Hameln was just brilliant! He also arrives in an attempt to slay the huge pumpkin monster, until it appears that he’s got a huge pumpkin-phobia. XD This was because when they were young, Akazukin kept chasing him with a large pumpkin on her head. The way he eventually took care of the monster was just hilarious. XD

Though on a more serious note, I’ve complained before about Akazukin. Even though she’s supposed to be the main character of this show, she isn’t really fleshed out. We know nothing of her background, and she didn’t have a real episode dedicated to her. But now we finally saw a scene of her past. It seems that she lived together with Hameln, and that the two were on rather “friendly” terms. ^_^

Overall, I just can’t stop mentioning how awesome this episode was. Both the three musketeers as the four City Musicians of Bremen as Hameln played their parts perfectly. And both Akazukin, Shirayuki and Ibara were SO cute in their own songs! *fanboys*

Next episode will probably be the entire opposite: both Jedo-sama as Turude will be returning. Exciting!

Holy god, I am SO late. Why the heck did I put off watching this awesome series? Ah well, the good thing is that Shadow seems to have made a three-week trip to Japan, so only the translation of episode 20 has been released yet, which means that I haven’t missed anything. I’m not going to attempt to watch the raws without any translation anymore. This really is a series at which you need to fully understand what’s happening in order to enjoy it. Luckily, Shadow’s back from Japan now, and I’m now eagerly awaiting her new translations. ^_^

This episode was mostly meant for background information. Both about Seiran as about the history of Saiunkoku, and the civil war. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a great episode. I really enjoyed it. It seems that both Seiran and Ryuuki were unwanted children. Ryuuki was hated by all his brothers, while Seiran was hated by his mother. She kept telling him that she’d been so much better off if he hadn’t been born.

Out of all the princes, Seiran was the most talented. At the age of twelve, he already was an excellent swordsman, he won the royal tournament and was presented by the royal twin swords Kanshuu and Bakuya by his father. He gave Bakuya to Ryuuki. I’m not sure how, but at some point, Kanshuu also came in Ryuuki’s possession, which he then gave back to Seiran again during the previous episode. So, what happened to Bakuya? *kicks memory*

Seiran was exiled because of his mother and grandfather. They were planning to make Seiran Emperor. That’s something which his four eldest brothers didn’t like, so they used this fact to arrest Seiran, and exile him. (Small note: who were the women, standing right beside them?). It was because of the current king’s influence that Seiran just became exiled, rather than executed.

Seiran was exiled to the Sa-province. During his journey, his mother was killed by assassins, sent after him by his brothers. Seiran then vanished fourteen years ago. At the end of that year, Shouka found him, and took him in. Between those times, it’s unknown what he’s been doing, though if I had to guess, it wasn’t pretty. All we know is that he’s picked up by a strange man, with long, dark-red hair.

Then, the episode focuses on the history of Saiunkoku. After prince Seien was exiled, things went well for five years. Ryuuki was taken in by Shouka and the four other princes continued to fight on the inside. Then, nine years ago, the emperor turned sick. When the princes found this out, the conflict between them took a serious turn, and the entire palace lost its balance. Therefore, civil war started. When you combine this with a heavy drought, the population suffered heavily. I just loved how the creators showed a quick shot of Shuurei, playing on her instrument in front of the dead people.

Shou Taishi didn’t do anything about this. It seems that he was waiting for a person, worthy to be called the emperor of Saiunkoku. When he finally found someone like that in Ryuuki, he solved the crisis like it was nothing, he fed the hungry and executed the four fighting princes (at least, this is implied. They’re all dead, aren’t they?). Then, two years ago, the previous emperor died, and Ryuuki got the throne. What happened afterwards, we already know.

Really an excellent background episode. Why did I ever start to ignore this series?

Seriously, there were a lot of garbage-shows in the autumn season, though the anime that actually were good, really turned out extremely well. Asatte no Houkou is no exception to this rule, and this episode only strengthened this. It focuses on Karada this time, and her relationship with Hiro. It was in one word, beautiful.

Last episode, we left off with Shoko telling Hiro about the new Karada. It takes about half an episode for this message to sink down into his mind, much to the annoyance of Shoko and sadness of Karada. The second half of the episode takes place during the summer festival, at which Shoko attempts to bring Karada and Hiro back together. She lets the two of them be alone for a while, and Karada starts to cry in front of Hiro. So sad. Ah well, it did bring the two closer together, and it seems that they’ll be living together again.

Shoko, also definitely changed. You can definitely see this when she’s alone with Karada. In the first episode, all we see of her is her cold side, as she’s constantly reminded of the sad memories Hiro left her. But she’s so cute when she attempts to calm down and comfort Karada.

The question now remains: how will this anime continue? There will probably be some time dedicated to allow Karada’s classmate to accept what happened (dammit… what was his name again?), and the next episode will probably also focus on Karada and Shoko, picking up their lives again. But then what? There’s still lots of time that has to be filled. And remember that the “however…”-part from the description of this anime has yet to happen. =)

Also, notice Karada’s ribbon on her Yukata? That was so cute. ^_^

Seriously, that was such an awesome episode. Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto makes a good chance of becoming this season’s best anime if this quality remains at the same level. This episode focused on Akizuki’s past a bit, but mostly on Saigo Magozou’s (not Takamori, apparently, the two of them have the same last name. Does that mean that they’re related?) attempts to assassinate Yuyama. I’m not sure why, tough. Apparently, Yuyama stands in Nakaiya Juubei’s way in some kind of manner.

But first, another name. Ever since the previous episode, the official site has been updated to include Katsu’s bodyguard. His name is Kanna Sakyou no Suke.

We start the episode where we left off the previous time. Magozou has been surrounded by both Akizuki and the troupe. Now, he uses some kind of explosive to create a smokescreen and escape. Benimaru and Kobako then arrive, and thank Akizuki for what he did in the previous episode. The latter, however, just walks away.

We then switch to the next day, in which the troupe is performing a play in front of an audience. And seriously… they’re good. Akizuki and Soutetsu have a little talk, which forces Akizuki to remember his old master, Sakamoto Ryouma again. At least, I think that’s him. Ryouma also mentions Katsu for a bit.

We then switch to Nakaiya Juubei and Magozou. It seems that the former has acquired the building plans for the theatre, which will prove to be a great advantage for Magozou. Back to Akizuki, he’s training for a bit until Kobako arrives with an invitation of some sort. I think that Katsu asked him to deliver this, which would suggest some connection between the two. It seems that Katsu also is getting worried about the fact that Akizuki’s still living on his memories of Ryouma. We see the flashback of his assassination again as well.

We then switch to the troupe again, performing a play about Hario Genba. It’s very interesting to see that Soutetsu actually wrote a play about the history of the members of the troupe. Ah well, it’s a good source of inspiration (^_^). Magozou, meanwhile, is wrapping some cloth around his gun, while eating a bit. I’m not sure for what purpose that is. To conceal his weapon? To add extra firepower? In any case, it seems that he’s already sneaked into the theatre, waiting for the right opportunity.

A conversation between Nakaiya Juubei and TB Glover later, we switch to the next day, where it seems that the troupe will be performing for a huge play. It is here where Magozou will be attempting to try his luck, as everyone will probably be too busy with making the show run in order to pay any attention to other things. Akizuki, however, also seems to be present. An interesting note: either the troupe has hired extra actors, or it consists out of more than just the characters, important to the story. I’m guessing the former, as at one point, the stage is filled with lots of people at the same time.

Both Akizuki and Soutetsu are keeping an eye out, while Magozou waits for the right moment, at a spot right above the stage. Unfortunately, he waits too long, so Akizuki finds him first. And this is where things really turn awesome. Especially because the play below is just continuing like nothing happened. Magozou attempts to escape, but then runs into Soutetsu and shoots Kakashi no Keishin’s shoulder in the process. He eventually ends up right next to the stage with no sign of his pursuers and a clear shot of Kakunojou, when suddenly the stage gets filled with numerous extras, playing for government officials and other people, who all obstruct his view of Kakunojou.

He then turns desperate, and he runs on the stage himself, putting on an act of his own. Akizuki then rushes in and kills the guy, and the audience loves this, thinking it’s all part of the act. Magozou, however, has one trick left up his sleeve: a number of bombs, hanging from the ceiling. He attempts to shoot them, though Kanna no Sakyou Suke prevents this.

Kkunojou attempts to thank Akizuki, though he walks away again. Once more, he wasn’t able to protect the ones who hired him. I think his problem is that he doesn’t know the meaning of teamwork. For as far as I know, he’s been doing everything on his own, and he never considered the help of others. The fact that they actually did try to help him didn’t appear in his mind.

Another thing: the supernatural elements. For the past two episodes, there has been absolutely nothing supernatural appearing, even though this forms a large part of the story (the red star, the unsealed demon). I’m suspecting that this will turn into an important focus later in the story. I actually like how the creators did this.