Short Synopsis: Finally, we get to see a part of Ryuzaki’s background.
Good: The first plot twist was awesome. The background was awesome.
Bad: The background could have been more, certain parts could have been cut out of your resident bishie-anime, too bad I saw the second plot twist coming.
Good: Still, the results of that plot twist were awesome as well.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10

Oh boy. I had a hunch about what was going to happen in this episode, but I never saw Light’s plan coming. Instead of the easy way around, make Misa meet L, and write down his name afterwards, which would obviously place Misa yet again on the place of a major suspect. Instead, he uses Misa in order to place Rem in an inescapable plan. He makes Misa kill people again. Because of this, it’s evident that the Death Note has to be researched yet again. Once L finds out that the rules are fake by testing it on actual prisoners, Misa will become a major suspect yet again, and will definitely face the death punishment with all the charges found against her.

The genius plan: the only way to save Misa from being killed: Rem killing Ryuzaki, and taking her own life with her. She can’t take Light with her in the process, as this would bring great sadness to Misa, who apparently does have a short life-span. She has NO choice but to kill Ryuzaki, and sacrifice herself for it! Not only does this not place any suspects on neither Light nor Misa, it also removes the pesky problem of Rem, preventing Light to kill or harm Misa. Still, she probably would have been smarter to kill off Light right ahead. After all, I doubt that Misa will survive long. Then again, she does prove him useful with her eyes and all. He’ll probably decide to keep her, and kill her off when he really needs to.

Also, Ryuzaki’s background definitely was interesting, albeit a bit vague and short. L hints that he’s never told the truth to anyone he knew before. We hear some bells, we see a couple of kids playing and crying and we see Watari stand with a young Ryuzaki right next to him. This probably means that L lost his parents at young age, and then got put in the care of Watari. Watari then probably taught him how to think like a detective.

Also, the wet-bishie-towel-scene may have been a bit too much. Still, the underlying thought was quite interesting, as we see L struggling with his own morals. Obviously, the only way to really find out about the Death Note is to try it out. This means nothing other than to kill somebody with it. Not only does this mean a to go to the same depths as Kira, it also means big trouble for Rem, so she kills both Watari and L off before they have the chance.

The fact remains that this final thing was predictable, but it still was great to see it! Also, Light is now not only Kira, he’s also head of the research, in charge of tracking down Kira. One thing I’d love him to do is look at Rem’s Death Note, and look at Ryuzaki’s real name. I’ve been dying to know what it actually was, and I do hope that the next episode will tell a bit more about Ryuzaki’s background. The guys we’ve been seeing in the OP will probably arrive also in a couple of episodes as well. Sounds promising!

Short Synopsis: Shuurei lets her tears lose in the comfort of Ryuuren, and she comes up with a plan to rebuild the Sa-province.
Good: Obviously, the crying-scene would turn out great.
Bad: One of the more quiet moments of the series.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10

This episode definitely was different from the other episodes of the past few months. Not only does it close some wounds from the past, it also looks into the future. I quite liked it, ‘but on the other side, there weren’t any amazing moments. Still, the scene between Ryuuren and Shuurei was great, and it’ll be very interesting to see how Shuurei will actually turn the Sa Province into the centre of intellectuality. Obviously, this won’t be an easy task, and I can see Shuurei spending the entire second season in order to do this.

Still, this does make you wonder. Obviously, two episodes won’t be enough to create a fully fledged Saiunkoku-climax, which probably means that the final two episodes of Saiunkoku will be about preparing for the meeting, and putting the final ideas into Shuurei’s plans. Still, I’m suspecting that the second season can’t be all about the plans to turn the Sa Clan to an intellectual capital. I’d personally love to see some more background on characters whose background we haven’t seen yet or insufficiently:
- Ran (we actually don’t know anything about this guy’s past)
- Eigetsu (especially the identity of Yougetsu)
- Ensei (where did he grow up?)
- Sho Taishi and his companion (what is their role in this story?)

We’ve also seen Ryuuki’s clan, the Ran-clan, the Kou-clan and the Sa-clan. Apart from that, there still are three (or four?) clans that haven’t had a lot of attention. I somehow suspect that they’re going to play some kind of role as well. Especially when Shuurei pays her visit to the capital.

One thing I love about checking out the new seasons is trying to find the series which have been ignored by everyone, while they actually turn out to be pretty good. I’ve seen some great series, though this. Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, for example, or Master of Epic. And don’t forget the older series as Popolocrois and Strange Dawn.

Ooedo Rocket

Short Synopsis: In a fictional Edo, we’ve got ourselves a young kid who’s able to make some of the greatest fireworks. Unfortunately, what he’s doing is illegal.
Good: Hilariously awesome, great parodies.
Bad: Obviously, most people will never give this wonderful concept a chance.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I never thought I’d say this, but boy, that was awesome. Obviously, this isn’t going to be the most serious story, but I just loved the parodies in this one. It’ll be a great replacement for Master of epic. Ooedo Rocket is one of the few obscure series this season, but obviously it’s just as promising as the other obscure anime of the previous seasons. The series comes with a huge cast of characters, each with their own different and unique quirk. Characters appear in all kinds of different sizes. We’ve got some small townsfolk with some of the most hilarious faces, there’s a bunch of teenagers, a couple of “normal” men and women, some strange monsters, and let’s not forget the guy who is so tall that his head almost always doesn’t fit in the screen. ^^ I also loved how the officer had a cleaning-obsession. If you like an anime which is different from usual, hilarious, and doesn’t take itself too serious, then this is a definite recommendation!

Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica

Short Synopsis: A typical loser can turn his tsundere friend into some kind of superhuman when he plays piano on his motorbike.
Good: Good points? We don’t need no stinkin’ good points!
Bad: Lack of thoughts behind the concept, too much fanservice, the fact that there just aren’t any good points.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
In a season with so many potentially good series, it’s good to know that some series are just never going to be something worthwhile. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica is one of these series. The demolition showed me that this is just an excuse to show cute girls. Real demolition teams would never allow people to enter their construction-site, and they would make sure that all items and properties are removed from the building before they detonate. The addition of semi-classical music for the climaxes also just doesn’t work, and the main guy doesn’t look cool AT ALL when he’s playing his motorbike. Add a female tsundere with an unnaturally large amount of hair, and whose only purpose is to supply fanservice to the viewer, and you’ve got yourself a failure of a series.

Engage Planet ~ Kiss Dum

Short Synopsis: The current year: 2031. The greatest enemy of mankind: bugs. And lots of ‘em.
Good: Great climaxes.
Bad: A bit too heavy on the techno-babble, teenagers, able to pilot complex machinery.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
With certain series, I just know that watching the raws with my limited Japanese is going to be near-impossible. Kiss Dum is one of these series. Not really because if has more difficult dialogue than other series, but the pacing is just insane at times. I think that you’ll need to be able to understand this perfectly in order to enjoy it to its fullest. And it’s got quite some potential to become good, I especially liked the climaxes at the beginning and the ending of the episode. Still, the main force of the protagonist somehow consists out of either teenagers or young adults. I tried, but I never managed to find any veteran amongst the characters. I’m not really enthusiastic about these kinds of concepts (due to the lack of realism), but I do admit that I’m impressed so far.

Holy lobsters on a stick! Touka Gettan and Kono Aozora, Hentai-game adaptations with actually good elements?! Is this some kind of belated April Fool’s joke or something? Yes, I’m rather baffled by this batch.

Touka Gettan

Short Synopsis: I’m not sure, but it involves cross-dressers, two people in the same body and a lot of tragedy.
Good: The tragedy-part, interesting characters, Kannadzuki no Miko-esque soundtrack.
Bad: Has a bit too much harem-elements.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Wait, wait, wait! A hentai-game adaptation that doesn’t actually suck? Whoa, that definitely is something new to me. Touka-chan and his girlfriend were quite interesting to see, and I like the degree of mystery in this series. For a while, I was really impressed by this. That is, until the anime started to introduce your typical harem-lead, an army of maids and even more female bishoujo who are totally unrelated to the story. I didn’t quite like that. Still, I’ve got hope. This first episode was definitely better than the first episode of most other harems I’ve seen in the past few seasons. Now let’s hope it’ll revolve around more than just “who gets to date that main character?”

Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber ~

Short Synopsis: The princess of Wellber ends up being wanted and in the care of a thief named Tina, after she kills her fiancée.
Good: Probably the best OP of the season, great concept for a story.
Bad: A few small flaws here and there, fanservice, a few deus ex machina, though nothing too major yet.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
While I watched the previous shows of the spring-season, I never really had the thought “I am going to blog this”, apart from Claymore perhaps. For these shows, I’ll be making up my mind after having seen the second episode. But with Wellber no Monogatari, I really feel that blogging it will be interesting. Especially the first half of the episode was very nice, when the viewer is just thrown into the events. Tina running into the princess who just killed her lover was quite an amusing moment. Oh, and finally we’ve got ourselves a princess who can actually do something, as it seems that she’s quite skilled in martial arts. The visuals are also quite pleasing, and while the music isn’t done by Yuki Kajiura, it’s quite good. I especially love the OP. It’s so simple, yet so different from usual. Wellber no Monogatari is promising some great things.

Kono Aozora ni Yakusuku wo

Short Synopsis: Main character wakes up with a half-naked girl in his bed.
Bad: A first half of PURE PAIN!!!
Good: With a second half which shows potential… what!?
Overall Enjoyment Value: ?/10
Okay, I’m baffled. The first part of this episode was just horrible. It starts of with one of the most cheesy J-pop songs ever. After that, our main character wakes up with a half-naked girl in his bed, who slaps him afterwards and runs away. The characters have the most annoying voices AND characters EVER. Lots of harem-clichés are there: the annoying student-president, the annoying tsundere, the annoying brother-complex sister, the annoying silent girl, the annoying teacher, have I already mentioned how annoying those characters were? Oh, and surprise, surprise: they all live with the main character in the same building. Boy, you will never see that coming, there is no way you will. Seriously, though, I had almost given up on this anime when it comes with a surprisingly heavy dialogue in the end. Okay, the tsundere will obviously end up somewhere in the main character’s pants in the end, but that dialogue felt strangely genuine. That’s probably the first ever for a harem-anime. As you’ve seen by the rating of “?”, I have no idea what to think about this anime. It’s got so many bad points, but at the same time the good ones have potential. I’m going to watch at least another episode before dropping it.

Short Synopsis: Humans have been forced to coexist with Youma, who like to eat their flesh. In order to fight them, the Claymores appeared, after having themselves infused with Youma’s blood. Because of this, they’ve become feared as well, and everyone’s scared of them. Apart from one boy, that is, who has been saved from a Youma who killed his entire family by a Claymore named Claire.
Good: Knows its priorities for a fighting-series, nice art style, great ED.
Bad: Interesting, the first series of the new season with no bad points.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10

About two weeks ago, during my post about the 1500th comment, I made a little experiment, allowing people to vote on one series of the spring-season. That series would be blogged no matter what. The result: Claymore. No need for a quick first impression, since it’s certain that I’m going to blog this, and so far, I’m impressed. A lot.

At first sight, this series may be about the bloody fights. Sure, there is lots of blood shown, but so far it’s been more about the characters than action. We’ve got ourselves a young, naive boy who tries to make contact with the main character: Claire. As Claymore are half-human, half-Youma, they’re feared by everyone. This guy, however, isn’t afraid of them. Heck, he’s actually grateful. It’s promising to be quite interesting.

I also love Claire. Because most Claymores are either feared or hated, she’s got a really cold personality, due to the fact that she’ll never be able to become friends with anyone. I apparently spoiled myself a bit on Wikipedia, but this did give me enough information in order to follow the episode quite well, even though it was in raw. Most Claymores fuse themselves with Youma-flesh unwillingly, though Claire is the only one who volunteered. It’s for quite an interesting reason.

The Youma already have proven themselves quite clever, being able to take on the shape of humans and all. The art style so far has been really nice, and different from usual. I like it. The background music features all kinds of eerie tunes, perfect for an anime like this. It’ll be interesting to see where this anime goes. I wonder when we’ll see more Claymores appear.