The scenes involving Genzo were truly epic! During the previous episode, I never even wondered why he suddenly became a bird, but now everything becomes clear. Remember the machines that turn people to cats? Well, there are other machines as well. xD I laughed so hard when I finally realized this. Genzo probably is one of the most pitiful characters in the current spring-season. A neglected character in a neglected anime, how much worse can it get? ^^;

Anyway, it seems that Ooedo Rocket isn’t going to be 13 episodes long after all, and we’re in for at least 24 of them. This episode shows this as well when it again continues to develop its characters. This time, the focus lies on Seikichi’s relationship with Sora, and Ginjiro who realizes that he wants to protect Sora. Oh, and Tetsuju returns!

It first looks like we’re dealing with another love-triangle, but I don’t think that Ginjiro is after Sora in that way. He just wants to protect her because he knows her secret. Seikichi, however, thinks that Ginjiro is acting way too suspicious, and during this episode Sora shows him that she does have interest in him when she saves him after Kagiya blows up his boat (long story, let’s just say that Tetsuju had something to do with it ^^;).

The rocket-development also progresses in this episode when Seikichi manages to find a new ingredient for his fuel: poo, as disgusting as it sounds. It works quite well, actually. In this episode, we get to see him do a test-run and the firepower greatly increased. Unfortunately though, Tetsuju was still able to catch up to them. Seikichi indeed needs these extra thirteen episodes if he wants to have a chance to send Sora to the moon.

Overall, I loved the episodes. Episodes 6-8 had a few lesser moments, so I began to fear, but it seems that these fears were unnecessary.

This probably is the episode of Claymore with the least amount of fighting. Heck, most of it was just talking, which is very nice for a change. It’s another very important episode, you wouldn’t want to miss it. The four Claymores were indeed sent to take care of the male Awakened Being because they’re problem children, and half-Awakened, and the four of them have become allies against the organization. A relative lot of time was spent on this, probably in order to really show the bond between Helen, Deneve, Miria and Claire.

We also see something interesting in Miria’s flashback. We see the part where she half-Awakened (Deneve was there too), and then we see what is probably Claymore Number four, Ophelia, who keeps encouraging Miria to awaken. She looks quite scarily, but I think that she is the biggest reason. For Miria to turn against the organization, and while she never mention it, Miria keeps dropping hints that she hates that woman.

We also see the identity of Claymore 3: Galatea. It’s the Claymore who spied on the fight in the previous episode, and her ability seems to be quite similar to Claire’s: sensing Yoki, especially from very far away. Number 1 seems to be Alicia, Number 2 is Beth and number 5 is Rafaela (wasn’t she the Number 5 in episode 5 as well, before Priscilla took her place?).

So far, Claymore is good stuff, but there’s one thing that worries me: the fact that the manga hasn’t finished yet. Is there any sign of the manga finishing soon? The series may be true to it right now and all, but I fear what would happen if this series would get stuck in fillers.

I must say… that was an amazing episode! I didn’t think Death Note would be able to surpass itself, but holy god, it did! I never expected this to happen to Mello and Takada at all. The people who say that the second half sucks really need to see this episode.

Mello, who started out as an annoying brat totally received my respect after this episode. He also shows that he’s only human, he knows that Near is about to get Kira, and he himself hasn’t been getting anywhere with Misa, so he decides to go for one final attempt to defeat Near, and he makes mistakes which cost him his life. He never knew that Takada possessed a few pages of the Death Note, and he had to pay for this. All the bad things I’ve said about him, I take them back after this episode.

And Light finally demonstrates how cruel he can be. If Takada gets discovered, it’ll mean that Near finds out about her, holding the Death Note and his plan will be gone, so he makes use of the fact that she was abducted by Mello to make her commit suicide. The question remains: will Near buy it? I think, though, that he’s become so focused on his plan that he won’t be able to notice this.

While I originally believed that this would turn into a “calm before the storm”-episode, it turned out magnificently. I doubt whether the next two episodes will be able to beat it, though we’ll see. This isn’t the first time that Death Note surprised me. I’m glad to see that after a bodgy middle part, Death Note managed to redeem itself completely, and I can’t wait to see the next episode!

The world is in trouble. Everywhere in the world, Raaja start to appear along with the pollution, caused by humans and something needs to be done. This is the message that Earth Girl Arjuna tries to bring. It features a high-school girl who receives the power of the earth in order to protect it. Unfortunately, though, she remains a high-school girl, and so she also has her own problems.

And that’s where the problem with this anime lies. The two major focuses of this anime, the endangered environment and Juna’s personal problems don’t really mix together. They’re constantly trying to get the centre of attention, not to mention that the love triangle, that takes up quite a bit of airtime just gets nowhere because of this. The individual parts are good, yes, but this anime really had an identity crisis throughout its run of 13 episodes.

There’s also this matter of the rather disappointing ending, shamelessly ripped off from Nausicaa. If you’re looking for an anime about human pollution, Nausicaa definitely is a better choice, as Earth Girl Arjuna comes with a bunch of theories that just don’t make any sense at all. Also, we never really get to know why Juna got her powers in the first place. The closest reason we get is “there was no other choice”. It’s also a bit too coincidental that the “big boss” is caused by none other than Juna’s boyfriend’s father.

Still, Earth Girl Arjuna isn’t all that bad. One thing it did right was character-development. The cast of characters gets well developed and explored throughout the anime, and I overall had a good time watching. It’s just that now that I started writing this review, I’m beginning to notice more and more flaws and plotholes. You’ll probably enjoy this if you don’t get too much bothered by these.

The graphics look quite interesting, Juna’s designs are done with quite some creativity, and the entire anime sparkles with imaginative choreography. The music also is quite unique. It’s not really memorable, but I can see myself going after the soundtrack, as there are quite a number of interesting tunes worth listening to.

Overall, Earth Girl Arjuna is not a bad anime; it just has a lot of flaws. Let me just warn you to skip the final episode, though, as it’s the worst episode in the entire series, and the perfect example of a bad and rushed ending.

Hitohira is going to be a rather difficult anime to review, since most of its major merits are rather spoilerific, but I’ll give it a try. Basically, it’s one of these rare high-school dramas done right. It features Mugi, an extremely shy girl who even has trouble speaking up at times, who gets recruited for the local drama-club. Why? Because her voice can be incredibly hard when she’s not holding back.

When I first read this description, I indeed was sceptical. After all, many anime have come up with similar concepts, and failed horribly. Hitohira, though, proved to know exactly what it was doing. There are no stereotypes, no excessive fanservice, no harem, and no artificial student council. Nearly all of the clichés that we usually see in these school-based shows are gone. Instead, this anime delivers characters that go well beyond the stereotypes. They’re rich and versatile, and each of them gets a great dose of development through the course of only twelve episodes, ending with an actually good ending.

Hitohira turned out to be surprisingly genuine, but it does take two or three episodes to get going and show its full potential. Nono’s case is beautiful, and I loved how this anime didn’t try to keep its characters together. Life goes on is a major theme of especially the later episodes and it’s done beautifully. I won’t say anything more than that that the major climax was amazing, and it was a definite highlight of the spring-season. Just go and check it out for yourself.

The character-designs are done beautifully and unique, making the visuals a real treat. The animation itself usually remains minimal, though you won’t see any distorted faces or strangely drawn bodies. The background music doesn’t stand out, but it still contributes to the scenes perfectly.

I really hope for this series to get subbed soon, as it deserves to be watched. This series really is one of the spring-season shows that went right. The only flaw that I managed to spot was that especially in the beginning, the drama was a tad too forced, though as the show went on this became less and less apparent. It’s a great choice for anyone who isn’t bored too fast.