Just like Toward the Terra, Les Miserables is in dire need of a new OP and ED. It feels weird to see the characters still in their child-forms. ^^; Still, I suspect that either with episode 26 or 27, we’ll get a new one. Speaking of which, I wonder what the creators have in store for us to close off the first half of this series. Now that I think of it, I have reason to believe that the current episode was slowly paced on purpose, in order to save a big event for episode 26. After all, it seems that Eponine will be breaking into the house in the next episode, and something tells me that something’s going to happen to her.

This episode, meanwhile, slowly spends its time developing the relationships between Jean, Cosette, Marius and Eponine, yet again we see how the events of seven years ago still haunt Cosette and Jean. I didn’t realize it, but Jean continuously stayed with Cosette up to this episode. This episode, we see him go out and buy a present for her, and she immediately begins to feel lonely again. Jean, meanwhile, learns a bit more about Cosette’s feelings, as it seems he’s been quite oblivious to them. Javert also still is heavily on his mind, since he actually moved out when he suspected Marius to be a spy of the police!

I’m also curious at the amount of money that Jean possesses. Obviously, it’s a lot, but it’ll have to run out someday. Especially when they’re living in such an expensive building with an expensive dinner every night, I really wonder how much money he still has left. I’m looking forward to the next half of the series, and I can’t wait to see for the fourth arc to arrive. Right now, the anime is still building up, but based on the things I’ve heard about the second half, I can’t wait to see how Cosette and Jean will turn out.

If you’re wondering what Dash! Kappei is doing in this entry, it’s a request by Maria, who asked me to blog about this series and it was a nice opportunity to wrap up the quick first impressions before the start of the Summer-season, since I needed one more series for that.

ICE

This is probably the first anime of the past few years to actually look like it’s made in the nineties, based on the characters at least. If you’d look just at them, you wouldn’t suspect that we’ve got ourselves a 2007-OVA here. This anime really gives the unique experience of mixing old character-designs with new CG, but unfortunately the fact also remains that the characters just look ugly. The animators also really screw things up with the random nonsensical Engrish that passes the screen, so the visuals shouldn’t be a reason for you to check out this anime. The characters themselves could have been more interesting. Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy this episode. The story and voice-acting really made up for the flaws. Especially the story, this OVA carries the concept of a world where all men have died out way beyond its basics, and it provides a nice number of plot twists and imaginative concepts you don’t quite easily think of. I also loved how the characters who died or got injured where remembered and taken care of. The voice-acting is unique, most characters have some kind of unique voice, which really works well if you get used to it.
EDIT: I wrote this blurb about a week ago, and now that I think back at it, my opinion of this show has become even better, and I’ve kind-of forgotten all the bad parts. This definitely is an OVA that needs a bit of time to sink in, which always is a good thing.

Dash Kappei

Dash Kappei is quite an old anime, it’s about a small boy named Kappei with extreme sports skills. In this episode, we see him get recruited for the local basketball team at school. Unfortunately, I’m not really enthusiastic about this show. It’s got nothing to do with the age, but rather the main character. In fact, I found myself liking every scene in which he wasn’t featured, and hating every scene in which we did see him. The dog was brilliant, and the team captain was adorable, but Kappei was horrible. He likes looking at the panties of girls and dedicates himself to the girls with white ones. He’s arrogant and he’s skilled in basketball with no signs of training whatsoever. He’s arrogant, his goofy facial-expression looks horrible, he never takes things seriously at all and his chemistry with the other characters is awful. I know that this is supposed to be a comedy, but with a character like Kappei it’ll just be impossible for me to enjoy this series. If you like panty-jokes and don’t mind old graphics you may give it a chance, otherwise: avoid it.

Tetsuko no Tabi

Tetsuko no Tabi definitely had the most peculiar premise of the spring-season: we follow a mangaka who records her travels along with a train otaku and her assigner (Ishikawa), and the entire anime is completely non-fiction. So, after having seen the first episode, how does it turn out? Well, awesome! The entire anime just sparkles with energy, perhaps even more than with Manabi Straight. It’s a perfect example of a feel-good anime, and the chemistry between the three main characters is excellent. Basically, they travel down one trainway, and make a stop at every train-station. The mangaka, who expected something entirely different when she first took on the job (aka, lots of delicious food), just keeps getting freaked out by the otaku’s antics, and Ishikawa’s fascination at them. Lucky Star had better watch out, as it’s not the only series focusing on modern Japanese culture and otaku anymore, and as things are looking right now, Tetsuko no Tabi will beat it in every department apart from parodies. Unless you need battles or cute girls with obscene hair-colours in your anime, you should definitely check this one out.

Seriously, it’s going to be extremely difficult choosing a number one for my upcoming June summary. This episode was once again excellent, and really heart-warming. One thing’s for sure, though: Kaze no Shoujo Emily definitely is the best slice-of-life series of the season and I urge every slice-of-life fan to check this series out as soon as it gets subbed. Seriously, why are shows like these unpopular with the fansubbers?

When it comes to feel-good humour, Kaze no Shoujo does a much better job than Lucky Star, in my opinion and on top of that it provides some excellent drama. This episode focuses on Emily’s relationship with Jimmy, and her poetic character causes some misunderstandings again. Jimmy shows her the local newspaper where every week a different poem from a reader gets featured, and he urges Emily to enter as well. Obviously, the poem wouldn’t make it, but Emily spends lots of time, fantasizing about what would happen once her poem appeared in the newspaper.

It’s strange. Usually when we see people fantasize it gets annoying. People fantasize about ridiculous things as a means of comic relief, but with Emily, it’s really a part of her character, and therefore very well developed, resulting in me, loving these scenes. Things get even better when Jimmy tries to prevent Emily from finding out that her poem didn’t make it, by buying up all of the newspapers from the local store.

Jimmy really was adorable. He seems to really enjoy seeing the energetic Emily happy, and every time he saw her enthusiasm, we saw him with a smile on his face.

Another thing I love about this series is how it takes place in Canada. The thing with anime is that most of the series just take place in Japan, while it’s fascinating to see other cultures portrayed. That’s why I usually dismiss anime that have Japanese high-schools as their setting: it’s been done so often, what can possibly be added by the umpth series focusing on it? The Canadian setting of Kaze no Shoujo therefore is really appreciated, and the difference is really noticeable. This episode introduced the winter-clothing of the different characters, and it may be me, but I never saw such outfits in Japan before. That’s probably because the winters in Canada are so much colder than those in Japan.