Kai Doh Maru is making me rather angry while writing this review. Not because it’s incredibly bad, but because it could have been incredibly good. It’s Production IG’s attempt at making a movie, and they went with another setting of Japan’s history. The interesting thing is that while most anime pick a period around the year 1800, with the samurai and shinsengumi and all, Kai Doh Maru goes further back: to the ninth century.

Those who appreciated Sisters of Wellber know what to expect: really stylized art that fits perfectly, an excellent soundtrack (this one has been composed by Yoshihiro Ike, the same guy who did Ergo Proxy), and a nice amount of the screen-time is spent on fleshing out the characters, creating a great mood for this movie to work with. Only the humour is missing in this one. So why did it disappoint?

Simply enough: it’s too short. If only it had gotten twenty, maybe ten more minutes, it could have been so much better, and it could have made a chance to be memorable. Unfortunately, Kai Doh Maru only has a length of 40 minutes, which may be enough to flesh out its characters, but not to flesh out their backgrounds. Right now, the movie was just way too confusing and failed to answer too many questions. What happened in Kai Doh Maru’s past? Why was he or she hunted, and why does she or he keep changing genders? These questions could have been perfectly answered if more time was given.

Then there’s the issue of the ending: there is none. It just ends, and the bad guys still live. What happens next? We’ll never know. One thing I do know is that I really like Production IG’s style of storytelling; it’s just too bad that this movie screwed up. Nevertheless, despite my ranting, it’s quite an enjoyable movie though; you can give it a try if you’re a fan of their style like me. Just be sure for the rather large plotholes it leaves.

Aha! After Toward the Terra and Claymore Ooedo Rocket will also start its final arc with the next episode. That’s when Seikichi really is going to have to prove himself to take Sora to the moon. His problems with the police will be over now, people don’t have any more secrets for each other, the characters have been fleshed out, and pretty much all roles are set. It’s there where this anime is going to have to prove itself. I’m afraid to say it, but this and the past episode felt a bit weird, and the introduction of an arc-based plot wasn’t as interesting as the individual episodes of the first half, and the time they spent on building up.

The next arc is going to have to prove whether this series succeeds or fails, as it can still go anywhere. It all depends on the character-development. The characters now have their bases built up nicely, now it’s time for the creators to use them. By far the most interesting scenes of the past few episodes were the ones that developed the characters, and not the plot. It’ll basically be Sora and Keiichi vs Akai, now that the blue monsters from the sky are dead. At least, I think they are. The first one definitely is gone, but the death of the third one doesn’t follow the golden rule of anime: unless you see a character die, he’ll live. Blue monster from the sky definitely is gone now; she had her arm ripped off and was in the middle of an explosion. Though the third one, the one who was more dangerous at that time, could have escaped. There’s got to be a meaning to that scene where he attacked the hunter who betrayed the others.

Ghost Hunt showed that it’s possible: its final arc was definitely one of the best. It’s all going to have to depend on one thing: are the creators intending to end this series the standard way, or will they try to be original. Ghost Hunt’s final arc was great because it eliminated a main character for most of its time. Night Head Genesis had a great ending because the biggest threat was basically gone, which looks a lot like Ooedo Rocket right now.

Ah well, there are either four or six episodes left. That’s got to be enough for this situation, but for now I’m sceptical. I’ll have to see this one succeed before getting too optimistic.

So, basically because Eclipse took so long with their release for this week, I got impatient and checked out the raws. At times like these, I’m glad that I can understand them. :)

Anyway, this is one of the few Claymore-episodes without fighting, but it’s definitely one to look forward to, as there’s a really high emphasis on character-development, and this episode may have been one f the best ones of Claymore yet, especially not considering the fights.

There’s only one part I didn’t like, so I’ll start with that one: Raki. We still don’t know how the heck he ended up in the north in the first place. If I heard correctly, he’s supposed to have been victim of slave-trading in the manga, which is a perfectly good explanation, though I never heard any of the sorts in this episode. Either that or I must have missed it.

Okay, now the good stuff: Raki is getting closer to Priscilla and Isley than I thought. I’m eager to learn of the background of the two of them, as they’re definitely behaving unlike other awakened beings I’ve seen so far. Priscilla also is entirely different from the Priscilla we saw in episode eight. The creators will definitely be using this for when Claire runs into Priscilla. I wonder if Priscilla still recognizes Claire, by the way.

The biggest focus of the episode was on Deneve and Undine, though, and I both loved them. Undine proves yet again that she’s more than just a cocky muscle-machine. It seems that she has learned to always activate a small piece of her youma-powers in order to keep her muscles tense at all times. She’s just someone who likes to act tough, afraid that people will find out her true nature. That second sword of hers, it also seems to be from a good friend of hers.

Deneve was the one who found this out, and she acts really mature at this. I think I finally begin to understand why she chose to be a defensive type: unlike Claire, whose loved one was killed by an identifiable enemy (Priscilla), her loved ones (most likely her family) were killed by unknown Youma. Instead of swearing to kill off all youma, like Priscilla did, Deneve swore to protect as much as possible. That’s why she demands perfection from both herself and others.

Flora, meanwhile, shows that she’s been around since Claire’s youth, because she recognized Irene’s arm. That’s not something you do easily, since Miria, who’s a lot stronger than Flora (I assume, at least) couldn’t recognize it. Because of this, she and Jeane become some of the few to hear Claire’s raison d’Être of killing Priscilla. Flora should be getting character-development in the next few episodes.

To add to that, the fina minutes of the episode show Helen, trying to encourage a minor Claymore, who looks surprisingly unique, and it ends as the second wave of Isley’s henchmen are coming. Look forward to the next episode!