Ah, I’ve been anticipating this one. It’s a TV-special, but it could as well be considered a movie, with a length of one hour and forty minutes. The storyline is nothing special. Evil construction-workers are planning to destroy a forest, somewhere in the Japanese mountains by building a dam, and the forest and the local children fight back to stop them. It was quickly clear that the success of this anime would depend on its characters.

Luckily, Miyori proved to be more than able to carry this TV-special. She’s a great example of a well-developed tomboy, and she easily goes beyond this stereotype. Throughout the airtime, it was awesome to see her get used to her new surroundings, including the highly imaginative creatures of the forest. Her voice-actress also shines, giving off an excellent performance. The only downside to this is that there are quite a few side-characters who do lack development, especially the bad guys are a bunch of stereotypes; they just bleak when compared to Miyori herself.

Another major plus in this production is the graphics-department. While the animation is plain and simple, the art itself is incredibly detailed, both for the character-designs and the background art. Especially Miyori’s got some excellent character-designs, while she still looks like an ordinary girl. The forest itself is brightly coloured, and a real feast for the senses.

While the soundtrack isn’t among the best, it definitely contributes to the overall scenes. Especially the tune that was played during the climax was excellent. Despite the flaws, I’d recommend this series to any slice-of-life fan, just because of Miyori. She’s a great character, who totally made this TV-special worth the watch.

The Diary of Tortov Roddle is another one of those travelling anime. It’s an OVA, consisting out of six episodes of about two to three minutes. Each of them shows a thing happening to Tortov, as he travels with his strange, long-legged pig. There are no voices at all. All dialogue we see is in the form of Tortov’s diary, which appears at the beginning and end of each “episode”.

The major plus about this OVA is that it’s so incredibly close to Tortov himself, since everything is seen through his diary. Take this in contrast with Kino’s Journey, for example. Kino always maintains a distance from both the viewer and the places she visits, in order to protect herself from not getting too attached to her surroundings.

Still, don’t go out of your way to watch this movie. It’s a nice idea, I admit, but it’s just too short to really make an impact. Tortov also majorly lacks in background. We never even know why Tortov travels. One of the episodes also has a romantic subplot, but with only 2 minutes, that one went nowhere.

The production-values also won’t save this one. The music, albeit nothing special, is nice enough to create a fairy-tale-like mood, the character-designs are unique, but the animation is as simple as possible and rather unimpressive. I know that the creators wanted to create a certain mood, but they could have tried better for this one. Travelling is a great subject for anime, and they just didn’t use it well enough.

This clearly was one of those building-up episodes. Nothing majorly new happens, and instead attention is focused in developing the characters. Marius continues to visit Cosette, both of them are clearly in love, Gavroche provides food and shelter for two street-kids, Javert is still looking for Jean, Montparnasse continues being a total bastard by even trying to involve Gavroche, and Thenardier meanwhile showed his scariest face yet (see screenshots).

The highlight of the episode was yet again Eponine. Perhaps I’m rambling a bit too much about her, but she continues to go downhill for this episode as well, and I haven’t found myself this inclined to cheer on someone since Shuurei from Saiunkoku Monogatari in her early days. I think that it’s this episode where Marius finally realizes that Eponine feels something for him, when she openly cries in front of him, after saying her farewell to him.

I also wonder whether the two orphan children will remain with Gavroche for the rest of the anime, and whether they’ll play a big role somewhere. I just know that something really bad is about to happen, this episode was way too quiet for some reason. I really fear that all hell will break loose once Thenardier escapes. It can’t be long now, unfortunately.

I’m not sure whether I should publish this review, simply because I have no idea what to think of this movie. It’s more unique and absurd than any other movie I’ve seen up till now. Even Cat Soup was easier to describe: that one was just weird. Tamala 2010, however, is beyond weird.

It starts out fair enough: there’s a world in which cats live, and we focus on one of these cats: Tamala. She looks cute, but that’s the only cute thing about her. The movie is full of foul language, blood-references in the form of tomato-soup and other red liquids, and many taboos get broken, for example gay people being open about their sexuality, rape (that poor mouse), tattoos and cute girls smoking. If 4kids got their hands on this movie, the end result would only be about 30 seconds long.

The thing is, though, that unlike anime as Dai Mahou Touge and Bokusatsu Techi Dokuro-chan, the purpose of this movie is more than just gore, destruction and foul language. The first half is basically about Tamala doing random, hateful and nonchalant things as she runs away from her mother, whom she hates. Then a very strange twist comes, and suddenly turns this into a mystery-movie. You’ll be surprised at the huge amount of attention the setting suddenly gets, and this really is the part that’s hard to describe, as I know that I didn’t do it justice. But I also have no idea how to really describe it clearly.

If you want a strange movie, though, this should be a good pick, as few movies can claim to be as strange as this one. There’s lots of symbolism in it, and I could recognize strong messages against big companies and commercialism. It’s definitely not for everyone, though. I’m also not going to rate this one, as I’ve got no idea how to really judge it. It was enjoyable, though. ^^;

Recap. It’s nothing special, though. Unlike Bokura no, this really isn’t a series where a recap works. Basically, it was aimed at young children, to explain the plot and characters a bit to them. Throughout, we see a few shots of the voice-actors for Isako and Fumie, explaining this, sometimes accompanied by a giant Sacchi-balloon, a stuffed Densuke and fake glasses. This one really reminded me that this show is aired on the NHK-channel.

The only reason I’m really making this post is to make a few announcements, for those who are wondering:
- Dennou Coil this week is a recap. I assume the next episode to finally air next week.
- There is still no sign of any new episodes from Saiunkoku Monogatari. I’m afraid it’ll take a few more weeks till it’ll continue.
- There is also no Toward the Terra this week. I assume that it’ll continue next week.

I can hardly believe it, but this arc has been getting significantly better with every successive episode. Just imagine what could happen if this continues. ^_^ I won’t do an extensive summary for the episode, since there was hardly any new information we didn’t know before. This was one of these episodes that were completely focused on the characters.

It’s entirely focused at one thing: Satoko’s uncle returning. This time, it’s not only Keiichi who wants to do something, but everyone tries to save Satoko somehow. Because in this arc, everyone trusts each other completely, Keiichi manages to convince Shion to not go out and kill Satoko’s aunt. If this would have been in one of the earlier arcs, she would have never spoken about her thoughts, and gone off to kill Satoko’s aunt, just like Keiichi and Rena did in the past.

Oh, and Rika was awesome. Her mood fluctuates throughout the entire episode. She ended the episode confident, only to have this confidence slapped back at her with the arrival of Satoko’s uncle. She then went to the same despair of the previous arc, only to realize at the end of the episode that she really wanted to save Satoko. Her ideas are quite interesting, by the way. She believes that a tragedy can be avoided if none of the main characters (as in Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion and Satoko) kills anyone. Still, this happened in the previous arc as well, and yet Rika died. But then again, she was as distant as ever from everyone. It really looks like she’s putting her trust in the others for this arc, which might be able to avoid the tragedy. But we need to wait till the Watanagashi to make sure.

One thing that I realized in this episode as well was how much Keiichi has changed, and learned subconsciously. He was an idiot in the first three arcs, and yet he’s the most mature person among the main characters.

Yes! With a new school come new outfits! I’m not sure why this is the only show where I pay so much attention to them. I know most characters in most shows never really change their outfits, but it’s definitely not unique for Emily and the others to wear different garments once in a while. Mai from Ghost Hunt, for example, also had a diverse wardrobe, but I never noticed this until somebody else pointed it out. I think it’s either because Emily’s clothes only change once in a while, or she just looks awesome in them. ^^;

Anyway, it seems that the final six episodes are going to fast-forward through Emily’s youth. In the next episode, it’s already going to be winter. It’s going to be awesome to watch how Emily and the others will change. I loved how this episode made them look subtly older, and Ilse finally realizes that she’s got great talents as an elocutionist, when she recites some of Emily’s poems in front of a bunch of kids.

And Ruth is even worse than Elizabeth! I actually wonder why she agreed to let Emily stay in her house to let her study, as she treats her horribly. Emily can’t even open her window. I wonder whether the next few episodes will develop this more. I continue to admire Perry, by the way. He’s now reached the point where his grades are at the top of his class. It’s nice to see that everyone is now really beginning to work towards their dreams.

I’m actually wondering, are there still people who watch this series? When it started, it was blogged by two others (Impz and Usagijen), but it seems that they dropped this show. For the past few episodes it’s really felt like I’ve been the only one who’s watched this show. Obviously, I don’t care whether I am (I’ve had this before many times), but it does make me curious. This show is just way too good to be just neglected like that.

Finally: an episode of Seirei no Moribito where we know what to expect: Barsa’s past, and it doesn’t disappoint. Seeing young Barsa again was awesome, and like expected, the amount of detail thrown in was as excellent as the rest of the series.

Barsa grew up in Kanbal, a nation, mostly covered in mountain. Her father worked as some kind of doctor, or something similar. Her mother died early. At one point, Barsa’s father ended up angering the emperor, which resulted in him, sending people in to kill his daughter. Because of this, her father asked Jiguro, a member of the royal guard, to protect her. Much like how Chaggumu’s mother asked Barsa to protect her son. This time, however, Barsa had done no wrong, but she’d end up involved in his father’s punishment if she wasn’t taken away.

Jiguro saved Barsa just in time, and they left her birthplace. That night, they stayed in a cave, though a few days later, the first soldier, out to retrieve Barsa arrived. I’m not sure if Jiguro kiled the guy, but he definitely wounded him, breaking his spear in the process. Because of that, they entered a Yogo-village, and came to the blacksmith we saw in episode eight. He forged the spear we saw Barsa wield in the beginning of the anime.

Then, a while later, we see the couple of Barsa and Jiguro running again, and we see another assailant. This one, however, is a former friend of Jiguro: Takuru. An amazing fight follows, and there we see the flashback, shown in episode three, in which Jiguro kills a former comrade, and cries over his dead body.

Then, when they arrived in a new Yogo-town, Barsa learned the news of her father being killed. Jiguro then told Barsa all about it, why he was forced to take her with him, and what happened to her father. Because of this, Barsa asked him to teach him to fight. Jiguro refused, though. Fighting should be something for men. No matter how hard women trained, they’d never be as good as men (HAH!). After Barsa kept insisting, though, Jiguro changed his mind.

They hung out with a couple of what I assume to be low-class fighters after that, where Barsa got her first training. She turned out to be quite popular amongs the guys, and often she was the centre of attention. At one point, however, she went too far, when she started boasting about Jiguro’s fight against Takuru, after which he punished her, with the same intensity of Barsa in episode 19.

Then, they stayed with Tanda and Toroga-shi for ten years, in which Barsa lived with Jiguro peacefully, while training. Interestingly enough, at that time Torogai-shi had four pets, living on her head. I wonder what happened to the others. Ten years later, though, a group of six warriors found them. Barsa was forced to hide, so that Jiguro would be able to take all of them on. We see the episode end as he runs off in a direction, opposite to hers.

Even though I obviously missed a few details, I loved this episode. I wonder why it was necessary to continue the story in the next episode. Barsa’s background could be solved within five minutes or less by the looks of it. I wonder whether there’s some twist left to happen, or something similar. In any case, I now understand why Barsa is so intent on saving Chaggumu: because of Jiguro, who probably died heroically, trying to save her.

Okay, so this is a movie to avoid unless you’re really, really bored. I was lured in by the attractive character-designs and nice-sounding title, but what I got was a horrible mess. This is just one of those movies which are completely screwed up by the scriptwriters.

For starters, the story plays in a world in which once an ancient civilization lived: the Wind People. Unfortunately, they died out at one point, when they were slaughtered by an evil empire. The main character just happened to be one of those Wind People, without any explanation whatsoever on how the heck he became someone of a race that was supposed to be extinct.

If this was the only flaw, there wouldn’t be much of a problem. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. To sum up a few of the writers’ errors: they didn’t build up well enough, plot elements go unexplained, characters lack background, characters lack reason for their actions, entire scenes seem to be missing, characters act unnatural, there are continuity errors, the main character is a Gary Stu, there are heaps of Deus ex Machina throughout the movie, there’s a lack of realism, the entire setting isn’t developed well enough so it makes no sense, lady luck is in favour of our main character throughout the entire movie, the creators jump to the action way too quickly, and probably some more flaws I can’t remember. This should give you a fair impression of the overall quality.

About the good things: they’re hardly there, but there are a handful standalone moments in the movie that were sort-of amusing, like the kids’ times in jail, or a baker, preparing for battle. The graphics and music also aren’t too bad. Okay, they’re still nothing special, but by the standards of this movie, it’s nothing to complain about.

Overall, this movie is a bad one. It’s another one of those shounen-adventures gone wrong, and if you’re looking for one and a half hour to burn, then you should try a different movie. ^^; I hope the next movie will be a better one.

This episode sort-of ruined the sense of time I had with this series, when suddenly the hunt for Dallas Genoard was moved back to 1931, and Maiza appeared to already be immortal before he could have had any chance to meet Barnes. The previous episodes have done well to answer the necessary questions, only for this episode to ask a whole bunch of new ones. Maiza-san, for example, also shoots into the ceiling after being stabbed by Firo, as a means of welcome to his new family-member, he shoots in the air and suddenly hits Isaac. What the heck was that guy doing there?!

I’m also rather confused about the 1931-business. In the past episodes, we saw Eve visit the information-office in 1932. In this episode, we see the Runorata-family enter the information-office yet again, but in 1931. Miraculously, though Eve had already visited by then.

Jacuzzi also gets new development, but his past is still full of question-marks. First of all Nick was captured by the guys in black suits, who had no way of knowing what he did in the dining room. We also see a scene of what happened earlier that year, when Jacuzzi was hunted down by bounty-hunters/mafia-guys, and then suddenly saved by Nice and their other companion. Where all of them came from is still unknown. Jacuzzi also talks about how he doesn’t want to kill. Did he mean his comrades, or did his comrades prevent him from using some awful power to slaughter his assailants?

Also, the red-eyed figure we see outside the train. We get some heavy hints that it’s the green-capped woman, but we never see it confirmed. In this episode, we see it use its foggy hand to kill two guys in black suits.

Then Szilard, who raised the biggest question of this episode: he sucked up Barnes with his hand! I admit that I missed some of his explanations, though I doubt that he fully explained what happened there. Afterwards, Quates sends Ennis out to look for Firo, who seemed to be searching for her.

Meanwhile on the train, the guys in black suits return, and they take Nathalie Williams with them. Her daughter, Merry, is safe, hiding with Czeslaw. Isaac and Miria are active again, as they set out to rescue Jacuzzi and Nice (that could be interesting). I also wonder: why did the second conductor at the back of the train die? I mean, I know he killed the younger one, but why were his head and arm ripped off afterwards? In fact, why did he feel the need to kill in the first place?

I like what this series is doing, though. It first starts with an unexplainable mess, and it goes on, things get clearer and clearer. And just when you think you know what’s going on, they throw in a heap of more mysteries to confuse you. It’s a nice tactic, but I hope that everything will come together in the end.