Those who’ve been frequenting my blog for the past few months probably have seen me ramble about the “big three” of the spring-season: Bokura no, Kaze no Shoujo Emily and Toward the Terra. While a lot more excellent series have been released in the past Spring and Summer-season, these three form the cream of the crop, they’re all consistently outstanding in their own way and are without a doubt my favourite series of the past half year.

Today the first one has ended: Toward the Terra. It’s an epic science-fiction series about outcasts with psychic powers called the Myu. The storytelling is incredibly fast-paced. You hardly run into an episode that doesn’t have some kind of climax. While most other anime need aftermath- and introduction-episodes for fleshing out the characters, the episodes in Toward the Terra flawlessly combine the quiet moments along with the tense ones, and it works like a charm.

It’s clear that the writers have talent, because not only do they write some of the best action-scenes (which finally are more about the characters than the action itself) I’ve seen the past year, they also excel in the character-development department. If you watch the first few episodes, you might wonder why such a beautiful tale can come from just teenagers, but don’t worry: around episode ten, we see countless of time-leaps, and the real meat of the series happens when around ten years have passed since then. This provides countless opportunities for character-development, and Toward the Terra grabs all of them. Because of this, it features one of the best antagonists I’ve seen in anime, just because the guy gets such an incredible amount of development. Around the middle of the series, the plot-twists become so mind-boggling that you won’t be able to predict them, and watch out for episodes 21 and 22: they’re quite close to the best and most emotionally charged episodes I’ve ever seen for the past year.

In terms of production-values, Toward the Terra also delivers. While it’s impossible to beat El Cazador’s soundtrack in the past season, it easily grabs second place with a bunch of epic tunes, perfect for the fast and slow pacing. The graphics also look awesome, but be aware that the character-designs are different from usual. If you’re used to the character-designs of series like Kanon or Shakugan no Shana, then you’re going to have to get used to the character-designs of Toward the Terra a bit (see the screenshots).

Regarding the bad points, for me the quieter episodes near the beginning and the ending that weren’t as good as their preceding ones were a tad disappointing. I expected to be blown away by the episodes, and while some did with a huge force, others didn’t. The first few episodes also might be a bit hard to get into, due to the fact that the main character gets a bit whiny at times, but don’t worry: he’ll change into someone much better.

And so it has ended. Like expected, the final episode wasn’t better as the epic episodes 21 and 22, but it still was satisfying enough. Again a bit of predictability was the culprit, though that only was the issue with the main characters. The side-character’s conclusions were excellent.

Grand Mother just had to die, no question about that, and to be honest, Jomie’s and Keith’s deaths lacked the impact of Matsuka, Sam, Artella or Blue. It’s clear that their time was over, and that they were ready to give off their role to their juniors. This could have been saved if the production-values or the pacing would have gone all-out, like with El Cazador or Noein, but instead a “normal” pacing is chosen, and this pretty much looks like a normal episode, aside from the extreme details in Jomie’s and Keith’s final moments.

What I liked, however, were the elders. Both for the humans and the Myu, and how they sacrificed themselves for the younger generations. Their time has really been over, and they’ve felt out of place with the youngsters for a long time now. They’re the ones who really managed to convey the final message of this anime, which is to think about the next generation, and to sacrifice yourself so that your children can live happily. And how right it is.

Seriously, of the shows that arrived in the new spring-season, a huge amount of quality-ones emerged, and Toward the Terra became one of the best of them. In two weeks, we’ll see Gundam 00 taking over the timeslot. It’s definitely got something to do if it wants to live up to the shows that preceded it: Toward the Terra and Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi, two thought-provoking and excellent series. Will it live up to them or will it go down the path of Code Geass? I hope it’s going to be the first!

Quite the intriguing episode. I remember noting a few weeks ago how unlikely it was for children to be involved in whole complots and companies, though now I understand where this anime is going: both Isako and Haraken have become obsessed with its mysteries, and it basically shows how fragile the minds of children can become at that age without any form of support. It’s a pity we’ve yet to see anything about neither Haraken nor Isako’s parents, but by the looks of it, they didn’t spend much attention to their children.

In here, Yasako is much like the “straight man”, who basically grew up normally. I think that it’s now up to her to save both Haraken and Isako in their obsession (notice how Yasako stopped calling Isako Isako?). Basically, the entire episode was about how Haraken lies to Yasako about stopping to worry about Kanna, while he makes a deal with Isako afterwards: exchange the access-code for the Sacchi’s so that she can take him along with her. I assume that this means to use Michiko-san to go to the cyber-world where Kanna’s soul is supposed to be.

I don’t know… while I loved this twist the current episodes have felt rather… formulaic. Sure, the twists are interesting, but I somehow feel I’ve seen this before. But then again, we’re only at episode seventeen. The series is probably building up again for its finale, and there are plenty of episodes left.

Another thing that bugs me is the utter lack of quality-time for Daiichi, Fumie and Kyoko ever since the recap-episodes. It’s a pity, since they were among my favourite characters.

Seriously, ever since episode nineteen, Kaze no Shoujo Emily has been able to dish out one awesome episode after the other; this episode yet again was so incredibly sad. And not only that, but it also shows the link between Emily and Lucy Maud Montgomery. I’ve read somewhere that Emily was much more based on her past when compared to Akage no Anne, and with this episode I fully understand this, after Elizabeth manages to get Emily’s interest in poetry back.

Emily and Elizabeth remain the most important characters in this anime, and this episode shows it. When Emily is down because of the los of nearly everyone close to her, Elizabeth manages to save her, especially when the former nearly entirely abandoned her younger self because of it. This was a magnificent episode that only contributes to this show’s quality.

And seriously, I’m anticipating on how the creators were planning to end this series. Will Teddy or another return? Will Emily chose her own path? There are so many interesting possibilities!

Rejoice! Saiunkoku Monogatari is finally back! This episode is indeed like I expected: lots of introductions, lots of talking, and lots of marriage-issues. Surprisingly, Kouyuu didn’t participate in it, but Shuurei got two marriage proposals (one by Santa from Kochou and one from a newly introduced character), while Ryuuki meets another new character in the form of an energetic old man who keeps bugging him about his own marriage.

About Shuurei’s new admirer, it seems that his father is forcing him to marry just because of the money. God, I hate that guy already. The guy himself is strange though, in a god way. It seems he isn’t keen on marrying either, but he’s also reluctant to defy his own father. He also buys some strange gold and silver-tanuki-merchandize from a mysterious merchant who’ll probably end up important somehow in the next few episodes.

Oh, and Tei Yuushun did something special, though I have no idea what. Too much talking for me to understand, I’m going to have to go with Impz’s summaries to try and understand what went on this. This episode wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t bad either, but at the moment, with so many quality-series about to finish, Saiunkoku Monogatari isn’t really on my list of priorities.

What a magnificent and incredibly well-executed finale! Seriously, it’s awesome to see that the building up of the entire series has paid off so well. The fight against Rarunga was definitely one of the most exciting long fights I’ve seen in a long while, and seeing the actual climax of the entire series work out so well was in one word awesome! At this point, I’m very well inclined to call Seirei no Moribito a successful experiment, and I definitely hope that it set the standard for more future anime to come.

Even though the fight against the ever-increasing population of the Rarunga already was awesome, the definite highlight of the episode was the egg finally being born. Chaggumu felt so much like a mother at that time, and the inclusion of the insert-song worked brilliantly. It’s a strange family-situation between Barsa, Tanda and Chaggumu, but that only makes it better.

All that’s left now is the aftermath, which is probably going back to the overall mood of the midle episodes. It’s going to be interesting to see which path Chaggumu will decide. Will he decide to become king, or will he stay with Barsa? It could be interesting, though I think that this episode closes off the awesomeness of this story.

Then there’s still the matter of the other books in the series that this anime was based on. If I recall correctly, the author wrote a bunch of other … no Moribito-books. It would be awesome to see these animated as well at some point. Let’s hope for the best.