Haha! It has finally started! For episodes, I’ve felt that the bomb was about to burst and this is the episode where it happens: the revolution has finally started! That’s one of the beauties of this series: you know things are about to happen, you’ll just never know the exact time.

In this episode, it was the side-characters who really shined, as they made their first steps into the revolution by building barricades everywhere. Even the elders like Mabru(spelling!?) and the youngsters like Gavroche helped a hand, which was so sweet to see. There’s also a pretty sad story behind Mabru: his wife dies in this episode, and he finally lost all of his books. In response, he doesn’t decide to mourn silently, but join the revolution. Quite a unique behaviour, though I loved it. Gavroche meanwhile leaves his little “brothers” at some kind of mansion, at a safe place.

And Javert! He finally catches his first glimpse of Jean after all those years, and at the end of the episode, we also see him disguised as one of the commoners. I’m not sure whether that was in the hope of seeing Jean back again, or a tactical manoeuvre to collect information about the enemy. I’m surprised he didn’t use any of his subordinates for this.

Meanwhile, Cosette and Marius keep getting more distanced from each other by the revolution and Eponine’s meddling. I wonder whether the two will be able to meet again, actually. The only thing that’s possibly going to stop Jean from going to England is a lack of boats to take them out of the country. Still, this could be a possibility. with such an unstable Paris at the time, I can imagine that most nobles would try and flee the country to England as well.

I’d also love to see Thenardier in this situation. Obviously, he won’t really play a huge role, since there’s nothing in the revolution for him, but it’ll be interesting to see him, trying to save himself amidst the chaos. It would also be awesome if the prison was somehow broken into during the revolution, releasing Azelma and Thenardiére.

Seriously, something tells me that the final quarter of this series will be the best of the entire series. I’m so looking forward to it!

+ September 2007 Rankings +
And finally the Spring- and Summer-seasons have ended. Last month, I received the comment that my ratings have been a tad too high, though I must say that they’ve possibly become even higher. But then again, September has been the best month in terms of anime for me for this year, and the ratings will probably plummet down for October, when the new season starts, since there are only very few anime which can be awesome right from the start (Night Head Genesis and Asatte no Houkou were probably some of the few who actually did it).

Anyway, in case this is the first time you see this, the series are ranked from worst to best, the number between the ( and ) indicates the place where that series was on last month, the rating is out of 10, with average being a 6,0 (and yes, I’m using the decimal comma).

#38(new): Saishu Shiken Kujira - (4,3/10) - Garbage also comes in episodes of five minutes.
#37(39): School Days - (4,8/10) - Finally Final Fantasy 7 has been beaten in terms of a character-death that’s hardest to avoid being spoiled about. The final episodes were quite possibly even worse than the rest of the series combined. The final episode itself was okay, but the ending was horrible. I mean, no police?
#36(new): Kodomo no Jikan - (6,2/10) - Better than I expected, but the useless fanservice has to stop. If this is an omen for the series…
#35(38): Romeo X Juliet - (6,4/10) - In addition to bowmen, it now also looks like there isn’t a good stone-thrower in the entire kingdom. Anyway, this story is now about to get closed off. I’m going to be disappointed if Romeo and Juliet don’t end up committing suicide!
#34(37): Lucky Star - (6,6/10) - Like I said before: episode 24 was one of the best episodes of this series yet, but that may also be because of the relief that the boredom was finally over. The episode with Konata’s mother was artificial at best, though.
#33(19): Reideen - (6,7/10) - The final episode was garbage. Seriously, it ruined a major part of the continuity the show had been building up.
#32(35): Sky Girls - (7/10) - Sky Girls seriously needs to develop its setting now. At the moment, I have no idea how many bases on earth remain. Why was Western Europe the only place where new sonic-divers were made? And if they’re so easy to maintain (after all, a team of four people is enough for three of them) then why aren’t they more available?
#31(14): Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha - (7/10) - Whoa, what happened here? Nanoha, with cookie-cutter villains? Oh my god, scriptwriters: what the heck are you doing?!
#30(13): Claymore - (7/10) - You’ll either hate the final episodes of this series, or you’ll love them. I’m close to the former, even though I haven’t read the manga. Diverting from the manga is okay, but please use a sensible storyline and not the… “thing” we saw here.
#29(???): Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula - (7,1/10) - I finally realize what’s wrong with this show: the sheer predictability and the lack of cultural references. Seriously, why the heck did the creators have to make the United States of all possible countries special? Why the heck is Europe so unimportant that it’s already killed off entirely at this point? Why don’t we see any sort of accurate cultural references from the different countries?
#28(33): Nanatsuiro Drops - (7,2/10) - Any attempts at a deep story backfire horribly for this series, but the love-relationship between the two main characters is cute, I really have to admit that.
#27(31): Potemayo - (7,5/10) - The final episode did evoke some emotion, but it would have been so much better if Sunao’s background was moved to the beginning of the series.
#26(34): Kenko Zenrakei Sueibu Umisho - (7,7/10) - The added drama is surprisingly good for a comedy. This month hasn’t been better for Umisho, but it also didn’t turn worse, and there were some funny moments. But that still gives no excuse for the excessive fanservice!
#25(28): Murder Princess - (7,8/10) - Okay, the finale was cheesy, but at least it was entertaining enough.
#24(24): Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - (7,8/10) - I liked Kittan’s end, and Yoko turned much more enjoyable now that she’s a mere side-character, instead of a main one. I liked the spiral-guy as well. It’s just too bad that the predictability in this show is back again.
#23(18): Zombie Loan - (7,9/10) - Two words: Too Short!!!
#22(26): Saiunkoku Monogatari - (7,9/10) - Yes! After a nearly endless amount of recaps, Saiunkoku Monogatari finally returned. This month ha been mostly introductions, but things are looking promising.
#21(23): Tetsuko no Tabi - (8/10) - One thing I didn’t like about the past few episodes is that there haven’t been any guests on the trips. Still, you just have to love Kikuchi’s reaction to Yokomi’s wild fantasies, and it’s also nice to see that the final episode was one of the best of the entire series. Such a thing doesn’t happen often for comedy-anime.
#20(30): Mushiuta - (8/10) - Nice, but it’s got a bit too much angst for my liking. The creators seemed to have written themselves into a corner when they came up with the idea that only downhearted people can get possessed by Mushi. I mean, it’s an easy way to write a sad storyline, but not only does this limit the storyline a lot, seeing every single character in the show turn angsty can become annoying.
#19(9): Code-E - (8,2/10) - The finale wasn’t as fun as the rest of the series, though seeing Chinami’s power gone was quite interesting to watch. I’m looking forward to the next anime the staff is going to tackle.
#18(???): Perrine Monogatari - (8,4/10) - I’ve decided to include this series in the rankings as well from now on, even though it aired more than twenty years ago. Plus, this is probably the only anime that shows a realistic life in Eastern Europe of two centuries ago. I’m at episode six now, and so far, this series has earned its title of World Masterpiece Theatre
#17(27): Heroic Age - (8,4/10) - Surprise surprise, Heroic Age is getting good. Now that it actually started to progress its storyline, unlike what it did in the major part of the series, the series has been getting more enjoyable by the minute. Sure, the discovery of the Golden Tribe was cheesy, but at least it felt good.
#16(32): Shigurui - (8,4/10) - I’ve actually been watching Shigurui double: with and without subs, due to my impatience. The strange thing is that even with subs, episode four didn’t make any sense at all. How did Irako and the woman get together? What did he do with Mie? The latest episodes have been getting better by the way. The bizarre rituals are gone and now that the storyline is more focused, Shigurui’s turning tenser with every episode.
#15(29): Gintama - (8,5/10) - Christmas episodes have always been worthwhile, but Gintama brings this to a totally new level with episode 37. The episodes have been utterly brilliant, though it’s a shame this series falls into clichés with its endings. This was especially noticeable for the two stories of episode 37. They’re hilarious, but their endings lacked steam.
#14(17): Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei - (8,6/10) - There are only very few comedies which can milk out a joke and turn better because of it, but Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei is one of them. It starts out with a mundane joke and it keeps making it more and more ridiculous. That’s one of the reasons I like this series so much, though there is one major annoyance about this series: the useless and frequent eye-catches become annoying quite soon.
#13(20): Demashitaa!! Power Puff Girls Z - (8,7/10) - Episodes 42 and 43 were utterly brilliant. I keep getting surprised at the bizarre sense of humour of this series.
#12(22): Kekkaishi - (8,7/10) - Kekkaishi has been getting stronger than ever with Gen’s development, BUT (and there’s a huge but here) Yoshimori has hidden powers. If there’s anything that can ruin a series, it’s hidden powers that can be conveniently used to power up the main character due to laziness of the writers!
#11(16): Dennou Coil - (8,7/10) - This month has been a month of building up for Dennou Coil. While it has been better, I’m definitely curious as to where it’ll go from now. Especially episode 18 was really intriguing

#10(11): Darker than Black - (8,8/10)

Okay, so the ending was rushed. In this case, a 26th episode would have been better for this series, but the pre-ending episodes were really good. I especially liked Mao and November 11.

#9(3): Les Miserables - Shoujo Cosette - (8,9/10)

While it wasn’t as good as at other points in the anime, the past month has been building up for the story and the upcoming revolution. Things are promising to become awesome.

#8(6): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - (9/10)

Now that most of the mysteries are cleared up, Higurashi is no longer the chaotic paranoid mystery-series it used to be in its first season, but in return, the characters have stepped up to become this series’ highlight, and the bond that’s developing between them is fascinating to say the least.

#7(5): El Cazador de la Bruja - (9/10)

Ellis and Nadie showed that you can even become extremely cheesy if the character-development is excellent. This month, El Cazador has finally decided to focus on its storyline, and the result, when combined with the characters was nothing short of awesome.

#6(10): Baccano! - (9,2/10)

Now this is a well-written storyline! Every single character seems to have his or her own story, and the amount of development it achieves is something most other series can even dream of.

#5(8): Ooedo Rocket - (9,3/10)

The final episodes rocked! I was expecting that the drama would totally overshadow the comedy, and I’m so glad I was proven wrong.

#4(7): Toward the Terra - (9,3/10)

Episodes 21 and 22 were all kinds of epic and awesome, and while it wasn’t the best ending, it still was satisfying enough. It’s sad to see this series go, and we can only hope that it set the standard for other science-fiction series.

#3(3): Seirei no Moribito - (9,4/10)

And finally everything the series has build up for has come together perfectly! The fight against Rarunga was quite possibly the best multi-episoded fight I’ve seen this year.

#2(1): Kaze no Shoujo Emily - (9,5/10)

Seriously, making Emily grow up in the final part of the series was a masterful decision, as the final episodes have been nothing but tear-jerking awesomeness. The way Emily and her friends have developed throughout the years are magnificent.

#1(4): Bokura no - (9,6/10)

I seriously couldn’t have expected a better finale for this series. Everything worked out perfectly, there was no rush and the fights were awesome to watch.

+ Top 5 Episodes +
#5: Seirei no Moribito - 26
In these kinds of endings, everything comes together and works out perfectly, despite the predictability.

#4: Toward the Terra - 21
I really cried during the several plot twists of this episode. Toward the Terra may not have had the best ending, but it does have the best pre-ending episodes of the spring-season.

#3: Ooedo Rocket - 26
*grins* I’m nog going to tell you why~ Muahaha!
TAMAYA!!!!

#2: Bokura no - 24
A truly magnificent ending that closes off the series perfectly for me. While others will disagree, Bokura no has been one of the best series of the year for me.

#1: Toward the Terra - 22
It’s not often that a series takes up two spaces in this top-five, but Toward the Terra deserves it with two magnificently epic and tragedic ones.

Darker than Black is an arc-based series, much like Studio Bones’ previous production of Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi. The setting is quite different, though. Instead of the Tenpou-era, this one plays in modern-day Tokyo in an alternate universe, where strange humans with supernatural powers, calling themselves contractors live amongst humans. For once, their purpose isn’t to destroy mankind, but to just carry out their job. And that’s the beauty of this series.

Darker than Black is about the relationship between your job and your own instincts. All the characters in this series are adults who are just trying to survive in a dark and gritty environment, with pressure coming from both enemies and superiors. The interesting thing about the contractors is how they’re able to make rational decisions, regardless of their emotions, making this quite an intelligent series. Organizations have many layers and characters have often subtle motives.

The powers of these contractors are just like the setting: full of creativity. In this series, the people with the strongest powers are actually the weakest, because these don’t leave any room for strategies. The story also knows how to use its characters, where every major character gets at an arc dedicated to him or her for development and background information. There is just one issue with the ending: the creators got too ambitions and tried to stuff too much in the final episode, making it end up rushed.

There’s one more problem, one that many other arc-based series suffer from as well (for example Ghost Hunt, Ayatsuri Sakon): the quality of the different arcs fluctuates heavily, and you’ll never know when an arc will turn out great or just good. The best episodes of the series are because of this not among the final ones, but episodes 13 and 14. These were simply perfect, with some of the best minor villains I’ve seen in a long while. The successive arcs were good as well, but none of them really lived up to the same quality, unfortunately.

Still, despite this, Darker than Black is a definite recommendation for anyone, looking for a story aimed at adults. There’s enough action, and yet the action is not of the brainless kind you see in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It knows how to build up the individual stories for each arc very well with nearly all of them having satisfying climaxes, and this is definitely one of the more intelligent series that came out in the past spring-season. And let’s not forget Yoko Kanno, who composed the soundtrack for this series. Her style may be a bit more subtle than say, Yuki Kajiura, but it fits the series perfectly.