Oh my god, this was such a fun episode! THIS is exactly the power of a good mystery-series: and this episode continues to deliver revelation after revelation and everything keeps coming more and more together! I kept wondering how Firo and Isaac would be linked together, and I can’t believe that we were already shown the answer to this. Remember the time when Firo officially became an executive, and the head of the family shot a bullet in the roof: he really nearly hit Isaac back there, who was interested by the other holes in the roof, which seem to suggest that it indeed was a ritual which was performed.

This also is the episode where we see Chane and Chezlaw’s background. I hope I got them right, because there was a lot of talking involved. Chane is indeed Huey’s daughter, and it seems that she’s entirely devoted to him. It’s indeed a different relationship than your usual father-daughter relationship when the father refuses to grow up. Oh, and Chane finally talks! Apparently, she can talk telepatically to Huey. Chezlaw meanwhile planted a bomb in the train: he works for the Runorata-family! Quite ironic how he’s friends with Maiza who is friends with Firo who is friends with the Gandors. :P

I’m not sure what the objectives of the kid are, though. If I had to guess, then he’s on a mission to stop Vino (or Rail Tracer, as it seems) from getting to New York. I’m still not sure whether the guy is an immortal as well, though if I had to guess, then he’s just a very exceptional mortal, being away from his brothers for a long time and all.

And while writing this entry, I finally realize who the guy was whose silhouette we saw in the first episode, and said how he would keep looking for a certain person, and I finally realize why Chezlaw’s companion in episode seven felt as a deja vu: they’re the same person! I finally know where I saw the guy before, and it seems that he didn’t agree with the path Chezlaw decided to take, which of course is quite reasonable, with killing everyone on the train and all. :P

It also seems that Jacuzzi and Nice have been dating for ten years now, and it took that long for them to actually kiss. That’s quite awesome, and we also finally know why they boarded the train in the first place: it’s because of the bombs our cute little Chezlaw planted. I wonder where he hid them.

The action-scenes were also some highlights of this episode. Finally we have another anime that realizes that action-scenes should be fun to watch, which was exactly the description of the fight between Chane and Ladd. Seriously, the latter is really crazy! Gustav also was awesome when both he and Eve went to the Gandors for explanation and ran into each other. I especially laughed at how the three Gandor-brothers tried to play innocent by playing a game of cards. It’s in a way so cheesy but at the same time it would be the most logical decision under time-constraints. ^^;

With this episode, there’s only one character left that feels underdeveloped: Lua! Come on, you’ve still got three episodes! Show us that you’re more than just a one-dimensional character!

There’s another thing I’m surprised about, though that’s less positive: hardly anyone talks about this series. In the past few weeks, I’ve only seen two other blogs which are covering this series as well. If this was some kind of obscure series, then I could understand, but this is Baccano! we’re talking about. How can anyone not like this series, apart from the gore, perhaps? I mean, are people really more eager to go for a mediocre series with cute girls in skimpy outfits above a well-written series like this one?

This is going to be a difficult review, simply because I want to praise this series, but at the same time it suffers from being a continuation of the third story of the anime Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror: Bake Neko. In there, a Medicine Seller exorcises the ghost of a cat that haunts a local family in feudal Japan, and it was one of the best short stories I’ve ever seen in anime. Mononoke sees the same premise, where we see five stories in which the Medicine Seller track down Mononoke (spirits) that are summoned to earth due to some grudge or regret. Obviously, it had a lot to live up to.

If you were expecting the same as Bake Neko, you’ll be disappointed. The thing that made Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror so great was its element of surprise: you never knew what was going to happen. With Mononoke, you do: Medicine Seller is going to exorcise a spirit. The amount of horror has also been toned down. Sure, it’s still there, but it’s no longer a central theme, like it was in Bake Neko. Instead, Mononoke decided to put more attention to the thought-provoking elements of its stories.

And yes, it does deliver there. All five stories are more than just ordinary ones, and a lot of attention has been put into them. The lines of good and bad are blurred in an effective way. The episodes also don’t answer every question, but assume that the viewer fills in the rest with his own common sense, and it works quite well. Especially the third and fourth story shine in this.

Another major plus in this series is that the characters are realistic, and don’t care to be moe or GAR or anything similar. Sure, there are a bunch of young girls, but by far most of the characters are all sorts of adults; quite refreshing amongst other anime, which rarely seem to have important characters above the age of 25. The dialogue is also nice and creative, and you can hear that a lot of effort has been put into it as well.

So the creators failed to trump Bake Neko. That doesn’t mean that Mononoke isn’t worth giving a look, and it’s great to see that people are still willing to go beyond the mainstream and experiment with original and different styles. Mononoke is an excellent recommendation for anyone who likes the Japanese-styled horror or similar forms of storytelling.

I’m not sure what roastedpekingduck meant when he said that the creators ran out of budget for this episode. Sure, the build-up wasn’t as good as the first Bake Neko, but this episode provided a satisfying if not a bit predictable ending. It’s not the best episode of this series, I’ll admit, though I didn’t sense any lack of budget.

So, in the end, the reporter was the culprit, with the Mayor being the mastermind behind everything. The others were just bystanders. The waitress often hung out with the victim, so I think that the cat wanted her to know what happened. The boy and the woman were actual witnesses, and I think that they refused to talk about what they saw because it had a major impact on them. After all, if you just saw a human body getting crushed under a train, in all graphic violence, while being alone, there’s a very good chance that you just don’t want to talk about it.

Ah well, even though it turned into something entirely different from what I expected, Mononoke made excellent use of the Noitamina-timeslot. I still like the initiative, and it’s good to see that among the countless high-school-anime, there still are people who welcome change and different ideas for series. Its current series, Moyashimon, also sparks with freshness.

Hero Tales

Oh god… so much wasted potential. I actually liked some parts of the episode: the setting is developed well enough, there’s a fair amount of interesting characters, the tone of the series is quite dark and the storytelling was quite decent. And then it had to ruin everything at the end when the main character powered up in order to protect his love one. All the testostherone-filled pubescent males will love this, it could even be the next Bleach if it goes on for long enough, though I really don’t like how the main character is the “legendary strong guy who is destined to wield the supersword of awesomeness”. It’s a shame, though: the potential’s there, but the main character looks like he’s going to ruin everything in this series.

Maple Story

Okay, so this turned into a show, aimed at children. Still, it’s not that bad. The character-designs are simple and even the different monsters are drawn rather cute, instead of scary. I like the style of things so far, and it’s fun enough to keep watching. The male main character is also enjoyable to watch, even though his ideals are a bit cheesy. Still, it’s obvious that not many people are going to give this series a chance. I’ve already seen people label this one as the worst show of the series, though I’ve really seen much worse shows this season. I think it’s the lack of any sexy females in skimpy clothing, if this series had female fanservice people would probably check it out… ironically enough.

Moyashimon

I mean, was there any way for this series not to turn out worthwhile? ^^; There’s a very good chance we’ve got ourselves the funniest series of the season here. For Moyashimon, I actually have some faith that it’ll have enough material to remain funny for a full series, not to mention that the premise of a university-student who can see bacteria has so much potential. I also love how we sometimes get to see the reactions of random bystanders to the things that happen. There are a few flaws here and there (the outfit of the only female member of the cast is one of the biggest examples of this), but I have no idea why nobody in the blogging-community has said anything about this series so far. Is the concept of talking bacteria that outrageous?