October 25, 2007

Deltora Quest - 12

Filed under: Series which were Dropped/Deltora Quest


Take any other anime, which involves fighting huge monsters. In nine out of ten cases, these monsters are just screaming and attacking with just no particular purpose, only waiting for the hero to defeat them. I love how Deltora Quest manages to avoid this often-made mistake by giving every single monster on the show the ability to talk and think on its own. Seriously, at the moment, the Shadow-Lord and Thaegan are the only ones who still feel like pure evil, but it isn’t like their stories are over, and I’m expecting their background along the way.

The king of Rat City, a huge three-headed dragon, may not have been the best boss this series had to offer (the fight with Thaegan was much better), it was refreshing to watch, when compared to the dozens of other series with villains who can’t think for themselves. Okay, Lief won in the end, but the storytelling was good enough for me not to mind. I also like how the end of the episode subverted the “Disney-ending”-trope, with the elixir of life that Jasmine got from the forest in the first arc.

Jasmine’s story for this episode may have been a bit too forced, and it could have gotten a bit more detail, but it does give a bit more depth to her character. Her reasons to join Lief were quite fragile to begin with, and with this episode, they were quite a bit strengthened. It seems that she just can’t leave Lief and Barda, who like to do first, think later (especially the former), alone. The three of them make a nice team: Lief’s courage, combined with Barda’s experience and Jasmine’s alertness.

One thing I didn’t like about this episode is the rats-part. I didn’t like how some parts of the castle were full of them, while in other parts they were nowhere to be found. There are a few clichés here and there in the storytelling, but the rest of it definitely makes up for them.

EDIT: I’ve decided to drop this series. Even if new episodes do get subbed, I’ll still watch them, but at this point I have no real intention to blog them.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - 42

Filed under: Finished Series:/Higurashi no Naku Koro ni


Now that two episodes have been devoted to giving Takano some background, it’s time for two more episodes of building up, which fill in the final pieces of the mysteries of this show, even though the mystery has long since stopped being a central focus in this show. I suspect that in the next episode, we’ll finally know the only thing I’m still curious about: how did Satoshi die?

This episode… it wasn’t really anything special. The only thing I liked was that Satoshi wasn’t as pure as you’d think he was: Satoko was actually a huge burden on the guy. Takano herself was a bit disappointing, though. She feels too much like a stereotypical villain, even after getting background. Tomitake, who was supposed to visit Hinamizawa once every few months shows up damn often, and I’m also quite confused that Satoko, Mion and Rika of four years younger look almost exactly like their older versions. Things become a bit unbelievable when four, perhaps even five years pass and there is no single noticeable difference in appearance for any of the different characters.

I would have liked the writers to integrate all these revelations a bit with the storytelling as well. Right now, it just feels that they’re going through a checklist of things that still need explanation. Compare that to the first season, where you knew the exact same that the different characters knew. It would have been so much better if we saw Rika investigate on Takano’s past to find out these things, for example.