November 4, 2007

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - 43

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


Hah! Finally Takano turns into more than that uberevil spawn of Satan that we’ve been seeing for the past few episodes. It really began to get quite tiring to keep seeing her in take-over-the-world-mode with her evil laugh and all. It’s good to see that she did have problems of her own, once Koizumi, the sponsor for her project dies, turning her project into a scapegoat for those who want to succeed him. It’s a bit of a pity that they had to introduce yet another underdeveloped villain for this, but for now I’m happy enough about Takano.

Also, the scenes that didn’t involve Takano were excellent as well. While I’d still wish that the creators would hurry up and start with the real meat of the Matsuribayashi (I miss Mion and Rena!), I do admit that both Satoko, Irie and Rika received some excellent development. I’m beginning to understand Satoshi a bit more. Especially the younger Satoko becomes a horrible person when she doesn’t like someone, probably helped by the disease. I think that she unconsciously realized this at one point, which is why her older version didn’t retaliate to her uncle. She really blames herself for it, and she’s probably afraid to lose Satoshi again if she creates a fuzz once again.

Rika, meanwhile held a quite touching speech in Oyashiro-mode in front of Irie, how she believed that being examined by Irie would save Satoko’s life. We also finally learn why her parents died: their patience with Takano ran out, so she killed them, blaming it on Oyashiro-sama. Irie, meanwhile also received some depth once he found out that Satoko killed her own parents, and asked Takano to make the Yamainu cover up for it. That’s why the guy likes Satoko so much in the later timelines.

Next episode, we’ll probably find out what happened to Satoshi. Still, it remains annoying how the creators are basically going through a checklist in order to fill up the remaining holes in the story. It seems that the original game did the same, but in this way, the viewer does get distanced from the series a bit.

Shion no Ou - 04

Filed under: Finished Series:/Shion no Ou


This episode was quite an interesting experience. After watching it, I really have to say that Shion no Ou is going to be one of the best series this season, especially the 12-episoded ones, even though it was quite hard to understand this episode. It’s basically one huge Shougi-match, and for the first time in the series we actually see some strategy, and we’re allowed to see how the game develops.

Even though the only I know about Shougi is the things I remembered from wikipedia (the difference between the king, bishop and rooks and pawns), and I did get a vague idea of how the game developed, and how Shion again got defeated by Ayumi, but still providing a huge challenge for him. I like how the match just took up one episode, and that’s a benefit for the short length of this series: often board-game anime like this tend to drag on for ages but Shion no Ou can’t waste such time because it’s only got twelve episodes.

One thing I also loved about this game was the huge role that was given to the spectators, and how they were commenting on the game. Hanimeji (that was his name, right?) was especially interesting, due to his realistic and expert-view of the game. Obviously, everyone wants Shion to win, but things don’t always go that easy.

And I love Shion even more after this episode. While this isn’t the first time where you see a character pass out after an intense game, the way this series presents it is refreshingly detailed. Shion was basically both sick and she had her period, and the only thing that kept her awake was her desire to win over Ayumi (yeah… the anime explains this better).