After watching some various Takahata-movies, I’m glad to see a Ghibli-production that does know to keep a slow, yet addictive pacing. Whisper of the Heart, or Mimi wo Sumebasa tells the story of the twelve-year old daughter of a librarian, as she meets the boy she falls in love with. Just like how Ocean Waves was an example of a high-school romance with a male main character done right, Whisper of the Heart is how a romance-story with a female lead should be.

This also remains a Ghibli-movie, and the amount of detail that has been put in both the animation and the script is top-notch, and the degree of realism is excellent, as expected. The characters also speak with voices that match their ages, instead of a thirty-year old voice-actress trying to do it. When they start singing, they really sound like the singing-voices of average people, when compared to other anime where characters suddenly turn out to have the signing abilities of a J-Pop idol in similar situations.

The story is quite simple, and not as intriguing as Ocean Waves, though it’s enough to make you connect with the characters. The first half introduces them and their relationships, while in the second half the love story between the two main characters gets developed. Basically, if you liked Ocean Waves, you’ll like this one. It’s a nice movie to watch and relax, with still enough going on to keep you interested.

Regarding the flaws, at one point, there’s a side-story about two side-characters that just disappears from the screen without getting resolved at all. It’s strange, because I would have liked to see how it developed. Another thing that Ocean Waves did better than this movie is the character-development. Sure, the characters change, but it’s nowhere near as interesting as the time-skip we saw in Ocean Waves. Be also aware that the main character remains a twelve-year old girl, and she will feel annoying at times.

Still, Whisper of the Heart makes up for this by being more than just a romance-story, where a lot of time is also spent on a cat statue named Baron and some fantasy-sequences where Hayao Miyazaki worked on. Overall though, both are movies worth the watch for anyone who doesn’t need testosterones every fifteen seconds.

And so we start with the aftermath of the revolution. I think that with this, we’ve passed the best part of the story, though that doesn’t mean that the current episode wasn’t excellent. We see Jean, escape from the sewers, Gavroche, waking up and finally getting to see Cosette again, and Cosette, who afterwards returns to the scene of the battlefield, discovering that everyone died. I do have a few points of critique for this episode, though.

Thenardier returns! Finally! It could have used a bit more foreshadowing, though. The guy almost literally appeared from out of nowhere, and we’ve got no clues as to what he’d be doing in a sewer in the first place, especially when he just happened to be where Jean found his exit, with none other than Javert waiting on the other side. Did the novel explain this better? I mean, the potential for the next episode is huge, but it’s a tad too coincidental. :P

I’m also still hoping for Thenardiere and Azelma to get released from prison, but with seven episodes left, I think that they’ll get some more attention, as it seems that the creators are going to have to fill the remaining airtime with a few fillers here and there, because the book doesn’t seem to have enough material left to fill them. That’s also why I found Thenardier’s appearance so strange, for a series that was always so careful with building up.

Another thing that bugged me in this episode was the animation: it went everywhere! It’s not something that I’m used to of this series, which has always had very consistent graphics. Did something happen over at the producer’s side?

Hmm, I’m feeling myself to more and more inclined to agree with Kacpy… Sure, Kaiji is intriguing and exciting. This episode again showed some pretty interesting plot-twists and clever plans. But I’m noticing more and more about how slow this series actually is. I remember watching the first arc of Akagi, which took up just three episodes, which was perfect in length to delve into the character’s minds and not drag on, though Kaiji may be going a bit too far in this.

Episode five and six could have easily been combined into one episode, and it would have been quite an interesting roller-coaster ride to watch, though it perhaps would have been rushed a bit. One thing tat I can imagine that would have gone wrong is the transition from manga to anime. I haven’t read the manga myself, but I can imagine how the chapters don’t divide well into anime-episodes. Because of this, the creators of the anime end up repeating the same scenes about teamwork and the narrator’s reports over and over. It’s a common problem with manga-transition, unfortunately.

I’ve also finally looked up the name of the director of this series, and indeed, he did the storyboard for Death Note and Claymore. This really shows. Both series had some amazing moments, but were plagued with a few weaknesses, and it seems that Kaiji will be going down the same path: it’s a great series, but the slow pacing prevents it from becoming a classic. It’s strange… usually I don’t mind slow pacing, for example El Cazador. Still, El Cazador made sure that there was enough interesting stuff going on. Kaiji keeps repeating itself, which… isn’t really that interesting.

Anyway, regarding the episode, it seems that we’ve got two major antagonists left in the final fifteen minutes of the game: Funai and the guy who seduced the older man, in the beginning of the series. I knew that the latter was going to reappear at some point, because otherwise the creators wouldn’t have spent so much attention on the guy. If I had to guess, then this means that there are at least going to be two more episodes in this arc: one more to take care of Funai, and one (perhaps even two) to conclude the old man’s story.

One thing that Kaiji could have done in this episode was to start playing with Funai. The guy actually offered him a star for a bunch of cards. If Kaiji could have gotten the guy to offer another star, then they would have made it out of the ship. If Kaiji indeed has five or six million yet left, al they needed to do next is use this money to buy up another star, and they’d have nine. One thing that also fell to my attention was how Funai reacted when his stars fell off his chest. Well, it’s only natural of course, but something tells me that the creators are going to use that scene later on.

I’m not sure whether it is because all three series have an excellent soundtrack, but by now I’ve managed to pin down my three favourite series for this season: Kaiji, Ghost Hound and Shion no Ou. Especially the latter two have been getting more solid with every episode, and I’m always looking forward to when a new episode airs.

This episode of Shion no Ou showcases the final match of the tournament between Ayumi and Saori, and yet again I was captivated by the match, despite not understanding 50% of the moves that were made. Yet, I did notice how I’ve been getting better and better at following the matches as the series went on. Surprisingly, Ayumi loses, despite his determination to win the prize money for his mother. And finally we get to see his teacher again, who scolds the guy because he was starting to play shougi for the enjoyment, instead of the money, but does give him a decent sum of money.

Saori also gets quite a bit of development in this episode. I liked how she too was trying to adapt her own style. Something also tells me that Hanimeji knows fully well that Ayumi is actually male, due to a very obvious hint he gave away. I’m curious how this anime will develop further, now that the first major tournament is over. I didn’t quite get whether Ayumi received enough money from his teacher or not, and we’ve also yet to see the yellow-haired dude in action.