I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, but this has been one of the most enjoyable episodes of Kaiji yet, even though it consisted mostly of people sitting and talking. It’s probably for the same reason why I still consider the first episode to be one of the best episodes of the series as well. It’s episodes like these that are simple, yet effective.

Now I realize that with the beam-arc, Kaiji had been drifting away a bit from its original purpose: gambling. The beam-arc just consisted out of a bunch of idiots who walked towards their death. What I want to see are the mind games; people who try to outsmart each other in a battle of psychology. Seeing people, just scared to death becomes uninteresting quite soon.

It’s because of this that this arc is looking very promising. This time, Kaiji doesn’t have an idiot on the opposing side. This time, he doesn’t have to strangely be the only one to worry about the fates of others. This is really a battle between two men, and it already starts out well. Of course, with two rounds, you won’t be able to predict your opponent. It, however, really seems that Tonegawa will only lose about four times if Kaiji doesn’t start using his head soon. I’m especially interested in this experience of Tonegawa.

The story for this week was rather bizarre… Remember the little plant that grew from Dracula’s dead body in the previous episode? Well, Nezumi Otoko uses his breath to knock a famous singer unconscious and plants this plant into his right arm. After a while, the plant starts to grow and it consumes its host. In the meantime, the famous singer met Mizuki. Yeah, who else would believe that there’s a demonic plant, growing on your arm?

In any case, the singer turns into a rather strange kind of tree-stump, and soon even loses the ability to speak. Nezumi Otoko then kidnaps the stump and moves into a secluded house, somewhere far away, using the money he stole from Kitarou in the previous episode. ^^; The stump then grows into a tree, and one very large fruit appears. Nezumi Otoko hoped that this would be the reincarnation of his late master, but instead it hatched a small version of said singer. The episode ends with Nezumi Otoko fleeing, the tree burning, and Kitarou, the small singer and a third youkai who just showed up having tea…

Still, I would be lying if I said that I don’t enjoy these kinds of stories. This series manages to combine a quirky feeling with horror-stories, and the result works out pretty well, and this series is really fun to watch.

I think we also saw the beginning of Catgirl in this episode (or Neko Musume, as Gegege no Kitarou named her). She’s just a normal girl right now, but I doubt that remain the same. Especially since Kitarou has fallen in love with the girl because she can sing so well. I doubt that he’d leave her alone. He was really cute in this episode as well. :P What’s also interesting is how Mizuki returned back from hell, to keep an eye on Kitarou. Indeed it would be the best for someone to keep an eye on such a demonic child as Kitarou.

Another thing I like about this series is how all the victims so far have been grown-up men. Usually, an anime would portray some kind of really cute girl in peril at this point, but the fact that Kitarou uses businessmen gives a nice twist to things, especially since they’re portrayed so much away from stereotypes as in this series.

Finally, after yet another week of hiatus, Ghost Hound now seems to be back for real. This episode yet again continues the trend of seamlessly integrating the building-up scenes with the important ones. And that’s really why I love this series. At first sight, it may seem like nothing happens, and yet the plot has been continuously pushed forward by every single episode.

The major event for this episode was Miyako, freaking out in front of Tarou. Only now, I realize that the girl in the storm in the OP was her, without her braids, and only now I realize that her problem is that she often gets possessed by ghosts. I couldn’t exactly pick up what she said back then, but it’s interesting how she freaked out, just at the time when Tarou mentioned his sister, and from what I understood, she was possessed by one of the local gods. It’s quite freaky how this was done. Most series in the same position go all GAR or emo, though this was handled quite naturally.

On further news, we finally learn what happened to Miyako’s mother: she’s in Tokyo. It seems that she divorced from Miyako’s father, and Miyako decided to stay with him. I’m surprised that Ghost Hound is one of the few series where parents can actually be divorced, even though this happens quite often in the real world. But yeah, most lazy anime solve this by never showing the parents of their protagonists, so I guess it’s only natural.

Miyako’s father also runs into the councillor during this episode, and it looks like Miyako will get some sessions in the future as well. It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll discover, especially now that he’s been seeing more and more hallucinations himself. The female scientist (god, I’m going to have to start to learn these people’s names…) also manages to see Makoto in Ghost-Hound-mode, at the start of the episode. Masayuki’s father, meanwhile, is being investigated by a strange photographer, so it really seems that the guy is working himself into trouble.

Makoto, meanwhile, confronts his grandmother about his father’s death. Another conversation I didn’t quite get, but it seems that Makoto is suspecting that the same thing might happen to either him or Tarou. We also now see that Makoto’s grandmother really desires his attention, though the way she acts now, she’s never going to get it. I think that she neglected him so much over the years, that she only noticed how much she needs him once she started getting seriously ill. And yeah, now it’s a bit too late to apologize to a guy like him.

Seriously, since when did this series become so awesome? The first season already was good, but I didn’t really classify it as the best of the season, but it seems that with the second season, the overall quality of this series has increased tenfold. Perhaps even more! I seriously consider Wellber no Monogatari as one of the best shows of the season at this point. Seriously, the past few episodes have been nothing but awesomeness.

Very few series can claim the level of character-development that Tina went through for the past four episodes. Every single episode was contributed to flesh out her character. The first one was about her relationship with Rita, the second episode was about her past, the third episode was about her revenge, and now this episode carries this even further when she starts falling in love with Galahad. Finally I can claim to like another love-story, because this is more than just an attempt to create some superficial rivalry. The creators really know how to use it, and with one episode, the entire love-relationship between her and Jin got thrown apart.

The two of them could get back together in the first episode, just like the first season did. I admit that back then, it felt a bit superficial, but I have no such feelings this time. I feel that whether or not Tina or Jin get back together doesn’t matter at this point. It’s going to be awesome either way, especially Jin can’t deny that he actually proposed to Tina. That scene was SO worth it!

I can now understand why the creators put Galahad in the main party. Originally, I thought that they just did this because of the huge popularity of the guy, but the guy was really meant to shake up the feelings of both Tina and Rita. At least with this guy, I can understand why the girls fell in love with him. He’s hunkier than all male harem-leads combined together.

Seriously, Shion no Ou is getting competition. The past episodes have been amazing, and it really feels like the creators know what they’re doing. This spells out lots of potential for the rest of the season. :)

Well, that was a disaster…

I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. In fact, this episode was hilarious, but it also remains a total trainwreck. Suteki Tantei Labyrinth has a really weird sense of humour, and anyone who even dares to disagree should see the opening of this episode. I’m not sure who in their right mind thought of it, but the people responsible should be locked up.

The animation… was pretty terrible as well. There’s no sign of the huge budget of episode fourteen. Usually, this wouldn’t be such a problem, but this time, the animators didn’t even bother to check for inconsistencies. A part of this episode is about a special statue. Legends say that if you put an item dear to you, and have your loved one pick it up, it’ll bring you together, or something similar. The statue has been rigged so, that if it rains, it’s got one hand open and one closed, and when the sun shines, they change into the opposite. It’s a bit crazy, but I can live with it.

Here’s the thing, though: pay close attention to both hands. At one point, Yaya puts in the bear, strapped to her phone on one hand, hoping to score with Mayuki and all. She then leaves, and it starts raining. It’s here where the animators forgot to keep track of which hand was supposed to be open. ^^; All the faces, throughout the entire episode also look horribly distorted.

Thankfully, this episode did introduce two new major characters: Seiran’s brother and his female assistant, who seems to have a crush on Seiran. I really like the way in which this was revealed: the guy acts like a total idiot for the entire episode, and only after that we learn that he’s more than just a random bad guy who came in to confuse Mayuki.

Really, I remember how, at the beginning of this series, I really wanted to like Mayuki’s four classmates. Little did I know that once the introduction was over, every episode that featured them turned into a total disaster. Okay, I laughed, but you do not want to watch these episodes with a straight face. :P

Let me place up this warning: if you’re watching Gunslinger Girl because of the action, then drop this series now. Seriously, if you thought the fight in the first episode was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. Artland just doesn’t have the budget to animate nice fights, and in this episode, this shows.

In terms of storytelling, though, this episode rocked, and I really enjoyed it. Triela and Hirsher are assigned to the Pinocchio-case, and they quickly find his home. Before they were able to collect any information, the girl whom we saw with Pinocchio in the previous episode finds out about the things he’s been hiding from her, and she gets taken in by Franco and Franca, who manage to convince Pinocchio to not kill the girl. At that point, Hirsher decides to go and arrest them, even though there isn’t any kind of backup. So indeed, the mission fails, and Pinocchio, Franco and Franca escape, and both Triela and Hirsher end up with some wounds.

The aftermath was quite an interesting one, and it seems that Triela now knows who she’s up against, which has a lot of potential for the future episodes. I also liked the techniques that Franco and Franca used to get away. Sure, the fight was badly animated, but at least some thought was put behind it, compared to some other series which have characters just throwing fireballs at each other without any tactic whatsoever.

Mamoru Oshii may have his problems, but I like how the guy has continued to produce adult-movies through the decades, away from all the teenagers that we see in 90% of all other anime. His movies are always very well-written; heck, the guy has an absolutely terrific sense of dialogue, rivalled by only a handful of people. It’s a shame that none of his movies so far came out perfectly flawless, though. He often gets too enthusiastic with his dialogue, which makes many of his works memorable, but missing that edge to truly become a great movie. Thankfully, after watching Jin Roh, I’m glad to say that this doesn’t count for all of his movies.

It’s here where Oshii throws away all his pretentiousness, and he deliberately keeps the pacing slow for the entire run, and for once he doesn’t mean to confuse his viewer with tons of dialogue. Instead, we get the character-study of a member of a special division of the police. Expect lots of realism here, this isn’t a story where a heroic warrior will save the world from terrorists. The plot is much deeper than that, despite what you might think. This movie was especially refreshing after watching A Tree of Palme. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels out of place.

The real star of this movie is the main character, though. He’s so far away from your standard hero, and the depth of his character is immense, especially considering the limited length that this movie has to work with. This makes it a pity when the movie switches to the side-characters. They’re by no means bad, but they’re just not as interesting as the main one. This is just a minor flaw, though.

I’m really glad to see that Oshii did manage to produce one movie that doesn’t have any major problems, and the result is absolutely terrific. I can’t say this enough times, but a movie has a limited amount of time to work with. If it wants to be something memorable, it needs to know how to build up properly. Mamoru Oshii does know this, but he often gets ahead of himself. Thankfully, this isn’t the case for Jin Roh. Jin Roh is a definite recommendation if you’re looking for a slow and serious movie.

Well, Deus ex Machina aside, I really liked this episode. Of course, the worst thing that the creators can now do is carry this Deus ex Machina even further by making all of the Gundams escape without a scratch. That would really ruin everything this episode built up for. But for now, I’m content with Setsuna being the only one who escaped the fruitless battle of this episode.

I’m surprised that Veda didn’t do anything to stop them, though. He too must have seen that a battle of 4 versus 1000 was fruitless to begin with, and his whole plans seem ruined now, with three of the four Gundams being captured. I’m worried about that big black Gundam, though. I have the feeling that it will either make, or break this series.

One thing that I really liked about this episode was how long the fight took. Not in terms of airtime, but the actual duration of the battle (over fifteen hours). All that time, the pilots were waiting for the inevitable, or a chance to escape. The other Celestial Beings meanwhile had now way to communicate with the Gundams due to their particles, so they had no idea what was going on, for fifteen whole hours.

A Tree of Palme is from the same director as Fantastic Children, so yes, I was eager to watch this movie. Don’t be fooled by the childish character-designs, because just like Fantastic Children, A Tree of Palme is a dark and twisted story. Unfortunately, I’m missing the same brilliance.

Don’t get me wrong, A Tree of Palme is a good movie. The first half is absolutely stunning and imaginative. Seeing the nervous wrecks of the two main characters was a delight, and both of them are fleshed out really well. Palme’s desires become gut-wrenching at one point. But yeah, I wish I could say the same about the second half…

In the end, this just turned into one of these movies which are just too short for their own stories, and this becomes all too apparent in the second half. The biggest problem is that the character-development feels really awkward. Okay, I know that Palme is a puppet and there were actually some reasons given for his strange behaviour, but even that was really pushing my suspense of disbelief, and I haven’t started talking about the other characters yet. One time, a character scared to death, and a moment later she’s happy and acts like nothing ever happened. The plot also has its issues, and huge holes start to appear as the movie goes on that are never cleared up. It feels like entire scenes have been lost on the cutting-room floor.

It’s a shame, A Tree of Palme definitely had the potential, as shown by the first half. But the creators really needed to put some of the subtlety of Arete Hime in this movie. It’s like I said in my Mahou Tsukai Tai-review: a movie has a very limited amount of time to tell its story, but if it knows how to build up properly, it’ll turn into something memorable. A Tree of Palme just didn’t have what it takes to really stand out from all the other movies. It’s a good watch, but not a great one.

Oh my god, what a wonderful episode, considering that we’re only three episodes in, and we barely even scratched the surface of the real potential for this series. Seeing Porfy and his sister finally reunite with their father was such a heart-warming scene. The creators really know what they’re doing.

The key to this episode was really to make the viewer wait along with Porfy and Mina, for the bus that was supposed to be carrying him. Here the two of them were in a town they hardly knew, waiting for a bus that had quite a bit of delays. Of course you’d start to feel anxious whether or not the guy would come. I also loved how Mina suddenly disappeared when Porfy got distracted by yet another car, and it’s clear now that she really likes it when her brother pays attention to her. That moment showed how this can get out of hand, because Porfy himself really wants to protect his sister, despite how he can get distracted really easily.

I also like how the creators used the story of Orpheus in this episode. For those who don’t know: Orpheus’s wife died, and he couldn’t forget about her. Hades then promised that he could take her from the underworld, on the condition that he wouldn’t look behind. When he nearly reached the exit of the underworld, his curiosity and doubts about Hades’s intentions took the best of him, he looked behind and saw how his wife got sucked back into the underworld. Porfy just can’t understand that Orpheus didn’t get any reward at all for the long path that he already crossed without looking at his wife.

What I also noticed in this episode is how the World Masterpiece Theatre-series often uses dolls to symbolize the relationship between the rich and the poor. Little Princess Sara had Emily, in Les Miserables, Cosette also receives a doll that she’s been longing for from Jean and now in this episode, we get introduced to a new character who also just received a doll from her rich family in France. Just like with Les Miserables, this girl (whose name I didn’t pick up, unfortunately) uses the doll to create jealousy. It seems that she loves Zaimis, though she can’t stand how he keeps spending time with Porfy and his sister.