February 15, 2008

Ghost Hound - 15


There was even more talking than usual this episode, which put me in a rather disadvantage. I’d guess that apart from Saiunkoku Monogatari, Ghost Hound is the hardest to understand of the anime I currently watch raw, though so far this hasn’t caused that much problems. This also was a clear build-up episode, after the major events of the last one, though this is the first time where I felt that I missed some important information about what happened to Makoto and his mother, after his grandmother died and all.

He basically runs into Tarou in the bus, and the two of them spend the episode together as first Tarou heads to Kei to apologize for what he did to her experiment, a few episodes ago (it seems that this experiment failed because of his meddling), and afterwards they meet up with the new partner of Makoto’s mother, and for some reason Makoto decided to bring along a knife for this. Things will probably get clearer the next episode, when we see what he actually planned to do with it.

In the meantime, Michio and Masayuki are on their own investigation, to figure out what Masayuki’s father is up to. It turns out that Michio’s skills are quite useful, and at the end of the episode he probably found out the password to Masayuki’s father’s laptop. They also contact the mysterious journalist. I thought that I remember someone in the comments who noted that he might be Tarou’s father, but the two of them are different people. He’s been investigating Makoto’s family, especially how Noriko has been inviting random people to come over.

The real treat of this episode was Hirata, though. It was a really interesting way to reveal the things that Tarou’s sister said to him, right before she died. Instead of Tarou, gradually finding out by recalling his memories, it was Hirata-sensei’s semi-out-of-body experiences that brought him in a part of Tarou’s memory, and he could understand her perfectly fine. What she basically said back then was meant to comfort him. She told him not to cry and survive, as she probably thought that she’d end up dying. In any case, it was pretty interesting to see Hirata freak out like that.

Hakaba Kitarou - 06


It seems that the final stories of Hakaba Kitarou will consist out of two episodes, as this episode yet again ended with a cliff-hanger. This episode was mostly unspectacular, and al it did was set the tables right for the second episode. I’ve got no worries, as episode five showed that this series can turn the entire tables with its second episode.

And there is a lot of potential in this story. Basically, in order to earn some money, Kitarou ends up collecting money from a water-spirit who hasn’t paid back its loan for fifteen years. Kitarou, as mischievous as he is, starts messing around with the spirit after paralyzing it with a special powder. The water-spirit in exchange escapes, and engulfs the entire world with water in order to take revenge on Kitarou. He then gets saved by Nezumi Otoko on a hot-air balloon, for the price of his father.

One thing that I did realize with this episode is that Kitarou’s character simply is boring if he isn’t sadistic. But I guess it does have a certain charm. Kitarou is a nice example of an anti-hero, and it’s a bit different from all those noble heroes who want to save the world and stuff. In any case, I’m curious for the next episode. We’re already past the halfway-point of this series, so it’d better have an excellent second half in store!