Weird to think that I was looking for a show similiar to Higurashi when I looked through the Fall07 anime 9 months ago, and found a show that delivered 100%, when Shion no Ou has no real similarities, other than the Studio DEEN twisted face syndrome, which I love by the way.

Masterpiece, 5th anime to get a 10/10 from me.

Thanks for the great recommendation

The sexism chaps my hide in any kind of genre, actually, especially since martial arts — the most common fight technique I see in anime — is the equalization of strength through technique, discipline and mind mastery. (er, right? I don’t know anything about martial arts other than what one picks up by seeing it in pop culture.)

After a while you just get inured to it to simply get through the day. Who wants to die early of a stroke brought on by constant, low-grade anger? Especially by something as relatively inconsequential as anime. :) So I completely agree: when it crosses over into the realm of mental ability, it’s grade-A annoying. It’s even more annoying when you see that this segregation occurs in real life, women are compensated accordingly as lesser players, and the anime is merely a reflection of this.

And this is taking this conversation waaaay beyond the scope of this post entry. :)

BTW, isn’t it interesting that the highest competitor and ultimately the murderer was the one who wanted to eliminate this divide? Even though he was the killer, I can’t seem to hate Hani-meijin. Such an interesting character, like his brother — twisted yet appealing.

I sympathize with the irritation, though. Pre-timeskip Sakura in Naruto had me screaming at the computer. I never hated the character, but I sure did hate the mangaka for making her that way.

I actually liked this show precisely because those assumptions were challenged. Note the dialogue between Saori and Ayumi on the hospital roof. Saori’s comments on female shougi players were an spoken acknowledgement of this problem. That’s rare.

I find that when the author of an anime concept is female, the presentation of female characters and their potential is often more well rounded, especially in shounen/seinen series. Katori Masaru was a female shogi player — her story is interesting to read about.

Oh, and I totally buy that people can get that obsessive and self-important with a board game. Especially when talented people can make a living off of it. Heck, there are hardcore, pressure-filled tournaments organized around *crossword puzzles* in the US. XD

Psgels, *thank you* for leaving out most of the details of the final episode. The general ending is what I expected, so it’s not “spoiled” for me and as of 23/03/08, I still have the pleasure of discovering the details… OF THE LAST FOUR EPISODES. *sob* The English subs are still stuck at 18 due to the translator moving to a different continent, so I’ve been writhing in suspense for a couple weeks now, with no concrete end in sight. My RSS feed to it has taken a beating. :(

Fansubs will break your heart, they really will. XD