Short Synopsis: This episode had an onsen-sequence. Now that’s going to attract some viewer (not).
Highlights: That Carlos is a walking time-bomb.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Sarcasm aside, this episode rocked. I expected this series to go back to lacklustre travel arcs again, and instead we get a Mina-episode. There’s not even one scene where Porfy appeared, and instead this episode was all about developing the trio Mina, Isabella and Carlos. Oh, and what a wonderful job it did.

The episode starts at a bar in the evening, where Carlos screwed up and his deceit was found out by one of the people he played against. Mina and Isabella try to get away unnoticed, while Isabella’s father stays behind. The next day they take the train to the next city. Carlos tries to blame Mina for distracting him, but the fact does remain that he was the one who screwed up. Carlos then asks Isabella whether she plans to carry Mina among with her forever, though Isabella doesn’t know what to answer.

In te next city, Carlos notices many rich people, while Mina looks interested at the cars (notice how this is the first time she’s ever done that. Before she had no interest in them) and Isabella tells her that there is an “onsen” in the city. Usually an onsen means a hot spring, but in this context, I think “sauna” fits better. In any case, Isabella promises to take Mina there if business goes well.

When Isabela and Mina are working, a young boy approaches Mina, introducing himself as Heinz. Mina gets scared, though, and runs away. Heinz tries to follow her, but he suddenly gets trouble breathing. Mina gets Isabella away from one of her customers in an attempt to get help, and Isabella shows her how to fix his breathing problems (I wonder how she first found this out).

Heinz turns out to be the son of a count, and so when the count arrives, he pays quite a bit of money as a thanks of saving his son. Isabella grabs the money away from Carlos when he wants to use it, saying that it was her and Mina who saved the son, not him. The two of them use this money to go to the sauna. In there, they meet one of the customers that day (the one that Mina interrupted), though she doesn’t seem to mind after hearing what happened to Heinz. She also compliments Mina about her great voice. Isabella introduces Mina as her daughter. She later apologizes for that, but Mina doesn’t seem to mind.

When they return, Isabella’s father seems to have returned, and is happily drinking with Carlos. Of course, the two have to break up again because Mina needs to sleep. In the middle of the night, Mina wakes up (probably from a nightmare, but we don’t get to see what exactly she dreamt) and looks at her mother’s watch, and then at Isabella, and then smiles as she falls asleep again.

The next day, the count arrives again, and he wants to borrow Mina for one day, as it seems that Heinz has taken a liking to Mina. Isabella tries to disagree, saying that Mina isn’t a toy, but she ends up agreeing in the end (and Carlos doesn’t seem to mind after he gets some money). They go to a funfair, and for the first time Mina leaves Isabella, in order to play with Heinz.

When they return, it seems that Carlos and the count had a little talk, and the count seems to be willing to adopt Mina, so that Heinz finally has someone to play with. It seems ideal for Mina: she gets enough food every day, proper education, a warm bed. When the deal seems closed and Heinz wants to take Mina away, Mina resists, and runs back to Isabella. Heinz and his father try to convince them otherwise, but Isabella’s father (I’ve got to find out his name someday) explains that Isabela cares about Mina, just as the count cares about Heinz.

Heinz asks that when he meets Mina again, whether they can play together or not. After the answer is yes, he leaves, while Carlos is visibly angry, saying that Isabella’s going to have to take care of Mina and the episode ends.

I really hate Carlos right now, but then again, you can understand why he’s getting angry. Before Mina arrived, he had all of Isabella’s attention for himself. They were lovers once, so seeing Isabella getting taken away from him (and by none other than an unknown kid) must indeed be annoying the hell out of him.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated side-note: this was my 2000th post. Damn, I didn’t realize that I’ve been posting that much.

Okay, to be honest I decided to watch the first OVA of Tenchi Muyo!, the mother of all harem-anime, more as a fan of Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, rather than expecting anything worthwhile to come out of it. Still, I guess there had to be a reason why this caught on so much in the first place. This six-episoded OVA isn’t perfect, but it does have its enjoyable moments.

Obviously, it remains rather questionable for so many cute girls to move in at the house of the male lead, but at least the creators made sure to create an alien subplot in order to explain where these girls came from, and it’s at least plausible why the most important characters fell in love with this male lead. At the same time, the story about the aliens is also interesting enough to keep the viewer busy, I guess, and at least some effort has been put into it to make it a bit coherent and original (for its time, anyway).

The characters are a mixed bag: like expected, Sasami and Washuu (the short part we see of her anyway) were awesome. Ayeka and Ryo-Ouki were also pretty interesting. Ryoko (the main female lead) is hilarious when she doesn’t take herself serious, though gets rather dull when the comedy’s gone. Mihoshi, however, was just too annoying that what was good for her (how did she become a genius detective with that attitude anyway?) and the main villain Kagato is your stereotypical Norio Wakamoto-voiced bad guy without much depth to him, and his only purpose is to explain where Ryoko came from.

The result is also a rather mixed bag of a series. The first half is really enjoyable, where especially the chemistry between the different characters stands out. Mihoshi, Kagato and Ryoko’s serious side do rather ruin the second half, though. I think the biggest mistake that this series made is the ridiculously stretched out final battle against Kagato. It takes 1,5 episodes (that means 45 minutes) before the bugger finally dies. Especially for an OVA, that’s precious time that could have been so much better spent to develop and flesh out the characters.

Okay, I should be cursing this OVA for spawning and popularizing a genre that lives on seeing who can rip off each other the most, but nonetheless Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ouki is a nicely written story (for the most part at least). It’s got a bunch of well-defined characters (and also a few annoying ones) and there are a few interesting ideas included for the OVa. I’m not sure whether there really is enough material for 78 television-episodes and a truckload of more OVAs and movies, though…

I first became interested in Wind - A Breath of Heart after this guy gave it a surprisingly positive review. After watching it, I can understand why. Wind is a typical series that’s short (it’s only got 13 episodes of fifteen minutes), simple, but effective.

It doesn’t start out that way, though. Especially the first few episodes are an exercise in “spot the overdone cliché”. I spotted the annoying spunky sister, the childhood sweetheart, stupid and energetic best friend, girl who keeps abusing this best friend, classmates with a part-time job in a café, there’s a priestess, a girl with heart problems, parents gone, the terrible cook, school sports festival, shrine festival (complete with yukatas) and of course the beach episode. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a sakura tree.

And yet, this series works. The biggest reason is a great cast of scriptwriters that manages to keep the story going and the dialogues meaningful. The airtime is short, but every character gets at least a bit of depth and goes beyond the usual stereotype. The cast feels fresh, and the main storyline is also a pretty good one. Don’t expect anything amazing, but it’s well told and surprisingly dark. My only complaint is that its conclusion may have come a bit too easy, in the way of “why didn’t you do this in the beginning?”

This series is also interesting in terms of graphics. At first sight, the CG and sloppy animation may seem like a turnoff, but it’s got a sort of “I don’t care whether I’m ugly but I want movement”-feeling, which I appreciate a lot. It’s so much better than nearly ninety percent of all other bishoujo-series, which are way too obsessed with creating the perfect female body.

Overal, this isn’t the most complete series but what it does feel is a whole (if that makes any sense). The different storylines are carefully woven into each other and not a second is really wasted. The scriptwriters know exactly how to use their time, and pleasantly surprised me.