August 23, 2008

Telepathy Shoujo Ran - 09

Filed under: Finished Series:/Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: This episode brings us Telepathy Shoujo Ran’s version of the story where a ghost has been waiting under a sakura for her loved one to return for ages.
Highlights: Just when I thought that the banter in this series couldn’t get any better.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, so apparently, the nine volumes of the original light novels that this series is based on turn out to be just a bit too short to fill in 26 episodes, hence why this and the past episode have treated us with anime-original material. I’m not going to use the word “filler” for it, because that term seems to have become something incredibly negative in the fandom, while in fact the past two episodes were highly entertaining, though not in the way you might expect. ^^;

In this episode, the creators did exactly what they’re good at: sending Ran, Rui and Midori on an adventure and having Ran and Midori bicker endlessly in the process. I think the big problem with anime-original episodes is that it’s here where the writers of the anime have to show that they can write for themselves, rather than copy somebody else’s work. This episode showed that the creators of this series most definitely know how to write. With series as Claymore, it’s entirely the opposite: its writers were excellent at copying and pasting, but when they went with their own storyline they fell flat on their face.

The story wasn’t that special, and it’s been done many times before: two lovers who were once separated by a war. The lady is still waiting under a Sakura for her loved one to return, and over time they became youkai. But then again, this series was never about its originality. I remember World Destruction doing a very similar story (if I recall correctly, I dropped that series after that exact episode), and it never tried to spice things up, even though it was dealing with a very dull storyline that would never work on its own. Telepathy Shoujo Ran, however, knows exactly how to spice things up, with the above-mentioned banter between the characters, and the plot of trying to find the tree that the woman waited under, even though it already had been cut down. And of course how their romantic reunion was disturbed by a bitch-slap instead of a heart-warming and overacted hug.

Birdy the Mighty Decode - 08

Filed under: Finished Series:/Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Senkawa and his friends from school are invited to Nakasugi’s summer house.
Highlights: That second half…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Seriously, is it me, or is this series really getting better and better with every episode? The build-up in this episode was downright excellent, and it went seamlessly from a quiet and light-hearted mood in the first half to a much darker second half. So what if the first episodes in this series goofed off? They did what they were supposed to do: flesh out characters in this series.

The past few episodes have continued to push Nakasugi’s powers more and more dramatic. In this episode, she even destroys an entire neighbourhood, and this is probably going to continue to get even worse in the future of this series. I liked how the police arrived at the house at the end of the episode. It shows that you can’t just destroy a building and get away with it in this series, adding to the believability. But what was that book that Natsumi was looking at, the one about the destroyed buildings that had the younger version of Shamalan on it? For some reason, Nakasugi wanted to distract her attention from it as quickly as possible, suggesting some sort of connection between her past and Shamalan.

The question also remains who those footprints on the wall belonged to. If they really are from Capella, then why would she go and play around with Senkawa and the others? What did she hope to achieve by walking on the walls and leaving her footprints?

I like what the creators did with the background music in this episode. The tune that the doll played in the previous episode returns multiple times in this one. I remember how Kaiba once did the same, and the technique works out pretty well.