August 30, 2008

Telepathy Shoujo Ran - 10

Filed under: Finished Series:/Telepathy Shoujo Ran



Short Synopsis: No supernatural case this time; instead it’s time for the local fireworks-festival.
Highlights: Telepathy Shoujo Ran + Slice of Life = a very enjoyable episode
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I’m interested in how long this string of anime-original episodes is going to continue. I originally thought that each arc was going to take up three episodes, but two episodes seem more likely. With six volumes left to animate, that means that there are still four of these anime-original episodes left to fill up. (Either they’re anime-original, or just the collected slice-of-life bits from the various novels that didn’t have to do anything with their stories).

I do wonder whether the creators will get the character-development right in the second half. It really looks like the creators of the anime have been picking their stories in random order (the ghost inn was from the seventh novel, it seems), so I wonder whether the cast will evolve properly. That the creators know how to flesh out their characters is yet again demonstrated by this episode, when Midori gets one of her nightmares of the past, in which she got abused by her parents.

Which makes me wonder: we’ve never seen Midori’s parents yet, have we? They sound like a bunch of workaholics who never have time for their daughter. Even Midori’s voice-mail was solely meant for Midori, and not her parents. Could it be that they’re currently living in two different houses? In any case, it does seem that they liked their daughter enough to put her on violin and piano-lessons.

Birdy the Mighty Decode - 09

Filed under: Finished Series:/Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Just about every important character in this series gets attracted to what happened at the end of the previous episode
Highlights: Finally another great fight-scene!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, so this series still needs miles to go before it can call itself equal to the likes of Noein or Escaflowne, but nevertheless, the past few episodes have really impressed me. The past three episodes have shown an incredible contrast to the first six episodes, which goofed off beyond belief. This episode also answers what the heck happened to the budget of this series: it’s clearly been saved for the major fight scenes like the one here.

Just about every side-character apart from Senkawa’s random classmates got fleshed out some more and gained some extra depth in this episode. Keisuke Muroto turns out to be quite a nice guy, despite his rather forcing ambitions. The guy reminds me of the male policeman from Noein. Natsumi is just as curious as Senkawa was, back in episode one.

Sayaka still doesn’t seem to know anything about her “other side”, and neither does it seem that Birdy and Senkawa recognize her from the last episode. But then again, you don’t easily suspect your classmate from being a psychotic killer. Syamalan turns out to be quite a famous person, with even larger ambitions. What exactly did he find so special in the wrecks that Sayaka left? He does seem to know about her, since he knows Capella. I couldn’t pick it up exactly, but at the end of the episode, did Capella promise him to hand over Nakasugi’s other self if he cooperated? This Ryunka they keep talking about, is that Sayaka’s other self?

In the meantime, the goth-girl turns out to be an android, and the guy with the moustache whose name I don’t know also finally does something.

The guys in moon-suits who wielded fire weapons also really worked. I originally thought that this series would keep Senkawa’s classmates apart from perhaps Sayaka away from the action, but as it turns out, it has other plans. Again, much like Noein, they all play their own part, aside from providing some obligatory classmates for the lead character.