January 17, 2009

Jigoku Shoujo - 67

Filed under: Finished Series:/Jigoku Shoujo



Short Synopsis: A girl whose brother is a rising DJ calls Jigoku Tsuushin.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
What is it with anime and sibling complexes? Heck, it’s supposed to be a taboo, but you see it broken so much in anime that it’s become an exception for a brother and a sister to not have romantic feelings for each other. Good grief, do all Japanese grow up as only children or something?

Having said that though, this episode was actually a pretty good character-study of both brother and sister, who both unknowingly looked up to each other. The sister was a huge klutz and has a stupid smile all of the time, but because of that she gets lots of attention, and her brother dislikes that because this causes himself to get no attention at all. The sister at the same time is well aware that everyone just finds her stupid and talks about her behind her back, and is just smiling because otherwise she couldn’t bare it. She in turn is jealous of her brother’s successes as a DJ. And as it indeed turned out, the brother’s dreams of becoming a DJ fails, so both envied each other for things that didn’t exist. I like that, it’s down to earth and a typical problem that siblings like them can have.

Of course, the ending where the sister sends the brother to hell because her brother refused to keep a promise he made when they were small, about how he’d marry her once she became pretty was a bit forced, to say the least. Do people really put that much value into a promise that was made as six year olds? But then again, that’s also where the premise of Jigoku Shoujo comes in, and the ease at which you can send someone to hell.

Yuzuki’s role was pretty pretty small in this episode, but not wasted at all. This episode was really designed to make her stronger, and to teach her to not give up, or simply assume that everything is the way it looks.

Birdy the Mighty Decode - 15

Filed under: Finished Series:/Birdy the Mighty Decode



Short Synopsis: Birdy meets her childhood friend again.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Whoa!

I somewhat expected that the second season would be better than the first, but such a huge difference in quality, I never saw coming. The first two episodes were quiet and set up the basic premise for this series, with lots of Senkawa behind his teen-aged self. The second season however, immediately jumps into the action, the animation is consistently awesome, rather than usually average with awesome animation for the big action-scenes. Seriously, it looks like the second season is going to top the first season in just about every aspect, and with a bit of luck it’s going to be the best of the sequels that started airing in this Winter-season.

But my favourite change: Senkawa. The past two episodes showed no intention whatsoever to drag on his romantic relationship. In fact, it’s time for Birdy to have her romance, and that one’s also looking much more interesting than the romance of the first season. On top of that, Senkawa is now more experienced in love matters, so he can actually give Birdy a bit of advice here and there.

This episode also showed: the director of this series definitely also did Noein. The animation was fantastic, even during the quiet parts the characters are drawn in a very messy style, but this way they gestures and motions have extra expressivity, and they really make the cast come alive this time. It doesn’t make for the best screenshots, though. ^^;

I also love it when the writers go creative with ring-tones. It may be something small, but it’s fun to see what kind of tune the character in question has chosen, and it’s even small things like these that add to the fleshing out the character. It’s amazing how Natoru has only appeared for 2 episodes, and he already feels like a regular member of the cast. Especially during the big fight scene at the end of this episode. That was seriously brutal! Seriously, this second season has buckets of potential.