January 30, 2009

Genji Monogatari Sennenki - 03

Filed under: Finished Series:/Genji Monogatari Sennenki



Short Synopsis: Something goes wrong as Genji yet again switches over to a new woman.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
I’m amazed at how much this series has already done within only three episodes. Most series really need a bit of time to get fully steamed up, but with this series, every episode has delivered so far, and has been increasingly better. It would be awesome if this trend would continue throughout the rest of the series. My only gripe with this series is that at times, it’s rather hard to keep track of who is who. The extreme example is of course Genji in his younger days, but because of the series’ pacing it doesn’t have the time to properly introduce its characters.

Still, this definitely is one of the more unique harems I’ve seen, even though the story is 1000 years old by now. With Genji, you can see that the guy is a player, rather than a clueless harem lead. In the Tale of Genji, girls don’t flock to Genji, but Genji flocks to the girls, seduces them and then moves on again. This episode also showed that he really isn’t aware of the pain he brings to all of his victims. This whole love-thing is simply a game for him, and while he genuinely cares about the women he meets, he doesn’t try to take their own feelings into account at all. I think that that’s because he was raised as a prince and all. Japan’s emperors in ancient times have always had a reputation of being rather screwed in the head.

I’m not exactly sure what happened at the end of this episode. Was that ghost a vision that Genji had, causing him to cut up his newest love in confusion, or are there certain supernatural traits to this story, and was the ghost caused by the woman (I really have trouble remembering all of their names) of the last episode, who longs back to seeing Genji again?

Tytania - 16

Filed under: Finished Series:/Tytania



Short Synopsis: Fan’s back and proposes a plan to get his own reward money.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
So this episode was quiet, mostly used for comic relief and building up for the next major story arc where Fan is going to face off against Zalish somehow. It’s interesting how this series really puts the emphasis on plans and strategy, rather than concentrating on the low-level details of it.

If I understood correctly, then Fan plans to turn himself in because the planet he’s on lies in a remote region of Tytania. He’s hoping to make use of the bad organization of the place to make his escape once the money is received. In this episode, he basically investigates to find the weaknesses in said security.

On the Tytania-front, I’m surprised that Jouslain still has whathisface as his assistant. After the coup, you’d think that he’d hire somebody else. In the meantime, I was also surprised on how eager Idris was to get his hands on Fan. It sounds like he’s finally got a rock-solid plan in order to get Fan in his custody, though Jouslain is more intent on taking out Zalish, it seems. This could prove to be interesting.