Short Synopsis: Haruka gives a request to Watanuki, and Syaoran finally appears in xxxHolic.
Episode Rating: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
Am I glad to see this series back or what? This episode was also everything you could expect from this series, and I can only hope that many OVAs will follow after this one. What I especially loved in this series is the first half, which discussed the character-development between the cast, and especially the explanation why Domeki ended up staying with Watanuki in the first place.

In this episode, he claims that he really finds the guy to be annoying and a loudmouth, but the reason why he became friends with him was because he saw Watanuki one day with his deceased pet cat, mumbling about how he was destined to be alone. He still is a huge closed book at this point. To think that he still doesn’t say that he likes to be with Watanuki, like you’d expect after the two of them went through so much. The way he said it made it really sound like he’s just with Watanuki because of pity. It forms a huge contrast with his actions, and the sacrifices he’s willing to take for Watanuki.

And like expected: Syaoran finally makes his appearance. I believe that when the second season aired, the creators were still sorting out the licensing issues between Tsubasa Chronicle and therefore were unable to include the proper references. At this point, I really have no idea what to think of Tsubasa Chronicle. On one hand, it’s going to be very interesting to see the new arc animated, but on the other hand I’m very wary about the rumours that have been going on, that talk about the downright ridiculous plot twists that it has taken recently.

Whoa, whoa! What the heck!? I so expected to just watch this thing to get it over with. I so expected to just write a quick review, about yet another mildly entertaining action-flick which would just feature a bunch of bulked-up guys fighting each other until the hour of airtime was over. However, this is no action flick. This is Studio 4C!!

I’m still surprised at this thing. I almost don’t want to spoil its big strength, which I feel is something that’s best enjoyed when you simply shut up and watch it, but without mentioning I’m almost certain that my review is not going to make any sense at all, so if you like surprises, simply close this window and watch the OVA.

I was really surprised when I found out that Studio 4C was behind this, especially since the character-designs looked way too plain and average. But as the movie progressed, the experimental nature of this OVA became more than clear to me. It takes pure GUTS to pull such a stunt, and yet it’s so simple that any idiot could have thought of it.

With a title as Street Fighter, you indeed don’t have much choices on what to expect from such a thing: fighting, fighting, and more fighting. Well let me tell you: the length of this OVA is an hour. The first fight only takes place, 30 MINUTES after the start. That’s at the HALFWAY POINT. The first half is spent purely on character-building, building up, setting everything right for the storyline in order to make everything run smoothly for when the real meat of the storyline does begin.

I’m entirely new to the Street Fighter franchise, and yet because of this I had no trouble at all getting used to the characters. And even when the fighting does begin, this series always remains the focus on the characters, and never on the action (which mainly consists out of characters punching each other). With this, this show manages to entirely avoid every single pitfall of the game based anime genre, which is so notorious for its crappy adaptations. The characters are simply excellent and continue to captivate throughout the entire hour of airtime.

What also helps is the music, which is absolutely fantastic. It knows exactly when to remain in the background, or when step in the foreground again. It continuously helps to keep the atmosphere going. My only real complaint here is the animation. This is Studio 4C we’re talking about, and the art just looks way too plain for one of their works. The animation is also nothing special, which can be a bit disappointing. Especially certain characters’ haircuts take a bit of getting used to.

But yeah, so what if the story involves yet another bad guy who needs to be stopped? So what if the ending doesn’t conclude the storyline? This OVA is sickeningly simple, when you look at it from a distance it’s got quite a few cliches, but for me it simply continued to push the right buttons throughout its entire airtime. It’s touching, yet never cheesy. The storyline’s has its problems, but never do these problem get in the way of what’s really important. The animation is simple, and yet it never looks cheap. It’s nothing deep, yet it’s an hour of excellent entertainment. Here you have it, the proof that any crappy concept can be made awesome with the right people behind it.

Short Synopsis: Yumemi and Munto finally accept each other.
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Good)
Okay, so much for “the OVA Recaps will end after episode 6″. There is no way that the cliff-hanger at the end of this episode formed the end of the two OVAs, so this episode must have inserted quite a bit of original content in order to prevent the OVA material from running out. My guess is that in the OVAs, the evil elves simply died when Yumemi and Munto zapped them, and here instead they remain alive for the rest of the series.

Still, the OVA material will certainly be up at the end of the next episode, and it’s there where the fun really begins. Now that Munto’s world has made so much of an impact on Yumemi’s world, I want to see the results of this: reporters and police and just about everyone needs to notice that something strange went on. Those whose homes were destroyed shouldn’t randomly disappear like they never existed. That’s indeed the big weakness of the OVAs: the setting just doesn’t feel alive. There are some very nice ideas put into it, but two hours is just WAY too little time.

Still, as a standalone episode, this remains a pretty good one, and it yet again puts more faith in my theory that the OVAs would have rocked if they were given more time. Lots of different characters got some attention in this episode, and especially Munto’s subordinates turned out to be pretty interesting and fun characters.

Now the big question here remains Gass. The guy probably died at the end of the OVAs (after all, after all that build-up, what point would there be to keep him alive at that point?), but with the TV-series, the creators might have other plans for him.

Short Synopsis: Japan makes his appearance.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
One thing I don’t get with this series is why they’re bothering to make next-episode previews. I mean, what’s the point, the episodes are just random strings of sketches, why would you need a 30 second preview of something that’s only 5 minutes long?

Anyway, in this episode you really can see that the original Hetalia was just a string of random comics put together. This episode has about five of these, mostly dealing with Japan, but there’s also a short skit about Italy’s history, where it was ruled by Austria.

The reference from U-Boats to giant robots was quite nice, since the second world war probably played a huge role the popularization of he giant robot-genre, though I do hope that Japan in the future episodes is going to get a bit more made fun of. Apart from the U-Boat references, he felt more like another straight guy for all the Italy jokes (okay, and the penis joke, but that one didn’t work too well).

The history-lesson was nice though. I never knew about those long Italian wars which nearly completely destroyed the Italy which was thriving the renaissance. If I understood this correctly, Italy was in the middle of a war between France and Spain, and it ended up fighting countless wars with France, and eventually it lost its powers when France allied itself with the Ottoman Empire. After the wars, Austria came and took control over the country for a while.