Hehe, and here I thought that the creators were going to save the bombing of Tokyo for the grand finale of this series. It seems that there’s still much more that’s going to happen after it: there are still so many problems that are left to be solved, not to mention that the creators still don’t seem to have played all of their trumps for this series!

The way this episode was executed was also something I really didn’t expect. With the entire city of Tokyo burning down, you’d expect them to create a huge action-packed spectacle out of it, but instead this episode had a much more melancholic atmosphere. It’s something completely different from what we’ve seen of this series so far, and it really works. That’s yet another reason why I’ve grown to be such a fan of this series: you’re never going to know what to expect.

This episode was surprisingly slow paced for this series, but because of that the impact on Kuniko, having to burn down the place she grew up in really made an impact. Her emotions were handled very subtly here: she didn’t break down crying, or she didn’t refuse to drop the bomb at the last possible moment like your average anime lead. She knew very well what she had to do to save the ones around her, because otherwise they’d just be overthrown by the Daedalus. This episode portrayed that feeling of saying goodbye really well. Kuniko might seem like nothing special at first sight, but you don’t often see a main character who has to serve as a leader like her.

Oh, and the eye candy! While not as gorgeous as episode 13, the visuals were nevertheless gorgeous as they showed Duomo going up in flames. You could see that especially the background artists were on fire in this episode (not literally of course), but also the CG looked really good during the fiery bits.

Now, the question is going to be: how are the creators planning on filling up the final quarter of this series. The Daedalus hasn’t fully disappeared: it’s still inside Atlas because that’s a part that can’t exactly be burned down. At the same time, the end of this episode shows Medusa finally losing control of itself, after Karin pushed him too far in her attempts to take advantage of the huge carbon emissions from the forest fires. and to think that for a moment she was like the richest person in the world. She was bound to overstep her borders at one point, but I still wonder what the creators plan to do with Medusa going out of control: is she simply going to lose Medusa, or is her entire fortune coming along with it?

It’s very interesting: for most series at this point, you’re going to have a good idea what its finale is going to be about: what the main goal is going to be to overcome. With Shangri-la, I have no bloody clue. Sure, there is busting Ryoko from Atlas, people are going to have to rebuild their homes, Karin is going to have to cope with Medusa, but which one is going to be taking the main focus? What is Ryouko going to do now after cooperating with Kuniko? There are still so many questions left open.

At this point, there are five episodes left. That’s enough for this series to wrap up everything with a conclusion, and let’s hope that everything isn’t going to end up rushed!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

And this episode starts what’s probably going to be the final arc of the first (and really hopefully not last!) season of Guin Saga. It turns out that we’re going to go to large scale warfare again, since the main focus is going to be Remus, getting Parro back from the Mongols. And damn, I really have to say that after the change of clothes he and Linda got they look a lot more mature than when they walked around in those silly robes and pirate clothes.

I wonder what Guin is going to do in this arc. While he was the main character of the first half of this series, his role got much smaller in the second half in which the focus fell more on Ardnaris and Remus. The end of this episode shows a bunch of people who seem to be after him, but I still don’t see him picking up the lead role in this arc any time soon.

The romance also got developed in this episode. Remus turned into a huge chick magnet and landed himself a future wife, and in the meantime Istvan temporarily says goodbye to Linda as he attempts to become a worthy man to become her husband.
Rating: * (Good)

Haha! Finally an episode that doesn’t focus on Henderson, and it also was much better than the previous episodes and much less annoying. Instead, this episode develops Mildred, and pushes her character into a different direction. A nice idea, and I especially liked the moments in which nothing was said, yet we all could see how Mildred is longing for attention.

Unfortunately, this episode again played out like a soap opera. The moment in which Mildred came running to Anne and the two made up was cheesy at best. This is the kind of drama you’d expect from a teenaged romantic comedy, not the World Masterpiece Theatre for God’s sake. I’m not sure how many people were following the summaries I wrote for this series, but I’m going to quit doing them. This series simply isn’t good enough for that, especially since I’m now also writing detailed summaries on GA.

I can only hope that the cheese isn’t going to hop over to the Thomas family. This series is in a way like Ie Naki Ko Remi: some parts were really cheesy, but others made a huge impact on me. The big difference is that Remi was an adventure series, while Anne is slice of life. But still, Henderson is much more annoying than the worst character of Remi (which was the character that the big bad guy developed into; in the end he just became a bit too stereotypical for his own good). She’s now reached the point with me that any scene she appears in becomes annoying.

Even though the past few episodes have been dramatic, you can see that this series is building up to some of the more darker parts. We know that Anne is going to have to leave the Thomas family at one point, and arrive at a new family of hers. That’s where I have my hopes on for this series. With a bit of luck she’ll also move away to a different city so that that Henderson will also disappear. At the moment, the creators are going to have to put in a lot of development to get Anne to the character she was at the start of Anne of Green Gables, so let’s see whether the creators can do this, or they become too caught up in their own cheese.
Rating: (Enjoyable)