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February 10, 2010

Katanagatari - 02

Filed under: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Katanagatari



Okay, for those confused by the strange schedule of this series: episode 3 will air on March 8th, and I assume that the rest of the episodes will also follow on the eighth of every month, but that’s not certain yet.

Anyway, about this episode: I enjoyed it a lot. There obviously was a lot of dialogue again, but it was interesting to follow, rather than just continuously stating the obvious like what shounen series tend to do when two characters are talking to each other in the middle of a fight. This episode also had a ton of subtle jokes, like that crazy ninja who just kept talking backwards. Nice references to those shows that have minor side-character with a strange “gimmick”. As this show explains it: they only do that to stand out.

Between this and the previous episode, I liked the previous one a bit better, mostly because its direction had a bit more of an “edge”, but this episode also had some nice touches and unexpected parts. Using your partner’s face as a leverage. The action in this episode was very short, and it really was one of those fights that’s decided before it even started, although I’m not exactly sure how one could figure out that that super-fast sword could only slice horizontally, not vertically.

I’m also enjoying this series because of the cross references. Sure, there’s a ton of dialogue, but it’s not exactly random. The topic of clothing for example just keeps returning, and at the end of the episode we also see the two lead characters talking about last words, just after characters have died that they probably did not intend (especially the reverse guy :P).

For the coming number of episodes, what this series needs to do is to continue fleshing the two lead characters out through this dialogue, so that they can get some proper development in the second half. In the meantime, it also needs to keep its dialogue fresh and characters interesting. This episode threw in nice details about the background of the place and ronin of this episode, but at the same time I do hope that the topics of the future episodes are slightly more interesting. Making a series that consists out of nothing but talking for 50 minutes interesting doesn’t just happen on its own.
Rating: * (Good)

Kobato - 17

Filed under: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama/Kobato



Oh, what a surprise. It turns out that the previous episode wasn’t finished telling its story yet. It needed about five more minutes, which appeared in this episode. So, what was the rest of the episode spent on? A hilarious Iyoryorgi adventure and xxxHolic references. This was like, what? The fourth different version of Watanuki that exists now?

So yeah, overall this episode was a lot of fun, it only to see Iyoryogi suffer so much. Episodes like these are all about creativity and how much you’re interested in the involved characters, and that worked like a charm for me. His fire-breathing technique to avoid the pond was especially awesome. On a more serious note it also built up the main storyline a bit, though subtly.

As for the bazaar, what was obviously missing from the previous episode was Kobato seeing her hard work pay off. At this point, she knows very much that she’s a klutz and that helping people isn’t that easy. She should be proud of what she did here, though. It’s not like her healing of a troubled person, but she put in real effort. Apart from the mysterious penguin/duck/rabbit/thingies, of course.
Rating: ** (Excellent)