Blogging this series has shown me that I’m very selectively punctual. While I promised that I’d blog this series weekly, this entry has had more than a week delay, apologies for that. Blogging this series has been an interesting experiment, but in the end I don’t think that I can blog a series that has already been fully released consistently and at this point, I think I’ll just end up marathoning the two Banner of the Stars, instead of blogging them weekly. I know it’s something that’s completely in my head, but still.

In any case, a great episode. It was very intriguing. This episode showed a completely different side of the Abh: the elitist and racist one. This episode rocked in the way that it slowly revealed the exact stance of the Baron that Jinto and Lafiel ended up at. This episode showed how great this series is at building up: that final shot of Lafiel smiling was a very powerful one.

And the emotions: anime is often a medium of overacting, but this show is different. The subtle emotions of the characters show exactly how they feel, and yet no attempt is made to make them over the top, apart from perhaps those nameless maids.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

So, the slaughter has begun. I must say that I really like all of the background behind this apocalyptic arc. Finally we don’t have some sort of evil demon who is about to destroy the world: the background behind this one is much more complex and interesting.

This episode passed, and it’s still a bloody mystery as to what happened to Noloty in the previous episode. We do get some hints, though: that boy she was with has the power to unleash his emotions to others. Whatever happened between him, Noloty and the Governor of Paradise, it killed off Noloty, made Arkit believe that the Armed Librarians killed her off, and somehow turned him into a lizard. While the latter is probably an aftereffect of Arkit’s powers, the big mystery is why the Governor of Paradise actually revealed himself in order to get the job done. Is the church this close to extinction?

I do have one point of criticism, though. Ireia’s death was probably the first cliched one I’ve seen in this series. It was by far the least impressive one, because of how over the top it was. All deaths in Bantorra thus far had something special, with the most impressive being Volken and Noloty, but with Ireaia… the creators hinted a bit to much to the fact that she was about to die.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This time: Shizuo. This was a pretty straightforward background episode: we learn what drives Shizuo, we get to see his past and how he grew up, and we also see how he’s connected to some of the other characters in this series. At first I thought that he was deeply involved into the yakuza-stuff along with Izaya, but that turns out to be a bit differently.

Instead, he’s just another one of Izaya’s victims. Izaya is a strange guy: we know that he’s involved in shady business, but some of his actions are just strange, and don’t seem to have any particular merit or reward: why would he make Shizuo’s life miserable to such an extent? Why would he order some people to kidnap a random girl?

In any case, I like these series that are about all kinds of generations, like this one: we’ve got high schoolers, college students and working adults, the flashbacks are focused on kids, and on top of that we also have a bunch of people in their thirties and forties, plus an immortal one. In any case, this episode also explains why Izaya and Shizuo knew Celty. One thing that I also love about these flashbacks is that they show not just one part of a character’s background, they show all of it through all kinds of ages. It gives such a better feeling of the characters, rather than just another “flashback arc”.

Also, the references to other anime. In such a series, it’s actually pretty nice to see ads for series that are this recent: it shows that series take place right now, rather than in some ambiguous time period that could just as well be 1990 or 2000. I was surprised to see Cencoroll pop up among them, though. It’s obvious why Jigoku Shoujo and Baccano are often referenced in this series, but I like the little wink of the creators of such an independent movie. It’s not really a parody either, and instead it feels a part of the setting.
Rating: * (Good)