Well, we can already see the results of 92JeyRfcya, YS2YSUOe1cLtf, and YnXmHqtxqS being arrested. It’s been 24 hours, and there’s still no Amatsuki 06 on Share to be found. I can only guess (and thank) where the person who uploaded a version on Tokyo Toshokan got his from, but it seems that all other share-uploaders have become scared of being arrested themselves.

I’m not claiming that the illegal file-sharing is right. The reason why I still use programs as Share and Bittorrent is simply because they’re the easiest and most consistent ways to get anime. Once anime companies come with a way that can beat these, I’ll most likely switch to them. The thing is, however, that there are still people who don’t realize the irony of trying to solve illegal file-sharing with violence. Take this analogy: suppose you have a dog that doesn’t behave, and you kick it every time it does something it’s not supposed to do. Obviously, the poor thing won’t instantly turn tame, and instead you’re turning it into a wild beast.

There’s more to that than just that analogy, though. To quote Alafista, the three share-uploaders have been charged of uploading “anime like Macross, Gundam and Code Geass”. In other words, the well-known series. The thing with these shows, however, is that there’s a large enough fanbase for these shows for fans to find some kind of way to watch them in a safe, though slightly more troublesome way. Remember when that cease and desist-letter was sent to the fansubbers of Death Note? Well, I’ve never seen Death Note episodes being subbed as fast as those final two.

And indeed, Kanokon, a wildly popular show (gee, I wonder why…) arrived today on Tokyo Toshokan just as scheduled, while Amatsuki had to wait a day. And I guess that waiting a day isn’t that bad, but what about the series that are even less popular than Amatsuki? I don’t want to imagine how long the raws for Himitsu or Crystal Blaze will show up. Or the worst of all: Porfy no Nagai Tabi and Kaiba.

So, basically what the anime executives are trying to do right now is destroying a major source of international promotion for the more obscure and less mainstream series, who actually NEED this kind of attention, while the popular series are hardly affected at all and just sell themselves anyway. Imagine if the Japanese authorities would continue to smash down the illegal file-sharing circuit: all we’d get to see then are Code Geass and Kanokon, while all the other series die a slow death without ever getting the chance of being recognized. (no offence to those who love Code Geass and Kanokon, of course)

Anyway, please excuse this rambling. About this episode: Amatsuki has just kicked xxxHolic out of my top-3 of this season, and that doesn’t say that xxxHolic has become bad by all means. I don’t know exactly what it is with this series, but it consistently has me edged at the screen. There are hardly any weak moments. I really feel that the dialogue draws me in like no other, even though I only understand 50% of it. Amatsuki realizes full well that its main character is an idiot, and makes perfect use of that.

Seriously… how good can this series be anyway? Even though this episode took a step down from the previous episode, it was still an excellent one, and the thing is that I’ve got no idea what the creators did to make this series so great. Sure, it’s got a great soundtrack, but it’s not the best one this season. The art is pretty, but there are other series with better art. The incredibly complex dialogue probably helps, but even then I only understand half of what people are saying. I really can’t exactly put my finger as to what makes this series so great, but there has to be some reason why this series suddenly stands out, while most other series need episodes of building-up before they can reach such an emotional level…

I also have a question to those who’ve read the novels for Amatsuki. I recently found out that Amatsuki is only going to have 13 episodes, and I can’t really think that that would be the right length for this series. If I’m not mistaken, then there are 7 volumes of the original Amatsuki manga, and after episode five, at which point in the manga are we currently? If we’re just at the end of the first volume, then there’s a possibility for a second season, though if we’re up to the third volume already, then this’ll be a bit more difficult.

From what I understood in this episode, Tokidoki and Kon finally meet the princess’ real form. I first wondered a bit why so many priestesses were needed for just a simple audience, but then it turns out the princess’ body has been long dead, and it takes a whole ritual to get her spirit from that doll we saw in the previous episode to that body. Another surprise: this “princess” turns out to be a guy. Meanwhile, Tsuyukusa follows the spirit of a broken fox-statue.

From what I picked up and read on on-line forums, the “princess” and Bonten seem to be on opposing sides, and both want to use Tokidoki’s strange abilities. I’m glad that in this episode, we saw a more human side of Bonten, getting annoyed at Utsubushi’s worrying. Bonten and the Princess seem two out of four beings who can at will change bodies. The other two are a strange priest that hasn’t been introduced yet and the spirit that created this world. The names of all these four seem to end with “ten”, meaning heaven. I’m not sure about the intentions of these guys yet, though.

Okay… Amatsuki has a good chance of becoming Studio Deen’s next masterpiece. Yes, this episode was that good.

I’m left quite speechless by it. Amatsuki has really been the most emotionally intense series of the spring-season so far, and with series as Kaiba, xxxHolic, Kurenai and Himitsu, this HAS TO SAY SOMETHING. I really like how all the good series this season have their own points at which they excel.

It turns out that Toki was called by a god who is the head of a shrine. When he arrives there, the major bad guy first comes into contact with him, and he makes it clear that Toki’s eye is something very special. He does all this in some kind of strange dimension. When Toki returns from this dimension, he’s found inside the shrine. The priestesses of this shrine then get mistaken by the huge demon inside of Kuchiha and think that the threesome is an enemy. Then all hell breaks loose as they attempt to release the dormant powers inside both Toki and Kuchiha, in order to find out their origins, though I didn’t think that they expected to find such a huge beast inside of Kuchiha. The goddess of the temple then shows up, and almost gets crushed by said demon (in the shape of a huge dog). Bonten then appears as well, taking over one the priestesses.

After this episode, I know for sure: Amatsuki is going to be a really special series. Really, so many things happened at the same time, and the result is nothing short of stunning. If you’re doubting whether or not to check out this series, then at least wait till you’ve seen the fourth episode to decide whether or not you want to follow it.

Very interesting. I originally thought that series as Macross Frontier, RD, Kurenai and Himitsu would have the most difficult dialogue to understand, but as it turns out Amatsuki is about to walk away with that title. No other series this season depends so much on its dialogue than Amatsuki, especially when characters start long monologues (especially the bald head of the temple is guilty of this) it becomes a real challenge to figure out what he’s talking about. Of course, Real Drive does take second place with its complex dialogue, and I do believe that it’s no coincidence at all that both shows are directed by the same person.

You wouldn’t say it from the outside, but this series focuses a lot on people’s history, and complex relationships. In this episode, we meet the older brother of a guy who was an assassin for Sakamoto Ryouma (a guy who planned to overthrow the Tokugawa dynasty), if I’m not mistaken. This older brother claims to have nothing to do with his brother, and yet the second half of the episode shows how he isn’t 100% trustworthy. It’s especially suspicious since he can see spirits as well.

What’s interesting as well, is how this series puts a lot of focus on the fact that Tokidoki went to school, before he came to this world. It’s surprising how many shows there are with the same theme of transferring someone to another (often less advanced) world, and hardly any of them try to use the protagonists’ knowledge about technology to improve their lives. It took me a while to understand it, but in the previous episode, Toki uses his chemical knowledge to get rid of one troublemaker, and in this episode the fact that he’s well-schooled catches this assassin’s brother’s interest.

This episode introduces another major character: the one with all the ear- and lip-piercings. What’s interesting is that he calls a certain “he” the enemy of the world. I’m not 100% sure whether or not this is Tokidoki, but it does look like it. I originally thought that he would be the bad guy, but now I’d call him more of an “antagonist”. In any case, he’s not on Tokidoki’s side, because he doesn’t appear in the OP.

I’m trying to find a good series to compare this to, but I can’t seem to think of anything. I can’t really seem to find any series that reminds me of this one, like how Kurenai reminds you of Red Garden, or SA looks like Ouran. And that’s really the great thing about this series: from the outside, it really looks like a mediocre series, it looks too brightly coloured, it’s been done before, and then it turns out surprisingly deep and complex.

As for the reasons why I won’t blog some other shows:
- If there weren’t already enough reasons not to watch To Love-Ru: it airs on freaking Thursday, which already features four, possibly five excellent shows, which already are too many shows on the same day!
- Itazura na Kiss is hands-down hilarious. Fans of traps might want to check out the second episode, because there appears one. However, I can’t see myself blogging this week after week.
- Druaga no Tou can really go both ways. Like anyone could have expected, this is no comedy at all. It’s got a lot to like, but for every good point there’s also a bad point. If you want to see Gonzo do RPG-parodies, then go check out Master of Epic. That’s one series that’s fully geared to parodies and doesn’t have an overall storyline.

Besides, Amatsuki is better than Druaga no Tou in every single aspect apart from two: sense of humour and background art. And it of course seems that Druaga played all of its trumps in the first episode, that just leaves the background art, which just isn’t enough. I think that the thing that Druaga no Tou can learn the most from Amatsuki lies in the storytelling. Amatsuki really packs a punch in its climaxes. It knows how to time its lines and optimally use its characters to keep me glued to the screen, and that’s something I really missed in Druaga.

Toki is also inexperienced, but he’s also really different from the male lead in Druaga (whose name I already forgot, even though I watched the second episode half an hour ago). He’s not the only one who’s special, it seems. There have been more people who have been through the same thing he has been, and even worse, with the other guy losing his arm and all. He’s also naive, yet he’s not a complete idiot. I also really like the female lead, but that may be because I often like strong female characters. She really stands miles above that ditzy healer from Druaga no Tou. That really was the worst part about the second episode of that series.

This is really going to be my main series to follow from Studio Deen. While they were my favourite production-company during the previous Autumn- and Winter-season, mostly due to their magnificent performance with Shion no Ou (with the addition of the really solid Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai) this season looks to give that title to Madhouse, who actually have the potential to surpass themselves with all the different series they picked out to animate. Production IG also looks forward to an excellent season.

Druaga no Tou ~The Aegis of Uruk

Well, this episode turned out to be something entirely different than expected. You can say a lot about Gonzo, but I don’t think that anyone can say that they don’t know how to create a bad game-adaptation, and they use this perfectly to their advantage for this episode to create a hilarious RPG-parody that also takes the Mick out of popular series as Haruhi and Gurren Lagann. I was throwing all kinds of curses at Gonzo before I found out. :P On the other hand, however, this series still has a 16-year old male protagonist, so there’s still enough room for screwing this up. Still, it’s a good thing that Gonzo knows how not to do this series; now let’s hope that they do know how to do it properly. One hint that points in a positive direction is that none of the characters we saw in this episode, apart from the main guy and his rival, seems to be a major character. Are they going to get killed off or something? Now that would be a great opportunity for character-development.

Amatsuki

Seriously, why do so many series suddenly have first episodes of this quality!? I’ve been used to the fact that nearly every series starts out mediocre, and here series after series suddenly sparkles with potential. Really, apart from To Love-Ru and Kyou Kara Maou, I have yet to see a series this season that didn’t deliver for its first episode! In any case, Amatsuki turned out like I hoped it would: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. On one side, it’s reminiscent of a Kyou Kara Maou-clone without any sexual innuendo, and then suddenly the main character sees a huge beast slaughtered in front of him. Don’t make the mistake that this will be an ultra cheerful series, because this series isn’t afraid to deal with the darker topics.

Itazura na Kiss

The past Autumn- and Winter-season featured an unexpected wave of good shounen-romance series, though this really seems to be the turn for the shoujo-romances to shine again. It’s felt like ages since a good one popped up, after the disappointing Shugo Chara and all. For Itazura na Kiss, the character-designs look very simple, but that’s the beauty of it: neither the males nor the females feel exceptionally beautiful, like you see in so many other series. Heck, our main female lead is befriended with a couple of punks. The story for this series isn’t anything special, and it’s just meant to get another boy and girl in one house, but what really shines in this series is its lovable cast of characters. It’s just been one episode, and already the characters feel diverse and have shown the viewer multiple sides. Now all that’s left is to hope that this series won’t delve into useless fillers, but I’m pretty confident with the director and the music composer of Toward the Terra and the animation-company of Kaze no Shoujo Emily.