Whoa… seriously…. I expected this series to take the same path as Les Miserables and Perrine, where the first season would be used to quietly introduce the different characters and settings, especially since Perrine has been a rather quiet series while Perrine and her mother have been travelling through Easter Europe.

And then Sara comes, and already delivers such a powerful episode, so early in the series, where Sara has to say goodbye to her father. She really is something different from your usual spoiled child, and the bond between her and her father is huge. This probably is due to the loss of her mother, which made a major impact on the two of them.

The majority of the episode is filled with Sara, trying to find Emily. It becomes even clearer that she’s got a lot of imagination, and sortof lives in her own world. And because she’s so innocent, she probably also gets her way. It’d be interesting to see in the future episodes when she doesn’t. The head of the school she’s in already suspects that she’ll cause huge amounts of troubles when that happens, though she looks more like someone who hides her sadness, like this episode showed how both Ralph and Sara refused to cry in front of each other. One thing’s for sure, though: the people in the school are going to have to get used to Sara’s strange personality.

After Ayatsuri Sakon finished, nearly two years after I originally started blogging it, I’ve been searching for another anime to blog once every month or so. In the end, I decided to support Live-eviL, C1-Anime and Minor ja Nai in their attempt to revive interest for the World Masterpiece Theatre-production Little Princess Sara. Les Miserables has been turning into a true masterpiece by now, and the few episodes I’ve seen of Perrine Monogatari have been really good as well.

Little Princess Sara is also special, in the way that it’s based on the same story that Soukou no Strain was based on, though obviously the writers of the latter took a lot of artistic liberties by placing a story that originally happened in England, about a century and a half ago into a science-fiction setting. It’s also notable that Sara’s original last name is now Crewe, instead of the Werec, which later changes into Crewe in Soukou no Strain. Ralph also isn’t her brother, but her father, surprisingly. I also don’t think that Ralph is going to kill Sara’s precious friends in this one. ^^;

The thing that did remain the same, though is Sara’s huge respect for Ralph, but that’s naturally obvious, since her mother died when she was four, and he’s been taking care of her ever since. He’s also incredibly rich, and he’s been giving her whatever she wanted, hence the title of this series: Little Princess. Because of that, the Sara of Little Princess is rather spoiled, but I wouldn’t call her arrogant. She doesn’t fit in the stereotype that has been set by anime that the rich kids have to be the cocky bastards who look down on everyone at all. Instead, she’s incredibly innocent. Her father probably has been protecting her from everything harmful, but yet she tries to please everyone, and she looks incredibly naive as well. I’m not sure whether we’re supposed to hate her or like her at this point, but that probably will become clearer in the next episode.

This first episode was actually quite similar to the first episode of Les Miserables as well, if you ignore the fact that Fantine was incredibly poor and Ralph is incredibly rich. Ralph has been coming from India, and he’s about to get back, leaving his daughter in a local prestigious school in the middle of London. The rest of the episode basically focused on Sara, spending her last few moments with her father. Another interesting detail is that in the next episode, Sara will be purchasing Emily, making another link to both Soukou no Strain and Les Miserables.

Holy ****!

I kindof knew what to expect from this episode, but it still turned out really good. Poor Luna, Wyrdwad was right about how dark this episode was. I originally thought that her mother would turn against her, but now it seems that every water spirit has been turned into a dark one. I’m not sure whether they can be returned or not when Zephys is destroyed, but the fact remains that some of them let themselves get killed in order to save Luna.

I’m looking forward to the next episode, as I can imagine that the aftermath of this episode is going to be really emotional. There’s also this matter of the curse, that can only be undone when Zephys is defeated, and that she’s about to unite with her forest-part. I’m eager to see some more development on her part as well, which I assume we’ll be getting in the next episode too.

That. Was. Incredible!!!

Seriously, though, Wyrdward kept hyping the final four episodes of this show, and HE HAD ALL REASON TO DO SO. The death in Gurren Lagann made me think about how to successfully kill off a character. Since to really do it, the element of surprise just isn’t enough, and I actually could care less about that death in Gurren Lagann, it was way too long and drawn out, the creators really tried to make him go down like some sort of Messiah-wannabe or something.

So, what makes a good death? THIS EPISODE! And the strange thing is that I have NO IDEA why. The death wasn’t significant to the story, it was predictable, technically, it should have just been an ordinary death. But when the crab shattered on the rocks, something I can’t describe hit me. It’s been a while since a death scene moved me like that.

I really wonder what the creators have in store for episode 24, which is rumoured to be even better than this one. What was this about the darkness in Luna’s mother’s heart? Did Luna really hurt her mother so much? And what was that last warning on the stone tablet?

It also was great to see the usual battle-tune back, when Gaude first appeared in front of Pinon and the others. I’m definitely going to get myself the soundtrack for both the Popolocrois series (you can find it on the forums of Anime-BT, credits to Aquagon and Wyrdwad ;)) as soon as the series are done.

Gaude, your role has been small throughout the series. You’ve been an insignificant character, who was overshadowed by your companions Paanya and Zephys. But I’ll definitely remember you after this episode. Your loss has been a sad one.

Short Synopsis: Now that the enemy has fled, Darl tries to make the villagers get rid of Shall. Especially now that the two great protectors have announced to leave. He still believes in them, though.
Good: How! Incredibly! Refreshing!!!
Bad: It’s annoying! This series is sparking so much thoughts into me, but I just can’t get them into words.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8.5/10

Oh my god. I’ve fallen in love with another anime. I don’t care if this anime turns out to be disappointing for the rest of its episodes. The past two episodes were SO worth watching, as they easily breached more than a dozen clichés. I can’t believe how realistic this anime portrays the actions of our heroes, and I can’t believe how incredibly NEGLECTED this anime has become!

Like I mentioned above, this episode felt SO refreshing, I want to say so much about it, but I feel that I just can’t put all of my feelings to words and do this series justice. I’ll try, though. For starters, usually in battle, when people die you see a few shots of them in the midst of dying, usually with lots of blood, and that’s the rest you’ll see of them. In Strange Dawn, however, this guy really mattered in the aftermath. His death was seen as a real loss, and we even see his family in pain, even though that’s the first time we see him. If an anime really wants to try, it gives a bit of background about the guy before he dies, but never have I seen that background is given after the guy died, like in Strange Dawn. This emphasizes the fact that he’s just a random victim even more. His son, coming to Eri, asking her to bring his father back was heart-wrenching.

Also, how many times have we seen characters who get thrown into unexpected situations, and suddenly know exactly how to behave? Or they take one episode, in which they yell at the one responsible about how they never asked about their “duties”, and then suddenly everything’s fine and they’re ready to save the world? Probably too many to count. The combination of Eri and Yuki greatly breaks this stereotype. Eri likes to dream and keep everyone pleased. She’s afraid to go against people, and she likes the idea of keeping everyone happy. Because of that, she tries a few things here and there, but you can see that she doesn’t even try.

Yuki, meanwhile, cares far less about what other people think of her. She hates being in the centre of attention, and with people referring to her as the “great protector”, just because she’s large greatly annoys her. All she cares about is getting home. To make things even better, we don’t have that melodramatic crap where a character like that sees the light in the end, and cooperates with the main character like nothing happened. She indeed helped during the last episode, but that was probably more out of a reflex than wanting to help out at all costs.

I also love the village chief. He’s the perfect example of how easily people are influenced. Also, notice the vultures which have been circling around the town. Eri also was cute when she tried to find a toilet. It’s definitely something you’d expect of her. She just keeps worrying too much over things, and while Yuki started the toilet-thing, the probably forgot it not long after she said it.

When I first saw Shall, I feared that he’d be your standard strong hero. Even with that, I’m proven wrong. He isn’t impulsive at all, heck, he has lots of doubts about himself. For some reason, though, he keeps clinging to the thought that Eri and Yuki are the great protectors. It seems that he went to “the city” for a while, which seems to suggest that he went to the main capital, and that the village is just an outpost. Something probably happened during his stay in the city, which influenced him greatly.

I probably missed a lot of things in this short review, but there’s one final thing I’d like to say, if you skimmed through this article: do NOT get fooled by the character designs! The story in fact is quite dark and serious!

Short Synopsis: With the final arrival of a new release of Popolocrois 1998, the 2003-series also enjoyed a new release. In this, some side-characters are left behind, the Remnus is boarded and the Demon’s Passing is crossed.
Good: Great to see this back again; Gaude and Paanya.
Bad: Half of the episode was recap.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10

Ah, it’s great to finally see a bit of Popolocrois again. You could call this episode a “calm-before-the-storm”-episode, in which people prepare for the final four episodes. It’s probably to make sure that the next few episodes won’t be too rushed, but the episode itself did remain rather standard, in comparison to episode 22 of Popolocrois 1998. The recap of the great moments was nice, but I think I would have preferred some original content.

I’m not sure if it was a good idea to just cast away half of the crew, and focus on the children. Still, it may be good to focus on the characters that are really important to the story, but I wonder why Aina was included. What role does she still have in this anime, apart from wooing over Marco?

Still, Gaude and Paanya surprised me. They’re actually sprites! I’m not sure if it hadn’t been mentioned or I simply forgot, but their roles now suddenly became a lot clearer. Paanya also joined Zephys because he hates the Law of the Moon, because it took away his mother. I suspect Paanya has a similar reason. That’s also why we never saw Paanya on the sea, and Gaude on the land.

Short Synopsis: Two normal schoolgirls find themselves in a strange fantasy world. The twist: they don’t get any new powers to fight with.
Good: Extremely likable characters; A great twist to a concept which has been used in many, many anime.
Bad: Even though it’s not a real bad point, the chibi-characters may be a turn-off for most people.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10

Okay, I’ve fallen in love with another concept. Now that Ayatsuri Sakon’s novelty is wearing off, and the subs for Popolocrois have been stalled for ages I’ve been looking for another old anime to blog about. I’m really hoping that the subbers continue releasing this project till the end, as I’ve been searching for this series for ages, and it deserves to be watched. That’s another reason I decided to blog this: the hope that more people will try to give this wonderful concept a chance.

The concept behind this anime is simple, but brilliant. Two schoolgirls are transported to another world for reason X. In normal situations, they’d meet up, act a bit bewildered, get in danger, and get ahold of some strange amounts of powers with which they save the world. Not this time, though. They ended up in a world full of small people, who are just as scared of them, as they are scared. Finally, two people are labelled as the “great protectors” for a good reason. After all, if you’d saw two giants in the middle of a war, you’d see them as special, wouldn’t you? ^^

The two main characters are also extremely interesting. One of them is just lazy and easily annoyed. The other is a goodie-two-shoe. She always abides by the rules, tries to please everyone, but in the end, she’s extremely annoying. Together, they form a great team. Eri obviously wants to help, since she doesn’t understand anything, though Yuki has no intention to help. This holds Eri back as well, as she doesn’t want to upset Yuki. When the enemy-soldiers attack in the end, however, and the two princesses of the tribe which took them in are in danger, Eri manages to scare them away by yelling, screaming and running to their place, Yuki follows her in this. I loved how Eri laughed when everything was over. You don’t expect that from a shy and reserved person at all.

Despite the chibi-characters, this is one serious show. It’s got comedy, but that takes a step back for what’s really important in this anime: the tribe’s struggles with their enemies, and the relationship with Eri and Yuki. The fights actually involve strategy, and this isn’t such a kiddie-show in which nobody gets hurt either. In fact, Yuki already got hit by an arrow in the first episode. She managed to use the element of surprise this time to scare the enemy away, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the enemy coming up with strategies to defeat the two of them. It shouldn’t be too hard, as they can be easily defeated if you send enough men at them, and keep hitting them. I wonder what the two of them will do against it.

For more information about this series and its subbers, you can go here (it also offers direct downloads, if you can’t use bittorrent for some reason):

http://z10.invisionfree.com/Church_of_Berserk/index.php?showforum=49

One final note: the background music has a great feel to this. It makes use of highly atmospheric tunes, which fit the style and story perfectly.

With this episode, the Croconesia-arc has ended, the finale is probably about to begin, and I’ve finally caught up with the subs. Here’s hoping that the final episodes get released quickly, as something tells me that I haven’t seen the best of this anime yet. The episode itself was very good again. Not as good as the previous three episodes, but I still made for a great watch. :)

While you would expect that the current episode would focus entirely on Momba, it actually tells two stories right through each other: Momba’s story, of course, and Punpun and Kogoto’s story. Unexpected, but surprisingly touching. I also loved how Pinon, Marco and Luna were just pushed into the background in order to feature the threesome to have their own airtime.

As expected, Momba fails the ordeal. The previous episode may have given him courage, it didn’t remove the chicken inside of him. Afterwards, Pinon attempts to give him a bit of courage through the placebo-effect, though Kogoto rather blows that point. Still, when Momba learns that Pinon and him actually have some similar points, he agrees to try again.

There’s just the problem that Punpun got a strange idea again, and dressed herself up as a female Croconesian (I loved how Luna tried to imagine what that would be like ^^). If I’m not mistaken, it’s actually the first time in the anime that she separates herself from Kogoto. The latter gets incredibly worried about her, and the fun starts.

Of course, Punpun’s plan never works, but she does have to battle a rather scary-looking dragon-zombie. Kogoto and Momba manage to find her in time, and another battle follows, in which Momba finds out that he can actually do something useful. That exactly was enough to give him a bit of courage. Kogoto, meanwhile, does the impossible of building a instant-catapult on the battlefield, in order to hit down the Dragon Zombike. Pinon, Luna and Marco arrive just in time to see him hit down that huge creature. ^^

Also… I’ve been wondering… what about Papu? Does he still have a role? He’s really starting to turn into the usual cute, useless pet. Still, the fact that the law which forbids forest sprites to enter the sea, and water sprites to enter the land is called “The Law of the Moon”, and he happens to be the Seirei of the Moon, there could be some point at which his presence can be useful.

I am SO glad that I decided to continue watching this anime. The past few episodes really have been awesome, with the current episode as no exception to this. There really are too little people who know about this great episode. Same with its 1998 counterpart. It’s a real recommendation for any fantasy-fan.

Pinon, Punpun and Luna SO reminded me of Souta, Shirayuki and Ringo. Now that they’re travelling together, it becomes even more apparent that Punpun keeps clinging to Pinon. Let’s just say that Luna doesn’t like that. (^^) Also, this episode revealed another interesting future-couple. Donovan just acted way too nervous when Elena suddenly appeared in a beautiful dress. (^^)

Still, as the episode takes place in Croconesia, the main focus of the episode has to be Momba. And indeed, in order to get to Zephys, a special boat is needed. In order to get this boat, one must overcome an ordeal. That just leaves the problem that only a Croconesian can captain that ship, and thus take the ordeal. Poor Momba. The next episode will be a living hell for him, as he’s just been acting like a big coward throughout the anime. But that’s what makes him such a great character. ^^

Still, against all clichés, Momba doesn’t get to be the hero of the episode. Elena gets the glory for that, as she quite bravely defeats one of Zephys’ minions. Momba just learns a couple of things. I’m suspecting that his moment of glory will come with the next episode. ^_^

I think that one of the major elements which has made the past few episodes so great is the great bland of action and comedy. Due to the first half of the anime, the characters have already been fleshed out. Right now, the creators are making perfect use for this, which makes each of the scenes funny yet dramatic at the same time. There aren’t many anime which can achieve the same, not to mention at the high level of the past couple of episodes. The chase at the end of the episode was a brilliant example of this. It also was something you couldn’t predict AT ALL.

Overall, if you’re wondering whether or not to check out this anime: DO IT!!! It may have a slow first half, but the second half really is awesome. :)

Before I continue with the post as usual, yes that’s right. This currently is my 600th post. Yay! Quite an amount in less than a year, don’t you think? (^^)

About the episode: it was a seriously awesome one. Finally this series is picking up, with awesome results. It now deserves to be compared with its 1998-counterpart. The first half of the series really did an excellent job in fleshing out the characters, and now we finally get to see the fruits of this.

Gamigami was amazing. It doesn’t happen often when a character is extremely funny, but extremely sad at the same time, but he’s one of the few characters who can do this. Gamigami really was funnier than he ever has been in the 2003-series, but at the same time, he also finds out that his beloved Narcia has been turned to stone. When you combine this, the results turn out awesome.

Marco also has this effect a bit, though not as extreme. He has the habit of becoming incredibly nervous when tension starts rising, and he relieves this tension by keeping himself as busy as possible. It has a rather chaotic effect, but it provides a nice comical element to accompany the tension. Nonetheless, the effect this has is awesome.

In any case, Momba figures that a hermit in his home country, Croconesia, named Delvoi-sama might know how to get the Lunar Drop back. But in order to get there, they need a ship, which has just been destroyed at the end of the previous episode. Gamigami offers his own submarine, so that Pinon can save his precious Narcia, while he makes sure nothing happens to them. Punpun and Kotaro will accompany Pinon.

The submarine is just full of eccentric details you’d expect when considered that it’s being used by Gamigami, Punpun and Kotaro. The tatami-room is back again. It seems to be built for Kotaro, as he’d be terribly scared otherwise. Three crab robots also seem to be on board (including the weaknesses they showed us in the past couple of episodes), and the secret weapon of the submarine: fart missiles. It sounds childish, I know, but when they actually got fired, the results are hilarious. I’m glad they were fired under water. ^^;

The fight of this episode really was awesome. The monster designs continue to become more gruesome with every monster appearing. This time, it’s a gigantic monkfish. It’s piloted by a small shrimp-like creature who’s a bit too full of himself. Marco and Kotoro set out in order to try and defeat it in the crab robots, while Pinon gets to scared to head out. The three of them played their part perfectly. Especially when you compare Pinon with Kotoro. I think that Kotoro was even more scared than Pinon was, though the fact that he didn’t want people to think bad of him made the former go, while the latter stayed behind.

In the end, Pinon sees this, and gets inspired by Marco’s and Kotoro’s courage, so he grabs the third crab robot, and in the end, he destroys the monkfish from the inside. Luna then saves him when the robot blows up. So cute. ^^

I’m really thankful for Anime-bt for bringing us this awesome series, along with its 1998 counterpart. I’ve almost caught up with their releases on both shows now, and I’m wishing them good luck with translating the final episodes. ^_^