June 2008 Archives

Kurenai Episode 12 - I Am [END]

Summary: Shinkurou rediscovers the location of the Inner Sanctuary, and there he confronts Murasaki's father, telling him that she said that she never wanted to end up like Souju, her mother. Shinkurou finds Murasaki, and fights off her brother with the Houzuki-ryuu techniques.

When all is said and done, though, Murasaki makes a difficult and unexpected choice; she chooses to remain with the Kuhouin family, but fight to change their customs that steal freedom from the women there. As Shinkurou, Benika and Yayoi return to their home and leave the Kuhouin family behind, Murasaki asks her father to tell her stories about the times her mother smiled.

Thoughts: Just a note, expect to have a few sniffles and tears during this episode. That is, unless your heart is made of black coal and ice. Needless to say, things ended very emotionally. And I have to give the show kudos for creating an emotionally complex, surprising ending, rather than wrapping everything up happily, and even without really killing anyone, which is not how I thought it would be at all. I also have to commend the show for not really making anyone "evil" (well, except for Lin, who was just crazy and freaky). The Kuhouin family has some pretty weird ideas, but one almost has to pity them because they adhere to a custom that essentially dehumanizes half of their family. Ryuuji isn't even all that bad, he's just been raised to accept these things as normal and doesn't have the capacity to think in other terms.

The lovely thing is, even at the end we see change beginning to occur. Murasaki's father is sitting and talking with her on his lap, like a normal father would to his daughter. It's not especially surprising, since it seemed throughout that her father was really on the edge of being fed-up with the Kuhouin customs (especially since the woman he loved fell victim to them).

I also have to commend everyone involved for making interesting characters. We barely heard from Benika and Yayoi for the first half of the series, yet by the end they were definitely interesting and fleshed-out enough for me to really care about them. Yayoi especially, in spite of the fact that she appeared to have little to no personality for the longest time. She returned to kick some major butt in the finale, which was cool.

I really ended up loving this show, more even that I thought I would. I may end up doing one big wrap-up post once I manage to get all my thoughts in order.
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Kurenai Episode 11 - I Think

Summary: Shinkurou, Benika and Yayoi attempt to infiltrate the Kuhouin Estate, only to be discovered almost right away. After a battle in the river, they reach the front of the house only to have to face Lin, the dreaded fighter who nearly killed them back at the apartment.

After a lot of battling, Shinkurou and Benika finally reach Murasaki in the Inner Sanctuary, where Ryuuji is also waiting for them. After being beaten back by Ryuuji and Lin in the Inner Sanctuary, and after Murasaki states that she doesn't wish to be taken, the two limp back outside to try and collect Yayoi. While waiting for Benika, Shinkurou looks at the photo he kept from Shichi-go-san and decides to return on his own.

Thoughts: Gyaaah, it's torture to think that there's only one episode left, and I can't imagine anything turning out very happily in this show. Not that everyone needs to live happily-ever-after and that the plot should be tied up with a tidy little bow, but considering how darkly things are going for... well, pretty much everyone at this point, I'm just worried about who's going to end up dead in the end.

Thinking back, I believe I remember Yuuno mentioning that the Houzuki-ryuu technique was developed with the idea of battling the Kuhouins in mind, so I would be really surprised if that aspect of Shinkurou's power didn't show up in this final episode. It seems silly to me that they'd casually throw that out there and then not have it even be an issue in the end. Especially since, as I see it, that's really the only leg up he'll have in defeating Lin and Ryuuji, both brutal fighters. While Shinkurou unsheathed his sword during the battle, he wasn't given a chance to use it, which makes me think that it'll show up in the finale.

*sigh* I'm glad that I'll soon get to know what happens (oh the joy of waiting until the series is most of the way through before blogging about it in earnest), but I'm sure I'll be sad that it's over and I'm sure the ending won't be anything like sunshine and kittens.
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Kurenai Episode 10 - Accustomed Fear

Summary: Shinkurou is adjusting to life without Murasaki, and recovering from his wounds. While sparring with Yayoi, she offers some unexpected advice. He's having a hard time moving on, but she explains that he'll only become stronger if he forces himself to.

When he sees Ginko at school, she gives him some contrary treatment. He tries to act like a normal high schooler, but doesn't really know what to do with himself. A visit from Benika, and Shinkurou must prepare to move for his next job. Tamaki and Yamie don't take the news well. After some deliberation by himself, he contacts Benika and vows to save Murasaki from the Kuhouins. Benika tries to stop him until its evident that he's already decided what he has to do.

Thoughts: Sometimes I get so enthralled that I forget about taking screencaps until the episode is almost over. This is one of those times. While I have to question the pacing a bit from a technical standpoint, considering this show is almost over and yet Shinkurou spent an entire episode trying to forget about his failure and then finally realizing that the only way to forget about it is to fix it. On a personal level as a viewer, though, I think this was the right thing to do. This show is nothing if not full of character development, and this is another great example of it.

It's funny how malleable Benika is. Here she's trying to run a business that often involves life and death, and yet she's willing to put her trust in a young man and then allow him to fail at his job, all without becoming too upset about it. And now, even though initially resisting it, she's helping Shinkurou face the Kuhouins by driving her to their estate in her own car, even though I'm sure she suspects that he might die trying to infiltrate their stronghold. I'm sure part of it is that she's more sympathetic than she lets on, both to Shinkurou and to Murasaki.

Is anyone else royally creeped-out by Ryuuji, Murasaki's older brother? I sure am, especially from the way he talks to her, as if this is all normal and he's just making small talk with his sibling. I don't really want to know what's going to happen with him, and I can only speculate about how he'll become more prevalent in the episodes to come. Yuck.
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Kurenai Episode 9 - You and Me

Summary: Shinkurou and Benika, and Murasaki and Yayoi are hiding out in separate hotel rooms. Shinkurou feels like he can no longer handle the job, and asks Benika the truth about Murasaki's lineage. Benika explains the odd and repulsive family structure of the Kuhouins, and why Murasaki is essentially a woman who does not exist. He vows to protect her, no matter what. Before they leave the country, Shinkurou wants to bring Murasaki to bid a proper farewell to Yamie and Tamaki.

They enjoy one last hot pot, and then return to their room to pack. Murasaki reminds Shinkurou that neither of them is alone anymore. Later that night, their apartment is invaded by members of the Kuhouin family, namely Murasaki's older brother Ryuuji. Ryuuji, by manipulating Murasaki's fear of Shinkurou's death, convinces her to return with him to the Inner Sanctuary.

Thoughts: Well, I could have predicted that it would be a terrible idea to return with Murasaki to the apartment one last time, but of course characters in an anime can't hear me screaming through the computer screen to turn around and leave. Man, this was one of the saddest episodes of anime I've seen in a while. Not only because Murasaki is on her way back to a place she can never again tolerate, having been in the outside world, but because it really demonstrated just how broken in spirit she still is from having grown up in such a terrible situation.

And what a situation it is. I had always suspected there was something really screwed up with the Kuhouin family, but I don't think I could have predicted condoned incest as the particular brand of messed-up behavior. Not to mention the fact that, since women at age 13 are considered adults in the family, what it all really amounts to is incestuous statutory rape. Fabulous. Considering how creepy Ryuuji has seemed already, knowing that he's destined to, at some point, have his way with Murasaki, makes me feel absolutely disgusted seeing him. It's like this very primal kind of disgust. It makes me wonder (but not really want to know) just how a family could develop in such a way as to require incest, and just what sort of horrible genetic issue there must be there. I suppose I can understand wanting to preserve a family's bloodline, especially when there's something at stake. And considering the extremes this family goes to, there must be something huge at the center of it all.

With three episodes to go, I can only guess what kind of actions Shinkurou is bound to take in retaliation. I realize that he's against releasing his secret weapon, but with the type of thugs on the Kuhouin side that can essentially beat him down effortlessly, I'm sure he'll have to release that power in order to do what he has to do. I'm gunning for him to really kick some ass, because after this episode you bet I'm fired up to see those perverts punished.
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Kurenai Episode 8 - Self Preservation and Cowardice

Summary: Having seen Murasaki at the cafe previously, two men are patrolling the neighborhood, supposedly waiting for the right time to make their move. The holiday of Shichi-go-san (in celebration of children aged 7,5, and 3) is coming up, and since Murasaki is 7, Shinkurou and his ladies want her to experience it. They go to a tiny shrine and make their offerings. Only Yayoi notices the presence of a suspicious man as he walks away.

After some dinner at a restaurant, the group parts ways. Murasaki remarks on how she's disappointed that she isn't a more mature woman so that she can help Shinkurou as he has helped her. The following day, Ginko provides a packet of information on the Kuhouins to Shinkurou. Surprisingly, Murasaki isn't a part of the Kuhouin family. This information seems to upset Shinkurou. However, he's assaulted on his way home by the men who have been surveying the neighborhood. Racing to make sure Murasaki is safe, Yayoi tells him that Benika is on her way to pick him up.

Thoughts: And just like that, their simple life is essentially shattered and changed forever. Really, who among us thought that no one would ever be able to locate Murasaki? Hiding her in a junky old apartment with a pretty much nameless kids was a decent idea, but considering that neither Tamaki or Yumie seemed aware of how imperative it was to keep Murasaki hidden, you had to know that there was going to be a slip-up somewhere. I love Tamaki but... maybe not the smartest person out there.

I have to say I'm royally creeped-out by the son of Murasaki's father. I'm not anxious to find out exactly what he's capable of, even though I know it's inevitable. It was interesting to find out that apparently women of the inner sanctum are cursed, and that's why they aren't let out. Though what exactly that means is still not very clear to me. I imagine I'll find that out soon enough as well. For some reason, the father's second wife seems to be favored as she dresses in Western clothing and seems to have much more freedom than her unfortunate predecessor. I can't quite decide if she's evil or what, or if she'll even have much to do with the rest of the story. Hmm.

It's been a while since Shinkurou has actually demonstrated his fighting prowess, other than sparring with Yuuno. I'm pretty sure that, even though he said he didn't want to rely on the special power he weilds as a follower of the Houzuki-ryuu, I'm betting it'll show up again anyway. It would be a really odd choice to briefly show something like that and then completely put it away for the entire rest of the show. I'm not especially focused on the fight scenes in this show, but since the last few episodes have been really slice-of-life, a bit of action wouldn't be out of the question.
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Kurenai Episode 7 - Women

Summary: While Shinkurou is at school, Tamaki takes Murasaki on a field trip to her university, where she passes on some of her wisdom about relationships. When a man of hers shows up and breaks up with her in front of Murasaki, this wisdom seems to lose its punch.

Tamaki drowns her sorrows over juice at a cafe with Murasaki there to remind her how cool of a woman she is. Murasaki thinks of Shinkurou, and how he's in "danger" from Yuuno, and they rush out to go find him. A man at the cafe seems to recognize Murasaki. There's a small misunderstanding between Shinkurou and Murasaki regarding the term "lolicon". There's a flashback providing some more information on the Kuhouin inner sanctuary, Benika's posistion there, and the death of Souju, Murasaki's mother.

Thoughts: Once again I'm tempted by little tidbits of information regarding the Kuhouins, though they're slipped in between some comedy and some downright ominous moments. Tamaki is easily one of the funnier characters, though I maintain that she has some undesirable things about herself that she's hiding with her weird man-eating attitude. It's obvious here, especially when her boyfriend breaks up with her. Her self-confidence just melts away and she's visibly insecure when she realizes that she's on the receiving end of a breakup. I can only hope that we'll see a bit more of Yumie as well at some point.

I like how the misunderstanding about Shinkurou's and Murasaki's relationship that occurred in an earlier episode carried over here. I think one of the big jokes about this show is that everyone assumes it's some lolicon fulfillment fantasy (especially since there are scenes, albeit completely innocent ones) where Shinkurou has to do things like help her take a bath and dress her and whatnot. I can't help but think they're purposely playing into that by having Murasaki misunderstand the meaning of "lolicon", even if that type of material never occurs between them.

Even though I truly have mixed feelings about their little world being spoiled, I knew the story was going to start moving more once that guy at the cafe realized who Murasaki was. Of course I have no clear idea of who he is and whether he's a Kuhouin lackey or what, but I'm fully prepared to see a kidnapping or something pretty soon now.
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Kurenai Episode 6 - The Light is Shining Above You

Summary: The reisdents of Shinkurou's apartment are invited to participate in a local festival as actors in a play. Yamie and Tamaki seem more than enthusiastic to join, although Yamie's singing voice definitely leaves something to be desired. When Shinkurou tries to get Yuuno to join the group, she turns out to be just as bad.

While Shinkurou and Yuuno are trying to work things out, Yamie goes outside to get some air and catches Yayoi in her usual spot staking out the building. As it turns out, she's a great singer. Yamie begs her to teach her how to sing. After some missteps, the group as a whole manages to find their musical footing, even injecting some of their own creativity into the play. Even though the whole ordeal turns out to be other than it seemed, the entire group still puts forth their energy into making a memorable scene.

Thoughts: Wow. No seriously, totally unexpected musical number in a show I would never have suspected of having one. Of course, this means yet another "filler" episode, but with filler episodes so fun and spontaneous, I can hardly complain. Props for having Yayoi in on the action as well, since she's been waaay too uptight thus far.

I've realized that Murasaki tends to interject little snippets of her past in each episode, and they're often so subtle that I'm not realizing it. This episode, appropriately, she mentions that her mother used to smile while singing to her and teaching her songs. It's really making want to know what's really going on with the Kuhouin family and why they seem so messed-up, but I'm being patient.

I keep wondering if there'll be more about the other gals who live with Shinkurou, but I'm not sure if that's the direction the story is heading in. It would be nice to know the real reason why Yumie is so dark (she's very forthcoming with beautiful lies but there's got to be some truth to her weirdness). It seems like both she and Tamaki are putting up some sort of front to hide the kind of person they really are, but I don't now if they're too peripheral to expect more from in the end, since the story is really Murasaki and Shinkurou's.
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Kurenai Episode 5 - Wish

Summary: Shinkurou brings Murasaki with him to visit the home of the Houzuki family, the family who took him in and trained him. He spars with Yuuno while Murasaki makes friends with her younger sister Chizuru (and breaks a few of her toys in the process). Shinkuro feels that he may never become comfortable using the Houzuki-ryuu secret weapon that he possesses.

Afterward, he leaves with Murasaki and goes home to make dinner. What he finds are the women from his building inside, in the middle of a drinking binge. Tamaki gives him a stolen heater and they make small talk over a hot pot.

Thoughts: I'm tempted to say that this episode was basically about nothing. But isn't that what weekends are about? In Japan, Sunday is about the only day everyone has off, and people spend that time having fun and being with their families. Shinkurou gets a chance to visit both of his families here - the Houzuki family who took him in and trained him, and the family of oddballs living in his apartment building. Murasaki learns a little bit about not completely destroying someone else's toys, and manages to participate in an innuendo that she doesn't understand at all.

I'm wondering what direction the show is going to go from this point. I'm assuming it's not going to continue being variations on Murasaki learning about the big wide world outside for the entire series. While that's entertaining now, a well-rounded show it does not make.

I found it sort of interesting how formal Shinkurou behaves with his adoptive family. He's very formal with his master, even to the point where the master has to prod him into being less uptight (especially since he's considered part of the family anyway). He even speaks pretty polite Japanese around Yuuno, which confuses me somewhat. It tends to emphasize the complexity in their relationship, something which isn't quite friendship or family, but treads in both areas.

Anyway, no huge developments here. I'll probably have more to say as things wind up, which I assume they'll be doing quite soon since we're nearly halfway through the series at this point.
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Kurenai Episode 4 - Talented Person

Summary: Shinkurou walks to an office building to confront the Yakuza boss who's been harassing the principal of a local kindergarten and trying to buy off the land rights. Without his knowledge, Murasaki follows him there and ends up interfering in the mediation. Though Kunou, the Yakuza, claims that he'll stop the harassment due to Shinkurou possessing information that could be show to the police about it, but Murasaki calls the man a lier causes a fight to break out. She's knocked out until Yayoi comes to rescue her, and Shinkurou releases his hidden power to defend himself. The car ride back to his apartment is uncomfortable since Yayoi completely reams Shinkurou a new one due to what she sees as his negligence in guarding Murasaki. Benika still trusts her intuition, however, and returns Murasaki to sleep in her futon.

The next morning, Murasaki acts as if everything is fine, and then spends the day, With Tamaki's help, cleaning the apartment and airing out Shinkurou's smelly futon. Later that night, she asks him about his past and he explains that he was orphaned in an attack on an airport and then kidnapped with a group of children. It was Benika who saved him, thus resulting his desire to work for her and become stronger like her. This is also the reason Benika trusted him with watching Murasaki - he, having been alone in the world is really the only person who understands what she's going through.

Thoughts: While it's nice when the explanation of a story trickles down bit-by-bit, sometimes you just need that deluge to clear up a few big things at once. This episode was a flood of new information that also brought up some more questions to carry the show on its merry way. First of all, we finally get to see a glimpse of Shinkurou's frightening power in action - he can release a horn-like protrusion from his elbow area which is able to deflect bullets and the like and also seems to increase his strength quite a bit. So this is the Houzuki assassination technique that was hinted at earlier. Kind of like Wolverine, though Shinkurou doesn't have any special mutant healing ability, so the aftermath of utilizing this power is a bit more painful.

Getting to know Shinkurou's back story was kind of nice because it helped to tie him into Benika a bit more. I've always sort of been wondering why a professional like her would have hired a high school kid to work for her, and the situation make a bit more sense now. This also tied him in more closely to Yuuno, who's now more than just a friend at school - she's virtually his sister and also his adviser in the way of her family's brand of martial arts. She helps him out when he shows up to school after his fight still injured from the horn having pierced his skin, and advises him that he shouldn't be using it so much. Or better yet - that he shouldn't be getting into so many fights where he has to use it to survive the ordeal.

While there's a bit more revealed about how Benika was connected to the Kuhouin family and thus how she was asked by Murasaki's biological mother to take her daughter to the outside world, I'd sure love to know more. It seems to be some weird family tradition that the women of the Kuhouin family aren't able to leave their home's inner sanctum, but I'd really like to know more about the situation because I'm really intrigued. Especially since it seems like such an ancient tradition and this takes place in modern-day Japan, a time and place where one might assume a situation like that would no longer exist.

I was a bit irritated with Murasaki at the beginning of the episode when she intruded on Shinkurou's work and put herself into danger, but by the end I could see how much she had grown in just the few episodes so far. She tries her hardest to do things that her servants normally would have done for her, like washing her hair and cleaning up the apartment. I'm hoping that maybe next time we'll learn a little bit more about her history to balance out all the new insight we have about the other characters.
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Kurenai Episode 3 - The Fraud's Face

Summary: While Shinkurou is at school for the day, Murasaki spends the morning watching trashy dramas and discussing men with Shinkurou's neighbor, Tamaki. Tamaki wants a real man who will take care of her, so she and Murasaki leave the apartment in search of one. Meanwhile, Shinkurou is at school enjoying a handmade lunch from his friend Yuuno, when he receives a call from his other female friend Ginko. She's been looking up information for him about the Kuhouin family, but wants to provide him info about another job. Murasaki arrives at Shinkurou's school and explores the grounds, and mistakes an anatomical model for a person who's suffering. She phones Shinkurou, and he assumes it's some nasty thing that Tamaki's keeping in her apartment. While running around, Murasaki meets Yuuno, and they begin walking together. Yuuno recognizes her surname right away and lets on that she knows a bit about the Kuhouins, and is rather surprised that there's a Kuhouin that doesn't recognize her family's name.

When Yuuno tries to borrow Murasaki's phone to talk to Shinkurou, she runs off and all three meet in the hallway. After a confusing conversation in which Yuuno completely misinterprets the relationship between Murasaki and Shinkurou. After school, they take the train back home, and Murasaki witnesses some thugs picking on an old lady to get her to stand up. Murasaki confronts them and Shinkurou has to diffuse the situation before a fight breaks out, which Murasaki doesn't understand. She hates the phony face Shinkurou put on in front of the thugs, since it reminds her of the way her mother would smile even while being abused by the other woman of the household.

That night, when Shinkurou leaves on the job that Ginko gave him, Murasaki follows him out. Yayoi, another of Benika's subordinates, follows the two of them out.

Thoughts: For a show that's mostly focused on drama, I have to admit that I got a good laugh out of the scene where Yuuno, Murasaki, and Shinkurou were trying to explain or figure out just what the "relationship" between Murasaki and Shinkurou entailed. Especially since Shinkurou had been lying about this particular job, claiming that he was in charge of watching an elderly man, not a young girl. This is about as close as this show has gotten so far to suggesting something of a lolita-complex plot element, and I can't help but think that they did it as a joke, since the natural assumption of most people, myself included, was that having a little girl would lead the story in those sorts of directions, which it thankfully has not.

I like how they've started to reveal a bit more about Shinkurou's past, including the fact that he used to live with Yuuno's family and learned the martial arts he uses in his job from her grandfather. Yuuno no longer seems like some random girl from his class who assumes she has a closer relationship to him than seems logical. They're actually close to being siblings, though who knows if romantic overtones will develop from this point on anyway. I'm still a little confused about Ginko, who I thought was just a well-informed classmate of Shinkurou's until she hands him a job involving the Yakuza and their former elementary school. So they've known each-other for a long time, apparently. I'm not sure how this gives her authority to hand out missions to him, but it may be just a favor for the help she's been giving him in trying to locate some solid information on the Kuhouin family. It's hard to say, but I'm betting there'll be more info in the next episode.

I also enjoyed Murasaki's confrontation with the thugs on the train. I think that it did a good job of pointing out some of the issues of the way that Japanese people normally handle situations like that. While Murasaki instantly sees the injustice and rudeness of the way that the guys made an old lady give up her train seat, Shinkurou instantly responds in the most Japanese way possible - by apologizing and trying not to cause a scene rather than to take care of the guys like they deserve. When the old woman thanks Murasaki after they leave the train, this causes Shinkurou to stop and think a moment about what happened. I'm sort of left wondering what might have caused Murasaki to come right out with an attitude like this, especially since what we know of her upbringing seems to suggest that she's been raised in a very traditional atmosphere and probably wouldn't have come up with this confrontational attitude on her own. Perhaps it's her late mother's influence? I'm hoping that we learn more about this later, because it would be kind of lame if the show didn't try to examine this.

Gyah! This show can be so difficult to summarize. There are so many things going on at once and not everything has been made quite clear yet. So all my summaries sound kind of lame.
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Kurenai Episode 2

Summary: Shinkurou and Murasaki are working out the kinks of their odd living arrangement. Murasaki has to learn to survive during the day alone, though she has problems opening up canned food and nearly freaks out when she opens the door to go to the bathroom and finds one of the building's odd female inhabitants sitting right outside. Shinkurou checks up on her throughout the day, worried that she'll run off on her own again, then returns home to find her trying to bathe in the sink.

The two go to the public bath house where Murasaki learns a few lessons about saying "thank you" to people who do nice things for her (not everyone they meet is a servant, after all), and he buys her a new futon so she doesn't have to sleep on his old smelly one. That night, Shinkurou goes out on another mediating job and teaches a group of thugs a lesson before returning home to sleep.

Thoughts: The reasons I liked the first episode of this show - the story that unfolds slowly, the great character interaction and the odd but appealing style - continue to be present here. The second episode doesn't reveal a whole lot more about whatever is going on with the plot, but there are some extremely brief glimpses into Shinkurou's past via a nightmare, and some of his physical abilities are revealed when he pummels a group of thugs bloody as part of his mediation work. I really want to know what's up with his right arm, since we've seen him clutching at it at least twice and it seems to be pulsating or jutting out in some weird way underneath his clothing.

Murasaki is a pretty unrealistic child since she's so articulate while still being incredibly naive. Even though she's a loli, however, I like her. I thought that her snotty attitude might be hard to swallow after a while, but since she seems to at least be listening to and learning from the things that Shinkurou has tried to teach her so far, including learning to say thank you when people do kind things, so I can forgive her.

Once again, decent pacing, revealing only what's needed, and keeping things interesting are this show's strengths and I'm more than ready to continue with the series.

In order to stay fresh and take a bit of a break from my normal viewing responsibilities, I decided to put my library of random anime stuff to good use and do a weekly feature on some arbitrarily-chosen episode or movie sitting in my folder. The first pick is called Atama Yama, and it's about a guy who grows a tree on his head.

A stingy man picks cherries up off the street and brings them back to his house which is filled with things he refuses to throw away. He decides that throwing away the cherry pits would be too much of a waste, so he eats those as well. The next morning he wakes up with a sprout on top of his head. He clips the sprout off Daily, but it continues to grow back.

When spring arrives, people begin to gather on his head to watch the Sakura blossoms there. Fed up with those antics, the man tears the tree out of his head by the roots, leaving a hole there. Instead of solving his problem, though, people come to the hole in his head to fish and swim. Running away from them, he encounters a puddle, which he realizes is (paradoxically) the puddle in the middle of his own head. He throws himself into it and dies.

This short film (10 minutes) gleefully skirts the line between the comedic and the truly weird pretty well. It seems as though the main character is punished for being so stingy in his life, but I can't possibly imagine how dying from some weird hole-in-the-head-related paradox is payback for being exceedingly frugal. The animation is also a modern interpretations of a Japanese rakugo tale of the same name, so it's possible that the original version of the story has a bit more to it.

This short was nominated in the "Best Animated Short" category for the 2003 Oscars.

Himitsu: Top Secret - The Revelation Episode 7

Summary: An airline president dies in a house fire, though the cause of death may have been something other than carbon monoxide inhalation. Section 9 is brought on board because homicide is suspected. His brain proves less than helpful due to memory loss and the fact that the faces of the people in his memories don't appear to have faces. Additionally, the president left all of his possessions to a girl who seems completely unrelated to him.

They have the girl named in the will go a few places to try and remember any relationship she may have had to the president. Maki and another investigator follow closely to guard her. An attempted stabbing by the president's son is easily thwarted by Maki's feminine looks. The son turns out to have concocted the "accidental" fire himself out of anger for not receiving any inheritance. Jun, the recipient of the president's wealth, finally remembers the connection she had to him.

Thoughts: I could be really nitpicky and call this episode corny and sappy, but I'll refrain because, as usual, I kind of liked it :) Not that I didn't have issues - most of the episodes that have worked really well have been two-parters, so now every time there's a single-episode story like this, things feel really rushed and unexplored. The relationship between Jun, the girl, and the president of the company was explained but I think it would have been better to spend more time on it rather than make it an afterthought near the end of the episode. Also, it was pretty predictable to have the son be the killer, but I felt like it was introduced into the episode really suddenly to wrap things up in a nice little package. I think I was spoiled by the Kinuko two-parter, because now I'm looking for characters who are multi-faceted and I'm not getting it from one 22 minute episode. *sigh*

At this point I'm assuming that they're saving any major Maki backstory for the final episodes, which makes enough sense that I'm not outright irritated by the lack of coverage of it. I'm getting kind of antsy, though. He's easily one of the most intriguing characters in the show, and from episode one it's been kind of a mystery as to why he has such odd habits. Yet there's barely been any mention since. Five episodes left to delve into that, I hope it pans out.

Not much else to say since this was kind of a throwaway episode, but judging from the preview, the next episode will, at the very least, include some, shall we say, "colorful" characters.
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Himitsu: Top Secret - The Revelation Episode 5 and 6

Summary: When Aoki returns from observing his father's funeral, he's given a special, very secretive assignment - a convicted murderer on death row was recently sent to death, and Aoki is given the task of finding out whether or not he had committed any other crimes. He finds out from his research that the culprit in the murder was actually someone quite unexpected, and that the man's daughter, Kinuko, thought to have been killed and dumped in the river, is very much alive. Some of the things that she reveals cause Aoki to re-examine some of the video evidence gleaned from the examination of her father's mind.

Thoughts: This two episode arc kind of exemplified the reason that I like this show. In addition to the fact that everyone seems to have deeply-buried secrets that are only revealed upon their death, both Kinuko and her father are ambiguous characters with seemingly conflicted morality. As the facts of the case are revealed it becomes clear that neither one was innocent, though the viewer's sympathy tends to go back and forth between who was the true victim or villain in the situation. To go into any more detail would spoil the episodes, I think, so I'll leave it at that.

I also like seeing how the story with Aoki's family life progresses along with the investigative portions of the episodes. It seems like he lives a life which closely mirrors his cases but in a more positive manner. Where as Kinuko had a pretty messed-up relationship with her father, Aoki seems to be coming to terms with things he could have or should have done in his relationship with his father. The cathartic reading of his late father's diary at the end of episode 6, something which he struggled with doing because of his conflicted feelings about knowing the secrets of the dead (obviously a consequence of his job). He's been a very relatable character so far and telling the story through his eyes has been helpful to me as a viewer.

I still reeeeealy want to know what's up with Maki. If I have to wait until the end of the series, then so be it, but with that little tease about his past in one of the earlier episodes and then nothing since then, I'm getting sort of antsy. And if this show pulls some crap like never talking about it again, I'm going to be very irritated and disappointed. Please, Himitsu, prove the naysayers wrong! Though as far as I'm concerned, most of the naysayers are just picking nits.
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Himitsu: Top Secret - The Revelation Episode 4

Summary: A group of elderly gentlemen is drugged with sleeping pills and loaded into a van which plunges off a cliff into the ocean. The only clue to the culprit is found while scanning one of the brains of the deceased - the leader of the "trip" is a man with glasses and an odd star-shaped mark on his arm. While he's helping to investigate this case, Aoki gets some bad news - his father collapsed at home and was taken to the hospital. Though he offers to stay late and help write his report, Maki essentially orders him to go home and be with his family. Luckily it seems like his condition isn't the result of a stroke as had been assumed.

When the investigation continues it becomes more clear that these elderly men, non of whom knew each-other previously, volunteered to take the trip that ended their lives. And there's a clue in the memories of one of them - a cleaning person at a ward office has the same star-shaped mark on his arm that the trip leader has, and this connects the men to each-other. The reason why these men would choose to die becomes clearer as well - judging from the observed behavior of their families in the memories, it seems like each of these men was treated as a burden to their families and they were choosing to remove that burden. Setting up a sting operation, the officers are able to arrest the "trip leader" and take him to jail, even though the real culprits are the families who would allow their elderly grandfathers to feel useless and unwanted. Aoki also finds out that his father's condition is due to the spread of a tumor that originated in his brain.

Thoughts: While I was originally disappointed that this episode was only a one-parter, I quickly forgot about it once I began watching. The show is beginning to strike a good balance between featuring the cases, which are often interesting but not enough so to carry the episode on their own, and the personal life of Aoki, whose situation is often connected to the cases he's working on and is often more compelling than the cases themselves. In this case, the situation of the old men on the trip and the leader, a cleaning man by day willing to "take out the human garbage", is simple enough that it only needs to be touched on throughout the episode. The real "meat" involves Aoki and his family. They're prodding him for information about which section he works for and before he can answer his sister and his mother both express disgust about Section 9 and how people change once they're assigned to that section. There's a great stigma about being privy to people's deepest secrets, and Aoki can't bring himself to tell the truth.

Once the real deal behind the dying old men is revealed, it's both shocking and pretty depressing at the same time. It highlights one of the issues that's becoming more and more pressing in Japan, that of having a population that skews old since many people aren't having many children, if any, leaving no one to care for the elderly. One of the most affecting scenes in this episode was buried in the memories of one of the men. At home, he witnessed his grandson and daughter speaking to each other. The grandson is upset that he can't have his own room, and his mother tells him that once grandpa dies, he'll get to have his own room, so he should pray to God that grandpa dies faster. It was a shocking and sad scene. I know that people say things in stressful situations, so it's difficult to feel anger directly at the woman for trivializing her father's life like that, but still, when you can wish death on the person who helped to raise you just because you now have to take care of them in return is really low and disgusting and sad.

I don't mean to digress too much, but I often go looking for message boards about shows that I like just to see what other people are saying. There are people who seem to have a lot of vitriol for this show for being melodramatic and not following the manga. I'll probably go into this in some more detail another time, but one thing I can't tolerate very much is manga elitism. I think general complaints are that Aoki is characterized differently in the anime and that the melodrama is played up a bit in the show. Give me a break. Admittedly I haven't read any of the manga, but I try to keep both versions separate as a rule. Just because a movie doesn't follow its literary inspiration to the letter doesn't mean that it's going to turn out poorly, they're different media with different ways to convey an idea. And I'm personally really enjoying the show so far, especially since it seems to be coming into its own as far as characters and over-arching storyline are concerned. I'm still waiting to hear more about what's going on with Maki and his personal past, especially since the last episode suggested there might be a bit of explanation in this episode, but I'm willing to hold out to find out and it's a small complaint.

Another thing that kind of piqued my curiosity was a friend's insistence after watching the first episode that the story was absolutely leading into boy love territory. I was curious to find out about this, because I felt like there was a bit of that subtext but not to the point that it would become a yaoi anime. As it turns out (from people who've read the manga) that the boy love stuff stays as a general but untapped (haha) theme throughout the show. So no hot man love, but it's easy enough to imagine. That ought to attract a few people, right?
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Himitsu: Top Secret - The Revelation Episode 2 and 3

Summary: While throwing an anniversary party, President Reed of the United States is murdered by an unseen assailant. It's up to Section 9 and its memory-projecting MRI to investigate the crime and solve the case.

Aoki is having trouble dealing with his job in Section 9 - having intimate knowledge of the secrets of the dead leaves him feeling stigmatized, and he still hasn't told his parents that he's assigned in that department. Never mind the fact that his beloved sister, a woman who he secretly has more than brotherly feelings for, is seeing a married man and comes home drunk and distressed from being toyed with.

The investigation into the President's murder doesn't seem to be going anywhere either, especially since President Reed, unlike many other presidents, doesn't appear to have anything to hide and was a particularly upstanding individual. The only thing that seems to catch anyone's eye is an odd instance of the President getting out of bed to watch from the window as his daughter is dropped off by her boyfriend after a date. Right before his death, he also seems to tear up a piece of paper, a photograph. Since this may be important, the image is sent for analysis.

Analysing the President's memories further, they find that he met Matthew Harvey, his daughter's boyfriend, three months ago at a dinner party. But Matthew wasn't the man he said he was - a handwriting analysis of a note in the President's possession reveals that Matthew Harvey was really a foreign terrorist hoping to get near the President. One would assume that President Reed had some idea of this and that would be the reasoning behind his odd monitoring of his daughter's dates, but the real reason is deeper, darker and definitely not what anyone would have suspected.

Thoughts: While the first episode of this show was interesting, it also seemed very poorly-paced since the investigation took all of one short episode to complete. This story, being spread across two episodes, seemed like it was more meaty and had time to develop, which was good. Secrets, mostly very dark ones, obviously play a big role in the series as a whole, but these two episodes really tied the theme in well, relating Aoki's uncomfortable feelings towards his older sister to the President's rather surprising and completely unsuspected inner emotions. I'll refrain from spoiling this point since it would probably ruin the episode for those of you who haven't watched it yet, but I will say that any similar real-life situation would be completely scandalous, especially if the real U.S. President were even half as upstanding as the one in this show.

I've had at least one person say to me that the technology in this anime, which obviously plays a pretty large role in the plot, is so silly that it's turning them off to the show. While I agree it does things in a way that aren't exactly scientific, I find that in this case the technology is something which allows the characters themselves to shine. In other words, I'm not watching the show because I get to see a futuristic brain-scan machine do its job, I watch the show because the stories seem pretty compelling and Aoki, the central character, is likeable and flawed.

Seriously, though, I want to know what's up with Maki. You know, other than looking extremely feminine and having some weird habits. Based on how episode 3 ended, it seems like he has a dark past that will get explored some more. Specifically, his best friend who he shot and killed and the story behind that.

Call this show cheesy and unrealistic if you like - once I start an episode, I get into the mode of really really needing to know how it finishes. It seems like it has some mainstream appeal, and if you're not the type of person to get too hung up on little details, it's definitely an entertaining and surprisingly involving watch.

Ask John over at Animenation had a couple of interesting recent columns on the subject of moe anime. You can read them here:

Is Moe Sexist?

Why do Some People Hate Moe?

I'll admit right away that I'm not a big fan of the moe aesthetic (I'm sure most of you could have figured that out on your own). I'll also admit, though, that in my mind there's never been much of a distinction between "moe" and "lolicon", so I think that's something that I'll have to keep more in mind in the future. I can accept the explanation that lolicon is the outright sexualization of youthful female characters, while moe is supposed to evoke more of a protective, nurturing feeling towards the characters who are endowed with particular traits.

I like John's honesty about the relationship between moe and sexism, though I'd like to see the topic explored a bit more completely in the future. While I believe him when he says that he can distinguish between the feminine idealization present in moe anime and real-life interaction with women, I suspect that there are many people who cannot or choose not to. I'd be interested (in theory) to meet someone who's really hardcore into moe and find out what their social interactions are like, though I have to admit many people like that tend not to have much real social interaction at all.

Being a bit more knowledgeable about the distinction does make me feel a little less dirty about liking Lucky Star ;)

Real Drive Episode 4 - Atoll of Desire

Summary: At their new office, Aoi and Haru are visited by a man from the Advisory Committee acquainted to an individual named Bob Zhouen who has "brain-downed" and become comatose during the island's recent power outage. This man asks that Haru help retrieve this man's consciousness, a task which has already endangered one of the other divers.

While Haru is diving, he's nearly overcome by Bob Zhouen's thoughts - in the form of a female avatar who causes him to lose his connection to Kushima at the EISF. With only Aoi's pleading voice to lead him in the right direction, Haru is able to disengage from Zhouen's consciousness and resurface.

Thoughts: I couldn't help but be reminded of the ditty "The Internet is for Porn" while watching this episode. Really, though, what better way to connect the show to modern day than to assume that the human desire for internet porn would carry on, in ever more engrossing fashion, into the future. Not only that, but to suggest that an individual could enhance his sexual experience by custom-creating an avatar to experience a more potent orgasm, well, it might start giving people ideas. I fully expect this to be a reality at some point in the future.

I like how we're starting to see the seedy underbelly of society in this episode. Up until now, the island, where the majority of the action has taken place, seemed like some happy little environmentally-friendly modern place to live, but there are apparently some dingier parts of town populated by hookers, hackers, and other criminals. Good times. I'm definitely hoping this will be revisited in the near future, since this is a theme RD shares with stuff like Ghost in the Shell - the future is awesome but still comes with its share of problems. New technology is followed close behind by people dreaming up new ways to exploit it.

Even though it's early in the series, the last couple of episodes have been kind of, well, episodic. Haru learns of some situation that needs fixing in the Metal, and when he dives, he's almost lost, requiring Aoi to use whatever unnamed special power she possesses to guide him back. Let's have some variety here, plzkthx. Not that the quality of the storytelling has been lackluster or anything, but I'm ready for a story arc or three to arrive.

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Real Drive Episode 3 - Re-Dive

Summary: After their experience restoring the power to the island, Haru and Minamo Aoi are taken away to remain under observation by Dr. Kushima of the EISF. While in the underwater headquarters, Haru, who entered the Metal under unauthorized circumstances, is given tests to see if it could become an official diver. He fails trial after trial, and Dr. Kushima (who we find out is actually 82 years old in spite of his appearance) tells him to rest. They'll test him one more time after the noise clears from his cyber brain.

Minamo tries to do some research on diving to help him out, but it dawns on her after seeing an advertisement that what Haru really needs is to remain relaxed and feel safe while he's diving. Before Haru can be tested again, there's an emergency - another diver has fallen unconscious and lost his connection, and is being drawn deeper and deeper into the metal. Haru is the only one available to help, so with Aoi's advice in mind he dives in to rescue the other man. As he goes deeper, the link between him and the lab is lost, until Aoi rushes into the room with Haru's body and seems to strengthen him somehow. He retrieves the man, and, though the two of them believe they're being taken to jail for doing something that's obviously illegal (unofficial access to the Metal is serious business), Haru is given an office and asked, with the help of Aoi, to be an investigator for the EISF.

Thoughts: You know, I really love this show. It's not just the animation and the compelling story, both of which are great reasons by themselves. It's the fact that Aoi and Haru have such a great relationship. It's like a non-creepy friendship and partnership between someone who one might think ineffectual because of his advanced age and someone who might be dismissed because of her youth, working together and doing things that no one could have expected. While I was never uncertain about liking Haru as a character, I'm surprised at how non-annoying Aoi has been so far. The whole schoolgirl thing usually annoys the heck out of me, but she's proven to be smart and quick-thinking so far, even while still displaying that teenage "charm" she has. It's a tough balance to maintain but it's been successful thus far.

I'm still wondering if Kushima and his apparent agelessness will be explained soon. This being a Shirow production, it could be something like an artificial body (we already know that there are very humanlike androids around) or possibly something to do with cloning himself. Since there are people with cyber brains it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the show to pull a Kaiba and have those sorts of things be transferable between bodies. Of course that begs the question, why not give Haru a new body to exist in so that he can walk on his own? I'm hoping there's a good reason for both situations because otherwise it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I'm also kind of beginning to wonder whether the ocean as a representation of the Metal has some deeper meaning, or whether it was just a convenient metaphor considering Haru's experience as a diver. Either situation would be fine with me, since I don't think it's necessary to have a deep and intricate reason for every choice made in the construction of a television show, but it would be pretty cool if there was something more to it. There was actually a bit of dialogue about the ocean itself this episode, where Kushima (I believe) talked about humanity continuing to expand even to previously inaccessible domains, eventually building beneath the sea, so in that sense there might be a connection.
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Real Drive Episode 2 - Little Girl

Summary: The first half of the episode provides a bit of background on Aoi. As a young girl she was also fascinated by the sea because of her Grandmother's history as an aquatic researcher (who was coincidentally stationed on the same ship as Haru in her youth) and since the sea is something that connects her to her mother, working in Japan, to herself staying with her Grandmother in Australia. We also get to see the circumstances behind Aoi meeting Haru, from her perspective as a student assigned to help an elderly person.

The second half of the episode picks up where events in the first episode left off, with electromagnetic abnormalities having taken out the island's power and some of the elderly people in the hospital in danger due to lack of life support. Haru is trying to do his part by "diving" into the Metal, the network connecting all people. However, the problem can't be solved until power is restored out in the real world, and as Aoi races to the island's power station she discovers that the transformers have all melted in the main part of the station. Luckily there's one line that still works that's connected to some off-line windmills that were formerly used to collect wind energy. Aoi races along the surface and reactivates each of the windmills with Haru, within the Metal, helping to guide her. The power is restored and Haru, again an old man in the real world, and Aoi go to watch the sea at night. Their quiet observations are interrupted by an airplane landing and a voice familiar to Haru.

Thoughts: I'm having a hard time voicing exactly the specifics of why I enjoy this show. Sure, it's got great animation as usual - I'd expect nothing less from Production I.G. - but there's just something so far about the story that's really drawn me in.

As far as this episode is concerned, I liked how they spent the time to go into Aoi's past a bit. Sure, there was some content overlap with the first episode, but I really think that helped to flesh out the story quite a bit. And I just like Aoi, I think. Sure, she's your average high school student who has issues with eating her veggies and caring about certain subjects in school, but she's athletic and smart when it counts. Whereas the others in her group weren't able to do anything useful beyond comfort their senior-citizen charges, Aoi got the job done.

Which really makes her a perfect match for Haru. While he seems like a kindly, handicapped old man, when it counts it's him who used his previous experience as a diver to help repair the problem from within the Metal.

Now that I think about it, it might be the odd-couple dynamic between the two characters that I really enjoy. It's all too easy to write a futuristic story driven by a bunch of brash young heroes, but how about a heroic duo of an old guy and an average young girl? It's definitely something I'll enjoy seeing more of assuming the relationship keeps being developed along this vein.

One thing that I'm not too sure about are all the pantsu that I saw this time around. While the show itself isn't fanservicey at all, in my opinion, there sure are a lot of situations that can't avoid showing panties. When Aoi is skating around the power station, she uses great form, which of course means bending forward with her skirt flying all over the place. Actually, this isn't really a complaint I have with the show, but a complaint with the general design of female school uniforms in anime. They're so impractical! How about some shorts instead?

All joking aside, I'm intrigued and want to see what happens to Haru after this episode, since it seems he'll have to face some stuff from his past as a result of his involvement in helping to solve this crisis.

Nabari no Ou Episode 4

Summary: Rokujo and company are saved from almost certain death at the hands of the dark and emotionless Yoitei by none other than the leader of Fuuma village, Fuuma Kotarou. The village has suffered heavy casualties, and Rokujo is anxious to have Fuuma's help in removing the Shinrabanshou from his body (though Fuuma makes himself out to be anything but trustworthy once he reveals what he would do with the power of Rokujo's secret technique). On the other side, the Kairoushuu group are in possession of Fuuma village's secret power. Yotei tries to strangle a courier who insults him, and we discover that, to use his deadly power, he may be shortening his life at the same time. Soon an online lecture begins, given by their leader.

The following day, after Thobari-sensei is well enough to get out of bed, Fuuma explains the details about the different ninja villages who originally sealed away the Shinrabanshou, and how, because the scroll fuses with a host, to try and remove it would almost certainly mean death. Not great news for Rokujo. However, the secret techniques of each village may hold the clue to obtaining the Shinrabanshou, and so both Rokujo's pals and the Kairoushuu are going after these remaining techniques to try and find the answer.

Thoughts: Let the ninja battles begin! No, seriously folks, I was just waiting for there to be a good reason to have conflict in pretty much every future episode, and here it arrived just like that. I can't quite decide how I feel about this right now. I'm glad that things have more of a definite direction now and some motivations have been explained in more depth, but I'm always afraid in a situation like this that the show will descend into a plot purgatory or repetative episode-for-the-sake-of-battle format and I'll become irritated and bored with it. We'll see.

I have to comment on one thing, which is Saraba, the unnecessarily-busty character briefly introduced in this episode. What I don't understand is why all the other female ninjas in Fuuma village can manage to wear their clothing normally, and she has to wear her top dangerously off her shoulders so that her ample cleavage is on display. I mean, I do know exactly why she was designed that way, but having a character like that seems really out-of-place for some reason. Heck, I'd even understand it more if they made a big deal about her boobies and it became a focuse of fanservice gags. But no, she's just standing there with her shirt mostly-off. It's stuff like that that really irritates me about anime sometimes.

I kind of like how Fuuma is being characterized, since he seems almost ambiguous in his motivations. I mean, he rescued the main characters and seems to be working for what they want, but he has just as much motivation to get his grabby hands on the Shinrabanshou as the enemy does, and Rokujo even has firsthand experience on what he'd do with it should that come to pass. Future betrayal, perhaps? I don't know if it's the type of show to go there, but maybe. Or he might just be the resident goofball who, like Shimizu said to Rokujo, is probably lying 90% of the time.

Lastly, I'd like to know more about Yoite and what the deal with his power is. Is it really sapping his life force as he uses it? Also some background would be nice.

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Nabari no Ou Episode 3

Summary: After arriving at Fuuma village and finding that the village's guard has been mostly defeated, Shimizu, Rokujo and the others go in search of who could have infiltrated the village's defenses and why. It turns out that a group of five ninjas, following the orders of a mysterious older man, are after the village's secret technique scroll. One of the village ninjas very nearly escapes, until the ninja leader and a rather stylishly-dressed young man named Yoite confront him and Yoite uses a technique to injure the guy from inside his body.

While the group is able to dispatch three of the rival ninjas rather easily, the ninja leader and Yotei are another matter all together. The leader, who refrains from revealing his name, eventually leaves of his own accord because the retrieval of Rokujo's Shinrabanshou isn't his immediate concern, but Yotei hangs around and uses his devastating power to hold everyone at his mercy. Just as it appears he's about to murder Thobari-sensei, a giant cat appears from within one of the buildings and smacks him around a bit. This is no ordinary giant cat, however. This is Fuuma-sensei in disguise come to rescue them.

Thoughts: This episode was packed to the gills with action. Seriously, there wasn't a boring moment to speak of. And it's funny - the show's only three episodes in and there's no way they would kill off any of the main characters, but I was genuinely worried about the group when they were all confronting Yotei, because the man is a frightening guy indeed. With interesting fashion sense to boot. And of course this episode had its share of fancy ninja techniques. While the whole "ninja magic" thing is something I've always kind of rolled my eyes at, I have to give the show credit for making them at least somewhat non-flashy and as realistic as could be expected. Kouichi performs some sort of ninja star technique where he melds two shuriken together into one bigger one, but the extent of the technique is that it makes the thing fly like a boomerang into the back of an enemy ninja. I found this acceptable, in my extremely subjective opinion.

I'm also liking how the show hasn't really been too "monster-of-the-week" so far. While there seem to be excuses to get into battles fairly frequently (these are ninjas, after all) each episode seems to lead directly into the next. I might be wrong, but hopefully this will prevent a lot of the silliness that tends to crop up when there's room for filler, like hot springs episodes, beach episodes, etc. Not that I haven't seem shows where even these cliche elements are entertaining, but more often than not they're just extremely silly. Minimal fanservice is happy fanservice.

Rokujo displayed his cunning personality again this time around, racing towards a group of enemy ninjas and giving them a sweet smile which threw them off, allowing him to disarm their leader. Too cute :) What's been good though is that he actually displayed a bit of backbone in this episode and stood up for his companions, in spite of the fact that Thobari-sensei was urging him to run away and take his secret technique with him. Maybe the boy who doesn't care about anything might be growing to give a crap about someone other than himself. I'm glad to see some changes, since there are so many shounen shows where the main character is just this unflappable "gee whiz!" type person who doesn't grow or change even after about a million story arcs where they've experienced things which would logically affect anyone.
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Nabari no Ou Episode 2

Summary: Rokujo, despite constant prompting from his friend, Kouichi, and his teacher, Thobari-sensei, doesn't seem to be particularly interested in training in the techniques of the ninja in order to protect the secret power he possesses. When an energetic girl named Shimizu shows up from another village hoping to discover what the new leader of Nabari will be like, she's a bit disappointed to find out that he's extremely apathetic and occasionally manipulative, utilizing his youthful good-looks and cuteness to their full potential to get what he wants. Shimizu offers to take him to her village, the Village of Fuuma, to learn some advanced techniques from their village leader.

When it's time to leave, we find out that Thobari has a fear of vehicles and almost causes them to miss their train. Fuuma, the leader of the village that bears his name, is the famous author of many ninja technique books, and is also a master of transformation, so no one really knows if the attractive portraits on his books are really what he truly looks like. When they arrive by bus to the forest, Shimizu informs them that the village is veiled in a mist controlled by its inhabitants, and only residents know how to find it without getting lost. However, as they descend they're able to see the village in the distance, and the village's ninjas, which were stationed in the trees, seem to have been defeated. It seems as though something much more sinister reached the village first.

Thoughts: I probably wouldn't care as much about this series if the main character wasn't such a manipulative little devil, since most of the other parts of the plot are fairly standard fare that I've sampled many times before. I can take or leave ninjas, ninja magic, and high-school hijinks, but I'm still able to be amused by characters that go against my expectations and I can respect that. The show also seems to be travelling at a substantial clip. I won't name any names here, but series with stories like this can often take too long to tell a story. This show, on the other hand, seems to be moving quickly enough to keep things interesting, while still being able to introduce the other characters and include some action.

One thing I am a bit worried about, however, is the number of characters appearing in the opening of the show. It's got the cast size of your average shounen epic, but the episode length of a standard show, so I'm wondering if that might become a problem as things move along. I'd rather not have a lot of shallow characters comprising the cast - instead I'd prefer a few core characters that get developed a bit. I'm hoping things don't get confusing like they did with Baccano!; I enjoyed the show but I barely remembered any of the secondary characters and in a show like that with an unusual plot structure, it became extremely confusing after a while.

I'm glad they didn't overload the action in this episode, but I'm hoping for a bit more sweet ninja fighting next time around. I don't necessarily think the battles need to be the centerpoint of the show, but since the fighting was animated so well the last time I'd certainly like to see more. There's nothing wrong with eye-candy if the plot can back it up, I say.

This show isn't really one of my top priorities, but it's certainly fun and doesn't require a lot of investment to enjoy, so I'm sure I'll stick around until it either a) jumps the shark in some way or b) does something to completely insult my intelligence. Let's hope neither comes to pass.

The Daughter of Twenty Faces Episode 4

Summary: Chiko has just turned 12 and she's made a place for herself amongst the thieves. Not only does she handle cooking, shopping, and laundry, but she's been picking up other skills from her comrades as well, including knife-throwing, self-defense, and different languages. There are some who want her to stick to her female duties, but most of the young thieves think that she might be ready to help out on one of their thieving jobs. And a job has just presented itself - at a black market auction, huge sapphire called "The Lorelai's Tear" will be auctioned-off. Twenty-Faces hopes to steal it and return it to its rightful place in the eye of a public statue. In order to get to the jewel, a thief will have to wriggle through a small hatch. This sounds like the perfect place for the petite Chiko to prove herself to the others.

That night, a disguised Chiko arrives at the hotel where the jewel is being brought to auction. Her comrades cause a blackout while they're in an elevator, so she grabs the briefcase and exits through the top. Though she's cornered in the hotel's hallway, her skills and her wits allow her to trick the men who are after her and she and her hero escape via airship into the night.

Thoughts: Wow, so Chiko finally gets to see some action this time around. I'm pretty pleased with the pacing of this episode. While I can take or leave the more episodic "thievery of the week" aspect as a necessary evil, what I really enjoyed was seeing Chiko prove herself by being smart, resourceful, and able to defend herself physically against all the men chasing her. I consider myself to be a fairly cynical person, but I always find myself rooting for Chiko to overcome whatever she's up against. Sure, there's kind of a cliche "girl overcomes expectations of her sex and excels in a man's world" vibe to the show, but I think it succeeds in that Chiko isn't a bitch about being put down; if anything, she's just more determined to do well and prove everyone wrong about her abilities, which outmatch even some of the other guys in the group.

I'm actually kind of reminded of Master Keaton in that the protagonist is almost unequivocally good and pure-hearted, something which would normally put me off since many characters like that come across as flat and unrealistic. But here it just works for some reason.

So Chiko's aunt ups her creepiness factor this time around as well, having begun poisoning her husband and nearly finishing the job. The inspector she hired to search for Chiko is coming up empty, though in reality he's just leeching money from her in order to eat out all the time. I'm still kind of wondering where this is all going to go and why the aunt is still important, considering that she doesn't seem especially good at anything other than poisoning her family due to her own greed. Possibly the next episode or two will be more telling.
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The Daughter of Twenty Faces Episode 3

Summary: Chiko has settled into her life amongst thieves, even though as basically the "intern" she's relegated to the uninteresting work like mending shirts, cooking dinner, and cleaning the hideout. She does the work happily, however, since she's living the life that she really wants to live. Just as news spreads about Twenty-Faces' latest conquest - the theft of some European crown jewels - we find out that Chiko's aunt has hired a private investigator to find her and bring her back "home".

The next job is a bit more complicated. Twenty-Faces has hired a submarine crew to take them down to the ocean floor to investigate the wreckage of a huge airplane. Chiko makes a basketfull of rice balls for the group of thieves to eat while underwater. She offers one to the captain, but he refuses. Skipper goes outside the ship in diving gear and returns with a box full of treasure - bars of pure gold. Soon the crew turns on them and wants the treasure for themselves, but Twenty-Faces and Chiko are able to fool them all into thinking that the rice balls were explosives that had been distributed throughout the submarine, and they're able to negotiate their way out.

Thoughts: I like how the lessons learned in the previous episode - that it's important to read beneath people's outward actions to see what they're really up to - became important here. Just as Skipper was returning to the sub, both Twenty-Faces and Chiko cast sideways glances at each-other as if they pretty much expected the captain to betray them at the last second (which seems to have become a theme of this show so far). It's nice to see a little continuity in this show, although I'm really waiting for Chiko to come into her own. While she makes steps with each episode, I'm about ready to see her do something else than mend shirts, cook, and try to get the grumbly old thief Muto to warm up a little bit.

I was getting a little irritated that it seemed like none of the other female characters that appeared in the opening/ending were being introduced, but it seems that we got a glimpse of one of them briefly this time around - a woman working for Chiko's aunt who seems to have something else on her mind. I'm betting the next episode will be more revealing as to this mysterious person's role. On the one hand I'm a little annoyed that Chiko's aunt is even still playing a recurring role in the series, because I'm more interested in how Chiko's life will unfold being away from that (literally) toxic family and I don't think that the aunt or uncle really have a role to play anymore, but I could be wrong.

I usually refrain from spending a lot of time talking about specific fansub groups because I like to turn the focus away from the dubious legality of what I'm doing instead of advertising the fact that there's anime for free on the internets, but I find it interesting that Live-Evil, the group subbing this show, has done quite a few shows that have female-character focuses. Sisters of Wellber, Shion no Ou, Rose of Versailles, Utena... I could go on. With all the fly-by-night fansub groups popping up and subbing one or two episodes of a series, it's cool to have a group which doesn't necessarily sub the "big" shows. I can think of quite a few groups who I've never heard of before working on Soul Eater, but without groups like this I think there are a lot of smaller, quieter, less flashy shows that wouldn't have a chance and I like that. And with an eye to classic-feeling shows, this seems to fit well into their lineup.

*cough* well anyway, I like how this show has kind of a kids' show feel without being zany and wacky. It's just simple and entertaining with some larger-than-life but still appealing characters.
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The Daughter of Twenty Faces Episode 2

Summary: After being rescued from her ill-intentioned aunt, Chiko and her savior, the thief Twenty-Faces, make their escape via airship to the thieving group's mountain hideout. Unfortunately the police are close behind, and they have to sacrifice their hideout and take to the skies once again. Upon landing in an isolated location, an informant named Chen clues them in on a treasure up for grabs - the hand mirror of a former Chinese Empress. Chiko, eager to please and to become like her mentor Twenty-Faces, wants to participate, and she's allowed to be the lookout as Twenty-Faces bags the goods.

Though the original information led them into a trap, Twenty-Faces saw through it and got his prize, though during his escape he was shot in the side. Luckily a kind Chinese woman takes him in and, along with Chiko, nurses him back to health. She's not quite the kindly woman she claims to be, however, and Chiko and Twenty-Faces narrowly escape before the men she called arrive to claim their bounty. Chiko learns a lesson about trusting people and learning to listen for the things that they don't say.

Thoughts: There's something about this show that kind of reminds me of stuff like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water because of its earlier time period and the sense of adventure in the writing. I think I like the show for it's pure sense of fun, and also the bit of tragedy in Chiko's past that's driving her to become a thief like her hero and rescuer. So far there hasn't been a lot of dwelling in the past, but I can sense just how much Chiko's past is driving her to move forward and learn from what she's experienced.

Other than that, I don't really have a lot of meaty comments to make about this episode. It's adventuresome, fun, standard enjoyable stuff with what's shaping up to be a pretty good ensemble cast. I'm only wondering when it'll transition into Chiko being the "star" and Twenty-Faces being absent/in trouble/whatever happens to him later on.