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ファイト／ステイナイト 
I often wonder if the author actually want the readers/viewers to laugh with Nodame or at Nodame. Sometimes I get the impression that the later is truer than the former. While there are some funny moments in this episode, I can't help but cringe a little bit after seeing some of the scenes. The problem is, I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for Nodame or Chiaki. Animation-wise, the quality seems to have gone down a little bit but it's not particularly noticeable since most of the stories do not require intensive animation. The impressive thing about this episode is the classic music that gets played in the last few minutes of the episode. For some reason it gives the episode a slight grandiose feel to it.
This series continues to impress me episode by episode. Just when I thought that things will get boring and repetitive, the writers and animators prove me wrong. They've done such a good job in maintaining an episodic storyline while still including the overall arc in it. The action also doesn't let up and some of the things that have been shown in this episode are quite violent. This, however, serves as a reminder of the dangerous nature that each Contractor brings into the world. Those who can control their power may use it for their own greed while those who can't control the power will be an even bigger danger for the society. I know I keep comparing the show to Heroes but after this episode, the similarity is striking. And in a way, this series one-up Heroes because it presents the plotlines that Heroes want to show faster.
I'm sorry that I haven't been able to blog in the past few days but I have been kind of busy up till now. I'll try to catch up but I most likely will just try to keep up with the schedule. Anyway, this episode is as dry as last week's. I guess those who said that the quality of the series went down slightly after L's death is quite correct. I do like one of the subplots though and hoping that it'll become a major focus somehow. Also, I've read the last volume of the manga and find it to be rather interesting. So I assume once the series gets closer to its ending, it'll get interesting again. Well, it won't be long now since there are only 9 episodes left. The writers seem to be aware of this since the pace seems to pick up considerably from last week's episode. At this rate, the series will indeed end when it reaches episode 37.
You know, I never understands why Chiaki is popular amongst girls. Sure, he's supposedly handsome but he's also a screamer. Anyone who spends enough time with him will know that he goes "HiiiEEE!!" everytime he's afraid of something. Isn't it a major turn-off when someone that you like turns out to be a major screamer everytime there's something that scares him/her? Anyway, this episode was actually entertaining. That cheesy song that Moe/Kaoru get to sing in the Karaoke was comedy central. I can't remember a song that requires me to spell the alphabet apart from that "A, B, C, D" song that I learned when I was in kindergarden. But in this episode, you get to see two grown women spelling alphabet in a song and once they're done, a bunch of men went "Moee!!". I don't get it.
The first 2 minutes of this episode gave me the chill. I really thought I was watching a sneak preview of Heroes' last episode How to stop an exploding man. I wish I remember the sequence better but unfortunately the only thing I can remember was seeing a pile of bodies stacked on top of one another. In other note, I think the animators should stop giving this series green tint. I am not sure if they intended doing this or not (just like The Matrix producers did) but I find it rather unpleasant effect. Other than that, the colour pallette is actually better-looking this time. And I think this episode confirms that the price that Hei must pay for using his power is to eat a lot of foods.
Well, this is kind of boring and long-winded although it did pick up the pace towards the end thanks to Near. In general, however, it's annoying to see Light manages to fool the majority of the characters. The animation is pretty good though and the animators do a good job in advancing the characters' age 5 years older. Sayu is probably who benefits the most out of this since she now looks a lot more mature and attractive. On the other hand, it's kind of amusing to see Souichirou not looking any older except for probably a few additional grey hairs. The thing that always bothers me, however, is Mello's character design. When I first saw him, I really thought that he is actually a she. In fact, it's still startling to see everyone referring the character as 'he' and hearing Mello speaking with a deep voice.
Well, I hope you're hungry because I have tens of food screenshots here. :D Well, this episode surprises me a little bit because I didn't expect to get a new ED theme. To be honest, what I really want is a new OP since the current OP is not that hot. The 1st ED was actually kind of good but the new one is not bad as well and comes with a slight Spanish touch. I am mostly happy because the ED now incorporates Shishio Gen, who happens to be my favourite character in this series. It seems as if it'll be ages before he's incorporated into the series but I hope the wait worth it. This episode itself is a lot lighter in comparison to the one before it. I am surprised that the writers split this story into two episodes though. I really thought that they could have squeezed everything into just one episode.
I think it's often easy to forget that Kekkaishi is a shounen series with not-so-big following. Having said that, I am still amazed of the animation and character design quality shown in this series. There is a good amount of polish given to the series that I haven't seen given to other series except maybe Death Note and D.Gray-Man. In those cases, however, they both are extremely popular series with large followings. On the other hand, I'm not sure if Kekkaishi has the same amount of followers. It's quite unfortunate if it doesn't because the story is a hell lot more entertaining than other shounen series so far. The colour scheme is also a lot more pleasant than most other shounen series, which is a surprise to me. I hope the series will maintain this quality once we get to a more intense arc.
Hmm, unfortunately I still can't make up my mind about this series so I am not putting it on my regular list like Darker than Black for now. I just can't seem to tolerate cute characters like I used to. It doesn't help that my time for blogging seems to be thinning lately. The good thing about the series is that the background images are quite nice so that's an incentive to go back and see it. If I don't end up covering the series regularly, I'd probably still post impression about it in one giant post about series that I've seen within a week. I know a few people have asked about the possibility of covering other series from this season. The thing is, I am not that excited about most of them to be able to do a full summary post. However, I may be able to post short impressions for 3-4 series that I've seen and put them all in one entry. I'll give it a try in the next few days just to see if people like the idea of reading just the impression.
So after 2 weeks break, the series is finally back. The animation seems to be slightly better. The majority of the piano scene in this episode were well-animated. It really makes a lot of difference and makes the scene far more enjoyable. Unfortunately the character design is still inconsistent and background images are as plain as ever. I did, however, appreciate the stylistic stills that the animators use to show Cosi Fan Tutte story. Voice-acting wise, I'm starting to get annoyed with Nodame's voice. I think it sounds fake and unnatural. I really miss Ueno Juri's voice, which is a lot more mature while still has that touch of Nodame's crazyness. Chiaki, on the other hand, is really good and I find it hard to distinguish Tamaki Hiroshi's and Seki Tomokazu's voice.
This episode is a lot more enjoyable than the first episode. First thing first, the action is a lot more fluid and it's easy to understand what is about to happen when a character uses his/her power. Informations about the mysteries also start to come and this is a good thing because normally a show take at least 10 episodes before revealing anything. It also helps that the soundtrack is a lot better in this episode. One thing that concerns me is the episodic nature of the stories. Judging from the preview, it is obvious that they are going to deal with a new client. I'm just hoping that there will be continuous arc underlining these one-off cases. I guess I was quite right when I said that the group reminds me a bit of Jigoku Shoujo's group. Well, as long as the story is a lot more entertaining then this should be good. After all, series like Cowboy Bebop and Mushishi are episodic but still manages to be entertaining.
OP Theme: 「時空を超えて」- Toki (Jikuu) wo Koete by II MIX DELTA with YUPA - AVI version (22.8MB)
OP Theme: 「君がいる限り」- Kimi ga Iru Kagiri by STEPHANIE - AVI version (16.4MB)
I think the story is too messy and all over the place and it's clear that the animators were not planning properly because it's already week 2 and they are still using scenes from episode 1 to do the OP. It reminds me of Speed Grapher all over again. It's unfortunate because it has some nifty effects and the character design is quite good. Another thing that attracts me right from the start are the OP and the ED theme. In the first episode, the OP was actually placed in the ED while the ED was only heard during sponsor's screen. The OP is probably my favourite because it reminds me of DDR song. It's such an energetic number that I feel is a bit wasted here since the animators couldn't be bothered to give it a nice looking animation to go with the song. The ED theme is slightly better and features illustrations of the characters.
"Jikuu wo Koete" will be released on the 4th of July this year while "Kimi ga Iru Kagiri" will be released on the 30th of May this year.
This episode is kind of disappointing after last week's. Not only the majority of the episode are comprised of recaps, the remaining animation are quite bad. In addition to this, there are major alterations to most of the scenes. I think from here on, we can expect an abridged version of the remaining manga stories. I think the anime writers will do anything in their power to ensure that they can fit the remaining 5 volumes into 11 episodes. I don't know how they'll do it but I hope they'll do a good justice to the story. Animation-wise, this episode is also a downgrade from last week's episode. The character's faces are quite inconsistent and look mangled at times. As a side note, I only screencap the new portion of the episode since I don't want to repeat screenshots from the previous episodes.
First thing first, the official site confirms that the detective's name is indeed Meshiai Seiichi. It's nice to know that Wikipedia got it right from time to time. Well, I knew this was going to be harrowing but I didn't expected it to be frustrating as well. As usual, there is some kind of injustice happening within the story and it annoyed me a little bit. There are also some unanswered question. I know I should get used to it since this is typical of anime's narrative style, leaving a few unanswered details behind so people can talk about it. Overall, I thought the series ended okay but not exactly satisfying. It's just that this show's idea of justice doesn't match well with my idea of justice and I think a lot of decent characters in this series got unfair treatment.
Kobukuro - Tsubomi (27.8MB, for PSP/Quicktime) | YouTube version
It is spring time now in Japan that means most pop artist are on their way to release spring-related singles (mostly has to do with Sakura). Kobukuro is not any different but their new single, Tsubomi, is clearly a lot better than other offerings because it currently sits at number one in the Oricon's Weekly Top 30 singles. The song really gives me a nostalgic feel of what it feels like in Japan when it's spring time with cherry blossom falling all over the place. The PV itself is quite interesting because it uses shadow play to feature various animals in their (not so) natural habitat. There is even one of those distressing "Bambi moments' involving a squirrel getting eaten by a large snake. It's definitely one of the more creative PVs I've seen thus far. As a sidenote, this song is apparently a theme song for a Japanese Drama called Tokyo Tower 2007. Unfortunately I haven't seen the drama so I can't say if it's any good or not.
OP Theme: 「暗黒天国」(Ankoku Tengoku) by Ali Project - AVI version (22.8MB) | PSP version (15.6MB)
I am not sure I should be watching something like this but I am just a bit surprised at the production quality. The character design and animation are pretty good. Plus the story is actually kind of interesting with a little dose of sadness and a good dose of humour. I am just not sure if I can tolerate all of the cuteness abound. I also don't like the character design for the main male character, who looks a bit like a girl. Apart from that, however, the series does look good. If I have to compare it with another series, I get the impression that this series is trying to emulate Card Captor Sakura and to a degree it does look as good as that series if not more so. The OP theme by ALI PROJECT is also not bad and gives the series a slight dark theme to what is otherwise a cute little series. If you have read the manga and know more about the series, I'd appreciate it if you can let me know if the series stays good throughout.
OP Theme: 「HOWLING」 by Abingdon Boys School - AVI version (20MB) | PSP version (14.3MB)
So yeah, I realise that I haven't done any Spring series and that's because there is nothing that I really want to follow so far. One or two series are okay but they don't give me that "Must watch" feel like some series from the past few seasons. Well, at least this one has some potential from what I've seen of the first episode. If I have to describe the first episode, I'll have to say that it's an odd combination of NBC's Heroes and Jigoku Shoujo team. I think you'll understand it better once you see it but basically it's a series about a group of people with superpower but with little to no emotion called "Keiyakusha" (Contractors). The police are involved as well as this mysterious group of Keiyakusha which are composed of three people and one black cat.
It's been a while since I last read the actual manga so I have forgotten how shocking this entire story was. I know many people were upset about this development but you have to admit that it does achieve the feeling of a total meltdown that the author intended. I actually had a chill when the successive death tolls happening just as I was when I saw the JSDF invading NERV in The End of Evangelion. One thing that I also forgot to mention was that while I like both Light and L, I also have little to no emotional attachment to either of them so I can pretty much watch the series for the story and enjoy the twists and turns that the author make. I think one's enjoyment for this particular twist will depend on whether or not you are attached to the character. As a side note, I like how the look of this episode relies heavily on the three basic colours that the series often: Blue, Red, and Yellow.
Why is it always end up like this? It really depresses me when characters that I like end up getting screwed royally. I'm talking about the poor detective and Takuma, both of whom get really lousy fates in this episode. Well, for all I care the entire town can go to Hell now. It would be a good idea to drag Kikuri down as well. This is like Ai's village repeating all over again. It's hard to believe that there are only 4 decent people (Takuma, his parents, and the detective) from this entire town. Speaking of the detective, thanks to the Japanese Wikipedia, I find out that the detective's name is 「飯合 誠一」(Meshiai Seiichi). I'm not sure about the reliability of the information but we should know for sure next week when the official site updates the name of the victims. Either way, it's better for me to call the guy with his name than 'the detective'.
