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ファイト／ステイナイト 
The music in this episode is sublime. The French-flavoured accordion song that plays as Kiyomi leaves a restaurant reminds me of many spy thriller movies. It really highlights the double-backstabbing nature of the story and the complex tangle web between the characters. Story-wise, this is not exactly the most exciting part of the series. However, I think it's a necessary episode to show the extent in which Light has manipulated not just one, but two women in his life. It's kind of sad to know that these women actually love him but we have no idea if he actually has that sort of feelings for them. My guess is he doesn't even understand what love is about because I've never seen him trying to protect anyone with the power that he has in his hand. After reading the final volume of the manga, I realise how fitting the ending turns out to be in relation to Light not loving anyone. The question is, can they finish the story in just four episodes?
I am surprised that the anime actually decides to include not just the two main performances of the R☆S Orchestra but also the opening performance. As a result of this, however, we don't get to see the main orchestral performance until next week's episode. With only 6 more episodes to go, I think this series will end around the same place as the live action version. The only difference is that we'll probably see Nodame and Chiaki bidding goodbye to their friends and hopefully we'll get to see them in Paris a little bit. I think the anime should continue right through the Paris arc because that's the part that has not been covered by the live action. Having said that, I understand that the author probably don't want the anime to go that far since the manga itself is not anywhere near completion.
How do you write research proposal in less than a month? That's the question that I have to figure out after writing this and Nodame Cantabile's summary. It feels like it's been ages since I've been able to enjoy my free time. I don't even remember what other series that are playing at the moment. I should really catch up with Kekkaishi since I'm way behind but I really can't afford to spend too much time blogging until next month. Anyway, I don't really like this episode. It's not as amusing as last week's and it's not as engaging story-wise. I kind of miss the mysterious vibe that the earlier episodes provide. I suppose the writers want to show some variety in the story and in that respect, this episode works quite well. This episode also meant to be a character development piece for Mao but it's kind of hard to do character development for a cat and this episode proves that.
This series is finally beginning to become exciting again, well it should be since there are only 5 episodes left. I am just amazed at how the writers cut out so many materials and just condensed things into whatever episodes left. At this point in time, I'm not even sure what's excluded since I haven't read this part of the story. I have, however, read the last volume of the manga so that will be interesting to see if it gets cut out at all or not. As for this episode, I think it's better than the last two we've seen. This is mostly because it's a character development episode focusing on both Mikami and Kiyomi. What's not impressive is Light's increasingly insane plans, which for some reason is not obvious to everyone else around him.
Woot! Lately my personal life seems to be a lot more tense than my blogging. I apologise for that but things have been a bit rough in the past few weeks. Between the work, the computer virus, the hard to format HD, I barely have any desire to do anything else apart from sleeping. Anyway, this is a much better episode than last week's mostly because there are some amusing humour inserted in between the serious practice scene. In addition to this, the various members of R☆S Orchestra actually have interesting personality and their interaction with the existing characters are pretty good. From all of the new characters, I like Kuroki the most because he seems to be the easiest to relate.
This episode is highly unusual but much to my surprise, I really enjoy it. To begin with, I like the pseudo noir style that the episode tries to adopt. What I meant by this is the use of typical noir elements such as the brooding detective, his cheerful secretary, the dangerous villain and most importantly, the seductive and mysterious femme fatale. The amusing thing about these elements is that the series doesn't hesitate to make fun of them. For example, it is a norm in a noir film for the detective to smoke cigarette and the poor secretary rarely have problem with this. In this episode, however, the secretary, Kiko, immediately coughing a furball and tries to open the window as soon as possible. I find it amusing because although a detecting standing in a dark smoky room is an important image of film noir, I'm sure that it's not a pleasant experience to stand inside such room.
Sorry for another late review. I'm so tired lately that I am not sure how I even managed to write this. My laptop has also been giving me grief lately so I've been spending a lot of time trying to reformat it. Anyway, the writers really are trying to finish this in 7 episodes. I think after this episode, we won't see the story being shortened any longer. I think it's a good decision to cut this part of the story short as opposed to cutting the later part of the story where the tension starts to ratchet up. As a side note, the opening scene where the mobs are trying to break into the building reminds me of the film that I just saw, 28 Weeks Later. The scary thing about them is that in some country, you can actually rent a crowd to for protest/cause disturbance.
OP Theme: 「プリズム」 (Prism) by Ikeda Ayako - AVI version (17.6MB) | PSP version (9MB)
This is a rather interesting first episode for the series. Unlike other series that have been released this Spring, there is actually a sense of originality with this one. The basic idea is quite unusual because it deals with the merge between the real world and the virtual-reality like world. It's fascinating to see how the humans react to the the half-real, half-virtual world and find the two barely recognisable because of the glasses that they wear. Despite this, there are major differences between the two world. I suspect the majority of the conflicts will arise due to elements from one part of the world crossing over to the other side of the world. The OP and ED theme themselves are great. They have this calm, relaxing feel which suits the pseudo techno/slice-of-life feel of the series.
I am sorry to take a little bit of space to talk about it but I think it's necessary to inform everyone about this. A couple of hours ago, my laptop was hit by a strange-looking message, saying that I need to re-activate my Windows using my credit card. If I say 'no', Windows would quit on me and I can't do anything. The thing is, there's something about the message that seems suspicious. It actually asks for your PIN number. Deciding that only a fool will give out his/her credit card to unknown pop ups, I decided to use my desktop computer to find out more about it. As it turns out, the message is a new trojan called Trojan Kardphisher. This is a new Trojan which got unleashed around the 7th of this month so it's relatively new. I managed to over-ride the stupid trojan by giving it fake name and credit card number then flushing out the entire data that it created. Anyway, consider yourself warned and be careful if it happens to you. Well, back to the show.
This episode is amazing and I'm not even talking about the action. I am just amazed at how touching the dialogue and interaction between Hei and Havoc turn out to be. It's been a while since I've seen a one on one conversation which actually interest me. However, their conversation turn out to be really heart-warming and arresting for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with the jazz music that plays on the background or maybe it is because this is the first time I see a Contractor with an unguarded emotion. So far we've seen Hei 'acting' like he has some kind of emotion but I suspect he's actually pretending all of those times. In this one, however, both he and Havoc actually show something resembling true emotion. In fact, it's actually kind of creepy seeing Hei acting like he is in the first few minutes of this episode.
It's hard to believe that there are only 7 episodes left to the series. That means in about 2 months, everything will be over. I have to say that the anime writers have done a good job of condensing the story thus far. Some of the elements that they left out are quite extraneous and could use a good trim in the editing room. Having said that, this episode unfortunately is still not exciting enough. Thankfully it's a prelude to a more tense situation which I believe we'll see on next week's episode. From there on, things will wind down to the finish line. I have to say, however, that it's been a blast watching Light getting increasingly cornered from every angle by different people who tries to catch him. I guess he didn't count on the possibilities that there will be other people who'd go after him after L's death.
Rie Fu - Tsukiakari (45MB, for PSP/Quicktime) | YouTube version
Tsukiakari is the ED theme for Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha. The song is performed by Rie Fu, whom most people knew after her single, Life is Like a Boat. I've been looking forward to this PV but unfortunately the full song doesn't feel as powerful as the short version. I keep hoping that there will be a crescendo part of the song but it always ends on a plateu. The PV itself is nothing special but it's better than just showing the actress singing the song. It basically shows Rie Fu in various locales and in one instance, she can be seen jumping from a real world to a canvass. It makes me wonder if this has any significance to the actual Darker than Black plot.
Tsukiakari will be released on the 23rd of May this year.
I think it was a good decision to separate the later half of Chiaki's family visit from the earlier half. This way I am not as angry as I was when I first read the manga. I mentioned last week that I feel this family undermines Nodame. I realise that they seem to warm up to her but in general, I feel they still look down on her to a degree. Regardless of what they think of her, I think it's a bit cruel to humiliate her by saying that she's not going to reach her dream. On top of this, she's actually a stranger and not one of the family. I don't think anyone would say something that harsh to someone they barely know. I realise it's supposed to be funny but I don't find it to be that way because I know how off-putting to have someone telling you that you can't do something that you want to do.
It looks like James Bond is going to get some supernatural colleagues in the future if this episode is an indication of where MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, is heading in terms of recruitment. At the moment these agents seem to be okay although just like other Contractors, they seem to have no sense of mercy and are bordering on cruel. I think this is the interesting thing about the series. Having said that, I'm getting a little bit tired with how every single foreigner in this series seem to be either evil or have suspect personality. I guess Hei and his friends are supposed to be representative of the good guys. The problem is, I'm still not sure if I'm actually supposed to root for him or against him. After all, I know little about the organisation that he works for and what he does to all of the contractors that he finds in his missions.
It feels ages since I last blog anything. I just haven't got the energy to do it lately. I hope things will settle down in the next month but in the meantime, I apologise if things are slower than usual. Anyway, this episode covers a lot of things. I tried to compare it with the manga and it seems they use no less than 9 chapters at once. Of course, they didn't use every single plotline, which I'm relieved for because some of them are kind of boring. This episode also indicates that things are wrapping up real soon. I am actually surprised at how effective this episode is in general because it manages to get straight to the point without leaving out the important details.
