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ローゼンメイデン 
This is a nice adventure-style episode. I am really glad to see how lately the animation quality seems to be relatively good. I guess the producers save the money they didn't use in the early episodes and use it in these episodes. The storyline is also interesting because it delves into some Japanese mythology, particularly that of youkai and tsukumogami. At times like this I wish I had taken Japanese mythology class so I can recognise some of the creatures that are shown in this episode. This episode also has some amusing comic scenes. One stand out moment was when a mob of people chase two characters and they keep asking the characters to come back. I always find this hilarious because do the mobs seriously think the person being chased will come back and let himself get beaten to pulp?
September 18, 2006 | 
12 Comments
This is such a strange episode. It seems as if the producers suddenly realised that they don't have enough budget to produce the remaining episodes so they need to cut down on spending right away. Having said that, the drawings are actually better than their past efforts. This will explain why they reused the same room over and over again. That way they can minimise animation and keep a tight leash on the character design. I guess this is what we get after a high quality episode like the one that comes before it. Overall, however, I don't mind the episode. The story might be a little bit hard to understand at first but it was quite eye-opener, at least for me, once I understood what Yuuko says in the episode.
I really like this episode from the story to the quality of the drawing, which is significantly better than usual. When I first saw it on Japanese TV a month ago, I thought it looks unusually good but it actually looks even better in Widescreen format. Because of this, I decide to include the larger screencaps in case anyone wants to see them. I'm also surprise to see an Angelic Layer reference included in the story. But I guess by now Piffle Princess brand can be seen in almost all of CLAMP's series. The story changes a little bit from the manga because the anime didn't have a Valentine episode. But I think it still is as good and actually gives Kuda-Kitsune more prominence in the story as well. I realised that another Tsubasa Chronicle reference is cut out of this story but I really don't mind at this point in the series.
I have to admit that the drawing in this episode is not as bad as I thought it'd be. In general the character's face is better drawn and a lot more consistent. The backgrounds are also less dull than the episode that preceeds it. Having said that, I don't understand why the quality of the series is so inconsistent. I have actually watched episode 16 while I was in Japan and noticed that it actually looks good. It feels as if some episodes were drawn by other, less experienced animators. Thankfully, just like NHK ni Youkoso!, there is a strong and interesting plot contained within each episode. I think if the producer can increase the amount of funding given to the animation, this could have been a much better series. Anyway, I'll try to catch up with the rest of the episodes soon but I have to admit that I'm quite overwhelm with my schedule at the moment. So I'm sorry if the reviews come rather late these days.
I don't get this. How can a professionally made anime series like this one look this horrid? Just look at the character design for the twin sisters, for example. They are nothing like their manga counterpart. Their eyes are dull and have no life. Similarly, although character design for the regulars look quite good on the previous episode, in this one everyone looks awful. Did Production IG outsourced this episode to an amateur company or did they ask some work experience kids to draw the characters in this episode? Either way, it's disappointing to see what could otherwise be an interesting arc ruined by bad character design. It's a good thing that xxxHOLiC also has an interesting storyline because otherwise, there is little incentive to watch this series. As a side note, a new ending theme called Kagerou is being used starting with this episode.
I'm sorry if I've been slow in catching up with some of the older series. The new anime that came out this week and the fact that I tend to be away during the day really cause a havoc on my timetable. Anyway, this turns out to be a rather interesting episode. I don't really like the fact that Kuda-Kitsune large form also has that green tea color but I love the creature so this is a minor problem. I also think that the animation seems to be slightly better for some reason. The scene where Kuda-Kitsune fight against the Hane parasite was quite exciting and dynamic to watch. If the animators can maintain consistency in the character design and adds more complex shading into the background, this would have been a better anime than it currently is at the moment.
This episode explains why the anime writers decided to alter Himawari's horror story from Episode 10. It seems they simply wanted to use that story as an original anime episode. Although if you think about it, can you actually call this an original story? In essence, the anime writers simply modified the story from the manga and turned it into a stand alone episode. In addition to this, you would think that for an original episode like this one they'll actually increase the animation quality but nope, it's still as crappy as ever. Thankfully the storyline is quite good and creepy but that's not really hard to do given the fact that they simply had to modify the original storyline, which was already creepy to begin with.
This is a good episode that basically improvised and changed the original storyline a little bit. There is even an appearance from another character which we've already seen from a previous episode. This episode also looks a lot better for some reason. The character design is a lot more consistent and there are some nice effects in some of the scenes. Having said that the character design in this anime always bothers me for some reason and I couldn't figure out the reason for this until yesterday when I saw an illustration at an anime magazine. The thing that is missing for the character design is the usual shading that one normally finds in a character's hair. As a result the hair of the characters often look a bit like a wig. It doesn't seem to be much of a problem in the manga but in the anime, where everything has colours, this is more noticeable.
This story sure brings back memory of the time when I was camping with a bunch of friends and we ended up telling horror stories to freak each other out. Unfortunately, I'm not really good at this but I decide to jot down what I was telling my friends back then in the entry below. If you have some scary contribution then I'd definitely like to read it too. The episode itself looks surprisingly good this time around. The muted colour pallete that characterises the series seem to work quite well in delivering the Ghost Story part of the episode. I also wonder if the animators have been holding off telling this story so that it'll coincide with the arrival of Summer in Japan. Technically though, it's still rainy season over there right now.
This is basically a combination of the pipe fox spirit introduction and a story about the red string of fate when you connect your little finger with another person's. I personally love the pipe fox spirit so it's nice to finally be able to see it on screen. I didn't expect it to have a green-ish colour though. I thought it will be kind of white like the wolf in Okami game. But colour aside, this is a rather interesting episode even if it's just a repetition of the theme that was presented in episode 2. I don't recall any particular crossover here but if you do notice one, please let me know. As a side note, Buck-Tick will actually perform a second ending theme for the series, 「蜉蝣-かげろう-」- Kagerou. Hmm, I don't know if I like this since I love the first ending, Reason. I think if the producer has money to spare, they should have use it to improve the animation and character design quality, which are not exactly good at the moment.
I've been hoping for this particular story to be animated and now that it's here, I think I'm quite happy with it. As usual, I wish the animation can be a bit better but at least this time around the characters' face are a lot more consistent than in the previous episodes. But the important thing about this episode is the story, which is probably one of the darkest one that has been animated so far. And much to my surprise, Production IG actually kept the majority of the scenes intact down to some of the rather disturbing scenes. I'm happy about this because I think the impact of the story would have been lessened without these scenes. And if you're wondering, the scene where Moro and Maru are cleaning a dusty carpet with Fai's magic staff still remains in the episode as well. Although since I've never paid attention to the detail of the staff, I've never been sure if that really is his staff or just a similar-looking one.
Wow, finding a good raw for this episode was harder than usual. I only had the 105 and 121MB as options. Oh well, I suppose I'll just upgrade the screenshots to a Widescreen version later. Anyway, if you're looking for references to other series, you'll be glad to know that the reference to Doraemon remains intact. But as expected, there's no place for Tsubasa reference in this series. I also don't understand why the animators decide to put this episode first before the Zashiki-Warashi story. Despite this, they actually included one reference to her character at the end of the episode. As a side note, Ageha Ohkawa actually wrote the script for this episode. This suggests that she is actually aware of the changes and possibly even approved them herself. On a more positive note, the animation quality of the animation in this episode seems to be better than last week's although I realise that's not saying much.
After the Widescreen version of episode 1 looking rather good, I decided to download the Widescreen version of the second episode just to see if it actually improves the rather lousy animation featured in the episode. Unfortunately, the answer is not really. The overall framing of the scenes are generally improved and this in effect, allows more colours to be included within a scene. The Widescreen framing, however, can't fix the bad and inconsistent character design that plagues the second episode. I suspect viewers will have to wait until the DVD version to see if this episode will get an upgrade in terms of character design. It seems to be the trend with the recent anime series so hopefully this will happen with xxxHOLiC as well. Anyway, this episode is basically a return of the first volume of the manga. And in case you're wondering, the crossover with Gouhou Drug/Lawful Drug remains intact.
If you haven't seen this series in its Widescreen format, I think you should give it a try. Admittedly, episode 1 was higher in quality in comparison to the other episodes but the framing of the Widescreen version still makes the series look a lot better. If you're interested, take a look at the Widescreen version of the first episode. I've also created a screencaps comparison to show the two version side by side. There are certainly many details and tasteful framing missing from the pan and scan version of this series. Anyway, this episode is basically an adaptation of the fox spirit mini story and the Shiritori (word connecting game). It was a good decision to combine the two since the fox-spirit story was a bit short and will not be enough to make a full episode if it was adapted on its own.
Opening Theme: 「19才」- Juukyuu-sai (Widescreen Ver) by Suga Shikao - PSP format (MB) | AVI format (46MB)
Ending Theme: Reason by Fonogenico (Widescreen Ver) - PSP format (MB) | AVI format (10.8MB)
I don't get this series sometimes. From time to time, there are scenes that look really good but then they zoom out of that scene and we get the usual mediocre animation quality. It gives me the impression that the budget for this series must be rather limited. I find this to be rather unfortunate since the majority of the story in this series are quite interesting. Story-wise, this one also gets a little bit of modification here and there. Oh well, at least Yuuko actually looks a bit better this time around and in general, the animation is a lot more consistent. I just wish the animators can put a bit more colour and make the character design look better.
Suga Shikao - 19-sai (19.3MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
Lately I've been wondering about the appropriateness of 19-sai as an opening theme for xxxHOLiC. Sure, it provides a rather creepy tune for the opening animation but lyric-wise, it has a lot more to do with lovers than the story of xxxHOLiC. Well, the PV finally shows what the kind of imageries that Suga Shikao probably had in mind when writing the lyric. It's a rather revealing video, to say the least. It actually looks more like a soft-core porn than a normal PV. And since this was aired in Japan, it comes with the obligatory blurry spots during some of the more stimulating scenes. The story is basically about a guy who's obsesed with photographing butterfly but then his obsession turns into photographing a random female who's in the middle of pleasuring herself in her apartment. The two eventually proceeds to have sex with one another. If you're easily offended by this kind of material, then I recommend that you stay away from this PV.
Well, I think it's pretty much obvious now that the anime writers are hellbent on removing all sorts of Tsubasa reference from this series because once again, a cross-over scene which originally appeared in the manga has now been eliminated from this version. I am not too happy about this but since my main interest in following this series has nothing to do with Tsubasa, I figure it's not that big of a loss. I am a lot more concerned about any modification that the writers do on some of the darker storyline. Thankfully, this time around they seem to keep most things intact, Tsubasa nothwithstanding. As long as the series remains as dark and creepy as the original manga, I think I'll still be interested in it. Animation-wise, this week is a mark improvement over last week's episode. I'm also quite amused to see Chobits joke that is contained in this episode. It helps that Doumeki looks a bit like Hideki and there's a reference to A City With No People storybook here.
Well, this turns out to be a rather disappointing follow up to the first episode. To begin with, the animation is quite bad. The character design is inconsistent and becomes unproportional from time to time. The colours are also dull and unexciting. The writers also seem to be hellbent on removing any traces of link to Tsubasa Chronicle by altering the early scene involving Watanuki and Yuuko. In addition to this, I always get the impression that the ending of the manga is supposed to be darker than this but the anime decides to change this as well. Overall, I'm rather disappointed by it if it wasn't for the fact that the original storyline is still interesting. I really hope that next week's episode won't repeat the same dull and inconsistent character design because that will be really disappointing after the rather strong first episode.
Opening Theme: 「19才」- Juukyuu-sai (Widescreen Ver) by Suga Shikao - PSP format (MB) | AVI format (46MB)
This is not a bad debut for the series although I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed with the animation quality which is a step down from the movie. I also didn't expect the original broadcaster, TBS, to screen it on a pan/scan format. As the screencap comparison shows, the widescreen version on BS-i looks a lot better but unfortunately is not available until 1 month later. Thankfully the story remains as entertaining and full of warning just like in the original manga. There is one particular scene in this episode that is actually quite frightening. The opening for the series is sung by Suga Shikao, who seems to be doing a good job at it. Although in comparison to the ending theme, I think I prefer the ending theme a bit more. In general, however, this is a solid first episode for the series and I'm looking forward to next week's episode.
Spring anime season will start from today so I thought I'll go over several new trailers which have just been released all over the internet. Some of these trailers can be seen in the Animage DVD so I'm not going to include those ones. But the rest are brand new ones which have just been aired either on Tokyo International Anime Fair or in Japanese TV. The best one that I've seen so far is probably the xxxHOLiC Trailer. I really like the colour scheme and the character design, both of which are a lot better than the ones used on Tsubasa Chronicle. Even the super deformed expressions of the characters look a lot more detailed here than in its crossover counterpart. The opening theme of the series, 19-sai by Suga Shikao is not bad either. I hope the ending song, Reason by Fonogenico will be equally good.
