Hakuouki – 11

Episode 11 – Fallen One

Either I missed something in the past few episodes or Nagumo Kaoru, the antagonist pictured above on the right, was randomly inserted into this episode and the protagonists just happened to know him. Knowing how I haven’t exactly completely paid attention to this series, it wouldn’t be surprising if I did miss his introduction.

Anyways, the conflict is beginning to escalate, with Okita and Heisuke both becoming members of the Rasetsu squad. Interestingly, this episode continues to follow historical events, albeit with a little twist. In this episode Okita is shot with silver bullets (the well known anti vampire material), which prevents his wounds from recovering.

More political turmoil and power struggles surface this episode, one of the most notable being Kondou’s near death experience after being shot through the upper left torso. Tensions are high, and the episode in general was ok to watch, although Nagumo’s appearance (and subsequent revelation of his motivations) didn’t really contribute much to the overall conflict.

This series has been confirmed for a season two in the fall season, which surprised me. I could think of plenty of series that deserves a second season more than this….coughcoughfullmetalpaniccoughcough…. Ahem… anyways. This has solved any pacing issues that I thought would come up, and could potentially lead to a more developed plot or set of characters.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.25/5

Hayate no Gotoku – 276 + 277

Poor Klaus 😛

Chapter 276 + 277 – Nyahn and Family Ties and Other Connections can be Found Here

Music Review – .Hack//Sign OST

Wow, it’s been a while since I did a music review. Anyways, here’s one of my favorite anime soundtracks of all time, the .Hack//Sign OST. Composed by Yuki Kajiura, this soundtrack will be one of the most memorable to me, although the anime itself was more mediocre.

Good anime soundtracks, in the past decade or so, have become much more commonplace. Perhaps it’s because of the anime boom worldwide, or some other factor. Either ways, .Hack//Sign’s soundtrack is a relatively well balanced soundtrack, with tracks that are peaceful, energetic, dark, or downright haunting.

Where this soundtrack does exceptionally well is in it’s darker pieces. Anybody who listens to the track named Aura will be welcomed by a depressing, dark melancholic voice echoing to a heavy piano tune. It’s quite emotion evoking, and exceptionally well done. Obsession, the opening theme, is somewhat similar in tone. However, the opening is less dark and, instead uses an electric guitar and a rapid beat to give off a very chaotic feeling.

Other songs, such as Fake Wings and Key of the Twilight, are much more light hearted with a mysterious flair to them. Key of the twilight, in particular, starts off with a very calm sound to it. Then the amazing string instruments start playing, clearly influenced by a more Celtic style of music. The resulting song is quite dynamic, flows well, and is downright catchy. The World, another track in this soundtrack, exhibits the same string instruments that make the song so much more powerful and memorable.

The powerfully mysterious tones to songs such as in the track In the Land of Twilight, Under the Moon are excellent in setting the mood for this particular anime.

The ending theme, Yasashii Yoake, is equally well done, with a blend of an Irish Bouzouki, vocals, guitars, and flutes. There is a very exotic feeling to this song.

Other songs in this soundtrack, such as B.T., Say Goodbye, and Mimiru, have a Piano and violins play a more prominent role. Although not quite as memorable as other songs in this soundtrack, they are very well done, with emotional tunes that almost always hit the right sound.

Overall Score: 9.2/10

Overall, an excellent soundtrack with a unique, exotic sound to many of it’s tracks. Kudos to Yuki Kajiura for this gem of a soundtrack.

Obsession (TV OP):

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai – 102 + 103

Chapters 102 + 103 – Devil May Cry, Devil May Try

Completely forgot to write up about chapter 102  ^.^;; I’m probably missing a few more manga chapters, which I’ll get around to sometime.

Arakawa Under the Bridge – 12

Episode 12 – 12BRIDGE

Maria’s sadistic tendencies provides all of the humor this episode, with her constantly kicking both Hoshi and Kou off of the bridge. It was pretty funny seeing how Maria kept “hurting” Sister’s feelings, as well as Stella’s wishes for world domination (funnier than it sounds).

Gags aside, when the threat to the residents under the bridge is adverted (by a “mysterious” man that the voice actor totally gives away), Kou’s father decides to take a look at the situation in person.

Which made it pretty ironic that Kou’s father ended up exactly how Kou did when he first got there; pantless, and refusing to be indebted to Nino.

It was nice how seeing the more subtle, somewhat romantic elements of this show come together in the latter half of this episode. The catalyst for all of this would was the presence of Kou’s father. His presence at the bridge sparked a series of little events, which lead into a nice little finale for the episode. The way in which Nino heard a confession from Kou was a nice touch, even if you could practically hear from his voice how afraid Kou is of his father.

This episode had an “end of series” feeling to it, but there’s still 13BRIDGE that airs next week, which is the final episode. With the main conflict out of the way, I’m guessing this show will return to it’s gag filled, carefree format from earlier episodes.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5

Kaichou wa Maid-sama – 12

Episode 12 – 「A Maid, Even at the Sports Festival」

This episode focuses on light hearted comedy, in line with the rest of this series. The sports festival, and the resulting conflict between the boys and girls (in a friendly way, mind you) leads to most of the hilarious scenes this episode.

Misaki’s demon-like determination to prevent the boys from winning any of their prizes (like the right to play heavy metal music in the morning, or steal a kiss from a girl) makes most of the episode consist of funny confrontations between the two sides.

Of course, as with all of the other arcs in this show, they threw in a slightly serious twist to this episode. The conflict here was that students were laughing at how others were taking the “joke” costume race seriously.

Of course, Misaki and Usui ended that conflict as usual, but I felt that the original premise was a little weak. Unlike other arcs (like Sakura’s crush two episodes ago), the conflict was a little overblown and harder to believe.

Either ways, in the end, this episode was pretty amusing to watch.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.5/5

Durarara!! – 23

Episode 23 – 「千錯万綜」 Confusing and Complicated

Well, since I accidentally spoiled myself on a forum before, I guess this turn of events doesn’t really surprise me. However, the suspense and tension that builds up to the final scene, where the three misunderstood friends finally meet face to face was well done.

Mikado’s reasons for shutting down the dollars was quite an interesting scene. Rather than being annoyed at his decision, I found that his reasons were surprisingly reasonable, and believable enough to understand his point of view. Shizuo, Celty, Simon, and Shinra’s subtle relationship is also exhibited this episode, which was a nice plus. Kida’s angst annoys me a little, but it did help develop his perspective, so it is forgivable.

In any case, the creators have definitely done a good job of developing everybody’s characterizations. The next episode, the finale, has to be one hell of an episode if it wants to match up to the first half of this show.

However, I think it could be done.

Overall enjoyment: 4/5

Angel Beats – 12

Episode 12 – 「Knockin’ on heaven’s door」

As with the most recent episodes, this episode further cements that the sheer amount of material left to cover just screams “there AREN’T enough episodes to cover everything, so there needs to be MOAR!”

But at this point, I’m more like “who cares about common sense anymore lol” when it comes to this show. The great part about this episode was all the intriguing and absurd ideas in this episode.

This show’s take on love, and how it is the root cause to the whole shadow dilemma, is both absurd yet interesting to me. The whole idea, although seemingly random, could actually happen and is somewhat believable, and it’s these type of unexpected twists that are keeping me entertained. The whole “anti love” angel program system, along with Yurippe’s resolve to end this conflict (and strongly hinted at disappearance, although that came to be false), helped give her some much needed character development.

Yurippe’s brief encounter with insanity felt totally out of place, though. The crazy pacing this episode, along with the disappearances of a majority of the remaining SSS members, the random shadow fights, Kanade’s fighting against the shadows, and the completely random antagonist, served to add to the extremely chaotic feeling to this entire episode.

From an objective point of view, this episode would be by all means considered horrible. Despite that, I liked the turn of events this episode, and am looking forward to the finale to this odd, somewhat contentious little series.

Overall Enjoyment: 4/5

Arakawa Under the Bridge – 11

Episode 11 – 11 Bridge

This episode, as all the others, was filled with gags every few minutes. Sister’s disguise in a cute bear suit, Whitey’s “magical words”, Stella’s reward therapy (aka knock him unconsious) and all the other gags were hilarious.

What differentiates this episode from the rest is the more serious, subtle parts to this episode. Recruit’s week long leave from under the bridge to set things straight, and Nino’s subsequent reaction to his leave just shows how much they care for one another. Although I feel that their relationship is lacking in the character development department, this episode is probably the only one that shows how much they rely on each other.

Recruit’s development as a character, which is a stark change from what he was in the first episode, also shows itself this episode; the effort and care he puts into trying to save his new home shows just how much he has come to value his new home under the bridge.

How everyone living under the bridge views Recruit is also distinctly seen in this episode. Their concern for Recruit (although in odd ways… lol) along with their distinct sense of community serves to reflect just how much the characters have changed and grown to respect Recruit in their own crazy unique way.

Shinbo’s development of all the character’s relationships this episode are both subtle, yet help flesh out the relationships immensely. The comedy works as a guise to hide all of that, but that just adds to the entertainment value of this episode as a whole.

Overall Enjoyment: 4/5

Heroman – 12

Episode 12 – Stalkers

After being gone for the entire weekend at the Animenext convention in NJ, it’s finally time to get back to posting up stuff. After the fast paced, tiring (yet fun) convention, getting back to relaxing and watching anime is a nice change of pace.

Anyways, this episode, as with the past few episodes, follows a slice of life format for the first half of the episode. This time, Joey goes on a date with Lina, which culminates in the Ferris wheel scene shown above. While the date was fun to watch, the real meat to this episode would include the fight between Heroman and Doctor Minami’s giant robot in the latter half of this episode.

The fight, along with the presence of a news helicopter nearby, almost 100% assures that Heroman as a hidden existence from the public is gone; this compounded with the NIA identifying Joey’s identity as the one behind Heroman means that the next few episodes should be much more plot heavy. What’s interesting is that, rather than keeping Heroman and Joey as a secret (as other superhero series often do) in this series their identities are outright revealed, with consequences that could be seen in the next episode preview.

Rather than an all out fighting action anime that I thought Heroman would be, these last few episodes point to a different, more complex direction. Ever since the absence of the Skrugg aliens, Heroman has turned into a show where there is more complex motivations at work, such as revenge, national security, politics, and military interests. This, peppered with a bit of action here and there, has definitely caught my interest.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.5/5