Claymore – Episodes 3 & 4 (spoilers)

Clare is ordered to deal with Yoma attacking people within a church. The city has forbidden the entry of Claymores so she has to conceal her identity as a Claymore which also causes her to lose her ability to detect Yomas. Clare has to fight some guards on her way to the church and she ends up wounded by the Yoma as she protects the same guards.

Clare inspects every person to find out who’s the Yoma. No one bears the presence of Yoma and Clare figures it’s hiding among the corpses in the catacombs where Raki is waiting for her. Clare and the guards make it in time to save Raki, but wounded from last battle with that Yoma, she is too weak to defeat it. Clare needs to use her full-power which is too much for her body and she starts turning fully into a Yoma. Raki cries by her side and swears that if Clare dies, he will die with her. This suddenly stops Clare’s transformation and there is much rejoice.

If Raki keeps his act up, he’s going to win SaiCrybaby championship or something. He’s been through a lot but at least he should take it like a man and not weep all the time. The guards give him a sword and tell him to become strong enough to support Clare. The ideal development would be Raki growing up a brave young man who can keep his emotions under control, but for some reason I find such development hardly likely.

Hokuto no Ken – True Saviour Legend part 2 (spoilers)

It’s kind of late to review True Saviour Legend part 2 now as it already came out two months ago and the next part is supposed premiere next week, but I’ll write my opinions about it anyway.

The Legend of Yuria is exactly what the name says, the legend of Yuria. It tells the early events of Hokuto no Ken timeline from Yuria’s perspective. We see a scene from Yuria’s childhood when she meets Kenshiro and his brothers for the first time, witness how Shin tortures Kenshiro to force Yuria to say she loves Shin, Yuria’s suicide attempt which leads her to be saved by Nanto Gosha-sei and becoming the Last General. Yuria also witnesses the battle between Kenshiro and Souther.

The Legend of Yuria certainly gives one a different view of the events of Hokuto no Ken. Yuria is not a martial artist and thus there was only a handful of short fighting scenes in this episode including battle between Kenshiro and Shin, the one where Kenshiro loses not their final battle, and a scene where Ray fights with some members of Nanto Gosha-sei. There was no amazing battles like the last battle between Kenshiro and Souther we saw in the first episode, though there was some re-used scenes from that battle.

While it wasn’t all the exciting and manly, The Legend of Yuria suucceds in what it tries to do: To give depht to Yuria’s part in the events of Hokuto no Ken. It sets the stage for the next part, The Legend of Raoh II, which I’m looking forward to with much anticipation.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Episode 4 (spoilers)

The fourth episode feels like filler no matter how I look at it. Every episode so far has been directed by different person and different art directors have been used as well. This time Osamu Kobayashi handles both art and episode direction and even the storyboards. You’d have to be blind if you couldn’t see that there’s something different in this episode.

The story has absolutely no development in this episode. At first Kamina is teaching Simon how to unite their mechas in a manly way. Suddenly they’re attacked by a group called Kuro no Kyodai who mistook them for beastmen. After making up, they look for food as they’re all starving. They find some fur balls and try to eat them, but their dinner has another plan and brings out their ganmen. At first Simon and Kamina are getting owned but after uniting into Gurren Lagann they are easily able to kick the furballs’ arses.

So the story of this episode is all filler, what about the animation and the action? The drawing style is completely different from the usual. I don’t like this style very much but I guess it’s decent on it’s own way, probably something you have to get used to.It’s kinda artistic not very good for anime. The action was simply said weak. Unlike normally where everything moves around fluidly, all the ganmen were just standing still most of the time and the big appearance of Gurren Lagann didn’t have much impact either. Special effects looked quite cheap as well.

I’ve heard people call this episode “experimental” and that’s exactly what it is. Experimenting with different drawing styles and directors can work sometimes. It didn’t work out this time and that’s all there is to it. Let’s hope the people making this show don’t try something like this again.

Lucky Star – Episode 3

Decent episode. Not any big hits but not too boring either. I think I’m getting used to the slower pace of Lucky Star. Instead of trying to do million gags in a second like in Excel Saga or Pani Poni Dash, Lucky Star is more laid-back and easier to follow. Though that doesn’t change the fact that I prefer both Excel Saga and Pani Poni Dash to Lucky Star…

The change to short-sleeved and blue-coloured summer uniforms was nice and that will earn the anime some more “Moe points” from me. Still it’s not moe enough to cause the dreaded “So moe! I’m gonna die!”-ish reactions to occur. I believe the reason to this is the fact that even though the characters are drawn to look like children they’re actually almost adults and a sworn lolicon like me cannot be deceived with something like this!

Seto no Hanayome – Episode 1 (spoilers)

It’s an ordinary summer vacation for Michishio Nagasumi and his parents in an inland where his grandmother lives. Nagasumi ends up drowning and saved by mermaid. According to the law of mermaids, anyone who discovers their identity is to be killed or the mermaid identified has to die. In order to save both himself and San, the mermaid who saved him, Nagasumi accepts to marry her.

So far I can say that Seto no Hanayome is a love comedy. I had a lot of fun watching the first episode, but knowing this anime is made by GONZO I don’t expect too much as I’ve seen them ruin great mangas, like Hellsing for example, with their poor anime adaptions more than enough times. Still I hope they can keep the quality up at least for a while.

Hayate no Gotoku! – Episodes 2 & 3

Now that Hayate has began his work as a butler, this anime reminds me of He is my Master with the situation turned upside down. Instead of all the ecchi humour aimed at older males, Hayate no Gotoku!’s humour is aimed at younger audience which is not entirely a bad as it’s actually funny from time to time.

There’s tons of references to other animes and mangas such as Gundam, Sailor Moon, Detective Conan, Black Lagoon, etc. At first I though about listing and screencapturing all of them but that seems to be too much of work. And I’m sure I couldn’t even spot all of the references so I’ll leave it to someone with more knowledge (and time to spend) than I do.

Anyway, this anime is getting better as it goes on and I might even read the manga one of these days.

Nagasarete Airantou – Episode 3 (spoilers)

Having accepted that there’s no way to get away from the island, Ikuto decides to help Suzu at her daily chores such as fetching water, picking up mushrooms and so on. Ikuto turns out to be a little or no use at everything he does.

I learned a lot about Rin in this episode. There’s been some hints before, but now it’s stated straight that she’s sort of a tough girl who blushs and gets all embarassed when she tries to act more womanly. I like this type of characters especially the blushing! I hope that a time comes when she’s able to behave like a girl in front of Ikuto without getting embarrassed about it.

The preview for the next episode gave us two separate titles so there’s probably going to be an episode with two shorter stories instead of one long story. I think it’s fit for comedies as there can be more themes in single episode that way. In the TV series of Hare+Guu, there were several episodes where stuff in the first half had little or nothing to do with anything on the second half. In the OVAs, all the episodes were split into two mini episodes that hadn’t necessarily anything to do with each other and thus it’s good they have separate titles. This rant is completely off-topic though…

But what’s this? Product placement? Quite cunning, I say.

Genshiken Season 2 will air in autumn 2007!

Everyone already knows this but just in case I post it here as well. As of today, Genshiken OVA website has confirmed that there will be a second TV season of Genshiken. There are no details so far, except that it’ll air in next autumn.

Genshiken is a great anime but having already read most of the manga, I’m not all that excited. Of course I’m gonna love seeing my favourite scenes from the manga animated and voiced, that’s how it is always when an anime is made from some manga I already know. Also it seems to be animated by the same studio that did the new Kujibiki Unbalance and Genshiken OVA and I prefer the old Genshiken over the new one. Well I don’t mind as long as it’s the same good old Genshiken.

Still… Best news I’ve heard in a while.

the pillows – Scarecrow

the pillows has been one of my favourite rock bands for quite a while already. Their newest single Scarecrow features three tracks and I’ll review them separately.

1. Scarecrow
The song used as the ED for Moonlight Mile. I don’t know that anime nor have I seen the ED so I can’t connect this song to it. It’s nice and calm song that uses a lot of acoustic guitars. I like the chorus and the calm solo goes well with the mood of the song.

2. BOYS BE LOCKSMITH
A Little more energetic song but still quite calm. I like the tempo of this song.

3. Tsuyogari
Melodic and ballad-ish song. Very calming.

I think this single showed me a new side of the pillows. However calm and acoustic songs are not really my thing and I’m positive the fans of songs like Last Dinosaur or Blues Drive Monster are unlikely enjoy this single very much. Still it’s the pillows and things like Sawao Yamanaka’s vocals remain unchanged. People who like the pillows in general and not just few of their hits should give this single a try.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Episode 3 (spoilers)

Simon, Kamina and Yoko are out hunting for food. They encounter a beastman named Viral and Kamina has a sword fight with him. As Simon interrupts them with his Lagann, the beastman decides to bring out his own ganmen, Enki. Simon and Kamina are powerless against this huge ganmen and flee to save their lives. Kamina insists on having rematch with Viral but the result is the same. Then Kamina comes up with a crazy idea and jams Lagann on top of his Gurren. Surpsingly they fuse and Kamina names the new mech Gurren Lagann. With Gurren Lagann’s power Viral is forced to escape. Leeron finds data regarding the beastmen’s camp’s location and the heroes decide to attack the camp.

It seems like Simon is still reverting back to his wimpy side. Guess he’s one of those characters who simply can’t do anything unless they are or someone else is in serious threat. I’m still hoping that Simon will lose his wimpy side and become a real man like Kamina as the story goes on. Viral is pretty cool bad guy. He doesn’t have what it takes to be the main boss, but he’s definitely the mid-boss type of character who gives the heroes lots of trouble every now and then. I also like his seiyuu, Nobuyuki Hiyama.

By the way, is it just me or do Simon and Ryu (from Breath of Fire V) look quite similiar? Another thing, Konami has opened their Gurren Lagann website. There’s some images and info on the upcoming Gurren Lagann video game and some figures (Gurren Lagann and Enki).