Asakomi

On Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto:

If I may quote Hashihime, who I believe sums it up perfectly, “Animation at least as good as Kanon, if you can imagine it. So beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. Complex end-of-Edo-period plot involving swordsmanship and magic. “

I agree, one hundred percent! Now if only I could understand what was going on……..

My Enma Ai returns! I have so been looking forward to this second season of Jigoku Shoujo. Seriously. I know a lot of people were disappointed in the first season because they spent so much time on the episodic side of things and less on the overarching plot. But I have more forgiveness for it. I think there was a little nugget of information about Ai and her cohorts in every episode, and that was enough to keep me hooked.

This season picks up where the last one left off and we get to see Ai’s first meeting with the creepy spider. Then the episode pretty much follows the pattern of the previous season, with a few slight changes. I won’t go over them here, you’ll just have to go watch. :p Also, I’ve only watched this raw so I can’t really comment on much anyway XD.

There was no OP this time around, but the ED song was pretty with some absolutely stunning images of Ai. I love Ai. I think she’s absolutely beautiful, and I am always drawn to mysterious and melancholy characters. When I look at her eyes I just see this terribly deep sadness and my heart goes out to her. I often feel tears burning my eyes when I look at her and I truly wish to help take her pain away, help her find solace. I feel this way about many people in my real life.

I do hope that this season tells us more about the histories of the rest of her team, and her beginnings as Jigoku Shoujo. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for that.

P.S. Browsed Geegle lately? *chuckles*

I thought the OP song was pretty good, pretty catchy anyway though I’m not sure how I feel about the singer’s voice. She was great until she really started straining for some of those notes where she really tried to sound gritty/edgy. The animation sequence was very well done though.

The ED was incredibly cute. I’m not sure if I’d say it fits with the tone of the series. It doesn’t really seem to fit the first episode, which was more on the serious side. But on it’s own, very cute and catchy.

The narration directly following the OP sequence reminded me of Basilisk a lot. (Never a bad thing). Gonzo did a great job on the animation. I hope they can keep it up, and the character designs are very appealing.

Alice’s voice is very appealing. I’m glad it’s not too girly and high-pitched, and I really like her personality so far. Oland is definitely mysterious.

I am quite fascinated by the war-torn world in which the series takes place. I’ve spoken to some friends who have lived through wars to try and get a feel for what it’s like. Having been born and raised in peaceful Canada, such things are so out of my frame of reference that I can’t even begin to imagine how it would look and feel. To not know whether you’ll have food, or clean water, or whether the weapons will be guns, tanks, or the biological kind that you won’t know are there until it’s too late…

I really want to know what’s special about Alice and that feeling she gets at the back of her neck. It obviously will play an important role and I need to know just what that is! I want to know more about Oland too, especially after that intense confrontation towards the end!

You know, I didn’t really notice the music until that scene with Oland and the tank. It fit perfectly and really helped build the atmosphere.

This is a first episode that has definitely drawn me into its world and made me intrigued by its characters. I will definitely keep watching to find out more.

For more in-depth writeups and a schwack of screencaps, visit Mentar and Omni’s sites.

First of all I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome back to the anime blogging community. It’s great to be back! I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to do things from now on and have come to a couple of conclusions.

Since I don’t blog raw, people really can’t be dependent on my writeups to understand the series I talk about. Therefore, I don’t think it’s really necessary for me to talk about every single episode of a series.

Along that same line of thought, I often find it really tedious to post about each and every episode, and if I end up getting even a little bit behind I start to feel overwhelmed and even less motivated.

This certainly makes me respect those bloggers out there who are so dedicated to the series they follow. You guys amaze me!

So from now on, no matter what I’m watching, if an episode really stands out to me and gets me really excited for whatever reason, that’s what I’m going to write about. Hopefully my girlish gushing will be enough to get people interested in a series I’m watching and go check it out themselves. I guess we’ll see if that works. ^^

Let’s start things off with a list of fall shows that have piqued my interest.

Red Garden

A bunch of girls find out that they’re dead, or something like that. I’m not actually too sure what this series is about, but I liked the trailer I watched despite the fact that I couldn’t understand it. I just get a really mysterious vibe from this one. And I happily admit to loving Gonzo, so I will check out pretty much anything they put out there.

Jigoku Shoujo Ni Kago

More Enma Ai! *Squeals with glee* I really hope they explore more of her past, or more about her grandmother, and definitely more about her crew. But even if it’s episodic again I’ll still be happy because I just love Ai and her associates.

Kanon remake

Really, who isn’t excited about this? Not only do we get all of the horrid animation of the original series bumped up a million notches to the level it should have been, but we get 26 episodes for a more fleshed out story. I can’t wait!

Galaxy Railways 2

I <3 Leiji Matsumoto. That is all.

These three series have me the most excited. Others that I’m definitely going to check out include Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Death Note (though I’m praying it’s not gonna be long and drawn out like Bleach or Naruto or any of those series that go over 50 episodes), Black Blood Brothers (I’m a sucker – pun intended – for vampire shows, so sue me), and D. Gray Man.

So you can expect random posts about random episodes of any of the above series.

I like how Keichii’s mom says, “Rena’s come to get you” as opposed to “Rena came to pick you up.” (At least as far as The-Triad’s translation is concerned) His mother has no idea that her words have such a terrible double meaning. Darlin, the girl isn’t here to walk your son to school, she’s more than likely there to chop him up into itty bitty pieces or, at the very least, make him go a little more nuts.

Why does the police officer tell Keichii so much? It doesn’t feel right. I hope the writers have some real reason for an officer of the law to divulge so much information to a young teenaged boy.

However, it’s through this conversation with Keichii that we learn that all of the weird deaths are connected to the girls in one way or another.

So, is being born in Hinamizawa the link? Do they do something to the kids when they’re young that turns them into homicidal maniacs? Maybe some kind of ritual involving Oyashiro-sama… Rena herself apparantly said that Oyashiro-sama stands by her bed every night and looks down upon her. Ultra-creepy! Gah! Who IS Oyashiro and WHY does he want an army of psycho cutsey girls? It’s driving me nuts. I need to know!!

Is Keichii connected to the dam somehow? Is this a town-wide conspiracy against outsiders? (which maybe would explain the white van.)

Is what’s happening really so bad that it would make someone wake up in the morning and think, “I know what I need to do”, and then go grab a baseball bat. Hmm, but I don’t know if he meant I need a baseball bat so I can kill them, or to protect myself. STILL! Protecting himself with a bat would mean at the very least physically hurting them, and that’s not exactly sane…

One thing that would support the Keichii is just a paranoid schizophrenic theory is the fact that he skipped school, stopped walking with the girls to school, and avoided club. Isolation a is great factor in heightening paranoia.

Oh, and the fact that they’re SO chipper about the ohagi and finding the pin, makes the switch from genki-psycho wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy creepier.

You know, if it turns out Keichi imagined everything, I’m going to be really pissed off.

Side note: Does anyone else think Oishi’s big pink phone is stupid looking?

I think I’m getting used to Rena’s cutesy voice. My problem with the first episode was that it really seemed like everything was way too cheery for a horror series. However, the second episode definitely ups the creep factor and makes the oftentimes ultra-genkiness of the characters more disturbing than annoying (like the card game they played where Rika exclaimed in her sweet voice, “It’s better to do it slowly with poison” ^_^;;).

You get the feeling now that everyone has a secret, and the imagination runs wild as to just what they might be hiding.

I wish the animation would get a little better. The music is good during the dramatic/scary scenes, but the happy-happy music sounds a bit cheesy and kind of bugs me.

Imperfections aside, I’m dying (pun intended) to know who/what’s behind all of the murders, and how the girls are connected, and why Keichi turns into a psychoclubbingmaniac. Oh! And why in the classroom scene Rena worries that she herself might be the next victim. She’s kinda scary and I think she’s a bit homicidal. I would’ve pegged her as a killer, not a victim (She’s SO creepy and I nearly wet my pants when she went on her rant about lying). Then again, there’s the beginning of the first episode to take into consideration. Hmmm….

Final Episode!

Ok, now that it’s over I have some questions. Aside from Creed needing a reason to be jealous and hateful, and the fact that Train liked her – what was Saya’s role? I guess she was a catalyst to changing the way Train thinks about killing people. But I kept waiting and waiting for her to come back though. Well ok, it’s just that I wanted Saya to have more of a role in the series, instead of making such an early exit. She should’ve come back from the dead or something. However, I think it would’ve bugged me more if she had. Dead people should stay dead.

Another question I have is – what the freaking heck was the point of the Saki episode? They never went anywhere with that. Did I miss something?

Anyway, everything works out in the end, of course. Everyone is happy. I’m glad that they saved Eve, I’m glad Eve chose to stay with Sven, and I’m also glad that Train went off on his own because if he’d stayed with them it would’ve seemed too happy familyish.

I just think they some things unresolved, and that bothers me. But, imperfections aside, I can’t deny that Black Cat was a fun ride from start to finish. Great music. Great animation. Enjoyable characters. Interesting plot. Good stuff! And I can keep hoping that there’ll be a second season, right?

I’ll definitely be buying the R1’s, and you should too!

One final note: How cute is Eve with short hair?

Is anyone else as overwhelmed by the sheer number of new shows airing as I am? I’ve checked out the raws for a bunch of the ones that have started so far, and I have to say that Higurashi is the first one whose OP really grabbed my attention. The song is wonderfully done. (I’m with BluWacky – meloves the chanty stuff! I think I replayed it three or four times before I watched the actual episode)