Ara ara, I just finished Paradise Kiss in one go. It was a pleasant watch… Now, for a review.

Yukari, a normal high-school girl with somewhat of an ego, has lost her way of life.  Someone shouts to her while she’s walking, only to be stopped by one tall long woman, still being followed by the rough-looking boy. The tough-looking boy is Arashi and the tall woman is Isabella. Yukari got scouted for her looks and that’s why she gets dragged to their hide-out. She meets the other members of the group there, Miwako and George. They are fashion designers and work under the label of Paradise Kiss. George takes a liking to Yukari and eventually they start going out. In the mean time, there’s the triangle between Arashi, Miwako and Yukari’s friend from school and childhood friend of Arashi and Miwako. George finishes the big contest at the end of the year as a runner-up, yet Yukari doesn’t feel satisfied. In the end, everyone takes their own path and Yukari is no longer lost.

Hm, what to say. It’s a fine drama and there’s also plenty of extravagant clothing in there, especially George… The character development is nice. Yukari starts off somewhat like a bitch and gradually softens as she starts as a model. Everything of that transformation gets undone when another woman is at the door, though. All the other characters get their time too, but unlike other stories, their stories don’t feel like a filler. Not a single person is really unneccessary.  Well, at least for their futures. The ending was really bittersweet, but expected. The animation killed me somewhat in one of the last episodes: it seemed to stagger and that was very annoying to look at. Except for that, everything was okay. The animation is especially more realistic, so there are a lot of real backgrounds. That isn’t weird if you know one of the other works of the author, like Nana. I do wonder one thing: why were there those surrealistic creatures in there… Perhaps for comic relief.  One bad thing: Yukari’s seiyu. You really could hear  that she wasn’t used to the job, as it almost sounded RO-BO-TIKU-DE-SU. Well,  it seems like ParaKiss isn’t a huge succes because of the seiyu, because most of them don’t have more than 5 jobs on their anime cv. Hrm. Well, that doesn’t make the anime suffer. It was a fine watch, because life never is perfect and that’s captured well with this anime (and manga).

Two kills with one stone.  Yap, here are two short reviews. First up: Chrno Crusade.

Chrno Crusade

The first half is more of a introduction of the characters and showing the setting, starting off with Rosette and Chrono ofcourse, but also about Rosette’s brother Joshua.  Four years later, Rosette’s with the Magdalene Order in Brooklyn and is exorcising evil beings with the help of her assistant Chrono, who is strangely enough a devil. It’s the year 1928.  Rosette is searching for Joshua, who she lost out of sight as he was captured by a devil. No, it’s not Chrono. Anyhow, she made a contract with Chrono, who lost his horns and so has to depend on Rosette for his life energy. This contract makes her time tick away, so she’ll probably die young. Well, enough about it. The first half is mainly about seperate cases that need to be exorcised and meeting up with Azmaria and Satella and Rosette’s bond with Chrono. That bond eventually gets tested, as another devil shows up:  Aion. He seems to be the real master braind and it’s pretty soon made clear that he still has Joshua confined in a house, but he did do something to him… He put horns on Joshua, so he turned somewhat insane and can’t make a difference between dreams and reality and keeps on asking for his sister.  To keep it short: Aion turns Rosette evil, Chrono saves her, the two escape, America is in turmoil and eventually time makes prophecies come true. Chrono and Rosette get their sad, yet happy ending. I won’t tell what it is… You’ll have to find out yourself.

Well well, this is older than the anime below. Anyhow, the animation was okay, nothing really spectacular. Same goes for the story:  contracts are kind of well-known these days, think of Pandora Hearts. Speaking of which, Joshua really looks like an older version of Oz… I do have to say that there was some repetitive animation at small points.  Okay, onwards. The characters are very likeable and especially Rosette: she isn’t the type to give in easily and she can handle a lot of damage, while she can’t take it when someone’s attacking her mentally, which would be Aion. Especially the character development between Chrono and Rosette is really adorable.  Luckily not all the devils are standard evil: there are some who think otherwise than Aion. He’s really one bastard, but surely a cool bastard. The music was okay, sometimes the weapons didn’t really resound very well, as it seemed more like they were fighting with their knives and spoons. The ending is bittersweet and somewhat of a warning towards the humanity. The best thing about this is definitely the emotional factor: it weighs high and that’s not seen easily in (shounen) anime.  As for other anime like this… There isn’t an anime that comes close to this. The only thing that comes close with it is Baccano with the history and the action and the setting, but it isn’t as emotional as Chrno Crusade. Yes, Chrno Crusade is certainly an anime that everyone should watch.

Next up: Sukisyo.

Sukisyo

Ack, the first half was pretty hard to watch. It was kind of borish and filler-ish. Yes, especially fillers and that in a show with only thirteen episodes. Come on… Anyhow, guy lost his memories up till an certain point and meets up with two of his childhood friends again, after he’s  going back to school since he was in the hospital. Sora lost his memories from when he was little, so he is kind of surprised that he’s Sunao’s roommate, who wanted to go to the same school as Sora. So, while they’re at school, their friend Matsuri organizes a lot of random stuff like chases and playing delivery boy.  Well, they also have a cruel and somewhat sadistic teacher, but who’s actually somewhat of a caretaker with Nanami of Sora and Sunao and helps them and the boys help those two, etcetera. So, what’s the problem with Sora and Sunao? They have split personalities who just seem to like each other to a far extend and that’s what makes them confused: they can’t help it and they both know about it. In the end both Sora’s and Sunao’s memories are back and it seems like they were experiments… Even leading to some psychotic things like stabbing someone with a dagger. Well, the son of the enemy was already kind of shown in the first episode and left alone for a few episodes.  In the end everything ends well, everyone ending up with the person who they like. Yuy.

It’s kind of hard to rate this series. The first half is a total crap because of the fillers, while the real thing actually starts to move in the second half. The animation is nothing really spectacular and somewhat average, while the music is even worse and almost cliché. The characters were okay and somewhat standard, with Ran/Sunao being the tsundere. Some of the good things… Definitely that the two aren’t going on like ‘BUT WE’RE GUYS!’ and that it finally gets some depth. At a certain point even moving pretty quick, but that’s the only action, too bad. Episode 13, the OVA, was more of a fanservice episode, but at least a lot of the shota showed up and everything ended fine. Well, it didn’t crank up the score of this show. At the psychological part it’s somewhat like Loveless, so if you liked this, you might try out Loveless, which is ofcourse also shounen-ai.

That’s how Sora no Woto starts. Kanata comes up with that weird reason. She meets some other girls in the town to which she is being appointed to. Seems like there’s a legend of the fire maidens going around the town. A monster once showed up and lured girl into his fortress. The girls communicated with each other by a golden horn and defeated the monster with a giant spider… In other words: Kanata will use her horn and shows up with the shown tank. After that, the head continued to blast away fire, so the girls hugged it tightly and it eventually stopped after a year. Kanata still has a long way to go before she can play the horn better… Well, I have to say that the scenery and animation is very nice, with the backgrounds being really realistic. The character designs are just recycled and updated versions of K-On characters, though. A story about some kind of military-ish music tale has begon. The notes of the sky. I watched it with Nekomimi subs, which were nice.

Next up: Durarara!

I started it because it’s from the same writer as the Baccano! series. The opening already shows it’s similiarities. When Mikado and Masaomi are walking around the city, even a part of Baccano is shown with Jacuzzi and Nice. Mikado eventually bumps into a Holo reclam-thingy. The two bump into Erika and Walker, some friends of Masaomi. Pretty near them are some kind of familiar persons to Masaomi, sitting in a van, Kadoka and Togusa. In the mean time, it seems like Magenta is about to get kidnapped by Nakura. She really ended up being kidnapped. Anyhow, the two boys bump into Simon (who’s actually called Samia), a black guy. You don’t see that often. Pretty funny to see the reactions of the people being scared of him at first. Masaomi advices Mikado to stay away from someone called Shizuo Heiwajima… After you saw a vending machine flying through the sky. Back to the kidnappers. They’re waiting for the person with who they’ve made a deal to show up, but instead the mysterious biker with neko helmet shows up. The shadows of the biker are similiar to a horse. The rumors say that the biker is actually a shinigami… and doesn’t have a head. The example is shown. Back to the guys. Masaomi warns also for a guy named  Orihara Izaya and for some people called Dollars. As Mikado bumps into a girl and  they both fall to the ground, Masaomi seems to head to Mikado, but then goes for the girl, who runs off when she’s come to. It ends with the guys seeing the headless rider.

The soundtrack rules, really. Just like Baccano. Likeable characters, nice animation and character designs and not to forget the story that seems fantasy-in-reality. Not all the characters are introduced as well… So that’s certainly something to look forward to. Especially when there’re 23 episodes left!

Yes, it’s finally time for some new anime! I’ll discuss the first episode(s) of the following anime:  Dance in the Vampire Bund,  Sora no Woto, Ookami Kakushi and Durarara!! First up are Dance in the Vampire Bund and Ookami Kakushi.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

This really started out weird.  I never read the manga, but it’s kind of weird to have an anime in … talkshow style. Well, the real story starts at the end of the episode. Little girls are deceiving. So… Shaft is back to it’s vampire roots, just like Tsukuyomi Moonphase. Plenty of funky music in DitV. I guess DitV will be one of the real typical SHAFT anime. I have to say that I felt like there were some Code Geass references… Well, not that Code Geass is really original or anything. ‘In my name, I command you: die!’  Sounds familiar?This first episode made me quite looking forward to the next episode. It’s not really what I expected and I haven’t got a clue what this will turn into. I took the subs of SFW and those were fine, too bad the video quality isn’t HD, so I can’t really say much about the animation. It reminded me of Moonphase, which was fine.

Ookami Kakushi
Ah, I only wanted to watch it because it had some designs of Peach-Pit and that’s the thing that I didn’t like about Higurashi: those horrible character designs. I didn’t really like Higurashi, but I do like Umineko. For that reason I thought I’d give this one a try. Let’s set up.  There’s a red moon. A guy gets confessed to by a girl in a spooky manner and after that, another girl appears… With a scythe.  Just a preview, or so it seems. Just like with Higurashi etcetera. Hiroshi and his little sister Mana just moved to Jouga. He meets the girl from the preview and oh my gosh, she actually GLOMPED him on their first meeting. Really, what the heck? A cat bell rings. Anyhow, seems there’s a wolf spirit legend going around in Jouga. Blabla. Sounds familiar? Once again. Hiroshi just keeps getting glomped by the girl named Isuzu. Another girl is introduced: Kaname. The silent purple-haired girl finally speaks as well: she’s Nemuru, the class president. Seems like she has some kind of scary-factor, as she has some kind of power to make people obey and said that he is annoying. Hah, she’s just jealous. Blabla, Hassaku are some kind of mandarins, seems like there’s a Hassaku festival coming up. Sounds familiar? I wonder how a wolf god is related to fruit. Bla bla, old town and new town and they live in the new town. Seems like the nights start early. A classmate got nuts and got killed by the scythe-girl, or so it seemed. Well, this really is just like Higurashi. The music and soundtrack are pretty cool. Wolf goddess… Mononoke-hime? Fine animation. gg Is subbing this (just like with all the other Higurashi-related stuff, or so it seems), so I took those subs. At least there’s a high quality video.

I recently finished Seitokai no Ichizon and my rewatch of Nanoha StrikerS. First off, Seitokai no Ichizon. It was funny, but not really a must. Sugisaki is just a small step closer to his harem ending. Well, it’s fine if you want to have a good laugh and if you feel like wasting your time. There are some pretty nice episodes about the characters, especially the one about Ken. Not to mention the hilarious episode with Chizuru in a sheep costume saying mokyu.  Here are some screenshots of Seitokai no Ichizon.

On a side note: I finally beat Tales of Symphonia, of course with the Kratos ending. I  kind of liked Zelos, but as I met Kratos earlier, there’d be no way I’d Zelos more than Kratos. Plus, Kratos is awesome. He really needs his own spin-off. Tales of the Fallen Angel. I’m in!

Hah. I finished Seirei no Moribito. It’s really great to add another great anime to my awesome-list, but on the other hand it’s quite sad that it’s finished. Well, it really did finish nicely. I probably won’t rewatch it, because it’s one long story and I know everything that happens already, so watching it again doesn’t make much sense to me.

It was a nice watch. Probably because I finally found the time to continue watching Seirei no Moribito and I rushed and enjoyed the episodes very much. The OST is very nice. The music is soothing when necessary, cruel when it’s needed and so on. I shouldn’t forget about the sound-effects. They were very well, especially in the fights. Steel to steel never sounded that realistic to me. Guess I’ve watched too few action anime. I had to get used to the opening from l’arc~en~ciel called shine, but it really fits well. As for the ending… Sachi Tainaka fits with historical anime, as the soothing song at the end reminded me of the fact that she also sang the ending of Saiunkoku Monogatari. For the animation: it was nice. The  backgrounds were nice and almost everywhere and the escaping scenes with Chagum and Balsa were very nice, most likely due to the combination of the music plus the animation. The only thing that kind of bothered me were the very quick fighting scenes with Jiguro. Those seemed extraordinary quick so that you couldn’t really see what they exactly were doing. Well, that would be my only complained. Nayug looked very heaven-ish, but fitting instead of the standard creepy spirit worlds.

As for the story… I was really afraid that I wouldn’t get much information about Balsa, but fortunately there was some information, only a bit late. The past from Balsa and why she’s a bodyguard, it’s all explained. As for Chagum: we don’t really get to know about him before he met Balsa, except for the scene that his brother was remniscing (really, how do you spell that word?) of Chagum. I’m glad that Sagum died, actually. I didn’t like him and he seemed too much of a wuss. Go Chagum. I really started to like him in the last few episodes. Ha, he even gave birth! Okay, that was just weird, but the idea was funny. You can see that he grew when he was Balsa, but the same goes for Balsa. She’s actually a woman too, a fact which would almost be forgotten if Tanda and Torogai weren’t there. I feel kind of sorry for Tanda, as he ended up waiting for Balsa’s return. Who knows when that’s going to be. Probably when there’s a new season, though I think that they won’t be able to surpass Seirei no Moribito.

You might like Kemono no Souja Erin as well as I do, as both of the anime are based on Nahoko-sensei’s novels.