Kurogane’s Anime Blog

SHIT, just when I think it can’t get any worse, Mai Otome has a half decent episode.

Seems like Nina *might* be the real princess, there’s something funny about Mikoto, and Mashiro regains a bit of coolness. Oh, and Mai seems to be making an appearence next episode… but what’s with that ladle? One can only wonder….

There was quite some humour in this episode, ranging from Shiho’s extremely surreal *maki-maki* dreams, right down to Nao’s extremely funny “Hitchhiking again?” comment to ol’ Natsuki. Shizuru meanwhile, has somehow sunk in to the abyss, with that extremely uncool behavior of her with the toys and Tomoe. One only hopes that she’s actually planning something, but somehow she’s not giving off the vibe of someone trying to back stab.

Mashiro regains her coolness factor a little here, and I’m quite happy to see the effort that Sunrise has been putting in to Mashiro’s character development finally exceuted nicely here, with her efforts to help her people, even with the corny plot devices and the reused stock footage (must Sunrise do that so much?!) .

The best things about the episode I guess, must be the confirmation that Sunrise might be putting in the twist of Nina actually being the real princess, which raises the question now of who’s the real daughter of Rena, and potentially, who’s the third wheel in the trio? The other one is of course, the hints of Mai appearing in the preview, which I hope will be able to lift Otome out from the quagmire it’s in right now. At the least, if it’s gonna suck, let it suck harder.

Probably one of my most anticipated shows in the season, Shinigami no Ballad doesn’t disappoint with it’s first outing.

The first episode tells the story of Mai and Kouta, two close friends, who one day find a kitten dumped in a park. Mai decides to help the kitten and with Kouta’s help, they bring the kitten to a nearby shrine as both their parents won’t let them keep pets, especially Mai, who’s got asthma.

Working together to feed and visit the kitten, who’s named Blue by Mai because of its clear blue eyes, Kouta starts getting teased by his friends because of him being too close to Mai. Mai notices this and tells Kouta it’s fine to spend time with his other friends as well, so one day, Kouta joins his friends for a soccer game as a payback for his friend for helping out with his homework.

Leaving Blue’s feeding for the day to Mai, Kouta enjoys the game but it’s halted midway thanks to a sudden shower. Returning home, his home gets a call from Mai’s parents as she’s not back yet and a worried Kouta rushes out to look for Mai at the shrine. Failing to find her there, he desperately searches around until he finds an ambulance, just departing for the hospital.

The next day, Mai’s gone and a bunch of flowers are at her table instead, signifying her death. Kouta later heads for the shrine and brings Blue back to the park where he and Mai first found it and blames Blue for the Mai’s death. At that moment, a girl in white and red shoes appear in front of him and introduces herself as a shinigami, named Momo. Momo explains her job to Kouta, which is granting death, or simply taking away lives. She asks Kouta if it’s OK to take Blue’s life away to which he replies he doesn’t care. Swinging her scythe, Kouta tries to stop her and saves Blue from Momo’s scythe.

Momo then tells him that she’s actually here for Mai’s soul, who doesn’t want to leave yet because Mai’s worried about him and Blue. Mai’s soul then appears infront of Kouta and she asks him to raise Blue because it’s her hope and then leaves. Momo hugs Kouta, saying “Ganbatte ne, otou-san” and leaves, slowly floating up and crying, saying that dead people can’t cry, so she’s crying for them.

Not exactly tear-jerking, but quite touching still, especially Momo’s last line, *”Shinda hito nakenai kara…. atashi ga kawari ni… naite ageru no”*, which is both very kind and poignant. They seemed to have chosen the right *seiyuu* to pull off Momo’s role, as Akiko Kobayashi’s slightly husky vocals manages to infuse this role with enough passion.

Opening and ending songs sound OK, but I still liked Hantsuki’s ones better, especially **Kioku no Kakera**, the ED theme. Art looks amazing and the animation is pretty fluid, especially in the Momo meeting Kouta scene where the rain was animated amazingly. Can’t wait for next week :).

A very strong episode of Shana, with Yuuji taking a firm decision to leave, thereby lifting him away from the ranks of wimpy and angsty characters that usually plague this types of shows, while Shana is the one being confused in this one.

First off, Shana rescues Yuuji from being killed by Wilhelmina and Yuuji tells her his decision to leave the city, of which she suddenly misinteprets as him trying to protect Kazumi thus thinking that Kazumi is more important to him than her and she throws a tantrum, causing Yuuji to finally exclaim that he doesn’t know what she’s thinking about, which is quite the right timing, given the countless arguments that Shana hasn’t been really very clear about her feelings to Yuuji.

Later on, Yuuji’s prediction comes true, as the bird statues that remained after the Dandankyukyu’s attack were being burned turns out to be the summoning trigger for the **Konno Seibyo** *jizaishiki*, summoning the **Seireiten** (which should be Court of Holy Souls, because it’s got the same name as the place in Bleach ;), the headquaters of the **Ball Masque** right in the middle of Misaki City. Belpeol greets Wilhelmina and Shana, which provides to be the distraction so that they can kidnap Yuuji, the **Reiji Maigo**. Wilhelmina realises this and tries to destroy Yuuji before that can happen, but Shana takes the blow instead, providing the time needed for Shudonai to take him away.

Personally, I felt that Shana’s action was pretty noble but not being actually useful at the same time. Wilhelmina’s influence is proving to be a very confusing one to Shana, as she’s struggling between her feelings for Yuuji and her sense of duty as a Flame Haze. She still hasn’t realized, or more like haven’t truly understood her real feelings for Yuuji, leading for me to think the scene where she stretches her hand to the sky for Yuuji being quite poignant. Chigusa, if she will be appearing anytime soon, will most probably be the one who’ll be able to sort out Shana’s feelings but only if Wilhelmina doesn’t try to play the antagonist for their relationship anymore.

Wilhelmina, on her part, is now the antagonist for the Shana x Yuuji relationship, given her murderous tendencies towards Yuuji currently. I understand her sense of duty, but she needs a lesson in *ningen kankei* as well, as being one who has experienced love with someone before, she should be able to see Shana’s true feelings.

Yuuji, on his part, is making things clear now, and also I’m beginning to like him for his courage. At the least, he actually managed to get out of Wilhelmina’s bonds/bandages with his own powers before Shana had to really come to save his ass. Also, he did seem to notice that he’s being targeted and tried to escape, just only he’s really quite outclassed when it comes to him facing off someone like Shudonai.

As for the fanboy side of things, I’m glad that Hecate a.ka. Noto-sama, has lines this episode, and it’s fun to see her with Shudonai, who seems to be hitting on her hard though I really didn’t think of Enma Ai when I heard her. Art this episode seems to be quite superb, especially on the parts where Alastor was talking.

I have to agree about jason on the next episode previews recently though, as it’s quite spoilerific and really ruins the dramatic effect being built up at each episode recently. Anyways, it seems that Hecate’s the one requiring Yuuji for some plot to stay alive forever, and Shana seems to have been instant healed by Wilhelmina, and both of them heading over to save Yuuji.