Kurogane's Anime Blog

This post is dedicated to the good, the bad and the WTF’s of this year. It’s really been an interesting year…..

Heh, I was supposed to post this yesterday, but with all the shopping, satelite tracking, celebrations and epic rickrolling, I only finished it today. I guess this will be my first real post of 2009, hehehe.

Anyways, the point of this post is to relive the more memorable moments of 2008 for me, in terms of anime and such. Another year filled with good things, bad shit and “just WTF were they thinking?!” craziness.

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Finished the show. All I can say at first is… “oh wow”.

Continuing off from 11, the trauma has caused Takuma to revert to a child state, and he thinks of Hayami as his mother. With no options, Hayami leaves for Tokyo with Takuma to try and make him recover by going back to apartment where he used to live. They both live a happy life there for a while, until one day Takuma follows Hayami out to do grocery shopping.

On that fateful day, Hayami finally asks Takuma of what he really thought about his real mother, in front of a railway crossing, and the question stirs up painful memories. Takuma falls in to a trance, and suddenly realizes that Hayami isn’t hold his hand. Hayami tries to save a kid whose ball bounced in to the railway crossing, and Takuma realizes it was the same thing that happened on the day his mother died. He finally opens his eyes, only to see Hayami… getting run over by the train.

A recital of the “Footprints in the sand” by the main cast is read, and time jumps to years ahead. Hotaru is now the village elder, Maki and Hamaji got married and actually have a child and Yui is still Yui. Takuma is now a handsome tall guy (lulz), and his eyes are fine. He’s putting on the finishing touches on a huge windwill, built on the same hill he met with Hayami, when he hears a familiar voice. Loli-mode Otoha appears out of the bushes chased by a wild pig, a reenactment of sorts, and dives right in to Takuma, telling him that it was hard for her to persuade the Spirit World to do this.

Takuma is left wondering on the meaning of the words, when another familiar face walks out from the bushes. It’s Hayami-chan, miraculously back, and Takuma is dumbfounded for a moment before he smiles back to her, and the both of them look up on the newly completed windmill. The End.

Really a nice ending there, relatively speaking here though, considering how botched up most of the anime was. I’ll say it’s the most solid ending episode yet (until true tears 13 airs) of this season, packing a lot of closure in one episode, yet still managing to insert a lot of drama in to most of it. Truly, I didn’t expect Hayami to actually “die” in order to finally salvage back Hirose’s heart, and it was a rather shocking moment when it happened.

Looking back, it’s also pretty awesome how they manage to write out the last few moments and resurrect back Hayami from the dead… providing a touching closure to the series. I still accept it’s highly deus ex machina but still… it was nice of them to finally be together. Also, +awesome points for the hot adult Hotaru and I kinda lol’d at the idea of Hamaji being a father. I guess it’s more correct to call him “mother”, rather XD.

Adult Hotaru is kinda hawt.

Anyways, H2O has been a mess, but I think the ending kinda makes up for it. At the least I didn’t feel “Oh i so wasted my time watching this show, orz” at the end of it. Not exactly a show I can recommend, but if you’re really interested, it’s okay to watch, heh.

Hirose injures Hayami in a fit of anger, after he goes out looking for her in the typhoon. When he comes to his senses, he’s back home and blind again, seemingly all this while. With a push from Hotaru’s grandfather, Hayami decides to leave the village in order to not bring any more harm to Hirose. Hirose tries but fails to stop her, giving up because “I’m blind”, but Hotaru comes and knocks some sense in him.

Hayami is about the leave the village, when the two lackeys of Hotaru’s grandfather corner her with shotguns, but she manages to run away, until the mastermind himself appears. She’s cornered back to the ruins of her own house, and almost gets executed, only to be saved by Hirose appearing. He swears to protect… “his mother” this time.

Man, this show is definitely getting more and more messy. Hayami continues to be self-blaming, which is really sad for her. Hirose seems to become more and more dysfunctional by the episode as well. The best part of this episode was definitely Hotaru telling Hirose flat out that no one is forbidden to be happy, which really suits both Hirose and Hayami, as both are still unable to forgive and accept themselves.

One more episode to go… I hope this show will end well.

Oh wow. More dramatic revelations this episode.

So it’s revealed that the Kohinata’s were directly responsible for pushing Takuma’s mother to committing suicide, and the news of this causes Takuma’s trauma to resurface, resulting in a minor amnesia and nightmares for him. Hayami only worsens it more, by being apologetic about it, when Takuma clearly states that it’s not her fault. Tensions between the two soon reach a boiling point…

I have to admit it, Hayami made the situation even more worse herself. Takuma clearly refuses to pin the blame on her… yet she repeatedly tries to lay the blame on herself. It’s also interesting that they’ve shown the context in which the first scene in the anime plays out, the part where Hayami gets beaten up by the two guys… and cruelly enough… it doesn’t seem that one-sided or bullying that at first impression.

Still, I hope that Hayami will be able to resolve her own problems and finally reach a path of happiness for herself. She’s being shackled up too much by the past and the sins of her parents as well.

Finally catching up on this show.

Hirose brings his mom’s bell to school, causing a big misunderstanding because bells are seen as a sign of confession in the village. Yui is just… lol. Unfortunately, the bell breaks, and Hirose entrusts it to Hotaru and Hayami to fix it, while he mopes alone. This causes a feeling of distance between him and the two girls.

Hayami’s trailer gets bombed by some jealous villagers, and she is takes refuge temporarily at Hirose’s house. Hayami forces Hirose to tell her about his mother, and he reveals that his mother committed suicide, leaving him alone behind. Hayami is naturally shocked by the revelation, and on the day of the festival, she tries to pass the fixed bell to Hotaru to return it back to him, but Hotaru tells her that Hirose is waiting for Hayami at the hill where they met. Hayami rushes to the hill, and Hirose indirectly confesses to her, and they both share their first kiss.

Interesting development, as Hirose has finally chosen Hayami between the two. Hotaru is undeniably sad, but she receives it pretty well. However, the anger of the villagers towards the Kohinata clan is still simmering, even if Hotaru’s grandfather has considerably softened his hate. I really feel vexed for Hayami’s trailer getting torched by those two bullies.

Mahou Shoujo Magical Otoha!

Wow, this was a crazy episode.

Hotaru and Hayami are now Takuma’s imouto’s, his uncle is now “okaasan” (don’t ask), Hamaji is “Takuma-chan’s” osananajimi, Otoha is a transfer student-cum-resident mahou shoujo, and her enemy is Yui the Magical Farmer. As if it’s not ridiculous enough. Otoha requires Takuma to tsukkomi people in order to collect enough energy to henshin. Yeah, definitely a whacko episosde. Hell they even inserted a Miku parody… wonder Crypton will sue them or not.

Anyways, it all turns out to be Otoha’s own dream world, where she intends to enjoy herself for a last few moments as she’ll be disappearing soon as her duty is done already. She bids Takuma a teary farewell, after wishing him the best.

While the majority of this episode was pretty much whacked, the parting scene was pretty touching, even if Otoha hasn’t got a lot of screentime so far. I feel that’s one of the factors that really hold back H2O from greatness, since the lack of episodes has really cut off the story, and I feel as if watching a summary of it.

Still, this was a pretty enjoyable episode, and they really went all out with the gags, even actually including a real OP of Mahou Shoujo Otoha *facepalms*.

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So, now that Hayami and Hinata made up, it’s time for Yui’s turn.

Despite my expectations for it to be a boring episode, it was actually quite an important one, since it reveals the reason of why Hayami is despised by the villagers. It turns out her family were doctors and they extorted a lot of money from the villagers, causing them to be hated. Yui’s grandfather died indirectly because of this, as the family couldn’t afford the medical fees for his illness. Yui, being pretty close to her grandfather, hated the Kohinata family ever since.

That said, this episode has Yui picking up fights with Hayami and losing much, to Yui’s vexation. Yui storms off, gets lost in the mountains and she’s saved by Hayami, at where the Kohinata house used to stand. Yui starts getting angry at her and shouts out her feelings, Hayami responds with, “It’s my responsibility to receive your hatred, since I have nothing left to return back to you.” (note: abbreviated). This somewhat patches up the relationship between them, although they still have that rivalry thing going on, especially now that Hayami is wearing twintails as well.

Argh, Hayami, why do you have to change to twintails so fast? I prefer the long hair, since it differentiates you better than the twin tails :P. Well, it was kinda hilarious seeing her and Yui actually ordering the same dessert and choosing the same dress. Hayami has a pretty deadly punch though….

Takuma-kun manages to patch up the relationship between Hayami and Hinata, after advice from Otoha. On the way, we also discover that his family is actually a pretty influential one and Hinata’s grandfather wanted to tie the two families together using Hinata.

Wonder what’s next on H2O. Will Hinata and Hayami have hawt yuri relationship together and leave Takuma behind for Otoha?

The preview theater this week is pretty “WTF?!” inducing too.

Ouch.

Hamaji rocks my soul with his awesome trap.

Beach episode, hijinks ensues when Hamaji’s imouto, Yuki comes and she’s jealous of Hirose. Stereotypical development of Yuki drowning, gets partially saved by Hirose, and ends up thinking better of him… a bit.

Hirose also got sum DRAMATIC MOUTH-TO-MOUTH by Hamaji, and discovers later, after getting a full frontal, that Hamaji is really a guy. Laughter ensues… to be followed by the sound of a million facepalms of the guys who have fapped to Hamaji already. I swear though, I seriously swear to God, that Hamaji had boobs while he was in his mizugi.

Hirose: “I fapped to him… I fapped to him… I fapped to him… “

Episode ends on a more serious note, with a confrontation between Hayami, secretly arriving at the beach, Hirose and Hinata. The SD theater at the end remains pretty freaking awesome.

Hinata is a yandere?

H2O rocks my soul with catfights.

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