I’ve been reluctant to post my top 5 shows for the fall season for various reasons but with the first of season’s shows ending – it’s time. One of the reasons for the delay was that this has been a good season for anime and it made it hard to whittle the list down to just five. Another reason stemmed from having to figure out how to rank shows of diverse genres and being comfortable with the resultant picks. And lastly, I’m dependent on the subs so for shows like Mouryou no Hako, that have been released slower, I have less of the show to work with (6 eps. vs 12+ eps of others).

The image above contains the nine shows that had legitimate shots at being in my top 5 for the season. I first grouped shows that where somewhat similar : (Clannad, Toradora, Skip Beat), (Shikabane Hime, Kurozuka, Ga-Rei Zero), (Mouryou no Hako, Chaos;Head), and Michiko to Hatchin. I then figured out what was the best show of the group and compared the winners to determine first place. I looked for how well a show develops it’s characters, my enjoyment of the series, how well the show used the strengths of the show type it is, and if it was able to rise above the constraints of its show type. Then once a pick was made, I continued the same process for each place on the list. I still have the lingering feeling that Mouryou no Hako would have placed in the top 5 if I had seen more of the show. Hopefully when I do my entire year awards in the middle of January, more of the subs will have been released. Now, it’s time to get to the countdown.

5 - Michiko to Hatchin

Coming in at number 5 is the exotic and colorful Michiko to Hatchin - the latest project of Manglobe.

What ensured that this show earned a spot in the top 5 wasn’t the colorful, lush animation or the unique setting of Brazil but the character development of Michiko and Hatchin. The animation and setting definitely helped separate this title from the pack but making Michiko into someone more then just “Generic Gang Girl A” and Hatchin into being more then “Generic Orphan Looking for Parent B” has made this a great show.

This show has also done a very good job of creating interest behind Michiko’s quest to find her supposedly dead lover. The fact that Hatchin is around seems to prove that he is still alive but no one seems to know where he is. I’m of half the mind to think he’s really dead but Hatchin does really look like the daughter of this guy so maybe he’s still alive. Also playing into this is reason why Michiko is trying to find him. I almost can’t believe it’s just because she loves him, it has to be because he owes her money but Michiko has shown to have a very vulnerable, human side so maybe she simply wants to see him again. I don’t know but you can be assured, I’ll keep watching to find out.

4 - Shikabane Hime: Aka

Gainax’s latest show, Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess), continues to illustrate that this studio likes to take risks. After the wildly successful Gurren Lagann, it could be expected that Gainax would give us more of the same because that would be easy money; instead, they do a show that feels totally opposite. This upset many but I was hoping for something different.

There are many reasons to praise this show. For starters, the animation has been stellar, but instead of being colorful and crazy, it’s been muted and restrained which has created a very atmospheric world – perfect for this show. Another reason has been the uniqueness of the bad guys that the Shikabane Hime have had to fight. We have seen everything from a vampire Corpse to a Corpse in the form of a car; truly evil Corpses to Corpses that are being forced to kill. Also, this show has displayed a strong emphasis on character development and that goes for Corpses, the main characters and many of the side characters. The biggest reason to praise this show is that it has taken the time to logically show why our normal high school student becomes the hero and protagonist of the show.

3 - Ga-Rei Zero

From nice ...

to evil

The second most surprisingly good show of the season was Ga-Rei Zero.

I had no plans to watch this show, nothing I could find out about it pointed to this being a good show. The manga was categorized as “average at best” by everyone I found that had read the manga and it’s very rare that the anime is better then the manga. After the first episode aired the chatter raised to such a level that I decided to give the show a chance. The first two episodes shocked me. I kept thinking to myself: “Who decided that killing two complete sets of people that were obviously real cast members was a good idea?” and “What can they possibly do with the rest of the series that can live up to these two episodes?”. They answered both questions: “a genius”, “show how the killer in the first two episodes was corrupted and to make us feel sad for her even while she’s killing characters that we’re gotten to know.”

The animators took a huge chance in revealing that one of the characters that they wanted you to empathize with was going to become a killer because it’s very easy to hate a character when you know what they become. Star Wars failed to make me care about Anakin before he became Darth Vader and as a result the prequel movies lacked the emotional punch that good movies have. In Ga-Rei Zero’s case, though, they slowly and expertly showed how a very good person falls and made you understand why she did what she did and made you wish that the outcome could have been something else.

2 - Clannad ~After Story

I was kinda ambivalent about this show before it started because I thought the first season was less then perfect and I hoping that KyoAni would either do something new or get back to Haruhi or possibly Full Metal Panic. My ambivalence quickly fall away when it became apparent that this second season had none of the problems of the first season and all the positives of being the most polished of the adapted works of Key.

I’m not saying that this title is for everyone, the cynics out there can safely skip this show, but I’m a sucker for any show that can feature great character development, gorgeous animation, the ability to make me laugh one second and cry the next, and can mix a bit of magic and the supernatural into the story and make it feel like it belongs.

Another reason that this season deserves to be ranked so high is that most romantic anime stop the story at the point where the guy and girl have gotten together but this season is showing what happens to Tomoya and Nagisa after they have become a couple. So as we watch Tomoya trying to make his way as an adult so he can become a person that can marry Nagisa and we see Nagisa’s efforts to support Tomoya so he can succeed and having to shoulder the pain of missing Tomoya because he’s always working – it’s a pretty unique experience for an anime and one I hope to see more in anime.

1 - Toradora

To put it simply, Toradora is on a completely different level then everything else this season. In all my thinking and rough countdowns, Toradora was always my top pick for the season.

And the thing that I keep coming back to in my mind is that this show shouldn’t be as good as it is. I’ve watched many other J.C. Staff shows and heard most of the voice actors in other shows, especially Rie Kugimiya, so I thought I had a handle on how good or bad this show could possibly be. Instead the show breaks through the ceiling of what I’ve thought was possible without breaking a sweat. The characters have real complexity to them and feel like real people. The voice actors, especially Rie Kugimiya, have been sublime and the animation has even astonished me at times. The biggest surprise, though, has been the impeccable pacing of the show - every moment of every episode has felt worthwhile and important in some way. This runs counter to almost every show that J.C. Staff has done in recent years including the other J.C. Staff show that’s on right now - To Aru Majutsu no Index.

That’s finally it for my fall picks. Like I said earlier, I’ll be giving my overall picks of 2008 at some point in the middle of January. That’ll give me time to write up my impressions of the winter season and give some of the series that I’m waiting to finish like Daughter of 20 Faces and Somedays Dreamer’s Season 2 a chance to finish.

I’m got a few hours before I have to worry about Santa showing up so lets try getting my weekly anime review written today. I have the feeling that I won’t be able to find the time to write this tomorrow: Feast (including homemade kolbasz) + Mom’s Christmas cookies + Awesome gifts (already got two interesting books from my sis and brother-in-law) + anime = No desire to do serious blogging, much less moving around.

The scores:

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 11 – 11/12 A+

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 8 – 12/12

Kannagi, episode 11 – 10/12 A

Chaos;Head, episode 10 – 11/12 A+

Kurozuka, episode 9 – 12/12
Kurozuka, episode 10 – 12+/12

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 9 – 12++/12
Ga-Rei Zero, episode 10 – 12/12

Earl and Fairy, episode 10 – 10/12 A

Mouryou no Hako, episode 6 – 11/12 A+

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 19 – 12/12

Toradora!, episode 12 – 12++/12

Clannad S.2, episode 12 – 12++/12

Kemeko DX, episode 10 – 11/12 A+
Kemeko DX, episode 11 – 10/12 A

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Shikabane Hime: Aka – It’s been hard to come after Gurren Lagann but it has built itself into something different and still interesting

Down – nothing this week

Thoughts and Highlights

For this weeks upward momentum series, I figured it was about time to recognize Shikabane Hime: Aka. If Gainax’s name hadn’t been attached to it then I think it would been received better then it was. Too many people seemed to want this to be another Gurren Lagann and when it failed to deliver on that level at the beginning, they dropped the show. I think I successful separated the two in my mind because I’ve been okay with the lack of full-on crazy action that’s found in many Gainax series. My problem that hasn’t allowed me to fully enjoy this series has been ‘Why is Oori the main character and not the monk and Makina?’. As I get further into the series, the answer seems to be that Oori is being moved to the point where he gets his own Shikabane Hime. It almost happened in this episode and I think it’s only a matter of time before it happens. If this is the case then there’s a good chance that the series will shift to a more action orientated series. Also if this is the case then I will have to applaud the makers for taking the time to convincingly show why a high school student becomes the hero.

This weeks best episode is episode 9 of Ga-Rei Zero even though Toradora and Clannad came really close. Ga-Rei Zero has walked a very tight string and so far they haven’t fallen off. The ending of the series was essentially given in the first two episodes and all the episodes since have been working to this ending. This type of structure didn’t work for me in the case of the Star Wars prequel movies – I knew Anakin was going to become Darth Vader and the movies did nothing to make me feel sorry for him or even to particularly care. On the other hand, the makers of Ga-Rei Zero have made me care about Yomi and sympathize with her situation so when, in episode 9, Yomi is tempted to become evil – I understand why she did it and still feel bad that she fell to the dark side.

I don’t know why I’ve been connecting Kemeko DX and Kannagi in my head, maybe because there both comedies or they begin with ‘K’ but I have been. Watching both this week, the thought came to mind: Kemeko DX > Kannagi, just like that. In Kannagi’s case, this week’s episode finally seems to be pointing the series in the direction it should have gone many episodes ago. Looking back the series appears more like the director’s second try at making Lucky Star then the story of the local land goddess being incarnated in the form of Nagi. In Kemeko DX’s case, it knows what it is and plays to it’s strengths. Consequently, it’s been more enjoyable to watch – not high class, but fun nonetheless.

And finally, there’s a few brief comments I wanted to make:

• Toradora and Clannad continue to be the best shows of the season. Episode 12 of Toradora shows that Ryuuji appears to have let his own father issues cloud his judgment and set Taiga up to be very disappointed. Episode 12 of Clannad featured Tomoya’s proposal to Nagisa among other things. She said yes, obviously . And I think it’s safe to say that the next episodes of both will be epic.
• The other shows continue to putter on at the levels that they’ve set for themselves.
• Finally, if you’ve been watching Clannad you know that December 24^th is Nagisa’s birthday. It feels a bit odd to wish an anime character Happy Birthday but I’ll do it anyways since she’s one of my favorite characters. As my present I’m going to repost a nicely done pic I found on the animesuki forums below. (click for the big version)

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Above is a couple anime wallpapers and below are some pictures of my Christmas decorations. Check back later tomorrow for pics of my family’s Christmas feast, my Mom’s awesome cookies and (if I’ve been a good boy ), my present haul.

My house from the street

Just about the cutest Baby Jesus I've ever seen

My Christmas village

My Christmas tree

Posted in anime, other news      

I was looking at my computer desktop last night and realized I needed something new. After looking around at what I had on hand, I ended making more Soul Eater wallpapers. For some reason, it’s easy to find lots of nice artwork from that show.

If you’ve looked at my other wallpaper, you’ll notice that I try to keep them relatively simple so that it’s still possible to use the desktop. After testing out the 1280 x 1024 ones on my own computer, I work on making the other 2 sizes and try to get them all to look similar.

1280 x 1024

1600 x 1200

1920 x 1200

Ask a fan of science fiction (as defined as someone who reads science fiction) what they would like to see more of in the genre and one popular answer might be more quality SF on television. There is a limit to how often a person can rewatch the same few shows like Firefly, Stargate, and Twilight Zone to satisfy the urge to watch something SF. And heaven forbid if an American SF fan wanted to see realistic cutting edge technology like Augmented Reality or a show that remembered that space is a vacuum.

When I became an anime fan I wasn’t expecting to find shows that where both good anime and good SF but I’ve come across a number of shows that do both. So in the interest of helping non-anime science fiction fans, I thought I’d point out some of the best titles. For each listing I’ll list what type of SF it is, a fairly spoiler free synopsis of the show, and the show’s availability in America.

A final word before moving onto the list. One of the big differences between anime and most American shows – if you’re not familiar with anime - is that in anime, just because the characters are school age, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the show is any less complex then if it had only adults. Granted, in many instances anime can be juvenile but that’s the same as with science fiction – not all of it’s mature but some of it is.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Movie
Type of science fiction – Time travel
Available on DVD – English dub and subtitles

This movie is about a normal high school girl when she suddenly gains the power to travel to the recent past but this isn’t a story about how she saves the world. Instead, this is a story about how she uses this power to improve her life and the consequences of her actions. It starts off good; she uses the power to eat the pudding cup that her sister stole, she goes back to ace a recent quiz and she switches what food she makes during cooking class to name just a few. As time moves forward, though, she sees what the unintended consequences are to her actions and must try to fix what she’s done.

This type of story is by no means unique but what sets this movie apart is the characters are given abundant depth so you sympathize and like them immensely. Also to the movie’s credit, it never gets that contrived and arbitrary feeling many time travel stories get. It somewhat reminds me of a Connie Willis time travel story in that the focus is on the characters and the time travel is just a means to the end.

Dennou Coil

Television Series, 26 Episodes
Type of science fiction – Augmented Reality
Unlicensed * – English subtitles only

Earlier this year I wrote of this show, “Imagine a show that deals of the same cutting edge technology that’s found in works by Charles Stross and Vernor Vinge. Imagine this show centers around characters still in elementary school. Finally, imagine this show running on the Japanese equivalent of America’s PBS station. If you could imagine a show like this then you’ve probably already watched Dennou Coil.” It was hard to imagine that a show with this type of background would ever see the light of day but it did and it was a winner.

The show knows how to balance the light-hearted antics of the kids with the more serious story of one tranfer student’s effort to figure out what happened to her older brother who disappeared while using his AR glasses. This show also did a good job in imagining how AR operate and what new problems would need to be addressed. One of my favorite touches was the mobile anti-virus program that went around the city searching for irregularities in the system and fixing them. Since all the kids hacked their AR glasses to do more, they had to keep away from these programs or else their glasses would get fried and they’d have to get a new pair of glasses.

Kaiba

Television Series, 12 Episodes
Type of science fiction – Total mind and selective memory uploading and transference
Unlicensed * – English subtitles only

Kaiba wakes up at the beginning of episode 1 without any memories. A scan of his mind reveals that his mind literally contains no memories. So he does the logical thing and goes on a quest to figure out who or what he is. Along the way he loses his original body, gains two new ones, sees first hand how mind uploading and transference has altered society and finds out that he’s lost someone that’s important to him.

For all it’s focus on the technology that’s made this society possible, it doesn’t forget that to make a good show one needs characters and a story to tell. It was advertised as a SF/Love story and succeeds on both fronts. So don’t let the odd animation style stop you from watching this exceptional SF show.

Planetes

Television Series, 26 episodes
Type of science fiction – nuclear fusion, moon colonies and mining
Available on DVD – English dub and subtitles

The year is 2075 and space has become dangerously full of space junk. To contend with this problem, governments offer bounties to companies for the removal of debris that would threaten the human activities in space. As you might guess, even governmental bounties do not make this profitable for companies so these companies run their Debris Sections on a shoe-string and duck tape budget. Planetes focuses on one company’s Debris Section and their adventures.

A series about space garbagemen might not sound interesting but it turns out that this series is anything but boring. Some episodes focus on what happens when the space junk turns out to not be junk; for example, in one episode it’s a secret military satellite and in another, it’s the coffin of someone buried in space. Other episodes take place on the moon bases and we get the chance to meet one of the first persons to be born on the moon and see how that affects her outlook on life. Other episodes deal with a terrorist group from the have-not nations that can’t take advantage of nuclear fusion because they can’t afford to mine the moon for fuel like the rich countries and how the paths of our Debris Section and them cross.

And if you still need a reason to watch this show, then let me say that this show remembers that space is a vacuum and sound doesn’t carry.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Television Series, 52 episodes
Type of science fiction – A.I., prosthetic bodies, mind uploading
Available on DVD – English dub and subtitles

Don’t confuse the television series with the pair of movies – they’re the same franchise but unconnected to each other. I listed the series over the movies because the series has more action, lacks much of snobby philosophizing of the movie, and has the time to better explore it’s futuristic world and the ramifications of it’s advanced technology.

GitS:SAC, as it’s abbreviated, takes place in the near future where mind uploading and entire prosthetic bodies are a reality and almost commonplace. To further blur the line between man and machine, A.I. development has come a long way in creating A.I. that is very humanlike. In this hyperconnected, digital future society it becomes imperative for a government to have crack professionals that can keep it’s citizens safe from the profuse types of cybercrimes of the future. This is where Section 9 - a mix of ex-mercenaries, hackers, and intelligent cops - of the Japanese government comes in.

One of my favorite episodes involves the uploaded brain of a film maker. In physical life, he found it nearly impossible to find the funding to make his movies. To remedy this, he uploaded his mind into a digital braincase where he could create the movie and people could jack in and watch his movies in a virtual movie theater. The problem for Section 9 is that his movies where so good that almost no one wanted to leave – even if that meant their physical bodies died.

So, if you’re looking for a show that is one of best examples of how SF can be entertaining, action-packed, and still intelligent – check out Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Freedom

OVA Series, 7 episodes
Type of science fiction – moon civilization, massive environment cataclysm on Earth
Available on DVD, Blu-Ray – English dub and subtitles

It’s the dawn of the 23^rd century and it’s been a hundred years since a human-triggered environmental cataclysm has supposedly rendered Earth uninhabitable. This has left the couple million inhabitants of the Moon City Eden as the last outpost for humanity. A strictly controlled society is necessary for Eden to survive but the teens of Eden don’t like it and this causes them to frequently get punished. It happens that while inspecting conduits outside as punishment, one of these teens, Takeru, witnesses an object crashing into the Moon’s surface. He rushes over to examine the crash site and his life will be altered forever after he discovers what this object’s cargo was.

This was a fun title to watch and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. One caveat with this title is that originally this was only 6 episodes long and when you watch it, you’ll see how the ending of episode 6 was a natural ending point. Episode 7 was added later on and while it was good to see what happens next, they tried to cover to much in one episode so it felt very rushed. Just a heads-up, this is still a very good show to watch – especially if you like the type of SF where humans overcome adversity in the face of danger.

The next two anime shows might not be science fiction per say but are definitely SF-related and almost guaranteed to be liked by a SF fan.

Kino’s Journey

TV Series, 13 episodes + 2 Stand-alone short movies
TV Series is available on DVD with English dub and subtitles but the short movies remain unlicensed

Kino is a traveler. Travelers spend their life traveling to the many different small city-states that dot the landscape of this earthlike world. For the most part these city-states leave each other alone which has allowed many different types of cities to develop. Some are high-tech, some are decidedly low-tech, and most fall somewhere in the middle. Kino spends only 3 days in any one city, just long enough to get a taste of what makes the city tick but not long enough to want to stay.

This type of set up allows Kino to be presented with many different scenarios that are designed to make the viewer think. For example, in one episode she visits a city that had been locked in a century long war with a neighboring city but fifteen years ago peace was achieved. The citizens are very proud at being able to finally end this war so Kino checks out the History museum. The curator of the museum, a mother who lost her husband and sons to the war, was instrumental – along with a mother on the other side – in ending the war. Their solution involves a yearly contest between the two sides, with a set number of combatants and automatic rifles, in how many people they can kill in a nearby underdeveloped city. The side that kills the most, is that year’s winner. Sounds horrible but as the curator points out, overall the number of people dieing is less and the standard of living in both cities have increased immensely now that the expensive weapons of war no longer have to be made.

Not every episode has a scenario this extreme or depressing but the series will make you think, much like good science fiction. I highly recommend this title.

Millenium Actress

Movie
Available on DVD – English subtitles only

Millenium Actress is one of those titles that are hard to adequately explain. The frame of the movie follows a documentary maker as he interviews an aging film actress about her life. We discover, from the moment she bumps into a fleeing artist/anti-government protestor in the early 1930’s and falls in love with him, that her life has echoed many parts that she played in the movies. This fact might help to explain how during the course of the interview, her recollections seem to bleed into real-life and the documentarian and cameraman find themselves physically watching parts of her life and finding themselves in the movies that she was in.

This might sound a little odd but it makes for a very riveting movie. In fact, as I was writing this I got the urge to watch it again and did so. The reason for it’s inclusion on this list comes from the actress being in SF movies and the use of one of these movies as a metaphor for something I won’t spoil here.

That’s it for the list now. I plan on adding onto this list in the future as I watch other worthy titles so I’ll be giving this post it’s own easily findable page up above.

*It’s relatively easy to find and download unlicensed anime on the internet, subtitled in whatever language you want. I don’t have the space here or desire to argue about fansubs so I will leave it at this. If the show is unlicensed, the only way to get it licensed is if American companies think they can sell enough DVDs so the more people that have seen these unlicensed shows and are talking about them – the greater chance that it’ll get licensed. And if the show is available on DVD and you liked it – buy it so more shows of this type are made. And if you’re unsure about a show and don’t want to spend money on a DVD you won’t like, remember that it’s rentable through a service like Netflix.

Another series bites the dust, this time is Now and Then, Here and There (R2J) the one that has come to an end. I hope you liked this classic anime as much as us. Of course, you can get episode 13 as well as other episodes in our channel and also the complete batch torrent for the series:

Now and Then, Here and There torrent link

Enjoy.

Regards.

- The_Soulforged

See you later!

Here I bring you the updates of the stuff released this week. We have ended Vision of Escaflowne (Remastered) series and to fill the gap we have started another new series, or better said, OVA  Compiler with the usual flags of G_P: great video quality (this time extracted from R2j DVD), AC3 sound, soft-styled and unstyled subs, karaoked, etc. Hope you like it.

• Compiler OVA 01
• Escaflowne (Remastered) episode 26 and deleted scenes Complete series torrent link
• Now and Then, Here and There (R2J) episode 12
• Tekkaman Blade episode 25
• Votoms (Remastered) episodes 34 & 35

Hope you’ll enjoy all these new releases.

Regards.

- The_Soulforged

One of the lighter weeks in terms of number of episodes that I watched in a long while but the over quality was still very high. What made it feel even less was that almost half of the new anime I watched this week (Index, Toradora, Soul Eater, Xam’d, Clannad) was watched with my sister. Since we normally watch a bunch of anime together, I set those series aside so when I felt like watching anime by myself this week – I didn’t find much. Not that I’m complaining, it’s really fun to watch anime with someone.

The scores:

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 10 – 11/12 A+

Toradora!, episode 10 – 12++/12
Toradora!, episode 11 – 12+/12

Soul Eater, episode 36 – 12++/12

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 7 – 12/12
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 8 – 11/12 A+
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 9 – 9/12 A-

Kannagi, episode 10 – 11/12 A+

Skip Beat, episode 10 – 11/12 A+

Chaos;Head, episode 9 – 12/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 18 – 11/12 A+

Yozakura Quartet, episode 11 – 11/12 A+

Clannad S.2, episode 11 – 12+/12

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Toradora! : It continues to amaze week after week

Down – nothing this week

Thoughts and Highlights

Housewife and Genki Girl

It almost doesn’t feel right to say that Toradora has been gaining momentum since only episodes 1 and 5 received a score lower then 12/12 but what else do you call this feeling that each episode is building upon the past episode without losing what’s been gained. Compare that to Index, all that time before the main character’s memory loss feels lost and wasted to the viewer – about 6 episodes worth – and it’s only now that the show is starting to feel good again. Or look at Kannagi, doesn’t the land needed purifying? That seemed important to Nagi at the beginning but we haven’t seen any of this in a long while. Then there was the dad that asked Jin to get the spirit of Nagi’s sister out of his daughter’s body. Why show us this if Jin isn’t even going to worry about doing this. Or look at Michiko to Hatchin. Episode 9 of this show totally killed the buzz it had been developing.

Just look at him, he'd be perfect for Ryuuji's mom

Episode 10 of Toradora was also the best episode I watched this week with Soul Eater a very close second but as much as this show is being analyzed and talked about, I don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said. Though I did come up with one speculation about the show after episode 11 – wouldn’t it be funny if Ryuuji’s Mom and Taiga’s Dad hooked up? That would be a hilarious turn of events.

Childish pranks - the spice of life

Episode 11 of Clannad continues to focus on Tomoya’s effort to become a working adult and the problems this causes in his relationship with Nagisa. I have the feeling that how a person takes this episode depended on how old the viewer is. It’s easy for younger bloggers to rake Tomoya over the coals for not going to the Founder’s Festival with Nagisa but I can’t fault Tomoya for his desire to help fix the mistake he made on the job. I’ll fault him for not calling Nagisa to say why he wasn’t going to be there so she wouldn’t be waiting for him the entire time. And if he was really on the ball, he could have called around to see if some of the people he knows would go to the Founder’s Festival with Nagisa so she wouldn’t miss out on the fun. The fact of the matter is that Tomoya needs this job if he’s going to be able to support Nagisa and himself once they get married and his limitation is going to make this tough without the help of his co-workers. Saying all that though, Tomoya better come up with some way to express his regret for making Nagisa sad since she’s too good of a person to not be treated right.

One of Soul Eater’s strengths is that it seems to be aware of the shortcomings of it’s older shounen brethren. We all know that the characters of a shounen will have to level up at least once during the course of the show to be able to defeat the stronger opponents. It’s the same case with Soul Eater but instead of showing the characters “training” or suddenly getting powers, they use a method that’s realistic and fits with the basic premise of the show. In Soul Eater, a master and weapon need to form a link with their souls if they are to work as a team. So, you might ask yourself if one master/weapon team links with another master/weapon team what would happen? The obvious answer this that collectively there’s more power and hence one master/weapon team will be much stronger. In episode 36, we see Maka, Death the Kid, and Black Star – with their weapons – link up and when one of them fought they were stronger then the sum of the three, individually. Maka, for one, was able to power up Soul to a freakish large double headed scythe and use a demon hunting technique that was able to split Mosquito guy in half. Really cool to see and like I said, way more realistic then what most shounen titles do.

Due to the relatively light week and none of the other episodes taking me by surprise, there’s nothing else to say that will take me a paragraph to say. So here’s the rest of my comments, in brief:

Yozakura Quartet had it’s best episode so far but the show still suffers using clichés too much and should be trying to make itself feel more original.

Skip Beat and Xam’D: Lost Memories continue to impress in their respective ways.

I love Nakiami's face in this shot

They're resurrecting Rasputin back to life

Another Death The Kid colouring. Because I love him so much. This time, it’s an extract from Chapter 12 of the manga itself.

Well, I had fun doing this, especially at the beginning. The inspiration kinda went down as I did it though because it was a hassle to colour so many panels. But I quite liked how it turned out in the end.