episode review: Tower of Druaga - the Aegis of Uruk
A new anime, and well… this certainly was something else. The premise, at least what we’re explained at the beginning, is that there is a massive tower somewhere, and on top of it resides the evil god Druaga. Note that he doesn’t ever seem to come down his tower, nor do the surrounding countries seem to suffer much from his presense. But, he’s evil… so he has to go.
Main character Gil (Jil) is introduced, and the character design and armour seem to be at least somewhat inspired by the Dragon Knight franchise. But that’s not where it ends. In fact the entire episode seems to be one giant parody on old school role playing games, and even some anime.
All the RPG-cliches pass by one by one, and each and every one is ridiculed brilliantly. Subtle and very unsubtle references to Dragonball Z, The Guyver and Neo Genesis Evangelion pass by, as well as a host of crazy characters. In fact, the only experience remotely similar to it that I can remember would be Disgaea.
Not going to tell you much of the story though, because, well, each and every moment of it is as predictable as can be, and it’ll ruin the final scenes. But there will be quite a few moments that will make you go omg-wtf-oink-mate.
Oh, and there’s a combination of non-human girl, tentacles and underwear too. Just so you know.
Episode reviews: Kanokon 03 and 04
Episode 3:
Ok, the fanservice does settle down somewhat in this episode, but that doesn’t mean it is less disturbing. Basically the contents are getting worse and worse. This time Chizuru and Nozomu continue their battle over Kouta with their cooking skills. Since Kouta doesn’t decide whose lunch he likes better they keep making more extravagant and horrible dishes. The class rep gives Kouta some love advice about scolding a girl or else the situations will only get worse. Meanwhile there is some commotion about Nozomu and Chizuru breaking the rules because they get to close to a human, but the confrontation ends in tapping off the oil from the frog spirit to heal Kouta with their oiled bodies. The episode ends when Kouta scolds Chizuru and she is in for a punishment.
Episode 4:
Chizuru is confused how to win Kouta’s heart. Her brother brings the idea up for a love potion as a joke, however Chizuru takes him seriously and they end up looking for one at the forbidden storage room. Chizuru finds a bunny costume that promises to tie her to the ones she loves. But when she tries it on, she discovers that she cant take it off. It causes some commotion at the school while the teachers investigate how to undo Chizuru of her clothes. The next day however she ends up at the nurse office because she fainted. It seems that the clothes have a life draining demon inside who is trying to revive herself using Chizuru’s body. Of course in the battle with this demon it is all about clothes, or maybe the non existence of them.
episode review: Macross Frontier 2-4
Well, needless to say the nasty cliffhanger situation from the opening episode gets resolved, but not without a good handful of minutes full of suspension, action and tight spots. And just when everything seems safe again, some of the enemy forces have decided to remain behind to renew their attack, by hiding inside the space colony…
Various storylines are set out and explored in these opening episodes, and eventually they become entwined with the main story arc: there’s the academy pilot Saotome Alto, who ends up joining a group of civilian military fighters after circumstances force him to pilot a Variable Fighter; music also plays a big part in every Macross series, and in Frontier this is done by pop idol Sheryl Nome, who more or less crashes into Alto’s life (or rather, the other way around). Then there is Ranka Lee, a young girl with a traumatized past, linking her to the alien attackers; at the same time she catches Sheryl’s attention as a promising talent, and tries to look her best in the colony’s annual idol-contest.
So far so good, and I’m still curious to see where this goes…
Episode reviews ToLoveRu - Trouble 03 and 04
Episode 3:
Rito and Lala go sight seeing in town. After some weird events involving Lala’s dress mode to disappear, they ran into Haruna. They decide all to go to the aquarium together. Here Haruna confesses her love for Rito while in the meantime Lala is playing with the fish.. naked. All in all they had a fun day and Rito is in good spirits. But when the next day they meet up with Haruna before school, Rito trips and falls awkwardly onto Haruna, thus causing a new misunderstanding.
Episode 4:
Lala is totally impressed by the Japanese kitchen. In return she wants Riko to taste some food from her home planet. It turns out horrible and Rito, who has been terrible scared by the fact that in the future he would have to fight intergalactic wars, uses the fact that Lala cant cook to send her back to her home planet.
Episode reviews: Allison and Lillia 03, xxxHolic Kei 03
Allison and Lillia 03
Allison and Will manage to successfully enter the military base and to find the old man that is kept prison. They think he is an enemy spy that holds some state secret. However Allison is a clever girl and manages to lure the soldiers away from the cell, giving the old man a chance to escape. Unfortunately the two get caught by a superior officer that Allison calls captain love letter since he confessed his love to her once. However they also manage to escape and they meet up with the old man in the underwater passage way which is a shortcut to the hangar. The man tells Will the location of the treasure and they borrow an airplane to head for the treasure. What they do not know is that the soldiers are on their tail.
xxxHolic Kei 03
There is panic when it turns out that Zashiki-warashi is kidnapped to somewhere far away. Her guardians ask for Yuuko’s help and Yuuko sends Watanuki and the pipe fox with them to save the girl. It turns out that the girl is kidnapped by the spider woman whose minion has taken Watanuki’s right eye. Watanuki has to learn a lesson the hard way before he can save Zashiki-warashi and to have any chance of getting his eye back.
Episode reviews: S. A 2, xxx Holic Kei 2, ToLoveRU 2, Allison and Lillia 2
Special A episode 2
I wonder why they feel the need to do introductions in every episode. I know it was like that in the manga too (every chapter that is) and I find it really annoying.
xxxHolic Kei episode 2
In search for a solution to fix Watanuki’s right eye, Doumeki is reading through old books his grandfather left. Watanuki drops by to bring Doumeki some dinner and decided to help. Watanuki then finds the book with the exact solution by accident, but just as Doumeki starts reading it, a bookworm comes out of a book Doumeki borrowed from Himawari, and starts eating the text from the ancient book. Watanuki manages to trap the creature when Yuuko and Mokona suddenly appear, saving the day. However the solution to recover Watanuki’s eye is lost in the progress.
The next day Watanuki finds out that there is a battle going on for his eye and if he won’t find a solution soon, his eye will be lost forever.
ToLoveRU - Trouble episode 2
Rito and Lala are now engaged according to the laws of Lala’s planet. However Rito actually likes Haruna but every time when he tries to clear things up between them, Rito gets interrupted by some random event. Things get even worse when Lala comes to school one day and Rito and her end up being chased by jealous classmates. They end up having to use Lala’s warp ring, however since it warps at random and only living flesh, they end up naked in a locker together and happen to be spotted by Haruna, making matter worse. Rito wants to stop the nonsense and tries if there is a way to cancel the engagement. However since Lala is a princes this isn’t an easy task. But then Rito learns of the cool off period.
Allison and Lillia episode 2
When the duo tries to rescue the kidnapped man, they run into some resistance. They end up busting the airplane they borrowed and they are now in the other country that is at war with their own. Will gets hurt in the progress and Allison carries him to what seems to be an abandoned house. However there is an old lady living there. She agrees to take care of the duo but she resents air force soldiers because the war has cost her 2 sons. However as she learns more about the whole background story she decides to aid the duo in more then one way.
Episode review: Allison and Lillia 1
Will is a genius student who is asked to help out during supplementary classes. While teaching lessons outside, an airplane crosses over and a blonde girl named Allison disembarks. Will and she are childhood friends but they don’t see each other often because Allison works as a pilot. They keep in touch with letters though. Now Allison had to run an errand close by and they spend this opportunity catching up. On the way back to Wills dorm, they encounter an old man who is famous for his made up story to impress the students. He asks for a lift home and Allison and Will stay over to drink some tea.
Episode review: Kanokon 2
I thought the fanservice couldn’t get any worse, but this episode proved I was mistaken. It starts off with a very clingy Chizuru, tossing her boobs all over the place and especially in Kouta’s face. When Kouta tries to get away from Chizuru he meets another girl at a spare rib shop. The next day it seemed that the girl called Nozomu transfers into his class. She is also a spirit, but of a wolf family. Now the hunt for the affection from Kouta has begun.
episode review: Macross Frontier 1
Back when VCRs still existed, one of the first anime tapes I purchased was “Macross II”, a direct sequel to the original Macross/Robotech series from the 80s, of which I’ve sadly only seen a few episodes.
In the original series, the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross was an alien warship which had crashed to earth; with this odd intruder, mankind united under one rule and progressed rapidly due to the alien vessel’s advanced technology. Eventually the vessel is restored to its former status, just in time as its owners are about to arrive and they don’t look friendly..
Episode review: Mnemosyne 02 (warning: contains spoilers)
Well, after a most… special first episode, I decided to give Mnemosyne another try and watched the second episode. At worst I would’ve stopped halfway and wasted ten minutes of my life, at best I would’ve been amused and written a stunning article about it. The truth is somewhere in the middle: not quite a waste of time, I certainly was amused, it was far from the best anime I’ve ever seen, and I’m going to write an amusing article about it. Which is what you’re reading now. Just in case you hadn’t noticed.
At this point I should also warn you that this bit is definitely going to contain spoilers, because, well, it can hardly be avoided; all the juicy parts are spoiler parts.
The episode picks up some time after where the first episode left off: Main character Rin and her assistant Mimi still have their detective agency, and Maeno has joined their agency as well; of course he only gets the smaller assignments like finding lost people and pets, because, well, quite frankly he wouldn’t be able to stand up to a geriatric pink spraydyed poodle if his life depended on it, let alone tackle the japanese Mafia.
Rin’s latest assignment at first seems to revolve around a missing stamp, a very rare one, while Maeno is busy finding a young girl’s lost brother, with the girl herself convinced that her brother flew out the window because he’s an angel.
Of course before Rin can accept her new assignment, there has to be some fan service in the form of lesbian touchy-touchy between the two ladies. Now this normally wouldn’t be such a problem, if not for the fact that, just like in last episode, Mimi still looks like a 12 year old.
The plot thickens when everybody involved with the stamp ends up hospitalized or dead. At this point Rin’s two talents also become quite clear again: her talent for being shot, burnt, blown up or stabbed – and her talent to revive from any injury.
At some point Maeno’s quest for the missing brother and Rin’s assignment cross over, as the missing brother seems to have a grudge against the same people Rin’s dealing with. And while Maeno is working hard trying to figure everything out, Rin is on the other side of town, obtaining her information while having sex with her female informant. Woo!
Near the end of the episode Rin’s mysterious talent is explained: both she –and little Mimi as well, which is as good an excuse for any 12-year-old girl to be not 12 but simply look like it- swallowed some spores from an enormous tree that most people seem unable to notice, and in turn have become immortal. Unfortunately, the missing angel has the same origin: when a male somebody swallows one of these spores, he becomes an Angel.