True Tears has been one emotional ride. Dealing with Shin’ichiro’s feelings and understanding the others around him is something this series definitely focuses well one. This series promotes change within the family and acceptance as well.  I haven’t once despised True Tears. It’s one of those series that will definitely having you guessing and your jaw gaping for more. The sad truth of it being only 13 episodes saddened me. It could have had much more potential if it was 26 episode. The graphics were a definite plus. It really did have a beautiful OP and a fun ED.

The creators did decide to be creative near the end. Boy were they creative. Also, the inclusion of Noe’s brother did hurt the finale I felt. The series would have ended just find without him being selfish and untruthful. He did spice it up though at the beginning which was basically his main purpose.

I did feel that the character development could have been better. We were able to see the past events of Hiromi, Shin, and Noe. However, it would have been nice to see the rest of the character’s included. The past of Shin’s parents intrigued me. I really wanted more explained about them. Though, it’s understandable with only 13 episodes. More development on Ai would have been nice as well.

True Tears is definitely a great watch. I highly recommend it if you like romance and don’t mind using a few tissues in the process. The plot of the picture book that Shin draws made it even more enjoyable. So give True Tears and try and I doubt you’ll regret it!

I ended up not blogging the rest of this series due to time constraints, but I wanted to blog the final episode since I did greatly enjoy it. This episode definitely proved that you can easily fool the viewer into thinking a relationship is set in stone. Noe is still in the hospital due to falling from the tree. However, she was saved by the piled snow and received a hurt leg. Shin’ichiro asks Noe’s brother for forgiveness but is not forgiven.

Shin’Ichiro’s mom seems to have changed quite a bit since this series started. She’s now supportive of Hiromi’s effort to be with Shin. She even brings some leftover food over. I always pictured her as a heartless and mean person at the beginning. It’s nice to know that she was able to change and become a better aunt.

Shin goes to see Noe but is refuses to read his picture book. He then decides to throw it away since she was his inspiration to write it, and yet she won’t read it. Noe does really want to read it and follows Shin to the beach to find the pages ripped out. They gather all of the pages except the last. Noe never doesn’t find out the actual ending Shin intended because of this. Noe leaves and understands he loves Hiromi more. Shin knows that he wavers when he sees Noe but it still hurts him inside to part. Shin goes pretty overboard singing the song Noe usually does. Basically he screams most of it. I feel that it ruined the mood. However, everyone faces situations differently and I respect that.

Hiromi is not at her apartment when Shin tries to meet her. He checks the bamboo field and finds her walking alone. He is direct and says "let’s go out". Hiromi refuses at first. I’m guessing she doesn’t want to rip Noe and him apart. However, Shin keeps expressing that he in fact does want to be by her side and she can read the picture book anytime. That hug was a very emotional moment for me. I’m glad to see that Shin was able to wipe Hiromi’s tears and especially since she was his reason since episode one. I honestly thought we’d have a Noe ending thanks to episode 12’s foreshadowing. I’m glad I was wrong.

We also get to see that Ai and Miyokichi’s relationships stays strong. Noe’s brother moves on with his life and leaves Noe’s house since their feelings were not mutual. The guy really felt like a jerk throughout the whole anime. It also seems that Noe is able to move on and socialize more with her friends. Quite an awesome yet emotional episode. I’m glad it didn’t leave a bitter-sweet taste like some other series have.

Finally, the third Tsubasa OVA is here. It was wroth the wait. However, I did feel disappointed with the lack of information shown. It makes me wonder if there will be a third season released. If not, I’ll have to resort to reading the manga instead.

We resume with Kurogane furious at Syaoran’s crest on his cloths. Yuuko intervenes and tells Kurogane that this Syaoran did not kill his mother. However, he is anxious to find answers about what is happening. I have never seen Kurogane this angry before. It’s very comforting to see how he cares for Fai though. Yuuko informs them of a way to save Fai. They must turn him into a vampire like Subaru and Kamui. Subaru is about to give his blood, but Kamui steps in and does it instead out of worry. Fai’s body then undergoes a painful transformation and his eye turns yellow.

Yuuko also grants the wish of Subaru to replenish the water supply. However, she needs a payment. Sakura is to go alone to retrieve a unique egg. Sakura actually has some skill in this episode. She was able to use a gun properly and defeated two monsters. On her journey she met a little girl that resembles Sakura. This scene interests me, as I have not read the manga spoilers I do not know if this is actually Sakura or a memory fragment. Sakura manages to retrieve the egg and heads back very injured to everyone. Sakura really had courage to be able to make it through that far for her friends.

They give the egg to Yuuko. It seems that the feather Fuuma had was a real feather. However, Sakura decides to leave it behind so that the building and the people in it stay safe. She drops it in the water and it sinks to the bottom. Syaoran, Fai, and Kurogane decide to head out again in search of the feathers, clone Syaoran, and Fei Wong. At this point I’m saddened that this was the last OVA. I do hope a third season will be revealed soon.

Well I’ll be picking up this series.  True Tears has a really Beautiful OP.  The ED is also very fun.  So far the series has great potential.  I’m a little worried about how the creators will make Noe turn out.  Jumping out of a tree onto a complete stranger is pretty awkward.  I’ve got a good feeling about this series though.

First off, Nakagami Shin’ichiro lives with his parents and Hiromi Yuasa.  Apparently, he somewhat has a crush on Hiromi.  She seems really out of it through the entire episode for some reason.  She also seems very antisocial at home.  I’m going to guess it’s because her father is dead and she hates imposing on Shin’ichiro’s family.  I wonder what happened to her mother?

At school Shin’ichiro spots a girl named Isurugi Noe up in a tree.  She’s a very uniqe type of character in my opinion.  She seems to like the chicken named Raigomaru who can fly, rather than Jibeta, the one that cannot.

A racoon or some animal kills Raigomaru while they’re gone, and Noe seems mentally unstable after the shock.  It looks to me like Shin’ichiro became Raigomaru’s replacement at the end of the episode.  The next episode should be even better.  I’m looking forward to it! ^^

Finally, we get some long awaited action.  So many things happened this episode which made it a very good watch.  First off, It appears that Silver is being held by Bal Masque and can teleport at will.  This is most likely why they placed a powerful Keeper on the Reiji Maigo, to keep Silver from teleporting through it.  It also seems that this can happen to only certain people from what I understand.

Konoe turns out to be a faux body that was created in order to gather memories or something it turns out.  I’m still not sure what Konoe’s purpose was.  But, Hecate recovers her faux body and seals the Reiji Maigo.  Turbulent Ungula Fecor makes an appearance with Hecate.  His defensive spell Magnesia, was quite effective on Shana and Margery.  I did like how Margery stayed calm the entire time and didn’t let her revenge get the better of her.

After Hecate seals the Reiji Maigo, Johan somehow is released.  Even Hecate seemed surprised, which made it even more interesting.  Johan gives some of the Reiji Maigo’s energy to Pheles in order to save her.  He also tells her his plan in order to stop Bal Masque.  Johan then reverts back to Yuji after using up most of his energy.  Pheles asks the others to believe in her plan and gives Yoshida a strange Hogu.  The next episode will most likely focus on what the Hogu is that was given to Yoshida, and what Yuji and the group will do to uncover more hints about the mysterious Silver.

This was a very intereting episode.  There was a lot of info about Pheles shown.  Pheles’s actual body was somewhere else it seems.  From the looks of it, she’ll do anything to see Johan again and that even means turning on Wilhelmina.  I am somewhat worried about how how the creators will pull off the next episodem, since this one was building up for the next.

Yoshida suggests that Pheles come to the festival with everyone.  Pheles seems to enjoy it, and it looks as if she can be trusted.  We see a short glimpse of Pheles and Johan in the past at a festival.  We learn that Pheles found and raised Johan as a child.  He then fell in love with her and was willing to become a Mystes in order to stay by her side.  I’m guessing he needed to become a Mystes so that he wouldn’t grow old and die.  It’s ironic that Yuji was so scared of not living while Johan volunatrily become a Mystes.

After Pheles’s real body arrives she tries to awaken Johan again.  This time however,  she is piereced by a silver arm.  I pray this isn’t the end of Pheles.  She has made the show very interesting thus far.  I’m also hoping Margery doesn’t go berserk again next episode.  We do get antother hint about Konoe at the end though.  I just don’t understand what those bracelets are.  Who is the butler?  I guess we’ll see next episode.  Overall, very good building up!

This episode of Shakugan no Shana II was packed with a lot of action.  Pheles the Beautiful Whim makes her appearance this episode.  She comes to Sakai Yuji to find Johan who resides within him.  While Pheles tries to bring back Johan, Yuji releases his fuzetsu.  Margery sees his silver flame and goes berserk.

It seems Pheles and Johan were targetted in the past by an assassain named Sabrac.  Pheles managed to seal the dying Johan in the Reiji Maigo as it left him.  Though Sabrac put an unrestricted spell on it before it finally dissapeared.  Most likely this was the keeper they were talking about in the earlier episodes.  Somehow she managed to survive the encounter with Sabrac though.  It also appears that Wilhelmina was friends with Pheles.  She tries to persuade the others to spare her for the time being.  In the past Johan and her made a pact thus she no longer eats humans.

Basically though, Margery and Pheles are subdued by Wihelmina and Shana’s teamwork.  I’m still unsure if the Silver is truly inside Yuji.  It could just be something to do with the keeper placed on the Reiji Maigo.  Though if Johan is truly inside Yuji, then I don’t know how he’ll be able to free him and stay alive himself.  Though we do learn that the Reiji Maigo is changing from what Pheles talks about.  I do dislike the random moments that Yoshida says that she is getting farther away from Yuji.  I believe the drama that Yoshida brings into the series totally ruins a lot of it.

We also get a hint about the new transfer student being Hecate.  I don’t actually know for sure but I’m willing to bet that it is in fact her.  The next episode seems like it will fill in the gaps with the information we need to know.  I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen to Pheles, and what information they can gather on the Silver.

Alright, I decided it’s been too long since I last saw Sokyuu no Fafner, so that will have to wait. In exchange, I’ll just go ahead and give my thoughts on another gem. But first the lovely tale of the beastly reincarnation of a homosexual angel:

 Sousei no Aquarion - 創聖のアクエリオン - Genesis of Aquarion

Alright, I believe this qualifies as a Mecha-series, but it has a very spiritual theme combined with quite odd romance.

Sousei no Aquarion is mainly about a boy named Apollo. His behaviour (often his way of thinking) is more like that of an animal than that of a civilized human. He runs on all fours, uses his nose to find food and prey, hunts and eats rats raw and so on.

One day, a guy who can lit his feet on fire and a girl who can use telekinesis (moving objects with mere mind-power) appear in front of him, knock him out cold and proceeds to examine his back for traces of the "taiyo no tsubasa" (can be translated as "The wing/wings of the/a sun" or as the subbers usually put it "The solar wing/wings").

Turns out that 10,000 years ago, a race of almost divine beings called Blood Angels fought against eachothers and the legendary hero Apollonius, the solar wing, defeated them with the help of his female human lover. The problem currently in the world is that the Blood Angels are starting to reappear, so the reincarnation of Apollonius is being searched for to help them.

Three vehicles similar to the common sci-fi dogfighting-ship called "Vectors", each with their own designation (Vector Sol, Vector Luna and Vector Mars) have been found and are the legacy of Apollonius. If they are piloted by Elementals (people with special abilities, if you remember the telekinesis-girl and the fire-guy from two paragraphs ago :D), a "gattai" (translates as "union") where "the body, the mind and the soul" are combined into one. The result is that the three Vectors become an awesome mecha that tends to kick ass.

After the events of the in my opinion ridicilously epic first episode, Apollo joins the other discovered Elementals at their base of operations where they are trained for the ultimate purpose of piloting (and one day hopefully uniting with) the Vectors. These Vectors are, when united, Aquarion. The series contains lots of fighting, where the victory usually comes from discovering the truth behind the various things they are being taught during the training they get from Gendo Fudo (also known as the epitome of manliness. Is known to move at speeds faster than the eye can percieve and transforming an arrow into three arrows.)

Most of the time, these things and the truth behind them are very symbolic and the entire series strive to build on symbolism that seems to be inspired by buddhism (uniting the mind, soul and body leads to enlightement, hence the way uniting the pilots of the Vectors becomes the great and powerful Aquarion).
Although the holy stuff with all its symbolism may not be something you as the viewer directly care about, it’s pulled off in a really nice way that people who appreciate symbolism will really like (much thanks to the fact that it’s the core of the plot)

What this boils down to is a lot of sequences that may not be character development per se, but rather development of the knowledge and teamwork of the group as a whole. The core of the events is basically them figuring out the tricks of how the holy stuff works and how it can be used, after which it’s usually used in the next fight. Kind of a standard pattern, but the content itself is varied enough to make this an irrelevant to the enjoyment.

So as a whole, Sousei no Aquarion is a nice experience that may not suit people who want something that’s not the slighest bit heavy, but all those people should check it anyway. It’s quite surprising how easy you can get the wrong image of it until you’ve actually seen the first few episodes.

It’s a total of 26 episodes, switches opening in the middle from the awesome Sousei no Aquarion to the also awesome Go Tight! The endings are quite interesting songs as well, but I’ll just let you see them yourself.

Drawing and Animation gets  9.3/10 with lots of interesting things being done flawlessly by the studio and some really great combination of 3D and 2D for the mechas.

Audio gets 8.8/10, not because the music isn’t as awesome as the animation, but because they tend to use the best bit from Sousei no Aquarion (the song that is :D) whenever a fight is about to be won. It’s obviously meant to make things epic (and it DEFINITELY manages to), but I give it a little less cred for not making some more epic songs to play in such moments. The sound-effects and BGMs are quite simply flawless and fit very well with the surroundings they’re used in.

Story gets a solid 9/10 with its interesting and quite unique template, where even the core of the plot isn’t quite as simple as it usually is in most stories. The symbolism is well chosen and it all just really works.

Characters get a 8.5/10 for having a really great cast, but not fully developing or getting closer to several of them. The series itself seems to be, as I mentioned earlier, more focused on developing them as a group, although it does go in close on the pasts of several of them. Still, you won’t be remembering some of the names afterwards, sadly. Also, Fudo.

All things counted together, I’d give the entire series a 9/10. It’s one of the best series I have seen and it should be very worth giving a watch, though it may not necessarily suit fans of mecha.

Alright, I’ve got Bokurano on my to-do list, but my next post will probably inform you of what anime I’m following and I’ll be focusing on covering the new episodes of those ^^ 

 This episode of Dragonaut seemed to be building up for Toa’s rescue.  Now that Gio and Jin know that she’s on Mars, they’re determined to make that their top priority.  It’ll be interesting to see how they accomplish this without hearing her song.  I will say this epsiode was a kind of predictable near the end.

We see the little girl in the beginning standing in the hallway while people are getting ready to implement the D Project launching.  Somehow I figure she’s going to play a huge role at the end.  I guess I’ll just let the creators surprise me.  I’m still unsure if that’s actually his daughter though.

Machina and Akira decide to follow Jin and Gio to help them rescue Toa on Mars.  Ironically, Jin was asked again to be a member of the Dragonauts this episode due to his talents with  handling Ostrum and the shuttle.  Most likely he’ll keep helping them out in the future.

Widow makes a return with the still crazy Kazuki.  They prepare to stop Jin from leaving with Gio.  One would think Widow wouldn’t put up with Kazuki’s absurd attidude problems by now.  I guess she has some mother side her or something.  Either way Kazuki gets knocked off Widow by Jin and his cockpit explodes.  We’d hope to see no more of Kazuki now, but we should know better I’m sure…  Overall, the episode was just buidling up for episode 15.  I’m hoping Dragonaut can surprise me next episode with something new.