Thanks To Allah Almighty I got a new address on the web: http://www.carvedatom.net/cauda/
Well, I’d update here too
But more over there
I’ll probably use both blogs simultaneously ^_^
The Blood:c Part II will be posted over there so yeah check it out if you want ^_^
Wow, this was one amazing episode and truthfully one of the best finales to an anime series I have ever seen. And it definitely beats the ending of Blood + to certain extents (though that epilogue was nice as well). Wherein Blood + had a lot of more sappy emotive factors (which many fans, including myself, enjoyed to many degrees) this series’s climax took a very intense alternative of focusing more on action, horror and grotesque galore which I loved! The battles, deaths and character interactions in this episode were profound — they made you scared, happy even (I’ll explain how) and fused with so much adrenalin that such an icing on a cake makes you forget that the cake had some inadequacies (at least for a moment) and well I Thank Allah Almighty that I was lucky enough to watch it — the streaming was bad and it took me up to around 3:30 or 4 in the morning to finish watching ^_^ but I had stayed up to watch the finale. This is going to be a LONG post (Ultimately, I decided to separate the two parts) and as usual this review will be filled with loads of spoilers so yeah tread with caution!
As all of you who are watching the series know that Fumito turned out to be the main antagonist — many of us had our suspicions on him because of his overly nice and protective attitude towards Saya. Good to know that was all a farce — well, parts of it and even in the finale I couldn’t shake the feeling that he has a deep rooted attraction to Saya and yes it is somewhat perverse and filled with those teasing, annoying, maniacal overtones. It is revealed that the system he works for wants him to assess Saya’s abilities to use in the shrovetide.While going through beyond top classified files he had found out about this event. Now, of course to gain such a measure he had to drug and hypnotize Saya as she would never willingly comply. Not to mention drain her blood in high amounts through twisted, labyrinthine glass tubes which then collect themselves in those wind-chime like vessels and hook themselves to the ceiling. Saya does not take the news of changing her well, obviously, and thinks that Fumito’s desire to manipulate shrovetide is impossible (which I think kinda is). Fumito explains that humans had made the covenant with the furukimono which was the shrovetide where demons were allowed to eat some humans to appease their hunger and later on not bother them anymore. This contract to him seems blatantly silly as those on the higher echelon of society do not understand what they have gotten themselves into. Well, he expresses that he has a fear of those beings which he has labelled “furukimono”. Fumito, as he is explaining this tries to caress Saya, stating that she was beautiful even when she was fighting his private soldiers (see what I mean) and Saya, though handcuffed, vehemently pushes his hand aside. Fumito chuckles (obviously he has a perverse fascination on her not to mention some form of attraction) and states his true intentions — he wants to change Saya in order to manipulate the shrovetide. So, we all see the change in Saya and that is actually Fumito’s doing with the hypnosis and the drugging but Saya does not really want to change; Fumito chuckles when he senses Saya’s determination to escape (with eyes red). Then he gathers the philosophy in how people change but some things are unchangeable, fundamental? Or, are they?
The choice of the town and demons being unleashed served the purpose of this experiment. Guess what? Those demons were being used merely as food for Saya and a test factor and if the irony was not hard enough they were being manipulated by using Saya;s blood. Now before this flashback ends we see Saya ambitiously telling that she will never change.
Well, Fumito, being as sadistic as he truly is decides that if he wins he will be rewarded as in if Saya changes and that if Saya wins, retaining herself, she will be rewarded. And the loser will get a penalty — pretty messy game if you ask me.
Well, now that Saya has remembered things the twins try to rub off on the “good side” of Fumito saying that kids do make mistakes. And Fumito agrees that that is one angle in looking at things. Tokizane however is adamant in getting paid (even after Yuka points out his contract violations) to which Fumito subtlety yet sarcastically comments that this too must be a way kids make mistakes. Our dear teacher is adamant too in getting herself published.
Well, what does Fumito think of all this? Well, he doesn’t care a bit. The twins think its time to go home and Fumito mutters the magic words: if the actors don’t want to act they should be taken off stage.
People, if you are squeamish and cannot handle high levels of violence then you might wanna fast forward this part, because these few scenes are one of the most graphic and grizzly moments I have ever seen in an anime and even on a motion picture (I see horror but this was kinda unexpected). Let’s say it gets really messy from here as in storm of macabre messy.
The furukimono which looks a lot like Cerberus from CLAMP’s other works only in a more demonic package attacks the least expecting person first — Tokizane.
Kanake, the teacher runs out of the way as this big furukimono pins Tokizane with its claw. Tokizana starts panicking but it is too late — his head is ripped down as the beast eats whatever is left of him. Now Nono and Nene are in utter fear: they have the talismans right? Wrong. It appears after their first deaths the talismans given to them by Fumito are fakes. They decide to hightail out of there.
Now, this part really got to me — the twins though evil looked to be in sync and a pair. It seems that is not the case. When faced with such a imminent doom the twins decide to act individualistically aka every girl for herself; at least one of the twins does. She pushes her other twin down. That twin is picked up by the extendible arms that this furukimono keeps as antennae on top of its mane or hidden pincers and while she is screaming it pounds her horrifically on the stone path making it splatter a huge area of red before eating her. The twin who had betrayed her sibling gets it worse — believe me guys when I told my Dad how she died he was pretty disgusted too (he reminded me he just ate lunch). This was one of the most horrible deaths in the series not to mention any anime I ever watched — she is picked up by one of those extendible arms and as she screams and starts kicking that hand the other appears and grabs her kicking leg. In a flash the monster pulls both her legs forcing her to do a split making her cry in agony. While thrashing around her arms in the air and saying not to kill her the demon starts pulling both her legs. The girl keeps screaming and screaming as she pulled apart, halved! And that part was censored as the demon eats each piece consecutively (See, it is very disturbing).
Now, Saya was not just sitting around having a good old time seeing these people die (though they kinda deserve it) and even if they were using her she seems to be still concerned for them. Yet, she is disoriented. Her attempts to get up do not succeed. As Kanake looks in horror that the remains of a twin are being eaten Fumito says that he always knew she would betray him thus her talisman was a false one from the start. Then he kindly thanks her for her performance as the furukimono gets ready to devour her. Well, she runs and that doesn’t help with those extendible hands in play. Before she becomes food Saya finally kicks butt by rushing forward. In a cool battle scene Saya finally brings the demise of this creature by getting into its mouth and piercing its heart from the inside.
Even after saving her, Kanake decides to run away from Saya and in her fear induced state runs into Tadayoshi. While she screams at him asking for his help Tadayoshi mysteriously embraces her. She starts to calm down, but then gives a confused sigh while trying to look to her side, only to start screaming hysterically again: why you ask? Because Tadayoshi is going vampire on her neck and buries his teeth that soon she is partially decapitated.
Saya looks at a extremely “opiated” Tadayoshi and Fumito, in his sweet voice, just informs that maybe he has given too much of her blood to him. Saya with a deadly glance looks at him with annoyance and anger, and questions as if he already knew this would happen so had executed it; to which Fumito smiles and looks nonchalant as he realizes she has finally gone back to her real self. It seems Tadayoshi is the product of a mating between furukimono and human and the closest being to Saya. Fumito explains that like all other furukimono he has been using Saya’s blood to control him though their bond suggests a blood connection formed by a sort of an internal understanding between their shared characteristics as Saya had responded to the blood of her inside of him helping the father-daughter farce happen more smoothly. And if Fumito hasn’t stopped being such a jerk (which he hasn’t) he seems to have been anticipating that Saya will fight Tadayoshi…
And it begins — and Star Crossed anime blog was right this was one of the most beautifully choreographed action sequences in the entire series. And not to mention its intense as hell with Saya trying to stop Tadayoshi from killing her. Saya is angry that if the demons can be controlled then why were the people in the town killed? To this Yuka nonchalantly answers that it was more efficient to just keep the main cast alive as the extras are expendables. Well, I did see Yuka have a spine — a very cold one. In fact I thought she somewhat cared for Saya, maybe not: she seems as ruthless and indifferent as Fumito and if you notice during all this talk of murders and all Tomofusa has not made any comments. It seemed to me that he is not really into this. Obviously, he couldn’t do anything to save the twins or Tokizane or Kanake but he didn’t exactly root for their demise either (well, he did give a fleeting glance to the twins as they were running away; I think he knew they were going to get it regardless, as they are quite malicious people themselves and I think his feelings for Saya merited that response too concerning that they somewhat hurt Saya).
At this point Saya is doing well with Tadayoshi — too well for Fumito who then orders Tadayoshi to change into his other form nor else he cannot beat Saya (Saya just gave him a deep slice diagonally through his abdomen; quite a bruise using human standards). Tadayoshi then turns into his furukimono form which is that of lion-like cat having purple, white and red fur meshed throughout his body and red eyes. The outline of this kind of body slightly reflects that of a chiropteran from the previous instalments. Saya and Tadayoshi continue their battle with Tadayoshi now becoming stronger and hurting Saya a lot but she is countering pretty good (I guess it is harder to fight a furukimono, as in going one on one, if they are almost the same size as you; speaking that most others were a lot larger than Saya and Tadayoshi is shorter than them and has more of a more human height).
This battle is way chaotic with Saya flipping and slashing even being thrown and embedded into a wall head-first and stuck before prying out. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, in one of the scenes where Saya is turning in a bit of slow motion her face had a similarity to Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin when he fights. But Saya is getting tired with this drug charged Tadayoshi and screams at him to wake up and realize he is being used as a puppet. In response Tadayoshi just yells and beats Saya up more including smashing her in the ceiling and pinning her to the ground. But Saya hasn’t given up yet — she keeps on telling Tadayoshi to remember. And he does muttering “Saya”. But Fumito calls out his name with irritation reverting him to kill mode. By this time, however, Saya sees that flashing sword in the darkness of her mind again and is able to grab it! This means she has caught a huge chunk of her old strength. With lightning like speed she dissects Tadayoshi’s arm. When he turns out around to strike again his sword arm gets it. Blood spurts out as Tadayoshi runs towards Saya but eventually falls down. Without a care Fumito just turns around to walk away as Tadayoshi morphs back to human form.
Tadayoshi asks Saya if she has seen the enigmatic light and now understands where it leads (we don’t know yet). Saya nods. Tadayoshi then admits that the intimacy he felt for Saya was not false — she was the first person he had met who was like him (Saya by now picks up the limbless man) and he felt a deep connection with her and was happy to spend time with her. Saya’s determined expression has changed into a softer, melancholic one. Soon Tadayoshi dies in her arms not before for the last time Saya calls him: ” father” Saya grieves over his death by starting crying loudly.
But then she realizes who is responsible…
She goes after Fumito declaring he cannot leave now. Fumito just calmly states that he knows she wants to kill him but he cannot really engage in combat with her right now. Well, you guys guessed it — Fumito had not intented to help Saya kill humans again. The guy intended to break his promise. He takes out a weird amulet type device which is decorated quite ostentatiously — a few symbol appears and he lets that fall to the ground. Breaking it. Shattering the mirror like surface where the symbols.
Saya gasps and turns around as out of the well of the shrine (it looks like a well) comes out a large, pink demon. Now looks are definitely deceiving — this bunny demon has a weird red mark on its body, has mandible like things to its face and its teeth and claws are sharp so, yeah, it is a more mutated version of the bunny from Donnie Darko. Now, this demon is big and tries to guard the entrance to the shrine as Fumito, Yuka and Itsuki make a run for it down the steps. Saya leaps and slashes it in half. We’ll later find out that was a bad move and I think Fumito anticipated this: what a smart jerk antagonist :\
Saya screams after them saying that he can’t leave. Only to get shot by an automatic. It seems Fumito has called his armed men again. So, Saya falls down the stairs. Nobody cares. Well, especially Fumito (which is the glaring contrast to his false self). Actually, I think he does care but knowing Saya he knows he has to get out of there before she mutilates him. At this point, you do see something. Itsuki has stopped when he sees Saya being fired by the automatic.
Before the soldier can fire at the fallen protagonist once more he is pushed aside by Itsuki who then approaches Saya with concern. Then he gets shot by the automatic . And falls down the stairs 
well the demonic soldier shoots him more times as he had fallen down to the ground away from the steps. Well, the uncaring soldier gets in one of the jeeps with the indifferent Fumito and Yuka and drives away (the one Fumito and Yuka are riding in are white, the others seem to be black in colour if I recall correctly).
Now if getting shot wasn’t a big problem the bunny demon starts to bud from his split have and by some fungal asexual reproduction multiplies itself. The now two bunnies giggle and brush their hands together. They jump on the shrine entrance gate and soon divide some more. And now they are lose on the town!
“Why?”
Saya asks a dying Itsuki and even he doesn’t understand. He was told to pretend to like Saya. But through his pretence he actually started liking Saya — if you ask me that is a very strong confession because he knows who and what Saya is (kinda reminds me of Kai from Blood+)
Saya explains that wasn’t her; the one he fell in love with.
Itsuki agrees. But then disagrees. Saying that he is sure that a part of Saya is like that. Implying that he fell in love with the genuine Saya. And to most of us, the viewers, I think he is right.
With that the poor young man closes his eyes and Saya is affected by his death as well.
Well, while Saya was talking to her potential dying love the cutesy, pink bunnies with the mandibles have divided; a lot. And they seem to have become of different shapes and personalities! They start raiding the human homes and kidnapping everyone! The people start running as chaos breaks lose!
Everyone is in panic as these bunnies with their odd, malicious smiles start collecting all the people — one even starts collecting people in a sack — these extras are screaming that they do not know what is happening and who is controlling them before being shut up in the sack. Guess what? Fumito is looking outside his car window without a care and one guy even knocks on his window telling to be let in only to be killed.
The rabbits have started dining — they are eating humans by piercing their claws into their face and putting them on their fingers like shish kebabs, turning their or uncorking their heads like soda bottles (as Abandoned factory anime review site clearly explains) and we get to see what happened to all those humans in the bag; a furukimono rabbit starts spinning his hand as a blender and yeah blends them.
Where is Saya? She is running as fast as she can to the town. Fumito has strategically designed the shrine a bit farther away. Obviously, this had kept Saya and Tadayoshi’s true natures away from the town and even Fumito’s mysterious office was somewhere farther along too methinks.
Fumito’s men are shooting people too. So, having a horde of meat-eating bunnies is not enough? The people who are trying to escape are shot too with the automatics.These antagonists are exceedingly cruel. While people are screaming this was not in the contract they are shot by soldiers on top of the jeep which has become a sort of a spinning firing head you normally attach to tanks. Well, thats not the only thing. The jeeps are driving over people too as they go through the streets to escape.
Fumito sitting in the car finally talks to Yuka next to him. She is the only person alive from the main cast to which she curtly responds how she wants to be a politician O_O (ok, now that is scary — she is seeing people brutally die and has no feeling of guilt? The Abandoned Factory anime site was right and this is my response concerning her review. The twisted works of politics is revealed here as Yuka quietly looks about and has no feelings whatsoever to what is going on around her). Fumito remembers that Yuka wanted to be the governor of Tokyo. And he is right and Yuka disdainfully comments this is why she is still acting as a high school student at her age (implying she probably is much older than the other main cast characters too; Star crossed anime blog had commented that this addition extracts the stereotypical older looking high school girls we usually see in anime, as in it satirizes those designs). So, yeah that is why she was in this gig. And Fumito’s white jeep is covered with the bloods of the people; sure, they may not have been entirely innocent but they did die pretty badly and I think the extras were not so much incriminating as the main cast. While they talked their windows get painted red so many times — still, no reaction to that or to the screams outside. These two people are quite inhuman thus I do agree with Star Crossed anime blog; they are more demonic then the demons themselves.
As the people are being torn, ripped in half, piled up to be eaten by a furukimono, stabbed by a rabbit that had blades for hands, being pounded on — we see Fumito had been escaping through this trail and as the automatics killed more people the demons feasted.
Well, Saya has arrived and she first takes out three furukimono who glare at her (the one in the middle was squishing humans together like a rice ball) and soon starts doing what she does best: slash left, right, back and centre taking out the demonic bunnies but then her eyes turn red as she uses her abilities to spot the main rabbit from which all these little murderers split out from. And he turns around nonchalantly from the front of the carnage, while he was munching on a human. Saya decapitates him but then cuts his head into a million little pieces causing the other monstrosities to scream and fall down dead.
Now that that’s been taken care of Saya runs to grab mr. perfect — only a few moments ago he had gone off to Saya’s school and took a helicopter from the roof. Saya screams in frustration and shock at Fumito’s treachery, meticulousness and smooth escape tactics — well, not that smooth. Saya runs across the track field and jumps onto a roof and then leaps into the perimeter chain-wall which gives the proper altitude to get at Fumito’s chopper. Her sword starts glowing and Fumito is standing near the edge of the chopper calmly…in his hand is a gun…
…which he uses to blow off a portion of Saya’s head including her left eye.
Saya falls into the river. Incapacitated and drifting. Fumito just sweetly tells her that her beloved Guimauve was made with blood and that he has heard that it tastes like human organs (Yuka is behind him all this time) and that one day maybe she’ll confirm that for him.
Saya remains floating as the night passes away and the waves make her wash up on the shore. With morning, we see the aftermath of the carnage as the town is asleep, not to be awaken. It is bathed in blood and meshed with the severity of decay thought it was not ancient, it was a play, and like any play the stage was taken apart to ensure that reality may once again follow through.
And, what is reality?
Saya has washed upon the sandy bank. Her abdomen torn. Visible lacerations on her flesh with a fatal-like wound on her left side of her head. She begins to think of Tadayoshi, Kanako, Itsuki, Yuka, the twins and Tokizane. Her good eye gives out tears. All those precious people, all those precious memories — gone like their ever existance was a dream.
Soon it starts raining and Saya is on her side. The sun comes up glaring and she shields her face with her hand. Certainly, her face is too wounded for direct sunlight. Night plays again. This time too quiet as if yesterday had not happened. As if it were a figment. But Saya is sitting up. Probably, now more composed, with more strength than before. We see her tearing a portion of her skirt, the lacy endings as we hear the dog-like animal say that Saya’s wish was to remain the same. Not to change.
But, what about the other wish?
Saya’s eye is bandaged, the ending theme plays, as we see blood trickling down. Soon, more blood does and her remaining eye becomes as red as her own blood.
Saya begins to run.
As the moonlight paves her path we see her silhouettes through the trees. She comes to the road and jumps over a fence. She keeps on running with determination. Fumito is a day ahead of her and she needs to catch up.
Soon she comes closer to the roads that are the turning point…and in the distance a city glistens and glitters in the night…welcoming the hunter as she has gone back to reality…
Image via Wikipedia
Yes, I am reviewing these in this fashion — not that the episodes were lacklustre in quality but its actually the opposite these episodes were the most relevant episodes in the series and they rocked! Yes, these episodes rocked comparatively to the episodes we have been treated so far and they had a very nice orchestration of both action, information and interaction. The ambience becomes more tensed and actually creepy with imminent doom. And as usual this post will be SPOILER FILLED so tread with caution.
In episode nine we do continue from that monster that attacked school — all chaos ensues as blood, body parts, pieces of veins and sinew (digested, regurgitated or just plain in the digesting process as in being eaten) are thrown at us in all directions. The panic was real and people’s helplessness was felt. In fact, I actually got their pain and horror at seeing their classmates devoured by macabre literally. Well, as Saya prepares to fight Tomofusa and Yuka takes the few survivors and goes to the only refuge — the roof. Saya was actually doing a crappy job fighting the furukimono and I was actually annoyed. Because of her clumsy fighting a lot of lives were lost but I cannot completely blame her. There were many other factors in play like the stupidity of her classmates of not high-tailing it out when the chance was presented they only screamed and acted really slow. I am not saying people don’t do that but really when a monster is trying to make you lunch people you run ok. And also Saya was enduring some sort of mental constraints too. She was trying to block the creature’s attacks but she was getting interrupted by headaches and so more food for the furukimono.
Soon, the furukimono gets up to the roof and kills the few survivors who were left and Saya sees the dead body of her closest friend, Yuka — which enrages her enough to go kamikaze on the furukimono ( in a cool fighting scene where she leaps into the air) and we see that only Tomofusa has survived. I have to admit I was pretty impressed by Tomofusa he actually went out of his way to try to help Saya when the furukimono got her in a pinch. Now Tomofusa is obviously suspicious of Saya and asks her who she really is. But Saya is in a trance and can only repeat what everyone already knows about her. That mysterious teacher comes and starts to tell if she has killed everyone. But Saya loses consciousness.
Later on Tokizane comes along — now Saya feels odd as she did not see Tokizane with the other classmates and realizes that aside her class no other class was in school though she thought everyone was told to come to school even after the recent events. Before Tokizana had come the little talking dog was present outside her house and Saya had cried hugging him. It was nice to see that she did grieve over all the human lives lost. Of course, I still was annoyed that she did not question all these weird situations but at least happy to know she at least started. Tokizane does not speculate anything (go figure) and he instead decides to confess to Saya his feelings. However, Saya does not understand why Tokizane likes her and questions that (in fact that was a wise decision in my opinion) — but Tokizane says there are many qualities she possesses that are likeable. Saya is obviously still confessed about this matter until her father shows up — there is a tense moment between young man and father until Tokizane decides to come back later.
Well, what do you expect happens — Saya finally throws the big question out: Why can’t she remember her mother? Her appearance? Her name? Her personality?!
I have to admit this episode was very beautifully crafted — we were treated to heavy carnage at first which took up over 50% of screen time but then it went deeper into the plot. Right now if you do not have suspicions on Tokizane and the teacher then you should. I am sure that Tokizane was not in the class as he claims and the teacher going all enigmatic again is not at all a good sign. These two had the odour of suspicion from before and now it just got stronger. I started having suspicions on Saya’s father as well as how he never reveals anything important to Saya aside her need to kill furukimonos and even that is left incomplete. Well, except Tomofusa and Tokizane no one is left alive of Saya’s class and well thats a severe blow to the town though no one is doing anything about it.
Episode ten comes with a monster (who I actuallly thought was Diva) with blue eyes and covered with hair/fur and aside a face has no body or flesh, the she-monster actually is all spine. Not only that she confesses that she wants to eat a human child and that is better what Saya eats. Well, this one kills Tokizane and Saya once again gets unconscious after killing it. When she wakes up she sees Fumito who brings her coffee and guimauve and caresses her. Well, she questions a bit on it — the guimauve. Why is it always pink in colour? Is it always pink in colour? Fumito tells her that depends on what is put into the guimauve. Now I knew those sweets were a big deal in this anime or at least thought about it. In fact Fumito later goes to Saya’s father and suggests that Saya wanted the guimauve and mysteriously stated that he knows that the parent is hungry too and is carrying a silver thermal flask. Yeah, I guess we should suspect them too. Now though I mentioned that Fumito is not a love interest I am beginning to recant that statement. The way he caressed Saya suggests fondness and a certain attraction not to mention he once mentioned that Saya is very important to him. Even Saya got confused as Fumito caressed her face.
Well, Saya dresses up in her uniform — I suppose out of habit — and goes to the cafe. Enigmatically, Fumito has bandages on one of his arms and then Saya’s teacher comes along. She is interested to see the scrolls in the shrine and though Saya’s father is out she asks if she can see them. Saya hesitates but agrees to show her.
This is where the disaster strikes or shall I say disaster for Saya and well revelations to all of us at the same time: all the books/scrolls in the shrine have new bindings and are well empty! Except the one Saya had learned the furukimonos about. Saya is more than confused but it gets worse. She sees two people outside that are supposed to be dead — Nono and Nene, the twins…
Well, I had a certain feeling about the twins too and one of the good things about this show is that it has some elements of unpredictability and well I thought the twins were dead but guess they are alive not to mention laughing maniacally/creepily in sync. They make the world obviously crash for Saya. What is going on here?
Well, we are reaching the penultimate episode and even the season finale so lets say pandora’s box is opened. Saya has finally realized that the world around her is strange, she cannot understand her father and Fumito anymore (not that they were quite understandable in the beginning but you get the picture), her mother’s whole existence is a blank and so are the so-called ancient scrolls! So, what is exactly going on here? The talking dog kept on talking about all these disruptions in her lifestyle and Saya has not made these connections and I think she should have earlier but yeah she is flawed that way I suppose though in my opinion it is pure callousness on her part to not question these things especially if a weird enigmatic creature keeps on referencing them to help you better understand the situation you are in. Most of us, the viewers, may have not trusted the characters at all from the beginning or probably just questioned them well that was good enough for a vague storyline. Characterization still could have been better even if the whole show relied on enigma and despite the action I felt really dissatisfied about the series until these episodes rolled in. Well, we have to wait until DVD release to see the censored gore scenes (I think that is why they were censored in the first place LOL)
The penultimate episodes opens with Saya’s shock at seeing Nono and Nene. Episode eleven pretty much does most of the revelations. In fact, I was pretty impressed with this outer context or shall I say inner context blocking and fabricating an outer context. This whole town is a farce. So no wonder no one was bothered with so many weird things happening and the people dying and going missing. Everyone in the town are hired actors or extras and Nono and Nene and Saya’s teacher are part of the “main cast” so they are given protection against the furukimonos (it seems so is Tokizane, Tomofusa and Yuka). They did say that the extras are all killed except the “main cast” who are special enough to be kept alive.
The real Nono and Nene (that is their pseudonyms by the way as most people have them in this town) are not nice — in fact they are horrible! They make fun of Saya as she is having a breakdown. She wants to keep believing that her identity is true. When she mentions that she is Saya Kisaragi they laugh at her for being given a name like that. Then her so-called teacher tells her that Kisaragi means someone who changes her robes a.k.a change from their selves completely and that this surname suited her because she has been changed to satisfy the conditions of this experiment. Then she goes hentai and clutches Saya’s breast as she states though the mind changes she thought Saya’s heart would remain intact.
Saya falls to the ground and Nono and Nene giggle and state that do not care about her and that they all were in this act as they were promised a reward at the end of this experiment. Now they think it is taking too long so they the teacher and Tokizane have defected from the original plan. Oh yeah, Tokizane comes out of the bushes. And guess what? That guy is as mean and corrupted as the twins. He is not in love in Saya rather the opposite. He thinks she is disgusting and basically a freak. In fact the experiment was designed to see if Saya was going to stay in this sweet self or is she going to revert to her true experienced and instinctive nature. Now, Tokizane has brought furukimono blood. Why is that? Well it seems that Saya feasts on furukimono blood. The twin who pretended to die in the shrine had seen with disgust that after killing the furukimono Saya had devoured its blood. And it seems whenever she does she becomes stronger and starts to remember what has happened to her. Though the teacher seems to be worried about Saya its obvious she has ulterior motives as well. The twins wants their record expunged so that they can go back to normal society and get a job, Tokizane wants money and the teacher wants Saya for herself — she is a researcher and wants to research Saya.
Saya is force fed the blood and she starts to remember what has happened. She was attacked by a group of mysterious soldiers and a man who was in charge. The man wanted to capture Saya as he was fascinated by her uncanny nature commenting on how the Japanese government and U.S. military want to keep her secret. Soon, something akin to a chiropteran (who was next to the man in charge in human form moments before, I have a feeling he is playing Saya’s daddy now) from the movie knocks Saya out cold. All this time Saya’s eyes were red and the twin comments how whenever she consumes the furukimono blood Saya becomes like that. The teacher is hungry for more information. She states that a paranormal event called shrovetide (she has always been fascinated by the occult and is a researcher on it) where demons are allowed to feast on humans may happen soon and Saya is supposedly a key to that so she maniacally feeds Saya the rest of the vial of blood Tokizane had collected from a dead furukimono. Now, Saya remembers that whenever she was getting stronger and getting more of her old self back she would be back to that room with the flying wind-chime blood vessels and all chained up with her excess blood getting pumped out of her to make her weak. Then it is her blood on the floating things and well the man in charge comments (from a recent case) that this it was close and that it would have been hard to get her back. The man tells her that her blood would be put to good use. In fact he said he will feed her blood to “him” (kinda can guess who that is) and maybe he did feed certain quantities back to Saya via the guimauve mix.
Well, while the defectors are having their ball party a furukimono that looks like a demonic version of CLAMP’s Cerberus comes out of the library. Now the teacher has promised the trio that the surveillance cameras and recorders were off so that their actions would not be noted. But it seems that they weren’t careful so now a big furukimono is after them. They escape only to run into Tomofusa and Yuka who state that they aren’t allowed to hurt the main character, Saya, in any way and that as the whole town was created to keep watch on Saya and the experiment they are constantly under surveillance. Well, they had to explain that when Nono and Nene keep on persisting on how they had their recorders off and everything (they say they don’t need them on when they are not monitoring Saya) so they demand an explanation from their pseudo-teacher. They want their records expunged and if they caught they won’t get their reward, Tokizane says he is risking his life so he needs to get paid and well then the teacher screams that she needs to show Saya as living proof to her theories which were dismissed before her publication period expires. It seems everyone only cares about themselves but surprisingly Tomofusa seems to genuinely care about Saya as he asks if she is alright though she is still the defectors captive. Well, the teacher is angry saying that the experiment is defeating its own purpose because “he” keeps on hypnotizing and using drugs on Saya when she is getting her memory back so she’ll revive Saya’s old self and show “him” tell “him”.
When that “him” does come forward and the twins and Tokizane look scared and the teacher too seems to be in big trouble. Well, surprise-surprise it is Fumito smiling and asking what does she wanna tell him.
Well, in the penultimate episode it is revealed that Fumito has been the guy in charge all this time.
So, we have approached the end. Am I happy I saw the series? Well yeah. True that the first few episodes were crap the finale seems promising and getting good. I think this series started after Episode eight and well as a rating it’ll get a 3.5/5 and well I agree with Star Crossed anime’s blog that the story did have something that made you wanna watch it but its characterizations were weak until the end. I know most of the characters were frauds but even so they don’t do much in their fraudulent personas aside acting mysterious or confessing attraction, love, admiration or plain affection for Saya and aside lunch time she hardly interacts with any of her friends. Also the extras could have stood out more as they have been tricked into this farce — I expected more with their masses disappearing that they would do things like scream, yell or cry out for help. Though the anime had Truman show elements it cannot always tacitly employ them.
What I did like is the 360° personality swaps of the characters — Nono and Nene seems to look like they were engaged in illegal sexual activities (one of the twins wanted to keep the uniforms because they wanted to get some girls dress them up in it and don’t get caught in doing that :\) so much for acting all sweet and innocent. They kind of also explain to Saya firstly of how the town is a farce by saying how the school has no winter uniform and how she cannot remind her childhood friends and the people in charge might invent them later. The teacher is really obsessed about her research and while the revelations loses all her subtlety and becomes crazed, direct, forceful and a total hentai to boot. Not to forget Tokizane who becomes a foul, cold-hearted selfish man (I hope its him getting eaten by demonic Cerberus in the finale preview).
It only seems Yuka and Tomofusa have not changed with Tomofusa showing signs of actually caring about Saya (as someone mentioned in Wikipedia that he might have actual feelings for Saya). When the twins were whining how they were sick of the farce and want to go home Yuka reminds them that when they signed up they were told of these conditions so there’s no reason to whine and defect showing that Yuka is as strong and possesses a rigid backbone as shown in episode nine when she was helping others get up the roof.
The series finale will premiere soon and we are promised a movie in 2012 — let’s hope we get to see the real Saya the one the experiment couldn’t contain.
Image by solkana via Flickr
This episode did pique my interests — it put a bit more on the philosophy of the show. Something tells me that Saya got into a bad deal with a weird “experiment” (somewhat reminiscent of Blood + where Saya also is involved with people she at times regrets getting involved with) and the weird “wish” that accompanies it and all the baggage attached to it.
This episode had a remarkable strong point with a good load of harsh realism: what can you do in a life and death situation which is too close for comfort? That part was illustrated with fear, panic, blood and gore galore that even pondering about it can get anyone tensed. The part was nicely executed and got my attention immediately.
The enigma of the show is ok though this is not “finely tuned enigma” rather it is “ill enigma” and the bizarreness of it is not aesthetically pleasant. Some of it was nice and good probing; others made Saya look too dumb and even the town acts too nonchalant without even the slightest apprehension of anything (if you ask me that is too cosy for realistic).
Also character development is in a pit. Many people say its ok but to me it’s not totally fine. As this anime has 12 episodes it should give more credence to the supporting cast and even to Saya. The situation she is in has no “normal” effect on her though (as Star crossed anime blog linked the interview ) the producers wanted her to act like a gentle, normal girl. This Saya acts too silly to be normal. When she is a normal situation I can understand her clueless-ness/silliness but during battle she acts like an idiot without much of the “human” presence and seeing this indifference has made me annoyed. It feels too unreal and apathetic — is Saya trying to care when in actuality not caring at all? If that is the case her kindness would be called hypocrisy and then her character model may betray itself.
There are good questions asked in this series, however, it still needs a better execution and better character interaction. It’s distance from even its mundane moments makes it try to hard to be “subtle” the series feels restlessly quiet than actually like classics as The Grudge where seamless quiet mixes with restless quiet but in good pitch then transforms to disturbing, reckless horror.
I think this version of Saya will probably abandon the town in the end including her so-called father, the cafe owner and everyone and launch herself out into the wild endless road of finding a truer goal in life.
Image via Wikipedia
When I heard from the Star Crossed Anime Blog that Blood: The Last Vampire will get a another adaptation and CLAMP is doing it you can understand that I was uber excited and Thank Allah Almighty I pretty much watched all seven aired episodes but my complaints are not on the animation or on the new characters that are featured in this instalment of Blood my complaints are strictly focused on the anime so far as in its storyline seems to be non-existant or so slow to move that makes you think what happened in the years that served as transition from Blood + to Blood c.
Now Blood + had its flaws but Blood c is slower than a snail really. The first episode pretty much balances out some aspects of Blood (reminiscent of Blood +) but then it starts going downhill from there in concern to story plot and character development. Our young heroine’s Saya’s last name has changed and this series seems more of a tie-up to Blood: The Last Vampire animation movie than to Blood + (which might be a great disappointment to most fans who had wanted a Blood + sequel). The animation is very beautiful and the opening theme had some visual effects of “Colours of the heart” one of the popular opening songs from Blood +.
Our protagonist Saya now sports longer locks and is a shrine maiden and her character, as Wikipedia rightly states, is very polite (in my opinion a bit of pathological politeness) until, as artist-related commented, she becomes the samurai-styled warrior who is our vampyric character. The other characters, the males especially, look reminiscent of other popular CLAMP characters such as Itsuki Tomofusa looks like Light Yagami from Death Note and actually looks like Julian/Yukito from CLAMP’s Card Captor Sakura masterpiece and Shinichiro Tokizane looks a lot like Sakura’s brother from the same series. Not to forget that the twins Nene and Nono Motoe look like the two girls who live with Yuko Ichihara in CLAMP’s popular xxxHolic anime (in one of the episodes Saya wants to share bento with a classmate and one of the items in the tiffin box is Mokona from xxxHolic).
Aside popular references the characterizations of these characters are VERY WEAK. Tomofusa at the moment does nothing but serve as a “love interest” for Saya and in fact almost all the males aside Saya’s father, the baker and the policeman serve as “love interests” to Saya. Tokizane looks strangely at Saya from afar and Tomofusa keeps on giving hints to his attraction to Saya but Saya does not get it (In fact Saya tells a person that she lacks “common sense” and understanding sensuous/romantic attractions is not her strong suit I realized) even Cafe Guimouve’s owner called Fumito Nanahara seems to have a big attraction towards her. Our protagonist considers Nanahara as a friend and someone she can confide in as both her father and she know nothing about cooking he cooks for them and makes her Guimauve (the cafe is named after this pink sugar-cube gelatinous type dessert).
I had suspicions that all three males are actually chevaliers, not to forget to include their teacher, Kanako Tsutsutori, who looks like the doctor Julia from Blood + and Blood: The last vampire,and even acts like her. By saying subtle things to Saya the audience who is familiar with the storylines of the other adaptations know that she is not just a teacher and that her primary interest seems to be Saya (I also think Tomofusa is an antagonist).
The series has very bloody and violent scenes and very good action sequences. Some of the scenes were un-expectingly gory (I did cringe) and were censored due to the graphic disembowelment (methinks), tearing apart, ripping apart, etcetera of the monsters Saya fights or the human bystanders that get in the way (one of the monsters reminded me of the movie Midnight Meat Train).
But there is a severe lagging in story formation which gets in the way and corrupts otherwise good flow of action and artwork — CLAMP kinda borrows its own shows’ elements and incorporates it into Blood which would be any crossover fanfiction/fanfiction writer’s dream only it does not work here (spoiler: seriously a shop that grants wishes c’mon CLAMP you are already entertaining people with that).
The most original concept in this series is the beautiful music and the enigmatic location where chains hold wind-chime-like vessels filled with blood and a hidden individual sprouts his philosophical beliefs (which can be argued with and maybe Saya might prove them all wrong).
As artist-related has stated in his comment that this series is going to be only 12 episodes long I think Blood c needs to put the pedal to the metal if it wants to still hold on to its viewers.
Image via Wikipedia
Blassreiter (which wikipedia has informed me is pseudo-German for “pale rider”) is a series that’s main focus is science fiction, action and Judeo-Christian elements — it is akin to Evangelion in this stream yet unlike that anime its plots are more straightforward as in it excludes high levels of psychoanalysis/psychology but does offer substance and good three dimensional characters. From the very beginning a lot is happening but not much to convolute or impede plot progression rather it accelerates those and sharpens them in time. Its laudable elements are its well orchestrated musical score (from what I have seen from now especially the second ending theme) which features both Japanese and English tracks with other languages immersed into it (this style of musical incorporation is reminiscent to what Yoko Kanno did for Escaflowne and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Series) and its beautiful, crisp animation with lovely character designs.
When I said ‘straightforward’ for storyline I did not mean less complicated — in fact it has a very unpredictable tangent too and that makes the series entertaining along the way from what I have seen so far. The anatoginist reminds me of Cain from Trinity Blood series (his appearance and attitude reflects that) and our protagonist, Joseph Jobson, is a very cool headed character not to mention the other protagonist Amanda Werner.
The story basically deals with a sort of evolutionary armageddon as humans who are infected with some weird matter that turn them into amalgams or demoniacs. Our protagonist Joseph is such an amalgam and is titled “Blue” by the XAT team a specialized swat team that locates, eliminates and researches amalgams and Amanda is a member of that team. However, Joseph is unlike other amalgams as he is able to keep his sanity and not go berserk and hurt anyone. On the side Amanda’s foster brother, Malek, deals with the other important elements of the show which focuses on xenophobia and ostracization as he is bullied constantly in school for being an outsider. The show does highlight xenophobia in both the macro and micro levels in my opinion (with Joseph being a target for XAT and Malek in school for the bullies). Obviously there are other factions at work to do dirty business including the mysterious doctor Beatrice who appears in the scene to do covert damage.
Overall, the series is going good.
Image via Wikipedia
Slam Dunk is probably one of the most memorable animes from the 90′s and actually one of the best animes of all time. I was, however, introduced to it when I saw it in 2008 (MANY YEARS LATER I KNOW) when they aired it in Animax. Now most people know that most popular animes focus on martial arts, fantasy, comedy, blood, gore pretty boys, pretty girls, action and/or drama with a combination therewith — Slam Dunk did not really have those but did have them in another way. It packed tons of comedy, had some violence in the form of fighting, had drama and was able to install pretty boys and pretty girls without having the otaku (Japanese denotation) — its most unique feature is that it was primarily a sports anime and its main focus was basketball and how protagonist Hanamichi Sakuragi learns how to play it and becoming an athlete in his own way.
Hanamichi Sakuragi is one of the most memorable characters in anime — initially he is an academic failure, schoolyard “gangstar” and never romantically inclined (he has so many rejections that it makes many of us happy with ourselves) — enter Haruko Akagi, a very beautiful young highschool freshman like him and attends Shohoku High with him. Seeing his height and athletic build she asks him if he wants to play basketball — this begins the journey that is Slam Dunk.
What he starts out initially to impress his crush turns out to challenge him and make him stand out. The young Hanamichi is good at fighting but can he fight without fists? Can he dodge without letting others get to him? Can he defend without a foul? Can he master the slam dunk, three pointer and the rebound?
This anime is beautiful because it fuses a fantastic sport with the actual trials and tribulations of life — if you know nothing about basketball be prepared to learn with Hanamichi in an effective, non-boring manner that’ll stick.
Every character in this anime has such three dimensional substance that one cannot refuse to love them. We have Hanamichi Sakuragi the loveable lead but his “rival” and opposite Kaeda Rukawa — who is handsome, cool, attractive to girls (got a big fan club) and is the apple of his crush’s eye — unlike Hanamichi he seems so not reactive about things and is only emotional about basketball; the only thing he and Hanamchi share are bad grades.
The captain of the Shohoku High Basketball team, Haruko’s older brother, Takenori, is fierce and passionate of his team and basketball and he is not gonna let anyone mess it up. Though he is kind of shown as an unattractive character aesthetically I find him quite handsome and amazing as a personality. Then of course there is Ryota, a guy Hanamichi feels like his pal on the team and Mitsui the rebellious troublemaker, the judo captain who wants to recruit Hanamichi for his tea and Hanamichi’s gang who also attend Shohoku.
Aside from our main characters at Shohoku there are other teams that serve as rivals to it that increases both the intellectual and entertaining quality of this entire series. The main rival — compatibly — is Ryounan and its ace player Akira Sendoh (guy is hard to miss with his signature Guile-like hairstyle) who is more matched up with Kaeda but finds a rival in Hanamichi. Then of course there are the top players of Shoyo and Kainan (who are the undefeated champs) It takes Hanamichi a lot of practice and laughs along the way to hone his skills in the entire series. The series does not only focus on Hanamichi’s basketball development but focuses on how other characters grow too in their skills and learn to find their strengths in the court. It really does illustrate how athletes live, grow and learn.
It is also one of the longest series with reasonable sized episodes coming up at 101 episodes (it has memorable opening and ending themes as well)
Overall Slam Dunk will remain as one of my favourite animes of all time and one of the best animes to come hit the storyboard.
Image by valiant ho via Flickr
Full Metal Alchemist is one of the longest running animes of our millennium — it finally finished its manga run last year and it had also finish its 2nd TV series, which was based on the original manga last year as well. I have only read the last issue of the manga when the penultimate and ultimate finale was at hand. I was introduced to FMA by the first TV series and I really enjoyed it so I was enthusiastic and euphoric when the 2nd TV series came out and Thanks to Allah Almighty that I got to see Brotherhood too [at least some of the EPs on Animax] Well, I thought that both animes had their ups and downs — THIS IS A SPOILER ISSUE SO IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED AVOID READING THIS SERIOUSLY!
First up I thought the ideological and philosophical base of FMA: Brotherhood is very strong so the manga is very good at portraying that. However, I think in some ways the deviations of FMA first anime series offered a new dimension to the FMA story and I think the anti-climatic nature of it was actually a good thing. Brotherhood also entails a lot of other things that I liked — the homunculi Envy and Pride are very sinister and have many layers to their personality also Dr. Marco does not die out easily in the 2nd TV series and I like that he and Yoki are able to redeem themselves as well the people of Ishval.
However there were some perks that the first series had
Image via Wikipedia
At the moment watching sparsely/intrinsically the masterpiece Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
The Ghost In The Shell is MASHALLAH one of the best anime MASTERPIECES that I watched. It is philosophical, intellectual, engaging, action oriented and preferable fiction of the day. I watched it in my adolescent years and it has been one fabulous ride throughout. It never disappoints as it melds awesome stunts with cool psycohological mind bombs!
A guarantee win for anyone loving complex and simple flux — aka plot with substance and action for purpose!
“Inception” itself is like most postmodernist texts that question reality and the natures of absolutes and illusions.
The truth is I feel this story has elements to it similar to the animes “Ghost In The Shell” and “Revolutionary Girl Utena” where the whole nature of reality is on flux and in the latter show so unpredictable that we think the dimensions are all cracked and intermeshing with each other.
Obviously what could be reality to the protagonist may never have been reality at all and in many ways he does not care for it in the least – because just as the spinning top in the end will spin on any surface it is allowed to spin on he feels he can keep on existing on any reality he is allowed to exist in/on…
(My comment on this wicked post!)
I posted this on my other blog but I wanna write more:
Postmodernism and Postmodernist thoughts have many mainstream outlets now like these cool Hollywood movies that tinker with brain cells and make you have it on a platinum wired dish of hot-cool savoury goodness!
It is important to note, however, that anime REALLY explored this territory way from before. With the anime market the good thing is that you can give manga as a trial run before anime production and if something isn’t popular mainstream it may have another market to make good use of it – and that market may be less involved with abs, boobs and maid outfits-subservient-domineering-prince charming characters and more into philosophies that make your brain bounce and do extreme sports from the various dimensions.
This is not really the case of Hollywood or even Bollywood (lets say the Woods’ family tree) — market and finance really pivots those scales so out-of-the-box scripts may not make it to the bigscreen or even survive such an environment.
I think we can thank “Ghost In The Shell” inspired “Matrix” to have opened some new territory to that screen and allowed postmodernist things come into popular-culture.
However, I wonder how many people are interested in “Inception” for its graphics or its ideology or just not interested in it at all.
I guess your kind of dreams spinning may matter in the end.
Also — what is the fate of postmodernism now? It has defied modernism but has become a norm to some extents – its mission successful? its death? its reincarnation?
Let’s see…
