part 1
part 2
Deadman Wonderland
MAL/Official
Genre: action, thriller
Studio production: Manglobe
Number of episodes: 12
Comments: Since I've never read the manga, the first episode kinda gave me a mixed impression - great animation but the story begin in a rather intriguing, yet distressing manner - the bloody scene in the classroom with only a single student survived, Igaraki Ganta, which were then accused as the main suspect; and with no room to defend himself, sentenced in the form of life imprisonment at a unique theme park-like prison called Deadman Wonderland. Since I'm not entirely convinced that I would enjoy the series, I decided to give a few chapters of the manga a try; and damn, I would say the story really exceed my expectation, in fact I would even say the anime did better in visualizing the motion to fit with the mood of the scenes depicted in the manga. And episode 2 certainly erases my worry as I started to enjoy the show. From being framed to the imprisonment at Deadman Wonderland, we see how Ganta tries to survive the ordeal and life at the prison, whilst also making a few friends in the process, including a mysterious albino girl named Shiro (who had the personality of a typical Kana Hanazawa’s cheerful character). Then many mysteries and questions started to appear, starting from the origin of the gravitational collapse in Tokyo (which now become the location of Deadman Wonderland), the identity of the Red Man and Shiro, the reason Ganta was left alive in the incident and then framed for the crime, the power that awakened within him, as well as the conspiracy, darkest secret of Deadman Wonderland itself. Many thrills and intriguing incidents that would keep me at my seat, definitely don’t want to miss this.
Verdict: 4/5 (watching)
Verdict: 4/5 (watching)
Ao no Exorcist
MAL/Official
Genre: action, drama, supernatural
Studio production: A-1 Pictures
Number of episodes: 24
Comments: A Child of Satan, becoming demon's greatest enemy, an exorcist, to get rid of demons. Okumura Rin has been a problematic man since his childhood, a stark contrast to his gentle twin brother Yukio. Living under the care of an exorcist, little did he know that his real identity is an illegitimate child of the god of demon, Satan. An incident which reveals his true self, and saw his adopted father sacrificing himself eventually led Rin to the path of exorcism, against Satan itself. It was a great introduction to the series, coupled with good usage of visual effects in the battles. Off the battle, there's also a few mild comedies that tickle my sense of humors. The 2 episodes so far were enjoyable (to some degree), and I'm expecting more interesting things to happened next, now that Rin is enrolled in True Cross academy, although for now this series is not likely to be put in my higher priority watchlist.
p/s wtf Mameshiba adsComments: A Child of Satan, becoming demon's greatest enemy, an exorcist, to get rid of demons. Okumura Rin has been a problematic man since his childhood, a stark contrast to his gentle twin brother Yukio. Living under the care of an exorcist, little did he know that his real identity is an illegitimate child of the god of demon, Satan. An incident which reveals his true self, and saw his adopted father sacrificing himself eventually led Rin to the path of exorcism, against Satan itself. It was a great introduction to the series, coupled with good usage of visual effects in the battles. Off the battle, there's also a few mild comedies that tickle my sense of humors. The 2 episodes so far were enjoyable (to some degree), and I'm expecting more interesting things to happened next, now that Rin is enrolled in True Cross academy, although for now this series is not likely to be put in my higher priority watchlist.
Verdict: 3/5
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai
MAL/Official
Genre: drama
Studio production: A-1 Pictures
Number of episodes: 11
Comments: Ano Haha, aka We Still do not Know the Name of the Flower we Saw that Day. In short it was about 6 really close childhood friends, whom after the death of one of them, Meiko Honma (aka Menma), changed as years passed and become somewhat distant to each other. The main character Jintan become a shut-in, and it was him who met the reincarnated Menma (ghost), thought to be the embodiment of his own stress. Another girl, Naruko become more involved in fashion stuff, although her old hobbies of collecting games and manga remained. Deep within herself, she still has great care toward Jintan. Another guy, Poppo who used to be the smallest when he was child, now is a big guy and likes to travel around the world with the money he earned from his part time job. And the last two, Yukiatsu and Tsurumi seems to change the most, with both taking their life and study seriously. The reappeared Menma had a wish she wants Jintan to fulfill, but it can only be granted by reuniting the distant old friends. A really refreshing drama if you asked me, seeing how the appearance of Menma brought some vigor to Jintan, and with all the things Jintan done trying to grant Menma's wish, eventually also brought the friends that has become distant in recent years closer. In the end, although everyone seems to change drastically (appearance and personality-wise), they still had a piece of their former self, all which were bound together by Menma. So far things went well for Jintan, Poppo and Naruko, and I am looking forward to how Jintan would deal with (probably) the more serious Yukiatsu and Tsurumi.
Verdict: 4/5 (watching)
Hidan no Aria
MAL/Official
Genre: action, comedy
Studio production: J.C Staff
Number of episodes: 13
Comments: My, another Kugimiya tsundere lolo (with scarlet hair too), now with a pair of gun. The story is promising, in a sense that it somewhat mirrors the life of students at a special academy in Toaru series. To be precise, it is about a seemingly normal guy, Tohyama Kinji who enrolled in a special academy that trained Butei, an armed detective force. He dreams of leading a peaceful life (and even plan to quit Butei altogether), but an encounter with an S-ranked butei named Kanzaki H Aria forced him out of his wishful dream. I like the premise, and even more because the main character Kinji is not a wuss (thanks to his conditional Hysteria Syndrome which triggers his godlike combat abilities). The only problem I had so far with the series is that aside of Kinji, the other characters (As far as ep2 goes: Aria, Shirayuki and Riko) were very stereotypic, in particular, Aria who had the vibes of Shana all over her, so there's no need for me to decribe more. Well, on the good note, the series was made by J.C. Staff, hence the animation quality was always something to admire for. I wish the OP song could have been better composed though, the song by May'n sounds out of place with the series.
Verdict: 4/5 (watching)
C -Control - The Money and Soul of Possibility
MAL/Official
Genre: science fiction, thriller
Studio production: Tatsunoko Production
Number of episodes: 11
Comments: Other title was rephrased as The Money of Soul and Possibility Control. Regardless, this is one of the strangest anime title I've ever heard, in that it made little sense, and it was reflected in the story. Being an original series, it had a compelling theme, relating money and wealth of a person to their own future in the era when financial recession become a huge problems. The story centered around a college student Kimimaro Yoga who wished to lead a normal life, but an encounter with a strange man changed his life, as at the cost of his future, he was granted access to strange realm called Financial District, which allowed possibilities for him to make lots of profits/money. His role in the District is to battle (with the help of his Assets) against other people like him, with their money/future at stake. I really fancy this kind of strange story, along with the peculiarities that were brought from the Financial District, for example the black money which can only be seen by people who had gone through the District, as well as the mysterious guy that invite Kimimaro in the first place. The battle that took place in the District so far wasn't really the strong point of the series, but I do like the striking colors used, kinda give the prefect sense of strangeness to the world of Financial District.
Verdict: 3.5/5
Verdict: 3.5/5
Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
MAL/Official
Genre: comedy, seinen
Studio production: SHAFT
Number of episodes: 12
Comments: Another amazing work by SHAFT, again with their world full of strangeness. When the story begin, we're shown a normal high school student, Niwa Makoto, moving to her aunt's home and is looking forward to his new life. But what we seen after he and his aunt Touwa Meme arrived home bring us to complete bewilderness - a girl about his age, wrapped in futon, lies at the entrance. The dialogue that follows afterward, with Niwa asking so many questions about the girls, gave him little answers. Then we know that his new life at his aunt's place is nothing short of extraordinary, filled with many kinds of strange girls. Just as the title suggest, the girls that Niwa encountered so far has been pretty weird in many sense. The futon girl, Erio claimed she is an alien, while girls he met at school, Mifune Ryuuko and Maekawa have their own kind of oddness too. Part of the twist involving Erio's disappearance in the past that led to her present state is really intriguing, in fact I would say the same for the whole story. As expected from SHAFT I guess, and they really did great with the beautiful animation. Strange and extraordinary was the central figure of this anime, and the OP reflected it. I personally do like the song though :3
p/s: futon moe.Verdict: 4.5/5 (definite watch)
That's it for the impression. There's a few more series that I actually watched, but I guess it's too much to add into these posts.
Tales of Grace F
Warrior Orochi 3
FFXIII-2
Since Will had read through all previous fragment, he found so many peculiarities in this world. Aside from the fact that Kinzo is still alive, he also was introduced with a new unfamiliar character as his assistant throughout this game– Ushiromiya Lion, which in this tale is the adopted child of Natsuhi and Krauss, and the true successor of the Ushiromiya family selected personally by Kinzo. It's not even told what's the gender of Lion as Lion's appearance was rather androgenic, but later it was evident that Lion is a female. Will also noticed that some of the servants (eg Shannon) seems unfamiliar with Lion, which means he is not alone who find Lion's existence strange. Additionally, Battler didn't come to that year's family conference, while the portrait of Beatrice which was hanged at the main entrance was not accompanied by the epitaph of the gold. Lion also had no recollection of the witch's legend, or the epitaph.
Anyway, Bern already set up barriers around the area, so unless Will and Lion solved the mystery asked by Bern, they will forever be trapped in that area. Will was granted with “Theatergoing Authority” – a power that allows him to interact with the person he touched in another world. Will’s started to investigate by asking various questions from almost every family members of the Ushiromiya family, which unfortunately provided him with the information that he already know (eg Rosa’s meeting with the Kuwadorian Beatrice, and Maria’s obsession with cult and magic). His meetings with Kinzo however resulted in some of the most important backstory of Umineko – about the Kinzo’s past, his meeting with the first Beato (named Beatrice Castiglioni). Briefly, in 1944 Kinzo met Beatrice when the Italian Army submarine that she board made an emergency stop at Rokkenjima, which at that time was a military base. It was during those times that the two of them started to become affectionate toward each other. It was then revealed that the sub also carry the 10 tons of gold which belongs to the Italian army. Consumed by greed, both the Japanese and Italian officials on that island started killing each other, eventually leaving the only people who's not affected by the gold, Kinzo and Beatrice alive. Beato and Kinzo, In the end, the gold belong to Kinzo who survived the incident, who then build his fortune and brought the entire island, building 2 separate mansion for his family and Beato.
Now that Will had finished asking everyone, he’s ready to solve all the mystery of the death of Beatrice. This Beatrice actually refer to the 3rd Beato – the witch Beato of 1986, and not the Italian Beato, or the Kuwadorian Beato. Will explained that there are 2 culprit involved in the death of Beato – the human who can create and kill Beato (the living cat in the box), and the human who can kill the entire concept of Beato (the dead cat in the box). And to her surprise, the dead cat is Lion herself. Will deduce that Lion is the alternate persona of Beatrice, because way she didn't even know about the legend of the witch. Basically, Lion is the same exact child that fell over the cliff on the incident 19 years ago, caused by Natsuhi's rejection toward the baby. In this extraordinarily rare fragment, somehow Natsuhi accepted the baby and the baby went on to live to be the present Ushiromiya Lion. It was also mentioned that Lion is actually the child of Kinzo and the Kuwadorian Beatrice, which can only mean one thing - due to her sheer resemblance toward her mother Beatrice Costiglioni, Kinzo committed the forbidden sin of impregnating his own daughter - the Kuwadorian Beatrice, and resulted in the baby that is Ushiromiya Lion. That explains the strong affection that Kinzo had toward Lion. And hence, Lion's existence virtually wipe the necessity of having the legend of the witch Beatrice, because Kinzo already had something important to him, which is Lion. Nevertheless, Kinzo deeply regretted his mistake and vow to atone for his sin by making Lion a proper Ushiromiya Head, or in other fragment, apologize with all his heart to the revived Beatrice before having his last breath.
With the mystery behind Lion's existence unraveled, it's time for Will to expose all the secret and truth behind the mysterious murder of Rokkenjima on 1986. For that, he asked the "culprit" to come forward and reveal the motives - the "why dunnit" aspect of the mystery. The motive, the reason why the culprit had to commit a game-like crime on Oct 5th 1986, putting even her own fate on the line. Another new character was introduced to personify the culprit - Clair vauxof Bernard. Clair then told a tale of her life which reveals the events from her early days to the moment when she solved the epitaph of the gold and become a true witch, which eventually leads to the motive of the mass murders. Her tale was told in 9 chapters in total.
Her tale began when she was chosen to become a servant at the Ushiromiya house at the very young age of 6 – although in actual she was 9 years old. The servant, known as Yasu, was the exact same baby that fell off the cliff 19 years ago. Somehow she miraculously survived albeit with grave injuries. Genji, fearing the worst possible future if Kinzo would commit the same sin again, decided to lie about the baby being dead. This whole tale of course would not happen if the baby did not fell off the cliff. Due to her young age, she still was lacking the necessary skills to do the regular work, so she often only helped other servant, while also completing her school. The fact that she became a servant at such a young age made other regular servants feeling uncomfortable, and for that reason, she was often scolded for her clumsiness and the way she often forgot to put her things. Until one day when she met and made a friend with a witch who often hides things she lost, named Beatrice (though in fact, she was Gaap in the appearance). Since the witch often pranks her, Yasu asked Kumasawa for an advice to avoid losing things. The charm she learnt from Kumasawa (string attachment and “omochikaeri” charm) drastically changed her as the witch often unable to hide her stuff anymore. At the same time, Yasu also developed interest for mystery novels.
Some years later, an incident totally changed her life. One day, she was introduced with the wonder of magic by Gaap, which totally charmed her and made her changed her way of life. That night, she told her roommate, Shannon (who is her ideal servant and was very close to her) that she want to quit as a servant and become a witch. And in that instant, she become a witch, erasing her memory from Shannon. And from that onward, Yasu become Beatrice, while the old Beatrice become Gaap. Beatrice feel content with what she had as a witch so far, but she still lacked something, as thought by Shannon – love.
It was somewhere in 1980, 6 years untill the Rokkenjima murders. The scene then switched, showing Shannon having a chat with “someone”, talking about mystery novel. It was a teenager’s chat, but eventually ended as what Shannon thought was a love confession, along with a certain promise made by that “someone”, saying that he will return with a white horse to take Shannon away on the next year. It was this incident that triggers the great misfortune on 1986. And that "someone" is none other than….Battler.
That year too, Battler’s “mother” Asumu died, and Battler got very upset that Rudolf immediately remarried to Kyrie, as if disrespecting his deceased mother. For that, Battler decided to forsake the Ushiromiya family and live with his grandparent of her mother side. Due to this incident, Battler did not attend the family conference for the next 6 years, completely forgotten about the promise he made with Shannon. One year after another, Shannon kept on waiting for Battler to the point that she suffers dearly from her love sickness. Added to her pain, Beatrice aka Yasu kept on saying that Battler would come back to Rokkenjima someday, giving a false hope to Shannon. Until 3 years later, on 1983, when Battler wrote each of the cousin letters, but completely forgotten to write one for Shannon. Her final strand of hope finally crushed when in one of the letter, Battler said he didn’t plan to return to Rokkenjima…For all these years, Shannon has been a living dreamer, creating illusion that is the promise made with Battler that she misunderstood as a confession.
Hence, Battler’s sin is not that he forgot the promise he made, it’s just that he simply didn’t remember making that promise. She’s unable to hate Battler, since he didn’t even break his promise, and this really hurt her feeling, because as long as she love Battler, her pain will always continue. Beato who feel guilty for giving Shannon false hope, decided to release Shannon from her pain, and hold Shannon’s bud of love to herself so that she can learn one aspect she lacks – love. And for that, she will also be the maiden in love with Battler and wait for his return to Rokkenjima in place of Shannon…
A year later, another miracle occurred as Beatrice somehow managed to solve the difficult riddle of the epitaph of the gold. It all started when Kinzo ordered the portrait of Beatrice to be hanged at the main entrance, along with the epitaph. Beato decided to try solving the riddle. It was indeed a very difficult riddle, which took her days to find clue and answers. That eventually led her to the Golden Land – the underground VIP room unlocked after she solve the riddles, along with the 10 tons of gold inside the room. Genji then came to congratulate her, saying how miraculous was it that the one who solved the puzzle is none other than Beatrice – Kinzo’s descendant herself. That brought her to Kinzo study, where Kinzo announced that she would become the new Head, and then deeply apologized to her for his past mistake (incest), and ask for her forgiveness. With that, Kinzo has no more regret in life, and passed away soon after. Nevertheless, Beato didn’t want to be the new Head as she already got what she want – learning about who she is. For that reason, she wish to remain her usual self, while Krauss becoming the new head. After all, her heart still was missing a piece – the return of Battler…
As a last resort, Beatrice finally decided to abandon everything and leave everyting to the choice of the roulette of fate, and the roulette chose the specific date – those days in 1986 as the day where absolutely no one could escape if the epitaph was not solved again. And with that, Clair/Yasu/Beatrice’s confession is over. Before she gave her final farewell, she want to entrust her final moment to Will – so that he could solve all the mystery behind the crimes in her games, as the last rite of her burial. And with that, Beatrice/Clair/Yasu’s tale had finally ended, all her riddles had ben “solved”, leaving her with no regret. Inside her coffin, there was the game tale written by Battler, which was probably the happiest possible tale for Beato – full with love and happy tale, most fitting tale to put in her coffin.
The funeral is over, and Bern released the barrier. With that, the core story of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru: Requiem of the Golden Witch ended, and the funeral at the chapel Is adjourned…