badger11’s take on anime

Aaaand we’re back. Thanks to Maestro for his help on with this blog. It’s always those censored-Norwegian-swear-word outdated plugins, isn’t it? Now that the blog is back, I have a confession to make. I’m one of those Haruhi Suzumiya fans (as Jeff painfully reminded me) who wondered why KyoAni was cutting short Haruhi and wasting time by redoing an anime based on a porn game. I was wrong. From the start. I admit it. They weren’t wasting their time. They created one of my favorite shows*. But I wouldn’t include it in an objective top ten list.

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I suppose I’m over-analyzing this, but I find it really interesting that the Makoto from the early episodes wanted winter to end and Spring to return while the Makoto in this episode had an all-white room. When I think of Spring, I think of color. And the whiteness of the room reminds me of the snow that blankets the city that the show is in. It also reminds me of the paranoia I have of being a bad guest and dropping food or drinks when I visit someone with white carpets (which caused me to withdraw from the world and adopt a hikikomori lifestyle…just kidding..sorta).

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I guess it isn’t a good idea to listen to Lisa Gerrard’s The Mirror Pool before watching this episode. And Mozart’s Requiem. Wow, this was a painful episode to watch. Poor Nayuki, having the only person constant in her life suddenly removed, it’s not surprising that she pretty much just shuts down. And what a prefect time for Yuuichi to remember that he knocked the snow bunny down that she made for him. Even though she told him it was in the past when he apologized, it still isn’t, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked if the snow bunny she made at school reminded him of something. Of course, that’s a minor issue now that Akiko is in the hospital. I’m not really surprised that Akiko wound up injured. Sayuri was also a secondary character and she wound up being attacked. But it was a sudden development and more serious than I thought. I had thought that the illness she had a few episodes back was going to return in a stronger form. I just didn’t expect the car accident. Still, it was painful to watch Nayuki suffer, especially after becoming accustomed to her endearing sleepy and upbeat persona’s.

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I think I know what Ayu’s looking for. Either that or I’m too damn cynical. More on that later. It seems that we’ve pretty much been given a clue as to what happened to Ayu. Not surprising since the clues were there from the first episode as j.valdez mentioned. And the climax of this episode affirms that conclusion. So Ayu seems to be more than just a ghost, but is she a spirit (for lack of a better term) that doesn’t realize her situation? Is she a spirit that can cross between realms but has no knowledge of the other realm? Well, its been said before that this is a city of mysteries.

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I’m sure they will, but when they release the soundtrack to the show, I hope they include the piano song from the start of the episode. Not the them song, but the song used during the flashback scenes. I’ve only bought one show soundtrack based on one song that I liked. It was the soundtrack for the first season of current Battlestar Galactica and the song was “The Shape of Things to Come” by Bear McCreary. It was the final song of the last episode for that season. Much like “The Shape of Things to Come”, that piano song (I wish I know what it was called) during the flashback scenes is very pleasant to listen to.

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So episode 18 finishes up Shiori’s arc. This was underwhelming when compared to the emotional ending of Makoto’s story and not action-packed or emotional as Mai and Sayuri’s story. I know, I know, different girl, different story, an yet…another girl we don’t see again (at least until the ending, I’d be surprised if KyoAni didn’t do a review of sorts). It was a nice touch to see that Shiori was the one to intentionally leave, undoubtedly thinking that it would be easier to stop seeing each other right then and make the pain less for Yuuichi. Wiping the slate clean for Yuuichi to move on.

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