Rating: 8.3/10 & 8.3/10

Impressions:

Oh goddamn, four episodes went and got subbed without me even noticing.This whole series so far seems to be going through an orderly cycle every episode, consisting of a play, fight and some more background information given. With this though, it may seem a little repetitive and hectic, though hopefully there will now be variations in execution in later episodes as the story progresses. Akazuki is a little disappointing, as he is not nearly as skilled or strong as I envisioned him. He is meant to be the Eternal Assassin, though currently he seems nothing more than a mere samurai who is strongly drawn to the Lord’s Head. Surely he has some secret power or something. At least with the introduction of more characters and things starting to make sense now, the show can make a turn and stray from the cycle of predictable events. One thing that’s been lacking is character development between the protagonists, especially Akazuki and the girl…dammit I forgot her name!

Impressions:

Finally, this show is getting more bloggers, and it definitely deserves it. This show is awesome, even when there are no action scenes. The story is captivating, and the number of characters introduced already liven the experience up. I highly recommend this to anyone who hasn’t seen this series yet. If you love historical setting anime, action, or anything with a good story, this is a must. The quality is quite high and the animation pretty consistent. There’s also some supernatural parts to it, and they should come up more often as the story progresses, since it seems that it has a lot to do with Akizuki and his mission. Akizuki’s background is revealed a bit too, as his master and sensei(?) are introduced in episode 3. That episode spent most of its time developing the story and introducing some new characters, including the villains. Episode 4 had a bit more action, and we get to see the integration of guns (since the age the anime is set in is meant to be the last that included samurais and swordsmen).

OP: [Kouya Ruten] by FictionJunction YUUKA
Download *right click – save target as* (TV size mp3 – 2.06mb)

ED: [Ai no Tsurugi] by TAKAKO & THE CRAZY BOYS
Download *right click – save target as* (TV size mp3 – 2.06mb)

It seems that the Troupe finally figure out that if they continue to perform their plays whilst revealing secretive information, the ‘main’ enemy will show up. However, a sniper is sent instead to take care of the Troupe. Akizuki, being as keen as he is, had already known this for quite some time. Maybe this was how he managed to notice the sniper in the tower so quickly. The sniper is cornered, but manages to escape. He returns during a later play, but this time Akizuki is standing by. Even so, the sniper manages to set up a last resort, and almost manages to blow the building up, but Kanna, the new gunman bodyguard, manages to shoot the sniper’s bullet in midair to deflect it away from the fireworks, like the pro that he is. I really like the introduction of Kanna, since he is a gunman on the good side. I’d like to see him in action some more, and a bit of cooperation between him and the Troupe (with Akizuki of course). I wouldn’t mind if they suddenly became enemies, either, as it’ll be interesting to see what comes about from a samurai vs gunman fight. Since I believe the show is fairly realistic with armaments, the gunman should win hands down, but Akizuki can always come up with a few tricks…Anyway, looking forward to the next episode! And again, please try this show out if you haven’t already.

Impressions:

So, that ugly guy from last episode isn’t a main enemy or anything. I thought it was strange that such an enemy would be introduced so early in the series; it was the fact that he seemed so powerful and evil! I was a bit disappointed with the fight this episode. I had been hoping for some more action after the little teaser from last episode, but the ugly guy’s only move turned out to be the swinging uppercut thing (I can not remember the names of anything at the moment!) His demise was also short and unexciting. At least with Samurai Champloo, I got some really cool sword action, so hopefully this show will start improving its battles when the enemies get harder. I wonder if the lead has any special powers. Since there’s already some supernatural occurrences, it’s not unlikely that he won’t develop (if he doesn’t already) a move like the ’swinging uppercut thing’, only much grander. The other characters should also get a bit more influence in a fight if they’re going to be helping the lead. There is also a chance that the lead will part ways with the other guys as he really holds no debt to them again, but the girl seems to be an important character so she at least should stick around.

The art is very detailed most of the time and the animation quality stunningly high, though I noticed one scene where that all disappeared as the background and foreground became incredibly simple. It was only a short scene, so if you were paying attention to the fight, you mightn’t have caught it. Anyway, something completely unrelated to the quality of the show are the mysteries which it has presented; the lead character’s purpose in venturing to the city which he is in being the biggest. Also, why was he drawn to what seemed to be a ball of paper last episode? I thought that was actually pretty cool; I hope he gets blue eyes again and goes psycho like Orlando with his blue lantern. Apart from that and the other small questions, this anime is turning out once again to be another great series this season. I am really happy that there are so many good shows this season, though some of the subs are really slow. Other note: I was going to do D.Gray-man episode 5 next, but the download is going reaaally slow since there are more peers than seeds, so that’ll have to wait. I think I might go and finish watching Inukami for now…

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

Episodes: 26
Genres: Action, historical, shounen
Studio: Bandai, Sunrise
OP: “Kouya Ruten” by FictionJunction YUUKA
ED: “Ai no Tsurugi” by TAKAKO & THE CRAZY BOYS
Official Site: http://www.irohanihoheto.jp/

OP: (I will probably upload the song next episode because I am just so lazy…)

Impressions:

Well, now that the first episode has been subbed, I can blog about it! Yes, one more show to my blogging list and this will definitely be the last one this season. Hashihime says the quality is as good as Kanon’s though I wouldn’t go that far. It’s good, but it’s ‘historical era’ good, as in, washy backgrounds, large crowd scenes, the extremely generic old geezer characters, the flames and of course, the sword action. The main character is pretty unique though, in terms of character design. I keep thinking of Samurai Champloo when I watch this, and although Samurai Champloo definitely gave me a better first impression, this show definitely has the potential to be far greater, simply because of the main character’s awesomeness and the complex story. The music is good; the OP, ED and background music. Like some other bloggers have said, this show isn’t getting nearly enough hype as it should. So, anyone who is reading this, please try this show out if you haven’t already done so. Let’s see how many comments I can get on this on. Also, I’d like to see some more bloggers doing this show as I haven’t seen one doing summaries yet (I am definitely not doing any summaries).

Bakumatsu (the new abbreviated name) employs historical settings (which means swords and samurais of course) as well as some fantasy/supernatural elements. As of the first episode, I have no idea to what extent this goes to. I hope there isn’t too much of that, although some would be a nice touch. Fantasy elements always give the show the opportunity to show off really cool scenes. It’s still quite mysterious, with the ‘connection’ the main character seems to have with that ball of…paper? (I’m saying ‘main character’ because I can’t remember any of the names…) Immediately after that ultra-cool scene of that guy dashing into the auction room and cutting the thing up, we get to an exciting cliff-hanger ending where the main character gets attacked by someone who seems to be very strong and skilled. There’s also the group of actors/swordsmen (and woman) involved, so it should be interesting enough. The woman is also in the OP so she seems to be pretty important. Btw, about not writing summaries as I mentioned above, this is because of similar reasons to CanyouMoe?: long names, complicated story etc.

As a side note, I’ve seen another two fall series apart from this one after this post. They are: Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo! and Galaxy Ange-lune. Both were pretty good (though I am definitely not blogging either of them as I already have far too much) but completely different in terms of…everything! Mamoru-kun, a romantic comedy, is about an extremely skilled mage (I dunno the correct term) who falls in love with a green-haired shota. Fairly funny but it’s just one of those light-hearted animes that I enjoy. Then there’s Galazy Ange-lune, the craziest anime I’ve ever seen in my life. I haven’t seen any other Galazy Angel series so I was completely unprepared for the surprise it gave me. Everything was so random yet so goddamn hilarious! The funny thing is it’s combined with some irrelevant mecha with really good CG. That’s totally unnecessary but of course, since it’s there, it’s all the better. Out of the two, I have to say I like Galaxy Ange-lune better. The show is priceless, but then again, I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything to say if I tried to blog it. Out of those two and this show here though, Bakumatsu definitely wins because I always prefer more serious anime to the less serious ones.