Monthly Archive for July, 2004

Monster #7

Published on July 30, 2004 in Monster. 0 Comments


Yup, he's dead. Poor Kenzo, he's crying in every episode..
These guys are after Kenzo Remembering the time she shot her brother.

While driving Anna back home, Dr. Tenma refers to her as Nina (her old name) and informs her that she had a twin brother named Johan. Memories of her brother suddenly come flooding back to her. By the time they arrive at her house, he notices all the lights off and senses that something bad has already happened to them. Once inside, they find her parents, along with the officer dead on the floor. He unsuccessfully performs CPR on them, unable to save them from their impending death. Anna remembers that she had killed her brother, and Dr. Tenma admits that he had saved him. Just as they’re about to leave the premises, two police officers arrive to investigate the scene. As Anna and Dr. Tenma are driven to the police station, he notices that they’re being taken to the Mannheim Station. He also notices a blood stain on one of the officers’ pants and suspects them as being the murderers. He thinks back to the time when they arrived at the house, and things don’t add up to him - Why wasn’t their siren on when they arrived at the scene? Who called in to inform them of the incident? He questions them on how they knew his name and his career as a Doctor, and suddenly they begin chasing him. However, Dr. Tenma throws himself and Anna in the river to safety.

Anna remembers her brother mentioning that he had the perfect plan, and that the people who were nice to them had all subsequently died by his hands. She remembers the day she thought she had killed him. He told her to aim for his head and throw the gun out when she was done. After she did what was told, she was mortified to find out that Dr. Tenma had saved him. If he hadn’t done that, her parents wouldn’t have died.

Inspector Lunge is back to investigate the murder scene at the Heidelberg Castle, and he finds all the evidence he needs — Dr. Tenma’s necktie. Meanwhile, Tenma heads back to the shed where he left Anna and found that she was long gone, but had left a note along with two hamburgers for him. After reading her note and admitting to himself that many people’s lives have ended due to his insistence of saving a little boy, he felt very guilty about bringing a monster back to life.

What’s going to happen now that Kenzo realizes what a mistake he’s made in saving a murderer? It’s true that he fulfilled his duty as a surgeon to operate on a patient regardless of what kind of person they may be, but at what cost?

Discontuation of Naruto Screenshots

Published on July 29, 2004 in General. 2 Comments

I’ve decided to stop taking screenshots of Naruto. It’s a great series with lots of fun moments, but I don’t have the time anymore, and there’s another great site that has an updated album of Naruto. If you search on Google, you’ll easily find the site. I will, however, continue to update this blog. With that said, it’s time to watch some anime. :)

EDIT: I’m thinking about continuing the screenshots only because I know that many people enjoy viewing them, and I don’t think the other site that provided screenshots is on-line anymore (I checked on Google). So, we’ll just have to see if my bandwidth and webspace will be able to handle the additional screenshots. Just no hotlinking, please. :)

Kono Minikuku Mo Utsukushii Sekai #5

Published on July 28, 2004 in Kono Minikuku Mo Utsukushii Sekai. 2 Comments

Hikari's naturally an expert at playing tennis Her evil smile...
Aionios, the protector of Hikari Looks like Mayu has a secret crush on Ryou...

Hikari goes to school in this episode! She’s looking forward to it, and she’s the only one who seems to be excited about the experience. On her way to school, she takes the time to appreciate the different colors of life, such as the vibrant colors of people’s clothing, the sky, the colors of the trees, and even the traffic signals. She sees a flicker of light flashing in her mind, but it disappears as quickly as it appears. After spending some time in the classroom, she admits that she had expected school to be a livelier place with cheerful people. Intstead, she observed a room full of students who were falling asleep and looking bored while the instructor unenthusiastically lectured. They each take turns explaining the experience of having to attend school everyday and not having anything to look forward to, similar to playing the same game over and over again. Of course, Hikari doesn’t understand their way of thinking because everything’s new to her. She can’t comprehend why everyone would attend school if they hated it so much. Obviously, she hasn’t yet understood the mundaness of having to drudge your tired self to school and having to deal with the crappiness of being judged and dismissed by your peers, not to mention the drudgery of having to keep up with your studies when you don’t even care for most of the subjects. Anyway, back to the show. Hikari’s not surprisingly an expert at playing tennis, and she has fun during PE having a good old time when she hears the practice emergency drill blaring and begins to worry. Her classmates assure her that she has nothing to worry about, and she walks along with them to their meeting place when she sees a sinister image of herself repeatedly flashing in her mind. All of a sudden, she uncharacteristically enters the school building, Mayu (the class representative) following her trail as she gushes to Hikari (her physical self at least) about the difficulties of keeping up with others in school and other things that trouble her about school. Hikari, apparently in sleeper mode, enjoys listening to her complaining about school and smiles wickedly when Mayu admits that she hates school. Hikari determines that the school should therefore be destroyed, and with her superhuman powers, she easily crumbles the building while the students are left to look at the mess in shock.

Takeru immediately searches for Hikari and finds her and Mayu on the bottom of the rubble. However, he sees a big alien protecting them from any damage and refers to Hikari as his master. He explains to the entire gang back at Takeru’s place that he destroyed the school only because his master (Hikari) had awakened him and told him to do so. Apparently, Hikari seems to have gone back to her normal self again, remembering nothing of what had occurred at school. Jennifer barges in the room in her usual annoying fashion, a can of beer in one hand and her face all red from drinking. She offers Hikari’s alien a swig of her drink, and she’s more than delighted that he enjoys it. He refers to himself as Aionios, but she insists on calling him Onita, much to his annoyance.

The next day, the students gather at school to help out with the cleanup, retreiving old books from the rubble and anything else that could be salvaged. Hikari comes to the realization that the students hate certain aspects of school, but there are also fun moments that come from it as well. She also notices the wonderful colors that come from the school, but then she hears a voice in her mind saying that these special times are temporary and that it’ll just become boring again. The principal announces that summer vacation will begin earlier than expected, and everyone cheers except for Hikari.

‘Twas an interesting episode, but nothing that would entice me to watch again and again. More Akari next time, please! :)

Le Portrat de Petit Cossette #2

Published on July 27, 2004 in Le Portrait de Petit Cossette. 12 Comments


I’ve been looking forward to the next installment of this psychological thriller about a ghost whose spirit haunts an antique glass cup and a boy who falls in love with her. In this episode, Eiri wants to get to know Cossette better, so she tells him about the details of her life. Her mother was a master at making jam, and her father was a real gentleman, always smoking a pipe with purple smoke coming out of it. She paints a very pretty and happy picture of her parents, and she doesn’t seem to have any negative memories of them. However, she avoids answering his question about what kind of person Marcello Orlando was. He was the artist who drew several portraits of her during the 18th century, and Eiri learns from an old newspaper clipping that Cossette was the daughter of the d’Auvergne Family, but her haunting portraits mysteriously disappeared after the falling of her family. Oddly enough, Mataki (his sister I assume) notices that Eiri’s drawings have changed recently, so much so that his sketches have replicated Marcello’s style exactly. She also notices that he’s copied Marcello’s signature on his sketches as well, but he doesn’t ever remember writing them. Perhaps he goes into some sort of possessive trance when he’s talking to Cossette, similarly to when we’re dreaming without realizing that we’re in a dream state until we’re actually woken up. Lost in his thoughts, Eiri wonders why things have turned out the way it has. He’s fallen in love with a ghost, and he’s taken on the soul of a man who ends up murdering her. She appears again while he’s drawing another portrait, and she tells him that she hates being drawn. He tries to ask her about Marcello, but she warns him never to speak of him again.

Eiri slowly slinks away from his daily activities while he obsessively tries to find information on Cossette and Marcello, convinced that they were in love. Cossette tells him again not to pursue the issue any longer, and she advises him to stand there and take the pain instead. Meanwhile, Mataki attempts to figure out what Eiri is up to and why he’s been acting so strange. She finds out from a “psychic” that he’s fallen in love, but he’s risking his life for it.

Cossette takes Eiri back to the day of her family’s death, and she finally tells him that Marcello was her fiance. She also explains to him that she had chosen Eiri because he had also possessed great talent as an artist and had fallen in love with her as well. However, he still couldn’t understand what compelled Marcello to murder his fiance if he had loved her so much, and Cossette tells him that he would never be able to understand how she felt because he was Marcello. At that moment, he watches helplessly as Cossette falls to her death.

The next couple of scenes are trippy. Marcello’s spirit is stuck in Hell, his flesh being painfully gouged and torn by evil spirits as Cossette tries to purifiy the spirits that are trying to kill him. Back in present time, Eiri’s scared that he’ll become Marcello and that he’ll end up killing Cossette himself. Mataki finds him huddling under a table, and she tries to get him out of his wet clothes until she notices that it’s not water, but blood that’s stained his clothing. She sees the wound in his chest, but he quickly closes his shirt to prevent her from seeing anything. Eiri tries to get purified by a Buddhist Priestess (I’m assuming), but the evil spirits surrounding him are too strong to leave. Lightning strikes from a large clock, and all hell breaks loose. Cossette continues to purify the evil spirits, while Eiri agonizes over the pain of having to atone for the sins of Marcello’s spirit. He’s shocked when he finds out that Marcello ended up murdering Cossette because he wanted her to stay as beautiful and young as she appeared in his paintings for eternity. Can you say sicko? Eiri vows to love her as much as Marcello once had, but he’s willing to endure any pain and suffering for her sake, so much so that he gives up his own life for her.

The ending is sooo creepy. I don’t think I’ll ever stare at a still portrait again without thinking of Cossette’s creepy smile.

Done

Published on July 26, 2004 in General. 2 Comments

Cool, I’ve finally caught up with my archives. Yay, I can go back to watching anime again! That is, after I’m done working, of course. Of course. :mrgreen:

I just got through watching Linkin Park’s Breaking the Habit video, and it’s actually animated. Pretty damn cool.