Monthly Archive for September, 2004

Space Symphony Maetel - 01

Published on September 29, 2004 in Space Symphony Maetel. 0 Comments

Cursed with eternal darkness and arctic temperatures, the people of La Metal have been forced to become cyborgs in order to survive their newly inhabitable planet. Those that oppose the new cyborg requirement have become slaves to the Queen La Adromeda Promethium and her subjects, while newly evolved robots have fought to oust the Queen from further ruling the planet.

The Queen’s daughter, Maetel, has accepted the title as the new Queen of La Metal, hoping to end the planet’s caste system as well as restoring faith within the inhabitants of the planet. She realizes that something has gone terribly wrong when her mother is nearly assassinated by a boy who claims that a girl he knew was forced to become a cyborg under her rule. A sudden meteor shower strikes the planet, and those in charge of preventing such attacks have all but abandoned their positions. Maetel is even more surprised when she sees her mother sacrificing her life for her unforgivable sins. Dealing with betrayal and her mother’s death, what kind of leader will Maetel become?

The show is quite entertaining and doesn’t appear to have any flaky characters. It’s also neat to see that the show includes Galaxy Express 999 as well as the dark and mysterious Captain Harlock. I’m definitely keeping a close watch on this show. :)

Elfen Lied #9

Published on September 28, 2004 in Elfen Lied (complete). 8 Comments

Kouta was the first person who accepted Lucy for being different, and he even admired the horns that everyone else had used to alienate her. He kept his promise of meeting her at the spot where they’d first met, and he also took her to the zoo to see the strange animals. She was apprehensive about the idea initially, but ended up having a blast once she actually got to the zoo. Seeing that she was having such a good time, Kouta didn’t want to spoil the fun by telling her that he was going to the festival with his female cousin, and instead lied to her about the cousin being a boy. Lucy attended the festival to confess her feelings for Kouta, but caught him embracing his female cousin instead. Kouta…why did you have to lie? She was so livid and disgusted with people in general that she recklessly dismembered random bystanders to vent her anger and disdain for human beings.

I felt less sorry for Lucy in this episode only because of the fact that she blindly killed people without even thinking twice about it (slaughtering an entire household so she could have a place to stay), but she redeemed herself slightly once she realized that it was wrong to kill people who weren’t even hurting her in the first place. It’s so hard to judge her, though, because I would likely react the same way if I had her capabilities and had to go through her experiences as well.

Monster #11

Published on September 24, 2004 in Monster. 0 Comments


In my haste to catch up to the most recent episodes, my entries will be rather short instead of my usual summarizing. My apologies to all for the lack of updates. Life has been getting in the way of watching anime lately…

Kenzo discovered that Johan had been raised in a special orphanage known as Kinderheim 511, a place where children whose parents had committed political crimes and were charged with either rebellion or espionage. The children were treated inhumanely like criminals themselves, and it was absolutely impossible to raise normal children there. Johan was a special case because he had led a rebellion at that orphanage, but it was top-secret business within the government and officials were ordered not to discuss it with anyone.

Hartmann was the former Ministry Health who had provided Kenzo with the information about Kinderheim 511, and was currently raising a young boy named Dieter who was unusually quiet and had a big wound on his arm. Kenzo noticed that it was the same boy he had seen outside Hartmann’s apartment, and later found out that it was Hartmann himself who had been physically and verbally abusing the poor boy. After finding out that Hartmann had called the police for his arrest, Kenzo ran off with Dieter in his arms and took him to the hospital. He was shocked that Dieter had never been to a hospital even once because of Hartmann’s brainwashing about the world being full of bad things, and Kenzo wanted to show him that there were good things in this world by helping him find an orphanage that would take good care of him. He discovered from a caretaker at Nina’s old orphanage that Kinderheim 511 had been used as a testing facility. Hopefully, the next episode will uncover some of the secrets that were hidden there. I have an inkling that there was a lot of brainwashing going on…

Elfen Lied #8

Published on September 18, 2004 in Elfen Lied (complete). 22 Comments


Poor Nana, first she gets shot by Bando, and now Kouta has slapped her for hitting Nyuu. Nana tries to tell them that Lucy’s really an evil person, but they’ve only seen her as innocent Nyuu and can’t fathom anything other than what’s in front of their own eyes. She can’t get through to them, so she runs away in disgust while they continue smothering Nyuu as if she’s the only one who’s been hurt by all of this.

Kakuzawa-sensei’s assistant delivers his severed head to his father and assumes that she’ll get to leave scotch free, but she’s in for a surprise when Kakuzawa pulls a gun on her and tells her that he can’t afford to have her leaking top-secret information to the public. She thinks he’s bluffing and starts to walk away, but he shoots her in the shoulder to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere and demands to know who’s the other person that also knows about the virus. She tells him that a boy was looking for the girl the professor had taken custody of, but she had already disappeared by the time they arrived. She’s surprised that Kakuzawa has allowed her to live, but his only purpose of keeping her alive is to have her continue his son’s work.

Mayu chases after Nana to give her back her purse, but Nana doesn’t want it anymore and tells Mayu that she hates her. Mayu grabs her arm, but Nana struggles to get away, and Mayu pulls on the arm so hard that it pops off and both of them go flying in opposite directions. They finally sit down to talk, and Nana tells Mayu about Lucy’s escape from the research lab as well as her being responsible for ripping off her arm and leg. Mayu doesn’t believe her, so Nana demonstrates her special abilities by slicing a statue in half as well as reattaching her arm with her invisible hands. Mayu’s still not convinced that Nyuu and Lucy are the same person, and even Nana’s starting to have her doubts as well. However, Lucy wakes up from her fever and gets out of bed to finish what she started with Nana. Kouta stops her from leaving, though, and tells her that she’s being stupid, and she gets back in bed with an annoyed look on her face. Kouta tells her that she has to bring her fever down, and it triggers a flashback of her painful childhood.

Lucy was constantly being harassed and bullied by a group of boys in her school, and they thrived on making her feel as miserable as possible by knocking her to the ground and calling a her a demon’s child. Her one true friend was a little puppy that she often visited when she snuck food to him, and she tells the only girl who was friendly to her about the dog, naively trusting her not to say anything. However, she’s horrified to see that the bullies have her puppy in their possession at school the next day, and they threaten to beat the crap out of her puppy unless she cries and begs for it back. However, she kicks the main bully instead and they force her to watch helplessly as they beat the puppy to a bloody pulp. The stupid girl walks in and apologizes to Lucy about telling them, but it’s too late for her to feel bad about it now. Lucy turns into a psycho and instantly kills every one of them, leaving the room a bloody mess. She makes a small gravestone for her little puppy and blames his death on herself for being different. She hears some noise behind her and notices an open music box playing. Kouta picks it up and stares at her as if he’s just seen a ghost…and we’ll have to wait for the next episode to see what’s going to happen…

—–

The screenshot captions are now visible with Firefox browsers. Many thanks to Matthew for the tip! :wink:

Elfen Lied #7

Published on September 15, 2004 in Elfen Lied (complete). 5 Comments


Bando takes random shots at Nana because he’s convinced that she’s hiding information on Lucy’s whereabouts, but all Nana wants to do is to wait for Papa to come for her. She doesn’t want to fight, but Bando keeps breathing down her neck about people with horns being killed as soon as they’re born because of the virus in their horns, and the only reason she’s still alive is because she’s been used as a test subject. She gets mad and figures that if that’s the case, then it’s best to kill everyone and destroy the world. Bando fires multiple shots at her arms and legs, but he’s shocked to see no blood on her whatsoever. He thinks he’s at a safe distance standing five meters away, but she throws an arm at him and knocks him to the ground. He tries to grab for his gun, but she blocks him from doing so, and he’s surprised that she has a reach beyond three meters. She stands on top of him just as Lucy did and tells him that she’ll forgive him if he kneels down before her. Of course, he doesn’t follow orders too well and shoots her arm off instead, but his mechanical arm falls apart as well. He finds out that her arms and legs have also been removed by Lucy and that they’re both looking for the same enemy. She offers to work with him in finding Lucy, but he refuses. She sees that it’s difficult for him to get up, so she offers him a helping hand. ^__^

Mayu takes Wanta out for a walk, but he starts running off and Mayu frantically chases after him. They run into Nana, who’s sitting by herself on the steps where Lucy had left her to die. Nana admits that shes she’s different from everyone else because of her horns, but she’s elated when Mayu tells her that she thinks they’re cute. They quickly become friends, and Mayu teaches her that the scraps of paper she used for her little fire were not to be burnt and should be used only for important things. Mayu tells her that she’s living with Nyuu, the other girl with horns, and Nana’s eyes instantly change.

Kouta’s about to head out looking for Mayu but runs into her as soon as he opens the front door and sees her with another girl who also has a set of horns. Nana doesn’t sense Lucy, but Mayu insists that she stay for some food, so she waits for Kouta to prepare her meal. She’s completely normal until Nyuu opens the door, and Nana immediately attacks her, thinking she’s Lucy. Now that’s an exciting ending…