Kids on The Slope Episode 1 – Moanin’ – Review / Thoughts

Kids on The Slope is an Anime series that only came out today, and I admit that until this very evening I don’t remember even hearing about it, let alone having intentions of watching and reviewing it. But I happened to see 3 or 4 different people on my Twitter timeline praising it, and so thought I too might as well give it a try, so with no real expectations I dived in to the series.

For those curious as to what the Anime is about, here is a brief description:

“Summer, 1966. Kaoru Nishimi has moved to live with relatives in Kyushu. He’s been an aloof honour student his whole life, but that starts changing when he meets Sentarou Kawabuchi, the school’s notorious bad boy. Through him, he learns the appeal of jazz and forms his first real friendships”

For those interested, of note is the fact that this is the latest work from Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo director Shinichiro Watanabe, so if you’re a fan of his work then you will most likely already be aware or have an interest in this series.

But anyway, on to my actual thoughts on the episode.

As I said, I really had no idea what this Anime was or about when I checked it out. The only thing I knew was the title of the show and that it involved music, so I was going in with no real expectations and no idea what it would be like. After this first episode alone I find it difficult to rate since I need to watch more to get a proper idea of what it will be like, but my first impression is pretty good regardless.

The main character Kaoru has just moved in to town and to a new school. He introduces himself in front of the rest of the class, and is met by stares and whispers between students who are commenting on him being a rich boy and not being able to fit in with them since they were from the country while he is a city boy. Kaoru thinks to himself that this is the perhaps the worst feeling he has had from any of his introductions at the various schools he has attended.

Kaoru himself reminds me of a less extreme version of Keima Katsuragi from The World God Only Knows, in that he is pretty introvert and wants to remain out of the way and by himself. That said, as the episode goes on he spends some time with a girl named Ritsuko Mukae, who turns out to be a childhood friend of Sentarou. Sentarou is known as the bad boy of the school and for always getting in to trouble, so needless to say that when he sets his sights on Kaoru when he notices him in the same classroom, Kaoru himself is fearing the worst given the reputation Sentarou has.

In actual fact though, although they couldn’t be more different personality wise, Kaoru seems to have taken somewhat of a shine to the antics of Sentarou. One thing is that Kaoru starts losing his balance and feeling sick when he gets worried and stressed, and the way he combats this has always been to go on top of the roof by himself as it calms him down. He finds out at one stage that Sentarou is the one who has the keys to get out on to the roof, and he isn’t willing to give them away for free, instead asking for 100,000 Yen. Sentarou had got the keys back from some senior students who had stolen them so that they could go out on to the roof to smoke whenever they wanted, but to get them he had to fight all 3 of them as Kaoru stood there and watched it all unfold. As I said, he did get the keys back, but wanted payment in exchange for Kaoru taking them which Kaoru couldn’t afford even if he wanted to.

As the episode progresses however they end up bumping in to each other a couple more times, and although still far from what could be considered friends, they have definitely warmed a bit to each other, helped in part when Kaoru finds out that Sentarou can play music too. Sentarou likes only Jazz, whereas Kaoru had always been a fan of and played classical music on the piano. Near the end of the episode, Sentarou tells Ritsuko that if she wants to hear the piano being played, then he would do it for her instead of Kaoru. Kaoru recognises the song and interrupts Sentarou who was playing it wrong. Sentarou instead tells Kaoru that he doesn’t understand Jazz and that he was the one who was wrong. This all took place in a record shop owned by Ritsuko’s father, so when Kaoru went back upstairs in to the storefront, he purchases the record with the tune Sentarou was playing on so that he could listen to it and probably practice Jazz music properly for himself.

Basically, even though it’s a bit unfair to try and do so, to sum things up this is a short version of what I said above.

Kaoru is someone who keeps to himself and feels like he doesn’t fit in, and he ends up in the same class as a guy who is known as a troublemaker etc. While Kaoru initially fears the worst since they are complete opposites, through the episode they meet a few times and seeing Sentarou’s attitude is clearly making an impact on Kaouru’s own outlook. Later discovered is that they both play and enjoy music, only that Kaoru likes classical piano, while Sentarou likes only Jazz.

But yeah, I probably didn’t explain things too well which I apologise for, but this Anime is pretty hard to accurately describe since it’s not so much the content of the episode, it’s how and when it happens that is going to make up what the Anime really is and is about. My best advice is to watch the episode or at least one of the preview trailers to get a bit more of an idea for yourself.

But in any case, I definitely found myself enjoying this series in this first episode to the point where when the final credits came up, it took me by surprise as the time just flew past. It doesn’t happen very often to me, but when it does I always take it as a good sign since it clearly shows I must have been pretty engrossed by it. Obviously though if Shonen or battle Anime / Manga series are your thing then this has none of that to offer, but for those who enjoy this type of show (or are at least open to them) then I can see you getting plenty of enjoyment from it.

The thing is, although I can’t exactly place my finger on what made this good, I could definitely feel that there was something there and keeping me entertained. Considering I could easily have missed out altogether if not for a few of my Twitter followers, I am delighted that I was able to watch this on the day it came out, as I can see this becoming perhaps the hit of this season, and is something I feel is more than worth a chance if you’re looking for something new to watch.

Brave10 Episode 12 – The Brave of Light Review / Thoughts

So, after 12 episodes we are on to the last episode of Brave10. It started off well and was a very enjoyable series, only to drop off about 5 or 6 episodes in. But did it manage to redeem itself in the end?

Sadly the answer to that is no, as this was yet another disappointing episode. I am truly sad to have to type these words, as to begin with I really wanted to like Brave10. It had an awesome OP, Saizo was a great character, and it also had the talented Daisuke Ono involved (voicing Saizo coincidentally). Anyway, I will go a bit more in to that later, for now I had best get on to the actual episode.

I posed the question of how Hanzo and his group were going to be defeated since they easily kicked the ass of all the Braves, and in this episode we got the answer. Firstly, in trying to control the power Isanami had, Hanzo gets sucked in and destroyed by the black ball of energy in the sky, so that’s how he met his demise. With Sasuke and Kakei, apparently the sky turning dark made the bugs act odd and so they stopped crawling over and draining them. Sasuke and Kakei then go on to kill their opponent without much of a struggle, with the fact they should both still be very weak from the damage they already sustained clearly playing no role in it. Then we get Benmaru and Miyoshi, who also manage to defeat their opponent. How? Benmaru puts some odd device on Miyoshi’s hand that allowed one of his punches to connect, and that was enough to win (again conveniently all but forgetting their previous injuries).

Also, without any kind of explanation, Yamanosuke who was all but dead manages to not only get back to his feet, but also then kill his opponent very quickly with the same kind of attack that just one episode before had failed miserably. Last but certainly not least, we see Jinpachi beat Anastasia. Anastasia gets close to the frozen body of Jinpachi, but as she does so, Jinpachi releases a burst of electricty which is enough to incapacitate her. Anastasia is the only one from Hanzo’s group not to die, no doubt since she is a former Brave and main character.

Back with Isanami, Rokuro initially wants to try and stop it by giving his life, but is saved by Saizo. Saizo then picks up the Kushimi-tama and attempts to stop it himself. He tears off the wrapping around his sword and the symbols on it glow, and then Saizo starts slicing at the black dome. Upon doing so, it started extending out and trying to grab him like it did with Hanzo, but the Kushimi-tama erects a protective barrier around him. Saizo continues slashing away with no success, but then jumps in to it himself. While inside, he sees Isanami who is still beating herself up over people getting hurt because of her. Saizo tells her to stop it and that the two of them are leaving, but she keeps saying how her heart can’t take anymore and how she isn’t human. In the end, Saizo convinces her otherwise, and outside we see the previously black dome turn half white as well and form a Yin-Yang.

There is a tiny bit more, but nothing really worth covering. It’s a really cliche ending and one that at this stage comes as no real surprise. Brave10 unfortunately suffered a lot from this, which considering it started off as a show about a ninja – Saizo – who had no time for anyone and was a merciless killer, is hardly a good sign. From that he turned in to a a generic good guy who pretty much completely changed to being someone who cares about all his friends and about the feelings of others. It’s extremely disappointing considering that his personality was one of the things that originally drew me in to the series.

Brave10 started out as a fun action Anime with a cool and badass main character, but slowly degenerated in to fanservice scenes and cliches about friendship and working together. It’s always a shame to see such things happen, but I guess anyone who has been watching Anime for a while gets used to this sort of thing. Not to say Brave10 turned out to be a crap series or anything, for what it’s worth I would still say it’s a decent enough series. Even with how Saizo ended up I still like him, just not as much as before, and I did still get at least some entertainment from watching it each week.

My advice with Brave10 is if you don’t mind a pretty mindless action Anime and don’t go in expecting too much, you could well find it to be a decent enough watch like I did. If however you want a story that makes sense, something original, or something that doesn’t fall in to endless Anime / Manga cliches, then you should give the series a miss. Go in expecting too much and you will definitely come out of the series disappointed, go in however just watching it as a fun way of killing 23 minutes and you might find yourself enjoying it.

Brave10 Episode 11 – Lamentation of the Darkness Review / Thoughts

After the recent improvement with Brave10, I was expecting more of the same from episode 11, particularly as it’s the penultimate episode of the series. Unfortunately though, it went off on some odd thing that added nothing and wasted most of the episode.

For those who have watched it, as you can guess it was the odd scenes with Yamanosuke under the illusion. In the illusion he / she was a princess, and she had a good looking man as her friend or assistant (whatever he was). In the illusion, “princess” Yamanosuke was insulted and criticised by the other women in the world because of her unfeminine appearance, with her having the tattoo and being flat chested. Of course it didn’t exactly make Yamanosuke happy, but she still didn’t let it get to her too much as she defended her appearance by saying that she likes looking this way.

We then waste the majority of the episode with this boring rubbish, until eventually Yamanosuke realises in the illusion that this isn’t what he / she wanted at all, and while thinking of Saizo and how much she admires him, was able to break free from it and return to the real world. Then what follows is a very brief fight in which the Iga man sent by Hanzo quickly defeated Yamanosuke. Elsewhere, Jinpachi was also defeated fairly quickly by Anastasia.

At the end of the episode, with Saizo in a terrible state after being beaten and sliced up by Hanzo, Isanami succumbs to the evil inside of her when it offers to give her power in exchange for taking control of her body. Isanami throws her hairpin that was supressing it to the ground, and then turns a dark colour and breaks free from the ropes that were binding her. We then see an eclipse take place, as elsewhere Yukimura looks up at the sky and realises this must mean something is happening with Isanami. But as Isanami was heading towards the fallen Saizo, and of course Hanzo, the episode came to an end.

Overall it was an extremely disappointing episode, and was pretty damn boring for 95% of the episode. The illusion scenario dragged out for far too long, and I hate the way the 10 Braves all got their asses kicked in 10 seconds flat by Hanzo’s group. It is looking like Isanami is going to go berserk in the next episode and will probably end up doing an absolute ton of damage to everyone and everything around her, but my only hope is that it doesn’t turn out to be solely Isanami doing everything while the other Braves are made to look bad.

Brave10 Episode 10 – The Opening Curtain To Tragedy Review / Thoughts

Another delayed review for Brave10 unfortunately, but again with episode 10 we get another fine outing as the series seems to have finally got back on track.

With the last episode I commented on how good it was for Brave10 to actually get back to some more fighting action, and this episode had a lot of that too. I would have preferred if it wasn’t several fights all split up and flicking between them, but I guess since it is only going to be a 12 episode series then they don’t have time to give full fights to each character.

We see at the start of the episode that Isanami is depressed because of what she found out about herself and the Kushimitama. Saizo is watching over her by hiding in the trees nearby. As Saizo is sat on a branch, he ducks just in time to avoid some kunai that have been thrown at him. Saizo then jumps down and runs towards the nearest open area so that he can properly confront whoever threw it. When he gets there, he is soon met by a familiar face, an unwelcome one at that, in the form of Hanzo. Of course Saizo has battled Hanzo before, but Hanzo tells him it takes a lot to truly defeat him. Hanzo then surprises Saizo by telling him that his primary target at the moment was Saizo himself rather than Isanami.

Hanzo goes on to explain that it is not only Saizo who is in battle at the moment, but all of Yukimura’s braves, and that before he does anything with Isanami he is going to have all of the braves killed first.  We then get to see a few of the other braves elsewhere all being ambushed / surprised by an enemy appearance. Hanzo tells Saizo they are Iga’s League of Five and that they are far stronger than Yukimura’s group. The battles in this episode involve Sasuke and Kakei, Benmaru and Nyudo, and of course Saizo vs Hanzo. I can’t really remember if the Iga’s League of Five revealed their names in the episode, if so their names have escaped me, but they were fighting those braves in this episode anyway.

All of the braves end up getting beaten very easily, Iga’s League of Five don’t even break a sweat against them, and Saizo fairs no better against Hanzo. A special mention goes out to the League of Five member though who controls insects, as the giant spider was creepy as hell and had me feeling damn sorry for Kakei and Sasuke.

The next episode looks like it will cover the fights of the remaining braves vs the remaining Iga League members, though while I would usually be looking forward to that, I can’t see them fairing any better than the braves in this episode did. That said, I am very curious as to just how Yukimura and his Brave 10 are going to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds, and as long as these awesome fights keep happening in the remaining couple of episodes, I think Brave 10 will have done enough to redeem itself as a whole and stand out as a good series.

Brave10 Episode 9 Review / Thoughts

Despite the massive delay, I finally have the chance to review Brave10 episode 9. I never expected or intended for this to come so late, but I have been extremely busy and have only just had the chance to write this. But anyway, thankfully the episode was worth the wait.

For quite a while I have lamented over the fact Brave10 started out pretty strongly only to falter in recent times, but now my faith has been renewed after watching this episode. Finally after long episodes with trips to hotsprings and other such nonsense that did little (if anything) to further the plot, we see Brave10 throw up a surprise and take a darker tone.

We finally see Yukimura’s group of Braves together in this episode and he explains about why he has gathered them all in the first place, and what roles they have etc. It doesn’t really make any difference to the viewer, all apart from Isanami being said to be the dark half of the Yin-Yang while Saizo is the light. Saizo questions Yukimura’s comment instantly, but he is told that it is indeed the case. We also find out that Isanami has dark powers from the underworld that are controlled by her emotions and the emotions of people around her. We also find out that the hairpin she wears isn’t the source of her power at all, but instead is keeping everyone safe from her dangerous and evil powers. Saizo, Yukimura and Jinpachi are the only ones in the room discussing the matter, but as we see at the end of the episode, Isanami had overheard their conversation and stands outside in a state of shock.

Oh, and we also discover that Anastasia has in fact been a spy this whole time, and so wasn’t really working for Yukimura. She attacks Rokuro while he is sleeping and tries to steal his magical eye, but before she gets the chance to (and after a brief struggle between the two) Rokuro destroys his own eye so that it’s secrets and powers won’t fall in to an enemy’s hands. Sasuke does appear when he hears the commotion, but doesn’t stop Anastasia as he hesitates at the last second and is instead caught by her ice magic. As more people gather, she flees. Later, she is met in a forest by Saizo. She warns him to turn back so she won’t have to kill him, but Saizo doesn’t listen and they end up fighting anyway. Anastasia is taken by surprise as Saizo is quicker than Sasuke was, and Saizo quickly defeats her.

However, when he has her pinned down and is trying to get some information out of her, she freezes the nearby lake and uses the distraction to escape, although later we find out Saizo had let her go on purpose as confirmed when he is telling Yukimura about what happened.

 

But yes, that’s basically the episode content, and it was pretty damn awesome. I wasn’t expecting Anastasia to turn / reveal she was never a real ally of the Braves, and so it was a nice surprise. It also shows that everything isn’t always how it seems, and that in the world of shinobi you can never be too sure of anyone or anything. It makes a refreshing change to see something like this in Brave10, as inner turmoil within the group hasn’t really been much of a problem before now, so seeing how they will deal with Anastasia and whoever she is working for shall be good to watch.

Also interesting is how Isanami is going to react and what she is going to do now she knows the truth about herself and her powers. I can imagine her powers going crazy or her being super depressed or something for a while, only for the “light” Saizo to calm her down and reassure her that everything is ok. Saizo still remains the best character, but admittedly I have grown to like Yukimura and Rokuro quite a lot recently, and now there could even be some hope for Isanami depending on how the story plays out. With all that said, it’s great to see Brave10 back in top form with this brilliant episode, and I am hoping it can continue now until the end.

Brave10 Episode 8 Review / Thoughts

As we move on to episode 8 of Brave10, the story will soon be at the end as we get to see the 10th member of Sanada’s Braves revealed here. After a good start the series started dropping off in quality, but has it began to start picking up again?

To be honest the episode started out pretty awesome with Masamune Date being told to go and kill Yukimura Sanada, and then an ambush is set in place to trap Yukimura and his braves. When put in that position, obviously it meant getting to see some actual fighting which is clearly Brave10’s strong point. Unfortunately though the battle didn’t last long as it was only the henchmen of Masamune who really attempted to fight, and thus were made easy work of by Saizo and Yamanosuke (with a helpful assist from the newest recruit Benmaru).

Just as things were looking bad though, we see the return of Kakei who is riding aboard a pirate ship along with another man – Jinpachi – who helps chase off Masamune and his lackeys, saving Sanada in the process. That’s unfortunately as good as the episode got though, as it seemed like they were more willing to spend the majority of the episode with Yukimura and the braves all aboard the pirate ship drinking sake and just generally having a good time. At the end we at least find out that Jinpachi will be helping Yukimura for a while, and thus is essentially a member of the braves now, taking the number up to the full 10.

I like Jinpachi even if only because his lightning attack seems pretty badass and his attitude is pretty cool. Aside from that, we also get to see Saizo finally accept that he is willing to work for Yukimura and not just for himself anymore. Of course initially Saizo was known as a cold blooded killer with no time for anyone but himself, but now it seems he has finally had a change of heart afterall. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as such, if Saizo remains pretty arrogant and confidant in his abilities as well as still having a ruthless streak to him, then he is fine. If this ends up changing him in to a generic good guy though it will be very disappointing considering he is the main reason for watching the Anime in the first place.

As a whole episode 8 was ok, a lot of time was wasted unnecessarily in my view and would have been better spent on something else, but because I enjoyed the brief battle at the start of the episode I am willing to forgive it to some extent. Brave10 has been stuck in a rut though for the past few episodes and this is no exception, hopefully with it coming to an end soon however they will allow it to go out with a bang in the coming weeks.

Brave10 Episode 7 Review / Thoughts

As Brave10 enters in to the 7th episode, we see yet another new character join the roster as the series passes the halfway stage. But after some disappointing episodes recently, has Brave10 been able to step up its game this week?

Truth be told it’s hard to say either way, as although the episode never really seemed to go anywhere, when the episode ended I had a weird sense of enjoyment from it all the same.

The episode started with Yukimura Sanada setting out for Kyou, but despite wanting bodyguards he only takes Isanami, Saizo, and Rokuro. He tells the other members of the Braves to stay behind and protect the castle while he is gone. Later, the 4 of them arrive in a small town and meet a young boy who tells them that due to the recent rainfall in the area, the route they were going to take was inaccessible and tells them of a different path to take instead. They thank the boy and head the way he told them, although Saizo thinks to himself that he is sure he could smell gunpowder on the boy.

As they make their way along towards Ryou, it doesn’t take long before they are caught amidst numerous traps. Saizo and Rokuro manage to save both Isanami and Yukimura from some of them, however, just as they are going to be overwhelmed by all the traps they are helped by the sudden appearance of the other Braves who arrived despite being told to stay behind. When the traps are all cleared, the boy emerges from nearby and talks excitedly about how they were the first ones to ever escape from his traps, and that he wants to join their group. Saizo rightfully gets angry with the boy for his actions, but Isanami tells him to stop bullying the boy and Yukimura even agrees to let him join his group. The boy tells them his name is also Rokuro, but when he finds out about there being one Rokuro already in the group, he says they can call him any name they want, and so Yukimura decides to call him Benmaru.

After that is settled, Yukimura tells everyone they are free to now do whatever they want, but tells Benmaru that the first order he has to carry out is to wait back in the town until he came back from Ryou. Benmaru reluctantly agrees, and Yukimura and the Braves head on to Ryou. Yukimura attends the meeting with the lords and other samurai and ninja etc, but is soon challenged to a fight by the late arrival of Masamune Date, who defied the ban on unsheathing your sword that had been put in place by the main lord Tokugawa. Rokuro tells him that Yukimura is not prepared and asks him to choose someone else, but Yukimura accepts anyway saying it would be rude to refuse his challenge, and Tokugawa gives permission for it to take place.

Despite being offered a sword, Yukimura declines the offer and instead uses only his fan to defend himself against Masamune and his sword. Despite Masamune’s efforts, Yukimura easily and skillfully dodges or blocks all of his attacks, and soon ends the battle when he kicks the sword out of Masamune’s hand (while Yukimura was on the floor I might add having just slipped) with it only narrowly avoiding Tokugawa as it landed. Everyone is impressed, but Tokugawa is just left shocked at how close he came to being hit by the weapon. That evening, Yukimura finds out that he has been summoned to meet with Tokugawa to discuss the earlier incident, but when he finds out that the meeting is no more than a ruse to get him trapped and be forced to commit harakiri, he flees Ryou with his Braves, who also damage the bridge leading out to prevent Tokugawa’s men from chasing after them.

That was pretty much it for the episode, it didn’t make an awful lot of sense but somehow I still found myself enjoying it nonetheless. Saizo still clearly stands out as my favourite character, but I have grown quite fond of Yukimura as well now I have seen him a bit more. With that said, most of the characters seem nothing like samurai or ninja at all, Saizo is one of the few who actually does seem like the real thing. How much you enjoy Brave10 is ultimately going to come down to how much you like the characters themselves as the story is nothing special, but luckily for me I find Saizo to be a very likeable character and makes the episodes fun to watch just to see what he will be doing. This episode does nothing to break the mold from previous episodes, so if you liked the earlier ones then you will probably like this episode, and of course if you didn’t like them then this week’s offering will do nothing to change your mind either.

As a whole I liked the episode without really being sure why, but I think the next few episodes are really going to pick up and could turn out to be the best Brave10 has to offer, especially as it’s looking like we will get to see a battle involving Saizo as soon as next week.

Brave10 Episode 6 Review / Thoughts

Another week brings another episode of Brave10, and luckily the subs for it were out nice and early this time. So how was episode 6 of Brave10?

Much like last week it lacked the quality of previous episodes, although this one was very much meant for comedy mostly as it was set in a hotspring for most of the episode.

Basically, the episode started with the group above (also known as the Braves) coming in to Yukimura Sanada’s room only to find it in a mess with both him and Rokuro missing. At first they assume someone must have broken in and kidnapped Yukimura, while wondering how skilled the person must have been to be able to carry out the kidnapping without alerting anyone else in the process.

Shortly after however Sasuke comes jumping through the window with a letter in his hand, he hands the letter over and Saizo and the group of Braves read it, only to find the letter was from Yukimura telling them he has gone to a hotspring to relax and that they should come too. Later they arrive at the town with the hotsprings, where Saizo is annoyed by the fact everyone split up and were just doing whatever they wanted instead of looking for Yukimura. Soon Saizo comes across Kakei who is annoyed with a giant of a person who ate a meal and refused to pay for it, claiming that he was a monk and doing holy work, hence he doesn’t have to pay.

Kakei tells him to pay several times while the big man only continues to anger him with his words, but when Kakei finally has enough and points his gun towards the man, the man grabs the end with his hand and bends the rifle, ruining it in the process. Kakei then sits on the ground just staring sorrowfully at this ruined gun, while Saizo decides he has had enough and attacks the man too. Saizo throws a few kunai at the mans stomach, but even though they hit him they have no effect as the guys’ muscle impacted the blow and protected him from harm. The big man then begins to fight back, and in the end all the braves (except for Anastasia and the absent Isanami) end up taking him on. As the fight goes on, Yukimura suddenly appears to see what the commotion is about and notices the battle, but he merely stands and watches. Despite the giant mans’ great efforts of taking on several opponents at once, eventually he can’t keep up and is on the verge of losing, only for Isanami to suddenly arrive causing everyone to forget about the battle as the giant man proclaimed her to be his sister.

Isanami refutes the claim saying she doesn’t know who he is, but the man is adamant. He later shows a picture of himself to Isanami from when he was younger (and looked considerably different) to which she then realises she does in fact know this person claiming to be her brother. He tells them his name is Miyoshi, and explains that Isanami is not a blood relative of his, but that they grew up in the same orphanage as each other, and he was the one who found Isanami when he was still only 8 years old. Miyoshi is shortly after offered to stay with Yukimura and his men, and in accepting the offer basically became another member of Yukimura Sanada’s group of Braves.

After all that is done however, the rest of the episode is pretty much just spent with the characters relaxing in the hotsprings, which of course in Anime is always an excuse for comedy and some fanservice. We end up seeing Isanami complaining that her breasts aren’t as big as Anastasias’, while Anastasia tells her she is better off having small breasts as they are easier to manage. Also we then see Yukimura suddenly appearing in the women’s section and getting a look at them both, annoying Anastasia to the point of her using her ice technique to encase him in a block of ice (which at the same time made all the water cold and in essence useless to everyone else using the other side of the hotspring)

And well, that’s pretty much it. Considering I remember reading this was only going to be a short series, I don’t know why they felt the need to waste almost a whole episode in the hotsprings. The Yukimura being frozen part was slightly amusing, but other than that and introducing Miyoshi nothing of note or worth really happened. The episode was ok overall, but along with last week it has ended up making for a rather disappointing two weeks of Brave10, especially considering how much I enjoyed the earlier episodes. All I can say is that I hope things pick up next week, and that hopefully the initial promise of the early episodes doesn’t go unfulfilled in the end.

Brave 10 Episode 5 Review / Thoughts

Hooray for a very late review of Brave10 Episode 5!  But yes, I finally found a site with the episode subbed, so now I can review it properly. Over the past 4 weeks I have praised Brave10 and enjoyed it quite a lot, but for some reason I feel this episode made less of an impact.

Last week ended with Isanami being kidnapped, but this episode began rather nicely by briefly showing a part of Saizo’s past. A fellow shinobi (and friend perhaps) of his was going to leave their village to serve his new master, but shortly afterwards he was killed and discarded like trash by some other men, as Saizo witnessed the whole incident but could do nothing to help. It was nice because it shows how and why Saizo began to regard the whole serving a master thing as beneath him, and it also showed why he is willing to kill people without hesitation.

After Saizo wakes up from his dream he gets up and tells Kakei that he is leaving and going alone from now on, to which Kakei only comments that he must have overestimated Saizo and that he would have to report it. Back in Ueda, Sasuke recieves the report about the kidnapping of Isanami, so when Sanada sees the message he orders both Sasuke and Anastasia to go and bring back all his men at any cost, so they both head out to do just that. Afterwards, we get to see Isanami with her kidnappers and in the process find out more about why they wanted her, or more precisely, her hairpin in the first place.

We find out more about it when Masamune tells a brief story about the thing in Isanami’s hairpin, a treasure known as Kushi-Mitama. Kushi-Mitama  is one of four treasures known as the Mitamas, and were originally created by men seeking great power without requesting the help of the gods. Masamune then goes on to proclaim that he will collect all four of the treasures and make himself god of the world so that he can revolutionize it in his own way. Meanwhile, after earlier dealing with an attack on their way to free Isanami, Sasuke and Anastasia arrive to save Isanami. Sasuke is the first to see where she was being held prisoner and told her he had come to save her, only to be told by Isanami that she didn’t want to be saved and have to go back to Ueda as she blamed herself for the people around her getting hurt and in trouble.  Sasuke reluctantly leaves, but a bit later Anastasia visits Isanami, and after a few stern words of advice, convinces Isanami she has to go back to Ueda and start fighting for herself as Sanada had clearly shown faith in her.

As the evening arrives everyone who originally went out from Ueda returns, but despite Isanami’s warm greeting for Saizo he ignores her and eventually even tells her to shut up. Saizo is later seen laying on the roof, but is soon attacked by Sasuke. Sasuke and Saizo have a brief fight in which Saizo seems to be clearly outmatched, all the while Sasuke telling Saizo that he was weak but that he refused to accept that. Whereas Sasuke acknowledges his weaknesses and thus hones his strengths to make up for it, Saizo instead just ignores his weaknesses altogether and pretends they don’t exist, hence being weak.

Saizo of course gets angry and the brief scrap lasts a little longer before it is broken up by the arrival of Sanada. Saizo is then faced with the question of whether he wants to remain weak as Sasuke said, or else grow stronger so that he can better protect people and things.

A little later Saizo and Kakei give their report to Sanada about what happened, though tell him thanks to everything that went on they can’t remember what the mysterious writing was they encountered. Upon hearing this, Sanada obscures Saizo’s head from the view of everyone else, and gets his assistant / guard Rokuro to use his mysterious power that allows him to drain information from something using one of his eyes and remembering it perfectly. With Rokuro now knowing exactly what Saizo saw, he writes it out so that Sanada can see for himself, though nobody other than Rokuro or Sanada knows how he was capable of obtaining the information.

As Saizo and the others are dismissed, Sanada and Rokuro remain behind and are left concerned about what the writing meant. Elsewhere, Masamune decides he is going to go to Ueda himself to get back Isanami and the power of her Kushi-Mitama.

That’s how the episode ended. It was decent enough, the backstory part for Saizo at the beginning was pretty awesome and definitely the highlight of the episode for me personally, and the Sasuke vs Saizo encounter wasn’t bad towards the end even if it wasn’t a serious battle. I think the reason I didn’t enjoy it quite as much was because of a lack of battles, as that is what makes Brave10 fun to watch. While the story is ok, it’s definitely for the fights that Brave10 will gain most of its viewers. So overall a decent episode, but sadly not as good as the previous four, something which can hopefully be set right in the next episode.

Kaiji – Series Review

ざわ…ざわ   ざわ…ざわ.  Believe me, when you watch Kaiji that word will soon become a part of your every day vocabulary! So yes, this is my second series review, this time it is a review of the Anime Kaiji.

I actually discovered  this Anime by seeing two people I know on Twitter talking about it on a regular basis recently, with one of them in particular being vocal of his love of the series. Seeing this, and also luckily on the look out for a series to watch at the time anyway, I decided to give it a try, so what is it like?

Well aside from finding it to be brilliant, the best word to describe this show is definitely addictive. With a lot of series I tend to get through 2 or 3 episodes per day maximum, but that went right out the window when watching Kaiji, and before I knew it I was watching 6 or more episodes per day, the only thing preventing me from watching even more than that being a lack of available time.

You see, while the premise doesn’t sound extraordinary in any way, the series does an absolutely fantastic job of keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat. You really begin to care about Kaiji and his fate very early on, and inevitably it isn’t long before you are watching each episode desperate to see Kaiji come out on top and escape from the miserable lot he has been given in life.

Before I go any further, allow me to share the plot description so you get more of an idea about the series:

“Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 300,000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji.

Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay of their debts. After some coercion Kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear his debt and make a bit of money as well…”

So in order to pay off his debts, Kaiji agrees to go on the cruise aboard the ship Espoir hoping to win enough money so that he can escape the debt nightmare he suddenly finds himself in. Now let me say that even if you are not the gambling type of person, you shouldn’t let it put you off at all. Although the series is based around the idea of gambling, it’s also much more than that and features a lot of psychological aspects as well which in my view are the thing that keeps the show so entertaining and addictive all the time.

Although initially Kaiji himself may come across as someone you can’t see yourself liking, ultimately you can’t help but like him before too long. Kaiji is labelled worthless, scum and trash right from the start, and while deep down he knows it himself, as well as clearing his gambling debts he also hopes to gain money so that he can have a fresh start at life and make more of himself.

Kaiji, despite some of his personal flaws, is deep down a relatively good person. In the past he had thrown his money away gambling, smoking, and drinking (though he continues to do those) and is someone most would probably consider an unsavoury character. Though all too often despite how he may look on the outside and despite his, for lack of a better term, “colourful” vocabulary, he sticks up for himself and also anyone else who is being treated unfairly. This is also a part of his downfall on occasion, as aboard the ship he finds people who are just waiting for the chance to prey on the weak and stab them in the back at the first given opportunity. Kaiji finds out the hard way on some occasions, but no matter how difficult a situation he finds himself in, he is also smart enough to come up with new plans and strategies to help himself, and on occasion others too.

I really don’t want to say too much more because a lot of what makes the series so brilliant is the awesome twists and turns as Kaiji finds himself in seemingly impossible situations and trying to overcome them. You will never be bored while watching Kaiji, I can assure you of that. With every twist and turn you will find yourself more and more immersed in the series, while at the end credits you will find yourself unable to resist the “I’ll just watch one more episode” trap that is so easy to fall in to, only to find yourself eventually having watched half the series. Kaiji is brilliant in that it does not rely on corny endings or making the viewer feel good about themselves, Kaiji often finds himself on the end of bad situations and pays a price for it. This Anime is not one to watch if you want some feel good, predictable affair that has been seen a million times before. However, if you want something addictive, likeable and downright exciting, then Kaiji comes highly recommended.

Kaiji isn’t all doom and gloom either, there are epic and impressive moments that will leave you with a big smile on your face as you find out just how certain characters pull off their tricks and plans.

Basically I highly recommend this series to anyone. I went in without a clue of what to expect, only to come out a massive fan of the series. Since I started the series I have noticed a few more people I know start watching too, and each of them have come away from it just as impressed as I have been. The only minor niggle is that the art style may not be to everyone’s liking, but I got used to it after a couple of episodes with no problem, so if you can look past / accept it then you won’t find many better series than this, so stop reading and go watch it now!