Sea Slugs! Anime Blog

Phantom -Requiem for the Phantom- 14

Kabitzin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:01:22 +0000

Summary:

Reiji goes back on his word and says the $5 million is not quite enough, so Cal will have to earn the rest as his assistant. The two have a fun shopping day, but Raymond wants to see some results and a goth-loli wardrobe won’t cut it. Lizzie suggests a SIG Sauer, and Reiji notices that Cal has incredible potential as either a shooter or an actress. Meanwhile, Shiga is clearly in cahoots with Scythe Master, and Daisuke refuses to return to Japan empty-handed. Fortunately, Claudia volunteers to fill Daisuke’s hands with her breasts (after which, Daisuke immediately goes and brags about the conquest to his boys).

Claudia really wants to secure the backing of the 3,000 man strong Godo group, so she assigns Reiji as a bodyguard while Daisuke’s crew hits the casinos. Reiji notices Daisuke’s goon Muroto getting lured away by a young woman, but is too late to stop the assassin from slitting Muroto’s throat with a shaving razor in the hotel room. Although Reiji is fast enough to get a clear shot at the killer, he is surprised to see a familiar face; this is all the killer needs to escape without even firing a shot.

Reaction:

I lost a lot of respect for Reiji after it became clear that he doesn’t actually have a pocket square in his blazer. If you watch him take the blazer out of the closet, it’s obvious that the pocket square is stitched in the blazer; this is akin to wearing a clip-on tie. Furthermore, his pimp license is in jeopardy after watching Daisuke bang Claudia, leading us to believe that perhaps Claudia is just kinda skanky. Ellen even tooled Reiji in her escape. If you’ve ever walked in Las Vegas, you know that Ellen could have been cut off at the nearest taxi stand, because there is no way she could get anywhere on foot. BTW, although Daisuke was clearly staying at the Bellagio, where was he gambling (edit: Ender has informed me that the mystery casino is probably the Monte Carlo)? The statues reminded me of Caesars Palace, but it didn’t look right.

Cal was pretty awesome this episode, from her various cute expressions to her recycling of old hamburger patties to make fatty, tasty stew. I think the eventual duel between Cal and Ellen is gonna be awesome, because it seems like Cal might have the most potential out of the three. I don’t even think that it is because Reiji is a good teacher; although he was helpful on the shooting range, Cal came in with good acting skills. Reiji, on the other hand, thinks that throwing on a pair of glasses is enough to hide your identity from everyone.

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Phantom -Requiem for the Phantom- 13

Kabitzin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:34:32 +0000

Summary:

Cal thinks Reiji looks like a wimp, so Reiji arranges to have Lizzie pose as Phantom and meet Cal. Cal plans to stay with Reiji until then, but while Lizzie is chuckling on her cell phone about Reiji being bossed around by his own little lolita, Isaac and his muscle get the drop on Lizzie (who was investigating on Isaac’s turf). Isaac then heads straight to Reiji’s place to make Cal talk.

This leads to a pretty tense stand-off between Isaac and Reiji, and Reiji goes so far as to pull a gun on Isaac to make Isaac back off. Reiji knew all along that Cal was bluffing about seeing the murders, but Cal shocks him when she reveals that she stole the $5 million to hire a killer to avenge Judy. Reiji is forced to meet with Claudia, Isaac, and Raymond and concoct a nonsensical story about how he saw that Cal the potential to be an awesome assassin and replace that n00b Lizzie. Isaac doesn’t believe it for a second, but Raymond gives Reiji the green light to train Cal as his assistant.

Reaction:

This was a pretty entertaining episode, even if some of the moments were a bit silly. Clearly Lizzie needs to stick to being a bodyguard, because her stealthiness is seriously lacking. It was funny how she got upset that Reiji hung up on her, but there is no excuse for being caught by Isaac and his goon. Meanwhile, the tension between Claudia and Isaac is getting interesting, and it’s gone farther than sexual harassment at the workplace. Isaac definitely knows Claudia is planning something, and now she’s going to have a killer loli on her side, too.

I thought it was pretty cool that they showed Reiji’s scars from the incident with Scythe Master, and all in all I liked his solution to the Cal problem. This protects Cal and gets Raymond off his back, plus now we get to see Reiji’s teaching skills. Surely they can’t be as bad as his salesmanship skills. It was so sweet listening to Reiji tell Raymond that as Phantom he can detect lies while Isaac was going out of his mind listening to the crap that Reiji was spewing. Also, I don’t see how being able to fix a broken clock makes you an awesome assassin, but I’ll be careful around watchmakers from now on.

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Lightbox Added

Kabitzin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:59:53 +0000

I installed the Lightbox 2 plugin so that images that you click on SS!AB are overlaid right on the page itself. I felt like some of the extra images that I included in posts would be better viewed this way, especially since you can easily browse all the pics in the post without hunting for links. All I had to do was install and activate the plugin, and everything else worked right away. Let me know if you have problems with this feature and/or hate it.

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Phantom -Requiem for the Phantom- 12

Kabitzin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:39:21 +0000

Summary:

It’s 6 months later, and a pimped out Reiji been sent off to a CG New York to kill Belacruz, the #2 guy in the Gambino family. With them out of the way, Inferno now has control of the East Coast. Claudia’s next plan is to meet up (again) with the Godo family to sell 25 kg of discounted cocaine to Godo Daisuke as a friendly gift. Isaac taunts Claudia for using her huge rack to secure Reiji’s loyalty, and she pays him back by arranging the exchange on Bloodies turf, putting the onus of security on Isaac’s shoulders.

Naturally, when Claudia and Reiji arrive to make the sale, they find that an assassin has already killed the Godo’s purchasing team and stolen the $5 million. We get a brief shot of a very Ellen-shaped silhouette, and Reiji also finds the body of hooker Judy Devens. When Reiji later returns to leave flowers where Judy died, he encounters Judy’s young “sister.” ~~Natalie Portman~~ Cal. Cal saw everything while she was walking a drunk Judy home that night, and she offers information about the killer if Reiji will be her partner. Reiji agrees, while musing about how he screws up lives.

Reaction:

What a difference 6 months can make! Reiji went from being a typical blase male lead to becoming some kind of uber-pimp, bossing around Claudia and Lizzie, banging his stacked boss, fist bumping with lolis, and shooting gangsters at the opera while wearing a ruffled shirt. When Reiji remembered Ellen’s words about how he would eventually grow to feel nothing, it made me wonder if Ellen had taken a similar path. When Ellen first became Phantom did she go around wearing skanky clothes and doing generally diva things? Was she banging Scythe Master? And is she hanging out in Mongolia (we saw that brochure too many times for it to be a coincidence)?

I’m pretty sure that shadow was Ellen because it would set up a perfectly awkward situation between Cal and Reiji. They’d work at finding the killer, but when it’s revealed to be Ellen, Reiji will be stuck between his two/three ladies. I’m not sure why Claudia is still so interested in working with the Godo family, but she’s really making a move up the Inferno ladder. Things got a little hairy when Raymond put Isaac in his place, although all I could think was, “That wine is going to stain!” Lizzie drove the comedy up even further when she commented that Claudia was so tired from work, but really it was because Reiji was putting Claudia on a new workout plan.

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Hatsukoi Limited 12 (Final)

Kabitzin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:34:36 +0000

Summary:

The girls are worried the boys may have gotten eaten by wild animals, but not worried enough to call off the onsen fanservice. Having already read the manga, the girls know the boys are heading to the beach, and decide to catch some rays while they wait. Meanwhile, the boys are pedaling fast and yelling out their frustration as they near the water. It’s a beautiful sunset, and Etsu thinks about how he went on this trip to build confidence. It’s not easy been a short ugly guy who’s had his eye on Kei ever since she was a tween. All that’s left for Etsu to do is to run into the ocean and loudly proclaim his love for Kei (as his homies join him and shout about their own crushes).

Unsurprisingly, the girls are already there and overhear everything. At first the boys try to run, but it’s not much of a chase. Nao catches Hiroyuki and tells him to just be himself, while Ayumi catches Mamoru and explains that running away won’t erase the image of Misaki’s hot body. Kei’s long strides enable her to catch up and confess to Etsu, and the two share a little love time. With that done, Yuuji decides to stop being a siscon and instead try to get to know Misaki, Ayumi decides to give her decision to the Zaitsu brothers, Hiroyuki decides to get a haircut, and Yoshihiko ends up sad and alone (with Koyoi).

Reaction:

While everything was super-convenient, I was happy with the way things ended (although I wish J.C. Staff had kept Koyoi’s advice to take the older brother). The final montage satisfied my curiosity about all the characters I cared about, although Yuu got totally screwed, considering that Nanoka unexpectedly secured a swim team harem. I also find it completely hilarious that Nao told Hiroyuki to be himself, and then forced him to get a Yukito-esque haircut and do Yukito-esque things (like paint with her). No doubt a flash forward will show those two getting intimate, only to have Nao call Hiroyuki “Yukito.”

From the looks of things, I’d guess that Ayumi chose Mamoru. Ayumi is clearly creeped out by older brothers with a thing for younger girls, and with Yuuji making some moves on Misaki, I’d say Mamoru’s chances with his Saki-nee are pretty slim. Someone’s gotta move in for the rebound, and Ayumi is volunteering. Of course, the best thing for Mamoru to do would be to get revenge on Yuuji by scoring with his younger sister, and then breaking her heart. That would be awesome, I mean, terrible. Finally, I love how during Ayumi’s ending narration the part about “sometimes love goes wrong” was synced with the scene showing Koyoi and Yoshihiko. Way to rub salt in the wound, Ayumi!

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Eden of the East Review

Kabitzin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:40:52 +0000

Ja ne!

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Oedipus had not (spoiler alert!) been an arrogant father-killing, mother-banging, eye-gouging, emo prick? Me neither, but if you could create a bizarro-Oedipus story, this would be it.

Story

Eden of the East’s main strength is its story. The basic gist of the story is that Akira finds himself naked and partially amnesiac only to discover that he might possibly be a terrorist. We’re thrown right into a seemingly random situation, but we gradually find how all the little pieces fit together. Although the overuse of memory-wiping is a bit troubling, I liked its use in EotE much more than in most series (especially since the memory block was overcome each time). A quick look at the Wikipedia page for amnesia has this interesting snippet:

Functional causes are psychological factors, such as defense mechanisms[...] Another effect of amnesia is the inability to imagine the future[...] This is because when a normal human being imagines the future, they use their past experiences to construct a possible scenario.

Now I’m not saying that the writers meant to imply all these factors, but it’s easy to speculate how these causes and effects could relate to Akira. I’m sure Akira wanted to think of himself as a hero, but ironically he had to cast himself as the villain in order to accomplish his heroic goals. Furthermore, the challenging nature of Mr. Outside’s game led Akira to believe that he needed to start anew in order to construct a plan to save the future. This makes it especially awesome when Akira notes, right before wiping his memory again, that he hopes to end up the exact same type of person in the two forthcoming movies. Mmm, irony, I love it. (Fortunately, Akira has no more funds to buy another memory wipe, because if he did it again I would shoot him before the Supporter had a chance to.)

Characters

As sweet as the story is, the cast is kinda sucky. Akira is awesome, and some of the fringe characters do a fine job in their role, but the entire Eden of the East Club is rather blah. Saki is an especially flat character (haha). I had high hopes for her after the exciting first two episodes, and I was ok with her emo funk after the gyudon/job interview incident, but her character never really developed after that (haha again). For the entire second half of the show, Saki just ran around and narrated. She became a past-revealing vehicle by way of wire tapping. How lame is that?

Even worse, there was so little chemistry between Saki and Akira after they got back to Japan. I suppose this might mimic real life, as Saki was more just-a-friend than anything else to Akira; this was hard to take because we are clearly supposed to root for their love to succeed. Instead, the most heat this show had was between Kuroha and Akira, and compared to young, pouty, brother-in-law-loving, cookie-hawking Saki the sight of underwear-clad Kuroha was enough to make Akira pass out. We’re talking Haruno Sakura levels of disappointment here, except that at least Sakura can heal you while she’s moping about her crush. The only thing I remember Saki being good at doing was selling cookies made in her likeness.

Tilt

The art is consistently awesome, although some might feel a little strange about seeing Umino Chica’s character designs. Personally, I had no problems with it, and I liked the quality and the style of the art in EotE. The OP is a very modern swirls-and-text affair that matches very well with Oasis’ Falling Down, and the ED’s paper motion capture was really cool as well. I thought the voice actors also did a great job, though I know some people were thrown off by Kuroha’s deep voice. All in all, I felt Production I.G did an excellent job with EotE.

Verdict

I think this show did its job perfectly, and I’m really looking forward to the two movies. I have a few nitpicks with how well things wrapped up, but I also suspect that the real story will start with the first movie.

Kabitzin’s Rating: 5/5

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