Mintyfresh Anime Blog

With only two episodes of death note left, it should come as no surprise that Light is extremely close to being caught as kira. On the other hand, what does come, as a surprise is how careless Light is being in this episode? Looking back at the earlier episodes of the series, it would seem that Light’s superhuman intelligence were more than enough to keep him from being caught… but recent events show one of two things.

The first possibility of Light’s carelessness is simply that he has become overconfident in his abilities. So much so that he doesn’t even bring his own paper and pens to his meetings with Takada. Perhaps he really did think that simply replacing the pads would be sufficient, but seriously this is extremely uncharacteristic of the ever-cautious light. I mean if he had access to a new notepad why wouldn’t he just use that one in the first place. His super-intelligence had to have picked up on the possibility that a member of his team would catch on to him communicating with writing due to the fact that he wouldn’t allow visual surveillance. It just doesn’t seem to make sense at this point in the story for Light to make such a big screw up.

The other and possibly more likely situation (especially since he had Mikami create a fake deathnote for him to make his judgments in) is that this is all part of Light’s master plan. Now … although I’ve neglected to read the manga, it’s fairly safe to assume that I know for the most part that Death Note will end with Light’s demise. So really how likely is it that Light knows about both his team and Near both knowing for 100% certainty that he is Kira.

Why was Misa captured anyway, something to do with her being the second kira no doubt. Perhaps when they make their move on Light, Near wants to make sure that Misa won’t simply slaughter them all with her own power.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Light is going to attempt to use Mikami as a sacrifice to save his own ass once again. So much for Kira being the hand of god’s justice eh? Light has become extremely warped over the years and has lost sight of his original intent of making the world a better place without all of the murderers and such.

Two episodes left. How will it end?

Despite my better judgment, I decided to start another new series today. Putting aside the fact that im currently involved with about 10 other shows at the moment, I’d have to say that I made the correct choice in viewing the first episode of “Kaze no Stigma”. Oh and by the way, I have to say I absolutely hate the opening song, its much to feminine for a shounen anime.

In essence, this show is about a family of fire manipulators. The main character (who changed his name to Kazuma) fled from Japan 4 years prior to this episode. He was one of the heirs to the family of fire users, but lacked any sort of ability in fire magic and therefore left the country. Evidently, Kazuma used the 4 years in a very efficient fashion, as he is now a master at wind magic (much to his old families disgrace I might add).

As it so happens, or perhaps as a consequence of, at the precise moment of Kazuma’s return to Japan a wind magic user is going about murdering members of the fire using family. Obviously the family assumes it is their disgraced former member, Kazuma, doing the killings due to the fact that have all been slaughtered with the wind. In reality it’s not him killing them at all, but seemingly somebody stalking him that is trying to make it appear as if it is him doing the killings. Why would a demon thing want to frame him though?

I absolutely love the blunt foreshadowing of this series. It has a certain naïve elegance to it I suppose. Within the first minute of the show Ayano’s (the female lead and a fire user) dress is blown up by the wind exposing her panties and she claims “I hate the wind.” I’m sure it will be much to her dismay when she discovers that her problems with the wind are only beginning. The monster hunting deal is okay I suppose. It’s been done completely to death, yet it gives a reason for all the magic of the “Kaze no Stigma” universe to exist in the first place (which is probably a very good reason to include the demon/spirit hunting stuff). I feel like I’ve seen much of the plot before judging from the first episode, but then again I’m just jaded as far as anime goes by this point. The battle sequence between Kazuma and Ayano was pretty impressive considering how short it was. It’s more than satisfying to see Kazuma’s wind magic completely obliterate the fire stuff which caused him much distress in his past.

Despite the negatives I’ve stated, I’m rather hopeful for this series and I foresee good things coming out of it. Thus far I’d say it had one of the stronger opening episodes of the season (and that’s never a bad thing.)

If there’s one thing this series is good at, it’s making me wish I had a giant Ganmen to beat the shit out of things with. Especially when they show the pilots connected to the arm thingies inside the cockpits. I suppose I would also need a cause worthy of owning such a tremendous amount of power, such as fighting for the survival of humanity, but alas this is just anime.

I’ll spare you all from doing just another recap of the show. Odds are that if you’re reading this you’ve already seen the episode and are just wanting an opinion from an outside source, in which case would be me at this particular moment in time.

Does anybody else find the action in this show to be really difficult to follow as they switch ‘cameras’ entirely too fast and always to an extremely close up shot. I can’t say that im 100% sure of what’s going on during the chaotic battle scenes, but the really neat sketchy art style they have going on during them pretty much makes up for that.

So the new beastman general person is a chick that’s part scorpion ? She doesn’t look very scorpion to me, except the tail of course…. And the fact that her Ganmen can seemingly morph into a scorpion. For that matter what exactly is Viral, he seems devoid of having any beastliness in him at all. I suppose his teeth are sharp … lol.

Pretty irritating how the blonde dude with the 3 hot sisters is now the new self proclaimed leader. Shouldn’t that position be delegated to Simon? I always thought of him as sort of second in command due to his relationship with Kamina. I’d find it rather insulting if I were Simon. Then again, it just goes to show how society and nature frowns upon a passive personality. Passive personalities are generally viewed as weak and therefore Simon was not made leader, even though hes shown incredible strength thus far in the series. If only his Lagann wasn’t broken or something. I mean for god’s sake this episode was the second time he’s rushed to Nia’s aid without a Ganmen, yet his crew still thinks of him as a coward.

I can’t say im surprised that the Gurren Brigade members now accept Nia as part of them. How could the damn spiral king have a completely human daughter anyway? Unless of course the Spiral king is human too … which would just be weird, but they haven’t really shown him very clearly so it’s definitely possible. Either way it was pretty obvious that they would accept her due to her humanity and the King’s hatred of her. An enemy of an enemy is a friend to you, is an old saying isn’t it ? lol.

Come on Simon stop trying to be like Kamina and find your own strength !

An extremely distraught Simon takes center stage. Becoming somewhat bestial, Simon rips and thrashes at the enemy mechs, all the while his world turning both physically and mentally gray. As if summoning chaos and carnage will bring his beloved brother back Simon falls deeper and deeper into despair. His reasoning to act a savage is simply that he needs to man-up and act like Kamina. Lagann rejects Simon’s new attitude and spews out the green energy that powers it through both a vomiting motion and mechanical pores. It even goes as far to separate from the Gurren mid battle.

Away from the scene of the battle, Simon finds a girl locked in a box which is somehow opened by the same drill shaped key he uses to power the Lagann. As ridiculous and incredible as this sounds, it seems to make more sense while watching the episode. The pretty girl is completely oblivious to the outside world and must be told what the simplest of things are … people, shoes, food, etc. Evidently she has never seen another human before and asks if all humans look like Simon. Too much comical effect (which is an extreme relief from the utter despair this episode reeks of), she befriends Simon and casually asks “what is that” to the enemy mech behind them which is about 3 seconds away from blowing them both away with a missile.

Once again Lagann rejects Simon … or rather it would be more accurate to say due to Simon’s distraught state he is unable to control it. Unwilling to see another person die, Simon rips the drill from the Lagann and decides to fight the enemy with his bare hands. Before the obvious death which was to become him, he is saved by Yoko and other members of his crew who pronounce that they are also unwilling to watch another person of their team die.

Fast forward to find out the girl Simon discovered is actually the daughter of the Spiral king. The spiral king did mention that he gave birth to humans during this episode, but we are led to believe that he somehow gave birth to all of humanity rather than a solitary girl. Perhaps he gave birth to both, who knows at this point. The girl, Nia, commands the new attacker (sent by the spiral king) to cease fire on the newly acquired battle station of the Gurren Brigade. Much to the crew’s dismay they are unable to understand how or why the girl in front of them is the daughter of the seemingly highest threat to humanity.

Pretty cool how the one chick was able to create a ton of water for her water based machine to forge an attack of the humans, I must admit. I’m not entirely sure what to make of the direction the series is taking at this point. On one hand it’s always darkest before the storm and eventually things will become bright again, but the thing that made this series special was the oddball humor… which isn’t going to be present for awhile, as the entire crew is mourning over the death of their leader. I want to watch more, if for nothing else than to see how Simon stabilizes and becomes a man and the leader of the Brigade.

So wow, episode 8 turned out to be a big one. If I had to guess I would say this would be both the major turning point for the series and for Simon’s character. It’s been apparent since the very first episode that Simon does indeed reach the stars and become some sort of great leader, but the question left to ask oneself was how would a wuss-bag like him change so drastically? I had no idea that this event to change Simon would be none other than Kamina’s death. Until now, as much as anybody would like to refute that Simon has been the protagonist of this story, it has really been Kamina. Kamina is more likeable in every aspect when compared to Simon. This episode will probably mark the point at which the focus shifts towards Simon. The little love scene between Yoko and Kamina was entirely devoid of build up. Honestly there was very little “connection moments” between the two. Perhaps if they spent a bit more time hinting at it …. Oh well. On the other hand, I really did like how Simon reacted to the kiss between yoko and his ‘brother’. Who hasn’t been in Simon’s position honestly? There’s been countless times in my life where I’ve held childish reverence for a girl only to have it smashed to pieces, although in truth I knew my passive personality did little to win her heart. Simon seems more human because of this short 20 seconds of footage in my humble opinion.

The battle …. Ahhh the battle. Each episode of this series is crammed so full of action you’re surprised it takes place in the 20 some odd minutes it does. Somehow Simon and kamaina amassed a small army of stolen gungen …. And surprisingly their army didn’t help in this epic battle one bit. It seemed entirely as if the Gurren and Lagann fought solitary, putting aside Yoko kicking ass with her new riffle thing. Overall pretty damn heroic how Kamina nearly came back from the dead to help Simon defeat his enemies one last time, all while giving Simon a speech that he should stand on his own two feet and just believe in himself.

I’m sure we can all agree that episode 8 ended on a rather sad note. Will the series continue to have it’s obscure charm without the leader of the “Great Gurren Brigade?” I for one sure hope so. One last note I figured I’d throw in here is that now that Kamina is no longer part of the story, does this open the opportunity for Yoko and Simon to get together once he grows up a bit ? That would be sort of disrespectful to his brother … but then again he’d be the kind of person to understand if he were still alive. He loved Simon like a real brother after all.

Upon further inspection, there are a few shots in the introduction sequence that shows the entire cast and leaves Kamina out. I feel a fool for having not noticed this until now.