Oh snap, Lelouch lost. That’s gotta be a huge thorn in his pride.

And it’s now startin’ to bug me, wth does C.C. want?

Addicting.

This show is addicting. I was thinking about jotting some stuff down after every episode but kept putting it off to watch more, haha. The cheesy cliffhangers didn’t help. Episode 6 was the first time they didn’t throw something random at the end of the episode to force a cliffhanger.

So where was I… oh yea, addicting. The characters really drive this show.

It’s not so much that one or two characters are really interesting; it’s the sheer number of characters. Seriously, there are so many of them. I’m getting a headache trying to remember all the names and it doesn’t help that I’m genuinely curious about most of them. Plus, every one of them seemingly has their own agenda and trying to tie things together only adds to my headache. To top it off, I still don’t know who the good guys are.

Well, I suppose the only one that *may* have truly “good” intentions is Suzaku. He and Lelouch have nearly the same goals but Suzaku is trying to get there as peacefully as can be. Lelouch is crazy. Utterly crazy. If it wasn’t for him being offset by his lovable sister, he’d be a grade ‘A’ madman… which is why I really like him, haha.

It’s been six episodes and things seem to still be in the “set-up” phase. The true villains are starting to surface while Lelouch is waiting a bit more before kicking in his plan. He’s a calculating guy but I doubt he could’ve guessed that Suzaku would end up as a potential monkey wrench in his plan. That’s gotta suck. His one true friend is probably his biggest rival.

For some reason, I get Scryed flashbacks while watching this even though it doesn’t resemble Scryed. It’s really stupid but I can’t control the damn flashbacks. It also makes me wanna go watch Scryed again. Dammit.

I gotta give some kudos to the comedy, especially in episode 6. The overall mood of this series has been sullen yet I laughed out loud several times in this series. Those moments were genuinely funny. Like, the scene where the girls were wondering if their kiss prize could be from Lelouch and that one girl says she wants Milly… ah hahah. Good stuff.

Shit, I’m wasting too much time. I gots to watch more. This series is definitely interesting and potentially great but for now, it’s curiosity that drives me.

I wanna know what happens to all these characters.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, Inoue Kikoku is in this anime! Gawd I love her voice.

This is one of four or five “popular” series’ that I’ve been putting off, for no reason whatsoever. I simply didn’t feel like watching them, yet. It boggles the mind, I know.

Speaking of boggling the mind…

So who all are the good guys?

Seriously.

I have no idea who’s “good” or if that classification even exists. Obviously, it’s not Brittania. It’s not the terrorists either. Sure, they’re only trying to get back Japan but blowing up civvies won’t classify you as a good guy. And of course, we have the MC, Lelouch. Hell if I know where he stands.

Boggles the mind.

Anyway, enough blah blah blah. I won’t let this become another series I end up blogging more than watching nor will it disappear into oblivion… though, don’t quote me on that latter promise.

Character designs are sexay. I love Clamp’s characters. The males do tend to be too bishounen for my taste but shit, when do I ever watch anime for the males, heh. And Clamp doing the characters works out nicely since there’s a shitload of characters. I think I remembered like, two names.

Also, the intro song is catchy, which is saying a lot since I generally favor female vocalists. There’s only a handful of anime songs with male vocalists on my “this song is hawt” list. Time to hear it some more…

Oh, and yeah, probably watch more of this show.

Good stuff.

Initially, I was going off (in my head) on how this or that was so cliche and blah blah but I realized, I’ve watched so much damn anime that everything is bound to fall into some category. I gotta quit holding grudges against shows simply because it follows some formula. As long as the original parts are done well, I really should chill on the bitchings.

That was a preemptive strike in shutting myself up. If it wasn’t obvious, I probably would’ve went off on some nonsense about blah blah not being original and blah blah.

Anywhoo… the finale was good. Yun’s story was rather trite but the rest of it flowed well. They built up Yun’s fear of school throughout the whole series and spent mere minutes revealing everything. Buuut, this series ain’t about Yun so screw him.

Suigintou’s story was so sad. Ya figure she had something that would get the audience to empathize with her and damn… they picked one that really hit hard. Her “death” scene was tragic. It’s not unusual to pity “bad guys” in an anime but for Suigintou, I genuinely felt for her.

The series could have ended with just this while it easily left things open for a sequel. I gotta lean towards the “they didn’t know if there was gonna be a sequel” assumption. In either case, these twelve episodes flowed extremely well (with the exception of episode 5). After some obligatory character intro episodes, it went right into the main story and made sure to keep it lingering throughout the rest of the episodes. Out of twelve episodes, only one episode was wasted and that’s rather impressive.

None of the characters truly stood out but they were all fun to watch. Now I see why Suiseiseki is so popular. She’s got the full otaku package being moe and tsundere and a maid-desu. And I have to admit that Hinainchigo was cute. That’s saying a lot given that her character-type tends to annoy me. Maybe being a doll helped… or maybe it was Nogawa Sakura. Her voice was cute. Really cute. I’m genuinely amazed at thinking it was cute. And she did Tsubomi in Strawberry Panic. And also Nemu in Da Capo. My memory is hazy but aren’t those three different voices? I gotta double check that sometime.

In the end, I had plenty of fun watching. What it lacked in originality it made up for by making sure anything “cliche” was done well. It gets extra points for having a great flow to the main story.

Overall series score: 8.7 out of 10

The calm before the storm?

Yeah… I don’t really have anything.

I felt like posting before the final story. Umm… now to waste a lil time…

I watched episodes 6 and 7 last night then saw the preview for 8 and noticed it was Souseiseki’s intro. So, I justified watching one more episode before bed and it turned out to be a stinkin’ cliffhanger. Figures.

I did enjoy that story, mostly because it involved Suigintou. This series gives me some mixed reactions so far but one big thing I like is how it hasn’t been episodic. Many half season anime tend to go by the same formula; a few episodes to intro characters then some episodic stories then the finale. This one had it’s share of character intro episodes but ever since episode 3, where Suigintou first appeared, she’s been involved in nearly every episode.

In essence, this entire series has been about Shinku and Suigintou’s “rivalry” along with the Alice game. Episode 5 was pretty much the only completely random one-shot episode (and thank gawd for that, I wouldn’t be able to handle another funky episode like that one).

Anyway, the above couple paragraphs presume this series stands alone. I haven’t done any reading about Rozen Maiden and its sequels so maybe this series was made with a sequel already in mind and thus, it had a different flow to it than if it was intended to stand alone (with the possibly of a sequel). Get it? Good, cuz I don’t.

Enough babble, I simply need 40 minutes to answer that question.

Though, at this rate, Yun’s dealie with not wanting to go to school won’t be answered in the next two episodes. So maybe a sequel was intended from the start… hmm…

And about the finale, of course it’s Shinku vs Suigintou. And of course Shinku doesn’t say anything and goes off on her own. And of course someone notices Shinku acting strangely. And of course Yun somehow manages to save Shinku… wait, that hasn’t happened yet. YET… heh… I kid. Maybe it’ll be different! I look forward to a surprise!

Seriously, shut up (me) and go watch.