Iroha was perhaps the one series of Winter 2006 that truly caught my attention, a low-key historical tale set in one of my favourite centuries. Within episodes, the Bakumatsu era demanded study while the low-key tab had to be dropped; Iroha had ensnared me with its over-the-top dramatics and historical cast members, and even the [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

Ah, what a relief it is to travel back to Saiunkoku just after finishing the first series! This new era seems to have a slightly improved budget, and opens with a mixture of plot development and comedy that makes me excited to reach the next episode already. Anyway, onto the points of this episode! Kouyuu’s Future We learn [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

SaiMono was perhaps my favourite series of 2006, and rightly so, which each episode possessing its own charm and seeming like a small fragment of a larger story that just had to be told. Both the capital and Sa Province arcs proved overwhelmingly enjoyable in their own ways, despite the difference in their nature, and [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

I am pleased with the way Chevalier ended - all in all, it was a good show, with an excellent and varied cast and a plot that transcended the typical action show while weaving an admittedly compressed account of history in a way that far excels that of Iroha. While the universally-panned Russia arc was [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

I love SaiMono; I hardly like fanfiction. Thus I present a parody of fanfiction, one which takes it to levels of poor writing and accidental (?) innuendo glimpsed only rarely. Welcome to the world of the worst piece of fanservice ever, created using as much care as possible to ensure that the piece does not [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

Consider me mesmerised. I held doubts that episode nineteen of Chevalier could transcend its magnificent immediate predecessor, but tonight I have been proved wrong by what strikes me as undoubtedly the highlight of the show thus far. While the climatic battle against Francis Dashwood and his monks may have made for a glorious spectacle the [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

Lorenza is hardly the star of this episode, but her heroics that failed last episode only triumph this time. With Robespierre slain as revenge for his earlier head shot on poor Paul Whitehead (or, after the death, the rather more appropriate Paul White), Dashwood’s hands grasp the Psalm of the King even as this episode’s [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

Before the age of such innovations as Wordpress, editorials and readers, Mai Otome was something resembling the focus of this blog. As the series faltered and stumbled through an inability to gather all its possible plot elements together, opinion of the series changed from addiction to fatal attraction, and by the final episode it was [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

With a success great enough to spawn a second series that follows the novels beyond the ending of the first 39 episodes, it is little wonder that this special, filmed in front of a veritable battalion of raging fangirls, exists. Roughly the same length as an episode of the anime, this special, hosted by Yamakawa [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta

And so we reach the final in this series of articles, which deals directly with the anime themselves. Beyond the five titles spotlighted here, there were a number of excellent series in 2006 that deserve honourable mentions. Sadly, only Iroha, Asatte no Houkou, Shinigami no Ballad and Gar-san shall be mentioned. While the Winter 2007 [...]
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta