• Blue Drop
• CLANNAD
• ef – a tale of memories
• Shakugan no Shana II
• Shion no Ō

So far, all of these series have groups subbing them, except Shana II (amazingly enough) according to the Fansub PukiWiki.

Blue Drop, also only has one group listed as subbing it, so hopefully they’ll do a good job getting the episodes out in a timely fashion. Before, I had a fear that Geneon might pick up Shana II before it was finished, but with the terrible trouble they’ve been having recently, I think such a prospect is actually not all that likely now, though they still have (presumably) 26 weeks to straighten that out. I still haven’t seen how long Shana II is actually supposed to be, though.

Assuming Shana II is a full season, I’ll have two full-season series: Shana II and CLANNAD, as well as 3 half seasons – Blue Drop, ef, and Shion no Ō – with Blue Drop being 13 episodes and the other two series 12.

In any case, to get more details about each series, click “read more.”

The songs which advanced to the Fourth Round are in bold. I’m also now entering artist/anime information into the next round match-ups on the bracket as they’re determined:

“Happy Material” by Yuri Shiratori – Negima! vs.
“The Starry Sky” by HAL – Angelic Layer

“Last Regrets” by Ayana – Kanon vs.
“Motteke Sailor Fuku” by Aya Hirano, et. al. – Lucky Star

“Minami Kaze” by Mikuni Shimokawa – Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid vs.
“It’s” by Kinya – Tsubasa Chronicle

“Tenshi no Yubikiri” by Fukuda Mai – His and Her Circumstances vs.
“Zankoku yo Kibou to Nare” by Aira Yuki – Idolmaster Xenoglossia

“Asu e no Brilliant Road” by Angela – Stellvia vs.
“Michishirube” by Yuumao – Kashimashi

“Loop” by Maaya Sakamoto – Tsubasa Chronicle vs.
“Yakusoku no basho e” by Chihiro Yonekura – Kaleido Star

“Daiya no Hana” by Yoriko – Black Cat vs.
“Sou da, Zettai” by Masami Okui – Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko

“Fruits Candy” by Megumi Kojima – Cardcaptor Sakura vs.
“Kioku” by See-Saw – .hack//Luminality

Boy, this round had some toughies. One of the hardest was “Last Regrests” vs. “Motteke Sailor Fuku.” I went into this one fully expecting to make the theme from Lucky Star have a not so lucky round. But, after listening to the two songs in a row, you know, I just dig the Sailor Fuku.

Another tough one was “Asu e no Brilliant Road” vs. “Michishirube.” I like both of these songs, and it’d been nice if they had met later. Alas, fate has them meeting early. In the end I chose “Michishirube” just because – I guess obviously – I just thought it was the better made song.

This week we have another double participant – this time the anime series Tsubasa Chronicle. Just like last week, the double participant goes 0-2 showing that there is no such thing as “strength in numbers” in this competition.

Group C match-ups for next week are listed after the jump…

Group C

Next Sunday, I’ll announce the winners for Group B, but in the meantime, here are what the matchup for Group B are:

“Player” by Origa – Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society vs.
“I Do!” by The Indigo – Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~

“Hitori no Yoru” by Porno Graffitti – Great Teacher Onizuka vs.
“Presence” by The Indigo – Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~

“Sha la la Ayakashi -Night-” by Saeka Uura – Kekkaishi vs.
“Promise” by Tia – Yakitate!! Japan

“Going My Way” by Yozuca – Girls Bravo vs.
“Tobira no Mukou e” by Yellow Generation – Fullmetal Alchemist

“Prism” by Ayako Ikeda – Denno Coil vs.
“Noble Roar” by Yousei Teikoku – Innocent Venus

“Tomorrow” by Mikuni Shimokawa – Full Metal Panic vs.
“Blue Flow” by Heart of Air – Haibane Renmei

“Hikari” by Yui Horie – Inukami vs.
“Colors of the Heart” by UVERworld – Blood+

“Little Wing” by JAM Project – Scrapped Princess vs.
“Dramatic” by Yuki – Honey & Clover

This week’s Podcast Stats:

Time: 20:16
Download Size: 13.9 MB

Opening theme:
“Kioku” by See-Saw
Fourth opening theme to .hack//Luminality

Ending theme:
“Carrying You” by Azumi Inoue
Ending theme to Castle in the Sky

You can listen to my podcasts in the following ways:

Flash Player:

Directly: http://www.joshsanimeblog.com/podcast/JABPEpisode44.mp3

You can also download or add my podcast-only RSS feed to your favorite reader or add my podcast using iTunes.

Enjoy!

Update: Oops, I put the wrong date on the image again. It’s fixed now on both the post and (once it’s done uploading) the podcast.

Oh yeah right!

This episode begins with Makoto and Kotonoha walking around town then going into a fancy restaurant to eat. Meanwhile, Sekai has cooked dinner at Makoto’s apartment. Wondering where he is, Sekai calls him. Makoto tries to tell her that he’s busy, but Sekai doesn’t believe him and accuses him of cheating on her again, saying that she’s the one carrying his baby. Makoto tells her that Kotonoha would never say that, and Sekai realizes that Makoto is with Kotonoha. Makoto then asks Sekai why she got pregnant and complains that she told everyone in the class, and then tells her to stop pretending to be his boyfriend and to go home.

In a rage, Sekai flings all the food she made off the table and onto the floor, before messaging Makoto that she’s sorry and that she’s going home. However, on the way, she sees Kotonoha with Makoto on the train, and Sekai runs back to Makoto’s apartment. At his apartment, Makoto goes to make tea for Kotonoha and finds the mess that Sekai made and starts cleaning up. He talks to himself about how he regrets abandoning Kotonoha over his own “selfish desires.”

Suddenly the doorbell rings and Makoto goes to answer it. However, Kotonoha gets there first, and she is immediately slapped by Sekai upon answering the door. Once Makoto gets there, Sekai demands to know why Kotonoha answered the door. Believing that Kotonoha is there on her own accord, Sekai yells at Kotonoha that Makoto broke up with her, and that she, Sekai, is Makoto’s boyfriend now. However, Kotonoha tells Sekai that she only wants to believe that they’re dating, but that Makoto has loved her all along.

Kotonoha continues, saying that she thinks that Sekai and Setsuna plotted together to break Kotonoha and Makoto apart. Sekai doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and Kotonoha realizes that Setsuna was acting on her own accord. Kotonoha then tells Sekai that Setsuna loved Makoto as well, and was interfering with their relationship so she could have Makoto, but Sekai dismisses this, saying that Setsuna was her best friend and would never do such a thing.

Kotonoha then says that she’ll forgive Sekai for trying to steal Makoto, and that she’ll never be tricked into believing that Makoto has given up on her ever again. Kotonoha then prompts Makoto for a kiss, and Makoto gives it to her, right in front of Sekai.

On her way home, Sekai either has a flashback or a created vision (I’ll talk about this further after the screen shots) about Sekai feeding information to Setsuna about Makoto, whom Sekai apparently knows that Setsuna likes, at the start of the school year. She tells Setsuna his blood type and birthday and notes that she’s heard that Makoto is “a really nice guy.”

Sekai then turns into an internal metaphorical battle, using the a similar metaphor as was used in the play that Setsuna watched during the cultural festival with “the flower.” Basically, a masked figure accuses Sekai of betraying Setsuna by trying to get Kotonoha and Makoto together which, the masked figure further accuses, she only did so that she herself could get closer to Makoto. Sekai tells the masked figure that she never meant to betray anyone. However, the masked figure continues, saying that everything is ultimately Sekai’s fault: if she had never switched seats with Setsuna to sit next to Makoto and if she never had introduced Makoto to Kotonoha, none of this would have happened. The masked figure then takes off her mask, and reveals herself to be Setsuna.

Sekai finally breaks out of her vision, saying that Makoto was OK with going with her, so it’s not her fault. Once Sekai gets home, she gets a message from Makoto saying that Kotonoha has recommended a good hospital for Sekai to go to, and that it will be easier if she does “it” as soon as possible.

The next day at school, Makoto gets a text message form Sekai saying that she wants to meet at his apartment alone that afternoon. Once they’re together in Makoto’s apartment, the two sit there in awkwards silence when Makoto says that he’ll make tea. However, Sekai interrupts him and says that she’ll make it. Sekai then starts typing something into her cellphone and Makoto’s cell phone goes off, telling him he has a text message.

Makoto goes into his bedroom to check it and sees that it’s from Sekai. At the top of the message, it says “I’m sorry” but then it has a lot of spaces that Makoto has to scroll down until finally at the bottom it says “good bye.” Makoto believes that this is profound in some way, and turns around, but immediately finds Sekai charging him. Sekai then stabs Makoto in the lower abdomen with a cleaver. Sekai then proceeds to stab Makoto multiple times, telling him that he’s terrible and that he only thinks of himself, until Makoto finally passes. Realizing what she’s done, Sekai runs out of the apartment.

Kotonoha then arrives to cook dinner and finds Makoto dead in the apartment. Then, at Sekai’s apartment, she gets a text message from Makoto saying that he’s waiting for her on the school roof. Sekai rushes to the roof, but only sees a blue duffle bag on one of the benches.

Suddenly, Kotonoha arrives and asks Sekai if she went to the hospital. Sekai tells her that she’ll never go to a hospital that Kotonoha recommends. Kotonoha, who is now clearly in an unstable mental state, accuses Sekai of faking her pregnancy. She says that if Sekai was really pregnant, then she would have gone to the hospital, because Sekai wouldn’t want to have Makoto’s child since Makoto is Kotonoha’s boyfriend, thus her failure to get an abortion is proof that she’s lying about being pregnant (got that?).

Sekai yells at Kotonoha that she wants to be Makoto’s girlfriend too, and that she’s not lying. Kotonoha then tells Sekai to ask Makoto herself, and that Makoto is in the bag. Sekai then open the bag and apparently sees Makoto’s head in the duffel bag, and gets sick from seeing it. Kotonoha then unwraps a bloody saw and says that she’ll see for herself whether Sekai is lying about being pregnant or not. Sekai tries to get out her knife, but Kotonoha is able to knock it away. Kotonoha then cuts Sekai’s neck open, killing her.

Kotonoha then proceeds to open Sekai up to “test” to see whether Sekai was really pregnant. Upon not seeing a baby in Sekai, Kotonoha in delusional glee triumphantly states that she was right, that Sekai is lying, and that there is “no one inside her.” The next day, Kotonoha is alone, laying on her yacht, hugging Makoto’s head, remarking in relief that the two of them are finally alone.

Well, the TV series had a tough job ahead of them in trying to outdo the endings in the PC game, but it certainly did, and in rather gruesome ways. Of course the most obvious way was that two characters die in the series. However, we have the added bonus of Kotonoha sawing off Makoto’s head after he died, and seeing it as being “him,” plus Kotonoha’s “pregnancy test” on Sekai.

Of course, clearly Kotonoha wasn’t in her right mind at the end of the series, as Makoto’s death totally pushed her over the edge. Her logic about “since Makoto is my boyfriend, you obviously don’t want to have his baby, and so your refusal to get an abortion proves you aren’t really pregnant” is obviously flawed logic, but to Kotonoha who has always blindly believed that Makoto was hers and only hers, it makes perfect sense.

And then there is the fact that she didn’t kill Sekai from revenge, but to prove to “Makoto” and the world that Sekai was the party in the wrong by showing that she wasn’t really pregnant. Of course, Sekai couldn’t have been very far along, and it’s not likely that Kotonoha would have been able to find any obvious evidence that Sekai was pregnant anyway, but the lack of “anyone” inside Sekai proves to the delusional Kotonoha that she was right, and that she has won a complete and utter victory in the battle for Makoto (who, of course, is dead, but delusional Kotonoha doesn’t accept that).

Now, onto Sekai’s “flashback” and whether it was really a flashback. There is evidence in favor and against it being a true flashback. Evidence against appears to be Sekai’s completely ignorance of Setsuna’s feelings for Makoto, when in her flashback, she appeared to be aware of them, or suspected them. Also, it is tied with this metaphorical scene in which Sekai is basically mentally accusing herself of betraying Setsuna.

Evidence in favor of it, however, is that it is done like it was a flashback, and that she told Setsuna Makoto’s birthday, which Setsuna conveniently knew when blocking Kotonoha on Makoto’s cell phone a few episodes ago.

If it was a fake flashback, then it probably goes along with the metaphorical scene where Sekai herself is beginning to mentally lose it, and is now imagining past conversations which fit the facts she now knows, with it resulting in Sekai mentally accusing herself of betraying her best friend.

If it was in fact a real flashback, why does Sekai seem clueless about Setsuna’s feelings? Maybe due to Setsuna’s muted reactions in the flashback, Sekai concluded that Setsuna really didn’t like Makoto, and then forgot about it. Another possibility is that Sekai mentally blocked that fact once she fell for Makoto in an attempt to justify her going after him. Of course, this explanation would fit the Sekai accusing herself of betraying Setsuna metaphorical scene as well.

This episode was also apparently pretty heavily edited. First, the blood was changed from red to black, which is kind of quick and dirty way of censoring really bloody scenes. Also, scenes where Sekai stabbed Makoto, where Kotonoha slashed Sekai, where Sekai looked into the bag, and where Kotonoha conducted her “pregnancy test” on Sekai were all either censored by showing flashbacks or another view or muted or both.

While Makoto appeared to finally show some signs of remorse for what he had done in this episode, it was kind of too little too late. Of course, he had shown signs of remorse before, and it did nothing to stop him from continuing what he was doing, so I’m not sure I’m even ready to take these admissions of fault seriously.

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was Makoto dumping Sekai once she became pregnant, and basically demanding that she get an abortion because he wanted to be with Kotonoha now. His complete lack of caring for and blowing off of Sekai now that she’s pregnant completely tossed her over the edge to the point that she stabbed him to death.

Whether Sekai’s death was “deserved” or not is probably in a lot more debate since there is still a lot uncertain. I don’t think we can take Kotonoha’s word that Sekai wasn’t pregnant. At the very least it’s clear that Sekai thought she was. Also, it’s hard to say that Sekai working her way in between Makoto and Kotonoha is enough for Sekai to “deserve” what she got, given that it was really up to Makoto to either shoot Sekai down or to accept her and to toss Kotonoha. However, Makoto could never decide (or never wanted to decide because he wanted to play with both) and that is what really caused the situation to go out of control.

In any case, this series is now over with the expected bloody end. I was right in my prediction that they would do an ending different from in the game, or mix endings in the game. I personally thought all three main characters were going to get it, though it appears that the state Kotonoha is in isn’t conducive to her surviving very long on her own on the yacht. I was rather surprised (to put it mildly) about the additional things of Kotonoha carrying around Makoto’s head and doing the “pregnancy test” on Sekai, but such things just illustrate just how insane Kotonoha now is.

One final note: I’ve never seen a death scene, in an anime or any movie I don’t think, which is as brutal as when Sekai killed Makoto. Saliva flying, Makoto gasping and gaping until the very end. You can see that he’s in horrible pain and realizing that he’s about to die, but can’t do a thing about it now that he’s been stabbed who knows how many times. As I said, it was really brutal.