As the first twilight is about to be fulfilled, Beatrice’s teacher appears, in order to stop her disciple.
Because of this, Battler is totally confused about what is true and what is not. Even though everything seems to be settled, an invaluable hint will make his will anew.

In a nutshell:
Beatrice’s teacher appears before the golden witch and her furniture, decided to take back her name and powers she bestowed to her pupil. Unwilling to do so, Beatrice starts a fight with her, which takes bigger proportions than any sister of purgatory could imagine.
In the end, Beatrice is literally skewed by her teacher’s spears, gungnir. As she attempts to return Beatrice to her form she had before being an Endless witch, Beatrice nonchalantly asks her teacher to do that instead. Much to her surprise, Beatrice’s teacher is in fact skewed by spears. In truth, Beatrice summoned 4 towers instead of 2, which killed her teacher way before she could be touched. In the end, Beatrice simply revived her teacher for an instant, in order to continue the game.
Back in the meta world, Meta Battler is utterly confused, arguably stuck with such fancy show presented to him.
On 5th october, at 6AM, the adults are still discussing regarding the whole deal with Beatrice and her letter. As they covered all the possible situations regarding this new guest, the adults decide to leave for breakfast. However as they step out of the dining room, they notice an awful stench in the corridors. Natsuhi quickly notices something weird with the door of the parlor: there is a big magic circle on the door. As Kyrie and Rudolf arrive, they notify the rest that this symbol was present on the boiler room door as well. However both that door and the parlor’s are locked. Rosa, Kyrie and Hideyoshi then check the children while the rest of them scout around the mansion.
Weirdly enough, Kinzo and servants are missing, several rooms have their door locked with a magical circle and their respective keys are missing to boot. On their way back, Hideyoshi’s group notices that Shannon is in the parlor, but no matter how they try to get her attention, she doesn’t move. Everyone gathers outside and breaks the window, but as they get in, they realize that Shannon is dead.
In the meta world, Meta Battler is still affected by this brutal magical show, unable to think about anything but loss. Suddenly, Beatrice’s teacher appears. Although Meta Battler is quite doubtful about her sense of magic, she starts mentioning japanese magic, the rain ceremony. As Meta Battler argues it is just an updraft caused by fire, allowing clouds to gather at one spot, she mentions this was however considered magic before the principle was found and explained by science. Then, she claims some gremlins are actually lurking in TV braun tubes, using magic to create images. Of course, Meta Battler doesn’t believe it one bit, but she mentions that while both claim different theories regarding the tube, they would just need to open it and see in it. So long they do not check the said tube, their respective theories can be considered as truth.
Amused by this ironic situation where he receives help from the entities he is trying to deny, Meta Battler asks the name of his new ally: Virgilia.
Meta Battler makes his come back before Beatrice, and much to her surprise, the young man completely ignores the whole fancy fantasy show, arguing that the garden is pretty much normal, bearing no traces of that battle. Beatrice recognizes it as the shrodinger’s cat box, and can’t help but be frustrated to see her teacher helping Battler.
In the gameboard, the adults decided to shelter themselves with the children in the guesthouse until they can contact the police.
In the meta world, Meta Battler acknowledges that he has to suspect one of the 18 because of Beato’s red. Thus, he asks virgilia a reconstruction of the first twilight.
The whole massmurder is a link of 6 closed rooms, merging into a large scale one.
Meta Battler wonders if they were killed by a trap, but it is denied in red.
As their deaths are confirmed, Meta Battler wonders if the culprit isn’t among the 6, speculating that the murderer killed the other 5 and commited suicide afterwards. Because of this, he asks Beatrice to repeat in red that “all of the 6 were killed by other people”.
At first reluctant, Beato’s claim in red that none of the 6 commited suicide. Puzzled by this hesitation, Meta Battler is however encouraged by Virgilia not to be tricked by Beato. And indeed, he realized that she didn’t repeat his demand in red, but changed it to suit her. Therefore, it is “just” isn’t a murder or a suicide, but perhaps an accident.
Beatrice is about to break this theory with her red, but Ronove cuts her short, asking for a strategic meeting.
On the gameboard, the adults are very tired but still try to keep their awareness. As Eva is slumbering, her young alter ego presses on the riddle. Although Eva doesn’t have any clue, she realizes that the sweetfish river might not be taken properly. Curious about that, she goes to the library of the guesthouse and found a book that she needed and realized she found out the key of the Golden Land.
Very soon, she is in a weird underground passage and as she enters in a very decorated room, a large amount of gold is piled before her. Beatrice’s gold has been found.

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Overal Thoughts:

I was pretty pumped up due to the very good start Episode 3 got, especially with Episode 3-2. However, 3-3 was… rather disappointing to say the least.
For starters, the following rant has no real impact on the franchise whatsoever, since it is only just fancy fantasy, so it doesn’t take off the actual essence of the series. However, I believe the whole witch fight was rather poor, which was made for readers’ entertainment.
The problem isn’t of course the length: it would have been detrimental to the episode if it was anything longer. However, it seems the producers had a very bad budget balance as: while the towers looked nice, the rest (especially the witches animation) were terribly subpar.
To begin with, I think they made change that don’t make sense with what the characters say. I mean: why would virgila hurls several spears, while Gungnir is unique? Likewise, why would Beatrice impale Virgilia with the same spears? They have different magic, but heh.
The other odd point was that the spears were basically destroyed/disappearing upon contact with Aegis… it doesn’t make sense with Ronove “avoided” comment. I think it would have been much less awkward if Virgilia threw 1 single giant spear (gungnir) and both giants shields and the spear bounce off before contact which is actually the true result of a paradoxal issue (the immovable object and the unstoppable force), further explained by the “gods’ taboo”, by Ronove. In fact, it would have been less awkward if they just didn’t include Ronove and Belzeebub comment if they wanted to keep this way.
Also, why “smothered mate” at that point? Considering Virgilia, you wouldn’t call a “mate” if you aren’t sure completely that it is over. So what it is? A fake checkmate? ^^”. Actually they could simply put smothered mate at the point she really did, so when she is floating.
Finally, while I will ignore again the ugly efforts done for Beato’s being skewed, something was a bit more annoying me here: the fact Beato stomped on Virgilia’s head.
I think every anime watchers know already that Beato is hardly a nice woman, pretty much cruel and all. But was it necessary? I doubt so, especially that in the VN, Beato was still a bit humble, arguing that if she didn’t use this trick, she would have been dead. Furthermore, she asked Ronove to take care of Virgilia’s corpse as, she is her teacher after all, she she has to give due respect. That’s the total opposite which just makes me wonder why they put unecessary extra stuff (like I said many times in my articles: I don’t mind if changes are made for a better transition or shortcut, but changes that give nothing but a different element just don’t work here).
At least, I’m glad they kept あかいくつ偽 (red fake shoes), the original BGM of the fight, though they again remixed it, for weird reason.

Anyway, witch battle aside, it was good to see Battler totally in despair due to this ridiculous fancy show, then powered up by Virgilia’s wise words. By this definition, it should also spark a proper “tool” for anime watchers to understand Episode 2 now: since the magic portions are “theories regarding the events of what happened”, there is an official answer that all magical stuff so far were bullshit.

That said, the content was extremely shortened as DEEN simply cut completely the adults’ talk regarding the riddle: this is the central point for the “gameboard” world, and probably the key mystery regarding the culprit. Thus, why removing the discussion altogether? It just makes even less sense for anime watchers who are already stuck with the bare minimum. Now, without the adults output (which is important as they know Kinzo’s backstory), it is much harder to understand the epitaph.

As you can see, I wasn’t impressed by this episode… even though they didn’t screw that much with Meta Battler and his progression, the rest has much left to be desired.
If you count QUALITY shot such like this one (… Rudolf looks like he is a quarterback with a shunk head…) and many silly stuff, I think they really need a much better organization for the budget, period.
6.5/10

Considering the lack of information in 3-1, the dual analysis will be about 3-2 and 3-3… It “shouldn’t” be as belated as the recent articles, hopefully.

It turns out the rumours were true and that there was indeed a new PV for Gundam Unicorn released on the Japanese PSN today.  Somebody was kind enough to upload it to youtube in HD and so here it is:

I wonder if when the time comes I’m going to be the only one following this

Normally I have nothing but good things to say about the Gundam franchise, be it about it’s music, it’s mecha, it’s animation or it’s vision of the future, but today I’m going to hit it up a bit about something I’ve always found extremely irksome about one of it’s entries…namely Gundam F91.  This might actually be something that most people aren’t aware of or perhaps not, but the nerve it has in labelling it’s music as an Original Soundtrack when it’s clearly not visited me again last night while I was playing a G Generation game with my friend.  

He had chosen the F91 scenario, and so naturally the music is from F91 and immediately the two tracks that come up are the two most blatant ripoff tracks from the Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back sountrack by John Williams.  I pointed this out to my friend and he was all “Guhey” and didn’t seem to really believe me even though he’s seen the Star Wars movies more than I have, but the fact is you see that I have the power of soundtrack collections, time and the internet on my side and can afford to show exhibits A-D and how shameful the Gundam F91 soundtrack and it’s unsurprisingly short lived career composer  Satoshi Kadokura are.  I’ll let people add their own commentary from here on out:

1. Gundam F91- Crossbone Gunno Sinkoto by Satoshi Kadokura
2. The Empire Strikes Back – The Imperial March by John Williams
3. Gundam F91- Sentou by Satoshi Kadokura
4. The Empire Strikes Back – Hyperspace Theme by John Williams

Battler is learning more and more information regarding a possible 19th person on Rokkenjima. However, all his hopes are down to the drain as Beatrice smashes him with a deadly red truth.
The witch is still keeping the upper hand, and with this, the ceremony shall begin soon.

In a nutshell:
Rosa’s shocking revelation is explained further: around 20 years ago, Rosa was roaming in the forest after being scolded by her mother. By chance, she found another mansion, deep in the woods. Curious about it, she makes her way in and notices a woman in the rose garden. As Rosa approaches, the woman notices her, who is revealed to be no one else but Beatrice, the witch of the legend. They are acquainting each other but much to Rosa’s surprise, Beatrice seemed rather innocent. As Rosa reveals she never saw any wolf, even in a zoo, she explains what is a zoo to Beatrice. Upon hearing it, she likens the animals’ situation with hers, mentioning she is just human and wondering about the true purpose of her life.
After hearing such concern, Rosa beckons Beatrice to go beyond the fence and after Kinzo’s daughter insisted there isn’t any wolf, Beatrice is frantically looking forwards to it.
Meta Battler pauses the scene, dumbfounded by this weird story. Beatrice explains that this one is herself, but bound in a cage of flesh made by Kinzo. When she was summoned, Kinzo was in love with her and imprisoned her with a powerful barrier, forcing her to discard her body. As Meta Battler doesn’t pay heed to this fantasy tale, Beato leaves the scenery, irritated.
Since the young man is unable to understand the meaning of this, Ronove appears, explaining that she basically was given a life as human after Beatrice gave up her body.
Meta Battler is confused by Ronove’s sudden apparition, and the demon doesn’t wait much before telling him an unexpected revelation:
A hidden mansion called Kuwadorian does exist in the forest of Rokkenjima.
Startled by this, Meta Battler tries to get more confirmation, which Ronove proceeds with joy:
In 1967, Beatrice existed as a human in the hidden mansion on Rokkenjima.
Beatrice and Rosa were sightseeing the sea from a cliff, and after a little discussion, Beatrice fell from the cliff. Rosa quickly went down, but she was horrified to see Beatrice, lifeless and completely blood stained.
Beatrice, as a spirit, realized how she died, but then recovers her memories, remembering what Kinzo did to her.
Unable to bear the tragedy, Rosa ran away, though Beatrice saw it more like a revival.
Meta Battler is confused by the turn of the events, and Beatrice doesn’t wait long to confirm in red that this Beatrice died. As Meta Battler is stunned by this, Beato follows it up with a smashing red:
There exist no more than 18 persons on Rokkenjima.
Because of this red truth, Meta Battler’s stance crumbles altogether, forced to doubt one of the 18, which was out of question at the start.
Late at night on the 4th october, Shannon is still in the abor of the rosegarden, contemplating George’s proposal. However, she is joined by Genji and Kanon who received an urgent order to come back to Kinzo.
There, they witness an unexpected scene: Kinzo is facing the golden witch, Beatrice, in a chess game. The head of the Ushiromiya was utterly defeated, both by Beatrice in their chess game, but also by fate, as he was chosen as one of the first sacrifices.
As their master turns into ashes, Genji and Shannon are ready to share the similar fate. Although it bores her, Beatrice is however expecting a different reaction from Kanon, which happened as she predicted. Rebelling against such clockwork predicament, Kanon accepts Beatrice’s little challenge and faces the elder sister of purgatory: Lucifer. Both are fighting with their magical swords, but due to her arrogance, Lucifer of Pride is overwhelmed by Kanon’s unexpected strength and sheer determination. Although Kanon won against her, Beatrice cunningly insists she said “the seven sisters”, and thus, the other 6 arrive, cornering Kanon completely. However, Shannon decides to intervene and shields him, though it is futile. Before they are about to be tortured to death by the witch, Genji steps in and gives them a deserved rest, killing them painlessly. Although Beatrice is annoyed by this killjoy, Ronove respects Genji’s devotion and grants him a peaceful death as well, much to his master’s dismay.
Since there are 4 deaths, there are still 2 sacrifices required for the first twilight, hence the sisters of purgatory immediately chase after Gohda, who didn’t have the time to understand what was going on.
As the cook was taken down, the stakes are attacking their last prey: Kumasawa. However, unexpectedly, the old servant manages to repell them with ease. No matter how the sisters attack her, they can’t get through her very thick magical barrier. Nonchalant, “Kumasawa” asks them to bring her Beatrice, but the golden witch is already there, figuring already who it is.
Soon after that, “Kumasawa” transforms herself, and it is no one else but Beatrice’s teacher.

_______________________________________________________________

Overal Thoughts:

…I couldn’t wait for any better than this (well I’m exaggerating, but heh).
Honestly, I’m as pumped as I was for Episode 1-5: the adaptation was really an adaptation to its truest sense.
I was pretty much enjoying this episode, nodding each time new elements were unfolding.

For one, they allocated a very good pace and period for Rosa’s flashback, and Beatrice p0wning Battler with the deadly “no more than 18!” red line.
Kanon’s fight was pretty nice (albeit simple I will give you that), and it was rather a good way they introduced the sisters like this.
Speaking of which, Lucifer and Leviathan’s seiyuu are really pretty good (Leviathan sounds very deep, but I can see that it WILL fit her nicely, so long the whining is there, but the crying will be funny I guess), it is a shame we couldn’t hear Belphegor at this point.

Furthermore, they finally used more of the original BGM, especially hope for Beatrice and Rosa. To begin with, I don’t get why they didn’t use hope even once before this point: it is the flagship “peaceful” BGM that has many remix within the game soundtrack… it is basically umineko “you” track. Ah well…

That said, even though this episode was really marking a lot of points, there is still few flaws: quality only. I mean… there is a lot of awkward design here and there (Genji and Kanon looking for Shannon for example), and few things are questionable… I mean, what’s with Beatrice’s face (8th screencap)…? It doesn’t even match the voice or the context, it looks silly at best.
And… well, it is another type of humiliation, but they rather used another occasion for a big fanservice with Lucifer’s shirt (and her shirt sure restrain her chest…).
Anyway, they are minor, hence I will give it a 9/10. If they keep things like this, it will just make me very pleased, giving justice to this Episode.

*sigh* again quite belated, I hope I will catch up the anime soon (Yes, I know that 3/7 aired today). Next will be the dual analysis for Episode 3-1 and 3-2.

All good things come to an end

The latter half of 2009 has left me mecha starved with only a couple of titles (Basquash which was a huge disappointment and the awesome but alone Shin Mazinger), but 2010 is already looking up with the announcement of a new Votoms OVA (that makes 2 very recently with Pailsen Files in 2007) to finish off the story once and for all right around the same time as Gundam Unicorn is set to debut.  The way things are going it’s looking like 2010 is already going to be more active than 2009 as far as my blogging is concerned.  

In other news my raison d’etre for 2010 in Gundam Unicorn will be getting it’s simulcast dub/sub (surprised?  I’m not since that seems to be the way Bandai is going with it’s titles that are popular cross border) starting in March 12 which puts it’s first episode way ahead of where I thought it was going to be next year (I was picturing at the earliest).  So that’s…..5 more months.  If the 00 Movie debuts in March then I’ll have to say that the total silence from Sunrise simply meant they had a lot on their hands planning a whole bunch of stuff, but have also been sidetracked because of the 30th anniversary celeberation for Gundam.  In any case I think I can handle this wait now, because I have a feeling it’s all going to be worth it. :/

I guess the only other things I have to mention is that I saw the TV commercial for Astro Boy this week and heard the supposed hook, “And Nicholas Cage as Dr. Tenma” I think I nearly passed out from laughter and bemusement.  When I picture Nicolas Cage I picture a guy awkwardly working his way through some overblown adventure, not as a mad scientist.   Actually the token celebrity appearances in general have me perplexed and curious as to why they are banking so much on this movie (and them).  I mean Donald Sutherland… I love the guy, but the last time he was in a movie based off a Japanese company the company went bankrupt. 0_O

The third game is about to start. As new actors are entering in the scene, Battler might have the upper hand for the moment. But…

In a nutshell:
In a distant past, a young princess broke her grandfather’s favorite vase and “Beatrice” appears to her plight. Even though she cannot fix the vase, she manages to shift the fault to a nearby cat instead. Of course, much to her surprise, even the great witch Beatrice isn’t able to “revive” the vase existence, but rather make it remember its shape for a short moment.
That said, it was possible for her master to use an eternal one, which is the proof of being an Endless witch, for the purpose of people’s happiness. Moved by this possibility, the princess wishes to learn magic from “Beatrice” for this purpose.
Another flashback: in her twenties, Eva still tries to show off her grades and efforts, in order to be a rightful successor, but much to her dismay, Kinzo remains quite chauvinist, keeping Krauss as his only heir and expecting Eva to marry a man who will be profitable to the family.
Frustrated by this, she is discussing with a distant past self, her young self that swore to be the head of the family during her school days. Even though the situation is though, if Eva believes in her magic, she will succeed someday.
As they finally arrived, the cousins are loitering with Shannon at the beach, revealing some embarassing antic Battler had in his childhood. As they are having fun, the charming scene is however shattered to pieces by Beatrice, from the Meta World. As she is mocking this happiness, Meta Battler can’t help but brace himself for the incoming third game.
As usual, Maria receives a letter from Beatrice later on the 4th october, but as she is about to recover Kinzo’s ring, a high class butler makes an apparition and presents the Ushiromiya family’s head ring to the witch. Beatrice’s head furniture, Ronove, the 27th  ranked noble of hell, is introduced to Meta Battler.
At the evening, Maria is reading Beatrice’s letter, however, this time,  Eva doesn’t brush the letter off, instead she uses the premise it is really from Kinzo and that it might be a test to all of them. After a winded argument, the adult decide to have answers from their father.
Later, they are however unable to have a word with him, so they are discussing in the dining room, speculating about the identity of “Beatrice”. Interestingly enough, the 4 siblings can’t help but agree that it might be related to the rumored mistress Kinzo had in the past.
From this point, determining her goal is the key, and Kyrie concludes “Beatrice” has definitely the gold, and the challenge was told to have a risk, spicing their game out of arrogance.
Back in the meta world, Meta Battler is satisfied that Beatrice might exist, but as a human, not as a witch. By this extension, if there is more than 18 persons on Rokkenjima, everything makes sense. Taking this lead, Meta Battler asks Beato to repeat in red that there isn’t more than 18 people on the island, which she can’t. As Meta Battler seems to have a leeway for a 19th person as the culprit, Beatrice cuts it short with a new twist to the present game:
As she is trembling, Rosa disagrees with the rest of the adults regarding Beatrice because… she killed her.

_______________________________________________________________

Overal Thoughts:

Humm… that was an interesting episode I would say. They definitely kept a lot of things right (especially the adult conversation which was very important at this stage of the story).
But for the progressive review:
1) I wasn’t… exactly satisfied with the way they handled Beatrice’s flashback. First, VN readers will probably guess what I mean, but “Beatrice” was doing something she would only do much later in Episode 3. Therefore, “that scene” will have a MUCH lower shock factor.
Furthermore, I must say that while I liked her design, young beatrice’s was, on the other hand, pretty average and extremely awkward in proportions in many instances (eyes having a variable size…)
2) I wasn’t expecting Eva, Krauss and Kinzo like that, but it sure was fitting, though for some reason, Krauss looked a bit too young (especially if you compare with George’s design). That said, while I like young eva design, Miki Itou failed miserably with the voice: it isn’t like her voice doesn’t match, but you can notice she is forcing a lot to sound young, especially when she said “‘heso kande shinjimaeba’”. I guess it is a bit outside of her usual voice range.
3) I’m surprised they kept the cousins antic scene here. However, the execution was kinda crappy: the humor etc was fine, but it is how they are stuck like bunch of stick on the empty beach for a while that ticked me off. Well it was much better afterwards when Battler and Jessica were sitting, but the animation and presentation were really stiff.
From that point, while I liked how they made Ohara breaking the little peace here, I must say that they could do better with Beatrice. I mean, she is taunting like nuts, but she is quite passive, remaining in her seat. I imagined her in front of Meta Battler, bending to him with an insane grin, while him totally helpless.
4) Ronove! I was a bit wondering how Sugita will perform for Ronove, and it was good. The only nitpick thing I would mention regarding Ronove is the fact that he uses magic to serve tea, instead of doing it himself (well, he was described as an high class/competent butler), but that’s kinda minor (but funnily enough, it would be less a hassle to animate that instead of floating cup and tea pot).
5) Recycled footage for the letter reading… well it is short and not invasive, though… why Maria’s gremlin face? *sigh*
6) Very nice to see the full discussion of the adults, as it is giving a lots of hint and backstory. Without the context, it would have been hell hard to gauge the possibility of a 19th or more culprits. The quality however is… again extremely unstable and can range to the very average to the very awkward proportions and pose. Kyrie was pretty much inconsistent regarding her design, especially… her bust size (how surprising…not).
7) Well, again it seems it is yet another animation team on Beato and Battler because the design is again very different compared to the rest of the episode so huh..

As you can see, the pace and the content were very good, no doubt. They kept the fundamental portion of this segment of the episode. However, I’m again not so impressed by the animation and presentation directions here.
That will be a 8/10 to my books.
With such a good start, I hope they will minimize the blunders, because this Episode might be the most critical one among all, so any missing information can be a giant issue later one.

As a little offtopic, as you can see, I changed the layout of my review. You will probably figure it out, but since I’m really late (like 5 episodes…), I must accelerate a bit the reviews, in order to have enough room for analyses (speaking of which, there will be one combining 3-1 and 3-2). I might revert to my original layout in the future, depending my time, unless you prefer a digest one like this.

Ugh those tracks you just can’t stop repeating but you don’t care because they are so damn good you might as well let them stay playing for a week.  It’s that Senju Akira again and his dastardly slow building music that just keeps on building:

I could listen to that all day and perhaps maybe I’d rather listen to that all day then watch any one of the new anime series we have coming out this season.  And that’s what I’m really here to talk to you, but by all means let the song be a mood setter.  ghostlightning states “FFFFF We Hate the New Season” and calls it fail fall 09, but he doesn’t necessarily ask the question.  What is the question? Is there a question?  Well I certainly have one and it’s a certain “what the hell happened?!” as far as the last couple of seasons we dealt with actually.  Last season gave us a certain gem in Bakemonogatari and I’m sure people found something to suit their interests as well, but for mecha fans like the ghost and I it’s been pretty slimpickings.  There don’t seem to be any particular heavy hitters for the remainder of 2009, and in fact it’s arguable that the entirety of 2009 slipped by without any of the heavy hitters we’ve had almost every season from 2006-2008.  Have we been spoiled, or is the boom over so to speak?  Finally is it just me or have the bigshot companies just suddenly decided to collectively say, “2009 isn’t looking so good, let’s wait until 2010 before we spring the big stuff on them” and if so could the crash at the end of 2008 had something to do with the anime industry playing so conservatively this year?  I don’t pretend to have all the answers and hate to leave people hanging, but if indeed this is already it as far as the big 2009 titles go I wouldn’t mind sharing my survival strategy with everyone instead.  It’s a fairly simple one that should be adaptable to most people’s standards:

…..Told you this would have a curious leadoff.

Tip 1: Think of something you have been neglecting to finish.  A video game, a book, an anime or whatever interests you.  Now is pretty much the perfect time to clean house rather than fretting to much about the lack of outstanding anime out there.  I’ve been spending the time catching up on LOGH and have so far finished 3 games in the past week and a half.  It can feel immensely satisfying to get that kind of thing off your chest and it’ll make it that much easier to dive right into the good stuff once it comes without worrying to much about increasing the backburner.  Balance my friends, it’s a man’s best friend.

Tip 2: Consider starting a new hobby.  For example blogging can always help you to channel your thoughts away from what’s immediately bothering you and provide an outlet to turn it into creativity.  I’m currently working at getting my friend to start building his gunpla already and plan to step in to help with it as well and I’ll let people know how that goes if it ever actually does…..the lazy bastard.  I’ve also worked at taking a nightly walk to work on getting into shape and just to see what the night sky happens to look like on any given night, though depending on location this might not be a safe option for some.  The key is finding what works for you and how it can work to your benefit for passing the time.

Tip 3: Sit in a lecture at your local university that interests you and see what you can learn from it.  Many Universities won’t eject you from a larger lecture (100+) barring a disruption unless it’s specifically pay to enter because what you are actually paying for is the right to receive a grade from the professor.  I remember when I was at university actively I used to do this with my friends lectures and it was amazing what you could learn on the side and the ways it can benefit you.

Tip 4: Catch up on the local media culture.  There’s a tendency among some anime fans to turn a frown to the non-anime works of today, but really I see no reason too.  With the waning dominance of reality TV, the return of formats such as the sitcom with series like Two And A Half Men and plain old fashion acted drama with a series I happen to like called Southland, and an ever increasing avenue for independent films such as Slumdog Millionaire to penetrate the glass ceiling once held firmly in place by the Blockbuster, (run on sentence FTW) things are starting to look up  Sticking to one genre or one style only leads to so many horizons before the only way to broaden them is to try something else.  Recently I’ve been watching a many of the classic movies that I had never bothered to see before and really seeing how the artform known as the motion picture has evolved over time.  I try to mix it up though as far as culture goes.  For example while I might watch Roots or Taxi Driver, I’m also sure to mix in something from the present such as Stargate SG-1 and to mix in works from other countries such as Das Boot: The Mini Series or Dr. Who.  Another option might also be sport.  I’ve neglected to keep up with the hockey culture here in Canada for the past decade or so, but am slowing getting back in the loop and finding it makes for an easy conversation topic with just about anyone you could meet in public if you can know what the hell your talking about when it comes to the details and standings of the teams and players.  Take a look at your local popular culture, it may not be as embarassing as you might think it is.

Tip #5:  If all else fails try to find a hidden gem.  I think ghosty has banked on Letter Bee with his recent session of articles and that many also expect Trapeze to have that certain quality to stand out and looking at the promo art I can see why in how unorthodox it looks.  I make the least guarantee that this one will pay off to any extent mostly because it’s the option with the least power in ones own hands to make the most of.  If there is no hidden gem there is no hidden gem, but it doesn’t hurt to try.  After all how can you know what’s out there if you never bother to look for it.

Well I hope this helps.  Like I said the best solution one can have to a problem such as entertainment is the one that best suits them.  Feel free to suggest your own ideas and let people know what you do when the fresh entertainment well dries up on your front.  Also don’t by shy to let people know what you’re looking forward to and what your hopes for 2010 might be.  Obviously I’m looking forward to the Gundam works that will be coming out since the series is my lifeblood and primary inspiration the same way  Macross is for ghostlightning.  I’ll have much to say for those I’m sure once the time finally rols around.

No pantsu <3

Once again, apologies for the lateness of this entry (as well as skipping episode 14) but nonetheless NEEDLESS is still the best series even when accounting for this new season that had just started

Thoughts: Just a quick recap of the previous episode, Kuchinashi’s ultimate attack caused everyone to fall into paradise where they had hallucinations or their dreams and desires. It was pretty interesting in itself to see what each character’s desires were asides from the already established Seto wanting money or Solva wanting to rule the world, Gido apparently was a bishie when he was x years younger and Eve’s desire is to be able to remember names properly…except Yamada is officially called Yamada. Blade turned out to be unaffected by this ability at all though as his ultimate desire is already fulfilled looking at his harem of girls. Epicness soon followed as he then unleashed a whole load of butt hurt onto Setsuna’s group but his killing spree was inevitable stopped in the end by Saten himself.

Which brings us to this episode where Saten proves himself to be more than a mean looking badass. Just like what happened with the encounter with Uten, Saten is coming across as some kind of god with more than one fragment and thus makes him an extremely powerful boss even for Blade. What was more surprising is that asides from his fire and ice attacks, he is also able to control wind and somehow is even able to absorb Blade’s flame attacks. Together with his insane strength and speed, it seems like he may even have a fragment similar to Blade’s. However, while Disk is able to scan Blade using her fragment, her powers are completely ineffective when used to scan Saten and they aren’t able to figure out just exactly what is up with Saten’s fragment. Not even Blade’s forced fragment memorization trick using his gem was able to allow him to use Saten’s attack.

But what I found utterly hilarious was that Blade’s group (being the good guys) won’t be caught playing fair when faced with an impossible enemy to fight against and while Blade concluded that Saten was no longer any use to him since he isn’t able to copy his ability, the whole team prepares to attack him all at once. Surely not even Saten would be handle this kind of attack right? But the tables turn once more when Saten reveals that he isn’t alone and sends the group a nice present…in the form of the final of the 4 heavenly guards who looks suspiciously like someone we should all know the identity of. I wonder what Yamada would say when her mask falls off…

The episode quality on the whole was excellent…except for one part where all budget went to hell and I had deja vu of the scene between Blade and Kuchinashi back in the past. Please just remove that style of animation forever, it’s an eyesore >.>

I think the introduction of the new enemy is the most exciting thing seen so far here as she seems to be extremely strong…but this doesn’t reflect they way she struggled with a testament back in episode 1 as well as why she would be working with the enemy in the first place. Maybe Kurumi did some more of her brainwashing? As for Saten, he is crazily strong. To be able to take on Eve with one hand and Blade with the other just hows that he isn’t normal and just screams GARNESS when he blows the two of them away with his flames. I am beginning to wonder weather he is also a failed test subject of the ADAM PROJECT at this rate…

As a final note, the OP/ED has changed since episode 14 and they are no where near as good as the original…OTZ…

Preview: The mask drops! What face will pop up behind that?

Screen caps and comments:

It’s a shame but Setsuna owes Saten one for saving her annoying ass

Time’s up girl, you failed

Seems like there is still some use for Kurumi’s dead body

So Saten puts her under deep freeze (I wonder if we will see her being revived)

Mio isn’t at her fittest but she sure as heck doesn’t look weakened

Time for Saten to kick ass

Somehow…the way Mio said “bye bye” gave me the chills of what’s to come

Oh and one more thing before they leave (a gust of wind appears)

Good job! ^^b

So let the fight begin

Strength wise they are seem even

But it should be no problem knowing that Saten uses only ice attacks

or so they thought

“Rocket punch initiate!”

Or perhaps it’s better to call it pew pew cannon

*Jaw drops*

“Why the fuck did he just shoot out fire”

GARNESS just seems to seep out of his pores

“I will defeat you will the abilities of my fallen comrades”

Badass Vulcan shock ignition incoming

But GARness does not falter

MY EYESSSSSSSSS!!!

Not even maiden restriction was able to get close to Saten which left Blade with no choice but…

…to go for the old fashion head butt attack!

Memorized ~

Random shot of Seto looking cute

Saten’s cannon!!!

Or not…Blade fired blanks

“tsk tsk, you no use my attack”

Even worse is that Disk can’t identify his fragment

But Blade isn’t one to play fair

Seto sneak attack!!!

Prepare to get gangbanged

But you don’t expect Saten to fight this all alone

Here comes a new challenger

I have no idea who she is but this is the coolest shot I’ve seen all week. Plus she is wearing no pantsu

Yamada said something bad and got pounced on

First attack from the mysterious enemy

“I will take you weaklings on”

“Your fucked >.>”

“AAAAAAAMENNNNN!” (just where did he pull that bible from)

Blade’s bondage strings don’t work on Saten

And neither does Eve’s cannon

Nor does Blade’s sneak attack

OMG SO GAR >.<

So in the end Yamada continues to wrack his brains in thinking what ability Saten has

While Saten remains as imposing as ever

[Disclaimer]: This entry might contain MINOR spoilers. However, while the analysis might push you to these minor spoilers, NO foretelling spoiler is present. Therefore, please follow the same guideline, and understand that any spoiler can just ruin this critical part of the story for any reader. Good reading!
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Battler surrendered… but not for long.
However, can we really be satisfied with several mysteries left unanswered? I doubt so.
So, let’s see what we can do with these…

Turn of the Golden Witch Analyses: [Episode 2-2], [Episode 2-3], [Episode 2-4]

Be sure to have watched the episode before reading this !

This week, I will focus mainly on the following points :

1. Disappearance
2. Rosa
3. Battler
   
4. Random Comment: Lambdadelta

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[Analysis]

I. Disappearance

The start of the episode is yet another weird closed room which might be a tad more difficult than the rest.
So, from what we know (assuming Kanon isn’t the culprit):
1) The culprit managed to barge among the servants with an effective distraction.
2) At the servants’ room, Kumasawa and Nanjo were killed and the culprit got away quite quickly.
3) The remaining servants somewhat took 5-10 minutes to explain everything to Rosa and the rest.
4) The room is still locked, but there isn’t any corpse, only a letter and Kanon and Kumasawa’s master keys are left in the room.

From this point, the natural conclusion would make anyone questioning the remaining servants or the door itself.
However, let’s think about the motive of such doing:

For starters, it doesn’t make any sense for the remaining servants to lock the door after moving the corpse if they were the culprits. The same situation happened already with Jessica, and the only “possible” suspects at first would be them.
Therefore, if the servants were really the culprits, there is no reason for them to lock the door, and they would simply leave it open, arguing the situation was so critical that none thought about locking the door (which is pretty much understandable).
Of course, we cannot deny once again the servants are playing the reverse psychology tactic, setting a situation that cast an obvious suspicion on them to make things unreasonable for a culprit. However, it looks pretty much reckless in a practical view, which is proved by Rosa’s immediate measure.

But let’s think more about it: let’s assume it was the objective of the culprit… wouldn’t be the best opportunity to split the remaining survivors?
Certainly, even if we just brush off Rosa’s silly wolf and sheep reasoning, limiting the group number is always an advantage.
But what would have happened if Rosa was more reckless than expected and shot down the suspects? Surely enough, it would just backfire at the real culprit if they were among the servants (similar to the last letter in Episode 1).
Therefore, we can assume the whole disappearance of Nanjo and Kumasawa, combined with the key issue were just a device to not only appear to be a witch for some people, but also being able to hunt down the outcast, proved in Episode 2-6, while the culprit isn’t among them. A pretty similar situation we could observe in the end of Episode 1.

The objective was attained, now the biggest problem now is… to figure how the culprit managed to construct this closed room.
The red is as follows:

All of the servants’ room keys are kept in the key box in the center of the servants’ room.
It is impossible to enter or exit except by the single door and the single window. And both of those were locked.
The door and the window cannot be entered or exited through when locked.
It is impossible to lock or unlock the door without a key to the servants’ room or the master key.

However, a critical information wasn’t included in the anime:

Beatrice: No one exists in this room except all of you. ‘All of you’ refers to Battler, George, Maria, Rosa, Genji, Gohda, and Shannon.
Meta-Battler: …….Wha, ………
Beatrice: Let’s go back with Jessica’s room. When Jessica’s corpse was discovered, only Battler, George, Maria, Rosa, Genji, Gohda, Shannon, Kumasawa, and Nanjo were in Jessica’s room. Whoops, the corpse of Jessica is also included. Therefore, both in the case of Jessica’s room and the case in this servants’ room, no humans exist that you were not aware of. No one is hiding.
And I will say more. No method exists by which the door can be locked from the outside without using a key. Regarding the window, no method exists by which it could somehow be locked from the outside.
And let me also say this. You are incompetent! *cackle*cackle*cackle*cackle*, hi-hhihihhihihihihihihihihihihi!!

Therefore, it becomes quite difficult to have a flawless solution. Considering the red regarding the door, it is certain that it had to be a master key. If we consider how they received Kanon and Kumasawa’s master keys, it is safe to speculate that these 2 keys are the real deal, or any of the remaining servants would notice otherwise.
From this point, it has to be either Genji, Gohda or Shannon, but how would it be possible if they were together all this time?
Of course, I started the premise that “there is a trick behind the whole flashy show”, therefore, it isn’t even sure if they were together to begin with.
That said, should they not be ALL in cahoots, it would be abnormal for the innocent servant(s) to cover the culprit(s). By this extension, it is reasonable to assume the three of them are innocents for this case (that doesn’t mean they are automatically innocent for the whole game or story).

If we assume they are innocent, we have to flip the chessboard once again.
Let’s assume the culprit keeps going in their whimsical actions… How would they do that?
Disposing the corpses isn’t an issue: we can assume the culprit threw Kumasawa and Nanjo’s corpses from the window, and they could simply lock the window afterwards.
However, locking the door is plain difficult, because if the culprit locked it from the outside, because of the red truth, it must be either Shannon, Genji or Gohda’s key. And if it is the case, either the culprit managed to snatch it (which is very unlikely considering they had to relinquish them) or they are the culprit(s) or accomplice(s).

Therefore, how about thinking how the culprit locked from the INSIDE?
You will probably think “wait a second! You just revealed that the game proved no one was hiding!”. Sure but, who said there isn’t any other corpse?
If we take what Beatrice is saying literally, it means that “no one is trying to erase their presence”.
Therefore… what about a CORPSE? Yes, that sound crazy, but thinking the theory regarding Jessica’s case, if someone locked the door from the inside before dying, it won’t go against ANY red truth at all.
Of course, it cannot be Kumasawa or Nanjo… therefore, how about Kanon?

Certainly, he died but… the trick here is that Kanon was declared “killed” in the room. Let’s imagine this: what if the “illusion” of the “dark kanon” was actually some half truth?
What if Kanon was mortally wounded (hence sentenced to death in Jessica’s room), but managed to get his way to the kitchen? Assuming he was mortally wounded, then thrown out of the window, it is possible that Kanon managed to get his last strengths to crawl to the kitchen, hoping to warn his fellow colleagues.
After a lot of consideration, Kanon’s disappearance is way too weird, but since there is no blood stain in the corridor, I think it is natural to conclude the culprit disposed of his body through the window. Of course, they could carry the corpses elsewhere, but that is rather an hassle considering the tiny time frame (The trio reporting to Rosa lasted 5 minutes at best) and paying attention that no blood drop was left on the carpet of the corridor.
Furthermore, if Rosa is again cautious like she was shown from the start, it is possible that they didn’t check the servants’ room, because of the shock, the letter but also leaving the room intact for police investigation. Because of that, Kanon’s role looks more and more plausible here.

Now, the other trick is also Shannon, Genji and Gohda. They were literally astonished by the impossible scene they witnessed… However, if we consider the premise of anti-fantasy, that cannot be true. Therefore, we have to doubt what they were seeing or… what they were SAYING.
I believe there is something extremely odd here: if they are the culprits, why would they expose themselves in a situation that risky? If they are innocents, how come they didn’t explain the whole scene to Rosa?
In both sides, their behavior isn’t exactly logical from a respective standpoint.
Therefore, I thought of something a bit twisted: if we consider the illusion was half truth, what if Kanon was really there, dying, then, for some reason, thought Rosa was the killer?
Let’s imagine Kanon was attacked by the culprit, and during the confrontation, the culprit is saying something like “I follow the orders of the Ushiromiya!”, Kanon would definitely suspect Rosa because she is the only sibling alive, thus the only possible candidate for the inheritance.
Upon hearing this incredible revelation, it is possible that the servants were scheming a lie.
Rosa’s reasoning about “people faking their death in order to act in the shadows” doesn’t work from a culprit’s point of view considering it would expose his accomplices right away (assuming Shannon, Genji and Gohda were “covering” the culprit). Therefore, how about people faking their death in order to track down the culprit?
The idea is like this: let’s imagine you are the culprit, and during your little charade, your preys are suddenly attacked as well by another unidentified murderer. Logically, you will be bewildered, because the roles are reversed, and then you are potentially in danger, without being able to act openly, because revealing your true colors would be suicide (spotted by the second murderer or the survivors).

This is the twisted idea I was thinking of: if the servants were suspecting Rosa (for good reasons, considering her odd reactions and her status), messing up her plans would be a good countermeasure: regardless how they are acting, they will be killed anyway, so gambling on this kind of reckless move isn’t that bad by itself.
From this point, we can speculate that Shannon, Genji and Gohda were going back to the parlor, while Kumasawa and Nanjo left the master keys and went hiding, while Kanon used his blood to fake Nanjo and Kumasawa and hides himself.
Likewise, it is possible that Kanon wasn’t there at all, but this plan still works: the servants faked Kumasawa and Nanjo’s death, and one of the three locked the door.
Ultimately, the plan backfired and both elderly servants were killed by the true culprit.

There is also a possible twist in this case: We can speculate that the plan was agreed by everyone, but as soon as the trio left, Kumasawa or Nanjo backstabbed the other one. And unwilling to be finished off by the betrayer, Kanon locked the door before succumbing from his wounds, while the real murderer was moving the other servant’s corpse. Generally speaking, Kumasawa is the most suspicious among all of them, because of her vague alibis.
As for her “death”, it is possible that she is faking it (Nanjo is dead after all), or she was truly killed by someone else (probably Genji) after being spotted.

In these 3 scenarios, none go against the red truth, and there is still one of them that works without Kanon.
The idea is that since we don’t know when Kumasawa and Nanjo died, there is no guarantee they really died at that given moment. We cannot trust completely what the trio were saying, therefore, there is a leeway to see through of it, if they weren’t hallucinating.
That said, I’m pretty certain this acting doesn’t make sense if any of the three is the culprit. But there is no obligation for the innocent to remain honest all the time, especially if they are themselves trying to lure out the culprit.

But then, why did they go to Natsuhi’s room?
I will admit that I have no clue about this: there is nothing that can supplement the idea that this room is the safest, so it is very likely they were looking for something, though that mirror being the reason is really doubtful.
That said, how this closed room was done then? Not really hard: even if Beato stated in red that this room is like the usual, with Natsuhi’s room key in George’s pocket, it is possible that Gohda tried to shelter himself while dying. To begin with, nothing proves they died altogether, so maybe the culprit killed both George and Shannon, stashed them in Natsuhi’s room. Then, they lured Gohda there, ambushed him, and in a last ditch effort, the servant locked the room from the inside before dying (which is supplemented by the position of his corpse).

And for your instance, Natsuhi’s room abide to the same circumstances of the previous case:

Beatrice: That’s exactly right!
Natsuhi’s room was exactly the same, just like usual! The door and the windows were locked from the inside.
There is no fraud or trick, there is no means of secret passage and no hidden place!
Natsuhi’s own key was in George’s pocket, and the inside of the room was closed off. Only the five master keys were left, and ‘Rosa’ was holding all of them!
And let me say this, the parlor’s the same. The original key to the parlor is sealed in the servants’ room.
So unlocking it without the master key is impossible!  The definition of a closed room is the same as always!
Come on, now there’s only one suspeeeeect, `@`or are you still playing innocent, Ushiromiya Battleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer?!

II. Rosa

Probably the center of attention in this arc, Rosa is probably the key character of the mysteries behind the murders here.
As I explained in the previous articles, I cannot exactly claim she is the culprit, however my point of view from this point is like this: she knows much more than it looks like.

Let’s analyze a bit her behavior.
First, she was shown with Maria and “Beatrice”. However, since the scene involves fantasy, the anti-fantasy premise will make us conclude that either Rosa was seeing a sleight of hand, perfectly done by Beatrice, or the scene isn’t exactly true.
By this definition, it is actually difficult to gauge if Rosa “really” received the letter as result.

Anyway, what’s actually the most suspicious behavior she was having during the second is her persistent stance to blame on the servants.
Although I understand that Gohda and Kumasawa were suspicious due to the lack of alibi, I’m rather unimpressed by her staunch stance despite there are definitely 2 extra suspects in the lot: Beatrice and Kinzo.
For weird reason, she doesn’t say anything about Beatrice despite she acknowledged she is around several times. Why would anyone brush off this possibility, especially considering how Beatrice is welcomed by Kinzo and his servants?
Kinzo is yet another prime choice: he is about to die, he is nuts, he is an occult maniac, and most of all: his whereabouts are NEVER checked, except once: when Shannon and Genji were helping him for a will and then Rosa came for the winchester.
Therefore, why didn’t Rosa mention him even once? Why didn’t they just barge in his study (since Rosa could enter), in order to shelter themselves?

It is way too strange, which makes her reasoning extremely silly afterwards. She revealed her ugly side when she says the servants cannot be trusted, as a duplicated key “definitely” exists… We have a proof that it cannot be the case, but this reasoning is really normal… but then, why did she dismiss Beatrice, saying “she doesn’t have a key” back with Jessica’s murder?
That’s a gigantic contradiction here: you have first a complete denial of extra suspects because the number of master keys is known, yet when the said suspects relinquished their keys, Rosa keeps saying they cannot be trusted, because more keys can exist?
This is where it becomes extremely strange: like I said, the extra master key idea is very natural in this kind of situation, however it would have been even more natural to think about it for Jessica’s case, when you have a convenient guest who is eluding everyone?
That observation is even more supplemented by the way she is accusing them: normally, you would rather disable the suspects, but the issue is that Rosa was trying to show she was right. The definite moment of this was when she was gleefully claiming she was right when the servants mentioned Kanon at first (and it is even more blatant in the VN, when she confronts Gohda and Kumasawa).

To make things worse: if she thinks they are the culprit(s), why did she leave them alone, allowing them to roam around? That doesn’t make sense at all: she is letting the presumed murderers in the loose. If she can’t keep her eyes on them, how can she assure her own safety? What if they attack from different fronts together? Like Gohda charging the door, Genji and Shannon breaking some different windows?
Or… how about an arson? Considering she believes the servants have spare keys, it is then logical to think they have access to any location of the mansion, so they can have countless tools.
Honestly, it would be much more logic to restrain them and keep them within your line of sight, so they cannot do anything suspicious. Not only it is much safer, but if they happen to be innocent, there won’t be any unecessary casualty. At worse, she could find a room without any window, pack them while being tied with ropes, and lock the door (and stripping them naked should she fear they have tools or hidden keys).
Natsuhi made the same mistake, but she was really urged by her sense of duty and the situation was more “clear” (more “apparant” clues to suspect the servants) and stressful. Rosa, on the other hand, was rather calm, had her suspicions from the very beginning. Although evidences show that Battler is innocent, I will admit that considering the situation and context, it was natural for Rosa to suspect Battler, pretty similar to Natsuhi’s reaction. However, it is clear that  the presumption of innocence doesn’t even exist in Rosa’s mind: she herself claimed that you can only trust yourself and the “corpses”. True enough, in a survival approach, going for the ruthless “guilty until proved otherwise” is fitting. However, the condition for proving one’s innocence is pretty suicidal.

Hence, I believe Rosa is using quite a tunnel vision: for some reason, she is focalised only on the servants. Emphasis on the only, because there is no issue in suspecting the bearers of the master keys, but focalising only on them is rather too odd here.  She isn’t exploiting all possibilities given to her, despite she is quite intelligent (she always had an answer to George and Battler’s arguments, and she could admit few loopholes, such like the servants exposing themselves by locking Jessica’s door).
With all the odd occurences here and there, I believe Rosa is way too suspicious regarding what she “knows”. This is why I think she is the key character of this arc, much more than any servant.

III. Battler

The end of Episode 2 was rather brutal for Battler: not only he couldn’t do anything, but he was forced to surrender to the witch.
Because of this, there is probably some big confusion regarding Meta-Battler’s return in the tea party.

But first, I assume some of you will think that Beatrice definitely exists, since she was shown before Battler, right?
Well the little loophole I can say is: was Battler totally sane here?
From what we know (more in details with the VN), Battler wasn’t totally conscious, but smashed drunk. When he was roaming around after his argument with Rosa, he helped himself with the liquor cabinet of the dining room.  Since Battler isn’t used with alcohol, it is definitely no wonder he became drunk (especially that Kinzo isn’t frugal with the liquor: they are quite strong beverage).
Therefore, the fact Battler saw Beatrice etc cannot be trusted one bit.

Now, how come Meta Battler was able to make such come back?
The idea is that: even if Battler and Meta Battler are essentially the “same” in term of character, they are different entities. Therefore, while it is true Meta Battler was on the verge of surrendering, he didn’t, but was basically “mute” since he couldn’t fight back.
His “real world self” of the Episode 2, however, gave up (or so it seems), which might be the figurative despair that Meta Battler fell into.

It is only when he witnessed Rosa fighting to her fullest to protect Maria, even after being abducted by Beatrice afterwards that his will was made anew.
Sure, Meta Battler didn’t solve the mysteries of this Episode, but did he do that with Episode 1? Neither. That doesn’t mean he “lost”: Remember that it is a game between Meta Battler and Beatrice, therefore, you can expect them to determine the winner by themselves.
The fact Meta Battler cannot explain everything yet doesn’t mean it is hopeless: new elements from later Episodes and more observations (what’s different and what’s similar) would definitely be a plus.
Which means: as long as Meta-Battler still has the fighting spirit to keep going, the game will continue for all eternity until a clear winner is announced.

IV. Lambdadelta

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[WARNING]: A bit like bernkastel’s section for the analysis of Episode 1-5, this section is VERY spoilerish regarding the core mystery of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and kai! This section should only be read if you have already watched the series, or if you are prepared to be spoiled regarding a specific character. I would wholeheartedly suggest you to check Higurashi first, because I will be forced to use facts from the ending and the like.

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A new witch appeared out of the blue, and she seems an acquaintance to Bernkastel… who might she be?

Well, first, remember what was said in Episode 1-5: Bernkastel and Lambdadelta had a “game” before, and it seems Bernkastel won, only because she was outlasting Lambdadelta.
Of course, it is no one else but the representation of Takano Miyo, in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
This is very obvious, because Lambdadelta (ΛΔ) is composed of greek letters, of a numerical value: respectively 30 and 4, thus 34.
Takano’s first name, Miyo, is written like this in Japanese: 三四, which can be read as 3 and 4 with the kanji.

However, please bear in mind that even if they are physically similar (Lambda looks exactly like Takano’s young self, Tanashi Miyoko), they are fundamentally not the same entity at all.
It is much more drastic than Bernkastel: Lambdadelta is said to be a witch from the start, she isn’t Takano who “evolved” into a witch.
The thing is that Lambda is the representation of the rules surrounding Higurashi: as the Witch of Certainty, she can make things to happen without fail, which is actually what happened in Higurashi: Takano had a ruthless and unyielding will that lead us many years into her grand project to avenge her grandfather and ascend as a “god”.
To supplement this fact, there is an extra tips involving Lambda. She has written in some memories that she helped a child to “become god”, which is pretty obvious at this point.
Furthermore, Takano herself wasn’t aware of any “reset” at all: as shown in Kai, she had to face Rika’s counter attacks without expecting anything at all. If she was subject to the same phenomenon than Rika, she could probably prevent Shion when the latter killed Rika in Watanagashi and Meakashi-hen.

Thus, what kind of role Lambdadelta has? Surely enough, you didn’t expect her to be a simple bystander, right?
As seen in episode 2-6, Lambda will be the ally of anyone who is Bern’s opponent. But more accurately, Lambda was known to be the strongest witch of the universe, and since Bern defeated her in their last game, Lambda lost this title.

Now, what’s interesting is what comes after Bern’s declaration.
The three witches exchanged few words how they will go full force and how it will be fitting to get away of boredom. Because of that, Bern thanks Beato. After few antics, Lambda leaves, followed by Beatrice shortly after.
Bern is alone, and once again talk to “us”/Battler.
Surprisingly enough, Bern is more empathic here and apologizes, saying things sure turned ugly now.
Bern admits that even if she went through a tragic fate, ours is worse. She admits that our fate is similar to what she went through with Lambda, shut in a labyrinth of cruel fate, tormented. Since she was born from a world like this, she believes she is like an older sister to us. This is because of our cruel fate that she decides to lend her power.
Even so, Bern tries to be optimist and states we/Battler shouldn’t lose heart no matter what.
The information here becomes very interesting: Bern states that unlike Lambda, Beato doesn’t always use the best moves to her disposal (the weakness of the chessboard thinking). Because of that, Beato is really unpredictable, while Lambda was “easier” because she was definitely going full force (which allows observers to notice similarities between the worlds of Higurashi, thus a lot of clues as result).
However, similar to chess, since Beato doesn’t use her best move, there is a leeway for a counter attack, since there will be definitely a weak spot as result., so the possibilities to take advantage aren’t zero.

Trying to cheer up, Bern does something really unexpected:

……Umm, in times like this, what did I used to say again?

………Umm, uh,
………Fi, …fight, oh~.

Mii, nipa~☆

After being embarassed by this, she disappears.
It doesn’t stop there though!

Quickly after that, Lambda appears, looking for us/Battler.
Of course, Lambda is bragging about her powers and how shabby Bern’s pieces are, though she has to make excuse for her defeat, admitting “she had pity and let Bern to place her pieces wherever she wants in the last part of their game”, which obviously made Bern putting all her pawns on Lambda’s side.
Lambda is scheming her revenge, but “we”/Battler are still in bad shape, she decides to give some help, “out of compassion”.

She then explains that Beato is no match to her, because of this aspect of going “easy”, not using the best moves all the time. So, she summarize that Beato has the bad habit in playing “as if she has won”. By this, she confirms that Beato has a definite weakness that can be used. Lambda says that Beato is often mistaken in her strategy and goals. Lowering her own chance of winning is something that Lambda doesn’t understand, but even so this is because of that that Bern has hard time with the Endless Witch, because Bern is actually someone who read thoroughly her opponent so she can counter. Therefore, a whimsical opponent is the worst affinity for her.
This is even more true if we think about their respective power: since Lambda had a definite objective, using all of her means to the maximum, she becomes “predictable” and hence, a pattern is seen (the 3 rules, X, Y and Z). So Bern had to loop her possibilities for a miracle to happen (something that break the 3 rules, which was Keiichi and so forth).
However, since Beato is fickle (kill anyone endlessly, so disregarding the dice roll, hence the circumstances), Bern is unable to figure what to do.
With the dice roll analogy, Bern is always rolling until she has the result she wants, Lambda always throw the result she wants, while Beato goes with whatever the result she got with her dice.

Thus, Lambda likens their positions with rock paper scissor: one can defeat another witch, but not the other one.
Of course, Lambda pretend she is an exception, a super-paper, which can defeat both Beato as rock and Bern as scissor (ironically, “pah” for paper in japanese also mean dull/stupid…).

Another important point is that Lambda reveals Beato intentionally tortured Rosa in the tea party, in order to stir our/Battler’s righteousness, and it worked.
As she is leaving, Lambda is obviously taking the usual tsundere stance, pretending she didn’t help Battler in order to save him, just out of pity and it would not be good for her if Bern is defeated by Beato.
As a last word, she swear she won’t forgive anyone making Bern cry.

So, I assume this might clear some things, right?
Now the idea with Lambda’s revelations is interesting enough: to begin with, can we really claim that Beatrice/the culprit wins in each Episode? True enough, people die but… if we dig with what Lambda says, it is possible that the culprit has an expectation, otherwise, they would simply slaughter everyone, as they don’t need to pull such farce.
However, at this stage, it is nearly impossible to figure the motive of the culprit.

________________________________________________________________________

My apologies for this abnormally belated entry. Major part of it is that I was extremely busy with pressing IRL matter, though I will admit that I had hard time to find a proper theory for a little moment, regarding the twilights. That said, I believe they are working and I’m interested if anyone has made anything alongside.
That said, considering how many things were left from the VN, I’m sure a lot of things will be thrown to the trash, especially the obvious “someone is hiding…”.

I will try to catch up the other episodes as quickly as I can, don’t worry.

So How Many Sony Press Conference Jokes Have Been Made About This Show Anyway?

Well it’s time to kick off the second part of my look at Bakemonogatari.  The first bit was of course supposed to be the kind of reaction to the opening episode you might see if you decided to take everything that happened literally and without trying to go into what the themes and ideas behind the show might actually be.  That was fun, but now I think it’s time that I got a little more into the serious business of really telling people what I think about the show without the role playing, gags and just general nonsense gut reactions.   Just what are they getting at with this story about a weightless girl and the guy that says he’s going to help her? While I might be a little bit late to this part I still want to see if there’s anything I can’t add to the conversation at hand. 

First just my general impressions off of this episode when it came to production values.   Well right off of the get go I’ve found a lot to like about Hitagi’s character design, and it seems like Shaft likes her design a lot too since they have no qualms about showing her off in some very alluring poses in the pre-opening shower scene and pretty much the episode in general.  Though I will say that I don’t see why about a quarter of the episode needed to be taken up with her and Araragi having the obligatory awkard girl stepping out of the shower scene.  I thought the pre-opening credits was plenty fanservice, but you still won’t hear me complain to much since I also loved how it was played differently from the norm with her actually tricking Araragi into looking at her in lingerie.  Sexy and clever at the same time….so different.  Anyway Speaking of the opening, I found it to be much to my liking.  It’s not the greatest thing in the world nor something I would put on my best of the year list, but it’s nice and relaxing with a visual motif that fits quite well with the character we are seeing in this arc.  Certainly a better and more thematically fitting use of staplers than with My Love Is A Stapler I would say.  However speaking of music I still cannot say I like the BGM any better this episode.  If I do anymore posts on this series this will probably be the last time I mention that though.  Anyway now with the analysis and musings:

- Right off the bat when  Oshino said “I can’t save you but I can help you” to Hitagi I got the impression that she must have done something to invoke bad karma that caused her to become weightless and that only she could really save herself by coming to terms with whatever caused this to happen to her in the first place.

- If I didn’t know any better I’d say Hitagi was definitely flirting with Araragi as well as messing with him, and vice versa.  It’s kind of weird how the two seem to flip-flop between who is in control and doing what for who, but it’s also kind of neat at the same time and strikes a nice balance between the characters.  Neither is dominant, but neither is submissive either.   Also she kind of has a point, he should appreciate it even if it is a little bit strange that the thank you was what amounted at the chance to see her in a cheesecake pose.

- Incidentally now I understand what added use the rapidly shifting camera angles can use.  Showing off Hitagi from all angles.  Still I am kind of hoping that they can be put to better use yet.  When I saw Citizen Kane for the first time I was wowed by how effective the usage of camera angles could be in conveying a certain feeling about a scene, whether it was a low angle shot of Charles Foster Kane himself making him look larger than life, or an angle shot into the mirror that created multiple reflections symbolizing the multiple personas that he was perceived as having by each person interviewed.  So far they don’t really seem to be going to any significant artistic use, but maybe there’s something I’m missing here.

- The crab concept makes it reappearance and this time it’s linked to the old Japanese folktale of the rabbit in moon pounding mochi.  Of course Araragi mentions that most cultures perceive it as a crab.  This gets me wondering at whether it was the moon that Hitagi saw when she lost her weight, which would at least make a little more sense than a giant enemy crab.  I guess we’ll see, but I’ll mention that the waxing and waning of the moon can also symbolize rebirth.  Perhaps the loss of weight could be attributed to the lifting of some burden or sin from Hitagi and now once she regains her wait she will have been born anew.  Of course this is just wild and random guess theory for the time being.

- On the other hand Hitagi mentioning that she doesn’t like wearing clothes because of the wait seems to indicate that she gave up her weight willingly.

-  Two curious things during the ceremony with Oshino.  One is that when Oshino mentions that the crab is all around them and all-encompassing I could almost swear he was referring to a force like Karma.  Also curious was that Hitagi answered all of Oshino’s questions honestly and without reservation except for three.  ”Can you tell me any stories about how you screwed up as a kid?”.  ”I don’t want to” she replied.  ”What kind of guy did you have you first crush on?”.  ”I don’t want to say”.  And then of course she refused to even give any reply at all on the last question at first which was “What was the most painful memory in your life up till now”.  If that isn’t telling that she screwed up somehow and potentially all of this is karma related then I must be getting played the fool.  I think we’ll find the answer when we find her memories and that that memory will herald the return of her wait once she accepts it as a part of her being.

-  Oh well….the episode just went and confirmed that immediately after I typed this out.  This is what I get for writing this as I watch.

-  So there is an actual crab that is revealed to us the viewer which would seem to throw a monkey wrench into my theory about the moon having anything to do with this, but I don’t know if it rules it out altogether or if it really does just mean that the crab can be perceived as being everywhere in the existence of this world and that it truly is like a god.  I mean it does appear to physically attack Hitagi.  Is this really happening or is just meant to symbolize Hitagi being unwilling to accept her weight/burden back.  I’m leaning most towards the latter because of Oshino’s bit of dialogue about it being her current mental state.  We also got to see him helping her from being overwhelmed by this apparent karmic force by judo throwing the crab, but he still hasn’t saved her.  Man is true to his word.

- Another arrow in the direction of the crab as a karmic force is when she apologizes to it as if it represents her burden’s negative karma attempting to crush her.  I get the sense that she just tried to pretend the incident with the cult and her mother getting hurt and the whole familiy being torn apart never happened and thus while the weight was removed from her it never really left her and has been weighing her down in other ways such as symbolized when we see her attacked by it.  That is my best guess anyway and it seems to make sense given the dialogue point from earlier where she asks Oshino if the crab is beside her and he implies that it’s all around her.  If we don’t take this as literally all around her then we could also perceive as meaning that wherever she goes it’s never far behind, even as she tries to run from it.  And of course this brings us back to earlier where she said she didn’t like the weight of clothing, which indeed does imply that she was trying to avoid the feeling of weight.  Man….I kind of feeling like listening to Under Pressure by Queen right now.

- Well I’ll be…at the end of the episode it pretty much lays it all out for me anyway.  Well writing this article and following the clues was pretty damn fun even in itself.  Everything isn’t all good yet now though, as it seems somehow Araragi picked up some extra weight himself.  It seems like it should be something directly related to Hitagi, but then she seems to have already got her memories, feelings and burdens back by the end of the episode judging by her totally different demeanor in her last scene.  Where does this lead us next.

-  As a last point I still get the impression that Hitagi willing rid herself of those memories and that the idea of a crab or seperate entity taking them was just a red herring and it was all her.  Another theory though is that the crab is basically the world and that what Oshino said is true and it is all around us.  If we consider that Araragi did a lot of the work in guiding Hitagi to a position where she could get herself weight back and that being like taking her burden onto himself then it is entirely possible that his added weight at the end of the episode is what he still has to get back to her.  Perhaps that pertains to somehow fixing her troubled family life and helping her really reunite with her mother since Oshino seemed to imply that that was still as yet undone.

Well that was pretty fun, and hopefully people liked this better than the screwball first impression bit from last time.  I’m really getting into this show right now and I’ll say it’s definitely up my alley.  Between this, Umineko and Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box it looks like I’m going to have no shortage of things to puzzle over for the next season or so.