THAT Animeblog

This week’s installment of Night Wizard is definitely weaker in original content than previous episodes. Maybe I was just in a criticizing mood tonight, but I found a lot of the plot here cliché and predictable. However, it wasn’t all bad as there is the show’s first momentary fanservice. Read on for summary and comment’s on this week’s jewel searching episode of Inuyasha Night Wizard.

The episode opens with a blue haired girl going to visit the old guy from last episode’s previews, offering him onigiri and he responds by shuting the door in her face. After the OP the scene changes to school, where Anzelotte hacks into the PA system and informs everyone in the school that not only does Renji have to retake a test, but she has found the next jewel. A pissed off Renji and the rest of the squad meet up at Anzelotte’s castle and drink some pretentious sounding tea with Anzelotte poking fun at poor Renji. She tells them about an island inhabited by the previously mentioned old man, a wizard named Andou who, like Renji, uses a demon sword. He has put a powerful barrier around the island to hide the jewel from miscreants such as Anzelotte and Bell Zephyr . Angry Renji (I think he shows more emotions overall here than in any episode so far) leads the team to the island where they encounter the blue haired wizard girl (Mayuri) who has been unable to convince Andou to hand over the jewel.

They meet up with the old codger chopping wood at his cabin who refuses to give them the jewel. Angry Renji pulls out his sword and attacks him, and I know you’ll be surprised, but he effortlessly knocks Renji’s sword away. Andou chides Renji for only fighting for the mission, transforming angry Renji into emo and angry Renji on a beach. Elis then tries to make nice with the man and brings him some snacks (you know where this is going), while Renji chops down some trees while yelling out silly clichés. Determined to recover his pride, Renji attacks the old man the next day, getting beat this by his broom rather than an axe.

Renji is knocked across the island into the onsen where the girls are conveniently bathing, earning him a beating (initiate eyeroll). Afterwards, Elis goes to make nice with Andou again, eventually putting a band-aid on his hand when he cuts himself. After some touching words between the two about how great her friends are and such, the old grinch’s heart grew two sizes and he begins to tell Elis his story. Apparently some years ago he went to retrieve the jewel he holds on Anzelotte’s orders. Renji rudely interrupts this heart-to-heart to challenge Andou again, but that standoff is then interrupted by some emulators that Bell Zephyr sent down to greet Andou. Akari and Kureha arrive soon after to aid them in fighting them off, while Renji asks Andou to take Elis somewhere safe, saying that he’s not doing it for the mission, he wants to protect his friends.

Andou takes Elis to the grave he made for the friend he lost and continues his story from before. During the mission years ago he recovered the jewel and prepared to withdraw. However, his girl was pinned down and about to be defeated, so he prepared to go save her. However, Anzelotte, in the interest of the mission ordered him to withdraw, forcibly teleporting him back and leaving Andou’s friend to die as a result. Andou, now convinced that Renji’s motivations are right, brings his sword back to the fight and tosses it to Renji. He takes the two swords and unleashes their power to destroy the emulators. After the battle Andou takes Elis back to the grave and she retrieves the jewel they were looking for. The gang say their goodbyes and head back home.

Next Episode:

Looks like next episode Elis is going to be trapped in some sort of dream world with tasty-looking sweets and her as a child. The preview also shows my hated nemesis Kirihito, who I hope eventually ends up an enemy Renji slices in half.

Impressions:

As I mentioned at the top of the post, I was less than impressed with this episode. Much of the plot elements strung together here were commonly used plot devices from many other shows. Finding the old man with a cold heart who is deeply moved by the innocent young girl and her friends. Miraculously he changes his ways and helps them out, but not before causing the main male character to question his beliefs and go emo. Seriously, this week’s Renji seemed totally out of character compared to the last four episodes. All of a sudden he turns into an emoblob, complete with the 1,000th time a character has looked out at the ocean at sunset and sliced up trees to get out his anger.

However, it wasn’t all bad as the action was ok and the animation quality was steady as with previous episodes. They haven’t cheapened up on the fight sequences either, showing a good range of effects and motions without too many moving stills and other fake movement. The voice acting for Renji was strong as usual, even in his emo state he sounded badass. Out of the main characters his voice acting shines the most once again, I think he really carries the show.

I was afraid this show may turn into a “jewel of the week” type show, however there are only three jewel’s left if I can count. So three jewels to be obtained over the remaining eight episodes should be fine. Next week’s episode appears to have nothing to do with any jewels, Elis just gets trapped in some dream world. In sum, while the show took a bit of a nosedive this week I think I can survive one bump in the road, it has yet to turn into the catastrophe that Shana II has become.