This week’s IDA include Happiness!, Ghost Hunt and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto.

Ok, this will be a new feature article that I am introducing since I am a freakishly crazy person that suddenly has limited time on his hands. For all the anime that has no full review, it will come under here. Generally, the reasons for not blogging a full episode summary + review are as follows:

1. I am lazy
2. I didn’t find the episode interesting enough to make a full entry
3. Swarmed by schoolwork
4. I have more interesting series to blog.
5. I don’t feel like it because I am a meanie. RAWR!

So yea, a one to two paragraph description of what happened and thoughts coming your way. Impzie’s Destructive Analysis! However, the list is not fixed because if I have more time, i will make a full episodic summary for these shows. Time constraints might deal otherwise.

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Happiness! Episode 4 – No Jun, no Otoha, No happiness. This week is about the magic green balls and the usage of them in fortune telling. Add a bit of mischief from #984 green ball and destroying itself eventually to save everyone. Yea….right. Very boring episode in my humble opinion and Happiness! is really poor now. It needs to improve quite a bit, and just have Jun at center stage for it to be good. No, my mind is not in the gutter but it’s the truth. The show is too undirected and boring.

Episode 4 Rating: D+

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Ghost Hunt Episode 4 – Wow. This is a new arc about puppets and the possibility of a real spirit appearing. They are asked to investigate in a house, and the spirit this time seems to want them to leave the house. Many occurences of spirits happened, with the witch and monk asked to come over as well. The occupants of the house include a young aunt, a small cute girl and a cousin or something. However, the girl had a doll that was downright creepy and it seems that the doll can talk to her. Funny incidents such as the whole room going down to 0 degree celsius happened and the worst thing was when the doll’s head was dismembered right before their eyes in the video, causing Mai to scream out in terror and shock.

This episode is amazing. Just when you thought that Ghost Hunt was going to be one of those so-so anime, it ups the whole horror/mystery tempo for this series. The doll’s head coming off was creepy, even though I do not usually get fearful of horror scenes. This might be an upturn and I feel bad not blogging a full episode summary for it, but the complexity meant that it’s hard. However, this is probably a top notch episode, bringing more shock and intrigue mystery. Great stuff.

Episode 4 Rating: A

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Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto Episode 2 – Ok, this time, it is the plot to kill the ugly guy, as they planned out the method of finishing him up. Eventually they did, as they got their revenge where the ugly guy had killed the whole family of the touring group, led by Yuyama. However, we realize that Youjirou is in fact the man that was asked to protect Ryouma but failed to do so.

This episode continued to keep up with the good quality of animation, but I found the elaborate killing of the ugly man to be a bit queer. Them painting their faces and all that just seems to be a bit lame to me but I guess it’s some ceremonial stuff that I did not understand. I love the swordsplay though and it seems that there is really much to all these characters. This is really top notch anime at its best and I will say that this series will be one of the few anime that I will look back with fondness for Fall 2006 if it keeps this up.

Episode 2 Rating: B

Ok, can I ask an important question here? Why the hell does this show have no love whatsoever from any fansub? It took me close to two weeks after the show opened before I had any subs on it. If it was a lame show, I could fully understand the lack of love for it. However, this show is totally awesome.

Like crazily good stuff. I am so putting this on to-watch list but not blogging too much episode summary on it due to the fact that the Japanese mejii era is not my key area of expertise. I mean I had to think for quite a bit before realizing that Sakamoto Ryoma, the person who was killed at the end of this show, is one of the founders in the Meiji restoration. Also, fighting stuff is usually very hard for me, since my favorite genre is nowhere close to action. So, I will let the pros do that and concentrate on simply my thoughts on the show. However, i will always include a bit on the main guist of the episode, something like a mini-episode.

I might. I might not. No idea yet.

Read on. You need to because this show requires tons of love.

And I even squeezed a rant in this post. Ya-Ha! (I got to stop acting like Hiruma because I can’t do it like him. I should do the Huh brothers.)

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Main guist of episode

A lone ronin, Yojiro (exiled samurai with no noble family to protect) moves around this town (Yokohama) and rescues two kids from this troupe that also doubles up as some form of an assaination team. He is with great power and seems to have a spiritual ability to detect youkai. Hence, he moves around in the town, and there was an auction ahead in the inn. The troupe went over to investigate and assasinate someone, with another suspicious group protecting them. The auction attracts a lot of big shots but something was amiss as the package was starting to glow maliciously red. However, Yojiro rushed in as the spiritual presence of the youkai grows and cuts it up. It ends with flames from the seal of this youkai and we realized that Sakamoto Ryoma, one of the founders in the Meiji Restoration, was killed.

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Thoughts

It has above average graphics for a start. It also has cool samurai with the hint of magic and youkai (monsters) in the mix as well. That is why I have no fricking idea why there are 1 million fansubs for all those lame anime such as Negima! when they should be fansubbing this kind of great classic.

Seriously.

What the hell is wrong with this season, with all the overly subbed shows like Deathnote and possibly Kanon when there are such hidden gems waiting to be unearthed. I mean, I would not go so far to diss fansubs for their choice of anime, simply because they are the greatest thing that can ever be for an anime fan like me. Without them, I cannot even watch anything. However, there are too many darn shows this season that are neglected due to the powerhouses.

I can’t say much, simply because it is the market forces. If there is demand, fansubs will be more eager to do the ones that are demanded by the fans. However, if what they are doing is neglecting all the half-ass shows, fine. So be it. However, when shows that are generally unhyped like this, Red Garden and Ghost Hunt are neglected for different variations OF reasons that stemmed down to the fact that no one hyped them up.

I am so glad that Asatte no Houkou, another of my favorite shows, was not buried in the same way. It will be painful for me. I digress and back to this show that has such a long name I always wanted to call it the “BAKA SAMURAI Anime”, aka BS snime. That would be a huge misservice to the show, and hence I should call it something nice.

I will figure it out one day, because trying to type “Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto” every single time when I have to refer to it will kill the hell out of me. Shion’s torture always seems pleasant compared to typing this whole thing out.

Man, I kept digressing.

Anyway, the OP and ED are decent for this show. The story is also interesting, with the possibility of magic, monsters in this widely covered era. I am not sure with the Japanese tradition or whether some other characters in this show are more famous than they should be. The only person I know was Sakamoto Ryouma. So yea, if there is anyone special, do tell me.

My last pitch for any fansubbers who somehow grace my humble blog, PLEASE FANSUB THIS SHOW. For all bloggers reading this, ADVERTISE THIS SHOW.

This show needs more love.

Yojiro too. He rocks my socks off with his sword wielding skills.