Shinigami no Blog

This episode continues where the last one left off: Kaori is sitting at Ryo’s bed.  Ryo, who thinks she noticed he’s awake has the broken bottle ready to attack.  Then Kaori starts to speak, telling Ryo not to die.  If he thinks noone will grieve for him if he dies, she will.  Hearing this, Ryo lowers his weapon and feels he can sleep safely for the first time in his life.  Meanwhile, Xiang Ying sees Kaori’s brother, looking at a photo of him and Kaori when they were children.  He tells Kaori not to worry about him, and then he worries: did she find out they aren’t real siblings?  When Kaori enters the room the next day, Ryo is gone.  When he wants to leave Kaori’s brother stops him and tells him to leave the city.  Ryo in return tells him he knows there is a cop going around as City Hunter, and that there are people out to get him, so he’d better be careful.  Later, Hideyuki gets indeed attacked by some men.  Kaori is waiting at home, and somehow she feels something’s wrong.  Then Ryo arrives with Hideyuki, who is bruised all over his body.  Ryo tells Kaori that her brother fell off the stairs, but she doesn’t believe him.  Kaori takes care of her bother’s wounds and thanks Ryo, but he makes her angry because he start’s touching her ^_^; so she throws him out of the house.  Then Ryo tells her he was very happy to hear her say she would grieve for him.  When Hideyuki regains consciousness, he gets angry with Ryo, but Ryo tells him to be quiet, because Kaori’s asleep.  They go to the roof, where Ryo suggests Hideyuki to help him with his City Hunter job. Hideyuki gets angry first and points his gun at Ryo, but Ryo easily takes it from him.  Hideyuki questions Ryo’s motive for wanting to become City Hunter, and Ryo tells him it’s because he doesn’t want to see Kaori cry. Then Xiang Ying sees Ryo talking to Kaori at a  playground. Ryo has decided to stay in Shinjuku, and he asks about Kaori’s name.  In return, she asks what his name is, but he doesn’t have one, so he lets Kaori choose one from all his fake identities.  She picks out Saeba Ryo, because that name made the strongest impression on her.  Xiang Ying is happy to learn that Ryo didn’t used to have a name either, and she wants to congratulate him with his new name, but… she still can’t touch them.  She feels a little sad about it, but then Ryo and Kaori call out her name, and tell her to come with them ^_^  Then Xiang Ying wakes up.  Ryo tells her she was saying "mama" in her dream and she tells him she had a dream about "Kaori-mama" ^_^

This episode was really ment for people who don’t know the original city Hunter story (I haven’t seen much of it either so it was nice to see how Kaori and Ryo met, and how Ryo became City Hunter.)  It was just so cute when Xiang Ying said "Kaori-mama" ^_^  Next episode the real story continues, and Xiang Ying seems to go to work at old Chen’s restaurant.

  
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I finally managed to finish this series.  I started watching it some time ago, but never got to finish it.  Chrno Crusade isn’t a very new series, it aired in 2003, but I didn’t get to see it back then, even though it looked like a very good series, but what else can we expect from Gonzo ^_^

I’m not going to write a summary here, because there are sites enough that provide summaries of full series.  If you don’t know Chrno Crusade, and want to know more about it, go here.  If you are thinking of watching it and you don’t want to get spoiled, don’t continue reading!

I thought this series was very good, although the story was rather hard and not too easy either.  At the end everything gets explained rather nicely though.  I think it’s a bit sad that Rosette had to die, especially because Joshua finally got his memory back, but it was clear from the beginning that she was to die.  I do still wonder why Aion managed to survive though, it seemed like Chrno finally killed him, and then he returns several years later.  The whole fight that Rosette and Chrno had been holding has been for nothing if Aion continues to exist anyway.  I also felt sorry for Satella, to see how her sister had forgotten about her, but deep inside she did remember her ^_^ only her memory didn’t come back until the moment she dies.  Azmaria seemed like a weak girl at first, but in the end she grew very strong and I really liked her character a lot.  She wanted to become like Rosette and it was nice to see how, in the end, she managed to make that dream come true.

I don’t really know what more to tell about this series, but I really did like it and I recommend it to everyone who likes stories which contain action, but also some drama.

  
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Xiang Ying is having the same dream over and over: she’s a child, about five years old, and she’s walking in the city alone, looking for Ryo.  After having that dream again she talks about it to Ryo, and he tells her to tell Doc during her check up.  When Xiang Ying arrives at the hospital, Doc is sleeping.  When she comes in and he wakes up, he mistakenly takes her for Kaori, and tells Xiang Ying about the time that Kaori was a nurse there.  Ryo is late picking Xiang Ying up, and in the meantime she has fallen asleep.  She is still having the same dream, but now she’s found Ryo.  Only, he has a shotwound and is dying.  Panicking, Xiang Ying is triying to call people to help him, but she can’t touch them.  Then she succeeds in grabbing someone’s hand, and the woman goes and check on Ryo.  Xiang Ying sees it’s Kaori.  In her sleep, she calls out Kaori’s name, and both Ryo and Doc are very surprised.  The next scene Xiang Ying sees is Kaori making breakfast for her brother, Makimura Hideyuki, who is a detective.  They are having an arguement about Kaori studying to be a nurse, but then Kaori goes off to the hospital.  There she is taking care of Ryo, who is still unconscious.  Her brother is there too, and he doesn’t trust Ryo, because all his papers are fake, but Kaori tells him as long as Ryo’s wounded her brother can’t take him away.  Doc later tells Makimura that the reason Kaori became a nurse isn’t because of him, but for him.  Upon hearing that, he goes to Kaori and tells her that her cooking has become very good.  During the night Ryo gains consciousness and he breaks a bottle to have a weapon.  Xiang Ying then realizes that he’s just like her when she just arrived in Shinjuku.  Kaori comes to check on Ryo and first it seems she didn’t notice he’s awake, but then she turns around and tells him to open his eyes.  As she is bending over him, Ryo picks up the broken bottle…

And they leave us with a cliffhanger!  I hate it when they do that  Anyway, I really liked this episode, seeing more about Kaori and Ryo’s meeting.  I guess Xiang Ying will also learn more about Kaori upon seeing this dream (actually Kaori’s memories), but I feel sorry for her she can only watch and not participate.

  
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Xiang Ying is still planning on killing Kishimoto.  Meanwhile, Ryo has spotted Tanya’s father, with the help of Umibozu.  He then takes Tanya out to the playground she always goes to, and she introduces him to her best friend, Kuma-san.  It seems that the bear who heands out balloons at the playground is actually Katsumi.  Ryo sends Tanya away for a while and goes and talk to Katsumi.  He tells Ryo that Kishimoto had gotten funds to build a school in the Ruzen Republic.  However, Kishimoto let a crooked construction company build the school and kept the money for himself.  Katsumi feels terrible for letting those children die and not doing anything about it.  He doesn’t want Kishimoto to die, but he wants the truth to be found out, to make Kishimoto see his mistake.  At Cat’s Eye, Xin Hong is worried about Xiang Ying and he wants to go and look for her, but Umibozu stops him.  Xiang Ying is still checking out the best sniping position.  The next day she has her chance to shoot Kishimoto, but when she wants to pull the trigger, she can’t.  Ryo is very proud of her, but Xiang Ying thinks she can’t be City Hunter if she can’t shoot.  Meanwhile, Ryo has asked Master Li to let the news about Kishimoto leak out to the Taiwanese Press.  Ryo and Xiang Ying then go to Tanya’s school with Tanya’s mother.  There, Ryo tells Tanya that he isn’t her real father, and Tanya already knew, but she thinks her real father is dead and really wanted a daddy.  Then Kuma-san turns up and exposes himself to a surprised Tanya and Irina, who are very happy, finally their family is together again.  xiang Ying starts crying seeing the family reunited again, but doesn’t understand why.  That evening, Xiang Ying is constantly practising her shooting, until Ryo comes to stop her.  He tells her that Kaori couldn’t shoot either, nor did she know any martial arts, and still she was a wonderful City Hunter. When they’re at home, Ryo finds Xiang Ying sleeping, completely exhausted.  He touches her chest and hears Kaori’s voice, telling him that Xiang Ying has a very fragile heart and to take good care of her.  Ryo then realizes it was Kaori who stopped Xiang Ying from shooting.  He leaves the room, leaving a tear on Xiang Ying’s cheek.

This was a good episode.  A lot of things happened, Tanya’s case is solved and Xiang Ying’s character has also been developed a bit more.  Ryo even got to talk to Kaori now ^_^  I’m really starting to like this series more and more.

  
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Laharl and Etna are walking through a forest, and Laharl is constantly getting attacked by demons.  He wonders why, but then he notices one of Etna’s posters and swear to find the one who put a price on his head. Luckily for Etna, he doesn’t suspect her.  Meanwhile, Flonne is alone in a desert and she can’t find Laharl and Etna, but she decides to continue searching for them, it must be a test.  Captain Gordon and his team also got word of the reward on Laharl’s head, and so they equip Thursday with a "Laharl radar" and go and look for him.  Laharl and Etna have also lost their way, but they soon reach a mansion, where a lady gives them a nice meal.  While they are eating she takes her sword and wants to kill Laharl, but at that moment captain Gordon arrives and they accidentaly stop her.  The woman then introduces herself as the demon slayer Sardia and she swears to destroy Laharl and get the money. She makes Etna and Laharl fall into a hole, filled with spears, but Laharl can make them float, so they arrive safely on the ground.  Captain Gordon’s team suggests to Sardia, to split the reward, but she then makes them fall into a hole too.  In the mean time, night has fallen, and Flonne is still lost in the desert.  Laharl and Etna are looking for a way out of the hole, and Etna makes a torch, but she accidentaly drops it and everyting catches fire.  Luckily a sprinkler system makes it go out again.  Only, it’s not a sprinkler system but a water trap, and everything gets filled with water.  Sardia is watching the whole scene through a hole in the wall.  Then she releases Mizuchi, a watermonster who likes to eat demons and Etna and Laharl are having a hard time to stay out of its range.   Laharl manages to ride the monster’s back and break the glass behind which Sardia is watching.  They can escape now, but captain Gordon has less luck, because the hole they are in also gets filled with water.  Flonne has reached the mansion and collapses, to be found by Sardia who wants her to help her to destroy Laharl, but of course Flonne refuses.  Laharl arrives just in time to save her and he is about to fight Sardia, when Mid-boss appears.  in the end, everyone ignores him and Laharl defeats Sardia without much effort.  He tells her she is his servant too now, and she has to lead him to the one who put a prize on his head.  Flonne is very happy now there is another servant, but Laharl tells her she is still the lowest servant.  They go on their way, but Sardia is still planning to kill Laharl.  Meanwhile, captain Gordon and his team manage to escape, but they are alone now.  Inside the mansion, Mid-boss is also still alone, talking to himself.

Don’t ask me why, but I didn’t like this episode.  That Sardia was irritating and Mid-boss and captain Gordon were only in it to fill some more time.  Perhaps I didn’t like it because there wasn’t much Flonne.

  
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Flonne wakes up Laharl because there is an emergency.  The prinnies have gone on strike until they get paid.  They need money, because they are the souls of sinners, and they can only come to rest when they gain the right amount of money by doing good jobs.  Laharl thinks Etna should pay them, but she says it’s his task.  Laharl doesn’t want to pay the prinnies and tells Flonne to cook in stead, but Flonne’s cooking is so bad that he soon decides to go and rob some rich folks’ homes for money.  Meanwhile, the old butler of Laharl’s father, Jenisky, has stolen the demon’s book which proves one is king and proclaimed himself king, but his son, Koganesky, isn’t happy with this because his father does nothing else but count his money.  Therefore he steals the book from his father and goes to sell it.  At the secondhand shop, captain Gordon and his team are selling their valuables to gain some money for the repairs on their spaceship.  Jennifer finds the demon’s book and buys it.  Then Laharl and the others arrive at the shop to sell the stolen stuff and Etna again has to try to keep the poster with an amount on Laharl’s head out of his sight.  Laharl notices a lot of stuff out of the palace at the secondhand shop and he angry someone dared to rob him.   Then he suddenly remembers something of his past and the demon’s book.  Koganesky appears and tells Laharl about the book and his father. He asks him to destroy his father, but Flonne thinks that Koganesky actually likes his father.  Laharl gets very angry when he hears that Jenisky has proclaimed himself king and is more than willing to take him down.  Then some demons try to destroy him (because of Etna’s poster) but Laharl is so annoyed he sends them flying before they can do anything.  At Jenisky’s palace, he quickly destroys his bodyguards and Jenisly himself isn’t a match for Laharl.  But when he wants to destroy him, Koganesky jumps in front of his father.  He doesn’t want him to die, he just wanted his old father back.  Laharl gets annoyed by the happy scene of father and son reuniting, and he sends them to another dimension.  Flonne is very happy that Laharl didn’t kill them ^_^ Later, Laharl is thinking about a time his father asked him if he liked him, and Laharl had said he hated his father.  Then the king had said it didn’t matter at the time, and Laharl wonders what he had ment.  At their spaceship, captain Gordon is watching the demon’s book and he seems to notice something.

In this episode we get to know more about the book one needs to be king of the netherworld, and about Laharl’s father.  Also we learn more about the prinnies and we finally see some demons react to Etna’s poster.  This episode was rather good because of all those elements that get exploited ^_^

  
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Laharl, Etna and Flonne are walking around, on their way to the castle, and Laharl gets annoyed by Etna’s stories and Flonne, who remebers the white flowers in heaven.  Laharl wants to go to an inn but there is no inn near, only the "makai hihoukan" (netherworld treasure vault).  Flonne thinks "hihoukan" is a very nice word ^_^; but Laharl just wants to sleep and doesn’t really care about the place.  A prinnie comes in and starts handing out an "extra" and gets hit by Etna: it’s the message that Laharl has arrived with a price on his head that Etna had the prinnies distribute.  Of course Laharl isn’t supposed to know anything about it.  Etna manages to fool Laharl by hiding the amount of money and everyone goes to sleep.  But that night the weird angel comes there and he accidentaly pushes some rock.  The next morning, Etna and Flonne have their personalities switched!  At first the prinnies are very happy, finally Etna cares about them.  She decides to give the others a guided tour, but after some games, that Flonne likes very much, Laharl grows tired of it.  Even the prinnies don’t like the change anymore, because Etna still makes them work very hard, only she tells them to do it for good, but the outcome is still the same.  Then captain Gordon and his team come in and they investigate the two girls, but since they can’t think of a solution, Laharl sends them flying.  Then mid-boss (who is at the place as a statue) tells Laharl he may save the girls, when they enter a certain door.  No one who has ever entered that door is known to have come out though.  The prinnies are very happy to hear about it and throw our three heroes in.  There, everyone sees their own weaknesses, but because Etna and Flonne have switched personalities, they manage to overcome their fears.  They encourage Laharl to blow up the place, but then three demons come who try to stop them.  Laharl blows it up anyhow and everything is fine again.  When they are leaving, a stone gets activated again, and now everyone has their personalities switched.

This episode wasn’t too good but I guess we need some lighter episodes as well.  We do get to know more about Etna’s plan to take over the throne.

  
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Someone is flying around, but his aircraft crashes.  Meanwhile, two people are fighting a monster, one does the fighting, the other supports him by singing.  They then talk about Orica, who can’t sing.  They are Ravateel, who sing to support and heal.  Orica is standing by herself, trying to sing, but it won’t work.  Then she sees the airplane crash and she goes and have a look.  She finds the boy riding the aircraft unconcious, and tries to heal him with her song, but he wakes up.  The boy introduces himself as Laina.  He is very excited when he hears Orica’s a Ravateel, and he doesn’t listen to her when she tells him her song didn’t heal him.  Laina comes from the big tower that’s standing in that world, and he has to get back up there, but the aircraft is broken.  When he is trying to start it, it falls even deeper, with both Orica and Laina in it.  They pass a girl, locked up in an airship who sees them falling.  They fell quite deep and it takes them some time to get out of there, but when they do thay notice they’re at Hotaru Alley, the place where Laina wanted to go to have his airship repaired.  No engineer wants to go and make it though.  When they reach the last engineershop in the town, they see Laina’s airship standing there.  The owner of the place, Cruze, found it and brought it there.  She only wants to give it back for 100 000 leafs, but Laina doesn’t have so much money.  When he and Orica are outside, thinking what to do, a monster attacks the town.  Laina is going to lure it away from the town and he tells Orica to get away.  He then lures the monster to Cruze’s place and they lure it away in the airship.  Orica decided not to be such a coward anymore and she hid in the airship as well.  Now they are triying to fly into brastiline, a place which is a mass of energy.  Any normal aircraft would break, but Cruze fixed this one so it can handle it.  The monster keeps following them though,so Laina goes out to fight it, but he isn’t strong enough.  Then Orica decides she wants to help Laina.  she also goes out and sings a song out of her heart.  It heals Laina and fires up his sword, so he can defeat the monster.  Then the airship breaks down again and it starts falling again.  The girl who’s locked up in an other aircraft sees it falling again.  She hopes it is Laina, who comes to save her. 

I really liked this story and I really regret there will be no more episodes, especially because it had such an open ending.  This story has a lot of potential, but I guess it didn’t have enough success to make more episodes.

  
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