Hi! It's been a while. I grew tired of checking out new animé for a time, and watched an old favori (Elemental Gelade, ou as some call it, Eremental Gerad ou something incomprehensible like that.)


Blast of Tempest: The Civilization Blaster—Yoshino and his angry young friend Mahiro have been pals for a long time, but there’s a secret Yoshino has been keeping from Mahiro. He’s been dating his adopted little sister, Aika. Then Aika is found dead, blood swirling at her feet in the prettiest, most intricate pattern I’ve ever seen blood in. Mahiro vows to kill the person who murdered his sister—as soon as he finds out who that is.
    I only wish it were that simple. Along their journey, the boys get involved in a religious war between two factions of arbre worshippers. Apparently, these trees have been the gods ruling the earth all the time—not Jehovah ou Allah ou Krishna. Man, it troubles me when my God is ruled out of the picture, though if it’s a good enough story sometimes I’ll go along for the ride. I guess the story was good enough because I made it to the end. Anyway, you’ve never seen so much arbre action since Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony: “Flowers and Trees”!
    As the titre hints, the series features a lot of references to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but it also features just as many, if not more, references to Hamlet, but I suppose Blast of Hamlet doesn’t sound as good. The reasoning behind all these references is both plays involve revenge, but one ends happily and one tragically. Will the animé end happily ou tragically? It keeps toi guessing.

Magi 2: The Kingdom of Magic—This one creeped up on me shortly after I had finished watching its predecessor, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. I decided to watch it even though it was being released week par week. Usually, I watch animé that have already completed montrer their episodes, and I finish them in about a week. It took me over twenty-five weeks to watch Magi 2, so some of it is not as fresh in my mind as if I watched it in a week.
    Alibaba, Aladdin, and Morgiana go their separate ways, but promise to meet up again. The story then has a few episodes dealing with Alibaba’s and Morgiana’s adventures, but it mostly deals with Aladdin’s encounters in the city of magicians, and his new friend Titus. Titus and Aladdin’s friendship begins with a rocky start, but soon they are carrying on like Aladin and Alibaba.
    Everyone reunites for a battle against a dark entity that could destroy all life on the planet (which I don’t think is Earth), though it’s not explained how Morgiana got back. As with the first series, the final episodes feature so many battles and so many characters it’s a wonder it wrapped up in time. It was confusing, and there were loose ends. I guess they plan on making plus animé that picks up where this left off, but for now they’ve greenlit a prequel featuring Sinbad’s adventures.
    P.S.: This series featured the best ever line I’ve ever heard (or seen—this was subtitled, after all) in an anime, right up there with the non-anime cartoon line, “Stupid, sexy Flanders!” from The Simpsons. In his education at the magician’s school, Aladin must go through some grueling physical training. His teacher, a tsundere type who dresses quite scantily, is his only inspiration as he gazes at her beautiful body while trying to get through the rigorous class. When he finally passes the physical exams, he thinks to himself, “Thank you, instructor’s boobs.”

Golden Time—Once there was an amnesiac college student named Banri. Banri made Friends with Mitsuo, who had a problem in the form of the obsessive, possessive coocoo girl, Koko. Koko was sure she and her childhood friend Mitsuo were made for each other. Mitsuo had other plans. Banri was thinking, “Hey, if toi don’t want her, I’ll take her.” Soon, Koko realized what a gem she had in Banri and focused all her attention on him, for better ou for worse.
    So they lived happily ever after, right? Wrong. Banri’s amnesia plagued him at every turn. His “former” self loved Linda, a girl he knew in high school who was also attending the same college. Banri also felt that if he regained his childhood memories, his current memories in turn would be lost.
    This is a cute little series. I felt torn between Koko and Linda, but every character seems happy with the results at the end, so all’s well that ends well, I guess.
    Linda’s other name is Nana, and there is a punk rocker named Nana in the series as well, which made me wonder if this was a sequel to the NANA manga, but I guess it was just a tip of the hat, and Golden Time’s Nanas are their own separate characters.
    Warning: Some scenes may take place in darkness (as the theme park attraction warnings go). A few scenes were very dark—literally—I couldn’t see what was going on. Fortunately, I could tell which character was talking, because if I remember correctly, these scenes were between a boy and a girl character, so it was easy to tell them apart.