Wow, what a great series. The series had me drawn in so much that I finished watching this in a matter of 3 days. Crazy eh? That's just how great a series this was.
If you're into character development and an in-depth look into the problem of modern society, then this is a good series to watch.
You can't help but feel for the characters as if you understand what they're going through. Even though, they do some crazy things, you still love em' and want to see good things happen for them.
If you've not yet seen this series, I recommend watching it 100%. It's only a 24 episode series and you can get the synopsis here or you can head over to animedb.
I'll just put up a few screencaps, only of the 3 main characters. There are other characters, but they're more backup/secondary characters.
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The latest installment to the Death Note series has been released, episode 28. The good guys over at Kuro-Hana distributed this yesterday, thanks to that I had a chance to pick it up and enjoy yet another episode. Episode 28 is titled "Impatience."
We spent 25 episodes with the conflict between Light and L, only to have L die, and then all of a sudden be introduced to two new enemies. I don't mind that Mello and N were introduced into the plot, it's just how they did it that bothers me. You'd think that they'd at least let us know these people exist before making them play such a major role in the plot to come, but they didn't. They just BAM popped up out of no where to continue L's role in the capture of Kira.
One thing I've noticed is that N and Mello both share the personality traits of L. N has L's motivation, determination and strong sense of justice; while Mello will do anything and everything within his power to accomplish his goal, even if it is illegal. This puts Light right in the middle of both of them, as he has to balance between them as a normal detective (I guess we'll call him a detective) while maintaining his hidden identity as Kira.
Since Light lost one of the Death Notes, it's only reasonable to think that things are going to become way more complicated than they were before. I also believe that since we were introduced to Mello and N so late in the game and have such a smaller amount of time (only 11 episodes left) to develop their conflict, that things are going to pick up pace big time which will end up causing problems for Light.
Oh, and I have to say that I feel bad for Misa. I mean, all she wants is Light to love her and he's just such a complete ass to her. I can understand his getting upset with her in this episode though, I'd have done the same thing.
Episode Play-By-Play: Lets see, this time I'm going to do this in a real fast manner unlike what I did with the Bleach blog. The episode starts off with Light and Near on the phone. Near tells Light that he'll assist him with trying to capture the suspects behind the kidnapping of their director and Light's sister. He gives all access and authority to Light. So, all of the Japanese who are involved in the case get ready to head to L.A. for their mission.
In the airport, Mr. Yagami is greeted by one of the kidnappers. The kidnapper takes him to a different flight than the one all the Japanese had planned on taking. The pilot then takes the plane down in some deserted desert looking place and Yagami gets off the plane. Now opens an underground passage to where the kidnappers are. This pisses Light off quite a bit because now the satellites won't be of any use to him or N.
In the secret base, Yagami is greeted by a man wearing a mask and holding a gun as he can see his daughter behind the glass. The man starts shooting, Yagami freaks out, only to learn that the glass is bulletproof. The man then tells him that they will exchange his daughter for the Note, which Yagami agrees to. The man then tests the note on a useless person in the kidnapper group; it works so they exchange. Yagami walks out with his daughter, when all of a sudden a hellicopter is shown escaping. Just as Light and N think that they can follow him with the satellites, a missile is launched. The hellicopter is blown up, and they lose track of the missile.
Now Mello has his hands on the note, and Light is extremely depressed. Mello ends up killing most of the members of N's SPK with the Note. At this time, N tells Light that he has an idea of who's behind the kidnapping and taking of the Note. N tells Light that the person is called Mello and used to be at an ophanage called Wammy's House that Watari founded. He then suggests that they work together as the scene shifts to that of the Shinigami's world.
In the Shinigami world, we're introduced to a new Shinigami or rather two. One of which's name isn't mentioned. The one who's name isn't mentioned is sitting in a chair, so I'm going to guess that he's the head hauncho around there. The other one's name is Armonia Jastin and apparently one of the Note's that Ryuk dropped into our world belonged to him. So, the head hauncho tells him to make Ryuk give it back; in which case Armonia Jastin says that he'll just have to go down to the real world then. To be continued...
Screencaps:
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You read it right, the latest installment to the Bleach series has been released. Usually I would download the version subbed by Dattebayo, but Rumbel-Fansubs realesed it earlier than them so I decided to grab that one.
Score: 9.5/10
Thoughts:This episode was very action packed and fast paced. Which I love because things are really starting to pick up. We're learning more and more about Ichigo's hollow and just how strong these Vizards are. It looks like the episodes are going to keep up this pace, which is a good thing. This episode is the first step to seeing how much stronger Ichigo is going to get for the future battles against the Arrancar. If he's able to succed in taming his Hollow, I can only imagine the future of this series.
I really think the Vizards are going to start playing a major role here in the near future. Which, should be very interesting to see because we'll see just who's side they're on when it comes to either helping the Shinigami or just fending for themselves.
Episode Play-By-Play: Bleach 123 starts off back at the Vizards hideout. There, Ichigo continues his fight against Hiyori where she basically kicks his ass until he has no choice but to turn to the hollow in him. After turning into Hollow-Ichigo, he quickly turns the tides over to favor himself and gives Hiyori something to cry about (litterally). The rest of the Vizards step in right before Ichigo really hurts Hiyori and stops Ichigo letting him know that he passed their test and that they would teach him how to control his Hollow.
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Click images to see full size version
The following scenes show Ichigo's little sister Yuzu worried about him wondering where he's at. Followed by Rukia showing up empty handed as she couldn't find any traces of Ichigo either. Poor little Yuzu cries herself to sleep with Kon lying next to her while Kon mutters to himself how bad an older brother Ichigo is making his little sister cry. Then the camera pans up to the roof of Ichigo's house where Rukia is standing worried about where Ichigo is, but she's not able to pick up even the slightest scent of his reitsu.
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Click images to see full size version
And back we go to the Vizard's hidehout. This time it shows Ichigo running on something that looks like a workout machine. We also get a hint that Yadomaru Lisa is a lesbian as she looks at a swimsuit magazine like a boy in puberty. As all the Vizards are arguing with eachother, Ichigo gets pissed off that he has to peddal that silly machine all day long and sees no point in it. He wants to cut to the chase and get on with the real training of how to control his Hollow. So, Shinji agrees saying that it might suit Ichigo better to just get all of this over with faster rather than doing it like they would someone else. He knocks Ichigo out and then opens an underground passage to their training area. While decending the steps to the training area, Shinji tells Ichigo that he's going to completely turn into a Hollow just this once down here.
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The training area resembles that of Urahara's a lot. Now, Shinji has Hachigen place a barrier around Ichigo as well as a binding spell. After this, we travel into Ichigo's mind where he meets with his hollow form. They chat for a bit as Ichigo asks him where Zangetsu is. His hollow then replies saying, "I am Zangetsu, or is this Zangetsu? (as he lifts up his own zanpaktou)" Ichigo then notices that it's an identicle zanpaktou that he has, but the hollow's is white instead of black. The scene then changes back to the inside of the Vizard's training area where Ichigo turns into a Hollow, Yadomaru Lisa steps forward and decides she'll be the first one to fight Ichigo as she steps into the barrier surrounding him.
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Just after this, we shift back into Ichigo's mind as the Hollow-Ichigo and Ichigo start to really get serious. Hollow-Ichigo tells Ichigo that in fact, all three of them (Zangetsu, Hollow, Ichigo) share the same body and that the dominant one takes over the physical look of the other and that Zangetsu is part of Hollow-Ichigo. He also says that every time Ichigo uses Zangetsu the easier it is for his hollow to take over. So, Ichigi decides that he'll just beat the Hollow in himself and get Zangetsu back...but Hollow-Ichigo has something to say about that. As the episode ends, Ichigo and his Hollow self take the stance, form and shout out Ban...Kai! To be continued...
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Thats right, I've decided to write up a review for episodes that I watch. I'll do it on a weekly basis though and all in one entry. It'll probably be a review of each episode that I watched over the course of the week that way I don't have a ton of useless entries.
I'll post some things that I may feel like doesn't belong in the weekly review during the week as I see them.
I'm not yet sure where I should post the screencaps. I'm thinking about just putting one for each episode here, then giving a link to the rest of the screencaps I take on a different page so the posts aren't too cluttered.
I've been thinking about starting a blog where I do a quick review on some of the latest episodes that I watched. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to do it...I'm not sure if anyone would even read it. haha. Maybe I'll do it for shits and giggles.
Either way, I'll be writing some episode reviews for Darker Than Black, Romeo X Juliet, Red Garden, Overdrive!, Hayate no Gotoku! , Claymore, Kaze No Stigma, Heroic Age, Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou, Death Note, Kekkaishi, One Piece, Nodame Cantabile, El Cazador de la Bruja, etc...
If you're interested in me doing this, pleeeeease let me know so that I'm not just writing to myself. lol
See ya kiddies.
Oh yeah, One Piece 306 is out, subbed by Vegapunk. Luffy is one cute chibi if you ask me. rofl