Back Again – yeah, I’m rather exasperating, no?

Sashiburi da ne? It’s been too long my friends… and after all that talk of sticking to my blogging! -_-’ Gomen ne. I abandoned you once more in the run up to the new school year that began in September 2008, and I must beg your forgiveness my precious readers.

See, at the start of school I ran into a lot of homework and coursework – I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about – and in all honesty, I cast my lovely little blog to one side, despite the obvious unfairness. At the same time, I can take a small pride of sorts in that it was the ideal thing to do for my education, and that I truly believe I won’t ever abandon this blog completely – though this sort of wave like behaviour will continue throughout my time writing to you. Apologies in advance ^^’.

But hey, I’m back once more! Pretty good stuff methinks. Today I’ll be telling you about what I’ve been up to in my absence – I agree, it’ll most likely be a relatively boring ordeal, but grit your teeth and be patient – it seems like something I have to do – plus, I reckon some of you may have a vague interest in what’s been going on. Personally, I’m a rather curious person (hopefully not nosy though ^^’).

So for a while, as I said, I was busy with school – twas relatively normal, nothing too exciting, just everyday life. Then around October I developed a slightly busier social life – I have to admit, going out almost every weekend and quite a lot over half terms was really great! But, as with even a glimmer of possibility, that quickly came to an end -_-…

A number of things happened on 21st November ‘08, and although it was real fun at the time, there were some repercussions, and bitterness grew. Soon, things were said that probably weren’t meant, but regardless due to pride and hurt, there was a parting of ways.

For me, it was a rather unpleasant month or so that followed, but I managed to get through it by hanging out with someone I’ve come to see as a precious friend. Then Christmas came around, and following the idea of the spirit of kindness and goodwill, I decided to swallow my pride and “forgive and forget,” though I still believed myself to be the wronged person.

I sent a text to one of said people reading something like, “hiya – omg, this is so random, but I suddenly thought of you and thought I’d send this.” I think I also asked how things were, but you get the gist I’m sure. I suppose I was foolish to expect a response – perhaps I thought too highly of the person and that made me blind to their many faults, but that’s how I’ve always seen my friends – they could do no wrong in my eyes.

I’ve now heard from people around me that they believe I was probably being taken advantage of for my good temperament and kindness – that the people I’d feel such warmth for, weren’t really my friends at all, let alone my best friends. How sad. Especially since we’d hung out together through five years in secondary school, and another year and a bit in our current one. A waste…

When I sent a second message on Christmas Day to that person once again, I didn’t receive a reply. For me, this was her last chance, and since then I admit I had strong feelings of resentment and dislike – for me, who’s too bubbly and dense to hate anyone, this was a pretty new experience, but definitely one I’ve learnt from thus far.

Haha, I do sound angsty, don’t I? Actually, that passed rather quickly, though I probably thought about what happened more than I would have done due to a long stretch of illness. Actually, as I write this, I’m still under the weather, though definitely better . My sinuses started to act up in very early January – about the 7th or 8th, and before I knew it I had an unbelievable non-stop headache, and other stuff besides. The painkillers I was prescribed were kinda dodgy too – they made me dizzy and queasy and oh so sleepy – in the end I stayed off school for about a month!

Now half-term’s starting, and with all my teachers at school promising to help me catch up I’ll be working hard this coming week. With my history of illnesses in this school – about a month in December 2007, another two and a half in April due to appendicitis, and now this one through all of the current term – the teachers are being amazingly sympathetic. I’m really glad they’re gonna help me out, especially since exams start in May! Oh, man…

That’s more or less brought us up to date . Since November I haven’t spoken to those two people who I had what could be called a disagreement with, and I suppose it’s strange, but the only thing I truly miss is talking to them about anime. In other words, I think I’ll live, lol.

At any rate, the next few months will be all about school, but my recreational time will now be blogging and PS2-ing, so a yay is in order. Talking to those said people definitely took a lot of my time – it’s cool that I’ll have more of that now.

Now, about the change in blog name and appearance. During my month of illness I started to watch an anime I’ve been considering for a while but had no time for before – Shugo Chara. It’s been really sweet, and Amu’s supposed ‘I don’t care’ attitude inspired me. So I decided I’d be “Cool and Spicy,” lol. On the other hand, as Utau is by far my fave character in the anime, I added Meikyuu Butterfly to the blog name – thus you can call me the “Cool and Spicy Meikyuu Butterfly,” or just plain Viz . As for the rest of the blog I discovered the updated power of widgets, and decided to put my favourite girl from Vampire Knight, Touya Rima in the header, along with Senri Shiki-kun. I love the cross between Shugo Chara hearts, aces, clovers and diamonds with Vampire Knight – it looks pretty cool to me, so I hope you like it too. Please feel free to vote in the poll on the right! Oh, and you can chat to me (Meikyuu Butterfly) in the Chatterbox on the right.

One last thing – I want ideas for what series to blog. I’ll set up a second poll on the right, and if anyone wants to vote, please feel free to do so. If no one does, then I’ll be forced to ponder and choose something myself, lol.

Thank you so much for sitting through this! *bows head* Arigatou gozaimashita! Please wish me luck in catching up with school, and of course blogging. Until later my dear readers.

Viz signing out.

xxxx

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Soul Eater – Episode 17

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Humour: 10/10 (the man at the bar doing all the shaking was especially brill)
Overall Rating: 10/10 (pretty good for a random ep)

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In honour of the main star of this episode, I have now renamed it not “Soul Eater” but rather “Excalibur.” So please make sure you don’t get confused – this episode is Excalibur, Episode 17. Okay, yeah, this is Soul Eater Episode 17, but seeing as no one really turns up apart from Excalibur, I thought it could well have been renamed at this point. To be honest, there really isn’t much to say about this episode, except that it’s essentially filler before the big run-up episode that will follow. Of course, the irony and qualities of Excalibur are, put bluntly, awesome – perhaps the most annoying character created, he’s absolute gold to watch, and having seen him interact with Kid and Black Star in a previous episode, it’s kinda nice to see him again. ^^

Oh yes, perhaps an explanation of why I jumped from episode 15 to 17 and skipped blogging 16. Well, to be quite honest, my download for episode 16 is being too slow for my liking, so I decided to just leave it for now and just go ahead to 17 otherwise I’d drop behind again in blogging – plus I have a pretty good idea of what happens in 16 anyways. I’m by no means skipping watching it, but I’ll skip blogging it – apologies to anyone who wanted to read about it.

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The super short summary of this would be:

Oxford (a classmate of Soul, Maka and the rest of the gang from Shibusen) has come to the legendary cave, to find the legendary sword Excalibur. Excalibur reveals his non-weapon form and then describes his wondrous life and why we should all be sooo impressed with him, his might, and the great deeds he’s done. By the end of this, Ox can’t take it anymore and puts Excalibur back in the ground. He was going to write his school report on Excalibur, but he’s too annoying – what?! Are you mad? The great Excalibur, annoying?! Lol – great episode when it comes to filler humour.

So now I will grace and humble your minds with images of Excalibur’s greatness – enjoy!

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Excalibur! (His legend began in the 12th Century):

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Excalibur and his gang:

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Excalibur dancing in an Opera House as part of a travelling troupe:

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Everyone else eating: (Not Excalibur)

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Excalibur investigating and solving mysteries with Holmes and Watson:

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Excalibur helping King Arthur with the Roman problem:

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Excalibur charming ladies and driving:

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Excalibur singing:

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Excalibur being rejected:

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~Viz’s Word on the Episode~

Well quite honestly it was randomly funny, the scene with Excalibur’s gang was hilarious due to the strange movements they were doing, and the random words popping up like “nice guy” and “pencil” – pencil was my fave actually. Then we have the scene where he “solves” the mystery with Sherlock Holmes and names Watson as the criminal when the butler is quite clearly twirling the murder weapon around. Of course who can forget the bartender mixing the drink in the scene where Excalibur finds his girlfriend – the number of odd ways he shakes that thing – and the speed! You think it’s over – no – he shakes it some more!

Ovearll, the episode was pretty good and a remake of sorts of Death the Kid and Black Star’s adventure to find Excalibur, being just as funny if not more so. From the preview the next episode looks really good! Make sure you tune into that =D.

Viz, signing out!

xxx

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Soul Eater – Episode 15

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Humour: 8/10
Overall Rating: 8.5/10

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Soooo, I’m picking up with Soul Eater 15, but as 17’s already out, I’m gonna rush through this one a bit, so not too many screenshots ^^. This anime’s been nothing but great for me most of the time, with each of the main characters getting a fair amount of screentime. Once again it’s another Death the Kid centred episode (awesome! XD), which is part of the reason I thought I’d join in with blogging once again.

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The episode opens with a dude screaming about a Black Dragon coming, the scene being appropriately foggy and dark. Then a big dark something (which I assume could be the dragon he was on about) appears and we hear an unpleasant squelch (probably been eaten or sat on). The opening then stops the action on a pseudo cliff-hanger.

We see Patty and Liz rowing with what looks like a smaller Shinigami-sama perched at the front – ooh, Kid’s voice? – seems it’s actually Death the Kid. This suggests that Shinigami-sama may actually be human O.O. And I thought he was just a cloak with a mask XD. Of course Liz has to give Kid a piece of her mind at the randomness of travelling like that, with Kid then announcing that they’re there. They see a little town, but Kid suggests it isn’t what it seems – we then see that part of the town seems to have a huge chunk missing, as though it’s been bitten off by a great big something-or-other. Apparently all the souls in town were eaten by something. (Seems like we have a mystery on our hands! Scooby Doo where are you?).

The three go investigating and asking questions, although people seem terrified by what’s happened – the Black Dragon is named as the culprit. They go to a library where Kid does some research and Patty names animals in books (looks like fun =D). They then end up in the rowboat again, with Kid once again telling them to row properly and Liz getting a little annoyed. Kid says that he senses a lot of souls in the area, and then a silhouette of a ship with what looks like glowing red eyes appears. Liz is terrified. =D

Death the Kid explains that the ship’s name is the same as that of a Black Dragon from mythology (ah, clever link, I probably wouldn’t have gotten that ^^’). Kid wants to go on board. Liz doesn’t. Patty does what Patty would do, she starts rowing furiously towards the ship at super sonic speed, leaving the other two to cling on or go flying. They crash XD. Patty apologises, but Kid’s main concern is that she didn’t crash at the centre of the ship (you’ve gotta love him – I mean, is that really important? =P) and tells her to do it again. Haha, brilliant! They then go on board, Liz so distracted by their idiocy that she doesn’t notice.

They find a room with a whole lotta souls floating about, which Kid decides to collect (not in the weapon sort of way, but the shingami sorta way) and then gets attacked by a creepy dude/ beast that had been trailing them. The creepy guy shouts the ship’s name just as Patty and Liz are about to transform and Liz falls through the floor, which closes up afterwards. Patty laughs ^^. The creepy dude tells them that he’s gonna offer the souls to the demon god, which, when you’re pretty evil, must be a good plan – he then goes into the classic evil guy rant.

Creepy Dude attacks with his gun, and though Patty offers to turn into a pistol, Kid says no, ’cause of the lack of symmetry. Liz meanwhile is walking around further down, and though she’s super scared she worries about her sister and Kid (aww, she’s a good girl) before trying to intimidate the ship by telling it about her past with Patty. As she talks a voice responds and of course she believes she’s hearing things when she sees nobody there… until it talks some more. Behind her we can see the see through form of someone…

A little girl ghost who tells her she’ll be okay if she goes that way; Liz freaks and backs away. The little girl says that she was eaten by the ship, but Liz fears that she wants to eat her “nice body” (lol). In face of Liz’s hysterics the little girl loses her temper and, acts just like a little girl and shouts. Needless to say, Liz crawls after her.

Back with Kid and Patty, they’re dodging the shots from Creepy Dude (honestly, that’s not his name, but it fits) with Kid still upset at the loss of symmetry. It seems he had refused a number of arranged marriages because of this. We get a bit more of the story of how the three met – his facial expressions are too cute ^^.

Liz is having some panic attacks as more ghosts guide her with cool arrows, while Kid is being taunted by Creepy Dude. Finally Liz makes it to the deck and makes a scene when she sees no one there – to which little ghost girl gets angry. Then Kid and Patty burst through from below. Kid immediately complains that it’s Liz’s fault he wasn’t able to use Patty to fight, but then Creepy Dude arrives and the sisters’ reunion is cut short. They transform and the fight begins. Well in actual fact, Creepy Dude is killed before Kid can do anything. He watches as Chrona gets Ragnorak to eat all the souls, the little ghost saying goodbye to Liz.

Some weird morphing takes place, and the episode ends with Kid and Chrona ready to fight. (Go, GO, Kid!)

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~Viz’s Word on the Episode~

Another good episode, focusing more on the humour of Liz’s behaviour than the actual threat of Creepy Dude, which became rather anti-climactic when Chrona turned up and beat him as though it was nothing. By the looks of it, this was just a build up episode for the next, which promises to be good if a fight between two pretty powerful characters is gonna occur. The scenes from the three characters’ pasts were quite interesting to see too, so it gave us more of an insight on how and why the three became a team.

Make sure to watch the next episode, ’cause seriously, those scenes look awesome in the preview. Just a note, do you not love the ending theme and images? Maka and Soul look so cute together!

Sore ja,

That’s Viz, signing out!

Ja ne!

xxx

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Bleach – Episode 181

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Overall Rating: 8/ 10

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Wow! We sure were left with a bit of a cliffhanger in the final scenes of 180, huh? For a filler arc, this has been a surprisingly good array of episodes recently, definitely way better than the bombardment of NAruto fillers ages ago – anyone else still remember the curry of life, and laughing Shino? Well they were classics in randomness. Ah, in case you haven’t guessed, I’m picking up Bleach and sticking it in my “To-Blog” pile – and as for Soul Eater, after blogging the prologue (first three) episodes in such detail, I’ve decided I’ll just carry on with the most recent instead – as soon as I catch up with D.Gray-man I may blog that too.

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So, a short summary:

We left Ichigo and chums surrounded by shinigami, and it’s from here that we pick up – will Lurichiyo be saved? The peasant people flee, and Ichigo is stopped in his attempt to get to Luri-chan by Captain Soifon – Rukia tries to explain the situation, but Ichigo cuts across and has one of those emotional speeches – you know the sort – not to deep that lads watching will become overly caring, but just enough to make them think about people’s feelings. I have to admit the “you’re not alone” part is pretty nice ^^.

So what does Luri-chan make of this? Um… she doesn’t – she appears to not remember Ichigo and co. – that or she’s a very able liar. (Probably brain-washed, as is the case with these sorts of situations). Things get worse, so Enryuu breaks free of the vice-captain’s hug (lol) with some fancy footwork (a.k.a. stamps on his foot) and takes off like a rocket making everything nice and bright. The light-show seems to be his release for his zanpakuto – ooh big fists! He then breaks the mansion – haha! Soifon doesn’t want to let Ichigo go, but Rukia blocks her attack – yay Rukia! – giving Ichigo the chance to look for Lurichiyo.

Luri-chan still doesn’t recognise Ichigo. Then, get this, she attacks Ichigo – is that even her? With that suddenly super-manly voice? No, of course not – ’tis an impostor. Soifon takes care of Rukia (aww T-T) and then stops Ichigo – giving Kumoi and friends a chance to escape. Rukia meanwhile is harassed by vice-captain Omaeda, but Kenryuu helps her out. Kenryuu and Enryuu then take care of him and the rest of the squad there – I really love Kenryuu’s release , absolutely brilliant. XD

Elsewhere, Soifon is beating Ichigo up (hmm) but just when things seem to be getting serious (i.e. Soifon releases her Zanpakuto) Rukia freezes the area between them stopping the fight (Rukia, go, go!). Luri-chan’s fiance/ husband (he really reminds be of Suzaku from Code Geass (in terms of looks)) tells Ichigo to go another way…

Soifon and company are about to search the area for Ichigo and Rukia, but Kumoi asks them to wait until they leave the manor – obviously he doesn’t want his dirty little secrets to be discovered. Suzaku, I mean Shuu-chan leads Ichigo and Rukia to a room where they should be safe for a while and explains that he’s helping them because he wants to help Luri-chan (aww). Seems he’s loved her since they first met. He has an angsty moment, which is rather sweet, before coming up with an idea.

Soifon is outside – Kenryuu and Enryuu tied up – and news comes that Rukia and Ichigo are at the back gate having taken Shuu-chan hostage. Ooh, good plan Shuu-chan! Back at Sereitei news comes about what Ichigo and Rukia have done – Ukitake is in shock. Best part is that the new captain of third squad doesn’t even know who Ichigo is, so it almost breaks the tension in the room (well it makes me laugh at any rate). Because Amagai doesn’t know Ichi-chan, he volunteers to help Soifon out. At this point I just gotta wonder how Byakuya is reacting inside – Rukia-chan’s been naughty lol.

Outside Amagai and Kira have a nice conversation where Kira admits that he saw KIfune enter the very same mansion where all the ruckus has been taking place. He finally starts to reveal the doubts he’s been having about Kifune (I never did like Kifune ¬.¬) but Amagai doesn’t seem to believe him. I really like this new captain, but he could be a little to trusting towards Kifune. However, he redeems himself slightly when he tells Kira to keep an eye on Kifune.

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Another slight cliff-hanger. I have to say that I get a little annoyed – most shounen anime seem to have one every episode, so it really make you have to see the next episode. Aww well, I’d have done so anyways as Bleach really is a good shounen anime with a decent storyline, not just fighting.

I enjoyed this episode quite a lot, and I’ve got to stress that considering this is a filler arc, the standards have been quite high. Can’t wait for the next episode =D. Not much else to say, so join me next time!

Viz, signing out

xxx

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Soul Eater – Episode 03

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Animation: 10/ 10 (what can I say? If it stays like this, then wow!)
Story in this episode: 10/ 10 (I loved it – the three of them are so brill)
Humour: 11/10 (If it’s even possible, it made me laugh even more than before)
Overall Rating: 11/ 10 (I may be biased as it’s my fave character’s prologue)

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Yay, episode 03, the final prologue episode! So without any ado, let’s get going with the summary!

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~Summary~

The episode begins with a random thief, looking like a superhero, jumping from a window with a bag of souls – he’s then shot at and turns to find his pursuer – Death the Kid ^^. Kid’s twin guns take their human forms and they all strike a pose, which Kid then criticises as Patty’s slightly to the right of their Totem-pole-like creation. Lupin (the thief) is looking totally bemused at this point, while Patty apologises with a super cute “I’m sorry” and Liz looks slightly embarrassed. Only a few minutes in and I’m already laughing XD. Apparently Kid wants everything he does to be done perfectly, regardless of the time and place – aww he has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, how sweet, lol.

At this point Lupin’s noticed a man-hole cover and jumps down with his loot while Patty starts to laugh, and Kid continues lecturing them, oblivious. “Symmetry is the greatest form of beauty!” Forgetting the thirf completely, Kid goes into a rant about symmetry – that’s why he like having two guns as weapons – however when they’re in human form they look different – height, hairstyles and – to prove his point he grabs, um their chests – different cup sizes XD. Haha Liz doesn’t like that and does her own version of the shinigami chop. She has a go at him and brings the three stripes on one side of his head into the limelight – oh no he’s not symmetrical?!

Poor Kid starts cursing himself for being worthless and mopes on the floor in a way akin to Tamaki from Ouran HSHC! Patty finds this hilarious (and so do I =P). It seems this is routine as the two sisters go and cheer him up pretty quickly – guess it helps to know what to say. Kid then calls Shinigami-sama with a pretty light show, who greets him by saying his stripes are cute – how these two are father and son is a mystery to me, heh heh.

We then see Soul, Maka, Black Star and Tsubaki at Shibusen – apparently there’s some gossip. Meanwhile Death the Kid is on his way to the pyramid of Anubis to take care of a witch who’s creating mummies, obtaining ingredients and such by making them attack people. Kid’s pretty excited ’cause of all the symmetry involved. Back at Shibusen, Soul and Black Star are desperate to find out who’s taking on the Anubis pyramid mission and charge off to find out.

Kid arrives at the pyramid on his super cool skateboard and marvels at the symmetry of the pyramid ^^. They enter the pyramid, Patty totally relaxed, Liz totally nervous and Kid, well just being Kid – he realises that the picture frame at home may not be completely level and has a bit of a nervous breakdown. Desperate to go check he gets dragged further into the pyramid by Liz. Their pace gets faster and faster until they run into some mummies and Liz freaks a little as on of them licks her face – ready to transform they find Kid’s missing. Oh my, where is he? No need to fear he’s left a note – he’s gone to check on that frame – I suppose when you gotta, you gotta, right?

Even without him, they take turns transforming and slowly but surely take care of the mummies – you go girls – girl power – woo! We get a shot of the witch – yowch, creepy! – she revives the Pharaoh and then gets eaten by him, giving the audience at home a play by play of what’s happening – “I’ve been caught.” Hmm all the characters in this series are a little weird… don’tcha love it?

At Shibusen, Maka and Tsubaki wonder where Soul and Black Star are – still running of course. They go from place to place trying to find out who the mystery person is – do you think they’ll get their answer?

Death the Kid is back at home at this point, and happy to find that the whole picture frame issue was just his imagination. He’s now ready to return to the pyramid, where at that moment Liz and Patty have divided up the souls they got from the mummies (equally or else Kid would have another fit, don’tcha know XD). Despite Liz’s protests they head even further into the pyramid, as they hear a voice. Upon arriving they see a severed hand twitching on the ground and wrappings shoot out of the Pharaoh’s tomb towards them.

Back with Soul and Black Star, they finally get an answer to their great quest – Shinigami-sama’s son took the mission (as we already knew) – the two are kinda surprised, to put it lightly.

Death the Kid returns to the pyramid and in his search for Liz and Patty finds a super cute ball – he likes it (symmetrical) until he notices that one eye has an extra eyelash and discards it brutally, lol. He finds Liz and Patty, and upon seeing the scene excuses himself for intruding – fanservice for guys lol – for girls like me, I guess Kid’s expression could be fanservice in a way… Luckily we’re thrown back into reality when the stuff holding the girls attacks Kid. Stopping the attack easily, he frees them and they transform into their weapon form.

All of a sudden Kid lets himself get hit, because the Pharaoh is symmetrical… someone’s gotta cure him, seriously! Unwilling to shoot and damage something so perfect he lets himself get beaten up – as a fan it’s not really something I like watching – but – when the Pharaoh comes out of his tomb to deal the final blow personally, Kid notices that he’s no longer symmetrical. Put bluntly, at this point he gets totally p*ssed and goes for it. YAY! And when he gets angry, his power is pretty cool – he even makes a hole in the pyramid.

As the three leave, Kid’s still annoyed as the number of souls was uneven so Liz has one extra than Patty, but sets it aside to look at the perfect pyramid once more. Oops, he broke it. As he broke something symmetrical, poor Kid sinks into the bowels of depression once again – until the sisters cheer him up – “Anyone would break a pyramid or two.” You gotta love his expression at this point – too cute! lol He looks really grateful, until he notices that they’re cup sizes are different again, and gets annoyed at the lack of symmetry – living with this guy has gotta be a blast! =D

Shibusen: Soul and Black Star look kinda unnerved that the mission was completed – Shinigami-sama punishes Kid for destroying a pyramid by confiscating all the souls they collected, and guess what? He’s depressed again XD.

The prologue is over… and now the story begins!

~End of Summary~

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~Viz’s Word on the Episode~

For an episode I had eagerly anticipated, this didn’t disappoint. Not only was the humour at perhaps the highest levels so far, but the relationship between this meister and his weapons was something absoultely unique. Their randomness and the bouts of depression, Patty laughing like a lunatic, Soul and Black Star running around Shibusen – all in all, the prologues have been nicely linked in a way that connnects all the main characters and sets up the upcoming story really well.

Considering it was just the prologue, I’m expecting pretty good things from this anime – not only does it feel like a mix of Naruto and Bleach, and perhaps even a little D.Gray-man, it’s successfully combined elements that work really well for me – I hope you guys feel the same!

Please join me for the next episode!

Viz signing out!

xxxx

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