Kuroshitsuji 2 A.K.A Monoshitsuji -- Episodes 1 through 3

I watched all of Kuroshitsuji season 1 within a week. you see, at Youmacon 2009 (anime convention), i saw a Ciel cosplayer. at the time, i didn't know who it was. i asked them what anime they were cosplaying from, and they told me it was Black Butler... so, months later, i watched it. and loved it. :D now, the second season has begun. i have no idea what to expect o_o so here it goes! time to watch Monoshitsuji!

EPISODE 1
it appears the young master in this series consigned himself to a demon butler's contract because he was being abused by an old man. the episode starts off showing the boy full of bruises, lamenting about darkness and pain and angst angst angst get on with the show. hah no but really, i liked that scene... naked shota butt was shown. xD

the opening theme seems to suggest that spiders and butterflies are a recurring motif, instead of chess as it was in the first season. the demon seal is on the boy's tongue rather than his eye, as it was for Ciel.
i am loving AND hating the new young master. he is selfish, sadistic, and sexy. he punished a maid for looking at him directly in the eyes... by POKING OUT HER EYE. lovely guro there <3


uhh, okay, Alois... your logic totally makes sense... <_<; yeah, he's kind of a total brat... but i like him :D


EPISODE 2
this episode was confusing. 6 out of 10. it was a fairly normal Kuroshitsuji episode... Ciel, Sebastian, Maylene, Bard, Finnian, Tanaka, Elizabeth... all the characters were there, as if nothing ever happened at the end of the first season. Alois and Claude were not even mentioned. but whatever, i'm sure things will make sense as the show goes on... i hope.
i hope this isn't a poorly-thought out story made just to continue a popular series. some popular shows, like Death Note, stopped where they were intended to. and that's good. but sometimes the creators feel forced to create a second season out of nowhere. i hope that's not the case with Kuroshitsuji 2.
anyways... for now, i'll just have to enjoy the quirky Black Butler antics i had become used to. the plot episodes will probably be few and far between, so there's not much to say about episodes like this one, where it's just Ciel's zany circus of friends doing silly things. in this episode, Elizabeth and Ciel risk their lives looking for a deer near a river. lol wut? okay.
ah well. hopefully the next episode will explain what the hell happened to the characters from episode 1. but... the next episode is called "Prostitute Butler", so we'll see how that goes... xD

EPISODE 3
more confusion... at first i thought that this was maybe a flashback to the time around the beginning of season 1. but now it is clear that this is all occurring after all the deaths at the end of the first season. it's like everyone has come back to life-- Ciel, Lady Red, Lau (i think?), the Scotland Yard guy, etc... -- and Ciel (and possibly others) has lost his memory.
this episode was about spontaneous combustion, and it followed a crazy and fat photographer lady. also, there was a random scene where Sebastian was enthralled by some kittens on the street.

so yeah, i suppose the episode was good. and it at least mentioned Alois Trancy, the boy from the first episode. as the crazy lady was burning to death, she mentioned a "golden-eyed man", which i can only assume is Claude the butler. and a figure called "the Spider" (to complement Ciel's being called the "Queen's dog") is Alois. so, it appears that the young master and butler who i had assumed were the new protagonists are ACTUALLY Ciel's enemies, although they are also working for the Queen. hmm... well, this episode gets a 7 out of 10.

-Mei-

Shi Ki -- Episodes 1 through 3!

One of my favorite anime series is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, which is about a group of kids in a village who go crazy and start killing each other, causing the time continuum to reset and repeat. it's very trippy and full of psycho loli rage and murder. so i love it! :D
on the chartfag website i noticed an interesting summary in the Summer 2010 lineup of anime:

"During a hot summer in the quiet Sotoba village. bizarre, inexplicable deaths begin to happen, and a strange family move into a long abandoned mansion. Hospital dean Toshio Ozaki is caught up with the investigation between hospital staff and local residents."

That reminded me a bit of Higurashi, what with the "quiet village turned tragic" thing. so i decided to give it a shot. here's my thoughts:

EPISODE 1
Overall, i'd rate it a 7 out of 10. the animation was crisp, characters were interesting, backgrounds were pretty, all that junk. the intro was mysterious, involving a lot of imagery of skeletons and bones. i liked that, hehe. the story begins with a flash-forward showing a scene of people searching a forest for a girl named Megumi, who is then seen presumably dead in a ditch. then it goes to a week before, showing Megumi alive and well, although frustrated with small town life and infatuated with a boy who ignores her. seriously, why do girls in anime always fall in love with either total jerks or unrealistic pretty boys? makes me hate life... =_=;
oh, and i have to mention: the dress that Megumi wears is cool :D i'm a sucker for Victorian and Gothic Lolita clothing in anime... and there were plenty of shots of stuff like that, especially in the intro. there is a girl a few seconds into the opening who looks a little bit like Frederica Bernkastel from Umineko no Naku Koro ni... heh. ah, and another similarity to the Higurashi series! everyone in Shi Ki has really weird hair. star-shaped, colored blue, defying gravity... and nobody looks like their parents. just like Higurashi! xD
anyway, the story was interesting. it was told clearly and i'm left wondering where it will lead. and so, i shall proceed to the next episode!

EPISODE 2
After watching this one, i'm even more interested. 8 out of 10! this episode focused on the town's doctor, who is constantly smoking cigarettes-- how does that work? anyway, i enjoyed the medical jargon. this episode expanded on the issues. and it was good to see the Yuuki guy (who was a jerk in episode 1) having some feelings and thoughts that justified his attitude. the girl Megumi was unimportant in the grand scheme of things, it seems. within the month of August, a dozen or so people die from an unknown epidemic. some freaky stuff starts happening... there were a few moments where things started to click in my mind, which was good. already, the case seems complex. but i'm starting to hypothesize... hmm.

EPISODE 3
this one is another 7 out of 10. this episode focused on a very strange looking character named Masao. he hates that Yuuki kid, (first name is Natsuno) who is now becoming a main character, it seems. Natsuno's best--and probably his ONLY-- friend is a blonde guy named Tohru, who's dating the blue-haired nurse. things seemed to start falling into place in this episode.
the strange family who moved into a European-style house in episode one has shown themselves now, too. they all have ridiculously gravity-defying hair... >_> the little daughter looks and acts like Rika from Higurashi. she's cute but creepy. and apparently she is a fan of the books written by the village priest. it's revealed that the white-haired pretty boy priest once tried to kill himself via wrist-slashing, and somehow, the little girl knew about it. hmm.
it's making sense now though. i think i understand exactly who, or rather, WHAT the strange family is... and how they connect to the mysterious deaths occurring in the village.

this series is looking good, and i think i'm going to be keeping up with it. episode 4 comes out July 29th, so i'll write about that one after i see it :D

-Mei-

Hello!

Hi! My name is Mei. :D
Starting now, this blog is my place to track the anime and manga that i am watching/reading. i love Japan, and i watch a ton of stuff from there... it gets to the point where i forget what i've seen.
i need a place to chronicle the series that i'm following. this blog will serve as a place for me to post reviews, summaries, screenshots, theories, and more! everything related to Mei's anime and manga experience-- thus, aniMEInga. yeah i know, it's a stupid punny name for the blog, but it works! xP
that's enough for an introduction post. i'd like to get straight to content!