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By Ray at animediet.net

I became silent for a while after watching the last installment of Kara no Kyoukai (空の境界). Gazing at the screen in disbelief in some moments, shock and dismay in others and appreciation in still others, I began to wonder about a variety of things.

Having read the novel twice, I know the ending in the movie is happier. Despite of whatever happened, the movie managed to squeeze out a happy ending. Actually, I almost had the same critique for the novel, except the novel described an unavoidable loss; a much stronger displacement or blank where the male Shiki (織) once existed. That, and ... there is something about the current Shiki that Mikiya will never quite reach.

There is much blood and violence in the movie, not to mention one strongly sexually charged scene. It is nothing like erotism; it is rather like a scene of a butterfly or a certain prey struggling, as it is being overwhelmed and at the same time, strangely fascinated by its helplessness in facing a certain death.

Indeed, much blood is spilt, much like in John Woo films where much shell casings and sparks fly and bodies tangle in the dance of death. As the blades cross, bites and scratches each other, one wonders for the similarities and differences between Shiki and the anti-Shiki, the latter seeking to find a companion in the world; anyone would do; anyone would do? Right?

Being I, being a self-proclaimed Otaku (most likely just another geek in a geek culture), I struggled much as the antagonist had. Throughout the movie, the anti-Shiki seeks solace, seeks salvation of a sort by his effort of trying to find and to seduce Shiki and others to his side. It is his belief that Shiki can go back to the side that he believes he resides; it is his downfall that Shiki is no longer the same Shiki four years ago.

However, as perhaps only the audience could observe and be sure of, Shiki was not the person the anti-Shiki wanted to be with four years ago, and after everything that happened after that, Shiki became something closer to a sense of believed normality. The novel hints that the “believed-ness” but the movie forgoes the key conversation in favor of a gentler and loving ending. Perhaps to provide a crutch to people like me, who seeks normalcy in a world where the definition for it is becoming more and more blurred. But the fact remain is that I am still broken.

The novel seems to confirm that, as Shiki muses the lost of the male part of self and the conversation that affirms that musing. The movie doesn’t ignore it, but it is certainly portrayed in a more positive light. The male Shiki is the killer urge, thus as he is gone, it is better. But the loss is there. Both the novel and the movies come to terms with that fact, but somehow, I am slightly dissatisfied with the movies. However, with all the wonderful animation, superior voice acting, camera direction and music, the movies are masterpieces in emotional intensity and psychological searching in their own right.

I\'m fair, and yet I have to give Strawberry Panic an overall 8, not only because it\'s shojo ai and we get to see the goddess character almost get it on with the cute and often clueless main character, but it\'s also because the painful feelings that the characters have for each other.

Strawberry Panic is a shojo-ai show thorough and thorough. While all the elements in this show would suggest a old-time shojo show - classical music, beautiful senpai with classic shojo drawings of big hair and an elegant aura, a (not so secret) garden, Catholic school complete with a cathedral, a fountain and classrooms, ... sports that Japanese girls admire, and other classic shojo things, it\'s clearly a show aimed at male Otakus because of all the yuri scenes going on, with some fanservice for males.

It\'s kind of odd because in the early days of shojo anime, shows with only women or almost only women and very few men in there would never be aimed at males. Boys/young men/men had always watched shows with men fighting in mechas, with swords, on a sports field, fighting and beating each other bloody, and so on. But with the obsessiveness of the Otaku, whom are often terrible when dealing with women - wanting to be with women but severely uncomfortable in women\'s presence, shows that discover what women do around each other and alone (real and imaginary) are created.

In any case, conflicts of love go on in this show, as various characters fall in love with different women (heehee), some of their love interests respond in kind, others fail to recipicate. A lot of conflicts and a dark past is revealed when love is being sparked. We follow Nagisa, our protagonist\'s steps as she slowly discovers this campus, herself, her relationships with her roommate, who\'s deep in love with her, her friends and surroundings, and her real love - the seemingly distant and playful Shizuma - the top of the top of the 3 campuses. Other characters also get developed.

It\'s hard to definite this as a shojo show or not. I call it the "shori" show - shonen fan service with Yuri elements in it. I simply cannot classify it as a shojo show because too many lesbian love in there, I mean, sometimes there are almost no normal female relationships in this show.

Love the design of the characters, they\'re all beautiful, or cute, and all distinctive enough. The music is OK for me. Mostly classical and light music with nothing standing out. The characters are nicely fleshed out, with some shojo and imaginary lesbian stereotypes - this is made for shy male otakus after all. The plots are shojoesque with infighting and competition over the top title of the 3 campuses but it isn\'t terribly boring. Maybe it\'s because I love seeing shojo-ai and I appreciate the seiyuu for their work in this show.

Recommended for all who love shojo-ai/yuri. This is a shining example of yuri done right.

Claymore is one of the most intelligent shonen anime that has come out in recent years. It has a pretty good, though rather classic plot of revenge. For a story synopsis go to animenfo.com. In any case, here\'s my review up to eps 14.

We see that the main character, Clare, does grow throughout the series so far, which means in each episode something happens and she is changed by it, and through out the story arcs, she is either benefited by the events or suffers the consequences whether she wants or not. I can talk about this character as if she were a real life ... person precisely because the balance of things that happen to her - I don\'t mean that she gets exactly half good and half bad as she journeys, but I mean she has her good days; she has her awesome days; she has her awful days, and she has her almost dying days. She grows through it all.

She has suffered a ton in her life time, and as a woman, she\'s seen a lot of dark side in men. Yet she\'s still on the job, partially because she doesn\'t want to quit. There are rules bounding her but we can assume that she can leave and go in hiding if she desired. But she doesn\'t quit her job. Why is that?

I think she has a sense that the rules of the game are to be followed, maybe not completely to the T, as sometimes she goes out and bend some of them, but not breaking them. There are priorities over organizational rules, after all, especially when it comes to saving a life and nurturing it. She learns that from her previous experience when she was in the position of being nurtured. However, at the same time, she nurtured the person who was supposedly the strong one (this happen when she was young and wasn\'t a Claymore). Something within Clare made her a strong person even before she grew up to become a Claymore - she recognized pain and suffering similar to hers.

Despite all the things happened to her, she\'s still going strong. She risks her life and being discovered (she\'s currently hiding) when she sees her comrades desperately need help; even though she\'s not quite powerful yet and her opponents-would-be are extremely powerful - a classic component of shonen anime. Here, I\'ll go into the shonen stereotypes.

Claymore is a shonen show with its classic plots - revenge, skilling up/powering up, mentors who train, and someone that comes out and help during the most desperate-to-the-urgency-of-death situation (hopefully only one). The biggest and the most obvious twist here is that all the strong characters are women - all the roles that would\'ve been filled by men in the classic shonen (Saint Seiya comes to mind) are filled by women in this case. What marks it apart from a lot of other shonen is the fact that it doesn\'t drag on and on and give out mindless battles or tournaments. That means everyone that the main character has to fight has a good reason to be there, and some of them do indeed come back later, like many shonen shows, but not because they just do, or they have some simple reason like they just want to come back for another round, but these characters all have their reasons, some forced, some by choices, and some by both.

What happens earlier definitely affects what happens later. Friends and enemies are made later because of earlier events and encounters (this anime would make a great RPG).

Because the plot doesn\'t drag - the anime came out when the manga is already on vol. 13 or 14 (I can\'t remember), which means they have a wealth of materials to work with, the arcs are well developed and I don\'t see any unnecessary fillers (at least not yet, I can\'t remember if this is slated to be a 26 eps series), each episode does something to move the story forward. That\'s what a good storyteller should do. In addition to that, the important characters are distinctive and form deep impressions, the unimportant characters mark their short impression and then they\'re forgotten and don\'t take too much of the viewer\'s attention for too long. All these are important to a good storytelling.

This show only suffers a little bit of cliches from shonen anime - one occurrence of ex deus machina. It also has other classic shonen characters like mentor that takes the disciple for training when the disciple has been badly defeated, sociopath characters, sidekicks, and a couple other smaller ones. But these traits get developed the right way, pile those with good character developments and an intriguing overall plot with good small arcs and you\'ve got an awesome storying that retells the classic revenge in its own way.

As for the other elements such as Art, animation, sound - it\'s production I.G. and I\'ll leave those for others to review, because...

this review is too freakin\' long! I commend you for reading this far. Good job! =D

P.S. I obviously like it. For the reason see above! =D