Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi

Season Two Ep 8 is on, and I love it! So sorry for the late review; been dead busy so I kept sleeping early. I woke up just now at 2 am AEST because I slept like at 8 pm last night. Didn’t mean to wake up like this, but might as well just continue writing my Ep 8 review. It’s almost 4 am now, and I’m ready to post this review…. And then go back to sleep. So S2E8 covers the last three chapters of Volume 7. I love this episode, and it seems it’s there to flip my tepid reception of Ep 7. Admittedly, I didn’t enjoy Ep 7 so much at face value because I was so confused with the pacing and also the Manchurian Candidate (sorry, that’s the name of a novel & movie, haha!), I mean the Manchurian-dressed ladies-in-waiting. However, Ep 7 does have a lot of good development, namely the flashback about Suzume and a very brief flashback on Ōdanna-sama as an oni child. Once I accepted the fact that the pacing has returned to a normal pacing which we should’ve had back in Ep 1 (read: NOT, because Ep...

S2E8 visuals are out, and it indicates that Ep 8 will cover Vol 7 Ch 7, Vol 7 Intermezzo 3, and Vol 7 Ch 8. We get the view of Byakuya’s true form here in Ep 8 (so cool!). Also, man, we have a hunk here (not Ranmaru, though he is a hunk too!). Who is that gorgeous black-haired hunk??  As per usual, this is just a commentary of the visuals, which are well done. The episode will end with Aoi deciding to go to the Northern Land, hence S2E9 next week will cover Vol 8 of the novel. Okay, let’s start from the beginning. We have Takechiyo getting irritated at something, and I think it’s because Zakuro is trying to interfere with his macaroon meal.  We then have Zakuro who, unexpectedly, wants to taste Aoi’s macaroon (but I think she later disses it). More importantly for me, as per her first appearance in Ep 5, Zakuro is wearing a Heian-era kariginu hunting robe, which is gorgeous and culturally correct! (ahem – remember the three ladies wearing the gorgeous but culturally-diff...

Episode 7 is out, but it was a packed day for me yesterday, hence sorry for the delay in my review. Ep 7 covers Vol 7 Ch 6 , Vol 7 Intermezzo 2 , and the early part of Vol 7 Ch 7 (which I am still transcribing). Despite some highlights, this episode unfortunately also brings me some confusion, to say the least about the pacing and length of this Season Two. I will talk about it later, but as a preamble, the pacing of S2 is inconsistent. S2 moved at lightning speed for Eps 1-3, and then it halted and took a stroll for Eps 4-7. At this rate, I will have to assume that we will get Cour 2, but since we have no announcements at all about it, I am left feeling like there are so many things hidden here, like the Hidden World itself… More on that later. For now, I am going to give my review chronologically, but just be forewarned, I am not feeling very happy with this episode, hence quite a bit of ranting. First: the Ginji and Aoi scene was well done. It picked up from Ginji’s resolution in Ep...

  I was truly debating whether I should post the new stills of Ep 7 because... I don't want to change the image of young Ōdanna-sama showered in sakura petals...for I think hands down that's one of the most beautiful shots that S2 managed to produce!  However, since Ep 7 has really nice stills as well (which also includes one still of young Ōdanna-sama under a camphor tree), I thought I'd just post this short article then. It's basically just my interpretation on how the story would unfold. However, it also makes me wonder about the length of this S2. I mean, we're at Ep 7 already, and if we only have one cour of 12 episodes... how do they pack Vol 8 then? Does it mean that we will have one cour but a bit longer than 12-13 episodes...? Edit : We will have 12 episodes for S2, as confirmed here (in Japanese). It means the last five episodes will be super packed, because I don't think they're extending the story or leaving it to hang on Ep 12. I mean, if they ...

S2E6 is out and it’s packed! I slept early and was able to woke up at 4 am AEST without an alarm so that I could watch it. And I love the episode! The animation was generally well done (except for one scene where Aoi's emon was incorrectly drawn again), and it feels more like Season One in the feeling now. Since my day is also packed today, I’m writing my review here now. First and foremost, we hear the word “jyaki” for the first time, so the cat (or jyaki) is out of the bag now! interestingly, the translators used the word “ogre-devil” for that. I don’t dislike it, and I actually do admire that word choice. However,  I never use the word “ogre” to translate “oni” anyway, so I will stick with jyaki. It’s a bit weird as well, like translating “onigiri” to “rice cake” or “sushi” to… rolled rice or something else. We also see a revelation from Ginji at dawn, though it departs rather markedly from his own narrative in the novel. There are also some creative licence in scene interpreta...