It’s depressing to think the series is over. This last episode was fitting as an ending and also for its air-date. We get an episode about New Years Eve on Aqua, which was nicely planned considering it’s only a few days until New Years. Almost every character we’ve seen the series makes an appearance in this episode to celebrate the new year. It was nice to see Ai make an appearance again. I thought it was pretty funny to see her point out the different characters she had read about in her conversations with Akari. The ending was what you would expect from this series. It felt just like every other episode and finished on a good note. They leave it so it’s a nice ending for the series, but also leaves room for more “ARIA”.

This is one of the few series where I don’t really have anything I disliked about it. I just wish there was more than 13 episodes. It’s one of those series that could go on and on. If only it had been at least 26 episodes. I think the series did pretty much everything right. The character designs were good and the art was consistent throughout the entire series. All the characters were likeable and the discontinuous stories were really fun to watch. The series had great music as well, from Yui Makino’s “Undine” opening to ROUNDTABLE’s “Rainbow” ending and everything in between. The series didn’t have an “opening sequence” like all the other shows. The opening song was incorporated right into the beginning of the episode, which I thought was a great idea. I would like to say that I recommend this series to everyone, but this may not be a series for people who have no attention span. Other than that, I think this series is a must-watch.

*Update: It looks like there will be a second season in 2006. I’m definately looking forward to that.

The outcome of the series should not be a surprise to anyone. Yamato was bound to end up with Suzuka since episode 1. It just goes to show perseverance pays off. I thought that Suzuka going to Kazuki’s grave with Yamato to tell Kazuki she can’t be with him was a nice scene. That scene made me like the last episode. I found it kind of unfortunate the art wasn’t all that great considering this was the final episode. I would have thought they would mention something about Yamato’s determination to become first after the fact. Anyways, I thought this episode was a suitable ending to the series because afterall this really is just a series about Yamato and Suzuka’s relationship.

Multiple factors made “Suzuka” a good series. For starters, the story was fun to watch. The main characters were flawed, which added a nice dose of realism to the whole story. They also had very good BGM’s for the important scenes. Not all of them were good of course, but I really liked some of the piano solos. I’ve mentioned it many times and I’ll mention it again. The biggest drawback of this series is its highly inconsistent art. I don’t mind the character designs themselves, but when they cut corners and make the characters look completely weird it takes away from the series. This series is a great alternative to those gun-slingin’, giant-breasted schoolgirls piloting robots titles. In other words, if you want something other than the stereotypical anime series and want to just watch a simple love story then “Suzuka” may the be series for you.

This episode was pretty much all plot development. We get some new information on Enma Ai. She looked the same 50 years ago and did the same thing she does today except through letters. According to Fukumoto, Enma Ai has been around since the Sengoku period. If Enma Ai wanted Hajime to find the story Fukumoto wrote, just what does she have planned? Maybe she wants him to stop her from continuing. I see that as one possible reason since Hajime wants to stop her and Ai seems to have some doubts now about her actions.

Van finally managed to get his revenge. Normally the characters would end up realizing or be told that revenge does not solve anything. However, this is one case where revenge did solve the problem. While everyone is celebrating, Van leaves the others without a word. At this point I would have thought Wendy would have followed Van, but determined to live her own life she turns the other way. The scene changes to the “present” where we see Wendy finish telling the entire story to a writer. She explains to him that was the last time she saw Van. Then Van like his usual self walks into Wendy’s house asking for food and milk. They see each other and both of them have a hilarious look on their faces. I thought ending the series that way was awesome.

This was a pretty decent series in my opinion. The art was clean and they had good character designs. The story is far from original, but it was still fun to watch. I even thought they had good filler episodes. The series leaned more towards the series side of things, but they had good humour as well to lighten up the mood. I wasn’t too fond of the music overall. I thought there were only a few decent tracks. This series has many similarities to “Trigun” so if you liked that series, this may be something to look into.

It’s probably already Christmas for many of you. There’s still a bit of time before the 25th here so I’m quickly writing this up. This is mainly just a reminder that many series are taking a short break so you won’t be seeing many reviews here for a week or two. If you have any questions or comments feel free to drop me a line (email at the bottom of the page). Merry Christmas and thanks for all the support you have shown.

This was the ending we’ve all been waiting for. We get an actual epilogue this time around. We basically get to watch an extended version of the last episode. Most of it’s still the same, but they added a few new scenes here and there. They did make some changes as well. For instance, Athrun witnesses Rey, Gilbert, and Talia’s final moments along with Kira. That was fine and all, but what we all needed most was the epilogue. It was only a few minutes long, but it did what it set out to do. We see Shinn finally come to his senses and glady accepting Kira’s request to help them in their fight to rebuild the future. I thought the final departure scene with Kira and Lacus was the best. It would have been nice to have had a few more minutes in the epilogue to tie up some loose ends, but at least we got something. It wasn’t as indepth as I had hoped it to be. All in all I’m not overly disappointed with the epilogue or anything. The last scene with Kira and Lacus make up for the other stuff they left out.

We finally learned about Renton’s sister Diane in this episode. Holland does tell us that Diane just disappeared, so we’ll probably see her late in the series. It was kind of disturbing to see how Diane turned out before her disappearance. Eureka learns about the make-up in this episode. I thought that whole incident was pretty hilarious. When Eureka showed up looking like a clown I couldn’t help but laugh. Jokes aside, it’s nice to see that bit by bit Eureka’s becoming more and more human. She definately gets some points for trying so hard for Renton.

I must admit I’m quite satisfied with the ending for this series. I did find that the ending didn’t have as big an impact if it was a longer series. Over the course of 12 episodes we see Tazusa change quite a bit. Even after getting 4th place, thus no medal, she was still completely satisfied without any regret. Not having her win a medal was probably the best choice, things worked out well that way. I thought her performance was good though. It looked a lot more skillful than all of her previous performances. The best scene was probably the last scene between Tazusa and Pete. It was a pretty nice farewell scene. The epilogue was pretty decent too, but I wish it was a bit longer.

Overall the series isn’t something all that memorable. It did have its entertaining moments though. Hearing Kawasumi Ayako speak English has been fun. I thought the art was decent for the series. There were times when I felt they could have done a better job, but all in all it wasn’t too bad. This is definately not a series for everybody. There are better series that are somewhat similar. If you want to watch good performance along with countless other positive aspects take a look at “Kaleido Star”. If you want a premise similar to this series but with a lot more emotional impact, then you’re better off watching “Full Moon wo Sagashite”. In the end this is probably just an average series on my list.

I thought this last episode had a good ending, although I am a little disappointed as well. I’m disappointed in the fact that this looks to be the last of the “Lyrical Nanoha” series. When Hayate said she would use her newly acquired powers, I was hoping they would leave things open for another season. Unfortunately the last few minutes of the episode shows us what all the characters are doing 6 years later. That in itself was interesting. It was fun to see how they have changed in 6 years. I have to admit most of them still look the same. I think they could have done a better job in making the main characters look a bit older. As much as I enjoyed seeing them older, it doesn’t seem like they can continue with this series anymore.

One of the good things about the series is its art. Personally I liked the character designs for this series. Although there were a few times when the characters looked kind of odd, on the whole it was pretty consistent. Taking the entire series into account, I thought this season was far superior to the first season. If you have seen the first season and didn’t think much of it, I suggest checking the second season out before losing hope in the entire series. For people who haven’t seen the first season, I recommend watching the first season to get to know some of the characters just so you can thoroughly enjoy the second season. It’s highly understandable this may not appear be a series that looks interesting to many of you. If you like good art, likeable characters, talented seiyuus, and entertaining action, this may be something to look into.

A lot happened in this episode and we also learn a few things. We find out that Saya went beserk in the past. That would explain why she killed humans as well during the Vietnam War. From three different photos we see that Solomon hasn’t aged at all since 1920. We also get to see Kai, Riku, and Mui who appear to be unharmed. There was something really creepy and wrong with yokushu coming out of children. Saya is unable to fight when they need her the most. I wonder just what exactly is this song she’s hearing. I’m sure we’ll get more answers to at least some unanswered questions in the next episode. There will be no “Blood+” next week.