Otogizoushi
 

I'm just wondering anyone else following this show?

I really enjoying the dark atmosphere and seriousness, I can sense a deep story line coming from this one, maybe some romance too. ^^

http://img10.exs.cx/img10/1405/Otogizoushi14.jpg

♪ playing the Ed song over and over. ♪

Anything by Studio IG wins.

You people lucky to have US company liscense it so quickly.

Following? It just came out yesterday.

But yeah, I've sort of been waiting for it.

Catched bits and peices of the first episode. The animation scenes and background designs are not really spectacular maybe it's just that Samurai Champloo that spoils me. It's going to be intresting to watch in the long run when or if the story kicks in.

I'm getting flashbacks ***Kaidohmaru*** sorry just bought the DVD just to see how bad this is.

The brief synopsis so far episode 1, just correct me if i make mistakes, I have limited japanese understanding. ^^

Yep, there's a romance coming, according to the Production IG website (in English). The series looks awesome. Perhaps it will be better than Samurai Champloo. It definitely sounds like it has a different atmosphere.

I've heard that this anime's director is a woman, which is super rare in the anime industry. There are also staff members from Berserk and Stand Alone Complex.

woah that's pretty cool info in that site, I didn't caught her real name at all in the anime.

Me love this kind of story, it's like reading a novel. ^^

First impression: The OP/ED music isn't at all what I expected, and I was a little disappointed, but I can deal. The rest of the BGM was quite nice. I eat that Noh shit up in samurai shows.

Second impression: Also from the OP...did the Japanese have pentagrams in the 10th century?

Third: Your command of japanese better be pretty damn solid to watch this raw. Tons of dialog, often about things not occurring onscreen meant I was lost most of the time. The fact that their speech isn't riddled with the English cognates and loan-words you find in modern Japanese didn't help at all.

Fourth: From what little I was able to understand, and by interpreting everything in terms of what plot-briefs there are on the web-site and above, I'm certain I want to see more of this, and will probably buy the R1 dvds.

I can't claim to understand why two different shows this season are re-writing the legends about Minamoto no Raiko and turning him into a girl for them though.

I was slightly disappointed with this series. Perhaps my expectations were higher than they should have been.

The character art are good in the manner of the more realistic styles. However sometimes the animation seems to be a bit weird (e.g. Hikaru - yes that's her name, when she's eating her rice cake).

I had expected a better build up of the story (introducing the world setting first, then the tragedy, then the glorius hero - the real Raikou entering, build up the expectations, then have him struck down by the plague. Enter Hikaru who decides to take up her brother's quest). But the way the first episode was done raises more questions without any apparent answers, it confuses and distracts more than trying to grip the audience.

I love the intermissions of water colour art. But I do not like the use of sketched line arts for broad expanses of space in the background. It looks cheap, considering how other parts looked.

The atmosphere of the story in the first episode instead of hinting a heroic tale of a girl somehow seem to suggest a dewy-eye love story instead. I'll take a look further before deciding if I'm among the audience the producers are targeting...

Btw, which is the other anime doing a Minamoto no Raikou remake?

I actually quite interested with the Omyouji aspect of this show. Before I watch Abenobashi Shotengai, I tought Omyouji are just spiritual medium that deal with spirits. But I see I was wrong, they can do more than that, there are different Omyouji that learn Yin Yang and Fengshui probably equivalent of witchcraft in Europe. So probably they do have pentagrams.

Maybe anyone know more about this subject? ^^

Yes, they already had. That pentacle is called Seimeikikyou or Se-man in Japanese and was come up with by Abe no Seimei according to a onmyo-do as a magic diagram in Heian era. He is also a key person in this anime, a bit appeard in Ep.1.

OMG. This is SUCH a cool series, it's absolutely stunning and amazing. I so dearly wish I could see it with English subtitles though, one thing is that it was so hard reading the Chinese subtitles (Rather hard for me to understand), plus .rmvb's quality really does not do justice to this wonderful first ep.

I was so stunned with that sequence where both of them are running through the forest and it's all in black, orange and white. At this point I'm tempted to say it's really, really artistic.

Oh, Production I.G.... I pay homage...

And the BGM is also pretty damn cool. Fits to a T... except the ED song, that felt a bit out of place.

I so so so so so hope someone does at least an english script for this or something, I am definitely following it even if I don't understand chinese subs so well.

Shin Getter Robo
I knew that they used them at one point, I just wasn't sure when, or by what means that diagram (which is used in various rituals in many different cultures) was introduced to Japan, or vice-versa.

Anyone get that part, when Sadamitsu revealed the truth about the village secret? He said something about torihiki and musume. I'm kinda lost what he's saying, anyone understand that part?

I understand about nothing is this episode except when she says "brother" lol.

The plot of this anime sounds very similar to Basara (girl pretends to be her brother, the savior, to lead her people to victory and falls in love with her enemy in the meantime). Only Basara is in a fantasy setting. Anyone seen Basara?

Hey I remember Basara, I only saw the begining tho, where they had the prophecy that her brother is the saviour i think, but he died and she took his place fooling everyone to give them hope. I don't quite remember it's been a long time. ^^ But I remember that scene when she was taking a bath and met her sworn enemy and fall in love but they didn't know they were enemy. It was very romantic. ^^;;

well the pentagram in Otogizoushi is definitely different from those used in western magic practice, I think the pentagram here represents the five elements in the Yin Yang Arts (onmyodo) and the five holy beasts shown in the OP (Unicorn, Dragon, Snake Turtle, Tiger and Phoenix). It was introduced to the Japanese by ancient Chinese, where Yin Yang Arts got invented back in around BC300 (which later got assimilated into Taoism).

The story reminds me more of Mulan, but instead of Mulan taking military duty in her father's place, Hikaru took the duty to recover the gem in her brother's place...

He said that the villagers offer food and virgins in exchange of protection.

This show is indeed quite good and has a more serious atmosphere than most other anime series, but I don't think it's anything dark or very cool... except maybe the OP, which is quite stylish and feels somewhat (?) out of place. The extremely fine painting-like art style is very pleasant, but other than that so far it's quite a... standard show imo, good characters, good balance of story and action, everything done just right, but nothing outstanding, except of course the very fine emaki (picture scroll) standard art... really artistic feel ;)

Thanks, now I understand why Hikaru is so angry at Sadamitsu and the village not fighting back. She was so determined to defeat the Shichigumo, just her and Tsuna. ^^

You're right it does resemble Mulan, I love that story too. ^^

Saw first ep of this and I like it a lot. The art looks delicious and the story is interesting enough. My hands are all over this one. Here goes another MB title to add to the library.

Grifis

watched ep3, still maintains the good quality of the first two episodes, however this one holds some interesting twists and surprises.