(L) Skull Man

[ssfsx17]

Episode 10 has been fansubbed. Suffice to stay, sticking with this series the whole way is starting to pay off.

[Kanon]

Episode 10 was great.

Spoiler for Ep 10:

I knew the priest was the Skull Man !

[ssfsx17]

Originally Posted by Kanon_

Episode 10 was great.

Spoiler for Ep 10:

I knew the priest was the Skull Man !

Spoiler for Ep 10:

How did you know that?

[BluWacky]

Originally Posted by ssfsx17

Spoiler for Ep 10:

How did you know that?

Spoiler for Ep 10:

Think about it - we knew it had to be male, and he's the only character with no apparent investiture in either investigating the Skull Man or working on the GRO project. I'd vaguely thought it could have been Masaki Kumashiro, but it became more apparent that he was colluding with Maya's mother and was deeply involved in the Byakureikai, so by a process of elimination it had to be the priest (whose name I've forgotten!).

I've just caught up to the fansubs today and am seeking out eps 11 and 12 as I type. I wouldn't say Skull Man is amazing, but it's really impressed me from a somewhat underwhelming beginning - it's very tightly written, Izubuchi has unsurprisingly done a really great job bringing it all together aside from some slightly hasty bits of writing (Nami-nee's storyline seemed a little rushed, for instance). Hopefully everything will get resolved nicely for the end (is this definitely 13 eps?).

[Kanon]

Spoiler for Ep 10:

Well, with that much mysteries surrounding the real Skull Man , I figured they'll try to surprise us and reveal him to be someone we (and Hayato) already knew. There wasn't much choice, it had to be priest, he seemed the least suspicious and was thus more likely to be the Skull Man. Who else could he have been?

Edit: BluWacky was faster.

[ssfsx17]

Spoiler for Ep 10:

For the whole time, I'd thought that maybe the Skull Man would be Tatsuo Kagura. Unless this series has poor Tatsuo already dead for a long time, with the priest taking over for him.

[Hydex]

Originally Posted by ssfsx17

Spoiler for Ep 10:

For the whole time, I'd thought that maybe the Skull Man would be Tatsuo Kagura. Unless this series has poor Tatsuo already dead for a long time, with the priest taking over for him.

Spoiler:

And what if the priest's real name is Kagura Tatsuo?

[duckroll]

Ep12 was pretty solid. Just one more episode to go. Pretty much all mysteries are resolved and everything has culmilated to the final showdown. Definitely tons of RahXephon and Patlabor-ish vibes in many scenes throughout the final few episodes. Izubuchi rocks.

[Kanon]

Episode 11 has been subbed. Another awesome episode.

Spoiler for ep 11:

I can't remember much about Hayato's background, but could he be the real Kagura Tetsuo? The priest's last words pretty much confirmed it to me.

I was also suprised to learn the skull mask is magical or something...

[Rune~Grey]

I have to admit, I was absolutely floored by this episode.

Spoiler for Episode 11:

While I had guessed that the priest was the Skull Man a little while back (it seemed somewhat obvious), it seems that he's also played out his entire part in this drama.

Against all expectations, in the end, it seems that Hayato has become what everyone was accusing him of being. It makes me wonder what exactly he is going to have to give up to play his part in the finale...

[ssfsx17]

Spoiler for Episode 12:

It seems that, among other things, the Skull grants the knowledge of hand-to-hand fighting.

[ItachiGT]

Eps. 11 was very good, a nice turn around.

[duckroll]

Great ending. Ambigious and bittersweet, and very faithful to Ishinomori's style. Great action too.

[wingdarkness]

I'm not gonna lie it took effort getting through a few of these episodes as bordem sometimes sets in, but eps 9 and 10 finally started to bare some fruits...With 3 episodes left for me I think I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel...This show has alot of OOC moments and WTFness aswell (particularly involving SKULLMAN), but good animated action can make other problems kinda dissapear...Hope to God the main character isn't as useless in these final eps as he's seemed to be all series...I mean even his girly assistant seems to be a black-belt in Karate...

Spoiler for Skullman's identity:

Since ep 3 or 4 I said the preist was Skullman, but the images of his face in the episode where he's in the little shed with lighting flashing didn't look like the preist...Oh well...

[Slice of Life]

For me, Skull Man was *the* positive surprise of the spring season and it got better and better. Discovering hidden gems like these make it worth to download a dozen first episodes of anime I'm expecting to suck just to find out that they indeed do suck. I was also expecting "shounen cheese" as Monir has called it back on page 1 (a term that is not a compliment when it comes from me), and even worse, shounen cheese that has outlived it's eat-by date by at least 2 decades. I was so wrong.

[orion]

I just caught up too.

Spoiler for up to ep. 12:

Poor Hayato. He really is Tetsuro. (I bet that was a real shock.) He became the Skull Man which really is ironic since every one was saying that Tetsuro was the Skull Man and accusing Hayato of being the Skull Man. He's going to lose everything but his life just like the ED animation suggests I bet.

Even the title of ep. 13 seen at the end of ep. 12 suggests it. He is so screwed.

At least it opens this thing up for sequels. The only thing one has to do is pass the skull onto someone else.

Can't wait for episode 13!

-----

I was expecting a great series considering the production values for ep. 0 and ep.1 overall. I felt that it delivered 100%. It's not a "hidden jewel" at all imo. It just didn't receive the fansub circuit buzz that only a few other titles have gotten imo. There are loads of good to great titles not receiving fansub circuit buzz out there.

[hipeach]

Originally Posted by Kanon_

Episode 11 has been subbed. Another awesome episode.

Spoiler for ep 11:

I can't remember much about Hayato's background, but could he be the real Kagura Tetsuo? The priest's last words pretty much confirmed it to me.

I was also suprised to learn the skull mask is magical or something...

Spoiler:

it seems the skull mask is actually the skull of some ancient creature living for aeons.

[masama]

the ending still leaves me with a wtf expression. definitely need a sequel

[Kanon]

WTF indeed...

Spoiler for Ep 13:

So WTF happened here? From what I understand, Hayato was brainwashed by some evil (?) organisation (the black vision?) and he became the Skull Wakamoto. But why did he kill the detective? I'm so confused, I don't even know it's a good or bad end.

And it seems I was right, Hayato was really Kagura Tetsuo. And holy shit, Kiriko became a MILF !

Overall, I'm quite pleased with this series. It started slow, but didn't fail to deliver in the end. I want a sequel !

[lightbringer]

Wow. Just wow. Still, there was no happy ending for Hayato. And the whole situation at the end was suitably fucked up. This series delivered, and was definitely one of the better series last season.