Nijuu Mensou no Musume

[phishn37]

Episode 8... wow ~ !

I loved the animation in this episode. It looked so fluid and proffessional, and they haven't cut as many corners as previous episodes. The story also seems to be going in a new and interesting direction. And once again, Chiko in a sailor uniform is super-cute ~ !

[Sorrow-K]

Originally Posted by Ghostfriendly

Ep 8 was certaintly one of the best yet. I'm uncertain about how the series is shying away from even mentioning the full extent of Japanese war crimes, in which experiments on rats did not prominently feature.

I think this universe is far enough removed from our own that we shouldn't hold too much against it for not commenting on real historical atrocities.

Ep 8

Another really good episode. I'm digging how well this has been put together. The attention to detail and directing is really well done. Particularly the body language. They've done an exceptional job of communicating emotions and state-of-mind just through body language. Particularly with Chiko. There was this look that Chiko gave during the meeting scene with Kiyonami which seemed to portray an absolute disgust at Akine's behaviour. Not to mention the scene towards the beginning where she looked scarily similar to Twenty Faces himself. There are a lot of little things like that which say a lot without characters having to say anything, and have been really well done. I like that. Not many anime realize that you can be far more expressive by being minimal in dialogue.

[Tofusensei]

Fansub is out for ep 9.

[Peanutbutter]

Originally Posted by Tofusensei

Fansub is out for ep 9.

Thanks for another great job done.

[Mirrinus]

Spoiler for episode 9:

Wow, quite a lot of things happened in this episode. The show is certainly moving at a brisk pace now, with at least two or three plot threads being built up here in this episode alone.

I'm pretty curious about that actor guy who was mentally scarred during the war. Surely, they won't just drop his character like that, right? The Law of Conservation of Detail should be at work here, I think; at any rate, my own alarms were going off. Hopefully, the show will somehow take this little detail and run with it at some point.

We're starting to get a bit of Ken's backstory, which is great for developing his character. His current presence and motives is still quite a mystery (how'd he even get on that island?), but he doesn't strike me as a villain. I don't think he can really bring himself to hate Chiko; he might be very envious of her, but to actually want to harm her would be derailing his character quite a bit. He does seem to feel betrayed by Twenty Faces though, and probably rightly so, given his situation.

My guess is that Twenty Faces is leaving a trail of clues for Chiko to find, with that necklace being the second (the Anastasia Ruby being the first). Looks like this will be some sort of detective game after all; for what motive, I'm not sure, but it certainly creates an interesting plot thread to run through most likely most of the remaining episodes.

Also, while Chiko fending off the two thugs was kind of cool, did anyone else think it was a bit odd that Chiko was able to throw a grown man without using his momentum to aid her? The show seemed to indulge in a bit of Waif Fu after doing such a good job of averting it. Still, utilizing all those tools was pretty clever, and was pretty much necessary given that Chiko's not physically strong enough to take on two adult men in a fair fight. The most enjoyable "fight scenes" are those that take proper tactics as well as power.

[The Chaos]

Originally Posted by Tofusensei

Fansub is out for ep 9.

Thanks For The Good Work..time To Download ^_^

[SuperKnuckles]

Originally Posted by Mirrinus

Spoiler for episode 9:

Wow, quite a lot of things happened in this episode. The show is certainly moving at a brisk pace now, with at least two or three plot threads being built up here in this episode alone.

I'm pretty curious about that actor guy who was mentally scarred during the war. Surely, they won't just drop his character like that, right? The Law of Conservation of Detail should be at work here, I think; at any rate, my own alarms were going off. Hopefully, the show will somehow take this little detail and run with it at some point.

We're starting to get a bit of Ken's backstory, which is great for developing his character. His current presence and motives is still quite a mystery (how'd he even get on that island?), but he doesn't strike me as a villain. I don't think he can really bring himself to hate Chiko; he might be very envious of her, but to actually want to harm her would be derailing his character quite a bit. He does seem to feel betrayed by Twenty Faces though, and probably rightly so, given his situation.

My guess is that Twenty Faces is leaving a trail of clues for Chiko to find, with that necklace being the second (the Anastasia Ruby being the first). Looks like this will be some sort of detective game after all; for what motive, I'm not sure, but it certainly creates an interesting plot thread to run through most likely most of the remaining episodes.

Also, while Chiko fending off the two thugs was kind of cool, did anyone else think it was a bit odd that Chiko was able to throw a grown man without using his momentum to aid her? The show seemed to indulge in a bit of Waif Fu after doing such a good job of averting it. Still, utilizing all those tools was pretty clever, and was pretty much necessary given that Chiko's not physically strong enough to take on two adult men in a fair fight. The most enjoyable "fight scenes" are those that take proper tactics as well as power.

As for the old man, maybe he's Twenty Face's biological father? Good thing I don't know anything about the manga, because I'd rather stay in suspense. But it might make good sense why Twenty Face would go so far in his quest.

Speaking of Ken, I think he's the sole member of the old gang trying to get together. It seems like Chiko almost forgot Ken which is pretty sad.

And as for Waif Fu, I don't think it's that preposterous when it's a few street punks. If she did that against seasoned assassins, then it may make more sense. It is a bit strange how Chiko is like an Aikido master after a year or two.

Oh, and did anyone catch the earthquake alarm? I wonder if it's mandatory they always show that alarm when it happens?

[Tofusensei]

Originally Posted by SuperKnuckles

Oh, and did anyone catch the earthquake alarm? I wonder if it's mandatory they always show that alarm when it happens?

The earthquake thing is very common. I'm surprised you haven't seen one before!

-Tofu

[SuperKnuckles]

I know. I was sorta asking since I sometimes see one in successive episodes. I mean they're quite frequent sometimes.

[SeijiSensei]

Spoiler for Speculation about the old actor:

I think he must have been involved in those same experiments that were the subject of the past couple of episodes with the tin man fellow.

I don't think he could be Nijuu Mensou's father; he's really only in his thirties. Whatever happened to him during the war made him the aged cripple we now see.

I've liked this show from the start, but as Mirrinus says the pace is really starting to pick up now. Though he's right to wonder about Chiko's abilities as a martial artist, the use of the mirror was quite clever. It's nice to see the heroine use her head in these situations rather than some implausible fighting maneuver.

I don't think Chiko has forgotten Ken so much as thinking he, and everyone else in the gang except Oji-san, are dead.

[Zek]

Spoiler for Ep9:

Man, I know Twenty Faces is good and all but how the hell do you go from jumping off a burning train without Chiko noticing to driving the ambulance sent to the scene moments later?

Also, I know the show doesn't have a big emphasis on realism, but the way they took out those thugs was just stupid... There's no way a little reflected sunlight would be bright enough that late in the evening to blind the guy, and then he was knocked out cold because he slipped on a piece of wood... I hope the series doesn't get too carried away with this sort of thing.

[Sorrow-K]

Ep 9

And that little boy grew up to be... Captain Harlock.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Spoiler for Speculation about the old actor:

I think he must have been involved in those same experiments that were the subject of the past couple of episodes with the tin man fellow.

I don't think he could be Nijuu Mensou's father; he's really only in his thirties. Whatever happened to him during the war made him the aged cripple we now see.

This is what I suspect. Maybe not the same experiments, but similar. There seems to be a running theme of technology and warfare mixing to produce unethical results that destroy people's lives, and that would be consistent with that.

This episode confirms that Twenty Faces is alive (as we all knew), but as Mirrinus points out, what remains shrouded is motive. My thought is that it has something to do with Chiko's family fortune, and her step-mothers attempts to knock Chiko off so she can pick it up, but one wouldn't have thought that Twenty Faces would need to go to the length of faking his own death to unravel that.

The fight did require a bit more suspension of disbelief than is typical for this show. I can swallow that Chiko can throw men around like that, since she's been taught to do so. Not completely believable, but it's not the worst thing an anime will ever ask the audience the swallow. What I couldn't believe at all was that Koito would have anything other than a negative effect on the fight. That, and the mirror thing.

Ken's characterization is very interesting, and it'll be interesting to see what they do with him. I doubt that he'll be an out-and-out antagonist, but it'll be well within bounds if he provides a temporary conflict.

[Kaoru Chujo]

We're catching up to how far I have read in the manga, so I'm feeling a bit more relaxed about posting here.

Yes, I think the experiments are important to why NJM hates war, and will somehow tie the whole story together. I wonder what business Chiko's family is in. The one reason I can think of for NJM to fake his own death is to protect Chiko by not being there to attract enemies. Doesn't seem to be working, lol.

Yes, I think they are skirting the edge of believability quite frequently. But they have signalled from the beginning that this is reality on the edge of magic, so they are fairly consistent. Think Batman. At least Shunka had some bad effect on the fighting. But the light, the tripping on bits of wood, and the standing there admiring their handiwork were all questionable -- although still well within the bounds of believability for me, in the context of this show.

This is still my favorite show of the season, and hasn't made anywhere near the missteps that the otherwise wonderful Kurenai has in recent episodes. Macross 7 is its only competitor, for me. I still have to watch more episodes of Kaiba.

Spoiler for ep10:

This is one of my favorite parts of the manga, and of the anime. Were the rest of you as scared seeing that pin near her forehead as I was when I read the manga?

Hirano Aya continues to amaze. This is a different kind of voice-acting. She seems to be inside the character figuring out how to live. Chiko's grunted reply to Tome's question about liking movies was not the normal tone of reply one would expect, but just a bit different, showing her mind distracted and thinking of why she really is there. That's what Aaya is doing in this show: not the easy choices, but always some interesting twist. The only part of this episode that sounded a bit off to me was the flashback to NJM showing her the jewel, where she sounded young.

And Arai Satomi as Tome was great in this ep, too. The accent, while extreme at times, worked to help give us the character of this person, who grew up in a large, poor family, sleeping in the same bed as her sister.

I thought Chiko's cry of delight at finding Ken was great. And I thought Ken's rejection was perfect. He had felt abandoned and taken advantage of for months.

And the character design of Chiko works excellently well. When we are meant to see the same look as NJM, we see it.

And I don't necessarily want to have the evil stepmother disappear right away. I think the animators and Touma Yumi are doing a wonderful job with her.

I do want to mention again outside the spoiler how great I think Hirano Aya is in this show. From a negative point of view, you can often see her acting. But she is continually finding a fresh approach to a line, and giving us more real person. She is inhabiting rather than simulating Chiko. Arai Satomi (Tome) is also doing very well here, especially in ep10.

[phishn37]

Episode 9... happy to see that someone else survived ~ !
Although, Koito-san is starting to bug me a little bit.

[Ghostfriendly]

With the last episode, I'm suddenly thinking of Huckleberry Finn. Even if bits like the beginning and end are childish, it's still a great book; so this series can be forgiven lapses like ep 9. Just hope there aren't any more.

What could Twenty Faces' purpose for Ken be? A protector for Chiko? A failed or back-up Heir? Some unknown purpose his isolation and anger are calculated to drive him towards? As for Chiko, some of Twenty Faces' clues might only test her wits, but I couldn't help thinking of V for Vendetta when he announced his plan to make 'another person like him'...

Hoping to get some development for Tome next episode, who's definately beginning to suspect the Aunt. Koito isn't as annoying as Tom Sawyer, so she's welcome as well.

There was this look that Chiko gave during the meeting scene with Kiyonami which seemed to portray an absolute disgust at Akine's behaviour. Not to mention the scene towards the beginning where she looked scarily similar to Twenty Faces himself.

That's really true; and when she was in the car with Akine and her schoolfriends, she was so clearly thinking 'good grief these people are daft'.

[Kaoru Chujo]

In ep10, the guy with long white hair is played by long-time voice actress Tanaka Atsuko, who was Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell, Kaji in Hataraki Man, and the evil Mika in the underrated Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora (Shattered Angels). Like everything else in the episode, she was very effective.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is for me to see this outstanding show get so little attention, either in Japan or abroad. Many thanks to Live-eviL and sudo for subbing it. The last time I felt like this was for Simoun, and no-one was really doing subs of that until we fans took the bull by the horns and started making them ourselves. That show was very neglected when it was airing, but remains my all-time favorite anime series.

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Zek

Spoiler for Ep9:

Man, I know Twenty Faces is good and all but how the hell do you go from jumping off a burning train without Chiko noticing to driving the ambulance sent to the scene moments later?

Well... that's what Ken thought he saw, but we didn't get any kind of independent confirmation that it's what really happened.

The "realism" of the fight scene didn't bother me. I agree with Kaoru Chujo in thinking this show is like a Japanese Batman in many ways.

[SeijiSensei]

What Ken saw

I played with the brightness and contrast in this graphic since it was intentionally made quite dark to help keep us mystified. The latter frames in the sequence are even harder to interpret because of the bright flash of light behind the subject.

I'd agree with BBOvenGuy that without independent confirmation, it's an open question whether it's Nijuu Mensou in the ambulance. Still it's a pretty strong resemblance.

In regards to Zek's point about timing, there must have been a considerable delay between when the train exploded and when the ambulance finally leaves. One would imagine it took awhile for the police and ambulance to arrive, for the police to scour the debris for survivors, and for Chiko and the detective to get packed into the ambulance. Plenty of time for Oji-san to take the wheel.

[phishn37]

I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't Niijuu Mensou in there, and I'd be really pissed if they either never address it again, or you find out it was just a tease or something. But, I don't think that's going to happen. I hope he makes a real appearence soon though, the show is so much more alive with him around.

[yurifan]

why dont' you guys think that nijuu menso (20 faces) have took some medicine that makes him immortal or something like that, that he could survive that incident? This show is about science thingies, dont forget it.