January 06, 2004
Lunar Legend Tsukihime Episode 07
"Blue Ruins"
Considering the first six episodes of this series, this one starts out almost seeming too cheerful, with a lot of daylight and bright colors. I don't see how people can take the name "Arcueid" in stride, looking from the outside, it just screems vampire. But then, let's just chalk that up to blissful suspension of disbelief.
Serious kudos to the show for doing a hot springs scene without any sort of fanservice, perversion, or other annoying staples of anime. It passes by tastefully and aesthetically, just like everything else in the series.
Also, I haven't really mentioned the extremely good (cute) character designs in the show. They all definitely fall into a character design you'd see on a more tradition romantic comedy, but the other parts of the show work well enough to make these characters fit right in.
There are some interesting revelations (more questions, actually) in this episode, about Akiha (a suspicious character since the beginning), which mainly comes to light through the very weird interaction between Ciel, Akiha and Aruceid.
I still can't say if the pace is taking away from the show. I think it isn't, as I'm always surprised after an episode finishes, getting deeply engrossed in the beautiful art and bittersweet dialogue. If you don't like slow shows though, you probably won't like this one.
Rating: A-
Posted by Kei at January 6, 2004 12:33 AM