Horizon S2 1: Giant Robots? Giant Bewbs? Seems Legit!~

Finally! The rain of steel and melons has arrived!

So if you’re new en you wanna know what the general story then go here: http://www.clanrain.com/2011/11/kyoukai-senjou-no-horizon-01-04-story.html. Mind you the 1st season was burned because of the lack of attention to proper storytelling. However!! Once you get the gist of the story, you can sit back and enjoy the massive fanservices and hilarious main character (Aoi Toori voiced by the famous Jun Fukuyama!) who starts off naked non the less.

So now the city of Musashi embarks on a quest to take back all the emotions of Horizon which are in the form of the Deadly Sin Armaments. However, unlike the first season we begin the second with a lot of action all the way till the end of the episode. Hopefully, this season they do a good balance between action a better interpretation on the story.

Ones of things that gets me really amazed about the series is the fact that the creator is capable of balancing out the unusually large number of character and character types. Seriously, take a look at all the characters, they each have their own personalities and unique design, and from a writer's standpoint, it’s very hard to balance out and give each character their own screen time. As there are many amazing characters on all sides, it make me want some of those from the other teams to switch over to Musashi simply because their character types are either really hawt, adorable or just plain awesome.

Fortunately, this story does not directly focus on the main character and his world, his life, his past and what not. This helps the other characters attain a higher standing than normal by focusing on giving each character an equal an amount time. Unlike any other series I’ve come across, the main character in this series acts more like the support than the those who should be supporting him.
In this series Aoi Toori is a character that chooses not to stand above others, instead he is the one that keeps the morale and fire within the other characters who are the actual fighters or Heroes. And under the pretext that Aoi is the King of Musashi, it is his job to make sure the other characters (his people) are in a good mood. So as the king keeps the heroes up, those heroes pave the way to their goals.

Quite a twist in rolls don’t you think?

The magic system in the series is another thing that amazes me. Especially the magics of Toussaint Neshinbara (tactician looking guy) who types in his spells in the form of a literature than it becomes a magic spell of sorts. The concept they created from mixing machine and magics is simply genius.

The events of this episode is really just amazing. We got Aoi Toori disrupting the opponent using his crotch of all things, btw this clearly shows his ability and roll as one to support his team. And Azuma mistaking sex as something a couple casually does then invites his room mate, Miriam Poqou to get some (⌐■_■). Really this episode, does well to entertain whilst keep everything under control.

On a few notes: Notice the scar that goes around Aoi Toori, hopefully they explain this later on. Also notice that Naomasa (one ridding the giant robot of Musashi) has large melons while her machine is flat(-ish) chested. But on the other team (Tres Espania), their giant machine has giant...no, humongous bewbs while the pilot, Fusahide Era, is flat...Lulz really.

In the end this episode is just well directed en extremely entertaining. Though we have yet to see how well they would convey the story to us, for now it’s all just nice and fun.

OkamiSan~

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 13: The Finale... or is it?

Finally some me time. (-.-") The subbed came out just before New Year so I wasn't able to give this some time. Anyway...  Final episode... or is it?!

The deed is done and horizon is under the protection of the Musashi Academy. All the while Innocentius gives chase. I still can't get over the fact that they abruptly changed his character type, I thought he'd be a foe to fear and not some clown they just deemed as an enemy. But then again he isn't even the only enemy we have in the whole of the story.

Nenji to the rescue!

Nothing much to mention here but things get good when the main battleship of Innocentius tries to bring down Musashi. This is where we see Horizon use a sin armament. Oh, and we get to see Nenji (the poring with 3 hp) in action.

One of the things I loved the most about the episode is that we get to see Horizon regain and show one of her emotions from using the sin armament of Sloth. Its really nice to see how she went from an emotionless automaton to being a human (kind of). Her transition just makes her a more loveable character. Not to mention her chemistry with Toori is just perfect, they don't necessarily agree with each other but they just flow well together. I'm unable to clearly describe their chemistry since I'm not good at explaining things through words. But since you've come this far in the series I expect you to be able to read between the lines in this controversial series.

Apparently Tooris power to support others through the power of Musashi is permanent and now he has to be happy forever or he dies. Not a very comforting thing to know but I guess a king must always sacrifice something for his people.

The second half of the episode is really just a prelude to the next series. And he first thing we see in this half is the Nikyou crest. I was wondering what became of that crest and its significance in the story. We only got to see the crest once before this episode and were never mentioned again before this episode as well.

Along with the reappearance of the crest is the introduction of new characters! And to no surprise its new bad guys from the faction “P.A. ODA”. Judging from their silhouette their character types seem to be similar to our heroes’ character types with diversity in shape, size and design. Well, it’s to be expected since we got to see a whole lot of diverse characters from episode 1.

From the beginning of the series some people complained about how the story would use such a large amount of characters. Naruto, One Piece and Bleach also have a vast number of characters but they were each given their own time through the extent of each series. Thing with Koukai senjou no Horizon is that they don't have that same number of episodes to give each character some time. But with the introduction of the second series and the implementation of more enemies it gives our characters some purpose throughout the story. Yes, the episode number might still not be long enough and there are just too many characters. But it should already be very clear that the story is capable of handling each character perfectly. Hope you understand this “not very important” paragraph.

Moving on to the festival, which was surprisingly small, we see Masazumi Honda in women’s clothing, well not really, she just got tighter clothes (-.-), disappointing. Anyway, we also get slapped with the fact that the owner of the Blue thunder store is the mother of Toori and Kimi, not a very big deal but not something I think any of us expected.

The third half of the episode is where Testament Union attacks Musashi. This made it clear that it’s going to be some sort of cliff-hanger ending. Good thing it wasn’t a “what hell will happen next, I have to find out!” kind of cliff-hanger. But then…  Testament had to attack with the weirdest kind of characters. Sports players! Really? They are attacking Musashi with sports players! Now this is a very face-palming moment cause the first characters introduced by Testament were not at all similar and the new enemies introduced earlier by P.A. ODA were very different. Either way I didn’t take their attack seriously which in turn didn’t make this last episode a cliff-hanger.

We end the episode and the season with Musashi transforming into something and Aoi Toori being... himself, while naked.

Too bad it'll air in summer and not now...

YES! Second season confirmed! I got that feeling half way in the series because I felt there was just too much being thrown as us at a slow pace. Yeah, that’s all I’ll say about the second season cause all I want is for it to come out NAOW! But it won’t, so wait ~ wait, patiently.

Conclusion: Good ending, well directed and organized. Toori X Horizon was well placed in my heart. Nuff said. Can’t think too much about this conclusion since my head is set on the series conclusion instead.

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Season One Conclusion----------------------------------------------------------------------

The series started out bad, unorganized and all over the place without any proper explanation of either the main story or the back story. So it didn’t look good as far as we “the people who don’t know Japanese history” were concerned. Because of this a lot of people hated it and practically dropped it. But half way through the series things were better explained and the story became a lot easier to swallow, well for me it was, I don’t know about those who continue to watch it despite not understanding it.

Like I’ve always said despite looking like a battle series this was more of a “war of the words” kind of story. You also have to be knowledgeable of Japanese history and able to read between the lines to fully understand the series. But I gave the series a chance and now understand it, for the most part. I understand if there are haters, but I love the series, it appeals to me and what I like so deal with it.

Anyway, in the end this is an anime series with a diverse amount of characters and character types, well designed mechs and sceneries, and an awesome way to combine magic and mechanic arts. All if these elements and more are combine and directed into what should have started out as an awesome series from the beginning if only they had properly explained everything. None the less, this series deserve its own place, is a worthy watch and should be given a chance. I look forward to what the story has in store for me in the second season!

(/^0^)/ *banzai!*

OkamiSan~

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 12: Toori x Horizon & 2nd season?

Ran late for this post cause I didn’t know I had important plans on the day I’m supposed to write this. Anyway, Second to the last episode (-.-“). Why’d they decide to heat things up in the last episodes.

Continuing with the battle between Futayo and Muneshige, I felt the first round they had in episode 10 ended quite abruptly, then again none for the fights in that episode felt like they flowed right. Now Futayo, remembering something from her past build up the courage to win. So yeah, she won. I really was expecting something different other than Futayo getting back up and winning. Guess I was expecting more explosions to happen with Muneshiges armament. But by the end of the episode I was still very much satisfied.

So Toori gets to Horizons “prison cell” and the episode becomes a controversial and deep episode, the series has always been that way, I know I’m used to it and I like it. It looks like Horizon, because she lost her emotions, has decided to think though things has her automaton self and rejects the rescue of Toori. A good way to create a twisting plot and good story. Surprisingly enough, the director did a good job in this controversial episode.

Because of this, Toori gets into a debate trying to change that way Horizon thinks and declares that he will take over the world and take all the sin armaments. Now personally I like the idea of him trying to take the world, but what kind of king will he end up becoming? I find quite hard to see him as a king considering his character type. I think of it this way, Kings are supported by his underlings but in this case it is Toori, the leader, who supports his friends and brings out the best in them, he also trusts them completely even if it ends up making him look like a fool. This is what makes his friends look up to him as a leader. His ways are different but if you see it through a different angle then he is quite the leader.

Now most of the episode goes on with Toori and Horizon trying to convince ones opinion on the other. The words used at the beginning of the debate were thankfully not deep and easy to understand. I wished they could’ve done the same with explaining the other stuff. But I had to re watched the final parts of the episode to fully understand it. Guess that’s mostly my bad since I can only suck up and process so much information at once. But I got it. It’s quite hard to understand a long conversation if they mostly substitute their words and play with them to imply a deeper meaning. Got to read between the lines I guess.

Ribbon scene was unexpected...

Conclusion: We all must know by now the series is not a battle series and relies more on speech wars. And I like it! And thankfully this time the director did a good job of laying out how things would go so we would understand it.

Seeing the preview clips we see Motonubu Matsudaira on his phone and waves at the camera!? Spoiler much? This is either a flash back scene or he is actually a live. Now that would really suck unless there is some deeper plot behind it.

I heard these guys are the 8 Great Dragon Kings from some forums

Also, we see silhouettes of more characters!? For real?  That’s the last episode and they introduce new guys? Now that clearly implies a longer story. Pearz did mention that the Horizon series is doing quite well in Japan which might mean another series.

If you can read Japanese, please translate this~

So I did some research but there wasn’t much. There was only one very convincing forum topic up in MyAnimeList. Posted by “dtshyk”, he/she says that Horizon was, from the very beginning, a 2 season series. Just not back to back and the 2nd season should be aired on April 2012. This information was taken from an Animedia magazine (above pic) but in the e-Animedia official website the 2nd season is yet to be confirmed. So please, 2nd season FTW!

I just hope they end this season properly without hard cliffhangers even if its a prelude to a 2nd season...

OkamiSan~

Koukai Senjou no Horizon ep 11: Aoi Toori and the electric plug

I'll be honest, though this episode is quite good, I expected much more.

 He takes the power of Musashi...

 And gives it to his allies with himself as something like a regulator or meditator

Most of my disappointments come from Tooris power. I really expected a lot more awesomeness to his power. Before this episode Toori acted more like a support character and guess what? His power is also a support type. I'm still optimistic however about what else he will bring out. So hopefully electric plugs isn't all of his power.

And the thing that got me spinning was with Innocentius. Think back to how we first saw him and how he acted back then. He is quite serious right? But in this episode they completely destroyed the way we see him. Definitely not a good idea to just twist the way we see character when we already have certain expectations from him.

 Awesome concepts for the use of magic

Innocentius and the Armament of Lust

Anyway... All of the fight scenes in this episode were well played and orchestrated. All except for when Tooris forces fought the forces of Innocentius. That battle was a bit... slow. Until now all fight scenes were fast paced and stuffed with action. Guess that wasn't the point of this particular battle. But if electric plugs is all of Tooris power then this battle was really bad. Cause there wasn't some epic build up to Toori having the need to use his power. Hopefully you get what I'm trying to say.

I found myself attracted to Futayo as I did with Kimi Aoi (-_-") 

Ok, the final battle was between Muneshige Tachibana and Futayo Honda and the little debate they had before they fought reminded me Gintama. You won't understand me unless you actually watch a lot of the Gintama series. Now that isn't a bad thing but this episode had a lot of unnatural character twists and change of pace so....it was something.

 Muneshige points his cannon at Musashi, What will happen next ~(0.0)~

Conclusion: Overall this episode was weird but still good. I may be quite biased to say that despite having more complaints than entertainment. But the truth of the matter is I still had fun, for real...I'm just hoping Toori has more up his sleeve and the series comes to a good end if not an awesome end.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon ep 10: The battle begins

And so the battles begin... Lately, the director has done a good job of narrating the story. And he better be, since the story gets much less complicated.

Toussaint Neshinbara is our strategist

There isn't much to the episode except fighting and I'm not good at doing long posts for one episode so I'll just talk about what matters...to me.

First off, I'm sure I'm not the only one who hates the fact that Aoi toori acted like a complete ass in this episode. He goes head on towards the enemy and breaks the teams formations. Then relies on everyone else to protect him. Now that's a bad thing since he ain't doing anything nor does he look like he knows what he's doing. (-.-") I wished he was more then this, you know, just as how they implied his strenght in the opening song...

Adele Balfette, the steel wall

Margot Knight (right) and Malga Naruze (left)

A god of war vs two Technohexen, Margot Knight and Malga Naruze. A well orchestrated fight, but lets head on to the end of that battle...

Good job!

Nuff said eh? Yeah, nice fan service there. Quite unexpected though. Btw Verwandlung is German for metamorphosis. Weissfloren means white magician while Schwarzfloren mean black magician. Now Imma go out on a limb here and guess Zweifloren means dual magician?! Either way we got a Maho-shoujo scene here.

ZweiFloren!!

Just though I'd say this but Testament Union is also known as Tres Espania.

Tomo Asama our shrine maiden.

Conclusion: Here we get to see more of how magic spells are casted and used. And to me its very new, lovin' it...a lot. I just wish Aoi did something awesome or will do something awesome and the Devs are just saving the best for last.

But then again this series is just pulling out 13 episodes. Which to me is underestimating the anime, since its actually an awesome series.


~OkamiSan