My blogging of this series stalled at the third episode because I found Kuu’s incessant, rampant cluelessness and whining to be very irritating. But I was curious to see how KyoTowa compared to Kannazuki and saved up the rest of the series for a marathon viewing. In a sentence: It made more sense than Kannazuki but had less dramatic impact for me. As such, I’d be happy to fork out for the three Kannazuki R1s as and when they turn up in the TSRI bargain bin. KyoTowa, I’ll be deleting my downloads to conserve harddisk space.
That’s not to say that I thought it was bad or that I regretted watching it but I just did not find myself rooting for Kuu or Kyoshiro in the way that I rooted for Chikane in Kannazuki. Even after the Bladerunner revelation for Kuu and Kyoshiro finally realizing that Kazuya-niisan is Not Nice, I still couldn’t open up my black shriveled little heart to them. The constant repetitions of ‘Let’s go. Together!’ felt hamfisted after the Nth time. ‘Go where? And do what!?’ Plus how the pun about Kuu (空) as sky and empty in the title of the final episode (and the series title) was simply orz-inducing and I could just imagine Osaka trying to make one of her uniquely excruciating jokes based on that.
I liked Mika-sama a lot as her backstory and motivation was revealed. MOAR yuri 4TW. But also share the opinions of Xebek, TedFox, Leon and Adun that Setsuna was probably the most interesting and sympathetic character. The blonde meido design probably didn’t hurt either. :3 Shirukii might have wailed at how she cut her hair at the end but it’s a common indicator of moving on as seen with post-Shiroi Sei Satou in MariMite and even Chiyo, at first, thought that Tomo had cut her hair because of a break-up ("No way that’s possible!", laughed Yomi). Speaking of Azumanga (again), I just burst out laughing at the Kuu x Kyoshiro reunion scene because of how the former was running with a Tadakichi-like big white dog in a field of flowers - for me, forever now an immortal euphemism (complete with its own guitar score) for Nyamo’s sexual exploits.
I was also impressed by the work of fansubbers Ayako which took up this series as their inaugural project. A great balance between the numerous factors of speediness of release, quality of translation, video/sound quality and so on. They’ve become my fansub group of choice for series I’m catching this season. Thanks guys for your hard work!
A show that’s ‘interesting’ to watch, but easily forgettable as well.
Such awesome hair T_T
Though I do understand the whole concept of it signifying moving on, but still, with hair that awesome, it really was a shame to see it cut off.
Kyousora in general went downhill after episode 6, in my opinion. I just couldn’t bring myself to tolerate Kazuya. ChikaneXHimeko at the end was a final saving grace though =D
…are you kidding…?
…Kazuya nii-san was awesome…!
…which other anime villain can you think of was finally defeated (by himself I might add) when he blew an artery or 5 after being too much of a poser…?
…Setsuna wasn’t my favorite…none of the 4 central cast were actually (KuuKyoKaz&Set)…I found that the peripheral characters…Kaon-Himeko-Mika…ScarMan-BatsyKitty…were all so much more interesting…Setsuna was the best out of the core 4…but she still wasn’t that great…
IMHO Kazuya was the idiot child of that prancing ballet guy from Yamibou and the set of Revolutionary Girl Utena. LOL
…tongue in cheek my man…tongue firmly in cheek…
:P
This is another case of an anime where everyone in the cast was vastly more interesting than the leads (ala Vandread).
I would loved to have had more time to see Setsuna’s story, and have to agree that she was by far and away the most sympathetic character.
Mika…well, my feelings on EPLs are well known. :-)
Himiko and Kaon’s story progressed as expected, but I can’t find it in my heart to be disappointed at all. In the mere minutes they appeared in the anime, they *still* make more sense and are more likable than Chikane and Himeko.
Kazuya. God how I loved his verbal and physical abuse of that idiot Kyoshiro. What a maroon, as Bugs Bunny would say. When one person tells you that someone is evil, you can take it or leave it. When every single other person than you thinks so…time to join the majority, my son.
I concur wholeheartedly that this story, for all its failings, made loads more sense than Kannazuki and whole encyclopedia’s worth more sense than Eikyuu Alice. I actually liked the meta-series quality, the retrospective of so much other Kaishaku work. As
Kuuempty as it is, it’s still their masterwork to date.Cheers,
Erica
Hungry for Yuri? Have some Okazu! http://okazu.blogspot.com
In case anyone’s wondering, EPL stands for Evil Psychotic Lesbian. :)
Erica, meta-series-wise, now that you mention it, it’s got Steel Angel Kurumi all over it too. Somehow it still feels a bit thin compared to the TYPE-MOON or CLAMP meta-universes…