This episode begins with us seeing the last couple of minutes of the previous episode where Marin and Kanon slowly losing consciousness after discovering Sedna’s true nature and having been infected by the heart of darkness. As this is happening, Urin wonders what she’s has done? Sedna tells her that she’s obtained her power while she’s obtained Urin’s body and that the darkness has won out. Urin asks what will happen to her sister? Senda says that unless Marin embraces the darkness she’ll fade away with the light. Why don’t I feel sad? Because you’ve been released from the eternal sorrow. As Marin calls out to her sister we get the introduction animation, but this time everything is dark and there’s no living creatures in the sea or on land.

       Urin goes to her sister and takes her hand and she tells her that she would have been better off if she’d never went to the sky, or became a shrine maiden. Marin struggles up and takes her sister’s hand, hugs her, and tells her it seems like its been so long since we did this. Urin then tells Marin that she’ll use her powers to turn her heart black too; Marin says no because she’ll lose her affections for Urin, and this seems to have some affect on Urin because she takes her sister in her arms and takes her away from the others.

        While Urin is holding Marin she asks Urin if she wants to see the coral again, and Urin tells her that it would be better if we had never seen them or we had never met. Urin tells her that it would have been better if she had never called to her, or met her, or that Urin had ever liked her right away. Marin begins to cry in Urin’s arms, and Urin says that way she never would have become sad. While Urin is holding Marin, she asks Urin if she wants to see the coral again, and Urin tells her that it would be better if we had never seen them or we had never met. Urin tells her that it would have been better if she had never called to her, or met, or Urin had ever liked her. Marin begins to cry in Urin’s arms, and Urin says that way she never would have become sad.

       After a few minutes, Kanon and the Turtle Elder wake up, and Kanon explains to him what exactly Sedna is, and how she was born. They both decided to try and find where Urin and Marin have gone off to.

        Then we see that Urin has taken Marin to the place of their memories where she wants to use her powers to make Marin hate her so she’ll turn to darkness and won’t die. As Urin unleashes her power memories of the two sisters come flooding back and Marin asks her to stop, and Urin says she has to hate her, or she’ll dies. Urin also tells Marin that it’s OK if she’s hated, and alone. Marin tells her no, she’s sure that they’ll be able to return to those days from before, and that someday she see her smile again. Marin’s words seem to have some affect on Urin.

       While Marin makes her way toward Urin she tells her that nothing she could ever do would make her hate her, and that she could never think of anything more painful than hating her sister. When Marin gets to Urin, she hugs her and tells her that she always loved her and still does.

       Sedna’s spell over Urin seems to be broken, but Sedna’s powers is inside Urin fighting for control. Urin screams in pain and pushes Marin away from her, she says she’s sorry, she won’t do bad things again, and that she still her heart of light inside of her. As Sedna assaults Urin’s body, Urin says that she loves her sister, and that every time she thinks of Marin it causes Sedna pain.

      As Senda continues to assault Urin, she tells her sister to keep back, she tells Marin that she has the power to seal Sedna. Then Sedna’s voice tells Urin that if she goes, she’ll take Urin with her and that Urin will evaporate into bubbles of light and disappear, Urin tells Sedna she’s fine with that.

       As Urin starts to be consumed by Sedna she says she’s alright with it but Marin yells that she’s not. Marin tells Urin that she loves her, and doesn’t want her to disappear. Soon, Urin also cries out for her sister saying she doesn’t want to disappear, and that she loves her. The turtle Elder tells the girls to keep back, but both Marin and Kanon enter the power bubble to reach Urin. Marin hugs Urin and tells her that she won’t let her go anywhere.

       At that moment, the Turtle Elder notices that Sedna’s power is weakening. Sedna’s voice says that she’s doesn’t want to be alone, and that she wants to her I love you. Kanon says that she can feel Sedna’s heart, it’s all their hearts and feelings that were unable to be expressed, it’s not light or dark, and it’s just our weak hearts. Kanon, Marin, and Urin’s love embraces the darkness that is Sedna, and her power begins to transform and blend with the light, the darkness is melted by the light. Urin transforms back to her normal self and Sedna’s power begins to fade from the land and the sea.

     Then we see the island’s sea priestess over looking the transforming sea and she tells us that the darkness and the light now understand each other, and now it’ll return to the hearts of the people, and even if the darkness returns, we just have to remember to forgive.

       Back on land, Marin and Urin have to return to the sea with Warin and Sam, and they ask Kanon to come with them but the Elder says, no. He tells them that soon everybody except people born with sea or sky priestess blood will soon have their memories of this fade to a dream, plus they aren’t meant to live together. Marin tells Kanon that she loves her, and before Marin can fully return to the sea Kanon finally tells Marin that she loves her too.

       Later, when summer break is over, we see Kanon finally tell Kojima that she loves him. This is overheard by a lot of other school kids including Ooshima who says the real competition begins now. Well, that’s all for this series, until the special DVD only episode comes out next year.

       Well, this was a very sweet ending to a very enjoyable magic girl series where the power of love and understanding reigns supreme. Since Sedna’s was a creation of every one’s abandoned feelings the only real solution was to embrace all those hurtful and scary emotions, we don’t throw them away, we allow ourselves to be transformed and changed by our life experiences.

      If anything, Sea Story was a tale about growing up and learning to accept all the scary emotions that come along with being an adult. Kanon’s fear of being rejected, Marin’s fear of the darkness, Urin’s fear of loneliness, we shouldn’t hide these emotions, we need to share them with others who care for us, and forgive the weakness inside our hearts.

       While our nature might be good, we all  harbor some darkness inside our hearts, it waits, quietly, until we become fearful, uncertain, lonely, and depressed, then it slowly grows, and can cause us to say cruel thing, and to be unkind to others. But, with the knowledge of its existence we can fight to keep it in check, and when we do slip up, we ask for forgiveness. 

        This episode begins with the corrupted versions of Warin, Sam, and the Turtle Elder’s daughter confronting Marin and Kanon.  They claim that Marin no longer loves Urin and that she wants to kill her, Marin says that’s not possible and she’d never wish for that. So, they say that it’s Kanon and the Turtle Elder’s fault and begin attacking them.

        While Kanon and the Turtle Elder are fighting with their enemies, Warin confronts Marin and tells her that her sister is waiting for her, and all she has to do is give into the darkness and all the sorrow and pain will vanish. Marin can tell that Warin’s heart is in terrible pain, so she tries to purify all her friends with her power, but that attempt fails. The Elder tries to give Kanon his fire to defeat the enemies but she refuses saying that the only one who has to be defeated is Senda.

        Once Kanon and Marin are able to combine powers they create an affect that is able to purify all of Marin’s friends and the surrounding area. Later, back at Kanon’s house, the girls think that they might have the power to save Urin without killing her, and still be able to defeat Senda. When Kanon’s mother stops by to talk with them they can tell that she’s also being affected by Sedna’s growing powers. So, the girls and the Turtle Elder head off to the sea to find Urin, but before they leave, the Elder tells the girls that if he’s taken over by Senda to please don’t think twice about defeating him.

       When the group arrives at the location where Urin was last seen they discover her missing, so Marin suggests that maybe Urin went back to their underwater home. Once there, Marin finds Urin sleeping in her bed, and when Marin makes it to her side, Urin awakens. She tells Marin about a terrible dream she had where Marin befriended the sky dwellers and began to hate her and that she would never come to see her again. Urin says she’s been doing her best to be able to defend herself and she asks if Marin will help her defeat the sky dwellers if they come here. Soon, Urin notices that Kanon and the Turtle Elder are also inside their home and she screams “no”, and unleashes her power blasting a hole in the roof allowing her to flee from the group.

       Later, we see the island sea priestess standing near a cliff overlooking the sea where we hear her tell the sea and the sky not to be sad or have fear and that sooner or later the eternal struggle has to end with the light and the darkness finally intertwining with each other.

       Marin and her group follow Urin back to the place where Senda was released and they hear Urin having a conversation with Senda. A tearful Urin tells Senda that she thought her sister loved her, and she thought that they would always be together, but Senda tells her that before light can purify the darkness she needs to snatch away the light and leave them in darkness and sorrow. Marin tries to talk Senda into letting Urin go but she just ignores her, and Marin and Kanon attempt to combine powers and purify Urin.

        When their combined powers hit Urin, she thinks that this is all the fault of the light, so she uses Kanon’s ring to draw all the power away from both Marin and Kanon. Once Urin has sucked all of their power from them she sends a blast of her own power back at Marin and Kanon.

      Urin’s power hits Marin and Kanon and it draws out and shatters both of their orbs of lights, and Marin and Kanon lose their transformations. Then a huge amount of Sedna’s power is released from the seafloor, and Urin tells them that this is the heart of darkness as she sends it towards them, so please give into it. As the power of darkness sinks into each member of the group the Turtle Elder collapses. As the power of darkness continues to sink into Marin’s and Kanon’s bodies they both get weaker, and Marin says this feels like what happened to her at the eclipse.

       Now, Kanon and Marin come to understand the true nature of Senda and how she was created, Senda is all the sorrow and pain that the islanders have been throwing into the sea. Sedna is the living combination of all the pain and suffering the island people were unable to share, all the misunderstandings between people, and all the loneliness that the people couldn’t deal with. Kanon knows this for a fact because she can feel Ooshima’s pain and suffering, and she can also feel the pain that her mother couldn’t share with anyone after the death of her father.  As, Marin and Kanon are losing awareness, Kanon says that the Turtle Elder had it all wrong, and Marin says that they now have nothing to fear because she now believes that they will be able to save Urin. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, only one regular episode of Sea Story left to go,  I think that things have just gotten a lot easier for the girls to handle. Throughout the entire series the Turtle Elder has been driving Marin and Kanon forward in an attempt to make them soldiers of light in a battle with their mortal enemy, darkness. It turns out that until now the Turtle Elder and the girls were only operating with half knowledge, I had wondered throughout the series why Sedna couldn’t be defeated for good in the past. The island’s shrine priestess had been trying to drop them hints about the nature of the darkness affecting the island and he refused to listen.

       If this had been a typical anime Sedna would have just been a evil creature that needed destroying, but in affect Sedna is the child of every islander who ever went to the little shrine and tossed their loneliness and sorrow into the sea. That’s why Marin felt the same pain from the eclipse when the heart of darkness attacked her, in the previous episode Marin tossed her sorrow into the sea and now it’s returning home to roost. Kanon now understand this because she can feel her mother’s pain, and Ooshima’s suffering. Senda is the creation of everyone who had ever tossed away something to hard to deal with, and now I think both Marin and Kanon understand that Sedna can’t be killed as long as people can’t come to terms with their own emotions.

         This understanding now makes Sedna much easier to deal with because you can’t despise or hate Sedna because in the end you’ll only hate and despise yourself. The key to dealing with Sedna is that the girls will have to embrace her and love her breaking the cycle of self-loathing, self-isolation, and come to terms with all of our painful emotions. This is a message that we’ve seen in many popular anime like in Sailor Moon when Usagi says that you can’t kill chaos but you can keep it in the recesses of our hearts, and also in fruits basket when Tohru tells Momiji that we must learn to live with all our painful memories and feelings, we must transcend them because they make us who we are. I think that all the girls need to do is to give Sedna and nice big hug & kiss, and tell her welcome home, you’ve been gone too long.

       This episode begins with Kojima in danger from two of Sedna’s creatures, the creatures use words that Urin used earlier, and Marin calls to Urin to return to her side, she’s not cruel like this. It seems that Marin’s words do reach Urin and her/Sedna’s creatures release Kojima, and Urin says to herself that her sister loves her, but soon Sedna’s uses words to regain control of Urin. Sedna has Urin release a blast of power that starts to kill and pollute everything it touches, it spreads outwards to engulf the whole ocean, and we see that Urin is released from the power bubble and she’s transformed into a creature filled with dark energy.

      As Marin and the crew observe the polluted sea they notice hundreds of Sedna’s creatures approaching the island, and Marin calls forth her powers and purifies all of the creature. The Turtle Elder makes the comment that Marin has gotten stronger, but this action has really drained Marin.

       When Kojima reawakens he says terrible things to both Kanon and Marin and storms off on his own, and the Turtle Elder says that it’s easy for Sedna to affect pure hearted people. We also see that Sedna’s influence is starting to affect people such as Suzuki, making them say hateful things. When Ooshima runs into Kojima, she tries to confess to him but he’s so cruel to her that she ends up in tears, and all over the island people are saying hateful things to one another.

       Once the crew return to Kanon’s house they find Urin waiting for them by Kanon’s bedroom window where she tells Marin that she’s here to get her, and that now she’ll protect her. Urin asks Marin to come over to her side since light can’t defeat the darkness, and she also tells Kanon that this is her fault by showing Kanon her ring and telling her that her desires summoned Sedna to her. Once Urin knows that Marin won’t return to her she uses her Sedna butterfly wings and flies away from the house.

       Later, the Turtle Elder takes Marin and Kanon to the place where Sedna was sealed and explains to them the nature of Sedna and how to reseal her, they must summon the Spear of Radiance and thrust it into the core of Sedna. Since Sedna has taken over Urin’s body this means that Urin will most likely share the same fate as Sedna. Well, both Kanon and Marin aren’t taking this news very well, but the Turtle Elder tells them that it’s either that or let the world fade to darkness.

       A few minutes later, Marin tells Kanon that she’s going to take Urin back from Sedna, and if she fails Kanon needs to seal her with Urin. Kanon tells her to calm down, but Marin says that Urin has do nothing wrong other than feel a little lonely and that she should have noticed it happening. Marin says that she won’t have Urin sealed with Sedna, and Kanon vows to Marin that they will find away to save Urin from Sedna, the Turtle Elder says this is very risky.

        Later, Kanon takes the crew to a small shrine where it is said that if you pray here the sea will wash away the sorrow. After both Kanon and Marin pray, the island priestess appears before them and she she explains the separation of light and darkness and why they hate and fear one another, and she also says it’s an eternal battle. The Turtle Elder disagrees with her saying we have to fight and win this battle.

        Later, on the beach, the Turtle Elder teaches the girls the spell to summon the Spear of Radiance and tells them they have to strike Urin in order to seal Sedna’s powers. Both Kanon and Marin vow to separate Sedna’s powers from Urin before they strike, to which the Turtle Elder says that this is quite a risky idea. While all this is going on, the Turtle Elder’s daughter is snatched by Sedna’s agents while she’s standing near the ocean, and a few seconds later she reappears as a agent of Sedna along with Warin and Sam who have also fallen under Sedna’s spell. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, Urin is fully transformed and Marin and Kanon finally are told what must be done to defeat Sedna, and what a terrible toll it’ll be. We’re finally told by the Turtle Elder that Sedna never really had a body until now and this battle has been fought over and over again. What a terrible choice that Marin is given, to defeat Sedna she must most likely kill her beloved little sister who’s hasn’t committed any crime other than becoming lonely. This episode really showcased how deep Marin’s love for her sister goes, she’s willing to sacrifice her life and spend eternity sealed with Sedna, and Urin rather than let her sister be alone forever with Sedna.

       I feel that the Turtle Elder is wrong about the current situation and the shrine priestess is right, what she’s trying to tell them is that because the light and darkness are separated they hate and fear one another when the light and darkness should be at peace. I think that the solution to this problem will be like in the fifth season of Sailor Moon after Usagi defeats Sailor Galaxia who harbored Chaos inside her. Usagi was asked if Chaos was destroyed or sealed and she tells them “no” and that the darkness/chaos is where it belongs; All of us have small pieces of the darkness inside our hearts and it’s up to us to keep it in check. So, in affect, we are all creatures of light and darkness, good and evil, order and chaos, and the choice of how we act is up to us.  

       This episode begins with us hearing an internal dialog between Urin and Sedna with Urin saying her sister will return to her, and Sedna telling that no one will every come for her or love her again. Then we see Kanon thinking about what it means to be sisters, be friends, and how she now feels lonely with Marin gone. As Kanon is looking out at the sea, the Turtle Elder and Marin return and Marin begs her to help her to regain her power to transform, and Kanon agrees to help her.

       Kanon takes Marin to see her friend Suzuki to practice the art of Yoga where Marin also learns how they became friends, and of Kanon’s lonely childhood.  Later, while Kanon and Marin are practicing Yoga on the beach they run into Ooshima, she tells Kanon that she told Kojima that she’s alright, Ooshima asks Kanon not to make Kojima worry about her. Ooshima then tells Kanon that she’s made up her mind and will confess to him so she wants Kanon to make a decision and face her head on.

        Kanon admits to Marin that she did a bad thing to both Ooshima and Kojima by being half-hearted and not honest about how she feels, and Marin says that she also said some cruel things to Kanon. At that moment, Kanon hugs Marin and says that she’ll find away to save Urin.

        While it has begun to rain, Kanon is off by herself doing some thinking, and Marin runs into Kojima at a bus stop where they begin to talk about things. How he and Kanon first met, how he struggled to get to know her better, and Kanon’s thinking the same things off on her own. Kojima tells Marin that he’s been uncomfortable with the part of Kanon that feels she needs to be alone, and Kanon thinks to herself that she senses danger in letting people get to close to her, like Kojima and Marin. Kojima tells Marin how he became fond of Kanon and confessed to her, and Kanon thinks to herself that if people get too close that they’ll eventually have to split. Kanon thinks that the more Kojima liked her the more unsafe she felt, and Kojima tells Marin that their hearts gradually grew apart and eventually he was dumped. Marin asks Kojima if he still likes her and Kojima brings up the island song and the meaning behind it, and while Kojima’s telling Marin about it, we see Kanon singing it. Kojima tells Main that the song is about sadness and separation, light and darkness, and about the shadow that lives in every one’s heart, but also say how he feels that someday everything will come together, hearts linked as one. Over by Kanon, she comes to the conclusion that she’s a coward, even though she likes Kojima and Marin she’s never had the courage to tell them that.

       After it finishes raining, Marin and Kojima walk down towards the beach, and Kanon makes her way towards them. Kojima see Kanon and starts to leave but Kanon tells him to wait, and as she’s in the process of confessing her feelings to him he’s snatched into the sea. At that moment, Kanon discovers that Marin has regained her transformation powers and they vow to save Kojima together. Just then, two of Sedna’s creature appear holding Kojima captive and they ask Kanon if they kill him will her heart turn dark again. Then we hear a voice that sounds like Urin’s saying that by killing the most important person to the Sky Maiden she can get back her most important person. Well, that’s all for this episode.

“When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

        Well, another great episode of Sea Story, in this episode both Kanon and Marin had to look deep inside their hearts and come to grips with their inner feelings and fears. One of the great self-discovery moments of the series came when both Marin and Kanon come to the full understanding of the meaning of the island song;  Kojima told Marin that basically the song means that we all harbor some aspects of light and darkness inside all our hearts and it’s our responsibility not to let the darkness consume us, let the hope of us coming together keep the darkness at bay.

Kanon finally battled with the source of her evil aura and found that it was herself, it’s Kanon that feared personal connection, it’s Kanon that felt that it was better to be alone than risk the sadness of separation, and the darkness was all her own creation. Yes, Kanon understood that she was the coward, and it was her own fear that closed her off to other people and now she has the courage to tell the people she cares for that she doesn’t want to be alone.

        In Marin’s case, she now understands that while the eclipse did affect her it was her own fear and weakness that allowed her to say mean things and treat Kanon and Urin unkindly, the darkness was always hiding in the back of her heart.

         It pained me greatly to see Sedna working towards the complete destruction of Urin’s psyche; Urin is the innocent girl who’s always basked in the unconditional love of her sister and felt that she was being torn from the center of her sun because she felt that she had no power to help her sister fight and that’s how Sedna trapped her. Now, Sedna assaults Urin’s Ego, Urin’s mind tells her that her sister loves her but if she’s assulted often enough by Sedna she just might be able to crack her. Once, Sedna cracks Urin’s Ego then it’s only a matter of time, and it might have already, that Sedna can force Urin’s Super-ego to give in to the urges of her Id. Even though Urin’s only been a prisoner of Sedna for a short time it must feel like an eternity if every time Urin thinks that her sister loves her and will come for her that Sedna tells her that no one loves her and she’ll never feel love again, to me it would be worse than physical pain.

        This the classic magic girl puzzle and mystery, the understanding of the links between  power and passion, light and darkness, love and hate. While magic girls might fight with rods, crystals, bows, and any other assorted silly objects, they are, in the end, just a conduit through which the power of the magic girl really comes from, her heart. Because the girls fight with their hearts, as long as their hearts remain true they can access unlimited power, if the heart doesn’t break they can’t break, so that’s why the most effective attacks against a magic girl have always been attacks their hearts. If Kanon and Marin can remain true, they can rescue Urin from the darkness, they can touch the love that will be buried, no matter how deep in her inner darkness, and they can destroy Sedna because love is limitless and hate eventually destroys itself.  

       This episode begins with Oogami having her animal followers begin a direct assault on Midori and Ran, and while Ran just stands there Midori throws up a barrier blocking the attacks. After Oogami realizes her animals won’t breach the barrier she turns around and summons a black hole like object saying that it’s time to cleanse the planet. Oogami also says that even if she didn’t choose direct involvement, humans would most likely destroy themselves.

       After a few minutes, Ran tries to talk with Oogami telling her that these animal were human once, and where her friends, what did they do to deserve this fate. Oogami again sends a wave of animals to attack the girl, and again Midori blocks the attacks. Midori tells Ran to help her fight but Ran grabs Midori and tells her to stop, causing Midori’s barrier to drop, and Ran and Midori are slightly injured. Midori tells Ran to fight, fight or die, Ran says no, if they hurt the animals they’d be no different than them.

        Midori starts to argue with Momoko, and while they’re arguing one of the animals goes to attack them. Ran pushes them out of the way at the last moment, taking the blow herself, and when Midori comes back to herself she finds that she and Momoko were transported to a future where all the humans are gone. Momoko tells Midori that this is paradise, and Midori says how so. Back with Ran and Oogami, the animals continue to attack Ran and she doesn’t fight back, Oogami asks Ran why she doesn’t fight back. All Ran says to Oogami is to return Midori, Momoko, and the rest of her friends.

       Back with Midori and Momoko, they get in a debate about the destructive nature of humans, and Momoko tells Midori that she thought they would at least be able to get along since they’re both monsters. Midori tells Momoko that once she thought that way, but she’s no longer lonely and she has people who care for her, she calls Momoko a lonely person. Momoko gets angry and sort of merges her mind with Midori’s mind, and we see Momoko meet her grandmother, Tome-san, who turns out to be the old lady that Midori met in episode 21. We see Tome-san asks Momoko to forgive her for saying such horrible things to her, Momoko says it’s too late, but when Tome-san hugs Momoko and says she so sorry, Momoko breaks down in her grandmother’s arms. As Midori and Momoko separate they’re swept under water by a giant wave, and Midori calls out to Ran.

       Back with Ran and Oogami, Ran hears Midori’s call and begins to pull herself off the ground. Oogami questions Ran on why she has power but refuses to use it? Oogami tells Ran that her powers are special, you could create something new, or do you want destruction? Ran tells Oogami that she’s never once thought about destroying something.

        Back in the real world, Rui makes his way to the tree in the school courtyard, he can’t find Ran and asks her to forgive him because he couldn’t protect her, soon Ran’s cats make their way to Rui. Back with Oogami, Ran asks Oogami if it’s alright if she says she can say that she understands her pain and the pain and suffering of the animals. Ran tells Oogami that she loves animals, and she loves plants & nature, she wants to protect them; no, she wants to live together with them and she’ll use her powers for that goal. Oogami says it’s too late for that.

        Oogami sends the animals to attack Ran and suddenly Midori appears next to Ran. The animals attack them but the girls do nothing to stop them, and they tell the animals to vent their anger and hatred to them. Ran and Midori tell each other that they’ll believe in humans to the end, and soon the animals start to transform back to their human forms. After all the animals are back to their human forms Oogami says she doesn’t what happened. Just then, a tree sprouts from the ground near Ran, and when it reaches full size Rui emerges from it with Ran’s cats. When Rui and Ran reach each other it seems that Rui is about to tell Ran that he loves her but Midori steps in between them pulling a classic cock confession block.

       Soon, all sorts of plants and trees start to bloom and we hear a voice telling the great mother that they’ve come to get her, it’s not time for them to reawaken yet, and to believe in humans. Just as Oogami tells Ran that she’ll believe in humans, a blinding light carries Oogami away and then Ran, Midori, and Rui awaken at dawn under the school tree with Rin rushing to meet them.

       Flash forward, and a new school year has begun, Ran is depressed because Rui and her other friends are now in different class but Midori tells her to cheer up because she’s here. Well, we see that everything is going great; Ran and Rui are getting along fine, Midori is still crushing on and flirting with Rin, Momoko and her grandmother are getting along fine, and everyone hangs out at Ran’s lively house. Oh, we also see that Ran is still hearing voices that lead her and Midori on new adventures.

       Well, with this episode we’ve come to the conclusion of a highly enjoyable adventure series geared towards a younger viewing audience.  What I mean by when I say that this series is geared towards a younger audience is not that older viewers won’t enjoy this series but that there’s nothing objectionable in its content of viewers of all age groups. The basic premise of the entire series can be summed up as two junior high school girls with telepathic power  receive a call to adventure and have to solve supernatural mysteries, and going along of the ride is one boyfriend and one older brother.

       What I found so enjoyable in this series is how it differed from many current anime series. First of all, Ran, the main character, gets along with her family really well, in fact, she has two parents and a brother, what the hell are they trying to here I thought that most anime families are highly dysfunctional; missing or dead parents, kids hating their parents, older brother/younger sister complexes. Secondly, almost everyone acts accordingly with their real ages: Ran, Rui, and Midori act like the young teenagers that they are and not like mini adults; Ran’s older brother Rin actually acts like an older brother, no younger sister complex here, nor does he fawn over or develop a loli complex over Midori’s attempts at flirting; Ran’s parents actually act like normal parents, they’re not stupid and act more like children than the children do, they’re caring and kind and maintain proper ordered household.

       If you enjoy watching a good adventure story where most of the large issues can be solved and fixed with a “love conquers all” and a “can’t we all just get along” type solution then this is the anime of you, but if you expect a storyline line with a little more meat to it than you better leave this one alone.

       This episode begins with us seeing Urin and Marin playing a game of hide & seek when they were little, and then we’re treated to a pre-opening animated clip of Marin and Urin frolicking under the sea as kids set to music.

      After the opening song we see that the blast has knocked Marin out cold, and when she revives she wants to go to Urin again. The Turtle Elder and the others counsel against this course of action. The Turtle Elder speculates that Urin was brought under Sedna’s influence when the ring she was wearing reacted to Sedna’s vibrations and because Marin can’t transform right now the Turtle Elder suggests that the Sky Maiden return to the surface world for the time being.

        While this is going on we see that Kojima has stopped by Kanon’s house to check on her, and her mother says that Kanon must be out training. Kojima begins to get worried about Kanon and tell Ooshima that they should split up and search for her; needless to say, Ooshima isn’t too happy about hearing the phrase ”split up” being mentioned, or having to look for her rival in love, Kanon.

        As Warin escorts Kanon back to the surface she tells Kanon about how the sea dwellers are born and about their family relationships; sea dwellers are born from sea shells and both Marin and Warin where born from extremely pure shells. Sea dwellers don’t know their parents or siblings when they’re born, but, both Marin and Urin where attracted to each other from the beginning. Back at Urin’s location we hear Marin tell the Turtle Elder that she’s sure that Urin is waiting for her to come save her just like before. Back with Warin and Kanon, Warin tells Kanon a story about how when she, Sam, Marin, and Warin were on a trip, Urin became lost. While they were searching for Urin, Marin hears Urin’s cries and she rushes to find and embrace a tearful Urin, and a short while later Urin calls Marin sister for the first time, so that’s how Urin and Marin became sisters.

       When Kanon finally returns home, her mother tells her that Kojima stopped by looking for her, and she tells Kanon that they seem close. Later, in her room, Kanon checks her cellphone to find that Kojima has left her several messages, and when she goes to reply to his messages she gets a angry call from Ooshima. Kanon hangs up on Ooshima, but she calls back a few seconds later, and this time she takes the call. After listening to Ooshima’s angry call Kanon meets with her by the ocean, Ooshima tells Kanon to just dump Kojima instead of leaving him hanging. Kanon tells Ooshima that she was the one being dumped, and she says that she thought that Ooshima was going out with Kojima to which Ooshima says that if that was the case she would have never called her. Kanon tells Ooshima that she thought that she was dumped because Kojima spent less and less time with her and called her less often but when Kanon thinks back on her and Kojima’s last meeting she just assumed that she was being dumped.  Ooshima yells at Kanon calling her a fool, and saying she doesn’t understand why Kojima likes this girl. Then it all comes out, Ooshima and Kojima aren’t really dating, and when they’re together all Kojima talks about is Kanon this, and Kanon that. Ooshima asks Kanon if she still likes him? When Kanon says nothing, Ooshima says this has to be a bad joke; am I not good enough? Ooshima starts crying and asks why does it have to hurt so much because you like someone? Soon, Kanon starts crying, and Ooshima tells Kanon that she’ll tell Kojima that Kanon is back to her old self. But, Ooshima says that she won’t lose to her as she walks away.

I found Ooshima’s facial expression so great I just had to add lots of caps.

       Meanwhile, under the sea, Marin goes towards Urin saying that if she can get Urin to remember the time when she got lost she’s sure that Urin will come back to her. When Marin gets close to Urin she finds a barrier surrounding her, and Marin attempts to break through. Urin can sense her sister, and calls her name. Marin tries to break through the barrier but gets stuck, Warin rushes to her aid but also gets stuck, and finally Sam is able to pull them free. Later, Marin wants to try again, but Warin warns against it saying she needs to get her powers back, and the Turtle Elder tells her that since the eclipse the Sea Maiden’s heart has been blinded by darkness. Warin suggests that they return to Kanon’s place because Kanon’s heart is surrounded in darkness and she can still transform, so Marin might be able to learn from her how to transform again. The group soon heads off towards Kanon’s place leaving Urin behind.

       As the group departs, we hear Sedna’s voice telling Urin that they left her, Urin says that they came for her, and Sedna tells her that no one is ever coming back. Urin says she hates being alone, Sedna tells her that sadness follows loneliness, and she tells her that no one is worthy of forgiveness. Well, the episode ends with Urin trapped, alone, in the energy cocoon with Sedna whispering to her.

        Well, I found this episode very interesting for several reason. First of all it seems that we’ve come to the conclusion of the Kanon, Kojima, and Ooshima love triangle with Kanon finally figuring out that her relationship problems were all in her mind or at least created in her mind. When Kanon thinks back to the day she thought Kojima dumped her she realizes that she assumed that Kojima dumped her when he never came out and dumped her. This goes back to the problem I pointed out about Kanon a couple of episodes ago, and ever her mother told her several times that her evil aura was going to cause her problems. Well, it seems that Kanon’s feelings about how she perceived Kojima’s feelings toward her were tainted by her self-loathing and the delusion that she didn’t deserve to be loved.

      I also felt a great deal of sympathy towards Ooshima for all the effort she put into trying to get Kojima to feel some attraction for her; it’s a real bitch loving someone that you know doesn’t love you back.

        This episode really tore me up having to watch Urin helplessly call for her sister, and having Marin be unable to help her. Since Sedna has been dead/sealed for a long time she needs a physical vessel to transfer all her powers into and she has to totally break Urin’s mind to make the process complete. I found watching Sedna slowly twist and pervert Urin’s spirit about as painful as getting some teeth pulled, Urin’s only sin was wanting some power so she could fight along side her sister. In many respects this part of the story arc reminds of the black lady arc from Sailor Moon R, after all,  Junichi SATO was involved in the Sailor Moon series.

       In the end, Marin is the only one who can save Urin, but she has to get her heart right first. Marin must forget about the present and fill her heart with all the love and happy memories she has for her sister then she’ll be able to transform once more and bring the child of light back from the darkness that surrounds her.

     This episode begins with the Turtle Elder telling Marin that maybe it’s better that Urin returned to the sea because both her and Kanon are still lacking something. When they all return to the house we see that the woman that Urin defeated and returned to her original form is the Turtle Elder’s daughter, Ichikawa. Later, they hold a great feast in celebration for the Elder and his daughter being reunited, and when Urin’s name gets mentioned Marin says she going after Urin. Kanon catches Marin and tells her that she thinks that she saw a black butterfly mark on Urin’s hand. The Turtle Elder says that this is very bad, Urin could have been attacked and taken over by Sedna, and if that happened Urin could have tremendous powers because of her shrine priestess blood.

      Later, we see Urin at the location where Warin and Sam felt the evil energy, and we watch Urin activate her power and send pulses of energy to attack the location.

      When the Turtle Elder tells them that the reason that Sedna might have attacked Urin is because she need her power to unseal her body Marin rushes to the sea saying she has to find Urin. Kanon tries to follow but the Elder stops her saying that she needs to stay behind and find something called the Porterius ring; Since her mother has to have shrine priestess blood the ring might be in the house. The elder leaves his daughter behind to help Kanon while he returns to the sea to aid Marin.

       As Kanon and Ichikawa try out any item in the house that might have some power, Marin and the Elder travel to the place where Sedna’s other half is located. As Marin and the Elder look over Sedna’s shrine Sam and Warin hook up with them. While Kanon and Ichikawa continue to try out items we see that Urin is inside Sedna’s shrine. Urin uses her power and unseals Sedna’s crypt releasing her dark energy into the sea, and the black power begins to leave the sea in the form of black butterflies.

      Everyone standing outside Sedna’s shrine can feel the power spiking, and Warin asks where Kanon is? The Elder tells her that until she finds the Porterius ring she can only fight on land. Marin begins to head towards the shrine, and the Elder tells her it’ll be dangerous going alone, but Marin tells him she’ll be OK alone. As Marin heads towards the shrine, Warin and the others decide to also join her. As Kanon is about to give up on the ring she remembers to check inside the pickle urn where she finds the Porterius ring.

      Then we see Ooshima and Kojima out on a sight seeing boat having a date where Ooshima tries to use all her female charms to get him to forget about Kanon. Just as Kojima’s dumping Ooshima he sees Kanon and Ichikawa diving into the ocean depths, he declares that it’s very beautiful, and Ooshima curses Kanon for daring to use a swimsuit in this kind of fight.

     As Marin and her group approach the shrine entrance a giant octopus attacks them, and the fight goes badly for them because Marin can’t transform. Just as they’re about to be killed Kanon shows up and uses her power to save them and she manages to trap the giant octopus and transform it back to it’s original form.

     Marin and the group makes their way inside Sedna’s shrine to find Sedna’s crypt unsealed and over flowing with energy. Inside the maelstrom of energy Marin sees her sister Urin, and as Marin tries to reach her, Urin tells her to stop and don’t come any closer. Urin tells her sister that in a little while she’ll be able to protect herself and be able to win her back from Kanon, but Marin tells her that she has to refuse this power and she’ll save her. As Marin tries to approach Urin, she again tells her to stay back and activates her power blasting Marin and the other away from the shrine, Urin’s energy release is so powerful that the shrine is blasted away. We see a tearful Urin wrapped in a cocoon of energy telling her sister that she only needs a little longer to make the power hers. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, even though I saw this coming several episodes ago I can’t say that it didn’t make my heart sick to see Urin’s fall into darkness. Urin and Marin, sisters, but more than that, two halves of a whole, sharing a love so strong that one is willing to embrace the darkness that dwells inside all of our hearts to preserve that love. As sad as I found Urin’s fall, it’s completely understandable, many times Urin had to watch her sister go into battle and risk her life while Kanon hemmed and hawed on the sidelines, it had to just eat at her soul to watch her sister risk her life while Kanon did nothing with the great power she was granted for free.

      In a magic girl anime the onset of the magic girl’s powers usually coincides with the onset of puberty linking the great trans-formative stage of changing from a girl to a young woman to the change that occurs when the girl changes from a normal girl to a magic girl. So, in this aspect, Urin is still a girl who desires to be more than she is at that moment, and Senda senses her desire and an offers her a deal with the devil. Senda offers Urin a chance to advance faster than nature is allowing her and Urin accepts her offer. No matter how much Kanon desires to help in this situation the matter will only be settled by a battle for Urin’s heart and soul. Marin must be able to touch the goodness that still lives inside Urin’s heart and have her reject her desire to be more than what she should be at this moment. While Senda may think that she has the upper hand, bad guys always underestimate the power of love because they can’t imagine caring for something more than they value their own goals.  

       The first episode begins with Kanon watching Urin playing with her ring so she takes the ring and puts it on a chain for Urin to wear around her neck, and Kanon also watched the interaction between Marin and her little sister. Then we see that the island is filling up with tourists for an upcoming total solar eclipse, and Kanon and her mother are able to make some money selling stuff to the visitors. We also see the local priestess make a appreance by greeting the docking cruise ship with a song.

       Later, the turtle elder takes the girls to where Sedna was unsealed and tells them that she’ll use the eclipse to gather evil energy, and he also tells Kanon to watch out or she’ll be unable to transform again. If the darkness in her heart grows it’ll shut out the light and all she’ll be left with is pain and hatred.  Kanon kind of relates the story of how she and her boyfriend broke up, but looking back at Kanon’s memories it seems that she more or less assumed she had been dumped when he actually never came right out and dumped her, he seemed more frustrated by her negative personality than not caring for her. The Turtle Elder tells Marin that she has too has to look out so Kanon doesn’t fall into darkness, and Marin agrees to protect Kanon’s heart.

      As they continue to talk about the eclipse Urin tries several times to tell Marin that she’ll help her but she kind of gets ignored, and when she hears Marin say she loves Kanon she starts to get depressed.  Then we see Tom and Warin searching under the sea for where Sedna’s other half is hidden and it looks like they might have spotted the place. Then on the beach we see the group getting ready for the ellipse when Kanon gets a call from her EX (Kojima), she decides to not take the call. Marin tells her to just call him and tell him she love him, you still do, don’t you? Kanon starts to give off her evil aura, and Urin jokes around with her about this. The upcoming eclipse seems to be having some affect on Marin and she says some very cruel things to Urin and she even tells her to go home, leave. Before Marin regains her senses Urin runs off in tears, then it’s too late to chase after her.

      As Marin and Kanon search for Urin they run into Kojima’s new girlfriend, she sends some digs at Kanon about how she better in body and in personality than Kanon, and she’s quite proud of her large assets until she gets a look at Marin’s love pillows.

      We see Urin wandering through the crowd and she starts crying, and when a woman knocks her over she refuses the help offered to her, Urin runs off saying she hates the sky and hates the sky dwellers. As the eclipse blocks out more and more of the sun it seems to weaken Marin more and more. Then we see Urin standing on some rocks thinking about the words Marin spoke to her and we see her break the chain off her neck and throw it into the sea. Urin then hold the ring up and looks through it to see the eclipse, and when Urin places the ring on her finger some power activates and gathers energy to Urin and the ring. After a few seconds, the power stops’ flowing into the ring and Urin finds out that she can’t remove it from her finger.

       Marin and Kanon spot some rare black butterflies and Kanon wants to try and catch them for money but Marin refuses saying they have to find Urin. As Marin and Kanon continue to search for Urin the effects of the darkness of the eclipse seem to grow stronger on Marin, and the Turtle Elder now tells Kanon’s mother that he thinks the darkness will affect the light more. Finally, Sedna’s underling appears before the turtle elder and Kanon’s mother but she seems not ready to attack them yet, and they have no choice but to runaway. Then the woman appears before Kanon and Marin but they too have to runaway because Marin has lost the power to transform. We see that Urin is staring out towards the sea surrounded by the mysterious black butterflies, and soon her entire body is covered by them, the ring vanishes inside her finger, and then she disappears.  As Marin and Kanon continue to search for Urin they come close to the singing priestess, and their hearts are calmed by her song and they are both able to transform.

       After a little searching, the Turtle Elder and Kanon’s mother manage to hook up with Kanon and Marin, but Urin’s still missing. A few seconds later the group spots Urin, and Marin runs up to her sister and apologizes to her for everything. As they all head home, Kanon notices that something’s wrong with Urin and the ring is missing. Over lunch the group discusses what happened to Marin and the other events of the eclipse, all Urin does is say yeah to every question. Kanon gets a call from Suzuki telling her to turn on the TV, Suzuki is on TV and Kojima and his new girl walk across the background. When the Turtle Elder asks Urin what happened to the ring, Urin just says she’d lost it and leaves the table but Kanon notices a black marking on one of Urin’s fingers.

      As Marin is washing the Turtle Elder’s shell, he tells her that maybe she was too pure and the darkness affected her more than Kanon. He also tells her that since Urin shares the same blood as hers she might have power someday, but not now, so it might be better to send her to Sam and Warin for safe keeping, Marin flatly refuses to be separated from her sister.

       Later that night one of Sedna’s creatures (the girl from before) shows up at Kanon’s house and Urin confronts her and uses the power of the ring/butterfly marking to take her power and transform her back to her original form. When Kanon and Marin reach Urin’s side she tells her sister that it’s OK she can now protect herself because she now has her own power. Urin says that she can’t stand living with sky dwellers and it only turned out this way because of Kanon, so she’s returning to the sea. Urin runs out the door before Marin can stop her, and then we see Urin standing on a seaside cliff, she says change light into darkness and goodbye before she leaps into the sea. Well, that’s all for episode five and six.

       Well, I knew it would come down to this after watching episodes three and four, Urin’s resentment and anger at Kanon for having the power she has and her constant bitching and moaning about it caused Urin to desire power she’s not entitled to. It must have been killing Urin to have to watch her sister put herself in danger many times while Kanon hesitates before entering the fight. While Sedna has limited herself to corrupting only minor creatures until now, she’s hit the mother lode with Urin. As the Turtle Elder told Marin, she and her sister share the same bloodline, so Urin might someday have the power of a sea priestess.

        While some might fault Urin for her falling under Sedna’s spell but I’m going to place very little blame on her, Urin’s a child after all, and it’s quite easy to see how she could feel resentment and anger over thinking that she’s losing her sister’s love. I’m going to place a lot of the blame on Kanon, it’s quite tiring to watch her constantly complain and bitch about her situation, a magic girl must accept her duty to protect the most important things in her life, and it’s what gives her power. The reason a magic girl can overcome even the most powerful enemies in the world is because their power is biased on strength of heart and love. So, as long as a magic girl’s heart remains true and loving she’ll be able draw on almost unlimited power to fight evil because an evil heart contains nothing but hatred.

       Overall, this is a great change of pace as magic girl series go, it’s nice to watch Sea Story break the monster of the day formula of at least a couple of episodes and go for a longer story arc. I look forward to seeing how Marin and Urin will get back together, and when Kanon will finally get her mojo as a warrior of the light. 

      This episode begins under the sea with Warin arming herself because she wants to head to the surface to find Marin and Urin, she’s worried how the surface dwellers are treating them. Meanwhile, topside, a large storm is hitting the island, and when Marin and Urin ask Kanon to open the window to hear the sea, she goes off about how she hates the sea, the island, and everything about them. Kanon keeps  thinking back to being dumped by her boyfriend, and when she sees the ring she gives it to Marin for safe keeping, Marin refuses, but Urin grabs the ring and says she’ll keep it safe. While sitting out in the storm, the turtle elder says that he has to purify Kanon ASAP, if it’s even possible.

         The next morning, the turtle elder hands Kanon a treasure map and tells her that the hidden treasure will purify a evil heart if. Kanon asks if he’s telling her to do this? It’s your choice. Just as Kanon is about to leave, Marin says she’s going too, and Urin says it can’t be helped.  Later, we see that Urin had to stay behind because she’d just slow them down, and Urin looks at the ring and wonders why she can’t go along too.

          Kanon and Urin follow the Turtle Elders’ map and stumble and fumble the way through the maze inside the cave. As Urin’s about to sneak off after them Kanon’s mom catches her, Urin manages to keep it secret from the Turtle Elder but she warns Urin that the cave might be dangerous and you could get cursed from the rumored pirate treasure. Once the Turtle elder finds out about the curse he chases after the girls with Urin trying to keep up with him. After wandering around for a while, Kanon and Marin find the hidden pirate treasure, but when Kanon looks at the map and sees that this isn’t the treasure the Turtle Elder showed her. Soon, Kanon’s thoughts turn to how she and relax and enjoy the money, and this certainly isn’t purifying Kanon’s spirit.

           When Marin calls Kanon up to the pirate ship to share a bento lunch, Kanon asks Marin if it’s alright if she doesn’t return to the sea, and Marin tells her as long as she has her ring she’s OK. While they’re enjoying their lunch, a shadowy figure is about to attack them, but it turns out that the figure is Warin and she came looking for Marin, and Warin also brought Tom with her. Warin doesn’t trust or like Kanon, she feels that Kanon is tricking or using Marin, and just as they’re about to fight, Tom says that even though Kanon has a evil aura such a cute girl can’t trick Marin. Tom touches Kanon’s hair and asks her if she wants to eat sea grapes with him, Kanon goes off on him saying he’s like all the other guys, using sweet words of love to ask girls out. While Kanon’s on an epic rant, her evil aura maxes out and begins to revive the pirate remains. The pirate leader says that she’ll present that girl’s evil aura to Sedna as a gift, and she revives all the other pirate remains and orders them to attack Kanon. Marin transforms and jumps to Kanon’s aid; Kanon tries to transform but finds she can’t. Warin seeing what’s happening and joins the battle, and even though Warin fells all the pirate remains the just return to life a short time later.

         Kanon begins to transform but her anger causes her orb of light to turn to stone, and the ceiling of the cave begins to collapse letting ocean water inside. Most of the group is washed overboard and Warin tells Marin to escape because she dropped her breathing ring but Marin tries to  rescue Kanon causing herself to be put into danger from the pirates. Warin again jumps into to the fight and saves Marin while Kanon watches helplessly from above, finally Kanon gets it, she understands that Warin fights so hard because she loves her friend. Kanon is now able to transform, she calls to the Turtle Elder for the fire, and she is able to blast away the bad guys. The force of the explosion causes a total collapse of the cave’s roof, as the sea water rushes in, Kanon grabs the ring that Marin dropped in battle and joins the group for a sea escape.

          When the group surfaces, Kanon returns the ring to Marin, and Marin hugs Kanon in thanks. Once everyone is back on dry land Kanon asks the Turtle Elder about the treasure, and he tells her that it was an exchange diary he shared with his first love, but he also tells Kanon that she found a better treasure. Warin tells Kanon that she’s leaving Marin and Urin in her care right before she and Tom return to the sea, and we see that Urin is angry with Kanon for her behavior. Well, that’s all for this episode.

         Let’s get to it, this being a magic girl show, Sea Story has its transformation scenes, its monsters of the day, its attack gestures, and its pure hearted magic girl, or does it? I find it quite annoying to constantly watch Kanon bitch, complain, whine, and makes a general pain in the ass of herself before doing what she knows she has to do. Hell, almost all the monsters that Marin and Kanon have had to battle have been summoned to the island by the evil aura that Kanon projects when she gets angry. Urin is totally right about Kanon not deserving the power that she has due to her right of inheritance, and Kanon’s bad behavior puts her sister in danger. I feel real pity for Urin having to watch her sister give it her all and put herself at risk due to Kanon, I know it sucks, but those are the magic girl rules.

         I know that Kanon’s evil aura problem is going to cause a real mess in a few episodes; Urin’s anger and resentment at having to put up with Kanon’s attitude is only going to grow. So, sometime in the near future Urin’s going to want power to help her sister and she’s going to get it from Senda without knowing it, and I think that if this happens there’s gonna be hell to pay. All the monsters up until now have been things like small corrupted fish and pirate bones, but if Senda manages to corrupt Urin, her power level will be many times stronger than anything Marin or Kanon seen before. What I’d really like to see happen is either Marin, Kanon’s mother, or the Turtle Elder smack some common sense into the whiny Kanon.

        This episode begins with Kanon waking up and thinking that she just wants to forget about the other day. She looks at the ring that Urin and Marin returned to her and doesn’t seem as angry as before, and as Kanon walks past her living room she’s shocked to see Marin, Urin, the turtle elder, and her mother hanging out in front of the TV. She yells about what the meaning of all this is? The turtle elder tells her that she has to become a true pure priestess of the sky so she and Marin can defeat Sedna, Kanon yells about how she doesn’t want this, and how she hates the town, the sea, and how she just want to leave for the city. As Kanon takes a bath, her mother finds out that Kanon was dumped by her boyfriend, and Kanon’s mother says that Kanon’s evil aura must have caused this.

      When the sound of running water hits the sisters’ ears they perk up and mention water, and Kanon’s mother tells them to go and join her in the bath. Kanon is surprised and annoyed by the sisters’ playful attitude inside the “warm mini-ocean”, she soon leaves them alone in the bath. Back inside her room, Kanon gets a call from her friend Suzuki inviting her to a get-together with some of the girls from her class, Kanon blows off Suzuki and the get-together in a pretty rude manner.

       While Kanon is in her room, we see Kanon’s mother giving the turtle elder’s shell a nice wash, and it’s pretty funny when she asks him if something goes wrong can she have his shell? Then we see that Marin looks very cute wearing some of Kanon’s clothes, and Urin also looks really cute wearing of Kanon’s old clothes. As Kanon heads off to the fortune telling booth because todays her day to work, Marin and Urin go with her but the turtle elder is detained for a little while by Kanon’s mother (Miyako). As all three girls are outside the booth trying to get some customers, Kanon’s foul mood contributes to a lack of work. Then Kanon spots Suzuki walking towards to shop, so she hands Marin the fortune telling stuff and takes off and hides behind the booth. Well, Marin ends inside with Suzuki in front of her, and instead of reading Suzuki’s fortune she gets information about what Kanon was like as a child, Suzuki has known Kanon since childhood. 

       She tells Marin that since childhood, Kanon had her dark aura going, she scared the other children, but she always did the jobs that no one else wanted to do. Suzuki tells Marin that she thinks that Kanon did that stuff because she didn’t want to see others quarrel, and she says that she thinks that Kanon is a nice person. Kanon and Urin are able to hear the entire conversation from their hiding spot. Marin tells Kanon that she thinks that Suzuki wants to be her friend, but Kanon says that she and friends don’t mix. Kanon says that as soon as people get to know her they start distancing themselves from her, and they leave her alone. Marin tells Kanon that she’ll be her friend, but Kanon says that she’ll be no different than the others, and Kanon runs off.

         While Kanon is running off, we see another evil red glow stirring in the sea. Damn, Kanon attracts evil like bees to honey. Urin catches up with Kanon and demands to know why she says nothing but evil things? Urin breaks down in tears saying that she wants to fight along side her sister so they can return to the sea, but she has no power, so why did it have to be you? Just then, two strange girls appear next to Kanon saying they’ve found a evil soul and one of them begins to attack her. Just as the second girl is about to attack Urin, Marin transforms and saves her sister, and she tells Urin to take cover and hide.

         Marin then attacks the creature who’s attacking Kanon, she tells Kanon to hide and that she’ll handle this battle alone, and as Marin begins to fight the two creatures Kanon walks off saying that this is none of her concern. While Marin is having a hard go against the two creatures, Kanon begins to do some introspection. Kanon says that Suzuki had it wrong because she only did all that stuff because she didn’t want people to hate her. Kanon rushes back to the battle and says that she’ll do the job that no one wants; she says that she just wants to have a friend. Kanon transforms and enters the battle, Kanon calls to the turtle elder to give her some fire, and using the fire she launches an attack to wounds the two girls. Marin hugs the two injured girls while telling them it’s alright to return to the sea, and Marin’s hug transforms the two girls back into fish who return to the sea.

        After the battle, we see that Kanon paying a visit to Suzuki’s house where she gives Suzuki a discount coupon for a fortune reading, and she says that her readings are better than her mother’s, so stop by sometime. Kanon then tells Suzuki that she won’t be attending university but will instead work on being purer. Later, Marin gives Kanon a hug telling her that she loves her, and this time Kanon seems to accept and enjoy Marin’s affection. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this episode focused on Kanon’s nature and gave us a little insight into how Kanon got to be the way she is. Basically, Kanon has been a very serious person since her early childhood, and she thought that doing the unwanted stuff would make the others not hate her, but Kanon’s very serious nature tended to scare others away from her. So, Kanon began to close herself off from others because she was afraid of getting her hopes up only to be rejected. After some soul searching, Kanon comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t want to be not hated, what she really wants is a friend. Yes, with this realization I think that Kanon now understands that she has to open herself up to other people and take a chance on friendship.

       One thing that I noticed about this episode was that the attention to detail and the animation quality of this episode’s battle scene seems to have dropped off greatly compared to the last episode’s battle scene. I hope that battle scenes in future episodes will be done with the same quality as the second episode. Overall, this episode did its job in developing and fleshing out some details of Kanon and her past.

         Ran and Midori head off to the middle school’s courtyard and they tell Rui and Rin to follow as quickly as possible. When they arrive at the school they follow some large cat prints to a large tree where one of their teachers falls out the tree, he’s very gravely wounded . Soon, Rin and Rui arrive on the scene, and as their teacher begins to regain consciousness. As he’s about to tell them what happened a large leopard leaps from the tree to attack Rui, Ran repels the creature with her power, and then the leopard demands that they have to give it back to them, ”Chara”. Ran is shocked by this because “Chara” is the name that Junpei and nobody else calls her.

        Back at home, everyone is eating breakfast at Ran’s house when the TV reports a growing number of animal-human attacks, Midori asks Ran if she’s worried about what the leopard said? Yes. Later, the kids find out that classes have been cancelled because of the attacks. Rui asks Ran if she’s still worried about Junpei? Yes. So, he tells her that they should pay him a visit. As the kids (minus a sleeping Rin) make their way to Junpei’s house, many strange events are going on, the weather is unnaturally bad, and large groups of animals are on the move.

        At Junpei’s house the kids find it damaged by animals,  and when they begin searching for Junpei a tiger starts to attack them only to be foiled by a torch wielding Junpei. They retreat to Junpei’s room, and they block the door with dresser. Junpei tells the others that the tiger is his brother (Taka), when his brother returned from college he changed into the tiger, and he asks them if it sounds crazy. Rui says, not at all, we thought that there was a link between the earthquake and the strange animal/human happenings.

         Just then, the tiger breaks through Junpei’s door, Ran and Midori don’t want to hurt Junpei’s brother so they setup a barrier and Ran tries to communicate with Taka. Ran tells Taka to come back to them, but he says he can’t, he says that he’s so tired of it all. After Ran drops the barrier, Junpei attempts to talk with his brother by asking him why he no-longer wants to be human? Taka calls out to his brother, saying that he should understand, then something causes Junpei to change into a leopard, and he chases after his brother who fled the house. The kids try to chase after Junpei and his brother but quickly lose them, Midori says that she’ll try astral projection to widen her reach over the whole city, she doesn’t know if it’ll work. After Ran and Midori project themselves over the whole city they hear a voice calling all the animals back to the Great Mother’s place to regain the world for themselves, and the meeting place is the beech tree at their middle school.

        When the kids make it to the school they find all the animals gathered there, and they also figure out that everyone who felt the earthquake has been transformed into animals. A very old lady, the same lady they met at the restaurant emerges from the tree, the kids can feel the anger and hatred coming from the animals over their mistreatment and the mistreatment of the planet. Ran calls out to them but Momoko (their old teacher) tells them that their memories have been erased, and those humans have lost hope in world of waste, hatred, and never ending war. Midori asks Momoko if she’s human, and Momoko tells her that she’s not human she’s a monster just like Midori. Ran’s says that they’re wrong, not all humans hate animals and want the world to fall into ruin and war.

         The old lady uses her powers and transports Momoko, Midori, Ran and herself to another plane/place where she transforms into a wolf spirit/god called Oogami. Then Oogami tells them a very very old story, back before the time of humans the aminals lived in harmony with each-other and nature. The first humans also lived in harmony with animals and nature, so the animal spirits had faith in the first humans and took a long sleep. But, when they awoken they found that the current humans are not the same humans they trusted, the current humans think that they’re the most important creatures around and that humans feel that they’re even more important than nature or the planet. The humans that turned into aminals are the remainder of the creatures that went into that long slumber, they are of human and animal nature and would have remained human if they were happy with the direction of the world. Now, Oogami says humans must be removed from the world so its natural order can be restored. Oogami says that Ran and Midori are slightly different from normal humans (they have some powers), so she’s been watching them for a long time but has come to the conclusion that they’re really not different from the rest of the humankind. Oogami says the time for talk is over, and she summons the other animals to her side. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, here we are at the final showdown of the series, mankind’s treatment of the planet and its creatures has comeback to bite them in the ass. The theme of man vs nature/humans destroying the natural world are found in many anime like; Mononoke-hime, Green Legend Ran, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Prétear, and many many others; and the final solution is usually found in the kind and caring heart of a teen-aged girl. So, no matter how bad it gets, Ran and Midori will try to show kindness instead of power in their final showdown with Oogami and her animals. While the girls in Telepathy Shojo Ran have telepathic powers instead of magic girls powers the finale solution will most-likely be a Deus ex machina magic girl ending with love being victorious over hatred.      

       This episode begins with Kanon and Marin finally finding Urin hiding from the fierce storm,  Marin and her sister share a tearful reunion. Then we see that something has been released from the statue covering the sealed shrine/crypt.  Marin thanks Kanon for finding her sister and she tells her that she’s her first friend from the sky world.

        Just then, they’re interrupted by a walking and talking turtle who asks them if they’re the priestesses. The turtle then releases an orb of light from his hat and  it flies to Marin; he tells her that she is the priestess of the sea that will defeat Sedna. Kanon takes off because she thinks that this is all a fraud, and Marin starts to go after her but the turtle stops Marin. He tells her about her responsibility as the priestess of the sea,  he is the turtle elder, he became a stone guardian to await the day that Sedna became unsealed, if Sedna regains her full power, the sky, the sea, and everything will be plunged into darkness, someone broke her seal. He says that Sedna was split in two, half sealed in the sky, and the other half sealed in the sea, when Sedna was unsealed she used the rain to return to the sea to located and try to unseal her other half. Marin needs to locate a priestess of the sky to unite the sea and sky powers in order to defeat Sedna.

         On her way home Kanon runs into her mother who tells her that she descends from a long line of shamans and fortune tellers, and that she has to become one or weird things will start to happen. Later,  Kanon lets loose her “evil aura” because she thinks about getting dumped and something from the sea responds to her aura. Back with Marin and Urin the turtle tells them he feels a evil heart. A woman comes from the sea and attacks Kanon saying that she senses an evil soul; Kanon runs away and tries to hide. The creature soon finds Kanon and easily captures her, but Marin, Urin, and the turtle find them.

         The turtle tells Marin that it’s time and Marin begins to transform into a magic girl. After her transformation she begins to battle the monster while Kanon refuses to believe what her eyes are seeing; Urin wants to aid her sister but the turtle tells her that she has no power and will only get in the way. As Kanon is watching the battle her emotions begin to change, and the turtle begins to react to Kanon and he releases a red orb of light which flies to Kanon. 

         The turtle tells Kanon that she is the priestess of the sky and that she has to use her powers to stop the evil, but she still refuses to believe. After a tearful appeal from Urin to save her sister, Kanon realizes it’s her fault that the ring was lost and Urin unsealed the monster. Kanon transforms into the priestess of the sky, and begins to help Marin with her battle.

        Marin fires her sea cleansing attack at the monster, and Kanon follows it up with a sky fire attack, and just as the monster is about to be destroyed Marin stops the assault. She thinks she knows the monster, and she’ thinks she’s a friend. Marin runs and embraces the creature, and her hug purifies the creature, transforming it back to its original form then she returns it to the sea. The turtle then tells the girls that they are descended from the linage that originally sealed Sedna and that they were destined to meet, Marin returns the ring that Urin found back to Kanon who says that they’ll probably never meet again, as Kanon walks away, she thinks to herself that this is not her problem. Well, that’s all for this episode.

          Well, this was supposed to be a magic girl show and it took until the second episode to show us which girls would be chosen for the task. I assumed that Marin would be one of those girls but I didn’t figure that Kanon would be the other one; I thought that the shrine priestess who was singing at the festival would have been the second magic girl with Kanon using her fortune telling abilities in some support type role.

         In a classic sense, Kanon doesn’t fit the traditional pattern of a magic girl. Magic girls are normally, above all else, of pure heart, innocent, and usually free of excess anger, hatred, jealousy, and spite. Another thing that surprises me about Kanon’s selection is her age, she’s eighteen or very close to eighteen years old, a magic girl is supposed to be a girl not a woman, most magic girls are usually around middle school age or a little younger when chosen to become a magic girl. See; Usagi and the other Sailor Scouts from Sailor Moon (age 14), Nanoha from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (age 9), Hikaru-Umi-Fuu from Magic Knights Rayearth (age 14), Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura (age 10), Tutu from Princess Tutu (age 11 or 12), Ririka from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS (age 10), Nagisa and Honoka from Futari wa Pretty Cure (age 14).

        Now this age range applies mostly when speaking about human girls who are chosen to be magic girls, when talking about magic girls who originate from other worlds or dimensions their age range is much more flexible because for the most part these girls, no matter their real age are considered to be much purer and free of the corrupting influence of this world. This would apply to Marin, while she could be much older in real terms than Kanon, she’s very pure and innocent, basically the human world corrupts much quicker than other realms. 

       Where Marin and Kanon fit into the classic magic girl genre is that they are chosen to become magic girls because they are descendants of the two priestesses that originally sealed Sedna. See; Usagi from Sailor Moon (reincarnated daughter of the queen of the moon kingdom), Chacha from Akazukin Chacha (the infant daughter of the king and queen of the magical kingdom). Another classic theme of the magic girl genre is the chosen magic girls have their powers granted/activated by a person/magical helper from another realm; both Marin and Kanon have their powers granted/activated by the Turtle Elder in the form of light orbs that enable them to transform into magic girls. See;  Himeko from Hime-chan’s Ribbon (her power is granted by princess Erika in the form of a ribbon), Miho from Fancy Lala (a mystery man gives her Mogu and Pigu who turn into a pen and sketchbook which allow Miho to transform into Fancy Lala).

        Lets not forget two other magic girl classics, the transformation sequence, and the attack phrase or gesture. In almost all (as far as I know) true magic girl anime, the magic girls have a transformation sequence in which they are stripped naked (shedding their normal existence) and then they are clothed in a magic girl battle outfit (symbolizing their new, more powerful nature); most magic girls have to use a attack phrase, attack gesture, or both. While the reasons for this requirement are never made clear it’s been assumed that since the magic girl in her transformed incarnation is not her true form so the magic girl must use the gestures and phrases kind of like using the controller buttons of a game console to use special moves. Both Marin and Kanon used transformation sequences and attack phrases during their battle with Sedna’s monster.

         Now, getting back to the pure heart issue, normally in the magic girl genre the pure heart is one the most important factors in a magic girl’s ability to fight and defend. The strength of the magic girl’s heart is the key to almost everything, the stronger and purer her heart is, the more powerful her attacks, her defense, and her will to fight becomes. Mostly a magic girl’s power will only fail when she loses heart, and a magic girl will be the most powerful when her heart is overflowing with a love for the whole world and it’s creatures, and with a belief in the goodness of people. While I think Marin will have no problem with the love and belief issue; Kanon has a long way to go, she needs to believe in the magic and shed her bitterness over being dumped by her boyfriend.

      All in all, I think I like the direction Sea Story is heading. I’ve always been a big fan of the magic girl genre, and I feel that a really good magic girl anime represents what’s best in anime; sweet, kind, and pure girls defending the world from evil with their main weapon being a strong and loving heart. Until next week, “in the name of the moon sea and sky, I shall punish you!”

         Well, when I saw that Junichi Sato (Goldfish Warning, Sailor Moon, Magic Users Club, Doremi, Kaleido Star, Tutu, Aria, and many other anime) was involved in directing a new project I became very interested. I was delighted to see that Junichi Sato was directing Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ (Sea Story), I have been a big fan of Maho Shojo genre for many years, and when I hear Junichi Sato’s name I think magic girls. So, here follows my review of episode one of Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ (Sea Story).

         This episode begins with a ring sinking down into the sea and being found by two beautiful young girls (Marin and Urin) who live underwater. Then we go right into the OP and it consists of scenes from the girl’s underwater experiences and scenes occurring on land. The opening tune is called “violet” by Marble and it’s a very mellow and low key tune that’s gives the beginning of the series a slow paced feel.

Shots from the OP

        After the opening, Marin (the older sister) wants to go to the surface to return the ring to its owner, Urin (the younger sister) tries to stop her, saying that the sky dwellers might hurt her. Urin also tells Marin that the Turtle elder went to the surface and never returned, Marin is not dissuaded by her sister’s arguments and says that they won’t hurt her. Marin goes and gets some sort or golden bracelet, but before she can leave for the surface, Urin says that she can’t let her sister go alone, so she also grabs a bracelet. Marin and Urin hitch a ride on a stingray, and they say hi to a boy named Sam as they head towards the surface.

         After Sam sees Marin and Urin off, he runs into another girl who asks where Marin went? When she finds out that they went to the sky she becomes worried and thinks to herself that we’re protected here, but the light and darkness of the sky is very powerful. After they surface, the girls look around while holding their breath, then they go below water and say the they should try the Melkator rings. After they put the rings on their wrists, they surface again and find out they can breath the surface air.

       In the town that’s near the sea, we see that some sort of festival is taking place, everyone is walking around enjoying the activities. The scene switches to a young girl named Kanon, she’s walking through town wearing some sort of outfit, then we see her enters some sort of fortune telling booth. Kanon sees her mother inside and complains that she wearing her outfit, her mother says nobody will know the difference. Kanon gets really mad when her mother insinuates that fortune telling is scam act.

       As Kanon’s mother leaves, she makes a crack about Kanon’s boyfriend, Kanon gets really angry and we see a flashback of Kanon getting dumped (?) by her boyfriend, and she throws a ring into the sea. Then we see Marin and Urin walking through the town trying to find the ring’s owner, Urin doesn’t like the surface and wants to return to the sea, but Marin stops because she sees a mysterious girl (a Shinto priestess?)standing on some rocks singing a folk song about the town. Marin thinks the song is beautiful but Urin forces her to continue the search for the ring’s owner so they can quickly return to the sea.

        As a depressed Kanon is hanging out in her fortune telling booth, she hears some girls calling out about a ring with a fish design on it and she rushes outside and grabs the ring from Marin and smashes it to the ground. Marin then picks the ring up and Kanon grabs it and attempts to throw it away but Marin stops her from tossing it away, Kanon asks Marin to mind her own business. Just as Marin finally gets Kanon to calm down about being dumped she sees her old BF with another girl and her blood begins to boil again, and this time she tosses the ring into the forest. Marin goes after the ring, and Urin tells Kanon that you sky dwellers are mean, before going after her sister.

      As Marin is looking for the ring she gives some of the locals a dose of fan service, and Urin tells her sister that they should go home because that girl (Kanon) can’t feel kindness and beauty, but Marin says that she can sense that the ring should be returned to the other girl. Later, Kanon changes into her school uniform and heads outside, she hopes that the other two girls aren’t looking for that ring. As she walking by the seaside she sees her old BF with the other girl and gets angry again, but she soon calms back down after remembering Marin’s words.

        As day turns to night we see that both Marin and Urin are still looking for the ring, Urin wants to get the hell out of town and back to the sea, and Marin’s outfit keeps giving fan service to the town. As Kanon’s almost home, she hears a girl comment about why some other girls are walking around town in swimsuits, so Kanon goes searching for them. When Kanon finds Marin she says she won’t find the ring, but Marin tells her she’ll find it. When Marin and Kanon sit down, Kanon asks her where she found the ring? Marin tells her that she found it while walking near her home, and Kanon thinks she’s stupid because she knows she threw it into the sea. Urin is still looking for the ring when she sees a torii (shrine gate) along her path, so she enters the gate and follows the path.

        As Marin is talking with Kanon, and Urin is walking down the path, the town’s starts it’s fireworks display scaring the hell out of Marin and Urin. Urin begins to run down the forest path in fear, and Marin crouches down and plugs her ears, Kanon wonders what’s going on with that girl. Marin soon calms down and begins to enjoy the show, but Urin continues to run down the path, eventually tripping and falling and ending up near the base of the shrine, and Marin soon realizes that her sister must be frightened and heads off to find her. Urin starts to calm down when she sees a shiny object lodged at the base of the shrine, she’s found the ring, she attempts to get the ring but the base is too heavy so she begins to push on and kick at the base of the shrine, and some seals begin to break.

         Finally, Kanon suggests to Marin that they check the temple for Urin. At that moment, Urin manages to get the ring but her efforts tears the two seals open, and Urin says she hears someone calling her. Is it her sister? No. She hears a voice asking her to remove the lid from the sealed shrine. Marin and Kanon begin making their way down the path to the temple. Urin begins to push and push at the lid until it slowly opens, then a great swirling mass of black vapors escape from the sealed container.

        As the black vapors escape the container bad stuff begins happening around the town, the seas gets rough, the moon gets blacked out, it starts to rain, and the vapor even touches the ring. Urin starts to become frighten so she grabs the ring and hides behind a tree. As Marin and Kanon make their way to the shrine all hell breaks loose, lightning begins to strike the countryside, it even strikes a statue near Urin and its eyes begin to glow, Urin cowers in fear and calls out for her sister. Well, that’s all for this episode.

The ED song is called “Tōmei na Inori” and it’s performed by Masumi Itō, and the song is very low key and relaxing in nature, the background scenes fit the mood of the song.

Shots of the ED sequence.

        Well, this was a pretty interesting opening episode, full of light and darkness. The contrast between light and almost dreamy underwater home of Marin and Urin and the fast paced and noisy world of the “shy dwellers” was very well done. At times, certain points of this episode had pacing that reminded me of Aria or Sketchbook, and other points had the fairy tale feel of Tutu. But, this being a opening episode it’s hard to get a real gauge on the direction the series will take, most of the episode was spent giving us a introduction to some of the main characters and their personalities.

        Marin and Urin come from the “other world”, a world mostly lacking any real hate or danger, so they’re basically pure hearted girls who seem to be free of any petty malice or vices found in our world. Marin is pure, almost to the point of being naive, she looks for beauty and love above all else. Urin is mostly the same as Marin, but she’s quite a bit more leery and distrustful of the upper world. Kanon seems to be a bit too serious for her age, and she seems to let her feelings and emotions express themselves a little too openly.

        Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ is supposed to fall into the magic girl genre of anime, so I’m betting that Marin, Urin, Kanon, and maybe the unnamed Shinto priestess will form some magic girl team. Marin and Urin clearly fit the mold, two girls from a magical realm enter our world with the aid of a magical item (the rings). Kanon has, or at least she hints that her fortune telling is the real deal and takes offense when her mother suggests otherwise. Now, getting to the unnamed Shinto priestess, don’t all anime Shinto priestesses and Miko have some spiritual powers? Well, I’ll be looking forward to see how this series develops, I’ve always loved the way Junichi Sato has directed shows from the magic girl genre, and I’ve liked how he’s done the slice of life genre shows.

        This episode begins with the children raking leaves from around a dying beech tree when Ran says she thought she heard a voice. When Ran places her hand on the tree a large gust of wind strikes the area and Ran hears a voice stating that a terror is about to descend on everything. Later that night, Ran is awoken from her sleep by her to cats crying at the window, Ran sees birds crashing into her window and Midori uses her abilities to tell Ran the same thing is happening at her place. Then a large earthquake strikes the area and Ran hears a voice saying the crone has awakened.

      The next morning Rin tells Ran that he doesn’t remember the earthquake, and at school only a small percentage of the kids felt the quake. Midori wonders why some kids felt the quake and why most of the other don’t know a thing about it? Then in class the teacher starts picking on Rui for no reason, and when he gets all the questions right the teacher still gets on his case. Then another student comes to Rui’s defense and he and the teacher start arguing with each other. Just as they’re about to throw punches, Ran and Midori intervene, the teachers takes a break, but Ran feels some unnatural anger inside her classmate.

       After class, Midori asks Ran what Rin is making for dinner, and of course she invites herself over and has a Hosaka moment. Ran’s asks Junpei (the anger kid) to walk home from school with them, he accepts. While walking home, Rui suggests that they stop for crepes, poor Midori, she wanted Rin’s cooking. While they’re eating, Junpei displays huge swings of emotions; boredom, normalcy, unnatural anger, and so forth. Then an adult gets into a argument with the old lady who owns the place, and it almost gets out of hand with Junpei jumping into the fray again. Midori uses her powers to defuses the situation.

      Just when we think it’s all over, Junpei pushes his way past Rui saying he’s going to kick that guy’s but, Midori says to let him fight if he wants to fight, but Ran says that he’s not himself. Midori gets left behind with the school bags as Ran and Rui chases after Junpei, Ran has to use her powers to stop him. When they finally catch up with Junpei he says that he became so angry the world went white. Midori catches up with them but forgot (?  if you believe that I’ve got some land for sale) Ran’s bag. Seconds later the old lady shows up bringing Ran her bag, and she says goodbye, until we meet again. Rui points out to the rest of them that while they had to run at full speed to catch Junpei the old lady just sort of appeared there without even being the least bit tired. Later, when they tell Rin what happened he turns on the TV to show them that animals from all over Japan were let out of their zoo’s and are now running wild across the country.

        As they continue to talk, Rin brings up the point that it wasn’t just zoo animals but also people’s pets that ran away. Midori says that they need to be on alert, and Rin says that since he didn’t notice the quake to please tell him if anything strange happens, then he goes off to cook dinner with Midori following close behind. Rui asks Ran if he could please spend the night, when Midori hears this, she’s all over Ran about spending the night too, Ran at first doesn’t want to have them over but soon gives in. When Rui is asked why he needs to spend the night, Rui says he feels that he should be close to Ran tonight.

       While Midori is with Rin, Ran asks Rui why such strange things happen around them? After a rambling answer, Rui tells Ran that he thinks this happens because she and Midori have the power to fix things. Rui tells Ran that he’ll always be there for her. Forever? Yes, and Midori too, you two need each other. At this point, Ran asks Rui why he’s always putting them together? Midori overhears this and says that someday they’ll be related, to which Ran replies that is a worse thought than her mother’s horror novels. They start arguing and bickering and are soon given a vision of someone watching them, Rui breaks their trance by touching their hands. Midori says that they have to be ready to go after whoever is behind this whole thing. Then we see  Momoko (the old homeroom teacher, and bad lady) returning to the town, saying that she never thought she’d come back so soon.

         Later that night, Ran has a vision of someone being attacked by animals, and she tries to wake Midori, no luck. As Ran’s is getting ready to leave the house alone, she gets intercepted by Rui, Rin, and a still sleepy Midori. Ran tells them about the attack, and soon Ran and Midori are leading the rush to find the location of the attack. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, it looks like the final battle/adventure of the TSR series is starting to happen, and this is probably the most dangerous mystery the kids have faced. The beginning of this arc is pretty much standard TSR stuff; Ran hears a voice or something supernatural happens to her to begin the adventure, Midori is the more forceful and be prepared to strike first member; Rui is more attuned people’s emotions and logical team member, and Rin is the member that can use muscle if necessary.

          You know that something really bad is about to happen when you see the total breakdown in Japanese social order starting to happen; teachers and students almost throwing punches, adults yelling at senior citizens, and  ”shit that will turn you white…..this city is headed to a disaster of biblical proportions, fire and brimstone…..dogs and cats living together!” Well, who ya gonna call? The Japanese junior high school ghost-busters!

      This episode included all the stuff I’ve come to like about TSR; Ran and Midori’s good natured bickering, Ran and Rui’s nice wholesome romance, Midori’s crush on Rin, and his confusion about how to handle it. Also, I love how Ran’s and Midori’s personalities conflict but also enhance each other. While at times, Ran’s too soft and sweet, she tempers Midori’s more cold and clinical side, it would be really funny watching their relationship if Midori’s wish comes true and she becomes related to Ran by marrying Rin, watching them bicker forever would be sweet.   

        This review will follow a slightly different format from my previous ones, I’ll still do the episode summary, but after the summary I’ll do a much greater analysis of Sora and the series.

            This episode begins with Sora arriving at her local airport in Biei, her mother and her neighbor meet her at the airport and take her home. Once Sora gets home she greets her dog then she and her mother share a nice lunch together, Sora talks with her mother about all the things that happened to her in Tokyo. After lunch Sora takes a bike ride to the tree where she made the promise to her dead father at the beginning of the series.

         At the tree, Sora tells her father that she finally did it and became a mage, and she also tells her father about her love for Gouta. She tells her father that love is painful but it’s also very warming. A few minutes later Sora gets a text message from Gouta, he tells her that he’s at the beach that they went to on their date, and he also asks her if she got the milk that she wanted. Sora then texts Gouta about being home and she sends him a picture of her by the tree and she tells him that she wishes that he could enjoy the view with her.

          Later, Sora’s mother meets her at the tree, then Sora hands her mother a magical request from her late father. Then we see a flashback from Sora’s youth where she asks her father to make a really difficult magical request for her to perform someday. When her mother opens the request, Sora’s mother sees that he has requested to see Sora in her wedding dress.

           Once Sora’s mother sees the request, Sora tells her mother that this will be her first official request. Sora then awakens her magic and she conjures a image of herself at her wedding with Gouta at her side, she then thanks her mother and father for loving her and caring for her. When the magical image fades we see Sora’s mother cradling Sora in her arms, it seems that Sora has died in her mothers arms, Sora has a nice calm smile on her face.

            At that very moment Gouta is walking out of the water after a round of surfing, he looks up to the sky and notices some dark clouds in the sky, and by the sad expression on his face it seems that he knows that Sora has died.

         Now the series jumps five years into the future with us getting to see what has happened to many of Sora friends and instructors. We see that Hara and Saori are still teaching students, and that Hiyori is now doing the same thing. We see Hiyori using Sora as a example to one of her students, she tells the girl that magic is not all about results, and if you fail it’s OK as long as you learn from it. Hiyori also tells the girl that it’s OK to have feelings involved, and that tears can also be tears of kindness.

        Then we get to see that Asagi and Kuroda seem to be a couple now, and that they are planing a trip to  Biei, and once that they plan on stopping at a ice cream shop that Sora really liked. Asagi looks wistfully out the window and comments that Sora is really a great mage. Then we see that the singer (Yasuko) that Sora really liked seems to have made it with a major record label, and she is having a CD release event at a tower record shop. She then sings a song for the crowd that she wrote and performed back in the day when she was a roadside musician, it’s called Shimokitazawa and it’s named after the area she started at.

         Then we see a man riding a motorcycle past Sora’s house heading to the countryside, after a while he asks a woman for directions to a large open space that contains a single tree. After the young man shows the woman a map, she gives him directions to the place and tosses him a tomato telling him that our tomatoes are delicious, it turns out that the young man is Gouta and the woman was Sora’s mother.

        When he gets there he compares the picture Sora sent him to verify that he has the right spot then he starts talking to Sora. Gouta then tells Sora that he’s glad to have met her again, Gouta asks Sora if she’s lonely, and he tells Sora that he’s fine. He then takes out the precious stone that Sora gave him when they were on their date, and he tells her that he’s always been with her. He then remembers their conversation about tomatoes then he begins to eat the tomato that was given to him, and after taking a bite he breaks out in laughter telling Sora that the tomatoes from Biei are really good.

         Gouta begins to recall the conversations that he and Sora had while they were together, and he tells her about all the places that he got to see and how he’s taken his surfing to a whole different level. Gouta then tells Sora that he doesn’t know when he’ll see her again but he’ll keep doing his best in this world and he’ll tell her but it again. As darkness begins to fall, Gouta tells Sora that he has to leave but before he goes he summons up a tremendous level of magic from deep with in his heart to show the one he loves all the seas he’s visited from around the world. As the episode ends we get a extended version of the ending song with a montage of images from the series. Well, that’s all for this episode and the series.

Taking great joy in, and tasting the sadness of a brief life well lived, and why it’s OK cry.

          After finishing Mahō Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora , I can firmly state that in my opinion that this series is one of the very best anime of the year. I know that this series has gotten little play from the general anime viewing audiences because of it’s slow paced/slice of life format and it’s intensely character driven plot construction (read little or no action) but this series contains one of the best examples of the Japanese/Buddhist concept of Mono no Aware  I’ve seen in anime in the last couple of years.

         Before I continue with my review I’ll briefly cover the concept of Mono no Aware and the symbolism of Sora and the sunflower. The term/concept of Mono no Aware  is an aesthetic principle closely associated with Japanese culture and the Buddhist tradition and a literal translation of this term is “the ahh-ness of things” but this principle has a tremendous amount meanings on many different levels. But the heart of the concept is that all life is transient and impermanent in nature and trying to hold on to something beyond it’s allotted time will lead to suffering, so one must enjoy the beauty and joy of the moment but one will also feel bittersweet in the knowledge to the moment will fade/pass. So, in other words, enjoy each moment of life to it’s fullest even though you might feel sad in it’s passing.

         Now to the symbolism of Sora and the sunflower, in Japanese writing especially in poetry the use of Kigo (season/seasonal words) is used to help describe the nature of the season your writing about. In the manga every time Sora uses her magic some form of a sunflower is involved in the end result, but in the anime the sunflower is shown at the ending of the opening animation sequence and it appears a few other times, So, one of the Kigo  for natsu  (summer) is the sunflower, so associating Sora with the sunflower kind of means that natsu kinu  (summer has come) to the people that her life touches, she brings a caress of warmth and love to the people she interacts with. I can’t think of a better why to describe Sora’s affects on the people around her.

          From the very beginning I knew that this would be one of my favorites anime series of this year, but after finishing the last episode this anime touched me more than it thought it would. Mahō Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora  is one example of what a anime can be when it hits all the right emotional connections and makes you really feel something, many of the popular current anime will be forgotten in a few years time when their fans have moved on to the next hot series while this anime will still touch people.

      Like I said in a earlier review from this series, one can’t help but like Sora, she’s one of those perfect girls that can only exist in anime or manga, she’s full of all the love, kindness, and caring one could ever need without the least touch of malice of selfishness. I know this is not realistic but I learned a long time ago to paratice suspension of disbelief to be able to immerse myself in worlds created by novels, film, TV, manga and anime.

         At first, I thought Sora was one of those almost too nice anime girls that while pleasant to think about had no real qualities beyond her goodness, but after completing the series I truly appreciate Sora’s nature for what it is. Sora in knowing that her life would be ending shortly was a girl who was sucking every bit of joy and emotion out of the world around her, and if that made her too emotional than so what. I’ll take a person who really feels over someone who is just walking through life any day.

          One of Sora’s greatest fears other than being scared about dying was that she would be forgotten and that meant that her life would have faded to point where she didn’t even exist at all. But, her caring and loving natured touched many people around her and left impressions that will last a lifetime. Hiyori, Asagi, Kuroda, Hara, and especially Gouta will always carry a part of Sora life with then till their deaths so in effect Sora has achieved a type of immortality.

Why it’s all right to cry.

          While watching this series if you feel the need to cry, go ahead and cry, but cry for the right reasons. If you feel sadness about Sora’s life being cut short, or if you feel sad about thinking about how good Sora and Gouta would have been as a married couple, than go ahead and cry. But, also let those tears be tears of joy for a brief life well lived because Sora’s life was the embodiment of Mono no Aware; short, sweet, beautiful, but also impermanent and fleeting, cry for have been touched by something special.

     At one point Sora told Gouta that she knows that she should tell him should forget her but she did really want him to remember her occasional. I’m sure that Sora wouldn’t want to be remembered in sadness, so in keeping with the Japanese love for poetry I’ve included two poems that I feel expressed Sora’s hopes on how she’ll be remembered.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

Mary Frye (1932)

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day.
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

By Christina Rosetti (1879)

        This episode picks up with Ran screaming in pain because two voices/spirits have invaded her mind. As Midori rushes to her side, Ran slaps her hand away and Rushes off down the forest path with Midori, Rui, and Rin in hot pursuit. Ran has no control over her body until she runs into Jikunan’s bull who knocks her to the ground as the others catch up.

         Jikunan tells them that it will be getting dark soon so they should head back to the hotel, but when he notices that Ran is injured he puts Ran and Midori on his bull for a ride back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel they see Akaza bothering the hotel’s owner but once he sees the crew he takes off.

       Once the owner sees that Ran is injured she gives first aid to Ran’s injured leg, while treating her she tells the kids that the jungle’s undergrowth can be mildly poisonous. Then the Idol Tsukina barges in complaining about her treatment, her manager tells her that the agency didn’t allocate a lot of money to her trip, and Midori tells her that’s because she not selling well. Tsukina gets pissed off at everyone and says that she’s leaving, and then the hotel owner makes the comment that it’s unusual to see the temptation flowers blooming along with so many grass snakes.

        After the owner leaves the room the kids hear something outside the door and Rin goes to investigate, while he’s gone the others talk about how the idol and the farmer booth seem to be hiding secret thoughts. A short while later the hotel owner helps Rin back to the room because she found him outside with a large lump on his head. Midori gets really angry about Rin calling whoever hit him a bastard, so Rui suggests that they return to their room to let Rin rest. Rui feels that whoever hit Rin is trying to scare them from searching the jungle, and that person must be the same one who was listening to them.

          Later that night, back in their hotel room Midori is playing nurse to a ill Ran when Ran starts hearing those voices again, they are calling for her to become the bride and for her to use her power to dispel the evil. As Ran gets out of bed and tries to leave the hotel she collapses in Midori’s arms, Midori is scared but she vows to protect Ran. Then Midori leaves Rui in charge of Ran while she goes out to get some ice for Ran, and in the hallway she runs into Akaza and while they are on the ground Midori touches Akaza’s journal and she senses some vibes from the journal. Back in the room Midori tells Rin and Rui that she felt the missing book pages in Akaza’s journal and now she fully understands what he’s after.

       Long ago in the past Akaza’s grandfather went to the island and discovered that magical snakes the are supposed to be the messengers of the gods that d’welded there. He discovered that the the male snake was named Nushi and the female snake was called Kami, and that every couple of decades they would get together to mate and create new offspring. After their mating period the snakes would grant a wish to the island’s human population and the people would always wish for peace between the snakes and themselves, but Akaza’s grandfather tricked the people into letting him wish of wealth and fame. His act corrupted the snakes and they are unable to mate and now many bad things occur on the island.  After the old man’s death Akaza’s father went to the island and murdered the headman and his family in an attempt to find out when the snakes would try to mate again.

       As Midori is still talking, Ran’s body and mind is again taken over by the spirits and she runs out of the hotel with Midori and the crew in hot pursuit. Ran leads them into the heart of the jungle where Midori says that something is about to happen. As the snakes are starting to appear in front of Ran, Akaza tries to force his way to the snakes but he’s intercepted by Rin and Rui, and then the idol Tsukina tries to force the snakes to grant her eternal youth but she’s intercepted by Midori.

       After a struggle with Rin and Rui Akaza manages to break free and charges forward but he’s taken down by Jikunan’s bull. As the bull is moving in for the kill Ran stops the bull’s charge, but Jikunan tells Ran to let the bull kill him because Akaza’s father killed his family long ago. As Midori and Ran beg Jikunan to spare Akaza life (he’s dying from the attack) Ran’s tears of mercy brings the two snakes to full life and they decide to grant Jikunan one wish, and after much pleading the crew convinces Jikunan to ask for Akaza’s life to be spared. The snakes grant that wish and now they can mate and they give their blessing to the island.

         Later, as the crew is leaving the island they see Jikunan waiving to them as they are about to take off, and Ran and Midori are back to their old ways. Midori says that she wishes that she could return to the island someday to just Rin but he doesn’t hear this because he’s already asleep. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, with this episode we wrap up another interesting two episode story arc. But during this episode there were a couple of things that didn’t make sense of were not explained clearly, First of all, it was never explained how the idol Tsukina found out about the snakes’ power to grant a wish, if she was the one listening outside the room the kids never talked about the snakes’ power to grant a wish at that time. Secondly, it was never explained why Ran wore a bride’s veil when she was possessed, I could see how the snakes would need Ran’s or Midori’s help in dispelling the evil but why did she have to wear a veil if she wasn’t getting married. I know that these are minor grips but I just had to mention it, but overall I’m really enjoying this series.

What follows is my smart assed opinion on what they should have wished for. 

        What the crew should have wished for is that the Japanese people start having more children because they are clearly not having enough kids. I don’t know how many times in this series the teenagers have been alone in hotel rooms away from their parents and nothing happens.

        This episode picks up right before the end of the last episode with Gouta finding and comforting Sora in her darkest hour, Gouta then calls everyone to let them know that he has found Sora. Hara is relieved to know that Sora has been found and he seems impressed that Gouta used his magic even though he knew he would be punished, then Sora and Gouta walk back towards the dorm holding hands.

        The next morning everything is back to normal with Gouta cooking the fish and Sora making the miso soup. After their meal, Sora and Gouta head off to school to take their final exams, and while their gone Hara and Saori talk about how quickly their month with Sora has passed. At school the students take their written exams then they take another hands on exam involving turning water into ice for the second time, on this go around everybody’s magic has improved greatly. Later, the instructor announces that everybody has passed their exams, and the graduation ceremony will be at 1310, so don’t be late.

          At the graduation ceremony everyone gets their diplomas, and it turns out that Gouta’s parents have turned up to watch him graduate. After the ceremony the instructor tells the students to remember that this is not the end but only the beginning for them, then the students get to meet their families and friends that came to see them graduate. It turns out that Gouta’s parents are getting back together again, and Gouta introduces Sora to his parents telling them without her help her he wouldn’t have been able to graduate.

          Later, back in the classroom the five main students are together again and Sora tells them that she was happy they could graduate together. Afterwards, Hiyori talks about all of them meeting up again in the future and everybody agrees. As Sora and Gouta are walking home she tells Gouta that she doesn’t want him to forget about her even if he gets married and has children, she asks him to think about her every once and a while. Sora is in tears as she asks Gouta to remember her and Gouta takes Sora’s hand in his to comfort her.

         On their way home Sora and Gouta run into the female street musician, Sora tells her that they just graduated, so she plays a song for Gouta and Sora. Back at the dorm the instructors congratulate both Sora and Gouta. Later, Sora and Hara have a talk outside the house and Hara tells Sora that many people will remember her, and he tells Sora that he wants a daughter just like her, but Sora tells him he needs to get a wife first.

         The next morning we see Sora walking with her suitcase through the city streets heading to the airport and we hear her call Gouta’s name. At the same time, we see Gouta sitting at the bench where he found Sora the other night, and he seems to be lost in thought. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, this episode was really bittersweet for me to watch in so many ways. First of all, I was sad to see a series coming to it’s conclusion that I have grown to love. Secondly, we the viewers know that Sora’s life will soon be ending. As we learned in the last episode, Sora has a terminal illness that only mages can contract and it’s incurable, her father died of the same illness one year after his first heart attack, and Sora had her first heart attack just over one year ago. Since this series is about taking life at face value and dealing with it’s ups and downs there will be no deus ex machina  answer to her illness, Sora will die.

        Now that I’ve talked about the bittersweet stuff I’ll move on to the happy stuff, and contrary to the tone of my last couple of reviews this series had plenty of upbeat moments. First of all everybody managed to earn their certification as mages, even Gouta who practically had no magical ability at the beginning of the series. Also, Gouta’s parents decided to reconcile by the end of the series even though it seemed like a lost cause. Overall, the students caused a lot of good to occur through their interactions with their clients, and the main cast learned the value of having friends to talk with and to hangout with.

       So, overall the students learned many valuable life lessons during their one month training program, they lived and learned, experienced life’s ups and downs, and matured into better future adults in the process, making this series a great example of a slice of life series with a little magic thrown in.      

          This episode begins with Gouta waking up on the couch of the bar he was at the night before, so he decides to head back to the house. Once there, he discovers that Sora and Hara are out on a early magical request, he’s still pissed at Hara for being with Sora. Gouta arrives at the school without Sora and the other kids ask him why she didn’t come to school with and he replies that he didn’t ask her. Everyone can tell that he’s upset, but Asagi is worried about Sora.

       Later we see Sora resting on a park bench and she seems pretty worn out and tired, and after a while she calls out to her mother. Then we see Sora’s mother getting a phone call from Sora, Sora says that she wants to come back home, and her mother says OK. But after she gets off the phone with Sora she tells a coworker that Sora won’t be coming home yet, she’s much stronger than that.

        We see that Sora had gone back to the family that she performed the awakening magic on to ask the husband if she can perform her magic on the wife again, Sora was not satisfied with just awakening her from the coma she wants to recover her memories. The husband tells Sora “no” what she did was just fine, and that you shouldn’t ask god for too much. He also tells Sora that they are making new memories every day, and when Sora leaves she sees that they seem happy together.

        When Gouta returns to the house he sees that everyone is upset because Sora is missing, she left the hospital without permission. Gouta grabs Hara and demands to know what he did to Sora, he starts violently shaking Hara around. Finally, Hara punches Gouta in the face calling him a dumb-ass, he tells Gouta that Sora is dying. He tells Gouta that Sora has a disease that causes her heart to go out of rhythm when she sees extremely bright lights or when she hears extremely loud noises, and yesterday’s thunderstorm triggered an attack. Hara also tells Gouta that Sora’s father died of the same disease, and he tells Gouta that this disease can only be caught by mages. Sora’s father died one year after his first heart attack, and Sora had her first heart attack last summer. He also tells Gouta that when he was checking Sora out Gouta only saw what he wanted to see, and he thought idiotic thoughts.

         Gouta rushes out of the house to search for Sora while the rest of the adults decide that they must find Sora.  Gouta rushes throughout the local area in a near panic state desperately searching for Sora. As night falls on the town Gouta is still searching for Sora when he runs into the local singer. They strike up a conversation and it turns out that she has seen Sora about 45 minutes ago but can’t remember where she went to. Gouta asks her if he can use memory magic on her to help him locate Sora and she agrees to it. Gouta performs the magic on the singer and a ghostly image of Sora leaves her body and leads Gouta through the city streets towards Sora’s location.

        Gouta is finally lead to Sora location, a park bench under some lights, and Sora asks Gouta if he can’t use magic for himself, and he says that it was for her, and she tells him that if he uses his magic like this they won’t let him become a mage, he tells her that he doesn’t care. Gouta ask her if she’s dying, and she tells him that he’s found out, she also says that if she dies all that will remain is peoples memories of her, it’s would be like disappearing. He asks her if she hates magic and wants to cry, she says no but he keeps prodding her until she starts hitting him and then she ends up in his arms where she tells him “why her”, and that she wants to live and that she’s really scared. He holds her as she cries and he tells her that he’s glad he found her safe. Well, that’s all for this episode.

           These types of episodes have always been hard for me to review, most of the time I try to stand back like a impartial reviewer and just discuss the content, but when I become invested in a character this premise quickly falls apart. The ending of this series is going to be quite different than the first Someday’s Dreamers anime series, in that series you had a main character (Yume) that was quite like Sora. Yume due to her cheery and kind nature was able to help her instructor Masami overcome his feelings of guilt and loss over the death of his girlfriend, this series ended on a very hopeful and upbeat feeling, with most of the main characters moving forward toward a hopeful future, but this series will be very different.

          With the approaching death of Sora, the ending will be more about the impact that Sora has had on the people around her. As Sora told Gouta that she fears that if she dies all that will be left of her is memories and that feels like disappearing somehow. But, in the end, Sora will have left much more than that; she’s awaken Gouta’s powers, she’s saved a woman from a coma, and she impacted many other people and their lives will have been better for having meet her.

         But what really got to me was how Sora confessed her inner feelings about dying to Gouta, in too many anime many very young characters go fearlessly to their deaths with nary a thought about wanting to live longer. I, as a older guy might have a different prospective if I was told that I was dying, I’ve lived and experienced a lot of things; love and sex, meeting a lot of people, traveling to many countries, and thousands of other experiences. But with Sora this totaly diffrent, she’s young and is justing starting experiance the better things in life so I was really touched when she admittes to Gouta things like “why me”, and how she doesn’t want to die and that she wants to live, these are very human emotions that a lot of anime charathers never express. While we may think that we are ready to accept death, I think the following poem by Sri Chinmoy sums up Sora condition better than I ever could.

Our mind thinks of death.
Our heart thinks of life
Our soul thinks of Immortality.

       This episode begins with Ran having a strange dream of two separated spirits. Later, Ran and the crew are at the local shopping district and they participate in the raffle, Rin and Midori win toilet paper, Rui wins a charm, and Ran wins the grand prize, a trip for four to a tropical island resort called “snake island”.

       So they have take a puddle jumper to the southern tip of Japan, on the flight Ran tries to get romantic with Rui but Midori butts in, Ran tells her that she has Rin next to her, but Rin is asleep poor Midori can’t catch a break. Also while on the flight they run into a spoiled idol named Hoshihana Tsukina, she’s loud and vain, and Midori takes an instant dislike to her.

       As they are about to land Rui meets the grandson (Akaza) of the professor who wrote a book about the island, he tells them even though lots of the native wildlife is extinct there’s still lots of treasure there. After a rather rough and comic landing they debark the plane, and when Ran’s feet touch the ground she gets a telepathic reaction to the island. After the group helps Ran recover, she sees a vision of a ghost snake encircling Akaza and Ran is the only one that can see it, Midori is happy because she says that they are on another case.

       As the group is sitting outside the airport they discuss how something summoned Ran to the island after she tells them about here dream and the object ( a giant scale) she found in her room. As they are taking the shuttle bus to their hotel they find out that once snakes were worshiped as kami on the island but there are so few snakes left it’s very rare to see one. Once they get to the hotel they see a some rare flower and are told that they are called the temptation flower and that they only bloom once every several years, and they are supposed to bring “good fortune”. Later, Ran bumps into the idol and she get a telepathic call for help from inside of her.

       Well, Midori says that the hotel doesn’t look too bad so she tells Ran that they should hurry and change into their new swimsuits and hit the beach. Once they hit the beach they discover that the beach is really a cliff, and they are not going to do much swimming. Rui then suggests that they hit up the pool but even that is out of order, and later Midori complains to Ran that this isn’t a very good resort.

       Then Rin and Rui join Ran and Midori in their room where Rui tells them that the Akaza wasn’t telling them the whole truth about the flowers, a book says that the flowers are linked with the snakes but that’s all he could find out since someone ripped out the next page in the book. Rui is worried about all the occurrences and tells everyone exercise caution on the island.

       A while later, the group decides to head out to watch the sunset and on their way out they see Akaza bothering a local fisherman (Jikunan) about a temptation tree and two figures. Rin steps up and pulls Akaza off of the local and Midori touches him to use her power, she finds out that Akaza is deeply in dept and has to come up with the cash or else. Jikunan seems frightened when he hears that the man bothering him is Akaza and when Ran touches him she gets visions from WWII and a girl.

       After all this is over they kind of pair off to see the sunset, and while they are enjoying the sunset Midori and Ran goof around then Ran gets assaulted by some telepathic power and voices. Ran falls to her knees in pain, she has two voices or spirits inside of her and they say that they never want to separated again, the rest of the group rushes to Ran’s side while she is screaming in pain and grabbing her head. Well, that’s all for this episode.

          Well this was a very enjoyable and interesting episode, I kind of feel sorry for the kids because every time they are about to have some fun they get sidetracked by some new adventure. It’s the same old story, Ran tries to get with Rui on a date but Midori always butts in, and every time Midori tries to spend some time with Rin something interrupts her.

       This episode follows the typical path that the previous episodes followed, one of the kids gets summoned or involved in some supernatural quest in the first episode, and then the rest of the group must find or aid in the resolution of the problem in the followup episode. What was interesting is how the focus of this adventure will have a WWII related plot. While this isn’t unheard of in anime, as time has passed WWII stories are becoming a rarity in modern anime set in modern times.

          This series begins with a young boy capturing a spider/bug on the grounds of a Shinto shrine. When he finally captures it a Kami/tree spirit/miko appears and touches him from behind, when he turns around he just stares at her, then she touches his forehead and she disappears in a gust of wind and a swirl of blowing leaves. The series then fast forwards several years into the future where we see the same boy now a young man carving a shrine maiden out of a large piece of wood.

         After he has finished the carving he goes to get his bike because he needs to take his carving to a contest. When he returns to his carving, the ground begins to tremble, and the statue explodes releasing a young shrine maiden. The boy is very shocked after seeing this and he falls to his knees, the young shrine maiden looks around, and tells the boy to just relax until the shock wears off. Later, the two of them share some tea inside the boy’s house.

         They start talking and asking questions of each-other, he asks her if she’s a tree spirit? She tells him she’s a Kami (local deity) and that she is basically the mother of all the trees, animals, and so forth of this area. Then she asks him about the container (carving) that she is occupying, and he tells her that he made the carving out of the sacred tree. When she hears this she is shocked and doesn’t believe him, so he takes her to the location of the chopped down sacred tree, when she see this she is angry, worried, and sad.

         At the site of the sacred tree, a large bug climbs on her body (she calls this a impurity) and he grabs it off her and when he tosses it to the ground it disappears. Back at his place, she is really sad and depressed about the current situation, and he gets uncomfortable about being soon close to a cute and attractive young lass. But everything changes when she sees a magic girl show on TV, and decides to battle the impurities of the area magic girl style. Back at the site of the sacred tree, she uses some exorcism items she made to banish the impurities. After he helps her banish the impurities she gives him her thanks and she tells him to call her Nagi. She also asks what his name is, he tells her that he is named Jin, and when they shake hands he thinks that she has disappears in a gust of wind and leaves just like before, but this time she is still there.

       Back at his place she tells him that she needs to stay here to banish the impurities, and that she needs his help. She also says that since he created her vessel he has some responsibilities in the matter, after they eat, she again starts to watch some TV shows.

       Later he goes shopping, and when he gets back he finds her asleep, he is really nervous about the living arrangements with Nagi even though she is a Goddess she is still a cute, live in the flesh girl. He wakes her up and tells her to take a bath, while she is in the bath he hides all his girly manga from her.

      Before the evening is done he has to deal with other problems arising from living with a girl, like he has to go buy more clothes for her since she has only one set, and also he has to keep her hidden from everyone since he’s supposed to be living alone. Finally, he sets the sleeping arrangements, she’ll sleep in his room and he’ll sleep in the living room. During the night he realizes just how human she is when he sees that she has to use the bathroom just like everyone else. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        I found this first episode to be entertaining and interesting, the animation seems to be of good quality, and the characters seem to visually pleasing. I like the premise of a local Kami appearing in the modern world and having to see what has become of their creation and how the local people view them. I also found it interesting how Nagi reacts to modern things like TV, phones, and present day foods.

        While I found Nagi’s character to be likable and enjoyable, I find Jin to be the typical portrayal of a male in this genre of anime. While he’s a nice guy he’s also the typical anime guy who doesn’t know how to react to a girl if she’s within ten feet of him, and he really doesn’t know how to deal with a glimpse of a bare thigh or a little cleavage.

         Overall, I feel that this series is worth continued watching, I’ll just let Jin’s lack of a proper man card pass over me. The issues dealt with in this series have been done before, but I think that watching Nagi will make this series a win in the long run.

Below are some production sketches of Nagi.

        This episode begins with a girl from the island of Hokkaido and the town of Biei leaving her house to visit her mother, we find out that her name is Suzuki Sora and that she has been accepted into a magical internship program in Tokyo. When Sora visits her mother who is working at a farm, her mother tells her that she has been accepted into the training program, Sora rushes to her mother and is filled with tears of joy. Then Sora rushes off to tell her father, it turns out that her father is most likely dead because Sora goes out into a field containing a large solitary tree where she tells her father that she will become a mage keeping their promise.

        Later, Sora calls her friend Michiru to tell her the good news, and they agree to meet and talk about Sora’s upcoming training. When they meet up, Michiru tells Sora that she is heart broken over a boy named Tooyama-kun, she likes him and he and his family will be moving soon. Sora tells her she is sorry, but she also says that she never noticed the romance, and Michiru tells Sora that it was really one sided, but she says that Tooyama-kun did say he wanted to see winter in Biei with her. Later Sora tells Michiru to meet her at 8PM when Sora will use her magic to help Michiru confess her feelings to Tooyama-kun.

        At home, Sora shares her last dinner with her mother, and her mother gives her lots of good advice about her training and life, like “life is trial and error”, “do your best”, and “don’t over work yourself”. Then Sora heads out to meet Michiru, when they meet up Michiru heads off to tell Tooyama her true feelings. Once Tooyama and Michiru are alone Sora unleashes her magic to aid Michiru, Sora creates magical snow where Michiru is able to tell Tooyama that she loves him, and that she keep her feeling hidden under the snow like the growing winter wheat.

       Back at home, Sora’s mother notices that Sora is quite happy and asks her if anything happened? Sora tells her that something nice happened but to Michiru not her, then her mother tells her that if she’s not happy she can always come back home. In her room, Sora gets a text message from Michiru thanking her for tonight, and she tells Sora that her and Tooyama agreed to stay in touch, she also says she’s so in love. Sora then lays back in her bed thinking about all that the word “love” entails.

        The next morning Sora’s mother sees her off from home, and Sora wishes that she had a younger brother or sister to stay with her mother. But, her mother tells her not to worry, go meet new people, and experience the outside world. As Sora’s plane is taking off she gets a text from Michiru telling her to hurry back after training so she won’t be so lonely. Well, That’s all for this episode.

        Well, I had been waiting for this sequel for some time now, the original Someday’s Dreamers anime has always been on of my favorite anime of all time. In the original series I was able to easily slip into the slow paced comfortable world it created and immerse myself in it’s gentle storytelling.

      So, here I go with my review of episode one of Mahō Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora (Someday’s Dreamers 2). Episode one establishes the identity and values of the main lead (Sora Suzuki) and the people she grew up with, Sora is a gentle and caring country girl with wholesome values, and she feels that her magic should be used when it’s needed. Sora’s view on the use of magic is almost identical to Yume’s (the lead from the first series) usage of her magic.

     While both series feature girls at the cusp of womanhood who possess magical powers, the magic use will be secondary to the real plot of the series. I feel that the real point to both series will be all about growing up and maturing, learning about life, meeting new people, and maybe finding someone or something to love.

      Maybe some fans of anime might find this type of storytelling boring, but I love to be slowly pulled into a story and experience the joys of discovering new things and people along with the lead characters. To me, a older anime fan, It’s like looking back at my youth in a nostalgic light, it takes me back to a time and place when visiting new cities and meeting new people was kind of like magic.  

       This episode begins with all the girls at school talking about their upcoming summer vacations, Nagisa’s family is going to a luxury hotel on a lake, and Honoka and her grandmother are going to a old inn near a haunted island. When Nagisa and her family arrive at the hotel, Nagisa discovers that it’s not a luxury hotel, it’s very old and run down. After Nagisa’s family checks in they run into Honoka and her grandmother in the hallway, Nagisa is shocked, Ryouta is pleased, and Honoka is suspicious.

       A little while later, Nagisa’s family and Honoka and her grandmother all have lunch together, and they talk about all kinds of stuff and they also talk about the legend of the haunted island near the inn. Later, Honoka and Nagisa find out more about the legend of the island from the inn owner. The legend says that two great warriors both loved a beautiful woman whom aways played a flute, then one day both warriors fought over the woman and killed each other in the process, then the woman died from grief and turned into a tree, and both warriors are enshrine by the tree. The legend also says that at sunset, if the lake is not foggy, you can make a wish.

         After hearing the story, Nagisa and Honoka decide to visit the island, so they ditch Ryouta and tell him that they’ll be back by dinner. They grab a boat ride to the island, but what they don’t know is that the boatman is really Posiony. As the girls are walking to the shrine Posiony activates the dark power over the island, and once the girls reach the shrine both suits of armor come to life with the dark power and begin to attack the girls.

       Meanwhile at the inn, Nagisa’s family and Honoka’s grandmother begins to worry about the girls, Ryouta tells the others that the girls went to the island and should have been back by now. Nagisa’s father heads off to the island to search for the girls, and the battle between the monsters and Pretty Cure heats up. After a while, the monsters start to get the better of Pretty Cure, and it looks like they might get defeated.

      Just as Pretty Cure is about to be finished off, mysterious flute music starts to cause the monsters to freeze up in pain. This break in the action allows the girls to use their dispel evil attack to free the suits of armour from the dark power allowing them to return to their shrines. Shortly after the battle Nagisa’s father finds the girls and he chews out Nagisa for showing a lack of respect to her family for making them worry.

       Once back at the inn the girls apologize for making everyone worry about them, and they also find out that there was a second version of the legend. In the second version, the two warriors died in battle defeating a large enemy force that was trying to kill their lady friend, they died protecting the most important thing to them. Later that day, Nagisa and her father make up and everything is back to normal. Well, That’s all for this episode.

        Well,  this episode was all about family and what is most important in life. Up until this point in the series neither Honoka and Nagisa considered what effect their current activities have or could have on their families. When Nagisa’s father almost stumbled into the battle it made Nagisa realize that her father could have been killed due to Pretty Cure’s battles.

        What really shocked Nagisa was how angry her father was at her for making her family worry about her, I guess that it must have been very easy for her to forget that her family still worries about her especially when you can flatten a large building with a single blow. Nearly every long running anime will have a beach, onsen, or matsuri episode to show a little fanservice for it’s male viewers, hell even Sailor Moon had a few of those episodes, but I guess that Pretty Cure won’t even give it’s male viewers a little dose. So below are a few work-safe fanservice picks, please click to view at full size.

Nice Honoka pics.

Nice Nagisa pics.

Nice pair pics.

       This episode begins with the minions of the Dark King getting chewed out about not being able to defeat Pretty Cure and recover the prism stones. Then at cooking class, Honoka and Nagisa discover that the rumors of Pretty Cure existence are running rampant throughout the school, but it doesn’t seem that Nagisa and Honoka are identified as Pretty Cure, and to make matters worse it seems that some girls are masquerading as Pretty Cure.

       Well, it seems that Pretty Cure is quite famous now because the impostors have been putting on performances in the local playground, and Honoka becomes worried that the evil people might attack the fake girls by mistake. Later that day, Honoka and Nagisa run into the impostors and it turns out to be two girls from their school named Kyoko and Natsuko. In the park Nagisa and Honoka talk with the girls about how they started pretending that they are Pretty Cure.

      The girls have been putting on shows for the children in the playground and the children seem to be enjoying the performances and Natsuko and Kyoto enjoy doing it. So when Nagisa suggests that they stop pretending, the girls get angry and they tell them that they are not bothering anyone. On their way home Kyoko and Natsuko are intercepted by Posiony in a alley, and she uses the two girls to lure Honoka and Nagisa into a trap.

         Posiony uses Kyoko and Natsuko to both attack Pretty Cure and to also keep them distracted by constantly putting the two impostors in danger. Honoka and Nagisa are in a tight spot because they can neither attack the girls or attack Posiony in the current situation. The girls accuse Posiony of being coward and to fight them properly, so she agrees to fight them, and slowly Natsuko and Kyoko begins to snap out of their dazed state.

       Nagisa and Honoka drag the two girls outside but soon the monsters begin to surround the girls and Nagisa and Honoka stand in front of the other two girls and take the brunt of the attacks. Soon Natsuko and Kyoko can’t take any more of the battle stress and pass out in fear, then Pretty Cure uses their Marble Screw attack to defeat the monsters. When Natsuko and Kyoko wake up, Nagisa and Honoka ask the girls what happened to them, and Nagisa and Honoka tell the girls that they found them lying unconscious on the ground.

       Then Natsuko and Kyoko tells them that they saw the real Pretty Cure and that they will stop pretending to be them. The next day after school, Nagisa and Honoka discover that Natsuko and Kyoko are still pretending to be Pretty Cure at the local play ground, and they both wonder in frustration what they should do. Well, That’s all for this episode.

       Well, overall this was a pretty amusing episode seeing the reactions of Nagisa and Honoka upon learning what other people think of their alter egos. Cure Black is cute and feisty, but seems kind of selfish; Cure White is cute and elegant, but seems to be missing something; well, it was funny watching Mepple making fun of Nagisa about being selfish.

       In magic girl shows it’s a quite common occurrence to have the magic girls’ identities almost exposed and it’s also quite common for acquaintances of the magic girls to be put in danger, remember how Naru in Sailor Moon was constantly attacked and only seemed to figure out that Usagi was Sailor Moon towards the end of the second season.

      Posiony seems to suffer from the same problem that the other bad guys in magic girl series suffer from, while the bad guys maybe evil they are not totally evil, a totally evil person would just wait for the girls to fall asleep then kill them in their beds. But, most of the villains have some honor and will wait for the girls to transform and battle them one on one. If Posiony was truly evil she would have continued to use Kyoto and Natsuko as shields and distractions until Nagisa and Honoka made a mistake then she would have killed them, but she didn’t like being called a coward so she released the other two girls.  

     This episode begins with a great commotion occurring at the junior high school, it seems that a new transfer student has arrived and he is even better than Fuji-pi at soccer. The new transfer student, Irisawa Kiriya has now become the new hot guy on campus, and all of Nagisa’s friends think that it would be wonderful to have him as a boyfriend even if he younger than some of the girls. This conversation leads Nagisa’s mind to wonder what it would be like to have Fuji-pi as her boyfriend, danger Will Robinson, approaching desire overload levels.

        Later during lunch Nagisa visits Honoka in the science lab where she gets a shocking experience when she touches one of Honoka experiments she working on for the upcoming science fair. After school, Kiriya has encounters with both Nagisa and Honoka at different times, Nagisa thinks he’s a nice guy, but Honoka just seems to blow him off. Then we see Posiony making fun out of him for getting blown off by Honoka, it turns out that he is Posiony’s younger brother. Kiriya tells her he is only interested in the girls because they defeated two of their allies.

      The next day at the science fair the project that Honoka, Yuriko, and the rest of the science club had worked so hard on is about to be presented. Nagisa is also attending the fair to support Honoka when Kiriya and Fuji-pi walk up and start talking to Nagisa, poor Nagisa gets all flustered being around Fuji-pi. Kiriya takes off leaving Fuji-pi and Nagisa alone, Nagisa goes to pieces trying to strike up a natural sounding conversation with Fuji-pi, and she even goes into higher overload level when Fuji-pi accidentally touches her.

       As Honoka’s group begins their presentation on lightning, we see Posiony watching them from behind the stage curtain. A few seconds later the electrical current in the building goes crazy and people begin to flee out of the building, and Fuji-pi helps evacuate the building. Honoka tries to get her friend Yuriko and the rest of the science club out of the building but some of them gets locked inside. All the doors to the theatre slam shut, and Fuji-pi tries to gets back inside to help Honoka and Nagisa. Both Nagisa and Honoka seem to think that this event is caused by the dark power again.

       Soon Honoka’s science project transforms into a electrical monster and begins to attack everything, Nagisa hooks up with Honoka and they transform in to Pretty Cure. Two of Nagisa’s friends were also trapped inside along with Yuriko and some other girls, and it seems that some of them might have seen the fight starting to happen. As Pretty Cure is about to attack the science project, Yuriko steps in front of it asking the girls to not damage the project but she is soon injured by the monster. Nagisa saves her at the last minute but she still asks that it not be destroyed. The girls call out Posiony. but she won’t stay and fight, she leaves the girls with the monster.

      The girls have no other choice but to use their main attack against the monster even if it will destroy the project. After the monster is defeated, the girls tell Yuriko that she got shocked and passed out, and then the science fair resumes. Honoka and the science club finished their presentation without any problems, and even though Honoka was the brains of the project they decide to name the project after Yuriko due to her dedication to the club. We never do find out if the project took first place but everyone seems to have had a good time. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this episode pretty much follows the same formula of the previous episodes with the exception that Posiony is much sneakier about her plots then the other bad guys. We also get to see how Honoka interacts with her fellow science club members, in a previous episode we saw how Nagisa had to deal with a girl crushing on her, and now we see how Honoka has to deal with Yuriko having a kind of infatuation with her.

      Also, we see that Nagisa has still not been able to come to terms with her feelings for Fuji-pi, while she is clearly attracted to him she still can’t help losing her composure around him, oh well. The introduction of Posiony’s younger brother into the school will probably stir the mix up, almost every girl is instantly smitten with him but Honoka just kind of blew him off. It seemed that Kiriya was quite shocked about this, and he seems to very intrigued by Honoka’s reaction or lack of reaction to him, I can almost feel him becoming attracted to her, it’s like the old saying, you always desire what you can’t have.

        The last really interesting thing was that Pretty Cure most likely was actually scene battling the monster by some students. When the battle took place there were at least five other students in the building, Nagisa’s two friends were asleep when the battle started and most likely didn’t see it or at least not much of it, Yuriko probably didn’t see their transformation but she did see the girls in their transformed state, but due to her being knocked out she might not remember everything. But, two other girls saw almost everything that occurred during the battle, I don’t know if they put two and two together, linking Nagisa and Honoka with the magic girls they saw.

     In most magic girl shows, close friends and acquaintances will sometimes actually figure out, or actually see that their friend is a magic girl, but they will almost always only hint at the discovery or just never mention it. It will be really interesting to see how the two girls who saw the battle will react and deal with what they saw.   

       This episode begins with Moetan’s creative staff discussing the end of the series and how will they get their fans to buy the DVDs. Then we see a little skit of Nao killing Pastel Ink with a light sabre, and then we see Dandy (Da-kun) sneaking a glimpse of Mio’s undies while she is in the shower and he gets caught.

      Then the series switches to high school, where Mio is now a first year student, and she is caught daydreaming about a cute guy in her class. Then after school, a female classmate of Mio chases after her and she stumbles and falls to the ground, immediately Mio recognizes her as the stupid magic girl that she fought in the other episode. While walking home, the girl tells Mio that someone named Himawari changed her into a magic girl because she wanted her help in defeating Mio.

       After a while Mio hears a voice calling to her, and Dandy tells her that the voice is from another world. Soon, Mio receives a text message on her magic girl phone telling her that she is Pastel Ink from another world and that she has died and needs her help in the other world. Mio and the other girl (Magical Shizuku) transform and Dandy tells them to head to Alice’s house so they can travel to the other world. Upon arriving at Alice’s house, Alice and her assistant tells the King that they also heard the voice and are ready to assist them.

       Soon, Alice transforms into a magical girl and she uses her power to open a gate to the world where Ink is currently in. When the group arrives in the new world they discover that Sumi and her maid are also there but in this other world Sumi is no longer rich but she is instead very poor. After Sumi extracts some food and money from the group she gives them directions to where Pastel Ink is being held in a frozen slumber.

       As Alice and Mio are searching for Ink, Nao and Arks (Ah-kun) have laid a trap for the girls. Once the girls arrive at the secret base they are attacked by Ka-kun after he transforms into his human form, Alice tries to battle him but she and Mio are overwhelmed by his power. Soon, Da-kun shows up and he tells the girls he’ll handle this, and as Dandy and Ka-kun begin to battle Alice and Mio continue on in search of Ink.

       Alice and Mio have to fight their way through the secret base until they are confronted by Ah-kun (Arks) and he unleashes his secret weapon on the girls, Dark Ink. At Ah-kun command Dark Ink attacks the girls telling them that she will kill them. Dark Ink is very powerful, and soon she is close to defeating the girls when Tempura Sumi and Alice’s assistant shows up from their world to help them. Sumi manages to change Ink back to her normal self by calling her a grade schooler, and Ah-kun uses his fart attack to escape from the girls.

       Once the girls arrive at Nao’s throne room he tells the girls his master plan, he will use his magical powers to transform every girl with a “B” cup or larger breast size into a “A” cups. After hearing this all the magic girls get very angry and Ah-kun decides that Nao will not be able to defeat all the girls, so he changes sides and is killed by Nao.

      Then Nao transforms into a giant monster with naughty tentacle attacks and Mio uses her magic girl staff to summon mecha planes from their original world. Once the planes arrive, the king tells the girls to go ahead and show him the power of magic girls, and they get transported to the planes and combine to form a giant robot. The girls then use a giant magic girl sword to destroy the Nao monster and then they return to their world.

      Then the show ends with Da-kun getting caught playing with Mio’s undies again, and then it finishes with a montage of the girls with their animal mascots in various poses. Well, That’s all for this episode and this series.

       Well, this episode was a nice way to send off the series with a bang of fan service, oh wait, this series was nothing but fan service. This episode managed to showcase everyone of the magic girls’ “special” abilities and “talents”.

      This episode’s major theme was all about loli, in fact Nao master plan was how he would transform all the girls in his world into “A” cups. While all the male leads supported or at least thought that it wasn’t a bad idea but the girls had a different opinion about.

      This episode also took the level of potty humor to a totaly different, previous Moetan episodes used some potty humor. We see two Ah-kun fart attacks, and Ka-kun does a “full moon” attack and even Dandy chooses to reveal his full power in a “pointed” golden attack.

       Overall, I found this episode to be amusing but not very original. At least the earlier episodes were driven by plot and story but this last episode just seemed to be almost pure filler.