[quote]Genres: action, drama, psychological, romance, science fiction Themes: aliens psychic powers Objectionable content: Significant Plot Summary: It is the year 2100, and on the colonized Moon, a project is under way to explore new aspects of energy. Amami Kurau is the daughter of the chief scientist on the project, and on her 12th birthday, she accompanies her father to the lab to observe the experiments. Then something goes awry, and Kurau is struck by twin bolts of light. In the aftermath, her father is dismayed to find that his daughter is no longer his daughter. Rather, her body is now home to two energy entities with fantastic powers. Number of episodes: 24 Vintage: 2004-06-24 to 2004-12-15[/quote] ANN Info Page
By the way, the above clip and the others I found for the ED remind me of one of the reasons I hate fansubs so much. Those are some extremely obnoxious subtitles.
OK I just saw the first 4 eps and noticed 2 things…
First I LOVE the Opening and closing songs…(Natsukashii Umi and Moonlight) and 2nd its gonna be hard just watching 4 at a time, lol…
Kurau was already one of my favorites but watching this second time its even better. :woohoo:
I watched the first four episodes today and I must say so far it has been interesting. Lots more questions are raised than answered. Will watch the next four tomorrow.
Yeah, it does leave a lot of questions open in the first set of episodes. I also have to agree that I love the music. This is one of the shows that I always let the OP and ED play.
Kurau is probably one of my favorite Monica Rial roles. She really kicks some ass in this show! Jessica Boone is also great. This is definitely another great Greenfield dub.
The first episodes were great. Plenty of action and excitement and a good story too. Love the music as well. The voice cast is also great.
[details=spoiler]I felt bad for Kurau’s father – thinking he lost his daughter until he realized that she was still there, sharing her body with that energy. I wonder what Rynax really is. It seems to be much more than just a source of energy.
I’m also glad Kurau’s pair finally woke up. Kurau seemed really lonely without her other half. And she names her Christmas of all things! But it does seem to fit.
I like the bomb in the lipstick – blue lipstick at that! It was also funny when Christmas found the fridge. New to this world and already an excellent cook too! But it’s sad that Kurau can’t see her father anymore. She must feel awful about the accident that caused him to lose his arm. And who is watching them?
I’m glad Kurau took the job to save Jose. And now I know that she is considered a Ryna sapien, so there must be more like her. And why is the GPO also after her too?
So, she and Christmas are on the run now. Kurau’s new boss is a bit much, but he has a really fun desk. I thought it a nice touch that Christmas managed to save the family picture knowing what it means to Kurau.
When Kurau goes to rescue Sam, I wonder what happened to her power. I can’t wait for the next four eps. Going great so far![/details]
BTW, if anyone ever decides to pick up this series. You need to grab the ADV Bargain Bundle at Right Stuf. You get the original singles with better video quality. They also have booklets with interviews and other info in the DVDs. In volume one, they interviewed Ayako Kawasumi, the Japanese VA for Kurau. She also did Mahoro in Mahoromatic, and Aoi in Ai Yori Aoshi.
They also interviewed the Director, who also wrote the show, as well as the character designer. Apparently, Kurau was the first show she designed characters for after originally working on video games. She mentioned that looking back on it, she wishes she had made Kurau “a little prettier.”
So I watched the first 4 episodes, and I can’t understand why I never finished it. I think I saw the first 3 episodes years ago when ADV had the title, but they may have lost the rights. So far, I love this series. The dub is great, the story is great and the characters are great.
[details=spoiler]Episode 1: It was nice to see the story behind how Kurau got the rynax into her body. I love Monica Rial as Kurau. She just seems to fit the part. I also liked how they made the story of a young Kurau short and sweet. No dragging out of the story.
Episode 2: A very lonely Kurau finally finds her “twin”, something she’s been waiting for for 10 years. Christmas, like Kurau, seems extra sweet. I wonder if that is something all Rynax are known for? Are they all sweet, or do they take the attributes from their hosts? Nice episode.
Episode 3: Kurau shows her stuff in this episode. She promised her dad not to harm the body she is inhabiting, but went out and seemed to “have to” save the pilot of the ship. She is very powerful, yet she is again, very nice. Power doesn’t seem to corrupt her. I do wonder just how much of the original Kurau is left in her body.
Episode 4: Oh oh, what happened to Kurau? She seems to have lost her power. Why she was running from the art thieves and not just passing through walls, I’ll never know, but she is in some serious trouble. It seems like Christmas drained the power away from her, so I need to watch episode 5![/details]
Slick
I’ve only been able watch the first two episodes, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with the rest of you. It is definitely a good pick, though-and one I might have missed out on. I’m glad I can access it on Hulu-I can watch it through my HD DVR on the 32" HDTV in the living room instead of on the computer screen (albeit a 19" widescreen one.) The couch is more comfortablr than my computer chair, too.
One thing struck me right away-especially with the scenes that had Kurau’s mother in them, there is absolutely no way you can mistake this for anything but a Bones production. I thought the had inserted a scene from RahXephon! The other thing was seeing the ADV copyright notice and “Funimation” bug in the lower right hand corner. That was just a bit depressing.
If I can, I might just have to pick up this series.
I am noticing while I watch it Subbed I am understanding the story better, In the dubbed version some stuff is left out.
[quote=LadyOfWicca]
The first episodes were great. Plenty of action and excitement and a good story too. Love the music as well. The voice cast is also great.
[details=spoiler]I felt bad for Kurau’s father – thinking he lost his daughter until he realized that she was still there, sharing her body with that energy. I wonder what Rynax really is. It seems to be much more than just a source of energy.
I’m also glad Kurau’s pair finally woke up. Kurau seemed really lonely without her other half. And she names her Christmas of all things! But it does seem to fit.
I like the bomb in the lipstick – blue lipstick at that! It was also funny when Christmas found the fridge. New to this world and already an excellent cook too! But it’s sad that Kurau can’t see her father anymore. She must feel awful about the accident that caused him to lose his arm. And who is watching them?
I’m glad Kurau took the job to save Jose. And now I know that she is considered a Ryna sapien, so there must be more like her. And why is the GPO also after her too?
So, she and Christmas are on the run now. Kurau’s new boss is a bit much, but he has a really fun desk. I thought it a nice touch that Christmas managed to save the family picture knowing what it means to Kurau.
When Kurau goes to rescue Sam, I wonder what happened to her power. I can’t wait for the next four eps. Going great so far![/details][/quote]
I was sitting on the edge of my seat thinking OMG! just wait till she sees more, and than there is this and that and on and on…
its so hard for me to keep my mouth shut from giving away everything.
I am really looking forward to watch as you slickwolfie and the rest that havent seen it so far enjoy the rest of the anime
I just finished the first four episodes and I think this was a great pick. I’m really enjoying the music, in particular the ED. The voice cast is great and I think they have a well written script to work with.
[details=spoiler]These first four episodes open the story really well. The characters are likable and I want to know more about them. There’s plenty to keep us entertained with her job as an agent while they build on the main story line.
I agree that Christmas is a odd choice of name, but it does seem to fit her. I’m a little jealous that she’s already a good cook! It was great that they made her younger. She seems to be about the same age as Kurau was when the Rynax first started sharing her body.
I’m guessing that the GPO is after her because they want to exploit her. A common theme, but still enjoyable. I want to learn more about the GPO’s classification system. If Kurau is a type A does that mean she is the most powerful? I think we will be seeing other Ryna sapiens in the coming episodes.
I’m surprised that Kurau is so drained after her fight against the rich kid thieves. She did fine rescuing Jose and fleeing from the GPO. Although, she did seem to use more of her power during this most recent job. There are lots of unanswered questions!
At this point, the questions are good and will keep me excited for the next episodes.[/details]
I meant to do a second viewing with the subs, but I’ve haven’t had time so far. I do intend to get to it at some point though.
Episodes 5-8 were also great!
[details=spoiler]Kurau has a fever after that last fight that weakened her. I wonder why she is so worried about losing Christmas. It looks like when she released her power during the last fight, some of the Rynax went into the pod and affected the pilot, Go. But I wonder why it went after Christmas, although it was nice of Doug to try to save her. It was looking for its pair, but it’s too unstable and goes back inside Kurau. More mystery!
Doug meets Christmas on purpose this time and says he wants to help them. Not sure about this. But I knew that job from Kurau’s new boss was a set-up! I can’t believe that Carradine did that to her. Strange that Christmas can feel when Kurau is in trouble, but maybe it’s because they’re paired. And she knew right where to go to meet Kurau too. But Kurau releases even more energy and some of it goes into Christmas this time. Maybe Ayaka was right when she said that perhaps Kurau isn’t a Ryna sapien after all. But then what is she? It also seems that Doug really does want to help them after all too.
It turns out that Doug might have been hired by Kurau’s father to protect her. He helps them escape the GPO and now the girls are waitresses. Of course Christmas is a natural, but Kurau seemed very out of place - even the uniform looked weird on her. I loved the reaction Christmas got when she said she wished she knew how to get a baby of her own! This episode was a nice interlude in the story.
Ayaka has a very sad back story and it creates a little more mystery. It’s also interesting how she met Doug. The battle pod fight was great until Kurau got too enthusiastic and broke the rules, letting the other team win. The GPO has tracked them down and now they’re on the run again, but without Doug this time. I hope he catches up to them![/details]
The story is getting deeper, while still keeping things mysterious. I really like the way all of the characters are developing and I can sympathize already with most of them.
Still loving the music. Eight episodes down and I still haven’t skipped the OP or ED. Oh, and I’m watching the dub version. I enjoy subs too, but this is what’s available streaming. I was thinking about picking this up in my next RSI order, so thanks for the tip on the Bargain Bundle.
[details=spoiler]The story is moving along pretty well. I think we can assume that the GPO is up to no good. Why do the scientists in anime always have to be so unethical? Do they ever stop to consider that Kurau is a person also? I know that it propels the story, but really, do they always have to be so … evil? That one scientist was creeping me out! I could just imagine all the bad things he was going to do to Kurau and Christmas.
I was surprised that Kurau would be set up by a guy with such a cute dancing sunflower on his desk. At least he seemed to feel somewhat remorseful. It wasn’t exactly smart to hide someplace that had been trying to hire you for a while.
These episodes had some great comic relief, too. I loved the apple seller in ep. 5. I never knew that apples were a cure for STD’s!! The future is an amazing place. The girls working as waitresses was cute. Poor Kurau hardly knew what to do with herself, but Christmas seemed to fit right in. Plus, all the old perverts really liked her. That line about her wanting to know how to get a baby and the customers reactions were really funny!
It was good to get a glimpse at Ayaka’s back story. It seems to me that the murder of her family was more than just a simple burglary. The first thing I thought was that it was a hit. It’ll be interesting to see where this story line goes. [/details]
All in all, another good set of episodes. I’m looking forward to the next 4.
I am enjoying the series so far. Hopefully some explanations will be coming. Got a nice bit of background on the lead detective for the GPO. Though, once again, it raises a few more questions.
And how did I know as soon as I heard, ‘Attacks against the cockpits are not allowed’ that she was going to strike the cockpit? hehe
This was one of those series that even though I own it all, I haven’ finished watching it and it’s sitting in it’s box within another box in my closet at this time. I couldn’t watch much more after disc 4 or so, at that point it just felt too repetitious to me if I remember right. Plus the characters grew bland to me during that time as well. I did like the music though.
well I just saw ep9 and it gets things moving right along…
[quote=shankajew]
This was one of those series that even though I own it all, I haven’ finished watching it and it’s sitting in it’s box within another box in my closet at this time. I couldn’t watch much more after disc 4 or so, at that point it just felt too repetitious to me if I remember right. Plus the characters grew bland to me during that time as well. I did like the music though.[/quote]
