Really like this one. First episode blew me away. I was not expecting that at all and I can’t wait to see more. I agree too that it does have a bit of a Hell Girl feel to it.
Just watched the first episode. I really enjoyed the story and characters. This should be a great series.
Slick
Episode 2 -
spoiler
I thought that Asuna’s situation may have been something like that. She killed her father to protect her sister and I can understand that. He deserved what he got for selling his daughters. But why did she have to kill Shouta? There was really no reason to.
*
But now that Shouta’s body has been discovered, Asuna has to run. She changes her appearance and gets on a train, but then receives the letter from Shouta and she decides to go back to the rooftop and fire his rocket. She loses it when she uncovers the rocket and sees her and her sister’s names on it. However, it was nice of her to add Shouta’s name as well. She had said that she hated him, but I think she really liked him. He was probably her only friend.
*
Detective Noji finds her on the rooftop as she’s about to set off the rocket. The cover gets tangled on the rocket and she runs towards it, pulling out her knife to cut it. Noji’s partner sees this and thinking that she was going to harm Noji, he shoots her. So many “what ifs”!
*
In a final act of friendship the rocket takes off and the dying Asuna hopes Shouta is in heaven and that the rocket will reach him, but she also knows that she will probably go to hell. Miku also sees the rocket and Fumika hands her a letter, telling her that – “these are the most pure, beautiful feelings in the world.”
Episode 1 was a giant plot twist.
I knew someone was gonna die, be it the boy or girl, but I didn’t see the girl being the one to do the killing of the boy, nor that it was her who killed her father. This reminds me A LOT of Hell Girl with its twisted plots and morals to the stories.
Wait till you see episode two MrBoomba!
Ep. 1
Just saw episode 1 and I’m with the group in not seeing that coming. She seemed like such a nice person so did not expect her to be the one who killed her dad. When we found out, figured maybe her dad was abusive and it was self-defense. At the end with that look on her face seems she just likes killing.
Watched the first three episodes. How depressing, if you haven’t been through ep. 2 particularly, you might keep the kleenex handy. Yet I still want to see what comes next.
This show might make Hell Girl look cheerful at this rate. Do plan to keep watching it.
I agree with you ShawnMerrow.
Episode 3 -
spoiler
When Sen commits suicide by jumping off a roof, Kotake realizes that he really didn’t know his friend at all. Kotake hears all the theories of why on TV and says they are all wrong, but he’d like to know why Sen did what he did. One day Sen’s father walks into the classroom and holds the students at gunpoint. He announces that it’s a “court of law” and wants to know why his son died. Detective Noji shows up at the scene. His son is one of the hostages and it later turns out that this is Kaname.
*
Sen’s father singles out Kotake and asks him about his son only to have Kotake ask the same questions of him. Fumika arrives with a letter, but it’s for Kotake and not Sen’s father. Although Sen’s father tries to grab the letter, Fumika stops him with her gun. Kaname seems to recognize the gun. He once mentioned a classmate of his that had shot her father. Are Fumika and that girl one in the same? By now Sen’s father has stopped struggling but asks Kotake to read the letter aloud. It turns out that Sen jumped for no particular reason – it was just something different to do.
*
Sen’s father claims the letter is a fake and Kotake is just about to tell him how he knows it’s real when the Swift Attack Team moves in and captures Sen’s father. Only when everything is over can Kotake finish his sentence and say that Sen was his friend. Meanwhile, Kaname has followed Fumika to the roof and calls her “Mikawa”. He tells her his name and asks her why she shot her father. She says nothing, but there is another scene of a girl in a hospital bed and nearby is a book by Mikawa Kirameki – an author she quoted earlier. Was this her father?
If she is the girl that killed her father, maybe that has to do with why she listed incest as one of the flaws of humanity.
…is that supposed to be a bad thing? 
Because I finished up Ep. 02 today and so far, this series is batting 1.000. It’s not often that a new series gets me hooked right off the bat but Shigofumi (and Xam’d, but that’s off-topic) both passed the “first impression” test with flying colors.
If the rest of Shigofumi is in the same vein of the first two episodes, it’s a sure-buy for me.
I think I even sold one of the girls in the burlesque troupe on this one.
Episode 4 -
spoiler
Kanaka asks Fumika about Kaname and asks if he was her lover. In a flashback of the last episode, Fumika left Kaname on the roof without answering him. In a later scene, Kaname tells his father that he met Mikawa – the girl that shot her father – and Detective Noji says he couldn’t have, but doesn’t say why. Interesting.
*
Fumika tries to deliver a letter to Ran from her dead mother, but Ran refuses it and goes to a tennis training camp, causing Fumika to have to get permission to leave her jurisdiction. She heads to the mountains and meets a co-worker, Chiaki and her staff, Motoma. It’s funny when Kanaka calls him “Tomato Juice”. But another interesting fact is learned when Chiaki says that Shigofumi deliverers are dead and don’t age, yet Fumika does age and Chiaki wonders what she really is. I want to know more about Fumika!
*
In any case, Ran still refuses to take the letter and Nanae finds out that Ran’s mother left ten years ago with another man. Ran hated her mother for that and was glad to hear that the man later left her mother. But I don’t think she quite came to terms with it and has also become a man hater. Fumika tries again to deliver the letter and Ran finally accepts it, but immediately throws it in the trash without reading it. Kanaka yells at Ran, but Fumika silences her, saying that their job is done.
*
But Nanae had witnessed the scene and retrieved the letter. She later gives it to Ran, urging her to read it, but Ran tosses it on the floor after Nanae leaves the room. However, a later brush with death convinces her to read it and she discovers that her mother never really left her, but was always there in the background, watching her grow up and cheering her on at all of her tennis matches. Still, Ran thinks her a fool, but Nanae thinks she may be better for having read the letter.
Finished up ep. 04
Now that episode wasn’t really tragic like the first three were.
I really want to find out about Fumika’s story now though, but it’s only 4 eps in, so I guess I have to wait a bit longer.
By the way, are the themes for this show by the same artist as those for Princess Resurrection?
Read the page before this one.
I couldn’t find the reference on the previous page.
Slick
My bad, I was thinking of the PR thread.
http://www.theanimenetwork.com/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,65/catid,4/func,view/id,33/limit,10/limitstart,60/
I generally skip the first few pages of threads on shows running on VOD because I don’t want to be tempted by, or accidentally find, any spoilers…
Ep. 5
Poor Fumika scared of cats but must deliver a letter to one. Interesting that Fumika crashes into a tree after seeing the girl in the hospital room. The struggle to keep the boy from seeing her was funny. I wonder if she is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiryō.