UPNetwork  

Go Back   UPNetwork > General Forums > Anime

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 05-11-2012, 12:44 PM   #1
big bad birtha
Volcano Badge
 
big bad birtha's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,878
Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo

As requested of me, here's the thread.

This is a show about 5 kids who gain the ability to transform into animals, and use their powers to help people with their animal related issues. Almost all of the problems can be solved by understanding the feelings of the animals in question. This eventually evolves into something much more when animalians are introduced, but I won't go into that.

For my opinion on the show itself, it's certainly one of the best shows of its genre that I've seen. It has a similar down-to-earth feel to it that Doremi has. The character designs are marvelous, and despite having 50 episodes, you hardly notice any QUALITY episodes, and its budget remains consistent. The characters are all developed very nicely, and are all entertaining. It also has some excellent humor here and there.
big bad birtha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-11-2012, 01:58 PM   #2
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Previous Posts:
- pre-watching, trying to get
- initial thoughts
- Episode 01
- Episode 02
- Episode 03

Thanks to bbb for making this thread. I appreciate it!
=============


I watched Episodes 04 and 05. This show is very simple and is 100% for small children ... but at the same time, it's very charming and very fun to watch even as an adult. I hesitate to say I highly recommend it at this stage, what with me being only five episodes in, but I certainly recommend it already.


Ken and Tamao get their first shot at major screen time in Episode 04 and it's great. These guys are the perfect hybrids between main characters and supporting characters. You want to see more of them because they're good fun whenever they show up and the writers keep them in moderation. If we got them all the time, we'd probably tire of them. If we got them as rarely as we get the girls' parents, we'd be frustrated at how rarely they show up. Instead, we're in the perfect middle ground. It's quite nice.

And they serve as fun characters for the romantic tangle the show is already crafting. I mean, we already had Ken x Riko and Tamao x Rimu since Episode 01. Then since like Episode 02 we've had Kanon x Ken, creating a love triangle between Ken, Riko, and Kanon. Next, Episode 04 introduces us to some new complexities: Tamao seems to be slightly smitten with Kanon and, what's more, Kanon's mother is pushing for Kanon to seduce Tamao since he's the son of the mayor and, regardless of his Animalian potential, is therefore a potentially powerful political figure for their clan to bring into their fold. Finally, in Episode 05, we see that while Ken may not be interested in Nagisa, he certainly finds her attractive (how could any guy not!? ), triggering some jealousy in Riko. I know the show isn't a romance series but it's certainly titillating for a romance fan like me to see all these different crushes and relationships already forming. (And while Riko x Ken seems to be the obvious canon pairing, as a big fan of Kanon I'm definitely rooting for Ken x Kanon. )

Anyway, Episode 04 was good in that it dealt with what kids encounter in real life sometimes: what happens when all your friends can do something really awesome but you can't?

Spoiler: show
I'm not sure whether the series plans to ultimately go the gumdrops-and-rainbows route of having Tamao be able to digivolve kirumorph into a chicken after putting in a lot of hard work or whether it'll go for the (imo) more healthy of a message and appropriate route of having Tamao be unable to transform but finding happiness in whatever it is that he can contribute to the team's efforts, but we'll see. I'm sure either outcome will be nice.

The series seems to have all but confirmed for the adults in the audience that the turtle we keep seeing is in fact the girls' grandfather trapped in turtle form. Perhaps he isn't trapped? But I'm 99% positive it's him at this point. Episode 04 came out way too heavy-handed with the hints that it's him, what with having him trying to lead Tamao and Rimu towards the necessary clues that would aid in their search, what with him doing the anime depression+failure blue squiggles on his face when the kids complained about how the camera's battery seemed to run out right at the best part, etc. I'm wondering if the girls' grandfather experimented on himself, turned into a turtle, and then somehow wasn't able to transform back ... say, for example, because his heavy turtle body fell on top of his kirumin compact and smashed it to pieces. Perhaps the girls' mother is trying to pick up the pieces of her father's research in a desperate attempt to restore him to normal human form, who knows, and she just hasn't told the girls or her husband because she doesn't want to worry them about Grandpa. In any event, this reminds me a whole lot of Snow Fairy Sugar in this sense: obvious plot element is obvious to the adults playing along at home but will probably come as an enormous surprise to the small children for whom the story's been written. And that's cute, good fun.


Episode 05 was what I'd call the show's first filler, even if it did have a nice character development scene with Tamao, Ken, and Kanon at the polluted river. It wasn't bad though. Compared with other series' filler episodes, this was much more fun and tolerable to watch.

Spoiler: show
I love how Kanon is hopeful that Ken's true Animalian form is a bat and how she's hoping to awaken it. I also like the idea that the animals the kids are turning into courtesy of these compacts are not necessarily their true forms. Like, it wouldn't surprise me if they were their true forms, but I like that the show is leaving things open for debate and future development.

One thing that certainly interests me is how some people, like Kanon's clan, are able to turn into animals all on their own without the need for any special devices while other people, like the girls and Ken, are only able (so far) to turn into animals with the help of the girls' grandfather's devices. I look forward to future developments here.

I'm certainly hopeful to see the girls spend much more time in their pure animal forms than they are right now. In fact, it kinda annoys me at just how much time they spend in their in-between stage rather than in their animal stage. If you need to converse, turn back into humans! (Yeah, yeah, the nudity factor , I get it, but still.) Otherwise, why are you wasting time being hybrid human-animals? Go full out and turn into your animal forms and accomplish cool shit! I like that Kanon does this already and I'm optimistic that the girls will follow suit in the near future. I realize the hybrid forms are moe but plot-wise they just kinda irritate me is all. I mean, think of it this way: if you're a human, no one will notice; and if you're an animal, no one will notice; but when you're in that moe cosplay in-between form, everyone's gonna notice something's wrong with you. This came up in Episode 05 when the girls panicked that they heard someone approaching while they were on their friend's private property. Wouldn't have even been an issue had Rimu stayed outside with the teddy bear in full human form while Riko investigated their friend's backyard in full cat form.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-11-2012, 05:27 PM   #3
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Through Episode 08. Yeah, the show's pretty addictive. And right when I'm ready to take a break (which I am going to do so I don't get burnt out on this), the shit starts to get real!

No pictures this time since it's too much effort and I'm not in the mood for effort right now, but I'll offer brief summaries of each of the episodes so you can remember what they were:

Spoiler: show
Episode 06 is where we learn that the Animalian butlers in Kanon's mother's employ are all buffoons and that the reason they can't get women is because they keep letting their animal instincts get the better of them which in turn either frighten or put the women off. This is the episode with the festival where Rimu and Riko try to set Nagisa and Pars up on a date. It's the same episode where the buffoon butlers accidentally hit on a stupid cow of a woman ... who winds up becoming an Animalian bison after they bite her. This episode is also the episode where we get our first hint about what sort of animal Pars might be (confirmed in Episode 08 ) via a flashback with wolves howling and stuff, triggered by Riko pointing a toy rifle at his face.

Episode 07 is the episode where we meet the two ape-like police officers, one like a generic monkey or perhaps a chimpanzee, the other like a large orangutan. It's the same episode where Riko and Rimu get into a fight and decide to have a contest to see who can find the elephant and cheetah that have been spotted near the mountain pass on the outskirts of town. Either this episode or the one before it, I forget, has Nagisa put a handkerchief on Pars' cut hand. The way she does it reminds Pars of a kind blonde-haired woman from his past. Her face is obscured but it seems to be hinting at the likelihood of Pars knowing Nagisa's mother.

Episode 08 is the episode where Tamao goes on a date with helps Rimu out with an article she's writing for the school newspaper. The two of them plus Riko and Ken wind up trying to find a "phantom" that Ken spotted atop the clock tower. It turns out to be a gorilla that, once the fire alarm starts ringing, grabs its ears and seems like it might transform back into a human or something ... but it runs off and, after a fight with Pars and Kanon, its body is recovered by mysterious men in hazmat suits and a S.W.A.T. team van. Pars comments that what he fought isn't an Animalian, indicating, along with the hazmat suit guys, that we now have a third party in our story.

As for thoughts ...

Spoiler: show
Episode 06 introduces something of a curious plot twist. Are the Animalians like vampires? If they are, then what does it matter whether your husband is 100% Animalian or 50% or 25% or 0.00001%? If every human being, according to Grandpa's research, has the Animalian gene somewhere in their genetic code, and if being bit by other Animalians is enough to awaken that gene, then shouldn't Kanon's mother be ordering the butlers to just go around town biting hot women? In other words, shouldn't this basically be yet another vampire story if Animalians can bite other people into becoming Animalians? But it doesn't look like that's the case, so I guess they'll explain things in more detail later.

Episode 08 introduces a third team, like I mentioned earlier. Of the three teams we now have, the obvious heroes are the girls' family and friends, the initial villains (who seem now to be more likely as 'nice guy antagonists') are Kanon's family and butlers, and the new villains would seem to be these mysterious people who might be doing Dr. Moreau-esque research on people and animals. I guess only time will tell.

Episode 07 made it pretty darn clear that Tamao likes Rimu. Episode 08 made it abundantly clear. You can pretty scrap any concept of Tamao x Kanon at this point. Insofar as he blushed and stuff around her in Episodes 04 or 05, that was probably just because of stuff she said to him or the fact that she's a cute girl and he's a shy boy, or something. But it's pretty clear that he isn't pursuing her at all and that he is head-over-heels for Rimu.

We've pretty much seen every animal butler in their animal forms at this point except one or two. I don't think we've seen who I suspect is a lion, and I know we haven't seen who I suspect is a giraffe. But we have seen the elephant, the cheetah, the hippopotamus, and the tanuki. We've also seen Pars' true form (wolf) and duh of course Kanon's (bat). It isn't really clear whether Kanon's mother is an Animalian or not at this point. She seems to 100% of the time do things as a human. The part in Episode 07 was especially telling: if she were an Animalian, you'd think she'd have transformed into her animal form and gotten the elephant and cheetah to quit. But instead she had to rely on her motorcycle and lion tamer whip. The show's pretty clearly established, then, that she's sort of like a circus's ringleader/lion tamer, but that leaves open the question then of whether she too has an animal form or not. It'd be pretty crazy-hypocritical of her if she didn't, what with how she's making such a stink over Kanon marrying into pure blood.

The show has been a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure whether to upgrade it yet from "6 - Fair" to "7 - Good" or not yet. I might do that in a few more episodes, but the most recent plot twist actually has me a little concerned. Stuff like that has the potential to be very very dumb. I'm so hoping they manage to pull it off well. Regardless, I stand by what I said earlier today: would definitely recommend this show to people who are bored and/or looking for something cute and kid friendly to watch.

Last edited by Talon87; 05-11-2012 at 05:32 PM.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2012, 02:14 AM   #4
big bad birtha
Volcano Badge
 
big bad birtha's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,878
God damnit! I know the answers to all of your questions and I want to answer so badly! For the most part, most of your questions are indeed answered later on.

This isn't spoiling anything big, don't worry.
Spoiler: show
When you complained about them staying in partial form, there's actually a reason for that, which I thought they answered at this point. After transforming, they can't stay in full animal form for too long. I think 15 minutes is the limit. I won't say what happens, but it actually makes sense.

For why the butlers have to bite girls, that's answered as well. I forget when they say it, but yeah. It leaves for some really sweet moments towards the end.

I'm not sure what other things to address. I don't want to say too much.

For my opinion itself: I love the butlers' attempts at wooing women. From the raccoon's obsession with washing things making him wash the girl he's trying to woo, to the cheetah's arrogance and love for running causing him to run too fast for a girl to keep up with him, they're all amusing as hell.


Also, I'll expand on my opening post when I get the time. I did that this morning when I only had a few minutes before I had to go to work.
big bad birtha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2012, 09:36 AM   #5
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Well, in response to what you're saying ...

Spoiler: show
Now that establish that there's something important about remaining in animal form past 15 minutes, I would speculate that if you remain in full animal form for more than 15 minutes you get stuck in it. And that this is precisely what happened to the girls' grandfather. But if this is the case ... then this is really, really dumb. ^^; I don't like that at all. Like I said, I was hoping to see the girls spend more time as 100% animals. So I'm not enthused at all to learn that the director/producer/writer for the series said, "Never fear! We'll totally justify why they can't do that! " No! >_< Don't justify why they can't! Justify why they can! And then do it! *sigh* Oh well. ^^;

I still have absolutely no idea about the bite thing. As I said before, if biting a woman is good enough to turn her into an Animalian, then I don't see why Kanon's mother doesn't simply order the butlers to run through town biting every single hot woman they see. Why bother scouting for Animalian potential when you can just bite people into becoming Animalians instead? But like I said, I want to find out the answer for myself from watching the series, so don't give it away! Knowing that it will be addressed is for now comforting enough.

Haven't watched any new episodes yet but I'm sure that'll change between now and the end of the day.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2012, 03:37 PM   #6
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Watched Episodes 09 thru 12. It's much easier discussing a series when you watch only one episode than when you watch many. ^^; Becomes a chore to discuss all these. But I don't want to shaft discussing them, especially since they were good episodes, so I'll suck it up and here goes!

Episode 09:
Spoiler: show

This was the episode where Ken investigates why there aren't any rats at a restaurant which had up until very recently complained of having a rat infestation. It was an entertaining episode with some highlight moments (like the part where the one guy wants to eat Rimu or like the part where Kanon's mother is hitting on Tamao's father in a way that's not obvious to kids but is RIDICULOUSLY obvious to adults ) but its real legacy is that it was the episode which established the fact that you shouldn't go into your full animal form for longer than 99 minutes, which is what bbb mentioned above. They didn't say why, but given how Ken was becoming more and more like an authentic rat, it seems my guess, the obvious guess, was right and that you'll be turned into that animal forever if you go over the 99-minute time limit.

Episode 10:
Spoiler: show

This episode starts off with an explanation about the other thing bbb touched on his reply to me. Kanon explains to the cow-woman how Animalian vampirism works, noting that you need more than just the bite of an Animalian: you also need the victim to be in love with the person biting them. Now I see why Kanon's mother was wasting time having the butlers seduce women rather than simply biting them: because you need both! Because there's no meaning in biting people without them liking you back first! Considering this, the butlers are even bigger buffons than we'd thought: because there've been so many occasions where women were ready to kiss these guys and right then they fucked up and scared the women away. All they had to do was bite 'em and they'd have been set. Way to go, guys. Way to go.


The real highlight of this episode, though, is the school trip. It was a fantastic episode for Kanon fans as we got to see the poor thing trying but failing in numerous different ways to get Ken to fall in love with her. It had some loltastic moments, too, including the "OH GAG ME! >_<" scene with the fat cow and poor Tamao. (Oh dear lord. "Fairy of the Forest" my ass! >_<)


The show's message this episode was also a highlight of the episode. It was sad when the girls reached the edge of the forest and suddenly all the beauty and animal sounds gave way to silence and brown dirt and cranes.

Episode 11:
Spoiler: show
This was the Christmas party episode, and good lord was this scene funny:


Every dad in the world can relate to this scene. Even though I'm no dad myself, even I was sympathizing with Papa here. (Though I felt bad for Nagisa too! )


It was fun to see Kanon trying to snoop around the house and not quite certain Riko was blocking her from doing so while at the same time seeing Riko trying to block Kanon from snooping around while not quite certain that that was Kanon's intent. The climax of the episode with the stairwell scene was pretty funny. The look on Kanon's face.

Episode 12:
Spoiler: show

This was the most filler-tastic of the four episodes I watched this morning. I love Nagisa, but her transformation into a puppy dog wasn't enough to make this episode exciting. It's a two-parter, too, which means I'm stuck with the stupid mystery of this movie star and his dog for another episode too.

All in all, the show is addictive and the only reason I didn't keep watching more was because I was getting bored watching the same show over and over.

bbb, did you know that the creator of this series is the same guy who created Macross and Escaflowne? That kinda surprised me. I would never have guessed.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2012, 12:47 PM   #7
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Thru Episode 16. The series continues to be cute but the episodes also continue to be nothing too too too special. It's a lot of typical intro-filler stuff that has maybe 2-3 minutes' worth of plot advancement or major character development. For instance, Episode 16 was the one with ...

Spoiler: show
... Tamao helping the one kid learn how to act like a chicken. The episode was important since it debuted Tamao's chicken costume and revealed he has a good natural connection with chickens even if he is incapable of kiruminphosis.

But other than that, it wasn't anything worth writing home about. And I feel like that pretty accurately describes quite a few of these episodes.

Riko in full cat form is always cute to see. I'm kind of eager to see her push the 99-minute limit to see how catlike she becomes. Same goes for Nagisa. I want to like Rimu, but she definitely feels like the third wheel of this troupe. I'm hoping the human side of her gets some more character development because the animal side certainly isn't. Ken's development seems like it's more or less fleshed out for the time being so he's not quite as interesting to watch anymore as he used to be. Tamao, on the other hand, still has ongoing character development and so is slightly more interesting now than his energetic friend. Kanon and Nagisa are still my favorite two characters.

My interest in the show is sort of tapering off after the initial fever, but given that I watched one episode two nights ago, one episode last night, and then two so far today, it's not like I've abandoned it by any means. It's a fun little show and I'm hopeful that things will get a bit more interesting in the near future once we get past all of this ho-hum intro filler phase stuff that shows like this one almost invariably seem to have.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-16-2012, 07:45 PM   #8
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578

Thru Episode 26. Ten episodes is simply way too many to discuss all of them, so in the first spoiler box I'll just briefly sum up what they were and then in the second spoiler box I'll share a few select pictures and random thoughts about the show up through this point.

Spoiler: show
17: the kids believe a hunter's pet crocodiles may be eating local missing pets; meanwhile, Lady Panther targets the hunter for his illicit funds

18: Kanon makes her debut as Phatom Thief Beauty Bat and challenges the Kamihama Kirumins to prevent her from stealing a fairy statue from a clock tower; Riko is the first of the main five to level up, morphing into a serval

19: the younger brother of a classmate of the kids goes missing in a heavy rain; Nagisa is the second one to level up, morphing into a German shepherd; the kids rescue the boy and his pet dog with the help of Pars

20: the kids investigate rumors about a vampire; Rimu falls in love with the handsome son of a wealthy family of foreigners; Rimu is the third to achieve her second level of evolution; and Kanon, pressed by her mother, attempts to seduce the rich boy with a disastrous but hilarious result

21: the Mikogami family goes to an onsen in the mountains; the panda, cheetah, and hippo members of the Fang Group are there as well; hilarity ensues when the two groups cross paths; meanwhile, Tamao and Ken research what the four icons on the Kirumin compacts represent

22: the raccoon from the Fang Group runs away from home and winds up being adopted by the Mikogami family as "Racc-chan"; the kids investigate the park near Kanon's mother's castle and discover a colony of stray raccoons; Riko loses her Kirumin compact but later finds a raccoon washing it

23: Tamao finds a cockatiel and takes care of it, naming it Rimu-chan; a hilarious Tamao episode with a crapton of Tamao x Rimu hilarity

24: Phantom Thief Beauty Bat challenges the Kamihama Kirumins to their second challenge in an attempt to get them to do her dirty work investigating a mysterious coffin her mother won't tell her about; Nagisa and Pars have a romantic date stargazing

25: Alien Invasion Part 1; the Kamihama Kirumins investigate a possible UFO sighted by Riko and wind up witnessing what appears to be an actual UFO abducting all of the animals from the nature park; Tamao ends up Kiruminphosing for the first time but becomes an egg; Riko, Ken, Rimu, and Tamao are abducted by the aliens while Nagisa and Kanon enter the spaceship on their own to try and set things right

26: Alien Invasion Part II; Riko and Ken wake up in a pink room, Rimu and Tamao in a green one, and Nagisa in a blue one; the five Kamihama Kirumins must navigate their way through the alien labyrinth, avoiding numerous traps along the way, in order to reach the control room and escape from their captors; a mysterious man first seen last episode is revealed to be in cahoots with Kanon's mother; the kids unwittingly ruin Kanon's mother's plan to relocate the nature park animals to safety by letting them back loose into the nature park; a robot attempts to fire on Rimu and Tamao, prompting Tamao's transformation into a peacock; the Mikogamis' mother and Kanon's mother cross paths for the second time and exchange words for the first, Misa a.k.a. Michelle telling the girls' mother she won't go easy on them if they interfere with her plans again

Spoiler: show
This show is easily one of those ones where, so long as you like it even a little bit, you can burn through a crapton of episodes in relatively little time. I'm a bit embarrassed to have watched so many more episodes in so little time , but in any event ...

Episode 18:


Phantom Thief Beauty Bat was a surprising development but they've done a fun job with it. I like Kanon and I thought it was kind of cute how they developed her to have something of a fetish for being pursued and caught. The American bison lady (I keep forgetting her name ... is it Keiko?) is hysterical as the comic relief sidekick. And good God at that getup. Someone on the Kiruminzoo staff is a BBW fetishist fo' sho!

Episode 19:


The highlight of this episode for me was when Ken went surfing.

Episode 20:


The pics say it all. I felt real bad for Tamao how quickly Rimu fell for this new guy, especially since up all the episodes on either side of this one have had Rimu indicating that she'd pair nicely with Tamao.

I didn't take any pictures of it, but my favorite scene in this episode was when Kanon presented herself before the rich boy, he didn't react at all, she concluded from this that her mother was correct about the boy being an Animalian, and as Kanon then continues on with her half-rehearsed speech about how the two of them should become a couple ... the boy falls backwards stiff as a board, fainting from the shock of what he's just seen. One of the best scenes all series thus far.

Episode 21:


This episode was what I'd call "fun filler." It was 100% filler but it was also a pretty fun episode you wouldn't mind rewatching. The picture above I took because I was struck by just how much like a satisfied dog Nagisa looked in it. Like a golden retriever, almost, how happy they get when their master tells them they've been good and pats them on the head. It alerts me to the possibility that these kids, the more they kiruminphose, the more they're becoming more like the animals they kiruminphose into.

Okay, so now we come to the crčme de la crčme ...

Episode 22:


This. episode. rocked. Good lord was this episode funny and cute and everything. I really enjoyed this episode. So, it turns out that Arai is actually a raccoon (araigumo, lit. "washing bear") and not a tanuki. Even the girls make this mistake and their mother has to correct them. Then I was like, "But wait a minute. I thought raccoons were exclusive to North America. Why would there be wild raccoons in Japan?" And leave it to Kiruminzoo to actually address this! When they mentioned how rich people let go of their exotic raccoon pets once they hit adulthood because of how bad-tempered adult raccoons in captivity are, I was like, "Yes. And this is why I love this show. Entertaining and educational."

So anyway, Arai winds up running away from home when he can't take Misa's cruel treatment any longer and ends up being rescued by the Mikogamis. See adorable scene above. But there's trouble in paradise when the BEST. SCENE. YET appears.



OH. MY. WORD. The look on those girls' faces (especially Rimu! XD) as that door is closing just kills me every time.

This episode was insanely cute -- anime raccoons are way more adorable than the real thing! -- and I really like how we see, in future episodes, that Arai retains a sense of kinship with and fondness for the Mikogami family.

Episodes 25 & 26:


Honestly, I wasn't too keen of these episodes. Kiruminzoo has been pretty realistic up until now, despite the lol-unrealistic metamorphoses themselves, and it was kind of absurd of the show to suggest to us that Kanon's mother would have had this spacecraft-looking apparatus built just to corral 50-100 wild mammals and ship 'em off somewhere. Why not have Arai talk to the raccoons and lead them into a net? Why not use the lion and the the cheetah to scare the animals into a pen like shepherding dogs herding sheep? In fact, you did do that second one ...except you had them herd the animals not into a pen but towards the spacecraft. Why, oh why!?

I was also disappointed in Tamao's transformation. If they were going to have him kiruminphose at all, I totally wanted his basic form to be a chicken, not a chicken egg. That was stupid. He's completely worthless as an egg. I know he suffers from low self-esteem sometimes and thinks he's not very useful to the group, but as a human Tamao is arguably the Kamihama Kirumins' most useful member. As an egg, he's not only the group's most worthless but a liability to himself and others. What terrible development! >_< Wasn't too big a fan of his peacock form either but at least we know he's got something he can do other than being an egg. >_>

The picture above is from Episode 26 when Riko is about to be packaged and sent off. The way she was terrified was really real here. o_o; They did a really good job both animating and voice-acting this scene.

Loved Episode 22 and looking forward to where the series goes from here.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-16-2012, 10:13 PM   #9
big bad birtha
Volcano Badge
 
big bad birtha's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,878
The raccoon's episodes are fantastic. I liked how they made a point to emphasize that he was a raccoon instead of a tanuki and explaining the difference. He has another pretty good episode later on down the road. Though I think that's near the end. His relationship with the Mikogamis is really heartwarming and cute.

For most of the problems you had with the 25,26, most of them are addressed/dealt with. I forget the specific details, but yeah.

For Tamao, his transformation scene is awesome. Ken's is pretty great too, but I love Tamao's. Umm....this is a spoiler if Tamao's form isn't any different in the OP yet. I forget when it changes. Otherwise, you've seen it already.

About the animal form upgrades
Spoiler: show
the form upgrading can get really silly towards the end. I won't say anymore than that, but expect it.
big bad birtha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-19-2012, 10:21 PM   #10
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Through Episode 37. I'm burnt out on doing exhaustive image uploads so this one's going to have no images. (Sorry, guys. You were good episodes, too.) But as before, I'll write up a list of the episodes' contents in the first spoiler box and then offer some thoughts about the episodes in the second one.

Spoiler: show
27: the kids investigate rumors of an Egyptian statue coming to life after dark. Lady Panther assigns several members of the Fang Group to abduct the statue. Mrs. Mikogami confiscates the children's kirumin compacts after discovering that they've violated the original agreement.

28: the kids can think of nothing but how they miss being able to kiruminphose. Riko and Tamao are hit especially hard by this. Riko tries to find where her mother hid the compacts but to no avail; Tamao, however, not only finds them but transforms and winds up going on a dangerous adventure outside in his egg form. Riko uses her compact to rescue Tamao. The episode ends with Mrs. Mikogami giving the kids their compacts back under new terms. Tamao informs the kids what we all figured out ages ago about the truth behind what happens if you go over the 99-minute time limit.

29: a recap episode, the series' first.

30: a white moppy-furred cat helps Ken, Riko, and various animals out but seems to have a problem of its own. The Kamihama Kirumins want to help him out. Meanwhile, Kirino the giraffe butler gets amnesia and is hired on as a butler by a local sorority. Could the two stories be connected somehow?

31: Nagisa's best friend Kasumi falls for Handa the panda butler. Handa and the Kamihama Kirumins are separately investigating a rumor about a restaurant that is serving up pandas and other exotic animals.

32: Tamao does research about avian courtship in an effort to learn how to win Rimu's heart. The kids pay a visit to the local zoo to investigate the story about the alpha male lion Arthur who has mysteriously lost his mane. Tamao transforms into a small green bird.

33: The girls investigate rumors about a kappa. Meanwhile, Kanon's mother takes Ken and Tamao out for a luncheon on the river in order to prove to herself that Tamao is the better spouse for Kanon. She ends up conflicted since Tamao has the better manners and intelligence while Ken has the more aggressive, bestial nature. Kanon ends up spending the afternoon with Mr. Mikogami. Rimu transforms into a platypus.

34: Pars is spying on the Mikogamis at night when he spots an intruder atop their roof. Injured by energy gunshots of the intruder's, Pars is nursed back to health in his wolf form by the Mikogamis. Nagisa observes that the wolf has the exact same odor as Pars but doesn't put 2 and 2 together. Mrs. Mikogami doesn't seem to recognize Pars but Pars recognizes her. Pars becomes conflicted about whether the Mikogamis are really enemies or not, torn between his memories of Mrs. Mikogami and his duty to Lady Panther who has kindly offered to help him save his family.

35: Kanon and Riko are both assigned to be the leaders of a class project that, at Tamao's suggestion, ends up becoming the building of birdhouses. Kanon accompanies the girls in trying to locate the nest of an injured swallow after Tamao voices a concern that there may be starving offspring. Tamao transforms into a sparrow. The Mikogamis start to like Kanon.

36: Ken ropes Riko into joining him on an adventure: he plans to tail his dad who is going on his annual treasure hunt. The kids end up getting lost in a nearby coastal cave and sealed inside after the elephant butler causes a cave-in. After Ken does a number of things like maintaining a cool head, warming her up, and encouraging her to feed on his own kind (mice) in order to survive, Riko starts to fall for him. She ends up biting him on the arm though no apparent change occurs as a result from this. The kids are rescued in the end and reveal to Ken's father that they found his treasure: what the kids thought were diamonds turn out to be rock salt that Ken's father uses in his cooking.

37: The kids' teacher, Rumiko, announces she'll be doing home visits. Kanon's best efforts to keep the teacher from visiting are thwarted. Rumiko ends up saying all the right things Kanon's mother would want to hear ... before dropping a bomb by telling her that Kanon gets along best of all with the Mikogami girls. This episode is the first appearance of Kanon's father ... although it's only an audio appearance since it's via an international phone call.

Spoiler: show
I'm enjoying it. There are some images I'd love to post, maybe tomorrow, but right now I'm just not feeling it. Takes so much time. In any event, ...

The highlight episode for me out of this batch was definitely Episode 34, the Pars episode. It was good all throughout and ended on a mysterious and sad note with Nagisa being like "Can I see the wolf? ^^; I promised him I'd play with him" and Pars is like "No. That's impossible," and then walks off.

A lot of great comedy moments. Loved the bit with Racc-chan in Episode 37 where he tries to be scary and the girls are all like "D'awwww! " and pet him. And then the lion is like, "THIS is how you scare someone" and not only scares the kids but Arai-kun too. Another comedy bit I loved in this batch was the river luncheon with Lady Panther and the two boys. Absolutely loved her daydreams about Kanon bringing home the bad boy Ken vs. the nice boy Tamao. Her reaction to the first one with a "No way in hell " was one of my favorites. Episode 32 was of course pretty funny, what with Tamao's crazy get-up. Loved it when Rimu went inside the grass hut and started eating the foods he'd prepared for her and he realizes "RIMU'S NOT A BIRD! @_@ THIS DOESN'T MEAN SHIT!" ^^; Poor guy.

There were also some cool moments. The moppy-furred cat was awesome. Loved how Ken ended up calling him Master (shishou). I liked the bit with Kasumi and Handa. I was disappointed that she ended up not liking him anymore once she saw his eyes. (I was also disappointed that without his glasses on he was shown to look almost identical to Pars. In fact, before she explained herself, I thought that that was why Kasumi was dumping him. ) The bit in Episode 35 where Kanon saves the baby swallow was cool. I liked how the kids ended up voting for her bat picture.

I'm interested to see what ends up happening with Kanon, her mother, and the Mikogamis as far as this family drama is concerned. I'm also interested in seeing what is up with the bizarre dude in the orange jumpsuit. Is he the plant version of an Animalian or something? I'm starting to wonder that. Maybe his hat is supposed to be a reference to the Rafflesia. Maybe the reason he wants to turn all of Kamihama into a jungle is because he's coming at things from the vegetation side of things rather than the animal side of things. I don't know what he is but I'm hoping it's not too stupid. I'm also curious to know what the deal is with the third organization we saw for the first (and last? ) time way back when with the gorilla+clocktower episode. Nothing's really happened on that front. I had figured it would've by now. A common enemy for the Mikogamis and Hatoris to fight against.

I'm beginning to see what bbb might have warned me about when he said the kiruminphosis gets a little crazy towards the end of the series. Perhaps not, but I'll say that it's already getting a little crazy that Tamao has been able to become as many as four different species of bird at this point (a peacock, a green bird, a sparrow, and a crow) and it's even crazier that Rimu went all the way back up the phylogenetic tree to become a platypus. Makes me wonder if Ken is going to turn into a dinosaur. >_>; Or if Nagisa is going to become a jellyfish. Hopefully the show doesn't take things to that crazy of an extreme. With the exception of Tamao, everyone's been a mammal so far. I think I'd prefer it if they kept it that way. If they want to do reptiles too, fine, but if they stretch back into older chordates like amphibians or fish, we might start having problems. ^^;

And there you go. Figured I should post the status update, in the mood to upload pictures or not, before I got any farther.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-20-2012, 06:25 PM   #11
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Through Episode 39. Figured I'd go ahead and share some of those pictures I'd mentioned last night as well as a few I took today. Enjoy!

Spoiler: show
Episode 30:

Hysterical. Also: you gotta love how the Japanese can casually joke about S&M in their children's cartoons.

Episode 31:

It's a shame she ended up dumping him for being too handsome.

Episode 32:

Just a good general picture of Riko in her Kirumin Cosplay form.


One of the funniest and cutest Kanon scenes in the entire series.

Episode 34:

Nagisa in Episode 34 (the Pars episode) when she's overcome with grief upon seeing snippets of the mystery wolf's past.

Episode 37:

One of the best scenes in the entire show. Period.

Episode 38:

Riko in her mistransformed Kirumin Cosplay state. (I think she looks better this way! )


Kanon's reaction when Shishiyama (the lion butler) is talking to himself in the corner.


The girls brushing their teeth. Felt to me like excellent "brush your teeth! " advertising from the dental hygiene people.

Yeah, that scene in Episode 37 was priceless. Racc-chan really does steal the show.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2012, 01:09 PM   #12
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578
Through 43. Events that I had honestly hoped would have happened twenty or so episodes ago are finally taking place. It's good to see the back story of the two families take front and center stage as we press on towards the finale.

Spoiler: show
I enjoyed seeing Mrs. Mikogami, Haruka, pay a visit to Mrs. Hatori, Misa/Michelle. I have no idea why Misa has such a stick up her ass regarding the Mikogamis but I wonder if it's more than the simple fact that her mother, Marianne, appears to have left her father for the man who would end up being Haruka's father.

Not really sure what being "half Animalian" or "one-quarter Animalian" means. I mean, I know what they want it to mean, but I wonder if they really understand how genetics and/or vampirism work. ^_^; If the girls' grandfather's research established that all humans have the ability to become Animalians, and if Lady Panther's seduction plan has demonstrated that any human who falls in love with and is bitten by an Animalian will in turn become an Animalian (which I presume to mean a full-blooded Animalian), then I don't really see how you can have halves and quarters and such. ^^; Either you are an Animalian or you are not.

I feel bad for the goat girls. ^^; Ain't nothin' sexy 'bout bein' a goat. Also: they're now doomed to a life of perpetual hunger and feeding. That's gotta suck. ^^; I guess if they want to try and keep from transforming, it's Keiko-rin bodies ahoy!

I'm starting to wonder if the coffin Lady Panther is after contains Marianne Schönberg's remains. Maybe she wants to bring her mother "back home" to Vladonia. Other than that, I really have no clue who or what could be in the coffin that's so important to Misa that she'd devote so much time and energy to tracking it down.

I feel bad for Tamao's dad. If Lady Panther's bite ends up converting him into an Animalian, then it means she successfully seduced him. Which wouldn't be a problem except (1) she has zero respect for the guy and (2) she's already happily married.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2012, 12:13 PM   #13
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578

Twelve days later, Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzuu is finished. I enjoyed the series up through the very end. Unfortunately, the final four episodes felt ridiculously rushed compared with the previous forty-six (or forty-four once you take out the two recap episodes) and I wasn't a very big fan of how they ended up resolving the plot surrounding the main bad guy, the coffin, or Kanon's father. In fact, there was a shitton of vague stuff in the finale and fans are left to fill in a lot of the blanks on their own. This blow was softened for me by knowing in advance that none of the romantic relationships hinted at throughout the series would get solid closure by the end of the series but it's still frustrating. ^^;

Spoiler-thoughts and pictures below:

Spoiler: show
Marianne Schönberg: this character has been a central enigma to the story since the first episode when Pars and Nagisa met in the library. Over the course of 50 episodes, we came to learn a few things about her:
  • She was a bat Animalian.
  • She was presumably from Vladonia.
  • She had a child by Rufus Schönberg, a daughter they named Michelle.
  • She had a child by Mikogami Yuuki, a daughter they named Haruka.
  • She is presumed to be deceased.
  • She wrote a book on the topic of evolution.
But we never found out the answers to some burning questions, like:
  • Why did she leave Rufus?
    • Did she leave him for another man? For Mikogami Yuuki?
    • Did she leave him first and then only later find the man who would become her second husband?
  • Why did she go to Japan of all places?
  • Did she definitely die? If so, what was the cause?
  • Why did Michelle consider Marianne a traitor? A traitor to what?
    • To the revolution? (Did it exist already? Was Marianne opposed to it? Is that why she left Rufus?)
    • To the family? (Is Michelle's use of the word "traitor" simply a daughter lashing out at the mother who abandoned her?)
    • To Animalians? (Do Vladonian Animalians forbid Animalian-human coupling?)
    • ???
Michelle's Past:
The show started to shed some light on Michelle's backstory but it never satisfactorily fleshed her out. Some unanswered questions include:
  • Who was her husband, Hatori Shirou? What did he do for a living? What sort of Animalian was he?
    • EDIT: whoops, looks like that last question is answered right here. His name in Japanese is 羽鳥シロウ. 羽 means feather (and can also mean wing, complementing 翼 tsubasa), 鳥 means bird, and シロウ is a given name but it clearly alludes to 白 shiro "white". So he's a white winged Animalian. In other words, this pegasus is almost undoubtedly Kanon's father. Looks like a pretty regal beast. But this then leads us to the following question all the more strongly ...
  • Why did her husband betray her father? Was it because her father had quit supporting the revolution? This seems kind of extreme considering that Shirou tells Futatsugi over the phone that the reason he wants to hide Rufus from Misa is because “her ideas for revolution are too extreme” or some such. Not to mention that Misa is astonished to discover, upon bringing her father out of hibernation, that he's no longer on board with her style of revolution (which we can only assume was inspired by Rufus's own plans). You would think that if Rufus had started to swing towards less extreme / more peaceful means that Shirou would have been happy. So why did he drive Rufus into hibernation?
  • Why is she going home to Vladonia if her husband is still there and is perhaps even in control of their estate & political allegiances?
    • Does she plan to fix their marriage? (Kanon suggests she's going to get a chance to have a heart-to-heart with her father so we know it isn't like Misa is 100% against letting Shirou ever see Kanon again.)
    • Does she plan to kick him out and take back her family's Vladonian holdings?
Futatsugi:
Futatsugi was another enigmatic character. It was never really all that clear what his agenda was until the very end of the series. A few episodes back (in the 30s or maybe early 40s) they established that Futatsugi was envious of and/or resentful of the Mikogamis' papa, Tamotsu, so it was pretty clear in advance that we were going to see Futatsugi reveal that he had had feelings for Haruka but she snubbed him and went with Tamotsu instead. But what surprised me to discover was that Tamotsu is a shameless son of a bitch. Sure, he's been portrayed as clueless and happy-go-lucky all series long, but that was ridiculously inappropriate of him to hand Haruka the letter and to not clarify to her that the letter was actually Futatsugi's. So even though I was horrified that Futatsugi was going to morph this man into a monster with the real risk that he might never be able to turn back into a human again, I have to admit that I kinda understood Futatsugi's desire for revenge. ^^; However, what I then didn't understand was when they later had Futatsugi and Haruka talking and Futatsugi pretty much laughed in her face when she claimed she could communicate with animals. You'd think that if he was in love with this woman that the natural angle to take would have been one of envy, with him learning she had this gift back when they were research students together and him dedicating his life to finding a way to be able to commune with animals just as she could. For the show's writers to suddenly have him ridiculing her and claiming that animals are too stupid to be reasoned with … that was surprising. If he really felt that way, why would he want to turn into an animal anyway?

I liked the nod they gave to tardigrades though. I forget when I first learned about these guys, would've been 3-4 years ago I think, but I recognized what he'd become the moment I saw the costume. Didn't need the fansubbers' note up top at all. That was a very cute nod from the staff writers.

What was up with Futatsugi's henchwomen? Were they Animalians? They never fully transformed but they did display animal abilities like deer antlers or panther claws. What was up with them? Why did they all look identical? Why were they so fiercely loyal to this psycho?

And now for some pictures ...


Kanon's goodbye to Ken. This was a cute, sad scene. I called it from Day One that the series would favor the canon pairing (Riko x Ken) over the fanservice pairing (Kanon x Ken) and sure enough they did, having Riko constantly be the only one who could understand Ken or who could help Ken out in the final batch of episodes and also having Ken reject Kanon's advances which had gotten pretty forward by the end of the series. Even if Kanon and Ken aren't meant to be, I take solace in the fact that Kanon was the best of them by far and she'll find someone deserving of her some day. Tamao can go pair off with Rimu while Ken can pair off with Riko.


Nagisa's goodbye to Pars. This was another sad scene, though it definitely leaves the viewer more with the impression that these two are meant to be together than the other farewell scene did. You could tell that Pars was still having trouble with humans but, like he told her, he'd come to realize that they're not all bad. But what was really sweet was Nagisa telling him that she'd basically go to the ends of the earth for him (quite literally). It's really too bad she wasn't already high school or college age when this all took place. It would have been much more appropriate had she been for her to have run off with him and start her new lovey-dovey life back in the forests of Siberia. Then again, Nagisa has always been such a sweet dear that it's frankly hard to imagine her becoming a ferocious wolf who tears bunny rabbits and groundhogs limb from limb. ^^; Speaking of Nagisa as a wolf though ...


This was part-cute part-funny. I loved how she turned into a female wolf (FINALLY) and how she still had her heart-shaped cutie mark on her. One can only imagine Pars must have been like “O_O *HOOOOOOOOOWL*”


I thought it was a cute case of “all's well that ends well” for Kasumi, enjoying her newfound fox form and even hooking back up with Handa-san (the panda Animalian). She's definitely foxy in those ears. ;D


The fansubbing here was rather liberal – the original Japanese was much simpler and less vulgar ^^; – but I thought this was a case where fansub exaggeration actually made the scene better rather than worse. This was a pretty funny scene. Riko was totally in the wrong too.


Kanon looks pretty cute in her hoodie at the beach.


Wasn't really attracted to Michelle but good lord did they want to demonstrate that she was more than capable of seducing men.


Rufus Schönberg. Wasn't very fond of what the writers ended up doing with him. ^^; Didn't like how he was ridiculously huge (either in human form or in bat form). I have to admit I couldn't help but to keep thinking how a man that big wouldn't be able to have a kid with a normal-sized woman like Marianne. ^^; I also didn't like how he seemingly abandoned his revolution because he regretted that it was what drove Marianne from him ... years after the fact of her leaving him. But whatever. His character could have been worse.


I was wondering who this guy was ever since he first showed up in the v2 OP. He finally shows up in the series finale and WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!? Not sure whether I like it (it makes sense that Michelle would have at least one kickass servant she could rely on) or whether I don't like it (WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?).


This scene made me laugh. The show had played with this idea – no one can resist Nagisa's puppydog eyes – a number of times, but I loved what they did with it this time.


Riko crying when Ken has gone over the 99-minute time limit and she's afraid he'll never be able to turn back.


One of the very few times we ever got to see Rimu's eyes. This scene stands out though since we got to see her eyes for quite a long time, not just a split second like we ordinarily would. The only other time I think we got to see her eyes for anything nearing this length was in the final episode when she took her glasses and started to cry.


Kanon by a lamp thinking about stuff.


One final shot of the five Kirumin compacts. I thought it was interesting how they had the kids decide to retire from transforming into animals and presented it as though it was a level up to be able to communicate with animals while in human form. It was a subtle answer, perhaps, as to why we never got to see Haruka transform.


The group photo from the ending credits. Decided to take a snapshot of it since this was the last episode.

Could say more but I think this is already quite a lot for anyone to read. In the next post, I'll offer my series review.

Last edited by Talon87; 05-22-2012 at 12:41 PM.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2012, 12:38 PM   #14
Talon87
時の彼方へ
 
Talon87's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,578

Plot: 6/10. It was fine. For the first 90% of the series, the episodes were fairly episodic but with strands of an overarching plot arc in the background. For the final 10%, this plot arc becomes the main focus. The plot itself was unfortunately noticeably rushed at the end with a lot of hurried developments and only-half-answered questions.

Characters: 8/10. The main characters are unique enough and interesting enough to keep you engaged. Different ones have different sorts of hurdles they face over the course of the series, allowing anyone to find his or her own favorite character to cheer for. For the most part, the characters are very real. In most series, the heroes would be way dumber than these kids or way smarter. The Kamihama Kirumins are instead somewhere pleasantly in between. Kanon is one of the cleverest and most capable characters in the series but finds herself saddled with some of the biggest morons, creating a nice balancing act between the two sides. The character designs are pleasant to look at and unique enough that even if you're bad with names you're not going to confuse any two characters for one another.

Animation: 7/10. It's good. Most series in this genre don't exactly have the world's most stellar animation and Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo is no exception. But even if it's somewhat simple in how it's been animated, it's still very pretty to watch. Eyes are done especially well with an interesting trademark of sparkles and starry patterns in each of the girls' eyes. The way they animated the "animal physics" was very good and should not be overlooked. It's clear that the animators did their homework and must have gone to the zoo, watched video footage of animals in motion, etc. Cats move like cats, rabbits like rabbits, mice like mice, etc.

Music: 6/10. It's fine. Nothing to write home about aside from the OP and two EDs, all three of which I find to be surprisingly addictive songs. Maybe if I'm feeling more generous I might consider bumping this score up to a 7 out of 10 precisely because of the enjoyment I got out of the OP and ED every episode. We're talking clapping along to the beat of that second ending, folks.

Replay Value: ???. Hard to say. I can tell you I wouldn't want to watch it again any time too soon but that's true of almost any anime I watch. I can also tell you that if I forgot all about this story and decided to revisit it that I would consider that a revisit worth making. Because the show ended up being a little on the slow side and didn't answer quite a few of its own questions, I'd say the replay value might be medium-low ... but because many of the episodes as stand-alone episodes were really fun to watch, I might say the replay value's a solid medium instead.

OVERALL: 6/10 or 7/10. Can't really decide. I feel like it's a 6/10 objectively ... and yet there's no denying that I blew through 50 episodes in just 12 days and can honestly say that I calmly yet thoroughly enjoyed it. For now on ANN, I think I'm going to put a 6/10, but I could easily see myself changing my mind and making it a 7/10.
Talon87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Lower Navigation
Go Back   UPNetwork > General Forums > Anime


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:16 AM.


Design By: Miner Skinz.com
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.