Thoughts on Episode One

An excellent first episode!

The production values were great: the backgrounds were wonderful and the pictures were all drawn well. I particularly liked the fight in the beginning because of the colour scheme - it had a slightly unnatural tone but in a very good way. Of course there was the dance section which was very detailed (I was particularly impressed by the introduction of the troupe. I really like how introduced themselves with poems and how they used the umbrellas in different ways); the background art again is excellent in that it doesn't feel oversaturated but harmonizes well with the characters' colours. The falling petals and all were well done (and the timing of when Akizuki got brought up was good, too.) Brought back memories of Millenium Actress, yes, and Ayakashi - Bakeneko as well. The real power of Sunrise?

The pacing of the first episode was exciting; the turn of events may sound silly to people who want hardcore Bakumatsu, but it's so engaging that I just want to watch it anyway! I'm already in complete love with the character designs.

Setting

The setting in the beginning is in Sunpu, which is in the province of Suruga. This is present-day Shizuoka-ken, which is right next to Kanagawa-ken, where Yokohama (the main setting of the story) is. In other words, we're not that far away from the Yami no Auction and all that. It was fairly well-protected back in the day, and the building of bridges over or the crossing (by boat) of the river, Ooigawa, was prohibited. This slowed down any invaders as they would have to go on horseback or something.

The Players

The royalty you see there is Taruhito Arisugawa, a relation of the emperor's who was anti-Shogunate, so he'd have sided with Saigou Takamori. Later after the Meiji Revolution, however, he suppressed the Satsuma rebellion that was started almost 10 years later by the same Saigou.

The big guy in the beginning is that Saigou Takamori. So he is allied with the emperor and against the Bakufu as well as foreigners, and at the same time is proud of his samurai class. He seems like a warmongerer so it wouldn't be unusual if he was after the Hasha no Kubi himself. I still can't catch what they're talking about, though.

After that is Katsu Kaishuu, also known as Awa-no-kami, drinking sake. He was on the Tokugawa side, but was sympathetic to the anti-Shogunate cause (e.g. by actually negotiating with Sakamoto Ryoma when Ryoma tried to asssassinate him). He was in charge of handing Edo over to the imperialists and hence had to negotiate with the anti-Shogunate forces constantly.

The Letter Scene

Next are the two guys galloping down the mountain path, in the early spring of Keio 4 (1868). This probably happened after the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, one of the first parts of the Boshin civil war.

One is Yamaoka Tesshuu, one of the key negotiators as well, on the side of the Shogunate. He lived past the Meiji Revolution and produced a great quantity of artwork/calligraphy, and also a master of combining Zen and the sword in later years.

The other is Masumitsu Kyuunosuke, a Satsuma man (=anti-Tokugawa) who later caused unrest and rebellion in Edo, provoking the Shogunate to send troops over there, which eventually resulted in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi - which has already happened.
They're riding towards Sunpu, on an errand from Katsu Kaishuu - this is an event that happened in real life! Katsu sent Yamaoka to Sunpu so that he could negotiate with Saigou Takamori, and got Masumitsu, whom they had captured after the Toba-Fushimi battle, to act as a guide since he knew his way around. (In reality, this event succeeded.)

Ibaragi Soutetsu comes out looking like the dude from Utena but with straight hair, and recognizes them. He asks them to hand over Awa-no-kami (=Katsu Kaishuu)'s secret letter. Yamaoka Tesshu later goes and fights with Soutetsu, asking for his name and school (of kenjutsu). Soutetsu doesn't reply either, saying it's not needed, to which Tesshu says that then he doesn't need a posthumous (honorary) name, either. From what I read on 2ch, his "Sei! Sei! Sei! Sei! Sei!" thing is a part of the style of kenjutsu he practised, that is, the Hokushin Ittou-Ryu... and it's called the "Sekirei no O" (鶺鴒の尾) although I didn't manage to find much about it on google.

As it turns out, the secret letter was a letter from the 15th Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, pledging allegiance to the Imperial Court. The narration explains that he had to send this (by hand?) othwerwise Edo would not be able to stand. (I guess he was a. getting too much pressure and as such, b. Katsu Kaishuu persuaded him to) I believe eventually in March of the same year, Katsu Kaishuu facilitated the handing over of Edo to the anti-Shogunate forces (i.e. Saigou, etc.) I'm a bit confused though, I thought this letter would have been sent in 1867, and not early 1868? They clearly say Keio 4, early spring... By then hasn't the "Restoration" been announced? (Although it wasn't really the end yet because the Shogun forces hadn't given up, the Shogun Yoshinobu simply resigned)

Shortly afterwards there is an earthquake, which causes matters to get stagnated because the Touseigun (rebellious forces, I assume) got stuck in Sunpu, and the reinforcement troops that were in another province, Hokurikudo (39, 46-49, 65 and 66) got held up as well.

Akizuki Appears!!

Sorry I've got to fangirl about it, but it would be a waste if I were not to say that Akizuki is sooooo cooooooool and perfect. Really. I mean, he just looks so swoonably cool, and he has that irresistable combination of Being Good To Innocent People Despite A Cold Facade. Not to mention he is polite, which is always a + in my book! When he has that angsty faraway look I want to shamefully melt in my chair.

And the sequence where he went to cut the Hasha no Kubi was so cool! They sure ended the ep in a place where you want to see more... really badly.

The Sea Port

After Akizuki's nice angsty little bit, we have a little exposition about the Bakufu opening Japan to Commander Perry in 1853 with the arrival of his black ships, which I think we all know enough about. The seagull bit is probably supposed to be symbolic... The west of Yokohama was for Japanese while the foreigners lived in the east of it, where they created a little (very cool)microcosm that had a mix of things.

Soutestu and His Manipulative Ways

Next we have the whole confrontation thing where the two kids very stupidly got caught in the middle... and then Akizuki seeing the performance and being disinterested (however, it looks like Soutetsu was intentionally getting them to perform in a particular way; he seems to plan things very well, including the exact content and timing of his scripts... (he screams Evil!) I have a suspicion he'd easily betray the group to satisfy his own, hidden desires because he could very well be using the group as a mere tool now.

The Ryoma Play

While the troupe is advertising their play, we see a guy walking up with some people. He is Tsuginosuke Kawai, the 家老 karou (daimyo's minister) of Echigo Nagaoka-han (there was a separate Yamashiro Nagaoka-han elsewhere, it seems). He wanted Nagaoka to be militarily independent, without having to rely on other hans for arms and stuff, which is why he procures a Gatling gun (and needs Hario to be a bodyguard for that). He was on the shogunate's side and fought against the Meiji forces in the Boshin war, but was thoroughly defeated, despite the soldiers even being trained by foreign people. It was probably because the Meiji side, despite having less people, was even better equipped.

As for the play, the part with the gun might be showing Sakamoto Ryoma making his narrow escape from being killed, the day after he got Satsuma and Choushuu to sign a pact, at Teradaya where his fiance/wife Oryo worked. After that event he was prompted to go with her to Satsuma for medical treatment (how romantic, haha). He did, in reality, set up a what some consider the first corporation, that is the "Kameyama shachu". He worked with Saigou on this, and it's about this time that he was appraoched by Choushuu about weapons, which led him to come up with the idea of the pact. However, they probably put that part about "setting up a company" after that event, because it's after that that he reorganised the Kameyama shachu into "kaientai", a naval force (I guess thats why some call him the father of the Japanese Navy?) Coincidentially, there was a ship among his regiment called "Iroha" which acccidentally got sunk by one of the Shogunate-loyal clans, Kishu.
However, he died shortly after that...

Getsuruitou

I wonder how his sword works? Evidently he has to get into the swing of things (no pun intended) and his eyes do that whole glowy thing (ahh, brings me back to the good ol' days of Kenshin... sorry) (personally I think the eye glowing thing has no purpose other than to make Akizuki look cool) and then he can properly face the Hasha no Kubi. When it does that it seems to start "crying" - hence the name "Getsuruitou"/Sword of Moon Tears.

Red light in the sky

It's pretty cool how that red thing in the sky disappeared at the end. They brought the main characters back together pretty well, and generally it was a great setup.

Opening

The OP is also very intriguing - it's pretty, of course, and is synchroed well with the typically FJ-Yuuka song, but that last scene...! ;_; I want to see the resolution! Is it linked to the Getsuruitou as well, I wonder.

I must rewatch it now to get the gist of what was going on with regards to the fight in the first part (what was that paper exactly?)

I have always been a huge Kajiura Yuki fan, so I love the opening song more than my own good. I don't really like the flying leaves and flying butterflies and I think they look a bit cheap. I thought characters movements made up for them though since they were very well done, especially Kakunojou's dance and Akizuki's sword pulling.

The last scene was of course the favorite part of the opening. I love the falling snow and the nice harmony of colours. I think the whole scene (Akizuki pointing his word at Kakunojou, the unidentified object in Kakunojou's hand, Kakunojou's tears) baits watchers' curiosity the way a good opening should (though I think it's rather evil of them to show us that scene is early seeing it seems like something from the end of the anime).

Quirks

To make a pathetic attempt at being balanced, there were of course some quirks with the show. The English was of course not spoken by natives - but hey, it was a good try, actually. Considering the English actually sounds like English. And well the whole Nasty Westerners Using Guns! thing Sonhex thought about, but it showed how cool Akizuki is so who cares. Heh. Also the idea of two kids getting caught in the middle of a fight is a tad contrived, but again, it's not really that bad. And it's made a lot better by the fact that the kids are actually much less annoying than I expected them to be! Yay!

Something I liked is the way they actually portrayed some actual kendo moves in this anime. You don't see this in every anime.

Kakunojou's Voice

Kakunojou's voice acting - it sounds a bit too strained and like she's not really used to this kind of thing. But at least she brought the vigour across, which is what you'd expect from a woman like her.

I thought her voice was okay.

Verdict

I don't care how this turns out, I gotta watch it till the end. It exploits my weaknesses, dammit! And it's good in its own right.

I think I've just found my most enjoyable anime of the season right here. Thank $deity it's released weekly! I feel so happy right now.