Otogi Juushi Akazukin 1
Opening: "Douwa Meikyuu" by Yukari Tamura - Bit too synthy, but I like it. Get to see Akazukin without her helmet on here. Very cute :)
Ending: "clover" by marhy - Really nice song, and cute scenes to go with it :)
Souta@Motoko Kumai dreams -- his mother@Yuuko Minaguchi tells a young Souta a fairy tale about a king who ordered a very kind and hard-working young man to get a flower from a rather precarious spot on a mountain, and that did using the power of science. The king then ordered the young man to slay a monster in a lake, and he did that as well, gaining the power of magic. There was nothing in the world that he couldn't do.. the king finally showed his true form, and... a monster takes Souta's mom away, and suddenly Souta finds himself in a forest being chased by a spider, but a girl wearing a red helmet (not hood) saves him...
Souta's childhood friend (osananajimi would be the word), Ringo@Rie Kugimiya (14.. supposedly) finally gets Souta to wake up and brush his teeth and eat breakfast and get ready for school... KNEG? This some kinda ero game here? ;) Souta's father is out doing work... On the way to school, Souta tells Ringo that he had that dream again, and that it felt almost real. Souta stops to say hi to some plants along the way. While Souta's in the library, Ringo comes and asks him to take a look at a plant outside. He seems to know that needs it water, and then says it almost seems scared of something. He somehow seems to be able to make the plants feel better just by talking to them.
Souta was trying to find a book with that fairy tale his mother told him when he was little, but he's had no luck. Ringo suggests trying a used book store, so he runs off and looks in one, but still can't find it. He gets a call from his father and steps out of the store -- he tells his father that he's doing just fine and to do good at his job and that's it. Suddenly, everything around him stops (don't call it a fuuzetsu), and Souta hears a voice telling that fairy tale his mother told him. He follows the voice to Akiba (maid cafes and such along the way... that okay in a kids' show?) and finds a guy doing a puppet show in a garage. The guy goes on with the story -- the king was actually god, and angry at the young man, he cut him in two. Souta says that it's different -- god didn't cut the young man in two, he split the world into two, one with science, the other with magic. But why? Souta says god must've been worried, but he doesn't know since he doesn't know how the story continues. The guy says that only one human in Erde knows this story -- the Key of Erde -- then turns into the giant spider Souta saw in his dream.
Just as Souta's about to be eaten by the spider, a wolf comes and saves him. The wolf can talk, too. Souta's rather surprised, but there's no time for that as they run out of the garage...
Meanwhile, a talking cat named Randagio@Akiko Kobayashi reports that he's found the Key of Erde to his master, the very evil Cendrillon@Misa Watanabe. Randage wants to take care of it, but it seems that Randagio has messed up before. Sandryon says that one of the Three Musketeers, the strongest of the Clover Kinghts, has headed to Erde.... Over in the kingdom of Fandavale, the king, Ferenand, senses the darkness from Cendrillon's resurrection. He orders the Clover Knights to assemble. The required cute mascot character, Kyupi, seems to be scared so Ferenand reassures that things will be just fine.
Souta and the wolf, who names himself as Val@Nobuyuki Hiyama (preferably Val-sama), run away through the city. Val's pretty beat up, though... but he has to find the holder of the key quickly. Souta says that the guy that turned into the spider called him something like that. But there's no time for talk as a guy on a bike rides up and turns into a monster. The spider has caught up as well so they're trapped now. Souta tries to make a run for it, and as he's about to be caught by the spider the girl wearing a red helmet from his dream flies down from the sky. It wouldn't be a kid's show without some advertising, so the girl pulls out this "Sweet Phone" or something and sticks a card in it, and out comes her weapon, a pair of scissor blades. Don't try this at home, now ;) She gets rid of one monster, then turns to the spider and uses her toy item again to send.. some kinda magic that destroys it even though it doesn't look all that powerful...
Randagio's plan failed as usual... the cool Hansel comes and tells Randagio that he's in charge now, and Randagio begs to be given another chance, though making excuses for what just happened..
The girl walks up to Souta, her footsteps making a very Petoko-ish sound, and asks if he's okay. Val tells the girl, Akazukin@Yukari Tamura, that she was a bit late getting there. Akazukin smiles :)
And what a cute smile she has. Can't help but hear her as Nanoha, though (^^;;) Got Nanoha and Arisa (Rie Kugimiya) there, all we need is Nana Mizuki and Kana Ueda it almost would be Nanoha ;) Anyways, I haven't seen the OVA so I don't know what it was like, but this was a nice, though a bit slow-paced, introductory episode. First of all, cute, much too cute, I absolutely love the character designs. I suppose I like Akazukin the most for now, but Rie Kugimiya as yet another tsundere type character with Ringo is cute, too. Souta seems like a good guy, but the talking to flowers thing could be seen as rather odd ;) This being a Saturday morning show, I'm not expecting the battles to be Nanoha-level or anything, but I wouldn't mind things moving around a bit more. I don't much care for the advertising there, but nothing to be done about it.. speaking of that, here are the commercials that were shown during the broadcast -- Galazy Angel 2 (that "Zettai Ryouiki no Tobira" thing), Punie OVA, Black Lagoon OP song, and a PV for the OP single. Um... I thought this was a kids' show (^^;;;;) Apparently not, and outside of the advertising there it would be something that'd work just fine late at night with this cast and character design and story as well.
Next time, another of the Three Musketeers, Shirayuki-hime, will be introduced. Mahou shoujo? She reminds me of Pepper from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar for some reason. I'll be looking forward to it :)
I wated the 1st OVA I really liked it quite a bit but I didn't see the rest of them. I can't wait to see this series. Hansel is so awesome looking ^-^
oh....I like this story already.....hope that it continues to be good just as the 1st deried
It reminds me of Nanoha also, but for different reason.
Middle picture second row makes me think they are Zafira, Signum, Vita and Shamal, haha
I love the art, but not animation....don't know why, maybe a little stiff.
Hopefully the story will be good enough for me to continue watching.