Ep by Ep.
First Season
Ep 1 is a filler, but it's Natsumi's backstory, so it's okay. She just kinda exists at the Honky Tonk in the manga. The downside is that we end up with double introductions. Ep 2 is what happens at the start of the manga, and all the intros are built into it, but since we've seen episode 1, it's all stuff we already know. Annoying.
Ep 2 loosly follows volume 1 of the manga. Predictably, when you shove a whole volume into 25 minutes, stuff gets cut. Most of it was amusing, but not strictly necessary stuff. But we don't get to meet Juu-en-kun (10 cents boy). That makes me wonder. His appearance in volume 1 is short, but he comes back to play a really major part in volumes 14-18. The scenes at the yakuza mansion were adjusted appropriately to suit a much younger audience, and motivations were spelled out much more clearly. It all ended mostly the same, though.
Paul gets a bigger role in things, though. It drops a fact about him in this ep that doesn't see daylight until volume 9, but it's nothing too very huge. Anime Paul does a lot more for the Dakkanya, actively researching targets and possible opponents, whereas that is usually Hevn's job in the manga. Manga Paul is much more hands-off, preferring to stay uninvolved and simply play advisor-slash-referee unless absolutely necessary.
Ep 3 leaps right into the "Platinum Dakkan Plan", starting with the intro of Himiko, Maguruma and Akabane. It entirely skips a manga episode dealing with a crooked doctor who's putting people into comas so he can farm their organs. Not a major loss, but we don't get to meet Hishiki Ryuudo, one of GB's most entertaining opponents. That's going to kill a good bit of the fun to the next major arc, the one that introduces Kadz, Shido and Madoka, since Ginji's going to be meeting Hishiki for the first time instead of fighting someone he reeeeeeeally doesn't want to. ::sigh:: Drat.
It also skips the highly amusing antics GB needed to go through to meet their client for the Platinum Dakkan. That was a very funny example of one of Ban's wacked-out schemes that, for once, worked. Drat again.
The storywriters handled Akabane's first fight okay, though, cutting to the truck cabin with occasional abstract, artsy flashes, but they're going to have to really work at keeping that innovative enough to use effectively throughout the series. I wonder what they're going to do about the guys who have lines while they're falling to bits, or about the bloody "J"s he leaves behind.
Ep 4 went just like the manga, right down to a lot of the lines. I was quite happy. Akabane really kept repeating himself at the beginning, though, going on and on and on about GB giving up or dying. Other than that, I'm fair pleased with how they're managing to keep Akabane's nasty personality up, even though a lot of what he does is too bloody to be shown on nation-wide TV. Ban still needs to work on those "yume wa mireta ka yo?" lines. They're flat yet.
Ep 5, again, stayed quite close to the manga,
but a lot of the really funny stuff ended up getting taken out. Ban and
Ginji had quite a few very silly scenes and conversations that conceivably could
have been kept in. For example, at the very beginning when Ban and Ginji
are driving down the really narrow roads so that the rig can't follow them:
Ban: Heh! So what do you think? That monster truck can't fit on a skinny
road like this!
Ginji: You always get the good ideas Ban-chan! We keep to little back
roads like this and we can take our sweet time getting back to Shinjuku. Piece
of cake!
Ban: Exactly! But man was this job a toughie!
Ginji: You said it! But it is platinum they were guarding.
I'd be kinda worried if there weren't really good guys transporting it.
Ban: That's true. But now it's ours and we're gonna be rich!! We
get 10% of that box!
Ginji: Hey, Ban-chan. You hear something familiar? That "grumgrumgrum"
sound.
Ban: Don't scare me like that Ginji! There's no way in hell that monster
could be following us. You're hearing things.
Ginji: Hahahah. Right! There's no way a humungous semi like that
could be follo---
Enter Maguruma.
Ginji: no…
Ban: ….way.
Ginji: "no way in hell", Ban-chan? He's right behind us!
Ban: Chew me out later! I'm too busy running away right now!!
…well, it's more amusing when you're looking at the pictures at the same time. Anyway. Not bad at all for ep 5. Flashbacks got a little long, putting it a bit more stuff to the relationship between Ban, Himiko and Yamato, but that's not a bad thing. I am wondering why they changed Himiko's mystery from "Voodoo Child" to "Last (Lost?) Children". Mebbie something about the word "voodoo"? Who knows. They of course axed the scene where Ban gropes Himiko to get the 'gedoku-kou' (antidote scent). Ah well. Letch Ban doesn't go over too well on public TV.
Ep 6. Enter Madoka, Shido, Kadzuki and (finally!) Hishiki! They did good with Madoka. I'm quite happy. Shido's voice takes a little bit, but it does grow on a body. Kadz… His voice is too deep. And he seems a lot darker and sadder than Manga Kadz. Even at the beginning there was something cheery about Kadz. Ah well. I'm fussy about things like that. As for plot things, again, they stuck pretty darn close to how the manga goes. Not quite down to the lines, like in ep 5, but pretty close. A couple extra flashbacks were thrown in, some stuff that doesn't show until later volumes, but there's no biggie about it being moved sooner.
Ep 7.
…the action sequences need help. They really do.
With all the new anime that have CGI sequences in them, couldn't GB have
snagged some too? Geez, some scenes move so slow…. ::ahem:: But
that's just me being picky. Anyway.
There's really a sense of "hurry up" throughout the whole episode,
though that probably comes from how close they're staying to the manga. Now
into volume 4, it wasn't exactly written with 25 minute story segments in mind,
I guess. I'm actually quite impressed at how close they're sticking to
the original, very often right down to the line. Now if only they could
get the delivery a little better. ^.^;; Especially Shido.
Ep 8.
Aw man! They've taken all the fun out of old man Hishiki. Now he's
just some sort of silent brute. There was a really funny scene about how
the girls con Ginji into fighting him in the outdoor showdown that got nixed
too.
They did a good job with the whole Ginji/Ban buddy-buddy thing afterwards, though.
~.^ That, I liked. Doing half-decent with the whole Shido-Ban antagonism
thing, too. Lordy those two amuse me.
Ep 9. Well,
there was some stuff shaved out in this particular ep, though not enough to
be really noticed. Mostly, it was just the side humor. Ban's
money-grubbing tendencies get a little shoved off to the side, too. Ah
well. It doesn't do to show little kids that sort of attitude in
a "hero," I guess.
On good notes, I like what they've done for Clayman's voice, the gender made
nicely ambiguous without having to resort to any technical wizardry.
Ep 10.
Drat it! They took all the fun out of the Manji Bros. They
were such amusing incompetents in the manga. Ah well. I like
what they did for Clayman, though. The gray/silver hair and green
eyes fit really nicely on her. Too bad she never has major parts.
I think of everybody so far, Clayman's gotten the best treatment
from manga to anime. The animation itself, IMHO, still needs work.
Especially the action sequences. ::sigh:: Not that it's
likely to change at this point. I guess I'm just biased by the manga
art.
Anyways, everything was pretty much follow-the-manga this time around, just
minus the extraneous humor bits.
Ep 11. Aaah. The
Mugenjou Arc begins. So far, they've kept the important bits in,
but a sight more is getting snipped. A lot of it is flavoring, for
what sort of place Mugenjou is, but that's understandable since this is being
broadcast on public tv. The first fight inside of Mugenjou could
have been better done, though. They reined in Akabane too hard at
the start, making Ginji look like he overreacted when he slammed Akabane into
the wall. I also was wondering what they'd do with that poor sap
that Akabane kills to save Ginji, since it was done in a rather bloody fashion
in the manga. They did loosen up enough to show a bit of a bloodsplatter,
but it was still nowhere near as nicely done as the manga. Ah well.
I do have one question, though: what's up with everybody calling Ginji "Raitei
Amano Ginji" a gazillion and three times?! Yeesh.
Ep 12. PERFECT! Absolutely,
wonderfully perfect!! I LOVE what they did with Ginji and Akabane!!
10 Cool Points to the animation team! I was giggling so hard I could
barely concentrate on what they were saying. Shido and Ban's interaction
a little later pales in comparison, unfortunately, but overall everything was
well done. Of course, references to Magami Ryouma's dope usage were
dropped and Ayame's mad-scientist lab was nicely tidied up, but that couldn't
be helped. I like what they did with Teshimine's little cameo, too. I
like his voice.
Ep 13.
~.~;;;; Shido… you’re acting needs help..
::twitch twitch:: badly. You call that arguing?! Yeeeeeeesh.
Anyways. Ignoring Shido for the moment, the rest of this ep went pretty
well. I really like what they’ve done with Makubex, Juubei and Kyouji.
How can one *not* like Juubei, when Takehito Koyasu is doing his voice?
Kyouji is shaping up to be a good character too.
The animation is finally starting to pick up a little bit, the fight between
Kadzuki and Akame not all that bad. That’s promising for the big
clashes coming up later.
One thing I have started to notice is that the animators decided to axe a lot
of the references to a "Judas" in the group, instead going with plain
old "uragirimono" (traitor). Missing are a whole lot
of the deep, theological pondering sessions on Makubex’s part, as well
as some of the Christian symbols present. I guess this makes sense, as
a lot of those dialogues would be well over the heads of most of the target
audience. Nothing terribly important gets lost in the cut, except an intriguing
facet to the story. Ah well.
Oh, and I ADORE the scenes with Ginji and Akabane. They’re wonderfully,
amusingly perfect. ^.^
Ep 14. Good LORD Emishi, you scared
me! If you’d been stuck with that voice you first used….. ::twitch::
As it is, it takes a little bit of time for it to grow on a body.
And do you think you hung off of Shido long enough? Yeesh, talk about
upping the gay factor in the series… Emishi did manage to escape
being nicknamed by Ban, though.
Fudo was well done. I really like what’s been done with him, especially
the animation of his mechanical hand. His fight with Ban got shaved down
into almost nothing, but what was still there was good.
As for the storyline, much more stuff is getting nipped, but none of it is too
terribly noticeable. Most of it is the side humor and funny remarks. It
stinks, but in the end is necessary I guess.
The Akabane/Ginji scenes are priceless!! I love them!
Ep 15. Have I mentioned that I’m
absolutely head-over-heels in love with the Akabane/Ginji scenes? Well,
I am. Did I say that I liked what they did with Clayman the best?
Check that. Akabane is the undisputed King and Ginji holds a close second.
Clayman will have to settle with third. That moon scene clinched
things. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
Sakura’s getting more screen time, too, which is nice. She never
gets much page space in the manga.
Ep 16.
The first half of things went pretty well, but it started to go down hill
a little bit with the encounter between Ginji and Juubei. That could have
been done a whole lot better. Kyouji vs. Akabane was good, though.
But for some odd reason, they skipped out on a little explanation that makes
Akabane’s character a little more interesting. In the manga, after
inhaling the glass shards, Akabane explains just why Kyouji’s Diamond Dust
doesn’t work on him-- anything that mixes with his blood becomes his weapon.
He then produces two solid glass scalpels. It was cool. ^_^
I wonder why that was dropped…
Himiko got shorted a fairly nice scene as well. Originally, she’d
mostly cleaned up the two roller-blade baddies, using her rust-powder, before
Kadz shows up.
Ep 17.
~_~;;;;;;;;
…well, if there was ever any doubt about the gay factor to things, that
reunion scene cleared everything up rather nicely. Yeeeeeesh.
Anyway.
For an ep that’s a big turning point in the whole Mugenjou arc quite a
bit got shaved out, besides the usual humor bits (like the rubble
from Ban and Shido‘s explosive entrance burying Ginji). Perhaps
the most interesting bit lost was the die rolling itself. When Ban finally
rolled the die, it didn’t directly stop on the 6, like it did in the anime.
It stopped on the 4 for half an instant before rolling itself over to the 6
in a very clearly (not to mention rather spooky) unnatural
movement.
Otherwise there’s not too much to complain about.
Ep 18 could have been better done, to put it plainly. The seriousness of the fight between Emishi and Shido is overdone, and the humor of the flashback in the middle is way too underdone. Kadz’s rage was way wrong, too, IMHO. Dunno why, but he’s always struck me as someone who has cold rages, getting quieter the madder he got. I’m just picky, I guess.
Ep 19. A couple of nice garnishes
were added to the storyline in this one, in the flashbacks. Kadz’s
last day with his family and their ruin was never really fleshed out in the
manga, being about a page’s worth of flashback. I like that they
gave more hint into what happened on Juubei’s end of things.
But lordy did they drag out that fight. It does happen right down to the
line in the manga, but somehow you don’t feel it as much when you read
it as when you’re watching it. The BGMs started getting on my nerves,
too.
Oh, and they finally brought up the Judas thing again, but by this point it
really doesn’t make much sense any more. Any support it had earlier
on got cut out.
Ep 20.
Finally, we get to meet Teshimine in earnest. I really, REALLY like who
they chose for his voice. ^.^
The fight between Himiko and Kyouji was well done too. Of course, they
toned down the rated-R bits, so Himiko got to keep most of her clothing. Her
fiery reaction to Ban’s interference was different, though still amusing.
But what the heck is up with the whole name change to “Last Children”
thing?! What’s wrong with “Voodoo Child”?
Ep 21. Fudo has definitely been well
and thoroughly freaked-out. I like it. Heh. ~.^ Ban
spends a bit more time worring about Ginji than strictly necessary, though.
More Teshimine! Yaaay! Even though most of it is illusion-Teshimine,
I still like it. He goes on quite the monologue, too, this version of
things fleshing out the simple skeleton the manga had.
Ep 22.
I like what they did with Raitei. Day-glow Ginji. Heh. ^.^
The rest of the animation is starting to go down the tubes though…
and they were doing so well before, too.
The fight with Akabane was quite cool, and went according to the manga almost
down to the last period. Well, except for the bit where Sakura keeps her
clothing, anyway.
They threw in a bit more time at the café with the real Teshimine and
Paul, though they managed to tell less information. The biggest missing
bit was the disc Teshimine handed over to Paul. I guess that’s not
surprising, since that disc has only seen daylight once since that point in
the story, and what it really is still hasn’t been made clear. The
animators can’t be expected to add in something they may not be able to
explain.
Ep 23.
…I’m really starting to worry about the art. The charas
are starting to look a little wacky.
Otherwise, things in this ep seemed to focus on the side players and bit parts.
What was a quick breeze through read in the manga gets a handful of minutes
of air time. That’s a good thing since it brings out stuff that I
skipped the first time through. ^_^
Ep 24.
They certainly liked the flashback thing, this time around. Every
single one of them’s made up, too. Who convinced Ginji to leave Mugenjou,
and how Gen raised MakubeX are all blanks. I liked them. It fills
in a couple holes that I don’t know if the manga’s ever going to get
around to explaining.
Again, more time was shifted over to bit parts, like Himiko, Sakura and Juubei.
And again the art needs work! Gah!!
Ep 25.
::blink blink:: Well, it looks like they’ve had enough of that
whole “follow the manga” thing. The most major of the major
points were covered, so I guess all’s well that ends well, but still.
The entire dream sequence was an anime invention, and half decently done, though
the manga version with MakubeX in a regular school and getting caught sleeping
in class was funnier. The end where his temper tantrum turns the entire
school and the friends he was just talking to into sand was more poignant, too.
The “victory celebration” bit was, for all intents and purposes, cut
out completely. And drat it, Akabane ends up cutting up the disc. It
was far, far more amusing when he gave it to Ginji as a “present”
for the entertaining fight. Ginji drags a turned-to-stone-in-shock-Ban
(45,000 yen up in smoke, poor dear) back to the Honky
Tonk and pops the disc into the microwave, because he heard that’s how
the IL worked and he wanted to see a mini-explosion. It didn’t work
of course. ~_~;;;
Ep 26. Uhm~~~~ well, the general idea
is somewhat similar…… kinda-sorta. They ditched all the serious
bits and upped the funny-factor on this one. I’m not complaining
too much, this was certainly a royally hilarious episode (Natsumi,
the ping-pong ace from hell ^_^), and a nice break from the heavy tones
of the Mugenjou Arc. I like what they did with the joke-match between
Juubei and Ginji. It was more of a simple side note in the manga.
This whole thing, however, was supposed to happen after the Venus’s
Arms Arc. I wonder why they decided to move it up. If they were just going
for light fluff, there was a hilarious bit already set up in the manga, where
Ban goes wild with the whacked-out schemes to get back the money they never
got paid for the IL dakkan. I wonder if they”ll ever get around to
that…?