Cinnamon Ass

OP - Silhouette of a Breeze Celtic Version (Kunihiko Ryo) - a ridiculously inappropriate rearrangement of the original series’ theme tune with Celtic pipes etc. - it’s a nice piece, sure, but this is the depths of the British countryside, not Riverdance! A nice animation with a lot of references to the first series accompanies it - nothing earthshattering but it does continue the series’ traditional attention to detail.

Emma, everyone’s (well, my) favourite anime maid, has moved on to a new household in the countryside, where she is on probation in a German family. The lady-in-waiting, Nanette, has been stealing belongings from the house to give to her lover, and tries to pin the blame on Emma; however, Emma’s stoicism and all-round angelic nature means that when the truth is revealed thanks to Hans, the gruff family butler, she saves Nanette from a sacking AND gets made a permanent member of staff. The Germans have good taste!

Meanwhile, William mopes about a lot as his family continue to try to set him up with Eleanor, and Hakim is STILL the ultimate pimp.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that Emma would actually get a second season, but thanks to the miraculous and mysterious Second Act Production Committee they obviously found some money somewhere to get this on the air. For which I am truly thankful, as the “second act” of Emma looks to be just as enjoyable as the first; it feels as if the show has never been away, and it’s a testament to how good it was the first time round that when I watched the “intermission” recap before this I remembered all the scenes extremely well and I’ve never rewatched Emma!

We’ve got new characters joining the old who look to be just as entertaining as the Londoners of the first season, and a similar standard of care and attention as before; my one concern is that the wonderful level of detail lavished upon the scenes of London life won’t make it in to the story so much with a change of locale, but I’m sure that Tsuneo Kobayashi will treat this season with just as much care as he did the first time round.

The only real problem is that it’s really a series for those of us who watched and loved the first act; I can’t see anyone who missed the first season really bothering to tune in this time, which is a shame (especially given the fast-paced world of digisubs etc. where January shows are already yesterday’s news, and the relative unpopularity of Emma), as it’s really an excellent little show. It’s only been a couple of years since season 1, though, so hopefully it’s still fresh enough in the minds of other people for it to get the attention it deserves.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Emma - The Second Act. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.