Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

Fantastic Children Episode 26 - Demise and then Beginning (END)

It's over. I've finally finished watching Fantastic Children.

I don't know quite what I feel at the moment, to be honest. I thought the last episode was beautifully poignant in general. The very end is still a slight point of contention - I don't think I hate it, but I think it's a shame that it didn't expand on things quite as much as I would have liked - but overall the final episode seems to have captured the tragically emotional atmosphere that Fantastic Children excelled at perfectly.

I don't think there's anything I can really say about how deeply obsessed I have become with Fantastic Children. Regular readers of this site will have seen me wax effusively and somewhat incoherently about my unabating love for the series, and overall I have to say it's easily one of the top 5 anime series I've ever seen. Beautiful artwork, wonderful music, brilliant characters and an absolutely fascinating storyline all came together to produce an incredible series, despite the occasionally stodgy directing and the ever-amusing quivering.

Given that the Region 2 DVDs have quite a decent episode count I am almost tempted to buy them, such is the extent of my love for Fantastic Children. If anyone can point me to an online store selling the shitajiki for the series I would be most grateful, as any merchandise I can get my hands on is very much appreciated.

Shows like this don't come along very often, folks. Judging from the Bittorrent statistics only about 3000 people have watched Fantastic Children to the end with subtitles, which is frankly pitiful given the size of the digisub demographic - easily the best show of 2004 (yes, I'd say it's better than Fullmetal Alchemist) and one of the best shows ever, period, and it's getting criminally ignored Please, please, PLEASE buy the DVDs when Bandai finally gets around to releasing them or it's licensed in your area or SOMETHING like that.

Basically, Fantastic Children is fantastic. I can finally use the dreadful description I've wanted to for ever. I'm genuinely extremely sad that it's over, and I hope that somehow I can make more people check out this wonderful, wonderful series and get it the recognition it truly deserves.

Anyway, for those of you who want some kind of episode synopsis, it's in the extended entry. Enjoy.

Thank you, Takashi Nakamura and Nippon Animation. You've made me into a raving fanboy.

Thoma finds Helga in the Interval, but the moment is saddened as Seth reveals that he killed Soran to Tina. Enma appears and attempts to claim Helga/Tina, but Seth tries to offer himself as a sacrifice to save her (although obviously this will kill Thoma in the process). Helga is having none of this, and briefly allows Tina to take over and convince Seth to let Thoma take over, and together they leave the Interval.

After Thoma and Helga regain consciousness, Dumas destroys the AutoZone and leaves Earth to return to Girishia with Georca's body. The Children decide to stay on Earth, opting to return to their old lives (when they turn 12, remember, they lose their Girishian memories), whilst everyone else also returns to their normal lives.

Ten years pass, and Helga runs a small school. A mysterious traveller turns up with an odd bruise on his arm...

Fantastic Children Episode 25 - Into the Zone

Dumas starts the final phase of transferring Helga's soul, but not without a fight as Gherta turns on him with some help from Cooks - however, Dumas is well prepared for any eventuality. A last minute change of heart and a moment of defiance are almost met with tragedy, however, and Helga's last hope lies with Thoma as he journeys into the Zone to save her soul.

Very ambiguous, yes, but I'm trying desperately not to spoil these last episodes too much and I don't have the time to write an extended entry. I didn't actually "connect" with this episode as much as the last one, although I suspect that's because I was running around doing a million other things while I watched it - while lots of rather emotional things happened that I haven't really mentioned above, I think I'm just too impatient to get to the climax of the series now to properly reflect on things.

Anyway, one more episode to go, and I really can't wait to see the ending. Pure anime gold, this one.

Fantastic Children Episode 24 - Thoma's Truth

Holy. Flipping. Heck. This episode was utterly, utterly incredible.

Unfortunately, to describe why would be filled with spoilers. So into the extended entry we go!

Dumas and Thoma fight for Helga, but Dumas has the upper hand thanks to being superhuman. Undeterred, Thoma and co. head off to find Helga once more, but Thoma is strangely entranced when he discovers Tina's body in one of those giant cylinders. The sight of it brings back Thoma's repressed memories...

HE'S SETH! Bloody Nora, I half-expected it, but it's so gut-wrenchingly sad. Consumed with jealousy over how Tina loved Soran more than him, he shot Soran. Overwhelmed with grief, Seth is also shot by Georca's forces, and finally pushes the button to allow Tina's spirit to be transferred to Earth. Paralysed by shock, Thoma's hair turns white...

Dumas finally defies Georca for once, and after being beaten Helga attempts to stand up for him to no avail. Finally they bond as brohter and sister, and Helga beseeches him not to go through with his plan to kill Georca - however, Dumas knocks Helga out, and as Thoma is wracked with guilt over his past transgressions Dumas teleports outside the ship to finish his machinations...

My already disturbing obsession with Fantastic Children increased about ten thousand fold with this episode. Somehow even the veeeery slowly paced section at the beginning which is just Thoma walking incredibly slowly up to Tina's statue held me utterly enraptured, and Junko Minagawa's voice acting was an absolute tour-de-force effort throughout the episode. With only two episodes left to go I'm absolutely DYING (no pun intended) to know what happens next.

I'm hoping Bandai announce something about a release date at Anime Boston for the DVDs - I can't wait to buy the show. Superb stuff.

Fantastic Children Episode 23 - Gherta

There is no way I can discuss this episode without delving into spoilers, save that my favourite line has to be "Alice, if you don't want to get killed by robots, wait here!". Don't know why I found that so funny, but... anyway, to the extended entry, Batman!

Dumas sends out his robot minions to take control of the GED Ring and the Organisation itself, while Cooks sneaks in to to stop its activation.
Meanwhile, Dumas himself detaches the segment of Georca's ship containing the bodies of the Girishian scientists and sends it crashing to the ocean - while Hasumodai, Talrant, Chitto and Thoma escape unharmed, and the bodies are left unscathed, Hiisuma's despair at Dumas' betrayal leaves him catatonic so he doesn't escape properly, and he dies on a beach with the other Children looking on sadly. In the meantime, Agi and Soreto confront Gherta with the truth about her past - that she was once Mel - and we learn why she lost her memory so suddenly in the first episode, as well as some more information about the Fragments of the Autozones.

Unfortunately, I was spoiled for this episode a long time ago, but Hiisuma's death still had some impact. Unfortunately, considering he was one of my least favourite characters in the series, I didn't really care much, but them's the breaks. I'm much more excited about the next episode, "Thoma's Truth" - the title sounds very ominous...

Fantastic Children Episode 22 - Come Flying

The GED Organisation prepares for the activation of the Ring, while the Girishian spaceship readies to leave Earth as Thoma continues to penetrate deeper within to find Helga. Hasumodai and Talrant are confronted with major setbacks in their quest as Dumas reveals the extent of his machinations, while Agi and Soreto confront Gherta as the pieces of her past begin to slot together.

A bit of a lull after how amazing I thought the last episode was, but the stakes are getting upped quite drastically. I'm not sure quite what's going to happen to the GED Organisation, nor why the Fragments contain the information they do, but I suppose all in good time. Not a lot to say, really.

Fantastic Children Episode 21 - Dumas

Thoma and co give chase after Dumas to Kuril Island, where he reveals the tragedy of his past to Helga before taking her to Georca, who sets the final preparations for his return to Girishia in motion. Meanwhile, Gherta finally decides to confront her fears about Dumas' knowledge of her past, while Cooks and Alice resolve their search for the Children before beginning to deal with the GED Organisation and the mysterious stone once and for all.

I have a very, very embarassing confession to make. I cried during this episode of Fantastic Children. As a MANLY MAN, my testosterone rebels against this admission, as I don't cry at anime normally (seriously). Fantastic Children isn't as manipulatively emotional as, say, Air was, but the genuine depth of my feeling for the characters (except Georca, who is still nothing but a generic Evil Villain, if a particularly bastardly one) really surprised me this episode. The animation budget appears to have gone up a bit for these last episodes, too - and thankfully, it seems that we're not going to completely wrap up all the plotlines just yet. I was worried about Cooks and Alice for a moment there, but it looks like they're in for the long haul - hurray!

I'll reiterate, in case you haven't guessed - I think Fantastic Children is one of the best anime series I've ever seen. Admittedly, I don't have the breadth of viewing that many people do, but this episode in particular has cemented the series as an absolute all-time favourite. I really hope things don't spiral down from here (I've probably cursed it now, haven't I?).

Fantastic Children Episode 20 - Circling Life

Dumas reveals the fate of the Children once they return to Girishia, but makes a bargain with Hiisuma over a solution to the problem whilst abusing his knowledge of Gherta. Armed with Hiisuma's information, Dumas attacks the Children and captures Helga. While Thoma has a bizarre reaction to Helga's revelations about her past lives, Agi and Soreto give chase to Gherta's old laboratories, where they face Enma once more and meet some familiar faces...

Well, we now know Dumas' motives and some more about the way the reincarnation appears to work. In some ways I find Helga's role of the damsel in distress to be slightly annoying - she's been an object for much of the series - but she seems to have gained a more interesting personality alongside her memories. It didn't bother me that much, as we got a pretty decent action sequence and more Gherta! I don't know why she's my favourite character, I really don't...

As a special treat, I've ripped and uploaded the Origa tracks from the Fantastic Children image album for your listening pleasure here. The password for the RAR is, rather originally, origa.

In the extended entry, you can find the lyrics for the Japanese version of the song - I have made an attempt of translating them but have no idea if it's right. or not (given my virtually non-existent skills in Japanese) - take them as you will.

Kanji:

迷い子の群れ　遥か　 私を呼ぶ
砂の記憶をたぐり　夜はみちる
遠い昔　放たれた光　私を照らす
頬なでる風　 指に触れる　虹のかけら

ここで　あなたを待っていた
ふいに透きとおる　カラダは
春の風にさらわれて
空へ　舞い上がる　たかく

果てしない草原を　さまよいゆく
微熱の瞳とじて　夢を見てる
大切な　たった一つきりの　ココロの奥で
そっと息づいた 蕾のように　ほどけてゆく

ここで　誰かを待っていた
ふいにすきとおる　カラダを　つよく　抱いて
舞い上がる

ずっと遠い昔　放たれたら光　私を照らす
頬なでる風　 指に触れる　虹のかけら

ここで　あなたを待っていた　ふいに透きとおる　カラダは
春の風にさらわれて　空へ　舞い上がる　いま

ここで　誰かを待っていた
ふいにすきとおる　ココロは
春の風にさらわれて
空へ　舞い上がる　いま

Romanised:

Mayoigo no mure haruka watashi wo yobu
Suna no kioku wo taguri yoru wa michiru
Tooi mukashi hanatareta hikari watashi wo terasu
Hohonaderu kaze yubi ni fureru niji no kakera

Koko de anata wo matteita
Fui ni sukitooru karada wa
Haru no kaze ni sarawarete
Sora e maiagaru takaku

Hateshinai sougen wo samayoi yuku
Binetsu no hitomi tojite yume wo miteru
Taisetsuna tatta hitotsu kiri no kokoro no oku de
Sotto ikizuita tsubomi no youni hodokete yuku

Koko de dareka wo matteita
Fui ni sukitooru karada wo tsuyoku daite
Maiagaru

Zutto tooi mukashi hanataretara hikari watashi wo terasu
Hohonaderu kaze yubi ni fureru niji no kakera

Koko de anata wo matteita　Fui ni sukitooru karada wa
Haru no kaze ni sarawarete　Sora e maiagaru ima

Koko de dareka wo matteita
Fui ni sukitooru kokoro wa
Haru no kaze ni sarawarete
Sora e maiagaru ima

English (vaguely)

A distant group of lost children call to me
Reeling in the memory of sand, night comes
The light released in the distant past shines on me
The wind brushes my cheeks, and shards of a rainbow touch my fingers.

I have waited for you there
Suddenly, my transparent body
Is captured by the wind of spring
And soars into the multifaceted sky

I wander endless plains
I dream, my eyes closed feverishly
The most important part of my heart
Blooms, like a softly sighing flower

I have waited for someone there
Suddenly, my transparent body is embraced strongly
And soars.

The light released in the long distant past shines on me
The wind brushes my cheeks, and shards of a rainbow touch my fingers.

I have waited for you there. Suddenly, my transparent body
Is captured by the wind of spring and now soars to the sky

I have waited for someone there
Suddenly, my transparent heart
Is captured by the wind of spring
And now soars to the sky.

Fantastic Children Episode 19 - Oath

Georca takes advantage of the confusion to attack the palace. The Children try to save Tina, but discover that there are complications leading to only one real solution - transfer her soul to Earth. Yet tragedy strikes once more...

Back to the present. While Helga deals with the sudden flood of new memories, Hiisuma gets himself into confrontation with Duma, Cooks plots to stop GED, and Thoma is left unsure what to do next.

Thus ends the Girishia arc, and what a tragic ending it was! I have a sneaking suspicion I know what happened at the end there, which makes it even worse. Then straight back to the future, and everything gets moving once more. I hope that's not the last we see of Alice!

Today is obviously a Fantastic Children day, as not only do I have three more episodes to watch, but my copy of the second OST/drama album/whatever turned up today! I may see my way to posting the new Origa songs at some point...

Fantastic Children Episode 18 - Tragedy

Georca reveals all to Tina, whose anger leads her to open the Zone and transform into a living weapon. While she does lay waste to much of Girishia, the day is unsurprisingly saved, but not without cost and sadness for many.

The ending sequence of Sesu trudging through the rain nearly tested my patience for slothfulness, and although it's a very nice piece of music that was played over it I think it could have done with a leeetle more trimming. In fact, the whole episode felt a bit strung out to be honest, although in places it was quite effective. I understand the next episode will be the last of the Girishia arc, which would be quite nice - I've enjoyed this little sojourn, but it needs closure and a rapid return to where we left off.

Fantastic Children Episode 17 - Tina

The Girishian scientists meet with the King to discuss a new form of energy for powering their civilisation via the Zone, but tragedy strikes when a terrorist attack on the King accidentally involves Tina. In a last ditch effort to save her life, they use OSL to revive her. The experiment is a success, but the King chooses to use the power of OSL to turn Tina into a living weapon. This news filters back to Georca, who then kidnaps Hiisuma in order to control her. Meanwhile, Tina (accompanied by Sesu) goes to visit her estranged mother, but Georca has more machinations in store...

I pity the seiyuu who had to sing along with Mizu no Madoromi (I wonder how they'll dub that?), they were obviously incredibly nervous about doing it/not a singer. Anyway, more from Girishia here, and it's all going rather tragically as usual. I keep expecting Georca to cackle evilly and sweep around in a cape - he is such a cheesy villain - but it's very effective and all that. What kind of a bastard makes his own daughter into a living weapon, though?

I liked the focus on the Children/scientists this time round, the love triangle or whatever it is doesn't inspire me that much - Sesu is a more interesting character than Solan thus far, but Solan seems certain to win out for Tina's affections (well, especially as they're going to get married!).

Fantastic Children Episode 16 - Return, Into the Mist

Christina was a teacher in Spain in the 1700s. One of her students died tragically for her sake. We then go back even further, at which point I should warn you that we're going into backstory territory here so you may want to avoid Fantastic Children entries for the moment if you're particularly spoiler sensitive.

Princess Tina of Girishia meets the half-human, half-machine Soran (how very FMA!) when she gets lost in the woods as a young girl. Fast forward some years, and Tina is nearly 16, and preparing to get married to Sesu, another young noble, until she falls in love with Soran instead. Meanwhile, her uncle, Georca, is plotting to overthrow the king, and the Children begin their fateful work on reincarnation.

The Girishia storyline begins as awesomely as I have begun to expect from Fantastic Children. Our new protagonists seem interesting enough (even if the storyline does scream DOOMED LOVED TRIANGLE quite loudly), and as usual the director juggles several interlocking storylines at once, which is always nifty (plus Mel and Palza are back with a lovely little storyline of their own, which is especially sweet). Girishia itself also gives the background designer license to do more of his/her wonderful work, which is ever so spiffy. Basically, blah blah blah I love Fantastic Children yadda yadda yadda.

Plus, an extra special bonus - everyone's relatively happy in this episode, so there's very little quivering!

Fantastic Children Episode 15 - Remembrances

Germany, 1970. Gherta's visit to a museum dedicated to Conrad Rontgen affects her profoundly. Years later, she is confronted by Duma, who entrusts her with important research into the Fragments and some kind of machine. Duma himself appears to be acting on behalf of other, more insidious forces. Meanwhile, back in the main plot, Helga remembers lots of things about her past life as Seraphine.

Too...many...plot...threads... the Seraphine flashback was nice, although fairly superfluous, but next episode launches into the Girishia backstory which I REALLY want to see, especially given the Duma section of this episode. What's happened to Cooks and Alice?

One thing about Fantastic Children is beginning to make me laugh inappropriately at this point - since there are so many revelations, you get endless "quivering" shots, where a character just stands there and shakes in shock while gasping like an asthmatic dog. I suppose it's a budget-saving device, but it's getting a little old.

Fantastic Children Episode 14 - Trace

Bah, it's a recap. Absolutely no new material, although I guess if you want to jump into the series now this would serve as an introduction. Frankly, though, you really want to start at the beginning and work your way through, it's SO worth it.

(yes, I know I haven't exactly been blogging a lot lately, I've been very, very busy and there's been a paucity of things worth watching. I tried picking up School Rumble, but it didn't really appeal to me that much, but I did enjoy episode 4 of Moon Phase enough to start it up again, although I shan't be blogging. Otherwise I continue to watch .hack//Sign when I get the chance.)

Fantastic Children Episode 13 - Memories of Girishia

WARNING - MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. This episode provides honking great backstory details, so read ahead at your own peril. I have no opinion other than my usual gushing fanboyism over Fantastic Children being heightened by the disclosures in this episode, so don't worry about missing out on anything important on that front. This show, frankly, rocks my socks.

To the extended entry!

The Children and the Intrepid Trio head back to Kokkuri, where the Children use a special machine to determine that Helga is indeed the reincarnation of Tina. They then actually reveal some details about what the heck is going on after all this time...

The Children and Tina are from a planet hundreds of light years away known as Girishia (Greece, if you wish). An undisclosed tragedy occurred that led the Children, who were great scientists, to transport Tina's spirit to Earth via a machine called the "Autozone" - the Zone is where spirits go when their bodies die to be reincarnated, and there are different Zones for different places, and the scientists sent Tina to Earth's Zone. The scientists also sent themselves to Earth, but need to continually rebuild and use the Autozone in order to keep themselves reincarnating, whereas Tina dies and is reborn naturally for some reason. The Children wish to return the spirit of Tina inside Helga to Girishia, but this involves killing Helga by use of the Autozone.

The shadow creatures chasing the Children and Kirchner are known as "Enma", forces which seek to restore balance to the Zone. Kirchner upset the order of nature by dying and then reincarnating immediately in the same body with memories of his previous life, which the Children are doing to some extent with their constant reincarnation and accessing of their memories, but they are capable of fighting them off (and obviously staving off the effects by their constant reincarnation).

After much deliberation and disagreement on the parts of Thoma and Chit, Helga decides she wants the Children to unlock her memories and return her to Girishia - it is what she's been searching for all this time, after all. Meanwhile, Duma stands before a glass case containing what appears to be Tina's body from Girishia, calling her "Big Sister"...

Fantastic Children Episode 12 - Enma

Kirchner starts to lay waste to the research ship in his attempts to reach Shiberu, but is attacked by the mysterious black entities that are after the Children, and we finally learn something about them. Agi's attempts to calm Kirchner and stop them is in vain, however, and the whole affair ends tragically. Yet now the Children and Helga are reunited, they decide to explain everything - particularly where they come from.

Yes, it's vague, but I don't want to spoil anything for those watching. This looks to be a fairly major turning point, especially now we know a little more about the Children - but how will Chit and Thoma fit into this, though? To be honest, I can't put my finger on it but this episode was in some ways curiously unsatisfying - there was a lot of screaming and plenty of eye candy, but I think it's because it was fairly obvious what was going to happen and thus little dramatic tension. Now this segment of the series is over, I'm very much looking forward to seeing where we go next, though.

Fantastic Children Episode 11 - Important Person

Helga and Chit are caught up in a storm and rescued by a ship which turns out to belong to the GED Organisation - Gherta is on board attempting to trace Kirchner, who appears to still be "alive". Meanwhile, the Children track Helga to Kokkuri Island at about the same time as Thoma goes searching for her, and they decide to stick together in order to find her - however, they are unaware that Kirchner is coming closer to the research ship, and Shiberu is also on board.

I'm certain I know who Gherta is now, which is rather welcome really given as she's rapidly becoming one of my favourite characters in the show (although she's barely in it that much!). This convergence of the plotlines suggests we may be going to get moving with some of the backstory behind the Children soon, especially as we're nearing the halfway point.

Fantastic Children Episode 10 - The GED Organisation

Cooks and Alice (who henceforth shall be known as Mulder and Scully) investigate Gherta's home and old laboratory, discovering her bedroom is entirely devoted to Conrad Rugen. After some more snooping around, they find their way into the GED research labs, where not only do they find evidence of their involvement with the aged scientists but of investigation into the Fragment scriptures.

Meanwhile, Gherta faces the board of directors of the GED Organisation, attempting to stall over future OSL experiments despite her hypotheses about the Fragment - however, when the man funding her experiments makes his appearance, it appears that the GED Organisation is really not who she needs to be wary of. Back in the other two storylines, the Children continue to search for Helga, who decides that she cannot stay with Thoma forever - but given the contents of his dreams they may well

Fantastic Children has too many concurrent plotlines for me to make sensible summaries of what's going on - and I've left so much out. Rather surprisingly, I found this week's "oh, woe is me, I have left my family behind!" moment from the Children to be surprisingly touching, compared to the usual histrionics and weirdness I've come to expect from them - at the moment I'm mostly fascinated by the X-Files style storyline that's come to the fore recently - hurry up and make Thoma and co. more interesting, scriptwriters!

Incidentally, I think the show is hammering Gherta's real identity into us with a giant anvil, but I'm saying nothing in case I'm wrong.

Fantastic Children Episode 9 - OSL

The discovery of Helga's whereabouts bring only brief cheer to the Children, as a strange explosion occurs nearby - Cooks and Hollingsworth investigate to discover a man named Kirchner abducted his younger sister from a house and made it explode with some kind of strange blue energy - Kirchner has undergone the same process as Shinon, and the Children explain it as something to do with "OSL", which emanates from the "Zone". The Children confront him, but before they can do anything for him he is shot by Phantom GED forces under Duma's jurisdiction - his OSL lashes out unpredictably, and he disappears like Shinon and Grass did before.

Hmmm. More mysteries to explain, as usual. The whole thing about Enma (a Buddhist concept, apparently) was more than a little off-the-wall, we'll have to see how that ties in with everything. I really like how all three plotlines are very gradually converging thanks to the Children linking Thoma and co. with Cooks and Hollingsworth, and I can't wait to see where things go from here - what's even more interesting is the possible dynamic that may develop between Gherta and Duma, but we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. Nice CG this episode, incidentally, for the OSL detector (is there anything that those capsules the Children have can't do?)

Fantastic Children Episode 8 - A Warm Family

Thoma's mother discovers that he's been stealing things for Helga and Chit on Kokkuri, and forces him to bring them back to stay with them, causing Helga to finally open up a bit (she speaks! A couple of sentences!) while landing Thoma with a dilemma. Meanwhile, the Children come into conflict when Talrant and Hasumodai take Wanda (Talrant's robot) out to have a bit of fun, and Soreto uncovers new information to lead them to Helga until she has a run-in with her "father".

The writers do seem to be beating us around the head with how difficult it is for the Children at the moment - perhaps they could lay off on the family problems for a little while? Maybe? I dunno. Anyway, a fairly plot-light episode (well, for this series anyway) but it was really nice to see Helga show some proper emotion and get some clues to how things will develop from here.

Fantastic Children Episode 7 - Befort's Children

Cooks and Hollingworth travel to Clairmont and listen to Cooks' recording of the diary of a scientist named Radcliffe. Cooks' grandfather witnessed the death of Befort's Children in 1901, discovering a strange black stone at the scene. On handing this to Radcliffe, he begins to investigate it with the aid of X-rays (which of course one of the Children discovered!) and discovers numerous indecipherable, constantly shifting inscriptions inside. The GED Project was then set up to investigate the stone, but Radcliffe eventually discovers that the British government was already aware of Befort's Children and so journeys around Europe chasing their pasts. We discover that the children are named after a small village in Belgium, where the earliest record of their existence (1489) was found. However, Radcliffe was driven mad by his obsession with the Children and eventually was discredited and died.

Meanwhile the Children are already regrouping at Clairmont, where Hasmodai is once more entrapped by his past memories of family - however, Agi "saves" him by returning his memory recording. The other Children are not best pleased with him, yet Hasmodai still leans towards giving up their quest...

I thought that the whole memory trapping thing had something to do with the shadowy creatures chasing the Children, but obviously that's different from what happened here. The Children themselves are far more interesting than Thoma/Helga/Chit at the moment, so this episode was especially good (although we didn't really learn a lot more than we knew already) - I hope that the main present-day storyline becomes just as interesting eventually.

There was one visual effect in this episode in particular that really stood out for me - after Agi returns the memory crystal to Hasmodai and he sees his home town once more, the whole background flows back into his sword capsule thing, which I thought was a particularly clever piece of animation - given how "old school" Fantastic Children is, it really does use modern technology in very unobtrusive ways.

Fantastic Children Episode 6 - Kokkuri Island 2

We begin where we left off last time, with Helga and Thoma pursuing Chit into the forest. However, they find him unconscious and covered in bees. Killer bees! Thoma is apiphobic, and hides in a bush grimacing while Helga has to do the noble deed and calmly rescue Chit - hurray for Helga! Plus she actually speaks a bit, and comes off a whole lot better in this episode than she has for the rest of the series, thank god.

Thoma and Chit then run into Talrant, one of the Children, who is still trying to trace the next incarnation of Christina and is attacked by one of those shadowy creatures again. Thoma spars with him for a while and almost has the upper hand, but Talrant breaks out a big shiny robot called Wanda to do his bidding and scare off Thoma. Meanwhile Cooks and Alice do more investigation into GED, and the Children re-iterate their frustration over their inability to find Christina (if they have too many more of these coincidental misses I will probably throw things at the screen...)

For some reason I didn't find this episode quite as impressive as the previous ones, perhaps because it was so much more straightforward - it was great to see Helga develop a personality, and the animation was absolutely brilliant this time round for the fight sequence in particular, but for some reason it didn't intrigue me as much as usual. Ah well, it was still great fun to watch and that's all that really counts!

Fantastic Children Episode 5 - Kokkuri Island

Thoma brings Chit and Helga to his "secret" island, Kokkuri, where he's made provision for hiding out. However, he grows increasingly fed up with Helga's total lethargy and general incapability, plus Chit's continual mollycoddling of her. When Chit runs off into the forests to get fruits for her, Helga is completely absorbed in her painting and fails to notice entirely, so Thoma ends up running into the forest after him, Helga following behind despite Thoma's repeated insistence that she'll just get in the way.

Meanwhile, on the mainland, Cooks continues to investigate the Children. The old man from the end of the last episode is brought to the police station but dies soon after, and is IDed as a man named Glass who went missing several years ago presumed dead. Video footage of him in custody shows his dead mother sitting beside him until she suddenly vanishes, which puzzles Cooks no end. A detective from the main branch, Alice Hollingsworth, turns up to get a report on his investigations, but there is none forthcoming - and someone appearing to be a grown-up Duma has raided Cooks' apartment looking for his research into a mysterious organisation named GED whose symbol was on the jumpsuit Glass was wearing.

And after all that I still don't think I've covered everything from this episode. If you've read any translations of the official website's blurb on the series you may well think you've been spoiled for the majority of the series (it tells you a lot about the nature of the Children and Helga), but it really appears as if there are even more things to be discovered. I'm also quite impressed with how they're playing out the relationship between Thoma, Chit and Helga at the moment - personally I'm just as fed up with Helga's typical quiet-girl schtick as Thoma and will be glad to see her grow some backbone if the end of this episode leads in the direction I hope it will. Maybe she'll even speak a bit!

I'm unbelievably enraptured by Fantastic Children at this point - I keep telling myself between episodes that it's not that great really, but each time I watch a new episode I grow more and more impressed. I just hope it doesn't all fall flat at some point.

Fantastic Children Episode 4 - Shinon

Chit and Thoma head back to Chikao to rescue Helga, but have to take extra care since there seems to be policemen searching the island for escaped prisoners. They succeed in breaking her out, but Helga is totally reticent towards Thoma despite how he repeatedly saves her life. As they escape through the forest they come across one of the prisoners, Shinon, who is in no way what she seems - and Helga has disturbing visions associated with her that Thoma and Chit cannot see. The "policemen" advise them to forget about Shinon, and they escape from Chikao once again - meanwhile, one of the other "prisoners" has found their way elsewhere...

Keeping things deliberately vague to avoid spoilers at this juncture, but we get several more mysteries to add to our already abundant supply. And Helga spoke full sentences! Wonders will never cease. The character animation is really impressing me at the moment, especially when Thoma knocked Helga and Chit out the way of the searchlights - the attention to detail is always appreciated.

Fantastic Children Episode 3 - The Place I Want to Go To

A policeman, Cooks, visits a family where one of the Children used to live, in an attempt to find out what's going on. Helga and Chit are recaptured on the mainland and sent back to Chikao, which please neither of them - especially since Chit is getting sent to another orphanage. A crazed speedboat driver (the man from the first episode with the cryptic ramblings) crashes into the boat carrying Chit, however, and Thoma happens to be on hand to rescue him, so they set out together to rescue Helga once more.

Helga speaks! And cries. A lot. Perhaps understandably. But never mind! So what was going on with the crazy speedboat driver? Some sort of scientific experiment obviously, but I guess we won't find out what yet. We also find out that the Children are reborn "normal" - they only develop the white hair later, interestingly. I wonder how their reincarnation works?

Fantastic Children Episode 2 - Wandering Feelings

The Children visit Sweden in 1901, where Palza/Conrad is being awarded the Nobel prize for discovering X rays - it appears that Mel visited him covertly once. Flash forward to 2012, and while Helga is incarcerated in Chikao, the Children investigate more into Serafine's paintings - they retrieve "memories" stored in crystals, but are attcked by mysterious shadow creatures - one of them corners Hatsumodai and shows him a vision of a beautiful house that terrifies him for some reason. The Children part ways once again - some to find someone who they believe to be the reincarnation of Serafine, others to try and find Mel and Palza to deliver their memories to them.

Helga and Chit escape from Chikao once more, while Thoma has srange nightmares and can't shake Helga from his mind. The Children, Helga and Chit all board the same train bound for the mainland, and Thoma is left with doubts in his mind...

I love Fantastic Children, it's easily my favourite new show. While the cryptic nature of the segments with Children may annoy some, they're not stupidly obscure or anything, just mysterious, and it really just nails everything I want to see perfectly. More people need to be watching this, basically.

Fantastic Children Episode 1 - From the Edge of Darkness

OP - Voyage (inori) - pretty cool, fairly calm but epic, totally suits the animation. I'm gushing, I know, but I really love this series already.
ED - Mizu no Madoromi (Origa) - I'm a massive Origa fanboy, so I'm biased anyway about the music. The animation is very interesting given the events of this episode.

Because I'm a shameless copycat (and like the OP and ED that much) - download them here!. Zipped up to prevent people gobbling bandwidth.

I may update this once (if) a subbed version comes out. Here's impressions thus far.

A man sits alone in his study surrounded by scrawlings and mumbling about a forthcoming apocalypse as we see a photo of a group of ageless young albinos called the Children of Pefoal (well, that's what the kana say). We switch focus several times as we follow the Children throughout history - in Holland, where their attempts to convince a young boy called Conrad to join them fail after they send him a postcard depicting a strange image, to Sweden at the turn of the century, and to the South Eastern Islands where they arrive too late at the bedside of a dead woman named Serafine who has been painting the same image as on the postcard. Strangely, one of the Children, Mel (Maaya Sakamoto!) suffers amnesia and panics, getting captured by the strange young man Duma (who is also an albino) and his cronies while the other Children escape.

Fast-forward to 2012 in the Islands, and the roguish Toma practices his martial arts before discovering a young girl, Helga, lying on a statue silently. He visits his mother, a bogus fortune teller, and helps a young thief, Chit, escape his pursuers, before returning home to see Helga being taken away by some mysterious men...

Wow, I'm hooked already. Just from watching the raw, which I could only really just about follow! Bandai already have this pre-licensed and I don't know what's going to happen with fansubs, but I will probably still keep up with this raw for a while, it's really that good. Top notch animation, an intriguing storyline, great music... I'm sold. I just hope it doesn't go downhill from here.