House of Five Leaves 12 [END]

OH. MY. GOD!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to report that upon the completion of this series we have a true bishonen bedroom eyes ending. I was almost in tears from how happy I was to see Yaichi give Masa the sexiest of looks before wrapping his mouth around his dango. Not since the end of Code Geass or the more recent Evangelion 2.22 have I been so satisfied with a homoerotic ending. It was quite Suzaku penetrating Lulu or Kaworu thrusting his spear into Shinji; but hey, oral is fine too. Everything came full circle to the first episode when Yaichi first offered his dango to Masa; but what we didn’t know then, was that a romance was blooming, the kind of romance that breaks all the rules and stands the test of time in a way that would make Sasuke blush. Andohbytheway, if Naruto doesn’t end with Naruto sharing his Popsicle with Sasuke I will have very unkind words for our favourite sexist mangaka.

........;A;

Unlike The Tatami Galaxy; House of Five Leaves didn’t really end. Now I’m sure that this is because of the ongoing manga, but the story followed the Brecht route of finishing the plot and then going on for about five more minutes. The funniest moment of the episode was at the end after Matsu arrived at the tavern; he stated that Yaichi asked if the rest of the Leaves would still help him and then exclaimed how that wasn’t like him in the funniest voice I didn’t think Matsu had, he was almost channeling a tsundere in the way he said it. Something that I’ve noticed now that the show has ended is that while everyone had their problems; which went on to be resolved or didn’t need resolving, that bloody cat just spent the entire show eating and enjoying the favour of the various characters. I swear that every time you saw that cat on screen it got a bit fatter until finally Otake had to point out just how good that cat has it.

Lazy neko..........neko ramen is looking for you!

The animation of this series has been a repelling factor for a lot of people. I can name a couple of people at this blog alone that are cautious to watch it because of the animation. While I have to admit that the people do have frogish faces (especially the elder), the animation itself is constantly of the highest quality. The backgrounds and colours are always beautiful to look at and getting used to the faces takes about fifteen minutes of the first episode. Certainly this anime is unique in its appearance, along with the other anime adaptations from Ono Natsume, but the animation itself is always smooth and the action sequences are surprisingly well animated. In many respects I would actually say that House of Five Leaves was the most consistently well animated show of the season. I think Arakawa Under the Bridge was the best animation of the season (which I’m sure a lot of people would disagree with), but that is because I like Shinbo’s style….except for Dance in the Vampire Bund…..*shiver*

Yes, I liked these scene so much that I used three images!

As expected from the finale we finally got to see how deep the rabbit hole goes in Yaichi’s mind. Seeing him break down into tears in front of his former bodyguards grave was touching, seeing him cry onto Masa’s knee was downright heart-breaking. I imagine that the story was going for this, but Masa was channeling original Yaichi throughout this scene with his voice and gestures. I was a bit sad to see Jin die; especially since we don’t know whether Yaichi did kill the other brother or not. There are certainly questions left on my mind that I imagine are seeds for later plot developments. Why did Yaichi sell out the Bokuro gang? How did original Yaichi really die? Why didn’t Yagi just give Yaichi a hug and call him Sei? How did Yaichi’s hair get that colour? These are the questions that need to be answered.

I will miss these two especially!

Yagi has been my favourite character of this series. From the first time we met him he gave this vibe of being a bad guy; but in reality he was just a man (a very powerful man) who missed drinking with his best friend. Like Tatami Galaxy I’m hoping that Funimation releases this series on blu-ray soon. Depending on the sales, I can see House of Five Leaves getting a second season at some point in the future. The manga has been announced to be finishing this month so if everything goes well, we could see a second season within a year. I hope that everyone enjoyed their Canada Day; irrelevant of where you are. I found it a little funny that this anime ended on Canada Day. And in the style of the last episode I have decided to end the post without really having an endin—

/ 2 Commentsleave a comment /

• Kyokai says:

  July 3, 2010

  Happy Canadeh day, eh! Who doesn't believe in your Arakawa point? Let me know their names! ^^;

  I really felt for Sei, this episode. At least he has Masa, who grew a lot from the first episode's timid Samurai to a well-reasoned one. Yagi turned out to be good thankfully, though Jin was still pretty much shrouded in mystery. Yaichi must've been killed after attempting to save Sei from kidnappers, could've been anyone as he must have been pushed in the well. Bakuro betrayal seems typical of Sei, who never believed he belonged anywhere and that's why he did that to run away. Of course, I'm just speculating.

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• ExecutiveOtaku says:

  July 5, 2010

  Yay, someone else blogging this show! I wish I had found you sooner, it's felt kind of lonely since I don't think too many people are watching it compared to other series. A belated happy Canada Day to you, my northern neighbor.

  There are a fair bit of things left unanswered, or at least directly stated, but like I mentioned in my post I took the final interaction between Ichi and Jin (combined with the flashback of Bakuro-era Ichi/Sei looking for Yaichi) to mean that Ichi killed him or had him killed. Seinoshin let it slip that Yaichi would save him, to which Jin responded that Yaichi was the one who sold him out, providing a motivating factor for Seinoshin to join the gang instead of having to be killed. In some ways it's like how modern day rebel-criminal groups recruit child soldiers, feeding them lines that will make them hate their homes and be more willing to engage in violence. It certainly worked once Seinoshin became Sei the killer. Though with more material in the manga, I acknowledge that I could be wrong.

  @Kyokai I love SHAFT animation usually, but for some reason I thought that something about it was off for Arakawa. Like it was too washed out or something.

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