Stanford Newtype Anime

Man, this drama is getting crazy.  Albert finally talks to his dad about the uncertainty of his love for Eugene.  His father is not surprised by the question, and he replies that first come appearances, and the rest shall follow.  As if on cue, someone comes up to Albert and hands him two tickets from the Count for an opera.  The second ticket is for Eugene.

Next comes the drama with Eugene’s family.  Apparently her mother, the Baroness Danglar, is having an affair with some guy named Lucien (who had stayed the night in her mother’s room).  Eugene doesn’t like this guy, which is made obvious from the awkwardness at breakfast, where Lucien gives her father, the Baron Danglar, investing tips. Baron Danglar is one of Paris’ most important bankers.

Albert heads over to the Danglars in order to tell Eugene about the tickets.  On the way he comes across the Count, who he invites to accompany him.  Once there he introduces the Count to Baron Danglar.  Danglar does a bit of research and learns that the Count is an incredibly large power player in the financial realm.  He feels that dealing with the count is a bit risky, until the Count notifies him that he wishes to deposit five hundred million dollars.  Danglar melts.  The Count then tells him that he wishes to purchase the Baroness’ favorite horse.  Everything has a price.

The Baroness flips out when she learns of this, but soon forgives the Count (but probably not her husband) when she receive the horse back, with an apology, and a diamond necklace and earring set.

We see a little more of the relationship of Albert and Eugene.  Eugene wishes that she could escape the aristocratic life, and Albert says something to the effect of: well hey, let’s just take off somewhere together.  Eugene gets a chuckle out of it.

Crazy stuff happens at the opera when Haydee flips out at the sight of General Morcerf.  She faints and almost falls off a balcony.

The Count is rather fond of his mystical play land, and provides a tour by boat for his visitors. Mystified and awestruck by their surroundings, the group notices Haydee – a beautiful young lady who the Count refers to as a doll of sorts. Apparently wishing to impress his guests, the Count asks Haydee to state her purpose. Her reply? Well it goes something like this:

“I am a miserable twig that enables the flower called the Count to bloom”

Pretty neat, huh?

As it always seems to happen in these types of situations, the topic of love is brought up. Mr. Maximilien claims that there is no love among the middle class, and also makes a comment about how all the residents of Paris disgust him. Franz grudgingly admits that he really doesn’t love his fiancée all that much. Albert, however, blows a gasket, and draws his sword on the soldier.

What ensues next is a sword fight of epic proportions between Maximilien - a soldier fighting for love, and Albert – a young man fighting to remain ignorant of the connection between his mother and the Count. Maximilien comes out the winner, deflecting Albert’s sword into the shark infested waters. Albert, however, refuses to admit defeat despite the obvious truth in his opponents words (at least in reference to him and his own fiancée). So, he rushes Maximilien, only to be thrown into the dangerous waters below.

The Count agilely dives into the treacherous, shark infested ocean and rescues Albert. Using his time alone with Albert to his own advantage, the Count yammers on about fate and love… especially about how love hurts others, and also about how his encounters with Albert were fate.

Franz tries to talk some sense into his friend, telling him that the Count, a whacked out psycho alien, is bad news (duhhhh). Albert, as usual, doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention, and instead ponders about whether or not something is being hidden from him.

Albert’s suspicions are displayed when he inquires to his parents about how they met. The answer he receives does not satisfy him, not after he finds his mother on the balcony, wistfully staring off into the stars.

Albert tries to have a talk with Eugene, asking her what she thinks of their relationship. He tells her about his inability to respond to a question pertaining to his love for her. She asks him if he understands why Maximilien had gotten so upset… he shakes his head like any ignorant man would. She replies that she wants her two childhood friends, Albert and Franz, to turn back into what they once were.

Then Albert’s mother enters, and Albert storms out.

It’s becoming apparent that Gankutsuou is an anime which can get quite confusing.  The Count, as mentioned earlier, comes to eat dinner with Albert’s family.  It is not very difficult to see the alien’s fascination with Albert’s mother, Mercedes, throughout the entirety of the meal.  Through many rather large hints, the Count makes it apparent to the audience that he used to be close to the woman… a conjecture which is reinforced later, when the two privately meet out on Mercedes’ balcony.

During this meeting, they reminisce about a mysterious past, through the use of metaphors.  The woman speaks to the Count, saying “those that have shared bread and salt under one roof are friends eternal”, a statement which the man obviously is not comfortable with.

Peppo, being the little rascal that (s)he is, spies on these two suspicious characters.  Afterwards, (s)he gives Albert a hard time about it, telling him how the two were obviously fawning after one another.  Albert really doesn’t want to believe that Mercedes’ is cheating on her husband (the man IS a General, after all… with lots of trophies).  He’s forced to believe something is afoot, though, when he spots her on the balcony, gazing at a picture of someone who is not the General.

Albert then has a dream about Peppo, who mentions his mother’s locked chest, stating that it would be an easy task to pick the lock.  The drawer mysteriously opens, revealing a picture of the Count.

On top of all this, Albert, Franz, and Maximillian are all invited to the Count’s estate, which is an indescribably beautiful and exquisite place, made entirely out of gold.  We catch the Count talking to his servant girl, saying that hope was the one thing that remained with him when he was flung from the Chateau d’If into the vast, dark galaxy… (whatever that means).

The Count comments on Albert’s choice of clothes (pirate clothes, which Peppo forced him to wear).  He then offers Albert his own sword, which he comments will come in very handy.

Albert for some reason has a vision of a portrait of his mother as he has a look around the Count’s paradise.

Ah, Paris. Albert wakes up from a dream (nightmare) in which he envisions the Count posed to stab him with a sword. You would think he would take a hint from all these bad vibes he’s getting off the Count, but he doesn’t. Anyways, he meets up with his high class friends after being picked up by Eugenie (his fiancée) in her car. There’s quite a few new characters introduced from this point on in the episode. The first of which is Franz’s fiancée, Valentine. Another is Maximilien Morrel, a former military hero. Beauchamp, the journalist, and Dupre, the ministry official are also present at the nice little picnic Albert and Franz attend. After the picnic they take a brief trip to the fringes of the “outside world” (everything outside of Paris apparently).
Shortly following, they all leave to go meet the Count at Albert’s house (mansion). Here, Albert defends the Count against his friends’ jeers at how the Count must be a fake since no records of him exist. The Count arrives, accompanied by some nice metaphoric thunder and lightning, and temporary blackout…During the dinner of introductions and questioning of the Count’s true nature, Albert discovers (was utterly shocked) that Peppo was hired as a maid to work for his household. Albert then shows the Count around the mansion, and the episode eventually climaxes with the meeting between the Count, and Albert’s parents. There’s something the Count sees in those eyes of Albert’s mother…

Albert gets captured by the girl with the gun; it turns out that she works
with a group of bandits. Franz becomes super worried about his friend, and ends up reminiscing back to when they met.  It was at his father’s funeral, and Albert had helped him get past his mourning.
Later, Franz finds out from a messenger, (the same guy that Albert had saved at the execution), that they won’t release their prisoner unless they get lots of money.  In an interesting turn of events the Count, himself, offers to pay the large sum and accompanies Franz to the thieves’ den.  An all out brawl ensues. The Count takes a dagger to the heart and painlessly pulls it out, calmly stating that he can’t be killed.  Eventually Albert is saved.  And amusingly, the count tells him that Peppo, the thief who Albert was about to sleep with, is actually a man. Whatever gender, the pretty-looking person put up quite a fight for Albert as he was being tortured by one of the other thieves.
Personally, I hope that Peppo is a girl, just because I (Chris) find her attractive… if she turns out to be a he, I may have to deal with several awkward issues.

Viscount Albert Mondego, the son of General Mondego, and his traveling companion Franz arrive in Luna to enjoy the Carnival that being held there. While attending an opera of some sort, they encounter the Count of Monte Cristo… a guy who everyone claims is an oddball. Rumors about him involve outer space adventures and vampires.
After finding a pocket watch that he dropped at the opera, Albert and Franz wind up sharing a meal with the Count. While conversing about love, Albert informs his host that his parents have set him up to be married with someone who he doesn’t love. His goal is to go on a life quest in order to discover the true feelings of his heart…
Following an odd change of topic, the Count invites Albert and Franz to watch an execution. Through a game of cards arranged by Mr. Monte Cristo himself, Albert manages to save a life… a life of an obvious low-life criminal. This makes Albert all depressed, and so like any rational man, he ends up deciding to sleep with some random girl who pays him a little attention. To the surprise of everyone involved, she pulls a gun on him (the metal kind).

Based on the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, Gankutsuou offers a refreshing take on one of literature’s classic novels dealing with friendship, betrayal, and revenge.
Though the artistic presentation of almost statically patterened clothes against a much more realistic background may be annoying to some, the series does a really good job of taking Monte Cristo and converting it into a futuristic world with quite a few twists in the plot of its own. Instead of the novel’s perspective from an adult point of view and beginning with the past, the series deals with the second generation following two childhood friends named Albert and Franz. Albert is eventually drawn towards the Count’s charisma, despite being warned several times by Franz that the man is not to be trusted. Ignoring his friend’s advice, Albert begins the cyclic process of love, revenge, and innocence lost.

It’s time for the culture festival, and Tohru’s class decides to participate. Not surprisingly, even this small competition leads to a conflict of interest between Yuki and Kyo. The latter suggests a rice ball making battle, but Yuki disagrees, and offers an alternative: “hit or miss” rice balls. The idea of these little beauties is that one of two things can happen:

1) You get a rice ball with something good inside

2) You get a rice ball with something yucky inside

I don’t understand the concept.

At any rate, Kyo throws a fit and heads to the roof, where he sulks with all his kitty cat friends *aww*. Tohru ventures up to talk to him, and discovers the oh-so-incredible truth. Kyo envies Yuki. But wait… Yuki has already admitted that he envies Kyo. That means they both envy one another. Weird.

Kyo decides to try his hand at making rice balls, and winds up creating a brilliant specimine. Tohru squeals in delight, telling Kyo that he has a plum on his back. Well, apparently he doesn’t actually have anything on his back… it’s just a metaphor for having a skill that everyone else besides oneself is able to see. Kyo claims it’s stupid, and so do I. However, he’s forced to admit that Tohru may just have one.

On the day of the actual festival, some senior girls present Yuki with a dress to wear. This seems ridiculously silly at first, but it draws quite a crowd to the rice ball stand. Things begin to get even more crazy when Momiji and Hatori Sohma show up. Momiji is one of those anime character who you don’t really want to use a pronoun with because Momiji looks very feminine and boyish at the same time. It turns out that not only is Momiji a male, but is also the rabbit of the Zodiac. Interesting.

Hatori, however, is a much more suspicious character. He was sent by Akito and performs a checkup on Yuki, who is not very pleased. Afterwords, Yuki tells Toru to stay away from Hatori, because he’s the Sohma mind zapper. That is, he’s the one who erases the minds of young, helpless women who come across the family secret. The drama unfolds as Tohru is asked to meet with Hatori… in private.

Viewer beware… this episode contains an unwarranted number of transformations.  Elated to finally have permission to talk about her new home, Tohru immediately runs off to inform her best friends, Uotani and Hanajima, about her living with Yuki and Kyo.  One thing leads to another, and they end up wanting to see the house for themselves.

There wasn’t a whole lot of resistance from the Sohma’s. In fact, when told about this unexpected occurance, Shigure, being the pervert he is, couldn’t contain his excitement at the thought of being in the same vicinity as three young high school girls.

What basically ends up happening is that the girls keep on accidentally bumping into the guys, forcing transformations.  It all works out, though, since, for some reason that I cannot begin to comprehend, neither Uotani nor Hanajima are able to quite figure out what’s going on.

One noteworthy character development occurrence is that Shigure informs the girls that he is a writer… this makes Tohru happy because she is insane and bubbly.

Everyone gets along very well, except for Yuki and Kyo, who refuse to stop fighting… ever.

Ohhh no! Tohru’s grandfather calls her up, telling her that she has to come live with him in his house. After a tearful goodbye, she departs the Sohma household. Her new dwelling leaves a lot to be desired, though. Except for her grandfather, all of her family members are annoying bastards. Understanding how rough it must be on his granddaughter to have such a sucky family, he pulls her aside and tells her that he would be alright with her if she wanted to return to her housekeeping job at the Sohma’s. It’s a good thing he did, too, because at that very instant the Sohma family pays a visit and drags Tohru back.
Also note, we have a title! Fruits basket is apparently a child’s game that Tohru played back in the good ole’ days. The rules seem rather silly… the kids give themselves fruit names, and then the fruits are called out, one by one. Finally, the child with the proper name will be allowed to go play with the other children. Tohru’s “friends” ended up tricking her into the name Onigiri, which means rice ball. Stupid kids. Rice isn’t a fruit.