Telepathy Shojo Ran episode 26 (the end) review; a “deus ex machina” ending to a nice series.

 

       This episode begins with Oogami having her animal followers begin a direct assault on Midori and Ran, and while Ran just stands there Midori throws up a barrier blocking the attacks. After Oogami realizes her animals won’t breach the barrier she turns around and summons a black hole like object saying that it’s time to cleanse the planet. Oogami also says that even if she didn’t choose direct involvement, humans would most likely destroy themselves.

 

       After a few minutes, Ran tries to talk with Oogami telling her that these animal were human once, and where her friends, what did they do to deserve this fate. Oogami again sends a wave of animals to attack the girl, and again Midori blocks the attacks. Midori tells Ran to help her fight but Ran grabs Midori and tells her to stop, causing Midori’s barrier to drop, and Ran and Midori are slightly injured. Midori tells Ran to fight, fight or die, Ran says no, if they hurt the animals they’d be no different than them.

 

        Midori starts to argue with Momoko, and while they’re arguing one of the animals goes to attack them. Ran pushes them out of the way at the last moment, taking the blow herself, and when Midori comes back to herself she finds that she and Momoko were transported to a future where all the humans are gone. Momoko tells Midori that this is paradise, and Midori says how so. Back with Ran and Oogami, the animals continue to attack Ran and she doesn’t fight back, Oogami asks Ran why she doesn’t fight back. All Ran says to Oogami is to return Midori, Momoko, and the rest of her friends.

       Back with Midori and Momoko, they get in a debate about the destructive nature of humans, and Momoko tells Midori that she thought they would at least be able to get along since they’re both monsters. Midori tells Momoko that once she thought that way, but she’s no longer lonely and she has people who care for her, she calls Momoko a lonely person. Momoko gets angry and sort of merges her mind with Midori’s mind, and we see Momoko meet her grandmother, Tome-san, who turns out to be the old lady that Midori met in episode 21. We see Tome-san asks Momoko to forgive her for saying such horrible things to her, Momoko says it’s too late, but when Tome-san hugs Momoko and says she so sorry, Momoko breaks down in her grandmother’s arms. As Midori and Momoko separate they’re swept under water by a giant wave, and Midori calls out to Ran.

 

       Back with Ran and Oogami, Ran hears Midori’s call and begins to pull herself off the ground. Oogami questions Ran on why she has power but refuses to use it? Oogami tells Ran that her powers are special, you could create something new, or do you want destruction? Ran tells Oogami that she’s never once thought about destroying something.

 

        Back in the real world, Rui makes his way to the tree in the school courtyard, he can’t find Ran and asks her to forgive him because he couldn’t protect her, soon Ran’s cats make their way to Rui. Back with Oogami, Ran asks Oogami if it’s alright if she says she can say that she understands her pain and the pain and suffering of the animals. Ran tells Oogami that she loves animals, and she loves plants & nature, she wants to protect them; no, she wants to live together with them and she’ll use her powers for that goal. Oogami says it’s too late for that.

 

        Oogami sends the animals to attack Ran and suddenly Midori appears next to Ran. The animals attack them but the girls do nothing to stop them, and they tell the animals to vent their anger and hatred to them. Ran and Midori tell each other that they’ll believe in humans to the end, and soon the animals start to transform back to their human forms. After all the animals are back to their human forms Oogami says she doesn’t what happened. Just then, a tree sprouts from the ground near Ran, and when it reaches full size Rui emerges from it with Ran’s cats. When Rui and Ran reach each other it seems that Rui is about to tell Ran that he loves her but Midori steps in between them pulling a classic cock confession block.

 

       Soon, all sorts of plants and trees start to bloom and we hear a voice telling the great mother that they’ve come to get her, it’s not time for them to reawaken yet, and to believe in humans. Just as Oogami tells Ran that she’ll believe in humans, a blinding light carries Oogami away and then Ran, Midori, and Rui awaken at dawn under the school tree with Rin rushing to meet them.

       Flash forward, and a new school year has begun, Ran is depressed because Rui and her other friends are now in different class but Midori tells her to cheer up because she’s here. Well, we see that everything is going great; Ran and Rui are getting along fine, Midori is still crushing on and flirting with Rin, Momoko and her grandmother are getting along fine, and everyone hangs out at Ran’s lively house. Oh, we also see that Ran is still hearing voices that lead her and Midori on new adventures.

       Well, with this episode we’ve come to the conclusion of a highly enjoyable adventure series geared towards a younger viewing audience.  What I mean by when I say that this series is geared towards a younger audience is not that older viewers won’t enjoy this series but that there’s nothing objectionable in its content of viewers of all age groups. The basic premise of the entire series can be summed up as two junior high school girls with telepathic power  receive a call to adventure and have to solve supernatural mysteries, and going along of the ride is one boyfriend and one older brother.

       What I found so enjoyable in this series is how it differed from many current anime series. First of all, Ran, the main character, gets along with her family really well, in fact, she has two parents and a brother, what the hell are they trying to here I thought that most anime families are highly dysfunctional; missing or dead parents, kids hating their parents, older brother/younger sister complexes. Secondly, almost everyone acts accordingly with their real ages: Ran, Rui, and Midori act like the young teenagers that they are and not like mini adults; Ran’s older brother Rin actually acts like an older brother, no younger sister complex here, nor does he fawn over or develop a loli complex over Midori’s attempts at flirting; Ran’s parents actually act like normal parents, they’re not stupid and act more like children than the children do, they’re caring and kind and maintain proper ordered household.

       If you enjoy watching a good adventure story where most of the large issues can be solved and fixed with a “love conquers all” and a “can’t we all just get along” type solution then this is the anime of you, but if you expect a storyline line with a little more meat to it than you better leave this one alone.

 

Telepathy Shojo Ran episode 25 review; humans must be destroyed to save nature.

         Ran and Midori head off to the middle school’s courtyard and they tell Rui and Rin to follow as quickly as possible. When they arrive at the school they follow some large cat prints to a large tree where one of their teachers falls out the tree, he’s very gravely wounded . Soon, Rin and Rui arrive on the scene, and as their teacher begins to regain consciousness. As he’s about to tell them what happened a large leopard leaps from the tree to attack Rui, Ran repels the creature with her power, and then the leopard demands that they have to give it back to them, ”Chara”. Ran is shocked by this because “Chara” is the name that Junpei and nobody else calls her.

        Back at home, everyone is eating breakfast at Ran’s house when the TV reports a growing number of animal-human attacks, Midori asks Ran if she’s worried about what the leopard said? Yes. Later, the kids find out that classes have been cancelled because of the attacks. Rui asks Ran if she’s still worried about Junpei? Yes. So, he tells her that they should pay him a visit. As the kids (minus a sleeping Rin) make their way to Junpei’s house, many strange events are going on, the weather is unnaturally bad, and large groups of animals are on the move.

        At Junpei’s house the kids find it damaged by animals,  and when they begin searching for Junpei a tiger starts to attack them only to be foiled by a torch wielding Junpei. They retreat to Junpei’s room, and they block the door with dresser. Junpei tells the others that the tiger is his brother (Taka), when his brother returned from college he changed into the tiger, and he asks them if it sounds crazy. Rui says, not at all, we thought that there was a link between the earthquake and the strange animal/human happenings.

         Just then, the tiger breaks through Junpei’s door, Ran and Midori don’t want to hurt Junpei’s brother so they setup a barrier and Ran tries to communicate with Taka. Ran tells Taka to come back to them, but he says he can’t, he says that he’s so tired of it all. After Ran drops the barrier, Junpei attempts to talk with his brother by asking him why he no-longer wants to be human? Taka calls out to his brother, saying that he should understand, then something causes Junpei to change into a leopard, and he chases after his brother who fled the house. The kids try to chase after Junpei and his brother but quickly lose them, Midori says that she’ll try astral projection to widen her reach over the whole city, she doesn’t know if it’ll work. After Ran and Midori project themselves over the whole city they hear a voice calling all the animals back to the Great Mother’s place to regain the world for themselves, and the meeting place is the beech tree at their middle school.

        When the kids make it to the school they find all the animals gathered there, and they also figure out that everyone who felt the earthquake has been transformed into animals. A very old lady, the same lady they met at the restaurant emerges from the tree, the kids can feel the anger and hatred coming from the animals over their mistreatment and the mistreatment of the planet. Ran calls out to them but Momoko (their old teacher) tells them that their memories have been erased, and those humans have lost hope in world of waste, hatred, and never ending war. Midori asks Momoko if she’s human, and Momoko tells her that she’s not human she’s a monster just like Midori. Ran’s says that they’re wrong, not all humans hate animals and want the world to fall into ruin and war.

         The old lady uses her powers and transports Momoko, Midori, Ran and herself to another plane/place where she transforms into a wolf spirit/god called Oogami. Then Oogami tells them a very very old story, back before the time of humans the aminals lived in harmony with each-other and nature. The first humans also lived in harmony with animals and nature, so the animal spirits had faith in the first humans and took a long sleep. But, when they awoken they found that the current humans are not the same humans they trusted, the current humans think that they’re the most important creatures around and that humans feel that they’re even more important than nature or the planet. The humans that turned into aminals are the remainder of the creatures that went into that long slumber, they are of human and animal nature and would have remained human if they were happy with the direction of the world. Now, Oogami says humans must be removed from the world so its natural order can be restored. Oogami says that Ran and Midori are slightly different from normal humans (they have some powers), so she’s been watching them for a long time but has come to the conclusion that they’re really not different from the rest of the humankind. Oogami says the time for talk is over, and she summons the other animals to her side. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, here we are at the final showdown of the series, mankind’s treatment of the planet and its creatures has comeback to bite them in the ass. The theme of man vs nature/humans destroying the natural world are found in many anime like; Mononoke-hime, Green Legend Ran, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Prétear, and many many others; and the final solution is usually found in the kind and caring heart of a teen-aged girl. So, no matter how bad it gets, Ran and Midori will try to show kindness instead of power in their final showdown with Oogami and her animals. While the girls in Telepathy Shojo Ran have telepathic powers instead of magic girls powers the finale solution will most-likely be a Deus ex machina magic girl ending with love being victorious over hatred.      

 

Telepathy Shojo Ran 24 review; a animal rage spreads throughout the town.

        This episode begins with the children raking leaves from around a dying beech tree when Ran says she thought she heard a voice. When Ran places her hand on the tree a large gust of wind strikes the area and Ran hears a voice stating that a terror is about to descend on everything. Later that night, Ran is awoken from her sleep by her to cats crying at the window, Ran sees birds crashing into her window and Midori uses her abilities to tell Ran the same thing is happening at her place. Then a large earthquake strikes the area and Ran hears a voice saying the crone has awakened.

      The next morning Rin tells Ran that he doesn’t remember the earthquake, and at school only a small percentage of the kids felt the quake. Midori wonders why some kids felt the quake and why most of the other don’t know a thing about it? Then in class the teacher starts picking on Rui for no reason, and when he gets all the questions right the teacher still gets on his case. Then another student comes to Rui’s defense and he and the teacher start arguing with each other. Just as they’re about to throw punches, Ran and Midori intervene, the teachers takes a break, but Ran feels some unnatural anger inside her classmate.

 

       After class, Midori asks Ran what Rin is making for dinner, and of course she invites herself over and has a Hosaka moment. Ran’s asks Junpei (the anger kid) to walk home from school with them, he accepts. While walking home, Rui suggests that they stop for crepes, poor Midori, she wanted Rin’s cooking. While they’re eating, Junpei displays huge swings of emotions; boredom, normalcy, unnatural anger, and so forth. Then an adult gets into a argument with the old lady who owns the place, and it almost gets out of hand with Junpei jumping into the fray again. Midori uses her powers to defuses the situation.

      Just when we think it’s all over, Junpei pushes his way past Rui saying he’s going to kick that guy’s but, Midori says to let him fight if he wants to fight, but Ran says that he’s not himself. Midori gets left behind with the school bags as Ran and Rui chases after Junpei, Ran has to use her powers to stop him. When they finally catch up with Junpei he says that he became so angry the world went white. Midori catches up with them but forgot (?  if you believe that I’ve got some land for sale) Ran’s bag. Seconds later the old lady shows up bringing Ran her bag, and she says goodbye, until we meet again. Rui points out to the rest of them that while they had to run at full speed to catch Junpei the old lady just sort of appeared there without even being the least bit tired. Later, when they tell Rin what happened he turns on the TV to show them that animals from all over Japan were let out of their zoo’s and are now running wild across the country.

        As they continue to talk, Rin brings up the point that it wasn’t just zoo animals but also people’s pets that ran away. Midori says that they need to be on alert, and Rin says that since he didn’t notice the quake to please tell him if anything strange happens, then he goes off to cook dinner with Midori following close behind. Rui asks Ran if he could please spend the night, when Midori hears this, she’s all over Ran about spending the night too, Ran at first doesn’t want to have them over but soon gives in. When Rui is asked why he needs to spend the night, Rui says he feels that he should be close to Ran tonight.

       While Midori is with Rin, Ran asks Rui why such strange things happen around them? After a rambling answer, Rui tells Ran that he thinks this happens because she and Midori have the power to fix things. Rui tells Ran that he’ll always be there for her. Forever? Yes, and Midori too, you two need each other. At this point, Ran asks Rui why he’s always putting them together? Midori overhears this and says that someday they’ll be related, to which Ran replies that is a worse thought than her mother’s horror novels. They start arguing and bickering and are soon given a vision of someone watching them, Rui breaks their trance by touching their hands. Midori says that they have to be ready to go after whoever is behind this whole thing. Then we see  Momoko (the old homeroom teacher, and bad lady) returning to the town, saying that she never thought she’d come back so soon.

         Later that night, Ran has a vision of someone being attacked by animals, and she tries to wake Midori, no luck. As Ran’s is getting ready to leave the house alone, she gets intercepted by Rui, Rin, and a still sleepy Midori. Ran tells them about the attack, and soon Ran and Midori are leading the rush to find the location of the attack. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, it looks like the final battle/adventure of the TSR series is starting to happen, and this is probably the most dangerous mystery the kids have faced. The beginning of this arc is pretty much standard TSR stuff; Ran hears a voice or something supernatural happens to her to begin the adventure, Midori is the more forceful and be prepared to strike first member; Rui is more attuned people’s emotions and logical team member, and Rin is the member that can use muscle if necessary.

          You know that something really bad is about to happen when you see the total breakdown in Japanese social order starting to happen; teachers and students almost throwing punches, adults yelling at senior citizens, and  ”shit that will turn you white…..this city is headed to a disaster of biblical proportions, fire and brimstone…..dogs and cats living together!” Well, who ya gonna call? The Japanese junior high school ghost-busters!

      This episode included all the stuff I’ve come to like about TSR; Ran and Midori’s good natured bickering, Ran and Rui’s nice wholesome romance, Midori’s crush on Rin, and his confusion about how to handle it. Also, I love how Ran’s and Midori’s personalities conflict but also enhance each other. While at times, Ran’s too soft and sweet, she tempers Midori’s more cold and clinical side, it would be really funny watching their relationship if Midori’s wish comes true and she becomes related to Ran by marrying Rin, watching them bicker forever would be sweet.