So. We have Nadi who can’t tell that the store clerk is one of Jody’s two minions. Nice disguise. Just take off her sunglasses and Nadi can’t recognize her. It’s like in Sailor Moon and in all classical Magical girl shows, as soon as Sailor Moon is out of her hair pieces and costume, nobody realizes she’s Sailor Moon. Nice borrowing from a classical instance.
I don’t know, but do Mexicans/South Americans say “chao”? Or this is supposed to be funny? Or is this a test for the average Japanese on his or her knowledge about the difference between Spanish and Italian? Or this doesn’t mean anything at all? Then we have the really smart girl – JODY (not Nadi, but I’m not surprised), who finally decides that she’s going to come and help in the operation of recovering Elis, and check on the old man. Then we have the fearless old man who runs the hotel, but oh wait, he doesn’t even exist? He’s a spirit/fairy cough *pedophile ghost * cough, who asks Elis if she wants to be his wife – is this really a joke? Well, after watching ep 14 where that pedophile romance between the doctor and Elis went on, I really don’t want to stop being suspicious anymore. Oh well, at least the old grandpa is a nice person…I mean ghost…I mean spirit…what?
Oh and, as soon as I saw that station wagon, I went: “Uh-oh.” and lo and behold, there’s Ricardo again! I mean, gosh since Nadi/Elis keep on “bumping” into Ricardo/Lilio, something’s going to happen, right? I mean it’s been 3 or 4 eps but Ricardo and Lilio just act like filler characters? What the hell?
Oh look! Here comes L.A.! Now he’s hugging dolls! Now he’s at the country inn! Now’s fighting Jody! Now he and Jody just disappears! Oh I know! A miracle! Hallelujah! I mean, Kokopelli!!!!
Please, this is turning into one of the average Japanese’s favorite past time – listening to strange, unexplained events relating to ghosts and supernatural stuff. YEAH, OF COURSE I know this is a JAPANESE SHOW! But geez, isn’t this also the last arc of the girls with guns trilogy? God, the supernatural plot of Madlax was bad enough (they ripped off “Lost” with the jet crash, now that’s bad).
Oh, here’s something else, it’s Elis/Alice in Mexican Wonderland, perhaps? Complete with a dream sequence where she and Nadi turn into kids and walk into the corn stalk field. I don’t know anything about that baseball movie with a cornfield, no I don’t, but didn’t Kevin Costner appeared out of the cornfield or something? I half expected kid Nadi and Elis bump into Kevin Costner and they all disappear and a baseball flies out and konk L.A. on this head – at least that would actually make this show funny (did I mention that Nadi and Elis make a terrible Kansai comedian team?)
Finally, a circle of fire surrounds Nadi, Jody, and L.A. (gosh please stop calling him by name), and the circle turns into that light column from Escaflowne…I mean a random column of light, and L.A. is taken to Gaia…I mean to the top of a small bus. Jody came back with Mireille…I mean that blond haired woman, and the store clerk who, without any disguise at all before, said “chao” to Nadi, and finally the witch council trio 3 discovered that the country inn is just an abandoned place. Jody then talks about unexplained things like she’s the host of a travel show talking about strange things encountered while shooting the show.
I guess Elis now has the power of letting the spirits help her, eh? I sure hope all these are explained SOON.
I can’t blame Elis getting for pissed off at Nadi even though Nadi accompanied her for a long time – I mean, Nadi almost never saves the day, and in the last ep, the day was saved, thanks to Elis, the slippery ice, and Nadi’s clumsiness?! Brilliant.
I know I’m being way harsh here, but after watching 293+ shows completed and 80+ shows incomplete, and after watching enough Claymore, I just can’t bring myself to give this show a good score. I’m not dropping it only because A: I don’t really drop a show unless it’s god awful. B: I’m on ep 18, and there are some good things going for this show, and C: Oh well, I guess at this point I just want to see what happens next.
This show was getting better, and in this ep we learn that Jody doesn’t want Elis to go to the holyland/promised land/destination, but LA does. Yeah, like I didn’t know that before.
Once again no action happened in this ep. But what the fuck did I expect?
69% recommended for your daily anime diet. I’m tempted to give it 64% but the 5% comes from the music and that little thing we learned about the different intentions that Jody and LA have.
P.S. I didn’t know Elis can drive a car. Nadi’s looking more and more useless around Elis, except as a lesbian lover similar to the role of Mireille in the implied relationship between Mireille and Kirika in Noir? Perhaps.
P.S. 2 Did you notice that most characters don’t even have Spanish names? Jody Heyward, Rosenberg, Melissa, Heiman, Elis’ guardian and lover, LA (what the hell’s with that name, anyway), and others. Only Ricardo, Lilio, and perhaps Nadi have Spanish names. Sheesh…
P.S. 3 Oh I know! That old man is an alien! We see crop circles! Or at least, a crop pictogram! So that light column does have something to do with Gaia! And Nadi doesn’t realize or even have any suspicions as to what’s going on at all! Brilliant!
Sorry but I think you didn’t get the spirit of this episode, not to mention the entire anime. It is a matter of atmosphere and characters, more than skills or action scenes. And Nadie is not (or will be) Ellis’ lover, but the sole survivor of an attack on her hometown: she will surely get the role she deserves in the developing plot..
Hmm… Interesting. My thought for the atmosphere of this anime is that it’s a portrayal of Thelma and Louise style advanture crosses with Alice in Wonderland. It has an fairly accurate display of life and scenery in South America, as far as I can see. But alas I have quite limited knowledge of South America and hence I’m sure I’m missing a lot of elements. That being said, I’m somewhat disappointed with Nadie as the main character. I saw bits and glimpses of her as a kind, optimistic but realistic, and probably easy going gun fighter without supernatural skills (yeah, that CAN get tiring, I know), however, for most of the eps, I often failed to grasp where her real characters shine – save for that one ep where Jody hands her that check/cheque, and she refuses, telling Jody that she intends to accompany Elis all the way to the holy land. That brings me to Elis.
Yes, her back story is sad. But so far, I fail to see why is it she deserves sympathy and loyalty from Nadie, her travel companion (notice I’m not saying “friend”, because I hesitate to) and one of the viewers – me. Yes, they go through a lot of advanture in the South American wonderland, but I’m having trouble seeing Elis’ character, except that she’s not quite human when it comes to emotions. After traveling with Nadie for 18 eps, she’s still not quite human emotionally – Nadie helps her in ep. 16, and in this ep, she acted like a brat, or a child would do when her “toy” is broken, even though Nadie is only trying protecting her life. Granted , Elis has a reason for being angry, but she
s not being responsible about the situation anyway.
I’ll admit my view is being biased. However, with the op theme and the ending theme, and the eye-catcher before each break, everything in these parts indicates a hard action show. With that premise, this show fails to deliver that element often.
I’ll admit I’m biased, and it doesn’t help that I’m also writing a review for Claymore. However, here’s why Claymore shines in character development, at least, and El Cazador does not – I get to learn the characters in Claymore quickly or fairly quickly, and each character etches their qualities on my mind. But for El Cazador, after 18 eps, I don’t feel any of the characters has etched anything strong on my mind, save L.A. and Jody – a mentally unstable obsessive young man and a scheming woman with her purpose not 100% clear yet. I love to see LA get his ass kicked by Elis and I love seeing Jody in action. As for the rest of the cast? They’re all right to me.
I’m eagerly waiting to see she in the role she deserves to be in. I’ve watched 18 eps now I really am hoping to see Nadie finally grow into a better character. Same with Elis.
Personally, I like El Cazador a lot, plot, characters, direction, soundtrack.. everything fit beautifully in my opinion. I think this is a great epilogue for the Bee Train trilogy, because it differs from and follows the previous ones at the same time. In order to appreciate it, anyway, one has to learn the basis of Spanish world, that is the meaning of ‘siesta’.. : ) (Since I am Italian, though, I can only try to guess it… and sorry for my English in advance, by the way).
The siesta concept is central at least in the first part of the series, which is not based on action or big events, but on slow revelations and small changes. The characters grow on the road while travelling and experiencing each other, and we follow them in their present adventures and some piece of their background. It is definitely a journey of knowledge, both for us and for them, through the Mexican landscape and its inhabitants. A slow show indeed, sometimes even paradoxical, definitely not commonplace, and, for sure, it portraits a very naïve relationship in a very sweet way (you were really right: even if I find it difficult to categorize anything, being Ellis a sort of alien, she and Nadie are surely very close now -ep 19-, very shoujo ai : )
Now that the plot has been coming to focus more on Nadie (meaning ‘nobody’ in Spanish) and Ellis’ storyline, action and revelations are surely to increase, and both of them will soon end their growing in reaching Wiñay Marka, and reveal their new nature. I imagine everything will make perfectly sense, since KÅichi Massimo IS a genius… he’ll surely have an explanation for Nadie’s clumsiness, and by the way, she’s not supposed to be the hero of the case, even though she uses a gun, Ellis is.
About supernatural elements.. why did you find strange the spirit’s powers and not the witch ones?!
The reason why half the names are not Spanish, moreover, may be the fact that the place where Ellis grew and Rosenberg’s organization are in Canada.
Finally, I’m pretty sure that the word ‘ciao’ is also used in French, meaning goodbye. It is in fact more universal than only Italian, but I don’t know if, in the case of the Spanish language, would be considered a loan or a habit.
Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy the ending and make a positive review : )
liaav – I know I get very critical of this show. Thank you for pointing out the strengths of this show.
“why did you find strange the spirit’s powers and not the witch ones?!”
Good point. However, I wasn’t exactly thinking it’s strange, I was rather thinking it’s out of place. But you know what? If there are witches, who are supposedly close to the “earth” and supernatural things, then “spirits” aren’t so out of place, after all. I concede.
There are some decent character dynamics going on, but it’s not the slow pace that I’m frustrated with it Nadie’s lack of coherence in her thoughts and her uncalled for goofiness and nearly complete incompetence in situations where she’s needed that frustrates me to no end – see episode 19 for that.
I think the disguise of Jody’s henchwoman number 1 was non-existent. But neither Nadie nor Elis acted like they realize who she is. Are they just too absorbed in each other? And it doesn’t appear that Nadie purposely ignore the fact that the store clerk is Jody’s henchman. It looks more like she didn’t even realize that. That’s what really made me shake my head.
Every1 has good points about this show but i must say that i 100% agree with the 1st comment. “Sorry but I think you didn’t get the spirit of this episode, not to mention the entire anime”. This review for the most part has a horrible view of this anime and the constant corny jokes that honestly dont fit get rly annoying, try to stay on topic cuz ive read a few of these reviews already and they need some serious work. You have to understand the writers and the animes b4 you start to review it. But my fav of all is the soundtrack it fits perfect for this anime during each scene it sets the mood and also flows with the anime itself. I liked how this anime differed from the other 2 it rly takes a new light into the “guns with girls” scheme. On the other hand main character development could of done a lot better.