November 8, 2007: Shion no Ou ep 4

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Somebody teach me Shogi!

In this episode, Shion musters the little strength she had left and fights for the other slot in the finals league. Will Shion's Shogi win this time around?

Well, I'm quite dissatisfied with how ep 4 ended. It also didn't help that the whole show revolved around Shion's match with cross-dresser Ayumi. If I had knowledge on Shogi I might have thoroughly enjoyed it. But I don't, so I have no idea what to make of this episode.

Episode Rating:

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November 6, 2007: Shion no Ou ep 3

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In this episode, the culprit responsible for the murder of Shion's parents is slowly returning to the surface. Two detectives are hell-bent on catching him before he gets to Shion. Meanwhile, Shion was overcome by stress and falls to a short coma. She wakes up and realizes that her last match before the finals is against the first person to ever beat her. Will Ayumi succeed the second time?

This episode was slow, but at least we get to see some development in the story. The events were scattered in the beginning and the story only took shape after Shion was brought to the hospital and later wakes up to go to her pre-finals match.

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October 31, 2007: Shion no Ou ep 2

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Well, despite my lack of knowledge on Shogi, excitement is written all over the episode and it's just hard to miss it. I noticed though that the animation in episode 2 is inferior compared to the previous one. Ayumi had looked distinctively different.

In this episode, Shion finally enters the pro women's league. Her direct rivals now include Saori Nikaido: a gentle and kind woman on the outside; but an insecure Shogi player on the inside. Some new characters are presented as well but their faces and identities remain hidden so I still don't have much to discuss. Let's just wait and see.

On a side note, there appears to be a jump in the timeline: between Shion's "almost" kidnapping incident and her sudden climb to the pro league (six months -- please correct me if I'm wrong). I don't know if this is significant... but well, as I've said, we'll just see how it goes.

Episode Rating:

Memorable Quote from Episode 2: There are moments when you won't be able to win unless you hate your opponent -- Shinji.

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October 21, 2007: Shion no Ou ep 1

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I'm a bit undecided on taking this series. First, because it deals with the Japanese game "Shogi" which I am a hundred percent clueless about. And second, because I fear that this will become episodic like Hikaru no Go.

Shion no Ou, subtitled The Flowers of Hard Blood, is the title of an ongoing Japanese mystery manga written by Katori Masaru and illustrated by Jiro Ando. It is published by Kodansha in the seinen manga magazine Afternoon, and has been collected in five tankobon volumes as of May 2007. On May 23, 2007, Kodansha announced that an anime adaptation will be produced by Studio Deen, to begin airing in Japan on October 13, 2007.

Shion no Ou centers around a young junior-high school girl named Shion Yasuoka who witnesses the murder of her parents as a child. At the time of the murder, her father leaves behind a game piece from shogi, a Japanese strategy board game similar to chess. This leads her to believe that the murderer is a shogi player. Although Shion refuses to speak after the murder and communicates only through writing messages, she eventually decides to take up shogi herself to gain clues about the murder of her parents.

The colors, texture and character designs strongly remind me of Jigoku Shoujo's animation. This isn't really surprising because Studio Deen worked on that series as well. What I find attractive in Shion no Ou is the protagonist's -- Shion's character. More specifically, her inability to speak. Now that's something rare.

Going back to the main problem: understanding Shogi. I felt left out when one character said something like "What a move!". Of course knowing why characters feel this or that is important in getting into the mood of the episode. Well, I'd have to deal with that later. There's actually much more about Shion no Ou than Shogi. There's drama, murder, and mystery as well. It's a seinen manga for crying out loud. :D

As usual, no episode rating/memorable quote yet.

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