TedFox Anime Reviews » Innocent Venus

Innocent Venus – Ep 11

tedfox — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:59:40 +0000

The action is coming in fast and furious this time round. Jin reveals much, preparation for the final showdown in the next episode.

Shiba readies the Satsuma navy for a retaliatory strike. He also spreads the word that Satsuma stands again. That might not be 100% true, but should gather people to his side.

Jo reveals much about the gladiators and sana. The nervous system serves as the interface allowing men to control machine effectively. Yet as revealed previously, only those without emotions seem able to do so. Jin also reveals that the rest of the children are back in the lab. However, the phantom forces strike, and Jin escapes in the mess. Meanwhile, Jo in his gladiator kills off yet another phantom, his “shunpo” surprising the phatom.

Elsewhere, Drake is trying to convince the chief of defence forces to turn to the foreign nations for military help, and disband the government. Seems that he had depended on them to rise to power in the first place. Outside, military mobilisation is taking place

Meanwhile, Sana is concerned for the kids back in the lab. Jo does not agree to going back to look for them, seeing how they’re not even sure if they are alive. Sana decides to sneak off when Jo is out on patrol. Gora catches her, but decides to help her out instead. However, even as the two infiltrate the base, Gora is easily caught by Jin, and so is sana. Sana is taken away by helicopter, while Gora is abadoned and discovered by Jo as Jo finally arrives.

Even as Jin sneaks back to obtain the data he stashed regarding Sana, he is confronted by Drake. Drake reveals that they have decoded the information Jin discovered. This was done by using one of the children, who would resonate with the same piano tune as Sana does, being of the same genetic background. Drake is about to kill Jin, when Jin proposes that he fights Jo, allowing Drake to see the full potential of the gladiator. In the end, Jo arrives at their old weapon stash (where they first started out), to find Jin waiting for him

Thoughts

A few things didn’t make sense to me. I guess there just ain’t enough time to develop the story, unimportant things I guess.

The action is getting a lot better now, but in the pace and the animation style of the battles. I can say that it’s quite well done. I hope it shapes up well in the final episode.

Although I don’t see how they can squeeze everything in though.

The shot of Jin with the black/white mask was outright creepy. And what’s with the red tear drop. The fight between Jin and Jo should be very good.

Innocent Venus – Ep 10

tedfox — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 04:32:13 +0000

Because Sana is still obessed over Jin and what the truth is, Jo, together with Sana, sets out to capture Jin. Along the way, Jo becomes the full hero and obtains full synchronisation with his own gladiator.

Jin is now the vice commander of the Phantom.

The survivors of the Isshin arrive at their destination, where they meet up with survivors from Satsuma, including the Mayor Nakahira who is totally bedridden. Finally Touraji agrees to take charge of Satsuma’s remaining forces.

Elsewhere, the chief of the naval fleet (i think) goes up to the chief of defence force (i think) presenting edvidence of Drake betrayal to the Freedom states. Yet the chief of defence force offered no responses, when the chief of the naval fleet realises that Drake is in the room to. Just then, the chief of Defence force reveals that the entire defence force is now under the jurisdiction of the Freedom states.

That night, Sana and Jo meet on a beach. Approaching Jo, Sana reveals that she wants to meet Jin. Not that she’s obsessed, but she wants to hear what the truth is from Jin himself. And about what she contains. Of course Jo agrees, and they approach Touraji. Touraji recognises that it would be pointless for him to refuse, and offers him a combat craft.

Back in the phatom lab, the phatom forces are placed on alert. Steves checks his gladiator over by himself, when qing lang appears. Qing lang asks why he’s doing something that he could ask the mechanics to do instead. Is he afraid of what happened to riki? Asking if steve thinks that the wakou are still alive, Qing lang whips out a card predicting steve’s death.

Arriving at the phatom lab, Jo finds his own gladiator and Jin waiting for him. With a snap of Jin’s fingers, 3 phantom gladiators appear. Of course Jin isn’t going to follow Jo to see Sana. Of course the only option left to Jo is to get into his own gladiator. A fight soon breaks out.

Kyuoshiro’s thirst for blood actually saves Jo, as he lunges ahead into a knife fight with Jo, preventing the rest from firing. Just then, Jin orders the scientists to remove the limiter in Jo’s gladiator, causing him intense pain, similar to what Riki went through.

However, Jo’s desire to help Sana seems to have reached the kid’s nervous system in his gladiator, and somehow he synchronises with them, achieving extreme performance. And i mean extreme.

Soon all 3 phatom gladiators are taken out of combat, and Jo grabs Jin. Just then, Kyuoshiro charges at Jin, but is surprisingly stopped and stabbed by Steve. Steves asks that Jo get the truth out of Jin. Soldiers arrive, firing darts at Steve’s gladiator, effectively killing him, but Jo gets away.

Back at the lab, Drake arrives, pointing a pistol at Qinglang. But ends up shooting steve’s gladiator. Asked where Jin is, Qinglang whips out a tracking device.

In the jungle, Jin pretends to reveal the truth to Sana, knowing well that the phantom forces are on their way.

Thoughts
Hmm…. Jo now doesn’t cry anymore after synchronisation. Jin didn’t have any emotions previously…. any link?

Nah… I think Jin is still outright evil.

Although it makes you wonder why Jin had to leave the phatom in the first place.

Uh… did i miss it? when was the freedom states mentioned previously? Who are they. Ah wellz… yet more intrigue!

Innocent Venus – Ep 09

tedfox — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:52:48 +0000

Okay, I didn’t count on the Isshin to be able to launch an attack on the Phantom lab, thus successfully rescuing Jo. But now with the Isshin destroyed, and no gladiators either, the suspense would be what’s Touraji’s next step.

Touraji with the Wakou launches a daring raid on the phantom lab. Steps taken include destroying the transport which contains the gladiators and gassing the lab where Sana was in. Midway, Touraji encounters steve, but seemingly survives the encounter. Reni was captured as Sana is rescued, with the gas taking effect.

Escaping to the Isshin, Jo seems to have survived his wound, but Sana is totally depressed about Jin. On the side of the phantom, the gladiators seem to have taken only superficial damage, with their nervous core intact. Drake says all is fine with Jin on their side, but Jin replies that he cannot do anything as long as the other party holds Sana. Meanwhile, Touraji talks to Reni, and offers her the option of remaining with the Wakou and Isshin, since she cannot really return to the Phantom.

Meanwhile, the National Defence has gotten hints that Drake has been up to funny and weird stuff. But they’ve also discovered the location of the Isshin, and sends a force to confirm the position.

Meanwhile, Sana is still feeling lost and despondent, even as she visits the recovering Jo.

Even drake is frustrated at the actions of the National Defence Fleet, but there’s no point in telling them that Sana is onboard the Isshin.

Battle soon breaks out, and this time, the Isshin fails to defeat the enemy, and instead is forced to abadon ship. Jo tries to bring Sana to safety, and only when Sana sees the effort that Jo took to safe her, that she snapped out of her “jin stupor”.

At the same time, Reni seemingly escapes from her cell, and steals one of the mini combat vessel. But what Reni wanted to do was to be bait, so that the rest of the Wakou can escape. Touraji understands what she’s thinking, and goes after her, telling her not to be stupid, but to survive.

In the end, everybody survives, though the isshin is now at the bottom of the seabed.

In the lifeboat, Sana notices a big scar across Jo’s back, and suddenly realises that back in the initial rescue, Jo was the one who blocked a big burning debris from killing her, and sees Jo in a new light, instead of just mulling over Jin.

Thoughts

The next episode cannot come soon enough.

A little happy that most of my guesses were correct though.

Innocent Venus – Ep 08

tedfox — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:40:07 +0000

Most of your questions answered, but creating more at the same time. This episode really brought the suspense up many notches. So… is Jin evil or not?

The episode starts with Sana having a nightmare. In the nightmare, she recalls the past, where she was in a lab together with many other kids. There, she learns that the nurses call her venus. Strangely too, the rest talk about not being able to marry her, because they are somehow connected by relations. Soon, everybody turn into dolls which disintegrate, and we’re shown that Sana is still not well, though her fever is going down. Drake is seen mentioning that Sana will be the mother of the new generation.

Back at the Isshin, data is obtained about the phantom lab that Sana is held at. Jin approaches Touraji to be the bait to draw the phantom away, so that he and Jo can go rescue Sana. Touraji acknowledges that it’s the only plan, but isn’t too happy about it. Revealing that he was previously from phantom, he talks about the pain he goes through each time he is in the gladiator. Yet Jin feels shows no emotions, and for that, Touraji does not trust him at all. It doesn’t help matters when Gara comes along and Jin violently brushes him aside.

Later, Touraji approaches Jo, asking him to take care of Sana. Touraji has seen Jo cry after using the gladiator, hence he believes that Jo is someone that he can trust.

The phantom fall for the bait, and Jo/Jin infiltrates the phantom lab. There, they come upon a row of tubes, containing nervous systems. Jin explains to Jo about the vulcan project, and these are nervous systems of the children from the project that are used to control the gladiator. The feelings of sadness and pain from using the gladiators come from these children.

However, their presence is soon detected, and a modified Riki who has no fear is sent to meet them in a gladiator, where a fight starts. But even as gara tries to steal Jin/Jo’s gladiators, he accidentally crashes the truck into the lab, right where Jin and Jo can access them. To Drake’s surprise, they are able to handle Riki, even though he is exceeding the Gladiator’s specifications as he is acting on animal instinct.

Drake activates a trap which drops them into a bowl. There, an electromagnetic field is activated, which causes the user to die if he tries to move the gladiator. As a result, Riki ends up dying, while Jin and Jo are captured.

After capturing them, drake reveals that Jin was the one who killed Sana’s father. Even as Sana is totally shocked, Jin walks up to Jo and stabs him, leaving him bleeding on the floor. Jin suggests working together with Drake, as Jin still holds the key to what Drake needs.

Thoughts

Hoho. Jin looks positively evil.

The big debate will be whether Jin betrayed Jo, with some saying that he stabbed Jo in a non-vital spot.

I don’t know… and nobody can tell… but I’d rather take it that Jin is positively evil. Okay… he probably likes Sana and Jo and all… but puts his first priority as achieving what he needs. I’d prefer Jo to be the hero in the end. haha.

It’s hard to see how Jo is going to survive though, being in the middle of an enemy lab. That said, I don’t see how the series can kill him off either… and I’m guessing the enemy gets stupid and gives him first aid and locks him up.

Innocent Venus – Ep 07

tedfox — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 05:16:46 +0000

I’m impressed. The series is finally getting exciting. All secret plots are being set into motion as well.

Impressive strategy by Touraji, and superb manuevering meant the destruction of the entire naval fleet that was positioned to combat the Isshin. With every vessel incapable of pursuit, Touraji with the Isshin withdraws to a hidden port in Satsuma, where he is greeted by the mayor, Nakahira.

However, the Isshin is trailed by the phatom, who records what they are doing. At the same time, edvidence of Nakahira taking in the Isshin is sent to the National Defence Force anonymously through a spy emergency frequency.

Nakahira tries to persuade Touraji to take charge of Satsuma’s submarine fleet so that they can counter against the national defence fleet, but Touraji refuses. Touraji does not give an answer when Nakahira asks what were Chikura’s last words, but Nakahira can guess and does not persue the matter of getting Touraji to join

Everybody is taken to one of Nakahira’s mansion, where they are welcomed by a bevy of maids. Jin once again tries to get Sana to play the same melody as previously, after tuning the piano out of tune again. Sana shows sign of agony, and even Jo is moved to ask Jin to stop, but Jin doesn’t. Finally Jo physically reaches out to stop Jin. But before they end up fighting, Sana collapses on the ground beside the piano.

At the same time, Reni approaches Touraji to assasinate him, but does not go unnotice. He asks if she is there to shoot because of orders, or because of spite. If it’s out of spite, Reni should go ahead and shoot. Reni ends up hesistating, and in the end, the are surprised by shots fired in the sea.

In actual fact, the National Defence Fleet has deployed many ships to threaten Satsuma, and to ask for the return of the Isshin. The NDF and the Satsuma fleet end up in a tense stand off at sea. However, the phatom had set off a charge on one of the NDF fleet, making it seemed like Satsuma had fired a shot. This sparks off a firefight between the two fleets.

Meanwhile Sana’s condition is critical, and Jin with Jo rushes her to hospital. However they end up being stuck in a traffic jam which resulted from the sea battle. Facing no choice, they continue the journey on foot. Midway, they are ambushed by the phatom, and a gunfight starts. Suddenly the place is hit by two rockets from the naval battle, and in the confusion, Reni is seen taking Sana away in a helicopter.

Thoughts

Finally. This is what the anime should be like. Fast paced, much suspense, yet with enough answers to keep you to the edge of your seat.

Jin’s dark side all coming out now! Although I didn’t expect Jo to turn warm though.

I wonder what the phatom is planning, since i doubt they needed the sea battle to get Sana back, so drake must have something big planned.

And that last scene. Drake doing experiments to Riki. It’ll be interesting to know what the experiments involved. But I’d also like to know if the phantom approve. It will be interesting to see Reni go over to Touraji’s side instead. haha.

Innocent Venus – Ep 06

tedfox — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:02:48 +0000

It’s back after a long break. I can’t say I liked the episode. Much action, no question answered. The mystery is kinda intriuging, but it’s not like the episode actually grabs your attention or anything.

Jin is playing the piano, the tune that caused Sana to faint the other day. A laptop software indicates that he’s unable to achieve the right scale yet though, but Jin can’t figure it out. Chikura arrives to ask him what he was doing, but he just sidesteps the answer.

The phatom attacks the doujo, which is alerted after it detect intensive jamming. Most of the people move out to the moutains to fight, together with Chikura. They are faced with steve and riki in their Gladiators. Meanwhile Qing Lang and Kyoshirou press their attack on the dojo, where they faced Jo. Jin meanwhile tries to escape with Sana and Gara in their truck, but Qing Lang catches up with them and lands on top of their truck.

Meanwhile the fight outside, an RPG shot into a rock formation seemingly crushes the two gladiators. As everybody prepares to detonate the fallen rocks with dynamite, the gladiators reappear. Even a final attempt to blow up the dynamite causes zero harm to the gladiators. The fighters are decaminated.

(just a rough description of what went on, I’m not too sure, things happened too fast)

Reni arrives in her command helicopter, and drops a gladiator for QingLang, who succeeds in forcing Jin off the road into the forest. Jin tells Gora to protect Sana, offering his platinium credit card, while he gets into his own gladiator. A firefight occurrs, and Jin barely succeeds in protecting Sana from the phatom gladiators. Suddenly, Riki’s physical readings don’t look too good, and he loses control of his gladiator. Coupled with the arrival of Ishin helicopters, Reni orders a withdrawal.

Touraji regrets not arriving early enough, causing Chikura to pass away as well. Everybody else seems dead too. Touraji says that the best move is to bring Sana to his hometown, since everybody will help protect her. Jin hesistates at first because of his desire for revenge, but finally agrees to follow along, telling Sana that he has been protecting her, he will protect her all the way.

Meanwhile, the phatom are pissed for what happened to Riki. Apparantly the commander placed some improved neural transmitter into everybody’s gladiator, and somehow only Riki suffered ill effects. Kyoshirou is pissed enough to attack the commander, but is defeated immediately with a punch, leaving him to comment that nobody is irreplacable.

Meanwhile, the military have discovered the betrayal of Touraji and the Isshin. They soon surround the isshin with a carrier battle group. The phatom meanwhile prepare to take their own action, believe the military will fail. While the Isshin can just hide and lie undetected, it’s not Touraji’s way, who orders the Isshin to surface in the middle of the battle group to fight.

Thoughts

I must say things have been pretty disappointing. Where are the good things that this series seemed to promise. For a 12 ep series, it has to start improving fast.

The only thing vaugely interesting thing is Jin seemed even more evil and two-faced. It’ll be nice to know what he is planning.

Innocent Venus – Ep 05

tedfox — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:37:49 +0000

The answers are all falling into place now. Consequently I’m enjoying the series more. haha. Maybe I’ve been a little too harsh on the series previously. Weirdly, I’m getting evil vibes from Jin. Maybe it’s hidden somewhere, but I’m probably just wrong. I also can’t help liking the mysterious Jo either though. haha.

Jo, Jin, Sana and Gora are travelling in the truch, when they pass by several scarecrows. But these scarecrows obviously have detectors in them. Later at night while they are sleeping, they are suddenly surrounded by a crowd of youths. However, Jo wakes up and makes short work of them. Just then, an old man appears, asking the youths to stop. It’s actually Chikura Shouzou.

Steve and Renee meanwhile get reprimanded for their failure. Leaving the commander’s office, Steve asks Renee for the reason why she missed while shooting Touraji the other time. Renee blames the helicopter for being unstead. Steve is obviously unsatisfied with the answer, but does not question anymore.

It seems that Chikura Shouzou had set up a dojo. It wasn’t on purpose though, but the youths just seemed to have gathered. Inside the house, Chikura, Jin and Sana settle for tea. Chikura assures Jin that Touraji is a man to be trusted.

Surprisingly, Chikura claims to be Sana’s grandfather. At the same time, Jin reveals that he was requested to take care of Sana by Nobuto, Sana’s father. Sana was absolutely surprised that Jin actually knew her father. Chikura brings them to his lab, but Sana looked tired. Thus Chikura brings her to rest for a bit in his study.

The rest of the youths have gathered in the dojo cleaning weapons. They are discussing the situation between the revenus and logos. In fact, they blame Councillor tsurusawa’s downfall as the reason why they are doing badly. An alliance with the Satsuma is also raised. Just then, Gora is caught evesdropping.

Back in the lab, Jin mentions that Nobuto had mentions that Chikura was his father in law. In fact, he had met Nobuto only shortly before he was murdered. Though it had seemed like a burglary, things were too coincidental. Nobuto had been researching on a Vulcan project, something many countries were interested in.

Outside, Gora has been caught and thrown beside Jo, who was resting on a pile of wood. All this while, Jo ignores them, and starts to walk away instead. Challenged by the assistant instructor, they stand and stare at one another, until the assistant instructor gives way and lets him pass. He says that Jo is harmless, and his stance does not lie.

Jin reveals that he was in the Phatom, something that allowed him to contact Nobuto, since the Phatom had found out that Nobuto wanted to defect. Jin promised to protect Sana in return for Nobuto helping him after he defects. It is also revealed that after Jin had saved Sana, the phatom had actually launched a missle at their plane, and they had to parachute to safety. But having betrayed the phantom, he had no more access to certain documents, hence he decided to approache Chikura.

That night, Jin and Sana go for a walk. Sana acknowledges Jin as the one who saved her. Jin later reveals that his father was a politician. However, he was an honest politician, causing his own downfall, and he later committed suicide. Jin believes his father is weak, but cannot forgive those who caused the downfall either. Hearing this, Sana asks Jin to use herself, so that she can be useful.

Sana hears some voices, and throws a stone into the grass, catching Gora on the head. Gora later goes to Jo, asking him who Jin wanted to take revenge on. Jo does not reveal anything, only saying that he will do whatever Jin plans.

Later looking through Nobuto’s notes, Jin seems to find what he is looking for. Finding Sana playing the piano, he joins Sana for a duet. Halfway through, Sana mentions that some of the keys sound off, but it does not seem possible for a piano to go offtune in such a manner. Jin asks Sana to play the tune that she played yesterday, before Jin joins in. But suddenly, Sana collapses onto the piano.

Thoughts

Oh? So Jin’s father was helping the Revenus rebels, (Star wars anyone?) Jin seemingly wants revenge, although I do hope he has some greater goal in mind.

The Vulcan project. Something genetics related. And probably implanted inside Sana. What’s it. Immortality? haha. that would be so cliche.

All out action next week again. Can’t wait. But the series will only show 2 weeks later though.