I’m in the middle of my work on Japanese History within that very period, it’s amazing what I’m learning even though I consider my general education to be generously wide. In short, that time-span is the modernization and westernization of Japan. Japan as we know it is only 130-some years old. As close from now as 1867, the Tokugawa Shogunate was ruling Japan. That’s right, we’re talking Samurais and Shoguns here, it was a feudal military dictatorship. Guys like these:

Kure-nai has hitherto been an easygoing anime, full of lighthearted fun. These last episodes, we have seen things thicken, problems of great proportions arising. In this 12th episode, we see the final resolution.
(Note that I will not use pictures for this final review so bear with me, I’ll give full attention to the text)

I predicted episode 11 would be violent and I was looking forward to it very much. What I didn’t like though, is the sentimental parts. I feel they were overplayed. The feelings of the characters were already clear in my opinion and there was no need to masquerade further. Kurenai is at its best when there’s mystery, it knows when to tease, make you hungry for more. However, the last three episodes were redundant because there wasn’t enough canonical action. The pieces have been set and all that needed to …

Stuff was mad last episode, this episode is one about cleaning up.

Shinkurou finally learns the truth about Murasaki during his talk with Benika.

Now, kurenai got over the musical real quick, it’s like it never happened. Now that I think about it, you could almost watch Kurenai as you would watch The Simpsons. Up until now, you didn’t need a lot of information to have a good idea of what’s going on. The plot doesn’t seem to be evolving much at all. That’s not to say it’s stagnant, we barely know what’s going on anyways. Each episode does give some hints of the big picture though.

To start talking about episode six right away wouldn’t be completely fair. Kurenai comes off an incredibly solid episode 5 of which I attributed a perfect mark. It was extremely funny and well executed. Following that, I was eagerly looking forward to episode six. Expectations were high.
Episode 6 starts out quietly enough, some guy is at the door, wanting some performers for a his festival. Shinkurou doesn’t even consider it but Tamaki overhears them talking and soon the whole apartment is in on the action.
As I giggled through …

Up until now, I didn’t fully realize how warm Kurenai was, how believable the characters were. I hinted at it last episode but, in this one, it’s obvious. As you may or may not know, the voices in Kurenai are recorded before the animation, as opposed to plastered on afterwards. Which makes for great acting. Supposedly though, I’m no expert on the subject, but if Kurenai is to be believed, it’s a stroke of genius.
For this episode, we were properly introduced to the Houzukis, Yuuno’s family, as Shinkurou and Murasaki …

Episode 4 picks up where ep. 3 ended, when Murasaki decides to secretly follow shinkurou on a job. This scene is great, Murasaki gets in danger, we see shinkurou trying to make things go smoothly, we see the mafia pulling the classic “goon in the elevator”. Not only is the action great, it’s believable, you can feel the tension leading to the fighting scenes. (Well, believable insofar as you discount shinkurou deflecting bullets with a bone extending from his elbow ;D )The second part of the episode is very information …

Kurenai’s third episode was a little more of the same. Characters are getting fleshed out, the bitter girl in the picture below turns out to be Shinkurou’s informant. She’s jealous of the attention shinkurou gives to the girl above (Yuuno). Also, we learned that shinkurou got his powers from Yuuno’s place and that he was living with her for a while.
That’s a lot to take in but, for the second episode, I complained that the school scenes were rather bland but this episode fixed that. This time around, we know …