“The Cuckoo sings eight thousand and eight times a day – singing until it coughs up blood.
Likewise did my best friend keep singing, until she coughed up blood.” – Miku

…I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.

That blogger, one that shan’t be named, totally lied to me.

I was led to believe that one of the main cast was off’d in the first episode but that was only half of it. It wasn’t just one, but TWO, two main characters were off’d in the first half of the first episode alone!

Now granted one still lives by the end of the episode but she’s essentially a walking corpse, what with her fate already decided. Don’t blame me dear readers, for this bad news. I was as shocked as you all when not only did they completely kill off one of the main secondary characters (Kanade) but also premonitioned the death of one of the main main characters (Hibiki).

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

  

 

If the gloomy opening wasn’t bad enough, with the moody rain, the gloomy atmosphere, a girl with flowers but no umbrella (Miku) who is spouting some even gloomier dialogue on her way to the grave yard where she proceed to cry out those heart-crunching sounds…Oh lord…Things get even worse later on but I am getting ahead of myself here so let’s take things in stride.

After the gloomy prologue of Miku desperately crying to the heavens her feelings of loneliness, we are sent back in time two years ago and would you believe it! The first person we are shown is the soon to be dead Best Friend Hibiki – who is standing outside the concert hall waiting on her best friend Miku to show up. The concert people are lining up to see is hosted by none other than Tsubasa and Kanade. Hibiki makes a call to Miku but Miku won’t be coming since an emergence came up and she has to leave with her family to visit relatives. Hibiki attends the concert from hell alone.

At the same time inside the concert hall back stage, Tsubasa is having stage freight no thanks to standby time of doing nothing. Her pal Kanade is there though to comfort her and by the gods…

Let me first talk about Tsubasa and Kanade. From the art, I thought that these two were like another version of Miku and Hibiki – I mean like the transformed forms of Hibiki and Miku so when I found out that they were their own parsons, girl did I jump up and down in pure joy. Too bad it was instantly decimated in just a few minutes but we shall be getting there. Tsubasa and Kanade remind me so much of Kei and Yuri (Dirty Pair) and if it wasn’t for the emotional first home-run of Miku crying out for Hibiki in the prologue, they would’ve taken the cake on how cute their moment was in this scene I am currently discussing (the one backstage, in case you’ve forgotten).

Tsubasa going all red all the time and Kanade’s straight way of handling things really was textbook definition of a couple. And I was ready to dismiss this since they are Idols, but then I though of AKB48 and I was like…Not a frak was given. They are totally into each other.

Soon the concert is underway and while things seem to be going according to plan (for some people) and while Hibiki is enjoying her first ever LIVE, along with thousands of Tsubasa/Kanade fans, some one comes crashing the party a la Gnosis style (Xenosaga) – Monsters that are known simply as ‘Noise’.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 

 
 
 

Hell breaks loose (literally) with people being killed in all kinds of brutal ways. But where there are monsters, there is heroes and guess who the heroes of this story are…Yep, Tsubasa and Kanade. They transform (no no, no gadgets and all that shit. Nope.) Their bodies themselves transform into weapons and they start taking on the monster waves. There are just too many and they save less people than are killed but this seems to be an everyday occurrence as everyone seems to know where to run off to to survive. too bad there are so many monsters with so many people crumped in one stadium with very few exists and only two heroes who also have their hands full with a fraction of the monsters.

Hibiki being just a girl and only there by herself is of course rattled out of her mind and it takes Kanade to save her but as she skips off to safety (Her leg badly injured) an attack catches her straight in the chest with the force sending her flying and brutally smashing her spine into the rocks behind in such a gruesome way I felt my stomach turn.

Kanade decides to release her full power which while gets rid of all the monsters, sucks her of her lifeforce and thus endth Kanade’s tale! To hell with this. Kanade was just Kamina-ing a while ago and then BAM! I guess I should’ve seen the signs! Why would you get rid of an awesome character like her?!! U kidding me like?!! WTF!

Anyway Kanade sings her last song before she goes out in a blaze of glory. She leaves her last words of cherrishing her own life to Hibiki who majestically holds onto her life until she got special treatment. The words of wisdom stay with Hibiki months later after her recovery. First half of the episode ends when Hibiki wakes up in the hospital (on an operation table no less).

 

 


 

The second half brings us back to the present, or so they say. I didn’t see no grave yard and Hibiki was alive and kicking so I am guessing a few days, weeks or months before the prologue (Ye dudes should get your facts straight, like). Hibiki is all healed up and about with Miku as they attend classes.

Back to their dome room, the two have a cute moment as well which puts a smile on my face, what with Miku’s tsun-dere ‘baka’ while blushing cutely, aah! My goggles were forgotten where she’s concerned. I know it’s too early to tell but I just have confidence in my eighth sense which tells me that Miku has it bad for Hibiki. Speaking of these two, their characters remind of of others too but I just can’t seem to put my finger of who exactly, especially Miku. And I guess you might have already noticed but I like the character designs which remind of Keroro Gunsou and Arcade gamer Fubuki’s style.

These two are so cute that though they have a double deck bed in their dome room, they choose to sleep in the same bed (Candy Boy anyone?). Seriously, how cute is that?

Any ways getting back on track, Tsubasa seems to still be in business though she is going solo at both her career as singer and a hero of the people by fighting monster by night though she despises working with other people and prefers to work alone and it seems she just released a new single. Hibiki is a great fan of Tsubasa’s and it seems she enrolled into their current school just so she could meet her Idol. Before anyone jumps to conclusions though, she only did it o she could get to Tsubasa close enough to talk about what happened two years ago. She still has the scar from that day too on her chest (and what a nice chest that is – ahem).

Hibiki being the greatest fan wants a copy of Tsubasa’s new CD. Though Miku wonders why she still buys CD’s in this day and age to which Hibiki answers that she still goes for them because they have extra content on them. And so off she goes to get her new swag.

 

 
 
 
 

 

She is too happy on her way that by the time she takes notice of it, it’s too late. The town is completely deserted but there is that familiar sight – the dark patches of ash that could only mean one thing. those are people who have been attacked by the ‘Noise’. She hears the cries of a little girl crying out for help so she runs to her to try and save her. The Noise are every where they go and I gotta say I was simply moved my Hibiki’s bravery here. I was having lots of Madoka flashbacks as Hibiki tried her best to survive and at the same time save the little girl. As powerless as she was with all the Noise around them, she struggled and struggled and I soon I found myself screaming support chants to the screen! Even as her muscles should be at their limits she kept on going as she remembered the last words of Kanade’s. She remembered how she was saved that day and so she pushed on.Tears were sailing down my face as I tried my best not to cry out loud!

But of course, she was just a young girl and soon reached her limit with no where to go having backed herself in a corner on a roof top. Noise every where and no where to run or hide. it was the end, surely. What to do? What to do? WHAT TO DO?!!!

Hibiki does what her conscious tells her and she soon finds herself singing that song! the last song Kanade sang before she was eviscerated. Then…

GAY JUICE!

…On;y words I can describe the scene of Hibiki’s transformation with. I sure as hell didn’t see that coming. Not that I saw anything coming in this series apart from the GAY but Jesus! That was some epic rainbows right there! You just have to see this bit for yourselves to really appreciate the awesomeness of it all.

The episode ends with Hibiki in Berserker MODE!

Crud, next episode can’t come any sooner! Totally looking forward to that one for sure!

—–DOWNLOAD—–

BT Here

~

DDL (MF) Part 1 | Part 2  | Part 3