Kurenai - Episode 11

Just how do they manage it? Each episode, I expect Kurenai to somehow slip up, to lose its way, change its focus in a detrimental fashion or just plain screw up. Yet every time, not only does this series manage to keep itself on an even keel, it actually just gets better and better.

I've talked about this show in the past in terms of expecting it to be action-packed before I began watching, then finding myself hoping for a lack of action once it had begun. Well, with Shinkurou on his way to try and save Murasaki along with Benika and Yayoi, the action-centric episode I'd been quietly dreading for some now finally arrived - Yet despite my concerns, it was magnificent.

Perhaps one of the joys of this show is that, despite its quite sombre core subject matter, it has never ceased to be not far short of rolling on the floor hilarious, and even this episode takes joy in those little exchanges between characters that can't help but bring forth a laugh or a smile, often due to their absurdity or ironic meaning when passing from the lips of those involved. It's a very subtle kind of comedy, but it works wonders here.


Beyond that, this episode of Kurenai is simply so many things that it's hard to pin-point a single positive badge for it to wear with pride. Its fight scenes though are perhaps the best epitome of the episode of the whole - Intense, elegant and claustrophobic yet at the same time swift and absolutely brutal. Make no mistake about it, no punches are pulled here be they emotional or physical, hence that intensity I just spoke of. Given how we've been drawn so tightly into the lives of so many of these characters (and indeed we learn yet more snippets, about Benika in particular, during the course of this episode), watching these urgent, penultimate moments is actually quite an intense and sometimes harrowing experience.

In other words then, Kurenai simply goes from strength to strength. If its finale can keep up this fantastic level of quality, then this is easily going to be the best anime to come out of the Spring season, if not 2008 as a whole.