Shining Tears X Wind

[Suwako Moriya]

All right may as well make a thread for this series since I've been watching it and I currently just finished episode 03. I'll talk about the first three episodes in a reply to avoid spoilers in this post. Right now I will give none-spoiler based early thoughts.

The first three episodes are clearly used to set up the main plot by introducing certain characters and setting up the situation. So if you're at least on the fence you may want to at least give the first three episodes a chance if not the first four.

As of right now I consider the show to be watchable, but nothing amazing. It does seem to improve with each other, but lacks the wow factor. It ultimately comes down to how they develop certain story elements if this show will pay off or be a waste of time.

[Suwako Moriya]

Souma the male leads likes a girl named Kureha. A cat-girl from another world comes. Stuff happens. Souma and Kureha end up transported to some other world. Creatures attack and all hopes look lost. Oh wait Souma is able to pull a sword out of Kureha's chest called the Soul Blade. Use the heart of your love interest to kill stuff is the message here.

Well eventually Souma and Kureha learn about the whole Soul Blader stuff and meet up with Shumari who is a generic looking evil dude. Of course both of them decide to believe the guy's speech about the evil ones. Well probably more Souma than Kureha. Souma also seems to be taking the whole situation lightly as if he's a big shot hero now.

Either way deciding to protect the country of Serian from the country of Pilius they go into battle only to realize that hey their friends Shiina and Kiriya also came to this world working for the enemy. Kiriya of course gets to pull a sword from Shiina's chest. As you can expect both argue over which side is right and eventually they decide to fight each other.

Mainly because Kiriya is protecting Houme who Souma wants to kill. Because Shumari claims she's a bad person aka an evil elf that caused a lot of the problems. Actually she flat out admits that she did try to destroy the world. Well at least she's honest. Kiriya gets the upper hand and tells Souma to yield. Kiriya doesn't want to kill him. Souma throws a fit because he's not being taking seriously. Souma loses his sword because Kureha's heart is wavering.

Shumari provides Souma with a weapon to fight against Kiriya. After a bit of discussion Shumari realizes that he's better off kidnapping Kureha and running away. Souma decides to angst and run off. Kiriya and Shiina attempt to rescue Kureha and apparently Souma has the same idea.

After the rescue has been done the four have yet another discussion. Souma wants to have one last fight with Kiriya to settle things. Well when Souma realizes that Kureha's heart is breaking he decides to leave her with Kiriya and Shiina.

Near the end of the third episode Souma attempts to finish off Shumari all by himself, but gets over taken by his soldiers. All hope seems a blast is fired at the said location and everything blows up. So there you have it.

Let me start off by saying that Souma seriously needs to be smacked upside the head. Some of the actions I've described him doing in this episode clearly show he's needs to actually think for more than five minutes and be well more rational. Right now I think they'd have a better chance of defeating the final boss (whoever that may be) if Souma just died and Kiriya became a double soul blader using two weapons at once.

Of course they'll probably reveal one way or that Souma has to be the one to use Kureha's heart. Either because only he can use the full potential or because it's meant to be a symbol of true love regardless of whether or not the two realize it. Plus maybe there is a chance Souma will become educated. Or maybe the power of idiocy is the weakness of the main villain.

[The Great Bear]

Or maybe the power of idiocy is the weakness of the main villain.

All too common nowadays.

[Suwako Moriya]

Or maybe the power of idiocy is the weakness of the main villain.All too common nowadays.

Well in this case the final boss will be so shocked over the idiocy of Souma that his brain will melt and thus Souma will win because the final boss has become a vegetable. :P In all seriousness perhaps what Souma needs is the harsh trainer character. The type that will be hard on Souma for his own good.

[Nork22]

So are you saying, in 3 episodes so far, there's no sign of Elwyn? Call me when she appears. :P

[Suwako Moriya]

So are you saying, in 3 episodes so far, there's no sign of Elwyn? Call me when she appears. :P

As far as I can tell she has not appeared yet. However to be fair that summary was written after watching the third episode and I didn't exactly watch all three in a row. Still maybe I over looked her. However skimming the first two episodes again doesn't give any indication of her at all.

Either way I'm not exactly that familiar with Shining Tears or heck any of the Sega stuff that carries the name Shining. So this would not be a case where my eyes are focused on waiting for a specific character to appear. So it could be a problem of not being sure who to look for.

*Searches for Official Site (http://shining-world.jp/tv_tearsXwind/)* Hmm apparently she's not included in the character section at least not yet anyway. Still if she happens to be one of the characters on the main page someone can point her out.

[Nork22]

*Searches for Official Site (http://shining-world.jp/tv_tearsXwind/)* Hmm apparently she's not included in the character section at least not yet anyway. Still if she happens to be one of the characters on the main page someone can point her out.
She's the elf. :)

[Suwako Moriya]

She's the elf. :)

In that case you should see her in episode 05 or so. While checking out images I noticed that she appears in episode 04 during the "next time" if I'm reading the images right. So yeah it won't be long. Granted I haven't watched episode 04 yet.

Still with there being a game called Shining Tears and another called Shining Wind. It makes me wonder just what this Shining Tears X Wind will cover. Maybe it's one of those animes where you need to play the game for the full story. Which I guess puts me at a disadvantage, but ah well.

[Suwako Moriya]

Okay I'm too lazy to get into a long winded explanation here. Essentially Souma was saved by Zero. Zero gives Souma the task of saving the world. Which includes handing over a ring. Wow Zero must hate the world if he's given the task to Souma. :P In any case Ryuuna and Lizard-dude (too lazy to remember name) join Souma's party.

In any case Trihart and Hiruda make their appearance as well villains. You know the "I'm going to justify conquering the world by claiming that the world can only be saved if I oppress all of you". For whatever reason Trihart is emperor. Personally speaking it would be nice if both were burned to death. Especially Trihart since by virtue of being male, he doesn't have the ability to use his body to garner my sympathy.

In any case Elwyn does indeed make her appearance in episode 05 as it were. At the very least she's cute and looks like she could be a decent character. Plus I like the fact she has a bow and arrow.

In any case with the ability to pull a soul blade out of almost anyone, I'm waiting for Souma to pull a soul blade out of himself. I figure the ultimate sign he's matured and developed would be that. Or maybe not.

[Nork22]

In any case Elwyn does indeed make her appearance in episode 05 as it were. At the very least she's cute and looks like she could be a decent character. Plus I like the fact she has a bow and arrow.
YAY!!!

In any case with the ability to pull a soul blade out of almost anyone, I'm waiting for Souma to pull a soul blade out of himself. I figure the ultimate sign he's matured and developed would be that. Or maybe not.
Touka Gettan sword pulling? :P

After reading up a bit of Shining Wind, I'm starting to see where this show is going. It's going to follow Shining Wind's story but with Tears characters appearing for help. Maybe I should give it another go.

[Suwako Moriya]

After reading up a bit of Shining Wind, I'm starting to see where this show is going. It's going to follow Shining Wind's story but with Tears characters appearing for help. Maybe I should give it another go.

While I've heard of a variety of Shining games and seen images before, I've never really played any of them or read up that much on any of them. So I'm essentially watching this well let's say on a clean slate. Well almost anyway.

[Suwako Moriya]

Essentially in this episode Souma's party ends up meeting up with a female named Blancneige who by the way happens to live in an Igloo on a small area of ice in the middle of the desert. Meanwhile Kiriya's party has caused some of Trihart's lackeys to retreat.

As far as I can tell Zechti starts to "malfunction" ands ends up leaving the base. While searching for her Trihart and Hiruda run into Souma's party. Trihart decides to use Hiruda's soul blade and thus it's time for Souma to choose which girl's soul blade to use. Both Elwyn and Hyuuna offer theirs up at the same time and then say to use the other's.

Souma decides to use both of theirs at the same. In other words Souma likes multiple partners. In any case he tries to fight Trihart, but Trihart makes Blanceneige his target. Part of the fun is he says he'll help her and she's like "No you have your own problems". However the final time she says it Souma reveals that they already defeated the soldiers.

Watch as Souma charges Trihart with both blades ready. Now watch as he decides to just kick him instead. Souma ends up asking for the soul blade of Blanceneige claiming that it will be warm. However it turns out the blade is indeed cold as it freezes the soul blade of Hiruda and destroys it.

Eventually Zechti runs into Kiriya's party and well he's forced to knock her down despite reluctance. Hiruda appears to retrieve Zechti, but faints. Apparently due to her "evil" side's soul blade being destroyed it's gone dormant and now Hiruda is back to err normal.

Kiriya however is pissed and is willing to kill Hiruda. Souma suddenly appears and saves Hiruda and even lets her take Zechti back to be repaired. As you may have figured out Zechti is an artificial life form as it were. Next comes the argument between Souma and Kiriya.

Souma essentially concludes that everyone has their own mission. Souma's is to be the guardian of the world and he's willing to fight even Kiriya to fulfill that mission. At least that's what I can gather from the dialogue.

The episode ends with Zero visiting Souma's party and checking up on things. One thing that's learned is that both Trihart and Kiriya have a chance to become the vessel for Zeroboros. Zeroboros being something related to Chaos. While Souma doesn't understand everything he does feel he understands he must do something and will take it one step at a time.

By the way when discussion on the vessel comes up Hyuuna starts to say "I used to...", but gets interrupted by Elwyn. I'm not sure if she was trying to say she once was the vessel or if he was trying to say she knew the or maybe I should say a vessel.

In any case this episode is the best one so far. It had some rather fun moments and everything is starting to finally come together. Granted it's still not an amazing series, but it's definitely getting better as it progresses. At the very least I like the mixture of cute girls and RPG elements. However there is still fear of things falling apart in the end. Hopefully it will continue to improve.