Jikan No Shihaisha

Time and tide wait for no man. Sorry, had to think of a time pun to start off my blog about an anime that has time manipulation as its setting. I’m not expecting much from Jikan No Shihaisha as it sounds like one of those action shonen animes of a group of warriors with the ability to use time to fight against monsters who devour time of ordinary people. Since it is not going to be the next Bleach, Naruto, One Piece or Fairy Tail (that is, it isn’t going to run into 3 digits of episode numbers), I guess there is no harm in trying. After all, what do I have to lose but a few minutes and accumulatively a few hours of my life?

Episode 1
Several girls of a high school are talking about rumours that one can turn back time if one makes a wish under the clock tower at the cemetery. Koyuki brushes it off as untrue but perhaps she is one who really wished for that rumour to be true. She had a beloved older brother who died in an accident. As she prays by his grave, she sees a guy fighting a monster. Kiri Putin is fighting this dark monster known as Horologues but it runs away. Kiri is confident because his partner, Victor is where it is heading. Anytime now… To his horror, he sees Victor flirting with girls! He chides him for fooling around but Victor points back at him. Is he fooling around with Koyuki? So at a cabaret, they try to dismiss all they have seen as special effects of a movie they are filming. Too bad Victor is having a good laugh and tries to ruin it all with his contradictions while writing in his journal. When Koyuki mentions about the rumour, Kiri rubbishes it. Because those who died can never return. Kiri does damage control before Victor could further ruin things. But Victor leaves a note for her to wait at a certain location. Back in their hotel, Kiri chides Victor for trying to reveal the truth to Koyuki that could have put her in danger. Victor argues a person’s desire is hard to erase unless they force reality upon her.

Koyuki graduates and she still believes in the rumour. As she makes her way to the cemetery, she sees her teacher, Emily looking younger than before. She heard rumours she did that ritual. Victor sees Koyuki praying earnestly for time to turn back when her brother was still alive. However a Horologue pops up and demands her time. Luckily Kiri saves her from being devoured. Koyuki still doesn’t care if this dangerous ritual calls forth some demon. Then reality hits her hard when she sees Emily has reverted into a child. Victor tries to save her from approaching the Horologue but her time keeps reversing till she becomes nothing. He explains about Horologues who appear to grant humans wishes but they actually devour their time. Once a human is bitten by them, their time is drained away until they return to nothingness. Victor then activates his Oath of Time and uses his cards to fight the Horologue. Oath of Time is a device that only allows them to control the speed of time. Koyuki still won’t give up. Kiri explains how Victor let his mother die. His depression allowed a Horologue appear. He was bitten. Victor has an Oath of Time embedded in his skin to slow down the time of flow within. It is slowly turning him into nothingness and not any younger. It also eats into his memories, that’s why he writes things in his journal. Victor does a dangerous move that could speed up his own time. After defeating the Horologue, Kiri wonders if Victor still recognizes him. Lucky for him, he still does. But still fooling around as usual. Kiri returns Koyuki’s dropped pendant. Behind the picture of her brother are words stating he will always be with her. The memories she had with him is a priceless treasure. As Koyuki leaves town, she remembers asking about Victor’s actual age. With each passing day, Victor becomes younger by a day. So could Victor be Kiri’s older brother? His true age is 39. Victor is Kiri’s father!

Episode 2
In this sin city, Victor allows a pickpocket to steal their money! He believes he can earn it back by gambling! Yeah, gamblers’ mentality… Kiri doesn’t have pleasant memories of his dad since he often goes out to gamble. Later Kiri sees that pickpocket trying to pay off his debts but since it isn’t enough, the debt collector gives him a final chance. This causes the pickpocket to fall under depression and summon a huge number of Horologues. Kiri manages to slay them but a huge eyeball Horologue appears. Everyone thinks it’s some filming. Father and son confront this giant eyeball, Aiks. He knows Victor because he was the one who bit him 12 years ago. Victor is desperate to get back his time and is in danger of speeding his own time. He won’t listen to Kiri since he is willing to sacrifice himself to get his revenge in worst case scenario. They get assistance from this hot chick, Mina who claims she is Victor’s wife. The debt collector tells Aiks to back down or it will put their master in a bad mood. Kiri remains suspicious of Mina because his mom’s name is Nana and died 12 years ago. The name Mina also has never appeared in Victor’s journal. With the guys continue to argue like usual, Mina steals his journal. Kiri goes after it but what made her return it? After Victor ‘threatens’ to do lots of censored stuff on her. Mina decides to live with them and they’ll make even better memories together. Because Victor is still reeling from his missing memories, Mina had to show a scar that she too has been bitten by a Horologue. With Victor and Mina teaming up, the teasing on Kiri has just doubled. Mina takes them to the organization who fights Horologues, Chronos. It is believed it has Victor’s records of his time working there. Yeah, Victor, conveniently remembers vaguely he worked there. Kiri remains suspicious if Mina is actually his mom. She explains proof of Chronos’ existence is because of the Oath of Time. However all of them are based from the one original that is called Unique. It avoids sudden massive regression in age as it is able to control time of living things and not objects. Victor has Unique. However if Victor has the one and only Unique, how is Mina slowing her time? She whispers maybe she’ll kill him for it.

Episode 3
Chronos’ HQ is located underground. They meet this perverted guy, Snake who is the head of Chronos’ technology division. He likes school girl uniforms…After examining and confirming Victor’s Unique as the original, he explains about Chronos’ establishment 2,200 years ago to fight Horologues. Snake then paralyzes them with his Oath of Time. He is under orders to take Unique. With so many of their comrades sacrificed and dead, if they have Unique, they will be capable of ruling time of all living things and put a stop to the war on Horologues. Sacrificing 1 life for the future is worth it. Mina opposes this but there is nothing much she can do. Before Snake’s assistants could take them away, Victor and Kiri easily escape Snake’s trap. Victor’s cards put up some sort of barrier to prevent the paralysation. They coolly leave and don’t want to be part of whatever Chronos is planning. Mina is sad because Victor has never trusted her in the first place. She tries to convince she wasn’t tricking him but it fell on deaf ears. Once father and son reach the surface, Victor locks Kiri out as he returns to the HQ. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. All Chronos members are on alert to bring them back dead or alive. So as they go on a wild goose hunt, little do they know Victor has snuck back into the HQ and this works for him since less personnel means less guards. He remembers Mina telling the documents are located at the tower top. Inside the library, he finds a book containing his records. Only one problem: He can’t read this language! There is also a photo of him and Mina together and the date stamp shows it was taken 12 years ago. Kiri tries to break in but is faced with this crazy fire dude, Blaze. Victor is interrupted by this sexy vixen, Ice Radar. She remembers him but obviously he doesn’t. He wants to know why he joined Chronos and how he can get back his time but is explained the origins of Chronos instead. Something about the god of time fought and won over Horologues but a small number of them survived and hence the formation of Chronos so his descendants will continue to fight them. Victor considers himself an atheist so Ice Radar is going to prove there is one standing right before him.

Episode 4
Victor jumps back before Ice Radar could pummel him. She continues explaining she is the true descendent of Chronos and the one who will subjugate all Horologues. She will be taking his Unique which belongs to her that she lost 2,200 years ago while fighting Horologues, and then put him to sleep. Being one who is able to control any flow of time, Victor can’t even control his own time to fight against her. Mina returns to the tower to see Victor getting owned as he tries to desperate use a desperate measure to speed up time. This horror has her remember 500 years ago when she was at her mom’s funeral. She was devastated mom left her alone. Apparently Ice Radar is her older sister and is told the harsh reality about the fleeting life of humans. Everyone she knows will have to die one day. Although Mina doesn’t have the true power of Chronos yet, if Ice Radar dies, she must carry on and inherit those powers to subjugate the Horologues. It is her duty. Now Mina tries to fight Ice Radar and blames her for always getting in her way. Mina easily gets owned and is paralyzed in her own time. Mina is willing to sacrifice her own leg to break out of that paralysis. It is a small price to pay not to lose Victor. Luckily Victor is back up and saves Mina. She breaks down in tears, happy he is still alive. Victor has always thought Mina was fooling around but realizes she is genuinely in love with him. But the fight with Ice Radar is not over yet. When Victor fights her, he realizes he could speed up time without losing his own. Ice Radar reveals she fixed his Unique and missed his vitals. Now he can use his powers without worrying the side effects. She did this favour because the info he gave to them 12 years ago when he returned from the Horologues’ nest is more vital than his life. Victor realizes this is her way to test him if he is worthy to hold on to Unique. Well, the test is not over yet. The fight continues with some complicated speed up, speed down of time explanations. Because Victor has found a loophole that Ice Radar being a god doesn’t make her absolute. Something about her may be able to control time but that doesn’t mean it nullifies his own ability. The control of time can only be countered by controlling time. Huh?

Episode 5
Kiri can only defend against Blaze’s punches. Blaze claims he wants to be the worst villain in the world. Why? Oh, flashback time. Long time ago there was this good kid who did everything to help others. The villagers loved him. On the other hand, there is also this bad kid who bullied others. The villagers gave up on him. What happens when good kid tries to turn bad kid over to a new leaf? One night, bad kid has good kid follow him to a windmill. Bad kid burns windmill down! Both kids got caught and although bad kid got scolded, it was much worst for good kid. They think he has been lying to them by being nice. Everyone hated him. Because of the disappointment, he decided to become a villain. This means he is not tied down to anyone. Nice story about yourself. It’s Kiri’s turn. Not after he surprises Blaze with a move that his old Oath of Time model cannot do. Seems he is able to pull it off because he swapped Mina’s Oath of Time while she was sleeping. His intentions was to limit her movements. So Victor’s back story rants about how his father has regressed into a stranger. Guess what? Blaze is so touched that he cried!!! Such tragic past! WTF?! Blaze blames the Horologues for this and will take them down to be the next villain. Until then, stay undefeated. Also, he wants to become Kiri’s big brother. Kiri collapses after Blaze reveals it is not his master’s plan to kill Victor but to see if he is worthy of Unique. So back to that fight, Victor manages to pull out some tricks up his sleeves to bind Ice Radar. He has learnt a few things from the fight like her limited range of time control despite calling herself a god. Well, she still manages to live up to that since she manages to break out. She beats him up before he finishes talking thinking it is his form of distracting her. Then to her surprise, it is like he is able to control her body and slow down time. After checkmating her, he reveals that it was his torn cards scattered during the fight that got stuck on her body that allowed him to slow down her time when the timing is right, making it look like he controlled her body. So next time, let others finish what they have to say first. She acknowledges him worthy to keep Unique.

Episode 6
Kiri must be even embarrassed as Blaze keeps calling out to Victor about his son worried about him. Snake welcomes them back and reveals this was all a test. He lets Kiri know about the records on Victor but it is in a coded language that is still being deciphered. Because Victor is a mysterious man himself and they didn’t know he is his son, what are they chances they know about his time here? But guess what? Time for Kiri to blow his top again when he sees Victor flirting with the ladies! Heck, all of them are flocking around him! Kiri asks Snake about Aiks and if it is possible that Horologues can talk. Normally they couldn’t but after devouring humans for a long time, they might have developed that ability. But even if they defeat it, it might not be able to recover Victor’s time. It is possible if it is 60 seconds when it was first devoured. That night, Kiri sees Victor successfully deciphering his records. They are coded alphabets that he substituted out with the names of girls. So he wasn’t just only flirting then? Many of the records are nothing important. Just flirting around. But there is one that details everything. It was his final mission. It is at Coubjurs, his hometown.

Next day, Victor says his goodbye to Ice Radar. He sets a time of 1 month to defeat that Horologue otherwise he will return Unique to her. He also asks if Mina is really his wife. If she was, she would have tried to help reclaim his time but she is more interested in creating new ones. Ice Radar shows a DNA test she secretly conducted on Mina and Kiri. Not related. But then again, Mina is a descendent of Chronos and her DNA changes when she reaches 18. But she knows Victor and Mina were a team back then and she really wanted to marry him and have a child. When he went missing, she fell into depression and only ‘revived’ recently when she heard he was still alive. She isn’t sure if they are really married but Mina’s love for him is real. Ice Radar has a favour to ask of him. He hopes she can open her eyes. As a descendent of Chronos, human emotions will only cloud her judgment. Victor can’t promise that and can only love her as long as she loves him. Ice Radar then freezes his time as a threat. He won’t change his stance but words it in a way that if Mina loses interest in him, he will not pursue her. As they leave, Snake gives them a few items and ‘cool’ nicknames. This signifies they are part of the top 12 Guardians of Chronos. Mina joins them in their trip to Coubjurs. You think teaming up bullying Kiri is on the cards but when Victor says he will be hers once he gets back his time, Mina snaps. So now she is not happy? Apparently she thinks he is doing this out of responsibility and if so, she doesn’t want this kind of love. I guess Kiri is in a dilemma again. If they’re acting like stupid lovers, it’s bad for him. Now they’re not talking and such heavy mood, it’s still bad for him. And then Blaze pops up. In his own pace he makes everyone get along. Yeah, looks like he is going on this trip with them too. For once, Kiri is grateful he saved the situation.

Episode 7
While on a plane to Coubjurs, they stop this gamer freak kid, Bill Reidan from using his Horologue ring on the rest of the passengers. How? Mina’s swift wind power blast the related parties outside to fight on the plane! And everyone else didn’t notice a thing. Yeah, it must be just a small turbulence or something. Anyway, he uses the ring to summon a Bahamut to fight them. It is a 3,800 year old Horologue so you bet it packs some power. Although Bill gets injured, he doesn’t feel any pain. He thinks life is a game and hence doesn’t feel the pain. So there’s this flashback of him of how boring he views reality. He found his ‘reality’ in online games. He turned into a shut-in and this made his mom sad. But her love for him had her continue to feed him and leave him alone. Until she died via overworking. It was then Bill woke up and regretted it. A strange man approached him and told him a way to get his mom back. Giving him the ring, if he collects time from others, the reverse flow of time will eventually get his mom back. Well, they destroy his ring and if Bahamut goes out of control, Victor destroys it with a single strike using Unique! Down on the ground, you could say Bill is now brought back down to earth as he starts to feel the pain and regret of reality. Victor tries to give him hope that his mom might be gone but memories of her still live inside his heart. However Bill only remembers treating her like trash and a slave. He never once said thank you. It is those memories that made it so painful. It’s because he can remember them all. This invokes a deep memory inside Victor. Standing at the beach and 2 coffins next to him. The coffins are empty. Victor lets Bill go as they make their way to Coubjurs. Although he claims he is okay, Kiri can tell he is only putting up a strong front. And Blaze is crying over Bill’s touching story… I hope he doesn’t want to be his big brother too…

Episode 8
Arriving at Coubjurs, this backwater place brings back lots of childhood memories for Victor. But to his shock, he spots his parents before his eyes. They’re supposed to be dead. Then they realize the date of a newspaper. It looks like the time of this place is 34 years ago! Kiri knows something is wrong but assuming if those are Victor’s real parents, it could mean time has been turned back. Victor is tempted to go to his parents, Alexander and Eve who run a local clinic but Kiri doesn’t want them to raise suspicions. This place might not mean anything to Kiri it does to Victor. Kiri decides to play along with his sentimentality in exchange their relation won’t be discovered. Mina assures it won’t since they don’t look alike. Kiri hits back that she and Ice Radar too don’t look alike. That’s for sure. They aren’t really blood related and call each other so for convenience. Besides, she too doesn’t remember her past but doesn’t care about it as she is more concerned of building a future with Victor. When Eve bumps into them again and invites them for dinner, Kiri naturally wanted to decline but Victor views it as a worthy investigation. They might get to the bottom of it all if they stick around them. Alexander talks how he became a doctor to help with Eve’s weak body. In short, he is unlicensed and a quack doctor although his intentions are good. Kiri is pissed he is made to cook for them. Yeah, it tastes horrible! Almost died? The commotion causes a young Victor to tell them to pipe down because he is studying. Plus, he badmouths his parents and doesn’t have high hopes for them. Blaze wants to teach him a lesson but Victor tells him to let it go. Kiri knows Victor’s parents died in a fire although the cause is unknown. The loss of his parents forced Victor to grow in the truest sense and made him appreciate them. Next morning, Victor talks to Eve about the drawing she wanted to give her son. Kiri had to remind him about his sentimentality to atone his wrongdoing. Because his parents died in the fire, he never received the drawing. On the contrary, he already knows what it is because he returned to the spot and saw the drawing. It is a message for him to be a victor. Kiri tries to remind him he can’t change the past and these people are fakes but is shrugged off he doesn’t know anything or how parents feel about their child. Both go their own separate ways to investigate. Why so mad, Kiri?

Episode 9
Kiri, Blaze and Mina are fighting a 4,500 year old snake Horologue. However it soon turns tail and run. Kiri knows something is wrong. Like is as though it is being controlled by someone and trying to lead them somewhere because it is running ‘slow’ enough to let them follow while being fast enough to dodge their attacks. Kiri and co decide to follow it in hopes it will lead to the perpetrator. Kiri wonders why of all days Mina decided to not follow Victor. Ever since he met Eve, there is always that sadness in his smile. She hates this town because it only brings Victor sadness. Hence she is going to change this town. Only when Victor is happy, she is happy. Meanwhile Victor sees Alexander rushing home because he got word his wife has collapsed. Thankfully young Victor did all the necessary. However something is still wrong. Even isn’t getting better. Alexander deduces a blood transfusion is needed. But Eve has a rare AB negative blood. Young Victor decides to return and donate his blood. Mom doesn’t want him to miss the bus for his entrance exam but I guess young brat decided his mom’s life is more important. However his puny size means the transfusion isn’t enough. Victor just realized he too has the same blood and steps in. Even though he feels his parents might be fakes but he can’t help hope that by doing something, something will change. Eve’s life is saved so when Victor tries to praise his little self, he instead badmouths his parents that thanks to this, he missed the bus and now has to wait another year. He is stuck here with them when he could have gotten away from them for good. Victor slaps him! I guess little brat is still a kid and cries like one. Alexander isn’t appreciative of that. Thanks for saving Eve. But please leave. Depressed Victor has this strange dream of being admonished he isn’t the strong victorious Victor his parents hoped him to be but a weakling who can’t put his parents behind him. Kiri and co now stumble upon a strange barrier that might have stopped time in this town.

Episode 10
Kiri further deduces that the Horologues are protecting Coubjurs so that the residents can have a peaceful life. There is also a possibility that the town is repeating the same day because the residents seem not to remember them when the next day arrives. It could also be that the time in the town is flowing backwards. They encounter the perpetrators, Kyousuke Fujibayashi and Raiko. They have a ring that controls Horologues. But they aren’t the ones behind this but their master. Their job is to lure them away from Coubjurs in which their master is conducting an experiment and kill them before moving on to Victor. Fujibayashi somewhat recognizes Mina. He calls her Nana and remembers her as being all over Victor back then. There was also a little specky kid who was always clingy to her. This makes Mina mad. She tells Kiri to go save Victor while she handles him. The fact is that there is something she doesn’t want Kiri to hear. Meanwhile Victor is depressed back at the cabin when one of Alexander’s frequent patients show up. He is confused despite Victor saved Eve, he is not happy and hit his young self. Bill then pops up looking for another ring. Patient dude isn’t sure what he is talking about so he devours Bill to read his memories! This guy is actually Aiks and as a Horologue who has lived so long, he came to possess an ego and disguised himself as a human to observe them. So he made this town his experiment to understand them. He tells of several experiments he did on Victor’s family like killing them or letting them die but their reaction is not what he expected. As he is able to do this experiment infinitely, he assures he will turn back time of this town to normal when he is done. Victor gets emotional and attacks him but fails. Aiks suggests he become the subject of his experiment if he doesn’t like this. He lets him know that consuming time of this town has him use a large portion of his energy. If he can damage his eating organ, he could spit up the time he has eaten. The town will return to normal but Victor will not see his dead parents again. Therefore Aiks is curious to know which Victor will choose. Victor doesn’t hesitate to attack him to take back his memories. But Aiks can tell he still has doubts as his attacks aren’t as powerful. Victor is on the verge of being devoured by disappointed Aiks. But here comes Kiri to the rescue. He too is disappointed a pathetic father he is.

Episode 11
Mina thought breaking his ring would turn his Horologue crazy and eat him. However it isn’t working since the ring she broke was fake. She then cannot move. Fujibayashi explains when she protected Kiri and got bitten by his Horologue, its toxins are taking effect. Horologues not only eat time but they also gain the abilities of those devoured and in this case all the venomous snakes and bugs. As he tries to experiment poisons on her, his Horologue suddenly disappears. Apparently Mina’s blood can purify poison because of her relation to Chronos. Therefore it is like fighting poison with poison. She locks him in a vacuum. Meanwhile Blaze is having a hard time with Raiko but isn’t giving up. He is shocked to see his body fused with Horologue. Old guy explains he was abandoned by his parents since he has muscle atrophy. But his master took him in and fused his body with a Horologue. That’s why he will devote his life to him. Guess what? Blaze is crying and touched by his story. As they continue fighting, Blaze seems to be on the losing end. Till he plays his ultimate trump card. Scattered gunpowder that might be small but when blown up together, the effect is immense. One roast jiji coming up. Kiri fights Aiks and although he manages to damage him, Aiks eats himself to heal himself like as though reversing time before the injury. Huh? Kiri then gets bitten as Aiks explains he still doesn’t understand human emotions after all his observations. Except for one: Fear. If you’re wondering why Victor didn’t move in to help, it’s because his inner conscious in the form of Alexander and his young self are holding him back. They warn him killing Aiks will kill them. Does he not want them to exist? Victor sums up his courage to reconcile about reality. He knows his parents are dead and can’t save Kiri if he is trapped in the past. He breaks free of his chance and will claim victory with his own strength. For he is Victor the victory. But why is he now scared when he is going to kill Eve? Must be the sad gentle smile…

Episode 12
Victor attacks Aiks but avoids his eating organ. Aiks wonders why Victor now has the confidence to defeat him when he did not before. He observes him again by making him see visions of Eve and other townspeople accusing him of being selfish if he returns the town to normal. Victor will not be fooled and punches his way to shatter the illusion as well as destroying Aiks’ eating organ. With that, the flow of time of this town is slowly returning it to its dilapidated state. Victor wants to go see his parents one last time but Kiri tells him to face reality now or he will never be freed from the regrets of his past. So Victor talks to Eve. Especially about the painting she was to give Victor. He knows what it is and assures Victor will grow up to be a fine man. But Eve explains about the pen she uses to draw it. It was given to her by Alexander whom he got from his father. It is very precious and has lots of memories in it. This is what she wants to give to him. This makes Victor realize he was wrong. He didn’t trust his family and companions and only believed in his own abilities. Eve knew this Victor was her grown up son ever since they first met. She thanks him for turning out what they had hoped for. Victor apologizes and regrets all that he has done. Too bad he took too long and now mom is gone. Aiks returns and thinks Victor didn’t appreciate his family when he was young and he grew up troubled by it. He wants to experiment this again and recreates Eve. But when Victor says the experiment ends here, he kills her. Victor then asks how it feels to understand human emotion. After all the experiments? Nothing. Victor punches him and is going to make him pay. With everyone reuniting to fight against him, Aiks is stumped that they have no fear in fighting him. He materializes wings that will turn anything upon contact into nothing. It puts a little fear back in them. Flashback shows Aiks ate some villagers to learn about fear. Then he met his master who named him and will give him endless supplies for him to understand human emotions in exchange for his loyalty. Aiks gets pounded once the rest know the trick to his attack. No more fear again. This forces Aiks to transform into his true form and fire his devastating Gastas Ray directly at Victor.

Episode 13
Don’t worry. He survives. Mina goes on the offensive with Aiks seeing that she is the only one with Chronos blood and can fight him without taking too much damage. Trying to protect her son is so touching, eh? Kiri then hatches a plan. Before that, he apologizes he can’t remember his mom and didn’t understand how Victor felt when he came here. When father and son come up close to Aiks, his attacks doesn’t work. It seems they cover the cards with puddle and turn it into a mirror. Because Aiks attack digests everything he sees, this means he eats his own self in the mirror. Too bad, not yet final victory yet since Aiks hid his real eating organ somewhere. As he rains devastation everywhere, the rest hides and Victor tells Kiri his dangerous plan. Kiri is against it since failure means his life and even if he is successful, there would be high damage. Keeping positive, if they are successful, they can defeat Aiks. In the end, it boils down to believe in him. First, Victor quickly attacks him with Unique. Time is seeping out fast from him. This dangerous act makes Aiks expose his real eating organ to defend himself. This is the cue for the rest to attack Aiks with all they’ve got. They defeat the Horologue and Aiks realizes another emotion other than fear and loves it. In the aftermath, the rest are looking for Victor but only sees his clothes. Cue for emotional infighting especially Mina calling her son not her son because she allowed Victor to die. But wait. Victor is around but as a ghost? He is disappearing fast. Then he sees his parents as ghost. They are happy about him being a victor and tell him not to come over here and that he has a life. See how everyone is calling for him and Kiri getting too emotional. He is calling Victor as his dad and would be lost if he isn’t around. With that, Victor returns to everyone’s relief. After Kiri denies all that embarrassing stuff, he hands Victor the pen. As they take a train home, Kiri talks to Victor and knows Aiks is still alive out there because Victor is still in his same form. So it’s not over yet by a long shot. The past might never return but as long as you have those dearest in your heart, you can take off to the future again.

Time’s Up! A Pyrrhic Victory?
So I guess that when a Horologue eats your time and you can never get it back is just crap. Victor just proved it. All you need to do is find the right Horologue and hang on long enough before you turn into nothingness. Well, too bad nobody else has Unique so I suppose everyone else cannot be saved. So looks like the happy family of four is going to take another road trip to wherever leads them to. Hopefully within the time frame of their lives because they aren’t immortals, you know. But for me, I’ve it’s time out. I was hoping there would be something interesting for me to look forward to but alas like in many animes, it didn’t. And here I thought the final episode would have some sort of interesting twist or something that would allow it to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Oh Victor, your name only means so in the context of this anime but otherwise it has been a total loss for the rest of us. The series may have ended on a good and happy note but with nothing that spectacular throughout and possibly for the sequel (if there is going to be one but I highly doubt it), this ‘victory’ seems somewhat hollow. Because pretty soon it feels like this anime will be quickly tossed into those forgettable bins and never to resurface in time again. What’s the use of speeding up or slowing down time when nobody gives you their time?

Honestly, although the general plot and setting of the series starts off as interesting, it quickly loses that excitement as early as the second episode. I believe the first episode is by far the most interesting one as it sets up the lore and settings of this series. Heck, it was like a standalone filler but it was okay. The intrigue of a high school girl’s desperation to turn back time to get back her lost brother serves as an introduction for the main characters who look simply interesting and fascinating at first (as well as the first looks of how horrifying Horologues look). And then by the next episode when the ‘real plot’ starts to get rolling about finding Chronos’ HQ followed by the trip back to Coubjurs, that is where the series starts to wane. I don’t know. It just felt boring. Like as though the entire series is just one long journey for Victor to try to get back his lost memories. Therefore the synopsis I read about this series felt like a big troll because it was basically a summary for the first episode! Deception or surprise? You’ll never hear of that Koyuki girl ever again. I try not to sound bias but seeing that this story was written and adapted from a Chinese manhua… Oh well…

Because of all that, I also find the characters to be annoying in some ways. Like Victor and Kiri is one of those weird opposite team combos because while you have one who is easy going and cool, the other is the serious and trying to keep things in line. Making it even weirder is that Victor is Kiri’s father and he is getting younger by the day. How weird is it to have your father one day be the one who is younger than you? Certainly the curious case of Benjamin Button… As said, the entire series is like a long journey to shed light on Victor’s past. He gets the big bulk of the focus. Sometimes he is funny but more often at times comes off as annoying. It’s like he is trying to be funny but fails. Especially when he is flirting around and having girls swarm all over his feet like as though the purpose of it all is to piss off Kiri (especially that recurring joke of wanting him to eat pasta through his nose. WTF. And no, Blaze, don’t you dare challenge that with pasta up your butt…). And what do you know? He was actually doing something beneficial by using his charms to get or do something. I guess there are some things you just can’t get by walking straight up to someone and demanding for it. So that’s why I suppose Kiri is always complaining, blowing his top thinking his father isn’t serious in getting the job done. Like as though it is his destiny to always be mad. Also, I think Victor doesn’t reprimand Kiri and just let him be because doesn’t Kiri’s anger reminds Victor of his own when he was younger? Yeah, he knows how that feels. You can’t fight anger with anger.

Mina and Blaze complete this ragtag quartet group and also as annoying in their own ways. Like Mina (whose ‘complicated’ past and relationship with her ‘sister’, Ice Radar which I still can’t understand) who is constantly trying to pander to her darling and the terrible duo become Kiri’s worse nightmare as they team up to tease him. It’s good she is thinking of the future and moving forward instead of being obsessed about the past. But you know what they say about knowing history and preventing it from happening again. Therefore Victor has to solve the case of his parents and put a close on it before he needs to move on. By the way, in which it doesn’t feel too convincing since Victor feels like an outsider watching his own past unfolding, then having the dilemma of wanting to stay this way forever or not, then making his decision by coming to terms with reality. And goodbye mommy. Sad to say, that didn’t stir up any emotions in me. Oh sh*t, am I as bad as Aiks?

Speaking of Aiks, as this season’s main antagonist, he too doesn’t feel like one. Just one confused Horologue trying to understand human emotions and hence his twisted judgment of experimenting on humans of a little town over and over again. The reason he could never understand it is firstly, he isn’t human to begin with even though he knows what fear is but that doesn’t mean understanding a human emotion is an indication he should be able to understand the rest. Secondly, with that said, this is the case of trying to describe colours to a blind person. Thus no matter how many experiments with different variations he pulls off, he is never going to understand anything. We saw how he didn’t feel anything after all that, right?

Before I forget, Blaze feels like the obligatory comic relief character as he is shown as the biggest idiot who is more brawn than brains. With lots of passion. Guys like him are supposed to relief tension in the group but this is also what makes him annoying. Unlike One Piece’s Luffy and Fairy Tail’s Natsu, this guy isn’t the main character so that is why he isn’t that likeable. At least to me. Just annoying. So all you need to do to get this guy on your side is to tell a decently touching story, wait for him to bawl some tears and then by that time if you don’t intend to kill him, wait for him to announce to be your brother or ally or whatever. He’ll be on your side definitely. And what’s this about wanting to be the world’s greatest villain? Bad guys don’t help others but themselves. It’s like he is just twisting the definition of a villain but plays the hero of justice. But if he says he wants to be the world’s greatest clown, that I can agree… Maybe Snake can be his buffoon partner but I think he’ll get arrested before that could happen. Yeah, doing time… Haha!

Therefore a few mysteries and questions bugging me like the history of Chronos and Horologues, the workings of the Oath of Time and if that you can never get back your devoured time still lingers on my mind. I believe some are explained but not in detail. Just enough to get you by this season. Because we all know there is one big master behind the Horologues and the likes. The mind boggling thing about Ice Radar isn’t about her being a descendant of Chronos or how Mina who isn’t blood related became her sister, but rather how the f*cks this she end up with such an alien name like Ice Radar?! Not that I can see she uses any ice power or radar effects. Not too sure if it is a corruption of her name in kanji, Aisuredar. Whatever. Are you curious to find out who are the other members of the 12 Guardians of Chronos? Who? Don’t remember them? So do I. Yeah, so irrelevant and unrelated…

I was hoping the action bits would alleviate some of the boringness but unfortunately even though they are still averagely entertaining, it still didn’t manage to boost my impressions of the series. There are a few terms albeit simple ones but I still don’t understand them. Especially about that speeding up and slowing down of time. Whatever. I thought Victor’s team is going to be a group of elemental warriors seeing with have water for Kiri, wind for Mina and fire for the aptly named Blaze. So who is the one controlling the ground or earth element? Beats me. Because a pack of cards sure isn’t in any way related to that. Whatever. Not too sure about the variety of moves they have too because Kiri is always slashing with his sword, Mina kicking some wind action with her feet, Blaze bursting flames with his fists and Victor throwing his cards or setting them up as barriers.

Art and drawing are also average. Sometimes I can see a dip in quality but with me so bored at this point, I don’t even care. I just want to point out that when I first looked at the characters, I had this familiar feeling that I have seen them from somewhere. Though I won’t name them all because I can’t remember which anime character they resemble (read: Lazy), the one that caught my attention is Kiri. Think back. Why does this guy look so familiar? Why, isn’t this Ishida from Bleach???!!! OMG! Did somebody cut and paste this character?! Did the designer blatantly rip off this character? Bleach has gone off the air for so many years and this is where he ended up? He traded his spiritual bow for a water sword? This might be a long shot but I think the designer took inspiration in Victor’s design from Devil May Cry’s Dante. The original one. I also find some similarity with Blaze and Fairy Tail’s Natsu. Despite looking different, same fire power, same hot headed temper. And doesn’t Eve look like a gentler version of Erza of Fairy Tail? Last but not least, doesn’t Bill look like a crazy version of One Piece’s Ace?!

As for the design of the Horologues, at first they seem a bit scary at least for me since I am a horror averse person. I mean, with clocks as eye pupils, creepy enough for me. Especially with multiple of such eyes popping up all over the body. It’s not like I got used to it but then I realize that clocks aren’t scary and once I accepted that, the Horologues don’t look scary anymore. So I was like Victor facing reality and now I don’t have to fear again? What BS did I just say? Also, those round eating organ Horologues from Aiks, I can’t help think of them as a dark evil version of Pac-Man…

The opening theme, Ruler Game by Fo’x Tails did get my attention at first because of the frenzy piano finger play at the opening. Then it descends into some noisy hard rock punk death metal music. I suppose it is fitting for this genre but I didn’t quite like it. So I prefer the ending theme, Jikan Wa Mado No Mukougawa by Nagi Yanagi even though it sounds weird in the sense it feels out of place for this series. It starts off as a slow and calming ballad before turning up the pace and tempo a little. Also I want to note that there are a few BGMs in the series which have this jazzy feel to it. Although they aren’t too shabby, but sometimes it feels a bit out of place in a series like this. I don’t know, it just doesn’t fit but they’re nice to hear at times.

The series is ‘saved’ with the casting of a few recognizable seiyuus albeit not by much. Great to hear voices like Jun Fukuyama as Victor, Rie Kugimiya as Mina, Jouji Nakata as Aiks, Shizuka Itou as Ice Radar, Sayaka Ohara as Eve and Tomokazu Sugita as Snake. For the rest, they are Kaito Ishikawa as Kiri (Iida in Boku No Hero Academia), Kenji Akabane as Blaze (Arashi in Triage X), Kazuhiko Inoue as Alexander (Gildarts in Fairy Tail), Kengo Kawanishi as Bill (Rei in 3-gatsu No Lion) and Chika Anzai (titular character in Hitsugi No Chaika).

Overall, this is largely a disappointing series. A boring less than stellar plot and annoying characters outweighs the cool jazzy BGMs and popular seiyuus landing their talents here. It looks like the Chinese manhua has still got a long way to go if they want to match up to their Japanese counterparts but given the fact that this series has been given the Japanese anime treatment, I guess it shows it has some potential, right? Or does Japan starting to run out of creativity and decided to look for that elsewhere? Too bad the time I have ‘wasted’ watching this series didn’t turn it into something enjoyable. I won’t be wise of me to wish for time to be turned back and returned to me because it would have defeated the purpose of watching what this series is all about. And sadly this series will eventually fade away by the time the next season rolls around. Couldn’t stand the test of time… Sorry, needed to make a time pun to end this. Heck, better than eating pasta through your nose joke, right?