Kemono no Souja Erin: The Beast Player Erin

[KitKat]

I've been waiting for this series to finally start!

Here's what anidb has to say:
"A fantasy series written by Uehashi Nahoko (Seirei no Moribito) about a young woman who is drawn into a war between kingdoms. She has the ability to command animals, including dragons, as if she was playing a musical instrument."
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/engphysgirl/vlcsnap-135456.png
Official site: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/anime/erin/
Anidb: http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=6187

The first episode is out by a group called KyouNoSubs, but I can't manage to get the subs to show up. Guess I'll have to troubleshoot some more. Regardless, here's their release. No idea about what sort of quality their sub is.

KyouNoSubs Episode 1 mkv (http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=47780)

[Lucifus]

Also been waiting for this one myself since I saw Serei no Moribito.
Downloading a copy. Hope it turns out good.

Edit: Well, that was strange. I like the atmosphere, but i'll hold my judgements for a few more episodes. For a pilot ep, it didnt have enough hook. =P

Also, my player read the subs fine. GOM player rules the net.

[animus]

More reliable subs.

Episode 1 XviD - Static Subs (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1039)
Episode 1 h264 - Static Subs (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1040)

[Kraco]

KyouNoSubs weren't too good. I'll stick to Static from now on for sure. The series showed pretty rough graphics every now and then, but considering this is a double length show, it's understandable to a degree. The plot itself didn't yet impress me, so like Lucifus I'll postpone making the final decision until I have seen a bit more.

Also, they aren't dragons any more than Komodo dragons are dragons... Unless this indeed was nothing but the beginning of the fauna of the world.

[Everon]

http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=48027
http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=48167

It either starting really slow or its suppose to be just little vignettes of these people's lives. I'm hoping something changes.

The first three are a little too formulaic -- child/person is in trouble, mother uses the magic whistle to save the day. Its happening so often that its losing its tension.

[animus]

Well it is a 50 episode series based on a novel by the same author as Seirei no Moribito. SnM was slow as well and that was 26 episodes.

I actually enjoy the melancholy, but I also do want to see real development and progression in a bit.

[David75]

Seirei no Moribito had great animation and music. Greatly drawn and so on, at least that's what I remember.

That first ep was strange in the way backgrounds/houses etc are drawn. Looks like there's rough computing in it. Maybe I need sometime to accomodate to that and SnM spoiled me.

[KitKat]

Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about this series yet either. The drawing style just seems a bit 'Saturday morning cartoon' style to me. That, and I'm not really a big fan of the 'empy eyes' character look.

I'm hoping that we'll have a jump into the future at some point where Erin is more grown up and there's more of an epic over-arching storyline. These first few might just be setting the stage for the bigger events to come.

[Everon]

Its 50 episodes? Wow, that makes me wonder what they're progressing towards.

[Nadouku]

[Static-Subs] Kemono no Souja Erin - Episode 2 AVI: Download (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1043)
[Static-Subs] Kemono no Souja Erin - Episode 2 MKV: Download (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1042)

[Munsu]

Just watched the first two episodes, I don't think many here will enjoy this. Though the third episode seems like it'll have some action in it. But so far it seems like a series that I can just relax and watch for a bit without thinking much about it, and it seems like it might be targetted to kids... that art is quite simple overall.

I think the mother will die, and soon...

[shinta|hikari]

I am enjoying this quite a bit. I think the bigger plot will eventually arise, and Erin's role in the conflicts will become more pronounced.

[Kraco]

I think the mother will die, and soon...

I just hope she won't die due to the shady and envious secondary doctor sabotaging a touda under her care. Erin doesn't look like one who would have much success in exacting vengeance, and thus it would be painful to wait for justice to happen. But who knows, the shady doctor is shown so often with that malicious mind of his that I'm afraid just that will happen and the mom will be executed for something she didn't do. It looks the series is paying attention to a feudal system's details in earnest so anything nasty could take place.

[Munsu]

I just hope she won't die due to the shady and envious secondary doctor sabotaging a touda under her care. Erin doesn't look like one who would have much success in exacting vengeance, and thus it would be painful to wait for justice to happen. But who knows, the shady doctor is shown so often with that malicious mind of his that I'm afraid just that will happen and the mom will be executed for something she didn't do. It looks the series is paying attention to a feudal system's details in earnest so anything nasty could take place.
It just seems wierd that Erin will get involved in the war if the mother is still around. If the mother is still around, she should probably be the one going off to the war while Erin stays home. Can't really envision much of a motivation to do so otherwise.

[animus]

Watched the episode 3 sub from Everon's post. Poor Lulu, how dare they cut your earflaps.

Even though it is 50 episodes, man the art is really LQ/crude. Can't believe it's produced by Production IG as well as the same studio that did SnM. It might just be the awkwardish picture book style they're going for? Maybe it was just the SD raw that put me off this time around.

[animus]

Watched the episode 7 sub, and it looks like the series is taking a drastic turn away from it's slow beginning. It was bound to happen, but seeing it happen sucked.

[KitKat]

Are things starting to pick up? I should catch up on this. I'm hoping it gets away from cutesy and becomes more serious.

[animus]

They should start to be probably different starting from episode 8. Episode 7 marked probably the end of slow start and back story I'd guess.

[Kraco]

A whole trove of releases since the last update:

Episode 3 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1049)
Episode 4 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1067)
Episode 5 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1071)
Episode 6 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1090)
Episode 7 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1097)
Episode 8 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1099)
Episode 9 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1107)
Episode 10 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1109)
Episode 11 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1118)
Episode 12 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1120)
Episode 13 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1130)
Episode 14 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1132)
Episode 15 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1138)
Episode 16 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1150)
Episode 17 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1152)
Episode 18 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1158)
Episode 19 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1160)
Episode 20 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1164)



Things have certainly changed and there were massive amounts of cuteness in between. In the beginning I was waiting for Erin's poor mom to die so that the story would move forward. Once she did, I felt like the series only really began. It was good stuff for sure. The time jump removed some of the raw and pure glitter for me personally, as I simply enjoyed watching endlessly curious Erin to run around and learn about things, heedless of any danger.

Still, it's not like the series would have turned bad after the time jump and to be realistic, such a tiny girl couldn't have remained the main character of a very complicated story. It was only a matter of time before it happened, and I had to leave behind that part of the story and start to look at the shady politics and other aspects building in the background. And of course Erin hasn't become completely uncute and innocent. Far from it.

The feeling of an impending tragedy is one probably hanging above this show till the end, so I'm only wondering who's the next person to die in front of Erin's eyes... I wish it was those two useless idiots, who follow Erin everywhere, but I've a dreadful feeling they will stick around till the very end. Well, no viewer would miss them if they died, so there would be little profit in killing them, I suppose.

[animus]

I stopped watching due to slow subs, but do you happen to know which episode the King Beast comes in and kills a couple of Touda's from killing it's chick?

[Kraco]

That would be episode 13.

[David75]

[SS]​_Kemono​_no​_Souja​_Erin​_-​_21​_(1280x720​_h264)​_[C1EFF01B]​.mkv (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1169)


[SS]​_Kemono​_no​_Souja​_Erin​_-​_22​_(1280x720​_h264)​_[5805E6C3]​.mkv ("http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1171)

[Kraco]

Things have been kind of slow of late but let's still go through the eps:

Episode 23 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1173)
Episode 24 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1179)
Episode 25 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1183)
Episode 26 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1185)
Episode 27 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1191)
Episode 28 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1193)
Episode 29 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1197)



- - - - - -



John is dead and Erin has made a best buddy out of a king beast. Pretty much sums up everything that happened in these episodes. And it's a borther vs brother with the duke's sons (that was highly obvious but needed development). I'm only waiting for the inevitable moment when Erin gets mixed into the politics. Perhaps that will finally bring her and that royal bodyguard dude together. Surele they are the fated pair of this series.

Edit: The preview of ep 29 actually revealed another time jump. Can't say I wouldn't have seen it coming; it must be somewhat ethically easier to make things happens to an 18 years old than 14.

[Kraco]

Nobody likes recaps but still the studios keep making them like there's no tomorrow:

Episode 30 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1200)

And worse yet: There's a couple of minutes of new material mixed in that might be even necessary for enjoying the next ep fully.

It would be about the time Erin teaches Lilan to fly. The beast clearly wants to. It's so monstrous already that it could easily carry Erin. While not as tiny and cute anymore, the adult version of Erin is not too big either.

[animus]

I'm a bit confused with the aftermath of Lilan biting her. She says she wants to find out if the only relationship King Beasts and humans can have is through fear and not love. However, she brings out the harp again, and says that she wants to find out the answer to that question even if it's following the path of her mother.

Does that mean she's not trying to follow the path of friendship? The use of the harp again makes me think that she changed what she was originally doing.

[Kraco]

I guess following the path of her mother refers to not obeying orders or at least failing at her duty. If the assumption is that fear (the mute whistle) is the only way to handle King beasts, then refusing to use it is to squarely lay the blame on oneself should something go wrong and the beast die.

The harp is certainly the path of friendship. It reminded the King beast of the sound of its mother. She just had put aside the harp after she began to think the beast can listen to her voice directly. But the harp might be a much more powerful way of communication in the end.

[animus]

I guess I could see that now. I was expecting her to use voice commands permanently. But I guess there would be no point in this being titled "The Beast Player" if she didn't play anything.

Lilan looks pretty majestic now, with some pretty wings.

[animus]

Episode 31 (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1206)

Pretty good episode. New OP animation, but same song though with a different singer who sounds like she can't hit certain notes.

The series is starting to get intriguing.

[Kraco]

Finally! Lilan is flying and Erin naturally riding. It certainly took long enough. The poisoner rebel (dealing out candies, no less; who the hell would eat a candy from a poison expert anyway?) coming to the school is a good addition. Perhaps he will push Erin to the center of the ruthless politics.

[David75]

Finally! Lilan is flying and Erin naturally riding. It certainly took long enough. The poisoner rebel (dealing out candies, no less; who the hell would eat a candy from a poison expert anyway?) coming to the school is a good addition. Perhaps he will push Erin to the center of the ruthless politics.

If he supposedly has desires to rebel against the nobility, he could certainly use people able to use flying beasts for combat.
We're not there, but we already know how efficient one beast lord is against 3 toudas...

[Kraco]

Desires to rebel:

Episode 32 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1214)
Episode 33 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1216)

[David75]

Ep 33 let me approach feelings and emotions from 20 years ago while watching The mysterious cities of Gold (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=385). Of course I'm refering to the eps including the Great Condor which were a lot inspiring at the time.

I'm glad I'm following that show, eventhough you could say it looks cheap, feels slow and so one, you can really get attached to it and enjoy many things.

[Kraco]

Finally we learned the essential parts of the history. Including the reason for the diaspora of the mist people. The golden eyed royals certainly had a humble beginning - hard to believe when you look at that one scheming dude. It's a good question what happened to those of the original folk who didn't fly to invade the kingdom but remained in the mountains. Maybe Erin will end up with them with Lilan. It doesn't seem to me she will be ultimately welcomed to great many peoples.

No wonder why the empire is keeping the king beasts chained down to the ground. Maybe they are more volatile than the touda and thus of little practical use since touda suffices just fine against regular enemies. Although they would make superb scout and messenger mounts.

Aye, David, #33 felt very nice. Even better than Lilan's first flight.

[KitKat]

I'm starting to get caught up on this show. (Trying not to read the previous summaries). I'm at about episode 22, and just wanted to check in. I love that we finally have an anime where a character is confronted with a severely traumatic event but doesn't go all emo about it. We aren't subjected to endless episodes of angst and unresolved emotional baggage. Instead, Erin does the sensible thing and grieves but moves on and makes the best of her life. It's very refreshing. I was put off by this anime a lot at first by the cartoony drawing style and the "smurf village" backgrounds. But, it's growing on me, and the story is much more compelling now that they're starting to reveal more of the conspiracy against the queen.

[Kraco]

Erin does the sensible thing:

Episode 34 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1222)


- - - - - - - -



Edit: The filthy poisoner finally decided to strike. Good thing it wasn't Lilan. The "Ohh! Ahh!" faces of the others while Erin was calmly analysing the cause of the affliction were funny. She is certainly as good as Ial in what she does. A good pair they would make. Jolly good they finally got to travel a bit together. Ial no doubt respects Erin even more for spotting the strange behavior of the bird and thus revealing the sniper. Ial almost recognizing the poisoner dude is promising for future encounters between him and Erin.

Based on the preview the next episode looks no worse.

[Kraco]

Big and small matters:

Episode 35 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1224)
Episode 36 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1229)
Episode 37 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1233)
Episode 38 - SS (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1235)





- - - - - - - -



A lot has really happened and things are heating up like never before. Not only did Lilan get a hubby but also an offspring (a cute little thing). And as if that wasn't enough, Erin was revealed to the queen, who seems totally oblivious of the tragic shared history of her own kind and the mist folk. Very interesting, and furthermore I have a feeling even the sly nephew doesn't know, even though he seems to know everything else. I guess the first queen decided to keep everything a secret even from her own progeny.

To not cut all this action and change short, they of course must already in the next ep subject the queen to a touda attack and Erin naturally rides in to save the day, revealing even the most drastic secret ever.

This was quite a slow show until these episodes but no more. Erin hardly gets a breather anymore.

Edit: she->Erin

[Archangel]

I didn't like Seirei no Moribito, would i like this?

[animus]

Maybe not. They're very different already, not to mention this series moves a lot slower in the beginning. It feels a lot more like a slice of life of first with all the development, but recent episodes have been amazing.

[David75]

I revive this dead thread for 2 reasons:
Last ep has finally been issued by SS

At the very end, we are informed that the show will reair in a 10 ep summarized version.
I'm a bit skeptical about that, because 10 eps of storytelling with key images would be boring. And I can't see 10 eps that would be new animation with the core story. Something in beetween? We'll see after ep1 of that rehash. After all, KnSE was all about atmosphere and a lot of non spoken communication. So I guess it would be possible to compress it, for those already familiar with the show, after watching the 50 eps.


Regarding my opinion after finishing ep50?
It was a great enjoyment watching that show, a good way to have a nice and easy time and leap out of reality for a while.
At first you might classify it as a show for young children, but even if not too sophisticated, the plot is deeper than you'd think and not just black and white.
Also, nobody is all powerful and even the heroïn could die and make huge mistakes. She can't get out of everything without a trace.

It's not my favourite show, but I'm very glad I watched it.

[animus]

Thanks for reminding me. I forgot about watching it after slow subs after like episode 45 or something.

[Kraco]

I finally finished this series yesterday. I had stopped some eight eps before the end when the old queen died as it seemed to me things would turn ugly for poor Erin. And they sure did but of course that was no reason to halt watching the show.

I'll have to mirror David's conclusions about the show: It was a great watch and I liked the slow pace it was setting. Of course such a thing is not normally possible for a show not having 50 eps from the get-go. In the beginning the episodes sure felt slow and it seemed she will never leave her home village but after that happened, it was a good ride.

The world of the series was quite nicely depicted, like I probably said somewhere along the line before. It showed different social classes and the reasons for those finely, all tied to the beasts that were so central to the story. In the end the circles were small but that actually served well the flow of the story. Daimiya was suitably wicked and crazy, all the way to the end. The poisoner's story was especially good in my opinion, and I could write an entire post analysing his kind of a character but I guess I'll refrain from that.

Lastly the happy endings made me happy as well. Especially Erin's own. If you think about her life, it was certainly one of tragedies and impossible challenges and choices few would have made or continued to stick to. She certainly deserved a happy ending.

[shinta|hikari]

I just finished this show. So Erin had a kid and lived happily ever after, but who is her husband? Is it Ial? I was rooting for that pairing the whole time, but Ial did not even appear in the last part of the show.

[Kraco]

I have no doubt it's Ial. I believe towards the end he didn't feel any reason to keep living anymore but Erin told him otherwise. It would have been nice to know what he decided to do, though. Did he become a harp maker? I have no doubt the new rulers would have employed him as well but somehow it didn't feel quite that way, and he himself wouldn't have likely felt comfortable anymore in their service, after everything that transpired.

[shinta|hikari]

They could have at least hinted that it is definitely Ial. Right now, it could be one of the two errand boys or anyone for that matter. I know only Ial was a candidate the whole time, but I wanted to see him get his well deserved happy ending with Erin.

Still, an excellent show. I think the entire thing could be done in 26 episodes since the earlier parts were very slow, but overall it was a great ride. It has been a while since I was interested enough to marathon more than 3 episodes of an anime in one sitting.

[The1LittleMchale]

Does anyone happen to have an active link to a torrent batch download of this entire series?

[Kraco]

Bakabt has the whole thing in a single batch if you have an account. Plenty of seeders.

Static-Subs hosts the series in two batch torrents (1-25 HD (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1210) 26-50 HD (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1296) or 1-25 SD (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1211) 26-50 SD (http://www.staticsubs.org/releases/torrent.php?id=1295)) if you want to try them. No idea about the seeding situation.

[The1LittleMchale]

Thanks Kraco... Is BakaBT the site that used to be BoxTorrents?

[Archangel]

Thanks Kraco... Is BakaBT the site that used to be BoxTorrents?
Yes

Also be careful to seed the torrent too or your account and ip might get banned from the website after you're done

[animus]

Finally got around to finishing the last 4 episodes. All in all it was a beautiful show that at times were quite slow. Show brought out some damn great warm feelings. If I had to use one word to sum up the show I guess it would be "Mother".

[MFauli]

Started this recently, 2 episodes in. Enjoyable so far, although it´s quite obvious that it´s made for a younger audience ... or does that change? The way Erin figures out stuff that the adults fail to do so is a bit weird, but it´s acceptable if I look at it from a young person´s point of view. Also, I love mountable reptiles ;>

Opening music is fantastic, reminds of Naruto´s first ending "Wind".