Sheep By The Sea

Dialogue up front, action in the rear.  This time there wasn’t a cliff-hanger in the form of danger, but in the form of a plot development, which was refreshing.  We get a tiny bit of characterization between Hitomi and Van, but learn nothing new.  The jailbreak with Allen is very derring-do, and between the billowing princess dresses, horse-drawn carriages, knights in armor, floating fortresses, and central-European mountain scenery, we hit peak Japanese exotic fantasy.  It’s all here folks!

I was also impressed with the thrifty but effective way the explosion at the mine was animated.  Lots of simple moving planes and background/foreground juxtapositions to convey a massive disaster in an interesting way without having to draw a lot of frames.

Question: So does Van have some kind of sexual thing going on with his catgirl, or is she like, an actual pet to him?  Just wondering, because it’s not really clear, and the catgirl is running around on all fours in a kind of sack dress and no underpants.  Is she going to eventually return to her people and find a cat-boy?  Or is none of this ever explained?  I’m guessing the latter.