Eiri Kurahashi is a normal kid with a normal job. He works in his uncle’s antique shop; he takes care of the entire place by himself since his uncle is such an avid collector and is always gone finding new treasures.
Eiri stumbles upon a wine glass in his uncle’s shop, and when he touches it, he is filled with visions of a young and beautiful girl. The wine glass becomes a gateway for him to peer into and see his love, Cossette d’Auvergne.
Le Portrait de Petit Cossette
4 & 1/2 Stars
Eiri Kurahashi is a normal kid with a normal job. He works in his uncle’s antique shop; he takes care of the entire place by himself since his uncle is such an avid collector and is always gone finding new treasures.
Eiri stumbles upon a wine glass in his uncle’s shop, and when he touches it, he is filled with visions of a young and beautiful girl. The wine glass becomes a gateway for him to peer into and see his love, Cossette d’Auvergne.
Cossette is the spirit of a girl who has been searching for 250 years for someone who could see her, and speak to her, now she needs his help. The story takes you back here and there to show you what happened to Cossette and why she haunts the glass.
Marcello Orlando, an Italian painter from the 18th century, painted many portraits of young Cossette. When she showed signs of growing older he could not bear to have her beauty change, so, he killed her. Eiri is a reincarnation of Marcello, which is why Cossette is more drawn to him.
In the first episode, you learn a little character development with Eiri and his friends. You learn that Shouko is in love with him. They spend time together, but once the wine glass is threatened, he goes off the deep end and shows his true side, the true side that Cossette has brought to him. Halfway through the episode, Cossette speaks out to him, she shows him, in a first person view as the killer, how she died. She then fills the wine glass with her blood; he drinks, and then enters a blood contract with one another.
Eiri must from then on repent his sins, or rather Marcello’s sins. It is a rather weird scene; Eiri turns into a demon, Cossette stands across him on a pillar and points at him, ripping out his soul with invisible hands.
The second episode you get a little more information about Cossette as she tells Eiri about her family. Once he says Marcello’s name though, she disappears. He has no idea why she does not want to hear the words Marcello Orlando, so he does not drop it. Cossette and Eiri begin to develop more of a relationship in this episode, more than just the ‘peeping Tom’ thing Eiri had going on before. After some time, she finally reveals the killer, which is quite a shocker when you hear it. The second episode does several flashbacks to the day Cossette was murdered, which does get a little annoying.
The thing is the story does not just include Cossette and Eiri. His friends are continually showing up here and there to express their worry for him, since he had changed so drastically one day, from normal, to talking to himself all the time.
In the third episode, Eiri goes completely mad. Cossette comes to him and says that it is over; she cannot continue to hold him to his contract anymore. Once she disappears, he runs through the antique shop trying to find her, his friend Shouko happened to witness him going crazy trying to find Cossette. He eventually runs off, Shouko follows; he heads to Cossette’s. He brings himself to the place where he repents and rips he own soul out this time trying to get closer to Cossette. He finally makes it and finds Cossette, only she really is not Cossette, she is Marcello’s painting.
Once he figures out that she is not the real Cossette, the one he fell in love with, he rushes to find her. He comes upon Marcello’s easel and paints a blood portrait of the real, the beautiful, Cossette, killing off Marcello’s creation, freeing Cossette.
I would have to say hat this anime was a little different. I enjoyed it the music was great. Here and there, the music was dainty, which is how Cossette was supposed to appear, and at the end, the music changed to give you a rather eerie feeling. The artwork was awesome, but I have to say that Cossette looked a little strange in some angles. The fact that she looked childish was not my main issue, since she was killed as a child to “stop her time,” just simply at some angles she did not look as ‘beautiful’ as she was supposed. The plot is great, and overall I believe it is worth a 4.5 stars. The fact that the series is only three episodes long is just a major plus.
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