#1: Kimi to Boku – 19: Are Japanese girls really so weak that they faint if you so little as even bump on them? I know she was tired and all, but these girls have health issues… Anyway, I digress. An amazing episode with the love triangle finally moving somewhere. Chizuru in particular changed significantly. He’s the type of character who often gets done wrong, with some horrible results. With this though, he really redeemed himself. – *** (Awesome)
#2: The Legend of Korra – 06: This series has also just surpassed itself this week. Really good action scenes, and the creators just keep building further upon Korra’s naivety. I really like how this series is set to subvert a number of often-used fantasy cliches. – **+ (Excellent+)
#3: AKB0048 – 03: I do not have time right now so I’m going to delay deciding whether or not to blog this, and how on earth I’m going to fit this into my schedule, for one more week. But seriously, what the hell did I watch here? Yet again enough proof that the creators know what they’re doing here: this show glorifies idols, but this episode also showed the uglier side of this bizarre premise. Especially Mari Okada was on fire on this episode: this was full of emotion, yet not as extreme as with Black Rock Shooter. – **+ (Excellent+)
#4: Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – 19: Oh my god, this was one of the best episodes yet. The sketch where Poyopoyo gets caught in quick drying cement was priceless. I was wondering why there were less jokes than usual, but the build-up was totally worth it. – **+ (Excellent+)
#5: Natsuiro Kiseki – 07: I hate the idol business in Japan. So why are the idol themed series so damn good? A thoughtful episode that highlighted the layers of the different characters and how they feel about the rock. – ** (Excellent)
#6: Nazo no Kanojo X – 06: That’s some impressive romantic tension you’ve got there, Nazo na Kanojo X. Nice aversion of the love triangle, and a very good potrayal of Tsubaki’s insecureties that make him less bland as a character. – ** (Excellent)
#7: Shirokuma Cafe – 07: Polar Bear is without a doubt my favorite character of this sereis. His deadpan humour in this episode especially was just hysterical. And that while the premises of each episode remain absolutely corny. – ** (Excellent)
#8: Hunter X Hunter – 31: “Let me drag out this fight by holding long monologues in order to explain you exactly how my powers work, giving you plenty of hints on how to stop me!” – This is exactly why I dislike the shounen genre dammit! The pacing keeps slowing down here! – * (Good)
#9: Jormungand – 06: I’m still missing something with this series. I mean, the backdrop of Africa is good, it’s nice to see the characters getting fleshed out and slowly reveal their pasts and the diplomacy is also nice, but I don’t know. The charcters still feel too one-sided and stereotypical. – * (Good)
#10: Medaka Box – 07: This was Medaka Box’s worst episode so far. Dull and forced fanservice, bland premise about art and a forced way to flesh out that new council member. Also I hate how creators can’t think of any light-hearted way to open a scene, so just go for the “walking into changing”-scene. Why has this turned into a default scene to use? – – (Disappointing)
#11: Sankarea – 07: Seriously? An entire episode dedicated to that cousin? With no scene of Rea whatsoever? And it only reaffirms her character as “I like the main character”, with nothing beyond that? Come on, Sankarea, weren’t you supposed to be this romance with creative twists? – – (Disappointing)
#12: Saint Seiya Omega – 07: I’m dropping this series. It has consistently ranked last amongst these rankings, and it got me thinking: what did it really offer in the past seven episodes? Nothing stood out, it was just a bunch of random hot blooded fights without much soul to them. There are too many other gret series this season for this. – – (Disappointing)
LOL, that was no bump. That soccer ball pile-drived poor Mary. XD
At any rate, that was a great Kimi to Boku episode. Great plot development for Chizuru, and the look on Shun-chan’s face in your picture there was really hilarious.
I think that this development of Chizuru would not have worked so well as it did if he had not been so initially annoying. Good characterization/growth in this episode and this season continue to be more consistently enjoyable and better than the first one.
Yay! So glad that Kimi to Boku has come out in the #01 spot!
This was a great episode with plot and character development!
I’m so glad they didn’t drag out Chizuru’s one-sided love, and he manage to confess with a smile!
Shun-chan also got developed as well. He’s always a nice guy, and I wondered how he’d react to being confessed to, but to see him tell the girl so directly that he couldn’t return her feelings, that was so great. He’s not so weak as he seems.
And I love that moment when Mary asks Yuta about Shun. I feel like the plots overall favour Yuki over Yuta, but he is still a solid character, and he really gives off this reliable onii-chan feel, despite taking part in most the mayhem as well.
I think I’d say Kimi to Boku has gotten better in the second season.. I remember how slow the start was, and how some parts were boring.
They seem to have cut down on the random cats. I hope it stays that way.
so what are you going to replace saint seiya with, if anything at all? Hmm.
Hate to admit that, but Omega really is that terrible – in its best moments, like this episode, it can reach “mediocre”, but that’s it. I’ll probably keep watching it out of masochism and nostalgia, though.
psgels your a dumbass for reals
and what does that makes you?
kevin
kevin’s comment may be rude but I kind of get where he’s coming from, psgels remark was kind of dumb, to put it simple, kastro’s explanation about his technique was only for us, viewers, to know what is going on, like hisoka said, he has already figured it out, so the explaining didn’t mattered to the fight nor gave more hints to hisoka, like I said it was only for us to not get lost, besides he’s accusing hunter x hunter for something that is totally not, the characters of HXH doesn’t give unnecessary explanations of their abilities because it’s pretty logic not wanting your opponent know about what you can do, this is one of the points the fans like about HXH, its logic way of thinking, but psgels said it was just for dragging out the battle like other shonen does… it was not, this fight is important because it shows a lot about nen battles, that’s why it takes its time
btw sorry if this is confusing english is not my first language
You guys don’t really understand do you? he is not reading the manga. so what he sees or says is totally based on that. And stop trying to justify HxH. HxH is a shounen genre manga. So what other genre can it be for a anime? Shounen duh. And what shounen genre tend to do? Giving long monologues and giving plenty of hints to defeat the villian during battle. So that’s you fans like about HxH? Listening through long monologues? Anime is different from manga. In manga they have to do that way because its all pictures and words. In anime, there other ways to show it. I don’t get why you HxH so uptight about what psgel says considering his views and comments is BASED on the anime. Not the manga.
“kastro’s explanation about his technique was only for us, viewers, to know what is going on, like hisoka said, he has already figured it out, so the explaining didn’t mattered to the fight nor gave more hints to hisoka”
So apparently, the audience need someone to explain everything for them to understand. That’s manga way of thinking folks! You don’t need to vocal every single thing.
@Kevin
Why don’t you go somewhere and open a blog or whatever. I don’t get why you have to stick around here and wasting your time. I for one. Despise you.
@lily, like I said, hisoka did say he had already figured out kastro’s ability, he even explained how he did it, IT IS in the anime, if you were paying attention you’d notice, the only new thing kastro tell hisoka is the name, nothing else, these explanations show up pretty often, psgels might have noticed since he watched the 99 version, togashi loves explaining abilities or how a situation is handled, it’s a characteristic of HXH that you just can’t take away, you could say it’s dragging it out but without them it wouldn’t feel like HXH, besides this showed us how nen battles work and the fight was complex enough to have someone explaining it, if we have just saw them fighting we wouldn’t have understand what was going on and it would have lost all its meaning, this is the way fights are like in HXH, maybe it’s just a matter of taste but like I said, psgels already watched HXH, he should be familiar with it
I know HXH is a shonen, of course it is, but being a shonen doesn’t mean it can’t have aspects that set it apart from other anime/manga of the same genre, I’m just complaining because you will never see a character giving any hints to his opponent on how to defeat him/her, at least he/she is stupid
I usually read psgles blog, and when it comes to HXH I tend to disagree with him, but I understand that he likes the way the 99 version handles the story a lot more, and that’s ok, there are a lot of people like that, but accusing HXH of something that is not is what bugs me
I don’t blame you for dropping Saint Seiya Omega. It isn’t as powerful as the previous/original series and really, even the original series’ greatness can’t be judged by today’s standards either. You take your stories more seriously than the genre itself does, so Omega is probably just not right for you.
On that note, I’m going to keep watching. It’s perfect for me. =P
legend of korra was too epic this past week. still crossing my fingers that you eventually give it it’s own slot in your blogs
Maybe you could pick Smile Precure back up since you’re dropping Saint Seiya Omega? It’s really hitting its stride now.
I second this. For me, Smile Precure’s been for the most part consistently excellent.
…Anything excellent with the overarching plot?
Dangit, all this time I’ve been trying to avoid the whole anime debate scene. Well, I am not going to be caught in it now, I ain’t no expert anime/literature analyst. You’re right Mr. / Ms. Kiseki, psgels ought to avoid the show, bye. (Unless I’ve read you wrong and you are asking a genuine question rather than being sarcastic, though those dots make me feel otherwise)
Joking aside, no, there’s really no plot development other than a clock slowly reaching whatever time it was, but that’s usually to be expected from a weekly monster type show. Despite this, almost every episode imo is a joy to watch… well, when compared to certain other shows. If you want great plot build up, I would have to advise you to avoid this show, though I do feel they’ve been engaging in decent character development. (maybe there is some subtle plot build up and I haven’t caught it, but I doubt it)
I will say this though, psgels was right when he said that Smile Precure in a blog of this maturity loses out in the face of the competition of this season. It’s just a kids show, anyway. I guess I kind of use it to unwind after watching those tense adult shows.
Plus, it inspired me to cook eggs for my mom… i’m such a terrible child.
I don’t think the series is bad so much as it just doesn’t work for psgel’s blog. There are some episodic series that can hit psgel’s soft spots, but unless there is a good streak of consistent development in plot and characters, I don’t think psgels could accurately review it once a week.
Somewhat serious I suppose. I haven’t watched an episode past four, but from what I’ve seen, Smile has been the weakest Precure series in this regard. It just looks like it’s a weekly gag series. The whole “Happily Ever After” theme just doesn’t work either. (And I’m a little angry at their usage of butterfly wings when they already have the motif of the white feathered variety.)
I don’t question the quality of the content in each individual episode, but I do wish the plot would move more steadily?
(And for God’s sake give Miyuki a love interest because the popularity of the Wolfurun/Happy pairing is scaring the shit out of me.)
Medaka Box will HOPEFULLY… sucessfully enter the road-of-awesome with the next episode. But GAINAX is unpredictable..
At the rate it’s going, I think we need to give it two more episodes to hit that arc.
I don’t really think Chizuru has changed all that much. I’ve always assumed his extreme friendliness was just a facade to his character. Consider he’s come from “the west” and is supposed to have a normal social life in this country he hasn’t lived in for years.
The love triangle is super cute. I’ve enjoyed watching Chizuru suppress his feelings for Merry’s sake and now watching it finally spill out in such an anti-climactic way. Great! I also like the images with the girl in the summer, but I’m not sure I entirely understand it…
Seriously? An entire episode dedicated to that cousin?
I’m not sure what your problem is with this character but if she irritates you that much, you should drop this show. Unfortunately for you, she’s a major supporting character whom I suspect (and hope) is going to be right there til the very end, unless they somehow find a way to bring Rea back to life for real.
I personally like her myself. She’s cute, energetic and kind and I love the development in this episode. It looks like Chihiro has been pretty weird for zombies since he was a kid but has some very good points which Ranko was able to discover from an early age. I can see why she hangs out with him and I think it’s lucky for Chihiro that she has. I seriously wonder what kind of person he might have grown into without her. (I suppose a male version of that Ring girl from Sket Dance, maybe.) She’s almost too good for Chihiro.
And there’s more to this episode than Ranko. The flashback shows the grandpa looking exactly like he does now. I wonder if he’s a zombie too? I seem to remember he sometimes eats those leaves too. And there’s something weird about Ranko’s dad. He looks like a living zombie himself, unresponsive to things happening around him. I picture Chihiro growing up into something like him if Ranko wasn’t around to rub some life into him since they were kids. I wonder if he’s traumatized by some past event – maybe something to do with the potion. Who is Sado?
Just my 2 cents.
Agree with meow here. A feature of this show will be the love triangle so if you don’t like it it’s best to drop it now. Initially I thought that it was going to spoil the show but I like the way this director is doing it. Personally I thought this was one of the best episodes of the show. It provided a lot of background for both Ranko and Chihiro, and it was also all anime original as far as I can recall.
I didn’t like the episode either, though I guess I’m fine with how the director handled it – isn’t this one of those annoying cases where a fantastic adaptation is weighed down by horrible choices the original author made in the source material?
Seeing how the entire series is name after Sanka Rea, I frankly dont see the harm of an episode spent on her foil. If the show is going to where I think it’s going, this particular episode strengthen a pivotal moment later in the series.
I disagree that it only reaffirmed her as the character that likes the main character, while it certainly does that, it more so establish her as someone that repress her true feelings and puts up a facade. She doesnt like zombies, she’s a romantic girly girl at heart, she’s not the type that can take care of others, rather the type that needs to be taken care of. It’s everything that’s the opposite of whom she claims to be now.
How come every major faction in Jormungand seems to have a crazy-powerful-psycho-bitch?
Well, it’s still fun to watch though.
When are your four screencaps going to fill in the width of this column (like your single images)?
As soon as I find an easy way to do it. I currently use paint to take screenshots, and while that’s fast, it’s also rather restrictive in terms of size. The reason I’m not using fancy image editing programs is that the take forever to start up.
psgels: install IrfanView. It’s not an image editing program but a very simple and easy to use image viewing program that allows basic editing (resizing, adjusting the tone, joining two images, copy and pasting). It’s faster than Paint, and the best thing: it’s free.
Love Chizuru, the confession was really unexpected for me! I loved this episode so much <3. I never found him annoying because every now and again you'd hear his inner monologue where he isn't happy-go-lucky which made me a Chizuru fan from Kimi to Boku season 1 aha.
When Lagrange and others animes showed a little fanservice it was called forced, etc. But the fanservice in Kanojo is too stupid, c’mon! And that saliva thing is disgusting.
If you don’t like the idea of swapping saliva then I guess you’ve never kissed anyone 🙂 Anyway that brings up an interesting point … what would happen if the main couple in Mysterious Girlfriend X kissed? Instant feedback loop of emotion??? Could be very messy.
The saliva bit doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It’s pretty much a running joke at this point. Also, it’s just saliva. Grow up. You swap saliva when you do a deep kiss anyway, what’s the big deal? Sure, it’s a little kinky, but as anime goes, the fanservice in this show has been quite tasteful (no pun intended) and reserved.
realize that you’re essentially dismissing the entire concept of the whole series, you might as well not watch it if it bothers you. Unlike Lagrange, where there are fate of the worlds, politics and character history, all sort of drama to explore, Nazo no Kanojo only has one drama to focus on, the relationship exploration between the 2 teenagers. you cannot compare the point of doing fan service between the the 2 series, because frankly, Lagrange had other things that deserved more attention
Psgels, I really think you should give SS Omega one last try (trust me, I know where you’re coming from as I’ve been bored too), but the latest episode was more than just hot-blooded fights. Give it a shot
Yea they decided it was time for evil to rise things will now be at a different level that secure environment(the academy) is gone forever. Time for blood to flow.
Happy to see Kimi to Boku at the top! 🙂 It was an amazing episode by far, one of my favorites of the spring season