Pokemon XY
Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to catch them all. Still.
Okay, so the ingredients for the new pokemon series: an inventor kid, a young girl who barely looks even eight, lots of cute new pokemon and big mega evolutions, and a brainwashing Team Rocket. Unfortunately I have to say that the originality is lacking here, but it’s Pokemon so I guess it can’t be helped. There are only two parts that are really bad: that one kid’s backpack, which is pretty much set up to be a plot device that can become anything the creators want whenever they write themselves into a corner, and the fact that Team Rocket brainwashes now, and it’s the cheap kind of brainwashing. This is something that personally annoys me, because brainwashing overwrites any kind of development a character may have by just blaming it on the brainwashing. Beyond that, Ash still is annoying, Team Rocket still is obnoxious, but the huge variety of pokemon is what sets this show apart. That alone gives this show a variety that all other kids’ shows lack. The animation was also pretty good for this series’ standards (the character designs look much better than with Black/White). Also this is the first time I noticed this, but the music here was pretty good.
OP: Really not bad for a this series.
ED: Oh god this is awesome
Potential: 40%
Author: psgels
Coppelion – 03
Okay, this is just getting silly. I’m dropping this show for now, but I first want to drop a few lines on why. The gist is that the creators of the anime can’t write. I really had hoped that the series could continue with the style of the first episode, but unfortunately they’re going to continue with the style of the second episode, and the flaws really are standing out more and more.
I mean… this episode just made no sense whatsoever. It really just felt like the creators were blindly adapting the original story without really thinking about how to make it work. You need to cut stuff out. You need to pick one thing to focus on, and just remove some side stories or side-scenes, so that you can have a smooth pacing, instead of trying to get every single big thing in here, while skimping on the explanation or story and character building. Some creative freedom is needed for that. Don’t be afraid to use it, because there is no way that chapters will be perfectly paced for 20 minutes of anime. Just remember to keep consistent and sensible.
This episode just jumped from one line to the next. Characters were shocked out of bloody nowhere just because there was no build-up, and drama also just got pulled ou tof the characters’ asses because everything had to move so fast. And the thing is: this show doesn’t even make any attempt to hide it. I’m really surprised at how wooden the acting is. There’s no personality in the characters whatsoever, even though the first episode did not have this problem.
I also had to laugh when the whole radio thing happened: the girl’s boss just transmitted this radio signal, and the old man just “happened’ to pick that up. How pathetic is it when the military uses signals that can be intercepted so bloody easily? Have they never heard of encryption in this new world or something? Also, this is the future, right? These girls are part of the military, right? Has nobody really heard of a stealth bomber before? And even then, since the whole poisonous thing is apparently only a bit more than a decade old, people before must have lived normal lives, right? Then why did everyone take such a long time to recognize a stealth bomber? I mean, I knew that shape when I was a kid, and I certainly would never have mistaken it for a freaking CROW.
Gohands really strikes me as a group of very talented animators that got together, while forgetting to bring in everything else. All their series just scream wasted potential, if only they’d hire some competent writers. They can’t be THAT hard to find, can they? I mean, it worked with Mardock Scramble: there they had Tow Ubukata outlining the story of the three movies, and that worked! You could see how well everything fit together.
Rating: 3/8 (Mediocre)
Kyousogiga – 02
This show. It does so many things right here. Here, in the beginning, it actually devotes its first real new episodes to the past of its cast, something that most other series just put in as an afterthought.
Here is the thing, comparing this to the other episodes and series that have aired in this season so far: There are a ton of series that are packed with style, and great animation and direction, however there are two series where you really need to pay attention in order to catch all of the tiny details that the creators managed to put in it: Kyousogiga and Galilei Donna; Even Yozakura Quartet can be enjoyed while laid-back. Galilei Donna meanwhile has some pacing issues and strange plot twists carried around. And that’s why this show is my favourite of the season: every frame is deliberate, creative and has a ton of heart behind it.
In this series you’ll never know when a mythological reference will pop up, or heck: even a reference to the other episodes. It may look vague, but everything is really deliberate and the more you puzzle, the more things start to fit together. I especially loved the quiet part in this episode where the bunny returned. The whole part about crying also was masterfully done. This show has found a way to be charming whilst completely avoiding cheese.
You can really see that this is a passion project of Toei, otherwise they can’t keep this kind of consistency. I mean, after two OVAs and two episodes, I sstill haven’t seen any sign of weakness. It has continued to be varied, creative and inspired, while still true to its own style. Usually there would be signs of outsourcing, uninspired parts, cut corners, or some sort of thing that could have been done better. With this, I have no criticism: everything worked. Sure there were a lot of slice of life scenes that could technically have been omitted if you care about story and all, but they together serve to paint the picture of the female lead, and flesh her out. I feel that any part of this episode removed would have taken away from her. On top of that, I can’t see anything that the creators could have added here to improve on her backstory without making things unnecessarily complicated.
On a sidenote: another actually good ED. Nice!
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)
Yozakura Quartet – Hana no Uta – 02
For those of you who don’t know: Yozakura Quartet is being directed by Ryo-Chimo. His previous works include the chief animation direction of Birdy the Mighty, the animation of some of the best-looking parts of Noein. This guy is an awesome animator, and with Hoshi no Umi, he showed that he can translate this to direction really well as well. So yeah, I was delighted to see a full series being announced on it.
Episode two was the kind of episode that would not have been possible in the OVA: just too little happened in it and it was mostly meant to flesh out the characters, something they very badly needed midst all that action. And this episode did a very fine job of making the various slice of life interesting, by paying attention to the fine details. Things like a character eating ramen may not seem like much, but they bring said character alive. That’s what this entire episode did: there were so many characters involved, the entire town felt alive and bursting. I suspect that this is a trick that Ryo-Chimo picked up from working with Birdy the Mighty Decode, which also had that.
But yeah, I didn’t notice this in the first episode because of all the awesome action and all, but really: were the groping twins really necessary? The fanservice in episode 1 was fine because it just flowed perfectly with the action, but this episode was like “let’s throw a horny nun here who likes to grope people and let’s spend a ton of inbetweeners on those scenes!” – Really Yozakura, your animation is awesome. You can spend your inbetween animation on tons of better stuff than a bunch of boob shots.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
Autumn 2013 Kaleidoscope – October 14th
I’ll try to post these entries on Sunday Evening. They’re just a collection of impressions about the series I watched that I didn’t blog. No rankings, no systems, just raw impressions and opinions. Enjoy.
Hunter X Hunter 96 – 99: Hunter X Hunter reached another one of its annoying phases again. The context of these four episodes was wonderful. I love what the creators are trying to do here in the big picture. The inrigues that come from all kinds of sides, some characters being really careful in their approaches in order to win. Great. But what happened in these four episodes was completely inconsequential in which the named cast just one-sidedly takes down a bunch of ants with weird powers. The part with the spiders was fine: it actually showed lots of new things about them, and gave them much appreciated depth, and the ants they took down were ants we know. However, Gon’s battle against that snake, bat and was really annoying to sit through and just served to kill some time. Not to mention that that fight just made no sense and it was way too overcomplicated for its own good.
Golden Time – 02: The comedy was less there, but I like what this show is trying to do: Kaga is an obsessive stalker and goes way too far and totally deserves a restraining order and yet this show is trying to make us sympathize with her. also pulling the “she’s pretty”-card for that.
Hajime no Ippo Rising – 02: A request to the creators: would you please try not to spoil what happens in your episode titles. I know that this episode was a bit more complex than just that, but it’s the same as hearing “character x does y”: it takes away a bit of the suspense. A suspense that by the way was utterly excellent aside from that tiny detail in this episode by the way. Oh how I missed these intense matches. It was a great way to get back into this series. Just let the next arcs take a little more time, okay?
Gingitsune – 02
I know my taste is really weird and all, but am I the only one who finds this show adorable?
The second episode again did not disappoint, and in one episode it created another really relatable character, plus it also built further upon the characters we saw in the first episode. Another great sign: this series doesn’t treat its characters as plot devices that only have one episode of development each.
To me, what Gingitsune does really well is create drama: it’s simple and to the point, yet poignant. There are times that are a tad too dramatic, but it’s nothing major. It’s mostly teenaged drama, but to balance that out is that fox, who still is my favorite character of the game. The wisdom he sprouts is just adorable and manages to create a good counterweight to all of the teenaged drama. And at the same time, he’s a central character to this series, so he’s not like your standard mentor, or “old guy who just watches young ones do stuff”.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
Copellion – 02
Copellion’s setting is great. The first episode really had me sold with its atmosphere. The second episode unfortunately was a step down, but I’m still quite positive here.
I like the post-apocalyptic setting here, and how desolate it is. And what this episode did well was how it showed how the few people who still remain at Tokyo are coming by. That’s great, and it was done quite convincingly. This series has a knack for painting the whole area as this desolate environment in which hardly anything lives, and it did this much better than a lot of other post apocalyptic series in this area. Heck, I can even believe the reason for the main characters to be young in this series: they’re clones specifically designed for taking on the hostile environment. You can’t wait for them to grow up to be thirty or something. I’m not sure why they had to wear the schoolgirl uniforms though.
What bugged me about this episode was the drama. Dear god, please lay it off with the cheese, will you? In comparison where Nagi no Asukara tries to balance its heavy drama out with different kinds of drama, this was all crying about the same thing over and over, it was just constantly gloomy and characters out of nowhere would go onto huge emotionally charged monologues about why things were so sad, in a way that broke my suspense of disbelief. This really needs to be done better in the future episodes, but who knows what kinds of effects this will have in the future?
Oh, and on a side-note: after watching the first episodes of all of the new series this season, I can say this confidently now: Copellion has the best ED of them all. The song is also better than all of the OP sons that we’ve got.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)
Seasonal Anime Podcast – First Impressions – 2013 Fall Anime Season
Hey everyone, I participated in a podcast again, together with Deadlights (Deadlight’s Anime Blog) Flawfinder (Standing on my Neck) and Slashe (Behind the Nihon Review)
with two new members, Landon (Mecha Guignol) and Tom (Nigorimasen)
Today we talked about the past Fall season. You can find the link here, enjoy:
http://deadlightanime.blogspot.nl/2013/10/seasonal-anime-podcast-first_12.html
Nagi no Asukara – 02
So, Nagi no Asukara (apologies, I keep spelling the title of this series wrong) had an interesting second episode. The main character in particular was really unlikable and for a short while I thought of just switching this episode off, however he did somehow work as the episode went along.
Flawed characters are really difficult to write: it’s all too easy to make them too annoying to watch, however you NEED flaws for good storytelling, otherwise things will be too perfect and just boring. It’s often a case of balancing things out, and the way most series do it is by giving characters a simple innocent flaw that doesn’t stand out too much, or things like naivety or something. Mr Sparkly Eyes (I really forgot his name) yells, moans, acts like a spoilt child throughout this entire episode.
Somehow this was balanced out by the rest of the cast who keep pulling this guy back to the surface. The bit around his sister worked really well, and by showing how the adults in the underwater community are even more bigoted than he is when they found out really helped by showing him things from a different perspective. He feels like he owns that girl, and these episodes are really trying to break away from that. The second half of this episode also cleverly juggled the drama of the rest of the characters together, and that actually made quite an impression on me. If the creators can keep this up things will get interesting.
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)
Kill La Kill – 02 – And a whole bunch of other stuff as well
I’m going to hijack this post in order to write down my thoughts on a question that has me stumped in nearly every season: What the hell am I going to blog?
So with my mind on the past first episodes, I need to figure out: which series are interesting to talk about on a weekly basis? This season is exceptionally difficult, because there are just so many good series. It usually takes me quite a while to figure this out. Usually I keep this outside of the blog and to myself, but what the heck, this time I’m going to write down my thought process here.
Let’s start with the obvious ones: the kiddie shows and all of the bad shows I’m not going to even give a second chance: Miss Monochrome, Outbreak Company, Yuusha Blahblah, Strike the Blood, that Wresling Show, Walkure Romanze, Unbreakable Machine Doll, you are out and you should be ashamed of yourself. Also I will not have time for the series that showed only a tiny bit of potential, there’s just too much competition; so goodbye, Super Seisyun Brothers, Diabolik Lovers, Log Horizon, Ace of Diamond, Meganebu and Non Non Biyori. Sorry if you’re a fan of these series, but this season is just too damn large.
Okay, as for the rest: the top of the season is always fun to blog. Kyousogiga, Yozakura Quartet and Samurai Flamency all seem wonderful, so they’re all going to be blogged. I’m also going to throw in Galilei Donna because of its ambition: those shows are also great to cover.
Then there is a group of very promising sequels: Teekyu, Little Busters, Phi Brain, Hajime no Ippo and White Album. I don’t think I can consistently write about these, however for these series I’m going to do a Kaleidoscope this season, because they deserve the attention and I do want to talk about them slightly.
Then there is a group of series that is in the danger zone of being dropped if their second episode disappoints: Kyoukai no Kanata, Ore no Nounai, Tokyo Ravens, Blazblue, Yowamushi Pedal, Arpeggio and Golden Time. As of this writing I have watched Kyoukai no Kanata (dropped; the characters were too annying) and Golden Time (keeper, but not interesting enough to blog). All these series have the potential to be great as long as they aren’t held back, but I don’t believe that that potential will be enough to be worth blogging.
This leaves the foursome of Kill La Kill, Copellion, Nagi no Asukura and Gingitsune. And this really has me in a bind. All of them had smashing first episodes, Kill la Kill and Nagi no Asukura will run for two cours, Gingitsune and Copellion for just one (I heard someone say that Gingitsune will run for 21 episodes, but the amount of scheduled DVDs suggest otherwise), yet they all have their significant flaws: Kill la Kill and Gingitsune have their simplified story, while Copellion and Nagi no Asukura’s problem is that they’re way too dramatic.
At the moment of writing, I’ve seen episode 2 of Kill la Kill and Copellion. The latter made this process really difficult because I was really surprised with how the characters were overacting there. Ultimately though, I figured that I should not let overacting play a factor in this. I have complained about overacting in the past before, and I’ve been proven wrong many times. Overacting in one episode an sich isn’t a sign that we’re dealing with a series that will crash and burn to death. A bigger indicator is a wrong focus or lackluster direction, and I’m not yet seeing that with any of these four here. But the thing is that I also don’t want to blog nine shows at the same timewhile also doing a kaleidoscope: that will be too much.
So here’s what I think I’m going to do: I’m going to rigorously blog the big three of this season, and probably Galilei Donna as well. I’ll try to cover these as much as possible, and after that I’ll try to do blog Gingitsune, Copellion, Kill la Kill and Nagi no Asukura, putting the episodes I can’t cover in something like the kaleidoscope, along with the five sequels and any other show that doesn’t end up dropped. These will basically be my priorities this season.
In the meantime, I’m going to put Uchuu Kyoudai on hold for blogging. It used to be my favourite, but here is the thing: I endorse experimentation, I endorse studios trying out new stuff, and pushing the anime industry further. At this point, Uchuu Kyoudai isn’t doing that anymore, and it’s just running for running’s sake, as good as the content may still be. It’s stopped being fun to blog after complaining about the pacing issues over and over. We finally have a season again with so much fresh new content, and a chance to show what some excellent OVAs can really do with the time of a full series. I’d rather to spend my attention on that, even though Uchuu Kyoudai is still setting the example of having a significantly older cast.
So yeah… Kill la Kill. Nearly forgot about that one. The thing with this series indeed is that it’s going to have to find a way to make up for its overall plot: it’s simple, and most likely going to be predictable. My big problem with Gurren Lagann was that it couldn’t keep itself interesting enough. With this series I have hope though, because the chemistry between the characters is a lot more fun, and the creators clearly seem to want to go all-out. The biggest trap at the moment for them is running into a routine. I’m fine with having a formula of having to fight a bunch of people with wacky powers, but make each of those people count: make every fight something really entertaining.
The firs two episodes really managed to do that. While not as versatile as Kyousogiga or Yozakura Quartet, this episode stood out in its sheer insanity and how it brought tennis to a whole different level. I also like how most of the characters in this series also have no clue what’s going on, and they’re just going along with things.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)