First of all, I do want to say that there is one point at which this series has disappointed. At first, I thought that this would also be a series about how adolescence can change people, and how much interests can change. Things like Taichi’s girlfriend, everyone aside from Chiyaha quitting Karuta as they grew up and learned new things actually made me think that such an interesting twist would play a big role in this series, but then Chihaya came and forcefully dragged everyone back.
And really: in general I do prefer the series that try something new or interesting to the ones that stay with tried and true formulas like Chihayafuru, but in this case it’s just so damn well executed that it just does not matter here. This show rocks and stands among the best of the season. The new character in this episode was actually the number the guy who went against Arata in the child tournament. It is a coincidence like hell, but it fits this show so well. Chihaya at this point really needed someone at her own level, now that Arata isn’t gonna come back for a while. This guy is exactly that.
This episode also marks the end of the second part of this series. The first part was the introduction with the flashback, the second part was the introduction of the side characters. So far there has been no episode wasted and this show has always been quick t move on to the next relevant thing. And I’m really curious to see what the next major focus of this series will be.
After eight episodes, I can also see why Chihaya is the main character of this series. It’s not that she’s talented in the way of most talented people in anime, where things often are broken down into hard work versus talent: people either excel in one of those. Chihaya’s reason for standing out does have a lot to do with hard work, but it’s slightly different from usual here: on top of working hard, she’s also got the personality that draws people into her pacing. She’s that one person in 10000 whose personality just keeps overwhelming everyone around her, taking exactly who she wants to along with her in the process.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Author: psgels
Tamayura ~ Hitotose – 08
Well, this was the episode that still needed to come: the episode about Shihomi and Hoboro. If this show really wanted to have an all-round cast, an episodes that focuses on them was inevitable. The creators handled it well in the way that they took Potte to a friend of theirs from high school. It’s a bit more subtle to get to know them than usual for this series.
What I liked about this episode the most is that they used someone else to flesh out these two characters. That worked quite well, and it’s not as formulaic as you’d expect. Still, the formula remains there. Ideally you’d want to weave all things like this right through each other. This episode did do that with that other Kou fangirl whose name I forgot. Before the real material of this episode started we saw her also picking up photography, and even though this wasn’t her episode, she has been getting more and more bearable with every episode.
Eight episodes in, and closing off the second third of this series, the animation still is quite good here. The best animated series was probably episode 2, but even then there is a ton of movement in this series with hardly any still frames outside of pictures. What’s more though: the characters here have a lot of freedom in their movements. On one hand the animation is smooth, so it looks like the characters are really moving, and on the other hand they do move enough to really come alive.
This show has no action scenes, nor any climaxes that it needs to save its money shots for (in fact, the money shots of this show are very often still backgrounds), so it can just spend an equal amount to all of its scenes. But I think that this is an interesting comparison to series with action, who often don’t spend a lot of attention on their quiet scenes. Even though scenes like that can also bring the characters in question to life if they’re well animated. This series is a really good example of how to do that.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Star Crossed Six Year Anniversary
last year and all the years before it, I like to celebrate these events with a few statistics and some amusing search terms. Thanks everyone, for putting up with me for so long. General Statistics: Up till now, I’ve made 4639 posts and regularly blogged 175 different television series. The site has been received 7593590 unique visitors, which consist out of 3994820 first time visitors and 3,598,777 returning ones. This year alone the site got 976894 first time visitors and 1239602 returning ones. 36,571 comments have been posted (again, many thanks to everyone who posted one). Top-10 Most Accessed Series of the Past Year: 10. Ao no Exorcist 9. Star Driver 8. Mawaru Penguin Drum 7. Shiki 6. Heartcatch Precure 5. Tiger & Bunny 4. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica 3. Stens;Gate 2. Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood 1. Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette (I’m completely baffled that this one ended up with the most amount of visits; what do you mean that people don’t care about the WMT?) Top-10 Most Accessed Posts: 10. Eden of the East Review 9. Top 10 Anime (The old one I wrote in 2007) 8. Angel Beats Review (I have no idea why) 7. Mahou Shoujotai Review 6. Dennou Coil – 01 5. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 12 4. Summer Season Preview (2011) 3. Spring Season Preview (2011) 2. Autumn Season Preview (2011) 1. Darker than Black Review (at times, I just don’t get google; though I am thankful for it) Top-20 Google Keywords: (aside from the obvious ones as “psgels”, “star crossed” and variations of “top 10 anime”) 20. senkou no night raid blog 19. clannad review 18. blassreiter review 17. showa monogatari 16. mouryou no hako 15. wanwa the doggy 14. kimi ni todoke review 13. star crossed anime blgo heroman (I’m baffled that there were 1580 people who wanted to know my opinion on Heroman…) 12. casshern sins review 11. kuragehime 11 10. kizuna ichigeki (protip for any starting bloggers out there: if nobody talks about it, then there will be very little competition on it on Google) 9. tamayura (or sometimes, you just need to get lucky ^^;) 8. you are delicious anime 7. school days review 6. clannad after story review 5. mawaru penguindrum 4. eden of the east review 3. angel beats review 2. that anime blog (I’d like to thank Impz for so diligently directing all his traffic to Star Crossed ^^;) 1. darker than black review (darker than black was very popular this year…) Amusing Search Terms “childhood friends becoming lovers” book -yaoi -werewolf -film -gay -movie Damn you Twillight! first episode of aoi bungaku contains sex Out of all the things in this series… you wanted to know about the sex scene with your dirty mind… “nudity” How did you end up on this site, exactly? 100% real life siblings having sex do japanese mothers masturbate thier sons countries where incest is not a crime incest in japan of mothers and sons have sex at clubs nowadays, do japanese siblings have sex with each other more often? Jesus christ, people! a anime character who removes panties really fast … why? fma blog opowiadanie 57][;’la04 My guess is that a cat walked over their keyboard when searching google… global warming caused the fall of the roman empire what utter bullshit Are there even people crazy enough to admit that? hetalia: axis powers gay? No, it only looks that way. hitler personality compairison email One more pointless thing I learned about the internet… how to say i like kurenai Um… “I like Kurenai” how to write congrats well deserved speech Um… “congrats well deserved speech”. It’s really not hard. i am drawn into the smell of moist asphalt and rain always scared and clenched knees Good for you! i half and wholeheartedly agree Make up your mind phone numbers of people looking for 12 year old anime voice actors Kid, I hate to break it to you, but if you want to become a voice actor, then searching like that on google is not going to help that in any way. psgels – where do you work Dude, you have the wrong idea of what google really is… psgels has bad taste I do, and I’m proud of it! what are some good anime with huge loads? Loads of what? 1+7+9+13+19+15+17+11+3+5=100 bante han 37,5:100= 25 plus 87 is 95 closer to 90 or 100? This year’s array of math questions that people dare to ask to google. is it gay to watch shounen ai likr no. 6? What? You think that just by watching it, you turn into a homosexual? how do i know if i’m pretty at 45 By waiting until you become that age, you idiot. ‘what is the next letter in this sequence z x c v n m’ You forgot the b… “interesting, but not very interesting” Make up your mind! anime 100% like ouran highschool host club Why don’t you just rewatch it if you want something 100% like it? “hetalia isn’t gay” You’re absolutely right. rie kugimiya is getting old Oh yes, she should retire. “shave” her head “anime” “episode” Every year I do these search result lists I keep getting surprised at the amount of people searching for anime in which characters cut or shave their hair. why does gosick 13 not have sound? Because you illegally downloaded the wrong file? what does…’find a unicorn mean? That you need to find a horse with a giant horn on its head. what has the same last letters as star Bar? Jar? Avatar? “the mail that leapt through time” Oh, clever wordplay “most imaginative setting” hetalia fanfic Um, no. was there ever an anime that got canceled because of hypnosiss That would be cool, but you’re probably looking for the pokemon epilepsy affair, which is something completely different i second this comment I appreciate that, but what the hell were you searching for? i watched an anime once. dude pulled a gun at the beginning of the episode, and fired it at the end, and in between it was nothing butangst. Heh, you should have watched Naruto or Dragonball Z. what do good apple seed look like I think brownish. a mysterious message coming from nowhere a mysterious message coming from nowhere.. Yes, these are two different searches. And yes, I do love how this guy thought that his search would improve by adding two periods at the end. 90 year old plays cowboy That’s very nice, but why are you searching for that? shana and yuji were meant to be together I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. 23 march 2011 how to make 5 letters Um… “a s d f g”? i can please spong ebod What? how to become ueki Please. Get a life. You’re clearly spending too much time on the internet. i’m a guy and i like kimi ni todoke Good for you! most popular series after kuroshitsuji Is this guy seriously implying that Kuroshitsuji is the most popular anime out there? O.o “two squirrels” science fiction “never die” Are you confused with Chip and Dale? (Seriously, as a kid I also thought those two were squirrels) is there a blog for anime I think that there might exist such a thing, yeah. what the hell are you doing Uh, nothing… after watching school days i dont think i can watch anime for a while Thanks for sharing that with Google anime about a girl who forgot her memory “Sorry, I forgot to take my memory with me today”. is mari okada still alive What? She died? can i get pregnant if i’m anime I have no idea why on earth you’d ever want to be anime, but no. the homoerotic adventures of he man: the never ending quest to save sasuke ep 72 This one made me laugh]]>
Mirai Nikki – 07
Yeah, this indeed was a bit of a weird episode in which the creators use a 5-year-old kid to try and outsmart the two lead characters. At first I thought that they’d have some very suspenseful build-up or something, but instead this entire episode turned into a really weird game from the kid to try and kill them.
The big problem was that it relied very much on plot convenience. The plan of the kid relied that he would be able to get away from Yukiteru’s mother long enough to send away a package, that Yuno just wouldn’t tie him up. The final ploy with the poison gas would also have been completely useless if Yuno remembered to just open some doors and window and wait a bunch of minutes.
So yeah, this episode was full of plotholes, but plotholes aren’t everything. Sure, they don’t exactly help in retaining the viewer’s suspense of disbelief, but there shouldn’t be a problem if it makes up for them as long as the story is interesting. Still, the lack of aforementioned suspense didn’t make this the most interesting episode. This is something that I’ve been noticing throughout most of the latest episode. I don’t know exactly what it is, but this series seems to be missing something in terms of delivery.
I also wonder: could another reason why Deus ex Machina picked the twelve owners of the diary be a lack of interest in becoming a god? I mean, so far I have seen nobody who really was burnt on the end goal of this series. Yuno just wants to be with Yukiteru, that twelfth guy just wanted to extract his justice, fourth just wants help with his investigations, Yukiteru just wants to live. And this episode suddenly had ninth helping out Yukiteru and Yuno, who could have been her biggest roadblocks. I wonder for what reason that turned out to be…
Rating: (Enjoyable)]]>
Phi Brain – 08
Phi Brain. What the fuck was that?
I mean, this was by far the most nonsensical episode of the entire series. I mean, at least most of the previous episodes were at least somewhat grounded in logic. The drawbridge scene…. just that drawbridge scene. Who was the idiot who thought that that was a good idea? What crazy mind saw that drawbridge, and thought: “Yeah! Daimon Kaito can only be saved by a deer!”!? Also, why did you shrug this off as if it’s the most natural thing in the world to happen?
In a way I can understand that bad guy’s reaction in the end. I mean, would you believe that your evil plans got thwarted by a FREAKING DEER, of all people? I sure as heck wouldn’t buy it. That fit of him was completely unjustified, because there is no way his henchman would have been able to anticipate such a ridiculous plot twist, but at least I can imagine why he did it….
Also, this show has settled in a very bizarre formula in which Daimon Kaito has to solve the puzzles of dead people who all used their puzzles to show some kind of message to their offspring. The bizarre part of this is that Daimon Kaito always ends up solving them, because nobody else but him is allowed to do so. This at least somewhat makes sense compared to that freaking deer, because it was their job and all, but if they wanted to leave a puzzle for their offspring, couldn’t they just have made a puzzle that’s not a puzzle of god? Ah, what the heck am I doing? Do we still need to search for logic after what happened in this episode?
Rating: $&^%# (Wtf?!)]]>
Ben-To – 07
Well, it’s ndeed been a while since I saw a pool episode that was this crazy. Pool episodes are a trend that along with hot spring and beach episodes should really die off, but thankfully the creators realized that, and didn’t make this yet another copy of those, but instead used it to set the stage of another entertaining battle for half-priced food. This entire episode was delightfully silly.
This episode had some parts that were just wrong, and there perhaps were a few too many pervert jokes made at Sato’s expense, but it also had parts that were completely hilarious, like the guy in the penguin-suit, the way in which everyone’s leg cramped up in the water or the completely inexplicable way in which half the cast ended up at the pool. That takes you two full hours to reach by train. Neat way to poke fun at how everyone always seems to run into each other in these kinds of episodes.
But this episode again had the thing that sets this show apart from the other fanservice shows: it knows exactly when to be quiet. The build-up before each battle, was again wonderfully used, and the aftermath was the same: wonderfully down to earth compared to the chaos of the rest of the episode.
Also, this episode drew and described its food with such detail that it actually made me hungry….
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Hunter X Hunter – 08
The beauty of Hunter X Hunter: most other shounen heroes would probably have died by now if they also would have taken the exam. The start of this episode deliberately took its time, to show how stupid it is to just rush in without any idea of what you’re up against. Also, it’s interesting to see that the pacing has slowed down tremendously here: in this episode they only got to wrap up the fight with Tonpa. I think that in two weeks, we’ll get to the point in which the original series really caught my eye. That will be the point to see whether this series did a good job in building up.
As for the Tonpa-fight though, that is unfortunately something that the first series did better. This is because Tonpa already revealed himself to be a total bastard during the running exam. Everyone knew that he shouldn’t be trusted, and that made for a very awkward episode when they learned they had to work together with him. In this episode though, we had Leorio yell at him for no possible reason. At this point they had no reason to really distrust Tonpa, as the only one who realized the nature of the laxative was Killua. And perhaps Gon, if he put 2 and 2 together in his head about the laxative and the frog.
Still the crowning moment of this episode still did work. The point where Killua revealed the big prisoner’s strategy was just wonderfully done. It was hilarious, but at the same time it just showed how easily you can screw up in this series. And that’s also the beauty of the fights in this tower: they’re not just “spam powers and punches until the other side goes down”. No, the characters really have to use their heads here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 06
And as if nothing happened last week, this episode just continues building further upon the excellent setting and atmosphere that this show already had. While last week was just too silly, this episode had a much better balance between light hearted stuff and dark material.
This episode also introduces this noblewoman, and I really like how smug her acting was. The creators really nailed that air of importance around her. Milia had to get dressed up for her again, but this time it at least makes more sense. This time it fits into the setting, rather than having Millia just pull a maid costume out of her ass.
In terms of building up, Fam’s past was nice, and Milia’s home country also got thrown into an interesting direction here. I did however spot a number of recycled cells here and there. In particular the CG overviews of the past episodes were used again here. That’s good of course, since they are gorgeous. Even Porfy no Nagai Tabi, which stood out for some of the best background art out there, reused its backgrounds. But this show looks so damn pretty that I really wish that the characters would visit some more different sites.
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Fate/Zero – 08
This episode showed three fights right through each other: Emiya versus Kayneth, Kirei versus Irisviel and Maiya, and Caster versus Saber and Lancer. I especially liked the middle one, in which two vastly inferior fighters tried to stop stall time and prevent Kotomine Kirei from reaching Emiya. This guy really is brutal when he wants to, and it’s probably only because he was interested in the two of them that they got away with it.
The blob fight also was pretty interesting. Emiya had a very clear plan on defeating Kayneth, and Kayneth was just way too cocky. His pride is by far his biggest flaw, in that he refuses to acknowledge anything other than accomplished magic. He’s like this character who spent way too much time reading books, instead of getting actual combat experience. He relied too much on his tricks to realize the possibility that people might have developed weapons that are designed to take down mages.
The fight against caster though… I don’t really know what to make of that, and it was rather boring. At first Caster is all like “I have you surrounded now, so I’m just going to sit back and give you time to talk about how to defeat me!” and then saber pulled this shiny thing that allowed lancer to charge past these monsters and cut Caster’s book which somehow made the monsters disappear, only to heal afterwards but the monsters didn’t return… I’m not really sure what the creators wanted to do with that battle. In general battles against small armies are really hard to do in anime… and this unfortunately was not a counter example.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Winter Season Preview – Movie and OVA Edition
DVD Specials
Infinite Stratos Encore: A Sextet Yearning for Love
Summary: “The story centers around the IS Academy: a school for training the pilots of the Infinite Stratos weapon system, which can only be used by females. Candidates plucked from girls from countries all over the world are brought here — as well as one boy named Ichika Orimura. As it turns out, Ichika is “the only male in the world who can use the IS.” “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: BD/DVD Special
Comments: Watching the Infinite Stratos TV-series felt like watching one big middle finger. “You want to see an exciting mecha-series? Hah! Too bad. Here are some unfunny harem antics!” With a title like this, the creators really dropped all pretense.
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi
Summary: “Kazuma’s brother Ayumu needs to recuperate from an illness, so they move from the city to a rural mountain village. They plan to board at their father’s inn, Yorozuyo, but get lost on their way. Wandering in the mountains, Kazuma stumbles across a girl named Ui Nakatsugawa. It’s the first of many encounters in his new country life.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: DVD Special
Comments: This was a show that was ridiculously badly acted, based on the first episode that I watched anyways. Apparently this OVA will host an OVA-original character who didn’t appear in the TV-series.
Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi
Summary: “The “reverse school fantasy” light novel series follow an ordinary high school boy named Taito Kurogane who is given a “poison” by a female vampire named Saitohimea, thus changing his life.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Special, bundled with Manga
Comments: This OVA will contain manga content that didn’t make it in the anime. Apparently, people could vote on twitter which story they would like to see animated. In any case, I dropped Itsuten quite early on. The thing that stood out to me the most was the name of one of the characters: “Kurenai Gekkou”.
R-15
Summary: “Takuto Akutagawa has a special ability for writing porn novels. He applies to Hirameki Gakuen a high school which only accepts people with “Unique” talent. Now he must chase his dream and direct his classmates to win an interclass competition. All while trying to create the prefect harem.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA, bundled with Manga
Comments: This show just made no sense whatsoever. It was full of idiots pretending to be geniuses, and most of its attempts at being funny got old really fast for me.
Seitokai Yakuindomo
Summary: “The manga follows a former all-girls school’s student council which has three female members and one sole male representative. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA, Bundled with Manga Volume
Director: Hiromitsu Kanasawa
Script: Makoto Nakamura
Comments: This show surely does have a lot of OVAs and DVD-specials, doesn’t it? Ah well, I stopped caring about this long ago.
Major
Summary: “The OVA project will adapt the thus-far-unanimated World Series arc and the story’s illusive final matchup, while the new book will let fans see the last pitch in the manga. The project promises the return of the “Golden Battery” in America. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA, bundled with Compilation Manga
Comments: So this truly seems to be the final installment of Major, after god knows how many season and manga volumes. I actually attempted to watch the first season of Major, when Goro was still a kid, but I didn’t really like it. It was just way too shounen.
Franchise Movies and OVAs
Inazuma Eleven GO: Kyuukyoku no Kizuna Griffon
Summary: “he Inazuma Eleven GO storyline is set one decade after the first Inazuma Eleven storyline.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Comments: Well, this show also has started the tradition of having a new movie released every year, like a ton of other successful kids’ shows are doing. I tried to watch the GO Television series, but in the end I just got turned off by the dry and uninteresting characterization. Kids movies don’t have to be bad, as long as they put enough attention in the character department.
First-Glance Potential: 20%
Lupin III: Chi no Kokuin Eien no Mermaid
Summary: “Arsene Lupin III is the grandson of the master thief Arsene Lupin. With his cohorts Daisuke Jigen and Goemon Ishikawa XIII and his love interest Fujiko Mine, he pulls off the greatest heists of all time while always escaping the grasp of Inspector Koichi Zenigata.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: TV-Special
Comments: Okay, I might have mislead people a bit with some of my previous statements. As it turns out, the new Lupin Television series will just be a standalone TV-special, just like the thirty previous ones. It appears that I’m not the only one who made this mistake, so let me warn all the other preview writers out there who make use of Moonphase: Moonphase also puts standalone TV-specials in the TV-series category. Pay attention to that in order to prevent misleading everyone. In any case, this seems to be yet another one of those Lupin Specials. If you liked those, you’ll probably like this one, but I’m not really interested in it.
First-Glance Potential: 40%
Ongoing OVA and Movie Series
Kiss X Sis 06
Summary: “Keita has two older step-sisters, Ako and Riko, but since they aren’t related by blood, they love him in a lustful way. After a mishap at school, Ako and Riko finally confess their love to him. Keita dislikes the thought of seeing them other then brother and sister, but as he tries to enter the same school as his sisters, he slowly becomes attracted to them.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Munenori Nawa
Comments: Just end it already!
First-Glance Potential: 0%
Queen’s Blade OVA
Summary: “The stories are set after the Queen’s Blade competition of Hobby Japan’s original games but before the Rebellion. They take place after the storyline of Queen’s Blade Utsukushiki Toushi-tachi video anime series.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: OVA
Director: Morino Yousei
Comments: Nothing to see here. Moving on…
First-Glance Potential: 0%
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kira – 03 & 04
Summary: “With things such as story out of the way, Higurashi cranks up the fanservice with Kira, a new OVA series to commemorate the series’ 10th anniversary, featuring nail-biting situations such as Rika and Satoko becoming magical girls to battle evil magic crime syndicates with the help of their trusty squad of cheerleaders, among other things.” – (Taken from MAL)
Type: OVA
Director: Hideki Tachibana
Script: Toshifumi Kawase
Comments: Ugh.. there’ll be two more episodes before this will be over. At this point, I’ve given up all hope.Toshifumi Kawase is one of the best writers that Studio Deen currently has, but he definitely isn’t trying for this one. On top of that, they still haven’t gotten rid of the abysmal Hideki Tachibana as the director.
First-Glance Potential: 0%
Morita-San wa Mukuchi – 05
Summary: “Morita Mayu, a high school girl. She is extremely reticent and her silence and habit of looking at people’s eyes straightly sometimes cause misunderstanding. The reason behind it is not because she doesn’t like to talk nor because she has nothing to say. The reason she rarely speaks is due to the fact she thinks too much before speaking, thus losing the timing to speak altogether. But she lives a happy school life with her classmates.” – (Taken from MAL)
Type: OVA
Director: Hayashi Naotaka
Script: Hiroshi Satou
Comments: Im getting a bit tired of these creators. Morita-San wa Mukuchi would have been an enjoyable slice of life series if the creators actually put some effort into making it enjoyable. Right now this just feels like reading a random 4-koma over an audio book.
First-Glance Potential: 10%
Yuri-Seijin Naoko-san – 02
Summary: “Naoko, an alien maid, accompanies Misuzu and her friend Hii on her way to school to guard her from a groper that has been sighted on the neighborhood.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Tetsuya Takeuchi
Comments: At least, I think that this will be some sort of continuation of the first 6-minute OVA. The Internet is being very vague on that. In any case, the first OVA was very random and also very wrong in its content material. It’s impressive that it was mostly created by just one guy, but it wasn’t exactly good entertainment.
First-Glance Potential: 20%
Carnival Phantasm – Third Season
Summary: “In this show you’ll see parodies and new stories loosely based on Type-Moon’s original works like Melty Blood, Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime and more.” – (Taken from MAL)
Type: Collection of short OVAs
Director: Seiji Kishi
Script: Makoto Uezu
Comments: I just don’t get this series. Carnival Phantasm really is meant for hardcore fans of the Type Moon universe, and not for people who maybe saw a few series here and there of it. If you’re not a fan of every single series, this will just end up as a collection of very, very bad jokes.
First-Glance Potential: 30%
Hakuouki Hekketsu-Roku – 05
Summary: “: Based on Idea Factory’s romance adventure game: Yukimura Chizuru has come to Kyoto looking for her father, a doctor who has gone missing. While there, she witnesses a fight between an Oni and the Shinsengumi. Taking her into custody, the Shinsengumi debates on what to do with Chizuru when they discover that she is the daughter of the doctor they are also looking for. The Shinsengumi then takes Chizuru along on their search after the missing doctor, from adventures to adventures.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Osamu Yamazaki
Comments: Osamu Yamazaki is a bit of a mystery to me. I mean this in the way that the series he directs have no similarities whatsoever to each other. His adaptation of Toward the Terra was amazing, but after that he always just missed something.
First-Glance Potential: 30%
Saiyuki Gaiden – 03
Summary: “500 years before Saiyuki, a heretic child with golden eyes is brought to Heaven and given into the reluctant care of a minor deity, Konzen, nephew of the Merciful Goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu. Konzen eventually names him “Goku”. Goku befriends two other minor gods, Marshal Tenpou and General Kenren of the Western Army of Heaven, and a boy who seems to be his age, the War Prince Nataku. Though Goku is happy in his new home, Heaven is not kind to heretics.” – (Taken from )
Type: Movie
Director: Naoyuki Kuzuya
Script: Kazuya Minekura
Comments: So, how has Saiyuuki Gaiden been doing? This will be the third and last installment of this OVA, and while I didn’t check it out due to time restraints, I guess that this one is interesting for Saiyuki fans.
First-Glance Potential: 50%
New Releases
Sacred Seven: Shirogane no Tsubasa
Summary: “The special edition will focus on the fighting between the Sacred Takers Alma and Night, as well as the fight with Kenmi from Night’s point of view. The re-edited version will have new scenes, particularly of Night’s past, and a new dialogue recording.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Compilation Movie
Comments: Oh dear god why!? The TV-series already was mediocre, and now they want to make a recap movie to add even more insult to the injury? The new content is nice and all, but it will probably just amount to three minutes of new footage or something. I also love how silly the promo art for this show is. Like, the one who drew it couldn’t believe how silly it was what he had to draw.
First-Glance Potential: 0%
Waza no Tabibito
Summary: “The story centers around Tekuni Depagaa, a girl who embarks on a journey to train and become a fighting master known as a “wazabito.”” – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: OVA
Director: Matsuena Shun
Other Notable Staff: Tenmon (Music)
Comments: Tenmon behind the music is very solid, considering he also did the music of ef, and most of the Makoto Shinkai movies. Matsuena Shun meanwhile wrote, directed, designed and produced this thing by himself. Unfortunately however, one look at the trailer should tell that the visuals in this thing will be… weird. It’s got the most abysmal character designs, the animation of the 3D models is really poor. And yet it looks like it’ll get some stunning background art.
First-Glance Potential: 50%
K-On
Summary: “The movie will depict a story not told in the television series, even though it will follow the five female members of Sakuragaoka High School’s light music club while they are still attending high school. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Naoko Yamada
Script: Reiko Yoshida
Comments: Well, it had it coming: K-On has gotten itself a movie. Overall I don’t care about the TV-series at all, although I do admit that a movie could be interesting if there’s… something actually happening. This was the main reason I didn’t continue with any of the TV-series: it gave me no reason to.
First-Glance Potential: 50%
Holy Knight
Summary: “The “dramatic school (romantic) fantasy” centers around an ordinary orphan named Mizumura who goes to a missionary school in Tokyo. His seemingly normal life changes when a beautiful half-Romanian girl named Lilith suddenly transfers into his school. This timid boy is actually a vampire hunter and the successor of the Romyuarudo lineage. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Jiro Fujimoto
Storyboard: Hiroyuki Shimazu
Comments: This seems to be the first part of the “cammot” animation project. I have no idea what the rest of the installments of this projects are going to be, but at least I hope that they’ll come with a bit of a more creative story. The trailer itself seems solidly put together. But seriously, couldn’t you have come up with a better premise?
First-Glance Potential: 60%
Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker
Summary: “he game is set in Ferelden, one of several countries that makes up the mythical continent of Thedas. The game opens with an animation which details the origins of demonic creatures called the darkspawn, that dwell within the Deep Roads, an underground highway system created by the dwarves long ago, deep beneath the surface of Thedas. Every few hundred years, the darkspawn swarm the surface world in a movement known as a Blight. Beginning with the first Blight, Thedas relied on the legendary order of warriors known as the Grey Wardens to drive the darkspawn back. Dragon Age: Origins begins on the eve of Thedas’s fifth Blight.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Type: Movie
Director: Fumihiko Sori
Other Notable Staff: Daisuke Nakayama (Character Designs), Tetsuya Takahashi
Comments: If only because of the character designs, I’m going to watch this movie. It’s actually got the same character designer as Mahou Shoujotai! The soundtrack will also be awesome, coming from the same guy who composed all of the soundtracks for the Marvel-series. Only the director will be a bit lackluster: it’s the director of Vexxile and TO, which both had potential, but had rather weak storylines.
First-Glance Potential: 70%
Minori Scramble
Summary: “The story revolves around Tamaki Kakegawa, a fifth grade girl whose father is a penguin researcher. As such, Tamaki is constantly surrounded by penguins and has grown to hate them. In order to cure Tamaki’s hatred of penguins, a ‘penguinoid’ named Minori is built to befriend her.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Type: One-Shot OVA
Director: Takuya Nonaka
Comments: The trailer of this one actually looks fun and well directed. At first sight this one may seem like Yuri-Seijin Naoko-san (it’s actually being released together with this series),but Ufo-Table put some good people on this thing, including the director of the second Kara no Kyoukai movie.
First-Glance Potential: 70%
Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki
Summary: “Naki and Gunjou are friends who live on Mononoke Shima, and they cross paths with a human child. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Script: Takashi Yamazaki
Other Notable Staff: Hirosuke Hamada (Original Creator)
Comments: Here is another interesting one: at first sight this seems like a kiddie movie in 3D. However, it seems that this movie will be based upon a tear-jerker of a story, plus it will feature the main character at different ages. That alone has caught my interest.
First-Glance Potential: 70%
Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki The Animation
Summary: “In the southwest area of the Zemulia Continent, one will find the tiny Liberl Kingdom. A small monarchy that has managed to defy all odds against attempts to overcome them during war. Liberl is split into five regions: Rolent, Bose, Ruan, Zeiss, and Grancel. In the city of Rolent, Cassius Bright has raised two children by himself, Estelle and Joshua. He taught them everything they know himself, and encourages them to sign up to become apprentices in the Bracers Guild. Soon after, however, he receives a letter and has to leave on business, leaving Estelle and Joshua to fend for themselves. While working, they receive notice one day that their father’s airship has gone missing. With this in mind, the two gear themselves up, and set off to find the ship and save their father.” – (Taken from MAL)
Type: Movie
Director: Makoto Tachibana
Script: Makoto Uezu
Comments: Christ, this one just keeps getting delayed. But, it looks like it’ll finally get released on November 25th. Anyway, the story is still the same: the director of Tokyo Magnitude doing another OVA with Kinema Citrus. Looking forward to it.
First-Glance Potential: 85%
Tales of Symphonia the Animation: The United World
Summary: “Two worlds exist, both unaware of the existence of the other. In order for one world to flourish, the other will have to perish. On the doomed world, a Chosen one is send on a journey to restore that world’s mana by awakening the Spirits and becoming an angel. Colette Brunel, the Chosen of Sylvarant, sets out on her journey accompanied by her best friends Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage. As they travel further they meet new friends and even more enemies, while they learn more and more about the truth behind the World Regeneration.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Haruo Sotozaki
Comments: It’s finally time for the final arc of this story to commence. And I must say, Ufo Table did a great job on trying to tell the whole story so far with these small series of OVAs. The previous episodes stood out because they nailed that balance between faitful and creative freedom, doing justice to the games, but also creating their own storyline. In the games, this is around the point where things get a bit less interesting, due to the increase in epicness. I wonder how the creators are planning to use that.
First-Glance Potential: 85%
Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-Hen – 01
Summary: “Himura Kenshin is a vagabond with a dark past and sunny disposition. Not a ronin but a rurouni, he was never a samurai, but an assassin of utmost skill in the Meiji restoration, who in the turning point of the war simply walked away. His travels lead him to Tokyo in the 11th year of the Meiji era, where he befriends a female Kendo master, a former thief, a brawler and a doctor all with their own secrets. Together they fight off the enemies surfacing from the dark past that Kenshin cannot escape.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Two-Part OVA
Director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Script: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Hiro Kaburaki (Episode Director)
Comments: I’m not going to watch the Rurouni Kenshin TV-Series due to the fact that it’s so damn long, but these OVA series? Count me in for that. Tsuioku-hen was brilliant, and this finally shows Kazuhiro Furuhashi doing something other than Gundam again (for the record: this was the guy who, beyond directing Tsuioku-hen, also directed Real Drive, Amatsuki, Hunter X Hunter, Chevalier, and Zipang). On top of that, this time he’s got Mari Okada and the director of Kimi ni Todoke helping him out.
First-Glance Potential: 85%
.Hack//The Movie
Summary: “he story is set in 2024, when children have lived their entire lives since birth in a world connected by networks. A cheerful 14-year-old middle school girl named Sora Yūki has no interest in games, but her friends get her to go into the popular network game “The World.” However, due to “a certain incident” in The World, anomalies start occurring in the real world. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Hiroshi Matsuyama
Script: Kazunori Ito
Comments: Holy crap, Kazunori Ito will actually return for this movie. He was the one who originally wrote .Hack//Sign, but also shows as Zettai Shounen, Twillight Q’s first episode, wrote the screenplay for all sorts of parts of the Patlabor Franchise (including the second movie!), plus he also wrote the screenplay of the first Ghost in the Shell Movie. This also seems to be much more in the direction of .Hack//Liminality. I mean, it’s 3D and all, but as a fan of the .Hack franchise this is one movie that I’m really looking forward to.
First-Glance Potential: 90%
Kyousogiga
Summary: “???”
Type: Original Net Animation
Director: Rie Matsumoto
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Hayashi (Animation Director, Character Designs), Takashi Kurahashi (Art Design)
Comments: Now this is a very obvious one to keep our eyes out for: Toei doing an anime original ONA, helmed by the director of the surprisingly good and well written Heartcatch Precure Movie. And that’s not everything: on top of that this thing will have the art directors of Ayakashi and Mononoke, and various animators of Heartcatch Precure seem to be returning for this project. This one can get very interesting here. Now ideally, things like this need to get a full fledged TV-series. Experiments like this need more time to really show what they want to do.
First-Glance Potential: 90%
Gyo
Summary: “Someting in Okinawa reeks, and it isn’t long before Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori realize that the smell are coming from dead fish, which are walking out of the sea. The fish are fused to metal legs and are infected with a disease contractable by humans that was invented as a weapon by the Japanese government. After Kaori is infected, Tadashi goes to find a solution to this putrid takeover, if there even is an answer to be found.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: One-Shot OVA
Director: Takayuki Hirao
Other Notable Staff: Takuro Takahashi (Character Designs), Junji Ito (Original Creator)
Comments: For some reason this is being released alongside Yuri-Seijin Naoko-San and Minori Scramble. One of these things is not like the others. In any case, I’m very interested in this one-shot horror OVA from Ufo Table. What’s even more interesting is that they put the director of the fifth Kara no Kyoukai movie on it (like, the best movie of the entire series). Beyond that, this guy also directed Futakoi Alternative and even worked on Paranoia Agent. Here is one to look out for.
First-Glance Potential: 95%
Un-Go Episode 0
Summary: “The 45-minute original story will depict the protagonists Shinjūrō and Inga’s first encounter and “reveal the biggest mystery [of the story] in theaters.” “ – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 45-Minute Movie
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Script: Shou Aikawa
Comments: I’m not sure under which section to put this thing, because this is definitely not your average DVD-special. It’s 45 minutes long, and actually gets released in theaters. And Un-Go already was my favorite show of the current Autumn Season. It’s really well written and uses every minute of its airtime. This movie also will show the past of the two main characters, which has been hinted at very heavily to be something special.
First-Glance Potential: 95%
Berserk Ougon Jidai-Hen I: Haou no Tamago
Summary: “A brave young warrior named Guts fights for his fortune as a mercenary on the front lines. A fated encounter unites Guts with the charismatic and deadly young man named Griffith. Leading the rogue soldiers known as the Band of the Hawk, Griffith wields his formidable force like no other. Driven by a quest for status, the Hawks exert military and social prowess the likes of which have never been seen before. The armies of Midland will quake with fear as Griffith and Guts set off on a path that will bring the world to its knees.” – (Taken from MAL)
Type: Movie
Director: Toshiyuki Kabooka
Script: Ichiro Okouchi
Other Notable Staff: Naoyuki Onda (Chief Animation Direction), Yusuke Takeda (Art Direction), Goki Nakamura, , Susumu Hirasawa
Comments: Now this is it. I mean, Berserk having a movie reboot is already one thing. But with Studio 4C! Heck, they even got Susumu Hirasawa to write the theme song for this movie. For the director, they also got a great guy: the guy who directed the “Remaining Sense of Pain”-part of the Batman movie, which was really well directed. My only worry is that the writer of Code Geass will handle the script here, but as long as they follow the manga, there is very little that can go wrong here. Or is the manga’s story too big for three movies?
First-Glance Potential: 100%
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