Now this was just adorable.
Okay, it was an entire episode dedicated to the whistling, but it also showed a lot about who Maon was in the past, and how she got to know the rest of the main cast. At first I thought that we’d first get some more episodes dedicated to the rest of the characters, but things didn’t turn out to be that formulaic.
This really was a past episode: the present made no appearance in it whatsoever, contrary to episode 01. It first shows a moment in which all of the members of the cast just happened to bump into each other, and then jumps to the part when she makes friends with… Norie of all people. It’s a very good way to flesh out not just Maon, but the entire cast. And as annoying as the whistling may be at times: it’s no longer a random gimmick with this.
Now, there are seven DVDs scheduled for this series, which are pointing towards 13 episodes in the end. That means that next week will pass the halfway point of this series. I’ve been hammering on this, but right now this series is very charming. The second half needs to use this to grow even more. It’s the perfect set-up for this kind of series. I realize that I’m gambling here, but with the nature of this series it can in theory do great things.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Author: psgels
Mirai Nikki – 05
It really feels like nearly every diary holder isn’t really interested in winning the game. I mean, so far most of them have been using their diaries to take care of personal grudges or helping in their personal lives or profession. This episode showed that both Twelfth and Fourth had no intentions to kill Ninth… even though she’s a fellow diary holder and helping a professional terrorist bomber escape in a game of life and death is rather… naive…
But yeah, this show is really about the suspense and paranoia. This episode helped to establish that you can’t trust anyone in this show. This is probably going to be very important for the future episodes, when we’re going to delve into more developed characters.
I also wonder what “good end” means in this series. I mean, a bad end in this series is very finite and clear: death. A good end however has a very vague definition, and it’s definitely not the end. For example, the way in which Yukiteru saw the corpses in Yuno’s room had nothing to do with Ninth getting captured. In fact, it seems that every diary seems to have something that it wants to accomplish, and when it does, it leads to the good end, even though you’d think that the only good ending in this show would have been to win the game. It’s heavily implied that for Yuno, a good end means to have sex with Yukiteru, but what about the others? And is there some reward involved? (To people who read the manga: these are rhetorical questions; please don’t answer them with spoilers of future chapters…).
Also, here is something I don’t get: this series’ time is valuable. From what I’ve heard, it only has barely enough time to stuff everything in just 26 episodes. So what is this show doing, wasting two minutes of each episode on these silly pointless skits? Over the course of 12 episodes, that amounts to a full episode’s worth of content there. I mean, for god’s sake use your time better. Take a look at Ben-To for example: there the next episode previews are short and concise, while still actually funny, rather than those obnoxious skits that put some of the cast way out of character.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Phi Brain – 06
The reason I’m a big fan of Sato Junichi is not because of his slice of life. Aria and Tamayura are very good, but he isn’t the best slice of life director out there (that honour goes to Tomomi Mochizuki). Instead, this guy’s ability to portray emotions is what really won me over. My favorite show of his, Strange Dawn, doesn’t rock because of how much sense its plot makes, but instead it became among my favorite series because of how it nailed the emotional states its characters were in.
Now, Phi Brain is obviously nowhere as good as those series, and it’s definitely the weirdest show he’s ever worked on, but his influence is still noticeable. This was a very emotional episode, and even though it was about solving puzzles, it actually worked because of the chemistry between the three lead characters.
There also was a strange team of animators behind this episode. One that didn’t worry about keeping with the character models, and the consistency was all over the place. But ah well: the animation of this show is very limited, so it’s at least nice to see that they’re trying out different things. Heck, in the case of the big bad they actually improved his looks, and with such a small animation budget, a bit of inconsistency is actually quite nice to get some more expressiveness out of the characters.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Ben-To – 05
Okay, this was just hilarious. This was meant to be the episode to set up the main conflict of this series: a huge battle between the people from the east and west side of town, but in the meantime the creators inserted a ton of comedy around Sato cross-dressing. The creators still manage to create fresh ways to do it. The best part is how they used the serious Kaneshiro in order to make him even more embarrassed. This really shows that with good direction, even overused jokes can be get new life.
The best part about this series for me is how it balances its serious and silly side, and how it does both parts well. Because of that it’s ridiculously fun to watch, while at the same time it has a story and characters that can be taken seriously. The main storyline is quite silly when you think about it, but because everyone takes it serious without being parody-like, it somehow ends up working.
My only gripe is the new girl: she feels out of place, because she is exactly the kind of one-sided character and moe stereotype that this show has averted so well. Thankfully she played a small role here and there was plenty of fun stuff about this episode as well. But at the very least, I can appreciate her place in the story as a random friend that Shaga hangs out at school with.
It’s something subtle, but again: this show really hints that the characters have lives and do stuff whenever they’re not on the screen. Or at least the good guys. I still can’t imagine the main villain that was introduced in this episode doing something other than looking scary, sitting in his chair and starve himself….
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Fate/Zero – 06
And another episode of building up, although there is one particular scene that really had some gorgeous visuals: the part where Emiya blew up that building. It did unfortunately again follow the golden rule of anime (people aren’t dead unless confirmed. Archer’s master’s death wasn’t confirmed), which does take away a bit of the tension, but that confrontation was my favorite part of this episode.
I’m still a bit puzzled about my enjoyment of this show. I mean, this show is definitely the most solid series of the season, but it feels like it’s missing something on the emotional level for me, and I can’t exactly put my finger to what it is. And that while I normally love series that are full of talking . Right now the only thing that I can think of is that at the moment, is this show has too much exposition. The good thing about that is that it’s very solid build-up, and therefore there is plenty that can still happen when the spring season starts and this show enters its second half.
In any case though, the people i n this show are smart. Or in any case, quite a few of them. There are a lot of people who know very well to run away from battles they can’t win. I also would have liked to see how Emiya managed to blow up the building: putting explosives in a mage’s tower with god knows how much surveillance is no small feat. Did he use magic for that, or is he just really good at hiding?
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Hunter X Hunter – 06
Well, it had it coming. This just is an episode that you just need to sit through. Even in the original series, it was by far the most out of place story of the entire series. It is a necessary one, because it showed a completely different side of Hunters than what we’ve seen so far (compared to for example Ninjas, who only do ninja stuff, or shinigami, who only fight dead guys for example). This world building is essential for Hunter X Hunter, but there is also a matter of storytelling: making the story you’re trying to tell interesting and enjoyable to watch. And that’s where this story just put too little attention in.
If this is how they did it in the manga, then I can understand the fillers that the first series used. In the first series, this exam was split in two parts: the pig catching was the task for the fat dude, while the girl’s task was to make sushi. The way they did it at least made this story more bearable and interesting because how only one examinee knew what the hell it was supposed to be anyway. That at least made part of this episode fun and diverse.
Also, Hirano Aya is turning into another Kugimiya Rie and Yukari Tamura: most characters she voices are made much more annoying than what they could have been, just doe to her voice.
Some more notes about this episode:
– Even the animators realized that this episode was just something that had to happen, because they put in no effort at all.
– The second part still had this “we depend on the knowledge of just one examinee to get everyone through”-bit.
– This episode did nail Todo, even though he had less screentime.
– What he hell happened to Hisoka?
Rating: – (Disappointing)]]>
Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam – 04
Haha, Tatiana actually returned here. It’s great to see small hints of how the different members of the original cast of Last Exile have ended up, while at the same time this doesn’t detract new viewers from the experience.
This episode perhaps wasn’t as serious as the previous two, it still really showed that this show knows what it’s doing. This episode showed the characters from their lighter side. The first half was all about fleshing them out, and it did that really well. It showed the characters having a random meal, or making a bed, or doing maintenance work. All those details contribute to making this setting come more alive.
Also, this episode explained to me why they chose Fam as the main character: she’s very energetic and positive, and this transfers to the people around her. My big fear was that Gonzo would turn this into some sort of weird copy of the cast of Sky Girls, but thankfully these characters have a lot of personality, and despite the childishness, it makes them fun to watch. I like how even the people on the ship she tried to attack didn’t act like random goons, but were actually interested in her.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>
Hyouge Mono – 29
Is Sasuke seriously walking around the battlefield with a bunch of wooden bars tied behind his back, out of fear of being shot in the back? Seriously, I know that Warfare isn’t the main focus in this series, but the tactical ideas that spring forth from the minds of these characters are just brilliant. It’s been a while since dropping giant logs on your enemies was such an effective weapon. The best one though still stems from a number of episodes ago, with Hideyoshi’s brilliant plan to build the front of a house on top of a hill to scare away his enemies.
Also, there are a lot of things that this show does really well. The one that really stood out though, was the way it handles its death scenes. They’re all incredibly well acted and delivered, although we hadn’t seen one recently. This episode however… holy crap, they did it again. First of all at this point I did not expect the person in question to die, but also the way in which Bee-Train delivered it was incredibly well done.
It is unfortunately getting clear that the budget is running out. Or at least, this episode had quite a few rushed shots. I guess that it’s inevitable due to this series’ length and the way that this is a series that under any other producer never would have been green-lighted, but I do hope that the creators can keep at least their standards going. At the very least there are some really talented artists working on this show that can really draw its character models with a ton of details and shadows.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Persona 4 The Animation – 05
This episode was… annoying. In fact, I didn’t enjoy it at all, and I can only hope that the next people that the male lead runs into will be better.
I have no idea why this show suddenly decided that it wanted to be a high school romance for one episode. I mean, that is a really tricky genre to get right: it’s overcrowded and the competition there is huge, and this wasn’t really the best type of execution. I can see how the story of this episode would have worked on paper. Heck, the protagonist here actually got himself a girlfriend, though completely platonic. That already brings him further than 90% of all other male leads. But the delivery of this episode was just bland.
Also, I know that the people from AIC aren’t the best animators, but at least have them try to put a bit of believable emotions into its characters. I mean, there are more studios that have acting problems, for example Madhouse, but at least they try to actually emote their characters, even though they lack the budget for it. Aside from a picture, the male lead in this episode only showed two emotions: bland neutral and badly animated bland embarrassed. It just… did not work. The gimmick of this show is that this guy’s personality grows based on these game-like traits. I’m not seeing that.
There are a lot of these teenaged high school shows that start off promising… only to devolve into badly told stories that don’t go anywhere. Especially the past winter season left me a bad impression with series like this, and this episode was really starting to show the first hints of the likes of Kore wa Zombie, Dragon Crisis and Yumekui Merry. Please let it get better instead of dabbling on in mediocrity like this! The past winter season was bad enough, and I don’t want to lose even more patience than I already have.
Rating: – (Disappointing)]]>
Mawaru Penguin Drum – 17
How rare: a Penguin Drum episode devoted to build-up. Or at least, it’s promising a ton of stuff for next episode and its pacing was surprisingly quiet for this show’s standards, aside from one over the top confrontation between Yuri and Natsume. It did not lack in the plot twist department at all.
In fact, in terms of plot twists, thi episode can actually be seen as a turning point, where most of the things that we had to assume in the first half are canceled. The Penguin Drum isn’t the diary at all, and Tabuki has a very clear hidden agenda that he kept very well hidden. And heck, I just realized the parallels between Yuri, Tabuki and Momoka, and the main trio of this show. Add that to the rumors that Shigeyasu Yamauchi (the director of Casshern Sins) will be working on next episode, and yeah: I can’t wait.
I do want to say a bit about the music, though. It is very good, but in the past weeks I have been rediscovering Utena’s soundtrack, and I’m blown away by the utter difference between the two. The biggest thing is that Uterna’s soundtrack spans a whopping 7 disks in total! The creators went and composed a traditional soundtrack, and then they contacted like, three different musical groups to sing in and compose the different themes for all of the duels. This way they had a different song for every single duel in styles that evolved perfectly. Cowboy Bebob had this too.
Modern soundtracks just don’t have this. And yet, with smart production decisions this can still easily be possible. I mean, those different EDs are nice and all, but the creators could have easily used the budget they used for Triple H’s songs to actually compose songs that fit inside the series, instead of stuffing them into EDs. Having a huge soundtrack gives a lot more freedom and expression in terms of storytelling.
Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>