Author: psgels

Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope – Week 35

by psgels, posted in Summer 2011 Kaleidoscope






Okay, so I’m finally starting to feel a bit better. Due to that cold of mine I just had enough enerty to keep up with the series that I’m blogging, although even there I probably said quite a number of tactless things. In any case the result of that, combined with how busy I’ve been lately left me with a huge backlog of different series that I still have to get through.

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – 48
Like expected, the creators really wrap up the tension here and this was an incredibly nerve-wrecking episode, but god dammit, they’re still not done yet?! There still are four episodes of this thing left before either that ball goes in or Kaiji loses? Holy crap!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Blade – 10
Holy crap! This actually was by far the best episode out of all of the Marvel series combined (and yes, I’ve seen all of them). Out of nowhere, the series came with even more background: that of Deacon Frost, and it was actually really good! With this, it definitely has the best villain out of all the Marvel series, and the last part of this episode also showed that it has the best female sidekick out of them. Heck, just about the only parts where this doesn’t overshadow the others at this point is the animation (X-Men did that better) and the action itself (which was done better in Wolverine and the X-Men again). Aside from that though…. I’m really impressed here. It even turned its cheesy acting into a charm.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Kamisama Dolls – 09
Solid build-up, but this also showed me (someone who hasn’t read the manga) that the creators don’t intend to close this off at all. The length really is the big problem of this season, with just too many series that are too short. In any case, this episode had fun getting the characters to snark at each other and it was pretty interesting, but that new girl had better have a very good reason to turn Kyouhei into a harem lead!
Rating: * (Good)

Dantalian no Shoka – 08
The characters that Dalian and Huey meet in this episode were… pretty much the least interesting ones so far. For one they remind me too much of the idiots of Gosick, but also the reasoning in their stories is just… strange. Usually in Dantalian no Shoka, it’s the phantom book’s effects that are far-fetched. This time it’s the characters actions that are.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Sacred Seven – 10
Well, that was corny. Was Ruri’s backstory really worth it spending an entire episode about? It felt like it came from a soap opera. Seriously, the thing with this series is that it’s trying to be something that it isn’t. It thinks it has depth and so tries to act like it takes itself seriously, while the story and characters are completely shallow. For god’s sake, I can understand that you want to keep your series simple but effective and all, but at the very least make it effective. Do something that catches the viewer’s attention! Anything!
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Blade – 09
This is bizarre. Blade just used one of Wolverine’s side characters better than how Wolverine used them. Seriously, I don’t know if there are any other people who are still watching this series, but I’m currently having a blast with it. This episode once again was a really entertaining action episode that is gonna make the perfect conclusion for the Marvel Series. We’re going to Cambodia next? Awesome! Also, you have to give props to the soundtrack guy here: this guy pretty much made four kickass soundtracks without any apparent weaknesses whatsoever, all with their distinct and incredibly engaging tracks.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Sket Dance – 22
Thankfully this show has recovered from its string of weaker episodes. The first half of this episode was quite hilarious in which they raped the legend of Momotaro (the guy that’s born from a peach), and the second half was simple but heart-warming. It perhaps wasn’t the show’s best episode, but it was fun.
Rating: * (Good)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 35
Here is my question for the rest of this arc: the creators did a good job of making Hagoromo Gitsune incredibly powerful, even up to the point where she can easily take control of Kyoto’s best Omnyouji like it’s nothing. So how the hell is Rikuo gonna be able to make a difference without introducing some serious power level inconsistencies?
Rating: * (Good)

Dantalian no Shoka – 07
A surprisingly charming episode about scents. Its effects still are rather far-fetched, but that’s the entire nature of the phantom books. This episode was well told and had a great conclusion, although Dalian still needs work. Oh, and this show also makes pretty good use of its music. Gainax, start doing 26-episode series again!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 34
Okay, so that training arc was rather boring, but what really caught my attention in this episode was the surprisingly addictive direction of Hagoromo Gitsune’s quest to conquer Kyoto. Especially the use of that skeleton she dug up in this episode worked well. Also, I’m not sure what it is but in this new season the awesome character designs stand out much more than in the first.
Rating: * (Good)

Usagi Drop – 09
Entire episode dedicated to Kouki, and it just shows the differences between raising a boy and a girl. Although I do think that this series idealizes girls a bit too much. They too have their quirks that are unfortunately a bit glossed over.
Rating: * (Good)

Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – 09

by psgels, posted in Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou



Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou what the heck do you think you’re doing you only have 13 episodes.

This is what I mean by this show acting like it’s twice its length: I mean this episode standalone was very good, but in the context of this series the creators pretty much wasted one valuable episode. I mean, Nemoto’s background was very good and all, but do the creators really want to focus on such a minor character when there’s enough gold buried underneath the main cast? The writing and mystery of this series really are great, so it’s very annoying when the creators keep dodging them…

But yeah, this episode. It was a bit bizarre, suddenly deciding to go with a baseball episode of all things, but it was fun to watch. Especially Alice showed a totally different side of her when she actually went out to the field to try batting. It obviously wasn’t meant to be believable at all, but it’s a good way to flesh out the main cast. It was fun. Heck, even the fanservice was nearly completely toned down. It’s just completely the wrong time for it.

What’s more: the previous episodes promised us some awesome backstory on Alice. And yet the final arc of this series seems to focus on Ayaka. Which is nice and all, but that does leave us with a main character with gaping holes in her back-story. I was really looking forward to that story of hers, so it’s a bloody shame that we won’t get to see it.
Rating: * (Good)

Mardock Scramble – The First Compression Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




And here’s another widely anticipated movie: the first of the Mardock Scramble trilogy. Finally, Gohands could get in a project that actually showed off their talent, rather than making the umpth bad harem clone. The promo art for this series looked absolutely gorgeous, it had the writer of Fafner and Chevalier behind it. There was a ton of promise behind this. So, how did it go?

Well, that was screwed up. Mardock Scramble is science fiction. It’s based around all kinds of interesting ideas, some of which do not care how sick in the head they can get. There’s a ton of nudity as well, but despite all this it has an style that works really well. Its story is dark and well acted, it takes itself seriously and ends up as a great science fiction character study.

There are multiple characters, but within the first hour of this trilogy the focus went mostly to just two of them, and they got a good dose of airtime dedicated to their backgrounds. They’re both pretty interesting for a one-hour movie. Nothing stellar, but the bond that develops between them is quite engaging to watch.

Beyond that, this movie just oozes with style. The animation and art are both utterly gorgeous, especially the use of colours makes this a visual feast. The action is really well directed and amazing to watch as well, especially during the second half of the movie. It’s one of the strengths of the movie, but also one of its major weaknesses: it’s so busy with this style that at times it forces things along, just for the sake of this. This leads to sometimes rather jumpy editing and character development that may be a bit too sudden.

The meat of the story obviously isn’t in this first movie yet, and whether I’m gonna recommend it is going to depend entirely on the direction that the other two movies take it in. It’s very much a continuous story, so this movie doesn’t really just stand alone (especially when considering its cliff-hanger). It set up all of the building blocks. Now it’s up to the other two movies to use it.

Storytelling: 8/10 – A bit jumpy, but nicely paced, good dialogue.
Characters: 8/10 – The development is a bit forced, but good background and the bond between the two main characters is interesting.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous; great style, excellent use of colors.
Setting: 8/10 – Lots of neat ideas, though some are just pointlessly gory and are a bit out of place.

Suggestions:
– Kara no Kyoukai- The Garden of Sinners – Overlooking View
– King of Thorn
– Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance

Hyouge Mono – 20

by psgels, posted in Hyouge Mono



The great thing is that only now have we passed the halfway point of this series! While just about every other series is nearing it’s end, we still have 19 delightful episodes of Hyouge Mono left. If I hadn’t done it yet, Bee-Train, I applaud you on such a consistent job you’ve done on this series.

This episode was as excellent as any other Hyouge Mono episode. It wasn’t a major episode, but still stuffed with some interesting developments. The best part was seeing it all play out though. The first half had Sasuke visit a friend of Soueki, who seems to also be a master of aesthetics, despite being incredibly poor. After that, it was the time for the bald monk assistant of Soueki to go a bit berserk over his own sense of aesthetics after he heard Soueki comment on Hashiba Hideyoshi’s sense of style (which indeed is pretty awful). I’m really interested in what he’s still planning to use him for.

Overall, halfway though, Hyouge Mono turned into a series that I really could not have predicted. The way at which it looks at aesthetics still is amazing, and at this point the characters also have developed or grown quite interestingly.

As for the music: this definitely has the most mundane soundtrack ouf of any Bee-Train series yet, aside from perhaps .Hack//Dusk, but I’ve mentioned before that I consider that show to be by far Bee-Train’s worst production. The thing is though, that with this music, it is able to create one heck of an atmosphere. It’s still amongst the most original and unique soundtracks of the year, although I do feel like they lost out to Dororon Enma-Kun this year.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mawaru Penguin Drum – 08

by psgels, posted in Mawaru Penguin Drum



Ack, this series surely knows its cliff-hangers. They just keep getting more addictive, and for some reason they always pull those twists that you just don’t see coming at the time. This series constantly throws you for loops with its red herrings, symbolism, plot twists and characters.

In any case, one of the other interesting parts about your comments on my August Summary was the surprising amounts of people who found that Penguin Drum was Overhyped. And yeah, I do guess that I’ve been hyping this show and that I’m a huge fan of it, but I do want to clarify a few things here:
– I’m not just a fan of it because of the director of Utena. Even if this were made by a completely new director I’d gush over it (for example Mouryou no Hako: that was pretty much the directional debut of Ryousuke Nakamura, but it didn’t take long before I became a fan of him and his unique style). I just love the endless amounts of energy, and the huge amounts of details that the creators put into just about everything here. Yes, it’s weird, but that’s exactly to my tastes.

The one argument that I really didn’t understand was that the story was going nowhere. Doesn’t every episode deliver new twists? Or is everyone waiting for Shouma to get his hands on the Penguin Drum or something? The thing is, at heart this is a character study. The penguin drum is nice and all, but it’s not what this series is about. The past episodes have just built further and further upon Ringo’s character, while at the same time being ridiculously fun to watch. I guess that the pacing could be a bit more faster. Utena’s arcs were all very short, sweet and to the point. I agree that it does not look like the lay-out of this series will be as unbelievably well laid out as with Utena. But it has plenty enough of its own.

Now, this episode was not the best that this series has shown so far, but even then I still loved it. The direction still was rock-solid and the animation and facial expressions and gestures were really dynamic. Ringo is completely crazy, but the creators did make her come alive wonderfully. Oh, and the Western Scene was awesome.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

No.6 – 09

by psgels, posted in No.6



Oh, that’s very cruel. That cliff-hanger I mean. They were about to dive into the core of the correctional facility, and Nezumi said to Shion that he’s very likely going to change after what he sees there. So yeah, we only have two episodes left for that. Don’t promise awesome character development when you know that you’re going to end in less than one hour!

Yeah, I may sound like a broken record and all, but that’s the thing with this series: it just is THAT solid. For the past nine episodes there have been no weaknesses whatsoever aside from the “big one”. Seriously, it’s been a while since I watched a series that was this solid, and whose only single problem was the fact that it was based on a much longer source material that it would never be able to complete. And to be honest, this had it coming right from the beginning with Seishi Minakami: he’s basically pulling another Shigurui here, which also was a rock-solid adaptation from beginning aside from the fact that it just refuses to answer one of the biggest questions of the plot.

What caught my attention the most was the near rape of the dog keeper. Holy crap, that was well portrayed. The acting was excellent throughout this entire episode, but she really stole the show there. How different is that side we got to see of her!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Blood-C – 08

by psgels, posted in Blood-C



You know how often action series like to set themselves at high schools? You know how often the bad guys just ignore the most perfect targets of high school students? Yeah. This show realized that too. Holy crap that was intense! This is horror! The pacing still was excellent and the portrayal of the cast as ordinary high school students is really paying off now!

I’d also like to direct you to this interview, of the director of Blood-C and the director of Blood+ (and who has been pretty much writing every installment of the franchise). That, combined with this episode took away all of my doubts for this series: this is gonna be awesome.

The interesting thing is that the Junichi Fujisaku fully intended this Saya to be different from the Saya of Blood+ and really intended this series to make use of its creative freedom. And I have to agree that this so far has been an awesome way to expand upon the Blood Franchise. Heck, the director was intentionally planning to make the series END, while still leaving open room for the movie which will be completely different, which is EXACTLY what I’ve been hoping!

As for why I didn’t mind this series in the beginning, even though I have given up on series who started with very bland characters. For one, the execution really helped: for me, Blood-C immediately had a really tight atmosphere, and used its flashbacks combined with its battles really well to build up a sense of urgency for the cast. It puts them in a context and made me interested in what this series would look like when it really fired off. Compare that to R-15 or Baka To Test to Shoukanjuu Ni, which were just slurs of bad acting and jokes that didn’t work, with nothing that really caught my attention.

All in all, I do not think that the characters in this series are badly acted or portrayed, like for example what happened with Uta Prince and Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel, which both did try to tell some overall story, but completely lost me on how completely stupid they were. Saya herself may not be smart, but this is on a different league compared to the stupidity of the shows mentioned above. The acting here is restrained, instead of characters trying to act all over the place in the hopes of catching attention. Those are the characters that I find to be the most obnoxious the most often.

Overall I like the way this show did its cross-overs. Interestingly, it’s not the only series to have done that this season, with Blade and all. The best cross-overs can really enhance both shows and add some new things and introspectives, while being excellent stories that are still watchable on their own, no matter whether we’re talking about in-universe cameos or alternative universes. That’s why I’m not a big a fan of the Votoms alternative movies: they felt rather random and didn’t seem to add much depth to the Votoms franchise and they weren’t really interesting to watch. Same for the Precure All-Stars movies: I found them to be rather boring and they didn’t really add anything significant to Heartcatch Precure.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Steins;Gate – 22

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



Apologies for the lateness of this entry. I finally thought that that I’d have some time to catch up to everything this week, but then I caught a cold, so at the moment I’m not really 100%. I do want to respond to the surprising amount of comments who found it strange that I didn’t have this ranked as my top series for my August Summary. It’s pretty similar to Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica earlier this year: yes, this is undeniably awesome, and this episode was no exception. There just are series that I like better.

The reasons for that are always tricky, but I think that me having trouble to identify with Okabe’s angst has some part in it. There are a few things about this series that I just didn’t understand that have to do with that, and which have been bugging me for quire a while now. The first one I mentioned before: what about all of the time-lines that Okabe left behind, where Mayuri just dies. What happens to them? I find it a bit hard to believe that they just… disappear. The second thing I didn’t understand though: why is Mayuri fated to die? I mean, I can understand the first time she died: Moeka was ordered to do it, so she did it. Fits totally with her character. However, why does every single truck, train or vehicle hate Mayuri to the point where they just have to run her over? This series has this idea of “fate” that I just don’t understand, and for as far as I picked up, it just refuses to explain exactly why.

Still, the plot, and setting here still are top notch and amongst the best of the season. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the characters: Hyouge Mono, Natsume Yuujinchou, Tiger & Bunny, Penguin Drum, and quite possibly even No.6 all have a characterization that I consider to be better and more interesting, varied and dynamic. Does that make the cast of Steins;Gate bad? Hell no, this episode was awesome and an excellent climax for the romance between Okabe and Kurisu.

I do guess that my expectations were a bit off about these past two episodes, but instead I got two very character focused episode. First one about Mayuri, then one about Kurisu, all about Okabe trying to decide to which time-line to go, all assuming that Kurisu’s death will be unavoidable like Mayuri’s. I admit that I did expect something more fast-paced.

The thing is though, that if if the plot wasn’t this good, I wouldn’t be able to have all these criticisms. The dialogue was wonderful and the conclusion of this past two episode arc, while I do feel that it was a bit dragged out, was excellent. I also really have to give props to the excellent use of the ED and that final climax afterwards.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

August Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

This month was an interesting one, definitely. There were unfortunately a few series who took a bit of a dip, or a bit of a wrong turn, but what charcterized the series who didn’t do that: charater development. Tons and tons of character development. Characters who one seemed one-sided gain a ton of depth, and just about every series turned out to be excellent in fleshing its cast out and giving more depth to it.

At this point, I won’t be able to tell whether or not this season really belongs among the best summer seasons we’ve had, because a lot of these series depend on their endings. The past spring will be very hard to beat in terms of awesome endings, but if there’s any season that can do it, it’s this one.

OVA Releases
#2: Carnival Phantasm – (5/10) – Okay, so I tried to watch this while not having played Fate/Stay Night. So obviously I did not enjoy watching all kinds of random references that flew over my head. Heck, I even have trouble imagining how those jokes would have worked if you DID know the meaning behind them. If you haven’t played Fate/Stay Night: don’t even bother with it. If you have though… prepare for something really silly.
#1: Milky Holmes OVA – (8/10)

This… was bizarre. It’s pretty much the same as the series, which is a good thing Its high energy just kept on going and going, with surprisingly good animation. It was incredibly cheesy, but knew it and played that for laughs, which worked nicely. My one complaint is that it was entirely fanservice. Especially turning one of the cast members into an is a very trite twist, but thankfully it was nowhere near as badly done as with series as Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka.

TV Series
#19 (20) – Sacred Seven – (7,25/10) – Sacred Seven: just take your characters, design a bunch of interesting looking monsters and just throw one monster at your characters for every single episode. That would have been more interesting than what the creators are currently doing, because the main plot of this thing is so completely and utterly boring. Apart from Arama, there really is nothing that stands out.
#18 (9) – Ao no Exorcist – (7,75/10) – Ao no Exorcist has gone off into anime original material, and I just have one major problem with that: I don’t care about the plot. It’s just not interesting. I’d rather wtach these characters interacting with each other. Satan? Who cares about Satan! Can’t the characters just all have a sleepover or something? That’s something that this show does really really well.
#17 (15) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8/10) – I’m a bit behind on this series and haven’t watched the latest two episodes yet. This has to do with business, but also because the show is currently building up and so we’re in the middle of a training arc. I do not want to watch yet another season that’s entirely dedicated to build-up! There are hints of things getting better though: the villain looks interesting at the very least. Now, let’s not let her derail like the last one, okay?
#16 (8) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8/10) – Aaand here is the point where this series lost my grip on it: in the end, the pachinko arc was too long. This month featured two episodes that just dragged on and kept repeating themselves. The thing is, that with so few arcs, this thing has lost its dynamic: it’s just waiting for the inevitable to happen. It’ll probably be an adrenaline fest when we get there, but Kaiji: you can also create series of 20 episodes long. It’s been done before. It’s even gonna save you some budget…
#15 (18) – Sket Dance – (8/10)

This month, Sket Dance was testing my patience, both in a good and bad way. The thing remains that it’s not as funny and dynamic as it used to. It however still is creative and is willing to try out risks. Just as I gave up on it, it pulls these strange episodes like the one entirely dedicated on bad jokes, or the double date. At first they may not seem much, but they’re surprisingly clever when you think about them afterward. I in any case want to see where the creators are going with this.

#14 (17) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10)

At first, Dantalian no Shoka seemed to have an excellent pair of main characters. Now, they’re the biggest weakness of the show, simply because they refuse to evolve. In Dalian’s case, she actually devolved. The rest of the cast, and the stories they run into are wonderfully imaginative, though. They’re incredibly far-fetched, but that’s what makes them fun and interesting. Gainax’s animation also helps.

#13 (16) – Blade – (8,25/10)

Yeah, something has to go really weird for Blade to not end up as the best Marvel series. Sure, its action isn’t as good as some of the other installments, but apart from that it has them beaten in pretty much every other category: the story takes actually interesting detours and has surprisingly engaging (albeit a bit cheesy) sideplots, the cameos are used in the best way so far, so that they actually enhance the characters playing a cameo, the characters have received much more depth than the previous ones and the bond between Blade and the people around him is much more interesting than that of the X-Men and Wolverine, and in terms of setting the characters aren’t wandering around random places, but instead are traveling all across southeast asia. Often visiting places that anime almost never (if they do it at all) touches upon.

#12 (14) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)

Out of the slice of life series that I’m still watching, Croisee is the most overly sappy one. Because of that though, it can also get really genuine, which is an interesting trade-off. Its main selling point is its focus on cultural differences, which is really explored well. There’s a ton of interesting stuff discussed each episode, which very neatly relates back to the characters, instead of being just a kaleidoscope of random peculiar cultural differences.

#11 (10) – Usagi Drop – (8,25/10)

The interesting thing about the slice of life series this season is that they’re all excellent in totally different ways. For Usagi Drop, it’s the realism that really shines. Before I’ll fully judge this series though, I want to see how the creators are planning to end it. It won’t have the infamous trainwreck of the manga ending (which I thankfully have yet to be spoiled about) , but the anime still is going to have to tie itself together and I’m really curious how they’re gonna do that.

#10 (11) – Blood-C – (8,5/10)

It’s actually been a while since I’ve blogged such a controversial title. With that, I mean that Blood-C joins the ranks of series of which people have hugely diverging opinions. Personally, I’m at the positive side of the spectrum: I find this to be a very effective horror series with a gripping atmosphere and top notch fight choreography all around. The cast of characters admittedly aren’t the most interesting of the season, but they do really well in holding my attention and remaining plausible.

#9 (13) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)

The thing that sets Hana-Saku Iroha apart? Its drama. The characters themselves are… annoying to watch at times, but the drama between them is excellent to watch. It’s creative, gets some terrific development out of them, it shows new sides of them, the script is surprisingly well written when tit wants to and it weaves its various sideplots surprisingly creatively together. Because of that I find this to be a very engaging series, desipite how much the characters may get on my nerves.

#8 (6) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Number 6 has only one problem. That didn’t change at all during the past month. It’s still wonderfully written, makes great use of its time to stuff as much plot and character development into its episodes, is really well animated, has an excellent plot and setting… but there still is no way that this one’s gonna end well.

#7 (7) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This still is rock solid entertainment: this month in particular upped the ante by giving the cast some depth to the main cast. Former one-sided characters actually were put in interesting situations and dilemmas, and gained a lot of depth. The storyline is also very effective and keeps making things interesting and entertaining to watch. Sure, there’s some badly placed fanservice, but that’s a minor issue.

#6 (12) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,5/10)

Finally in this month Kami-Sama n Memo-Chou stopped goofing off and showed one heck of a great storyline. Four episodes of undiluted awesomeness with a tight script, creative twists, excellent characters and a wonderful pacing. This is what mystery I expected from this series. It still has the JC Staff Cliches, but it executed them in a completely different manner compared to how they usually do them. Overall this finally lived up to its promise.

#5 (5) – Natsume Yuujin-Chou – (8,75/10)

There was one two episode arc and three episodic stories this month. The arc was great, but the episodic stories really stole the show here. The big advantage of the third season is that Natsume is developing like hell here. Every episode is dedicated to his growth. When you’ve also got heart-warming stories added to that, you’ve really got an amazingly charming series.

#4 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

The one annoying part about Hyouge Mono this month was that it took a two-week hiatus, so we only got two episodes. What we got though, was absolutely wonderful. The acting in this series just gets better and better, and is without a doubt the best of the entire season. Just about everything is portrayed with the utmost subtlety, only to break that again with the bombastic emotions, and the cast plays excellently off each other. It’s still incredibly slow, so if you don’t have patience this really isn’t the thing for you, but for those who have it really is rewarding. But yeah, the dialogue is still incredibly complicated, so the chance that it will e picked up by subbers is very slim.

#3 (2) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)

Steins;Gate showed itself as the series with the best plot of the season. It’s full of intricacies of time-travel and its multi-layered plot is really starting to pay off now, and I especially like how suddenly, the first half of the series gets a completely different meaning. The least impressive part still is its characters, but they are nowhere near bad. They’re well developed, but perhaps just not as dynamic as they could have been.

#2 (1) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

The plot with which Tiger&Bunny decided to go into its finale with was just awesome. Well built up, imaginative, but most importantly the characters were just awesome to watch. Just about every character shined during the past month and it’s incredibly fun to watch these people together. So yeah, it uses a plot device here and there. Who cares when it’s this awesome?

#1 (3) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9/10)

Now this one without a doubt stood on top of all of the other shows this month. It’s got a rock-solid direction and just keeps throwing the viewer for loops over and over. It’s chock full of red herrings and symbolism, the animation has a ton of neat details in it, the acting is absolutely wonderful, the characters all stand out and are wonderfully fun to watch. Seriously, if the other episodes are as good as this, then it’s a very strong contender for the best show of 2011.

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 35

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Another amazing episode. At this point, things have to go really weird if the third season isn’t going to end up as better than the second one. It even has the potential to still surpass the first one. I haven’t seen an episode that beat the Hotaru episode, but apart from that the new season has just about everything running in its favor, and it has two very important things that the first season didn’t have: consistency and development.

Natume’s development really is THE major selling point of this third season. And heck, this episode added even more of it. I mean, the power of friendship is cheesy and all, but this show completely nailed it. Natsume’s concerns for his friends, and their concerns for him were incredibly heart-warming. It’s a wonderful way to show how much the cast has grown since the start of the series: back in the first season, the characters were still way too distant for this episode to have happened.

School festival episodes are overused, but thankfully not the biggest cliches out there. Those go to the hot spring episode, the beach episode and the pool episode, simply because everybody always does the bloody same there. Of course there are the bad festival episodes that are just there to waste time, but the good ones manage to show the cast in a different light, allow the characters to show themselves off, or highlight development. The best ones re the ones who want to make points that could not have been made without the choice to go with a school festival (so, no cheesy “let’s wait until the festival to confess to each other or something). Here, so much stuff gets thrown at Natsume, and he finally gets the chance to show himself off in the center of the attention by being the store clerk. The festival was a perfect chance for that.
Rating: *** (Awesome)