Author: psgels

Uchuu Kyoudai – 71 – 74

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

The past four episodes: character-development. It’s slow and steady, but definitely there, and in all kinds of forms. Mutta changed and finally realized his strengths, gaining lots of confidence from it, and also becoming mature enough to forgive his former employer that he gave the Zidane, Sharon’s condition subtly gets worse, the chief of Nasa gets some unexpected background (also I love that small scene of a young Deneil Young). And whoa, Hibito actually left with a big post-traumatic stress disorder after what happened on the moon.

I like that recently, the series has at least remembered to be varied: a few months ago I remember complaining that the arcs take too long, and that the series got too monotone. This arc again solves this by focusing on many things at the same time, so that we’re not just stuck with just one scenario. It’s still nowhere near the levels of the first 40 episodes, but I can’t deny that these events really pushed the characters further.

This reminds me of the reason why I don’t consider the Legend of Galactic Heroes to be the best anime ever. Sure, it’s amazing. Among the smartest anime out there. However, like Space Brothers, it was just so incredibly long. At times it really felt like a chore to try and sit through it, and it sometimes spent a bit too much of its time meticulously developing its cast and storyline, at the expense of pacing. The same has happened with Space Brothers: technically it’s doing everything right, but I want to see that amazement again of Mutta hearing that he gets to become an astronaut. The meticulous team building in an environment you could trust nobody thanks to the red cards. The longer a series goes on, the more chance it has of becoming stale in one way or the other. I’d like to view this with a bit of a broader perspective, using other, really long series and how they coped with their length. Generalizations will follow:

– Monster actually did this perfectly. The key was that it was built up meticulously: as it went on every single episode continued to deliver thanks to the build-up of the early episodes.
– Gintama also could not keep up for me after 100 episodes. The reason for that was that it ran out of jokes and started trying too hard. The other side of the extreme.
– Touch also had points where it got really stale, but what saved it was that it kept you on your toes. Although it only barely got away with this.
– Maison Ikkoku is another odd one. Helped by immense character-development and a ridiculously strong climax. It also didn’t play all of its cards immediately.
– Hajime no Ippo is a strange one: it also suffered from getting stale a bit, due to the entire series being about boxing, not the most varied topic. And yet the second season came and improved upon it by being much more over the top and doing this really well.
– Hikaru no Go had some amazingly strong episodes, but it too suffered from being stale despite how it just kept being intelligent. Again, the way in which every episode was about Go had something to do with that.
– Kodomo no Omocha is also a weird one, because its worst arc was in the middle of the series, and it picked itself back up afterwards
– Jigoku Shoujo was helped by that it was about three distinct parts that all had a clear beginning and ending and purpose.
– Hunter X Hunter is only now getting really good because we’ve finally gotten to the actual point that everyone has been waiting for ever since they first announced the new series.

I can see the following patterns from these series:
– Monotony can make things get stale, but not always.
– It’s not enough to only be ridiculously knowledgeable about your subject material. It’s just a very important and welcome ingredient. like having a steak dinner be so much better if it’s the meat from one of those Kobe cows or something.
– The best solution is: meticulous planning. Knowing exactly what you’re building up for, and knowing exactly what you want to do with it. That can excuse a lot.

How to relate this to Space Brothers: what I feel like it’s missing is planning. Up to the arc in which Mutta became an astronaut, the creators felt like they were in full control. Right now it feels like they’re just adapting the manga chapters as they come along with a steady pace, without really giving the extra mile.

so yeah, another reason why it’s wrong to adapt manga that are still currently ongoing. If you don’t know where the plot is going, then you’re going to be limited in one way or the other. I get that it makes sense from a commercial standpoint, but there are more things that do that that are just not right.
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)

Silver Spoon Review – 86/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Silver Spoon


When Noitamina started airing two series per season, it was amazing. It’s a timeslot that on average tends to be aimed at a much older audience than usual, and having two series with the same mentality definitely helped to bring more diversity to anime overall. Unfortunately it’s a schedule that could not be kept up forever: last season saw a rerun, and this time there only is one new anime, with the name of Silver Spoon. But it’s worth the watch!

The series you can compare this to the most easily is probably Moyashimon. Both series are about agricultural college with an oddball entering. Where Moyashimon focused on plants and germs, Silver Spoon focuses mostly on actual farming, and farm animals. The big differences come in the way the series are laid out: Moyashimon is random, silly, and overall rather shallow, compared to Silver Spoon being very meticulously constructed, and deep. And don’t get me wrong, it can get silly at times, but even that is very well plotted out. Compare it to how precise the comedy in Full Metal Alchemist always was.

Watch this show for the depth though: this series takes a look at the less pleasant sides of farming. And it does so with such grace! It doesn’t shy away from showing the fact that the animals in this series are destined for the slaughterhouse. It managed to create these very sympathetic characters who all have different roles and views on it, and they’re all affected by each other’s actions: some people accept it like it’s normal, others really need to take more time. The main character in this series is actually a really good one, because he challenges that view in nearly all of the characters. Of his age, in any case.

Beyond that it’s just an all around fun series to watch that goes into a lot of detail in some of the other aspects of working on a farm. There’s a second season coming up, but you can just as easily view this series standalone. There are a few episodes that perhaps break a it of the flow, or go on for a bit too long with the drama, but overall it’s a series that’s well worth the watch.
One-Sentence Review: This show is about farming, and it shows this in depth.
Suggestions:
– Moyashimon
– Nodame Cantabile

Silver Spoon – 08 – 11

by psgels, posted in Silver Spoon

Silver Spoon: you definitely have earned the right of the saddest death of a pig in any anime ever. The final four episodes of the first season put the focus back from the part time job, to the little piglet we saw in the first number of episodes. For me this was by far the most profound part of the series.

It definitely does help that there was a lot of development between the main character and the pig. I mean, it really had impact when the date for its trip to the slaughterhouse got closer and closer, and he just kept on growing.The creators played well with that, and it’s definitely done better than with Moyashimon: the series feels much more cohesive and with a purpose. The central themes of this series? Brilliant!

If I had to pick a least favorite part of this series, then I’d say that it’s the part that took place in the holidays. It feels detached from the rest of the series, it abandoned half the cast, which broke the flow of the series a bit. In Moyashimon it would have fitted, but not here where the series is so well constructed otherwise. Anyway, looking forward to the second season!
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Rozen Maiden 2013 – 09 – 11

by psgels, posted in Rozen Maiden 2013

Rozen Maiden, I applaud you. This series definitely has the best plot of the Summer Season series. In these three moments, this series really displayed that it was building up to something.

It’s great to see series that actually pay off. There are too many series that seem to be building up to stuff, only to not really do anything and go for a standard climax that just boils down to “defeat that bad guy” while doing drama things. Things like those are boring, and most often just pointless. Yeah, I guess that it’s all about the satisfaction of seeing an all-powerful being break down and all. But we’ve all been there. You need to spice things up.

I usually try to stay away from using other shows as examples, but ah. Screw it. I’m going to list some series that did this wrong (in my humble opinion, of course!). Slight spoilers may follow, but I’ll try to be as vague as possible.

K is a good example of a show that started off with promise, but didn’t do anything with it. And yeah, I know that it has a sequel coming, but that is no argument: I’ve said before that I don’t want to sit through an entire season if it’s just going to be build-up. It had all this build-up about these kinds… yet all of it didn’t really amount to anything: it was all very predictable, the characters took the most predictable turns in order to try and prevent things from going stale… not once did I feel like the creators were being really creative in where the plot was going.

Another area where this series could have gone wrong is in devolving into plain bad storytelling and devolving into plain stupidity. For that Tamako Market is a good example: you build up this nice and interesting family, who live in this interesting neighbourhood, only to completely derail the plot with that stupid prince subplot that never really went anywhere. And in the end, none of the build-up was really used.

Here, however. The first half of the series focused on the world of Jun who didn’t wind the key. It withheld a lot of characters. It put the entire cast of the show on a bus, save for Shinku and Suigintou, and focused on the intimate development between a very small set of characters. In these three episodes the characters went back to the other dimension, and it was glorious. Instead of one group of characters completely dominating the other, everything was balanced! Every character got his or her chance to shine and make impact!

A great example: in the second season of the original Rozen Maiden, Suigintou also made way for a different villain. However, here, her role as an anti-hero is SO MUCH BETTER. I love how she pretty much acknowledged that the reason why she held onto Suiseiseiki’s Rosa Mystica is pointless, and that she’s all doing it for “Father”. She’s neither good nor evil, she just has a huge price and doesn’t care about anything other than herself, and the creators haven’t overdone this by making her derail into either good or evil so far: she stayed true to herself, yet she also developed slightly, in the way that she stopped letting her pride get in the way of things that really don’t matter.

Also, Jun. I love what the creators did with him. For a while it was a bit weird how he created this new body for Kirakishou and all, but his development really put everything into place. The entire series is about people being trapped, trying to get out. In the past three episodes, a lot of characters actually succeeded in that. Jun did so by finally making decisions for himself. Going after his own feelings, rather than going with the flow. And the thing is: episode nine emphasized that his strongest bond is NOT necessarily with Shinku, the main doll of the series. Instead, Souseiseki is the doll HE made for himself. Not a replica or anything, it’s something he put together, outside of Shinku’s knowledge. The end of episode 11 remained vague about the outcome with the much hinted collapse of Shinku that could go either way here.

These episodes had so many things intertwine with each other, Really well done!
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi – 07 – 10

by psgels, posted in Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi

One of the things I love about this series: it’s like this big road trip. People travel togeter and people lack purpose in this world so some of them just go along for the ride. That’s quite rare for travelling series like this. Also, when one of the main character runs off for a few episodes in the spotlights, off screen development happens for the rest of the cast. Also very appreciated in making this cast come alive by showing that they do more than what you see on camera. Episode 9 was a wonderful example of this where the focus of the episode just kept changing. This series perhaps jumps around, but it’s being very creative in doing so.

Yeah, things come out of nowhere. I don’t care. The proposal of episode 9 was awesome. It’s bizarre: whenever this show pulls something out of its ass like that, it feels like it fits. Like, scarily well.

Also, why did the time-loop in episode ten decide to reset everything on my birthday. I’m scared now….

Now, let’s talk about the big picture now. For a long while the show dealt with many different people and their stories relating to the setting. Right now, we’re getting character development. Alltogether, this makes for quite a rounded series. Both the setting and characters are really intriguing, and are well developed; very charming. This series obviously uses the vague type of storytelling: it doesn’t tell everything and you need to read between the lines for a lot of stuff.

But yeah… as for the actual concrete story… I’m not sure whether we’re really getting to the “saving the world”-part. My big fear will be the ending here. Please dont make “god” some kind of evil end boss or something.

The biggest downside of these four episodes? The start of episode 07, which somehow succeeded in bringing in a school and a bath scene again… are we nowhere safe?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Shingeki no Kyojin – 19 – 21

by psgels, posted in Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

I’ve said before that the Spring season of 2013 was one single worst spring season in more than a decade. I still stand by that. But holy crap: the epic action series that it brought forth is rivalled by only very few series! I kept hearing that in the manga, this was the point where it got stale and all. If that’s true, then the creators of the anime are doing a mighty fine job at hiding it!

Holy crap these three episodes were just amazing! Production IG really put in effort in order to make the action as riveting as possible. The animation, music and story worked together wonderfully here, and it just kept on going. And it wasn’t just dumb action: everyone here used their heads, even the stupid titans were trying to learn (even if it’s just a small thing as trying to climb trees).

Here it really was established that the traitor could turn into the big female titan at will. And I love how she’s strong, yet not overpowered: she actually got caught in a lot of traps, and she really had to be creative in order to escape those. I really like that. She too ended up tired, although it was shown very subtly.

Also, after watching 21 episodes, I have to say: Shingeki no Kyojin for me is a very strong contender for the best soundtrack of the year.
Rating: 6,5/8 (Amazing)

Uchoten Kazoku – 05 – 09

by psgels, posted in Uchoten Kazoku

In these past four episodes, Uchoten Kazoku really showed itself as a series, focused on the past. In the past a number of major things happened, and these four episodes really explored those in a ton of detail, showing both very carefully what happened, but also the different perspectives that the different characters have on it and how they ended up coping with them.

The big one is of course the father’s death. We got to see the perspectives of the people he left behind, but also of the ones who ended up catching and eating him. It did this really well and I love what an in-depth look we got into the whole process. Unlike the first third of this series it doesn’t jump around from one thing to the other, but instead ties everything together. This all is a sign of excellent storytelling. And after this it’s the task of the finale to really push things forward and be daring.

There is a lot to like about this series and it really plays around with its storytelling in this unconventional manner. Take the way it looks at the eating of Tanuki: it doesn’t try to be preachy and go “all people who eat Tanuki are evil!” and instead goes for a much more subtle message: yeah, it sucks for the Tanuki, but it’s part of life. I really like how this contrasts with the huge impact that the death of the father made. And I also did not miss the symbolism at the end of episode eight, in which everyone is just eating a bit of chicken: it’s part of nature.

What also really struck me is the second oldest son. His story of guilt was a very touching one. He already was lazy and didn’t do anything, feeling guilty about it, and then that happened. That scene at the well for me was the most emotional moment of the series so far for me.

I also want to give a lot of thumbs up for the animation here. PA Works’ series usually are gorgeous, but their style is very easy to recognize usually. This series looks like nothing they’ve ever done, and they still managed to make it look gorgeous. Some of the best camera angles and shots have some awesome uses of colours.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Tamayura – More Aggressive – 08 & 09

by psgels, posted in Tamayura

Yeah, the second season of Tamayura is all about Potte. The rest of the cast, with the exception of perhaps that new girl, don’t get to stand in the spotlights unlike what they did in the first episode. It’s about her coming to terms with her father, and further pursuing photography. The rest… is mere details. The question’s whether that alone is good enough. Up till now, this series left things to be desired. I was really waiting for this show to come with something really good.

That came with episode 9, which showed Potte meeting the other best friend of her father. I love this guy and how he thinks back to who used to be his best friend. The creators nailed this workaholic who has long since grown up and who gave up his passion for photography in order to pursue other things, and yet his old personality is still there. He’s still got the interest in photography, and the memories he made in his past.

For me this was the best episode of the second season so far. It got Potte thinking, it was heart-warming and genuine, and what also was very important was that it didn’t repeat itself.

The rest of the episodes need to be more like this. Obviously not the same, but Potte really needs to significantly develop (given how much buildup she’s gotten) and the show needs to take its concepts further in some way. I’m not sure how they’re going or planning to do that though.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Gatchaman Crowds – 06 – 08

by psgels, posted in Gatchaman Crowds

So far, Gatchaman Crowds has been… interesting. Things are getting action-packed now and to me, they’ve delivered. I quite enjoyed these three episodes.

Episode 06: here Hajime really showed that she’s different from the usual ditzy female, in that she does everything consciously, with a clear purpose behind it. At the start of the series, I worried that she might get too annoying, but for me she didn’t, and this was one of the biggest reasons for that. She’s also doing another very interesting thing here: she completely disregards any sort of bias. If someone sounds like it could be fishy, she doesn’t care. She just does it, and somehow this show manages to stay away from the usual themes about naivety. She’s basically telling the rest of the cast to lighten up.

Rui has a very good point that the focus lies way too much with single heroes, and I can get behind trying to want to create a world in which everyone is a hero. But if there are people with special powers, then why not make use of that by cooperating? The villain wanting to update the world is a common trope that is used often, and therefore really needs to put in something special to stand out. This one isn’t quite there yet, but she’s on her way. There are definitely some fresh parts about her.

In episode 07 she starts acting like this big hypocrite when she deletes those three members who made jokes about dropping out, which goes completely against what she’s trying to do… Lots of hints for character-development on her side. That indeed gets used really well in the subsequent awesome action scene. Holy crap that is well directed! I still don’t get Pai Pai and JJ in this series though. What is their role? What’s their point? Why is the former so fidgety, and why is the latter not doing anything? Though Paipai’s transformation was great.

Episode 08 had the characters reveal themselves in front of kindergarteners in the midst of dubstep. I have to hand it to the creators that that was creative. The same goes for how they used that one former member of GALAX who rightfully believes that Rui screwed up. However, I do feel like his character is overreacting. Overall that is one of the big flaws of this series: characters have this tendency to overreact (yes, REact, I don’t mind the over the top acting, but characters end up drawing conclusions a little too biasedly).
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 67 – 70

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

For the past months I have been losing interest in Space Brothers, due to the huge standard that it set in the past. Sure it was still great, and had great moments, but it was not as good as what it once was. It lacked that spark. Even Sharon, while really sad, didn’t have that. A character is about to die: in essence every show is doing that (though granted, this series did it different from usual). I missed that spark: what made Space Brothers really special.

Now, these past four episodes. Nearly all of them reminded me why this series stands out. Sure, the pacing still is very slow, and the recaps at the start of the episodes have become even more annoying. But it had what I’ve missed for quite a while now: scenes that really hit me, whether they’re large or small, serious or comedic.

Episode 67 stood out not because of one moment, but how Mutta and Deniel grew closer together. The bond that developed between them in which they could just do stuff without saying things out loud, and how they both very well understand the dangers of being a fighter pilot.

Episode 68 had me laughing harder at an anime than what I’ve done in a really long while when Mr Hibbit appeared. Oh, how Hibito’s words come to bite him back!

Episode 69 again had me laughing again just as hard at Mutta’s photo that was taken. Sure they’re small things, but for some reason, that face he made really cheered me up. Also he’s an astronaut now!

Episode 70: Mutta actually got an offer to go into space that was not what he was after. It would realize his dream of becoming an actual astronaut, but he’d get nowhere near the moon. It really forced him to think about his future. Also holy crap, Vincent hasn’t been to space yet?!

It’s one thing to write a good story about astronauts. You can also get in pretty good character development. If you have that you generally have a pretty good series. What Uchuu Kyoudai did in the past was more than that. It’s the thing that is hard to describe, because a lot of it lied in the details: in both the script and the characters it went the extra mile and threw in lots of nice details and touches. Ever since the desert arc, that has been lost a bit (honestly, it started showing when Hibito was stuck on the moon). It’s all hard to describe, but I think a variation: don’t stay hanging around the same thing for too long, and if you do: spice things up. That was something that the first forty episodes of this series were just brilliant at.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)