Author: psgels

Showa Monogatari Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Showa Monogatari




Anime is dying? Hah. As long as series like Showa Monogatari keep getting released, I refuse to believe something like that. Showa Monogatary may have a few production issues, but I just have to praise the guts that the producers had to actually dare and release it. Here we have a series wit no moe, no bishies, zero fanservice, no pandering and no overblown action. Instead of aiming at teenagers, kids or otaku, Showa Monogatari is aimed at a 50+ audience, portraying the life of an ordinary family in 1964.

Now, this is a slice of life series, so it obviously isn’t for everyone, but I do have to warn people that it’s not what it seems at first sight, because this show has something very misleading about its premise: Kouhei, the rather annoying 9-year-old lead character. Because of him, this show will at first seem like a kids’ series where we see yet another coming of age story of a young boy growing up somewhere. This is not what this series is about, though.

Kouhei is just a member of the cast here. There are a number of episodes that revolve around him, but there are also plenty of episodes that don’t, and instead develop the rest of the cast: his older brother, sister, parents and grandmother. All of them together end up as a charming and down to earth family with real problems, challenges and characteristics. Every character in this series is flawed and this show actually does quite a good job to develop everyone.

This series does have its production issues, though. The animation is quite poor and the direction feels rather mellow throughout the entire series. The worst is Kouhei’s voice actor, though: this guy can’t act for the life of him, and will ruin any dramatic scene he’s involved in. It overall is a series that feels like the production was rushed, and that the creators didn’t get time to make everything click and mesh together, and present things well, because it’s very rough around the edges.

The problems that the cast face are very realistic, but at the same time the creators do force their drama. It’s again one of those cases that has a lot of flaws, yet does a number of other things right, because the cast here remains well developed. In the end though, it does lack a bit of staying power.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The direction could have been stronger, but this one is well balanced and very realistic.
Characters: 8/10 – Well developed cast, but sometimes very badly acted.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is really jerky, but the background art is very accurate. It really feels like 50 years ago.
Setting: 8/10 – Very interesting premise, historically accurate and realistic. Very authentic.

Suggestions:
– Furusato Japan
– Rail of the Star
– Ushiro no Shoumen Dare

Showa Monogatari – 13

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Okay, so it turns out that the final episode of Showa Monogatari aired quite a while ago. Nobody just bothered to release it aside from a random upload on Megavideo. the long wait wasn’t really good for my appreciation of this series: looking back, the previous episode actually left a lot to be desired due to both Kouhei’s acting and pulling a sickness bomb for the final climax.

This episode meanwhile didn’t really feel like a climax. It was interesting though, because of how it forced some of the characters to think about their futures. Ironically though, Kouhei still is a pretty flat character, but thankfully he didn’t play the biggest part in this episode.

Overall, the biggest flaw of this series is the way it presented itself: the script is good, but the way in which the characters are presented, and acted lacks ways that catch your attention and end up memorable. This is indeed tricky to do with a slice of life series, but also probably the biggest reason for why this series got ignored so badly, aside from the chronic lack of moe.

Overall, Showa Monogatari was good, but not up to the standards of Wao World. Their other movies, helmed by their flagship director, did have a strong direction and focus, starting off slow and continuing to build up to a great climax where not drama stood central, but performances. Furusato Japan still was the best at this.

Now all that’s left is the movie, and do note that that one’s being created by a different staff compared to the TV-series. The director is someone who normally does just special effects or producing, so who knows what kind of things will result from a director like that
Rating: * (Good)

Steins;Gate – 18

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



One thing that we’ve never seen in this series: what happens after a D-Mail gets sent in the time-line that Okarin leaves behind? Does Okarin just split in two, where one version leaps to a different time-line and the other stays behind? I mean, this episode created a lot of drama around Rukako having to change her gender back, and yet that version of her shouldn’t notice any change and instead she’s sending a consciousness of Okarin to a different time-line. Would the time-line in this episode just result in a full fledged romance between Okarin and Rukako?

In any case, Rukako requesting a date made this episode a bit sillier than I expected. It unfortunately lead to Daru showing once again how far removed he is from reality (by far the most annoying part of this series), and unfortunately I have to admit that the reason why the creators made Rukako fall in love with Okarin was a very flimsy one. The kind you expect from a bad harem show.

The reason for the IBM5100’s disappearance however, was very good. Here I thought some big conspiracy was behind it, and it turned out to be a mere accident. It was such a key point in the story that changed everything for the worse.

Beyond that, the part few episodes have also been terrific build-up by preparing for the inevitable attempt to retract Shining Finger’s D-Mail. She’s been completely absent from the past episodes. And after that, things should only get even more interesting. It’s hard to believe that there are only 6 episodes left, and yet I feel that that could be the perfect number for this show to close off satisfyingly.
Rating: * (Good)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 31

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



Hmm, I don’t see what’s so particularly bad about this episode. Sure, it indeed wasn’t as good as last week, but it still was a very interesting story with a ton of character development for Natsume and two of his friends, alongside some pretty good background on one of their families.

I do agree that the pacing was a bit more jumpy than usual, and this episode indeed wasn’t of the soothing kind that we’ve gotten used to. Instead, this episode was full of character. Taki’s grandfather’s story was particularly interesting, in the way that he unknowingly set up a bunch of random things and seals, and it also explains how Taki got that seal that shows Youkai.

I also really liked the ending of this episode: with these two, Natsume has finally met two people who understand him, and in this episode he definitely got closer to them, up to the point where he can actually tell them about the youkai he encountered. I mean, he’s still very shy: the scene in which they were just randomly sitting around the table chatting: we get the big impression that Natsume was mostly sitting there and the other two were mostly talking about random classmates. This is like, the fifth episode in a row that contributes in some way to Natsume’s development.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 18

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



An interesting, albeit very annoying episode.

So, I asked for a Nako episode, and I got one. This episode dealt with her shyness, and unfortunately in order to do that it had to have her act like a bit of an idiot The entire episode was about her trying to change herself, with the result that she did a ton of things that she wouldn’t do. It definitely wasn’t bad… but she did get rather on my nerves. The only real criticism I have right now is the random guys who popped up in this episode (they were really annoying in the bad ways…) and that Nako probably is the first who begged her employer not to give her a raise…

This definitely was an episode for the long term of this series: what the next episodes need to do is show how she changed. She really didn’t appear much during the past months, so the shyness also suddenly returned from having been gone for like, what? 10 episodes?

Interestingly though, this episode also secretly fleshed out the rest of the cast when the four girls went shopping and we got to see some unexpected sides of them that we had not seen before. Ohana’s grandmother’s part in this episode was also very strong: the main theme of this series is working, and the end of this episode really delivered on that again.

This probably won’t happen, but what I’d like to see the most out of this series at this point, is a significant time-skip: show these characters as they’ve grown up. What has become of them? How did their character development during the past few episodes change them?
Rating: * (Good)

Ao no Exorcist – 16

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



So, this series is going into an original ending, eh? I have just one question for that at the moment: the part at the beginning of this episode, where Rin was brought back through the power of love: was that anime original as well?

I ask that because that was the weakest point of this episode. The rest of this episode threw around some strange coincidences, but on the other hand it handled the aftermath well, and I especially liked that inclusion of that courtroom scene: it may not have been exactly an accurate trial, but it shows Mephisto having to explain and defend his actions in front of a supreme court and give s a different twist to the whole Vatican subplot.

An anime original ending isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the creators do need to pay attention: writing an original adaptation and adapting something are completely different. What Ao no Exorcist is currently trying to do is wrap everything up without just working towards that ending of Rin fighting Satan. Interestingly, just like Letter Bee, the writing is not as solid as it used to be. This time it feels a little jumpy, though it’s nothing bad yet. What this series shouldn’t forget though, is that it needs to devote a lot of time to the main cast as well: they were the selling point of this series so far, and it’d be a shame to just abandon them, just to get the plot right.

It’s all going to depend on Ryota Yamaguchi here. His work on Escaflowne is definitely promising, but apart from that he mostly wrote mediocre screenplays (including the one for the Tekken movie…). Oh, and let’s not forget the previous series he created together with Tensai Okamura: Project Blue Chikyuu SOS… things can go anywhere still.
Rating: * (Good)

Tiger & Bunny – 18

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Yeah, this really was meant to be a hard to watch episode. Finally Kotetsu mans up and settles down in order to raise Kaede… and then his partner breaks down. This was something that was bound to happen: Barnaby’s rise in popularity couldn’t last forever, and with this he didn’t just find out that Jake wasn’t the murderer of his parents, but someone has also been screwing with his memories.

Of course he doesn’t know yet that Ouroboros is as corrupt as hell, so he can probably only guess what the hell happened there. It’s a really scary thought of suddenly figuring out that half your memories may be fakes. My guess is that his mind was probably changed in those relaxing chamber thingies, in order to 1) divert attention from the real killer, 2) boost Barnaby’s popularity, 3) boost ratings, and possibly even 4) get rid of Sky-High, who still is by far the strongest hero out there. Just try figuring that out from Barnaby’s position, though.

Now, thanks to Kotetsu this episode wasn’t as enjoyable as the previous ones, but the creators were really deliberately trying to turn him indecisive. With this, I can understand the creators’ decision to make him retire a bit more: he will probably retire, but this will most likely happen at the end of the series. Just randomly quitting right now would be too irresponsible to Barnaby, while not quitting would be too irresponsible to Kaede.

These are some very interesting dilemmas here, and I hope that the creators won’t a) use something cheap by turning Kaede into a bad guy or b) come with some very convenient solution out of nowhere that allows Kotetsu to solve both. If this doesn’t happen, then the finale has just become even more potentially interesting.

Also, who the hell in that village has magnetic powers?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – 05

by psgels, posted in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée



This was quite the interesting episode. For one, Alice made no appearance whatsoever, so the creators aren’t trying to overuse her, but this episode also went another step further in its analysis of the cultural differences between France and Japan. Previously it discussed things like different foods and climate,but this time it really looked at the people: how they act towards each other and strangers.

Beyond that, Yune also had the bad luck to get lost in the middle of a rainy day where everyone would be rather pissed off, but I’m actually surprised at how she thought that talking to strangers with a smile will catch their attention: my impression of Japan (and do correct me if I’m wrong here) was that it’s very difficult to talk to strangers, in an “everyone’s minding their own business”-kind of way, even more than what’s common in Europe.

The shop scene pretty much nailed it though: I was also really surprised when I first found out that Japanese shop keepers tend to really flock to you and try to assist you in every way. Beyond that, this episode also addressed the poverty in the area quite subtly as an introduction: we’ve seen that young boy before, and only now he just makes his move, actually taking advantage of Yune’s niceness.

Oh, and in the meantime this show is also doing quite a good job in fleshing out its characters. The Aria-esque parts where Claude explains how important his grandfather is to him also really worked here, and this episode pretty much did that with the rest of the cast as well
Rating: ** (Excellent)

July Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

How good do I consider this season to be? Well, to put it like this: I’ve got eighteen series this season that I’d rate at 8,25/10 or higher. In other words, there are eighteen series that I really, really like airing at the same time. The last time such a thing happened was back in September of 2009, and this season we’ve only just started yet!

The main flaw of this season pretty much what has been the main flaw of every season for the past years: length. There are quite a few series that aren’t going t fit their stories in their allotted time, and there again are too few series that dare to go beyond 13 episodes. With the way that the anime sales have bloomed over the past years though, I really hope tat soon we’ll be able to say goodbye to this very annoying trend.

#33 (new) – Mayo Chiki – (2,75/10) – Now this was just horrible. Just one big excuse for cute girls and fanservice and nothing more. The premise is based around the entire cast being complete and utter morons, and it’s just another one of those really bad fanservice comedies that pop up every season. Ignore this one at all costs! Dropped.
#32 (new) – Manyuu Hiken-Chou – (3/10) – Look. I often tell fanservice shows to be a bit more creative. I have said before that I have nothing against creative fanservice that fits within the setting of the series. And yeah, I guess that Manyuu Hiken-Chou does get creative… but I DID NOT MEAN CREATING OUTRIGHT PORN!
#31 (new) – Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – (3,75/10) – What the hell happened here? I mean, the original OVA was decent: it was nothing special, but it had some nice morals and showed that being a mahou shoujo really isn’t as easy as it seems. Then this show comes along and it pretty much turns into a really stupid kaitou-busting show full of the most annoying moe antics and stereotypical characters. There’s nothing enjoyable about this: the characters just try to be as energetic as possible but completely forget to be entertaining or even remotely interesting! Dropped.
#30 (new) – Nyanpire – (4/10) – Unfortunately Gonzo’s first series in two years turned out to be Bad Gonzo. I mean, making a kids’ show is one thing, but this was just one huge commercial for a crappy J-Pop band who does the ED. The jokes are also completely unfunny: when I watch a comedy, I want to watch something that makes me laugh, not cringe! Dropped.
#29 (new) – Uta no Prince-Sama Maji Love 1000% – (4/10) – I prepared myself that this would be a campy series. But I never could have imagined the amount of stupidity and cheese that this show ended up delivering. Just about every character is hamming it up, and not to mention how ridiculously stupid the entire premise of this show is. I gave up at the point where the teachers actually forbade the characters to have any romances with each other. What the hell? Isn’t that why you’d want to watch this show in the first place? Dropped
#28 (19) – Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – (4,25/10) – I’ve seen this one recommended quite a few times, but based on the first episode of the second season, I really don’t get the appeal. It’s just a show about a bunch of idiots and cute girls. I did not find anything even remotely funny about that one episode I watched, and it was a complete chore to sit through. Was that just me, or was it really a bad episode for this series to start with? Dropped.
#27 (new) – Rou Kyuu Bu! – (4,5/10) – This is bad. I mean, for starters we have a show about grade schoolers with a ton of fanservice, but the creators also succeeded in putting together the most obnoxious cast imaginable. The five lead girls all try to act as annoyingly moe as possible. On top of that though, it tries to have a serious story. Those parts don’t mesh! Dropped
#26 (new) – R-15 – (5/10) – Now, there are shows about idiots. Those idiots however completely pale in comparison to the characters in this series: this is the epitome of stupidity. It’s just a bunch of morons pretending to be geniuses filled with random fanservice. It’s nice to see how creative it can get with that for just one episode, but after that it just gets repetitive and actually tries to take itself seriously. There’s no way in which that’s going to work. Dropped.
#25 (new) – Morita-San wa Mukuchi – (6/10) – So, this is nothing but various sketches around a shy girl, nothing more. While I can understand where the creators are coming from, you can’t just base your entire series around this; it’s way too one-sided and forced. Not to mention the utterly poor direction of this thing.
#24 (new) – Yuruyuri – (6,5/10) – At first it looked to be different, but in the end Yuruyuri unfortunately turned out to be exactly what it says on the title: very unsubtle lesbian jokes. It started off pretty decent, but after only three episodes they ran out of inspiration and just kept going with dull lesbian and boob jokes. Dropped.
#23 (new) – The Idolm@ster – (7,25/10) – The Idolm@ster is tolerable, but after three episodes I have to wonder: what makes this show worth watching? The interesting direction of the first episode was immediately dropped, and instead every episode so far has focused on one of the different girls. The first two being the Kugimiya Rie Tsundere and the really shy girl who is afraid of men. The drama around them was weak (especially the one around the tsundere) and the rest of the side characters only used their airtime to just further establish the fact that they’re a bunch of walking cliches. Dropped.
#22 (new) – Nekogami Yaoyorozu – (7,25/10) – So, this show is tolerable. Aaand… that’s a bit of the problem here: yes, it’s better than most of the moe antics shows out there, but still it only gets a chuckle out of me every few minutes. There really are very few reasons to keep watching this series. Only go for this one if you’re really bored. Dropped.
#21 (new) – Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Uragi – (7,5/10) – Okay, so right before I went on my holiday, I wrote up a quick first impression for this series, and published it. At least, that’s what I thought happened, but that post got lost somehow, so that’s why there is no first impression of it. In any case, beyond being the series with the villain with the silliest name, Itsuten is a very cheesy romance show with a lot of angst and moe. Its story does have some potential, but the annoying moe antics, overacting and fanservice certainly aren’t helping its case at the moment.
#20 (new) – Sacred Seven – (7,75/10) – The big problem with Sacred Seven is that it could have been so much more: it’s an original story, it’s got an excellent director, an excellent scriptwriter, and what do they come with? A school emo mecha series. So far in the past four episodes, the emo part is what hurts this series the most: the characters just aren’t well fleshed out and because of that they feel rather unengaging. There are moments where it really shows to be exciting (most notably the second episode), but so at this rate it’s not going to be amongst the highlights of this season. It does have a very good OP, though
#19 (13) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10) – Oooohh…. what the hell happened to that thirteenth episode? I’ve been waiting for ages now and still nothing. This show has had by far the weirdest airing schedule I have ever seen. As for this month, only one episode aired, and in terms of script it was very good. Overall the cast has received quite a bit of depth by now. The bad part is that Kouhei’s voice actor really can’t act, which really hurt during the dramatic bits.
#18 (10) – Sket Dance – (8,25/10) – The music arc was a bit of a disappointment and it lacked the whimsy of the rest of the series, though the other episodes were as fun to watch as ever. This series is really at its best when it manages to stuff in its high amount of energy.
#17 (new) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10) – After watching Gosick, it is refreshing to see that the main character here actually has a retort to all of his female companion’s insults. Dalian still is smarter than he is, but at least he can have a normal conversation with her without sounding like an idiot. Overall the mysteries in this series need a bit of work, but the atmosphere is really good, and the animation is also quite impressive. Will this work with only 12 episodes, though?
#16 (new) – Blade – (8,25/10) – You know, after the way in which the X-Men turned into a disappointment, I kind-of wrote this series off. Especially when it showed that it had Madhouse’s acting problem again. It’s indeed a bit of a cheesy action series and all, but I don’t know. This series has something, I just can’t put my finger to exactly what. In either case it still has the potential to become the best Marvel series so far if it pulls through: it wisely spends a lot of time on both its main character and villain, and on top of that the side-characters all wisely avoid some of their biggest pitfalls: the female side-kick is useful without hogging over the screen, the enemy vampires pose a threat by killing people actually very often, the main character is bad-ass yet not overpowered. Oh, and this show follows a black vampire slayer in the middle of the Philippines. Thank you, Madhouse for really trying to go around the world instead of just keeping with the same base setting over and over again.
#15 (20) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8,25/10)

A major improvement. The direction is snappier, the story is more interesting, the pacing moves along faster and the atmosphere is more varied. You can really see that a different staff is adapting this series this time, and alongside all the other flops of Studio Deen this year, it’s good to see that at least here they’re showing that they can still put out a good series.

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

This one turned out to be a series about cultural differences. It’s quite an interesting variation to the usual slice of life set-up, and I really have to praise Satelight for putting down a very authentic portrayal of France of a century ago. the background art in particular is just great. There are some problems in the character department (mostly because of one particularly annoying character), but overall it’s a heart-warming series so far,

#13 (6) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,25/10)

During the past month, Hana-Saku Iroha has been really good, but not as good as during June. This mostly is because the main cast didn’t receive that much attention and instead the side-cast was really well developed. What the next month needs to do is give the same treatment to the main cast.

#12 (new) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,25/10)

This series stands out because it had the best opening episode of the season amongst Penguin Drum. After that it dulled in a bit in order to focus on character building, but there still is a lot of potential here. It’s especially the dialogue that’s well written and the mysteries are well built up, but there are weaknesses. Some bad guys are just plain stupid, and it also has JC Staff-esque fanservice that is completely overused and often out of place.

#11 (new) – Blood-C – (8,25/10)

This show is definitely not for everyone, in top of being completely different in tone compared to the other parts of the blood franchise. It’s a simple series that really just planned to use its first four episodes to build up its atmosphere, but I really like it so far. The atmosphere works, the fight scenes are just completely amazing, and I’m really eager to get to the point where this show starts off for real. The big potential pitfall is that there will be too much build-up, but so far it’s heading into the right direction.

#10 (new) – Usagi Drop – (8,5/10)

This one’s by far the most realistic show of the season. It chronicles how hard it is to take care of a young child, without exaggerating this. There’s a good backstory due to the strange family construction that this series takes place in and the dialogue is all wonderfully down to earth.

#9 (12) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,5/10)

At this point, I’m really watching Ao no Exorcist for the characters: they’ve grown into a lovable bunch with excellent chemistry and the relationships between them are all really well done. So yeah it’s a shounen series, with its share of cliches, but that’s not important here at all.

#8 (11) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,5/10)

The past month has been a lot of build-up, but the tension was still very high and it was very entertaining to watch. There were times at which it took a bit long to get to its point, like with the old guy episode, but it’s not like we’re back to the really slow pacing of the first season. Now all that’s left is to wait whether or not it’s actually going to pay off.

#7 (new) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This turned out to be a very enjoyable and action-packed thriller. It’s all well directed and balanced, alternating between action, drama, comedy and horror quite nicely and while it does have some fanservice cliches, it’s got an intriguing and nicely fleshed out cast of characters and the exciting parts of this series are really delivering so far.

#6 (new) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Excellent music, excellent animation, excellent characters and an excellent setting. No.6 is a very solid adventure series with strong, constantly evolving characters in an interesting setting. There’s only one problem with this show, but it is a really big one: the length! There’s no way in which 11 episodes is going to be the right number for this one.

#5 (12) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,75/10)

The third season of Natsume Yuujinchou has had a wonderful start. Somehow, the creators actually managed to make it increasingly better with every single episode. The atmosphere is still really soothing, yet the stories it tells are strong and well thought out. It’s still a heart-warming story and what’s more: Natsume’s development is really kicking in now. It’s been a major theme of this third season and every episode seems to contribute to it in one way or another.

#4 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

This was a month for the plot to progress for Hyouge Mono: a lot of changes have been made, a lot of characters have developed, and risen up in ranks, giving a completely different feel to the series. On top of that, Sasuke is just as eccentric as he’s ever been, and this series is giving him more and more incentives to show that eccentricity. It’s still a rock-solid series with amazing acting and characterization that obviously isn’t for everyone.

#3 (new) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (8,75/10)

This is good. It’s by var the best series of the new season. The direction is wild, vivid and detailed with all kinds of references of which you’ll never know whether they’re symbolism or foreshadowing. The characters are great, the chemistry between them is awesome, the story is imaginative. Just about everything works here.

#2 (4) – Steins;Gate – (9/10)

What a plot! This month Steins;Gate really revealed how much thought went into its plot and narrative structure, and it was glorious. There are so many questions that it’s asking and the time travel plot is now really hitting some high notes with all of the interconnected twists and turns it takes.

#1 (9) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

At this point, Tiger & Bunny has become bloody brilliant. Every episode has delivered an amazing story that gave a ton of development to the main cast, the main storyline has gotten better and better, and just about every character ended up more enjoyable to watch.

Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – 04

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



The fourth episode is traditionally a place for either the first big climax of a series, or a silly episode meant to flesh out certain characters. This was the latte, in which the cast tries to sniff out an underwear thief.

And yeah, that could have been better, and it could have been worse. I mean, it’s obvious that a show like Kamisama Dolls is better at these kinds of scenes because it’s got an actually good comedy director, but I do like that this episode tried to be serious despite having such a silly premise. It did make the revelation of the true culprit strangely contrasting and funny.

I can understand the need for this kind of an episode: it’s good to break up the mood and show more of the characters. I’d just wish that JC-Staff would pick something other than weird fanservice. The underwear thief wasn’t really the bad part of this episode: it had this nice camp-ness. Instead the creators couldn’t refuse to bring Alice in and start making small boob jokes. That’s where it really turned into the bloody overused territory. Go for something different, will ya!?

But I digress: this was a very good episode for Min. At the end of the episode Alice delivered a very good twist to the story, and I did not suspect that the creators would bring in her father at this point. The story between the two of them is very good, down to earth and yet a bit silly, and it worked out really well., on top of asking a few more questions (why didn’t she recognize her own father).

What puzzles me though is why the creators picked Min of all people to give some real depth. Seriously, she’s the most fleshed out character at this point, having gotten two full episodes of attention. Of course, it would be great if she were just the tip of the iceberg, but that entirely depends on the length of this series. This show is one of the very few series this season of which it’s still a mystery of exactly how long it’s going to be, but Ideally you’d want 24 episodes for this thing. Especially considering how large the cast is, and how much time this episode just devoted to one of them.
Rating: * (Good)