Author: psgels

Steins;Gate – 16

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



This is one of those spoilery episodes. Spoilers I will be talking about below, so if you haven’t seen this episode yet it’s probably wise to just close this window and watch the episode. This line is to make sure that those spoilers don’t show up in blog aggregators.

I’m of course not talking about the identity of Suzuha’s father: Daru. I think it really was clear with the name of the time machine: if Okabe was really Suzuha’s father, then it’d have a really fancy and screwed up name, and yet her father just had to be an important character. I still think that Daru’s voice actor was a bit of a mis-cast. There was this one line where he tried to act cool, but instead sounded more like he does usually. Overall he just sounds strange, in a way that he’s forcing a different voice from his usual range a bit too much.

In any case though, what really struck me about this episode was Suzuha’s death, and how she failed to change the future for more than one percent. Throughout the entire scope of Steins;Gate, the concept of travelling to the future has never been hinted as plausible, and this episode really confirmed that it’s a one-way ticket. On top of that she also gave really strong background to the landlord.

I’m also fascinated at the complication that this has for the future. Especially since this episode was purposefully really vague on what else has changed: what happened to Makise Kurisu? What happened to the IBM5100? I mean: what was the reason why Mayuri’s death was evaded? I see three possibilities:
1. John Titor II never existed and he never gave Okabe the inspiration to experiment with time travel.
2. The message that Okabe received from himself scared him really badly and made him decide to abandon the time machine research.
3. Makise Kurisu never got involved and therefore the time machine is currently different.

I really suspect that a lot here is connected to each other. Suzuha travelled back in time, pretending to be John Titor probably was the cause that Makise Kurisu became a lab member. Interestingly, what would have happened if Okabe never went back in time to where Makise Kurisu was alive, back in that first episode? That also would have been a big setback for CERN. It’s also interesting how the time machine really seems like something that Daru would have built: one that focuses on sending stuff back to the past. It was Makise Kurisu’s influence who suggested sending thoughts back in the past, which so far turned out to be by far the most convenient time machine. I also suspect that that’s the reason why CERN was so easily able to take over the world.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 29

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou



This really was a wonderful episode. The best of the third season so far. It’s focused on Natsume’s past, interestingly, and on the kids who used to bully him. They changed too over the years, and this episode focuses on one who came in contact with a youkai.

Again things are much different from what they seem at first. The guy seems the same jerk at first, but gets much more rounded as the episode goes on, the youkai goes from a cute girl to a monster to a weak cute girl again. It’s great character development, not to mention how confronting this was for Natsume: throughout the entire series he has been trying to leave his past behind him, and here it comes back to him. For the first time we actually got to see Natsume really uncomfortable. The creators handled it really nicely.

Three episodes in, and I have to say that the creators really nailed the consistency so far. Right now, the third season is somewhere in between the first and the second season in terms of how much I like it. What it needs now, is the kinds of episodes that make it stand out: the really well written and heart-warming ones, like the Hotaru-episode. There still is plenty of time to do that, so I really hope that the creators are going to make use of that. In any case this season has the big advantage of character-development.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – 03

by psgels, posted in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée



Ah, this was really good. This episode was once again chock full of the main characters exchanging some of the things they grew up with, and the contrasts between them. Yune and Claude grew up in completely different environments, and between that it’s Claude’s grandfather who connects the two. Seriously, this is a premise you don’t see every day here.

They talked about all sorts of different stuff, like naming conventions, language, paper, housing. Oh, and I now know that rain in Japan lasts really long, compared to just the short outbursts of rain that we have in Europe. I also really like how Claude’s father talked in this “you should have been there”-way to Claude, as if he was urging him on to also travel once in a while. It was all really hard to imagine for Claude, especially in such an age where different cultures were relatively far apart from each other.

Apart from that though, you also really feel these characters live their daily lives. Claude spends quite a bit of time working, Oscar meanwhile is enjoying his retirement to the fullest, while Yune also is quite cute when she runs around the house. The dialogue also feels really natural between them. this really is great. There’s just one big but here…

That rich girl… was by far the worst thing to appear in this series so far. I mean, she wasn’t exactly a carbon-copy of the “ojou-sama” you see everywhere, but she was really stereotypical nonetheless. I mean, Yune is great: she’s cute, but she’s not like the stereotypical moe girl who does nothing but whine and go after the main characters’ pants. Beyond being adorable, she’s polite, sharp and curious. She’s not annoying in the slightest. That rich girl really needs to shut up soon, though. Who found it a good idea to make her like that?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 16

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



Before the actors arrived, I just couldn’t help but think that the entire movie thing was a scan. Then the actors arrived, and I’m not really sure what to think right now.

I mean, while I can buy a film crew making a movie in the inn (it does have a very authentic character, after all), I’m really not sure in what kind of mind the director was to promise important roles to the Kissuiso staff. Even weirder having the novelist assist with the writing… without an editor or even one meeting with the director about what he should write. Then there was that pool thing: why bet on something of which you have no idea how much mold it has accumulated over the past 20 years? (Also, please tell me that that isn’t going to be an excuse to have a pool episode in the near future…). It all seemed way too convenient, and more like this suspicious guy coming onto Ohana’s uncle with this shady deal that required 10% of the Inn’s income.

But no, the actors came, and it actually really looks like the director is just quirky. We’re going to have to wait for the next episode to really see the points it was trying to make, but the focus on Ohana’s uncle was really good. On top of that, this went further on the troubles of a small inn. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if the inn ended up going out of business for the climax of this series.

I do have a bit of criticism at this point though, especially when comparing this series to Ao no Exorcist. I know that it’s a bit weird to compare slice of life to shounen fighting and all, but I’m especially referring to the light-hearted scenes (again, this show knows how to do drama correctly): with Ao no Exorcist, I really noticed the light-hearted scenes get more interesting and enjoyable with every episode, as you can see the cast grow. With Hana-Saku Iroha though… this still is more of the same. Those kinds of scenes weren’t really interesting in the first half, and little has changed in the second half I’m afraid.

It’s not really the fact that nothing happens: I have really enjoyed far slower series in the past. But like that scene where Ohana was trying to fly on a broom, or when they were cleaning the pool… it just… didn’t feel right. Too forced, even.

What’s also jarring is that now that I think about it: the second half so far didn’t really have much character development for the main cast. The past arc developed Yuina and her fiance quite well, in Kissuiso (whenever things aren’t happening), things are changing too slowly. Perhaps the biggest change in the main cast is that Minko is less annoyed with Ohana. Compare that to Tiger & Bunny, taking a look to give a ton of new insight to vital characters, Ao no Exorcist who introduced a bunch of new characters to spice things up, Steins;Gate with its plot twists or Hyouge Mono, where [SPOILER]. There seems to be too little movement in this series, and the fact that this is slice of life shouldn’t have anything to do with that: it has enough drama to have made something interesting out of it.
Rating: * (Good)

Ao no Exorcist – 14

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



Another Gasshuku. While I’d like to complain about repetition, this episode once again was really enjoyable. And heck, for the first time it actually stressed teamwork. The characters came up with a pretty good plan that utilized a lot of their potential powers as well, in a much different way compared to the previous Gasshuku.

Still, while in the previous Gassuku Rin and Shiemi got to show off, this time it was the turn for Konekomaru and Ryuuji to shine. Especially Ryuuji with the way he kept mumbling his incantations and his plans at the same time was pretty interesting. Beyond that there also was a lot of really good interaction between the characters once again, which made for an all around enjoyable episode.

What’s also interesting is how there were two people who remained alone. This episode showed either Izumo or that mysterious blond guy who hardly talks in trouble. If I had to guess, then it’d be Izumo, because of how easily those moths tore up Shiemi’s summoning paper. I think that this time, Shiemi also was completely useless, or useless in terms of combat. The creators know that she isn’t strong, but they kept finding interesting way for her to be useful in order to not have her fall into the “damsel in distress”-role. This time though, she pretty much was bait: first to attract some of the protagonists together, and second to lure that lantern across the river.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tiger & Bunny – 16

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Holy crap, what a plot twist! Compared to the light-hearted episodes of the last two weeks, this episode was really dark. It didn’t just reveal Lunatic’s background, it also put a completely new spin to this series.

There have been plenty of hints so far that the city of Sternbild is corrupt and closely linked to Ouroboros, but there is one thing that always stood solid as the epitome of goodness: Mr. Legend. That’s exactly what he was though: a legend. His history was written so that he really stands out as a heroic figure, completely masking his flaws. It’s also not like he turned out to be some sort of Ouroboros Mastermind, and during his glory days he probably did some amazing things. He was the one who popularized the hero business after all, and inspired countless of people. Sure he was probably influenced by corporate strategies, but even then he himself had a huge influence there.

And then his powers declined, he started drinking and beat his own wife and son so badly that his son (aka Lunatic) ended up killing him.

What’s more: this episode also rocked because of the huge contrast between Kotetsu and Barnaby. I mean, they already were opposites and all, but right now, Barnaby is going though his glory days, while Kotetsu is about to leave them with the loss of his powers. Tiger in a way is very similar to Mr. Legend, his great example, so I’m really not sure what the creators have in store for him. Like I said before, it would really be interesting if he really were to lose his powers. At this point there have been no hints whatsoever to power upgrades, so it would be a bit of a shame if something like that ended up solving his problems.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Yona Yona Penguin Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Rintarou. He’s one of my favourite movie directors, only surpassed by Satoshi Kon (and perhaps Hayao Miyazaki, but that’s more because Hayao Miyazaki is incredibly consistent, while Rintarou most definitely isn’t). Yona Yona Penguin was his latest work, so I’ve been wanting to check it out for a long time, but it just didn’t show up anywhere. After watching it, I can sort of understand why: it’s a kids’ movie that’s completely different from any other series he has directed or worked on, and entirely in 3D CG. I really liked it, though.

Now, Yona Yona Penguin is neither nowhere near Rintarou’s best nor his worst work. It is merely a whimsical really young kids adventure: the main character is around six or seven years old, and the entire movie has this mentality. It doesn’t try to be anything other than that (a mistake that actually a number of other movies of this genre did make, like Haruka and the magic mirror for example), and just focuses on delivering a heartfelt and adorable adventure. And succeeds.

Let me get this out of the way here: Yona Yona Penguin is absolutely adorable. The main character runs, jumps and dances around the entire movie in a penguin coat. The soundtrack is as whimsical as the premise of this movie and only makes her even more fun to watch. She’s really just an innocent child who likes to play around, yet also is serious enough to know when not to goof off and continue on with the plot of the movie. A plot that seems simple at first, but becomes surprisingly heartfelt after a while due to a number of simple but interesting twists.

Rintarou’s experience also really helps during the finale of this movie. I mean, you shouldn’t expect anything as amazing as Metropolis or anything, but nevertheless the climax of this movie is beautiful wonderfully atmospheric. This is something where a lot of other movies don’t know how to deliver, but here it’s the highlight of the entire movie.

It’s a kids’ movie, but if you’re looking for something really innocent, then this fits the bill. Just know that it’s entirely based on kids’ logic: it’s not supposed to be logical…

Storytelling: 9/10 – Ah, why not? This has a childish innocence that a lot of other kids’ movies and series lack, and even during the dramatic parts, it never lets go of this innocence.
Characters: 8/10 – They’re kids, and the characters feel like kids. At first they’re simple, but the movie gives main cast some surprising depth.
Production-Values: 8/10 – 3D CG entirely, which doesn’t look as good as regular 2D animation, but it still has a number of gorgeous scenes. The soundtrack is also really excellent.
Setting: 8/10 – Actually a ton of creativity went into this, from the backgrounds to the world it’s set in. It’s imaginative, yet retains its simplicity.

Suggestions:
– Andersen Monogatari
– Swan Lake
– Metropolis

Precure All-Stars DX3 – Mirai ni Todoke! Sekai o Tsunagu Niji-Iro no Hana Review – 65/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Heartcatch Precure




So, because of Heartcatch Precure I’m doomed to watch every All Stars Precure from now on until eternity, just to see more of Tsubomi, Erika, Itsuki and Yuri, even though they’re all pretty bad movies. Imagine this: a movie with 21 main characters. To give an indication of how incredibly crowded this is: it took this movie three minutes and twenty seconds to get through the transformation scenes of everyone. There was like… no end in sight to them!

What’s more is that the Precure Franchise has always been very clingy to its own formula. What this means for this movie is that it’s pretty much the same as the previous All Stars movie. The general plot outline in any case is like an exact copy. Heartcatch Precure solved this with really good characters, animation and storytelling. This movie however… yeah.

With 21 main characters plus a truckload of mascot characters that gets a bit hard if you refuse to stay with the same formulaic premise. Usually stories just pick four or five characters and give those some depth, but even that doesn’t happen here: the main characters from Suite Precure just get a few more lines, that’s all. Apart from that, everyone is equal. And equally bland if you haven’t seen the series they belong to.

I will say this, though: this third movie IS better than the first. The animation is more creative for one, but it actually does attempt some serious drama other than “bad guys evil. Kill them again”. It doesn’t pick out any characters to focus on, but instead it goes with a theme that everyone can relate to: partnerships. These themes are explored without any subtleties at all (even going as far as to make Heartcatch’s Erika act out of character just for the sake of getting its message through), and its messages are really obviously shallow, but at least it gives the movie more of a structure than what happened with the second movie. Oh, and the ending is a Deus ex Machina ending. That doesn’t help either.

Aside from that, this is a very bright, flashy and colourful movie. Flashes, beams and sparkles are incredibly abound, and this all happens with a huge amount of fluidity. The interesting thing however is that this movie really leaves things to be desired in terms of hand to hand combat: it looks gorgeous during the long-distance fights, but when characters actually need to touch each other the animation resorts to shortcuts, still frames and awkward cuts. This leads me to think that Toei put a ton of money and talented animators on this thing, but left things to be desired on the animation direction and production.

Now, I do wonder about the point of these movies. Of course it’s fun to watch your favourite characters all together in a movie. I get that. But the first precure series is already seven years old by now. That’s older than actually some of its fans and the franchise’s target audience. I mean, there’s a reason why Disney re-releases its movies every seven years: there are going to be so many kids who wonder who the heck the older characters are. And this movie is purely fanservice. It’s not like it’s doing a good job introducing the characters to people unfamiliar to them or anything. This movie was entertaining. I give it that. But not much more, unfortunately.

Storytelling: 7/10 – At least it’s mildly fun and the action is good to watch, but it depends way too much on its own formula.
Characters: 6/10 – You’re going to have to put in effort to make a story with 21 main characters work. The characters who ended up stand out the most to me are actually the exposition mascots!
Production-Values: 8/10 – Really, really flashy, sparkly and beamy with often fluid animation, but leaves things to be desired on the hand-to-hand combat.
Setting: 5/10 – Forgets some of the things it introduces, brings characters out of characters, completely contrived set-up.

Suggestions:
– Heartcatch Precure Movie – Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show… desu ka?
– Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
– Digimon Movie 2 – Bokura no War Game

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – 02

by psgels, posted in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée



Argh! Deciding which of the big slice of life series to blog this season was hard! I mean, Usagi Drop is just undeniably good. Its acting is more realistic than all of the other series combined. If it aired during any other season, I definitely would have blogged it. It’s heart-warming as hell. Okay, that’s perhaps not the most fitting metaphor I could have used, but you get what I mean.

In the end though, I decided to go for Ikoku Meiro no Croisée is because I just find it a really interesting experiment. For one, I like historical series a lot, but this series also really delves into cultural differences. This series also is slightly different than your usual series that takes place in Europe, due to the French roots that Satelight has (did you know that Basquash was originally conceived by a Frenchman?). From the backgrounds, you can really see that a lot of attention to detail has gone into this series to make it really authentic. With Usagi Drop, I don’t think that there will be as much to write about, not to mention that according to what I’ve read about it, it’ll never really get to the growing up arcs, which (as a non-manga reader by the way), I actually really would have liked to see. If Usagi Drop would have been 22 episodes, I really would have blogged it instead. But then again, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée is also just going to take up 12 episodes. That’s the one criticism I have about this season: there still are too many series that don’t go beyond 13 episodes.

As for the final series that I’m going to blog this season: it’ll either be Dantalian no Shoka, or another Kaleidoscope-type post series. I’ll decide that next Friday.

In any case, this episode was chock full of cultural differences: a lot of this episode was about different kinds of food, but this episode also looked at the differences in architecture, customs, mindsets and traditions. Yune being cute is nice and all, but it’s those things that really drew me to this series. In the background you can also see authentic birds and I’m also impressed at the creativity that was put into the people and buildings in the background.

The kimono is probably going to be the recurring plot in this series. It’s not the most interesting part of this series, but I can see why it was included. This is really set in a time where the big corporations started rising and steal competition away from the small merchants. It’s a tad forced and all, but it also definitely has potential.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

No.6 – 02

by psgels, posted in No.6



The fifth series I’m going to blog this season: Number 6. I was really doubting between Kamisama Dolls and this series. Both are really solid action series with a really good cast, solid acting, a rock-solid script and pacing, awesome music and really good animation. Brains Base are really on fire this season, while Bones are promising to deliver yet another rock-solid and imaginative series.

On one hand, Kamisama Dolls has a story that really seems to fit in 13 episodes. No.6 doesn’t. But heck, this was just too good. I mean, the fact that it ain’t gonna fit is just about the only negative thing I have to say about this series. It’s not as like this is another Deadman Wonderland that combined a ton of flaws with a ton of things to like: this was just completely solid overall. It makes the acting and bringing its cast to live seem so easy: the animation here is really good, and the characters really act natural in front of each other, with well written dialogue. There are no cliches, one-sided characters, or bad acting: everyone plays his role perfectly. The romance feels realistic and not the overly sappy kind you usually see as well.

Another great thing is that the story here never seems to stand still. It’s slow-paced, but it’s always developing its story. I think that along with Penguin Drum, this series pushes its story forward the best out of all the series this season (heck, four years have passed at this point and things are constantly changing). I admit that I’ve gotten tired of shows ending too soon. I’m also not blogging this series for the sake of blogging Noitamina (ever since Genji Monogatari, I’ve blogged every Noitamina series aside from Nodame Cantabile); at this point I’m still not sure whether I’m also going to blog Usagi Drop. But I really have to give Bones credit for such a solid series, script and cast.
Rating: ** (Excellent)