Author: psgels

OVA Impressions: Norageki

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions



Okay. So while I decided to stop giving each OVA release a separate post due to time restraints, I really want to make an exception for this one. THIS is what they need to make more of: a short but sweet and interesting story contained within just 25 minutes that takes optimal use of its time. This format is perfect for those who just want to tell short stories or try out interesting projects.

Norageki was an excellent mystery story that knew exactly how to build itself up. It starts with an introduction that can only be understood if you watch the entire thing, only to continue on with the main characters all trying to figure out what’s going on. There obviously was too little time to develop the characters, but they work for what they’re supposed to be: they all have their mysteries that get answered throughout the course of the episode, and this episode did a good job of using their curiosity to get me to relate to them. The twist ending wrapped everything up neatly and was actually quite interesting.

As for the animation, the creators chose an interesting blend of 2D and 3D graphics, but most of it was 3D. Overall it did a pretty good job of not looking as out of place or ugly as I suspected. On top of that, the creators did make use of this: the characters move around a lot in this OVA. That’s the advantage that 3D animation has: it’s easier to use non-verbal communication. Yet, I still prefer 2D over it: when done right, it can make its characters much more vibrant than 3D animation can. My best guess as for why that is is because 3D is still too constrained around its models.
OVA Episode Rating: 8.25/10

Steins;Gate – 07

by psgels, posted in Steins;Gate



This episode reminded me of why this show originally caught my attention: the atmosphere. It’s what ties the story, dialogue, characters and visuals all together here. And looking back, it’s this that was missing from the previous episodes. My guess is that it had to do with the silly dialogue not blending in with the story: it was well written, but disrupted the mood. And admittedly, it started to get repetitive.

this episode though knew exactly when it needed to be laid back and when it needed to be serious. The repetition of the dialogue didn’t even matter here: as soon as Rintarou started to send that message about the lottery to the past, this episode had a tight atmosphere that never went away. Beyond that I also liked that this episode cleverly used the time that Rintarou waiting for John Tytor by sending in calls from the other characters, and how that little chat with the part timer downstairs about brainwashing lead to her getting in trouble with her boss. Now those are well timed and very nicely blended into the script, as opposed to the “let’s now devote X minutes to building up and goofing off so that we can focus Y minutes on something serious”.

On top of that, I also really like it when a series only reveals parts of a characters actions, yet leaves enough hints to give us viewers a clue of what he’s been doing. We never got to see Rintarou’s reaction to the message he received about the Lotto, at the same time he probably got pretty excited about it, so much that he delayed his other plans for about half a day.Because of this they were only at the stage of trying to think of what to send back in the new timeline.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Showa Monogatari – 06

by psgels, posted in Showa Monogatari



Okay, so as it turns out episode four did not take forever to show up as a raw. It was just on a hiatus for a week. Then, the fifth episode that aired a week ago was one of the four preview episodes and now we finally can get to some more new content with episode six. Seriously, I have never seen a show with such a complicated airing schedule since the time where one of our Dutch television stations suddenly decided to air the final episode of Medabots’ Second season in the middle of its run…

In any case, half of this episode was about Kouhei destroying windows while playing baseball. Aside from being about Kouhei, it was also one of those “been there done that”-scenarios. The only fresh thing is that he just kept on going even after things went wrong two times. It’s typical and I can understand the nostalgic reasons for putting this in, but I was already bored by the “broken window-plot” when I was a kid myself. It’s probably because I couldn’t relate to it at all (I grew up in a small village, so there always was enough room to play and not bother adults).

The rest of this episode was really good though. This time it was about the business of Kouhei’s father taking a nasty hit when they get conned. They lost a lot of money with it and therefore really needed to put in effort in order to prevent to not fall down into debts, and at the same time it was nothing major: it’s a thing that could have happened to anyone; both today and back in those days. It’s also here where Kouhei’s antics made the most impact (heck, he’d been destroying windows at such a stressful time).

I think that Kouhei is at his best when he’s in the background, pretty much like what his sister was in this episode. She had this nice subplot about reading a sad novel ad popped up twice or trice, was nice to see, got fleshed out a bit, and then disappeared a bit. Kouhei also had these kinds of episodes for him, and that’s where he really works as this nice annoying brat. The stories around him though… they just don’t feel as interesting as the rest of the cast.
Rating: * (Good)

Hana-Saku Iroha – 07

by psgels, posted in Hana-Saku Iroha



So, this was a silly episode. Still, I enjoyed it. Considering what this series is doing at the moment (building up for its second half), this was an episode well spent.

My big problem with the previous episodes was not that they suddenly turned into slice of life. Instead, I got the impression that they just didn’t have any inspiration to fill their time. The drama was forced, the new characters, and the scenarios and settings that were used to spice up these episodes actually just backfired. The soldiers in this episode was as flat as a pancake, but for the first time in ages I got the feeling that the characters were genuine again.

By far the most annoying part about this series is the innuendo, which really feels out of place. What have the creators already done to Ohana at this point? Tied her up? Put her in a china dress? Having middle aged guys peep on her? This is the kind of fanservice that I dislike: it’s not about how explicit it is or not, but it’s just consistently out of place and consistently breaks down the mood.

The most important thing though, is that this episode showed a nicely different side to many of the characters: beyond the silliness it actually did a great job in fleshing out the cast without making them go out of character. It’s not just Tomoe: the rest of the cast also got these tiny scenes that revealed more about their characters, and this time the episode actually made good use of it. This show seemed to have struggled a lot with keeping its characters enjoyable and interesting to watch, and this episode was well spent, despite the very stereotypical guest characters.
Rating: * (Good)

Ao no Exorcist – 05

by psgels, posted in Ao no Exorcist



So this was the episode that the OP and promo art kept building up to: the episode that focused on the new classmates of Rin, and in particular the proper introduction of the angry punk-like guy.It was an episode that was bound to have annoyances, but at the same time it also did a lot of things right.

Rin who just kept dozing off for example was… rather annoying. The lead character flunking tests and not paying attention in class to the point of extreme has been a bit of a dead horse by now, and this episode did not offer anything new for that. What it did offer anything new for however, was the way the relationship between these two hotheads developed. I really liked how, when Punk Guy taunted Rin with a dare that was bound to happen with the way it was set up, Rin outright refused. That was quite good, and a breath of fresh air around the constant bickering of these two.

What also helped here was the bunch of other classmates. They don’t feel like cliches or stereotypes, and were actually quite likable in this episode. They’re all quite down to earth in their own way, and feel more than just necessary straight men for the main characters (that role was for Yukio anyway).
Rating: * (Good)

Tiger & Bunny – 07

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



It’s episodes like this that show that this series is excellent at creating action scenes. The gorgeous architecture really shined in the aerial battle of this episode. And overall, this was a really big episode for this series, as it showed the formal introduction of what really looks like the main villain here: a judge posing as a superhero who is firmly against the practices of the main cast.

The interesting thing is that this episode toyed with what his intentions might be. If his intentions are to pull a Light and to indiscriminately kill all bad guys, then his murders in the prisons don’t make any sense: they’re way too selective. While at the same time if he meant to silence people, then his actions seem way too random. It’s probably that his work as a judge has something to do with his real intentions.

Meanwhile, the part where Tiger and Blue Rose were forced to partner up for a while was also hilarious, showing that Blue Rose is an even worse team player than the two main characters. The way she just danced around Tiger and the way in which Tiger just let everything happen was just adorable. Oh, and that mechanic also never fails to crack me up. His voice actor is hilarious for one thing, but this episode also showed that he talks in a completely different tone in front of Barnaby. This episode was chock full of not-really-subtle foreshadowing, but that was a definite nice touch.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Deadman Wonderland – 05

by psgels, posted in Deadman Wonderland



Okay. That was just insane. This was by far the best episode of Deadman Wonderland yet.

You know how usually series blow their biggest budget on the first episode of a series? This episode showed that Deadman Wonderland was not one of those series. The animation was by far the best and most consistent of the series so far. Of course it’s still nowhere near Manglobe’s usual characters, but for once there were no distorted faces getting in the way, the action scenes all looked gorgeous and most importantly: the inbetween animation at times really brought in this extra bit of life out of the characters.

Usually the characters like Ganta are really annoying: the ones who don’t do anything. But heck, in this context the creators actually made his character work. He actually does try enough things, and yet every time he does he only gets pummeled down again by this series, which always manages to find some way to become even harsher than it already has. I mean, this episode was absolutely brutal, both for Ganta and the Crow Character. I really have to praise this show: gore alone gets boring really easily; the characters here are the ones who give it its impact and keep this entire series together. Of course they lack depth compared to other series, but they’re all great to watch, and especially diverse. The creators did an excellent job of getting us to sympathize with this fourteen year-old kid, the type of character who usually is really unlikable.

Now, the big flaw here still is the way in which the creators keep shooting themselves into the foot: yeah, the series is brutal, so it’s going to be really hard to keep Ganta alive. Still, this episode was nowhere as bad as episode 2, and instead was very shounen-ish. In other words, cliched, and we can thank the animators and writers for doing a really good job on it to generate enough suspense of disbelief to actually give it impact, rather making it tedious.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

X-Men – 06

by psgels, posted in X-Men



So, the animation received an obvious dip in the past two episodes. It’s unfortunate, but that earthquake also hit Madhouse hard. The good thing is however, that despite the less impressive animation, this show still knows how to deliver great action scenes. The battle scenes are all well choreographed and they’re all balance din terms of the characters involved. It doesn’t stick with one character for too long, and instead of endless talking the X-Men actually do something, and do this efficiently. It’s a stark difference with Wolverine, who without the X-Men was like a wild beast who just kept charging.

Now, I’m impressed that the creators actually revisited Hisako’s parents. what made less sense is how they just allowed her to become a member of the X-Men, which is far too dangerous for her. Overall though, I’d still say that the worst part about her is her voice actress. She neither turned into someone who hogs all of the attention nor someone who constantly has to be rescued, and yet remains a young girl without her powers.

And the biggest potential pitfall for this series has not changed: the villains. They hardly have any build-up, and so far the best they did was prove to be menacing villains as soon as they started fighting. This show does a good job of building up the bond between the different X-Men, but the villains are just completely ignored. This episode even didtched the U-Men for another different villain who has even less build-up.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Summer Season Preview – Movie and OVA Edition

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

Interestingly, in terms of movies the upcoming season will be a season of experiments. There are a lot of movies that try out new ideas, or go into different directions than the series they’re based on. This both has a huge amount of potential, as a huge amount of risks, and I like it! Even if the movies and OVAs might disappoint, at least it’ll be interesting.

There is something new about this Season’s Movie and OVA preview: due to a lack of time I don’t have any room to be as thorough as I usually am, so I’m just going to lump all of the DVD specials and Franchise Movies together. I usually have the least to say about all of them, and most of the time their staff (especially with the DVD specials) are the same anyway. Only in special cases I’ll make exceptions and give them a full post. Oh, and this way I can also talk about ongoing OVAss

DVD Specials:


Titles: Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, Fairy Tail
Comments: This season has only two dvd specials, one for Milky Holmes and one for Fairy Tail. I couldn’t care less for the Fairy Tail one, especially after the promo for the previous OVA, but more Milky Holmes is always fun. It’ll allow the creators to deliver one more time, without potentially dragging themselves in another season.

Ongoing OVAs :




Titles: Air Gear – 03, KissxSis – 05, Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 05, Yurumates – 02
Comments: Out of all these four, I’m only looking forward to Black Lagoon. The previous episodes have been excellent and the finale is looking out to be one where all of its build up comes together. It’s a raw and powerful OVA. Yurumates 1 was really forgettable, and really poorly produced from what my memory tells me. KissXSis was just crap, and Air Gear seems just for the fans of the manga (correct me if I’m wrong here, though).

Franchise Movies:



Titles: Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Victini to Kuroki Eiyū Zekrom, Naruto Shippūden: Blood Prison, The Prince of Tennis: Eikoku-shiki Teikyū-jō Kessen!
Comments: These are the kinds of franchises who either churn out a movie every single year, come out so often that I don’t want to talk about them anymore. Having said that though, that Naruto Movie does intrigue me. It finally has a good looking promo, and I just discovered that it’s being directed by the director of Gilgamesh and Shikabane Hime. As far away as I’d want to stay from a Naruto movie, it does have me curious. As for the prince of Tennis, though I stopped being interested in that one when I learned about the ridiculous tennis moves that were pulled off. And seriously, how long can you make a show that’s just about tennis?

Ongoing Movie Series:

Titles: Mardock Scramble – 02
Comments: Ah, mardock Scramble is a movie that I’m still looking forward to. The first one hasn’t appeared yet though, but it’s about time that it showed up. It looks completely gorgeous anyway, and it’s a premise I’m really intrigued at.

Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0 [Love]

Summary: It’s about a family of 19 sisters — from a newborn baby to a graduating high school senior. In the novel version, a high school senior named Youtarou thought he was an only child — until he met his real mother and discovered that she has 19 daughters. He ends up living with his “true family.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Takayuki Inagaki
Script: Yuuko Kakihara
The Positives: It gets points for actually thinking that people will buy such a stupid premise.
The Negatives: Good lord, there is so much wrong with this series. The fact that it tries to sell itself in 3D with no point or purpose, fact that there is a guy living together with 19 of his sisters, the incest, the fact that he was unaware of everything, and that poor mother of his. Don’t get me wrong though, the story about a really large family has potential, but not with the director of Rosario to Vampire and the series composition guy of Sora no Otoshimono behind the execution.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Vitamin X Addiction

Summary: The game is set at Seitei Gakuen, an elite private academy that teaches every level from kindergarten until college in Tokyo. A new female teacher named Yūri Minami is starting her second year of teaching here, and she is now moving up from teaching middle school students to the assignment she had sought after: grammar for high school students. Unfortunately, she gets assigned to “Class X,” an infamous group of seniors; it is said that all of their previous teachers have retired due to ulcers or neurosis. Minami must try to reach out to these students and get them into college. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Other Notable Staff: Satonobu Kikuchi (Character Design)
The Positives: … at least it has a story that goes beyond “let’s try to get in romantic situations with members of the opposite sex”. Also, Keiichiro Kawaguchi… you could do much worse with him. although he will be working on three things at the same time…
The Negatives: What is it with these utterly stupid titles for the bishie shows this season? Also, is this series seriously thinking that it can run through thirteen bishies in three episodes? They’re not even trying anymore…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Sora no Otoshimono: Tokei-jikake no Angeloid

Summary: Tomoki’s peaceful life is far away in the past, now he has to deal with 2 angeloids Ikaros and Nymph along with his friends from school, each one of them very special on their own ways. Tomoki’s dream about an angel warning him from the rage of heavens is getting very common at his sleep, then one day a new angel who has power up to the standard of Ikaros arrives Earth with the sole purpose of terminating Tomoki since his dream is starting to connect both realities, the Earth and the Synapses, a very powerful angel indeed. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Hisashi Sato, Tetsuya Yanagisawa
Script: Yuuko Kakihara
The Positives: Um, the fanservice?
The Negatives: I once praised Sora no Otoshimono for at least trying to be entertaining, but heck. I take that back. Sora no Otoshimono really is a lot of the same. the premise is once fun, and then it just keeps repeating itself over and over again. This movie too: the trailer looked exactly like the series has been. Not even the animation seemed improved. This turned out to be just another one of those generic moe shows, and I can’t believe they actually made a movie about it.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Gekijouban Mahou Sensei Negima

Summary: The story is centred around Negi Springfield, a ten-year-old wizard from Wales, who dreams of becoming a Magister Magi like his missing father, a special wizard who uses his powers to help normal people, using covers such as working for NGOs. Initially appointed as an English teacher at Mahora Academy in Japan he becomes a teacher to a middle school class of 31 older girls. However, the peaceful school life is quickly disturbed as people from his father’s past appear and Negi has to form contracts with various students to overcome the new dangers. Finally he embarks on a journey to the Magic World together with his partners to find his long-lost father. This film is the climax to their adventures depicted in the Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba and Mou Hitotsu no Sekai OVAs. – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: Movie
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
The Positives: If you’re a fan of Negima, then there’s more. This is one franchise that either gets the proper time to get its story, or is getting milked out by Shinbo once more. I unfortunately never watched it beyond one episode (and have no intention to pick it back up by the way) so I can’t tell.
The Negatives: Blegh, Shinbo.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Hakuouki OVA

Summary: ??
Type: OVA, 5 Episodes
Director: Osamu Yamazaki
The Positives: Well, Hakuouki 2 was only 10 episodes long. I guess that this is where the remaining episodes went. This looks like it’ll focus on some of the bishies some more and I guess that there’s nothing wrong with that. And it still has the director of Toward the Terra, but it’s getting harder and harder to believe that he once actually directed that kind of epic.
The Negatives: But still, Hakuouki felt mediocre in every way to me. I mean, I could see where it was going and all, but the characters all just were so dull, and the female lead was so cheesy. I just couldn’t get through it. Twice.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Alice in the Country of Hearts

Summary: Alice Liddell was forcefully kidnapped,brought down a hole into Heartland/Wonderland. Due to a trick,she has no choice but to play a mysterious game in order to go home. She has to meet the residents in Heartland/Wonderland to fill up a potion bottle(to complete the game),only then can she go home. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
The Positives: So this movie is based on a game that re-imagines Alice in Wonderland with Bishies, and the movie itself will also contain a completely original take on the story. This can go either way, depending on who will be in charge of this thing (which unfortunately isn’t known yet). This reminds me the most of Kuroshitsuji, though.
The Negatives: It’s just that Kuroshitsuji’s Alice in Wonderland arc was terrible. There was way too much randomness for the sake of randomness. Plus, what can still be said about Alice in Wonderland right now? Just make your own story, instead of trying to stick to that famous name.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Hayate the Combat Butler

Summary: Abandoned by his parents and given a monumentally large debt as a Christmas present, 16-year old Ayasaki Hayate is at the lowest point of his life. Desperately trying alter his hapless fate, he decides to kidnap someone to hold for a ransom. Due to an ill choice of words, the girl he tries to kidnap misunderstands the action as a confession of love. His plan is totally crushed when he gives his real name out. Realizing his wrongdoing, Hayate proceeds to rescue the girl from the yakuza, who had instead kidnapped her. The girl, as a token of thanks, offers Hayate a job as her butler. Hayate, overwhelmed by her kindness, vows to protect her even at the cost of his life. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Hideto Komori
Script: Yasuko Kobayashi
The Positives: Hayate never caught my attention, but perhaps this is different, because the staff is different yet again. I mean, Manglobe, of all studios, is behind this one? The director in particular did a ton of animation and animation direction on Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy. Or take Yasuko Kobayashi, who wrote Casshern Sins. This could actually prove to be quite an interesting experiment here.
The Negatives: The big question though is whether or not you can watch this without having seen the series. I don’t feel like catching up to 75 episodes right now…
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Carnival Phantasm

Summary: ??
Type: OVA
Director: Seiji Kishi
Script: Makoto Uezu
Other Notable Staff: Yasuharu Takanashi (Music), Eri Takanagi (Original Creator)
The Positives: This… has the same director and writer as Kamisama Dolls. That’s quite interesting, especially considering how Seiji Kishi is a fun director with a great sense of comedic timing. Oh, and the soundtrack made by the same guy who did Heartcatch Precure, Jigoku Shoujo, Shiki and Toward the Terra? Count me in!
The Negatives: Makoto Uezu of course remains a bit of a bug here, and the same goes for Eri Takanagi: I’m not sure whether the original writer for Kannagi is the best for this project.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Gekijō-ban Anime Nintama Rantaro Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudō! no Dan

Summary: The anime is based on Soubee Amako’s Rakudai Ninja Rantarō ninja gag manga (Asahi Comics) about the adventures of Rantarō and other ninja apprentices at an elite ninjutsu academy. The story is set in Japan during the tumultuous Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States). As first-graders, Rantarō and his ninja-in-training friends are called “Nintama” — a contraction of the words “ninja” and “tamago” (“egg”). – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Masaya Fujimori
The Positives: Yeah. Um, so I was planning to just ignore this one and label it amongst the other franchise movies that it looked like. But then I discovered that it has the same director as You Are Delicious, the surprisingly amazing dinosaur movie that also looked like a kids’ show at first sight. And indeed, the promo looks nothing like the TV-series. This could very well be another brilliant movie of his.
The Negatives: it remains a kids’ show, though. And 3D.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Tekken: Blood Vengance

Type: Movie
Director: Yoichi Mori
Script: Dai Sato
The Positives: The trailer looks really cool and varied, this is promising to be an excellent action movie, especially with Dai Sato (Eureka 7, Ergo Proxy) as the main writer.
The Negatives: I couldn’t find anything about that director, though.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira

Summary: It’s a collection of four mini-stories, one adaptation and three original, to celebrate the 10th anniversary fo the franchise.
Type: OVA, 4 Episodes
Director: Hideki Tachibana
Script: Toshifumi Kawase
The Positives: Being a big fan of Higurashi, I really got delighted to see more of it. When used well, they can really become awesome. Rei already showed that even comedy episodes can become great here. Toshifumi Kawase also is one of the best people that Studio Deen have: his characterization in particular is consistently incredible, so I’m very eager to see what he has in store here.
The Negatives: What the heck? What is the director of Dragon Crisis and H2O doing here? We don’t need Higurashi ruined by his mediocre direction.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei-Naru Hoshi

Summary: Two brothers lose their mother to an incurable disease. With the power of “alchemy”, they use taboo knowledge to resurrect her. The process fails, and as a toll for using this type of alchemy, the older brother, Edward Elric loses his left leg while the younger brother, Alphonse Elric loses his entire body. To save his brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm and is able to affix his brother’s soul to a suit of armor. With the help of a family friend, Edward receives metal limbs – “automail” – to replace his lost ones. With that, Edward vows to search for the Philosopher’s Stone to return the brothers to their original bodies, even if it means becoming a “State Alchemist”, one who uses his/her alchemy for the military. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Kazuya Murata
Script: Yuichi Shinbo
Other Notable Staff: Taro Iwashiro (Music), Kenichi Konishi
The Positives: The animation director? It will be the same guy who animated Tokyo Godfathers. That’s bound to look amazing.
The Negatives: To my surprise, the staff is entirely different compared to any other Full Metal Alchemist anime, and that worries me. The guy who is going to write this thing has only written Doraemon movies before. Kazuya Murata also doesn’t really stand out as a director. Sure, he has done great episodes, but none of the full series he directed stand out.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Kokuriko-Zaka Kara

Summary: The story is set in Showa 38 (1963, a year before the Tokyo Olympics) and follows the coming of age of an ordinary, pigtailed high school girl named Komatsuzaki in Yokohama, a harbor city near Tokyo. Her sailor father went missing after an accident, and her photographer mother is frequently going abroad for work. Her family now runs a lodging house. The manga recounts Komatsuzaki’s everyday life of “laughter and tears” with two boys — a school newspaper member and the student council president. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Goro Miyazaki
Script: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa
Other Notable Staff: Katsuya Kondo (Character Designs)
The Positives: Ghibli’s new film. This will be a collaboration between father Hayao Miyazaki and son Goro Miyazaki. It’s interesting how time, Hayao is actually actively collaborating with Goro after Tales of the Earthsea, and I’m intrigued to what the results will be. In any case this seems like a very good shoujo movie.
The Negatives: I thin kit’s safe to say that Goro Miyazaki is a bit spoiled. I’d love to see him go someplace other than under his father, and develop his own style, rather than forever trying to live in his fathers’ shadows.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Towa no Quon

Summary: The story follows a boy named Quon and others who suddenly wake up with supernatural powers. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie, Six Parts
Director: Umanosuke Iida
Script: Saizo Nemoto
Other Notable Staff: Kenji Kawai (Music), Toshihiro Kawamoto (Character Designs/Animation Direction), Takeshi Mori (Collaborative Director)
The Positives: Bones looks like it’ll be doing something really interesting here, celebrating a project conceived by the late Hellsing Director. Toshihiro Kawamoto is an amazingly experienced animator and Kenji Kawai is an amazing musician, so this will definitely be a feast for the senses.
The Negatives: The weakest here seems to be the main writer: Saizo Nemoto. He’s excellent on individual episodes, but I’m not sure about his works on the Tokyo Majin Gakuen Sequel…
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Gosick – 17

by psgels, posted in Gosick



Now this is why I originally decided to blog this series! This episode once again showed Gosick at its good side, and it was just amazing. This is what I want to see from this series.

We’re finally getting to the interesting stories here. Beyond the attention to Victorique and her mother, the whole atmosphere of this arc was just wonderful, in this strange theme park full of interesting attractions and people to watch. I also liked the explanation that this episode gave about how Brian Roscoe created the tragedy ten years earlier. He definitely became a much more interesting villain in the second half of this series. This arc ended with this episode, but it left behind a ton more intrigue for the rest of this show to work with.

And heck. The parts that focused on Victorique were just amazing. It’s here where the character development really kicks in, and especially her mother’s message was simple, yet very effective.

The big question right now: why is Victorique so important? Why is Victorique’s mother so important? What item that Brian Roscoe stowed away could be so important? At the moment, these are the things that feel like McGuffins to me. It’s up to the rest of this show to properly explain why the bad guys of this series revolve around them.
Rating: *** (Awesome)