Author: psgels

Tiger & Bunny – 02

by psgels, posted in Tiger & Bunny



Tiger & Bunny is the series with the most impressive big picture of the season: perhaps it doesn’t have a single thing at which it’s the best of the season, but it has a bit of everything and does a lot of things right: likable characters, original backstory, good action, the second-best soundtrack of the season (after Hyouge Mono, which was bound to have the best soundtrack of the season anyway), an excellent sense of action and yet it isn’t afraid to look at its setting with some depth in mind, despite the flashy colours.

The flaws so far are a number of overused cliches that pop up here and there, though they all remain minor. I’m referring tot he flamboyant gay, for example, or how in this episode the bully was one of those one-sided bullies who are just there to get a plot going. Oh, and the way in which we have a workaholic who has no time for his daughter. That last one is really nit-picky, though, because this episode provided enough hints at how the creators plan to give the lead characters’ relationship with his daughter a lot of time to develop. Plus, we have a main character who is old enough to have a teenaged daughter. How awesome is that? During most other seasons we should have been glad enough to have a show with a character in his early twenties.

This episode also toyed with some other cliches as well. For example, the lead character gets a new suit that he obviously isn’t used to. Of course the likelihood for him to screw up by not knowing the right buttons to press is going to be larger. I also like how neither the lead character nor his partner are forcedly put above each other: they both have their strengths and weaknesses and yet they’re surprisingly similar: they’re both short-sighted, just in completely different ways.

In terms of the setting, this episode gave quite a nice hint about how the superheroes evolved in this universe. The superhero that the main character ran into when he was young looked really crude. It probably was at a time when the NEXT only barely appeared, and he was one of the first to take up the role of being a superhero. My guess is that after this guy caught popularity, the entire business was commercialized, people got some budget for actually good costumes and entire trends were born, like turning that ice girl into a complete idol. I also love how this show criticizes mass media, but at the same time doesn’t completely label them as purely evil.

Oh, and regarding the soundtrack: Yoshihiro Ike is one of my favourite composers, alongside Hikaru Nanase and Yuki Kajiura. It’s because of that that I’m really glad to see him on another series again where his soundtrack really works. He’s really masterful at these subtle background sounds that do a fantastic job at creating an atmosphere, and the consistency at which he does this is stunning.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Nichijou – 02

by psgels, posted in Spring 2011 Kaleidoscope



In this Spring 2011 Kaleidoscope, I’ll be blogging a different series each week. For me, a week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, so for this first week I could only choose between Dog Days and Nichijou. Now, I really don’t like Dog Days (it’s not the premise; it’s the half-assed execution that gets me), I figured that this would be a good chance to wrap up my thoughts on the tons of slice of life series this season. In technical terms, Nichijou again has the most solid execution, but I’m probably going to drop it after this episode.

The thing is that I love slice of life… as long as I care about the characters. If not, they they bore me beyond belief, and unfortunately after three episodes (the OVA included), I’m still missing this with Nichijou. There are several reasons for this, but there are two that really stand out for me:

First of all: it tries to be funny, while it actually isn’t and I really don’t like people making jokes that just aren’t funny. Sure, this episode had some laughs, but they’re just too few and far inbetween. This series also has the tendency to make a joke, then instead of just wrapping it up, dragging it further for way too long in the hopes of squeezing some extra laughs out of it. Take a look at Hen Zemi and Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san: those are two series that actually figured out that you don’t necessarily need to take up 20 minute episodes. I think that that would also have fitted Nichijou. It would have really tightened up the pacing.

The second reason: who are these characters? What exactly do we know about them? I mean, the whole point of slice of life is to show the everyday activities of its characters without the usual forced drama or unrealistic action plot: just show some ordinary people living their daily lives. However, it’s not like ordinary people are completely bland either. Everyone still needs to have at least some background, but even there this show just refuses to show even the slightest hints at characterization. All we know right now is that the lead character has a sister and the professor made herself a robot.

It’s the same problem I had with Lucky Star: these characters are simply way too one-dimensional and one-sided. K-On at least bothered to make its cast feel like regular high school girls. These two however don’t even bother.

Where this show stands above Lucky Star (and really miles above), is with its animation and creativity. Especially the running scene in this episode was excellent. It’s the scenes like that that are the big selling point of this series. At this point though, I don’t think that it’ll be enough for this series: there are just too many other scenes that just don’t work.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

The Star of Cottonland Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Ever feel like you’re in the need of a really big hug? You need something warm and charming to watch? Meet The Star of Cottonland. This movie is beyond cute.

The creators of this movie set themselves the task to make its lead character as adorable as possible and they succeeded pretty well, actually. It’s a unique little movie about a small kitten in a world where cats are drawn as people. Ranging from her subtle movements, innocent inner monologues, subtle development and her non-verbal communication: everything that the lead character does is chock full of charms. This is a movie that was made by people who really like cats, there is no doubt about it.

Beyond that though, this movie also shines because it has quite a creative storyline. There are none of the usual cliches or tropes, and the ones that are there are averted throughout the movie. It has some bittersweet elements, but it’s never cheesy. In fact, the reason why these bittersweet elements work so well is because of how subtly they’re delivered, excellently combining the lead characters’ charm. Technically, this is a movie about self-discovery, but it chose a pretty original way to play out. It leaves a lot of stuff successfully up to the viewers’ imaginations and it also know exactly how much it should wrap up in order to feel complete.

Now, there are a few flaws here and there among the side characters, some are just one-dimensional and others have rather forced motivation. The weirdest is one particular woman with an allergy of cats, though. For some strange reason, the creators of this movie seem to confuse cat allergy with cat phobia. This woman never sneezes or gets any itches, but instead acts completely neurotic whenever a cat is in her vicinity.

In any case, a Star of Cottonland is a well made movie. It’s quite well animated especially around the lead character. It’s entire cast does an excellent job of growig on you as the movie goes on, and it’s a very nice watch for anyone who is looking for something really cute for 90 minutes.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Well restrained, yet makes the story evolve really well.
Characters: 9/10 – Absolutely adorable lead character; the creators did an amazing job of bringing a young kitten to life. Side characters have a few problems here and there.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Life-like animation for the lead character.
Setting: 8/10 – The way in which this series treats cats is a really nice idea.

Suggestions:
– Chi’s Sweet Home
– Junkers Come Here
– Kero Kero Chime

X-Men – 02

by psgels, posted in X-Men




For the past years, I’ve always had a ton of trouble figuring out which series to blog. This time though, I don’t have that at all. I already have a very good idea of the 10 series that I’m going to blog this season, even though four of them haven’t aired yet. Seriously, there is a lot of good stuff in this season. First of all, X-Men. The show with the best character designs of the season.

Beyond that though, we finally get to see the real potential of the Marvel Anime. This was the calibre that I expected when Madhouse first announced this project. While Wolverine was a major step above Iron Man,the X-Men again are a step above Wolverine. All they have to do now is properly pace their story like Wolverine dd (with its admittedly far simpler story) and this will be really excellent.

This show just has a terrific sense of atmosphere. The build-up, characters, animation and music all contribute wonderfully to it. The drama around Cyclops can be a bit cheesy, but it does work at creating some necessary tension between the lead characters: not enough to get obnoxious, but enough to push them forward and make them more interesting.

The story so far is simple, but pretty effective. Innocent mutants being kidnapped: it works, and has the potential to develop into something interesting later on. I especially love how that one guy who was turned into a monster was draw. I don’t mean his monster form, but rather the moment where he actually died. The thing with this series is that the character designs are vastly different, and yet both the flamboyant main characters and the average minor characters: all of them look like a lot of time was spent on their designs, to make all of them unique. This is what really impressed me about these first two episodes.

What’s really refreshing about this season as well is that for once, teenagers aren’t dominating in nearly every series. Remember how during the previous Winter-Season, Wolverine was the only series that did not have a teenager as its lead character? Instead, we have multiple series here with lead characters in their twenties and even thirties. Yay for variety!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Gosick – 12

by psgels, posted in Gosick



Gosick, I applaud you. I really did not think that you had the guts to come with such an episode. Completely breaking away from your own formula takes courage, but I’m really glad that you did it. This episode was exactly what this show needed. It was an excellent way to close off the first half of this series.

When Kujou’s friend brought up the Mediterrean Sea, I really began to fear here. “Oh god no. Not another beach episode!” To my surprise however, Kujou completely abandoned this idea in favour of spending time with Victorique. The rest of this episode was exactly that: the two of them sitting out the beginning of the holidays. It was wonderfully quiet, and what’s more: it really allowed their characters to shine.

Kujou’s problem is that he sucks at solving mysteries, which is a really big problem when you’ve got a mystery series. This episode was entirely dedicated to the two lead characters however, and suddenly he shows that he can be a very good character here. This episode took a great opportunity to show about his past, ad tell a bit more about his sister and brothers.

I really have to beg the creators here: please: no more random stories. If there are fillers in the manga, just skip them. Random stories aren’t necessarily bad; there are enough series that are really good at them. Just Gosick isn’t one of them. Plus, this episode showed how good this series can be without its contrived mysteries. The right balance actually has the potential to give Gosick an excellent second half. It really needs to put in effort for that, though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Pretty Rythm, Jewel Pet Sunshine

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Pretty Rythm

Short Synopsis: Our lead character from out of nowhere gets idol powers.
Out of all of the kids’ shows this season… this was actually the worst of the entire bunch. The thing is that the other kids’ shows this season, while boring, at least knew what they were doing. They were trying to be cute they provided a nice enough fantasy for kids here. Pretty Rythm however completely misses the point of fantasy, and starts to outright lie against its audience. Yes, it does not matter that you’re not working hard. Someone will see you jump around and immediately see your talent, you get to shine on a stage without any preparations whatsoever and you can immediately get the boy that everyone is looking up to. This show doesn’t even pretend to care about setting things up correctly. All it is is a bunch of deus ex machina that allow an airhead to just randomly become a well loved idol. On top of that, this show also contains the most terribly CG-animated dance sequences, along with some terrible live-action shots at the beginning that serve no point or purpose whatsoever. And yes, I know that this is for kids and all, but I remember that when I was a kid, I also hated these live action bits inbetween my cartoons. I mean, I just wanted to enjoy my favourite characters back then. Not see some random boring people do boring stuff and stroke each other’s egos.
OP: Boring J-pop
ED: Terrible song, terrible live action bits.
Potential: 0%

Happy Kappi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds the prince of a mysterious kingdom of stuffed animals.
Happy Kappy is entirely in 3D CG that tries to look like 2D. The results… vary. There is a lot of movement, but it all feels a bit too erratic and undirected. In any case, this is one for the kids. It’s just another one of those shows where a random girl gets her own pet (this time by feeding him a donut), and that pet has magical powers. It’s all just so cliched and I can’t find anything to praise it about. The acting is also pretty bad as well, which doesn’t make this one enjoyable in the slightest. And yes I know I’m criticizing something that is meant for kids here, but that’s no excuse to not try a little harder.
OP: Too much sugar
Potential: 0%

Jewel Pet Sunshine

Short Synopsis: Our lead character if a cute and fluffy animal.
That was… that was… what the hell was that?! This is the third year for Jewel Pet, and it has always been this boring children’s show about a bunch of girls who get their own cute pets. Especially the second season (or what I saw of it before tuning out) was incredibly generic and annoying. And here this show suddenly comes, puts all of the animals in school (seriously, they sit behind school desk in class just like all other students… alongside a robot and an alligator that never really are explained, let alone even mentioned. What the hell happened in that second season? This entire episode was full of overacting and bizarre situations that were mostly so bad that they became good. Also, what is up with this season and goats? First Nichijou, and now this series also has a goat in the middle of a classroom.
OP: TOO MUCH SUGAR
ED: Badly sung and boring J-pop
Potential: 30%

Some Quick First Impressions: Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San and Hen Zemi

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is gay.
The Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi tells a cheesy story between two guys in high school. I pretty much already got bored with it after that episode. So, here the TV-series comes and actually skips 10 years into the future, and actually becomes quite good. What the hell? This isn’t even my bias for Studio Deen talking: I really dislike how lazy they were during the past Winter Season. This however… this just turned into a romance about two guys of 25 and 27 who work as shoujo manga editors. In fact, this episode was not about gay sex at all, and instead about the characters themselves, especially the lead characters and the choices he made in his life after the events of the OVA. On top of that, the comedy still works quite well. The lead character’s inner monologues are quite funny, but also the new department in which he starts working has a lot of charms to it. This perhaps doesn’t have the charms of something like Antique Bakery, but it still was surprisingly enjoyable here, and this is coming from a straight male.
OP: Unfortunately not as good as Junjo Romantica’s OPs.
ED: This is some cheesy boy band embarrassing themselves…
Potential: 75%

Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San

Short Synopsis: Our lead character works for a professional summoner.
After seeing so many disappointing comedies this season, especially with Hen Zemi being tamed down, I was expecting something similar for Yondemasuyo Azazel-san. But holy crap, this went even further than the OVA! This was just completely hilarious, and I actually laughed the hardest at this OVA out of any show this season, even including Gintama. I should have known that in the rare cases where Production IG does a comedy, the result would be something unique. For Azazel-san, there meaning of “restraint” is just completely absent from the dictionary. It’s so completely over the top in just about anything it does, but at the same time it’s well acted. There’s a great combination between morbid deadpan humour and some of the most varied but ridiculously drawn facial distortions I’ve seen. If you thought that Azazel was a bum in the OVA, you really haven’t seen anything yet. Some of the things he does here are completely outrageous, but just hilariously funny. It’s all done with a wonderful sense of timing, and the way in which every episode is very short (again just 12 minutes) keeps everything fresh. This is just weird in every single way.
OP: Actually pretty decent.
Potential: 80%

Hen Zemi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is surrounded by perverts.
Today is the day of series that already had an OVA before airing. First up is Hen Zemi, interestingly in an episode that only takes up twelve minutes. This is something I really like here: series that realize that you don’t necessarily need 20 minute episodes if this doesn’t fit. In any case, Hen Zemi pretty much was the best fanservice comedy of the new season, but that has mostly to do with the fact that all of the other fanservice shows were so poor. I enjoyed it, but at the same time I unfortunately noticed that it has been tamed down compared to the OVA. The dialogue is still there, it’s still interesting and it’s still perverted as hell, but it’s also less fast and less well delivered. the chaos and disturbance of the OVA don’t return at all here. The OVA knew exactly how to just keep going on and on and get more and more under your skin. This was just a bunch of perverts talking to each other. It misses the dynamic delivery of its lines, effectively turning it into just another fanservice comedy. An above average one, indeed. But it’s a shame that the director of the OVA was shipped over to Sofuteni in favour of the director of To Love-Ru and Rio Rainbow Gate.
OP: Actually a very nice OP for this series. Only 30 seconds long, but with enough energy for the usual minute and a half.
ED: Fanservice!
Potential: 55%

Yumekui Merry Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Yumekui Merry




If you’re looking for eye candy, then this is an excellent recommendation. Yumekui Merry is a piece of art, with some of the most artistic direction. Jut about every camera angle is interesting and dedicated to make its cast stand out. Every single background drawing is utterly gorgeous. With a rock-solid that brings a ton of life into the cast, this is a great show to watch, though it has its problems.

Shigeyasu Yamauchi‘s influence is all over this series. The camera-angles, the timing, the intonation, all is very carefully planned out really put some emotions behind them, and the animators and artists only back this up. If anything, this show is immersive and a terrific example of what can be done with the animation medium.

The bugs in this show are in the story. Most notably in how it’s way too short for 13 episodes and it failed to really understand what that means. In the first half we get a very interesting series that questions the nature of dreams, what would happen if they were taken hostage and the main characters are put on a wonderfully gray moral scale.

In the second half, though, the creators realized that the manga that this series is based on is in no way going to fit in 13 episodes and that there wasn’t going to come a sequel. They then try to wrap this show up with their own story arc that fails to wrap up anything, has a bad one-sided villain that doesn’t allow the story to go anywhere and specifically seeks out cliches, even when it has to resort to Deus ex Machina to get there. The delivery is still as good as ever, but the story that the second half of this series is trying to tell is just… unimpressive. It reduces a complex moral question back to cliches.

do bother to check out the first half if you have the time, though. It’s a wonderful little series with excellent characterization. It’s always nice to see Shigeyasu Yamauchi’s unique style of directing, but I do wish that he had been put on a story that… actually had the potential to show itself off. The big victim of this syndrome for the next season will be Deadman Wonderland. Seriously, don’t screw up yet again on a flaw that has struck so many series by now! It’s really getting annoying seeing so many shows end without ever getting to their potential.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Excellent timing and atmosphere, but loses points for the lazy way in which it tries to wrap itself up in its second half, especially with one heck of a deus ex machina ending that could have easily been avoided.
Characters: 8/10 – Excellent characterization, and really well animated. A few cliches here and there holding them back, though.
Production-Values: 9/10 – A visual feast. Period.
Setting: 8/10 – A very interesting premise, however the second half doesn’t use it as well as it should have been used.

Suggestions:
– Digimon Movie 3 – The Golden Digimentals
– Casshern Sins

Yumekui Merry – 13

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry



Agh, that was way too ambitious. With that, I don’t mean that this episode was rushed. This episode was well paced for the story that it tried to tell. On top of that, the direction was also as solid as ever, so there’s also nothing wrong with that.

Instead, this episode flopped because of basic storytelling. Mistletein has been built up as this unbeatable villain. Nothing could face her. At the start of this episode the creators had two very solid options to take her out: either fire that bullet once it charged up enough dreams, or kill the host. For some strange reason this episode found it a good idea to abandon both of these and end with a string of deus ex machina. That is nt how you use your build-up!

The bullet does get fired, but even that isn’t enough to kill Mistletein. And that’s the point where the writers realized that they wrote themselves into a corner and opt for the laziest solution: magically make Mistletein weaker so that she can actually get beaten. Suddenly from out of nowhere she actually takes punches, and to make matters worse: Yumeji also starts pulling random powers out of his ass. Oh, and Merry also conveniently gets the power to actually send demons back, in order to prevent destroying the dreams of his friend.

The weird thing is that this episode is contradicting itself horribly. Take Isana: this episode had a great moral at the end, about how the amount of dreams in the human heart was limitless. Having your dreams destroyed is bad, but you can recover from them. They could have done exactly the same with her and it would have made for a bittersweet yet very fitting ending. But no! She’s a cute girl and we can’t actually do things with her because otherwise the fanbase will whine!

All the while throughout this episode, the creators also refused to just kill off the host. That’s nice if you want to spread messages that killing is wrong. Only, at the end they just kill him anyway. I mean, he just disappears, completely unlike what happened to any other dream demon so far. What’s wrong with just showing him in the aftermath? It’s bizarre that this show wants so badly to be cliched that it actively introduces deus ex machina, just to get to these cliches, instead of getting an original conclusion by just letting things play out naturally. What the hell?

Overall, this series was a waste of potential. It was very good, and had an amazing first half, but Mistletein just was a bad villain. She’s just way too one-sided to make anything interesting happen. This show really suffers from being way too short. A very, very annoying trend that is the single biggest pitfall of anime in general.

I think that compared to other series that had to end early, the way that this series decided to solve it was below average. I can appreciate that the creators wanted to resolve the story, but they didn’t really resolve anything. It really would have been much better for this show to just continue with the manga and end somewhere in the middle. If that had happened, I would have been less annoyed than I am now.
Rating: – (Disappointing)

Some Quick First Impressions: A-Channel, Maria Holic Alive and Sofuteni

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

A-Channel

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is in high school.
This was a surprise here. A-Channel is a step above the likes of Sofuteni, Nichijou, Oretsuba, Maria Holic and all those other shows where we just follow a bunch of high school girls. I mean, there is moe and all, but unlike the above mentioned series, the characters are more than just excuses to show cute girls. The lead character for example is an air-head, but she’s more than just that stereotype: she actually has quite a few male friends and has great social skills. The other lead meanwhile is your average deadpan snarker, but this episode made her actually quite charming by making her just a tad socially awkward, along with incredibly devoted to just one friend of her (and at the same time not having this overshadow her entire character). The animation also supports all this. I’d even argue that the animation here is better than in Nichijou, because it succeeds even more in bringing the cast to life and it’s much more efficiently used. In short: the characterization of A-Channel is actually good here.
OP: I’ve heard much worse this season.
ED: This is the kind of song that I feel will get really annoying after listening it for five times.
Potential: 60%

Maria Holic Alive

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with a cross-dresser.
For most anime, a sequel means the chance to expand upon their universe, use their build-up to bring more depth to their storyline and character and push them to a new height. For Shaft however, it stands for pointlessly dragging out a show that fitted perfectly in 12 or 13 episode and being really boring in the process. Because of that, I am not going to bother with this series unless someone comes with a really good reason to do so. I’ve given these endless sequels too many chances to impress me, and every time they ended in disappointments. It also doesn’t help that Shinbo is working on three series at the same time this season. There’s no way taht that’s goign to work! This episode also was… obnoxious. It has the kind of lead character whose voice actress thinks that good acting is continuously yelling. A lot in this episode also had a same problem that Nichijou is currently having: there was a lot of randomness, but all of it just felt like randomness for the sake of having randomness. There’s nothing coherent about it at all and the creators were just seeing how many random things they could throw at the viewer. Nichijou still has a pretty decent cast to back up this flaw, but this episode of Maria Holid… none ofe its characters stood out. Especially the lead character was bad, but the rest of the cast also just failed to stand out. It also feels that a lot of characters were just there for the heck of it. In fact, everything about this episode just felt done for the heck of it.
OP: I hope that they didn’t really think that this kind of rambling would work as an OP…
Potential: 0%

Sofuteni

Short Synopsis: Our lead character plays tennis.
Yeah, this is Xebec and its moe again. This show seems to believe that if you can just show a bunch of random teenaged girls with here and there some fanservice do stuff together you have done enough to be interesting. It really doesn’t bother to be more than what it advertises: moe, fansevice and tennis. This entire episode was pretty much a random day at the tennis club. This could have worked in theory, but the characters are just too weak. They’re all one-sided cliches, fanservice material and completely unlikable. The deadpan snarker was forced, the big boobed pervert’s entire character is just based around one joke, but by far the worst was the main character. I mean, I know that some teenaged girls can’t be too bright and all, but that girl was just way too much of an airhead.
OP: The usual obnoxious J-pop
ED: What? No fanservice ED? That’s at least one plus.
Potential: 0%