Author: psgels

Yumekui Merry – 05

by psgels, posted in Yumekui Merry




I really like episodic series. Sure, they’re easy to screw up without the right execution, and their main storylines don’t become as smooth as series with a continuous story, but really: who cares? They’ve got plenty of ways to make up for that. This episode showed that even episodic characters are just awesome if they use each other to build up and flesh out the story. Seriously, this episode was amazing.

This was EXACTLY what I was hoping for when I started this series. Sure, the story started off with a number of cliches and all, but this was a really emotional episode that did just about everything right. The first half of this episode was full of wonderful slice of life that makes me take back what I said earlier about this show, in the way that the characters in this series don’t have the most interesting personalities: the way in which this episode fleshed them out was wonderfully down to earth and showed a lot of new things about them, like Isana suddenly liking a famous pop star. Or the fact that Merry has been lost and killing off other dream demons for ten years now. Yeah.

Then the second half came, and that was the point for this series to suddenly contradict a lot of what it had been building up for. Seriously, how many series this season have already done this right? Yumekui Merry gave another wonderful addition to the collection of amazing plot twists of this season: it turns out that Merry didn’t have the power to send demons back at all! In fact, there was no way to get back to the dream world in the first place.

The second half of this episode also wonderfully moved the lead characters into the gray area of morality: in this episode a character representing justice shows up. She’s very much like your average protagonist here: searching to exterminate every dream demon in order to get revenge on her sister and to stop their evil deeds.

The animation also was gorgeous and really inspired, even for this series’ standards. I mean, this just shows the amazing things you can do with generic character designs, if you’ve got the right artists and animation direction behind it.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – 05

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica



That new girl made her proper entrance in this episode. She at this point is a bit too stereotypically evil, and I would like to see her character in a bit more detail than someone who just wants to kill people. Other than that though, this again was an excellent episode.

She did have a good point in this episode, though: becoming a mahou shoujo, just to protect others is a very shallow reason: in order to remain strong enough to protect innocent people, you need to collect the grief seeds, which can only be collected after a witch had a meal on some innocent people. It’s a vicious cycle, and Sayaka doesn’t really seem to understand this. Sayaka really is a ticking time bomb at this point.

Also, the more this show goes on, the more trollish the OP appears. The tone is obviously misleading here, but also the transformation scene which felt completely out of place could be just a subtle jab to other mahou shoujo and some of the tropes that they just continue to overuse. Especially considering how at this point Madoka still hasn’t become one. I have seen Phantom, Gen’s other work. I know that this guy has pretended the death of characters, only to bring them back later. At the same time though, it’s not like he’s afraid to kill of characters either. My guess is that Mami will return eventually when Madoka chooses her wish. At the same time though, I’m expecting quite a number of actual deaths with the rest of the cast here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)a

Fractale – 04

by psgels, posted in Fractale




A tip for everyone who is going on an adventure: if you want a complete stranger to do something for you, make sure you tell him what to do, in order to prevent him from biting you in the back later.

Fractale certainly used a bunch of strange plot devices in order to get its story started. Phryne just leaves something seemingly important as Nessa in the hands of a complete stranger? If she wanted to hide Nessa, couldn’t she just have hidden it at a random place? Later on in the episode, she says that she didn’t expect Nessa to actually wake up, but that just asks a whole bunch of mew questions, most notably: why was Clain able to do it? You’re not going to tell me that in a few episodes this guy is going to turn out to be the key to switch off the Fractale, right?

Nitpicking aside though, I’m impressed that for four episodes, A-1 have kept up a consistently high animation quality here, that really gives the characters the opportunity to show their personalities and emotions, and there really was a lot to like about this episode in the story department. The aftermath of the previous episode and especially the death were given ample time to sink in, and I also give Clain all the right to try and run away from these people.

Now, at this point it’s pretty obvious that the Fractale is evil, but in terms of the details there still is quite a bit of mystery in this series: why are these stars so important for the Fractale System? What happened in the past between Nessa and Phryne? What is the link to these stars and those two? Beyond Phryne’s strange actions, the characters are also still doing pretty well. They’re nothing amazing, but most of them are not complete stereotypes and have an actual personality here, even though their personalities are sometimes really out there (Nessa most notably).

One thing that I hope that the next episodes will do is to make the Fractale system, and especially their attack squadron into a threat. I mean, when they showed up they looked really intimidating, but in the end, what did these guys actually accomplish?
Rating: * (Good)

Hourou Musuko – 04

by psgels, posted in Hourou Musuko



I’m also watching Kimi ni Todoke at this moment. And really, the difference here shows when a series actually has characters who openly know that people have a crush on them. It makes for much more interesting drama here, beyond the usual “when in God’s name will they ever find out that they’re into each other!?”

This episode was mostly building up. Those episodes are rather dangerous in a Noitamina series of only eleven episodes, but this episode still added a lot of stuff to the series here. It established that both Saori and Shuuichi are too stubborn to give up their crushes. I also like how they are constantly talking about this and their feelings, instead of keeping it all cropped up. And I mean, they’re teenagers so they’re bound to be impulsive and strange at times, but in the same time I like how Nitori wants to be a girl, not just for the sake of this crush, but because he really feels like he is born in the wrong body.

I also like how the problems that Yoshino has aren’t some kind of mirror of Shuuichi here. They both have to deal with growing up physically, but she is far less bothered with hormones and love than Shuuichi is.
Rating: * (Good)

Blue Gender Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




When the Earth is under attack from sort of menace, whether these are aliens, robots or giant mutated freaks, the trick is to make them feel like a threat. Really give off the feeling of “we’re screwed”. Blue Gender is really good at this.

In Blue Gender, the earth is overrun by freakish bug-like monsters. As the series went on, and showed how these creatures (called Blue) operate, it had convinced me surprisingly quickly: yes, these things are able to nearly completely wipe out the human race. They are completely brutal in their hunts, they have evolved to the point where they occupy every part of civilized areas, and whenever you try to kill them, they only evolve and get more nasty. Dying in this show is something really easy: just one careless moment can be the result of a brutal and unforgiving death and just when you think you’re safe, another threat just pops up from the corner. Blue Gender is a large part survival horror, and it really knows how to do that correctly.

As the show goes went into its second half, it really started to impress me, though. Beyond the survival horror, it is also really focused on the character development of its lead couple. This character-development is really excellent: at the end of the series, both of them have changed completely, but believably. The changes that their characters undergo gradually twist the series in a completely different mood and focus. The romance also actually gets developed believably and gets somewhere for once!

That’s pretty much the gist of what you need to know for this series: if you like survival horror and character development, then this is a must-watch. It’s rather simple, but this show hardly has any weak moment and does what it does really well. On top of that, it actually gives quite a bit of depth to its setting through a bit of political intrigue here and there. There are just three things that you need to be aware of here:

1). This show has a very low budget. It’s well directed, but the cleanup animation is lacking throughout most of the frames, and there are a lot of still frames around.
2). It’s a show with a lot of angst. And really, once you see the series you’ll see that there are enough reasons why this series has characters purposefully acting like idiots at times in order to show the mental state they’re in, it can be annoying. Clashes of ideals are also a big theme here.
3). Be prepared to go WTF at the ending. Just… be prepared…

Storytelling: 9/10 – Survival horror like it should be. Keeps the tension constantly high and interesting, despite the simple storyline. Excellent atmosphere.
Characters: 9/10 – The thing that really sets this show above most a lot of the other shows of its kind. Angsty, but amazingly developed and easily relatable characters. The main characters especially, but also the side characters do their job wonderfully.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is obviously lacking, but not bad enough to get in the way of the rest of the series..
Setting: 9/10 – Few mecha series have been able to achieve this bleak of a setting. It really manages to portray that things have gotten completely desperate.

Suggestions:
– Shiki
– Gasaraki
– Armored Trooper Votoms
(I’m not putting High School of the Dead here, because it is inferior to Blue Gender in every way apart from the graphics; call it Diet Blue Gender if you will).

Level E – 04

by psgels, posted in Level E




Oh my god. This episode was completely different from what I expected, and yet it continued this series’ streak of awesome episodes like it was nothing! Heck, there was very little comedy in this episode, and it really tried to tell a serious story, and it worked like an absolute charm here! Why the heck did this brilliant of a manga take this long to get animated?!

The thing that immediately sticks out: the graphics in this episode are absolutely amazing. The visual effects are incredibly imaginative and there are a ton of different ideas that looked absolutely gorgeous and that had had no intention at all to look conventional. I mean, holy crap: this is how you make a show with a tight budget! It’s also the contrast with the graphics of the previous three episodes that makes the graphics of this episode stand out.

Also, the story: from out of nowhere, it stars four random high school students with no hint whatsoever from the lead characters. That takes balls there, especially this early on in the series. What’s also great is that the creators pretty much created four distinctive and interesting male characters here: they feel unlike many of the other high school students that we’ve been seeing in anime and they’re completely away from any cliches. The dialogue and characterization is excellent and down to earth.

The episode basically revolves around those four guys as they witness an alien killing a young girl. The story of this alien was also really excellent and tragic: the case of an alien who eats the females in order to reproduce. It made for a really tense climax. All in all it was a brilliant episode…

And the irony is that that moronic prince came up with it! Oh, lord that anti-climax at the end just sealed the deal here. Usually whenever a character comes up with a story it’s pretty lame, but to create such a good scenario here… the creators really showed that this guy is a genius by not portraying him as a terrible storyteller.

I absolutely love David Production at this point. I mean, they continue to go right against the current trends, and they continue to animate stories that make you wonder why the heck nobody else had taken them before, and give them really worthwhile renditions. Ironically, they also don’t seem to care about the “pretty first episode”-syndrome in which creators put a lot of their efforts on the graphics of the first episode as a means to draw people in: first there was Bantorra with the ugly CG boat of episode 1, and now too: the first episode of Level E wasn’t really anything special in terms of graphics, but this episode looked utterly gorgeous.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

OVA Impressions: Houkago no Pleiades

by psgels, posted in OVA Impressions




So, in the end Houkago no Pleiades consists out of four five-minute episodes. You can find the youtube links here. For those who don’t know, this is basically an anime, animated by Gainax and sponsored by car producer Subaru. I have no idea why Subaru found it a good idea to advertise its cars to otaku, but apparently they saw an unexplored market here.

In any case, Houkago no Pleiades pretty much is an experiment in visuals. Gainax gratefully took the budget that Subaru provided to them and just tried to create something interesting looking here, at the expense of inserting a bunch of strange car references here and there. And granted, the action scenes have some pretty visuals and animation. At this point it’s definitely mission succeeded.

In exchange though, the story and characters are all pretty bad. The creators really did not put any effort into them at all: the story is just there to show the interesting visuals and it makes no sense whatsoever, while the characters are all just shallow cardboard cut-outs. By far the worst part of this ova is the parts in which this OVA thinks that it can actually get some drama out of them.

So yeah, this is pretty much a one trick pony. Watch it if you’re looking for some nice eye candy. Otherwise you can give it a pass. I will say this, though: for a car commercial, it could have been much more blatant. The Subaru-references are all kept in the background and we don’t even see an actual car appear during these past 20 minutes. But seriously… brooms that make engine noises?
OVA Episode Rating: 7,25/10

Break Blade III Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



The Break Blade Movies are slowly getting better. The emphasis still is on slowly, though. After this third installment, I’ve still seen too little to really recommend it, but it’s not like the other movies will be doomed to this as well, but at the same time it also introduced a few plot points that I really wonder whether they will work in the rest of the story.

The third movie is the first that actually uses the build-up that the previous movies created, and especially Cleo makes good use of it, with a large portion of this movie devoted to her. This movie overall was quite good in getting the viewer accustomed to most of the side-characters. At the same time though, it still didn’t really solve the problem of its male lead: he still is one of the least likable of the series. This movie just didn’t have as much of him as the previous two, and it was particularly interesting when he wasn’t involved.

The action scenes also were pretty good in this movie, but they weren’t as well animated: there were a few strangely placed still frames, and they did not look as polished as they were in the previous two movies, but the choreography made up for that.

In the end though, I’m still missing something at this point. It fails to stand out in what it’s trying to do and the result is a series of movies that do have some interesting portrayal of warfare in mechas, but too little to make it really worth watching for three hours so far.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Solid, but nothing really attention-grabbing. Should have tried harder.
Characters: 8/10 – The characters make progression in this movie.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Solid, but nothing special.
Setting: 8/10 – It’s simple and therefore well portrayed and relatively believable.

Suggestions:
– Gasaraki
– Yomigaeru Sora – Rescue Wings
– Mobile Polkice Patlabor

January Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Before I start with this summary, I have an announcement to make. I already told this in the shoutbox, but tomorrow I’m finally going to say goodbye to my sutdent life and start my new job. What this means for this blog is that I’ll still be able to cover twelve series a week, but I won’t be as fast as I used to be. Especially expect entries on busy days to be released, because I can only make posts in the evening now. I’m also going to stop trying to give a post to every obscure OVA out there (along with DVD specials that I don’t have much to say about), so I’m just going to keep with the major ones that get released, like Black Lagoon and Gundam Unicorn. I will try to follow all of the major movie releases though, but again: expect delays there.

This season is a very interesting example of quality over quantity. It’s small, there are hardly any series that carried over from the previous season and there are six series that I really don’t want to waste my time on. What remains though, is pretty darn good. Especially the best of the season really surprised me here with a solid execution for just about every good series. There is a ton of potential in this season, only held back by the fact that there are way too many series about teenagers.

#23 (new) – Rio – Rainbow Gate – (4,5/10) – Rio is terrible, but it’s so bad that it’s good. The best was episode three, but after that the fun quickly died and got monotonous. Dropped.
#22 (new) – Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne – (5/10) – They’re brother and sister, but they’re not actually blood related. Ooh, we’re edgy now. At least the execution isn’t as ludicrously poor as KissXSis, but do we really need more series like it?
#21 (new) – IS ~Infinite Stratos~ – (6,25/10) – If there is anything I don’t like, then it’s a series that’s devoted to nothing but dull harem hi-jinks. I tried to keep watching for a bit longer, but I gave up at the point where the spoiled brat suddenly completely changed character and went from tsundere to just badly overplayed dere. Dropped.
#20 (new) – Beelzebub – (6,5/10) – Beelzebub is being adapted by someone who is notorious for his poor adaptations. I really don’t want to waste any time on this, and when it became clear that the second episode was just spamming the same jokes over and over again with poor acting and jokes that fell flat and weren’t built up properly, I tuned out. Dropped.
#19 (new) – Freezing – (6,75/10) – A pretty good start, but it couldn’t keep this up for me. A big part in this obviously is due to that male lead who is beyond clingy, but it’s pretty much the entire cast that doesn’t really seem to know where it wants to go. Dropped.
#18 (new) – Cardfight Vanguard – (6,75/10) – Granted, for a series that’s solely made to sell cards to kids, it’s not that bad. It’s incredibly cheesy, though. You can feed an orphanage for a week with the corn that it produces. Still, the monster designs are pretty decent. They could have done worse. Dropped.
#17 (new) – Dragon Crisis – (7,75/10) – The big problem with Dragon Crisis is that it’s ridiculously cliched. I’m willing to overlook this for now though, because the execution is pretty good. The characters are well portrayed and acted (albeit rather annoying at times), and the dialogue is nicely written. And the good soundtrack and animation of course also help.
#16 (new) – Gosick – (7,75/10) – With Gosick, I dislike the small picture, but I like what’s going on in the big picture. The different mysteries all feel like they are solved way too easily with pretty poor build-up, but when you connect them they seem to be hinting to something deeper. Another problem is that none of the characters really caught my attention so far yet, but we’ve still got 20 episodes left, so anything can happen at this point.
#15 (new) – Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? – (7,75/10)

Hmm, the tricky thing with Zombie was that it had a very good first episode, and then episodes 2 and 3 failed to live up to that. There is still plenty of potential on this one left, though. Especially if it’s indeed true that the drama will be as good as the cliff-hanger of episode three suggested.

#14 (17) – To Aru Majutsu no Index – (7,75/10)

Unfortunately, I did find the Croche di Pietro arc to be the worst Index arc so far. Especially the way in which it ended with that anti-climactic deus ex machina sealed the deal that the entire story had potential, but was just a complete mess in terms of execution. I liked the Venice arc, though. It was very short (why are all of the good arcs in Index II so short?), but it was well built up and a lot more solid than its predecessor.

#13 (17) – Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season – (7,75/10)

Ack! It’s frustrating to see that there actually is potential for a good romance here, but the characters just refuse to develop themselves! Every time you think that they finally are going to get some progress in their relationship, they come with some sort of anti-climax. I really hope that that new character is going to be able to finally get things moving between the lead couple.

#12 (new) – Wolverine – (8/10)

It’s much, much better than Iron Man. Wolverine knows what it is, and delivers on that: simple but effective action. It’s got a good atmosphere and the action moves around enough to prevent this from getting boring. I’m enjoying the results right now, even though the acting is stiff and a bit hammy at times.

#11 (15) – Mitsudomoe – (8/10)

Something very rare happened here: a comedy sequel is actually turning out to be better than the original. There still are the bad parts, but they are really outweighed by the hilarious parts that are even funnier than the first season. Plus, the amount of misunderstandings has been toned down significantly.

#10 (new) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10)

The way in which it aired its first two episodes three months in advance is a bit strange, but Showa Monogatari is a good series with a down to earth portrayal of a normal family around the 1960s. It’s certainly good to see that the creators are attempting series like this again.

#9 (new) – Fractale – (8/10)

Fractale made the decision to flesh its characters out with rather annoying and moe antics. That makes some parts of it a bit hard to sit through, but it is worth it in the end. The story is definitely intriguing and I like how this show isn’t afraid to get really dark at times. Three episodes so far, and this show has to screw up pretty badly if I’m going to end up liking Kannagi more.

#8 (15) – Bakuman – (8/10)

Bakuman still is slow but solid, but things are definitely starting to happen right now. The characters have gotten more enjoyable to watch, we’ve gotten more in-depth with the manga writing business now that Moritaka and Nizzuma Eiji actually got to meet each other, and it finally looks like things are getting interesting.

#7 (new) – Yumekui Merry – (8,25/10)

Gorgeous artwork and direction, and I’m also enjoying the characters a lot. The main flaw of this series is that the main characters don’t have the most amounts of background or other thing that sets them apart, but it’s well built up and executed.

#6 (3) – Letter Bee – (8,5/10)

This month didn’t show the best side of Letter Bee, but it still was really good here, especially Gauche versus Lag was wonderful to watch.

#5 (new) – Hourou Musuko – (8,5/10)

A very solid character study. Hourou Musuko is the kind of slice of life series where the pacing is slow, yet a lot of stuff happens thanks to its huge cast. I especially like how the creators put life in the entire school and backgrounds, and the main characters themselves are also well portrayed and interesting.

#4 (8) – Star Driver – (8,5/10)

This is really getting solid here. The past episodes have continued to shift the themes and purposes of this series back and forth and gave a totally new spin to the cast of characters. We’ve nearly gotten to the parts I’ve been looking forward to the most.

#3 (new) – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – (8,75/10)

Well, you can definitely see that Shaft is working with a different writer this time. Madoka Magica turned out to be a great deconstruction of the mahou shoujo genre with a good script, a great style that at the same time doesn’t overtake the entire series, and some excellent twists along the way. Four episodes in, and this already is my favourite Shaft series since ef – a tale of memories.

#2 (2) – Heartcatch Precure – (9/10)

Heartcatch Precure had an excellent finale, and as usual it followed some tropes, wile averting others. It really worked out wonderfully in the end though, and it really is a shame to see this one go.

#1 (new) – Level E – (9,25/10)

I love this show. It’s looking out to be the best comedy I have seen in years. The comedic timing is top-notch, and the characters are all just lovable in their quirks, and at the same time they’re all away from the usual cliches that you see with alien stories. It’s absolutely hilarious and contains twists that turns around entire characters, time and time again.

Heartcatch Precure Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Heartcatch Precure




In the first year after I started this blog, I personally was a big fan of the mahou shoujo genre (heck, my favourite series is one). Over the years though, this fandom became less and less. This mostly had to do with the genre stagnating: the mahou shoujo that got released lacked creativity, were all just poorly executed and never really took advantage of their formula to show some great characters. Heartcatch Precure broke this trend, and how! From the outside, it looks like just another Sailor Moon Clone, but within its premise, it does just about everything right here.

To start off with the production values: this show has better fights that most shounen series out there. The battles in this series are consistently dynamic and despite a huge amount of transformation scenes they never get boring or repetitive. This show excels both in hand to hand and long-range combat, and it looks ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS in the process. The animation in this series is consistently of a high quality, and always interesting to look at. Combine this with an awesome soundtrack, and you’ve got a feast for the senses.

This show also sets itself apart with characters that just are good, right from the start. Tsubomi and Erika are immediately very likable characters, and the entire series just focuses on portraying them as down to earth girls whenever they’re not busy fighting monsters. The characters that join and meet them are also wonderfully written and subtly developed throughout the series. Just about every recurring character has his or her chance to shine in this series.

You should note that this series does follow the classic mahou shoujo format. There will be a lot of episodes that are just dedicated to the characters running into people who have a problem, or are worrying about someone. Even here this series delivers though, because it consistently manages to portray these characters well and makes their problems easily relatable. Hardly ever does this show go for cheap ways to solve these issues, and here too things are kept wonderfully down to earth.

The main flaw of this series is that in the end, it does follow a pretty predictable formula, so expect to see the surprises in this show more in the fine details than in the overall plot. Having said that though, this show proves that you can do amazing things with that formula, and for every mahou shoujo trope that this series adheres to, it also subverts another one.

Another thing that might get on your nerves here is that this series really likes to use a lot of transformation scenes. Most episodes have around two to three minutes of them in total. The good thing though is that these are the best transformation scenes that I have seen since Utena. The animation in the series is already good, but in these scenes it’s five times better. Some of them are a true visual orgasm.

Still, what it boils down to is this: if you have yet to see the classic shoujo oriented mahou shoujo, but are interested in why people are raving about them, there are two series that I recommend: Cardcaptor Sakura and this one. Heartcatch Precure was exactly what the mahou shoujo genre needed and it shows the great things that simply an excellent execution and cast of characters can do to such a simple premise.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Dynamic, fun, childish but consistently enjoyable.
Characters: 9/10 – Both the recurring and the minor characters are all wonderfully fleshed out.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Gorgeous production values and soundtrack.
Setting: 8/10 – Simple, but well fleshed out.

Suggestions:
– Cardcaptor Sakura
– Mahou Shoujotai
– Otogi Juushi Akazukin (Note that I would rate this one a bit lower if I were to watch it now).