Author: psgels

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 21

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



Whoa, this episode again had some very good animation. While it was nowhere as good as episode 18, it still impressed me in the way it was so “subtly exaggerated”. The downside to this was that the boobs of the females suddenly grew two sizes, but the upside was some very expressive animation, surprisingly smooth inbetween frames and some great camera work. ZEXCS is really getting better here and I hope that they can keep this up. Not of course for the upcoming winter, they’re pretty much hopeless in that regard, but I do hope that after that they’ll be able to more and more let go of their usual generic graphics.

The rest of this episode was also very good: just about every character in it got pushed forward. I especially have to give credit to Milk, who as the once most annoying character of the show was actually very good now, showing that annoying characters have very much the ability to develop into likable ones. I’m still going to continue to rant on them though, because the fact remains that they once were very obnoxious and there are plenty of annoying characters who don’t develop…

The scene between Miran and Shion was probably the only point where the animation got a bit too cheesy, but aside from that it was a very good scene, finally showing Shion putting Miran in his place. It probably was the first point at which Miran really didn’t like the instructions Shion gave him because they stood against the ideals that he saw in him, and at the same time it showed that Shion hasn’t entirely lost his humanity for his dreams of changing Roland.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

To Aru Majutsu no Index II – 08

by psgels, posted in Autumn 2010 Kaleidoscope



Okay, perhaps last week would have been a better time for me to blog an episode of Index, but I did not know that that arc would just take up two measly episodes. And besides, this episode was pretty much was as interesting as it was terrible, which is pretty much what Index is all about.

So far, the second season of Index has been a huge mixed bag, but that’s part of its charms: the first arc was rather dull, the second arc was surprisingly good for being the lost chapters of Railgun (I really liked how they just cut the crap there and went straight to the point instead of dragging on). The current third arc is definitely enjoyable: it’s not the most ambitious arc, but it puts a lot of emphasis on the chemistry within the cast, which was quite enjoyable.

But really… there is fanservice, and there’s taking these dull romantic cliches way too far. How many times did Touma walk into a naked girl? How many times did his face get planted in someone’s bosom? Why did the creators suddenly introduced yet another random girl for Touma’s harem? It makes no sense, it feels lazy and it was completely pointless, making it seem like Touma can’t be friends with a girl unless he gets some romantic tension with her or something…

Either way though, this episode wasn’t a complete waste. I liked Touma in the rest of the episode, where there were a ton of different things that were going on. That’s how I like these sports festival episodes: we’ve seen them done to death by now, but this episode made well use of it to show some good antics. Another piece of criticism that I can give here is that the magical items in this show are starting to become mere McGuffins: especially in this episode, you could have replaced that Stab Sword with for example the “magical pizza of the annihilation of something very important”, and it wouldn’t have changed this episode in any way.
Rating: * (Good)

Mahou Shujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




So yeah, this turned out to b a recap. Or to be more specific: a retelling of the first season with nearly the exact same plot and scenario (with one major exception, but more on that below), condensed into two hours. The graphics got a major overhaul, and you can pretty much consider this as the cleaned up bite-sized version of Nanoha. It doesn’t take much risks, it does just what it’s supposed to do, but there are much worse recap movies.

Let’s start with the good parts here: the animation. I had to confirm this by rewatching some scenes of the original series (it’s been six years since I watched the first season), but the movie really put in effort to get rid of all of the chunky animation, still frames and deformed faces that riddled its counterparts. The dialogue and scenarios, which were excellent in the TV-series, were simply left alone. It makes flow of the movie a lot more dynamic.

Still, the movie did cut away pretty much four hours of footage, and that does hurt; especially on the titular character Nanoha. It cuts away a lot of the building up to make this movie much more action-packed than the TV-series, but in its turn it also skips much of Nanoha’s characterization: she no longer feels like just an ordinary girl: she just runs into Yuno, he gives her her magical powers and she’s like “okay”, without ever questioning him. These things happen more often in the movie, and that introduces cheese. Because of that, this movie just isn’t as good as the TV-series.

Also, there is one part of the movie that contains actual new footage. I won’t spoil exactly what part that is, but nevertheless I really appreciated that part. It wasn’t exactly vital to the plot, and yet it gave some new depth to one particular in this movie, and it also made the person in question a much more interesting character.

My general stance on recap movies is that I hate them unless they prove me otherwise. I believe that just retelling the same story again is lazy and that they should have come up with something more interesting, yet they can be good movies with the right execution. Nanoha’s movie did convince me, even though it’s not as good as its TV-series, because I can see what the creators wanted to do with it: Nanoha definitely looks better than ever now, and now you can also watch the first season during a random movie night with friends. If you’ve got more time than that though, I still recommend going for the TV-series.

On a side-note: the StrikerS Movie should prove to be very interesting, because of how much time its television series wasted on pointless build-up. The second Nanoha movie, which most likely is going to recap A’s will also fail to really condense the same story into just two hours: it’s just way too complex for that. StrikerS however really could use some overhaul.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Sacrifices build-up for a much better flowing story.
Characters: 7/10 – Skips fleshing the characters out, which ultimately bites the back with cheese, especially Nanoha becomes too static and perfect. Fate’s story still manages to shine, though.
Production-Values: 8/10 – For movie standards it’s perhaps nothing special, but for Nanoha’s standards the graphics really got a massive overhaul.
Setting: 8/10 – Ah, back when Nanoha’s setting still wasn’t so unnecessarily complicated (I’m looking at you, StrikerS).

Suggestions:
– Air The Motion Picture
– Card Captor Sakura
– Blue Drop

Shiki – 17

by psgels, posted in Shiki



I remember how during the first half, a couple of people noted how the first OP of this series showed the people who would end up dying in this series… Yeah. That suddenly got a whole new dimension here.

I mean, if that was the intention of the creators, then they could have just as easily shown the entire cast in that metaphor. I mean, this episode pretty much killed off all of the remaining lead characters: there are only two important characters left that are still alive and unbitten: one of the nurses, and Kaori: Seishin is drugged and will soon be enslaved, Toshio is bitten, the rest of the nurses also get caught in this episode. I mean, I expected some deaths when this series first started, but I never saw an entire genocide coming here…

So I really wonder: what’s next? I mean, the creators have now pretty much ran out of people to kill: we’ve pretty much reached the worst case scenario here. Even though this is a series in which the dead can come back to life, it’s not like the deaths here are reversible. I also keep calling this show for a turning point to start, and yet every episode finds some way to drag its cast closer to despair.

And yet, that can’t go on forever. This series has pretty much been building up for seventeen episodes now; the big difference with a lot of other shows is that it still packs a punch when it’s building up unlike for example Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin and Sengoku Basara, in which the build-up ended up getting a bit boring and random. The question is now really going to be: how does this show plan to use that build-up? What the heck is Toshio going to do once he becomes a vampire? What is Natsuno planning? All he did was run around in this episode a bit. Is Seishin finally going to do something in these final few episodes?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kuragehime – 06

by psgels, posted in Kuragehime



This show is just amazing: it just grabs its cast of characters, and instead of wasting its time with dull building up or slice of life, it just grabs its entire cast and pulls them out of their comfort zones, and it does this with such class, dynamic energy and variety that it becomes awesome to watch.

This episode continued the transformation of the sisterhood into a group of stylish ladies, and it puts them into a cafe in order to get accustomed to their new identities (and high heels. How can women walk on those?). The great part with them is their tension with Kuranosuke, who had to continue to pull them out of their shells throughout their entire adventure, and that wasn’t even the awesome part of this episode: the romantic tensions. And I don’t say that often.

There of course was Kuranosuke who against his will got turned on by Tsukimi, but I just loved Shuu and Inari Shouko in this episode, and how incredibly straight to the point the latter was when she tried to seduce Shuu: just forget building a relationship, simply drug the guy and blackmail him with a few pictures! Not to mention that the moment in which Shuu woke up was just priceless.

I can also really see this work as an 11 episode series: Noitamina’s short format really is a double-edged sword: it really forces creators to condense their stories, and weave building up more into the stories: with a pretty much guarantee that there isn’t room for a sequel in the prestigious Noitamina timeslot, the creators who realize this can get some amazing series that are short and to the point out of that. Kuragehime has also shown that it knows not to put too much on its plate, and I can really see a good conclusion for all of the characters it introduced in just five episodes.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Nurarihyon no Mago – 21

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



This episode felt like an intermezzo between the build-up and the confrontation with the Shikoku Youkai. The status quo is restored with the training camp ending because Rikuo’s friends are no longer in danger (though it is a bit gullible of Rikuo, I can very much imagine that now that they’ve gathered 88 demons, they don’t really care for the small fry anymore).

It’s a major episode for Rikuo’s character-development, though. It’s a bit our of character for him to suddenly start worrying, but I like how he’s going to form his own parade of demons here, with youkai who are loyal to him, and not his grandfather.

It’s a shame though that this episode was supposed to be really awesome in the manga, because it wasn’t really standing out at that point for me. I wonder what happened here. My biggest issue with this episode was however that (or at least it seems like that) the previous episodes put into building up Rikuo’s classmates, it looks like they’re going to be put on a bus for the final confrontation with the Shikoku Youkai. I guess that it was inevitable and all, but it does feel like something is missing again.
Rating: * (Good)

Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – 08

by psgels, posted in Shinryaku! Ika Musume



Okay, we don’t have to worry about this series running out of material. With this episode the creators showed that they can make something as simple as an umbrella awesome. The third part of this episode was definitely my favourite sketch of the past three episodes. Generally, for me the best episodes of Squid Girl have been not the ones who focused on some gimmicky character, but instead left Squid Girl and her imagination alone for a while, only to observe the carnage. Squid Girl was just too adorable as she discovered the magic wonders of the umbrella.

The other two parts of this episode also rocked. In the first part we see Squid Girl as she catches a truly bizarre disease that makes her hungry for shrimps in a way not too dissimilar from a person drinking sea water: eating them would only make her more and more hungry until she’d eat as much until she dies. How do they think of it? The episode also built up to a great punch-line at the end with the shrimp costume making its return.

The second part also was hilarious as it introduced another part of Squid Girl’s bizarre powers: her hat, as it suddenly starts moving. It’s a pretty useless power, although it seems quite powerful (I loved the part where she tried to squat a mosquito with it). A large part of the episode was also spent om some bickering between Squid Girl and Takeru and a friend of his, which also was just priceless.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 08

by psgels, posted in Shinrei Tantei Yakumo



A building up episode, but nevertheless a really solid one. It’s here where we finally get to see the “mystery”-part of this series, because the entire episode was full of twists and revelations to spice up this arc. It’s a bit weird at times, but that also gave this show a bit of a charm. Yakumo’s past suddenly got a lot more intriguing here, and I’m beginning to see what the creators were building up for here.

It’s also an episode who completely removes some of the key lead characters: Yakumo only appears in one shot, while Gotou is nowhere to be found at all. I like these kinds of episodes, as they really give the side-cast their time to shine, and in this episode they really show that they’re more than a useless bunch. Especially that wimpy detective gets some background and development and also Haruka was very different from back when she still got kidnapped every other episode.

I do have to wonder which police office keeps secret files hidden behind a toilet, of all things. This episode also returned to the quick-fire pacing of this series which feels like the creators tried to stuff a ton of material into just twenty episodes. Again though: it works. You can say a lot about this series, but it definitely doesn’t drag on.

The fact that Yakumo is the child born off a rape victim makes a lot of sense in the story, and only ends up making that bad guy even more of an asshole, establishing him now as an uncaught rapist. It’s still a complete mystery about what he’s planning to do with him though, but it probably involves the spirit seeing powers that he has. The bond between his mother and Haruka’s mother is a bit coincidental, but on the other hand, it’s entirely possible for Haruka’s mother to send Haruka towards Yakumo. I doubt she knew about the extent of the practices that Yakumo was involved in, and instead probably tried to prevent Yakumo from really losing his way.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 40

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



Just when I thought that this show couldn’t get any better… and it surpasses itself. Yet again. I mean, I’m running out of superlatives here, the previous episode made it seem like it was going to quietly build up until the final climax, and instead here this show comes with one of its best episodes so far. How the hell do these creators keep doing this?

It’s exactly as I hoped though: the final quarter of this series really is going to focus on the bad guys. But holy crap, to think that they already finished off one of them at this stage… what the hell do they have in store for the rest of these episodes? Sasorina’s end was incredibly sad, especially with the twist that she pretty much was just another Desatorian.

I mean, this is hard core for a kids’ show: they pretty much put three people (perhaps even five, if the same is true for Sabaaku and Dark Precure…) into a coma for more than a year. Sasorina was a fun and quirky character to follow throughout these past forty episodes, but things get a completely new dimension here when you think at how all this time, there was her body lying around in a coma, waiting for the Precures to heal her heart. It’s a fantastic way to develop her character, and I also loved the subtle parts that Kumojacky and Cobraja played in this episode.

Also, the creators also found a solution of keeping this show from becoming too epic and losing its charms. There have a been a lot of different things turned into Desatorians over the past few episodes. But an entire freaking school building?! That’s just cool on so many levels. On top of that, the story of this episode was also a really charming one that actually used an overused anime trope really well. There have been plenty of series by now who had this underdog who suddenly gets powers and authority for himself, and he starts daydreaming of how to absolutely not use these powers. It’s annoying and overdone, and yet I loved how maturely this show treated this by really showing that he knows better after getting scolded by Itsuki about it.

Oh yeah, and Itsuki also deciding to retire as the student council president. These are the kinds of things you expect at a penultimate episodes and we’ve still got ten episodes left!
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Star Driver – 08

by psgels, posted in Star Driver




So I thought that the creators would make Sugata as an antagonist a long-running theme of this series. Apparently though, they just intended this arc as a part of his character-development and in terms of that, this arc really served its purpose: we definitely got to know more about Sugata during the past episodes, even though he was such a silent character before this arc.

Also beyond my expectations: the cage girl left. I mean, she finished her story, left her cage and at the end of the episode she’s on a boat away from the island. I seriously have no idea what to make of that because this series really likes to play with that: there have been plenty of times at which it hinted to put characters on a bus, only to immediately bring them back and characters who looked like they were important at first sight got put on a bus instead. And don’t get me wrong, I really like that unpredictable side of this series.

The battle of this episode was a typical manly fight, with lots of morals and one liners. Perhaps it was a bit cheesy, but it definitely worked as a good conclusion to Sugata’s arc. Samekh’s power is apparently too much for the Pink-haired girl to handle, which does mnake me worried whether or not the creators are god-moding Sugata a little too much here, but there still are plenty of ways for them to write themselves out of that corner. I’m especially interested in what happened to that Pink-haired girl: we did not see her exit her chamber and hand in her badge. So much for being formulaic, eh?
Rating: ** (Excellent)