Author: psgels

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 04

by psgels, posted in Shinrei Tantei Yakumo



This series has… something. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I like this show surprisingly much because of it and this episode solidified that for me. I mean, this has been the first fast-paced Bee-Train series since Murder Princess, and even though Koichi Mashimo’s absence is very apparent here, but the charms of the characters still shine through here.

I also like the formula this show is using: the first half of every episode is usually not very special, and mostly used to set things up, only for the second half to set things off with interesting twists, new and interesting pieces of music, and to close off each episode we have those mysterious monologues of the main bad guys of the series that get more intriguing with every episode. I know that the individual stories of this series aren’t exactly mystery, but the overall story is doing a very good job at it.

I think that at this point, the biggest flaw of this series is its coincidences, but it’s nothing too major at the point, and it’s used well. And I guess that it was an interesting twist for Yakumo to learn about his mother by running into someone who happened to know her around the time she was pregnant. It’s definitely an interesting twist here that Yakumo’s mother tried to strangle him before disappearing, rather than having her be the usual “mother who is gone” stereotype.

This show definitely is a good example of how to adapt a show on a tight budget and timespan. It’s far from the best that Bee-Train has produced, but I’m still enjoying it a lot here.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Star Driver – 04

by psgels, posted in Star Driver



Well, so much for the formula: this episode already broke it and instead had one of the cybodies unleash an illusion on Takuto. The characterization here was excellent, and even though this episode was quiet and completely different from the previous three, it developed Takuto and Wako’s relationship quite well and showed a number of pretty interesting things about their pasts. What caught my interest the most however was the things that this episode promised.

I mean, at this rate I can very well imagine that the creators are planning to have Takuto fight a different character each episode. Because of this, it’s starting off with the unimportant characters: they both serve to introduce the concepts, and flesh out the main characters: Utena did the same in the Black Rose arc. In any case, this offers tons of opportunities to weave the stories of all kinds of characters into one, and this show definitely has the potential and creativity to pull this off.

I like how all of the main villains are different, and that has made all of the episodes so different so far, aside from the repeated scenes. The black-haired girl seems to like to brainwash people into submission. The interesting thing is that at the moment that Takuto saw through the illusions, the leader instead said that her plan worked out well. And to be honest, I’m not really sure what they really expected to do with this illusion, but if it had a bigger purpose than just “take out Takuto”, then I’m very interested in what the rest of the episodes are going to offer.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 37

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




Agh! Freaking cliff-hanger!

Last week I predicted that this would be another random story. I couldn’t have been more wrong: this episode was chock full of character and plot development. We finally see Dune come into action and threaten the planet, just like he did with Tsubomi’s grandmother. Alongside this comes a monster that really can’t be beaten with the regular powers of the precures, and only now do the four of them search for their power-ups that have been introduced ten episodes ago. I said this before, but power-ups in mahou shoujo (and many other anime as well, by the way) often feel a bit cheap, and are often introduced from out of nowhere. This however was really well done: it was properly introduced, the creators made sure to give it disadvantages, and so the characters tried to survive as long as possible without having to resort to it.

In any case, the really awesome part of this episode came when everyone had to take the test in order to obtain this power: fighting your shadow self (who all looked awesome, by the way). While this has been done before, the unique twist to this was that instead of defeating these shadows, Erika, Yuri and Itsuki all ended up accepting and embracing these sides of them: they weren’t trying to run away from them, and I especially love how the creators did this with Yuri.

But god dammit, we have to wait an entire week in order to see the best part! I mean, Itsuki, Erika and Yuri at this point are pretty stable characters: this episode really completed their character development, by convincing them that they shouldn’t hate the way they were. Tsubomi however was completely different: throughout the entire series, she was the one who kept running after everyone: first this was Erika, then it became Itsuki. She really helped and supported both of them.

To me, it really seems like she’s looking up to her other three companions, and that’s what the end of this episode pointed at: she wants to improve so badly so that she’ll keep within their shadow, that she can’t accept her own shadow. Or at least, that’s what I make of it. Next week can’t come too early.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Letter Bee – 29

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



What a wonderful little episode about a lighthouse keeper. it was told in a completely different style than usual, with us as viewers thrown right in the middle of a story, only revealing bit by bit what’s going on. I love these kinds of episodes in which a series just abandons standard storytelling and tries out something different, and it worked delightfully well here.

The story itself was also excellent here. There have been stories about old men who are abandoned by their children who don’t want to succeed their professions, but it still stood apart as unique by making the old man dead for years, not solving anything other than ridding the world of another Gaichu, and having the man create fake stories and letters in order to escape the loneliness. It’s totally bittersweet, even for a ghost story.

Nichi was also as adorable as ever here. We never actually saw her attempts to get Lag back, other than a bunch of silhouettes, but based on the things she said, along with the bruises she left on Lag’s body we can only imagine what it must have looked like. On top of that, we finally got to see Lag, meeting Jiggy Pepper, and he really turned out to be much more of an interesting guy than I thought.

I know that episodic series are often looked down upon and all, but I love them, exactly because they can be able to pull off episodes like these: it’s something much harder for series with a continuous story, which have their own advantages. For that to happen of course, the series in question does need to have the guts to abandon these conventions, of course, and I’m really glad that Letter Bee belongs to the series who do.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Bakuman – 04

by psgels, posted in Bakuman



If I had to describe my feelings of Bakuman so far in one word, it’d be “solid”. It’s not the deepest or most exciting show of the season, nor does it have the best characters yet, but at the moment it’s happy enough to just carefully set up its story and premise. This episode continued that trend, as it discussed Moritaka’s conviction.

Moritaka is actually in some way similar to Yagami Light: both start out as seemingly regular students at the top of their class, with nothing really meaningful to do. Light then gets corrupted by the arrival of the Death Note, while Bakuman takes a completely different turn by having the guy work hard to become a manga artist. This episode really showed his talents, on top of his willingness to make something successful out of it, as he’s willing to let his grades drop significantly in favor of the manga he’s writing.

This episode also established that he might just as well be the guy to actually pull it off: he’s got the right mind-set, and once he starts writing he gets totally caught up in it. I mean, it’s one thing to be experienced in how a manga gets created through his uncle, but even considering that, this guy has talent and the right personality for it. Contrast that with Akito, who probably did not realize all of this when he first proposed his idea to Moritaka.

As for the side-characters, this episode introduced a bunch of new ones. I didn’t really like the wannabe artists whose only purpose was to make Moritaka look smart. Miyoshi meanwhile has me a bit indifferent, as her introduction didn’t really show much of her, and we’ve got a fifteen year old mangaka who probably will serve as some kind of example for Moritaka and Akito, and he’s who I’m interested in the most here. Oh, and Azuki’s scenes were a lot more bearable in this episode, mostly because the creators didn’t try to use any weird coincidences here, but instead just tried to show it progressing naturally. My only gripe is that the mostly down to earth Moritaka somehow becomes a little toogullible when he starts talking with Akito about Azuki.
Rating: * (Good)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 16

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



Yes! This episode headed into the right direction! These are the episodes I want to see! Screw the politics of this series, the finale of this show needs to be about its characters. This episode really added a lot of depth to them, especially to Ferris and her brother. With this episode, I at least got a glimpse of why the second half of this show is supposed to be awesome.

This episode pretty much didn’t touch the story of the warring nations, and instead it showed some of Ferris’ background, her relationship with her brother, and it developed Ryner’s relationship with her as he found out more about her. This is the kind of character development that I’ve been waiting for for what feels like ages now. I also really liked how this episode cemented Ferris’ brother as one heck of a sunovabitch here. And to make matters even better, the creators are also really making Milk more bearable. She was just as annoying in this episode, but the few bits of drama around her felt much more genuine than in those earlier episodes.

Still, this episode in no way fixes all of the problems of this series: its politics still are uninteresting, and the reason why this episode was so good was because it didn’t put any attention to it. Now that I mention it, the reason the first four episodes were so good was because they also didn’t have much of a focus on the politics. It’s usually a genre I really like, because of the many different directions you can go in, and how it can provide pretty deep insights on its setting, though Denyuuden never really felt like that. I’m also missing creativity.

On top of that, I still don’t trust the anime creators, and whether they’re going to be able to stuff the good parts in the nine remaining episodes. They did take an awful lot of time for the boring stuff and the introductions, not to mention that I have seen the previous works of the director, which were all badly planned out. And I know that directors are accompanied by writers who do the series composition and all, but that doesn’t make me less worried here when we’re talking about the guy who wrote the anime adaptation of Kurogane no Linebarrels…
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 03

by psgels, posted in Autumn 2010 Kaleidoscope



I’m going to try something completely different this season. I’m pretty happy with blogging Bakuman, Yakumo, Letter Bee, Star Driver, Kuragehime and Squid Girl this season, but I just couldn’t make up my mind on the twelfth one. Neither TWGOK nor Togainu no Chi seems really interesting enough to cover weekly for an entire season. So yeah, Togainu no Chi is hereby dropped. Instead, I’m going to try and blog a different series each week.

There are a lot of shows this season that I want to say something about, without having to discuss it every single week. I’ve got about 8 to 12 of them, depending on my mood and how they turn out. In the final weeks I’ll cover the most interesting ones once more. Oh, and for the record: a week for me starts on Monday and ends on Sunday.

This week, I’d like to talk about by far the most underrated series of the season: Milky Holmes: it averages a score of 6,28 on MAL, and a whopping 5,41 on AniDB, and while I admit that this is a very guilty pleasure of mine, I also want to say that none of the comedies this season has managed to make me laugh as hard and consistently as Milky Holmes.

It’s utterly stupid, and yet has flashes of brilliance in its jokes. The jokes are all completely fresh: this episode had the cast, among others, play twister in an ancient museum in order to get their powers back, end up in jail and liking it because at least it had food, and locked up in an ancient tomb with a horny English teacher.

Speaking of which, that English teacher is probably the funniest guy on the entire show. For a show that has relatively little fanservice for a moe show aside from the ED, it does have a few points that are just completely wrong, and most of those really involve that teacher. That trunk scene was both utterly hilarious and utterly disturbing.

As a parody, this series rocks, though, as it completely tears the kaitou genre apart. I’m not really sure why, but most Kaitou-parodies in anime turn out more like homages, even though it’s often a very silly premise. The whole premise of this series takes this just to the absurd: just about everything about it is over the top, and yet it doesn’t lose itself in its insanity, as it does have a narrative and a plot that keeps it going. As a moe parody, this also has everything that I have been missing in TWGOK: it knows that it’s completely stupid, and therefore likes to break a few conventions here and there, like that trunk scene (no, I can’t let go of that. I mean, even the most graphic and controversial fanservice series this year didn’t bother to go that far).

Most of the time with moe series, creators use these cliches to make their cast seem stupid or cute. And the thing is, that I see no cliches whatsoever in Milky Holmes, other than the ones it makes fun of and even at episode three it still shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down. This series turned out to be much more creative than I could have expected, but its stupidity will probably turn me insane if I were to try and blog it every single week.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Break Blade II Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



I apologize for the lateness of this review. The biggest reason for that is pretty much a lack of motivation, and that’s pretty much my biggest issue with Break Blade: yes, it’s solid. Yes, it’s got good and realistic battles, and yet it just failed to catch my attention. I do realize that these issues are very subjective, but I still want to try and explain what’s bugging me about this series. And really, it’s not like Break Blade is bad, it’s just… not as good as I expected it to be and that’s what’s getting my goat a bit.

Xebec (or… Zí bek…) clearly got help from Production IG, because the one thing that I do appreciate of Break Blade is how well the action scenes are coordinated. They’re far from your usual mecha bash-fest, and are instead kept on a believable scale. There are a few details that could have been more thought out (like why the mechas don’t have wheels for long-distance travel), but details like those dwarf by the details and movements that a lot of other mecha anime lack. Another thing I really liked was the array of beautifully drawn landscapes.

I’m a lot less enthusiastic about the characters, though. Especially the lead character. Of course I do appreciate that he has his background, and how he’s an actual adult, but the latter is also the only thing that really sets him apart from your average male lead. I had hoped that this second movie of Break Blade would define his character a bit more, but instead it felt like the creators were still running down the “generic male lead checklist”: he learns how to pilot a mecha from out of nowhere, he’s still the only one who is able to pilot what seems like the strongest mecha in the world, he tries not to kill anyone, and let’s not forget at how he formally enlists in the army after considering for a few days to leave everything and not get involved: this guy is just so standard and there’s nothing that sets him apart. He doesn’t feel fleshed out enough, and after two hours of airtime, he still feels pretty flat and shallow as a character. That’s not good for a male lead.

In terms of politics, this episode was solid, but here’s the thing: most of the politics in the second episode were just meant to build up. We know a bit more about the different countries, and why the people are at war with each other, but most of the build up wasn’t really used in this episode, other than turning the lead character’s queen love interest into a bit of a damsel in distress. If the upcoming movies are able to use this build-up, then I’m really willing to hand out high marks for them, but here I have to be honest: this second movie was like the first tedious to watch for me.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Realistic and detailed battles, solid build-up, but I see little use of the build up at this point.
Characters: 7/10 – Generic male lead and a decent side-cast.
Production-Values: 8/10 – For movie standards, this looked great, but nothing really special.
Setting: 7/10 – Lots of build-up but most of the potential is left for later.

Suggestions:
– Guin Saga
– Visions of Excaflowne
– Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu

Nurarihyon no Mago – 16

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



A few episodes ago I complained about how a building just disappeared after it was destroyed. Okay, so never mind: this episode revisited the site at which Yura and Nurarihyon had been fighting, and it was shown that people definitely noticed the mess, and blocked it off to fix it at a later time. Yay for continuity!

In any case, this episode focused on information warfare, in which the bad guys sent a spy to get some inside information about the Nura-clan. It’s also interesting that the Nura clan has actually suffered some fatalities, while their guys are still all alive.

In the meantime, the good news is that Nura’s classmates have stopped being annoying. I’m surprised how much I liked the few scenes in which they try to kill time inside the mansion, and I have to admit that it’s a nice twist to have Nura keep them safe. I mean, the fact remains that they’re very easy targets as soon as those youkai find out that Nura cares about them.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Shinryaku! Ika Musume – 03

by psgels, posted in Shinryaku! Ika Musume



This episode had a few less sketches than last week, so it was a bit slower than the first two episodes. It was still hilarious though, it came with new material, and I can really see that the creators were going for a fear-themed episode: first of all we see the things that scare the human characters, then we get some sketches on the things that scare squid girl, only for the episode to close off with someone who’s actually scared of her.

I liked how this episode showed in what kind of a different environment and culture Squid Girl grew up in, in the way that she had completely no concept of the meaning of ghosts, and instead of ghosts, she’s scared of the big predators that are roaming around the sea. There was also this point at which actual ghosts show up, and I loved how many different ghosts the creators actually put there, from disgruntled authors, surf accident victims and even a bunch of samurai. I love the deadpan delivery of these guys.

As for the rest of the cast, we learn a few of the phobias of them, like the lifeguard is scared of the dark, while a newly introduced surfer girl has this strange fear of squids. Or whatever squid girl makes her think of. The way in which she instantly believed that Squid Girl was a threat to humanity was a bit too much, but I can understand the creators of having some kind of character for Squid Girl to scare. She was indeed hilarious once she found that out. This episode also introduced a few quirks that could become overused running gags, like that classmate’s obsession over Squid Girl, and the lifeguard’s crush on Chizuru (though I like how subtly this was introduced in this episode). Those are the biggest potential pitfalls for this series.
Rating: * (Good)