Author: psgels

Giant Killing – 24

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



I hate the cliff-hangers of this series with passion. I mean, keeping a hook until next week is one thing, but the tension is killing me here. The creators here have this tendency to cut off at the most tense episode of the series. This is just unbelievable: this entire episode was building up for something that happens two seconds after the end of the episode.

Aside from the usual tension, this episode really made the characters shine in so many different ways. I loved all those moments that were focused on character antics, ranging from Akasaki celebrating his goal to Hauer punching Kuroda because he had gotten so annoying (especially the way in which Tatsumi noted that Kuroda had a talent for annoying people). Most of the time, my favourite series of each season are dark, with quite a bit of angst, death and destruction. Giant Killing however is completely different. It’s an incredibly bright and fun series that hits just about all the right buttons.

I can only imagine how awesome the next episode is going to be: it’s there where everything in this series is going to have to come together: with twelve episodes left, and Tsubaki’s chance to score 2-2 ruined because of that defender who is really really tired, the match is at a point at which anything can happen now. I also love how this match is evolving with every single episode: first everything was focused on stopping the onslaught of attackers, most notably Kubota, then the focus moved to Natsuki as an attacker, and now this episode, instead of focusing on Tsubaki, it focused on Dulfer’s strategy collapsing and the main dilemma he has to face: what is more important, your ideals or winning every match you’re in? The long term versus the short term.

NB. This is also something I noticed as I started making screenshots, but the camera angles in this episode were really good here: they were varied, creative, and really helped to bring up the best in the characters. The animation in this series is generally nothing to write home about, but there are these rare scenes that are actually animated quite well and smooth.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 23

by psgels, posted in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru



Ah, you know the cliches: a character is certain to die: there’s some kind of deadly projectile heading in his direction, and only a miracle can save him, which indeed happens as he is saved at the last moment by a friend of his. Or take the cliche in which the lead villain has lost most of his powers, only for suddenly another end boss to get introduced. This episode had both of these cliches, yet it did not, if that makes any sense.

This show has fun playing with these cliches, strangely enough. I really thought that Takashiro at the end saved Yuki there. But nope, it’s a completely new character. This character however isn’t anything like Reiga’s boss: he’s just another one of his subordinates. His intervention makes perfect sense as someone who prefers to work in the background, realizing that Reiga is overpowered with his emotions. Speaking of which, I really thought that Reiga’s emotions would cause him to turn into one of the good guys. Instead, they end up trying to kill Yuki. I mean, this was just subversion after subversion after subversion.

At the start of this show, I tended to laugh at it. But really: this episode had two FREAKING DRAGONS duking it out. Now if that isn’t awesome, then I don’t know anymore. This finale is really progressing smoothly so far: it uses these semi-cliches, but it also shows how the characters have developed, it is well paced and takes its time without dabbling in endless quiet before the storms (this episode again took 5 minutes for everyone to catch their breath, only to move over to the real finale: the storming of Reiga’s castle). I mean, the second half of this series has been really skillfully written.

I only have two beefs with this episode. The first I’m a bit iffy about is introducing a character, right at the end of the SEMI-FINAL episode. I mean, I know Luka’s brother versus him is going to make for an awesome final episode that will very likely delve into Luka’s past in order to explain how he left his clan (to save that for the final episode… excellent idea), but couldn’t his introduction have happened a tiny bit sooner?

Also: Reiga’s motivation. Humans are evil, they pollute the planet. Copied and pasted directly from the Evil Handbook of Generic Villains. I expected better from you!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

HeartcatchPrecure – 31

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



And here we have it: the upgrade episode. Both the bad guys and the good guys received new powers. Now, as much as I like this series, I’m going to be critical again here, because there are a few questions that bother me here:

– In this episode, Sabaaku hands Sasorina, Kumojacky and Cobraja a gem that lets them upgrade their desatorians. Where did he get that and why didn’t he use that before?
– How do Precures discover new abilities anyway? Do they just… “level up” and instantly know how to use new powers? I mean, the golden Precures here… where did they come from? Did they just think of this in the heat of the moment or something?
– Why is there a fanclub for the biggest geek in the school?

Those gems… I have this hate love relationship with them. On one hand, they did make the fights more interesting. On the other hand: Sasorina was about to develop, dammit. I really liked how she was changing at the beginning of this episode, and here that damn evil Sabaaku had to step in and do something about it.

Still, the above questions were the things that you could expect from a mahou shoujo. It in any case didn’t prevent this series from being excellent again, especially since it took Yuri under the loop again, and especially the relationship between her and Tsubomi. This episode definitely succeeded in giving a bit of colour to her character and it made her more than the angsting Yuri.

On top of that, this episode carried on the theme of the previous episode of the loss of fairies, as the characters thought of the possibility of losing Chypre, Coffret and Potpourri. Always great to flesh them out.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kuroshitsuji Episodes 05-08 and 17-24 Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kuroshitsuji II




So, yes…. I caved in.

Here’s the thing: for the past summer season, there have been three series that stood out to me: Shiki, because it had the best atmosphere, Occult Academy, because it had the best execution, and Kuroshitsuji II, because it had the best plot (a possible fourth on this list would be Sengoku Basara Two because it had the best action, but that entirely depends on its final three episodes). Because Kuroshitsuji II did what many other series failed at, and became more interesting to watch than I could have hoped for, I guess that I just was obliged to check out that first season now – not all of it, mind you. This is one of those series that at times seems to be actively trying to be bad with its random stories and insert-episodes, so this is a review of just the episodes 5-8 and 17-24. If you want an impression of the entire series, just note that I couldn’t make it even past the second episode. Twice.

Without the random annoying side-story, Kuroshitsuji becomes quite a snappy and diverse series about the occult in England around 150 years ago. There are a few holes in the plot here and there, but they’re all simple enough that they can be just guessed, so I can recommend this method of watching for the people who are interested in Kuroshitsuji’s darker parts, but have no indention of sitting through hordes of uninspired light-hearted moments that only take ten seconds to become annoying.

Because I must say, those darker parts were quite worth it. This series sells itself with bishies doing the most impossible stunts, but behind it is an interesting and quite often disturbing world with quite a bit of intrigue. The lead character Ciel starts out as a bit of a questionable lead character, but he turns out to be quite an interesting anti-hero who has given up on life, just for the sake of his revenge. The darker parts of this series is where the unique selling point of Kuroshitsuji also really shines: Sebastian fits right in with this dark atmosphere, and even the few anticlimactic uses for his powers turn out to be hilarious, like they should be.

Having said that, though, I do want to say that I still like the second season of Kuroshitsuji better. Alois and Claude (and Johanna possibly too) are by far the most interesting characters in the entire franchise, and these two really made a huge spectacle of the second season. The first season tries, and it has some neat villains too by the way, but none of them really get close to how fun it was to just see those two flamboyant characters parade across the screen. Sebastian and Ciel are interesting, but in the end they aren’t really the most complex characters and there is no development between them either. Especially Ciel makes a number of rather strange and stupid decisions throughout the series.

Still, I liked the plot here, the creators put in some very interesting ideas for Ciel to tackle, and overall I had no problems getting though this series and I quite enjoyed it. Kuroshitsuji is a strange series though. I can easily have seen the first season as 13 episodes, and my guess would be that it would have been much more accessible and balanced than that it is now. And yet for some reason this show paraded all over with its bishies and shallow side-stories, even though beneath it is actually pretty good. This isn’t another case of Kobato, whose first half was simply inoffensive before it could get to its good part. Kuroshitsuji’s random stories are annoying beyond belief; they are completely different from that it really is about, and I really don’t want to watch anything more of that.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Good atmosphere, well told, a pretty good sense of build up.
Characters: 8/10 – Nothing special or well developed, but an interesting cast nonetheless with a nice chemistry to watch.
Production-Values: 8/10 – To me, the second season was also better in this aspect, but the art looks consistently solid and the soundtrack is also pretty adequate.
Setting: 8/10 – Okay, it’s England with a lot of liberties taken, but this series makes very good use of these liberties to show a very interesting setting here.

Suggestions:
– Suteki Tantei Labyrinth
– Trinity Blood
– 7 Comments

Katanagatari – 09

by psgels, posted in Katanagatari



During my past entries, I may have been a bit negative about this series, but don’t get me wrong here: I like this series. I just have no idea what to write about it. I know it’s a bit of a paradox with a series with so much dialogue, but usually I have no problems writing down three paragraphs per entry, and yet for Katanagatari I’m usually struggling to get there. BUT NOT THIS TIME, MUAHAHA!

I liked this episode more than usual, strangely enough. Even though it was just another “sword of the week” that was obviously building up to those final three episodes, the fight in this episode was probably the easiest fight so far, and the sword’s story was also the simplest one so far. At times like this I just don’t understand this series’ effect on me.

My guess would be that we finally saw Togame and Shichika kiss each other, and there was more romantic tension between them than ever: not just in their words, but most importantly in their acts. It was cliche, dammit, but the direction made up for it because of how hilarious those scenes were, especially with Shichika trying to stand in a proper kendo stance.

One of the other reasons I’ve liked this show so far was simply because I like martial arts. Practicing karate myself, I’m really interested in those topics, and Katanagatari proved to be quite an interesting tour of weapons and fighting styles. This show analyzes them, talks about and shows their strengths and weaknesses, and creates interesting battles around them. I like that, though there is one beef I have with the way this series treats its characters like mathematical functions: everything is reduced to simple rules and tactics, both in terms of the body and the minds of the characters, with luck and characters’ whimsical feelings reduced to absolutely nothing, even though in real fights these play huge roles as well.

It isn’t a 100% bad thing, though, as it is refreshing to see another series within this perspective. Especially since that last rule is popular to abuse within anime in order to come up with reasons to let the lead character win.

Oh, and I applaud the animators of this episode: there were some neat shots and scenes with interesting animation, there were some very neat camera angles and I hardly spotted any weaknesses other than some still frames in this episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Honey and Clover Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Through the life time of this blog, I don’t think that there has been a series that you guys have requested more than Honey and Clover, especially in the early years. And really, when this was the series that opened up the door for the slice of life series featuring adult characters in the 21st century, it was the series that started the Noitamina timeslot, which has been running successfully for more than five years now, and the series that popularized the josei genre, I could only imagine how incredibly good this series must be.

I am usually someone who likes to save the best for last, but since I’m going to be graduating university in less than a week from now (upcoming Wednesday to be exact), I figured that this couldn’t be a better time to sit down and watch this series. In the end, I didn’t get the best thing since sliced bread, but that doesn’t mean that Honey and Clover isn’t an all around top-notch and well written college series.

This series may not be the holy grail of character-development: characters in this series do change subtly, but this is nowhere near the main focus of the series. Honey and Clover instead has a completely different area at which it really shines: in the way it describes its characters. At heart this is a slice of life series with a healthy dose of drama, but the creators also love to analyze their own characters, pick them apart and take each of those bits under the loop, so that we as an audience could understand them as much as possible.

The way it describes its characters is just fantastically done, and it’s that part what I loved the most about this series, and it really has a rock-solid cast because of this. On top of that, this series is also excellent at fleshing its characters out: it puts them in many different situations that are wacky, yet typical of college students. This show also likes to have characters go on month-long journeys, just to show how different the characters act when said person is not around. It’s well balanced between its drama, slice of life and comedy, and the plot itself is skillfully written in a non-episodic pace.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t go for the entire cast. I’m not sure whether this is due to the second season that will elaborate further on them, but there are a few characters who aren’t as interesting as the others, and hold this series down a bit. With this I mean characters like the people from Fujiwara Design like Miwako, her dog and its presidents. I also kept hoping for the creators to delve into Hagu’s mind and show us what she’s thinking, just like what they were doing with the rest of the cast, but unfortunately she remains a bit of an enigma until the end of the series, despite being really interesting.

Either way though, Honey and Clover is a very worthy series about young adults, and can stand with its head held high amongst Nodame Cantabile, Maison Ikkoku and Nana. They’re all unique, have their own points in which they make their cast shine beyond belief. It’s not the best among them, but as a slice of life series it really shines with a top notch script that really captures the years of college life.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderful script, well balanced, constantly evolving as a series.
Characters: 10/10 – An absolutely lovable cast that is wacky and down to earth at the same time, and gets analyzed through and through throughout the series.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Pretty character-designs with pretty good animation.
Setting: 9/10 – Captures college life, and the things that surround it.

Suggestions:
– Nodame Cantabile
– Ristorante Paradiso
– GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class

Shiki – 10

by psgels, posted in Shiki



Oh, I love series when they take unorthodox plot twists. I have to admit: the vampires’ counterattack went completely different from anything that I could have expected.Both with Natsuno and Toshio, their reaction was bold, creative, ruthless and effective. This episode again: it rocks for so many different reasons: the things they throw at Natsuno, Natsuno’s reaction to this, Natsuno’s relationship with his parents, the way that they finally portrayed the vampires as surprisingly human, and especially that twist at the end.

Of course death I this series isn’t exactly permanent, but I still love it when creators find a way to kill off their main characters. Natsuno isn’t exactly dead yet, but I do feel like the creators are really trying to turn this guy into a vampire. And while vampires doesn’t exactly equal death, it does seem like a pretty irreversible process. It really shows that there is no way that this is going to result into a “and they lived happily ever after”-endings.

It’s also great that the creators took this chance to show more about Natsuno’s relationship with his parents. They’ve got a very interesting chemistry with each other, showing that they’ve been living together for a really long time, yet don’t seem to fully get along with each other. Typical of puberty, actually and I like the subtlety in which the creators handled it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 11

by psgels, posted in Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu



To be honest, I’m beginning to get a bit bored with this series. You could see that this episode was really trying to be sad here, but to me it still felt like it was missing something. If you guys aren’t going to let me drop Katanagatari, then be prepared that I’m going to stop blogging this series after the start of the Autumn season in favour of a more interesting series.

It’s not like this series is becoming unbearable to blog in the same way as Kimi ni Todoke, and this show is nowhere near bad, but I am getting rather tired of it. Last week I blamed the side characters for this, but I don’t think that that’s everything. The reason I’m a big fan of the fantasy adventure genre is because of the creativity and variety of the really good series. And that’s something I’m missing here, with this episode being a good example: in this episode we yet again see Shion strategize about some random problem, we yet again saw Miran scheming something, and most importantly: we yet again saw Ryner battle some random mages and angst over his past.

Especially that last part is something that has been getting on my nerves. Yes, we know that the guy had a sad past, can we move on now? That boy with Alpha stigma just felt too forced. It’s like the creators went: oh, look. We killed his parents in front of his own eyes. FEEL SORRY FOR HIM. It didn’t really work for me.

This show could still turn out much better in its second half, but I just don’t trust this enough to be honest. Still, the setting is still solid, albeit unimaginative. And I can very much see it as the director’s best TV-series so far.
Rating: * (Good)

Kuroshitsuji II – 11

by psgels, posted in Kuroshitsuji II



You know, for most of the duration of this series (I’d say a bit less than two thirds of it), I thought of this as a bit of a silly series that had nice ideas. But I’m more and more forced to take this show seriously at this point. I mean, the creators here did something that I really want to see in a whole bunch of more and other anime: take full advantage of its creative liberties; instead of going through the tried and true formula, it really played around with its plot and characters.

And really: this just seems to get better and better at this rate. I really loved this episode, and the way it used this quiz maze in order to show Alois’ inner torment. Combine that with the fact that he forced Claude to reveal that he’s been used as a cheap tool to get to Ciel, the characters really perfectly used each other in this episode. I really love these types of episodes, and to think that the creators used it as the semi-final episode.

\With one episode left, it’s either going to be a complete success or a total disaster, and I really feel that it’s going to have a major impact on how I’ll end up rating it. And seriously: I’m seriously willing to rave on this series if it doesn’t end up chickening out at the last possible minute. At this point, this series has exceeded my expectations twice: the first was with its first episode, and now again with its final episodes it has become much more fun than I could have expected. Please don’t let that final episode ruin things, because I really liked how Johanna pretty much stabbed everyone in the back for her own goals. Talk about neat plot twists.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Rainbow – 23

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



Awesome to see that alongside Suppon, the creators also took their time to show Lily’s story here and have her develop. Again, it’s an arc completely different from the previous ones so far, in the way that Suppon doesn’t really have any problems fitting in. The only thing that’s seriously getting in his way is the trauma from 13 years before, in which he lost his entire family.

The fact that he still hasn’t gotten over it was pretty sad, and that combined with Suppon’s usual maturity made this quite an effective episode. As for Lily, I like how this series really doesn’t try to avoid sensitive subjects here. The childrape of the earlier episodes were much worse, but I can very much imagine of how the problem of foreign soldiers having their way with local women, only to abandon them afterwards, is addressed here, as usually anime are too politically correct to talk about it. Really, 2010 has been an interesting year for the portrayal of WWII with this series and Senkou no Night Raid. This series takes care to show the horrors of that time period, while also showing that every side had its share of assholes.

And I know that I’ve been saying this often enough, but damn, I’m really impatient for that Heitai-arc. This guy is one heck of an interesting guy, so I really hope that the final two episodes, or at least the semi-final one, will be his.
Rating: ** (Excellent)