Author: psgels

Darker than Black – Kuro no Keiyakusha Gaiden – 04

by psgels, posted in Darker than Black - Ryuusei no Gemini



What an awesome conclusion to the Gaiden-arc. The direction here was just perfect in hitting the right emotional notes. I love how well it made use of the build-up in tension of the previous episodes, and at the same time it also stood apart as a unique episode to Darker than Black.

So, we now know how Yin ended up with the ministry of community and affairs: they stood back from a distance, watching Hei struggle to get Yin back, and when everyone aside from Hei and Yin died, they grabbed their chances and took her while Hei was still… out cold, I guess. But that was nowhere near the main focus of this episode. The episode started getting awesome as soon as the illusionist started playing mind games on not just Hei, but everyone around him. It was interesting to see that he didn’t seem to care about money or power, despite having such a convenient ability. When Hei shocked Yin, I think that that was the point at which she really awakened, or at least lost the control of her real body, explaining why she was had to be kept in such a container in Ryuusei no Gemini.

Still, to think that it was Yin who caused the massacre of the previous episode. The way she so easily killed all of Amber’s former allies, in the same way she again released the souls of everyone here.

This episode also fills in the blanks of Hei’s development. Another big focus here was that we finally get to see Hei, showing himself emotionally vulnerable. As soon as he loses Yin (he thinks she died), he starts turning into the drunk that appeared at the first episode of Ryuusei no Gemini. I love how the creators animated his eye when the woman from the CIA contacts him. It’s there where he closes off his exposed self, and becomes stoic again.

The music really was brilliant here. Ishii Yasushi… his works are quite limited but I believe that his works really equal Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack of the first season. Again, it’s very different, but just as powerful.

As for a review about this OVA, I don’t think that I can say more about it than what I’ve done in these entries (I’m not really good at writing these reviews of OVAs that air only once every few months), unless a lot of people request me to. Now, for a sequel there are three possibilities:
– The creators are now secretly working on the third season, and will announce it in a few years. God, if this is true then I really wonder what that one will look like.
– We’ll get to see a few more OVAs in the future that will close off the entire series.
– There just aren’t any sponsors left interested in the series so it’ll die a silent death.
Obviously I’m rooting for the first, but I’m not going to get my hopes up until it actually gets confirmed. In the meantime, I’ll just eagerly anticipate Bones’ next major series. No offence to Heroman, but compared to the usual standard of Bones series, it just doesn’t live up.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Rainbow – 16

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



This episode was all about crowning moments of awesome. Heitai and Baremoto… their actions really made this episode. Not only did the creators find a plausible reason to get Mario out of jail, they also used this occasion to refer back to Mario’s past.

This arc at its core, I think, really was meant as this social criticism, a tad different from the first arc. The first arc was all about underlining the horrible circumstances that some inmates are put through. This arc uses this, but looks at a broader perspective, and also includes the views of the hard-working war veterans who look down on the street-punks. Baremoto’s speech was all about addressing this hypocritical view, and how the lives of their generation was ruined because of the war these adults went into. I do believe that they could have portrayed these adults with a bit more depth, but taking the length of the series into account, and how a lot probably needed to be cut here, it was handled quite well.

Now that we got Mario’s back-story wrapped up, I’m really curious what the creators plan to do with that of the others. At this point I’m not sure whether their background was cut in order to focus on the more important parts of the story, but the OP is definitely hinting at something more.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



One shot OVAs of large mangas are often not really noteworthy. They’re usually just commecials for their mangas, but don’t stand on themselves as individual pieces of work. Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu is an exception, so I decided to just write a review about it in an attempt to explain why.

I’m not really happy with the shoujo romance genre of the past five years. You know, those series about a girl and her romantic adventures, usually in high school. I used to be a big fan of the genre, but now it has rather come at a standstill, with only a few series as Skip Beat and Perfect Girl Evolution delivering something new and interesting while we in the meantime are stuck with stuff like Kaichou wa Maid Sama, SA and Kimi ni Todoke that just have the same shallow romances over and over.

Because of that, it’s really a shame that Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu has only one episode, because this episode was definitely the best shoujo episode since Skip Beat. I’m not sure what this would have looked like in the form of an actual series, but this is exactly what shoujo should be, rather than the dragged on and inconsequential other shows of the genre.

This one is directed by the director of Casshern Sins, and you really can see his influence here. Considering the circumstances, he really made optimal use of only twenty minutes. It’s got the same pacing that made Casshern Sins so addictive, in which characters sometimes take a small pause before they talk. There are a ton of close-ups, skillfully combined with other shots that actually give quite a bit of life to the characters despite the limited budget. Along with the surprisingly good soundtrack, this got quite an emotional reaction out of me.

While I haven’t read the manga, my guess is that the creators took some key scenes of the first few volumes, and compiled those together in twenty minutes. The downside of this is that we’re lost on a lot of background information that just couldn’t fit into this episode. Especially that cutting scene piqued my interest, because we’re not shown the context in which it happened, in favour of the more important scenes that did need to get enough time to really work. The result is definitely tightly packed, but in return, the creators gave meaning to every single line here: not one word is wasted here as the characters develop each other through their dialogues.

The only downside was that the creators didn’t really get a good voice actor for the lead male. His voice lacks subtlety here, and is too monotomous. But really, I can see a tv-series based on this thing being successful. There’s not much comedy, but a shoujo romance… I really see a lot of potential in that if the creators treat it the same as they did here.

Storytelling: 9/10 – I’m very impressed here with what the creators did in just 20 minutes here. Great pacing, excellent dialogue, really well cut and pasted from the manga.
Characters: 8/10 – Lack of key events or background, but surprisingly deep for only 20 minutes.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Low budget, but the visual direction is pretty good here. Excellent soundtrack.
Setting: 7/10 – Don’t expect any background to be explained here.

Suggestions:
– Voices of a Distant Star
– Maria-Sama ga Miteru
– Baby Blue

Nurarihyon no Mago – 03

by psgels, posted in Nurarihyon no Mago



This episode really was surprisingly good for something that just started out as a mere build-up episode. I mean, first of all this episode introduces itself as another one of those episodes like the first, in which Nura again has to keep youkai out of the sight of his friends. It’s not the most exciting at all, but necessary for the future of the series and to get to know these characters.

But as it wen ton, it made the whole premise of this series a lot more interesting, now that an onmyouji joined his class. If used WELL (and not as some sort of gimmick, that’s important here), this new girl could make this series a lot more dynamic now. My first impressions about her so far are positive: she’s someone who knows what she wants, and she didn’t waste any time to search for any places with youkai in it. Now that she actually knows that there are youkai inside Nura’s house, she’s bound to visit there more often. I also doubt that she really didn’t find Nura’s grandfather suspicious.

I think the weakest link in this series are Nura’s best friends, but really: I’ve seen much worse. They actually serve a purpose other than being annoying, they give Nura a reason for wanting to be a human, and as long as they’re well fleshed out, I don’t think I’ll mind them too much. I think my big problem with them is that they’re morons. Unlike the new girl, they didn’t seem to pick up any of the hints, despite being fans of the occult. I know they’re kids and all, but being kids doesn’t make them total morons.
Rating: * (Good)

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 03

by psgels, posted in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin




This wasn’t what I was expecting from the third episode of this series. I mean, it wasn’t that this episode was badly executed, or that it wasn’t original. It’s just that more than half of it was spent on Fumiaki chasing after some girl he met in a restaurant.

It’s not that i can’t understand where this episode was trying to go. I mean, it’s a terrific way to flesh out Fumiaki and all. This also has to be the first moe girl who actually knows how to drive a car. But the thing is that it’s all just going very, very fast. The guy just walks into a restaurant who must get a lot more male customers, and a few days later she’s in love with him. It’s too fast. I’m not buying it. Especially with that kind of a voice actress. Seriously, was she trying to be this annoyingly moe on purpose?

But yeah, you could see that this episode was building up. Something has to be up here. We already know that this series has a tendency to not show anything inside the minds of anyone who isn’t a main character: this series is entirely told from the perspective of these two. Take that girl who randomly disappears for days: that has to be some sort of subtle hint for the future. That girl that Bumnei met is the same: in this episode we mostly saw Fumiaki’s hormones working: we don’t know at all what she’s hiding.

Because this episode was quite well written: it was very different from the first two episodes, and in a good way: this episode was great in bringing in a bit of variety in the series. Fumiaki’s character made leaps forward here and even though Maya played a small role, she still was very enjoyable to watch. I also love how the animators really managed to bring these characters to life. That animation realyl made up for those forced moe scenes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Thank you all for voting

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

To be honest, at the start of the Aniblog tournament I didn’t think that I’d be able to get so far. I’m really surprised at how many people turned out to support htis blog. Even the ones who never comment but simply read this blog occasionally: thanks. I’d also like to thank Scamp, RP and mefloraine.

Now, since I’m not got at these “thank you”-posts, I’ll just stop here.

Some Quick First Impresions: Kaichu and Cat Shit One – The Animated Series

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kaichu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a member of his school’s archery club.
I’m… astonished. This is an OVA, apparently consisting out of only two episodes. The first episode was four minutes long. There was no second that wasn’t filled with some cliche here… I mean… I guess that the creators were going for some sort of high school adventure about archery, targeted at people who get turned on by young boys who dress as girls, but this takes poorly executed to a completely different level here. The acting is abysmal, the script is dull beyond belief. the animation was terrible… what the hell were the creators thinking when they made this?
Potential: -50%

Cat Shit One – The Animated Series

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a battle-hardened soldier.
I’m not sure what the format of this thing is going to be exactly, whether this is just one shot or a longer production, as the hints it has given so far are rather contradicting each other. In any case, this one is entirely in 3D CG, but the creators avoided the botox-faces problem here by simply making their characters animals. It’s a bit weird to see rabbits battle a bunch of dromedary, but nevertheless this episode was quite gorgeous. Especially the backgrounds were really well rendered with a lot of attention to detail. The episode itself feels very much like a first-person shooter, there is a nice use of military tactics and overall this is a pretty nice recommendation for those who want to spend a bit of time with some solid action. There are downsides though: the dromedary here look like a bunch of noobs and a lot of this episode feels like murdering cats with a bulldozer. There’s also no background whatsoever on what’s going on, beyond “we good they bad”. There was a bit of drama, but it’s mostly cheesy action fluff. Don’t expect anything from that. Nevertheless though, I’m impressed. Apparently this one was done by some independent animation production. They could make it big with a more solid scenario.
Potential: 70%

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



You know these puzzle games? Well, someone actually found it a good idea to make a movie about one, impossible as it may seem. The creators of this movie really were put in front of the daunting task of coming up with some sort of epic story that involves solving puzzles, and while the result is far away from perfect, I’m still surprised at how interesting this movie became.

Let me start with the good: the back-story. The story behind the mystery that Professor Layton and his assistant have to solve is imaginative, and actually a pretty good mystery-story. In the beginning it throws in a ton of red herrings and hints at you, and as the movie progresses it shapes together quite a nice overall story. This pacing, along with its ideas are bound to hold your attention and the characters that the mystery focus on are good and well fleshed out.

The animation by PA works also was quite interesting. The character-designs are simple, but quite varied and aesthetically pleasing. The animation is consistently fluid as you could expect from a movie, and the soundtrack is equally excellent.

Right, now that that’s out of the way: the bad stuff. Well, first of all, the movie assumes that its watchers are fans of the games. This means that you’re not going to get any background information about the main characters. Who is professor Layton? Why does he, one of the apparently most brilliant “puzzle scholars” (actual quote from the movie!), have a ten-year-old kid as his assistant? Who is that charming but mysterious Scotland yard cop? Especially the intro of the movie is just weird, unnecessary, confusing, stupid and never explained. Expect none of this to be addressed throughout the movie, even if they’re jarring. It’s just there to focus on the story of the Eternal Diva.

Then, the plot. As imaginative as it may be, there are just large chunks of it that don’t make any sense whatsoever. Most notable is the plan of the bad guys, which is just ridiculously complicated no matter how you look at it. The reason that this movie has so many red herrings is because of how incredibly needlessly elaborate their actions are, considering the goals that they’re trying to accomplish. You’d need to have looked at the script of the movie in order to be able to understand what’s going on (yes, that’s also a criticism to a bit more spoilerific part of the movie).

Overall, the movie is too forced. It’s too focused on its storyline (which really is quite good) and forgets the fine details as avoiding deus ex machina, completely writing characters out when they’re not needed anymore, making sense, that kind of stuff. Still, I’d especially recommend the first half of this movie, because that really is build up for a mystery done well.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Deus ex machina, lacks attention to detail, but is actually pretty good at building up and creating tension.
Characters: 8/10 – No depth on the lead characters, but the side-characters are pretty good for a movie.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Pretty good for movie standards, though not the best.
Setting: 7/10 – I’m very torn on this one. The setting behind this movie is very imaginative… it just doesn’t make any sense and really doesn’t seem to care about this at all.

Suggestions:
– Laputa: Castle in the Sky
– Gedo Senki
– The xxxHolic Movie (just ignore that review. It’s crap)

High School of the Dead – 03

by psgels, posted in High School of the Dead



Here’s one thing that I’m a bit afraid of: this series falling into the formula in which the main characters find survivors, who all just get killed off anyway in favour of the lead characters. I mean, the first half of this episode was really predictable in the way that you just knew that these kids they picked up would just end up getting eaten. I guess that that’s why it’s a good thing that this series will only have 12 episodes.

In any case, this episode tried a bit too hard in my opinion to introduce an asshole. For this guy to work, the creators really need to give more attention to the groupies around him, and give them personalities just like the main characters. The guy himself also needs to get a bit more of those normal scenes in which he isn’t acting like a total snob.

On the bright side though, the fanservice was pretty much toned down in this episode compared to the previous ones, which is a good sign. If anything, the lead characters are all likable despite their flaws, and I like how at the end of this episode the creators tried to break up the two lead characters from the rest, in order to avoid the formula from getting stale. Zombie killing can only remain interesting for so many episodes, so I’m glad that the creators have spent their time to at least give us some solid 12 episodes here.
Rating: * (Good)

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 15

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



So, this mostly was a build-up episode in which Yuki travels to the main Giou mansion. We get to see some new characters who live there and a lot of hints at the long-awaited background of Yuki and Takashiro. This series often puts a lot of emphasis on travelling to build up its tension: first Yuki’s journey to the Twilight Mansion and now again.

The light hearted moments still are… awkward though. I understand what the creators are trying to do, but most of the attempts to create laughs worked mostly unintentional because of how stupid they were.

Despite that, this wasn’t a wasted episode at all, and thankfully we got a number of scenes that showed a bit of the depth of the characters. Takashiro’s worries were addressed here, plus one of the new characters (a genius professional shougi player) sent out a strong hint to Yuki at how serious the fight against the dumas should be taken.

Also, there’s a new OP and ED this week. The OP is fine, interestingly it’s Takashiro again who steals the show. But the ED… oh, god. Talk about an anti-climax. Who found it a good idea to end such a gloomy series with silly upbeat j-rock?
Rating: * (Good)