Author: psgels

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 04

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



Well, that’s it for the introduction, after this the show will start for real. We can only hope that it’s going to be as good as these first four episodes. Episode four wasn’t the best, and it pretty much concluded the introduction like we thought it would, but the atmosphere still was more than good enough to watch.

It was a bit of a stretch that Yuki didn’t bother to clean his face of all the blood on it, before going to the children though. Heck, I’d be freaked out as a kid when seeing such a thing, but it was a nice twist though. The acting was a bit too over the top here, but it’s nothing major yet. There’s also that part in which the characters were bickering and the lead character suddenly stared a weird laugh (seriously, characters in anime laugh really weird…), which gave me serious deja vus. How many times has that exact same scenario been used in anime by now?

But I digress, with this episode the lead character showed that he’s no wimp at all. He knows what he wants and stands for his own choices and morals. The big difference between him and your average shounen lead who jumps into everything is that he knows what’s best for a situation. He strikes me as open-minded, rather than the simple minded idiots that you see in those tons of generic shounen anime. So far, he could have been more balanced between his angsty phases and his more mature side, but it shouldn’t be a problem if the rest of the series makes up for it.

My big concern now is the villains. Please let us get to know these people, and don’t make them into these average incompetent idiots who take bloody ages in getting their job done.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Giant Killing – 05

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing




Ah, this is awesome. It’s clear now that Giant Killing is one of those series where the matches are written to get the best out of the characters. Right from the start, it looked like this match was all about Tsubaki: making him lose his rookie status and establishing himself as a great player. However, in the middle of this episode, the creators went “nah, that’s just too predictable”. And instead they went back and made Murakoshi take over the spotlights, leaving Tsubaki as the main cause behind the two goals they got against them. I love how balanced this show is: at any point, it’ll decide to focus on a completely different character.

This is really why I love Studio Deen. Who cares about their cheesy stuff as Hakuouki; it’s series like this that show again and again how well these guys know their characterization. Tsubaki’s downfall, as well as Murakoshi just throwing on the final five minutes. With average characterization they would just have been really really cheesy, but they actually pulled it off here. The atmosphere within the football match really fitted, from celebrating the goal to simply those people running to catch up to the ball.

This episode also started playing some new background tunes, if I’m not mistaken, and the soundtrack only became even better because of them. The soundtrack here is very simple, but SO effective. I’m also very impressed with the character-development that the creators have already gotten into just five episodes: Murakoshi is bound to change after this; it’s very impressive of the creators to go with this right from the start. Just a shame of the speedline abuse in this episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 13

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure




Seriously, when was the last time a shoujo-series aired that kicked this much ass? This episode yet again had some wonderful action, probably amongst the best I’ve ever seen in a mahou shoujo-series. This episode that focused on Cure Moonlight was everything I hoped it to be, and a worthy closure of the first quarter of the series. Now the question remains: what do the creators have in store for the rest of the series?

This episode made me think a bit: there aren’t that many single mothers in anime, are there? Usually when characters have a dysfunctional family, it’s either both their parents who are gone, or the mother simply isn’t there. Yes, that “all mothers are weak” stereotype seriously needs to freaking die already. In any case, out of all the dysfunctional families, I’ve noticed that the single mothers are often portrayed the best. This episode was no exception. Heck, I’m really surprised that the creators even gave Cure Moonlight a family: usual anime don’t bother with those kinds of things for characters of her calibre. It added so much to her character, though. That bond between Cure Moonlight and her mother was subtle yet awesome.

One issue I did have with this episode was that it did fall into one particular cliche (very rare for this series to slip up like that): the “I’m about to kill you but I won’t”-stereotype. The reason the creators provided didn’t make too much sense: Dark Precure is about to kill Erika and Tsubomi, but her boss stops her from doing so because he ordered her not to involve herself with Cure Moonlight anymore? What do these things have to do with each other.

Nevertheless, this episode had really well directed action. The camera-angles, animation, it all fitted. Let’s hope that Toei can keep up this standard for the rest of the series!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Full Metal Alchemist – 55

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



I love how this episode showed that Izumi Curtis was really the one who taught the Elric brothers alchemy: their tricks are based on the same principles: manipulating their surroundings, often making them end up as a fist. I’m still not sure why Hohenheim and Father fight in the same way, though. Is it coincidence, or does this have something to do with Father’s plans of using Ed, Al and Izumi for something?

In any case, this episode closed off the first part of the finale: the takeover of the imperial castle. The annoying clone army seems to be decimated by now, Sloth is dead, and the good guys are at the moment in control of the main capital… just as Wrath gets back. I was hoping for a bit more on Hohenheim vs Father action, but their action-scene was surprisingly short, concluding on an annoying cliff-hanger.

As for the flaws of this series, Thomas made an interesting comment about it:

“Generic bad guys (looking at you, evil clone army that has no purpose whatsoever), illogical character choices and motivations, too many “last minute saves” and last but not least: too much repetition.”

I disagree about the repetition being a flaw: there has been plenty of new stuff amongst the repeated parts. The series so far hasn’t exactly started dragging to be bothersome, and it’s still all building up the storyline. I’m also not sure about the illogical character choices: I can’t recall having seen that many to really become bothersome. The “last minute saves” are becoming a problem, though. This episode again: the Armstrong siblings are about to be beaten… and who knows? Izumi arrives at the exact right moment to save their lives. The show is indeed at the point at which they’ve pulled a few too many of these twists, and I hope that it’s not a trend that’s going to increase for the rest of the series.

Nevertheless this again was an excellent episode. It was especially interesting how none of the major characters were in the spotlights: it really was all about the side-characters, from the major ones (Armstrong, Hohenheim, etc) to the minor nameless ones. It’s a great fun action-packed way to spend 20 minutes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – OVA – 03

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Sorry for the delay, that’s just me being lazy.

There isn’t much to say about this third OVA, though. This OVA was all meant to show who Izumi was when she was 18, and how she once wasted a whole month on a damn mountain, but it never asked how and why. Why was she so set on becoming an alchemist? Why did she come to Briggs, of all places? How did she grow up? I feel that the creators could have used this subject matter better, instead of having her go on a silly adventure like that.

The best part was that epilogue that told about how she met her true love. Why couldn’t this episode have been about that?
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Oblivion Island – Haruka and the Magic Mirror Review – 65/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



You know, I like the concept of how strange foxes, take away the stuff that we have forgotten. The focus on memories in this movie had quite a few charms. Oh, if only it would have focused more on these themes!

Unfortunately, apart from that… we’ve got ourselves another “watch for the visuals”-movie. And what great visuals they are! It’s a shame that everything is in 3D (botox-faces!), but there’s still a ton of eye candy. The visuals bear a ton of imagination: while the script may suck, the animators at Production IG really threw their best effort into making the visuals as interesting as possible.

But dear god… the plot. Here’s a proposal for a drinking game: take a drink whenever this movie a) breaks obvious physics or b) inserts a plot-hole. You’ll be drunk in no-time. This pretty much is another movie about a kid (whose mother is dead, by the way) who gets transported to another world by accident. This isn’t that bad on itself, but everything just goes way too easy for our heroine. The creators pull really weird plot twists in order to just keep the plot going and make her feel special. There are a ton of things left unexplained that desperately need explanations, especially about the underground thieves: just about everything about these things just doesn’t make any sense.

I see this disturbing trend in Production IG’s movies and OVAs: this is their third in a month and a half that puts style above substance. What happened to the Production IG that was always wonderfully able to combine these two?

Storytelling: 4/10 – It may be a family movie, but that’s no excuse for so many plot-holes.
Characters: 7/10 – Utterly bland side-cast. Lead character has her charms…. once in a while.
Production-Values: 9/10 – 3D may be 3D, but the amount of ideas the creators put into it is impressive. Watch this movie for the visuals.
Setting: 6/10 – Interesting ideas, but doesn’t use it enough and contradicts itself too often.

Suggestions:
– Gin-Iro no Kami no Agito
– Brave Story
– Spirited Away
– Yobi The Five-Tailed Fox

Angel Beats – 05

by psgels, posted in Angel Beats



Interestingly enough, all episodes of Angel Beats have their parts that just don’t work. In this episode, it’s the comedy. It’s unfortunately to be expected from the director: his style of comedy is over the top, and either works, or fails to hit the mark completely, and this was the latter. The parts where Yurippe activated the flying chairs lacked timing, and were too repetitive. Her screaming was just too over the top.

On the other hand however, I really felt sorry for Angel (or Tachibana, as her name turns out to be). The way that this episode stripped off all her authority and made her all alone. It screamed Key, but it was really well done.

If my memory doesn’t fool me, it was Yurippe who was the first one to awaken in this world, right? It was her idea to label Angel as the enemy, right? So what if Tachibana was the first one to awaken, and somehow she and Yurippe ended up fighting: I can very much imagine Yurippe as a very confused and angry spirit. Whatever it caused, it caused Yurippe to form that resistance group of hers, and Angel to seek the support of the student council. This would explain why Angel is nice to Otonashi (and probably all of the other members of the resistance apart from Yurippe). I have a lot of reasons to believe that Angel never really causes anyone to disappear: that’s just something Yurippe assumed.

Also, thinking further: while the mysterious new student council president still remains a mystery, then what if he is a regular student? What if Angel was simply trying to use her role as the student council to get the students under control, and prevent them from fighting back like they did at the end of this episode.

Just one thing: please give the new student council president a bit of depth in the next episodes. A dull villain isn’t exactly what this series needs right now.
Rating: * (Good)

April Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Before this season started, I called it the “season of opportunities”, and it turned out to be exactly that. There is a ton of potential, there are a lot of series about adults and only a very tiny percentage is the usual crap we get at the start of each season. Provided that all of the show grab the potential that’s handed out for them, we’re dealing with an excellent season here.

#31 (new) – Metal Fight Beyblade – (2/10) – Ridiculously badly produced. Seriously, the creators put no effort into this whatsoever. The forget about a huge crowd in the background and make even less inspired than the most standard of shounen fare. Dropped.
#30 (new) – SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors – (3/10) – Sunrise… just… why? Why did you even think of this, and why does it have such a good soundtrack and background artist? They’re completely wasted on such a silly script. Dropped.
#29 (new) – Jewel Pet – (4/10) – Again this is just another terrible kids’ show with ridiculously obnoxious animal sidekicks. There’s no creativity, nothing. Just the same regurgitated over and over. Dropped.
#28 (new) – Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri – (7/10) – The first episode was wonderfully cheesy. If the rest of the episodes would have continued this I would have kept watching it, however after that it quickly fell into a dull formula of repetition, and the jokes quickly became unfunny and annoying. Dropped.
#27 (new) – Arakawa Under the Bridge – (7/10) – It’s really much of the same for Shinbo; we have a hyperactive lead character who keeps ranting, who is surrounded by a bunch of side-characters who are all a bit weird. I’ve gotten tired of this a long time ago. Dropped.
#26 (new) – Hakuouki – (7,25/10) – Very cheesy, with a ton of out-of-place bishies, but at least the dialogue is good. It can go either way at this point, but it’s definitely nowhere near Studio Deen’s better works.
#25 (new) – Mayoi Neko Overrun – (7,5/10) – Enjoyable enough, I especially like how each episode has its own director. The problem however is the horribly obnoxious female cast. Dropped
#24 (new) – K-On – (7,5/10) – I mostly dropped this due to time constraints: while the first episode of K-On!! had its charms, there are just too many series that are more interesting. The animation was very good though. Dropped.
#23 (13) – Marie&Gali – (7,5/10) – What? Noooo! The second season is much worse than the first. Instead of letting everything flow naturally, episodes are just full with stereotypical overacting. It’s not just that the new lead character sucks, the rest of the cast aside from Marika are all trying way too hard to be funny now. What a shame!
#22 (new) – Heroman – (7,5/10) – The big flaw of this series is its characters: lifeless clichés that you see everywhere. However, in terms of the alien invasion the creators did a pretty nice job. Finally we have a bunch of invading aliens who know what they want, instead of the pansies that heroes usually have to fight.
#21 (new) – Saikyou Busho-den Sangoku Engi – (7,75/10) – I mostly dropped this series because of personal bias: with anime’s history of raping the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novels, I just can’t take it seriously any more. I do have to say though, that that animation was really good.
#20 (9) – Kaidan Restaurant – (7,75/10) – It’s been fun, but I do think that I’m going to drop this series now. Why? There’s no progress whatsoever. Every episode is the same, there’s no development, nothing. I’d rather drop this while it’s still remotely fun before seeing it burn out and becoming too repetitive.
#19 (new) – Kaichou wa Maid-sama – (7,75/10) – I was hoping that Hiroaki Sakurai could breathe life into this premise, but at the moment it’s just not as good as some of his other series. The problem mostly lies with the premise: it just tries way too hard to make us as an audience feel sorry for the lead character. The scenarios it comes up with aren’t that creative. I’m mostly watching for the characterization, which did turn out to be pretty good.
#18 (new) – Hetalia World Series – (7,75/10) – It’s still pretty much the same old Hetalia, only with more countries. Granted, I do like it more now that it’s also focusing on the other lesser known countries, but the balance between their screen-time is a bit weird.
#17 (new) – Kuruneko – (7,75/10) – Finally caught up with this one again, and it’s proven to be a gentle slice of life series about a woman and her cats. Some of the episodes are quite funny, but that’s not what this series is about. Even when episodes aren’t funny, it’s still very enjoyable to watch the bond she has with her cats.
#16 (new) – Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou – (7,75/10) – Artland is strange. They’ve got this talent of making their harem shows look as cheap as possible, but when you come down to it they’re actually kind-of good. The jokes work surprisingly well, and it isn’t afraid to try out new ideas. There’s a nice combination between creativity and cheesiness here.
#15 (new) – Senkou no Night Raid – (8/10) – So while the spies in this series are more James Bond than real spies, it’s a show that definitely has its charms. It’s well produced and the characters are likeable, and it’s very good at building up tension and pacing an episode. I would have liked to see some bolder and more realistic ideas, though.
#14 (10) – Anymaru Tantei Kiruminzoo – (8/10) – So far, this series has been quite refreshing, and this month only added to that. The problems here were all down to earth and when it did go over the top it did so with subtlety. Because of this, now that we’re getting a bit more dramatic, the drama so far has felt natural and not forced. It’s going to be interesting if the creators can keep this up.
#13 (3) – Durarara – (8/10) – I’m a bit iffy on the pacing of this series during this month. I’m not sure what it is, but it didn’t seem too balanced, and while there were highlights (like what happened to Anri), it just wasn’t as good as it used to be.
#12 (new) – Rainbow – (8/10) – Well, let’s face it: this show is flawed. The acting is just way over the top at times. And yet, I consider this to be the most intense and captivating show of the new season, just because of the full force that it throws at you as a viewer. Maintaining this balance is very difficult: start dragging or repeating and my suspense of disbelief will probably be broken very easily, but so far it’s got enough to make up for the bad acting.
#11 (new) – B Gata H Kei – (8,25/10) – The only thing I do not like about this series is the love rival. That’s just too much of a cliché. Otherwise however, I really can’t deny that I’m enjoying this series more than any other fan-service comedy that I’ve seen. The chemistry and sexual tension between the two lead characters is still fresh after 5 episodes, and I love how the creators keep playing with them. This isn’t a series about a girl who wants to have sex with 100 guys. This is just about a girl who thinks that she wants to have sex with 100 guys.
#10 (new) – Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – (8,25/10)

The big disadvantage of this series is its lack of originality. However, it’s a pretty solid series so far. The acting is pretty good, there is angst, but it doesn’t go over the top, and the lead character himself may be a wimp, but he’s a wimp who can take responsibility. Oh, and the soundtrack only gets better and better with every episode.

#9 (new) – Angel Beats – (8,25/10)

So far I love the amount of creativity that has been put into this series. It’s completely chaotic because of its characters, but these flaws make the huge cast quite charming. It’s got its flaws, and at times the pacing is just off and it’s unbalanced as heck, but it’s definitely a fun, interesting and varied watch.

#8 (11) – Katanagatari – (8,25/10)

The fourth episode was quite surprising, and overall this series has proven to be quite enjoyable with its nearly endless dialogues. It’s very good at building up for its short-but-sweet action scenes.

#7 (new) – Ookiku Furikabutte – (8,25/10)

An excellent series once more. The amount of detail in even the smaller matches really stands out. In this month the lead characters took a step back to focus on the side-characters, so I’m very interested in the results of this.

#6 (7) – Gag Manga Biyori – (8,5/10)

Seriously, aside from the best episodes of Gintama and the Law of Ueki, I don’t think I’ve laughed this consistently hard at an anime as here. I’m really glad to see that this series has gone past 13 episodes, because it deserves to be amongst the best comedies of the year.

#5 (6) – Heartcatch Precure – (8,5/10)

Heartcatch Precure continues to have an excellent balance between episodes dedicated to the main characters, and to random people. All of them are well written instead of the usual cheese that you see with these episodic series. It doesn’t try to do things that wouldn’t make sense for their characters, while still remaining fun and touching.

#4 (new) – Giant Killing – (8,75/10)

For me, this was the biggest surprise this series. Giant Killing stands out in its chemistry; the cast is excellent, it’s varied, flawed, charming, and the creators love to try and get the maximal amount of potential out of them. Te tension is really well built up, and the background music is simple but very effective. A very fun and addictive series to watch.

#3 (new) – Sarai-ya Goyou – (8,75/10)

The characterization of this series is truly excellent: characters are really brought to life with Manglobe’s excellent animation. It’s a very relaxing series that at the same time has plenty of serious issues to deal with, confronting the lead character with heavy decisions and forcing him to crawl out of his shell a bit. I’m sold.

#2 (new) – Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei – (8,75/10)

Oh, it’s awesome to see Masaaki Yuasa back again, and I just love the concept behind this series. It’s told with wit, and a ton of creativity has gone into making this as interesting as possible. Watashi is a very interesting lead despite his clichés, and the incredibly fast talking definitely has its charms when you get used to it.

#1 (2) – Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – (9,25/10)

This show just continues being awesome. Every episode this month has delivered, combining excellent action-sequences with powerful drama. With excellent pacing and characters who only continue to develop, I’m very impressed with how this series turned out.

Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei – 02

by psgels, posted in Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei




Oh, I love this. This season, I’ve paid a lot of attention to good acting. That’s also why I ended up blogging the most solid series. However, then this series comes along to prove that originality isn’t dead. I love it when a series comes along that is in no way afraid of trying out new things, and avoiding the safe, tried and true.

As it turns out: this series pulls an even more extreme version of Higurashi: every episode rests and tarts right from the start of Watashi’s entry at university, where he just joins different clubs. This time: the movie club. The similarities and differences are fascinating. While in the Tennis club, he was a complete loser who just liked to destroy others’ relationships. Here however, he actually does something: aside from playing as a punching-bag, he also made his own array of weird and stupid films along with Ozu, who is still with him. Akashi is also present.

Central in this episode are again that promise that Watashi made to Akashi, but instead he isn’t jealous of other couples, but rather the weird and fetishist captain of the movie club. In this episode, rather than causing trouble for everyone, he brings this guy’s weird habits to light. Again he blames Ozu, but even more than last episode it’s something he did on his own. The cake also returns, but plays a completely different role. Oh, and what’s up with those straps? Am I the only one who is reminded of Maromi from Paranoia Agent?

Also, the animation is truly excellent again. I could hardly spot any still frames. A ton of stuff was moving, and while it may not have been as smooth and detailed as with Sarai-ya Goyou, the other visual effects definitely made up for that. Masaaki Yuasa’s typical simple characters may seem a bit strange at first, but he really uses them in order to be able to animate them better. I also don’t think that there was any CG here, and if it was there it was really well used. It really has some excellent visuals.

And on a side-note: I loved that poster that showed Ozu as some sort of weird monster.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ookiku Furikabutte – 31

by psgels, posted in Ookiku Furikabutte



And so the first match that did not have Mihashi at the centre has ended, and even though it’s mostly been used as building and warming up, it still was a fun and interesting game to start off the second season with. Mihashi works surprisingly well as a side-character (which I guess is a trait that a lot of lead characters have: refreshing when they aren’t the ones in the spotlights), as the entire team works hard to get a called game.

Looking back, the opposing team probably has the least amount of depth out of all the teams that the lead characters have faced so far, but they still have their charms, and they’re much, much better than what you’d usually see with those unimportant matches. The one thing that was interesting though was that it did very much break a stereotype that you often see in baseball series: the fact that awesome hitters are solely responsible for victory. This episode showed that even though you have probably one of the best hitters out there, you can still lose without scoring a point on a called game.

It’s interesting: I’m a big fan of baseball series, but before, I never watched them because of their baseball. I loved Cross Game for its slice of life, Touch rocked due to the character-development, One Outs kicked ass because of the mind games and Princess Nine had its atmosphere. Ookiku Furikabutte is really the first that really is awesome because of how much time it puts into its baseball.
Rating: ** (Excellent)