Author: psgels

Red Data Girl – 02

by psgels, posted in Red Data Girl

What this season lacks, is quantity. The amount of series that really stand out here. There are the obvious stand-outs of Shingeki no Kyojin and Aku no Hana, in terms of comedy there are the hilarious Maou-sama and Azazel-san, and also Gargantia has potential, but beyond that… I don’t really sense enough ambition, not to mention the complete lack of long series aside from Shingeki no Kyojin. To me this feels more like a strong winter/summer season, instead of the Spring season that it is.

Red Data Girl is a bit of a wildcard. I intended to just blog the TV-schedule of it, rather than keeping up with the pre-release. It has the potential to become a very charming or interesting series, although it probably never will hit its heights. Still, I’m intrigued, especially by the first episode. The second episode was a bit of a step back for me.

I like the atmosphere. The music rocks. The backgrounds are very well drawn. I like the side characters. These guys make it worth watching and they are engaging to follow. The lead female though… needs work, and it mostly has to do with how at the moment, she fits in a very annoying cliche: the useless character. Everything gets done for her, most of her powers are just passive, she holds everyone back. Mind you, she’s well acted, but there is only so far that you can take a character doing just nothing. These first two episodes were full of hints that they are going to put a spin on that uselessness for later: don’t let me down on that.

Oh and about this season’s strong point: voice acting. There are lots of series in which the voice acting is really good and engaging. They try to emote and connect with their adience, rather than yelling way too hard all the time.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Gargantia on the Vendurous Planet – 02

by psgels, posted in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

Suisei no Gargantia, pretty much the best mecha series of the season. What I like best so far is how it’s more than just mecha: it’s just a story that has a mecha in it, it has a bit of gunplay in it, it has a bit of post apocalypse. It’s very varied and fleshed out. compare that to Majestic Prince, which feels very monotone, or Valvrave that just puts the tried and true school formula in a place where it doesn’t belong. Plus it’s the only show that can actually take itself seriously. That’s also a plus. I mean I like comedy as well and all, but comedy that feels out of place does more harm than good for me.

Not to say that this series is perfect though. The characters strangely remain teenagers, and the lead female in particular needs to be fleshed out more (though granted, she got a lot more tolerable in this second episode), and the same goes for the rest of the cast: aside from the male lead none really stands out so far, so the creators need to develop them somehow. Make them interesting.

What I liked about this show is that you can see that it’s going to escalate. That was quite cleverly done, in the way that those pirates were obliterated so easily without effort. It’s just the build-up to something much bigger and much worse, something that Urobuchi Gen tends to be good at. Though I’m not expecting a gore-fest, I am expecting that things will escalate somehow. It’s up to him to find a good way.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Shingeki no Kyojin – 02

by psgels, posted in Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

So I think that it was obvious that I was going to blog this series. It is undoubtedly the epic of the season, not to mention that it feels so unique. I know what will happen up to a chapter or ten or so, but even then these first episodes had me fired up. The thing with the manga is that I only got invested with the story at the point of episode three, at which it gets really, really good. The anime really put in some effort to make the build up very detailed and engaging.

What matters the most is the next few episodes. This series is incredibly polished. But the manga was more than that. It had something extra with its presentation. Let’s now see whether the creators can capture that as well.

This episode mostly stood out with how dark and grim it was about the consequences of the outer Rose Wall being breached: there just was not enough food for everyone. People were abandoned and eaten, but on top of that people were now in a situation in which the entire population just would not be able to survive. It only adds up more to how incredibly screwed humanity is, and I really like that.

Then the presentation: the creators really gave a very worthy attempt to bring life to the titans. The big titan that breached the gate in this episode really had presence thanks to some very good animation and direction. It’s because of scenes like this that I called this series nearly impossible to translate well to animation: The giant designs are really detailed and they all just look incredibly intimidating. You need to keep this up consistently if you want to be able to retain the same epic atmosphere.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Aku no Hana – 02

by psgels, posted in Aku no Hana

Rotoscoped or not, cheap or not. Here is the thing: Aku no Hana so far has gotten the biggest emotional response out of me out of the entire season. This second episode, it was even better than the first in which we just saw the emotional breakdown of the male lead, and all of thewalls he ran into in order to get out of what he did. It’s not like I automatically like things because they just happened to be different (I hated Inferno Cop for example). It’s just that this method of animation works brilliantly for getting a really big emotional response. The reason I like series that are different is because there are many different ways to make something awesome, but it’s very easy to get caught up in the tried and true formula and I love series that think outside of the box. As long as it works, obviously.

That’s also my opinion about the huge change in art style compared to the original source. Personally, I don’t care how faithful it is, as long as it works well. In the same way, Shingeki no Kyojin could turn into this magical girl series for all I care, as long as it manages to find a way to be just as epic as the manga chapters that I read of it. With that said, Aku no Hana is amazing. The atmosphere over the first two episodes was just brilliant.

Probably my favorite parts of this episode was when Nakamura invaded Takao’s personal space so closely. He was busy setting up all of these walls for himself, and she just forced herself right through them with that evil smile of hers. Her voice actress really was great for that. In fact, every voice actor here really works. Everyone here sounds very sincere and believable. For me this series also has the best voice acting of the season.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Hataraku Maou-Sama – 02

by psgels, posted in Hataraku Maou-Sama

A really difficult question: whether to blog Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge, or Hataraku Maou-sama. On one hand I really like Crime Edge’s weirdness, compared to Maou-Sama that does have some cliches. Crime Edge also can be quite heart-warming, while Hataraku Maou-sama doesn’t attempt to be that. Crime Edge has an atmosphere, while Hataraku Maou-sama doesn’t really seem to care about that.

Still, what happens when you really start thinking about them? In that case, Crime Edge ends up being a celebration of weird fetishes, without really much depth. Hataraku Maou-sama on the other hand is one of the most clever comedies to appear over the past few years. Seriously, this series bites.

Instead of doing random joke after random joke, everything fits in this series, plus the jokes are all built up before you even know it. The earthquakes at first seemed random, and only after a minute I realized that that might mean something more. Especially when that random text arrived. This series is full of stuff like that, where you only realize a joke has been made, half a minute later. Or jokes that only work because of some clever build-up early on.

What also helps is some fantastic voice acting. I especially loved the part where that Hero was locked out of the demon king’s apartment and she started ranting outside of the screen. This series also really tries to be believable and realistic at times, which is what makes the jokes work even more: the suspense of disbelief is great here! How often do you see characters just doing random groceries, or just living their daily lives in the middle of trying to take over the world?

Just try to keep the cliches out of here. You’re better than that, show. *Har har you are fighting so you must be in love, har har*
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Spring 2013 Kaleidoscope: Saint Seiya Omega – 52

by psgels, posted in Spring 2013 Kaleidoscope

To be honest, I am not sure yet which series I’m going to blog or not this season. I still need to make up my mind on that. Still, I feel like doing another kaleidoscope this season. Giving a small commentary on every episode I watch is going to be impossible, so instead I’m going to blog a different series each week, and on top of that I’ll cover the episodes that really stand out or catch my attention.

A fitting start would be the transition for Saint Seiya from its first half into its second half, because there are some really weird decisions made here… First though, about the conclusion of the first half: the animators really went all out for that, and I really like that. The story was cliched, but the really good animation and atmosphere really brought that to life and I love how much freedom they got for it.

And then… this happened. As I’ve said before, I was really looking forward to this because it shows the return of the Heartcatch Precure director. This is a guy who also directed Interlude, which was a really weird OVA that did have its flashes of brilliance, and I think that that’s what describes this first episode of Saint Seiya Omega’s new arc for me.

Because holy crap, who came up with that new character? What is this walking cliche doing, just forcing himself into the middle of the story, right from out of nowhere with that stupid outfit of his? I guess now that Koga has grown up the creators needed a new immature character to balance things out and all, but couldn’t he have been a bit more likable and less cliched? I mean, this is a cliche that only really bad sequels pull in order to drag out their storylines even more.

That’s not to say I hated this episode, but the weird thing is that I liked it for really weird reasons. I mean… that butler! I have no idea who he is, but I really felt sorry for him! The part where Seiya failed to kill that girl? I liked that a lot. That one golden saint? His speech about how shallow his own powers are really got to me.

And then on the other hand you have the animation that clearly had its shortcuts taken, including really cheesy transformation sequences (I know that there is a background from Heartcatch Precure here, but you don’t HAVE to include them, you know?). And then Koga just went and randomly pulled that giant unicorn out of his ass… So yeah, all in all this has me quite baffled on how it will turn out…
Rating: #%!*/8 (???)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 51 & 52

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

I’m just including episode 52 in this entry so that I can comment on the new OP and ED. I love them! They are unmistakably Space Brothers, but they feel so retro! The OP reminds me of this cheesy beach music, while the ED starts out dull and boring, and suddenly explodes in this really well sung piece that actually perfectly symbolizes parts of the story, and the quest of both brothers to reach space.

But yeah, episode 52 WAS a recap. That’s the only flaw of Uchuu Kyoudai at this point: the excessive flashbacks. Episode 51 took nearly five whole minutes before it got to its new content. What could be the cause of this? Budget restraints? Is the manga not long enough ahead? Not enough staff?

Either way though, when episode 51 did start for real, it was really, really good. It really took its time again, to focus on the difference between Nitta and his brother, and Mutta and Hibito. I really like how Mutta and Nitta both are jealous of each other. The episode also showed some progression in Nitta’s brother, and it did so with a lot of heart. Nothing that Nitta did when he was in the desert had any effect on that, but it was the fruit of Nitta and his mother, constantly having patience with him and encouraging him to actually do something with his life. With this, the first step was set.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Chihayafuru – 38

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

This match is very different from usual for Chihayafuru. Normally, it delivers in every episode. Last episode felt a bit flat. Normally it tries to push forward as many characters as possible. Here however, the focus was different. This really was about Chihaya versus Megumu. This episode at least.

Perhaps I’m not a fan of making the match go on for three entire episodes, but that allowed this episode to have that clear purpose for a change: a really detailed view of how Megumu changes through a match. That really had me fired up much more than I expected and I really have to say that how she gradually lost that ditzy behavior of her was done in this episode.

Oh and I said that this episode didn’t really focus on pushing forward the other characters. but still, Chihaya forcing herself to contest cards, Nishida losing badly, Tsutomu trying hard, the other girls trying really hard for Megumu, they were all really nice touches. I just meant it for the really high standards of this series. Seriously you do not see series that are as consistent as this series. Especially considering that we’re almost forty episodes in!

One point of criticism: that point where Tsutomu figures that a girl will likely want to grab cards about broken hearts because it’s one of the themes that the singer whose name is on one of the towels of the girls sings about… that is overanalyzing things a bit too much.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Review – 89/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure



There are a lot of ways to adapt something. Shounen battle series tend to very quickly fall into a very dull variation of that: really slow pacing that goes on forever with long boring drawn out battles that all look like each other. David Production looked at them, and just said “we can do better!”

They grabbed one of the most popular shounen series that hadn’t been fully adapted yet and gave it a kickass treatment that just screams epicness that fits the story perfectly. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure on its own is already a completely crazy story, but this anime actually throws in everything it has to amplify this insanity. The voice actors all yell out their lines with an incredible amount of passion and energy, the animation is full of weird and over the top poses and trippy colour effects, the soundtrack is completely epic with many different tracks (including even dubstep), the pacing is incredibly fast, yet nothing feels rushed. All dedicated to make the adrenaline rush as high as possible.

The plot of this series is basically a bunch of incredibly muscly guys punching zombies to death. That could have been so dull so fast, but beyond the incredibly over the top execution, the actual contents of the action scenes are really creative and fun to watch. This show knows how to keep itself fresh: every character is varied and unique (and really likable by the way, the best being Joseph and Stroheim), every villain has different powers and methods of fighting, and this show loves to use all sorts of props and powers to remain interesting. This series in particular loves to give huge powers to very tiny and weak things, to prevent things from being just one superpower after the other. It keeps fights with random goons really as short as possible, so that it can focus on the characters who actually matter.

Of course, this series is not for everyone. It is for those looking for over the top action, and in terms of shounen action it pretty much offers the best you can get. Having said that though: it is pretty simplistic at times. Some characters are quite one-sided and only work because the presentation is so good. Don’t expect the most complex character-development here, but instead huge heaps of energy and manliness.
One-Sentence Review: An excellent adaptation, full of incredibly over the top shounen action with a very creative plot and really likable, albeit simple, characters.
Suggestions:
– Baccano
– Shin Mazinger Z
– Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 26

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Oh Jojo. What an ending. I did not expect what would happen here at all. Perhaps the ending was not as impressive as with Psycho Pass or From the New World, but still this is every way in which a shounen series should end. You hear that, other shounen series? Watch this for how endings should be done!

Still, the climax of this show was so over the top that it just could not have been made today. It’s just so completely bloody random to suddenly have the volcano erupt this giant rock into the stratosphere that blows Cars into outer space. It’s completely impossible and really inconvenient, but in terms of creativity and as a plot twist it just made for the perfect over the top ending. Yeah it makes no sense, but this is so much better than just the characters sending beams to each other until one side dies. Plus there is the irony: the perfect human being on earth is completely useless outside of it.

It was also really fun to just see this series take the piss out of aftermaths, and poking fun at so many tropes before they even existed. Joseph hooking up with Suzie Q was hilarious, and how many times have we seen an actual divorce here? I can count the amount of series with divorces on one hand (Noein, Xamdou, Zone of the Enders, uhhh…).

Bringing a character who was thought dead back to life is a dead horse. But I can forgive this show for it by how it did this, and how much it poked fun at this.

So, as for any possible continuations. The ending of this episode was a sequel hook, nothing more. Until we see an official confirmation it is not clear whether the producers can gather enough money to make it. Now, as for the actual chance that they will succeed in this: I’d say it is pretty damn good. Take a look here and here. A little bit of math shows about 22109 sold DVD and blu-ray copies. That’s a lot!
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)