Author: psgels

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 51

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood




Whoa, so many things happened in this episode. What an awesome way to enter the fifth and final season of this series; it was action-packed from start to finish and just about every side-story the creators showed here kicked ass.

The clone-army, which we saw awakened at the end of the previous episode, was indeed as intense as I expected. It had it coming that they would freak out, but I really have to give credit to Bones for animating this so well. It also was very nice to see not just Barry the Chopper’s body back, but also the same wall that was created in the same fight still standing. It’s the same as in Lior: these things ain’t gonna fix themselves, and it really adds to the setting to keep track of the damages that are done to buildings and surroundings during the past fights in the story.

The best animation in this episode definitely came from Envy, though. His scene was short, but incredibly powerful, especially considering that Mai Chang is going to have to face him all by herself. It may have been stupid of her to take Envy back to where he wanted to go, but at the same time this flaw does add to her character. What would be awesome now if for her to actually redeem herself, and learn from her mistakes.

Also, against my expectations it was Kimblee instead of Sloth who came to rescue Pride, but of course that makes all the more sense, since Kimblee could reach the guy a lot faster than Sloth would, and he also would not have any problems blowing up a wall. It’s still a bit of a mystery why Al let it all happen, though. Even considering that he didn’t know at all that this was possible, you would have to get some sort of clue after seeing Pride hit on his helmet for who knows how many hours. But then again, Al has been going through a rough time. My guess is that he was so relieved that he was able to something despite his condition, and I think that he was much more focused on not trying to lose his body. Which made his comeback all the more worthwhile.

So yeah, an awesome episode. If the rest of this series is going to be like this, we’re in for one hell of a finale. It’s just a shame that the new OP was a disappointment, though. Both the song and mood in my opinion failed to capture what this series is about, and instead made it look like some cheesy sentimental drama. All of the shots we saw were of people looking gloomy or angry, being sad or looking downward. What I got from this series however, was to look upward: don’t resign to your fate; instead you should do something about it!
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Some Quick First Impressions: Giant Killing, Hakuouki and SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing, Hakuouki, Some Quick First Impressions

Giant Killing

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a famous football coach
Now this is why I love anime. There just are those times when these series come around, who completely exceed my expectations. This season was already full of these series, but Giant Killing takes the cake. It’s been ages since Studio Deen really came out with a new and fresh premise, so I wasn’t expecting much of them at this point (as shown by Hakuouki, which pretty much was them and their bishies again). And here this episode comes, and it’s SO WELL made. The characterization is by far the best of all the first episodes I’ve seen this season so far. It’s only one episode, and the creators have already shown that they know and understand their characters. The chemistry between the hugely varied cast was just awesome to watch. And on top of that, they actually portrayed English football fans really well, INCLUDING actual English, that gets spoken in full sentences, rather than your usual lazy Engrish. The animation also is just awesome: finally we have another series that attempts to experiment with its own style. The football matches are animated really smoothly. At first I thought that Ookiku Furikabutte would naturally become this season’s best sports series, but damn. It’s got some serious competition. And really: this season rocks because we haven’t even gotten to the best stuff yet!
OP: One of the best OPs of the year so far. J-Polka. What brilliant mind thought of that?
ED: Fun and exciting.
Potential: 90%

Hakuouki

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets involved with the rather shady business of the Shinsengumi.
Another show, that while it has its problems, also has a ton of potential. Let me get these problems out of the way first: this series does suffer from the harem syndrome: the creators pulling a really far-fetched plot twist just to put the main characters amongst a group of bishies/moe cute girls. The reason the creators pull here is simply one that asks: why hasn’t this happened before? The acting also leaves a lot to be desired. The characters aren’t as well portrayed as they could have, and the characterization for all of the bishies feels kind-of bland. However, this episode focused a lot on characters, just interacting and talking to each other. The script did make up for the sub-par acting, and while the dialogue was nowhere near Amatsuki-levels, it still was surprisingly interesting (speaking of which, Deen: when is that second season going to arrive?!), not to mention that this series has got a pretty interesting back-story that verges on horror during the tense parts. The lead female is also surprisingly likable as well. And I guess that that’s one thing that female lead harem characters often have in favour of male leads: while male leads are often made to be as bland and uninteresting as possible, female leads always have some sort of story behind them that defines their character much, much better and Hakuouki is no exception.
OP: Slightly catchy.
ED: Surprisingly good ballad.
Potential: 60%

SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the umpth incarnation of the lead character of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novels.
Sunrise… why? Just… why? This premise is awful in every single way. It’s the ultimate of all cheap cash-ins, combining the popularity of the Gundam Franchise with the one of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchise. So why the heck did you find it a good idea to give this show so many excellent background artists, and such a good soundtrack? These are COMPLETELY WASTED on such a silly script. Seriously Sunrise, is it that much to ask for you to go back to the way you were around ten years ago, in which you just kept delivering awesome premise after awesome premise, trying out new things?
ED: Cheesy J-rock
Potential: -20%

GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class – OVA

by psgels, posted in GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class



Amongst the surprisingly good start of the Spring Season of 2010, GA also comes along to remind why I consider this to be the single best 4-Koma adaptation out there. This episode was everything that made the series so much fun to watch, and I’m really glad that the creators managed to release one more episode of it.

On top of being such a damn good comedy (the characters in this episode were just downright adorable in their quirks, and yet these quirks aren’t overplayed and don’t take control over their entire stereotypes), this episode also breathed so much life into the high school that the story is set in! The second half of this episode in which we see Kisaragi look around for people were really inspired. With high schools being so incredibly overused in anime, this was one of the very few ones that made me a bit nostalgic to my days in high school.

A large part of this episode was also about costume design, and again it was very inspiring and informative, as we followed Kisaragi find her inspiration. That was also one of the great things about this series: the characters already know how to draw. Instead, this series is all about how to apply this art: making it as interesting as possible.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Jewel Pet – Tinkle, Rainbow, Angel Beats

by psgels, posted in Angel Beats, Rainbow, Some Quick First Impressions

Jewel Pet – Tinkle

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is socially inept and gets to magical girl.
Last year, when the first season of Jewel Pet aired it really had been ages since a good kids’ show had debuted. I was glad enough that at least something was there. This season however couldn’t be any more different: with Marie&Gali, Heartcatch Precure, Kaidan Restaurant and Kiruminzoo, the standard for this season’s kids’ series has been set higher than ever, so for once, I get the chance to be really strict against a kids’ series! This episode was terrible; I couldn’t find any hint of creativity whatsoever. The creators just grabbed the weird animales of the first season and dumped them to another kid, who has been made as purposefully dull as possible. The hijinks that the creators decided to fill this episode with were just abysmal as well. We get to see endless jokes of the lead ‘Jewel Pet”s magic screwing up and causing trougle. And the animation! The characters all have plastic faces. Especially these jewel pets have had WAAAAAY too much plastic surgery in their life. The different expressions of the characters hardly ever change. Not to mention the utterly horrid character-design of just about every character (seriously… what the heck are those heterochromic cats supposed to be…?). If you’re interested in a kids’ show, go for one of the series I mentioned above. Skip this one.
OP: Horribly cheesy J-pop
ED: Uninspired and bland.
Potential: 0%

Rainbow

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are delinquents in jail.
Okay, so it did turn out that this series does not have Madhouse’s best staff. The direction feels jerky, and the voice acting is often over the top and cheesy. These are the type of characters who aren’t going to be the most realistic or believable. Having said that, though, this was one heck of an intense episode. What this episode lacked in terms of good acting, it made up for atmosphere with an excellent soundtrack to boot. The prison here was definitely meant to model the worst kinds of circumstances you can run into: it has a paedophile doctor and a downright abusive warden. On top of that, the OP also very much hinted at the fact that the creators have no intention whatsoever to just cut this series off in the middle: they really want to show what happens to these kids when they grow up later, and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. This can be an interesting test to see whether you can portray interesting characters, even with sub-par acting.
OP: Whoa!
Potential: 70%

Angel Beats

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is dead.
The thing I love about this season is that it keeps exceeding my expectations. From the outside Angel Beats looked like a bit of a Haruhi-clone directed by a comedy director who has never been known for his subtlety. This episode showed that the Haruhi-references were merely homages: it more than has its own story and characters to tell. The director also gives off a very strong performance in this opening episode, making this an excellent opening. There really was a ton of fast-paced dialogue in this episode, and at the same time it was full of subtle and not-so-subtle jokes. It makes use of the fact that it takes place in a world in which nobody can die by killing off people for fun, while still putting in the tensions and fears of being erased by ‘God’. The climax was also very well written and allowed the build-up to really come together. The animation is a bit simple, but the graphics themselves look pretty good, especially the concert scene. The thing I also loved was how this series showed that the NPCs of the world it takes place in all have lives. The concert, was really something to show that these people also just do things for fun, rather than existing randomly. Thumbs up.
Potential: 80%

Tales of Symphonia – 05

by psgels, posted in Tales of Symphonia



Hell yeah, finally! Now that Ufo Table finally finished with Kara no Kyoukai, it’s finally time for them to finish off what they started with Tales of Symphonia. And as an added bonus, the episodes are forty minutes long instead!

Again, this episode did not follow the story of the games exactly. Presea is introduced in a different way (it was awesome to finally see her, by the way. She was my favourite character to play as in the game). Yggdrasil’s appearance at the end of this episode was also… random to say the least. In the game we saw that Kratos travelled around in Tethe’Alla as well (for reasons that will probably explained in one of the next episodes), but I can’t recall that Yggdrasil had anything to do with it.

In terms of the focus, it’s clear that the creators have chosen the stories of Collette, Kratos and Zelos to be the major focus of the series. It’s a bit of a shame, though. For me, the backstories of Genius and Raine was the best, followed by Presea’s. Instead, Genius hitting on Presea in this episode was a lot more annoying than that it was in the game.

Zelos in the meantime was a lot more interesting compared to the way he was in the game, and that’s something that the creators really intended to do. I must admit, I never got to play his entire story. It was one of the most difficult to get to, so I didn’t bother. While I’m a bit sad to see that the TV-series will not spend as much time on the issues of discrimination (the thing that I remember the most about this series, after playing it some five years ago), but at the same time, I’m interested in the themes that the creators did choose to focus on.

Like the first season, this TV-series really does certain things worse than the games, and at the same time it also has enough things that it does better than the games. And really, out of all the adaptations, game adaptations are the most difficult to pull off correctly. While with mangas or light novels, at least you have a continuous storyboard that you can be faithful to. Games however have quicksave functions: an easy reset button for if you screw up. There is no way in hell to translate this into animated form. On top of that, it’s also impossible to make animated random battles interesting. If you want to pull off a game adaptation right, you really need to have an inspired storyline and idea to base it around. And really, that’s what happened with this series. Game adaptations are often looked down upon, and I agree that the lesser ones indeed are really terrible, but the inspired ones can be really good.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
OP: Nice, though not as good as the first OP.
ED: The clay figures are back!

Some Quick First Impressions: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikai-Hen and Kaichou wa Maid Sama

by psgels, posted in Kaichou wa Maid-Sama, Ookiku Furikabutte, Some Quick First Impressions

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teenaged future demon lord.
Again: better than expected. On one hand we have horrid character-designs, some of the most pointless fanservice I’ve seen this season (seriously… why?) and an entire cast of teenaged mages. On the other hand, it’s quite well animated actually plays around with the tropes of its genre. Generic male leads often get confused into pointless misunderstandings. This show takes these to the ridiculous, and plays around with their irony. It actually made me laugh a few times. But yeah: this has the consequence that everyone in this series is a complete moron and just acts how the plot demands it. The jokes also often just fall flat, and are trying too hard. The classroom scene was hilarious. The peeping scene was horribly dull and predictable.
ED: Boring J-Rock
Potential: 40%

Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikai-hen

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters continue to participate in the regional baseball tournament.
When comparing to Cross Game, it’s perhaps a bit hard to see, but Ookiku Furikabutte also has truly excellent slice of life, though in a completely different way. This episode showed that more than ever. The creators really managed to show all of the characters as they are, with inspired dialogue as they analyze and talk about the previous and next matches that they’re involved into. On top of that, it turns out that it had no intention to just forget past characters: the opposing team whose match filled the majority of the first season returns in this episode as well, in which we see two of its members (the captain and that first year that never got to participate in the match) deal with what happened at the climax of the first season. A-1 show that they can very much animate three series at the same time with some excellent animation that may not be the smoothest, but is really well directed and inspired, bringing the characters to life. This second season is looking very promising at this point.
OP: Decent enough J-Rock
ED: A bit of a boring song.
Potential: 90%

Kaichou wa Maid Sama

Short Synopsis: Our lead character
works at a maid cafe.
Romantic comedies are one of my least favourite genres in anime. But in this season, they’re either really bad or really good. My favourite opening episodes so far are from those romantic comedies. Again, Kaichou wa Maid Sama has elements that have been beaten to death in attempts to pander to otaku. And yet it gives a fresh look at the genre with well written dialogue and characters. Like B Gata H Kei, the creators really know their characters, and this episode did a great job of not just establishing the characters, but also exploring who they are, what drives them and a bit about their pasts, already slightly developing them. The lead character suddenly feeling ill was a bit forced I guess, but the rest of this episode was a delight to watch.
OP: Nice animation, decent song.
ED: Boring J-rock.
Potential: 80%

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra Review – 92,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Armed Librarians - The Book of Bantorra




Without a doubt my favourite show during the past Winter Season. Armed Librarians was always interesting to watch, it always brought nice ideas to the table, and it always was wrapped in a tight script. There are just so many thing to like about this series.

For a fantasy series, the premise already stands out with its simple idea to turn people into ‘books’ after they die: these books can be read by anyone who touches them, and the lead characters are basically bookkeepers of these books (so yeah, the term ‘librarians’ in this series has very much a double meaning). The idea an sich is already very creative, but the beauty really lies in how the series makes use of those books to weave past and present into one.

Every arc is basically laid out with a number of seemingly unrelated plot-threads, that get woven into one brilliantly. Past and present cross each other in the explanation of the ties between the different characters in each arc as we learn about why the central characters became involved with the plot in the first place. Each arc really takes care to make its characters complete and even the character-development is very well thought out within the plot. Conclusions are often very clever combinations of circumstances of everyone’s unique circumstances.

And this just goes on for the entire series. Every arc continues to throw interesting plot twists that are full of creativity like it’s nothing! This comes at a price, of course. While this series really has had the best plot I have watched in YEARS, the characters don’t feel exactly like characters, but instead are much more part of the plot. Because of this, you don’t want to watch this sereis for realistic or characterization. The reason the characters rock in this series is because of what they represent, and how their development ties into the rest of the series.

Then there’s also the matter that this show would have fit better within 35 episodes. Throughout the majority of this series, you won’t notice much of it, however the final arcs are clearly rushed, and you can visibly see that the creators have troubles fitting everything into such a short time spam. Nevertheless, whem compared to so many series that were put into the same situation, it really got away with its rushed ending. While cheesy, it always stays true to what it is, and ands with a huge bang that gives it its best shot to resolve the plot as good as possible.

So overall, Armed Librarians has been an utter delight to watch for me. If you’re looking for an exciting fantasy adventure then it’s an excellent recommendation. The production values by David Production get increasingly better after its first episode, and its soundtrack is truly epic and fits its setting perfectly. It’s been a consistently fun an entertaining ride for me, and I hope it will be for you as well.

Storytelling: 10/10 – One of the best plots I watched in years. So many plot threads weaved together.
Characters: 9/10 – Excllent and imaginative development, but no character is realistic.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Awesome soundtrack, animation that may not be the most accurate, but continues to keep the balls in the air for the rest of the series.
Setting: 9/10 – A highly imaginative world that combines many, many interesting concepts into one. Also is the first fantasy I have seen to actually have democracies.

Suggestions
– Vision of Escaflowne
– Hi no Tori
– Pandoa Hearts

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 27

by psgels, posted in Armed Librarians - The Book of Bantorra



How awesome. The thing I was waiting for with this series was to end with a bang, and what a bang it is! You can see that it was cheesy, that’s no surprise at this point. However, I’m much more interested in how well this series concluded, and how much the creators managed to insert in this episode without self-destructing. Fast paced endings and flow paced endings take some completely different skill to work out well. With slow-paced ones, it’s really the point to allow the characters to develop into new heights. If not, then it’ll just turn out boring. With fast-paced endings, and a lot left open, it’s less of a concern to let everything happen naturally, and instead create an as big spectacle as possible, using the plot threads that you built up in the entire series, rather than just writing a boring action-scene and revealing the last number of plot twists like it was some kind of checklist.

I loved this ending, exactly because of that. It was just incredibly entertaining, and at the same time it really made use of its weird premise to actually give dead people a chance to shine, providing an ACTUAL REASON FOR IT. In fact, the story would not have made any sense if Hamyuts able to bring books into Ruruta: the entire circle comes together so wonderfully with that revelation. All along, it was the master plan to have Hamyuts and Chacoly both as individual attempts to penetrate into Ruruta and destroy him from the inside. This is why he tortured Hamyuts so that she became a masochist. Who knows what kind of horrible things he must have done to her in order to give her that power, but that part is left to our imagination.

The only big mystery here is why Hamyuts and Mirepoc were able to wield two powers. But hey, we’ve seen that it’s possible to transfer powers. With that in mind, Hamyuts probably brought Chacoly’s soul back, and tried to keep Mirepoc alive at all costs: her power to communicate to everyone, combined with Chacoly’s soul transference was an actual plausible way of saving the world in an over the top and cheesy manner. No longer is it just a godmode beam, but for once it’s well explained.

And then there was seeing everyone making a final appearance. In a show with such a high body count, this was beyond awesome to see everyone able to shine one more time, with actual reasons behind it, and actually having them end up dead at the end of the series: nobody who died got revived. Only asleep people got woken up. Ireia especially was just awesome.

then there’s Ruruta’s change of heart. Again, perhaps a bit too much. But you know what? This is a guy who has been doing everything for the person he loved, and he went as far as he did because he had the power to do so. Now that he’s lost his raison d’etre, having heard that all of his efforts were pretty much pointless, he actually tries to fix the mess he made. Not because he suddenly leaned the meanings of love and peace. Something tells me that he knew those all along. It’s more like, he just didn’t have any reason left not to save the world. He’s not like the lazy person who’d just give up and do nothing, given his 2000-year long quest to find the perfect book for his lover.

You know, you can really consider me a fan of David Production at this point. Despite how unknown the novels were, they gave it a chance and it worked out wonderfully. I’m really looking forward to whatever they have in sore next. Even if it’s just another trainwreck like Dogs Bullets and Carnage.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Some Quick First Impressions: B Gata H Kei, Heroman and Marie&Gali 2.0

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

B Gata H Kei

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to have sex with 100 men.
Look. Those who know this blog know that I often talk down on fanservice and moe series. I do not do that for the sake of fanservice. However, it’s more because shows that have lots of it tend to be really cheaply written without any depth whatsoever, and have a type of comedy that I don’t find funny at all. There really are too many of these things! Yet, when a fanservice series comes around that’s actually good… then who am I to complain? Really, B Gata H Kei is indeed full of fanservice. It has a lot of boobs, along with your typical male lead character. It also however, had the best opening episode I have ever seen of a shounen romantic comedy (and seriously, that has to be the most densely populated genre in anime out there). What made this episode so awesome was that even for a romantic comedy, it was surprisingly clever. It was full of a ton of witty jokes about the two lead characters. The dialogue really made this episode and you can really see that the creators have understood the characters they’re working with. Rather than just inserting random panty-shots, the creators really play with their premise, making for a hilarious episode.
OP: Well, decent enough for J-Pop
ED: Again, decent enough.
Potential: 80%
(Yes, this is the fifth year that I’ve been doing these first impressions. And yes, I have never given a fanservice show such a high rating before. I really hope that it continues to be as good as this episode.)

Heroman

Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds his own giant robot in the trash.
Yeah, so it’s no surprise that the first episode of Heroman would be a rather bad one. The lead character starts out as even more of a wimp than your average lead character (nerd: check. Unpopular: check. A cute girl is in love with him: check. Really high-pitched voice: um, check?). The bullies and popular kids also were just… bad. This episode was clearly rushed and not as solid as we’ve come to expect from Bones’ opening episodes. My least favourite part was probably the part at which the hero’s romantic love interest just ‘happened’ to end up in a car crash accident (of course without any scratch whatsoever other than unconsciousness), right when the titular Heroman makes his appearance. Whether this show is going to be good or not is very hard to determine at this point, because the scenes in which Heroman starred were actually interesting enough, and had some potential, confirming even more that this series works best as an action series. And that’s the biggest potential pitfall of this series: there was surprisingly little action there. What if the rest of the series is also going to drag on like this episode did?
OP: Boring J-rock.
ED: Interesting style.
Potential: 40%

Marie&Gali 2.0

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is forced back to this series.
I’m really glad to see that this awesome series has made it to a second season. This episode was a bit low on the science, but that’s understandable since it was meant to introduce the premise of the new season, and introduce the new kid. The show still has its wonderful sense of timing that made the first season such a wonderful comedy. You can also see that the creators have taken a lot more liberties with Marika as well: she’s no longer the deadpan straight man she once was, but she also manages to keep the balls high. The new girl has this strange posh accent that moe series often like to abuse (seriously, do people actually talk like that in Japan?), but she has potential to be hilarious. The animation wasn’t as solid as it used to be, though. It’s still very creative, but the characters’ faces were a bit too often rushed.
OP: Um yeah, a rather annoying J-pop, but it’s not like the first OP was good either.
Potential: 80%

March Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

Ah, it’s finally spring. It’s a season of lots and lots of rain that eventually turns into nice weather. Seriously though, the reason I’m looking forward to it because this time it really is a season of opportunities: Noitamina is growing, and besides that there is a ton series that either have a great staff with a dull premise, or a great premise with a dull staff. It really can go anywhere, and that’s why I’m looking forward it to it a lot, despite that it may not be as full as compared to the spring seasons of previous years.

As for this season, I’m actually glad that there were rather few series worth watching, because my schedule has become much busier over the past two months, which really allowed me to get used to it. It’s not my favourite season by far, but it did excel in terms of comedies and kids’ shows. The best company of this season was Toei: they didn’t just come with one great series, they had three of them. Four if you also count One Piece, but I’m not watching that series (WAY too long and intimidating).

As for this month’s rankings, aside from my favourites, my rankings got completely jumbled up in comparison to last month. This mostly is due to some excellent series with disappointing finales, and series that I considered to be only decent suddenly turning awesome.

#22 (new) – KissXSis – (3/10) – This is just.. awful. Nothing but an excuse for porn, with hardly anything else. I don’t think that anyone is going to watch this show for something other than the nude girls here. For me, it’s already the worst of the new season even though only four shows have aired yet.
#21 (new) – Koihime Musou – (3,5/10) – It’s exactly the same as it’s ever been: incredibly stupid moe humor. Bored me to death. Dropped.
#20 (new) – Ikkitousen – (4,5/10) – Here’s the thing: for Ikkitousen, it wasn’t that bad of an episode. If I’m not mistaken, the appeal of this show is fighting + fanservice, and that’s pretty much what that episode delivered on, compared to the godawful Dragon Destiny and Great Guardians. Still, with regular standards the show still is pretty cheesy and full of stupid and stereotypical characters.
#19 (new) – Working!! – (5/10) – I’ve been looking forward to this series, but alas. It’s sense of humour is completely different from mine, and as a result I only was annoyed by the countless teenaged antics that the creators kept trying to push forward. Dropped.
#18 (17) – Ookami Kakushi – (6,5/10) – Well, everything pretty much derailed for this show. While it looked like it was actually trying in the beginning, the ending was just terrible thanks to the useless male lead and the really cheesy villain. The adults all started acting like complete morons, and nothing really got solved in the end. The final gag episode also was a pain to sit through.
#17 (16) – Kimi ni Todoke – (7,75/10) – Granted, this finale was definitely more bearable than the rest of this series, but it never really solved anything. All we got was a message that said that if you ‘liked the story, you should check out the manga and a second season might be made’. Gee, how subtle.
#16 (11) – Cobra The Animation – (7,75/10) – Not the strongest month for Cobra, as I liked it best when it was episodic. The final arc took up four episodes, and it could have been condensed a bit as it dragged a bit for too long. Nevertheless, it was entertaining and kept me busy.
#15 (4) – Sora no Oto – (7,75/10) – The first two thirds of this series were truly excellent. However, I just can’t say the same of what Sora no Oto showed us the past month. It tried to do way too much in way too little time, and it wanted to be way too epic, forgetting that it was supposed to be a slice of life series. The final episode was way too rushed and pulled way too many convenient plot twists. The best that this month has shown was probably the German.
#14 (10) – Tentai Senshi Sunred – (8,25/10) – The final episodes weren’t among the highlights of Sunred’s second season, but I still got a good laugh out of them. It’s sad to see this show go, as it’s been one of those rare comedy sequels to actually surpass its original.
#13 (7) – Marie & Gali – (8,25/10) – So the finale took up this month’s airtime for Marie & Gali, so it wasn’t exactly amongst the series’ highlights. However, it was nowhere near bad. I love how the finale, instead of creating a cheesy climax that had nothing to do with the rest of the series, instead forced Marika to think for herself. That’s of course the perfect ending for a series that’s about exploring the wonders of science.
#12 (5) – Cross Game – (8,25/10) – One thing that I didn’t like about Cross Game this month was that most of its time was spent on its rather boring baseball match in the finale of the regional championships. It was the thing I had been fearing for twenty episodes now, and it indeed was nowhere as good as the truly excellent slice of life of this series. Nevertheless, the actual ending closed off the series really well.
#11 (15) – Katanagatari – (8,25/10) – Episode 3 was heaps better than the first two episodes: an interesting scenario, an interesting villain, the dialogue was much more focused and the fight again was short and sweet. It’s definitely an interesting series to watch like this.
#10 (12) – Anymaru Tantei Kiruminzoo – (8,25/10)

Episode 25 started this series mid-way climax. And it was… unusual. Completely different from the laid-back nature of the rest of the series. I’m actually quite curious what the creators are planning for the second half of this series.

#9 (9) – Kaidan Restaurant – (8,25/10)

I’m also pretty amazed at how well this series is doing in terms of popularity and audience numbers, and it pretty much deserves it. I can very much imagine that kids are loving this little horror series, and it’s still delivering simple but fun and varied horror stories that are consistently scary.

#8 (18) – Hanamaru Youchien – (8,25/10)

I’m a bit sad about that open ending. I mean, if there’s one series that could have easily made up its own ending, it would have been this one, and it would have been much more satisfying than what we got to see right now, which basically was a build-up for nothing. Ignoring that however, then Hanamaru Youchien has gotten significantly better in its final third. The characters came together, the comedy became funnier, the characters developed a bit. Overall a very enjoyable finale.

#7 (14) – Gag Manga Biyori + – (8,5/10)

Absolutely hilarious. Especially the Wolf-man episode was beyond funny, but the other new episodes were also classics.

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

It’s great to see that this series is currently working diligently to introduce all of the major characters, rather than wallowing away too much in random stories. It’s exactly what this show should be doing at this point.

#5 (13) – Letter Bee – (8,5/10)

You know, I was just going to casually enjoy the rest of this series and wait for the second season to really start off the plot. But damn… that final episode. The final ten minutes of this show single-handedly increased my opinion of this series significantly. It’s a huge cliff-hanger, but at the same time it was a wonderful way to end the first season with.

#4 (3) – Durarara – (8,75/10)

This month Durarara really managed to elevate itself to a higher level, and became something unique. The dialogue has been really well written in order to get the best out of the characters, and it’s really been working so far. More and more characters are shedding the seemingly stereotypical look that they had in the beginning.

#3 (6) – Kobato – (8,75/10)

Kobato really surpassed itself this month, with a very solid and heart-wrenching conclusion that really made use of its time. For me, it’s had the best ending of the season.

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

We’re really moving to the climax now, as this series has been ramping up the action while still developing the plot at a steady pace. Exciting is an understatement to describe this series.

#1 () – Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – (9,25/10)

The big problem with this show right now is that it should have been 35 episodes long, instead of 27. So yeah, it’s a bit rushed, but seriously, that still doesn’t make it any less awesome than that it already was. I’m still enjoying this show more than any other at the moment and despite the rushed plot the creators did manage to capture the essences of the final chapters of the story. Because of that it’s awesome to see everything finally coming together.