Author: psgels

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 37

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Whoa! Shadow! Spoilers ahead! Do not read if you didn’t watch this episode yet!

I was already told that Pride’s identity would be the biggest spoiler of the series, that we’ve already seen his human form. Because of that, I occasionally imagined who the hell he could be, but who it eventually turned out to be… I never considered that option. I really thought that it was going to be some sort of obscure adult.

There still are a lot of questions remained about why the son of Bradley of all people turned out to be Pride. Out of all the disguises, that has to be one of hardest to keep up. The people around him (maids, et cetera) should all be aware that something is wrong with a kid after a few years. I especially wonder how long Pride has been playing for Bradley’s son anyway: if he doesn’t age, then there are bound to be people who find it strange what’s happening to this kid, and why he refuses to grow up.

One theory is that he can take up multiple forms, and only recently decided to play for Wrath’s son, because Father’s plan is about to come to fruition. In this episode we’re shown that Kimbley wasn’t just set out to catch Scar, but also to instigate the final massacre at Briggs. And finally I’ve gotten my respect for Winry: she finally ends up doing something relevant, and I admire her courage in this episode despite finding out that she’s basically a hostage.

With this, I can see the big lines of the plot that’s currently still left: protect Briggs, go after Father, and in the meantime provide adequate background for all of the important characters. Sounds promising!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Cross Game – 38

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



This is a question for my Japanese readers, but it’s something I’ve been wondering for ages: is it customary for Japanese High Schools to plant at least one sakura tree near the entrance or something? Or is this just one really big stereotype that you only see in anime? Seriously though, I can hardly recall any high school in anime that doesn’t have those pink petals flying around when spring hits..

Setting that aside though, the past episodes of Cross Game have been nothing but goodness. This episode yet again had a wonderful slice of life feeling to it, as the new school year starts and Kou has finally moved into his final year of high school. Oh, I wish that the upcoming baseball tournament would never come.

This episode was all about Kou dating Akane, and Azuma hanging out with Aoba. It’s quite charming in the way that this series develops its love triangles: it’s done with the same subtlety as ever. And I’m someone who usually hates love triangles with passion. In Cross Game, they’re nowhere near as whiny nor do they have any intention to take over the series and destroy its real focuses. In this series, it’s very refreshing to see that potential couples don’t immediately get incredibly angsty once their loved ones are hanging out with another member of the opposite sex.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

White Album – 25

by psgels, posted in White Album



Okay, so it indeed doesn’t look like this series is going for a School Days ending, but at this point, I honestly don’t care anymore. This episode was so emotionally moving, and the second season of White Album has just gotten better with every passing episode. At this point, I’m even sad that there’s only one episode left. I want more, dammit.

The dialogue in this episode was exceptionally well written. The way it carefully wrapped up, developed and progressed all of the different storylines in this series was really well done. Rina seems to have just lost her voice, but I really liked the subtlety with which she ended up dealing with it. In fact, the frail Yuki overreacted more than she did.

In the meantime, this episode also wrapped up Yayoi’s story, surprisingly. It had it coming, because she has been screwing and kissing Touya surprisingly little lately, and I really applaud the creators for letting it resolve itself very slowly, rather than just devoting an entire arc to her and wrap up everything that is about her in that arc.

I’m also really surprised at how much extra depth Mana and Menou’s mother has gotten through the past few episodes. She really seemed like your average uncaring mother, but the final quarter of this series made her a much more important character. Seriously though, at this pace White Album is well on its way to bombard itself into my top 3 favourite hentai game adaptations, along with Air and True Tears. The first season indeed drove me insane with the way it so annoyingly screwed up its potential, but for some reason the new director (yeah, apparently the first and second season have different directors) really changed the way this series worked, and instead of going for the cheap drama shots that the first season was full off, he continued the story with much more natural plot twists and developments.

Really, I think that if the director of the first season would have handled the second one as well, we indeed would have gotten this School Days ending. Under his guidance, everything probably would have gone to hell by now. I think that that’s also really nicely symbolized by that episode in which Touya buys himself his answering machine: it’s the new director’s way of saying: let’s develop the characters through their interactions, instead of these cheap plot twists.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 12

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



Just when you’d think that this show couldn’t get any better: Hamy’s background. Holy crap, the first time we see her she’s totally not what you’d expect of her.

This really was an episode well spent, as it shows how Hamyuts met Barori, joined the Armed Librarians and quickly grew to become one of their top members. You can really see her gradually become that homicidal maniac that we’ve all come to know in the rest of the series. I think the most interesting part is where the young Hamy says to Barori that if he’s able to kill her, the world will be saved. Also how the current Hamy is constantly looking to be killed, as if she wants to be stopped, it really seems like she is this series’ mega-bomb that can destroy the world. Now the question remains: if she knows this, if she knows this, then why doesn’t she just commit suicide? Does she simply see her destiny as a game or something?

It’s also interesting to see Volken back again, but this time as a little kid. His shadow really lurks over this series ever since he left. And if Hamy is really this series’ antagonist, you could actually consider him to be the protagonist. Just a protagonist who has very, very, very little airtime when compared to other protagonists.

I’m also glad that the romance in this show is for once mature, instead of those silly teenaged romances that never really seem to get anywhere.Yet another thing about this series that’s refreshing.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini – 11

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



An excellent build-up for that final episode. My big worry right now is the pacing, because there is A LOT that still needs to be revealed. On top of that, the story needs to reach its conclusion, the themes have to be wrapped up, as well as the ton of side-plots that were going on. Oh, I really hope that the creators are going to be able to pull this off. I won’t mind a few questions left open, but I will mind it if the creators end up rushing though the ending.

And yeah, I was wrong: Suou is the only copy alive at this point: the original doctor survived and instead had a clone of his killed. In the meantime, the real doctor dies in this episode. From a shot in his leg. Seriously, I think that this is the first time in anime in which a character dies from such a minor injury, although it does make sense: he was treated poorly and ended up bleeding to death. Though it gets a bit hard to believe amongst anime where characters survive multiple gunshots without being treated for days in some cases. 😛

There’s just one thing… how did the golem guy survive? His fight against Suou doesn’t really make any sense: he was shot in the eye before and he was just fine, and then he gets shot in his forehead, where the impact is apparently strong enough to cause a flesh-wound and knock him unconscious, but nothing more…

I also finally remembered to keep watching after the ED, and those were some major scenes this time: Mao is the blond woman’s former lover? Heh.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Glass no Usagi Review – 72,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



Despite being produced only four years ago, the Glass Rabbit is a movie that completely flew past the radar for some reason. Now that I finally managed to find it and check it out (in raw, I didn’t manage to find a subbed version) then yeah, I have to say that it’s pretty mediocre for a WWII-movie. If you’re interested in the themes of the Second World War portrayed, go for the ones that were produced in the eighties and nineties.

And sure, the movie is solidly told. I’d have no problem with it if it wasn’t such a complete rip-off of Ushiro no Shoumen Daare. Events and characters are rearranged a bit, and I guess that the protagonist is a bit older, but apart from that, it’s the exact same formula, but without the personality, charms, animation or themes other than “war is bad”. Any part in this movie that doesn’t come from Ushiro no Shoumen Daare has been taken from another movie, like Barefoot Gen or Chocchan’s Story. It never really shows something of its own. The only really original parts that I managed to find was the ending, at which all of the characters come together and spoon-feed the movie’s cheesy morals about how war is bad, like those cheap saturday-morning cartoons. There’s a reason why all the other WWII-movies didn’t do that!

Of course, I’m not blaming the person who this series is based on I’m sure that she went through hell, and I have a lot of respect for her for that. However, my criticism go to the creators of the anime: what was the point they wanted to make by creating this movie, more than ten years after Ushiro no Shoumen Daare was created? It couldn’t be to give this classic story a coat of modern graphics, because it actually looks much worse. The budget is clearly limited, and for some reason the animators tried to recreate the character-designs and art styles of the early nineties.

Of course, if you haven’t seen Ushiro no Shoumen Daare, this is a very serviceable movie that will keep you interested. However, it simply is inferior to the movie that it tries to rip off: the lead character is a bit too one-sided: she’s constantly made out as a strong girl and there’s just too little variety in her character, not to mention the incredibly stereotypical way in which the Americans are portrayed here. Some of the slice of life moments are nicely done, though.

Storytelling: 8/10
Characters: 7/10
Production-Values: 7/10
Setting: 7/10

TO Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



From the creators of Vexille, TO is their next work as they adapt two stories from the 2001 Nights manga. This manga was a collection of stories (most of them unrelated) that chronicled the challenges of humankind as they ventured into outer space. The two episodes of TO are completely unrelated, and so they can be watched completely individual from each other. Like Vexille, these OVAs are also shot entirely in 3D CG, and unfortunately, they didn’t escape the big weakness of 3D-movies: the botox-faces. But apart from these botox-faces, how do they hold up? As a very mixed bag, actually.

The first story is Elliptical Orbit, and for the most part it’s just average: average action, average, characters, average story; it all feels like it’s been done before. While I do appreciate that one of the lead character is an actual grown up male (somewhere in his forties, I guess), there just hardly is anything interesting or noteworthy. The bad guys are stereotypical bad guys who are evil because they’re evil; the kind that want to blow lots of stuff up and kill as many people as possible.

There is one spark of light in here, though. The twist at the end of this episode is one I really, really liked: it’s creative, and adds quite a bit of depth to at least the main characters. Throughout the average action, the build-up at least came together quite nicely in the end, and so this is a story that left me with a good impression.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the second story, Symbiotic Planet. The episode should be applauded for its background art, and design works, which are absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode isn’t just average like with Elliptical Orbit, it’s just outright bad.

The story is stupid, it centers around a silly love story between star crossed lovers (since their parents hate each other and want to blow each other up for badly explained reasons). The build-up of tension is ruined by very one-dimensional characters who only seem to have one character-trait and nothing more. The real disaster is the climax, though: it’s full of lazy plotholes, deus ex machina, storyboards that just don’t make any sense (about a dozen of people completely vanish at one point, with no explanation of where they went; which is a bit unnerving because they were just infected with a dangerous space virus) and the ending itself is just such an incredibly cheap knock-off that it completely destroys any sort of build-up that still remained.

So overall, Elliptical Orbit has its charms, Symbiotic Planet doesn’t. However, the manga of 2001 Nights has already been adapted once before: in 1987 a movie was created with some of the other stories. Even though it actually has less airtime than TO, it’s a really good story and really well told, giving you a great idea of some of the basics and challenges of space travel. If you’re interested in this story, check out that one before trying trying TO. Unless you’re looking for nothing but action or botox people, I guess.

Storytelling: 6/10
Characters: 6/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 7/10

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – 25

by psgels, posted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni



This episode was evil. The previous episode left with a huge cliff-hanger, so I was really looking forward to see what would happen with Beatrice next… and here this episode comes and focuses entirely at Ange. That’s definitely not what I expected for a semi-final episode.

It wasn’t exactly a major episode, though for some reason the characters kept using different names for older Eva and Maria’s diary. For some reason, old Eva now changed her name to Kasumi, though this was probably to escape the links she had with the Rokkenjima murders. Maria’s diary somehow is called Mariage Sorciere. We still don’t exactly know the how and why of this, but my guess is that it’s Maria’s magical alter ego who wrote the diary, explaining why the handwriting is different.

I think the most confusing part of this episode was right after Kasumi showed up from out of nowhere, as it took a while to sink in what the heck she was talking about. Basically, Eva refers to Kyrie as her older sister, meaning that she’s actually a part of the Sumadera family. Then really, what does this mean for the Ushinomiya-family? Is Hideyoshi actually Kinzou’s child? On top of that, Kyrie was about to marry this mysterious Hideyoshi, but instead married Rudolf, who then had a son called Battler who isn’t the same Battler as meta-Battler. Damn, and I thought the previous episode was complicated.

EDIT: Ack, I just realized that there are two old ladies in Ange’s timeline: her first aunt is Eva, who apparently did die a few episodes ago. Her second aunt is Sumadera Kasumi, who is Kyrie’s sister. And I kept thinking that they were the same person! Well, this at least makes things a little less complicated, and this episode much more straightforward. Which is a bit of a shame considering that there’s only one episode left!

Ultimately, this was an episode of building up. Which is a goddarn shame considering we have to wait around two years before actually seeing it being paid off.
Rating: (Enjoyable)

Five Star Stories Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



The coming weeks, I’m planning to hold another movie spree, so you can expect a lot of movie reviews. I’ve been meaning to check out Five Star Stories for quite a while now, but I could never find it. Since a whole string of releases recently became available, I decided to check it out, but ultimately I had to be disappointed. This is another one of those movies that try to put way too much in way too little time.

But let me first give credit where credit is due: the art in this movie is absolutely gorgeous. The characters are incredibly detailed and well animated. And sure, some characters may look a bit too ridiculous, but you can see that nearly every character and mecha is drawn with a lot of imagination, I can’t think of any other anime that looks quite like this.

But yeah, the manga for Five Star Stories consists out of twelve volumes. The creators tried to stuff this into only one hour. There’s no way that fits, not to mention that only the first two manga volumes were released at the time that this series was produced. It seems like only the first volume got animated or something, which leaves HUGE plotholes behind.

As an example, we have this bad guy, who everyone says horrible things about, and yet we never actually see him do anything illegal. Sure, he’s a bit of an asshole, but in comparison, the good guys of the movie are much worse: they keep talking about morality and justice, but they also don’t resist to kill innocent people, they turn little girls into war machines and the president of a country somehow manages to leave his post for TEN WHOLE YEARS, doing God knows what in the process.

The setting does have potential: you can see some imagination in the political system for this story, the link between mecha pilots, and how these people fit into society, but it’s never really used well with the very limited scope that this series uses. Right now, the good guys do nothing but flaunt their super awesome mega powers, while the bad guys are simply being stupid assholes. There’s hardly any depth to the characters, other than the father of the girls, maybe.

Storytelling: 5/10
Characters: 6/10
Production-Values: 9/10
Setting: 7/10

Kimi ni Todoke – 11

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke



The final scene of this episode really showed that the creators of this series are biased for the main couple. As soon as Kurumi even mentioned the possibility of talking to another boy, the dramatic music set in and they tried to make it look like a cliff-hanger. Like it’s blasphemy if the two were to even look at each other. Even though Kurumi was doing what she’s been doing ever since the previous episode, and it wasn’t really worse than any of her other plans. This really could hurt this show in the long run.

But yeah, it’s the small things like this that prevent me from fully enjoying this series. When you look at the big picture, there really isn’t much wrong with this series: it’s got a nice concept of an outcast who manages to find herself. The dialogue is well detailed and the characters have good concepts. But then there are times at which the creators are just trying too hard, like for example dragging the evil bitch-arc on for too long (I’m sure that I wouldn’t have complained as much about that arc if it was done in just one episode). This episode also carried Sawako’s naiveness a bit too far, and I feel that Mamiko Nouto doesn’t really fit her as a voice actress.

So yeah, I’m not often one to agree with the “the manga is so much better”-arguments, but I think that it really holds up here. This is not about cutting certain parts off, this is rather about blindly adapting a pretty good manga without thinking about the transition from still frames to animation. I personally couldn’t care less whether creators of an anime delete stuff or add extra stuff in, as long as it works. This goes with series that take a lot of these artistic liberties like Umineko and Full Metal Alchemist, but also with series that do try to put everything in from the original source-material like this series and Bakemonogatari.

Incidentally, I noticed something interesting when I looked at the staff page at ANN. While there is very little to say about the main director, the script has been written so far by two people: Tomoko Konparu, who wrote the majority of the episodes, and Mamiko Ikeda, who wrote episodes 2, 7 and 10. Incidentally, now that I look back, I can say that these three episodes belonged to the best ones of the series so far. My guess is that Tomoko Konparu, who also is doing the series composition, really isn’t having her right year: the series composition she did on Chi’s New Address also left a lot to be desired and while she has worked and contributed to a lot of great and awesome series in the past, this time she just seems to have an off season.

I think another reason why I’m extra critical of this series, even though it seems to be loved by many, is because half of the times, the jokes fall flat. Do other people have this as well? I mean, there are tons of awkward moments in this series for me when the creators are trying to make a joke, which just isn’t funny to me. There really is this thing called suspense of disbelief, and if this series had built up any at this point I definitely wouldn’t be whining as much as I am now, but it’s a shame that this show continues to break this for me. It’s especially annoying now that even Kobato, which once was even duller than this series for me, is getting better and better.
Rating: (Enjoyable)