Author: psgels

Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra – 11

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



There really is something beautiful about the Mokkania arc. It’s only two episodes long, and it’s not as complex as the Colio or the Enlike arc, but nevertheless it was in no way inferior to them thanks to its portrayal of its three central characters: Mokkania, his mother and Winkery. And it makes things look so damn easy!

Seriously, this show is doing what every show should be doing: give ample time and development for every minor character; EVEN the villains. In fact, the only static characters in this series are the main ones: the Armed Librarians, Hamyuts Meseta and the major church people, who still have plenty of time left. The rest of the cast is truly well-rounded and developed. A true rarity, especially without coming across forced. It seems so easy to just give these minor characters that will never return again a bit of a lame backstory, or just not put in the time and effort to develop them in a short time-frame.

And that’s just one of the things why I like this series. Winkery was so a-typical compared to your regular anime side-villain. Despite being against the lead characters, he has a personality, he’s intelligent and actually can hold a normal conversation with his enemies. There’s no side that refuses to listen to the other, nor any cheesy ideals: Hamyus knows that she has made a lot of enemies with the church, and has no intention to talk their grunts out of their plans. That woman is so refreshing in the middle of “let’s all stop fighting and become friends”-anime. And that’s exactly what characters like Noloty and Mokkania are for: they’re meant to show that that’s just another way of thinking, rather than the truth, which a lot of anime lead characters seem to suffer from, trying to push the hypocritical pacifist ideals of the lead characters as the only right way.

I also loved that little hint to the Colio-arc, in which we see Winkery book a room for Colio and his gang as they prepare to bomb Hamyuts. It’s interesting that such a little thing can give the organization of the Church so much extra depth: it shows that people like him aren’t just focused on their own task, but instead take care of a lot of smaller administrative businesses as well. Even those so simple as booking a room.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini – 10

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



Hell yeah! This series is really coming together quite nicely. It both fits in with the first season and yet has created an entirely new style and mood. With this episode, you can really see that the build-up of the past number of episodes has paid off.

2009 really has been a stellar year for Bones. But yeah, now that we’re near the end of this series, their particular weakness pops up again: their seeming inability to create an actually good ending. I’m really not sure what it is with their series and adaptations, but during the previous summer, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 was the first series I’ve seen from them with an actually good ending. All of the others that I watched so far were either rushed, forced, or just completely ruined their series. And that considering that the rest of their series are often so well produced.

Still, if there’s any series that could break this trend, it’s this one. With so much build-up, it will be a disaster if the ending goes wrong, but you can see that the creators have planned out this series really well. they should have a great ending planned here, if this episode was any indication. The depth it gave to Suou’s character was really remarkable.

This episode also sheds a totally new light on Shion: it’s obvious now that the Doctor who was with him also was just a copy that he created: the real one really was killed by Hei. How he said that Suou needed to learn what pain was was very hypocritical: he himself has no concept of this, since he thinks that he can just clone anything that he loses.

And zomg: Mao’s backstory! it’s strange to see this guy inside a regular human body, but we finally get a good look at how he lost his original body. The question that remains now: why did the Syndicate betray Mao? Was it just because he happened to be on a place that they needed to bomb, (say, an unfortunate sacrifice), or was he specifically targeted?

Also, Hei has frustrations: it’s one thing to torture his victims for information, but to leave such a mutilated body behind… what the heck was he doing to her? O.o
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – 24

by psgels, posted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni



Very nice, the plot twists just keep heaping up with this episode. While not as interesting as the third arc yet, there’s plenty of potential left for this in the final two episodes.

The first half of this episode was the usual slaughter-fest in which members of the Ushinomiya-family die rather one-sidedly, though there are several interesting questions raised here: has non-meta-Battler ever directly seen magic up till now? The only point I can think of is the end of the second arc, and that could easily have been an illusion. My guess has always been that what he saw with his eyes happened in real life, and this puts the three phone-calls he made during the first half in a very interesting light.

Right now, my guess is that the murderer used some sort of psychological attack to kill these people. Perhaps some sort of drug or mushroom that made them think that there are things that there actually aren’t. We’ve never really seen Nanjo check for any drug effects, and I can imagine how the killer could have created the flesh wounds afterwards to confuse people and hide the real causes.

A different theory is that the three characters in question found out who the murderer was, and why they were committed. As this seems to have been a very good reason, and simply resigned to their fate.

Because that second half gave a very interesting twist to the whole matter. Beatrice could have acted this again (I see her crazy enough to just ignore Battler like this), but I think that this was one of the first time in which her actions were genuine. Otherwise it would not have made sense for Lambadelta to have shown up.

So the way I see it, Beatrice made a mistake. Something happened six years ago that for some reason really upset her, and she believed Battler to be the culprit… and yet he wasn’t. This wasn’t a case of simple amnesia, he really had no clue what happened. The thing that would make sense is how Rosa killed Beatrice, but this doesn’t make any sense because Beatrice would know this, and she’d be going after Rosa instead.

My guess is that the creators have yet to reveal the exact reason, but I do believe that six years ago multiple things happened that set everything in motion, Rosa’s sin being one of them: I can very well imagine that Kinzou wasn’t really happy when he found out what happened to Beatrice. Also, why couldn’t Battler claim that he’s the son of his mother? Was he switched as a baby with someone else or something? In that case, what happened to the real Battler? And how did this create Battler’s “sin”, six years ago.
Rating: * (Good)

Kimi ni Todoke – 10

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke



Yeah, It’s as I thought: Kurumi indeed has a crush on Kazehaya, apparently just like any other girl aside from Yano and Yoshida, it seems. While this episode was fine, I see so many potential pitfalls for this show if it keeps going into this direction.

I mean, the Kurumi-issue is probably going to resolve itself in a few episodes for now, or at least that’s my prediction. This just doesn’t seem like a series like Bokura ga Ita, in which these things take their time to resolve themselves naturally. So what’s going to happen after that?Are the creators going to throw in yet another love rival? I mean, Kazehaya is really being set up as the perfect boyfriend for everyone: there are still tons of other girls who might potentially hate Sawako for going out with Kazehaya.

it’s a big cliché of romance shows that I’ve gotten tired off by now. My second fear of a cliché in this show is the lead romance getting stuck at this rate. While the relationship between Kazehaya and Sawako has progressed so far, it’s still pretty one-sided: Sawako likes Kazehaya, Kazehaya likes Sawako, and that’s pretty much it. One thing I hope is that this isn’t going to turn into a will-they-won’t-they show, because I feel that it won’t be able to get everything it wants out of the characters.

But yeah, Kurumi was very nicely done. I liked the subtlety in which the creators revealed her intentions. She’s a major step up from those evil bitches that preceded her, and the tensions between her and Sawako were very nicely done. Now all the next episode has to do is turn her into a character, rather than just another love rival whose sole purpose is to “test” the relationship between the two lead characters. Clichés aren’t bad, as long as they’re handled well. Now, Kimi ni Todoke: prove this!
Rating: * (Good)

Konnichiwa Anne – 36

by psgels, posted in Konnichiwa Anne



Yes! Yes! The creators actually got Edna right! Oh, all signs pointed towards her getting the same treatment as all other secondary characters in this series in a lame and shallow episode that rewrites characters through cheesy dialogue instead of developing them. But they actually got that bitchiness of her right, while adding a bit of extra depth to her at the same time!

Throughout the majority of the episode, I feared the worst though. The point where Anne saw Edna sneak into the shed and talk to her imaginary friend was truly facepalm-worthy. This episode just kept throwing hints that it was going to give Amy Thompson and Edna cheesy one-line backstory, Anne gladly recapped the entire series through cheesy morals and even when the series did begin to look better (the letter from the Cuthberts arrived!), there was Tessa with her endless whining who ruined it. Sure I of course don’t mind a bit of sadness, but the way that Tessa kept bawling was just a case of hopelessly overacting.

But then that final scene. I’m not sure what happened, but we actually saw Edna putting up a very cheesy act that any adult would have seen through, yet Anne in her childish gullibleness believes (which, let’s face it, any kid her age would do). At the same time, it also looks like the creators put their best artist on the job of animating these scenes: the art is powerful and very expressive, and probably the best animated scene in this series.

The thing that separates good WMT-series from average WMT-series is among others, their sense of morality; nobody is purely good. Cosette was weak, hardly did anything and dependant, Marius was a one-minded revolutionary and Jean has had his past issues. Porfy was naive and often picked fights, Anne of Green Gables (not this Anne) pulled quite a few hi-jinks as a little kid. The Anne in this series however is always morally on the right path. Her weaknesses are all meant to be charming and are actually hidden strengths. This was actually one of the first times in which one of Anne’s weaknesses was actually exploited against her.

Now the question of course is going to be: can the final three episodes finish the job? The thing is that the creators aren’t done with Edna yet. It’s obvious that her plan is going to fail, and I definitely hope that the creators aren’t going to make her jump the shark after all. That’s another point at which this series differs from good WMT: in the WMT, you know things are going to happen, you just don’t know why. In the good series, this in no way lessens the impact of these scenes. In the lesser WMT-series, they become pretty dull spoilers that make the story even more predictable than it already was.

However, the thing that worries me even more is the following: why hasn’t the next WMT been announced yet? We’re about to dive into 2010. We can assume that Nippon Animation might be planning to keep the next one at 39 episodes as well, but even then there’s nothing certain yet. Oh, I really hope that they’re not planning to abandon this franchise again.
Rating: * (Good)

Aoi Bungaku – 10

by psgels, posted in Aoi Bungaku



That was absolutely amazing. Oh my god, Aoi Bungaku was already my favourite series of this season… and this episode just blew every of its episodes so far out of the water. What a roller-coaster of emotions this turned out to be! Ryosuke Nakamura. That’s one name to remember, because this guy is destined for greatness.

Unfortunately, he’s also destined for unexposure in the western anime fandom because his series are just so damn hard to translate. Why are there still no subs of episode 9 out at this point, even though the previous episodes were subbed without any problems (in fact, even the double-episoded feature of episode 7 and 8 got out faster than this). It’s the same with Mouryou no Hako: we’ve got ourselves an absolutely fantastic director here, and yet because his dialogue is so damn complex it takes much longer for the subs to come out!

In any case, enough ranting and onto this episode. Just when I already thought that the previous episode was full of emotions, it was nothing when compared to this one. The whole story by Osamu Dazai came together wonderfully. Thoughout a majority of the episode, you keep wondering why his friend abandoned him. When the answer finally comes, the shock hits hard, and yet it makes complete sense: the guy was about to die from heart failure. Especially after all of the things that the lead character called this guy for betraying him.

But the visual direction was absolutely amazing. The animation was just incredible, and especially the part where Melos is fighting on the desk, as the main character is writing his story is nothing short of gorgeous. Anime animation cuts corners?! Hah, this episode has so much emotionally powerful movement in it. THIS really shows what you can do with the animation medium.

And to think that Aoi Bungaku still isn’t finished. The wait is going to take two whole weeks, but after that we’re going to see two stories adapted at the same time. I have no idea what to expect from that. The director is going to be someone completely new, and I have no idea what to expect from this guy. Again, this is a great gamble by Madhouse by putting a new guy in front of such a big project, but who knows? Perhaps they found themselves yet another talent here.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 35

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Quite out of the blue, this episode comes and delivers answers to some of the more burning questions that the early episodes have asked. I was prepared for the worst in terms of this show, but damn. It still amazed me to what extend this series is willing to go.

Being epic is of course easy to do: just create some sort of deus ex machina bomb that has the power to destroy the world and voila: you’ve involved the entire world in your story. Making it count is of course an entirely different story. This episode finally revealed what the homunculi were doing in Lior, and why Hughes had to die, among others. I at first thought that they were simply trying to make as many philosopher’s stones as possible, but these people are actually turning the entire COUNTRY into a transmutation circle! Bloody hell.

To think that Father didn’t take over a country in order to create his plans. He instead created a country, in order to carry them out. This explains the country’s round shape, why the capital is right in the middle of it and much more. The next big question is of course going to be: why? What could this guy possibly want even more? He possesses eternal life, is the most powerful man in the entire country, nobody can harm him in any way in the way this is going. What could he possibly want so badly that he’d create a 500-year long plan that involves so much preparation and such a hassle to carry out?

And where does Hohenheim fit into this, really? He must have had something to do with it, but what? My speculation at this point is that Hohenheim is indeed an immortal, and created Father as some sort of clone of his, which then got a mind of its own and then started that incredibly elaborate plan of his.

It’s also interesting how this episode explained the first episode as well. Wasn’t that supposed to be a filler? Interesting choice, especially considering the lack of original material in the rest of this series.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Letter Bee – 10

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee



I must say, this episode caught me off hand. With the tons of random characterizations that never really progressed neither the story nor the characters forward, I was expecting this episode to be again one of those episodes that’s just there to flesh out the characters, without any real substance. But here this episode came and proved me wrong, it looks like things are finally getting a bit more interesting.

Seeing Gauche’s backstory animated was definitely the best part of Letter Bee so far since Gauche himself left. We’re finally getting to a bit of intrigue here: what was up with the government airship that crashed, and why of all things did Gauche’s memories of his mother get erased just like that? It was pretty sad seeing Aria in the middle of it, who couldn’t believe that Gauche just forgot the most important person in his life.

As for the rest of the episode… yeah, it was pretty typical. Sylvette turns out to be a terrible cook (like we haven’t seen those people enough in anime), Lag in true shounen fashion actually shoots with too much power (you can never have too much power in a shounen-series), and Nichi still refuses to listen to anyone but Lag. Still, I’m happy. That Gauche flashback was exactly what I was waiting for. What I’m hoping for right now is that the creators put such a thing in every single episode from now on, rather than creating very long build-up arcs, just for a few episodes of climax.
Rating: * (Good)

Cross Game – 36

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



This episode: the try-out for the girls’ team that Aoba has finally decided to get into. Even though it had it coming, it was still fun to see Aoba pwn that arrogant female batter. I know that such a trick should get old pretty fast, but I still loved it. It was also very refreshing to see Aoba among other girls again. You can see that she’s a totally different person when she’s not amongst Kou and the others, . This was a well directed episode overall.

But yeah, Aoba’s talent has been well built up. Azuma played a big role in this: after trying to get past his brilliant hits, there’s hardly anything anymore that can surprise her. And yet, the creators made sure to hint that there are other talented players around.

But yeah: then there was that thing at the end of the episode… with Aoba collapsing and all. While it looks to me that it’s a simple sports injury that she’ll probably get over after a few months’ rest, let’s not forget that this is Adachi. He’s been known to kill off people before, and I don’t think that I remember any time in either Cross Game or Touch in which an injury did not have a major lasting effect. At this point, I’m very worried about Aoba because of this, especially because it happened so sudden: it was nothing like Adachi to pull such a thing so directly, so I have absolutely no idea what he’s aiming for.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Kemono no Souja Erin – 47

by psgels, posted in Kemono no Souja Erin



Very interesting. While you would expect an action-packed finale, the creators instead decided to end this series through words and dialogue. The past two episodes were far less dramatic than some of the other moments in this series, and yet they used these moments very well in developing the plot solely through dialogue.

This was another very focused episode, in which Erin attempts to convince the new queen to stop listening to Damya. Erin had the luck that the new queen is still young and naive, so she easily believed her words, but nevertheless this was a pretty powerful episode. Even an idiot doesn’t believe any random Joe who claims that one of his closest relatives has been betraying him. Erin built up her story very well, up to the eventual revelations that the country was about to head into a disastrous path.

My prediction is that the final three episodes will be a lot more action-packed than this, although I do suspect that it’s going to be more than “Seimiya’s Troops versus Damya’s troops”. Still, Damya is pretty much guaranteed to die or something similar in the final episode. With that though, I’ll be content with how this series ends, despite that only half of the novels were adapted. Throughout the past fifty episodes, this show was able to show what it wanted to show, and for me this is now a well rounded series. There are plenty of other anime who deserve a sequel more than this one (Guin Saga!? Tytania!?).

Trans Arts… yeah. I’ve had a lot to complain about them. They’re another production company that is lead by one particular director, but this guy really is very inflexible. His original stories (Sisters of Wellber) are just too cheesy, his adaptations (Library Wars, Chocolate Underground) try to do way too much in way too little time. This series however was a great opportunity for him to really take his time and carefully adapt a well written story, and with this you can see that he really knows how to direct a series. I think that his main problem is that while he’s good at writing and directing single scenes and episodes, he doesn’t know how to look at the big picture. I hope that this series provided him with some valuable lessons as to what he’s good at and what he’s bad at. Because really: I like this guy’s creativity. In this day and age in which a majority of the anime try to rip off each other, he comes with interesting ideas and creative concepts, and finally with Kemono no Souja Erin, he actually managed to adapt one of these concepts right.
Rating: ** (Excellent)