Author: psgels

Psycho Pass – 20

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

Aha, a great type of episode so right before the climax of this series: one that nearly entirely consists out of people talking to each other and exploring the ins and outs of the setting here. Discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the Sybil System. With this episode it’s clear that the creators knew full well what kind of flawed system they created with Psycho Pass.

I really liked the atmosphere of this episode, especially at the time where Akane was talking to those canned brains that make up the Sybil System. This episode also revealed that just about every pair of brains there comes from some kind of latent criminal, some of which did even worse things than Makishima Shougo did. That explains why they took an interest in him. It creates this interesting paradox here: when they contribute so much to society, does that make up for their actions when they still had a body?

And I wondered about this many times, but with this episode it’s really clear to me that the lack of security is intentional. Gen really intended this to be a criticism of modern society, and the way in which it’s heading. Having everything done and decided for us makes us lazy. We don’t take any insurances for the worst case scenarios, we don’t think for ourselves.

So this seires will get more epic and all, but there is one point that this episode stressed that I really like about it: destroying the Sybil System isn’t going to solve anything. It’ll just create chaos and nothing more. This is not a case in which we can just kill the evil big bad guy and have things automatically fixed. Also, since Makishima Shougo is far more interesting than your average villain, this is one finale I’d really want to see.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo – 20 & 21

by psgels, posted in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

Whoa. This episode hit me hard.

Before watching these two episodes, I had lost a bit of my motivation to keep up with Sakurasou because it seemed to head into the predictable finale direction: love triangle angst with forced drama for Sakurasou closing down. It all sounded so “been there, done that”, and seemed so far away from what made this series so good. And then… Aoyama failed her auditions.

Damn, these two episodes had some bleak themes: with hard work and guts alone you ain’t gonna make it, because there will be enough people who also have that. Just because you put in all of your effort, doesn’t automatically mean you’ll succeed, and both Sorata and Aoyama found this out the hard way. With such an inspirational series, I did not expect this direction, but I also really liked how the creators used Shiina here: All the while, she had been inspiring everyone, and yet here it becomes clear why she pushes everyone away: again her art was the thing that got noticed. And she did land the job incredibly easily. Life is just unfair that way.

The one thing I’m a bit iffy about is the plot with Sakurasou closing down and all, but even there this series makes very good points: so what if it’s closed down? You can always find other housing. The main problem underlying here is that people are trying to foce Shiina to give up her ambitions.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

AKB0048 – 21 & 22

by psgels, posted in AKB0048

I’ve often noticed that series can get a bit boring when they tend to get more epic. I think that that’s what happened to me for AKB0048. The biggest reason is that it started off so original and different, but there are only so many ways in which you can deliver an epic action scene. Also, these two episodes did not have what originally made me like AKB0048 so much: the way in which it had such a critical eye for the idol business. I originally thought that this would not matter, but its absence does show in these two episodes..

I did like how the focus on this episode went to the center novas, and what happened to them, especially the photographer who went over to the dark side in order to attempt to get the best friend back, not to mention the way in which the Yuuko just blew up with her performance. That’s the kind of change that I did appreciate. The character development for the good guys in this episode was good.

DES though… are pretty lame villains. They are the kind of villains who are willing to destroy entire cities for the sake of progression. On its own not really bad, but we’ve seen these villains so many times before. They’re not fleshed out in the slightest. There’s nothing that makes them stand out, there’s no depth to them. That’s not really the best group of antagonists to feel sorry for.
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)

Chihayafuru – 33

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

Holy crap, that cliff-hanter! I was all set to type up about this episode’s use of foreigners, but first I just have to say that that caught me completely by surprise. Right from out of nowhere the end of this episode foreshadows so many things that we’ve been looking forward to: ARata seeing Chihaya again was already great. But for the Queen to also appear. Awesome.

Anyway, as for the foreigners, I see what you did there, Chihayafuru. First you made yourself seem like you had these horribly voiced foreigners with horrible Engirsh, only to reveal that they were raised in Japan for their lives. Instead this episode touched a bit upon their alienation as foreigners, and how they’re doomed to stand out in the xemophobic Japan. It worked well. Aside from the black guy perhaps. He just looked silly.

But yeah, the first match in a tournament is usually just the one that we breeze through and who hardly pose a challenge. It’s predictable, and this was an interesting way to fill it up: show people with a passion for Karuta, but who aren’t bothered with being competitive. They’re just doing this for fun and because they enjoy it.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 47

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

Anime has many golden rules. One of them is that whenever there is a prediction, MAKE SURE TO PAY ATTENTION TO IT. It’s very important foreshadowing for later, trying to be cryptic in one way or the other. The way in which Uchuu Kyoudai did this though was quite original. I mean, we basically got the message that things would go well for Mutta, with a very big thorn lurking in the shadows. What really piqued my interest: what the heck is that thorn? What is that fortune teller like? I love how we first need to understand her in order to be able to understand what the hell that prediction meant.

For the rest of the episode, it was excellent build-up. The thing with this episode was that we got to see the characters in an off-day, when they’re trying to become an astronaut, but instead trying to settle down. Here, everyone is looking for a house, getting used to their new country, attending a party. Now this is how you flesh out characters: show them in different situations so that they can show off their different sides.

We’re also getting a few more glimpses of the new characters to be added to this series, but this episode mostly was about the old cast. Hinting that they’ve got a few nice back-stories coming up. Seriously, this pacing would drive me crazy if the source material wasn’t so good though. Imagine sitting through this pacing with bad characters who constantly get on your nerves? It’s a good thing that this show has an awesome cast that makes every minute worth watching here.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

From the New World – 22

by psgels, posted in From the New World

A build-up episode. And here this series once again shows how cunning the characters in this series are. And as a contrast, we have a weapon called “The Psychobuster”, to symbolize the huge difference in culture between how humanity is now, and how it is at the time of the series.

What is weird is how the landscape in this series has completely changed compred to today. I mean, usually with post-apocalyptic series, you’d see… the remains of buildings or skyscrapers, or anything. Here, Tokyo is reduced to a desert. There are a few rocks, but apart from that no trace from the skyscrapers that used to be there. Was everything really blown to bits in the past?

Also, the characters still seem to think that Mamoru and Maria’s child still is a fiend. That’s probably a big plot point for the next few episodes, since she seems to know exactly what she’s doing.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – 21

by psgels, posted in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

I love how this show just treats random goons for 5-minute distractions, rather than people who are meant to delay the plot for entire episodes. For a minute I was afraid that this entire episode would be dedicated to that spike guy, and yet they just walk past him. It’s juuuuust enough for Wham to recover a bit, and nothing more. After that this show went back to Cars and Wham: the ones who really matter.

Sure, they didn’t fight for the rest of the episode, but that didn’t matter. The interaction between Jojo, Lisa, Wham and Cars was what was important, and as a set-up episode I really enjoyed this. The irony of Jojo having killed Lisa’s foster father also really worked well.

Plus: the chariots. The guys just brought in these giant chariots in order to have a duel together. Yay for variety! This series really puts in effort to spice things up here.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Robotics;Notes – 19

by psgels, posted in Robotics;Notes

Whoa, plot twists! With this episode the creators managed to turn the entire plot around. So did it work?

It did, but for some reason I did expect something more out of this series if I have to be really honest. I still can’t really grasp why, but Misa as the main villain still feels flimsy. We know hardly anything about her and why she changed, so when this episode revealed that she was the main villain along with Kimijima Kou… it just felt like something was missing. Just as how Kai blindly accepted what that guy who was obviously the villain was saying.

Still, it’s great to see everything tied together. However, I do have to wonder: why is Subaru in this series? And why is Junna in this series? And most importantly: why did they get so much airtime? When you compare their stories with the rest of the series, they feel… out of place, to the point where the main players here did not get the time they deserved to get fleshed out.
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)

Psycho Pass – 19

by psgels, posted in Psycho Pass

This episode earned a lot of points for me. It’s a build-up episode,but instead of being boring it actually makes very good use of its time. Most notably: the characters try to look inside the mind of the villain. Instead of heading towards the next climax they speculate what he will do next, and how his mind works. That’s not something you see often, especially with most series having villains with… rather simple motivations and plans.

Also, I’m really beginning to think that Psycho Pass is about a society that has evolved into the wrong direction. My biggest theory here was that there was a point at which the Sybil System was given too much influence, and that it transformed the society as monotone as possible, as free from outside influences as possible, and as safe as possible. What we saw in the first half were the exceptions that slipped by. I really became convinced of this when this episode revealed the crazy idea to have the entire food production of a country depend on one single type of crop. They’ve just completely eliminated variety. We’re not in a 1984 setting in which people have no privacy, but there are more and more similarities.

I think that that is one part that I would have done differently: the first half of this series was all about different psychopaths, but it did not show much about the setting: it didn’t colour the world as well as it should have, so now this series suddenly comes with details like this, this late in the series. If we had known this earlier, I think it would have made an even bigger impact.

The plot of this series really is fine, by the way. This episode again had a good balance of twists, and attention to the characters. Kagari suddenly receiving the attention of the Sybil system with her good behavior… I can buy that, and it will give her an even more interesting role in the story when she learns of what’s going on. Also: this episode stressed something. Kougami has some eerie similarities with Makishima Shougo, but Kagari does as well. Most notably with how her Psycho Pass stays the same.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Zetsuen no Tempest – 20

by psgels, posted in Zetsuen no Tempest

Omg wtf!

This epsidode had it coming, there is no surprise here, and yet it managed to completely blow me away with how this episode was delivered. The guy who wrote this? The author of Spiral. This guy is amazing. I mean, spiral itself was smart, but with this series, he really managed to create something amazing.

The build-up for this series is juust brilliant. Aika being the Mage of Exodus? That was the first theory I had about the identity for this person. And then this episode just kept throwing red herrings at the viewers, and it kept distracting from this little fact to focus the attention on other people. Now that’s just amazingly well done.

Aika was awesome. Again, this is because of the build-up. For the entire series we’ve been talking about her, even though she was dead. Now we finally got to see her outside of a flashback, and she shows a completely different side of her. After all, everything we’ve seen of her so far was from the perspective of Yoshino (and a bit of Mahiro). It makes perfect sense for her to be able to sense Hakaze, and het yer directness in this episode took me completely by surprise.

Also, Samon. I love you. Your jokes are awesome.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)