Author: psgels

Natsu no Arashi – 13

by psgels, posted in Natsu no Arashi



Ah, so there’s going to be a second season this fall. That’s a good thing, because this episode pretty much was the weakest episode of this show so far. Especially the first half was just a rehash of already used jokes with all of the characters somehow dressed in swimwear (including Jun in clothing that would obviously reveal her gender to Hajime, yet nobody noticed), while the second half had some new and funny material, it also seemed to be trying too hard.

However, I am also very wary of the “Curse of the Shaft Sequel”. I KNOW Shinbo, and I’m just certain that he’s going to carry this show’s style way beyonds its limits, making it lose its substance like how Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and a tale of melodies were ruined. Especially this episode was a very bad sign, if every episode of he second season is going to end up like that. That’s why I’m not going to guarantee that I’m going to blog season 2 as well. It’s all going to depend on how awesome the rest of the upcoming Fall Season is going to be.

And don’t get me wrong, barring this episode, I really loved Natsu no Arashi. I just feel that it would have been better if everything was wrapped up in just these thirteen episodes. The past two episodes would have been much better if they took the stories from the manga that explained why the ghosts came back, and the part where Jun finally comes out of her shell, and combine those into an anime-original conclusion.

Rating: (Enjoyable)
Enjoyable to watch, but mostly just a rehash of previous jokes with some really un-subtle references to other shows.

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 13

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood


Wait, what? Was it just me, or did we see the evil officer from the mining arc right next to Scar in this episode? I mean, I’m trying to watch both series as different stories, but it’s really making this difficult when this show references events that only happened in the original series…

Thankfully, that was just about the only thing I didn’t like of this episode. I’m glad to see that Greed finally got his introduction, because his story is one that I really liked in the original series. He already starts off as a quirkish character, and so far I feel that Brotherhood did him justice. I was also surprised that his henchmen still are a bunch of Chimera. That means that someone other than Shou Tucker has been creating them.

There were also lots of differences this episode when compared to the original series. My memory is a bit too fuzzy to list all of the differences exactly, but it seems that Izumi is going to play a much bigger role here. It also seems to be the goal of Greed and his henchmen to become like Al: away from all those nasty side-effects that the human body has. Ed also threw a major tantrum when he finds this out, and this part turns out to be quite a bit deeper than what happened in the original series, which was just about the homunculi wanting to become human. Here, Greed and the others are longing for something they hardly know anything of, and something that Ed is desperate to get rid of. This time, it’s Greed who feels uncomfortable with the way he is, rather than Lust.

I also love how the comedy in this series just appears from out of nowhere, especially this episode did this really well. The creators really have managed to integrate it seamlessly with the rest of the series, rather than having clear-cut parts that are funny and other parts that are serious.
Rating: * (Good)
Solid episode; Greed was especially nice.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 54

by psgels, posted in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei


Pure awesomeness. I really have to say, that this OVA couldn’t have been done better. These past three episodes were right up there with the most memorable moments from the Higurashi series. I’d definitely rank this among the best OVAs I have ever seen, along with Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioku-hen and Hunter X Hunter’s OVA. All of them were just incredible: intelligent, inspired and focused.

Most of this episode was just lots of dialogue, but that’s exactly what I liked about it. Rika, who was tortured with the choice whether or not to kill her mother, and abandon the world in which nobody was plagued by sin. This exactly showed the irony of good endings: sure, you may have everything happening perfectly; you may have nobody suffering from the past, and deeply haunted by some of the wrong decisions they made, and that were made for them. But does that make them better persons?

It may all have just been a dream by Hanyuu, but who cares? Thinking back it made sense: how else would Hanyuu have known about the fate of everyone who wasn’t there? The way Rika let herself go and get caught up in the accident really showed her how she has unconsciously taken her own death and rebirth for granted, and how she began to forget how important her mother was.

If I had to mention a down-side, then it was the continuity error of Keiichi’s sin. In the original series, Keiichi’s sin was left out, and I had to read about it in the Higurashi TIPS, about how he ran around with the plastic gun. Those who haven’t read the TIPS will probably feel left out a bit, because that event was crucial to why this episode was so incredibly powerful. It’s still a shame that we never got to see that scene animated, by the way. It would have been damn intense.

In any case, Umineko no Naku Koro ni is about to begin now, and even though I’ve heard that it’s going to be completely different from Higurashi, I’m really looking forward to it, because 07th Expansion has shown himself to be an incredible writer. My only concern is going to be Chiaki Kon; I’m not sure whether she is the right person for this series. Especially considering how she’s also currently working on Hanasakeru Seishounen, and considering the mess that that turned into. On the other hand, Toshifumi Kawase is returning for the series composition. I absolutely love what this guy has been doing for the past few years (he was the one who directed the Higurashi Rei OVA), so perhaps he was the biggest reason why Higurashi was the only thing that didn’t disappoint out of Chiaki Kon’s work.

Rating: *** (Awesome)
Amazing conclusion to an already amazing OVA.

Cross Game – 13

by psgels, posted in Cross Game



So, this episode is the classic “gasshuku”-episode, that every sports series seems to have, but the creators really made excellent use of it. This episode was everything that makes this series so enjoyable to watch: subtle characterization, plenty of character-development, very witty and well-built up jokes…

Speaking of which, the humour was… interesting… This episode has to feature the most disturbing gender-ambiguous character I have seen in that old guy. He’s definitely an eccentric, first fooling Kou about Aoba (who was just taking shelter from the rain at his place), then filming the entire process of Kou, frantically looking for Aoba after finding the shoe that she lost, and never even revealing that he dresses like an old lady…

Meanwhile, it’s interesting how Azuma and the other guy aren’t happy with the work that their coach is putting off. The other coach, in the meantime, shows a completely different side of his during the gasshuku, and reveals him to be the evil trainer from hell, training his team to the limits. It’s also interesting how the previous match has given the team some real motivation to start training and get better. After nearly beating Azuma with a pretty much imperfect team, they really seem to be motivated to get better on their own.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Excellent summer training camp episode with a number of great jokes. And a rather disturbing one.

Pandora Hearts – 13

by psgels, posted in Pandora Hearts



Awesome episode! With all of the small hints to Alice’s past and all, the actual revelation of how deep it actually is really amazed me. This episode was full of awesomeness that further developed the mystery that’s going on, instead of just answering some of the lingering questions. After a small dip in the middle, this series sure as hell picked itself back up again.

And I really have to say, that with this episode Xebec has shown that they very well know how to animate an anime. Especially in the first half of the episode, there was lots of movement, and the entire episode was full of really good and creative camera-angles. Xebec really is a strange production company: a lot of their shows just aren’t good, with especially disasters like Kanokon and To Love-Ru going nowhere, and yet there are some of their series that are nothing like their usual series, or any other series for that matter. Hitohira had a unique chemistry between its main characters; I’m still looking for a series that managed to attain the same feel as The Third, and now Pandora Hearts does it again, with this really dark gothic fairy-tale like style that again I’ve never seen before.

The big revelation in this episode was that Alice erased her own past. She didn’t want to remember it, so she tore it up and had Cheshire Cat guard it, she just didn’t make sure to prevent Alice from trying to find out her own past. A hundred years apparently, something huge happened that somehow involved her getting betrayed by the one she loved (Jack Bezarius, to be exact), and blowing up an entire city. But still, where is B-Rabbit’s place in this? What does the white Alice have to do with all of this? How exactly is Jack Bezarius tied in with the rest of the Bezarius family?

And really, what the heck is Vincent Nightray up to? All this build-up was put into making him a huge villain, and yet this episode showed that he regards his relationship with Gil above anything. At the same time, he really seems to hate Vincent, as this episode showed Echo doing… something to Sharon while she was investigating what happened 100 years ago.

I also have to praise the amazing voice acting in this series. Especially Cheshire Cat’s actor was really good.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Lots of juicy revelations, gorgeous visuals, plus an awesome performance from Cheshire Cat.

Phantom – 13

by psgels, posted in Phantom



Oh, it’s only been two episodes since her introduction, and I’m already a big fan of Cal (apparently not Drei, who has yet to show up). This episode really reminded me why I’m such a big fan of Bee-Train. This episode was mostly building-up, but the superb characterization made it all worth it. With an already excellent game that this series is based on, they really managed to get the best out of it. It’s a shame that this episode got the short end of the budget for this series, but apart from that I loved it.

Cal’s surprisingly sharp wit really has the ability to open up Reiji who has closed himself ever since Helen’s death. She may look like an innocent girl, but time and time again she proves to be observant, curious and direct, and yet she is full of weaknesses, like how she hates how she isn’t able to do anything on her own, and how she’s deeply affected by the death of her caretaker. That’s why it surprised me when she suddenly popped up with five million dollars in stolen cash from Inferno, asking Reiji to kill every single one of the bastards that killed off Judy.

The plot for this arc is again promising to be really interesting, with multiple sides, none of them being completely good or evil. We have Reiji and Cal, who are after the mysterious people who killed off Judy, at the same time they have to try and hide the fact that Cal just stole five million dollars from an angry Isaac, and something tells me that the mysterious Drei is part of the people who killed off Judy.

Oh, and on a side-note: one detail I also loved was that Reiji still bears the scars of the gunshots that struck him six months earlier. That really is a detail that many anime simply forget to include, but big wounds like that obviously take ages to heal properly. Like expected, he was mostly hit in the shoulder, and not in his heart, so that explains why he managed to survive that day.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Very intriguing build-up with an increasingly awesome Cal.

Basquash! – 13

by psgels, posted in Basquash!



Nice. After the previous episode, I was expecting another rather silly episode, but this installment instead took itself entirely serious. Instead of going for the usual fun basketball matches that this series became known for, instead the focus fell to Dan and Rouge, and the romance between them. As it turns out, the idols had to take medications in order to e able to keep up with the basketball matches and not to disappoint their fans, but Roughe took this way too far, collapsed, and the episode ended with her returning to the moon without her having the chance to say goodbye to Dan.

This episode was really solid and well done, but it does have me worried about this series’ future a lot. When this series first started out, it managed to so well avoid some of the clichés and tropes of similar series, but for the past few episodes the clichés have really been heaping up, with this episode probably being the worst.

For example, it’s great to see that Dan now has more reasons to go to the moon than just for his sister: his motivations are changing, and that’s pretty interesting. HOWEVER, at the same time it reduces Idol Rouge as a simple damsel in distress. The romance so far worked so well because Rouge really was someone who fitted Dan: impulsive, strong and not afraid to speak her mind. The two filled in for each other’s weaknesses and that was fun to watch, but having her talents explained by an overdose of medication, bringing her back to the moon beyond her will so that Dan can save her. That was a bit of a disappointment, and the creators had better know how to handle this properly.

And yeah, I guess I could have seen this coming, but I’m still really disappointed by this: Miyuki. She was really fresh as Dan’s childhood friend, exactly BECAUSE she wasn’t in love with him. The two of them really were friends: they hung out together and had the same purpose: she worked as a mechanic, while he was doing his basketball. But unfortunately, this episode showed some really big hints that she is indeed in love with him. I mean, seriously! That’s about the biggest cliché in the book that you can think of!

While I still like this series at this point, something really has to happen in its second half to make it surpass the brilliance of the first third of the show. I really hope that the change of directors after episode 17 (at least, I assume that the changes are going to be noticeable from that point) aren’t going to make this even more difficult than it already is.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Solid episode, but lacked the creativity that made me a fan of the rest of the series.

Ristorante Paradiso Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Ristorante Paradiso



I’ve turned into quite a fan of the modern horeca-series, brought back and popularized by Bartender. It’s a genre with an atmosphere unlike any other genre, and one of those very few types of series targeted solely at adults. The latest installment is Ristorante Paradiso: yet again a short but charming and relaxing series about a restaurant somewhere in Rome.

From the outside, the premise of this series indeed looks quite shaky. It’s easy to think that this is just a harem, but this time the lead character being a female in her twenties and the male characters all being stereotypical bishounen in their forties or above. Thankfully, the series proves that it’s fully able to avoid this cliché. There is one lead couple, and the rest of the characters all have their own romances.

One of the things that makes this series so enjoyable is how well it manages to handle its limited airtime of only eleven episodes, and yet it manages to develop a relatively large cast of characters. Every episode is basically dedicated to one or two characters, but they’re all inspired and miles away from stereotypes. The characters here have realistic problems and issues, rather than those overdramatic ones you tend to often see in anime. Every episode keeps you guessing on what’s going to happen next; despite the next-episode previews, you’ll hardly ever find yourself able to predict what’s going to happen next, or what the next character’s back-story is going to be about.

And still the series forms a coherent whole in the end. A major theme is the past, and how it affects characters today. Surprisingly, most people in this series have relatively dark pasts, but unlike most other anime they hardly ever bear grudges or feel depressed. A major theme of this series is not getting worked up about what happened in the past, but instead using these experiences to enjoy today. It’s a theme that’s explored wonderfully throughout the series, and makes it feel complete.

Of course, you need to know that this isn’t the series for those who want action or lots of drama. Instead, it’s meant to be relaxing, while most of the drama is done very subtly without ever dragging on. Apart from that though, I couldn’t find any major flaws in this series, or reasons why one would not want to watch this. It’s not anything epic, but what it does it does really well: the creators really put thoughts into how they could make this show work best, and not let a minute go to waste. It’s a recommendation for those who are looking for a short relaxing series.

Storytelling: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Production-Values: 8/10
Setting: 8/10

Ristorante Paradiso – 11

by psgels, posted in Ristorante Paradiso



Haha! This series pulled it off! Mitsuko Kase really proves that she knows how to make a good series. She’s probably one of the very few female anime directors out there, most of her series are very under-appreciated, but you can really call me a fan of her. Especially when it comes to the endings, nine out of ten anime series simply fail to put an actually good and satisfying conclusion to their story, but she time and time again uses that ending to wrap up all of the hanging plot-lines, develop the main characters, AND pull in a few surprises here and there to boot while still staying true to the atmosphere of the rest of the series. There really aren’t many directors who also have consistently proven to do this.

So yeah, I don’t think I could have hoped for a better ending than this episode. I had to laugh at when they played the scene that showed up in last episode’s next episode preview: when watched in context with the actual events, it was much more humorous (Nicoletta basically out of nowhere slapped a plate of spaghetti over Claudio). Last episode’s preview made it look so dramatic, but in the actual episode it happened so fast that there was hardly any time to build up any tension, and instead the focus fell on Nicoletta, trying to get Isabella to understand to stop making Claudio suffer.

I really liked how the creators resolved Claudio’s issues with his former wife, which was very un-typical of anime. Usually, you’d build up and up, until the climax where characters confess their feelings and suddenly forget about all their problems, but here it was done very gradually. There wasn’t one point at which Claudio immediately forgot about his past. Instead, they just gradually became a couple over the episode: slowly, bit by bit Claudio was able to let go of his past, until eventually he returned his wedding ring. I wish more anime did this.

As a surprise, we also see more development for Olga. Her story was handled with a bit less subtlety, but I still liked it a lot. It really showed how much Nicoletta has grown over the past series: at the start of this series, you’d think that this show would be about a bitch-fight between an angry mother and daughter, but in this episode Nicoletta proved to be much more mature than her mother, and managed to convince her that she doesn’t mind the past anymore.

Overall, I’m glad to have followed this series. It was probably the most un-typical anime of the season, the drama was nearly always subtle and yet packed a punch. The ending wasn’t my favourite, but I would definitely label it among the top 5 of best endings I’ve seen in 2009 so far. The series also had the best character-designs for the past spring-season (in contrast to most people, I’m not yet a fan of Range Murata or Satoko Morikawa). It obviously wasn’t an epic series that had me on the edge of my seat, but it didn’t need to be: it used its time well and delivered a very enjoyable and relaxing series. I’m looking forward to what Noise has in store for us the upcoming season.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Among my top 5 endings I’ve seen this year so far. (For those wondering, the others are Birdy the Mighty Decode, Michiko e Hatchin, Ride Back and Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae).

Some quick first Impressions: Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas, Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-Chan! and Umi Monogatari

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Special Articles

Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has huge powers for no particular reason and gets to become a saint.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (No way)
Okay, so I’m pretty much a Saint Seiya noob: I’ve never watched anything of the franchise, despite how it seems to be churning out an OVA every year. So yeah, this felt like a good opportunity to check out and see what this franchise was all about. Well, if the rest of the installments are anything like this first episode, then it’s a franchise full of hopelessly bad acting and stereotypes. Seriously, this episode starts with a bunch of generic bullies nearly killing a dog, only for one of the lead characters to act like a flower-child and protect it. The other lead character is your typical hot-blooded teen-aged lead, only exaggerated even more than usual. The episode was full of inconsistencies or things that just didn’t make any bloody sense; my favourite of this has to be the point where a river was blocked by a bunch of rocks from a landslide. So what does our main character do? HE TRIES TO PUNCH HIS WAY THROUGH THE ROCKS. Granted though, the animation looked really nice and the backgrounds looked pretty. But pretty pictures aren’t going to excuse the disaster that is the cast of characters.

Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-Chan!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hasn’t been toilet-trained properly and Deus ex Machinas depressions away.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (No way)
It’s stupid, clichéd, full of fanservice and stereotyped. But still I have to admit that it made me laugh at times. This is basically another shounen mahou shoujo, but for once the chemistry between the male and female lead was enjoyable, rather than annoying. The problem with this series however, is that that’s just about the only thing that I liked. The visuals look horrible, the background music is generic voice-less J-Pop. The drama is incredibly shallow: it’s built up poorly and simply solved because the lead character has the power make depressions go completely away. It just screams laziness to me. The fanservice also was abysmal at times. Fully unneeded, especially in the ED, and you know a character is bad when she still pees in her pants.

Umi Monogatari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives under water.
Chance of me Blogging: 40% (If the rest of the season is mediocre)
Another series with lots of moe, but it’s actually pretty interesting. Umi Monogatari tells the story of a tribe of people who live underwater and use strange rings to move to the shore. It’s got an ambient atmosphere with lots of quiet piano background songs. The pacing is also quiet yet at the end o the episode there were definitely some dark pasts. A major theme of this episode also was cultural differences, which can become quite interesting as well if the series develops it properly. My one gripe with this episode was the comedy, though; it just felt forced, so that’s a potential problem for the future of this series. I know that ZEXCS isn’t the best company out there, and the animation and visuals really are nothing special, but if they can make this series as solid as they did with Wagaya no Oinarisama, then I’m in.